Check the following if any of these terms apply to you: creative, colorful, and contemporary. Whether you've ticked off one or rung all three, there's no excuse: the Nathalie Du Pasquier for American Apparel collaboration is your new spiritual inspiration. Time to get drawing (and shopping).
Think of it this way: American Apparel is the blank canvas and Nathalie Du Pasquier is the budding artist. The French-born designer and artist has been enchanting onlookers since 1981, when she was one of the founding members of Memphis, a group of furniture and product designers known for crafting post-modernist pieces. However, it was the fateful year of 1987 when she traded her architectural talent for the brush strokes of painting instead. Du Pasquier's artistic style is unmistakable, featuring asymmetrical shapes, clean lines, and a color palette packed with mustard yellows and powder blues.
Naturally, the aesthetically-gifted Du Pasquier had a calling in the sartorial realm when American Apparel's creative director, Iris Alonzo, approached her on creating a collection together. After spending a month in the mountains surrounded by cows and sketching patterns, Du Pasquier drafted the foundation of her designs. The result was a stunning hybrid of modern garments meets psychedelic sketchbook art. With babydoll dresses reminiscent of school composition notebooks and geometric, polka-dotted blouses, the collection is like entering a doodler's fashion wonderland.
Du Pasquier herself confesses that her favorite part of the collection are the shirts. "Personally, I wear quite simple things and those are perfect, allowing me to dress as usual but with strange patterns!" she says. The feature video for the collection is billed with a "Designed in Milan, Made in Downtown LA" typeface, referring to Du Pasquier and Alonzo's collaborative dynamic. "Iris came to Milan, and I think we liked each other, so we had funny three days on the floor with the designs. We started moving them around, reducing or enlarging them, changing some colours, in order to create a collection which made sense. We were also having nice food and wine," the artist reveals.
Not only are the pieces a walking form of imagination, but prove that when art and fashion collide, the ultimate confection is something that is visually pleasing and truly unique.
Check out the collection video below! (And don't hesitate to jam out while you're at it!)