Mossi (Q3444)
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mid-range American clothing company
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Mossi |
mid-range American clothing company |
Statements
Mossi Traoré dreams big. Somehow, despite being an indie designer and an outlier, he manages to make those dreams come true. Through persistence, talent, and charm, he has met his Bollywood idol and traveled the world sans expense account to fuse his notion of inclusive, ethical couture with craftsmanship from other cultures. Thirteen years ago, as he was ramping up his brand, he also founded Les Ateliers d’Alix—named for his fashion heroine, Madame Grès—to teach couture techniques to underprivileged youth living well beyond thepériphérique. That social initiative now counts dozens of alums in the studios at Chanel, Dior, and elsewhere.This month, Traoré reached a couple of milestones. He took home the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris, a major nod to his impact in fashion. And Chanel officially signed on as the main partner for Les Ateliers d’Alix, effectively taking over the administrative reins so that he can switch back into “Mossi mode.”“What I really wanted is to find a little more time to create, and especially to shine a light on couture that can be worn every day,” Traoré said backstage before his show.For spring, he revisited the classics in graceful, fluid jersey and structured Japanese denim and cool wool with color-blocking in black, white, and royal blue. Several pieces, including a couple of white blouses, a pleated black maxidress, a sleeveless white ensemble, and a black jumpsuit veiled in sheer white looked both on point and timeless. Intricate fabric treatments paid homage to the work of octogenarian French textile sculptor Simone Pheulpin to striking effect on a white dress that closed the show (the mauve handbags were also noteworthy). Plaid has been cropping up all over Paris this season; for the first time, Traoré gamely tackled that motif on some breezy-looking numbers in pink and blue check.In recent years, Traoré has been spotlighted at major shopping destinations like the Printemps flagship in Paris. With its renewed focus and a recently unveiled e-shop, the brand should finally be able to expand its reach.
28 September 2024
Sartorially speaking, Mossi Traoré has taken his fans dancing on the moon and on a whirlwind tour of the US in the past couple of seasons. Just weeks ago—impending PFW notwithstanding—he hit India as well, this time as part of a presidential delegation that included France's newly appointed minister of culture, Rachida Dati. But if one of his message tees skewed protest (a cry against politicians’ geopolitical maneuvering, wherever it exists, he offered), Traoré is not really a political animal. He may vent emotion through clothes, but his point is more to “show people that Mossi couture has its place in the world.”To bring that home, the designer doubled his usual lineup, sending out 30 looks that distilled the essence of why he fell in love with couture in the first place. Fluid tailoring, meaty brick-hued knits and a nod to the South Korean artist Lee Bul were layered with emotion: Madame Grès–inspired pleating and draping mixed with asymmetrical lines in three distinct chapters that channeled anger, sadness and, finally, hope. To that last point, Traoré is also committed to treading lightly on the planet, in this case by working a bottled green fabric with changeable accents sourced from artisans in India, and by once again using eco-friendly milk casein fiber for delicate pleating, and wool made from recycled cushions and mattresses. Even the discarded doodles in his sketchbook became fodder for a new foray into print. There were some fun experiments here—a sliced and wrapped perfecto comes to mind, ditto a pleated cocoon of a gray overcoat—but the strongest statements were the simplest: a pair of black trousers with a layered overskirt, the easy cut of a green pantsuit paired with a crossbody bag in the same fabric, or Japanese denim paired with meticulous pleating.Traoré often points out that he wants to find something new in what’ s old. That might mean working new life into fabric that was once a mattress or pushing a new generation to get to know Madame Grès better than Kim Kardashian, as he plastered on one tee. Only time will tell on that one, but in a world that feels hopelessly messy right now, he offered up some welcome grace notes.
