Classic fashion photography always has something mysterious about it, an obscure origin: as if it appeared out of nowhere, in its anodyne perfection. Anyone who has
Your aesthetic has a DYI-artisanal quality to it, how did you develop it?
Mous Lamrabat: Finally being broke is paying off! Honestly, I've been doing it my whole life. You wanna be part of something and you can't because you don't have the right tools, so you just fake it until it works out. I used to wear fake shoes, I remember I still have these hats, me and my brothers used to cut Nike logos from the commercials and embroider them to have a Nike hat! And it's not far from what we do today: we try to be part of something that you didn’t think you could have a way in. And thank God in 2021 people appreciate the realness of it! It's by luck that it is accepted as something cool, because now all these people that didn't have anything can arise, finally can be seen. You need to create your own fortune. If you like something you can still do it without anybody's permission. I always think that whatever I do, I do it for the youth.
Lisa Lapauw: We are based in Belgium and we don't have lots of fashion magazine here so you have an hard time finding agencies that represents the brand you would need for an impressive photo, or you need to pay the shipment yourself from abroad and that’s not an option - it’s a little bit of a loop. So we started working with students - that’s definitely an advantage we have, we have wonderful schools here, so you kind of manage to have an interesting aesthetic without the big brands. And then, I was in Paris a few month ago at an appointment with an agency and they said something like 'You know, the difference with you and other stylists that live in the fashion capitals, that have access to the right pieces from the right designers, is that your style doesn't belong to a season, it lasts longer. It's another way in, more difficult maybe, but more timeless.'
Mous Lamrabat: There's this thing I read that went something like "We just make our own fashion, and because we make it look fashionable, it becomes fashion." If people like it or not it doesn't matter, it still looks fashion. Of course we are not alone in this, there's a lot of young creatives on this path: you can take literal trash and transform it into something that people wow about.
I think you manage to do it because you have a very sophisticated visual and fashion literacy.
Mous Lamrabat: I guess, I think it's about having a style - even if you are on a desert island with nothing you can create a fashion story, you have a penchant for forms, shapes...
Lisa Lapauw: I used to be very jealous of those stylists who had all the runway looks - I could only dream about some of those pieces! But then you see the picture... And it's just that look on that model. I think it's much more rewarding if you just make it personal.
Are you trying to conjure a world, a personal universe?
Mous Lamrabat: I really try to do that. My art is the place where I feel comfortable, you can enter but if you have something mean to say I will kick you out: this is my place! I have this feeling of not belonging in a lot of places, but whenever I do something creative it feels like home. And this is something I will protect with my life.
Can you walk me through the artistic process that leads to a shooting?
Mous Lamrabat: It depends - sometimes is just chance. I actually do pretty well on set without preparing anything and, by the way, I love it.
LisaLapauw: Sometimes is like that, sometimes there's some planning involved. When we prepared the Vogue Arabia editorial we went to this place that's like an atelier that makes and collects costumes for theatre, carnivals, movies. Normally people go there if they have a party, like a bachelor party or Christmas, but they let me into their archive and they have pieces that are so weird, like stuff from a school play from 30 years ago, or like the big hearts costumes that ended up in the shooting. The cool thing is that you put them into a completely different
And what would it change if you finally had access to whatever prop or outfit you'd like?
Mous Lamrabat: I think the style would be the same, just bigger. My limits really created my style and I love it, this is how my head is wired now. But if I had a big team and more budget it would just be bigger, like the same but with like 50 models, or more elaborate set designs, really a sort of performance art. The creative process though, would stay exactly the same.