CV/RESUME
Rather than existing in a void, fashion is an asset for Auguste DuBois (b. 2003) as he builds worlds for his clothing and its wearers. DuBois builds histories and eras for his realities, pulling from the references of surreal worlds created by humanity. He references video games such as ENA: DREAM BBQ by Joel G, Delta Rune, and Undertale by Toby Fox, pulling the stories of a human soul that has gotten too deep in something it could never understand. Films such as The Fifth Element (Besson, 1997) and The Matrix (Wachowski(s), 1999) depict worlds with unknowing futures for humanity and the apprehensions of the future which DuBois heads.
DuBois uses his chromesthesia to inform his garments' references, shapes, and colors. Color exists in the sound of footsteps to the swishing of sleeves. His lexicon of techniques includes “low-poly seams”, which he creates through airbrush-painted seams mimicking the graphics of old PS2 games from his childhood, and “Lanternfish Knits”, which uses fluorescent, UV-reactive, or light-reflective materials that are knitted into his garments. Inspired by the shapes he experiences with his chromesthesia, he created the “Stamen Skirt,” a garment that begins as pants and joins into a skirt at the knees or thighs. The additional use of his “Weeping Sleeves,” which DuBois describes as “Saggy, long, melty sleeves that are a little pathetic,” mimics the shapes and movement he sees in the jumbled sounds of movement. Electronic artists such as ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ and Joost Klein inform his color palettes. The electronic pulses and bpm create an endless kaleidoscope palette in his mind. For him, chromesthesia is his algorithm for computing how to wrap the body.
DuBois’ goal is to capture the human folly for perfection and its ultimate failure in this pursuit. This is found in the pursuit of building our future for machines rather than humanity. He cherishes the visual aesthetics of machinery- from the grooves of a motherboard to the flickering nervous system of the Large Hadron Collider. For DuBois, a machine that guides human curiosity is the worthy kind, but any computer that aims to take away the human touch corrupts the soul. The interest in the soul comes from his Eastern Orthodox upbringing and exploration of spirituality within Christianity; from this, there is an ever-looming armageddon in his work, along with a warning of what is next to come.
Though DuBois does not consider his work to be the fashion of futurists, it is the final hologram human life sends out from an earth quickly turning to smokestacks and concrete.