Welcome To Ouest World

It goes without saying that people are serious about denim. Last year, a pair of original Levi’s jeans from the 1880s sold at auction for over 87,000 USD to a vintage clothing dealer from San Diego - and while he may not be ready to drop an entire life’s savings on a pair of jeans, designer Arthur Robert is undoubtedly a denimhead. After all, it’s the basis for his brand, Ouest, which he established in 2022. Only three collections in, Ouest has already generated plenty of buzz in the industry thanks to Robert’s captivating exploration of masculinity rooted in queer history, dreams of California, and the surfing culture of Biarritz where his family would holiday. Enough buzz that Ouest is among three finalists for this year's ANDAM Pierre Bergé Prize.

‘This job is my passion and of course I’m happy when my peers say I'm going in the right direction’, Robert tells me over Zoom. The competition for the coveted accolade is stiff with Ouest against Avellano, known for their provocative latex eveningwear, and Vaillant Studio, who are reframing lingerie as daywear. Ouest stands out among his peers as the only menswear brand nominated, making his chances of winning 100,000 EUR and mentorship from Lacoste’s deputy CEO Catherine Spindler well within his grasp. ‘It would mean a lot in developing the brand as well as that validation from the industry’, Robert explains.

While Ouest is still in their infancy, Robert isn’t lacking in experience which informs how he manages his brand. After a decade as a menswear designer, most notably at AMI, establishing his own label was a step towards independence. The Parisian tells me it was the period just before France went into lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19 when he began seriously considering launching his own brand. Coming out of lockdown with a solid plan on bringing Ouest to life, the result is an eclectic (and covetable) mix of workwear, western-wear, and streetwear that weaves the designer's varied passions together.

Robert is, admittedly, a denim obsessive. ‘It’s what got me into fashion in the first place’, he says before telling me how his high school years were spent browsing raw denim forums. His voracious appetite for consuming denim content is a story that’s all too relatable, and I can’t help but laugh when he says, ‘It was my first fashion item. A pair of raw denim APC jeans’, as it was mine, as well. The culture around raw denim is expansive, with hundreds of online forums dedicated to documenting how it ages. ‘I like the idea of investing in a piece that you wear to death basically’, he explains. ‘Especially with raw denim. The way the fabric evolves. The way it ages. It ages differently with every wearer’.

There’s a magnetic sincerity hearing Robert gush about denim which comes through not just in his designs but in the brand’s imagery and inspirations. For S/S 23, Ouest looked west, more specifically, New York City’s Christopher Street leading up to the 1980s. At the height of the queer liberation movement, Christopher Street at that time has become the stuff of legend among gay men around the world thanks to the photographers who documented it all. ‘The last campaign and the collection was a tribute to the era’s photographers like [Alvin] Baltrop and Stanley Stellar, who photographed this scene. There was partying; there was cruising; it was a celebration.’

This translated into the quintessential wardrobe of gay men at the time, including fitted baseball T-shirts, cropped jackets and dangerously short shorts. The collection also saw a collaboration with Canadian artist Jack Rothert Garcia. ‘We took titles and phrases from vintage gay magazines of the late 70s early 80s. Taken out of context, there is something enigmatic yet quite funny about those phrases’, says Robert about the selection of shirts printed with ‘strange places, strange things’, and ‘1st rodeo is wet and wild!’.

While celebration and liberation are at the heart of the collection, Robert isn’t ignorant to the tragedy that would follow. ‘There is something about that era that always haunted me’, he states, referring to the AIDs epidemic that took the lives of millions of gay men around the world. Being so open with his queer references might not have batted eyelids five years ago but with the rise of conservatism today, the need for queer perspectives feels more important than ever. American mega-corporation Target announced last month that they would be removing their Pride collection from stores due to threats of violence towards LGBTQ+ employees. Similarly, it was recently revealed that Starbucks in the USA would follow suite by removing any Pride decorations from stores.

’I think the pendulum is swinging and it's going backwards. It's quite worrying when you look at the US and some European countries at the moment. What we take for granted now can be taken back. It’s quite chilling when you think about it,’ he says.

While well aware that the sociopolitical climate in the USA is anything but welcoming to LGBTQ+ communities right now, as a 90s kid growing up in Paris, notions of the American dream were an ongoing reference. ‘There's something so magnetic about the fantasy of America’. And he isn’t the only designer to feel the same way citing the likes of Helmut Lang, Maison Margiela and Raf Simons’ critically acclaimed yet ill-fated time at Calvin Klein 205W39NYC as some of his favourite interpretations of classic American codes.

Though it's universally beloved, denim has long played an interesting part in queer desire. Along with leathermen, cowboys in their Canadian tuxedos are the most recurring characters in the oeuvre of artist Tom of Finland. This year alone, auteur Pedro Almodóvar released Strange Way of Life, a Western romance starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, and the theatre production of Brokeback Mountain both debuted on the West End. When I ask why gay men have such a reverence for Western-wear, he replies, ‘It’s sexy, no?’. There’s no arguing with that. Still, he follows his charming response by explaining, ‘I like that it’s a cliche of masculinity. It’s really old school. That archetype of the ‘man’s man’ riding on his horse, there’s something romantic and sexy about it’.

While speaking with Robert, I get the sense that the designer isn’t looking to radically redefine masculinity the way many designers have tried to, or professed they're doing in the last decade. Rather, the most captivating part about Ouest might just be Robert’s exploration of existing archetypes. From cruisers on Christopher Street, to the surfers of Biarritz and the skateboarders of early 2000s California for A/W 23, Robert’s nostalgic representation of masculinity is sure to resonate with many, making Ouest a brand to keep your eyes on.

As he finalises his S/S 24 collection, Robert assures me we shouldn’t expect a stark departure from previous seasons. ‘I want to keep that outdoors vibe’, he says. ‘Making the outdoors sexy’. As for the presentation taking place in Paris as part of the looming men’s fashion week, the designer tells me, ‘I want it to be a celebration. I think it’s the right moment. It’s summer, the weather is nice and the world is in shambles.’