Sixtine Gendre, design process

Sixtine Gendre’s collection is heavily inspired by the military which she mainly researched through her personal heritage. Looking at portraits and photographies from her father in the Air Force and her great grandfather during WWI, she started analysing her own artistic identity through elements of her past by manipulating them to create a Couture collection led by the textiles and focused on contrast and subversion.

When exploring subversion, Sixtine established her design process by researching artists influencing her in their aesthetic and techniques. French sculptor César represented a great inspiration as his sense of transforming already-made objects into a new form drove Sixtine to take it further to design: ‘deconstruct to reconstruct’ is key. Realising her own ‘compressions’ - in reference to the artist’s work - within her textile sampling and materials experimentations developed the practice of subversion and the interest of movement on the body. The collection is then composed of main pieces and a range of accessories which can be worn differently according to the wearer’s tastes.

The collection is experimental as the embroidery guided fashion development. All military references such as uniforms or medals and the creative process were developed in order to create meaningful and detailed pieces. Sixtine took her heritage further in experimentation when she witnessed all the demonstrations taking place around her. The flag allowed her to evoke her own identity as well as involving and individual in her creative process, making Couture revolution.