PIERRE BASSENE WORLD IS A REFLECTION ON IDENTITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
“You’re just a big coat hanger to some of these guys,”
reflects Pierre Bassene on his early experiences being a model in Milan, Paris, London and Barcelona. Bassene goes on to explain that despite the fun sides of being a model - you know, the parties, the excitement, the networking - there’s a dissociated side where models are treated purely instrumentally. Of course, we both reason over Zoom, where Bassene is chilling in his flat in Toronto, there’s good and bad sides to everything, but the issue wouldn’t be so prominent if some of the clothes he had to constantly change into weren’t so god damn uncomfortable.
“Especially with eCom, man, where I’m shooting looks on looks on looks” - Bassene’s accent is subtly American, which we later learn is because he refined his English through watching hip hop videos, with undertones of his native French - “Like, I feel the clothes constantly on my body. But this gives me a point of reference to work with.”
Bassene rotates on a swivel chair and excitedly reaches behind him. “This sweater here,” he grins as he stretches the sleeve out taught, “there’s layers to release tension under the armpit,” before he begins to dissect a hoodie and a t-shirt, taking time to showcase the added vents, different textured fabrics and unique stitching all designed to increase comfortability.
This is the main motivation of French-born, Toronto-based, Pierre Bassene, whose brand PIERRE BASSENE WORLD is building traction around the globe for vibrant and eye-catching designs. Importantly, Bassene knows that a brand needs to do more than just look good. The devil, so to speak, is in the detail, and Bassene, through a constant exposure to clothes, in his youth and all throughout his adult life, knows far better than to overlook them.
As a kid growing up in a small town in the east of France, Bassene knew that he wanted something different. When his hometown friends were happy getting summer jobs and sticking around, Bassene had his sights on something else: “I didn’t know what it was, you know, I just wanted something different. I was searching for it.”
This was reflected in the way he styled himself, and the desire to be unique. Tired of scrolling through websites like Slamjam and looking at clothes he couldn’t afford, Bassene eventually realised that he didn’t even want them: the only way to be truly unique, to not sink into the depths of monotony, was to customise and make clothes himself.
Enter: Grandma’s sewing machine, YouTube, and if this was a movie, an intense training montage that sees Bassene absorb video after video, try out screen printing, hand-dyeing, embroidery and stencils, all revolving around one central theme: refining the vision.
Eventually, Bassene found himself in Paris, where he continued his search for the elusive it. He went to parties, to fashion shows, slept on sofas, and embedded himself into the sort of youthful abandon that movies and series all over the world have tried to capture. During this time, Bassene was constantly flexing his own clothes and began to build up an Instagram presence.
“I was just using the tool that I had at the time. That was Instagram. Like, if I go to Paris, I don’t really know anyone, everything’s happening on Instagram. So I built up that presence and used it to reflect my clothes, what I was doing. It wasn’t even about a brand. But then people started hitting me up like, yo, that shit’s fire. Like, my brand isn’t really for anyone. It was just for me.”
It was here that PIERRE BASSENE WORLD was visualised. With positive validations from peers and repeated requests for Bassene to make things for other people, the brand started to develop a distinct identity. Pierre Bassene, the kid from a small town in the east of France, with dreams bigger than his hometown locale, just discovered that an extension of him - his World - was now bigger than he was. It wasn’t just something that he could use to define his own identity, but something that other people wanted to use to define theirs. PIERRE BASSENE WORLD was born.
It’s also this sort of reasoning that led Bassene to settle on the fingerprint as PBW’s logo. The fingerprint is irreplaceably intimate, owned by everyone, unique to everyone. It’s an emblem of humanity, of our connectedness, but also our individuality and difference. The fingerprint, for Bassene, is a symbol that’s representative of everyone, but as you wear PBW, you wear a vision of yourself through it. The fingerprint becomes yours.
Bassene began to take his skills as a designer seriously, and in an effort to further his experiences of novelty, shouted a resounding “yes!” over the phone to a friend who suggested he come out to live with him in Toronto. Upon touching down, Bassene reconnected with another old friend, Spencer Badu, who lives in and is from Toronto. Badu, of the self-titled Spencer Badu - a real designer’s designer - had the added benefit of letting Bassene have free reign in his studio, in addition to introducing him to the working world of The Six.
“I would pick up all the different materials, look at all the technical details, and just play around, really. Spencer is more than a mentor, he’s a big bro.” Under this guiding wing Bassene began to hone his skills, and found himself with the task of cementing a brand.
The clothes started out simple. Hoodies, t-shirts, a pendant and jeans, all dropped at different dates in vacuums of their own hype. But for PBW, a t-shirt is never a t-shirt, and what started out as screen printed blanks soon morphed into subtlety detailed, uniquely stitched, organic heavy cotton. For the jeans - undoubtedly PBW’s most brand-synonymous product - Bassene screen printed the brand’s iconic fingerprint onto the crotch of 12.75 Oz raw denim, and the jeans were finished with fingerprint embossed buttons and contrast stitched back pockets.
The build up around each item, but specifically the jeans, was no joke. Using the exceptional digital imagery skills of 2000digital, PBW presents all of their products through a digital lens that conjures the future. The jeans flip and turn and scrunch into themselves - giving you just enough time to absorb the details - while the hoodies and t-shirts, in eclectic neon-esque colourways, are presented on faceless, 3D rendered mannequins, as if their clothes were a uniform, and the fingerprint was their only distinguishing feature.
None of the items are showcased on humans. There’s no editorials, no models. Just the clothes left to speak for themselves. “I don’t want to specify an audience,” Bassene continues on Zoom, “as the clothes are for anyone. If you like it, it’s you. I want the audience to define themselves.”
And whilst this is true, there’s one inescapable and enigmatic representative of the brand: Pierre himself. Continuing the online presence that he built in order to rise above the crowds as a youth in Paris, Bassene’s personal Instagram is overflowing with one-off pieces, unreleased designs and teases. So much in fact, that whilst the current release rate of PBW is slow and steady, there’s seemingly immeasurable potential lurking in the shadows.
Heavy knitted sweater vests that conjure early 80’s Lacoste, shorts and sweatpants with an emphasis on modular pockets, patchwork long sleeves, coats, bags, all in an assortment of colours and tones, from autumnal to neon, all unified by the ubiquitous fingerprint in a variety of shapes, sizes and avante-garde re-iterations. The sheer creative variety of Bassene’s personal collection is boundless, and ultimately, incredibly affirmative for the future of the brand.
PIERRE BASSENE WORLD manifests something that’s latent in us all. It was born out of an ineffable desire to search for gratification. It’s a dash of colour on the horizon, or the sound of chirping during sunrise. Maybe, the elusive it that Bassene has always been searching for can be found in these moments, or perhaps, in the subtle satisfaction of a comfortable fabric on the skin.
About the author:
Jacob Negus-Hill is a Senior Writer for Sabukaru and part-time chef. Located in Manchester, UK, his writing covers fashion and art, particularly with reference to ethical and environmental commitments.
