INTERVIEW
Orelsan is not a successful rapper. The artist from Caen also co-founded in 2014 a clothing brand, Avnier (penultimate contraction). With his partner and Swiss friend Sebastian Strappazzon, he embarked on this adventure without knowing anything about the world of fashion, as he told us Friday at the show "Made in France", of which Europe 1 is a partner.
"Sebastian had a brand of clothes, he was sponsoring me, and at one point I realized that I only wore clothes of his brand, so he offered to do a collaboration with him for a t-shirt. then told me that he dreamed of founding a brand, so we started without any business plan, without any project, for fun, "said Orelsan.
"It was super important to pay attention to the working conditions of employees"
The rapper had to learn on the job, especially to find factories in Portugal. "I come from the world of music, we did not know any factory, we even paid to have the addresses of the first factories (in Portugal)", remembers Orelsan, who absolutely wanted to make his clothes in Europe.
"Sebastian had it manufactured outside of Europe, but for me it was very important to pay attention to the working conditions of the employees, to know where the products came from, it was important to do this in short circuits and in factories that meet certain standards, "he says.
"As I speak softly, we think I'm really lazy"
Between his career as a rapper and entrepreneur, Orelsan has a busy agenda. "As I speak softly, I think I'm really lazy," he joked, referring to his characteristic way of expressing himself. "But everything is connected, when I make a film, I have to choose the clothes of the characters.We do not dress like a 15-year-old teenager who listens to rap or a mom of 38. When you create a clip, you have to also choose clothes, even if in France we are not used to seeing people 'multifunctional', it is linked, "said the rapper.
Orelsan also explained his role within his brand. "With Sebastian (the co-founder), we call for an hour, I tell him: 'I'll do a sweat with a big zip, so we can open it when we want.' And then, Sebastian concretizes the idea ". Orelsan recently joined the Saint-James brand, one of the symbols of fashion "made in France", which produces its clothes in Normandy.