Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal is pleased to welcome Marie-Ève Lecavalier for a residency. The Montreal-based fashion designer will be in creative work, doing research and development for her collections and textiles. She will also be working on molding, pattern making, production follow-up, sewing and sampling, weaving and hand sewing.

About

Growing up in the suburbs, LECAVALIER’s days elapse in the repeated experience of teenage ennui, from which she would escape into daydreaming, indulging in phantasmagorical worlds. Her mind visualized clothes she would dream of wearing. With a strong sense of storytelling, her first collections would present themselves as memorabilia from the 60s’ and 70s’ psychedelia. Influenced by Frank Zappa and Bossa nova rhythms, hallucinogenic arrays of bright colors and moiré effects wave around garments. Constantly blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, LECAVALIER’s brand recalls ethereal moments of contemplation and nostalgic sceneries of reverie. Overflowing youthful spirit, her take on women’s fashion is an invitation to a trippy yet extremely lucid journey.

Marie-Ève Lecavalier was born in 1988 in Montreal. Graduated from UQAM in 2014 and HEAD (Haute École d’Art et de Design) in Geneva in 2017, she lives and works in Montreal. Her unique style and innovative approach earned her the 2018 Chloé Prize, as well as the Special Mention of the jury, chaired by the Belgian fashion designer Haider Ackermann. Lecavalier becomes the first French Canadian to win this award. Having previously completed an internship, in 2013, in New York, with American designer Alexander Wang, she completed another internship, in 2018, with the Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons in Antwerp for the development of his Spring/Summer 2019 collection. The same year, she founded her own line called LECAVALIER. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) prize for young fashion designers, and received the CAFA (Canadian Art & Fashion Award)/Swarovski prize for emerging talents. Since then, she has collaborated, in partnership, to launch her brand with the internationally renowned e-commerce retailer SSENSE, as well as with Maison Simons.

Marie-Ève Lecavalier’s creations are available online at www.lecavalier.studio.

Video Credits : 
Creative director and Fashion editor: Marie-Ève Lecavalier
DOP: Samuel Pasquier and Bruno Destombes
Production: Natacha Nicol
Still photographer: Justine Paquette
Editing: Vinoth Varatharajan
Music: Jesse Osborne Lanthier, Asaël Robitaille
Styling: Marie-Ève Lecavalier
MUAH: Laurie Deraps
Casting director: Shahriyar Ghobadpour
Models: Divine (Angies Models), Jia (Another Species Agency), Lyvia (Mode Models), Mia (Next Models Canada)