Bamboo, Ecology and the Future of Haute Couture: A Conversation with Laure Julien

7 Nov

Interview by James Elliott and Liv Franks

Laure Julien is quietly redefining what luxury can look like. Through her work with bamboo, the French artist has taken one of nature’s most unassuming materials and used it as a vehicle to reimagine how we relate to craftsmanship, ecology, as well as the future of high fashion.

After a period of study at the prestigious École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and later at Bunka Gakuen University in Tokyo, Julien apprenticed under bamboo masters across Japan, expanding her repertoire of techniques to incorporate intricate technique involving weaving and drying to develop a refined practice that has caught the eyes of luxury house in her home country.

Now based in Japan, the artist divides her time between artisan residences and collaborations with luxury fashion houses such as Dior, where she advises on the use of bamboo in haute couture collections. With her innovations and study, Julien has challenged Europe’s entrenched attitudes towards bamboo, flipping the perception of the plant as merely a utilitarian and “cheap” material and positioning it instead as a potentially luxurious yet sustainable medium.

In this conversation Phantasy spoke to the artist about the cultural bridge she has explored between France and Japan, the ecological philosophy that has guided her practice and her vision to bring bamboo to the forefront of contemporary art and high fashion.

Phantasy: Thank you so much for joining us today. For those who may not be familiar could you briefly introduce yourself and the kind of work you do?

Laure: My name is Laure Julien and I’m an artist or an artisan d’art. My work is divided into two aspects, but they are very complementary of one another. The first is to complete art residencies and collaborate with other artisans where I mainly work with natural materials. The other is to collaborate with high fashion brands which are mainly French. I work with these brands on projects where they want to integrate bamboo.

My main material is bamboo and I learned how to use it and how to transfigure it into patterns in Japan from two different people. The first is my teacher in Yamanashi and the other is in Beppu.

I studied fashion originally so I have a strong link with fashion and with shapes so I mix bamboo with other materials. For example, I mix bamboo with leather and I make accessories out of it. In general, the idea is to promote the use of bamboo in Europe which is known by few people over there.

James: Can you tell us little about how living in Japan has influenced your work? What did you learn from your master, Tanaka Kyokusho?

Laure: I think his teaching was the start of everything for me. It really changed the path of my professional and personal life. It really changed how I saw my future. Technically, he taught me how to manipulate bamboo, how to weave it, and the potential of each part of the plant. He also helped me understand the respect this material is held in.

We think bamboo is very easy to get access to, but actually it is quite rare to have the right kind of bamboo for our work. It has to go through quite a difficult drying process so he gave me a lot of technical skills as well as teaching me about the values that are linked to this material.

I knew him for approximately a year and a half before I asked to be his apprentice, and that was very important to me. I first met him in Tokyo when I was studying, and we had an interview. Then I took a class with him once a month. That was really my favourite moment of the month.

I think he also saw that I was technically proficient as I had done sewing, knitting and ceramics since I was very young. I understand the mechanisms involved and why it requires an engineer’s way of approaching things.

James: What actually brought you to Bunka Gakuen University?

Laure: So, one or two years before going to Bunka, I studied at École des Arts Décoratifs, where I was really interested in how fashion could be mixed with different materials, and especially materials that aren’t conventionally used for fashion. At the time, Loewe was doing that a lot with ceramics and leather, collaborating with artisans and so they were my inspiration during that time.

There was also an exhibit on Japanese bamboo weaving where all the best artists came together in Paris. It really blew my mind. At the time, when I saw the pieces, I thought that it was so different from the basketry that we do in Europe. It is much finer, and more delicate. I thought it would be so interesting to see if you could replicate it in leather.

My school has a partnership with Bunka, where I could go and study there for a year and get a separate diploma so I went there during COVID when it was so difficult to get into Japan. It was very chaotic.

Once I arrived, I had to research the academic side, and I’m not really a literature kind of person so I used my academic passport to meet people and try to understand how they make things. I interviewed four people. Three about bamboo and one about Yamato-e.

One of them was my teacher in Beppu. The third person is actually the reason I went to Niigata because he was from Sado Island, which is next to Niigata City. I thought it looked interesting and saw there was an artist’s residency, so I thought I should go as there was already a history of bamboo there. All of the interviewees were crucial to my development, even now.

At the start, I was still focused on leather work, but then I saw how they could transform bamboo and became really interested. I guess the shift was really when I came back to France after two years in Japan, to do my graduation collection at design school.

I used bamboo that I had brought back from Japan, but then I was wondering professionally what to do, because the whole point of bamboo is that it’s local and natural, and there isn’t any in France.

“My vision for the future is to make bamboo the next big luxury material in Europe. It would be my goal to promote our vision of this currently undervalued material. ”

— Laure Julien

Phantasy: Actually, I had a similar experience before I came to Japan, when I stumbled across an exhibition featuring Japanese photo books. They were so different from the photography that I had experienced up until that point, and I just knew I had to come an drive in Japan.

Laure: I don’t know about you but there has been a strong Japanese influence around me for a long time. France is the second largest consumer of manga in the world, after Japan. Even how they presented food in anime impressed me.

When I arrived in Japan, all of sudden it was there. For example in Japanese paintings, the clouds the would basically cover half of the screen. And that’s actually how it is in nature here. It was so interesting going from never having seen it, to going to Japan and it all making sense.

Obviously lots of countries use bamboo in Asia. For instance, bamboo weaving originally came from China but Japan has a method that is really unique. If you look at leather in Europe for example, there a re a lot of countries using leather , but you don’t see much of a different in the production or in the leather itself. Whereas Japanese weaving is very different compared to other Asian countries’ style of weaving.

