‘I want to take it big’
At 21, Xavier Laruelle is a first-timer at Montreal Fashion Week, happening next week. And he’s got big plans: to build a luxury brand.
Xavier Laruelle has big dreams. The 21-year-old fashion designer, a first-timer at Montreal Fashion Week, is among about 20 designers to show spring 2014 collections on the catwalk at the Arsenal next week.
“I always have seen my name on a big store,’’ he said, with bags, shoes, makeup and perfume as part of his brand.
“I want to take it big. And I want to stay here in Montreal.”
He has a ways to go, but it has been a promising start so far.
Last March, he showed a first collection at an art gallery. In May, Jessica Lee Gagné, photography director of Sarah préfère la course, wore his navy blue silk gown on the red carpet at Cannes. Made to measure of Italian triple crêpe de soie, the gown would cost about $2,000.
“It’s an ideal woman I have in my head,’’ Laruelle said in his tiny atelier in the basement of a triplex in Villeray, on the street where he grew up. “It’s about a modern woman living in the city of Montreal. I always imagine cuts with the architecture I see around me.”
Laruelle dates his fascination with fashion back to when he was about five years old, and would staple pieces of fabric together to make skirts for his mother. He then moved on to Santa Claus and Halloween costumes.
High school was tough: He dropped out. “I could never stay still at school. I was always thinking about dresses.”
Instead, he enrolled in a private couture school, ZigZag, in the Plateau, where he learned the basics of dressmaking from patternmaking to draping.
“I wanted to learn the good old-fashioned way — the things you can do by hand,’’ he said.
“I always liked fabric and things that shine — sequins — and elegant women.”
The sequins were not evident in his collection, though, just understated, minimal dresses or skirts, in muted shades of mauve, olive and slate blue silk. A showpiece plastic bubble dress is equally minimal, although somewhat shiny, and pants and jackets are in a black polyester with a transparent plastic woven into the fabric. The contrast between the silk and plastic is about the electronic age in which we live, Laruelle said, a contrast between modern life and the inspiration of his mother’s wardrobe.
Mostly, the clothes are simple and silk, the embellishment being soft folds or low backs. A regular day dress costs about $200.
Laruelle wants to build a luxury brand.
Commercial and l uxury can work together, he said, mentioning Alexander Wang, the New York designer known for urban chic who was named creative director of Balenciaga.
In Quebec, that blend has not taken hold, according to Laruelle. The market is small, he acknowledged, but we’re a young country. One issue Laruelle sees: designers not working together to build the market.
Among Quebec designers, he admires Travis Taddeo for his “nice products and prices. And he has his own thing going on.’’ Also, Rad Hourani, who made it to the Paris haute couture calendar. “I’m so proud,’’ Laruelle said.
Internationally, it’s Karl Lagerfeld — because he does whatever he wants: big shows, with big décor.
He laments the way of fashion today, with its rampant copying. “Nothing is really new. It’s kind of sad,’’ he said.
“It takes a long time for a designer to get his signature. And I know I have a lot to learn. That’s why I went to a private school.’’
Fashion week is not charging designers for runway time this season, but designers do have to pay for models, an expensive proposition. Laruelle was invited to show; his funding comes from his family so far.
Next Friday, at 6:30 p.m., Laruelle presents 20 looks on 10 models. He is stressed but confident.
“I don’t want to burn out,’’ he said, adding he hopes to last 25 years. “I’m ready. I won’t let go.” efriede@montrealgazette.com
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