Marine Serre: The Next Generation Designer To Know
Marine Serre in her Studio, 2018 (with the blanket she will later use as the raw material for her SS 2019 collection, Hardcore Couture)
Marine Serre, born in Correze, in the South West of France, was destined for a career as a tennis player. However, after watching this dream fail, she explores an interest in fashion, a way for her to express herself.
After graduating from La Cambre Mode, the Belgium Fashion Academy in 2016, Serre deepened her interest in fashion, and the ability to represent her innate capacity for hybrid contemporary designs- combining the chic form of French past with the edge and possibilities of fashion technology. After completing internships at McQueen, Dior and Margiela, Serre starts a year-long internship with Demna Gavasalia at Balenciaga, all while simultaneously developing her eponymous label. During this year she earns the LVMH Young Designer Award (2017), and shortly after this, in 2018, Serre presents her first collection at Paris Fashion Week.
But what is so special about Marine Serre? A noteworthy designer is one who understands the vision and codes of their brand, and who seamlessly manifests them into every collection. The designed garments themselves also need to tell a story or provide a critical commentary on society. And still, if the brand can successfully negotiate from a position of activism- undertaking a mission to make the world of fashion move forward ethically, then *ding, ding ding ding, it’s the design trifecta. I believe that it is here, at this intersection, where Marine Serre and her brand resides.
Marine Serre receives the LMVH Young Designer Award, 2017 (awarded by Rihanna, right)
Look for her first collection, Radical call for love, 2017 (one the looks from the LMVH Young Designer Award)
MARINE SERRE’S FASHION CODE
Moon crescent printed textiles, sports luxe shapewear - a thin layer of tight fabric that covers the body of all its models - and innovative and up-cycled textiles, these are the codes of Marine. In each of her collections, you will find the Moon Cresent logo, the ball bag, and details such as the shell nail covers. A process of coded consistency modelled upon Karl Lagerfeld's practice when he took over the reins of Chanel. By mixing the savoir-faire of French couture - refined shapes and fitted tailoring - with sportswear, Marine Serre has created a vision, landscape and language of her own.
THE STORY
In each collection, Serre depicts a dystopia in which humans have already destroyed everything. In her first collections, Manic Soul Machine and Hardcore Couture, symbolic of the possible need for us to oneday protect themselves from pollution, Serre dressed her models in full facial skins. Similarly, her "patchwork" styled textiles and garments, were intended to warn us of the severe lack of raw materials that we will have to face one day if our consumption methods do not evolve.
For her latest collection, Maree Noire, Serre invited the fashion world to come and testify to her vision of the world. Set against a hill at the Hippodrome d'Auteuil, in the middle of the rain, with a catwalk reminiscent of an oil spill, the collection quite literally intended to represent the polluted state from which this planet suffers daily. The material used for her first looks is moire, a textile covered with a wave-like-pattern, whose effect disappears after a few years as if by magic, alluding to our potential future.
Her models are not Gigi Hadid, but instead, they are of all ages, all sexes, and all shapes- because an apocalyptic world doesn't care about our narrow standards of beauty.
THE POWER OF UPCYCLING
With every collection, Serre pushes her signature exploration of upcycling - the act of taking back used clothing or fabrics to make new garments. Through the continued use of excess materials, upcycled blankets, trinkets and closures, the brand's message is simple - our consumption of the new must change. Serre's collections are individual and chic. Still, they take into account the fact that we can no longer use materials with harmful bi-products and continue to let the fashion industry ruin every possible ecosystem imaginable. By depicting our climate emergent frightful future, Serre warns us - asking us not to act first before we find ourselves in a real-life version apocalyptic world her collections depict.
Marine Serre, SS2019 collection, HARDCORE COUTURE, jacket with recycled collected keychains
“My philosophy—in design and in life—is to go to the end of things. I want to push the boundaries of what is possible and see what is on the other side. I am not afraid to jump into cold water. Life has taught me that after you set one goal, no matter what happens, you have a chance to try again. The process of learning never ends. I keep this in mind as I design my collection.”
Marine Serrre
More about the Author:
Besides having the coolest name and articulating big ideas beyond her years, Valentine recently graduated Law, while similtaneously pursuing her interest (hopefully cum profession) in fashion criticism. Visit her blog to read more of her works, or you can follow her on Instagram or reach her via her email; youcantbemyvalentine@gmail.com