Spotlight On: Lecavalier

For me, the clothes that we’re making are really a kind of modern armour, says Marie-Ève Lecavalier, founder and creative director of her eponymous Canadian label. “We’re putting them on intellectual, clever women for the many battles they face every day so that they can celebrate their victories and have a bit of fun.” In some cases, she means that literally – her now-signature technique for twisting deadstock leather conjures beautifully textured, chain-mail-like pieces. But for the most part, her androgynous shapes and relaxed tailoring, romantic printed shirts, sheer pleated dresses and brilliantly unexpected textures and textiles are just the empowering, confidence-boosting wardrobe building blocks you need.

Initially inspired both by her surname and by her grandfather’s career as a wrestler, that combative spirit is woven through the label’s DNA and attracts a cohort of strong, game-changing women to the label. “They’re intellectual and opinionated, they fight for different things, but they have strong beliefs and goals, and they’re going for it – they’re really making a difference in their own lane,” says Lecavalier. “But at the same time, they are respectful and respected because they accomplished so much, whether they’re businesswomen or poets or artists or writers.” They’re often drawn by the understated sexiness of Lecavalier’s pieces, too – the way that they move so fluidly between the masculine and feminine. “I dream up a new story and a new woman every season and I imagine her wearing the collection,” she says. “But, as a designer, of course you also kind of draw on your personal style or make clothes that you wish you had. I think that’s why I started to make clothes that are inspired by menswear. As a kid, especially as a girl, I felt that you had to look a certain way and I always felt really bad about that, actually, because femininity was not my thing; I didn’t want to show skin, I never liked that. So that’s why the proportions that I’m doing are all based on men’s fits but twisted for a woman, so that they’re elevated yet feminine and somehow sexy without showing certain parts of your body.”

Discover the Canadian label creating modern armour for stylish women using innovative techniques, artisanal textiles and the local community. LECAVALIER.

Lecavalier

“For me, the clothes that we’re making are really a kind of modern armour. We’re putting them on intellectual, clever women for the many battles they face every day so that they can celebrate their victories and have a bit of fun.”

Marie-Ève Lecavalier

Lecavalier started her label in 2018 straight after graduating, winning the Chloé Prize at the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography in the same year. She was a semi-finalist in the LVMH prize in 2019, too, and a finalist in 2021’s Woolmark Prize. Responsibility has been woven into the label from the outset, primarily through the constantly evolving, innovative and artisanal textile techniques that really set it apart. That incredible fretworked leather, developed when Lecavalier was studying for her MA, grew out of a desire to make use of the scarred and imperfect leather that didn’t make it through the industry’s strict quality controls. And she’s constantly working on ways to reduce waste.

Even more importantly, Lecavalier’s ever-expanding, all-female team is firmly rooted in and committed to supporting the local community. Her studio is based in Montreal, where she grew up, but she shows in Paris, which gives her the chance to fully immerse herself in the international fashion scene a couple of times of year, showcasing both her incredible clothes and the talented people who work with her. She thoughtfully sources her fabrics in Montreal, and everyone from the label’s photographers, models and interns to the dyers and weavers they work with are drawn from the surrounding area. Lecavalier has grand plans for the future of the label; she wants to connect more directly with the women who buy her clothes, hosting more IRL events that give them the chance to touch, feel and try them on; she’d like to expand her offering and, eventually, for Lecavalier to become a fashion house based, at least in part, in Paris; but, mostly, she wants the brand to grow, catching in more artists and creatives as it does so, and becoming more political and a true force for good. “It makes me happy because I was alone when I started the brand,” she says. “But I now see the aesthetic effect and impact that I have through all those different levels of artist talent, so we want to collaborate and celebrate others as much as possible.”