After a brief hiatus, Études is back with its original “Studio” tacked back onto its name. It also has a “renewed temporality,” as founders José Lamali, Jérémy Egry, and Aurélien Arbet put it (today’s outing was a two-fer, numbered 24 and 25, for this winter and next summer).
While they were at it, a new format swapped the classic runway outing for a performance at the Palais de Tokyo, the French capital’s epicenter of contemporary art, featuring a passel of dancers, a poetry reading by James Massiah, and music by indie guitarist Pierre Bujeau, aka Megabasse.
Backstage, José Lamali, Jérémy Egry, and Aurélien Arbet described their reset. “We wanted to invite the audience to witness the creation and evolution of a piece, through music and performance, and we wanted to reaffirm our codes as makers of clothing for artists,” Egry said, summing up the label as “American workwear with French elegance.” An official collaboration with the archives at The Kitchen—the New York-based experimental art hub founded in 1971—offered an extra angle for amped-up texture and flavor.
Andy Warhol’s same-era work with Polaroids was referenced to striking effect on a blue striped button-down and a white sweatshirt silkscreened with a naive floral; one t-shirt bore the late icon’s self-portrait in wig, makeup, and necktie. In a more minimalist spirit, a chocolate windbreaker and a khaki suit looked easy yet polished; an overcoat seemed to riff on the appearance of half-developed film, and cargo vests appeared to carry the patina of time. Dancers, sauntering together or apart to choreography by Michele Rizzo, brought the mood into focus despite a haze of dry ice.
Sometimes just taking a beat to breathe is all you need to refocus. Twelve years after its founding, Études Studio is still here. Given the current landscape, that’s an achievement in itself. Now, after many a detour, the brand looks refreshed and ready for a new chapter.
