Pigalle (Q7289)
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Pigalle is a fashion house from BOF.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Pigalle |
Pigalle is a fashion house from BOF. |
Statements
co-founder/worker
This Pigalle collection came with two parties, the first last Tuesday at Paris’s wonderful citywide solstice debauch, the Fête de la Musique, and the second a follow-up edition of Stéphane Ashpool’s ongoing jazz shebang shortly afterwards. Then on Sunday he hosted a community basketball party/tournament on his block and unveiled the clothes—along with two new bikes for Van Moof—in the middle of it.Unlike his old partner in fashion Charaf Tajer, Ashpool is currently one of the few potential qualified candidates in Paris who you can say most definitely won’t be the next Louis Vuitton menswear designer. It’s not that he couldn’t be: Through Pigalle he shaped one of the most influential contemporary brands in all of so called streetwear and prefigured much that came afterwards. However Ashpool has a gig (secret for now) with an even bigger audience on the horizon, and furthermore is reluctant to give up his wayward freedom to work for The Man.This collection, latest Nike edition apart, will be available only to order: effectively ‘streetwear’ couture. The beautiful pleating in basketball panels on shirts and sections in shorts was one of several details realized in the métiers d’art ateliers now housed in the Chanel 19M building designed by Rudy Ricciotti. The overall flow was strong, with rope-belted blended rainbow suiting, cropped leather Swoosh-emblemed bombers, and cycle shirting. Way before it became a marketing strategy adopted by others, Pigalle was one of the first brands to see its fashion output as a means to a greater end. Props to Ashpool for sticking to his path, as well as those at Nike and Chanel who continue to have his back.
27 June 2022
Not yet 40 (but nearly), Stephane Ashpool is one of contemporary street/sport/fashion culture’s most quixotic figures, especially in relation to fashion. Throughout the past decade, he has built Pigalle into a marque with enormous clout for those who know, while all the time resisting doing any of the wholesale that is the road to fashion fortune. Apart from occasional collaborations, he sells at retail exclusively from the store in the Paris neighborhood—his neighborhood—after which the brand is christened. In an industry where there is so much romantic, subcultural posturing, he is a true subcultural romantic. And if this means Pigalle sometimes slips off the chart during the cyclonic Sturm und Drang of fashion weeks?Bof.“I live like I want to live,” he said on WhatsApp after alighting from a train. “I’m having fun, and I’m free to do things exactly the way I want. I cannot claim to be on top of the hype—that everyone’s talking about Pigalle—but people are still coming to the party and having fun too.” That party isn’t metaphoric. Since before COVID struck and during its lower ebbs since, Ashpool has held his Jazz Partout parties in conjunction with his presentations. This year that concept will be extended into Jazz +—which will launch next month—a music and fashion format that will see weekly performances through the spring in Saint-Germain and then through the summer in Ibiza.But what about the clothes? With so many plates to spin and no wholesale imperative to drive Ashpool, the fashion element of Pigalle can sometimes feel, if not immaterial then a touch opaque. “I love doing clothes; I love the colors and the material and the textures,” he said, adding that he has had “literally hundreds” of requests for the yellow-piped, paneled shearling jacket in this tightest of tight collections. “So I do love it, but it’s just a medium again through which to do the bikes, or the basketball court, or a music set.” Fine as they undoubtedly are, the clothes at Pigalle are the by-product of a broader project—and you can’t knock this former ANDAM Prize winner for doing things his way. But sometimes I think an enlightened partner could benefit from working with Ashpool in a manner that ensures his troubadour spirit remains free while expanding Pigalle’s catalog in clothing.
