Carolina de Medeiros Cosme catches up with up and coming Parisian label Token following their Paris Fashion Week FW17 runway debut captured on 35mm by Brice Krum.
“Baroke” is, I would dare to say, the definition of 2017. It needs to be on all dictionaries ASAP. How did you come up with it? Missing Barrack?
Haha yes we ARE missing Barrack, but this what not the theme. Baroke is a made up word that mixes Baroque and Broke together. We were inspired by the baroque period because of its dress up glam and everything you wear represents your status. Reality is that we all want to look like that, but don’t have the means to, because we are broke. So mixing the two words together was a way of saying “fake it till you make it”.
It would be AMAZING to add to all dictionaries btw!
Seeing your collection and the way you describe it, there is this resentful feeling towards fashion. Would this be a valid perspective/statement?
We aren’t resentful, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing this at all.. We just want it to be known that this is not an easy and as glamorous industry to get it to…
The “fuck your attitude” is certainly present in your pieces but why choose Jimmy Hendrix and Courtney Love as muses? Looking at your collection, I would agree with Love but Iggy Pop would be a more qualified subject for “baroke”.
Sure Iggy Pop would be a great muse for this collection as well!
What we liked about Jimmy Hendrix, is that he represents the rock star attitude of the artist who is naive, reckless & genius at the same time. Especially his personal style had such a baroque royal feel that contrasted so well with his rock star life style. Same goes for Courtney.
It has become clear that several brands (even the big names like Louis Vuitton) want to be part of the tracksuit IDGAF hedonistic style. Why do you think that is?
Well for us the shiny tracksuit style is originally an 80’s trend, starting with Dapper Dan which is right up our alley. At the same time if you take a look back at the 90’s, Chanel, 2PAC & Versace etc. There’s always been a connection & interaction between hip-hop and luxury. The difference we see now is that a lot of brands that weren’t embracing this culture are now trying to do so, they want to embrace the dream & lifestyle conveyed by this culture and be accepted by artists that have huge followings and that influence a whole generation.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s a bit pulled by the teeth!
Do you think these younger fashion generations are trying too hard to be cool? We went from “all black” to “all gym but no workout” style.
All those Fila, Kappa logos & the supremacy of the trainers it’s a big throwback at our middle school days, when you had to have your Tns, Cortez, Air Max, your Sergio etc. We guess our generation of designers is a bit nostalgic of this time! And now it’s even going to our kindergarten days with retro-reflective tracksuits & short track shorts you would have never dared showing on a picture of your 5yo self!
But in the end we could say that about any trend that comes back…The joke though is to see how much you have to pay now for those pieces or reinterpretations, it became a luxury when it was just cool at the time, and this is where some brands just think we’re dumb.
Looking at your on point description of the life of young designers “instant noodles and cheap beer”, what would you like to say to all the sweet innocent children dreaming of becoming the next great designer?
Sometimes it makes us laugh when people are like, “wow you are doing fashion week” or “wow you are a designer”, when in reality fashion week is the most stressful time of the collection where you look far from glamorous all the time. To do this, you need a strong back bone for this industry and really know yourself. If you have all that, then try your luck!
