At a time when "time is out of joint", JANUE takes a different approach by distinguishing between three different steps of organizing the history of the house.
First, there is the “JANUE, the prototype”: the first pieces, they constitute the memory of the house, its own history. Somewhere between the cut patterns and the actual collections. More of artworks than as series. The prototypes are part of the JANUE archive and therefore unsold. If sold in a rare case, they are accompanied by a certificate.
Second, there is the “JANUE, the archetype”: all the variations on the existing prototypes that can vary with season and fabrics. So, instead of counting series from year to year and season to season, the idea is to have a dynamic, sagacious, resplendent and growing relation between ideal prototypes and varying archetypes. Names and descriptions are required.
Third, there is the “JANUE, sui generis”: creative works, unique pieces that go beyond conventional genre boundaries. A literary quote or sentence attached to each unique piece is required.
The main ambition of JANUE is not just to produce new shapes but to combine them with feeling, imagining and thinking. JANUE is an old dandy with antiquated ideas who thinks that words matter and reflection is important.
JANUE has the ambition to mingle silent senses to subtle words thus projecting the wish that the wearer’s imagination will be enchanted by this divine marriage.
The choice is made for movements from the prototype to the unique, from the virtual, the sudden intuition to its repetition and to the exceptional. It’s a different idea of time, made for those who are not bothered with ends, with straight lines, with bodies growing old.
Co-produced with Vlad Ionescu.