12 February 2022
Celebrating the post-confinement reestablished right to roam, this Pigalle look book and video were supposed to be ready for menswear week. However that plan was scuppered by a different reason to stay inside: rain. At least it turned out lovely in the end.As Stéphane Ashpool laid it down during a call last month: “I’ve been waiting to be able to be free to ride around and to listen to music for a long time, so I was kind of preparing myself as you would prepare to climb a mountain.” Those pre-expedition preparations included working with VanMoof on special builds of 15 of the firm’s awesome e-bikes, decking them out with disc wheels that matched the frames’ rainbow paint jobs and fitting them with speakers linked by Bluetooth to the output of a portable mixing unit. VanMoofs typically enjoy a 150-kilometer powered range between charges: From the pictures and film, it looked like Ashpool and his crew tested that limit by roaming from the Opera Garnier to the bucolic countryside somewhere way beyond the Périphérique.Pigalle has long specialized in soft, seductive, sensual color palettes: shimmers of pastel that you might otherwise glimpse within a freshly shucked oyster shell or on fresh pistachio. Here Ashpool maintained his palette—once rare but now much more adopted across menswear—but added patina and depth, working with more than 100 differently cured and dyed leathers to create layers of texture in the sportswear. There was also a fresh reiteration of his ongoing exploration of basketball uniforms, referring back to the public courts that have been the socially uplifting community-spirited heart of his project sincewaybefore such brand extensions emerged as hot marketing propositions. Ashpool remains a dreamer, and this collection—and oh, yes, those bikes—looked dreamy too.
8 July 2021
Pigalle has always been about community, both in the neighborhood after which it is named and in the international diaspora of citizens drawn to its point of view over the last decade. Despite his usual sunny nature, designer Stéphane Ashpool sounded touched bytristessenot to be able to welcome a physical audience for the presentation of this collection, but he did put together a filmed performance that reflected the diversity of that community, his artistic passions, and the clothes that are the result of them. An all-velvet Air Jordan was the foundation for a suite of sci-fi suiting and sports- and utility-wear offered in riotous colors, sometimes topped by molded heroic head pieces. These were all-new pieces consistent with Ashpool’s long developed sensual dance- and jazz-shaped aesthetic.There was a fascinating fresh inclusion too, in the form of an X-framed electric city bike with Ashpool-set specs by the Dutch company VanMoof. Following Moncler’s collaboration with the Danish brand Mate, announced last year, this is the second e-bike to wheel its way into fashion and the sign of an excellent trend. Ashpool said he is working on a range of bike designs and the plan is to make them available toward the end of the year. He added, “I’ve always biked, but during this time in Paris the only time you can really be out without wearing a mask is on a bike. You have the wind in your hair, and you have fresh air and you won’t get stopped by the police: You can breathe and feel movement. And all the taxi drivers hate it but our mayor has been fantastic; she’s been putting in new bike roads all across the city. You can check it out the next [time] you come and visit us.” Cycling through Paris to a Pigalle post-show Jazz Partout party? That really does sound like paradise.
25 January 2021
Backstage in thelycéethat Stéphane Ashpool (sometimes grudgingly) attended as a child, and alongside which he would later build his first Nike-partnered basketball court (an initiative that now reaches from Mexico to China), there was one set of looks that felt particularly poignant. These were all Spalding orange in homage to the ball and often fringed as a nod to the heavy velvet furnishings of the wonderful Villa Royale, the hotel on the corner where he would later host his traditional “Jazz Partout” later in the evening. These looks were long, loose, and hooded enough to seem vaguely monkish, and in that color, perhaps, unwittingly Buddhist. Very sadly the most formative influence of all in Ashpool’s life, his mother and oftentimes choreography collaborator Doushka, recently passed away after a protracted up-and-down. Hence Ashpool was entirely and understandably less the usual showman and instead a gingerly, more self-contained presence.The kids out on the court playing ball in their Nike x Pigalle jersey sportswear and special edition sneakers, the cultish models all-in-orange fringe faithful, the dancers in the dimly lit assembly hall preparing to frame the hyper-modern and still hyper-hard-to-buy boulevardier sportswear, and the cut-up cool-cat metamodern tailoring were all parts of the Pigalle experience that brought together different elements of Ashpool’s considerable personality and achievements. So too was the diverse crowd that was drawn here by this brand’s very particular Parisian gravity.
