From May 18 to June 29, the SO/ Paris lobby is giving over its columns to a designer who transforms Parisian pigeons into spats and cigarette smoke into printed canvas.
The collaboration between SO/ Paris and J. Simone, Jude Ferrari’s label, didn’t take the usual form of a press showcase. It took the form of a scenography: a 3.80-metre inflatable sculpture of Sylvester Stallone takes pride of place in the hotel lobby; pigeons are scattered throughout the space; the building’s columns – never before invested in this way – are the object of an artistic takeover for the first time since the establishment opened. The SPHERE program at Paris Fashion Week, of which SO/ Paris is a partner, provided the framework for this deployment.
J. Simone’s SS26 collection, exhibited in this setting, pushes the same logic right down to the materials. Cigarette smoke isn’t a metaphor – it’s a print, developed in collaboration with Labdip, a Paris-based label specializing in the development of shades and prints on denim. The pigeon becomes a gaiter. The body-shirt is upcycled from materials recovered from the aesthetics of suits worn by office workers at La Défense. The croissant – as Paris-export a symbol as the beret – comes out oversized on a crop top. The kebabs of Pigalle and the orange neon lights of tobacco shops close the list of references.
Working with Labdip
Labdip is a color and textile development studio based in Paris, working on commission for independent designers. The collaboration with J. Simone involves denim prints incorporating motifs drawn from cigarette smoke iconography. The file does not specify the number of pieces produced or the printing process used.
What this collaboration reveals, more than the pieces themselves, is the strategy that SO/ Paris has been building for several seasons: the hotel as a launch pad, upstream of any distribution circuit. Guillaume Henry, Christian Lacroix and Viktor&Rolf have all designed uniforms and spaces. Jude Ferrari, on the other hand, takes over the lobby like a gallery. The difference is not anecdotal – she says that SO/ Paris has decided to position itself on the side of the designers, not the houses.
This movement has a lifespan of six weeks, until June 29. After that, the columns will return to their ordinary state. This is perhaps the most convincing argument of the entire installation.
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