Imane Ayissi x Jean-marc Chauve

On 27 January 2022, at the end of Imane Aissi’s fashion show, the Executive President of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, Pascal Morand, awarded Imane, the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Behind the fashion show, it is a duo that puts their synergies together. Imane and Jean Marc, two personalities and their visions of fashion complement each other well in fact this incredible evolution of the brand Imane Ayissi! Here are the two designers talking about their vision on fashion.

Imane Ayissi

How do you look back on the different jobs in your professional life ?

I have been a dancer, a model and a fashion designer. I liked all these jobs and in a certain way, I see a certain continuity between these professions, they all have the body as their base. Obviously the professions of model and dancer are limited in time and from a certain age, it is more difficult to continue to exercise them. As a stylist you can, in the best of case, you could work until your death, if you look at Chanel or Karl Lagerfeld for example.

What do you think about being a stylist ?

Could you define your style ?

I am perhaps not the best person to define my style but I would say that I have a Parisian look, contemporary, with strong African inspirations.

What is the meaning of fashion for you ?

I don’t know what the future will hold, but I would like to change the current relationship with clothing, which is characterised by the over-consumption of poor quality clothes, manufactured to the detriment of the environment and the lives of those who make them. I would like fashion to produce less but better, to produce clothes that are made in good conditions and that can be enjoyed again and kept for a long time.

Why did you accept the cooperation with airs de paris for the bamboo fibre ?

I was very sensitive to the ecological ambition of this project and it is another way for me to dialogue with other cultures and other countries. In this case China has a very great and interesting textile culture. The fabric made from the Ecobamboo fiber is an interesting material, soft and supple, which makes it possible to make jerseys that are very well suited to draped silhouettes.

Jean-marc Chauve

Jean-Marc Chauve worked for Nelly Rodis design office and collaborated with Maison Martin Margiela. He then created the ready-to-wear brand Sept. He collaborates with fashion brands and designers and is a regular teacher at the Institut Français de la Mode on fashion culture and product development. He is the director of the designer brand Imane Ayissi.

You are a stylist and also a trainer, how do you combine these two jobs?

For me it is quite natural to do these two jobs, training is a bit of an extension of my activities as a stylist. It allows me to pass on my experience and thoughts that come up when I work on the collections.

Is fashion too polluting?

Unfortunately the impact of fashion on environment has become major. Overproduction is the main reason, but also the choice of raw materials today. For example, synthetic materials, especially polyester, represent more than 75% of the fibers produced today. Although they can be recycled once or twice, we don’t know how to deal with the end of life of polyester products, and we end up with tons of non-biodegradable fibers in the ocean or on the ground, where they completely disrupt the ecosystems and endanger biodiversity and life itself.

What do you think about fashion in the future?

I see a movement of awareness on the part of brands and consumers to consume fashion better and minimise its impact on the environment, unfortunately still insufficient in the face of the power of fast- fashion brands. But I think that at some point we will have no choice but to make fashion products much more ecological if we don’t want to endanger humanity.

As a partner of imane, how do you help imane to develop?

I help him in the operational part for sourcing and manufacturing, to make his ideas become real clothes. But it’s also a dialogue between us and sometimes my role is also to force him to explore his own inspirations and ideas further.

What do you think of bamboo fibre?

I think it’s a very interesting alternative, when produced in good conditions has a very low impact on the environment, bamboo being a plant that grows very quickly without fertiliser, without pesticide with a very low impact on its environment. And this fibre can be used to make all sorts of different fabrics, from knitwear to warp and weft.

You are familiar with fashion in china, what do you think about made in china?

Of course, in China, as in all countries, there are different practices for the production of clothes, but today we find in China very high quality manufacturing, comparable to what is done in Italy or France, two reference countries for luxury production.

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Numbers 07 2023