Exceptional design trains and retrains the eye with constant consideration and contextualization of materials, proportion and the calculus of an exacting point of view. With that in mind, Delvaux has sought the collaboration of JEANCOLONNA to challenge one of la Maison’ s most emblematic designs with his deft irreverence. The result is L’XXL.
An icon of Delvaux’ s collection since 1958, the Brillant is a continual subject of reinvention, its proportion and construction a source of playful surprise. Its newest iteration, L’XXL, reflects the incomparable, subtly unorthodox instincts of JEANCOLONNA, whose iconoclastic collections of the 1990s pioneered and predicted today’ s inclusive, fluid cultural movement by three decades. JEANCOLONNA’ s treatment of the Brillant, newly oversized and deconstructed in camouflage Dream Calf leather, is rooted in deep respect for Delvaux’ s canon of craftsmanship, luxury and refinement. His innate understanding of the world of Delvaux and design allows him to upend perceptions, tweaking conventional notions of taste and status with a sophisticated sleight of hand.
JEANCOLONNA simultaneously confronts, challenges and honours the codes of Delvaux by playing the extraordinary against the ordinary for a sublime tension. For the first time, Delvaux fuses camouflage, a motif that has punk, street and utilitarian connotations, with its exquisite Dream Calf leather. Combined with L’XXL’s amplified proportion and raw edges, the new silhouette has an attitude of spontaneous nonchalance. Impossible to confine to a gender binary, day or night, it defies classification and expands ideas of decorum. L’XXL is noble without being precious.
It is precisely this rare alchemy of savoir-faire and impudence for which JEANCOLONNA is known. His work in the 90s was a clever indictment of good taste and staid bourgeois ideals, flouted and redefined with his creative cohort, including Glen Luchford, Bettina Rheims, Nan Goldin and Camille Bidault Waddington. JEANCOLONNA’s language of cultivated transgression is anchored in an integrity of design shared by Delvaux.
L’ XXL transcends gender and all preconceived notions of identity and occasion: it is a bag for endless purpose and possibility.
