I always used this image of a big marker...when you start school, it's like a big fat marker. As you go through, you're trying to get to a super thin pencil line. This is your essential creative voice.
Innovation is the process where individuals or organizations create new ideas, methods, products, services, or solutions that significantly impact and add value. Blending the desire for innovation with the skill to execute is something only a few manage to do. Maxime Touze known as Maxime Black has found the link between the two. inspired by science fiction movies and comic book artists, such as Jean Giraud, at an early age. Mixing these influences into years of craftsmanship and tailoring training, Maxime is an unstoppable creative force. Bringing unconventional practices and processes like Artificial Intelligence to convey his wild ideas. We chatted with him before his debut Paris Fashion Week showroom, where we got exclusive access and photos.
Maxime launched his label following the success of his 2023 Graduate collection, he talked about the differences of continuing to design now no longer under the umbrella of Central Saint Martins, “It's different when you're doing, a graduate collection for school, you have the freedom to do anything you want and explore. As a brand, we have to respect the codes that we’re given in the first initiation of the project. Now we have to follow up on what we are trying to say, which is very interesting”. Yet, with his creativity and love for the infusion of technology, he continues to push boundaries.
Although his current practices and methods are unconventional, he had ten years of self-taught tailoring experience, before polishing his creative voice at CSM. He makes it a note to incorporate this into his work, saying, “even if we take a lot of inspiration from sci-fi and use scientific ways of producing things, there is a lot of traditional craftsmanship that we put in the work. It's mixing AI with tailoring.”
His graduate collection comprised of over 3,000 images of Maxime modeling clothes, then fed into a self-built AI interface, each rendered picture interpreted tangibly in the collection. He talked about his mindset on it now, “I always used this image of a big marker...when you start school, it's like a big fat marker. As you go through, you're trying to get to a super thin pencil line. This is your essential creative voice.”
His love for science fiction and technology started from a young age, he cites creators such as Jean Giraud and Chris Voss as inspirations. Movies and comic books were the foundation for his idiosyncratic designs. Despite clear inspiration and references, it took time to understand how to communicate his vision. “To find your voice, and what you want to say is just time. It took a long time, probably 10 years now. It clicked at CSM during my MA. I was already comfortable that I could pretty much make anything I put my mind to, but where the MA helped me was trying to present it. The presentation was really where it was at.”
Maxime talked regarding the products and processes he had experimented with and making them viable products. Because of Canada’s weather conditions, many of his early iterations were focused on functionality. “Over there, there is nothing that isn’t made for functionality, whether it's clothes, industrial design or product design.” It wasn’t until he worked for Yeezy that he acquired a ‘less is more’ mentality, and shifted his thinking about functionality in a different way: focusing on ease of use. “We're trying to figure out how we will implement a foam cap (it has no breathability, is quite rigid, and will probably make you sweat a lot if it's in contact with your skin) into a product that people can wear on the street and not even question it.” Now, he is currently trying to incorporate this ideology into the footwear, as they try to develop a new silhouette.
A big facet of his current practice stems from an interest in AI. This interest, coming in part from his passion for sci-fi, was amplified when his friend showed him the page @AI_ClothingDaily. “It wasn't even so much [about] copying what the AI was doing, [but rather] how was it [doing it]? How is the AI thinking, and can we try to imitate that?”. To him, AI is more than a tool he can use, it’s a collaborator in his process. The detail with which he talked about the database made his respect for it apparent.
He is clearly an optimist regarding the use-case for AI in fashion, even comparing it to the invention of the sewing machine. “It's something that just everyone's gonna have to start using, it's gonna make our lives a lot easier for sure.” Though he understands that there might be some risks involved, in the uniformity that might come from its overuse. Citing his friend’s thesis on Chat GPT and AI, he says: “If we all use GPT to answer questions, that database won't have 1000 [different] answers for the same question. Maybe we all will eventually start thinking the same, which can be a bit worrying.” Ultimately though, he wants his designs to be innovative and understands the processes by which they are created to be boundary-pushing.
As the brand is growing and evolving, their new shift towards menswear provided a way to test the limits of their current approach. “That's what's interesting with AI is we understood that when we were feeding images, with menswear, it's always the same lens, just a top and bottom. The lines of menswear are very defined”.With the wide range of opportunity womenswear provides, he had to look to broader sources of inspiration too, including Tom Ford. He emphasizes, though, his interest in the renowned designer is “more the cultural aspects”, as his central reference pool remains akin to that of previous collections. “There is this comic named Largo Winch. It's not sci-fi, but it's a good vision of women that I think is very interesting. It was written by this Belgian guy Van Hamme. Every woman character is a very powerful woman. Super sexy.”
As a forward-thinking designer, he has many ideas for the future of his brand in the years to come. “It would be interesting if we could continue to develop styles that people start recognizing. Right now, we’re very small. We have a strong base of good styles. Keep on exploring all of these technological concepts.” Before adding, “Merging science and fashion, one of the initial ideas was that smart clothing is inevitable, connected garments are inevitable. For now, connected garments and smart clothing are not at all judged by the realm of fashion, style, or proportion, it is purely about what it can do. So, creating a bridge between the two, I think will be diminished in the next five years, trying to make a suit or haptic suits, that will permit you to be in a VR world.”
Outside of the creative aspect we discussed how Maxime handles the business aspect of his brand and marketing. Here, he lays out his advice to younger designers on how to handle this as well, “I think that’s the real difference between students that maybe become something [rather] than students that have a lot of talent but are kind of limited. I wish there was more teaching that was being done about how to start thinking about production. I would say, make sure you’re knowledgeable with tech packs and make sure you’re researching the costs and budget to produce products.” He talks about a younger generation of designers and says he’s excited in their future, including his own.
He echoes this sentiment when asked about the future of fashion and who he’s most excited to see progress, “@Dianastrang and all my interns, they’re from a different generation, they have a different approach to dressing because they were raised by video games. Much more fantastic. They dress like their avatars.”
With the challenges involved, the materials used, and processes required Maxime had to find alternate ways to incorporate sustainability within his brand. Part of this process is sourcing everything locally, “Everything that we do is in London. The studio’s in London, the factories, the fabrics are sourced in London, and most of them are deadstock”. Another aspect is an upcoming project, inspired by Virgil’s Pyrex, of bulk upcycling. Within his work you can see the progression and the lessons he learned over the years imbued into the products produced today.
Throughout our chat he mentioned other students like @Yaku , @Yaz_XL, and Charlie Constaninou extensively. I sensed a great pride and admiration for his fellow graduates and former classmates. He spoke of the importance of a strong connection in his choice of collaborators, saying, “you have to have a strong friendship or connection with the person that you're collaborating with.” The strength of the connection can fuel a greater understanding of each party’s creative vision. “It's not just about the aesthetic, it's that there’s no lag between the actual [people] that are making it, the humans, real human connection.” He laughed after talking so much about AI, “Human after all, eh?”
