Hesselbrand x Alyx
temporary showrooms and installations,
including the latest one that’s just opened
on Rue Lechevin. Housed in a dance school,
unisex pieces, made from plasticised,
reflective or sonically welded fabrics,
are displayed alongside rollercoaster belts
and backpacks. ‘In the same way that Alyx
uses techniques from other industries
in the making process, so too do we,’ says
Hesselbrand co-founder Magnus Casselbrant
(a third partner, Martin Brandsdal, runs
the Oslo office). ‘We use materials from the
construction industry in unconventional
ways to create a new language.’ It’s a language
defined by an ethos or attitude, rather than
place, context or budget. Williams’ personal
incarnations – from skater boy and Lady
Gaga’s creative director to family man livingin Ferrara, Italy, where he runs operations
for Alyx – provide a profile of a nomadic
polymath. ‘Matthew is generous and inclusive
and has pulled in so many collaborators along
the way, he has almost created a movement,’
says Casselbrant. And like any movement,
Alyx has a cult following. Events from Miami
to Milan draw huge crowds, and there’s talk
of a permanent store, in New York. ‘When we
examine materials or shapes, we don’t look at
scarcity or connotation,’ says Casselbrant. ‘It’s
not what they stand for, but rather what they
can do for us. The Alyx crowd is quite young
so they tend to see things for what they are.’
Hence the Kevlar-covered ottomans, tied
with rollercoaster belts, and the concrete
and felt cubes that appear in the pop-ups
are nothing more than that. hesselbrand.comWhen London-based architecture firm
Hesselbrand was approached in January 2019
by luxury streetwear brand Alyx to create a
debut pop-up in Paris, it knew just how to
respond. The fashion label’s hard-edged look
incorporates skate culture, tattoos, rap and
an alpha attitude projected by poster boys
such as Kanye West, Virgil Abloh and Alyx
founder Matthew Williams. Hesselbrand
conjured up a space in a former garage on
Rue Béranger that incorporated tile backer
boards, felt and insulation foam, things, says
studio co-founder Jesper Henriksson, ‘that
are easy to get hold of but not fashionable.
The spaces have to be transformed at very
short notice, so we need materials that are
easy to assemble anywhere.’ To date, Alyx and
Hesselbrand have collaborated on 12 pop-ups,
An easily transformable space with an industrial language
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARVIN LEUVREY WRITER: EMMA O’KELLY
MAGNUS CASSELBRANT,
MARTIN BRANDSDAL
AND JESPER HENRIKSSON
OF HESSELBRAND,
PHOTOGRAPHED ON THE
ACCESSORIES FLOOR
AT ALYX’S TEMPORARY
SHOWROOM ON RUE
LECHEVIN, PARIS∑
Architecture
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