Fairly Normal x Perfect Designs

It was already November, though the weather insisted otherwise. The thermostat read thirty-something when we drove off to the airport to collect Lucas Lecacheur of Perfect Designs.

In the arrivals hall, among the newly landed, pink-skinned, and soon to be sunburned, he appeared. Tall and skeletal. Wearing black pointy cowboy boots, leather trousers, a narrow tie over an immaculate white shirt, fingerless lace gloves, sunglasses, and a leather trench coat. An armour (or costume) he would keep on for the next forty-eight hours.

That night, the Fairly Normal flagship was cloaked in a dark shade of blood red to host its collaboration with Perfect Designs. A limited run of T-shirts derived from the series Studies on the Perfect Fin was made, while a selection of the templates used to create some of these sharp, dysfunctional steel objects was on display.

At the back, in a compact booth, Bloody Knuckles, a short film by Lucas and his former collaborator Fernando, played on loop on a 1990s TV set. It confirmed that while their designs might be unorthodox, and perhaps antagonistic to the idea of “perfect,” they could still be ridden.

The evening bent itself around an eclectic and unpredictable DJ set. Books and posters made for the occasion were sold and signed before Lucas took a blade to the neck of a champagne bottle, spilling some over the limestone pavement outside, the rest vanishing quickly into those close enough to catch it.

We only saw his eyes once, later, at a friend’s apartment over a domestic, intimate dinner.

The gloves stayed on.