In 2018, La Cambre Mode Says “LOL”

With Show18, this year’s graduation presentation, La Cambre Mode has chosen to laugh at every body —that is, every body that is hidden and disguised with the act of clothing. Have we come full circle from the gains of May of 68 and gone prudish, the school asks. “This is the question posed by Show18, which makes the decision to poke fun at it,” said director Benoît Hennaut. “But this laugh is a mask, with its mouth wide open. It hides the fact of challenging a more sensible, more nuanced return to source.”

This is an age of body overload. Its pervasive presence is accentuated by the previously unimaginable exposure to it that this generation of emerging fashion designers comes in contact with through screens always at hand. To the media, it is merely flesh; to some individuals, it is a political force. What are clothes, then? Are they neutral or loaded? Should they be focusing on the body or the garments? To Hennaut, the answer is in the former.

“Pinning down the body means rediscovering the tones and images imprinted on it, so they can be defined and classified in the absence of consent,” he explained. “Pinning down here means re-opening, revealing the social status imposed by dress, but without idealising. In short, pinning it down so it can burst… into laughter.”

Here, from a graduating class of nearly 50 students, are some of our favourite proposals.

CLÉMENCE GAUTIER
Winner of both the City of Brussels and the SOFAM awards

REBECCA SZMIDT
Winner of the ELLE, ÉTOILE de Bazar and Atomium awards

CYRIL BOUREZ
Winner of the 254FOREST and the MAD Brussels award

CLÉMENT GRANGIER
Winner of the Pascaline Smets award

MARGUERITE BARROUX
Winner of the Brussels Invest & Export award