Lou de Bètoly founder Odély Teboul on slowing down, questioning our values, and the absurd things we used to do before coronavirus.
Founder of the label Lou de Bètoly, Odély Teboul is a French designer who fashions handmade garments using traditional crafts including crochet, knitting, and embroidery. Trained at Esmod in Paris before working as a designer for Jean Paul Gaultier, Teboul is now based in Berlin. During our visit to her Neukölln home-cum-studio earlier this year to produce a Friends of Friends portrait, we noticed that Teboul is the proud owner of an extensive record collection, with piles of vinyls lining the walls of her workspace. With this in mind, we invited her to curate the latest FvF Mixtape, and to tell us a little bit about how she’s been living life in lockdown.
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Lou de Bètoly founder Odély Teboul on slowing down, questioning our values, and the absurd things we used to do before coronavirus.
It’s a mix of things I like to hear while working.
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Why do you think music is helpful for you when you are working?
Sometimes music can create the right mood, at others it gives me inspiration. But then again, sometimes a little bit of silence doesn’t hurt either.
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What have you been up to during coronavirus lockdown?
I’m usually very busy, so during lockdown I’ve seized the opportunity to do things that I normally don’t have time to do, like sorting out and organizing a lot of things in my studio. I’ve also been experimenting with a lot of new crafts and techniques. It is interesting to have some time to stop rushing around, and to realise that it’s okay to slow down once in a while.
“It is interesting to have some time to stop rushing around, and to realise that it’s okay to slow down once in a while.”
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Do you have any plans for when the world goes back to normal?
I was supposed to be in New York right now, so I guess going there will be one of the first things I want to do when this is over. I’m finding it difficult to think about what’s next at the moment as everything is on hold.
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We talk about post-lock down as if everything will go back to normal, but historically pandemics such as this have changed society. How do you think the fashion industry and the way you work will have changed post COVID 19?
It would be great if we all started thinking about how we can make things differently. It would also be good if we started to question our values, what we believe in, and the absurd things we used to do before corona that we justified by the fact that they were just part of the world we live in. Let’s see.
Odély Teboul is a French fashion designer and the creative director of Berlin-based label Lou de Bètoly. If you fancy finding out more about her work, why not check out our recent portrait of Teboul in which we discuss craftsmanship, sustainability, and looking sexy over sixty? Or, if you’d like to listen to some more inspiring playlists curated by international creatives, head over to our Mixtape section.
Text: Emily May
Photography: Aimee Shirley