Born in Paris, Alexandre Daillance founded the streetwear brand NASASEASONS at 18 years old. The idea was to make a simple product to call out narcissism and superficiality with humorous phrases on hats—like, “Almost Famous” and “No Pictures.” The brand exploded, gaining a celebrity following of Rihanna, Beyonce, Kendall Jenner, and more. Today, NASASEASONS is working on collaborations with Swarovski (launching this summer) and other luxury brands, on fresh and innovative collaborations.
Whitewall spoke with Daillance, aka “Millinsky,” about the story of this burgeoning culture brand.
Courtesy of NASASEASONS.
WHITEWALL: How does your brand reflect today’s culture?
MILLINSKY: Relative to Twitter and Instagram, my phrases enable people to label themselves. People can shamelessly claim to be cooler and more interesting than others. Today some people on Instagram think they can become famous from one day to the next because they got a certain number of followers. More than ever, we want to show the best version of ourselves through what we post on social media. We want to know “How good am I?” Followers and likes are the new analytics to someone success in our society.
Courtesy of NASASEASONS.
There is a redefinition of celebrity that revolves around appearances that I am capturing with the “Almost Famous” and “No Pictures” hats. We are experiencing a serious Instagram transition and my goal is truly to deepen my observation of this phenomena and capture the actual tendencies. With a sociological approach, my business focuses on apprehending the needs and goals of the young generation through the rise of social media.
WW: I understand your fashion brand is not only about aesthetics but an attempt to capture a generation. Do you have any projects related to art in the future?
Courtesy of NASASEASONS.
M: Art and fashion are not comparable to me. A dress has a function to be worn and not to be intellectualized. Art has to have a social, political, or cultural message. So I fully consider what I do with NASASEASONS to be exclusively fashion and nothing else.
However, I believe the idea behind my brand can be theorized and transformed into an artistic project. I would love to organize an exhibition putting in parallel fame and beauty. I am a big Andy Warhol fan. I want to try to capture fame in 2018 through art the same way Warhol captured fame in the ‘60s. The way our society looks at fame is very different today. People in the ‘60s loved Marilyn Monroe as much as people love Kim Kardashian now. Then, most people saw Marilyn Monroe as an untouchable icon. Now, because of social media, people think they could become Kim Kardashian. I think this shift tells us a lot about how our society functions.
Courtesy of NASASEASONS.
WW: How are you planning on collaborating with luxury brands?
M: A few months ago, Swarovski contacted me to launch hats with crystals in a few select luxury stores around the world. I’m also working on cashmere pieces with another luxury brand and a very exciting collaboration with one of the coolest suitcase brands before summer.
I was kind of against doing collaborations the first few years because I think brands often do it just because they’re desperate. But in the case of the ones I’m working with, I feel like the end product is very authentic and benefits both identities.
