“It’s this way of doing simple, beautifully.” Get to know the sustainable label poised to take Scandinavia by storm

In the striking, museum-like setting of the Paustian interiors mecca in the Danish capital, Parisian label Fête Impériale showcased a range of its sustainably produced pieces as part of last February's Copenhagen Fashion Week schedule. Fast forward only four months, and the label has launched a capsule collection with one of the world’s biggest luxury online retailers and is set to open a string of stores across Scandinavia.

“It’s all about simple design and simple cuts, but still with a twist of something different. It’s this way of doing simple, beautifully,” says Laura Gauthier Petit, the founder and creative director of Fête Impériale, of the seemingly inherent parallels between French and Scandinavian style. Gauthier Petit launched the label in 2015, with a focus on high quality, ethical production and female empowerment. Beyond the buzz caused in France in that short time, the label has also organically resonated with the Nordic market.

“I think the overall Scandinavian market, they are very savvy. They have this eye for elements which are natural and sustainable, alongside their very strong sense of design. Our pieces really fit to the that market, which explains after just one fashion week, we are in this position,” Gauthier Petit says.

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Gauthier Petit resides in Le Marais, and it’s the home of the label too, with Fête Impériale’s boutique and atelier based in the sought-out inner Parisian neighbourhood. Her unwavering commitment to sustainability and the highest quality processes sees the brand's production carried out in a controlled, considered and responsible way, alongside a custom made-to-measure design offering from her studio. She designs the prints herself, and production is usually in Paris, though sometimes she calls on European counterparts depending on the specific savoir-foire or innovative techniques required. “For instance, the Italians are amazing with silks, soft silks, and printing silks. And I also work with Portugal when it comes to jersey, activewear or puffer jackets,” Gauthier Petit explains. “But I always personally make sure the factory is ethical and the way they work with people is good,” she adds.

One thing that stands out in our conversation is her position on fashion’s purpose. To Gauthier Petit, it’s clearly all about how fashion makes you feel, rather than how it makes you look. “I’m a woman, creating for women. I believe clothes are more than just clothes. It’s kind of a soft shell or armour for a woman to protect herself the way that she wants on a daily basis. And as a woman, I know how we want to feel in clothes, rather than fitting into a man’s idea of it.”

The brand's manifesto echoes this, reading: ‘The Fête Impériale woman is never too much. She will take up space in a room and make her voice heard.” It feels like an especially relevant statement, as at the time of our conversation, the United States has just announced the reversal of Roe vs Wade, affecting the rights of roughly 33 million women.

Fête Impériale’s support for women extends beyonds its designs, through a range of charitable partnerships and programs. One of the brand’s key associations, Info-Endometriosis, is especially personal to Gauthier Petit. Suffering from the notoriously under-researched and underfunded condition herself, a friend convinced her to work with the cause most meaningful to her. “I think ten years ago, everything about being a woman was about being a strong warrior and coming across as perfect.You don’t want to feel weak, talking about health issues. But no one's perfect, and it is good to be able to talk about what's not perfect.” Through Fete Imperiale's initiatives with Info-Endometriosis, Gauthier Petit has helped to liberate discourse around this complex women's issue.

After hearing about her initiatives for women, it is unsurprising to learn about the significant influence of women in Gauthier Petit’s life. She talks about her grandmother, as a particularly important figure and source of inspiration: “She was everything. She kind of raised me in a way.” Gauthier Petit recounts the biopic-worthy story of her grandmother who hailed from the tiny volcanic Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, eventually becoming a philosophy head teacher and skilled seamstress. She credits her grandmother with her desire to design clothes, and also her keen interest in art history.

Another special female bond in Gauthier Petit’s life is the connection she has formed with Fernanda Hernández, sustainability director at LuisaViaRoma. “We met during Copenhagen Fashion Week in February and we had a very strong connection from the beginning,” she tells me. “Fernanda has such strong values. She believes in what she is doing and she was one of the first to be doing it. We just click.” This bond has resulted in the new collaboration between Fête Impériale and the luxury retailer, with the brand launching a capsule collection for autumn / winter 2022 on the LVR Sustainable platform that Hernandez heads, joining its curated line-up of conscious fashion and lifestyle brands.

In line with the LVR Sustainable launch, we can expect to see more of Fête Impériale in Scandinavia in the months to come. The brand will once again have a presence at the upcoming Copenhagen Fashion Week and is an official partner of Enter Art Fair, Scandinavia’s foremost international art fair held at the end of August. Gauthier Petit also shares the label's plans to be launching stores in Norway and Denmark in the near future.

In terms of the brand’s expansion of its Parisian identity on a Scandinavian, and global, scale — it all come back to the name. “Fête Impériale is a reference to the 19th century, the time of Napoleon III, where these crazy two or three day parties were thrown in Paris. It was a new thing at the time because it mixed artists, courtesans, politicians, and it was entirely new to mix people from different backgrounds. So it’s a testimony to Parisian history, but also a testimony to the society that we are living in. Everything is mixing and blending. It’s a phenomenon."