Back in high school, when my love for fashion was blossoming, I would spend hours on Style.com educating myself on the latest runways and designers. I studied all of this like it was an important school assignment—often skipping my actual homework. My hometown of Nipissing, Canada, is hardly a fashion capital, so I took great interest in what was happening on the scene over in Europe. The clothes in London, Milan, and Paris all seemed so glamorous and luxurious.
Being a teen in the 2000s, during the time of indie sleaze, MySpace, and Scene kids, I was particularly smitten by anything studded or emblazoned with skulls. As such, it didn’t take me long to discover the work of Lucien Pellat-Finet. The French designer, who died this week at 78, was known for his (very expensive) cashmere skull sweaters, which came in a rainbow of colors. I was instantly obsessed.
Pellat-Finet started his career in fashion as a model after being discovered by designer Pierre Cardin. He founded his label in 1994, but it really took off during the Y2K style era. At a time when edgy Alexander McQueen skull scarves and bedazzled Ed Hardy graphic tees were trending, Pellat-Finet’s luxurious skull knits stood out from the pack. Not only were his pieces extremely of the moment, they were also amazing quality. They were extremely soft, and they were made with double-ply yarn and an intarsia technique, where knitters from Scotland would sew individual panels and then ensemble each sweater by hand.
Pellat-Finet’s sweaters could cost upwards of $2,000—a staggering amount back then (and still now). But they warranted the price tag: The designer only made a couple thousand styles a year. They were a real status item, and very much outside the budget of a 16-year-old like myself. But that just made me covet them more. In fact, I wanted one so bad that, on a vacation to New York City with my whole family, I dragged my parents and my sister to the now shuttered boutique Jeffrey just so I could touch one of the sweaters and try it on. (Despite hinting at how much I loved it, my parents did not, in fact, shell out two grand for the knit. “That’s crazy,” my mom said. She didn’t get it.)
Even now, in my 30s, my love for the designer’s skull sweaters hasn’t let up. From time to time, I find myself perusing vintage Pellat-Finet knitwear on resale sites like Grailed or The RealReal, where you can currently find cashmere styles for under $200. Now seems like the time to finally buy one for myself—to commemorate the designer who introduced me to a world of elevated casual-cool.
Yes, today’s knitwear has shifted to be more quietly luxurious. People are now willing to spend a car payment on a black cashmere sweater by The Row with no adornments on it versus a Pellat-Finet with a huge skull. But the designer’s bold eye and unwavering aesthetic is what I always loved about him. He said it best: “Thirteen years ago, the cashmere sweaters on the market were…very basic,” Pellat-Finet told Forbes back in 2007. “They are designs with a strong personality.” And they still are.