“I’m good, I’m very excited,” Alexandre Mattiussi says over Zoom from his studio in Paris, where he’s showing his new collection on models, and where it is launched yesterday with a film. Alexandre is optimistic most of the time anyway, and now, with lockdowns easing and life returning to normal(ish) he’s “full of hope. I think there’s a need to feel gorgeous at the moment, to feel beautiful, to look your best.”
The film they’ve created, L’Échappée Belle, is an allegory, in Alexandre’s mind, for this transitional, suspended and hopeful moment we are living through. “We’re living between these two worlds,” he says, “It’s a bit like we’re are the beginning again, we want to be together, enjoy ourselves.” L’Échappée Belle translates to the great escape, which for Alexandre represents this new freedom, but also in French, idiomatically it refers to a moment when you were in danger, and are now safe. “All this inspired me to create a collection that felt very carefree, full of electric energy.”
In the film the cast of models gallivant and catwalk around a funfair –- “the perfect place for this collection because it represents freedom and joy” –- they strut around the rides, jump on the carousels, walk under the glow of the pink lights from the waltzer. Ami is best known for its easy and charming updated versions of classic garments — a trench coat or a pair of blue jeans, for example, rooted in a classic understanding of Parisian style. But this season Alexandre wanted to elevate things. There were tuxedo jackets, leather trousers, sheer shirts, chainmail, sequins, bralettes, tie-dye, plenty of skin and attitude. It’s all very expressive, with plenty of dramatic silhouettes. It was a collection that brimmed over with confidence and luxury but was still rooted in Ami’s world. “We needed to find this balance between this sophistication and elegance and the reality of clothes that we’ve always made and that people come to Ami for.”
Over the months of the pandemic Alexandre has celebrated the brand’s 10th anniversary, and there’s a new expressiveness in what he’s doing and how he’s designing. “I feel free and confident, I feel good, I feel grateful. I love what we do. I’m optimistic, that’s my nature. We’re kind, we’re nice people, we want to make people happy.”
