Other than its fall launch date, the model has made few particulars obtainable — “Bear with me,” Jolie signed off on her introductory word. “I hope to develop this with you” — however hints at an bold, globalist goal. “I’m constructing a spot for artistic folks to collaborate with a talented and numerous household of knowledgeable tailors, patternmakers and artisans from all over the world,” she writes on the model’s website. “A spot to have enjoyable. To create your individual designs with freedom. To find your self.”
Emphasizing the worldwide attain of an trade deeply entrenched in Western values has turn into the luxurious enterprise’s new obsession over the previous yr. Chanel staged a trend present in Senegal final December, whereas Gucci mounted one in Korea earlier this month. Dior has highlighted their use of Indian ateliers for embroidery — a observe many French luxurious companies interact in however typically go to lengths to obscure within the identify of preserving French artisanship.
Nonetheless, the enterprise stays oriented round Western notions of luxurious. Jolie’s model appears aimed to disrupt that, if gently. “If you’re utilizing language within the trend trade house — and by that I imply, this Western-centric and U.S. model of the style trade as we all know it, with trend month in New York and Paris and Milan and London — [like] ‘atelier’ and ‘tailoring’ and ‘craftsmanship,’ that codes to me as very excessive finish,” says Emma McClendon, a trend historian and assistant professor of trend research at St. John’s College in New York.
Alternatively, McClendon says, “contemplate how clothes is made all over the world, and really, this notion of participating with textiles, participating with tailors, getting custom-made stuff is just not essentially [in] the higher echelons of clothes manufacturing in different components of the world.” In lots of components of Africa, China and India, it’s neither uncommon nor costly to have a neighborhood tailor make your clothes. Maybe Atelier Jolie can supply “a extra world perspective,” says McClendon, exhibiting “who has these abilities and elevating them and giving them visibility.”
Clothes manufacturers are widespread means for celebrities to commerce on their names — everybody from Rihanna to Beyoncé to Kate Hudson to Tyler, the Creator has had their identify on model tag. However Atelier Jolie suggests the actress is just not out to proselytize for her personal sense of fashion. First, contemplate Jolie’s standing inside the trend trade itself; in contrast to Rihanna or the Olsens, she is just not generally known as a trend plate, as an alternative selecting a wardrobe of impartial suiting separates by subdued luxurious manufacturers equivalent to MaxMara and Michael Kors. In recent times, she’s made headlines within the fashion world when her youngsters have re-worn her robes from previous pink carpet moments — a “classic” fashion assertion hinting at her personal shifting perspective.
On the brand’s website, Jolie declares an intention to “use solely leftover, high quality classic materials and deadstock.” (Deadstock materials are extra supplies unused by manufacturers or mills.) That may put Atelier Jolie extra in step with moral luxurious manufacturers equivalent to Bode and By Walid, which make items from vintage textiles and quilts; and Marine Serre, a Paris-based designer who nearly completely makes use of deadstock T-shirts, towels, and linens. This manufacturing mannequin implies that these manufacturers are small — there’s solely a lot outdated stuff to be made into newer items. (Bode, by the American Emily Adams Bode Aujla, has expanded her enterprise by including replica clothes to her lineup.) Neither is it low cost: a By Walid jacket can value upward of $3,000.
For as widespread because the time period could also be, sustainability stays a tough promote in trend. (Notably, Jolie doesn’t use it.) Companies that emphasize recycled materials and upcycled deadstock might earn a whole lot of press, however they’re up towards a seemingly unstoppable machine of quick trend, whose star model, Shein, a enterprise valued at $64 billion this yr. Relating to sustainable items, customers are sometimes motivated by the identical wishes behind another trend buy: a thirst for novelty. Can she get us to vary our methods?
Maybe McClendon says it finest: “I’m going to be actually upset if it’s only a product roll out.”
