Marine Serre Launches Her MatchesFashion.com Capsule Collection With a Special London Installation
There’s busy, and there’s busy. Spare a thought then for Marine Serre, who is busy. Not only is she readying herself to show the follow-up to her terrific Fall 2018 collection in Paris on September 25, she’s also about to unveil the installation she created with longtime collaborator Tanguy Poujol for MatchesFashion.com’s 5 Carlos Place, the company’s new multimedia, multi-experience space that just opened in central London. Ostensibly, the installation is designed to celebrate the launch on September 14 of a special capsule that she has designed for the retailer, a mix of flouncy dresses, athletic leggings, and cagoules, all dusted with Swarovski crystals, and a new version of that spherical buoy bag of hers, which first appeared knotted into a silk scarf in February.
But remember: Marine Serre likes to be busy. So this isn’t some little hastily conceived situation to showcase that capsule; it took a lot of orchestration and organization. Given she is a demon for details, that’s hardly surprising. One other thing she’s about: embracing inclusivity. Like much of what’s going on at 5 Carlos Place, her installation is intended as come one, come all; anyone who wants to see it just needs to register here and then drop by. Of course, you can also check it out when the no doubt many IG posts start to pop up on your feed, but like Serre’s clothes, it will be worth seeing in the flesh, as it were.
How did the collaboration with MatchesFashion.com come about?
It’s a whole relationship we’ve been building. They bought the collection last season and . . . we just fit together. They are really open-minded about new projects, and this space is experimental for them, a different way to meet their customers. I was interested to do it because of that, and then I visited the space in London and it just seemed right. We felt really free, because it is a takeover of the space. And I like that anyone can come to see it, people who might not know me and would be seeing my work for the first time.
I feel that you’ve always championed that openness; that you stated from the very beginning that things don’t need to be done the way they’ve always been done.
That’s the whole idea behind this; to stop that everything has to be secret in fashion! We need to make things accessible. When you buy something, you want it to touch you and make you happy. That’s what all of us here are working for.
Tell me about the installation.
I worked on it with Tanguy Poujol, who does all my campaigns; we’ve been friends for four, five years. What we’ve done . . . it’s basically sports machines, vintage mini gyms that we found on eBay; it’s one of these huge pieces of equipment for men who want to really build their muscles! [Laughs] We reconstructed them with a kind of hanger, so you can suspend the clothes from that, and there will be iPhones playing videos. The thing is, he works in Belgium, so we had to have the machines shipped to his studio so he could deconstruct and repaint them. Thankfully, most of them we found in Belgium!
What about the exclusive capsule collection you’ve done?
We’ve come up with dresses made out of old shirts, and then dyed them yellow, blue, and pink; they’re like flamenco dresses but with surf stitching. They could be red carpet dresses, but they’re practical; the open back is covered in jersey; they’ve got sportswear finishing; and they have pockets. All are unique as they’re each a bit different. With that you have a special cagoule, with FutureWear spelled out in Swarovski crystals, and there are some crystals on the dresses, too. We have leggings, the round bags, and a pair of Nicholas Kirkwood boots, again with crystals on them. It’s a total look, and I was thinking a lot about how you could bring upcycling to the red carpet but without being able to see that it’s upcycled. The thing is really to find a way to make a woman feel good in an aesthetic and a practical sense.
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