Franco-Lebanese fashion designer Lucas Tremsal. (Photo provided by Lucas Tremsal)
With a collection currently on display at the Art District Building in Beirut's Gemmayzeh neighborhood, the 27-year-old fashion designer Lucas Tremsal can show how he is both rigorous and minimalist in his approach to tailoring.
Instinctive in everything he does, he seeks neither effect nor showmanship, manifesting his desire to create clothing conceived for longevity with deliberate gesture and humanity.
While Lucas defines himself today as a designer anchored between Paris and Beirut, his story begins elsewhere. Born to a Lebanese mother and French father, he grew up in Mali before spending his teenage years in Lebanon — the country where he says he truly discovered himself. A childhood marked by movement, the crossing of cultures and back-and-forths between East and West.
All these layers feed his imagination today. Very early on, creation became his refuge. As a solitary child, Lucas invented worlds that existed only in his mind, nourished by stories, movies, and images.
These intimate worlds spilled into everyday life: household linen became material for transformation, the costume trunk an experimental field, his mother’s wardrobe the first closet to explore. "I dreamed of becoming a stylist," he says simply. Fashion asserted itself not as a social ambition, but as a language.
Three beloved territories
Still, acutely aware early on of an industry dominated by business, Lucas first chose a strategic path. He studied at the International Fashion Academy in Paris, earned a bachelor's in fashion marketing, and decided to postpone creating.
"I wanted to be a designer, but the world is business-oriented," he explains. This distance, far from extinguishing his desire, structured it. His creative beginnings would later take form among three places dearest to him: Paris, Africa and Beirut. Since his first collections, Lucas has released four couture collections, all shot across these three places, each acting as an emotional and aesthetic anchor.
Today, he is presenting in Beirut what he considers his first true ready-to-wear collection — a founding milestone for this purist who found in Lebanon a team that meets his standards.
'I create as I did when I was a child'
This collection is designed for men, constructed and cut with precision, but can also be freely adopted by women. "Despite my affinities with women's fashion, I find myself more and more in men's fashion," he confides. This shift is not a renunciation: it's a search for purity, structure and movement. For Lucas Tremsal, inspiration depends on the field (couture or ready-to-wear), but always remains fundamentally instinctive.
"I create as I did when I was a child," he says. He still imagines worlds in order to create. The human body is at the center of his work: he likes to reveal what is usually hidden, playing with the interior of the garment, its framework, its tension lines. Corsetry, structures and volumes fascinate him.
His references are multiple and unapologetic: medieval kings and their finery, the underlying punk visible there, surrealism, nature, fauna and flora. He feeds off anti-heroes and marginalized figures, imagining his clothes in motion — worn, danced and inhabited on stage.
Sometimes, he simply lets his pencil wander across the page: this is how his "coup de crayon" dresses are born — spontaneous forms dictated by gesture. Subjectively, Lucas identifies just as much with African roots as with his Lebanese heart. Music plays a key role in his creative process: it acts as a trigger for images, shapes and colors.
"By listening to good music, I can put myself in any world," he says. Ready-to-wear, for him, meets a different need. Lucas seeks functionality here, always paired with intent. He creates "practical, cool, accessible" clothes — timeless basics adapted to our era, designed for active, stylish people on the move.
Each piece is made to last, to be loved, and to be repaired. "I don't want to tell people how to dress. I want to lead them to discover a style," he asserts. "The client then becomes part of the creative discussion; their choice is intentional, conscious," the designer highlights.
Durable clothing, imbued with meaning
Although he started in Paris, Lucas Tremsal's entire production now takes place in Lebanon. This ready-to-wear collection is made entirely locally. Over time, he has found in Beirut skilled and passionate artisans with whom he builds a daily dialogue.
"It took me time and energy, but I found people I'm happy to work with every day," he confides. Together, they bring to life durable, high-quality garments imbued with meaning. If his palette favors black — both in couture and ready-to-wear — it's because he sees in it "the symbol of elegance, but above all, an indispensable starting point."
He quotes Yves Saint Laurent: "Black is my refuge, black is a mark on the white page." Since it's the first color he grabs to draw, it naturally finds its way into his creations, he specifies. His ready-to-wear, in particular, stays within a neutral palette with variations on transparency and shine, in shades of brown and khaki. His couture, on the other hand, has no boundaries.
Highlighting the beauty of handmade
Before founding his fashion house, Lucas worked in artistic direction for Chanel's perfume and beauty. Passionate about fragrance, he considers the olfactory universe a fundamental pillar of creation, capable of generating emotions and conjuring an image. He draws a direct parallel between perfume, music and fashion: sources of inspiration made up of memories, sensations and mental landscapes.
Nature, fauna and flora, already found in his garments, are also essential components of perfume. This was his last experience before launching his eponymous brand. His label stems from a strong belief: faced with a constantly accelerating industry, what's the point of creating at breakneck speed?
His brand thus fits into the heritage of couture as it once existed, before subverting its codes toward more functional creation. Today, Lucas Tremsal is a label showcasing quality craftsmanship and timeless pieces coupled with bespoke service.
In a world shaped by trends, Lucas prefers clothing as a durable choice. His ambition is to highlight the beauty of the handmade, to reveal the gestures, stories and emotions hidden within a piece designed to last and be loved.
Among the standout pieces from the collection presented in Gemmayze, the base coat embodies this philosophy. Defined by a signature button placket at the back and integrated buttonholes, it's conceived as an everyday essential — the one you throw on when you're in a rush.
Beside it, a tailored jacket and patchwork wool trousers are designed as clothes that instill confidence and accompany the body without constricting it.
This article originally appeared in French on L'Orient-Le Jour.
