Let’s dive into the vibrant and exploratory final chapter of Études’ triptych dedicated to Paris! In a radical departure from its previous investigations into the city’s epicentre and periphery, the brand anchors itself above the metropolis by exploring the capital’s rooftops.
For the Spring/Summer 2024 season, Études deploys a new space-time through its “CRÉPUSCULE” collection, suspending time and liberating space. In these zinc mazes, clandestine distancing from everyday life is encouraged, infusing a sense of lightness with adrenaline while over-stimulating the senses and conjuring up the present. From these Parisian rooftops, we observe without being observed, seeing before being seen.
Jérémie Egry, Aurélien Arbet, and José Lamali have revisited the imaginary world of the heterotopia Parisian rooftops provide, injecting references to gabber culture, skateboarding, and soft tailoring. Moving effortlessly between structure and movement, workwear patina and streetwear comfort, Études offer tailoring elegance with a functional allure this season. Outdoor influences and technical details are softened by sartorial style, and silhouettes are wrapped in revisited bombers, transforming into jumpsuits, jackets, and trench coats. Wide nylon multi-pocket pants pair perfectly with sophisticated double-breasted coats, while a technical-outdoor harness collides with an upgraded silk tracksuit. The collection’s messages, such as “Exit,” “Insomnia,” “High,” and “La Nuit Dort le Jour” (Night slumbers during the day”), evoke nods to graffiti, street, and technoculture through sublimable images.
As a prelude, the colours of pigeon blue, zinc, and charcoal grey mesh together with black and navy shades reminiscent of deep night. Silhouettes then burst forth into an orange glow, highlighting the Colorama with a nod to warning signs, before gradually shifting to bright whites as dawn approaches. The interplay of ivory and khaki accentuates the mottled, almost pixelated print, sprayed onto workwear jackets and pants like graffiti fog. Risk and danger are also portrayed through textural effects that suggest the passage of time, with worn-out jeans and screen-printed jackets graffitied in black to suggest traces of soot.