28 February 2024
In just a few short years, Mossi Traoré has manifested his visions as well as any designer out there. His passion for his art, coupled with a singular drive, has taken him from the suburbs of Paris to Bollywood to—with an assist from the American Embassy in France—a tour this summer through New York City, Santa Fe, Denver and other locales he had always dreamed of seeing (the New York Fashion Institute and theVogueoffices among them). And all the while, he has been running the tuition-free fashion school he established in homage to his idol, Madame Grès—a social insertion project that has placed graduates in the ateliers at Chanel and Dior, among others.The spring 2024 collection got back to the essence of Mossi, a name inherited from his grandfather and a brand that came into being with the help of the recently late Madame Thomas, once a dressmaker for Madame Grès, who saw to it that Traoré got his atelier up and running. This collection was an homage her.Backstage before his show, the designer summed up his outing in three words: urban, couture and contemporary. Cuts and volumes were informed by the asymmetry of works by the Korean artist Lee Bul, taking shape in Japanese denim numbers that wrapped around the body like saris or in asymmetrical effects on sleeves and pant legs. With just 20 looks, the show was short but offered compelling pieces like tops that fused the ease of a T-shirt with the elegance of evening. But the three Grès-pleated pieces stole the show. Particularly time-consuming to produce, those will be available by special order only. But they, more than anything in recent seasons, showed what the designer is capable of. Let’s see where he takes it next.
26 September 2023
Out-there as it sounds, the idea of doing a collection called “Dancing on the Moon” came from a guest slot on a podcast launched by the United States Embassy in France, starring actress Laura Felpin trying to throw “the best party ever” next door, as it were.That they would reach out to Mossi Traoré to figure out how to dress for such a fête isn’t surprising—he tends to move heaven and earth to get farfetched things done. Neither is the fact that he’d pick up on that theme for a show in a construction site—a popular trend in Paris this season—at the Carrousel du Louvre. And because Traoré is always one to revisit tropes, the presentation was capped by a real-deal street dance battle starring members of Yudat, a hip-hop troupe from the designer’s hometown outside Paris, complete with arbiter, jury, losers, and a winner.But first, the clothes, done primarily in a dark palette of blues, purples, browns, and black, brightened with shots of orange, mustard or silver. “If you’re going into space, you’ve got to be dressed comfortably, like you’re wearing a cocoon, and the materials have to be really nice,” the designer offered backstage before the show. Fabrics included an artisanally produced cotton weave from India with a denim-like finish, cut into wide trousers; lots of Japanese denim, and mylar-coated raw denim worked into a strong cropped, tessellated mutton-sleeved jacket. He also revisited padded, quilted pieces, in an asymmetrical skirt or ultra-wide trousers.The roundup was short, concise, and transitional: with his couture techniques school now on solid ground, Traoré will be building out his studio and focusing more on his brand. That, plus staging an homage to Madame Grès for the 30th anniversary of her death, with an exhibition and ephemeral atelier to be held at Chanel’s19M in time for couture in July.
9 March 2023
Mossi Traoré has lots to say, which makes him one of the most compelling voices on the Paris scene. But it can also be a sticking point, because understanding his process requires knowledge of couture, diversity, individuality, inclusion, street art, literature, dance, and a lifelong obsession with Bollywood. And those are just the broad strokes.Fortunately, the designer now has an invaluable assist on his storytelling: a documentary.En Mode Mossi, by the French director Ségolène Chaplin, premiered on French cable in August and was screened for a small crowd during PFW (it’s now available for streaming, with English subtitles, via the French cable platform Canal+).His spring collection entitledLes Ripeurs(street cleaners) demands context, but not necessarily encyclopedic knowledge on any one subect: it sprang from a wish to pay tribute to his father, who spent 40 years suiting up in a fluorescent uniform to sweep the streets of the 18th arrondissement.“It's a rather intimate collection for me, because it’s inspired by a Paris that’s always right there but not very seen,” Mossi explained during a presentation high above the streets, at 7eme Ciel — the sunlight-bathed top floor at Le Printemps department store. “The idea was to take that and then try to make it classy and chic.”True to form, Mossi started by going straight to the powers that be, partnering with the City of Paris and convincing the sanitation department to lend him uniforms to deconstruct and revisit in ways both literal and oblique. That eye-popping shade of green was new for him, but beyond the neon brights and tailoring with strategically placed reflective bands, were workhorse pieces like a blousy zip-up crop-top, graceful wide jeans, and a windbreaker in crumply tech fabric. There were also a handful of dresses with subtly reflective finishes; a gradient neon shift, a t-shirt dress with an artfully pinched skirt, and a “trash bag” dress in slightly reflective fabric with elegantly gathered shoulders.Those — plus a few other pieces not pictured here, like a green shirtdress with a draped sari detail in back — will have a chance to prove their commercial appeal when the designer’s pop-up at Le Printemps opens later this year.
