Velvet & Smoke
A moody editorial for an emerging Parisian couture house, shot in a disused Belle Époque theatre.
Client
Maison Lenoir
Category
Fashion
Location
Paris, France
Year
2024
The story
Maison Lenoir's winter collection was built around heavy velvets and architectural tailoring, so we went looking for a location with equal drama. We found it in a shuttered theatre in the 10th arrondissement — peeling gilt, dust in the air, and a single working spotlight.
The creative direction leaned cinematic: smoke machines, hard side-light and long shadows that let the garments carve shapes out of darkness. We shot eleven looks across two days, moving between the stage, the balcony and a mirrored dressing room untouched since the eighties.
The editorial ran across the house's launch campaign and was picked up by two print magazines. Six frames from the series later joined my permanent portfolio — rare for commissioned work.
Behind the scenes
The theatre had no power on the stage floor, so the entire production ran off battery strobes. The smoke is real, the dust is real, and the spotlight is the theatre's own — rewired the morning of the shoot.
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