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There is always something interesting going on with JM Weston. This week, the luxury French House released the news that Olivier Saillard becomes the new Artistic Director of JM Weston. This is definitely big news.

Olivier Saillard, a man of Arts.

Olivier Saillard was born in France in 1967. He studied History of Arts and since his young age, he was interested by fashion, design and arts in general. At 28 year old he became the curator of the Marseille Museum of Fashion. Olivier Saillard runs this museum for five years; He then changes radically the usual codes of fashion in museums. It is there that he meets for the first time the one who will become a good friend, Azzedine Alaïa. Following Marseille, he became curator and responsible for the programming of “fashion shows” at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris and a time resident at Villa Kujoyama. He is a man of substance and has the passion for beautiful things, hard work and heritage. During his studies he sent some fashion drawings to Christian Lacroix and since then became friends.

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In May 2010, he took the direction of the Palais Galliera, the fashion museum in the city of Paris, which was then closed for re-construction. He became the “chief curator of heritage”. Her first exhibition, on the subject of Madame Grès, was organized outside the walls of the Palais Galliera, at the Bourdelle museum, the second at the Docks, the fashion and design cité.

Olivier Saillard is described by the press as “an iconoclastic historian,” giving his preferences to Fashion creators who are not under pressure from the fashion industry, such as Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Martin Margiela, Nicolas Ghesquière or Azzedine Alaia.

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Olivier Saillard, the new creative mind behind JM Weston

According to the brand he will join JM Weston in January 2018. It is definitely a daring choice by choosing someone with an unusual parcours (compared to a regular fashion designer). Thierry Oriez, President of JM Weston gave an interesting interview to French newspaper Les Echos and this is what he said:

His appointment highlights our desire to place JM Weston in an ambitious project line. By getting the support of his great cultural background, his creativity, the sharp focus of his artistic approach, Olivier will invent a new language for the collections development and the image of our House“- Thierry Oriez JM Weston President.

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JM-Weston-Flore-402What can we say more about this nomination? There is something very romantic in this approach. while many brands try to make PR takeovers by nominating big fashion names, JM Weston is looking for substance, for a certain excellence at work. JM Weston knows that only from the understanding of the French luxury and fashion heritage we can build the future of an industry. While luxury brands become labels, JM Weston steps into a new dimension made of passion, talent and depth. Olivier Saillard will definitely be able to understand the luxury French house heritage and provide a new path for future developments. His first collection will arrive in 2018 during the opening of the brand flagship in Paris Champs Elysées. This new shop will present the entire range of shoes and accessories in a 600 m2 space.It will be the largest JM Weston boutique and one of the largest shoe spaces in the world. The brand was one of the first luxury brands to settle on the Champs-Elysées in 1932.
Address: 55 avenue des Champs Elysées, 75008.

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JM Weston has initiated a new chapter in the history of the luxury house. Being a true manufacture with all shoes made in France, it benefits from amazing icons of elegance like the Mocassin 180 as well as the new MOC. JM Weston gives a lot of attention to artistic collaborations like the Yves Klein Le Moc. There is an interesting common playground between the brand and Olivier Saillard. It will be interesting to see what marvels will be designed and produced by JM Weston next year. More to come.

José Amorim

Information sourced at the brand official communication, Vogue, Les Echos, Singapore Tatler and Wikipedia. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.