LIVING WELL IS THE BEST REVENGE
Paris, June 2022
French fashion designer NIX LECOURT MANSION was born and raised in Strasbourg—Thierry Mugler’s hometown—which seems like a fortuitous precedent. Having studied at Atelier Chardon Savard in Paris, the ANDAM Prize-winning designer has founded a brand that mixes feminist themes with an upcycled approach, pop culture references with sexy-sparkly aesthetics. Lecourt Mansion’s F/W 2022 collection is titled The Revenge Look, which, the designer described as “me owning myself... fierce and forceful.”
Given the title of your most recent collection, how does revenge fuel creativity?
It’s more the concept of the ‘revenge look’ than revenge on its own. I got inspired by Princess Diana and Rihanna and Bella Hadid: women who had perfected a certain type of revenge look. The thing was to create a collection around the way you dress to feel your best. Emotions flow through what you put on. Putting on a revenge look is gonna make you feel so confident and so good that anyone who harmed you before would feel bad: they feel harmed. You know what I mean?
Definitely. Would you equate it with a kind of contemporary femme fatale?
It could be, but that conceptualization doesn't really exist... It’s a vision of a woman who has no specific weaknesses. I think the strongest women are the ones who actually make their weaknesses their strengths.
How does glamour fit in with that?
I think punk rock glamour defines my aesthetic. I use light and shine. My key pieces have crystal elements, but color palette is very important, because colors have very specific significations of empowerment and self-love.
Aside from lots of shine, which materials are your signature?
When I started working, I was collecting a lot of deadstock fabrics and little— like, three meter—leftover scraps. It would allow me to work on a wide range of palettes and textures, even when I couldn't aord full rolls of fabric. My go-to most of the time is natural materials, which are much more lasting: silk, cotton, leather.
I use printed leather in this collection, 100% supima cotton denim, I have a lot of silks, from organza to satin—hold on, I am looking at what’s on my rack, so I can describe it—I have leftover thread from a knitwear collaboration, I have leftover vinyl from a friend who didn't know what she was going to use that for. I’ve always loved that fabric. One day I had to do a corset and was thinking this could be amazing. So I just used it, randomly.
This is maybe politically incorrect but: I like fur. Using fur is very controversial today because of the abuse of animals—some companies use endangered ones. But most of the planet is still eating animals. I try to use as much leftover as possible, or furs of animals we eat, like rabbit or cow or lamb. I’m not using exotic skins.
I have a dress here that was a coat from my very first collection. I recycled it for the color, because it was a shame to leave it on the rack when it could actually become a new garment.
Is that something that you’ve done regularly, recycling your own archives?
I did it a couple of times, because I would need a piece of fabric that was already part of a garment. I don't think it's necessary to possess an archive. I like the way that clothes are ‘living’. I started four years ago and most of my racks are filled with long gowns and party outfits. I’d rather have people using those pieces as new out"ts.
That's interesting! Speaking of party looks, you've dressed a lot of major pop cultural !gures. Who would be the fantasy person to dress?
This question comes up a lot and I answer different things because it changes. I started working on custom pieces, tailoring celebrities’ outfits, but pretty much worked with everyone I wanted to work with. I'm good at outfits for onstage and dressing up, but it would be interesting to show a wider range. I’d love to do evening menswear, to work with Young Thug or A$AP Rocky. Actually I still want to work with Megan Thee Stallion—and Rihanna I haven't dressed yet.
You dress a lot of singers in particular—what do you like to listen to?
I have the most eclectic playlist: from rap to classical music to hardcore metal to hip-hop to R&B—like, everything. Literally.
I loved that Susan Meiselas' photographic series Pandora’s Box is referenced in an early collection of yours. Could you talk about art or photography references that have been meaningful to you?
Meiselas is very meaningful to my work, because she documents different types of people very, very well. I would say painters include Dorothea Tanning or Salvador Dalí. I'm very influenced by cinema, like Almodóvar—even Gossip Girl inspires me a lot. And Sex & the City. Recently I've been watching a lot of animé. I have very eclectic mood boards.
