Artlist Paris

François Gravel

Stylist

Portfolio | Bio |

During his early years, François Gravel would find respite from the claustrophobic gender norms of the small Québec town he grew up in by taking long walks alone in the thickets of nature. Encounters with the beauty of the forest and lake were later matched by visions on television: the Fashion Channel brought international runways directly into Gravel’s teenage bedroom, inspiring his vocation.

In 2018, Gravel moved to Paris to develop his skills in creative image making. He went on to assist stylist Camille Bidault-Waddington and in 2020 began his collaboration with Fidan Novruzova. Providing design consulting and styling, Gravel’s formative partnership with Fidan Novruzova would establish codes signature to the influential emerging Moldova-based brand.

Gravel brings a cinematic imagination to his styling work, building looks out of subtle narrative cues and a sensitivity to characters who don’t traditionally ‘fit in’. References from real life and cultural history are re-contextualized through detail and distortion. A similar tack is taken when Gravel pulls pieces from his own ever-growing vintage and archival designer collection. Just as styling is about a balance of skin to cloth and garment to body, Gravel seeks to balance elegance with oddity, naïveté with refinement, and intuition with intention.

Collaborators: ALL-IN Magazine, Buffalo Zine, Crosscurrent, FIDAN NOVRUZOVA, Isabella Lovestory, SSENSE, Vogue+ China

Photographers: Adrian González-Cohen, Alma Libera, Benedict Brink, Benjamin Barron, Chaumont-Zaerpour, Cruz Valdez, Fatine-Violette Sabiri, Joyce NG, Kito Muñoz, Marie Deteneuille, Phil Engelhardt, Tina Tyrell