Hometown Tourism with Nasaseasons’ Alexandre Daillance
The Brand’s Design Director Leads a Boyish Tour of Paris
Nasaseasons’ 21-year-old creative director Alexandre Daillance is intently drawn to history (he is currently a major in the subject at Wesleyan University in Connecticut), and that’s why we asked him to map out the process of mining French history for influence by leading a tour of Paris, his hometown.
The backstory of Nasaseasons is quick to sum up: Group of Parisian high school boys throw a series of parties. Boys create logo caps to meet cute girls at parties. Group becomes collective. Collective becomes brand. Brand becomes cult. Rihanna wears brand. Brand blows up. An event spurring a saga is what history is all about, and using a party to develop a brand just makes sense—parties are great places to connect with like-minds, test looks, and certainly to source ideas. Daillance sees fashion as a visual language, and the drunken slurs of party-goers became Nasaseasons’ communication tools—their "But who fucking cares?" design comes from eavesdropping on a drunken New Yorker getting picked up, unsuccessfully. Evidently, Daillance is drawn to words just as much as people and places; he quotes Rimbaud in one of the brand’s recent lookbooks, an apt authority, since the great writer focused on youth culture. This is the distinctly Parisian approach—where French streetwear may be a newish thing compared to American and Asian scenes, what sets it apart is how its design is fuelled by a heritage of art, music, and literature that is uniquely its own.
3:30 pm - Jim Morrison's Grave, Père Lachaise Cemetery, the 20th
“Most of the people buried here were killed during the revolution, so it’s a symbol of the proletariat. Jim came here from Venice Beach! Even my mom was a huge Doors fan. She used to come here with her friends and smoke, so it’s in my roots. Some people come here at night to play guitar and hang out. I have only come during the day. Jim’s songs are really mystical and there is a feeling of hope but sadness at the same time. The place is really characteristic of Jim Morrison and his music and life itself. I remember in high school like 5 years ago girls used to come do their Facebook profiles here. Rimbaud’s here too. He’s the Jim Morrison of literature. You think Jim Morrison is on Google Maps?”
4:30 pm - Galerie Perrotin, the Marais
“One of my favorite artists is Takashi Murakami, and Emmanuel Perrotin is the guy who brought him to Europe. Galleries are cool because you get to see the new artists instead of at the museum where, of course, you're going to see Warhol, Rothko, previous great works that everybody already knows are great. Perrotin has such good taste that you know what you're going to see is good new art. I don't really have the time to do all the galleries in the world, so I’ll go to Perrotin first. And he's a cool guy. It's great to see him in the gallery sometimes and chat, ask him to explain why this is art.”
5:00 pm - Quai de Seine, near the Louvre, the 1st
“After a date at a restaurant, it's always a smart place to go. Paris is a place where people walk a lot, and this is a good spot to end up and chill. Especially during summer, everybody kind of does a picnic, even during the day. You get beers, everybody's playing guitar or blasting Migos. It depends which day you go.”
5:30pm - Jardin du Palais Royal, the 1st
“I used to go to Colette every weekend and the garden is really near to Colette. A lot of people sit on the benches by themselves, or with someone, and just think and talk. It’s really beautiful for the architecture. I'm a history major, so I love French history. It was an important place in, I believe, the 19th and 18th centuries. There are cute girls sometimes too.”
7:00pm - Hôtel Costes, the 1st
“One of my favorite movies is Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick. The first time I came to the hotel I noticed, especially at the entrance when you arrive, there is this kind of weird-ass music. Then all the velvet. I think velvet is very sexual somehow, especially red. During Fashion Week, we came here with a bunch of friends, had a drink, and then we got a room. A bunch of people all on the same floor with all the doors open. You just go from one room to someone else’s, not wearing very much. Especially during Fashion Week, you see everybody here. It's kind of like the Chateau Marmont. You can just have a meal and meet the person that's going change your life. And they have good food also, which is important for restaurants.”
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