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Each collection has its history, its creative process, often influenced by an environment, a news, a strong intention. Today, Catherine, knit stylist at Balzac Paris, shares with us the inspirations of the “Inspire” collection, born almost a year ago.
How do you determine the theme of a collection?
Catherine : “It is first around a meeting that Chrysoline, our artistic director, presents her general idea to us, she shares with us what she would like to convey through the collection. For Inspire, we wanted to create a guiding line, a bit like a lifeline, a red thread. »How do you find inspiration?
Catherine : “We get out of our daily lives, we walk around, we open up to the world. We start from the principle that everything can be a source of inspiration so we watch films, we visit exhibitions and above all we share our ideas together in the form of great brainstorming sessions. We are four stylists and four very different personalities, each idea is good to take and sometimes it happens that an idea is common and that's where the magic happens! So we dig in and appropriate everyone's ideas until we create a story. »What are the inspirations of the “Inspire” collection?
Catherine : “There are several, but all are linked to this idea of living in harmony and respecting our environment, nature. 
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We also took a lot of inspiration from what already existed , from what had been our strength until now, from the successes of Balzac Paris, from timeless pieces that you like to see again season after season. Our desire was then to renew the existing one by reworking the cuts, the details, the volume...-THE DEAL OF THE CENTURY-
The news is a great source of inspiration, even awareness! When we started thinking about the collection, the climate justice campaign "The Deal of the Century" was starting to gain momentum. This petition encouraged us to act on our scale and in our field: take our destiny in hand, with others, and make things evolve, in an optimistic way! »
Source: Pinterest
Land Art by Zander Olsen - Tree line - 2008
Catherine : "Land Art is an ephemeral art, which aims to be 100% natural and biodegradable, part of nature, non-invasive, evolving with time and the elements... The goal being to use what one finds around oneself to create one's work, all without distorting one's environment, like an interaction between art and nature without any feeling of power, of domination, but rather the desire to live in harmony with what surrounds us. And it is this harmony that we wanted to transcribe in the pieces of this collection, but above all to be an inspiring brand, which pushes its limits and which strives to create meaning in the wardrobe and in clothing.”
How is nature transcribed in the collection?
Catherine : “Firstly, respect for nature is found in the choice of our materials, especially natural materials such as organic cotton, wool, alpaca, mohair. We attach great importance to respect for the animal, to the fact that it is well treated throughout its life or before being shorn. Then, we wanted to transcribe nature in those little details that are dear to us, such as the flower-shaped buttons, the embroidery on our blouses and also in our prints, such as the leopard-print George shirt or the navy Karla dress with flowers. We also bet on more natural colors that are closer to what we could observe in nature. »
Find our Inspire collection on Balzac-Paris.fr