Flux Nouveau: Knits With a Vintage Heritage
Martin Paquette got his fashion history education digging through rag-house bails across the United States and in his homeland, Canada. Paquette bought heaps of vintage clothes by the pound and, with his innate fashion sense, he cherry-picked the best scuffed-leather jackets and whisker-faded jeans of the bunch. He sold the vintage finds to clients throughout Europe and Japan.
“I used to wear jeans with paint back in the day. People were laughing at me in the street,” said Paquette. “Even my mother. I showed up at her house once—she’s like, ’You’re gonna wear jeans with paint? You’re better than that.’ And then five years after, she was wearing jeans with paint because it was cool.”
After September 2001, Paquette quit selling vintage wholesale and importing European denim to North America. He moved to Los Angeles, working first in wholesale knit T-shirt sales and then as a partner in a knit tops line. He has since split with his partner to launch his own project.
Flux Nouveau launched for Fall 2006. Paquette produces the line in his own factory to keep the production costs down, resulting in higher quality and more-affordable garments.
“It looks like a T-shirt, but once you put it on it has a really nice fit. It’s regular cotton, but the way we treat it, it can almost feel like Supima,” said Paquette of the basic cotton group.
The items in the micro-Modal jersey group are more fashionably adventurous. For example, a coquettish dress that laces up the front has zig-zag stitching on the ruffles. Tunic-length tops can be casual or fancy. French terry jackets in a bomber cut and a double-breasted style translate into movable knits styled after the vintage leather jackets that Paquette probably scavenged years before.
Wholesale prices range from approximately $12 to $29 for cotton tops, $20 to $50 for micro-Modal tops and dresses, and $60 to $100 for French terry sweaters and jackets with tailored pattern pieces. The line has been sold to more than 300 stores in North America, including Fred Segal and American Rag, both in Los Angeles, and Big Drop in New York.
For more information, call (323) 231-8988 or visit www.fluxnouveau.net.
—Rhea Cortado
