AZ Factory chooses French designer Lora Sonney for its next capsule collection

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Cassidy STEPHENS

Published
Jun 12, 2023

AZ Factory has called on Lora Sonney for its next capsule collection. This time, the house founded by Alber Elbaz, which continues to work with young designers, has chosen a finalist from the last Hyères Fashion Festival. The French designer will create ten looks, which will be unveiled at a runway show on July 3 during Paris's Haute Couture Week.

Sonney is taking over the reins from Tennessy Thoreson, who like her, graduated in 2021 from the Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD), and presented a capsule collection for AZ Factory last January. The first young guest designer to take part in this type of presentation during couture was Cyril Bourez last year.

Originally from Pontarlier in the Jura in France, 27-year-old Lora Sonney won the Young Designers competition in Hyères by transforming an old garden hose into coloured rubber-leather to make skirts and trench coats. "I love creating materials. It's my way of working. Then I build the collection around these experiments," she told us last October. The young designer has also interned at Marine Serre and Celine.

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She is currently working as a textile designer for Jakob Schlaepfer, the famous Swiss embroiderer based in St Gallen, who supplies precious fabrics to some of the most prestigious fashion houses. The company will be supporting the project's textile research, says AZ Factory in a press release. Lora Sonney will create her ten silhouettes in collaboration with the company's studio and workshop, drawing inspiration from nature, it added.

"Lora Sonney's multi-category approach, her mastery of textile techniques, her sharp vision to create a fully defined aesthetic, work on sustainability and new materials completely intrigued and seduced the AZ Factory team," explains the label, which will present the designer's work at an "intimate show in the garden of the Cartier Foundation," where the house is based.