arine Serre’s first
collection, for
fall 2017, came in
the wake of terrorist attacks
in Brussels, where she was
studying fashion, and in Paris,
where she held internships.
Sourcing materials from vintage
carpets and old bedsheets, she
transformed them into pieces
across the collection, some
imprinted with the crescent
moon of Islam. Titled “Radical
Call for Love,” the collection
was a powerful response to an
apocalyptic moment, a debut
that emphasized rebirth in both
its materials and its message.
That simple decision
to repurpose old material
has become a full-blown
commitment to upcycling—or to
use Serre’s much cooler term,
regenerating—and her brand of
eco “futurewear” is now leading
the sustainability movement.
Serre may reject the label
of eco-pioneer—“I’m not here
to educate anyone,” she says—
but her clothes are pointing
the way forward.
Sourcing the raw materials
required to make clothing
is what often causes the
worst environmental harm—
producing anything new at all
is inherently wasteful—and
Serre’s approach has been
widely celebrated as the chic
and eco-conscious alternative.
M
In recent collections, her designs
have given fresh life to T-shirts,
blankets and towels, wet suits,
and, most notably, denim.
Cutting up existing garments
to make new ones is not exactly
radical. Serre worked with
designers who have famously
deconstructed and repurposed
existing garments: She interned
at Margiela and Dior (the
latter when Raf Simons was
creative director) and was
working for Balenciaga under
Vetements designer Demna
Gvasalia when she won the
LVMH Prize. But Serre, unlike
her contemporaries, has been
labeled a sustainable designer—
perhaps because the spirit of
rebirth is so much a part of her
work. After the Paris climate
strike last summer, one fashion
critic went so far as to compare
her to the young environmental
activist Greta Thunberg.
But Serre demurs. “I
don’t think so much about
sustainability in fashion,” she
says. “It’s part of my aesthetic.
It’s just my countryside vibe,
or maybe my generation.”
Serre grew up in a tiny village
in the South of France that
she has described as having no
more than five houses. She left
home at 14 to study art and later
played tennis competitively.
By the time she was in fashionengulfed in political, cultural,
and environmental conflict.
Her work is a natural by-product
of that turmoil and an emblem
of a sustainability-minded
generation.
Now Serre is thinking about
closing the circle—regenerating
endlessly, without the need forreports that say consumers
globally buy more than 80
billion new articles of clothing
each year, maybe that idea isn’t
so far-fetched. And who better
to redesign our future than
Marine Serre?
“You just have to convince
everyone,” she says. “One
by one.”Marine Serre in
her Paris studio.Marine Serre