Forbidden Denimeries is the ready-to-wear "gender-fluid" response by alumni and Swiss fashion design graduate Mikael Vilchez (Mercedes Prize 2017, Swiss Design Awards 2017) who aims to scramble the tracks of the conventional luxury sphere thanks to Vilchez’s uninhibited and degenderized take on visuals, with every intention to create a cloakroom both powerful and willingness to advocate a freedom of identity. Today the phrase “Engendering” is used as a double entendre, the new project by Mikael Vilchez comes as first off schedule debut after his thesis collection back in November. Fed by a series of references to feminine figures, the new capsule explores the archetypes of genre, giving rise to the conversation of stereotypes, but also Mikael’s deconstruction of preconceived notions and proposes not only to go beyond the boundaries of the genre, but also to ignore a certain hierarchy of cultures and gender. It is through the denim and the reformulation of its codes that the designer articulates an aesthetic which decompartmentalises what it means to be male, female while creating a visual conversation into an erudite discussion.
Forbidden asks us to help curate their first seasonal debut in an off-schedule presentation during Paris Fashion Week Mens. The collection presented in the forms of a performance for Spring/Summer 2019 saw Each dancer embody a new jean to be pulled directly from the collection. As a reference totem each jean pulls inspiration from its 'Muse'.
About the Creator:
Either through drawing, design or photography, the bodies representation has always driven Mikael Vilchez through his visual expression and works, whether this be an expression in the response of a central issue, his work articulates his discoveries: the kind, its definition, its representation, its extension, its misunderstandings, its limits, its evolution and its stereotypes.
Vilchez wishes to continue to maintain a personal involvement and outlook in all projects. After graduating from his bachelor’s degree in 2014 at the head-GE, he obtained work experience in Paris to work within the ready-to-wear studios of Balenciaga’s Women division.
In June 2015, Mikael Vilchez received a Swiss Design Award for his Bachelor Collection:Entitled “My male model is a woman”, a collection inspired by his grandmother.
In 2017, with a jury led by Serge Ruffieux, artistic director of Carven, Vilchez receives a new Swiss Design Award for his First year master’s collection: Summer 16-17, as well as the Mercedes Prize during the parade of the head-Geneva for its collection: Forbidden Denimeries.