QUESTION EVERYTHING

Dries Van Noten, a designer I have admired since studying fashion design in the 1990s, recently opened Fondazione in Venice where the inaugural presentation is entitled The Only True Protest Is Beauty. It’s not true, of course. At least, I don’t actually believe the title to be true. But I was listening to an interview with designer turned art curator discussing the opening which “frames beauty as a catalyst for intensity, provocation, and transformation” during a very protest-heavy time in my life. Nonetheless the provocative title tripped a fuse and triggered a series of tiny moments of inspiration in a very dark world that ultimately led me to create POINT DE REPÈRE, my point of reference.

I’ve spent most of my 25+ year career in the fashion industry questioning both how and why things are done the way they are. That curiosity is what led me to want to make change in an industry that both fascinated and horrified me. It is the reason I veered toward sustainability in 2002 when there were very few resources for brands and even fewer incentives to do so. Some would say that makes me a pioneer, and I am now shedding the humility that prevented me from admitting as much on countless occasions. Life is too short for humility anyway! But I digress.

The aforementioned lack of resources is what caused me to seek out community in New York - to share sustainable suppliers, test out strategies and grow together. That idea of community has followed me in my career and is the one key ingredient that I will never overlook. It was a priority to rebuild a community in Montreal when I moved back here after nearly 20 years in New York. And something I work at diligently every day.

As the industry evolved, both dismissing and embracing sustainability as it sees fit - oscillating between “it’s just a trend, people don’t care” and “how can sustainability help us stand out as a brand?” - it inadvertently supported the development of vast amounts of trade resources: roadmaps, strategy guides, 100-page meticulously researched reports that very few people would read, it simultaneously saw the rise of the ultra fast fashion brands developing and producing at a speed I never thought possible.

“Beauty here is not a fixed ideal but a questioning presence. Making becomes a process of discovery, a dialogue that carries the traces of intention and imagination. Visitors move through moments of resonance and disruption, where perception awakens and possibilities unfold, and craft reveals itself as an ongoing process of inquiry and encounter.”

Or, as the Virgil Abloh quote in the entrance of the shop more succinctly states: QUESTION EVERYTHING. That, I can do.

Welcome to Point de Repère.