Au Castello

«The link is memories… What a memory transmits, and what it keeps.» 

This sentence was written by my mother. Her person and her stories will be the sources of my inspiration. 

On December 1st, 1995, my mother got married, wearing a black dress with a «spi- der’s web» on the back. This was the starting point for everything: the dress and the wedding, were far from the norm. 

Then, in August 1997, my mother, who couldn’t care less about getting married in the symbolic white wedding dress, organized a party where everyone had to put their wedding dress back on. 

She hijacked the primary function of the dress, and once again created an unexpec- ted memory where two different worlds met. During the evening, guests grabbed disposable cameras and created some surprising shots. Who’s ever seen photos of twenty women dressed in wedding gowns for an occasion other than their wedding? Finally, my uncle, a Swiss artist, had a vernissage in Geneva that he couldn’t attend to. 

He asked my mother to represent him, and to do so, he sent her stamps of his tattoos with a plan describing the locations on his body. 

My mother tattooed her arms for a party. These cold tattoos, full of revolt, transfer themselves onto my mother’s skin like a link of modest love for her brother. 

«The bond is the memories.” 

After the wedding, there are still the photos, the dress, and the memory of this sym- bolic day. 

Tattoos are both visible and violent memories, in the gesture, in the skin, and in the fact that they are indelible. 

Then there are the stories, the ones that often transform reality, between the time that has passed which affects the brain. 

My collection is a transformation, an interpretation, a mixture, which a young woman of 22 has transcribed. These mixtures of poetic atmospheres collide with hard, raw facts are the energy of my collection. 

Among the materials used, silk chiffons treated with workwear finishes. Black denim blends with flowing fabrics. Traditional crochet blends with embroidery featuring my uncle’s tattoos. Skirt pants, lace tattoos, studded bags… 

Everything is an unexpected mix of materials, patterns and cuts. 

These stories were the starting points for my collection, but apart from the fact that it’s an autobiographical collection for me, it’s also important that people can see their own stories in it. 

The aim wasn’t to recreate exactly the stories my mother told me. 

But to create new clothes and accessories with contrasting materials. 

And I think, when you mix the most unexpected elements, you create interesting si- tuations, stories and designs; as it’s often the case in life