LVMH Prize 2025: Alain Paul, the fashion designer leading the dance

Interview by Camille Bois-Martin, 

Photos by Nathan Merchadier.

Alain Paul, finalist for the 2025 LVMH Prize

In October 2023, Alain Paul welcomed a large, intrigued audience to the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet for his debut show. The buzz was mainly due to his impressive background. He used to work alongside designer Demna for the launch of Vetements in 2014 and then supported the late Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton for nearly five years. His solid résumé gave him both the tools and confidence to launch his own brand, ALAINPAUL, with his husband and co-founder Luís Philippe, a former merchandising specialist at Colette.

Presented off-calendar, this debut collection was enough for the French designer to make a lasting impression and attract more and more guests each season. By the third collection, the brand had already earned a spot in the official calendar of the Paris Fashion Week. And not just for a presentation, but for a full runway show. A first for such a young label, which would normally have to begin with smaller formats.

Be that as it may, the couple’s determination, talent, and poise quickly allowed the brand to stand out. Their sharply defined silhouettes sit at the crossroads of radical tailoring and dance-inspired garments. A world Alain Paul knows inside and out since he used to be a dancer at the Ballet National de Marseille, France, from the ages of 8 to 17. All this, before the balletcore trend had even taken over the catwalks of major fashion houses. Meet one of the eight finalists for the 2025 LVMH Prize.

Interview with fashion designer Alain Paul

Numéro: What is your earliest memory relating to fashion?

Alain Paul: My first memory is when I started dressing the dancers at the Opéra national de Marseille, which I was part of, using clothes I’d thrifted at charities. I was very young, around 14. When I joined the school, I dreamt of becoming a choreographer. Then, as a teenager, I began imagining performances and designing costumes. That’s when I really became fascinated by cuts, materials, and colours a garment can bring to a whole choreography. I quickly realized I wanted to move to fashion. I became obsessed with Jean Paul Gaultier and Martin Margiela. I started going to runway shows and carefully curating my looks. At 18, I left Marseille for Paris and spent a few years training at a fashion school.

You used to work with Demna for Vetements. What are you takeaways from that experience?

I actually met Demna’s brother as I was sneaking into fashion shows. He told me they were looking for an intern to help with the launch of the label Vetements. It involved a lot of prototyping and research… It was a risky bet, because most fashion students aim to land internships at big houses like Dior or Givenchy to have a solid resume. But I chose to follow Demna’s project and I’ve never regretted it.

His vision and talent immediately resonated with me. His way of dissecting clothes, trying to understand why a jacket is made in a certain way, to unpack the archetypes of a wardrobe while keeping it grounded in reality. This way of thinking about clothing is one that I still have at ALAINPAUL today. I also learned how to build a team, since I joined Demna from the very first month. We used to work in his living room. I grew up with the brand. I was traveling to factories, sourcing fabrics… At a major house, I would’ve probably stayed a junior designer for years. That experience with Demna truly prepared me to start my own label, because I always knew I would create one, one day.

From Demna’s living room to Virgil Abloh’s ateliers

But before launching your own brand, you also spent time at the Louis Vuitton ateliers…

Yes. When Vetements moved its headquarters to Zurich, I didn’t follow the team. I had just married Luís and wanted to maintain some stability. Virgil Abloh, whom I knew, had joined Louis Vuitton and asked me to come with him. He appreciated my vision. But the contract took a while to come through… So I joined the team at Saint Laurent, where I discovered an incredible, highly structured craftsmanship. A few months later, Virgil called me back with a contract. It was a fresh start for both of us and I didn’t hesitate for a second.

What I loved about working with him was that he didn’t see his job as work. He always said he never intended to “work” a day in his life. His circle, his team, they were like friends. He loved having debates with us, asking our thoughts on the future of tailoring, on garment proportions… There were five or six of us in the studio with him. Together, we would brainstorm on how to reinvent the white T-shirt and blue jeans uniform. How streetwear could become a luxury product… Or how to create a contemporary, yet luxurious collection, with beautiful fabrics and impeccable finishing. I learned about the importance of something like an inside pocket and the production cost it entails. At Louis Vuitton, I learned how to build a collection plan, how to be extremely thorough.

