The Fashion Show
Where the collection ends and the art begins.
The Atelier is where Déjà Nu operates beyond the boundaries of the collection — where a theme, an event, or a creative brief becomes the starting point for something that has never existed before and never will again. These are not products. They are statements, made in fabric, paint, and the particular kind of courage that comes from committing fully to an idea.
The pieces in this section were created for Under the Big Top — an annual high-art fashion show held in Carbondale, Colorado in March 2025. The brief was circus. We took it seriously.
some briefs don’t call for restraint. they call for everything.
The Red Lanvin
HAND-PAINTED VINTAGE RAINCOAT — UNDER THE BIG TOP, 2025 — ARCHIVEIt started with a coat.
A vintage Lanvin raincoat in the most unapologetic shade of red — already a statement before a single brushstroke touched it. We treated it as a canvas.
Working by hand, our artists covered its surface with the visual language of equestrian luxury: tassels, bridles, belts, ribbons, the decorative vocabulary of a world where craft and spectacle have always coexisted. The palette is as bold as the silhouette — a riot of color on a coat that was already impossible to ignore.
Vintage Lanvin · Hand-painted · One of one · Archive piece, 2025
The Big Top Jacket
VINTAGE WHITE DENIM — CIRCUS FABRIC, 1950S — UNDER THE BIG TOP, 2025 — ARCHIVE White denim is a blank page.
This one became something else entirely.
A vintage white denim jacket, adorned with circus-themed fabric from the 1950s — the era when the circus was still a genuine spectacle, when its imagery carried wonder rather than nostalgia. The fabrics were sourced for their authenticity, and arrived in remarkable condition: colors as bright and vivid as the day they were printed, untouched by time. A testament to the extraordinary quality of that era’s textile craft.
The result is a jacket that feels simultaneously vintage and theatrical — the kind of piece that stops a room not because it’s loud, but because it’s telling a story you want to lean into.
Vintage white denim · 1950s circus fabric · One of one · Archive piece, 2025
The Big Top Trousers
VINTAGE WHITE DENIM — CIRCUS FABRIC, 1950S — UNDER THE BIG TOP, 2025 — ARCHIVEMade to move with The Big Top Jacket — and equally compelling without it.
Vintage white denim trousers adorned with the same 1950s circus fabric, continuing the narrative from jacket to hem. Like the jacket, the fabric arrived in astonishing condition — colors still blazing, patterns crisp, as vivid and alive as they were seven decades ago. That kind of survival is its own kind of story.
Worn together, the two pieces form a complete statement. Worn separately, each one holds its own.
Vintage white denim · 1950s circus fabric · One of one · Archive piece, 2025
These three pieces are part of the Déjà Nu archive and are not available for purchase. If you are interested in a commissioned work for a special event, editorial project, or creative brief, we would love to hear from you.