It was in France where he met his partner in both life and now business, Luis Philippe, with whom he launched his eponymous brand in 2023. “We decided to do this seven years ago, when I left Vetements and Luis left Colette,” says Alain. “He had an amazing vision of retail, so we decided to do it together one day. We wanted to work a bit longer and also be independent.” Philippe adds, “Launching a brand is quite expensive. We lacked experience, connections, contacts.”

What unfolds from there is a dynamic debate between form and function. “Then the skirt kind of moves around the body,” says Alain. “The idea of choreographing clothes around the body is essential to the DNA of the brand. Sometimes the skirt will become the top.” Other pieces include a jacket with “misplaced” shoulder pads and pleats evoking a dancer’s collarbone, and a scarf with pockets that looks like an elongated vest. “That’s for sure a study of structure,” he continues.

Akin to a ballet performance, the collection evolves across three acts – arrival, rehearsal and premiere. But that’s where the similarities to ballet end, and the subversion begins. Much as contemporary dancers like Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham radicalised their discipline in decades past, the brand deconstructs typical dancewear tropes right down to the fabrics used, going back to basics to build something entirely new.

“There are some fabrics I like that are more heavy and stiff, because they give a static posture,” Alain says, pointing to various pieces in the collection. “A performer has this posture naturally, even without moving sometimes.”

“Virgil’s passing, for me, was also quite a shock and quite tough because we were very close,” Alain says. The cultural icon and his disruption of the fashion industry left a significant impression on him. “He definitely taught me that anything is possible and that there’s no limits. You don’t need to study fashion to be a fashion designer. Design is beyond even just the clothes. It’s the whole vision of who will wear it and how you shoot it.”

That vision is what informs Alainpaul’s vocabulary of fashion – performative yet introspective, curated yet still creative. “I think using paradox always allows a lot of freedom,” says Alain. “It gives you yin and yang, question and answer. And this is always complementary in a collection for me.” Take the choice of footwear used throughout the spring/summer 2024 collection for example, where moulded leather ankle boots and slingbacks echo the twisted feet of ballet dancers, a play on beauty as deformity.

“What’s beautiful in dance and movement, is you can really send a message to society. It’s the same with fashion. Fashion is visual, but you can really say something,” Alain says.