We sat down to chat with the guys from Interlude Collections, the new Parisian menswear brand you should know of. From rather similar upbringings and a shared attitude towards life, they met and noticed they had something to tell, a vision on how menswear should be presented in the current contemporary scene. Focused on communicating certain aspects on how they take things in life, and with a strong and well-defined aesthetic along with a relaxed approach to men’s clothing, they are introducing the Tunique –as they put it , “the shirt of tomorrow”– and basically the main item upon which the brand is making circulate its own values.
Hey, guys! Could you please tell me what Interlude is all about? Where did everything originate?
First of all, Interlude Collections is about clothes, and then expression. We are a group of artists in different domains, and our aim is to be able to tell stories on the same subject through our different eyes. Everything started more than two years ago, when Roger invented his Tunique of tomorrow, and little by little the world of Interlude Collections was born. As a company, one of our main goals is obviously to sell our products, in order to accomplish our other main goal, which is to be able to express ourselves and share our visions with others. We don't know if we can say that we are properly established. We want to bring something different, something of quality, with diversity and power in our content. A full block (a garment for sale, a website, a blog, an advertising) that is coming to stay.
You guys come from very different origins, most of you being French and based in Paris. Could you tell me what your roots are, and how have these influenced your personalities and that of the brand so far?
We are native from Africa, Portugal or Argentina. We all had strict upbringings. We share values that allow us to find ourselves a little bit into each other, such as loyalty, sharing, or devotion. All this leads us to want to do something even more beautiful, even stronger and even more relevant when it comes to Interlude.
What are those tunics all about?
The aim was to build the shirt of tomorrow. I wanted to create something esthetic and useful at the same time. I never wear shirts, because most of them are full of written things, and I wanted to change that. I'm a rider, and I always have a bag with me, but sometimes I have only a few things inside and that bothers me – that's why I first thought about the side pockets. Then the golden buttons, because they feel like jewels, so I combined those two first ideas to be the starting point of what Interlude is.
The brand has approached the racial question exquisitely in terms of aesthetic. How have you guys translated all that into a message able to grow stronger and make people within the fashion industry aware of what’s still left to achieve?
We do not believe we have approached the issue of race at the moment, if not other than the human race because our product is not aimed at animals, for example. Beauty ideals that fashion wants to impose do not fit with our mentality. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The eye of the fashion industry likes to define a specific one. Interlude is not intended to enroll either in this approach or that side of the industry. We talked about freedom of expression previously, here we will speak about freedom of beauty and not race.
Do you think the work you promote will find its space to resonate and spread the message Interlude is imbued with? Where would you say is everything evolving into?
Yes, we mean it. We believe strongly in our ideas, our principles and our art. This passion drives us to work hard to get there. We evolve, our brand evolves and evidently, our message will also evolve.
For anyone eager to develop a brand in financial and artistic terms, is there means to develop it from scratch? What kind of support have you received to date?
Yes, there are ways for people wishing to set up a project, France is a country where everyone can find the resources to learn about many things and therefore grow in a way or another. If we were to talk about the type of support we received, I would say that was nonexistent. We started from the bottom, and worked to change this situation with all the difficulties that entails.
The brand has been launched quite recently and it’s still getting to know its customer. What kind of brand values do you try to embrace when thinking about the sort of people the brand is aimed at?
The mirror to which we turn is that of the world, I think that we’re trying to be a brand of our generation but with our own ideology about how we should spread our message.
We are young artists, therefore our vision obviously fits a bit more in this register. We want to share our vision, our approach to aesthetics and develop this kingdom.
