Behind the shoot
Petit Pli turned up in VEJA’s latest campaign, styled alongside bold colour, playful pattern and a great deal of layering.
The looks were put together by stylist Lucile Queru. We asked her how she dresses LittleHumans, where she finds her references, and how one of the shoot’s best outfits came about only because the original plan fell apart.
Finding Petit Pli
Lucile found us while shopping for her niece, who had just turned one.
“I am the fashion aunt, so it’s my duty to find cool pieces.”
She was drawn to evolutive clothing, pieces designed to change and grow with a child, and to the way they looked. Her styling runs mostly on second hand and on brands that are straightforward about how things are made, so the fit was easy. She met Ryan and Fanny at the Harrods pop-up not long after, and saw the garments in person.
The brief
The shoot was built around children at home: playing, drawing, building forts, making use of whatever was to hand. The clothes had to be colourful and survive all of it.
“I was looking for strong colourful pieces but also comfy jumpers to pair it with.”
More is more
Layering did most of the work.
“I love layering! For adults I always do it, but for kids it’s so easy to play with textures, patterns and colours. Mixing them all together, more is more for kids, it’s so fun!”
She picked the Merino Vest in Midnight Matter as the layering piece, over the Merino Jumper in Milky Way. Texture, pattern and colour, stacked.
When the plan changes
Styling children rarely follows the plan. One of the first looks had been built around a green dress. The model was not interested.
“Even after negotiating with her mother, she wasn’t going to go out of the fitting room.”
So Lucile improvised: a spare pair of checkered trousers, a striped long sleeve, and the Milky Way jumper that had been earmarked for a later look. It was accepted, and it sat better with the rest of the shoot than the original.
“She was very happy and me too at the end haha.”
A stylist’s eye
Texture matters to Lucile as much as colour or cut.
“The texture of the clothes is so important, it adds so much dimension in a photo.”
Her references are wide. Living in Paris means a lot of it comes from watching people on the street. The rest arrives from vintage clothing, theatre and opera costume, uniforms and antiques. She has a soft spot for 90s witchy films, and for women who dress for themselves and buy mostly second hand.
The fun of styling
The best part, she says, is the licence to rethink what a piece is for.
“The looks in my head are not always good once you wear the pieces together, but you get to change the ‘normal’ use of a piece and make it something else, it’s endless.”
We like seeing Petit Pli through someone else’s eyes: layered, mixed and put to work in ways we did not plan for. And as the shoot proved, sometimes the best look is the one nobody planned at all.
Photography: Lydie Bonhomme
Styling: Lucile Queru
