LGN by Louis Gabriel Nouchi launches a poetic collection for SS20

Although LGN is a very young brand, founded in Paris in 2017 by Louis Gabriel Nouchi who was trained at l’Ecole des arts visuels de la Cambre, he has had worked for Vogue and Raf Simons, and now widely recognized for his commercial success and creative ability, having launched capsule collections with Galeries Lafayette, la Redoute, Damart and more recently for the honored French luxury accessories brand, Agnelle.  Previously his work earned a nomination at the Hyères Festival in 2014, where he was awarded the Camper and Palais de Tokyo Prizes.

This season, at Paris Men's Fashion Week, he calls his SS20 collection The Skin,  as the designer is entering a new cycle of inspirations based on the iconic Italian writer, Curzio Malaparte.

As literature is an essential starting point of all LGN’s collection, according to the brand, “THE SKIN” takes place during the liberation of Napoli by the US army in 1943 when soldiers discovered through the eyes of the narrator, which is supposed to be the writer Malaparte, on how to face the reality of war."

The collection however is not played out in full military style but rather leaning towards a poetic direction featuring old-time elegance as silhouettes are constructed as patchwork of technical details between print, knitwear and dyeing techniques. The colour palette is based on the an ancient Italian city.  Classic pieces are delicately sloughing to reveal Italian marble pattern, like distilled through history.

There are military details adding functionality to classic 1940’s tailoring, teaming with grunge details, and the LGN signature  is manifested through raw edges, "destroyed" sleeves and hem that seems to  refer to the poetry of ruins in romantic paintings, showing the violence of human behavior, nature and time.

The oversized silhouette works well for a layered, tailoring look.

Patterns appear through tattoo-like prints, images "spinning joy and pains of soldier on missions, translate the deepest moment and becoming another skin."

"Like a banner of intimate memories. It is carrying sensibility and a history in every clothes, showing the world what the man has been through."

The collection is a message based on the book imagery. A message of love, coming for peace in this amount of violence.