Alexis Mabill. Image by Patrick Demarchelier; The bow tie: Mabille’s signature.

It all began with a boy and a bow tie. Calling upon an impressive pedigree designing for the houses of Yves Saint Laurent and Dior, Lyon-born Chambre Syndicate de la Haute Couture graduate Alexis Mabille created his own ready-to-wear line and Treizeor: a creative and novel approach to branding and building a fashion kingdom based on the bow tie. Within the span of four years, Mabille has evolved the singular accessory beyond its traditional confines, transforming it into womenswear and menswear labels, and accessory and couture lines that reflect his mastery of diaphanous fabrics, lace edging, broderie anglaise and color. Beyond his impressive skill set, the 30-year-old designer’s bon vivant attitude inevitably influences each collection with fantastical whimsy and boundless creativity, imbuing the serious world of French fashion with an endearing fun-filled frivolity.

Sarah Sulzberger Perpich: You have become famous for your playful bow ties. What are your first memories of them?

Alexis Mabille: A long time ago when I was a child, my grandfather wore them. He was a doctor, a very elegant man. Later, my dolls and teddy bears wore bow ties.

Sarah: What do you love about them? How many do you own?

Alexis: [It’s] a very romantic accessory, which was for a long time a masculine detail and step-by-step became a more feminine piece. I don’t know [how many I own]. So many. I’ve worn a lot of them, but attached as a brooch along my collar.

Sarah: Did you like fashion as a child?

Alexis: Yes, I loved it. Since my childhood, I’ve really wanted to design clothes. I followed my passion and have never stopped since I was nine years old.

Sarah: Who were the most influential people in your life as far as steering you towards fashion and style?

Alexis: My mother, who is fun and elegant—and very classic in the same time, and my uncle and his wife, who were a painter and interior designer. I was with them every week to draw and paint, and later my friend Katell Lebourhis. I met her at Dior. She was Mr. Arnault’s dark eminence and worked before with Diana Vreeland at the [Metropolitan Museum of Art] Costume Institute. All of them inspired me a lot.

Sarah: What makes your clothing unique? What’s an Alexis Mabille trademark?

Alexis: I think that it is a mix of the education I got in a very conservative family from Lyon, where I learned the elegance of simplicity, and my taste for colors, materials, fabrics, and even humor and happiness, which is so important in clothes that are to be worn as a coup de coeur….Fantasy, color, playfulness, delicacy, humor and classicalness.

Sarah: Do you have a good sense of humor?

Alexis: I think so. It depends on the moment, as everyone’s [does]. I’m not a comic, but I love twisted situations.

Sarah: How did the womenswear and menswear collection relate to each other as well as to the couture?

Alexis: Both mens and womenswear are the same way to think and to express my personality. That is just my spirit: to share with everyone my desire for details and creativity, and to make clothes that are to be worn. Couture is the same; the only difference is the craftsmanship.

Sarah: What thoughts first crossed your mind when you learned of your opportunity to show a couture collection?

Alexis: I was a coincidence and a strong desire to not present in a conventional way. A few months before, I made some dresses that I showed in a Palais Royal window. After that, some of couture clients came and later I had the opportunity—after discussions with the [couture] federation—to be accepted in the official calendar and to present my ready-to-wear. It is great visibility: to put at the forefront the refinement of my work and the traditional way to sew these delicate clothes.

Sarah: Is the process of couture much different from ready-to-wear?

Alexis: No. Creatively, no. Afterward, in terms of the product you show, yes, it is different than doing a ready-to-wear show. I can’t put a pair of jeans in a couture show even if I have them in my collection for boutiques. I present the more evening part during the show to express a couture silhouette, but at the end in the showroom, you have the cotton version of a long crepe dress or another declination for day. So when I do it—except the way to present and the price—there is no difference for me. I love to play with the ambiguity of showing a couture look that is real and in boutiques later.

Sarah: When you approach a new season what do you think of first?

Alexis: I design a lot of sketches and edit, step-by-step, a coherent idea of the season. Later, the material comes and changes, or reinforces the idea of the collection.

Sarah: If you curated an exhibition, which designers would you put in it?

Alexis: Oh that’s a complicated…a lot. I love a lot of pieces of so many different people from all over the world.

Sarah: Where would you most want to be displayed?

Alexis: I’d love [to be] in the MOMA or Whitney Museum, to have a radical idea of contrast between fashion, volume and color in a very modern and contemporary place.

Sarah: Do you have a hobby aside from designing?

Alexis: Yes, I collect things like mirrors, ceramics and dishes. I love to go out and doing flea markets. I love to make dinners at home and working on a very fantastic table dressing…

Sarah: Out of everything you do, which aspect gives you the most pleasure?

Alexis: I love the very intimate moment when I create my first looks, which will be a sort of introduction of the idea of the season and later, turning around to build a sort of story or way of life.

Sarah: What were your direct influences or references for S/S10?

Alexis:Home wear, bed shirts finished in delicate lace and cotton embroidery or broidery anglaise. I really wanted to express this very special moment when you sleep and you have good or bad dreams—sometimes you are happy and fresh, and later sexy, thinking to decadent things and later, a more dramatic situation expressed by fluffy pajama pieces with hoods in Moroccan crepe.

Sarah: If you could dress anyone in the world, who would it be?

Alexis: The queen of England and Louise Bourgeois.