Politics has been on everyone’s minds more than usual of late, crossing heavily into the fashion world, with many designers using their collections to make a statement. Critics have been quick to question the purpose and execution, musing over the integrity of some such instances, and asking whether a runway show should be a place to take a stance. Then there’s Marine Serre, the talented rising designer and winner of the LVMH Prize 2017, whose collection ‘Radical Call for Love’ delves deeper into world issues than most.

Originating as a response to the attacks in Brussels and Paris, it pulls from multiple sources – none overt or heavy handed at a glance. Rather, part ‘90s and ‘00s sportswear, part futuristic, and influenced by 19^th century Arabic garments, ‘Radical Call for Love’ displays a kind of fluidity that manifests in more than one form: rethinking of traditional silhouettes and gendered clothing and a symbolic breaking down of political divisions. The result reflects both Serre’s research at the Centre Pompidou and her sports background and makes an indirect statement of unity through nearly universal sportswear styles.

Serre was drawn to fashion as a teen, perhaps as a reaction to her youth spent focusing on tennis. But, what started as a mission to stand out and compensate for her more tomboyish side, finished with La Cambre Mode(s), Belgian Fashion Design Academy, where she graduated with the highest honour. Preceding this collection, ’15-21′ – Serre’s fourth-year project at La Cambre Mode – took a more academic approach. Inspired by the work of Flemish visual artist Michaël Borremans, the project juxtaposed colourful dresses found in paintings by 15th century Flemish Primitives with more contemporary utilitarian colours, creating a clash between old and new fashions and high and low.

But her formal education gives only a snapshot of her achievements in the fashion world. To date, Serre has interned for Maison Margiela and Christian Dior, worked as an assistant stylist for Fred Sathal, On aura tout vu, Annemie Verbeke, and Alexander McQueen, and currently works at Balenciaga under Demna Gvasalia’s direction.

Ivan Yaskey: What influenced you to create your own fashion line?
Marine Serre: Actually, I never had any direct moment where I consciously created my own fashion line. I certainly don’t want to be disingenuous – of course it is wonderful to see that people love to dress what I design, and to build my own label so young and so quickly. Only a short time ago this was a far-away vague dream however, something for the long-term. But then it sort of unrolled by itself after the last collection generated so much interest – and it created itself afterward. Our new label is about connecting to everyday life, and the need for authenticity today, with worked, tailored and innovative hybrid garments. That said, it’s also about an ongoing question – you as well as me will hopefully all remain in the process of figuring out what this is. 

Ivan: You interned for Maison Margiela and Dior, and do work for Balenciaga. How has working with these other brands influenced your own?
Marine: It is by looking that you learn. You mention three internships, but I in fact did a lot more. Fred Sathal, Annemie Verbeke, Alexander McQueen, and a few others.

Ivan: For your latest collection, ‘Radical Call for Love’, the attacks in Brussels and Paris influenced the overall concept. Why did you select this theme?
Marine: It’s a bit boring perhaps, but the answer is similar as the one above: I did not so much select it, but the theme imposed itself – in this case quite brutally, to be sure. Both attacks happened directly next to my door, the one during my internship at Dior, the other when I started at La Cambre back in Brussels. In the beginning, I remember, it was difficult for me to imagine how I could simply continue to work in what seems, at first glance at least, a trivial domain like fashion. My way of dealing with this was, if a good designer is to be an ultra-sensible sponge of his or her environment, and perhaps transformer of it for the better, to dive precisely into this apparent tension between pre-modern Arab dress, and modern sportswear in my neighbourhood in Brussels – and from there everything else developed. 

“The result came to be futuristic-looking.”

Ivan: The collection combines 19th century Arabic garments with a corporate sportswear aesthetic. What was the process?
Marine: I never draw, but start collecting a mountain of images, compiling them into collections and assemblages, and ever sharper selections. Meanwhile I also study techniques, cuts and patterns intensively – from both existing sportswear as well as from the archive, the anthropology department of Centre de Pompidou in this case. From such broad study I then move to 3D directly, to shape and form, and I try to compose all these different influences and impressions together in something really new. Something really important to me is to try the garments on a real person in a very early stage, and to work on attitude with the dress, and actual wearability. And of course, during all these stages, techniques, finishing and classic tailoring are always crucial.

Ivan: Your press statement calls this collection a “new way to imagine dress” and describes the collection as being futuristic. What makes it this way?
Marine: What makes it “futuristic”… I think it’s especially because most pieces are not falling into any current known category like pants, dress, aprons, t-shirts. Instead they are hybrid pieces, like t-shirtaprondresses. I have a hard time sometimes namingthe pieces! [laughing] They merge the codes of sports and pre-modern dress: velcro scratch and moiré, for example, and have different sorts of finishing: sportswear and couture both have high level finishing, each in their own domain. The result came to be futuristic-looking.

Ivan: On the subject of politics in fashion, a few designers have woven obvious political themes into their collections. Yours is somewhat subtler. What place do politics have in fashion, and do you think more designers should be taking a political stance with their lines?
Marine: I think it is not so much about giving or supporting an already articulated political message. But at the same time it is also about being conscious that everything, and so fashion as well, is always also political. Good designers are sponges of their surroundings. How could we actually ever think that anything, including those in fashion, stands isolated from whatever it is that happens in the world? That is already a political view with consequences as well you know.

“Good designers are sponges of their surroundings. How could we actually ever think that anything, including those in fashion, stands isolated from whatever it is that happens in the world?”

Ivan: Additionally, sports are part of your background. Did being a tennis player when you were younger influence your approach to sportswear?
Marine: I think yes – sportswear is something really normal and well-known to me, related to a sort of feel good-everyday feeling. Proust had his madeleine like I have a sportswear vest…

Ivan: ‘Radical Call for Love’ has a completely different look and feel to your first collection. How did your approaches differ for the two, and for you as a designer, what evolved over this period?
Marine: What you should not forget: 15-21 was my 4^th year collection in the academy. It was never conceived as my first collection, it was never made to be sold. It was a school-research. Clearly ‘Radical Call for Love’ was made with another purpose in mind – even though it was also not intended to be sold like it is now, I tried purposefully for it not to be ‘academic’ and to show that I could work something out in the world.

Ivan: What are your plans for your line going forward?
Marine: That is an interesting question for us now. Marine Serre as a brand is evolving and tries to find its own path. Of course it will always evolve and so on, and responsive to its surroundings. For me, I think I will keep a certain joyful non-compromise, especially when it comes to this hybridity, tailoring, lining, complexity in form, and so on. I also think this sportswear and couture-influences will remain very central to me. I’m for example really attached to my discovery of moiré last Spring 2016, with the first non-commercial edition of ‘Radical Call for Love’.

In practical terms, for the moment it is day by day. We are unsure about a lot, and things change really fast. We know we want to keep things into our own hands. Therefore there will be no SS18, so not showing this September, mostly because I have myself been directly involved with the production, press, campaign, sales of ‘Radical Call for Love’ (FW17) until now – which takes a lot of time, so no time for starting a creative process. I hope to present new pieces however as soon as possible – for sure a FW18 collection!