24 January 2020
Because of the Dunhill show that followed immediately after, this reviewer could only stay for the rehearsal of today’s Pigalle show. It would have been so dreamy to be able to hang around for the whole enchilada that promised via repeat performance and barbecue to be a fun evening. Held on the roof of a garage in the 9th arrondissement, the sun was still high and bright. In every direction but for the south around us was spread the infinite patchwork of Paris’s panorama. What blocked the southern aspect was a photographed replica of the view beyond, upon which was printed with the view, with the insertion of some new futuristic buildings—two new towers by the Eiffel—with alien ergonomic windows and walkways. Slightly to the east, the Pompidou had somehow been tripled in size. In front of the backdrop was a floor of boulder-strewn sand.When the rehearsal started, orchestrated by Stéphane Ashpool with an already-sunburned neck, we saw a sort of future-pagan tribe in flowing white and metallic raiments emerge. Behind started up the most awesome music—urgent, mystic, blissed-out future jazz—overseen by Kamaal Williams (with Alina Bzhezhinska on harp, Rick Leon James on bass, and Nathaniel Fuller on percussion). The first looks mixed patched robes with drawstring-shirred parkas and loose green organza pants that flapped like prayer flags in the breeze in a sort of Sun-Ra-meets-Logan’s-Run-meets-Buck-Rogers vibe. Then a group of dancers in powerfully colored double-faced pajama suits emerged and made patterns with movement around the first looks before a maypole ritual with strips of fabric. Next up were some looks by Ashpool proteges Theo Ech-Cheikh and Yacine Keita, whom he has long mentored and now given creation space in his atelier. Finally were three Pigalle x Nike looks complete with Jumpmans and Jordans applied as a final flourish in a show interrupted only by a handsome dog that wandered onto the runway halfway through before being tenderly ejected by the designer.
24 June 2019
Paris’s 18th Arrondisement—where Pigalle’s new outpost, called Craft Studio, opened this evening on Rue Cave—is swarming on a Friday night. Kids in the park are shouting and skateboarding (even when it’s cold), shop doors are open, cigarettes are burning. The walk from the Château Rouge Métro stop felt like a fitting warm-up; Pigalle, by Stéphane Ashpool, has always been about a vibrant, diverse Parisian community.Craft Studio will function as a “creative space.” Upon entering, there were drawings tacked to the wall, then a bar, then a sunken display area where models campily lounged in a mock-hostel setting. Ascend a small flight of steel stairs and one would find a dance performance in a curtained chamber. The opening-cum-presentation this evening marks the start of a three-day celebration. Tomorrow, Pigalle will host a basketball tournament on its indoor court, and Sunday evening will see a party called “jazz partouze.” Last season, the performative element of Ashpool’s vision took center stage, and detracted from showcasing his collection. That was righted this evening.“Hotel Pigalle” was emblazoned on the set’s wall; it was also sewn into the back of a bathrobe. Hotel slippers, smoking jackets in mauve, high turtlenecks, plastic wigs; it all felt like an exercise in stylish decadence—part debauched, part lighthearted. There was a sportier side, too, as seen with color-blocked joggers and varsity jackets and a hooded overcoat with an abstract print of basketball-court lines. The hotel paraphernalia was the winner, though.
21 January 2019
So it’s tempting to be a massively entitled fashion beeyatch about a show that’s scheduled for 8:30 p.m. but starts at 9:30 at the end of another mega-day—12th in a row—of menswear. A show that lasts an hour, in which you can’t really see the clothes. Where they won’t even slip you a snifter at the backstage bar because it only opens post. And which, the ultimate injustice, featuresinterpretive dance.But, hey, this is Pigalle.Stéphane Ashpool’s luxurious “sensual sportswear”—as I remember calling it once upon a time—was on the fringes of fashion not so long ago, but now it’s center stage. Ashpool, who was tying the laces on his collab Converse All Star Chuck Taylors when we met pre-, is a mercurial character who probably could have snagged a big-bucks creative directorship if he’d wanted to. He remains fiercely independent and romantic—he’s a seer.As he explained, this show was really less about Pigalle than about the circle of musician and dancer friends he was showcasing. We were in a big concert hall—2,500-capacity, pretty fully rammed, and late ticket holders turned away due to crashers—at the top of the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Artists including Lonely Hand, Bonita, Larry Vickers (Ashpool’s grizzled, recurrent godfatherly muse), Muddy Monk, and the brilliantly named Jimmy Whoo did their thing. This show was really an act of generosity and community, which is a major Pigalle trope.The clothes? Sure, they were there. But incidental. This was a family thing. Which is much more precious, of course. But, Stephane, next time, let’s see some garm—pretty please. That’s the game.
