For its Spring/Summer 2023 collaboration, Études invited French visual artist Jean-Baptiste Bernadet to experiment with the garment as a new medium. Driven by the sensory quality of the surface and a romantic ethos, the Brussels-based colorist creates atmospheric artworks that seamlessly blend elements of the natural world with human perception and the psyche. Through an abstraction of the landscape and a unique approach to color, Bernadet’s paintings evoke a diffuse impression where the overlay of matter induces the dissolution of hues.

Composed of eight cotton pieces, this tailoring-inspired wardrobe presents a loose-fitting utility jacket and a blazer with raw edge patches, straight and oversized shirts, as well as cargo pants and shorts. This urban-flair capsule creates a sense of chromatic hypnosis as if retinal persistence became wearable psychedelic landscapes.

“My painting already contains some textile, tie and dye, woven element in itself: the absence of composition in the classical sense (neither top nor bottom, neither right nor left, center and periphery equivalent), and its expansional ambition rather than being constrained and limited to the edges of the canvas makes it a perfect motif for fabric printing and clothes making. I’m thrilled to see these colors come out of the painting and become more a part of the world and the city in a concrete and slightly more democratic way.”—Jean-Baptiste Bernadet