Unique in Every Respect. Boys Don’t Cry/Paris

BDC – Boys Don’t Cry / PARIS

UNIQUE IN EVERY RESPECT There’s no doubt whatsoever that Colette has left behind a gap in the Parisian retail landscape. In June 2018, Sophie Mechaly and Felix Boehm launched the menswear store Boys Don’t Cry in an attempt to plug said gap.

Discreet understatement or original creativity? Owner Sophie Mechaly and store manager Felix Boehm prefer the latter. They strive to position Boys Don’t Cry as an artistic space for men’s fashion, design, and art – a contact point for very special, innovative design. The product range creates an ideal environment. It features renowned collections such as Off-White, Palm Angels, and Marni, supplemented with, for example, imaginatively printed silk shirts by Casablanca, colourful cashmere sweaters

A space for artistic development, both in terms of the interior and product range: all design details have a history, just like every fashionable piece.

Owner Sophie Mechaly and store manager Felix Boehm have de- vised Boys Don’t Cry as an exciting store.

by The Elder Statesman, and fashionable western styles by Garçons Infidèles. This is fashion capable of presenting itself with a touch of humour, a pinch of self-irony. The calmer antithesis is the cool, classical approach of Husband Paris, whose founder Nicolas Gabard translates inspirations from vintage magazines into modern cuts. He has even created a few suits of his own in collaboration with BDC. Shoes by Church’s, boots by Garçons Infidèles, and sneakers by Off-White, Palm Angels, and Readymade complete the fashion range. Everything is underpinned with art and design books.

ART AND SELECTION Mechaly is not only a passionate art collector and avid The Cure fan (which is why she named her store after a hit by the band), but she is, above all, known as the founder of the Paul & Joe brand. Boehm worked with her on the design of the men’s collection until it was discontinued in favour of the more successful women’s collection. “We got along very well right from the start, which is why Sophie thought of me when she decided to implement her vision of a multi-brand store for men,” says Boehm. The store itself was designed in cooperation with the architect Payam Askari and numerous other artists. The organic-sculptural walls were designed by Ben Berckmoes of Belgium, while the counter and two resin pedestals were designed by Hilda Hellström of Denmark. Claude Lévêque, who is known for a large installation created for the Paris Opera, designed the neon installation above the cash desk.

BDC – Boys Don’t Cry

62 Rue des Saints-Pères, Paris/France www.bdc-paris.com Opening: June 2019 Owner: Sophie Mechaly Employees: 3 Sales area: 100 sqm Brands: Adaptation, Bode, Cormio, Davi, Garçons Infidèles, Husbands, Local Authority, Marni, Off-White, Palm Angels, R13, Readymade, RtA, Sies Marjan, SSS Word Corp, Telfar, The Elder Statesman, Unravel, Yeezy Accessories brands: Church’s, OffWhite, Palm Angels, Readymade

“The special selection, the artistic design of the store, and constant change and innovation make Boys Don’t Cry so unique,” explains Boehm. “We are always on the lookout for something new and strive to remain curious.”

Machines Don’t Dream!

Tommy Hilfiger aims to digitise the design of its entire collection by 2022. Hugo Boss has set itself similarly ambitious goals. For a very long time it seemed as if the fashion industry was allowing digitisation to pass it by, but now we are witnessing an implementation of technological innovations at all levels of the textile chain – at a breath-taking pace. By the way, it is high time to debunk the prevailing myth of backwardness in terms of digitisation and future technologies. Many processes were initiated below the surface a long time ago. Boss, for example, took first steps towards digital design as early as 2013. Let’s not forget that we are talking about extremely complex processes involving a technology that is still in its infancy in many respects. Much still needs to be developed. EVERYTHING must be checked, tested, and improved before a serious and responsible company could seriously consider transforming existing structures. At the end of the day, digitisation is very different and much more demanding than the agitated Twitter community constantly suggests.

The incoming momentum, as well as the resulting impact on the fashion business, will be immense. As is common in an increasingly discouraged society, fear of the future threatens to obscure the perspective of opportunities. Central slogan: “Digitisation will devour all jobs!” Or more broadly: “Where is there still time and space for people if everything is done by machines that are more skilled?” Both statements are not only – and I repeat this quite deliberately – despondent, but also factually, or at least evidentially, wrong.

First, I would like to look at the claim that digitisation, i.e. technological progress, inevitably leads to mass unemployment. This claim is still being peddled by many – partly out

of simple ignorance, partly due to an ideological agenda: In 1950, just under 25 percent of the workforce in Germany was employed in agriculture and forestry. The current percentage is just below two, while the general employment rate is higher than ever. You get the picture?

And now let’s turn our attention to people and their fear of being replaced by machines. It is perhaps one of the central metaphysical questions of our time. As long as technology primarily entailed scaling human labour, it was perceived as a useful tool. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), or the once again predominantly less intelligent – almost exclusively superficial – exploration of this undoubtedly very differentiated, data-driven penetration of all areas of life, has changed much in the social mindset. Suddenly it wasn’t simply about capacities anymore. If AI is supposed to be capable of composing like the Beatles or painting like van Gogh, then it literally affects what we call the human soul – and thus our feeling of uniqueness. And even if the latter might be perceived as a benefit, an algorithm will never be lovesick enough to write a song, or be fascinated enough by a landscape, a person, or an idea to develop an image before the inner eye.

Yours Stephan Huber stephan@style-in-progress.com

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Stefanie Buchacher Petrina Engelke Janaina Engelmann-Brothánek Isabel Faiss Kay Alexander Plonka Nicoletta Schaper Veronika Zangl

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Johannes Hemetsberger

English translations

Manfred Thurner

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Next issue 27 April 2020