Through the Eyes of Uniforme

By Laurence Benaïm

A DUAL LOOK

With Uniforme, one plus one makes four: a double pair of eyes.  Remi Bats and Hugues Fauchard met at the Studio Berçot. Their friends refer to them as “The Boys.” These two epicureans share a minimalist signature and reveal themselves in a wardrobe inspired as much by the trees’ bark as by the never-ending walks in Paris.

“We have always had mutual passions and obsessions,” they say. They both enjoy looking at people, observing them,” as much as they like to immerse themselves in nature. They study functional, military clothing and vintage pieces to transcribe them in a new light, “simplifying, purifying,” beyond all references and all forms of nostalgia. “To create clothes that are not meant to be seen but to feel good,” they maintain.  In the past ten years, they have only been apart for a fortnight – a designer couple who claim to be “looking in the same direction,” and drawing a form of serenity from the circular economy.  If they chose to leave the French capital for Nantes, it was to better find the path of a story – one naturally challenging and tied to the quality of time. There’s the time it takes to visit the manufacturers, from Normandy to Limoges; to cultivate their garden; to master the art of trompe-l’oeil; to feel a seemingly compact material that reveals its incredible suppleness when touched. “We don’t need to say things to each other. We understand each other through our eyes,” they say.  If one prefers science fiction and the other auteur films, they share the same passion for gardens, cooking, Terrence Malick, the visionary director of slow time and contemplation. 

On their way to work, they walk through a large park whose oaks, plane trees and eucalyptus trees inspired this winter collection – fading in and out of beiges, whites and khakis, in the spirit of a new, particularly subtle monochrome camouflage. “It is precisely because we look at each other that we still have things to say to each other.”