Mouton Collet

Origin: 2006, Brussels, Belgium

Designers: Matthieu MOUTON & Nicolas COLLET

Fields : Jewellery and Accessories for Men and Women

Biography:

Through their work, which they describe as a journal in time, Matthieu Mouton and Nicolas Collet meld their personal experiences with the animal and vegetable world to create collections of jewelry that are distinctly unusual and refined.  They began working together in the late-90s, after meeting at Institute Saint Luc de Tournal in Belgium, and have subsequently continued to develop their unique aesthetic as an intimate conversation between two creative visions, which unfolds into a visual poetry of precious material forms.
Matthieu and Nicolas established their brand in Paris in 2001, where they began to create their own seasonal collections while working in collaboration with a number of brands: Maison Martin Margiela, Loulou de la Falaise, Nina Ricci for Olivier Theyskens, Kenzo, Shirtology, Herve Leger, and Jitrois.  In October 2009 they collaborated with Maje, as part of a special initiative with the Bon Marche and the association Mecenat Chirurgie Cardiaque, to create an original design for a limited series of printed silk scarves.  In March they created the principal accessories for the AF Vandevorst Autumn 2010 runway presentation.  In 2009, the team collaborated with Lady Gaga to unveil their first surrealist millenary creation.  From April through June 2010 another example of their innovative headwear can be viewed as part of the Fashionably Curious exhibition at 18 Stafford Terrace in London’s Kensington district.

Style:

Most of their influences are inked to the Belgian countryside. A world of silence in the middle of nature. They both focus on farm animals, the gardens, meadows leading to a rural and forest jewelry.
“ The side of taxidermy laboratory, hunters of insects… fascinates us. Influence = Jacques Tati – Marcel Duchamp – Matthew Barney – …” MoutonCollet is a game of contrast and opposition. ”By far nice but far less about …” Our signature adopt another language and confronts the beautiful and the ugly, attraction and repulsion … ”The object becomes jewelry = jewelry becomes the object”  - ”Our jewelry tell a story … a world that become such a message, a memory, a smell, a magic talisman borrowing.”
“A Belgitude Campagnarde for precious jewels”

Men Fall Winter 2011

A world without MoutonCollet would be lacking intense imagination. Building a men’s jewellery line to the theme Head in the Clouds, the duo that is Matthieu Mouton and Nicolas Collet have brought together a series  of exceptional pieces this Fall/Winter2011.
Using early aviators, the 1900’s bowler hat and modern dandyism as inspiration, Mouton Collet have used a combination of gourmet chain and silver with black nickel and embroidered leather and braided cotton cord to create an array of signature styles that evolve each season. Leather chain lighter pouches, fluorescent yellow enamel plane pendants and shearling sheep lined cuffs tell a story of young boys who dare to dream and wish to fly  in a world suspended by gravity. Cubed mechanic finished in either metallic or enamel, highlights the season’s colour palette of cobalt, fluro yellow and black and sits at the end of a fine, long silver chain. A combination of silver necklaces, and leather shearling collar pieces are a juxtaposition of style and opposing influences – very much the signature of MoutonCollet collections. Working with divine materials and set within an outré story, Fall/Winter2011 for Men is a narrative of man’s ambition against the desire to dream.

The Women Fall/Winter 11 Collection:

The moment that lies between question and answer, the colour that sits gently between black and white, the feeling  between sweet and sombre, therein you find the inspiration that spurs a MoutonCollet Collection. Womens Fall/Winter2011 fails to disappoint, with an array of colour, new techniques and divine materials that create another season of curious beauty. Working with the shapes that come from the art deco era, the empowering crossover from Princess to Queen and the  imagery from Purple Rain, Matthieu Mouton and Nicolas Collet have built a series of exquisite pieces. Think lustful  earrings with gun barrel and pearl grey hematite, cuffs using patent leather braiding, collar necklaces with studs, enamel  and stunning chain accents alongside velour, ribboned headbands. A colour palette with regal overtones, metals of nickel noir and oxide are used with grey and black pearls, leopard ribboning  and velour in colours violet, orange, vert and black. Fused together this collection by MoutonCollet is a season of stand out design, made to answer the mind’s most obsolete questions.