Parisian showroom Designers Apartment welcomes three new names for autumn 2018

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jul 25, 2018

While busy finalising the calendar of next autumn’s Paris Fashion Week, the French Federation of Fashion and Haute Couture has already announced the list of promising young talents who will feature at the Designers Apartment showroom from Monday September 24 to Tuesday October 2 2018 at the Palais de Tokyo venue in Paris.

For its 13th edition, the showroom dedicated to emerging French designers, run by the Federation with the support of French public body DEFI (the Committee for the Development and Promotion of Apparel), has selected 12 brands, as opposed to 13 for last March’s session, including three new names: Airvei, Boyarovskaya and Nicolas Lecourt-Mansion.

Airvei is a unisex label which defines itself as experimental, and “draws inspiration from its special interest and fascination with volume, structure and the way the human body moves through space,” as you can read on its website. It was founded in 2016 by Julien Goulard, 20, an industrial design student at the Strate Design School in Sèvres, France.

The label’s first collection, with a strong streetwear and workwear vibe, is remarkable for its details, especially in the garments’ construction. To launch Airvei, rookie designer Goulard notably relied on his ‘Très Rare’ Instagram account to gain exposure, an account he created when he was 12, featuring fashion pics from various different brands.

The Boyarovskaya label was also created in Paris in 2016, the result of the encounter between Maria Boyarovskaya, a design graduate from the Istituto Marangoni who has worked at Givenchy and John Galliano, and fashion photographer Artem Kononenko. The label has already won over a number of retailers with its contemporary women’s ready-to-wear collection, minimalistic but full of character, with an emphasis on deconstructed tailoring and a pared-down graphic style.

Nicolas Lecourt-Mansion hails from Strasbourg, France, and came to Paris five years ago to attend the Atelier Chardon Savard school. After several freelance experiences, he founded his own ready-to-wear label, which targets both women and men with a maverick style featuring ultra-colourful couture looks in sumptuous materials.

Alongside these three new labels, the other Designers Apartment names for next autumn are: Arthur Avellano, Clara Daguin, Dawei, GNDR, Kenta Matsushige, Mazarine, Proêmes de Paris, Quoï Alexander and Savoar Fer. Four labels will instead leave the showroom, to continue their development through other venues and different promotion formats: Coralie Marabelle, Afterhomework(Paris), DA/DA Diane Ducasse and Nïuku. The latter will soon relaunch with a new concept devised by its founder, designer Kadiata Diallo, a.k.a. Kadjahdjah.