Naco Art Is Resistance

The king of the Paris fashion underground is Naco, designer for his eponymous label, NACO PARIS. Having attended school for fine arts and styling, this nonconformist inhabits the space of artist above all else. Naco - Art Is Resistance.
His infamous bag inscribed with the question: “Karl Who?” has reached international cult-status. It is amongst many of his charged acts of art referencing ( Art Is Resistance ), which display his attitude towards luxury and excess in the industry. It is with Naco’s prêt-à-porter designs, however, that his status as artist and creator truly shines. NACO PARIS, is rebel fashion at its best.

"We love hard and we need to resist because we are young designers and were feeling a little bit small compared to mass-market groups, so it was important to resist with art. I use the word hard and I add on fashion." Naco

Despite his reputation as rebel, Naco is a humble figure with the sensitivity and passionate depth of a true artist. He takes on an intellectual approach, designing clothes for creation’s sake while openly denouncing the consumption-crazed fashion industry. His considerate nature translates into his ethics, as he is known for choosing to work with environmentally friendly fabrics and materials.

Naco's unisex clothing designs are works of art in themselves; poetic and even romantic but never the less spiked with the modern, rock and roll edge of street culture with a dash of post-punk extravagance.

Like its sister industries of art, film, and design, the fashion industry can be a double sided-sword. On the one hand, it is a global-market and economically driven institution, wherein sellable clothes rule over the editorial and trends are ever-present despite fashion's inherent self-expression. The other side of the sword is fashion’s counter-culture. It is the rebellious underbelly that refuses to conform, but instead chooses to resist, giving way to an undercurrent movement that once embrace and rejects the conforms of its industry, and this is Naco.

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Naco Paris SS 2016

This time, for his SS 2016 collection–revealed during Paris Fashion Week–Naco shows just how deep his art rebel roots run. With a reoccurrence of collage-printed patterns that strike a cross between abstract expressionist painting and a fashion magazine run through a shredder and pieced back together into the chaotically beautiful aesthetic of these clothing creations. And paired with fishnets and nylon stocking turned do-rags, chains belts, and anarchist symbols throughout, the collection breathed punk. And Naco wouldn't be Naco without a little slogan-play: The classic "Art is Resistance"... The humanist "Destroy Fashion Not the World! Help Refugees!"... the straightforward: "Destroy".

CM: Why Naco Art is Resistance?
Art is resistance because I am a fashion designer working in this industry, but I am really even more like an artist. I feel between an artist and a stylist. I live like an artist, finally in my every day life. I feel like the fashion industry became a bit “disgusting.” It became a really hard business. We love hard and we need to resist because we are young designers and were feeling a little bit small compared to mass-market groups, so it was important to resist with art. I use the word hard and I add on fashion.

CM: Tell us a little bit more about your inspiration for your fabric and this particular collection?
This is poetic because it’s me, which is also a part of my inspiration. The inspiration about the fabric is really ecologic. It is really important for me to respect nature because in fashion they don’t really care about anything, they just think about money. So I want to think about nature and about ecology so it is important for me to use linen, recycled material, recycled fabric. We also sometimes have fun. We can use lace and sequins, but eighty percent of the fabrics are eco.

CM: You are described as one of the only fashion designers who does not like fashion, and yet you are in fashion, so tell us what it is you like about fashion.
I like clothes, but I’m not sure I like fashion. I am one of the actors of fashion so I have to deal with that, but sometimes I don’t feel really comfortable about that.

CM: Who would you like to see your clothes worn by?
I don’t know really want to know who buys my clothes. I do not feel really comfortable with that. If you like it, you can buy it, but I don’t want to know you. It is why I do unisex fashion. I don’t think about a woman or a man, I just create and after you choose to wear or not.

CM: Would you say your collection is also inspired by street art or graffiti?
Of course, I am from the streets so it is natural for me to use that.

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