WITH THE BAND
MODELS
BACKSTAGE
AT FAITH
CONNEXION’S
FIRST RUNWAY
SHOW IN PARIS
IN MARCH.
that London or Paris or Los Angeles “is my hometown.”
Monet himself is a walking billboard for the company’s
sensibility. Clad in a repurposed vintage pajama top, a
beat-up Perfecto, and his trademark self-customized jeans,
he stands in contrast to the opulence of the surroundings.
Faith Connexion’s atelier is currently based in the elegant
Hôtel de Pourtalès, in view of the Madeleine. (It is a location
that has gained notoriety as the site of the harrowing Kim
Kardashian robbery.)
“We are doing something together,” Monet says. “We are
bringing energies together!” Not just energies but actual
personnel: Faith Connexion heartily rejects the model of
most high-end brands, which employ a single star designer,
in favor of a loosely organized collective—a conceit that
might be described, to paraphrase that hoary fashion icon
Karl Marx, as “from each according to his—or her—abil-
ity.” In this case, the ability refers to the lightning skill at
which a tagger signs a pair of jeans or an embellisher creates
a giant, glittery Byzantine cross.
The invisible hand pulling at least some of the literal
strings at Faith Connexion is Christophe Decarnin, formerly
the designer for Balmain, and the guy responsible for the
revolutionary reinvention of that house in 2006. After five
whirlwind years of feathered minidresses, ersatz-military
overcoats, and a vast array of artfully wrecked denim, De-
carnin left Balmain in 2011. Though the collective is reluctant
to discuss his exact role, he remains a backstage presence at
Faith Connexion, a ghost in the machine, hovering over
the line’s distinctive urban-couture sensibility. It is an aes-
thetic that fully embraces the notion of gender-nonspecific
clothing and that flaunts a fierce commitment
to artisanal detail, even if this means not Lesage
embroideries but T-shirts hand-painted with
slogans like protect earth.
The company’s owner, the loquacious Alex-
andre Allard, says he thinks the idea of a single
designer is not just passé but also slightly depress-
ing. “I always had a problem with the idea that
there would be only one amazing designer—I
think this is a concept that is going to disappear!”
he declares. “We need to give a chance to more
creative people.” Allard likens Decarnin to a
composer allowing people in the Faith Connex-
ion “orchestra” to create their own masterpieces.
This orchestra will soon be playing in New
York, when a flagship in SoHo opens this sum-
mer. Of course, it won’t be a conventional bou-
tique: A juice machine from Jean-Georges is
on order; neighborhood seamstresses may be
recruited to create individualized embroidered
flourishes; a rotating cast of artists will be on hand
to decorate your jeans or your tee while you wait.
“This is a new magic!” Allard says. And in
these fraught times, when the earth seems to be shifting
under our feet, when all of our assumptions are suddenly
up in the air, who doesn’t want a magical one-of-a-kind
fringed jacket, joyously tagged and glittering with crazy
paste jewels, to at least give the illusion of keeping you
happy and safe?
TA L K I N G FA S H I O N > 6 8
VOGUE.COM
Talking Fashion