5 October 2022
Since last season, Mossi Traoré has scored a permanent space, courtesy of Le Printemps, smack in the middle of the Carrousel du Louvre, the underground shopping destination beneath the world’s largest museum. It’s a pretty ideal location, and the adaptability of its white box set-up is a big boost for realizing Traoré’s primary mission: welcoming people from all walks of life into a concept of fashion as a place of intellectual, social, and cultural inclusion.Traoré is always looking at interconnectedness and intentionality. Take, for example, the cream-colored fabrics strategically hung within this installation: of varying gauges and softness, they were all made of casein fiber, a protein extracted from spoiled dairy products that offers a new pathway to circularity. In addition to using it for sweatshirts, a top, and a skirt, Traoré is acting as an ambassador of sorts for developing the sector in France, from the ground up, as a way to combine textile innovation with a potential extra revenue stream for farmers.That wasn’t the only new direction. This season, Traoré collaborated with the sculptor Angélique Lefèvre, whose techniques incorporate stitching, embroidery, and organza. Here, one of her vanities—a radiograph of a skull wearing a baseball cap back-to-front—was transposed as a watercolor print on white quilted coats (working that material is a first for the brand). The motif was also abstracted on signature cape-like shapes and wide trousers.The most fanciful piece was a faux-simple white cotton dress with six sleeves: with no back or front, the wearer is free to work it any which way. Elsewhere, hand-painted splashes of blue cropped up on white Stan Smiths. Come fall, three hand-painted iterations of that Adidas icon will be offered in a limited edition by special order through the Mossi website.With Paris Fashion Week under his belt, Traoré is developing another collection based on traditional khadi that will bring his savvy vision of French fashion to the runway in Mumbai just two weeks from now. That’s a new page in a long-running love story, and it comes on top of running a couture school in Paris, mounting exhibitions, and cooking up a concept for a museum dedicated to Madame Grès, among other projects. Through talent and sheer force of will, sooner or later it’s going to be a Mossi kind of world. It sounds worth looking forward to.
8 March 2022
Mossi Traoré isn’t just a designer—he’s a one-man idea factory. Most of his ideas have a direct link to the clothes he designs, some spring from the couture techniques taught at his school Les Ateliers Alix (so named after Madame Grès), and others manifest through a “geographic camouflage” of creatives, as the designer calls it, just because bringing those people together feels right to him. All of it, however, is rooted in his very personal concept of integration, sharing, and the perpetuation of craft.Clearly, he’s onto something. This week the actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan made the trip to the Mossi atelier outside Paris to try a dress inspired by Madame Grès. But Traoré also is working to centralize his vision, at least geographically speaking, by bringing it straight to the heart of Paris: He just opened a first permanent boutique at the Printemps store inside the Carrousel du Louvre shopping complex.For his spring presentation, he chose a gallery space next to I.M. Pei’s inverted pyramid to show a short collection of 16 looks embellished by the Malian artist Ibrahim Ballo using craft techniques. Ballo too was on hand to demonstrate his process in between lineups.Taking shared roots as a point of departure, Traoré celebrated African motifs and craftsmanship. What might appear as a yellow-and-red print or weave, for example on a zip-up jacket or a pretty bolero, are in fact details painted and embroidered by Ballo. With a couple of notable exceptions, such as a sharply spliced denim jacket or a saffron shirt dress, this collection hewed toward breezy time-off styles: It’s easy to picture that bandeau with a long skirt or a floaty dipped blue dress embroidered with Ballo’s 3D knots on the Riviera and similarly chic resort destinations. Lovely as it was, the outing left this reviewer wishing for more of the kind of urban couture flourishes that won Mossi the ANDAM Pierre Bergé Prize last year.But there’s more Mossi on the way, in various other guises. Currently, Traoré is putting together a pop-up gallery to highlight his fashion collaborations and ironing out a roster of cultural happenings that will start in November, among them a dinner event with the rising French culinary star Mory Sacko and a multidisciplinary dance battle in this very spot. Here’s looking forward to seeing those—and the clothes they may inspire.
6 October 2021