In conversation with Christèle Mbosso, the trailblazing designer behind Maison Mbosso.
Christèle Mbosso, the twenty-eight year old Swiss-born with Congolese and Angolan heritage talks with us about her journey as a menswear designer.
“My creative process has quite a structured shell filled with moving waves.”
Please could you introduce yourself?
My name is Christèle Mbosso and I am twenty-eight years old. I was born and raised in Switzerland and have a half Congolese, half Angolan heritage.
Who or what inspired you to start menswear?
The ’who’ would be my father. My father is a 69-year-old man who was born in Angola but lived in Kinshasa for most of his childhood. He grew up watching and mimicking sapeurs, and that passion for not only style but intricate craftsmanship in men clothes never left him. Growing up I was exposed to suits older than me; my dad would talk me through why he was buying clothes (apart from the brand name themselves). An intricate pin stripe, a really interesting collar, a really flattering fit. I didn’t realise it at the time (don’t we all think our fathers are a bit cringe as teenagers?), but this really gave me an eye for menswear and tailoring.
The ‘what’: when I started studying fashion design, I always felt like I was a clueless imposter compared to the students who already seemed to have such a good knowledge of fashion. I always felt a little bit…disconnected in some way. Until then my education had been purely what you would call academic, so my knowledge of fashion was close to none. I loved fashion but the process of designing was somewhat difficult and uncomfortable for me. When I tried to do menswear in my second year at LCF, designing finally felt natural; I had found my thing.
How would you describe your creative process?
My creative process has quite a structured shell filled with moving waves. Although the shell of it all is quite structured, I work across quite a few different categories that require different things, so I am always happy to work with the flow if needed. However, I always start with a conceptual theme. I think of designing a collection as telling a story. For that reason, I first decide what story I would like to tell; it needs to be something that intrigues me and that I want to investigate, or something that I am passionate about and feel very strongly about. But it has to be a story that serves my customer first.
Your designs are truly one of a kind, from the silhouettes to the fabrics. Can you talk about what goes into creating your garments?
First of all, thank you so much! To be able to design the garments, alongside a strong thematic, I always need to have:
1. A visual inspiration that influences the visual tone of the collection; the colours, the tones, the softness or hardness of it all, the prints etc. It can be a painting, a photograph or anything really.
2. A fit reference. That can be an era, a singular silhouette, a technic or a functionality. With all these starting points, I start researching, then I start drawing a map of that story by making connections between my findings. Then, I go into intense days of designing hundreds of badly drawn shapes that relate to all my research; that particular process can get quite frustrating especially if I feel like I can’t express what I am trying to say through the shapes. It just feels right, or it doesn’t, and so far, when it doesn’t my mind just won’t let me go any further. Lots of scrunched up papers and starting from scratch.
When I eventually feel like I’ve got my hand on something, I start a very long but fun process of development which is basically a lot of experimentations. Only then, do I sit down and design an initial collection. After that comes the dreaded but so essential process of prototyping. That involves a lot of pattern cutting, fittings, sewing, tailoring, printing, fabric testing… the whole 360°. It sometimes feels like it’s never ending because I can be such a perfectionist. Somehow, it’s only at that stage of the process that the collection starts feeling real to me. Once I’m happy with all the toiles I make tech packs and the final prototypes. Those protos are what I use for my campaigns. That’s the whole process!
How has your work developed over time? What significant discoveries have you made?
I hope that my work is becoming more and more refined and shows a stronger identity over time. What I have discovered is that I can’t do it all myself, and actually working with skilled like-minded people is really fun and feeds my soul. I think because I started this brand as part of my final year at uni where I was basically creating this brand myself completely (and then asking people to help out here and there), it gave me this skewed perspective that I will always find all the answers for every single thing when it will become a company. I’ve also learnt how to say no. Again, there’s this idea that small designers kind of have to say yes to everything. It can bring you to do projects that didn’t necessarily align with the brand’s ethos or journey. I was absolutely the worst at this before, I used to say yes to things that I didn’t have time for or didn’t have the funds for. I had to slow down and remember that I am trying to build a slow fashion brand all around no matter what the pressures of building a business in a capitalist society might be.
Could you tell us more about your project Untold Stories?
As every collection starts from a conceptual theme, I was a bit worried the theme would get lost in translation by the time it’s out, because no matter how much I talk about the thematic and no matter how much all of it is storytelling, at the end of the day I am selling clothes, so people talk about the clothes.
So, I started the Untold Stories campaign to be released alongside all collections. The idea is that I want to give the opportunity to the men of Maison Mbosso to speak about the thematic of the collection. There is no set frame, it could be self-filmed videos, a podcast series, a panel talk… I’m open to do it in any way that makes sense as long as the spotlight are on the black men whose story I’m telling!
What’s next for Maison Mbosso?
We’ve been working super hard for the past two years, to develop the “project” into the brand. That’s the journey we’re on right now. We are going at a slow pace, and I am enjoying every minute of it. I’ve also started designing a new collection, there is not really a timeline to it yet. I think I have just spent so much time on the more “nitty gritty” part of the brand recently that I am compelled to dive deep into the designing process again. I’m so excited!
Photography Caroline Wong
Creative direction Maison Mbosso
Assistant Nathan Guastella
Models Edwin Louis and Sean Cole
Make-up Frankie Daniella