Two years after presenting its first collection, Paris indie label Avoc is debuting on the city’s official calendar with its first runway show.
The brand, which marries fashion with decorative arts and architecture, had originally planned to stage a concert at the Bataclan theatre, but had to abandon the idea following November’s terrorist attacks in the French capital.
Bastien Laurent, who founded the label with Laura Do in 2013, said the runway, which has been moved to an industrial space near the Place de la République, will now feature models hired off the streets of Paris. “It’s only people we know,” he said, noting that the concept better reflected the brand’s positioning in an affordable, down-to-earth range. “We like having one foot in the fashion world, but we prefer to keep the other in real life,” Laurent noted.
Although the duo has much evolved its stylistic vocabulary, the clothes still follow strict architectural lines with workwear influences. For fall, Do and Laurent have chosen “pirates” as a theme, which adds a playful touch to the otherwise no-nonsense collection. For the first time, the label also introduced denim and knits to the lineup and experimented with fabrics, which come from Germany, France, Italy as well as Japan — “messing with their surface” as Laurent put it.
Throughout, the approach is unisex, with Laurent and Do hoping to grow their footprint in this segment of the market. “The unisex industry is still very small, but we have always been and will continue to be driven by design that works for both sexes,” Laurent explained.
The line, which is stocked mostly in France and Japan, including Galeries Lafayette, Centre Commercial and Desperado, is produced in Europe and ranges between 160 euros, or $172, for a shirt to 850 euros, or $925, for a winter coat.