FRENCH SURREALIST. charles de vilmorin.

Always the brides maid never the bride, young surrealist fashion designer, Charles de Vilmorin was ONE OF THE LVMH FINALISTS FOR 2021.

He is a finalist but not a winner; but personally he is my winner. I like his work due to the abstract esque with mixing patterns and different techniques. He is known for his original designs which are distinct by their vibrant nature, puffy silhouettes, and hand painted artwork.

Charles is based in this studio apartment of Paris and he graduated in 2020 at the age of 23. Truly making him an upcoming show stopper, being so successful so early after his end of education.

reference- Charles Vilmorin Website

When exploring Vilmorin's website, you are greeted with his latest collect which he show cases through a surrealist modernistic and contemporary piece of performance art, with the use of a sound scape and physical theatre which I am personally extremely engaged by and would want to pursue this form of presentation. Being a young designer you MUST be different, to catch anyone's eye as there is so much pier competition in our industry, and he is doing so. The discreet sexual nature of the performance creates an essence of mystery, this is supported by the almost foggy ambiance.

Another reason I enjoy Charles work is due to the androgyny and lack of gendered clothing his collections have to offer, he blurs these lines and this is becoming a more comment theme in our new generation of designers taking back to the roots of true androgyny and fashion through Ziggy Star dust and their designer Ola Hudson and the likes of prince, who both too are two of my biggest icons.

When thinking of the future and heading into the industry, surrealist fashion design is defiantly a stand out to me, it would be amazing to incorporate my love for surrealism and my brains crazy colour combos and see these finalised as garments of expression, or to even be the initial thoughts and communication behind a piece to then allow designers to create and exaggerate further, collaborative art is amazing and should be cherished.