While other 17-year-old Parisians are spending their after school hours mucking around with mates, Pierre Kaczmarek is designing clothes. No, not as an extension of textiles classwork – he’s way past that. Pierre has his own fashion label, and has already shown at Paris Fashion Week – twice – debuting his designs alongside fashion’s biggest heavyweights.

Aptly titled Afterhomework(Paris), Pierre’s label started out as a line of t-shirts and has since grown into full clothing collection. Working with his girlfriend, 18-year-old stylist Elena Mottola, Pierre reinterprets traditional French workwear into neatly tailored pieces inspired by art, society and daily life. For their second full collection, Pierre and Elena looked to the iconic blue of Yves Klein, reflecting on how the artist’s political leanings are relevant to culture today. For the show, the duo recruited friends to help out as models, and had Suzanna Lindon (daughter of French actors Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kimberlain) and Marin Baude (AKA musician MMX Delta) realise its hard hitting electronic soundtrack.

In an industry where recognition is often handed out according to the design schools on your CV, Pierre’s output is a reminder that hard work, energy and talent will get you a long way. Here, Paris’ youngest renaissance man captures his SS17 collection in a series shot exclusively for HERO, and takes us inside his post-homework world.

Tempe Nakiska: So when and why did you originally start making clothes?
Pierre Kaczmarek: I started in 2013, when I just drew some clothes after school. I had older friends who have started full of projects and I also wanted to do something. I quickly told myself I was capable of it, and – maybe unconsciously – I created AfterHomework.

TN: How would you describe your aesthetic?
PK: It’s hard to say, because it’s always changing, it’s not yet fixed and definitive. But for now it is quite deconstructed – shapes are very important for me. I did not have a really specific aesthetic, I mix my ideas with references from the style I see in the street, and things I experience in my daily life.

TN: What is your favourite piece in your latest collection?
PK: I love all the pieces because they all have a story behind them, but some are definitely more interesting than others. One of my favourite is the top made from old ties, the idea came from when I was looking at the ugly ties politicians wear.

TN: What was the inspiration behind your show in September?
PK: We often find influences in the work of artists we love, like in this collection were inspired by the blue of Yves Klein. This blue is also a reference to the social movements in France last year with the labour workers protests. We also have different black fabrics in the collection that react differently to the light, and this is a reference to Pierre Soulages. All the looks contain a message, a symbol – they all tell a story.

This collection was inspired by our daily life in Paris, and is more personal than the others as it draws from the last six months of our lives. We also used geo-textile, the same as those used by farmers to protect their fields. I discovered this fabric during this summer when I traveled in France by train, through the windows I could see this fabric.

TN: You mentioned being inspired by what you see on the street, can you tell me more about that? 
PK: Yes, I love watching people on the street, I watch everything: attitudes, clothes, movements. I also love painting and literature. But my friends inspire me the most.

AfterHomework(Paris) will be available in selected stores from March 2017 – head to the website to keep up to date with more information.