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Angelina Jolie Is The Latest Celebrity To Launch A Fashion Line – But Like Everything With Jolie, The Venture Is Unexpected
29/06/23
Author: Divya Venkataraman
DOCUMENTED BY: CHLOÉ X ATELIER JOLIE, HOLLY GIBSON FOR RIISE
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“I’m more of an artist than a businesswoman,” wrote Angelina Jolie in a letter announcing the launch of her new brand, Atelier Jolie.
The case could be made for the Oscar-winning actress being even more than that, still. Jolie first came into the spotlight as a child star in the ’80s, and followed that up with one of the starriest film careers in modern history—but in recent years, the 48-year-old mother-of-six has been more known for her humanitarian work and advocacy.
Jolie has never made a secret of her desire to use her celebrity to create positive change. Her causes have been diverse. Jolie dedicated two decades of service to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, first as a Goodwill Ambassador, and then as a Special Envoy, during which she helped find solutions to the complex and evolving plight of refugees affected by various global conflicts, from Iraq to Myanmar. In 2003, she founded the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, a conservation group that works to preserve Cambodia’s environment and endangered wildlife. In 2021, she was named ‘Godmother’ of the Women for Bees initiative, which trains and empowers women to help save bees around the world. All this is to say that when Jolie announced the launch of her new fashion line, even sceptics of the celebrity brand industrial complex found reason to pause.
Documented By: Chloé x Atelier Jolie
In line with Jolie’s life dedicated to social causes and empowering the marginalised—as well as a focus on sustainability and conservation—Atelier Jolie is founded on principles of sustainability and ethics. While traditionally, the ‘star’ and focal point of a fashion brand is its creative director, Atelier Jolie will shift the focus to the tailors, makers and craftspeople who bring designs to life. The design part of the process will devolve to the consumer, who is then given the opportunity to be intimately involved in the creative process. “I am building a place for creative people to collaborate with a skilled and diverse family of expert tailors, pattern makers and artisans from around the world,” Jolie wrote of her new venture. “A place to have fun. To create your own designs with freedom. To discover yourself.”
Like many brands stocked at RIISE, including Umlaut, Clumsy, Madre Natura, and Jillian Boustred, who use deadstock fabrics in their designs, Atelier Jolie is committed to using only “leftover, quality vintage material and deadstock.” Jolie explained via Instagram that the idea to create her own label “stems for my appreciation and deep respect for the many tailors and makers I’ve worked with over the years, a desire to make use of the high-quality vintage material and deadstock material already available, and also to be part of a movement to cultivate more self-expression.”
Atelier Jolie will source fabrics that have been created but not used by luxury houses to create pieces with, instead of manufacturing or commissioning new materials. The brand will also allow customers the opportunity to repair or upcycle pieces from their own wardrobes, in collaboration with their tailors and makers.
Jolie’s vision is to create a brand that will expand the capabilities and joy of fashion beyond traditionally held – and heavily gatekept – spaces. The brand will “bring together a diverse team, including apprenticeships for refugees and other talented, underappreciated groups, with positions of dignity based on skill.” The first outpost of the brand will be in New York City and, in preparation, Jolie posted a call for skilled tailors in the city on social media – and will soon be extending that call to artisans, too.
In creating a brand like Atelier Jolie, Jolie’s latest venture is also a reflection of her own fashion evolution. Following her punkish younger years, Jolie’s style now leans into elegant classicism befitting the kind of eternal A-lister she is – think thigh-high slit-fitted gowns for red carpets, minimalist, immaculately fitted casual wear for days out, and creamy, luxurious tailoring for public engagements. She has often reworn old pieces on the red carpet, and even encouraged her children to do the same. For the Eternals press tour in 2021, Jolie’s daughter Zahara re-wore a shimmering Elie Saab gown her mother first wore to the 2014 Academy Awards. Shiloh posed alongside her, in a re-imagined, altered dress by Gabriela Hearst, also pulled from her mother’s wardrobe. “We did all vintage and upcycled my old stuff,” Jolie told reporters on the night.
Will Atelier Jolie become a family affair? This, and so much more, remains to be seen. But from what we’ve gleaned so far, we can barely wait.
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