Dance, against all odds and trends

When and why did you create your label ALAINPAUL?

It’s something I had wanted to do for a long time. I had been thinking about it for seven or eight years, even before leaving Vetements. When I joined Louis Vuitton, I thought I’d stay a year or two before launching. Then COVID happened and Virgil sadly passed away. I was in shock. Then, I decided to create my own label. We had enough budget to develop the first collection. I created the pieces in just eight months, it was amazing. I already had all the ideas in mind.

What have been your biggest challenges since the launch your brand?

Probably finding the right partners. Thankfully, Luís was there! Some followed us from the very beginning, like factories I had worked with when I was at Louis Vuitton. They helped with the first collection, but ended up being too expensive for a brand our size. Organizing my first runway show was also very challenging. We did it off-calendar because the Federation only offered us a “presentation” slot, which is the norm for a debut season. But we absolutely wanted to do a runway show. We felt it was important to introduce ourselves to the press and our clients that way. We don’t have an e-commerce website, pop up store or boutique, so a runway show is the most direct link we have with them.

Fashion shows: a choreography between fashion and dance

How do you envision your runway shows? It has been four seasons now since you have started presenting your collections on the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet.

A show is a precise moment in time. For me, it’s like putting on a dance performance all over again. If there’s a mistake on stage, it becomes part of the choreography. Then, there’s the stage fright, the thrill of the moment, the adrenaline backstage… Everything is real, tangible. It’s like a series of small performances.

They naturally echo your everlasting source of inspiration… Dance!

My approach to clothing is deeply tied to the world of dance. It’s the culture I grew up in and what made me want to become a fashion designer. I’m inspired by Pina Bausch, Martha Graham, or Merce Cunningham, as much as by the dancers from my former company, who are still my friends today. It’s all about body expression and movement… In my first show, the silhouettes conjured up the universe of ballet, with warm-up pants and ballet flats. That was just the starting point for all the other collections that now define the identity of our brand.

Today, dancing is on trend as seen on many catwalks. Aren’t you afraid of exhausting that source of inspiration?

Dance has inspired me since I was a teenager. I sketched my first ballet shoes long before they became a trend. At ALAINPAUL, I think we’ve moved beyond that. We interpret this aesthetic in a very different way. I would say that the brand’s style is a meeting point between different moments of the day.

There’s that sporty side present in many pieces, but also a very sophisticated aesthetic. It’s that dressed-up silhouette that still feels effortless, that doesn’t look like it took too much effort. As for inspiration, it will always be there, even in my subconscious. Dance is such a vast universe. I can draw just as much from a choreographer’s work as from a performance or even my own memories.

How do you design your clothes?

I always start with images. I put together a moodboard based on inspirations I usually find in libraries. I often go to the CND (a library, ed.) in Pantin, where I browse through all their sections. It could also be the crease in someone’s pants as they cross their legs, or the way fabric moves as someone walks past. I also spend a lot of time in thrift stores, where I hunt for pieces whose fabrics or cuts either feed my ideas or give me entirely new ones.

You just won the Special Prize at the ANDAM awards last June. Now you are one of the finalists for the 2025 LVMH Prize. What does this mean to you?

We never expected to win an award at ANDAM. Se were the youngest label in the running! It was a wonderful recognition. The LVMH Prize is a whole new step. It’s more international. The eight finalists are all incredibly talented, and getting to meet all those major creative directors on the jury was very intimidating.

How do you want to develop your label going forward?

We would like the brand to grow organically, without rushing things. An award like the LVMH Prize could help us launch an e-commerce platform, for example. The goal would be to build a direct relationship with our customers. Perhaps expand our team in the long run or develop a line of bags and jewellery too. But above all, we want to remain independent for as long as possible!