22 June 2018
Stéphane Ashpool was practically brought up in the dance studio, hanging around as a babe-in-arms through to toddler as his mother, Doushka, did her work as a choreographer. Tonight Ashpool explained that, after spending a lot of time with his mom recently, all those memories fired and he decided to do a collection based on pure personal nostalgia through a Pigalle prism.We were in the rehearsal room of the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse, a hallowed government-funded space where many of the nation’s finest dance talents are honed. Around the barres as the guests filed in were company members from the Paris Opera Ballet, doing their warm-ups with extraordinary elasticity.Once we were slumped in our seats, core muscles flaccid, the first few looks filed out. They were topped with short wigs of dark, stringy hair that Ashpool said he associated with early memories of his mother, who was in the shadows, silently gesticulating the models out. The first of them, wearing a jacket of wide, sliced strips over a loose scarlet tracksuit, pulled off a pretty decent pirouette. The rest drifted to the piano Gael Rakotondrabe was playing with effortless lightness. In this first act, looks included a full-shouldered, short-sleeved robe coat belted over black meshed, layered purple track pants with zippers at the ankle. Like most of the looks—a few mismatched Nikes apart—it was shod with brightly colored dancer’s strapping. A guy in an all-black outfit, including loose silk track pajamas with distressed pockmarks at the shoulder and sleeve, came out only to be encircled by the dancers, who led him and the opening looks stage left.Act two was altogether lighter; a slashed biker, a purple spangled jacket, a cowhide pattern jacket teamed with track pants with the same pattern side stripes and other variations on futuristic synthetic pastels. These were teamed with pearl face jewelry that ran from one ear down the jawline and back again. We had a bit of “Bad” on the PA, and Rakotondrabe riffed along beautifully. The last act was a series of looks topped by primary color, molded helmets that were inspired by Lego. One multicolor-on–black check coat enveloped in transparent wrapping looked good, as did the zigzag-weave track pants below. At the end everyone crowded back on stage and—with the addition of 20 Pigalle hoodie–wearing youths watching down from a gallery above—we all got into “Bad” again.
This was a personal collection, sometimes quixotically so, but to see these dancers at work, the clothes develop, and a fashion show function as a love letter to a designer’s looking-on mother was touching.
21 January 2018
“Let’s go talk by the freshness,” said Stéphane Ashpool backstage at the Musée d’Art Moderne before heading to his board and a powerful industrial fan. As the breeze blew, he explained that this collection was a two-in-one that included pieces from both Pigalle proper and a new collaboration with NikeLab. The U.S. sportswear giant has been a longtime supporter of Ashpool’s nimble Parisian project, and last night they presented a series of graphic apparel for both men and women. “Unisex,” said Ashpool firmly, “although, of course, we adjusted the pattern for women.” The designer added proudly that three out of 10 customers in his Pigalle stores are female.The models walked slowly through the gallery, pausing to look up at paintings of themselves that had been installed on the walls alongside heroic Grecian busts. Why were they immortalized so? The five rings in tufted fabric on the sheer back panel of a track jacket gave it away: These were imagined future French Olympians. Thus the Pigalle tricolor of red softened to raspberry, a blue faded or given added shine, and a white softened to cream.The NikeLab pieces, the tufted slides and the special-edition pastel Air Shake Ndestrukts, were the most pragmatic offerings. There were tracksuits, a sports bra, gently logo-stamped blue terry basketball shorts, and a hoodie that was highly attractive even to this dedicated non-athlete. The Pigalle pieces were more experimental, bien sûr. A great long felt coat with inserted pins cladding hexagonal panels of an organza-light nylon jumpsuit, another short jacket clad with an Eiffel Tower exoskeleton of more pins, and a Miyake-esque blue hoodie cast in myriad origami folds topped by a reflective visor (through which the model insisted he could see perfectly well) were some of the most notable. There was a wicked high-vent overlap-fronted short design, too.In truth, the Nike concept slightly muddied the Pigalle concept; this house is best when it really talks to its own identity, and tonight’s Olympian conceit did not quite chime. The clothes, though, were interesting and beguiling riffs on Frenchly sensual futuristic sportswear: freshness.
23 June 2017