Ludovic de Saint Sernin Collaborates with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation for His Most Personal Collection Yet

Forty-eight hours after Ludovic de Saint Sernin presented his Spring/Summer 2024 collection in Paris, he was off to New York and committed to spending the coming six months devoted to his next collection. The focus of it lay in an Easter egg on the runway just days before—a model carrying Patti Smith’s Just Kids in a crystal bag. The book was a lightning rod for de Saint Sernin, who had known of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography prior to reading it, but upon learning his life story through Smith’s words, fell in love with the artist. “Robert has been one of my icons,” de Saint Sernin told Whitewall over the summer. “He’s kind of the reason I started my brand in the first place.”

So in New York, the Paris-based designer met with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and pitched the idea to feature the late photographer’s work in his next collection. He spent the ensuing months completely focused on paying proper tribute to his inspiration, selecting photographs of flowers that would be translated into hand-cut pieces like dresses, skirts, and shirts that romantically captured the sensuality, romance, and delicateness of Mapplethorpe’s “Flower” series. De Saint Sernin put his own hand in each piece, creating in velvet, Japanese organdy, and devoré. In the collection titled “X: The Robert Mapplethorpe Collection,” there was certainly the skin, shimmer, sheer, leather, and lowcut the designer loves to play with and that his audience responds to so well, too. But there was also a sense of vulnerability, of laying one’s heart open, of sharing his most autobiographical collection yet. 

The show took place in February, fittingly in New York, where the designer closed it out with his own fierce walk sporting one of the looks, and later sharing via Instagram, “I am forever grateful to be able to share a little bit more of myself every time I do a show, I will remember this day always.”

Whitewall spoke with de Saint Sernin about how everything came together and what it was like to engage with the work of one of his icons.

WHITEWALL: What made you interested in working with the images of Robert Mapplethorpe for your collection?

LUDOVIC DE SAINT SERNIN: Robert has been one of my icons for a very long time. He’s kind of the reason I started my brand in the first place. When I read Just Kids by Patti Smith, to know his story and his background and his life made me fall in love with him. And when I found out that he had created a foundation that could carry on his legacy, I knew that I was going to do something with it when I was ready.

We met with the foundation and pitched the idea of doing the collection with them. They loved the vision that I had for it, because I wanted to pay tribute not only to his work but also his life and shine a light on his legacy for a new generation. I wanted to have as much time as I could on this collection.

As designers, when we do collections, most times you have so much going on after a show that you don’t get started on the collection right away. There are celebrity customs, special projects, campaigns, so much going on that we do in between shows. I wanted to dedicate my full six months to creating the collection, because it was going to be historic because of Robert. It was very special for me to be able to do that, and I think the reason why people loved it so much is because I had it in me for so long. It was the perfect time to do it.

“I had it in me for so long. It was the perfect time to do it,”

Ludovic de Saint Sernin

Living a Full Fantasy with the Robert Mapplethorpe Archives

WW: What was it like being in the archives, with the artist being such a personal part of your story?

LDSS: It was surreal. There’s so much he’s done, there are so many images, pictures, artworks, pieces, jewelry, et cetera. And I wanted to make a special curation, as if I was doing an exhibition. It was amazing to be able to see the artworks and discover a lot that I didn’t know. I did research as if I was doing a biopic, in some way. It was important to me that it was unique to my point of view. Robert means so much to so many different people because his work is so large it’s able to touch people in different ways on different aspects. I wanted to make sure that it was specific to me and what I liked and what my taste was. The amazing thing was that the people in the foundation were so open-minded, so excited, and it truly made me feel as if I was collaborating directly with him. 

Whatever was in the frame, in his picture, I wanted to come to life, step out of the frame, and go onto the runway. What we have in common, Robert and I, is we built a community about what we love and what we represent and people have been able to identify with us in such a special way. I wanted to reflect that in the show and to feel like Robert’s world in 2024, and who he would be taking pictures of, who he would be hanging out with, or be lovers with. So I just lived my full fantasy.

“It truly made me feel as if I was collaborating directly with him,”

Ludovic de Saint Sernin

Ludovic de Saint Sernin Reinterprets Floral Imagery Through Loving Craftsmanship

WW: What drew you to the floral imagery? 

LDSS: I wanted to make sure I didn’t fall into something very obvious. I’m very well known for embracing sex and sexuality and sensuality. There’s a whole part of Robert’s work that is dedicated to BDSM and queerness and homosexuality and sex. I knew that as soon as people would find out I was doing the collaboration they would think it’s going to be straight-up sex. And that’s great. And we did that. But I wanted to show range. 

In LDSS we often have this duality of innocence and darkness and trying to emulate the feeling of a person through a collection—to show that you can be different types of people. Within one person you have so many emotions and things you want to say and express. I wanted the collection to start off with something unexpected and talk about the flower work and how poetic it is and how sensitive and delicate and fragile. It’s a flower that’s going to bloom and then it’s going to die. It has that beauty that I wanted to capture.

I knew I didn’t want to do prints, so it was important for me to reinterpret the work through craftsmanship. All of these flowers were picked by me, hand cut, and fused by me. I was cutting everything. I really was working with my team to execute these pieces in the studio by hand, and the process was so beautiful I really wanted it to be the star of the show. We tried to photograph it all different kinds of ways so you could really feel the love and the craftsmanship in the pieces. 

