LOUISON DEMARSY

“What is the use of traveling if you take yourself with you?” — Sénèque

“For me, traveling means shedding a second skin.

The one we wear every day, shaped by obligations, work, expectations, and constant concerns. An artificial skin behind which we hide, for lack of time to fully be ourselves. Each day, we move forward accumulating questions, doubts, and problems, until we forget who we truly are.

Travel then becomes an act of stripping away. It allows us to abandon this constructed shell and reveal another skin: the first, the most intimate one, that of our true self. The one that remains buried, silent, yet intact. While traveling, this part of us frees itself from its anxieties and constraints. It allows itself to exist without pressure, to breathe, to feel.

To travel is to set out to restore oneself, but also to encounter oneself. It is about learning who we are, far from familiar reference points, by confronting the unfamiliar. It is a suspended moment in which we rediscover ourselves, reconnecting with our deeper identity. Travel thus becomes an inner journey as much as a geographical displacement: a personal and necessary quest to rediscover what is essential.

“Traveling is a celebration: you leave your key under the door, you let yourself remain inside. You arrange to meet yourself abroad. You look at the streets, the sky, and the houses. You look at yourself in shop windows, surprised to be where you are—that is to say, elsewhere. You have changed. You are as new as what you see.” — Christian Bobin

Through my silhouette, the openings and lapels materialize this second skin from which we seek to detach when we travel. This outer layer, dyed with India ink, spreads across the fabric like stains, evoking a daily life saturated with obligations and constant concerns.

The lapels, in contrast, reveal the white of the fabric, a symbol of our most intimate skin. This white, buried within us, represents our true essence, brought to light through these openings that express a gradual release from this artificial second skin.

Certain details also echo the Nolinski Hotel, and more specifically its spa—a place of relaxation and total escape, where I am able to fully free myself from my zone of stress. I chose to highlight the bathrobe and towel, draped over a towel rack, through their natural fall, as familiar and soothing elements that reinforce this idea of letting go and refuge.”