FashionTalks | Margrethe-Skolen: the showrooms : RENO DUC

RENO DUC
label: MIDNIGHT RENDEZVOUS

French modesty and Technicolor

Our little student group enters a slightly dark and modest room located in a basement in Paris. Here, we are welcomed by a woman who is the director of a small company which helps young and upcoming French designers getting into the French fashion industry by giving them a showroom and helping them get the right PR suited for them.
The person to be interviewed is Renaud, a designer whose specialty is patterns and mixing lots of colors.
In order to understand his style of clothing we asked Renaud where he places himself in the French fashion scene.
According to Renaud a lot of the French fashion creators have the same style and are very conservative. They are not taking risks and they never make something completely different - this is one of the main reasons why Renaud makes the clothing he does. This also means that Renaud has to turn towards Asia and especially Japan, where Renaud’s pieces are accepted and loved. He adds that a great deal of the buyers also are Asians, and therefore this is where his market lies.
Renaud’s super hero look-a-like clothing filled with colors is hopefully going to bring him into the French fashion scene and as he wishes; bring Paris back as number one on the global fashion scene. He hopes that Paris will become the fashion capital that it once were.
But as said before, Renaud thinks that the conservative France has to make room for the more fun and energetic designers.
Another reason why it is so hard for the upcoming designers to get a brand and a respected name in this industry is because all the big brands overrules the small ones, but also the high rent makes is almost impossible for the little brands to survive. Therefore Renaud often needs to have a part-time job in H&M next to his fashion career in order to pay the rent and the fabrics.
As we say goodbye to Renaud and leaves the little basement and though realities and returns to the streets of beautiful and romantic Paris, we realize how hard it is for young upcoming designers of France to make a name for themselves and that it takes a lot of work and probably sacrifices. But will Paris ever change and do we really want it? One thing was definitely sure; Renaud’s passion and positive mind was an inspiration to us all.