Football of Fashion: Lucie Grand Mourcel, designer
Cast your mind back to the 2009 MTV awards when Katy Perry turned up in West Ham lingerie. In full 50s pin-up mode, the popstar wore a claret chequered corset with two club badges on the bust, matching hotpants with ‘Rusty’ across the bum in honour of then beau and die-hard Hammer Russell Brand, a garter, fishnets and colour-coordinated blue and claret platform Mary Janes. It was bold, it was surprisingly cute (I wanted a Chelsea one at the time), and naturally, the lad’s mags went wild. She wasn’t the only one seduced by the concept: SEASON 03 cover star Bip Ling customised her own Agent Provocateur corset with football cups and proudly showed us when we shot her at home in 2017. Now, fashion designer and stylist Lucie Grand Mourcel has picked up the still-problematic football lingerie baton, given the reduced but still present sexualisation of women in football and various styles have appeared over the years. But the Parisian is expertly upcycling football jerseys to create pieces that have a high fashion twist, plus a tantalising dash of French insouciance.
‘Football clothing is very masculine. I wanted to divert it and contrast it with the corset, the opposite of sport,’ the 26-year-old explains. ‘There was a World Cup two years ago and I wanted to highlight football in all its splendour. Hijacking sports clothing codes is nothing new and sportswear brings together the love between fashion and sport.’ On the technicolour website for her fashion brand Masion Mourcel, the current drop of football corsets are under €150 and sadly sold out, probably because they’ve been spotted on French popstars like Angèle and styled in plenty of forward-thinking editorials. Either classic full corsets, panels and boning attached to the bust and bottom of football shirts, one way to sort out the notoriously bad fit, or football scarfs turned into halter tops fastened by laces. They’re as sexy as you want them to be, equally head-turning upon bare skin or layered over a t-shirt. ‘I always choose my clothes in flea markets, I’ve always liked to search and find "the unique piece",’ Mourcel shares, revealing where she sources her fabrics and materials, besides donations and thrift stores. Fingers crossed she finds more unwanted football gear soon to put some new pieces in stock in time for summer. ‘Today, there is a uniform offer on the market which I find very boring – from north to south, we dress the same way,’ she concludes.
Here, Mourcel breaks down her novel approach to football fashion.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your brand.
Lucie Grand Mourcel: I am a Mod’art International (Parisian School of Fashion) graduate with a fashion design bachelor degree. Maison Mourcel was founded in Paris in 2017 and creates collections of unique pieces from recycled materials and clothing that aim to protect the environment and promote social equality. By having both masculine and feminine characteristics, the brand stems from the will to abolish gender, social, musical and/or clothing distinctions. I collaborate with artists from diverse backgrounds, including graphic designers, painters and musicians, to encourage experimentation between artistic disciplines and to showcase their work.
Why did you decide to upcycle and recycle sportswear in your collections?
Lucie Grand Mourcel: I wanted to disturb locker room codes by making for ultra-feminine sportswear. Under Maison Mourcel, I make unique pieces by hand with specific skills and unique customisation, giving the clothing new meaning and history. The contemporary design changes the story of the garments and makes them timeless.
186 Likes, 4 Comments - Maison.Mourcel (@maison.mourcel) on Instagram: "MAISONMOURCEL.COM ➖SITE EN LIGNE➖ - En ligne : https://maisonmourcel.com/ Pièces uniques sont..."
Who are you catering for with your football-focused designs and how do you want them to feel wearing your designs?
Lucie Grand Mourcel: I would like everyone to wear my creations, regardless of their gender! I chose football pieces because they are often worn with sweat which is not sexy. I wanted to change values and elevate items that we only wear at certain moments in our life.
What is the future of football fashion? How do you want to change the world?
Lucie Grand Mourcel: New material techniques. Upcycling for me is the future, a force, as people want to wear unique pieces. I challenged myself to create in a different way, by using what already exists in order to create pieces showing our savoir-faire (ability to adapt). We definitely throw away too many clothes and have forgotten how to fix them: 442 million pieces end up in the trash each year, an infinite source of materials to create with. It’s time to change!
230 Likes, 8 Comments - Maison.Mourcel (@maison.mourcel) on Instagram: "💚MAISON MOURCEL 💚#NEWCOLLECTION CORSET / En exclu sur le festival @openmodefestival / model:..."
Finally, if you could be any football player alive or dead, who would you be and why?
Lucie Grand Mourcel: Zidane because he heads first :)
Words: Felicia Pennant
Images: Antoine Guilloteau and @maison.mourcel