Better Together,
reconnecting with nature
new video
Can you tell us a bit about the Better Together collection?
Valentin / Better Together is the Autumn-Winter collection we've just launched. We called it that, based on the observation that in the society in which we live, in the world in which we live, human beings have become completely disconnected from all other species, and from the living world in general. It's as if we weren't a fundamental part of our environment: there's human, and then there's everything else. The idea here is to create a flagship collection that highlights this idea of reconciliation between human beings and the living world. We wanted to treat this subject in a light-hearted way, and all the work we've done with the artists goes in that direction, by proposing scenes where humans are always in a relationship with another species, they're always friends. Because at the end of the day, if these animals were our friends, would we allow ourselves to harm them? We tend to think that we're not part of that world, but when we realise that our DNA is closer to that of the chimpanzee than the chimpanzee is to the gorilla, it puts things into perspective.
Mathieu / This collection is also a bit like our childhood view of nature, of the human/animal/plant relationship. As we get older, we no longer have the idyllic, innocent vision we had as children.
Valentin / For example, when I read stories to my daughters, it's always humans who are friends with animals and so on. And at some point, we don't know what's going on, but we lose our sense of morality and become self-centred and self-proclaim superior beings, without ever finding it.
Mathieu / That's why we decided to work with children on this theme. It makes perfect sense. They still have that instinctive, innocent look that we've lost. For us, it was the best way to convey the beauty of nature and the human/animal relationship.
"This collection also reflects our childhood view of nature and the human/animal/plant relationship."
Can you tell us about the work done with the children from St Expurery school in Villemomble?
Valentin / The son of one of our best friends goes to this school. We got in touch with the class teacher and the headmaster, who were immediately really enthusiastic about the project. The environment is an issue that is being addressed more and more in schools, to the point of being integrated into the curriculum. In line with what we had seen with her, the teacher asked the children to each draw a picture. The instructions were that they should draw themselves with an element of nature that they liked or would like to meet. At the same time, they were asked to answer a simple question: if you were an environmental superhero, what would you do? This opened up a discussion between the teacher and the children, and ensured that the theme of the environment really became part of the discussion for their school year.
Can you tell us more about the giant fresco in the school playground?
Mathieu / We wanted to find a way of making the children's work both coherent and almost grandiose. We wanted to call on an artist to sublimate these drawings. We contacted Cécile Jaillard, who is also an artist from Seine Saint Denis, and who produced this fresco the size of half a handball pitch. After discussing with her how to proceed, we decided that we didn't want to simply reproduce these drawings on the ground. Something had to happen. We wanted to create a kind of path that was a bit like a toy car carpet, a fresco where you could wander from tree to tree, from universe to universe, have fun at playtime and run around on it. It should be fun and bring a little bit of art and nature to the centre of the school. It was also a way for us to make a gift to thank the children for everything they have contributed to this collection in terms of drawings, phrases and inspirations.
Better Together T-shirt for children
To extend this collaboration, we have decided to produce a line of t-shirts for children, with all profits going to their chosen charity, WWF.
ORGANIC COTTON T-SHIRT
SIZE 4/5 YEARS TO 8/9 YEARS
