On a trip to Japan ten years ago, Pauline Dujancourt was transfixed by seeing people tying votive wishes and prayers outside temples in the ema tradition. “I didn’t want to be disrespectful, but I wrote my own in my notebook and saved it," she said. It read: “I wish to be a fashion designer.
” She’s made that wish come true by sublimating her affinity for knit wear and crochet into her own poetic art form. Her first live presentation at London Dashion Week was a conceptual celebration of the moment that set her the path which, so far, has made her an LVMH Prize finalist, and won her orders from a clutch of boutiques and luxury stores. A group of models wearing her delicate collection of dresses, cardigan-jackets and skirts moved to and fro, engaged in a ritual of tying tiny strips of text to a large knitted net.
It was smart close-up way of transmitting the sensual mixed-media attraction of her signatures: cream and soft lichen green constructs of baby-fine yarns, draped ruchings of fabric, organza ribbons and tiny rouleaux bow-fastenings. Dujancourt, who is French, emerged with this fully-formed proposition after graduating from the École Duperré School of Applied Arts in Paris. She first crossed the channel to work as a knitwear designer for Simone Rocha and Rejina Pyo, then decided to take her MA at Central Saint Martins.
Now she’s a fully-fledged member of London’s creative class of women designers—every one with her own take on female self-expression and values. The care Dujancourt takes extends to working with a collective of women hand-knitters and crochet specialists in Lima, Peru as well as artisans in France and the UK. Which makes her gentle aesthetics even more beautiful to behold.
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