Phantasy: It reminds of going to the Tokyo National Museum and seeing the katana there. I noticed the swords had these wave-like patterns on the blade. This attention to detail was incredible.

Laure: This is how I felt when I first came to Japan. Everything was better, more delicately made but then I came back to France and realised that we also have a strong sense of our heritage and attention to detail.

Once I came back, I had a greater appreciation for French art and crafts. I think it is important to leave and then you can come back to your culture with fresh eyes. You see things you couldn’t see before.

“In Europe we have this vision of bamboo as linked to places like IKEA and it being a cheap product. [After the Dior show] I thought ‘it’s starting to move...people can see it in a haute couture fashion show’.”

— Laure Julien

Phantasy: I think so. It made me appreciate some aspects of the British education system, in the sense that students rarely challenge their teachers or the institutions they are part of here in Japan.

Laure: Yes, I felt that my school in France was designed for the students, and it moved with the students. There is a constant conversation between the students and the staff. The teacher also has to be working so they understand the current economy and design landscape. In contrast, at Bunka, I felt the system was made for the teacher. It’s just so different.

Phantasy: In what way?

Laure: You have to do what the teacher asks you to do. It was so weird for me to see a supply shop inside the school. In France, the business side is very separate from the school but in Japan it goes together. Even though the teachers are supportive and interested, if you feel you need a modification to your project or your schedule, which French teachers would consider and try to help, the Japanese teachers are more like “you have to make it work.” There isn’t the same flexibility.

Both ways have pros and cons. For example, because the French system is so open to whatever you want to do and you see the teacher whenever you want, I probably would have done something less interesting whereas in Japan I had a very precise frame within which to work. I had reports to do each week, reports to write, academic English to learn. It was very well structured. I did research that I still use to this day. I don’t think this would have been the case if I had done the same research in France.

Phantasy: The structure can give you direction.

Laure: Yeah, the timing was good for me.

Phantasy: Let’s talk about the ecological aspect of your work? How did this come to influence your style?

Laure: I think it’s always been a part of my work. I always shopped second hand. I think I also come from a family that doesn’t waste food or material. So, I think it really started from not having much money and still wanting to make my own things from what’s around me. I could create new things from what already exists. I liked not having a blank page in front me.

Slowly I realised that there is already so much production in the world, so why make more? I started to work with second hand material or natural materials that I felt were less impactful to the environment. For example, when I work with leather, I would use industry left overs or if I wanted to buy good leather, I would buy vegetable tan leather.

I feel like our generation has to think about what it uses. That’s why I chose bamboo over ceramics or leather. It was the fact that you use four year old plants and give them a new life and they live longer than four years. That’s harder to do with others. Will they really use it for 20 plus years?

The drying process is also quite sustainable. For leather, I couldn’t do the tanning myself whereas I can for bamboo. If I make ceramics, I have to use an oven which consumes a lot of energy. It’s really big and isn’t easy to move around. In contrast, I only need a few knives for bamboo. It was important to give myself mobility with my work. I wanted to explore it within a sustainable framework.

Phantasy: How do you see your artistic vision developing in the future?

Laure: I think the value lies in using local materials. We are very particular about how we manipulate the raw materials. I don’t use any chemicals in my process and what is specific to my studio is that we are focused on the details.

Phantasy: How did your collaboration with Dior come about and what was the thinking process behind what you made

Laure: They came to me with a precise idea already formed. I don’t know why they picked bamboo exactly—maybe the size was interesting for them because usually crinoline is made with plastic or metal. Bamboo can be more beautiful, and technically can be flexible.

The conversation centred on what kind of bamboo was available, how it is manipulated and what can be done with it. I introduced them to French types of bamboo. I focused on French bamboo because I really want to use bamboo from the country it’s in. I explained the different properties and we had a discussion about the scratches that naturally appear on bamboo.

I was there as an advisor on the raw material and what can be done with it. As well as what colours are available, you have green, you have yellow. After that, I showed them how to develop bamboo. I did some work with a friend who works with feathers and showed them. This inspired Dior and they asked us to make hats for the same fashion show inspired by punk, using leather and feathers.

When making the hats, we had more creative input, because we designed the whole thing ourselves whereas for the crinoline they had specific ideas. I’m sure they also learned a lot about bamboo and this made me more willing to use it.

I thought “this is starting to move and people can see it in a haute couture fashion show”. In Europe we have this vision of bamboo as linked to places like IKEA and it being a cheap product. So it was a good step for the promotion of bamboo in Europe.

Phantasy: Looking to the future, what do you have planned?

Laure: I’m really happy about our latest project, which is going to be exhibited in April from the 27th - 29th at the Beppu Art Fair. We are going to showcase and sell our work from Niigata. I’m also going to show some work I did with washi [traditional Japanese paper]. I learnt this in Nigata, so I have both washi and bamboo work.

I will keep applying for different residencies and exhibitions. I’ve also started receiving orders from high fashion brands which is really nice. It’s a good balance, especially financially. I feel very valued in my work through these collaborations. They are of a very high standard so it’s really nice to work on projects with them only a year after graduation.

In the future, when I return to France, I want to develop more and invite some Japanese artists over. I want to develop my studio too so I’m able to do more production. Currently, I can do the prototypes but it is difficult to make 100 pieces.

I am also directing research with other labs in Paris. This scientific research is about finding the most efficient way to make bamboo of the same quality as Japanese bamboo so that we can have really high quality French bamboo.

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