WW: The silhouettes you created, in certain ways, they are an updated version of the photograph, in a really delicate tribute. So how did you choose the materials?

LDSS: I wanted to do something that was emulating the photograph without being complete replicas. I wanted it to feel very textile and very something that you want to touch and feel. I looked at a lot of materials. I work with this fabric place in Japan, and I love all their materials and I’m always choosing fabrics from them because they are so delicate and beautiful. We selected all these fabrics, and we put them together and it just felt like selecting flowers at a flower shop and making arrangements. It was very, very special.

We live in a world where some of us designers are so busy, and as creative directors we barely have time to actually focus on our craft. We’re image directors, casting directors, beauty directors—we have to be on top of everything and do it all and be business owners. But this season, I was really setting up a system for me to be able to be in the atelier as much as I could. There’s devoré, velvet, and transparent pieces, and also with crystal mesh and metal mesh. So it was endless handwork and craftsmanship that went into these pieces, and it was amazing.

For this, I was like, “This is the winter, I’m going to be locked in the studio.” I was not doing interviews. When you’re filming a movie, you disappear for like three months of shooting and you’re in your thing and no one can reach out. And that’s where my head was at. I was like, “This is what I’m doing.” And it felt great.

Discovering the Universal in the Personal

WW: And so much of you is in what you design, too. It seems like it really is important to maybe boundaries, or protection, or care you have to put in place.

LDSS: Absolutely. I think I kind of did it unknowingly in the beginning, to start a brand that was so personal and so autobiographical. But because it was in that first collection and it echoed and impacted so many people, then I thought it had to be continued. 

The people that I admire the most share the most with the world themselves. I find it fascinating to get to know someone through their work and their personal life and see how they grow as humans and how they evolve. Even reading books, I’d always rather read an autobiography than a novel. And for this season, after having shared so much, I wanted to make sure that I was delivering my best work as a designer and went for that.

“The people that I admire the most share the most with the world themselves,”

Ludovic de Saint Sernin

WW: It’s interesting that when something is so personal and so specific to you that it actually is what people connect with—there is something universal to something so personal.

LDSS: A hundred percent. You pick and choose what you want to share with the world and what you think can resonate. I think it’s definitely one of my favorites shows I’ve ever done.

Honoring the Essence of Mapplethorpe in New York

WW: Why was it important for you to show this collection in New York?

LDSS: I really wanted to capture the essence of Robert. The venue was next to all these galleries and studios, and not so far from the archive as well. And we wanted it to feel very New York and very fashion. I wanted it to feel like the people from the pictures came out from the frame onto the runway. It was a magical week. It just felt like I could truly be myself and not be too scared and just have fun. The New York people just embraced us with such generosity and grace, and it felt very heartwarming. We had the best time.

WW: Do you feel that scaling up pressure in fashion from the business side? Are there benefits to having a smaller operation? 

LDSS: I mean, the thing is with me I get FOMO if I’m not doing something. We’re all in it together—all my peers and I—so we’re always talking about things and projects and deciding what we can do and what we can’t. I always get my heart broken if I can’t do something. So I wish we were ten times bigger and were able to take on more. 

But like you said, I think there is definitely a beauty in the natural selection that it creates. Because of our size, we’re limited with what we can do, but at the same time, we do it with so much love and care it’s that much more meaningful. But definitely I’m looking forward to us having more people.

WW: How would you describe your community of peers in fashion?

LDSS: There is this feeling like we’re all very different. We might be considered for similar projects, and so people would think that we’re in competition to be dressing this person or doing that thing or doing this thing. But whatever is meant to be for you will be. I think that mentality is the only way in this day and age. It was so different, even from when I was a fashion student. We were all trying to be the best and not in the best way. I think society has evolved a lot, especially in fashion, there has been so much reconsidering of how to behave, and that has helped to create a healthier environment. 

WW: Something that you tapped into from your first collection was connecting with your clients, your audience, really creating a community. How do you make sure you’re in touch with the LDSS community?

LDSS: I think it’s something that happened organically from being the first generation of designers that created brands that can become visible through Instagram. I think that has helped tremendously in terms of being exposed to people all around the world. I didn’t have that tool growing up to connect with people. People have social media so much earlier now, and they are natural with it. 

And I always wanted it to be organic and I always wanted it to be relatable—to show what it’s like to be a boy with a dream and that’s going to take a risk and try and do his own thing. And for people to come on board and join the journey and explore with me and support me. There is something special to that, because some people will come up to me in the industry and will say, “I was following you when you had five thousand followers and you were barely starting, and look at you now!” It’s very special and I always remember that, and I think that’s my favorite thing about what I do—people coming up to me and telling me I allowed them to be themselves or to be free and to be brave. 

I was able to do it because when I was took a risk I got so much support. I know what it’s like to be vulnerable and to try something. So it’s very rewarding when you see that you can help other people do the same thing. 

I think now what’s important as the brand has gotten bigger is that we continue to do projects that feel connected to the regular customer or fan of the brand. If we’re dressing the most famous woman on earth for the biggest event, then the next week or the next month we’ll try to do something that feels a little bit more relatable. Even though it is still something where it’s a young designer living his dream and getting to achieve that. You also want to make sure that that core first community that supported you doesn’t feel forgotten as you’re scaling up the brand. That’s very important to my heart, and I think that people can feel that.