recé & Stacy

STACY:
I feel like we’ve been doing this for years,but now it has a name. A rhythm.

RECE:
Yeah… now we just don’t pretend it’s by accident. [laughs] You’ve been in my closet longer than some producers I’ve worked with.

STACY:
And you’ve been in my head since that first show. There’s a certain way you move that makes me rethink proportion. You don’t wear clothes,you pace through them.

RECE:
Because I have to. I can’t be in something that doesn’t move with me. Studio Atelier gives me that structure… but there’s still air in it. Like I can breathe and still hit a note. That balance is rare. But I felt it,even before we actually spoke.

STACY:
Do you remember when we actually met in person?

RECE:
Berlin. That screening. I didn’t know you were going to be there,and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to be seen. I was jetlagged, quiet… just kind of passing through the room.

STACY:
Same. I was supposed to leave the next morning. But then I saw you standing near the back wall,glass in hand, barely talking to anyone. You looked like a painting someone left in the wrong century.

RECE:
[laughs softly] That room was loud. I think we both felt a little out of place.

STACY:

I remember thinking, oh, she feels it too.

RECE:

Then we saw each other by the coat check, when you looked at me and said, “I’m don’t want to be here either.” That made me laugh.

STACY:
And then you said, “Let’s go eat.” Like it was the most natural thing in the world.

RECE:
Because it was! We were going back in DM’s for week by that time.  A dinner felt easy. No posturing, no press. Just conversation. I think I exhaled for the first time that whole week.

STACY:
That’s where we started to talk about some costumes for that museum show you were doing in Paris that next month.

RECE:
Right. The performance installation at Palais de Tokyo. I didn’t even know if I wanted to dress it at all. Everything felt... too polished. Too literal.

STACY:
You were describing something raw,almost weightless, but still controlled. I remember sketching on the back of a receipt while the waiter refilled our water.

RECE:
[laughs softly] That sketch ended up being the base of the mesh piece. You got it immediately. Not just what I was saying, but what I meant.

STACY:
You were building a world. I just wanted to make sure the clothes didn’t get in the way of that.

RECE:
They didn’t. They held the silence in the room. That’s what I loved,you weren’t trying to make a costume. You were making space.

STACY:
After that piece in Paris, I feel like it just kept unfolding. Nothing forced. Just one idea bleeding into the next.

RECE:
That’s how it felt. You’d send a sketch out of nowhere. I’d voice note you from soundcheck. There wasn’t this pressure to build something,it was just… already building.

STACY:
And it kept working. That custom look for the Berlin performance, the soft armor you wore at Women in Sound, the vinyl set for the EMA’s. 

RECE:
That EMA’s look changed things. I remember being backstage thinking, this feels like a turning point. Like the clothes were speaking in the same language as the music.

STACY:
Because they were. You were performing in your own skin. And that’s what Studio Atelier is about. Dressing people in the direction they’re already heading.

RECE:
So when we started talking about something more formal,this partnership,it didn’t feel like a big shift. It felt like saying something out loud we’d already been living.

STACY:
Exactly. It wasn’t new. It was just time.

RECE:

What I’ve realized is… there aren’t many people I trust with how I move through the world. Clothes are intimate. They hold you when you're tired, when you're electric, when you don’t want to be looked at,but need to be seen. This partnership isn’t just about garments,it’s about language. About being understood without having to explain.

STACY:
So is that how you feel about clothes now? Language?

RECE:
Yes. But it’s not always verbal. Sometimes it's a vibration. Texture. Memory.
I don’t need the clothes to say look at me. I need them to carry something. 

STACY:
You’ve said before that you don’t dress for impact. You dress for alignment.

RECE:
Exactly. If it aligns, the impact takes care of itself.
I wear things that let me show up as all of me,quietly, sharply, without asking permission.

STACY:
So with all of that… how are you thinking about The Met? The theme this year, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, it’s personal. Historic. It’s more than just fashion.

RECE:
It’s legacy. And performance.
I’ve been thinking about how much of our style, our sharpness, has always been a form of survival. We’ve always dressed like we knew the world would try to flatten us. So we built shape. Structure. Silk linings under steel frames.

STACY:
You’ve always had that tension in your looks. Soft on the eye, but built like armor underneath.

RECE:
Exactly. For me, this moment isn’t about recreating a silhouette. It’s about honoring the intention behind it. The posture. The edge. The elegance. That was never accidental.

STACY:
What do you want people to feel when they see you?

RECE:
Like they’ve seen this before… but not quite like this. I want to feel familiar and new at the same time. Like something remembered from a dream, but with sharper lines.

STACY:
Well… I’m gonna be real with you,this year I want press. CFDA gave us a table this year. I need tweets, I need photo credits, I need somebody yelling, “Who made that?!” before you even hit the first step. [laughs]

RECE:
[laughs] You’ll get it. But not because we’re chasing it, but because we’re walking in with energy. People will feel it before they even see the look.

STACY:
That’s what I want. Quiet power. With flashbulbs.

RECE:
Exactly. We’re not dressing for the moment. We’re dressing with the moment.