The actress, director, former UN special envoy and goodwill ambassador is launching Atelier Jolie, a new brand with a social conscience that will capitalize on slow-moving stock and capitalize on the skills of “refugees and other talented, undervalued groups,” Skill-based dignified positions. “
Angelina Jolie made headlines last week with news that she will be in a Maria Callas biopic that will screen at the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France. Directed by Pablo Lorrain (of Spencer and Jackie fame). However, that wasn’t her biggest headline of the month.
“I’m starting something new today — a collective that everyone can create,” Jolie wrote on her Instagram account this morning. Atelier Jolie is a space where artists can work alongside an international family of talented artisans, pattern makers and tailors. This stems from my gratitude and respect for all the tailors and artisans I have been fortunate enough to work with over the years, a desire to take advantage of the excellent vintage and dead stock material currently in circulation, and a desire to be part of a movement that encourages more self-expression.
Jolie tends to express herself through monochromatic, understated and largely anonymous designs to ensure the focus is on her, not what she wears. Nonetheless, countless articles online, including many on this site, discuss her unique style. Her airport attire, footwear and crop tops have generated millions of hits over the years. Her and her teenage children’s recent fashion choices underscore the importance of recycling and reusing old clothes. Shiloh and Zahara wore items from their mother’s collection to the premiere of Marvel’s “The Eternals.”
More than 100 million tons of textile waste is disposed of in landfills every year. It looks like Atelier Jolie was created to solve this problem. On the brand’s website, it states that “you’ll be able to restore or upcycle pieces of clothing in your wardrobe that you wish to revitalize, fit perfectly, breathe new life into what might otherwise be thrown away, and create premium pieces with personal meaning. Heirloom clothing.”
The reference to refugees is interesting given that Title 42, a pandemic-era measure that allows authorities to quickly deport migrants on public health grounds, ended last week. The US may see record numbers of asylum seekers moving forward. Whatever Atelier Jolie becomes, Jolie is uniquely suited to disrupting this space. In her acting and directing work, she spent 20 years working for the United Nations refugee agency on more than 60 field missions, most recently to Yemen and Burkina Faso, raising awareness of people forced to flee people’s understanding. Furthermore, in a 2015 op-ed in the Times of London co-authored by Arminka Helic, she criticized government inaction, arguing that the increase in displacement was “unsustainable and beyond the capacity of international humanitarian organisations”. We’ll be following the brand’s new Instagram account @atelierjolieofficial for updates.
