2023-04-26 20:21:10
Mossi Traoré has more to say than most designers in Paris. Not just about his collection for spring and summer 2023, which fashionably reinterprets and enhances workwear elements. Not only about his success, that he is now selling in the Printemps department store, that buyers from the USA and Taiwan are now ordering his collection. But also about the “garbage influencer” Ludovic Franceschet, who is just as willing to stand next to the fashion dolls as the models at this spring’s presentation. He has a special meaning here and now, which results from the history of the enthusiastic designer and his still young brand.
Because Mossi Traoré does not see fashion as a nice hobby or as a way to get rich. He uses creating and selling his collection for an integration project. And with his pieces, he also tells a story of diversity, inclusion, street art and social welfare – as you can only do that if you don’t just circle around the first arrondissement, but know the suburbs. “Nothing predestined me for the fashion industry,” says the thirty-eight-year-old. Growing up in Villiers-sur-Marne on the eastern outskirts of Paris, the son of Malian parents loved football far more than fashion. But as a youth, he discovered the joy of freedom to express himself through clothing and to break suburban dress codes.
breakthrough in the pandemic
So he studied fashion design at Mod’Art International, did internships in costume design at the Paris Opera, worked for an Indian seamstress at the Gare du Nord, with an African tailor in the suburbs and in a Giorgio Armani boutique – “that’s where I learned what the customers want”. So it became clear to him that he not only wants to make fashion, but also wants to set up a school for it. The Atelier d’Alix – the name is a homage to his design role model Madame Grès – is now being built in Villiers-sur-Marne. Those who graduate there can work for couture houses and also help with the Mossi brand.
His breakthrough came during the pandemic. In June 2020 he received the Pierre Bergé Fashion Prize, the first show followed in September 2020 and more and more people became aware of him. The director Ségolène Chaplin even made a documentary (“En Mode Mossi”) about him for Canal+. The team is growing, an investor is also interested. “But we’re still at the very beginning,” says the manager, who has been with us since the beginning.
“Trash fluencer” Ludovic Franceschet also presented Mossi Traoré’s fashion.
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Image: Alfons Kaiser
The spring collection “Les Ripeurs” (“The Street Cleaners”) is an illustration of his concept. With the designs that he presents in the “7ème ciel”, the sunlit top floor of the Le Printemps department store in central Paris, he wants to pay tribute to his father, who swept the streets of the 18th arrondissement in a fluorescent uniform for 40 years; the mother was a cleaning lady. That’s why it’s a very personal collection, he says, “it’s inspired by the Paris that’s often not seen.” The banlieue is sweeping through the fashion world – and he now has a pop-up shop in this department store in the middle of the city.
The most famous street sweeper in France helps
Some helped: the city cleaning department provided him with uniforms, which he took apart and put back together again. The eye-catching green is now broken up by reflective stripes, one top gets a zipper, and the jeans look completely different with a colorful patch. With reflective fabric and gathered shoulders, the dresses are reminiscent of garbage bags and evening gowns.
That’s why Ludovic Franceschet is up here, the most famous street sweeper in France, who is already followed by 300,000 people on Tiktok. “Actually, I was looking for a woman from the city cleaning department,” says Mossi Traoré, after all he mainly makes women’s fashion. “But then I found Ludovic and it’s just great how he treats young people, how he explains his work.”
Ludovic Franceschet explains in a sonorous voice how he helped Mossi with this collection so that it remains authentic. “We have the same message: namely to honor the ordinary workers. And what I like is that Mossi crosses borders.” Just like himself. Ludovic Franceschet lets it be known that he doesn’t quite trust his social media career himself: “The priority is my work on the street.” That this collection will not change anything either.
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