Marine Serre: Survivalist crinolines in a French THX 1138

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Sep 29, 2020

Ninja fashion from Marine Serre, in a wonderful video shot in giant clouds of mist and featuring many characters of indeterminate sex.

 
Serre is often said to create post-apocalyptic fashion. This was more like mutant mode in a world where global warming has brutally run its course.
 
Not that anyone looked remotely bedraggled in this video, entitled "Amor Fati" and directed by Sacha Barbin and Ryan Doubiago, with a soundtrack from Pierre Rousseau. The cast starred Iranian-Dutch singer Sevdaliza and Marine’s buddy, the French artist Juliet Merie.

Her survivalist chic concepts apparent in the potpourri of funky ethnic and punk jewelry, her cast eventually posed underneath a tree in a barren wasteland.
 
Serre’s signature moon lozenge print featured in jumpsuits throughout. At a climatic moment, a regiment encircled a heroine reborn and suspended above her crowd of followers. While her black-clad dystopian dandy warriors in tough-chic looks made of degradable nylon and recycled moiré marched to an operating theatre in this French version of THX 1138.
 
Another figure lying on the ground was suddenly engulfed by snakes, her pupils dilating in intense fear. Eventually a techy medieval gang takes over the action and gathers around their fallen heroine, laid out on a stone sarcophagus in streaming rain. Escaping a harness, our heroine walks in a giant survival harness crinoline to meet a Messianic monk. Whom she slowly undresses to reveal a human of indeterminate sex, a chameleonic figure.

Her collection transitioned fabrics too – whether regenerated carpets, or Marine’s classic regenerated denim updated through a laser engraving of the "moonfish skin" pattern.

 
"This transition reflects a human being’s mobility in real life, where one has the power to change their style or mode of being, to transform or to blend in, building personal narratives through the garments that they choose to wear," explained Serre, who used her 2020 ANDAM Family Fund prize money to fund the film.
 
The latest in a brilliant selection of opening films in Paris, where designers have added a richer, artier element to their fashion clips, taking them further than any of their rival fashion capitals.