How designer Diane Gaignoux merges trippy clowns, alter egos and balloon-like silhouettes
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
NAME DIANE GAIGNOUX
AGE 27
LOCATION Normandy, France
STAR SIGN Libra
GUILTY PLEASURE Dancing to disco music in the studio!
Imagine a whimsical funfair where the clouds are candyfloss, carousel horses roam free and clowns flaunt chromatic dreamcoats with oversized buttons and bulging sleeves. For Diane Gaignoux, such imagination is threaded into her design identity. Using a felt-needling method, the French designer makes emotive clothing inspired by our alter egos – with a sprinkle of circus magic.
In pursuit of childhood ambitions, Gaignoux studied at Paris’ esteemed Duperré College before heading across the channel to join the BA Knitwear program at CENTRAL SAINTS MARTINS, where she realised her craft needn’t be reserved for farmers in cream cable-knits or chunky hand-me-down cardigans. Instead, her felt garments are formed with sculptural practice in mind; seeing the body as an introspective vase that contains our many sprouting identities. “Within ceramic sculptures and their weird forms, they contain a lot of hollow space, which is like a human in some ways,” she explains. ”I prefer my designs to be photographed empty, so there’s nobody inside – like it’s a shell, something representative of us that has its own life.”
In life, we all need a dash of colour, and Gaignoux brings the rainbow through bright creations that border the peripherals of fashion, art and anatomical commentary. Entitled Enveloppes Imaginaires (Imaginary Shell), her latest collection exhibits “sartorial skin” as an outward look at human behaviour. Each jacket, top hat and trouser within it is a trippy caricature: “To me the colours represent little monsters, tiny characters within our personalities,” she explains. If you’ve ever ruined a sweater (or two) in the washing machine, you’ll have an idea of Gaignoux’s spontaneous production process. Two weeks in-the-making, the visceral designs are intimately blended by hand – at nearly double their size – before meeting a shrunken fate. The outcome? Hypnotic fashion that confronts the human form as we know it.
Alice May Stenson: You’ve cited ‘metamorphosis’ within your work. What prompted you to reinvent knitwear away from, say, argyle jumpers?
Diane Gaignoux: It surrounds the idea of sculpting a garment. From the very beginning when I wanted to explore clothing and turn it into a second skin, as though we are also visually carved from our own identities. I wanted to translate this idea of an external personality, to express and show facets of ourselves in different ways.
AMS: Do you have any favourite designers?
DG: Rei from COMMES DES GARÇONS, always!
AMS: Imagination is a recurring theme. Why do you take more inspiration from fiction than from reality?
DG: I’m drawn to characters and settings from art but theatre plays a role too. That’s why nothing looks real, it appears psychedelic or acidic because I wanted to transgress beyond our own reality.
AMS: Have you ever tried out acting?
DG: No, it’s a huge fantasy for me – it’s something that greatly inspires me but at the same time I have never experienced it for myself. I was actually saying to an artist friend that it feels as though sometimes we don’t have time for other things, everything we do is everything we love. In art it's hard to separate free time and practice as our work is a constant process. But I'm undertaking similar theatrical projects like making performances and character sculptures as well.
AMS: What’s an overarching emotion found in your work?
DG: Technically it’s not an emotion, but I would say dreamy describes it well. I wanted to personify my thoughts in the designs.
AMS: Why do your designs challenge conventional anatomy?
DG: I have always loved the French artist Niki De Saint Phalle. What first caught my eye were her fun, super colourful and exaggerated shapes that represent the human body. This inspiration came from fashion too, suits with high shoulders or trousers that accentuate big hips – mostly what we saw in the eighties. That’s what made me think of the body as a vessel, it’s something that we can innovate. Most of the time we inhabit it, but sometimes our mind is elsewhere, I wanted to emphasise that idea of isolation in our skin.
AMS: Would you then say that fashion is more of an artistic than practical expression?
DG: Yeah, completely! In the case of this collection it is artistic. Fashion should always aim to push further than reality, it’s why designers reference so many abstract concepts and ideas. Without them, fashion would demote to being simple, wearable garments with only functional purposes.
AMS: Any advice for aspiring knitwear designers?
DG: As strange as it sounds, don’t look at fashion when you’re creating. Instead look at outside factors and find a way to incorporate or interpret them as clothing.
AMS: A stylist is requesting knitwear for your dream model. Who is that person?
DG: I’m going to say Cindy Sherman!
AMS: What brought about the circus theme in your latest work?
DG: It stemmed from this idea of creating pretend characters that reflect our many selves. Cindy Sherman, with her clown facades, reflects that well and I was really inspired by David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust make-up too.
AMS: If you could only listen to one musical genre on loop, what would it be?
DG: My favourite is Italo-disco so probably that!
AMS: How do you stay individual?
DG: I’ve chosen not to get caught up in the fashion cycle. I don't want to feel pressured into creating a collection like twice every year. For example, this recent work has been the first I’ve made since my degree and that was around two years ago. To stay individual, I'll make work but only when I feel it’s the right time. Also, I undertake the whole process as more of an artistic project, which is slow and calculated – even if I’m physically producing clothing and not ceramics, I will do so on my own terms, away from the crazy pace of seasonal fashions.
AMS: Cityscape or countryside?
DG: For now the city, but one day the country.
AMS: Late nights or early mornings?
DG: I’m more of a late night person, although I’d love to wake up early and be productive...
Photography by CHARLOTTE KRIEGER
Featuring Julien Leroy, Marine Eggimann, Eloise Kelso, Thomas Kelso, Arnaud Jamet, Céline Exbrayat, Louise Marot
Fashion by DIANE GAIGNOUX
Make-up by CÉLINE EXBRAYAT
Buttons by PAULINE BONNET
Assisted by ANNA BERNAR