Labbeye

L'Abbeye Issue I : the first chapter of the archive is now open for pre-order

A 400+ page coffee-table object documenting avant-garde fashion as philosophy, not trend. Standard edition 55€, Collector x Isaac Sellam 395€, 200 numbered copies.

The Threshold

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU :

HAIRSTYLES AS CULTURAL CODES

Hair has always carried meaning beyond adornment. It is a language of ancestry, divinity, and resistance. Through Yoruba philosophy, African ritual, and contemporary fashion, this piece explores how the act of styling -braiding, covering, shaving- becomes both memory and message, both art and prayer.

Art| Dark Fashion| Fashion Theory

Neo Gothic and Neo Futurism

One aesthetic mourns the past. The other imagines the future. Between neo-gothic and neo-futurism, contemporary fashion continues to seek meaning anywhere but in the present.

Dark Fashion| Futuristic| Soft Goth

TO BE WORN OR TO BE WATCHED

In light of recent exhibitions like Demna’s retrospective at the Kering headquarters and Rick Owens’ Temple of Love, we explore the tension between fashion as something to be worn and fashion as something to be preserved and exhibited.

Art| Fashion Theory

BETWEEN RITUAL AND RAWNESS: LEO PROTHMANN IN CONVERSATION WITH L'ABBEYE

Dark Fashion| Eco Fashion| Emerging Designers| Interviews

‘A WALK IN THE FOREST’ WITH ANTONIO FEMIA

Womenswear designer Antonio Femia looks to the hometown forests in Belgium for his graduate collection at Central Saint Martins. Bridget Devine discovers more about his ritualistic design universe...

Eco Fashion| Emerging Designers| Fashion Theory| Interviews

ELENA DAWSON : THE GARDEN OF FORGOTTEN MEMORIES, A BOTANICAL ELEGY OF SOFTH GOTHIC

Elena Dawson is not a brand. It is a state of being, a phenomenon whose aura resists all attempts at categorization within fashion’s coordinate systems. Her creative work is a secluded sanctuary, a chapel on the outskirts of the industry. Here, a particular, deeply intimate romance is born : the romance of a soft gothic, devoid of vampiric pomp and grotesquery, yet imbued with Victorian melancholy and the stoic grace of decay.

Dark Fashion| Eco Fashion| Fashion Theory| Soft Goth

THE EVOLUTION OF AVANT-GARDE IN FASHION

Tracing avant-garde’s path from its revolutionary roots of Elsa Schiaparelli, Rei Kawakubo, and McQueen to today’s branches of gothic elegance.

Dark Fashion| Fashion Theory| Japanese Designers

BEAUTIFULLY BIZZARE AND UNFORGETTABLE: 5 ARTISTS TO DISCOVER

If you are into the surreal and the macabre, this list might be for you.

Art| Design| Fashion Theory| Grotesque Beauty

MISTAKING STONE FOR SKY

Art| Dark Fashion| Editorial| Emerging Designers| Grotesque Beauty

REMEMBERING EIKO ISHIOKA: AVANT-GARDE ARCHITECT OF COSTUME AND VISION

Known for her Oscar-winning costumes in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and her visionary work across film, theater, and fashion, Ishioka blended avant-garde artistry with wearable sculpture.

Art| Fashion Theory

Archives as Garments: In or Out?

A pressed flower keeps its shape but loses its life, is that what happens to fashion once it enters the archive? Through McQueen's satire, Margiela's cloned relics, and Kawakubo's outright refusal, three of fashion's most radical minds ask whether preservation is actually killing the craft.

L’ABBEYE'S GUIDE TO A GOTHIC SUMMER

How to mourn a cool breeze in style…

Accessories| Dark Fashion| Soft Goth

FLESH AS ARCHITECTURE

Flesh As Architecture explores the human body as a constructed form rather than a living subject. e body is treated as a site of erosion - a ruin shaped by time, weight, and stillness. Through restrained movement and sculptural poses, flesh becomes structural. Limbs echo columns, joints resemble supports, and skin carries the surface of decay. What remains is not emotion, but form. The body no longer performs; it stands, monumental and silent, a ruin transformed into a statue.

UPCOMING AVANT-GARDE JEWELLERY DESIGNERS YOU NEED TO KNOW !

Meet the Next Generation of Avant-Garde Jewellery

Accessories| Emerging Designers| Futuristic

THE INFLUENCES OF SUBCULTURES IN RICK OWENS' ART

Rick Owens draws from the shadows of musical subcultures, transforming their raw energy into a sculptural aesthetic. His work carries the spirit of underground movements, rebellious, ritualistic, and imbued with a dark romanticism. These influences do more than just inspire him; they form the backbone of his language. So what are they?

Dark Fashion| Fashion Theory

TOP 10 ARTICLES :

1

INTERVIEW : VICTOR CLAVELLY'S SURREAL FASHION LORE

2

CORROSION AS CRAFT: RETHINKING FASHION THROUGH DECAY

3

THE GOTHIC REBIRTH OF MINIMALISM

4

THE EVOLUTION OF AVANT-GARDE IN FASHION

5

THE PASSERBY

6

HOW MCQUEEN MADE THE FASHION INDUSTRY DESCEND INTO MADNESS

7

WHAT "AVANT-GARDE" REALLY MEANS IN FASHION

8

EXPLORING THE UNTAPPED POTENTIAL OF FISH SKIN FOR FASHION: INTERVIEW WITH ISABELLE TAYLOR

9

LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH: 6 TIMES DAVID CRONENBERG INSPIRED RUNWAY DESIGNERS

ARCHIVES :

From Alexander McQueen to Matières Fécales: Embracing Your Quirky, Offbeat, and Unique Side

Fashion's most unsettling silhouettes are not mistakes, they are refusals. A look at how the grotesque became one of style’s sharpest tools of dissent.

Dark Fashion| Fashion Theory| Grotesque Beauty

Ectopic

The Threshold

Archives as Garments: In or Out?

A pressed flower keeps its shape but loses its life, is that what happens to fashion once it enters the archive? Through McQueen's satire, Margiela's cloned relics, and Kawakubo's outright refusal, three of fashion's most radical minds ask whether preservation is actually killing the craft.

The Circus Girl

Pauline Dujancourt

Design| Emerging Designers

The Shape of Belonging

Egúngún masqueraders, Benin. Elaborately layered costumes conceal the performers’ identities, transforming them into figures of ancestral ritual.

Between Reins and Teeth

Following the death of the last horse in a stable, a man reveals a ritualistic scene, shaped by grief and the human-animal bond.

Cinema| Editorial

Weight of Despair

The Emotional Weight of Loss, Migration, and Memory. How Historical Trauma Transformed into Fashion.

The Avant-Garde Fashion Rite

When Fashion stops presenting clothes and starts staging ceremonies.

Dark Fashion| Fashion Theory

See all the archives editorials