STRONG SILHOUETTES
Style “The hand of destiny almost placed us here”, says artist Aigana Gali of her brand Art Couture’s newly opened Kinnerton Street home. This serendipitous placing is so because Aigana’s first ever trunk show was held nearby, at what at the time was women’s-only health club Grace Belgravia.
“The space is more to meet clients and work on ideas rather than being a shop, and it’s by appointment only, which means having a discreet location helps,” explains Aigana, whose brand creates pieces of bespoke art on the back, quite literally, of luxury coats. She keeps a studio for the more messy paint work just off Kensington High Street, and another more pristine one in Dulwich where she works only on the garment painting. Of the ever charming Kinnerton Street, she says it’s “a tiny street but it’s full of character, and characters as well”.
Aigana Gali
Even as a little girl in Kazakhstan, Aigana was drawn to making things and being creative with fabric, a trait she learnt from her mother. Although never wanting to model, she won a huge contest aged just 15 and “signed the contract and moved to Paris pretty much in a couple of weeks”. It wasn’t a happy experience, but the offer was too big to reject at the time, although the former fashionista does regret the decision looking back. “It was a completely different environment and for me as a 15 year old it was really painful.
Many of my friends from that time were fine and they stayed and worked, but I came back after three and a half years.” Although the experience didn’t lead her down the path of the fashion world, it “developed me in the direction of beautiful things, like the ceiling by Chagall in the Opéra and other beautiful images in Paris.” This love of beauty combined with a passion for precious fabrics led to the idea of creating a collection of clothes as a canvas for wearable art.
“I’ve now realised something bigger than just me manifesting my ideas on the coats. It’s quite the opposite, I become a translator of someone’s deeper ideas and symbols.
Aigana describes the process of creating a bespoke piece in collaboration with a client almost as a spiritual experience. “I’ve now realised something bigger than just me manifesting my ideas on the coats. It’s quite the opposite, I become a translator of someone’s deeper ideas and symbols. It’s always a beautiful journey and there is a feeling you can actually help this person, which is another side of this project that I hadn’t anticipated. I never had this ambition originally to help people, I was only a painter.” Aigana points out that the coats are quite bold themselves, so the wearer has to be quite brave too. “In this situation you don’t have a mask to hide behind, you have your own symbols and your life on your back. You celebrate who you are in a very bold way.”
An example of the impact Aigana’s work can have is a businesswoman who took six months to decide to buy her first coat. “After she bought it she disappeared for a few months, and I was feeling uncomfortable because usually clients respond quickly and say how amazing they feel.” Aigana subsequently found out that the woman had been in hospital and said afterwards that the coat had saved her life in that time of health struggles. “She would wear pyjamas with the coat over the top and go to meetings with the posture that she was feeling fine and strong, with the cocoon of the coat for support.”
That strong silhouette is down to a manufacturer in Belgium. “It is the same factory that makes some of the Dior, so the quality is stunning. For coats the quality of construction on the inside is so important because a coat is almost like a building. And I’m not a fashion designer, I just sketch out a design and I send it to the factory and they make a 3D model.” For a client opting for a bespoke piece there are 20 different cuts in different sizes to choose from, plus a choice of fabric. “Instead of buying fabric from a supplier I search for leftovers from big brands like Chanel and Valentino. We decided to be this way because in fashion there is such huge overproduction, which is then often destroyed. I’m not the only one, but now smaller brands can find 100 [metres] that will allow us to create 25 coats.” The bonus of course is that this also makes them limited edition too. And the fabrics are always cashmere, canvas, linen or wool and always lined with 100 per cent silk.
The starting price is between £1,800 to £3,500, but Aigana is planning to create a range of less expensive pieces. “Possibly cardigans that will be designed in London and digitally created and made in Belgium.” For the coats though the main technique is handpainting with a lot of gold leaf, embroidery and lots of crystals. “I paint with dye so the pigment is deep in the fabric, so the coats are fine in the rain and with dry cleaning.” When it comes to the artistic element, mythology is a source of inspiration in interpreting someone’s signature design. Aigana describes one example of a coat which signifies what it means to her to be an artist. “It starts with a little bird on top because you always have a little dream ready to fly away from your head. Then the snake is a symbol of wisdom, so although you’re a dreamer you have to be wise enough to serve this world. “The golden lines are a manifestation of energy, almost like a meditation. The wings are a symbol of the ability and bravery to fly away with an idea. The leaves symbolise shooting new beginnings, and standing on the fish means not to forget that you are standing on the slippery surface of reality.”
Belgravia — February 2020, written by Cally Squires