To counter the eclecticism, do you have any rituals? Does anything anchor your process?
Not really. Usually, there is a starting point. For example, the collection I worked on tied to Susan Meiselas's pictures was sort of a revenge look, but for a movie character. You know the "lm Belle de Jour? It’s the male gaze directed at the sexuality of this bourgeois woman, Séverine. And I thought it was annoying, so I put it together with Susan Meiselas’ series in which she documents a sex club of dominatrixes in New York. I wanted to put forward the dominance of women in this way—to say that it's not shameful or not ‘not allowed’ for a woman, like Séverine, to be wanting a full sexuality, with someone who actually knows how to give her an orgasm. Because obviously, her husband can’t.
In terms of this idea of transforming the gaze, how much do you think fashion has the power to really shift things? Is there an activist aspect to how you design, to get people to consider or perceive gender differently?
I’m perceived as such, because I obviously questioned myself a lot on those subjects. But I still focus on an aesthetic aspects. I think it's stupid to talk about ecology or diversity when it's just marketing in the end, you know? I just try to do the best with what I have, and then create in a positive way. But it's not the centerpiece of my art—I’m not creating so I can change opinions. And I think just looking good and sharing the same values with your clients is enough. As long as you do your work well, and your product follows naturally from what you're saying and showing, I think that's basically the designer’s only job.
You started out by drawing wedding dresses. Would you ever create more ‘traditional’ garments? Are there other kinds of garments that you might create or rethink in the future?
Yes. I did a wedding dress before—the wedding dress was black—and I did a wedding dress for a collection I called the ‘divorce dress’, actually. So that was pretty much a different subject. With the work I've been doing, I've been doing any kind of garment: for opera, stage, fur coats to shoes where the heel was a pied de lit—the tubular footboard under the bed. I bought it at Leroy Merlin. Basically, I've been doing any kind of thing. Now I'm working on dierent projects for the stage. It's a lot of custom-made work.
I’m really into working in different mediums—I would say that garments and fashion are my main subject, but I'm doing artistic direction, even if I'm technically able to create clothing. I've been working as an illustrator, I've been working as a tailor, I also work as a stylist, consultant... I'm really up for any project that I feel is interesting. I'm really, like, eager and hungry for subjects and projects, whether clothes or other things.
Is that diversity fueled by curiosity or necessity? Like is plurality a requirement for an emerging designer today?
It’s curiosity, I would say, and then necessity. It seems like money helps for everything, but it doesn't. When you have an interest in something, you develop it the best, usually. And the more curious you are about it, the better you get. So I think it's unnecessary for an artist to push the limit of their abilities. For design, I think the most interesting is to know the fashion industry and what's been done before, so you're able to create something modern, to create from the interesting art that has been done before. We have to learn from the designers who worked long years before us, and found solutions that we might not even think of as young designers. For example, Alaïa taking the time to do the best design, and not necessarily follow the seasons. To try to find a new business model for providing products in the long term, in the best way. I think this is most important, for a young designer.
True. What are you working on now?
I'm working on my new collection, and I just moved into my new studio. It’s a 10-minutes walk east from Paris proper; it’s in Bagnolet. I'm building everything with my partner, who is also going to open his shop here. The space is really big, so I have my workshop, studio, office and apartment. The space is really full of light; there’s a big, big, big windowed roof. I’m able to take photos, do installations: everything in the space. I'm working on a custom-made piece for a friend for a video that we'll shoot. Business-wise, I’m finding money, working on the new show... Exciting things.
Who will inspire your next collection?
Blair Waldorf. I’m mixing her with Fran Fine, but I think I've been working on Fran Fine’s aesthetic a lot already. I think I follow every Fran Fine Instagram account.
Fran Fine from The Nanny? She’s the best.
Yeah! But Blair Waldorf already has a big, wide range of things that I want to use, so that’s maybe already enough for one collection...
Interview by Sarah Moroz
Photography by Jean Marquès