Young Brazilian filmmaker and poet Ana Vaz travels the world to observe how flora and fauna manage to regain their place in the places most devastated by humans, places lost in the immensity of the ocean, like those Japanese islands thought to be forever
scarred.
The immensity of the sea, an inanimate body that comes to life through the perpetual movement of the waves, and its capacity to reject everything that doesn’t belong to it, are the starting point for a reflection. Plastic found on the beach, from Malibu to Cap Timiris via the Mediterranean, is the trace of bulimic consumption that haunts our society. Sublimating this waste with its patina of sand and salt, Aelis has created a jean-sculpture, presented before the start of the show, solely to
inspire reflection on our lifestyles and promote respect for the sea.
Like Theseus, who abandons Ariadne on a beach, even though she has saved him from the Minotaur’s labyrinth, man turns his back on the nature that has given him everything. This mistreatment also echoes the condition of women, mistreated since time immemorial. Through her studies on the place reserved for women in the imaginary world of prehistoric societies, anthropologist C. Cohen helps us today to distinguish myth from reality, and to change the way we
look at women.
Blending the red of the setting sun with the blue of the water, the sea is dressed in a thousand shades of purple, which can be found throughout this collection. A dress in natural silk taffeta, in twilight hues, ties like an ocean wave around the body. A vertically pleated cape is worn with a talisman created for Aelis by Les Intéressants. 400 meters of ruché hand-cut into ribbons and dyed one by one, form another dress evoking the hypnotizing beauty of a jellyfish.
Aelis’ evolving, eco-ethical wardrobe underlines the importance of passing on the garment as a precious object to be preserved from generation to generation, as does the know-how required for the
artisanal manufacture of each piece in the collection. From Japan comes a fabric with the ancestral technique used to make kimonos, and becomes a ribbon dress in strips of silk. Majotae’s indigo-dyed natural hemp denim is combined with duchesse satin and black feathers in a dress, suggesting an ecological evolution of denim. Finally, vintage men’s jackets, family heirlooms, are embroidered with tweed bands, rhinestones, crystal petals and
glass plates.
The transmission of knowledge must start at an early age. This season, visual artist S. Weissenburger worked with children to evoke the traces left by man in the world: dark traces such as those of oil slicks, or brighter ones such as prehistoric cave paintings or the works of Rammellzee and Keith Haring, combining primitive drawing and reflection on consumer society. This creative exchange gave rise to a free expression
in the form of automatic tagging: the children then left their own trace, using a quill brush and Indian ink, on the tulle of a unique dress that will be auctioned off to save the oceans.
These graphic drawings are a testimony to the pure beauty that guides Aelis at every moment. Children, like adults, need to be aware of the footprint they leave on the world, but above all of the positive role they must play in preserving the environment, by refusing to consume its resources.
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