September 16, 2024

Cellotape talks to Sofia Crociani creative director of Aelis

Sofia Crociani was born in Italy and after studying classics and architecture in Florence she went on to study fashion at Fashion Institute of Technology. On graduating Sofia decided to settle in Paris and quickly found herself working at some of the best houses including Dior. She went on to freelance with many people in France, Italy, USA, and Japan, including collaborating with the late Karl Lagerfeld for more than a decade. Through these years her taste for supreme luxury and valuing the art of craftsmanship grew. Sofia also worked designing for theatre and dance, no surprise, since when she was younger, she had studied ballet. Aelis was founded in 2017 and is described on the FHCM website as “the couture ambassador for the ideals of ecology and respect for the rights of nature and gender equality. Art to wear couture models that are born to breathe soul into the garment, they are placed at the heart of a biological cycle and up cycling that respects the planet.

Every season the collection casts a spell of a truly special kind, using couture and the fragility of the one-off unique pieces. These collectibles, which sell to clients across the world, have a romanticism and a narrative totally unique to this house. A moment to savour each season, as though being immersed in a dream performance for that brief moment of time.

After this season show in late June I sat down to talk to Sofia. Our conversations started with the theme of continuity. Including her ongoing relationship with the Paris Opera Ballet, recycling tutu’s and other costumes.

The themes and ideas take time across eighteen months or so. We’re an exceedingly small team and the evolution of the collection is slow and engages everyone. The ideas flow across time and are always linked and extend the narrative across seasons.

Interviewed by Tony Glenville, August 2024

Cellotape: So that with every collection you find things, make discoveries to build upon?

Sofia: Yes, with every collection you find ideas, so when you are also working there in the studio, something laying on the table is ready to light an idea. The idea they are offering to put something more into the show just as you see it inspiring another idea.

Cellotape: I think that is also one thing that I find extraordinarily strong for you with your creation is also the back views and the side views are always as beautiful as the front so many, but you love a ribbon down or a tiny tie that just cascades down.

Sofia: So, yes that for me is especially important because but also because of I think when you work with dance and opera where people are seen from every angle every side, we never start collection without moving. So, the people who come to us and work with us I understand the importance of movement. We attract this idea, and the team working have come to us because we attract that kind of exchange and creativity. We are not purely working on Mr Stockman.

Cellotape: This leads onto something about your casting. Your casting is always spectacular, each person looks perfectly in place and at ease, how early do you start your casting and the interaction to have people with something more to say?

Sofia: Just to be, okay we find them everywhere, all the time. It corresponds that young skater and he is a nephew; beautiful, amazing, and because it was the mom that was attractive, and he came with her. We found the way that the young, and different models and matching the pieces and each time we spend a lot of time also to know what they like, what they wanna wear. If not, you know we do not improve. Then that’s also about how they look when they appear, that it looks like they are their clothes, not yours. In a sense even though you’re clear about the collection, for creation from time to time it needs to correspond to the person, which is also for us to pass this feeling to them. So, when we go barefoot, is when we go barefoot. We are not interested in making something stiff, we make pieces that are functional, dynamic, and therefore fluid and supple.

"Sofia Crociani merges craftsmanship and innovation, creating couture that breathes life and movement."

Cellotape: We next moved on to look at the collection, and I watched as Sofia touched and stroked the clothes as they rested suspended on the rails. She pointed out special details, fabrics, and origins of the pieces. The brilliant press kit also provided further details.

Sofia: This season is about history and high technology, light and its absence are also in the theme of the new season. This reflection of the impact of human beings on the planet takes an anti-gravitational point of view through a space and archaeology approach.

Cellotape: Sofia was inspired by images of the Sahara Desert and pyramids seen from satellite, Aelis works on the new creations by following the Light trace of the nano particles of precious metals that cover the ultra tech fabrics made in collaboration with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and that illuminate the entire collection with golden and silver shades

Attracted by the absence of light and the darkness of the space, for this collection Sofia received from the archives of the Paris Opéra some precious antique black velvet pieces that Christine Neumeister offered to Aelis. She reworked with Sofia for their individual history, such as a dress made in the 1950s and used by a contemporary artist in a one-night-only private exhibition-performance.

When we first had the opportunity to work with the Paris Opera Ballet, and we have heard about the work their costume department was doing. Personally, I was fascinated with tutus because of their construction – they are cut and constructed by hand; this includes people who work for haute couture houses. This makes them functional and grand at once. It takes a certain level of artistry and craft to make each layer of a tutu completely flat, it’s unbelievable.

This is one in a series of iconic recycled black velvet dresses, each reborn into the present, on the one hand treasures of the Paris Opéra, and on the other, witnesses to the artistic history and savoir faire of haute couture that they embody for Sofia.

As another example, this graphic long-sleeved black velvet is a silhouette both contemporary and a transposition of the Madame X, painted by John Sargent, it is accompanied by an asymmetrical tattoo necklace created by Les Interessants in black micro crystal beads. Lastly in this story is a Renaissance inspired jacket made of black velvet which is adorned with a delicate weave of fine gold and silver chains. This is a unique piece also by Les Interessants

Cellotape: Sofia continues to explain the fabrics used in several pieces.

Inspired by light and luminescence, Aelis collaborated with PolyU and the Professor Kinor Jiang’s team to develop a “green “project where precious metals such as gold and silver are laid on delicate organic silk organza. This came about through “Sustainable Lectures,” a series of meetings on sustainable fashion jointly organised in Hong Kong by the French consulate and PolyU. Aelis and Sofia Crociani were invited to share their vision of eco-sustainable fashion.

The high-tech green technology developed by PolyU involves using a magnetron sputtering coating to place ultra-thin, nano-scale metallic films on textile fibres without additives and without discharging polluted water or chemicals into the environment. The results appear in some of the dresses made for the collection and displays precious, air-light fabrics where silk fibres are delicately coated with particles of metallics.

I hardly dare some of the most fragile pieces, like an asymmetrical gold organza tunic which is covered with incandescent silk embroidery recovered from an incredibly treasured silver embroidered gown from 1924.