Lutz Huelle Is Returning to AZ Factory for an Encore Collaboration – WWD

Lutz Huelle, who nailed his first collaboration with AZ Factory in October, is back for an encore, and a recurrent role helming pre-collections, WWD has learned.

His next product story, to be unveiled next month for the pre-spring 2024 season, also comes with a heightened commitment to sustainability, with the aim of creating half the collection from deadstock materials.

Predicated on “joy,” the collection is to expand on themes from Huelle’s first effort, which perfectly captured the offhand couture look pioneered by AZ Factory’s late founder Alber Elbaz.

“The first collaboration with AZ Factory was the most fabulous and inspiring experience, and I’m overjoyed at being able to continue to collaborate with this incredible team,” Huelle told WWD. “The spirit and values of AZ Factory have always been an integral part of my own work, and I can’t wait to start working on this next chapter.”

Huelle’s raw-edged tailoring, cocktail dresses, billowing poplin shirts and crisply cut denim pieces are currently selling briskly on the AZ Factory online store, according to Mauro Grimaldi, a Richemont executive.

“It’s performing very well,” he enthused, noting that the spring 2023 collection was also wholesaled to about 30 top international retailers including Selfridges and Matchesfashion in the U.K., Saks Fifth Avenue in the U.S., 10 Corso Como and Sugar in Italy, Printemps in France, and I.T in China.

Huelle recently made personal appearances for his AZ Factory effort at specialty store Andreas Murkudis in Berlin, and Bongénie Grieder in Geneva, where the designer returns regularly as head of the fashion and accessories design department at art and design school HEAD.

AZ Factory is a joint venture between Compagnie Financière Richemont and Elbaz, billed as a creative hub for smart, solutions-driven fashions that care.

So far, it has clocked eight collaborations with guest “amigos” including Thebe Magugu, Ester Manas, Cyril Bourez, ShelterSuit and Tennessy Thoreson. Molly Molloy and Lucinda Chambers, the duo behind the Colville label, created an AZ Factory range for fall 2023 retailing.

Huelle was the first seasoned, established talent to work with the creative studio Elbaz had assembled before dying from COVID-19 in April 2021.

Grimaldi, a strategic adviser to Philippe Fortunato, chief executive officer of fashion and accessories maisons at Richemont, said establishing pre-collections, which offer a longer full-price selling window, lays a more solid commercial foundation for AZ Factory after an initial period of experimentation.

The brand plans to continue participating in Paris Fashion Weeks, inviting mainly absolute beginners to take a a crack at couture, and a rotating cast of “guest amigos” for the main women’s ready-to-wear runway showcases.

Its studio also continues to turn out product stories, with a range of printed silk pajamas due out this summer.

Grimaldi lauded that Huelle fully embraced the AZ Factory opportunity, which he sees as a “creative exchange” between a guest designer and AZ’s studio and atelier.

“It really resonated with what Alber had in mind — to do fashion that is practical, and that empowers women in an environment that is joyful,” Grimaldi said. “The real beauty of this project is that what comes out is something greater than just the sum of the two creative teams.

“We are a factory; we are a laboratory,” he continued. “This is a place where you can experiment with new ideas and you can do something that you might not consider in your own brand.”

Grimaldi stressed that AZ Factory is not looking for tributes to Elbaz’s design legacy, and therefore does not search for guest talents whose fashions resemble what the Israeli designer became known for at a succession of European houses, including Guy Laroche, Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche and Lanvin.

“We think the best tribute to Alber is supporting people who are super creative, and at the same time have values, but not necessary clothes, in common with him.”

Grimaldi said he’s unfazed that the guest designer strategy keeps proliferating, with Lanvin the latest to announce it’s establishing a Lanvin Lab for “creative partnerships.”

The executive noted that most European players who invite rotating guest creatives, such as Jean Paul Gaultier, play the heritage card, whereas “we are much more into the experimental and
unpredictable side of the curation.

“We are not a heritage brand. Alber did not have time to create codes,” he explained. “We underline more and more the identity of being a factory.”

Grimaldi sidestepped questions about the precise duration of the recurrent collaboration with Huelle, characterizing it as open-ended. “Let’s say that it’s as long as both sides consider that it is joyful to do that,” he said with a smile.

Huelle and partner David Ballu founded the Lutz brand in Paris in 2000 and it has been a mainstay of the Paris calendar. Over the years, Huelle has also consulted for brands including S’Max Mara, Brioni and Delpozo.

A Central Saint Martins graduate, Huelle cut his teeth at Maison Martin Margiela, which he joined in 1995 and where he became responsible for the development of its knitwear and Artisanal lines. He won France’s prestigious ANDAM fashion award in 2000 and 2002.