"agnès b. is a way of being made of humility and elegance"

2024-10-18

The house dressed Yoann Bourgeois company's dancers during their performance for the arrival of the Olympic flame at the Panthéon on 14 July.

Seeing a Yoann Bourgeois show is never ‘just’ about dancing. Invited by the city of Paris to perform at the Panthéon for the Olympic flame, the choreographer and his Yoann Bourgeois Art Company took over the square in front of the Parisian monument for a performance that suspended time. Everyone wore clothes from the agnès b collections. Yoann Bourgeois explains.

How did the idea of collaborating with agnès b. come about?
I've been wearing agnès b clothes for a long time. When the City of Paris asked me to take over the Panthéon site for the arrival of the Olympic flame in Paris, I thought about the values I wanted to convey through my show. The timelessness of my message was a natural fit with the brand's aesthetic. But it was above all the notion of authenticity that I wanted to highlight through our presence. In an event as ‘symbolic’ as the Olympic Games, it was crucial for me to seek a level of expression that went beyond the temptations of communication, fashionable catchwords and so on...

What does agnès b. mean to you?
For me, agnès b. represents an approach with character. A personal imprint that has been carefully made over time. A way of being made of humility and elegance.

How did you go about imagining and designing the dancers' outfits for this performance?
The intrinsic coherence of the collections offered a wide range of possible combinations. With my costume designer Pénélope Ogonowski, we looked for a diversified balance of shapes and colours in a chromatic harmony. This would be immediately perceptible through the gyratory device that I had imagined.

What was it like for the dancers to perform in these outfits?
The outfits are comfortable and facilitate movement. But there's something more important: on stage, we're looking for a state of availability that makes us hyper-sensitive. So the textile quality of the fabric becomes a real ally when it comes to performing and conveying emotion!