Layers

For his latest performance, which took place after the Landau fashion show at Paris Fashion Week 2023, dancer and choreographer Rayan (stage name Cléo) chose Landau to create the costumes.

«A burlesco-contemporary performance written by Rayan @cleopatra_is_in_jail
Exploring a being’s different levels of depth and the way they reveals their personality through several atmospheres and emotions.
All of that states are emphasized by the pieces of the costume that can be used together or independently and which send the caracater into a new world when they wear it.»

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Hello Rayan, can you tell us about your collaboration with Landau ?

Hello, since we met, Mathias Landau and I have gotten into the habit of accompanying each other in each of our projects. As he is a dancer and a designer and I am a full-time dancer, I sometimes need a designer who understands the vibe of the artistic project; and Mathias Landau, because he is also an artist, knows how to transcribe this vibe.

Conversely, proposing a passage from my creation Layers at his opening show, allows to demonstrate this other aspect of his work, the one energized by art. Landau is couture, but not only.

Can you tell us a bit about your costume tonight, made by Landau?

I definitely wanted to mix burlesque and trashy within an aesthetic. For the trashy side, we used raw materials like aluminum, denim, a survival blanket, chains. And the burlesque side that we find through the red wig and the drag queen makeup. The idea was to create a great and beautiful contrast between these two universes, one in the excess, the extravagance, the glam; and the other in the soft, the simple, the raw.

In your Layers project, how does your costume serve your work?

With Mathias Landau, we imagined a costume where all the pieces would be portable, together, accumulated with each other, but also portable separately. The goal was to transport the character and the spectator into different universes and to allow a more fluid sequence of emotions. What is complicated is to combine the practical aspect, because I am a dancer and therefore I must have free access to my body; with the aesthetic aspect, my costume must serve my art. Landau was able to meet the challenge perfectly.

Justly, do you think that Mathias Landau's training as a dancer contributes to a more qualitative work?

He is certain of it! First of all, for the creation of pieces that have an artistic and scenic aim, in terms of the pure construction of the piece, Mathias knows where he is going, because he can put himself in the place of the dancer. He knows which material will promote movement or not, which fastener can be removed more or less easily, etc. In other words, he knows where he is going. In other words, it is because he is a dancer that he is best placed to dress dancers.

Secondly, artistically speaking, it is obvious that his artistic training positively impacts the quality of his work. To be a designer is to have beautiful ideas and it's an artist's job to propagate beauty through ideas transcribed in his art.