Launching a brand on the eve of the Covid pandemic easily could have proved a flash-in-the-pan. Instead, designers Florentin Glemarec and Kevin Nompeix caught traction online with the urban punk-leaning Egonlab (so named for the iconoclastic Viennese artist Egon Schiele). Last fall, they scooped the 2021 Pierre Bergé Andam award. They are also finalists for the 2022 Woolmark Prize. Not bad for a couple of newbies.
In the minutes before their runway debut at L’Oratoire du Louvre, the duo said they were more than ready to step out of digital and into the physical realm. A fall collection entitled “Egonimati” was described in their program notes as “a secret society responsible for establishing universal happiness.” That happiness comes, they added, by way of total inclusivity. “We realized that when people speak of inclusivity, they’re really talking about exclusivity,” said Nompeix. “We wanted to show that it takes a bit of everything to create a world.”
And indeed there was a little bit of everything in this collection, from oversized, enveloping quilted shirts to a couple of head-to-toe puffer suits and two couture silhouettes, one a dome of a crinolined gown; the other a body-con evening number with a panel rising almost to the model’s chin in front, and a crystal buckle holding together a deep-cut back.
But while such showpieces may be visually arresting, the pair really proved their mettle with tailored jackets and discreetly flared trousers (shown here with an overskirt). A lashing of esoterica—most noticeably on tarot-style printed shirts—offered a through line from the archangels in their spring collection. Surrealism, too, made an appearance, in a revisitation of Salvador Dali’s Aphrodite.
Physical show aside, Egonlab is playing it both ways, pushing into the metaverse in association with the digital creation studio Cosmic Shelter, and this season in partnership with Crocs: five Swarovski-embellished designs accompanied by NFTs are set to be auctioned off for the next two weeks on their website.
