Semi-Permanent's European Edge

Odely Teboul and Annelie Augustin of Augustin Teboul. Picture / Esra Rothoff

Jean Paul Gaultier offered sage advice when his studio assistant announced she was leaving to start her own fashion label. He told me, "Stay close to yourself'," says Odely Teboul, the French half, with German-born Annelie Augustin, of Augustin Teboul.

"He's still doing what he's done since the beginning. He said, 'Stick to what you really want and enjoy it'."

Heeding Gaultier's wisdom, the duo have developed a distinctive style, with romantic, surrealist, heavily embellished designs that straddle haute couture and ready-to-wear. Augustin Teboul are now considered one of the most exciting labels to come out of Europe in recent years. When they presented their fall 2013/2014 collection, Equinoxe, a sophisticated collision of leather, tulle and origami detailing, fashion journalists at Berlin Fashion Week went into raptures, one saying the clothes were not only commercially valuable but could be "displayed as art in a museum".

Now the designers are making their way to New Zealand as guest speakers at this weekend's Semi-Permanent design forum, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary.

From the Berlin studio where they live and work, Teboul says the presentation will delve into their unorthodox creative process and unveil glimpses of their upcoming collection, which is "very detailed and feminine and rock'n'roll". They may discuss what they're designing for Berlin band Phantom/Ghost.

"I think it's interesting to see the creative duality of our different personalities," says Teboul, who counts herself as the more "chaotic" and spontaneous of the two. "Annelie is more architectural and very organised. I'm the nostalgic one, and I'm very much into textile work."

If those traits sound difficult to reconcile, the pair have long since worked out the ideal solution: to trawl one another's subconscious.

Their first collection, cadavre exquis, emerged from a game, whereby one of them would make a sketch on a piece of paper, obscure it with a fold, and let the other add to it. For another collection, they wrote down their dreams every morning for three months, and were amused to discover their working relationship had intensified to the point that they appeared in each other's visions.

In Auckland, the designers will hold work-shops with AUT fashion design students, who may be invited to try similarly random methods. "Chance and the subconscious are important factors in the creative process," says Teboul. "We always want to leave space for surprise. Especially in fashion, nowadays the business part is very important. Even though our product is more couture, there's a pressure from society, an expectation it will be commercially viable. This is about the artistic part. It's for expressing something. It's about emotions. And darkness."

A model wears a garment from Augustin Teboul's AW14 collection Equinoxe. Picture / Stefan Milev

Teboul and Augustin met as students at Esmod, the Parisian fashion school, and found employment with two of the biggest fashion designers in the world. While Teboul worked for Gaultier, fashion's "enfant terrible", Augustin worked at adidas under Yohji Yama-moto, the avant-garde Japanese designer famous for his asymmetrical, voluminous garments. The experience rammed home the importance of flawless workmanship and tailoring, and pushed their creativity to another level.

"I learned a lot," says Teboul. "It was a very big chance to be among one of [the] couture houses. It was such an amazing opportunity to see how Jean Paul Gaultier works."

Teboul and Augustin met again in a job interview waiting room, and what started as a "spontaneous" side project soon morphed into a full-time collaboration. Augustin Teboul launched in 2009, establishing their love of black, with designs that touched on gothic, punk and surrealism. That first collection won three awards in both France and Germany. In 2012, they received another big break, winning the prestigious Dorchester Collection prize, an annual $47,000 award to help up-and-coming designers find their way to business success.

Inspired by the "exquisite cadavers" of poet Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), their winning collection featured super-fine black cobweb knits, gathered chiffon skirts and dramatic gowns with intricate black lace and beading.

They've been on the up ever since. Their eighth season, and the one shown at Berlin Fashion Week, was a sculptural and technically accomplished, yet unfailingly feminine, collection. It featured sporty materials such as neoprene, a transparent top, and perhaps the biggest surprise for these purveyors of black, a lot of nude tones.

"We really like black. It's contemporary and it's elegant and it has that connotation of rock'n'roll and femininity. It suits everybody."

No doubt Kiwi fashionistas will agree.

Take a look at some of their work here:

Image 1 of 5: Augustin Teboul AW14 'Equinoxe' collection. Picture / Stefan Milev

• Odely Teboul and Annelie Augustin will speak at Semi-Permanent at 2pm on Friday May 2. The design forum, at the Aotea Centre, will feature high profile speakers, workshops, exhibitions, installations and parties until Saturday. Tickets $150-$400 from here.