Aéthérée
spring/summer 2009


About Home, Practical Things and the Real World

The two designers Adrien Escaravage (born 1981 in France) and Ly-Ling Vilaysane (born 1980, Swiss) presented their new Aéthérée women's and men's collection entitled 'Home' with an illustrated lookbook binded by hand. The practical hoodies, pants, shirts, dresses ... with the names 'Kimono Jacket', 'Passport Jacket', 'Double Zone shirt' are made of a cultural mix between Europe and Asia.

"Making clothes is something we are keen on, but also an opportunity to express our experience and origins. We try to present a mix of worldwide cultures. 'Nomad’s Land' is the beginning of our story.

What would happen, if it becomes impossible to say, where someone is from, because his identity is so mixed, or doesn’t even exist any longer? Will he then be accepted by everyone or by no one? ... We demonstrate with our topics such as 'Nomad’s Land', 'Timeless City' or 'Transit zone' an imaginary world, which lays the basis of our design.
...
It would be nice, we can say so, if our concept was ethic or bio, but today it happens to be more difficult than we thought. We found out that it is almost impossible to do things 100% politically correct. Things are not going this way in the world, even if we would like it so much." Aéthérée

Ly-Ling was born and grew up in Switzerland. Her parents were born in Laos and flew to Thailand after the colonisation of Laos. From the refugee camp in Thailand they went to Switzerland, where they are still living today. The experiences of Home and Homeless influence the designers work. She is educated at the Textile School in Austria (HTL Dornbirn, 1996 - 2001) and Esmod Paris (Design and Modelisme, 2002 - 2003). Ly-Ling is the winner of prices of prestigious competitons such as at Gap and Reebock.

Question: Ly-Ling, in the last years you have named your collections 'Nomad’s Land', 'Timeless City' or 'Transit zone'. The new collection for spring/summer 2009 is entitled 'Home'. Why have you chosen the theme 'Home'. Is it a personal expression for what you are experiencing in the moment?

Ly-Ling Vilaysane, designer of Aéthérée: "Home was rather a personal experience than a real topic for the new collection, but it influenced me anyway a lot, when we were working on this collection, we spent 3 months in Switzerland at my parents place, which I used to call home for a very long time, and after these weeks, I didn’t feel like it anymore. It was just different, and that made me think a lot during my work."

Question: What means ‘Home’ for you and which pieces from the collection have the strongest expression for it?

Ly-Ling Vilaysane, designer of Aéthérée: "Home means for me, what my heart feels, when I’m somewhere. It’s not a question, where you was born or what nationality you are. This is something, which everybody can have, something very private. You don’t have to put it on your passport, you don’t have to say it to anybody, it is something between you and your feelings.

For me, the Passport Jacket represents that feeling mostly, because it’s the inside, the lining, which makes this jacket what it is. The lining has a different cut than the jacket itself. When I made it, I made the lining comfortable and the outside practical."

Question: Do you present the Capuche Shirt for the first time this year?

Ly-Ling Vilaysane, designer of Aéthérée: "The capuche is the first piece I made for Aéthérée femme and we present it every season in different fabrics because it represents a lot the women collection."

Question: What’s the idea behind the Capuche Shirt – it looks as if it can be worn as a shirt and a dress.

Ly-Ling Vilaysane, designer of Aéthérée: "The capuche shirt can be worn in 4 different ways. Please look at the pictures." (Images below!)

Question: You have named your label Aéthérée. You describe the meaning of the adjective as “unrelated to practical things and the real world”, but your pieces don’t look like they are “unrelated to practical things”. What is the idea behind the label’s name.

Ly-Ling Vilaysane, designer of Aéthérée: "The idea behind the label’s name is our world, which is real for us. The unreal world is, when you go out of our working place. In this real world, most things happens, because it’s practical. Mostly, people judge things, because it’s practical not to ask any questions. For example, you see someone on the street, you see the way he looks like, so you pigeonhole him, and if you speak to him, you speak to him the way you see him. And If you pigeonhole him wrong, nobody really cares, except the person, who stays in front of you.

There is a story behind each piece of our clothes. Some stories are very simple, others very personal. We wanna say with aéthéré(e), that if you look carefully to our clothes, you can find a lot of details, which were made on purpose. And that they could be more than just clothes, it just depends on you."


The designers, who met at school in ESMOD Paris, produce the pieces by themselves with the helping hand of Ly-Ling Vilaysane’s aunt in Switzerland. Japan is one of the most important markets for Aéthérée www.aetheree.com.


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fig.: Capuche Shirt by Aéthérée, spring/summer 2009