Lucas Leclere is always welcome on 1Granary; we have written about him previously where he spoke mainly about his time working at Chanel and since then, many things have happened. Finally, we are glad to post his interview and tons of pics from his graduate collection, research and photo shoot. Lucas had designed all the fabrics he used for his designs, as well as trimmings and custom made shoes! After the CSM grad show, it wasn’t over for Lucas and his best friend Louis Barthelemy (FDM) because they both presented their graduate collections in the frame of the Paris couture week! Lucas is fun, though sometimes is a self described “pretentious, self obsessed boy” and that’s why we love him!

1Granary would like to thank Lucas for a fun interview and for all the good times.

Was it hard for you to get into CSM? What was your background and journey to BA Womenswear?

I would not know if it is hard to get in to CSM since I got in in one piece. I had no second option anyway.

Describe your final year; what was the hardest and most fun?

I had studied law for two months until I woke up and decided my life was too short to die of boredom in France. France is not a country for youngsters nor for anything fun really.

Tell us about your final collection (inspiration, techniques you have used, difficulties and struggles…)

My final year has been by far the most exciting year of them all, for which I have had the chance to weave my own fabrics and prints thanks to my sponsors. I also got the most amazing helpers that allowed me to push things further and accomplish looks that were very complete with trousers and jackets and so on.

Kings X made my life shit, but I would brush it off by calling my friends in Paris for the ones in London were too busy working.

I started my research in France when the Arab Spring was blossoming. People in North Africa used the slogans from the French Revolution. I decided to go where the revolution had burst in its most decadent and dramatic way – Versailles. There it was, the arts and stunning crafts produced for the monarchy and the rebellious ground breaking ideas. Revolutions happen with fire, blood and savagery, thus, I applied the same to my fabrics. I burned, destroyed, ripped, shredded them for I wanted them to tell a story, to have a past in their core, without having a disheveled absurd punk look that would make you look like a tramp. I tailored coats and jackets for I wanted the whole impression to be structured on top of ‘flou’ pieces. I experimented a lot with Sellotape, paint, lace, human hair and mink, and all of it turned out much more embellished than I thought it would be. Now because I was in London I wanted a wink to a British culture. In its most absurd and retrograde way, Great Britain is still a monarchy, and I was inspired by a Dichotomy of its religious, royal structure and its punk and extravagant history (think ecstasy, techno music, club culture, nu rave and so on). Thus, I worked on the UK flag that is so vulgarized that it is even more beautiful. Its structure and impact is immediate, I used it in all black onto lace leggings and half of it to structure a pink pleated dress.

How did you choose your soundtrack and why?

My friend Jerry Bouthier, whom I had met at Family And Boombox (now Ponystep) and who is the best DJ in the world, made the soundtrack for me. It meant a lot since he created it at Boombox, which was the soundtrack of my London years and I was lucky that he found the time to do it since he is such a busy man touring the world with his records. We chose music and riffs we liked, I told him I wanted the introduction of Rameau’s ‘Forets Paisibles’ theme from ‘Les Indes Galantes’ (an opera that Louise Vidée Le Brun, the official painter of Marie Antoinette, hated although everybody adored it). He then applied his magic touch and shredded the music and sampled it in the most surprising and exciting way ever. It could not have suited the collection better for it was metallic yet electro and demented at the same time with delicate moments of extreme softness.

What is your most precious memory from the time in CSM?

CSM makes a difference for it leaves you free. My best souvenir there is everyday, for you meet your best friends as well as the most absurd retards that make life more exciting and fun. There is no place like this in the world. I would have become a stuck up, bitter, uptight, unconfident, bourgeois cunt without it. Now I’m only a f which I think is a great improvement.   

What was the best advice you got in CSM from the tutors?

If you know nothing, have no talent and no memory, you have all the chances to get a good job in a respectable studio (I have names). Also, work until you drop dead, sleep, and then start again. If fashion resists you, don’t force your way in; its a waste of time. Go sell ice creams in Buyukadam, you’ll have more fun and be more fulfilled.

What would you put into the survival kit on the final year?

A brain should do if you know how to use it.

If you had 1,000,000 pounds, what would you do?

I would do exactly the same thing I am doing right now.

How would you describe your personal style?

I could not ever describe my personal style for it is up to others to appreciate it. I always sound cocky, vain, empty and pretentious when one does. I do not wear sneakers unless I have to run. (And I never do.) I only own one pair of converse. I buy 90% of my shoes at Crockett and Jones and never go shopping. I eventually come across something I like and buy it. I despise high street for I find it overpriced and rude, stealing other’s ideas to have them produced by underpaid workers, stuffed in a pig farm can – not being an ideal way of selling clothing. And being shoved in a multicolored warehouse with a loud music, shouting in your ears with no one to help you and have to queue to try on an ill fitted dress that gives you a rash on the neck, cannot be an ideal way of shopping either. I repulse middle of the road brands who charge more for the same low quality as the high street and who disguise themselves into creative labels. I hate so called luxury labels that are directed by marketing and have their clothes produced in China and Romania with bad fabrics (85% of them do). I shop in the few that please me. I don’t ever make anything for myself for once my day is over, I’d rather read or draw than sew for my own. I have things made that I designed (shoes, jackets) and it is much more satisfying for I am not the best at sewing linings and I can’t make shoes.