Mineral Aura
Autumn/winter 1998/1999

Presented on March 11th 1998 at 1 p.m. at the 56th floor of the Tour Montparnasse, in Paris, Espace 56.

A work on the atmosphere of cities, on urban energy, the need for privacy, protection,
a poetic tribute to urban wilderness while trying to transcend this universe. A will to create a silence, an abstraction, something as light as air.

All the heads are the same, androgynous, with very short hair. The faces and the hands, coated with white and slightly powdered with iridescent spangles, serve to partly erase
the identity. The eyelashes covered with several layers of black mascara. The skin of the bodies, left naked and natural, freely expresses itself.
Faces shielded and enveloped by hats and hoods.
The silhouettes are rangy, with gaps and graphic and geometric openings.

For this collection, I used jerseys and silk chiffon, silver leather satin, flannel and wool cloth, cashmere and silk, tulle and lace with mineral shades like a stormy sky, golden and worn leather.
Pant suits and woman’s suits, protective coats letting the nape show, short or long straight skirts.
Transparency and opacity in turn, clear cuts, coats of mail that look as if they had been torn to shreds and ripped out. One-millimetre needle stitches sometimes emphasise the construction of the clothes with a white thread.
‘Bird-feet’ ankle-boots.

Casting by Giannie Couji, music by Gilda, hair by Earl Sims, make-up by Fred Farrugia for Lancôme, jewels by Agathe Saint Girons and Erik Halley, coats of mail by Simon Azoulay, hats by Fred Sathal, ankle-boots by Karine Bonneval.

The heroin in Olivier Assayas’s Demonlover watches the creatures of Mineral Aura parade up and down on TV.

A silhouette enters the collections of the Musée de la Mode et du Textile, les Arts Décoratifs (Paris) and in the FNAC (Fonds National d’Art Contemporain) as well.

Photos : Fred Sathal, Eric Pajot, stephan Schacher, Lothar Schmid, DR.