Going back home might crop up in every form of cultural expression—you’ve read the books, watched the movies, karaoked the songs. Yet Victor Glemaud, a 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist, who’s a pretty nifty designer of inventive, colorful knits, is going to use his trip for his next presentation, currently envisaged for this coming June. Glemaud, who was born in the island’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and moved to the U.S. when he was 3 years old, visited at the invitation of the Clinton Foundation, to attend an event produced by the Haitian Action Network, an organization focused on women’s empowerment and enterprise initiatives. The opportunity came through a series of interconnected events. One minute he was showing his work to Condé Nast executive David ibnAle, before another, Gina Sanders, passed by. She noticed Glemaud was Haitian. Before long, Sanders reached out to him, and everything was set in motion.
It was the first time Glemaud had been back in 15 years—as he grew up, his trips became less and less frequent—and it was both an inspiring and humbling moment, especially given the human tragedy and ravaged landscape of the 2010 earthquake. “I went into the trip without any expectations,” he says. “What I was expecting from the media, and all the perceptions around the world about Haiti, were nonexistent. I saw the same vibrancy, the same resilience I remember from growing up. I saw people going to work in the morning, kids going to school in the same uniform I used to wear. Of course, I was staying in a nice hotel, with Wi-Fi, electricity, and I could have many of the same conveniences of America, but still; I was expecting devastation and I didn’t see that.”
Instead, what he experienced—and who he met—were women actively engaged in their design work: leatherwork by Pascale Theard Atelier, straw designs from Paula Coles, beading by a collective called Papillon, which draws on the skills of 300 local artisans. “I was blown away by what I saw,” Glemaud says. “Without a lot of resources, they’re doing something organic that looked new to my eyes.” New enough for him to be thinking of all sorts of ways he can collaborate with them, bringing their craft together with his for his label Victor Glemaud. He’s asking Pascale Theard about doing some shoes, enlisting friend and milliner Gigi Burris to utilize Paula Coles’s straw for hats, and integrating Papillon’s beads into his macramé skirts. In its own way, all these collaborations will speak confidently to the notion that in going back one can give back, while also celebrating the dignity and talent of the people Glemaud is teaming up with.
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