Lætitia Jacquetton
Biography
French artist Lætitia Jacquetton spent her childhood in rural Burgundy, France, exploring the woods with her grandfather, picking mushrooms, and wading barefoot through sparkling rock-strewn torrents. Time moved slowly as she dreamed of the world’s grandest cities filled with cultural treasures. Giving in to this magnetic attraction, she found her way into fashion design, working for luminaries such as Sharon Wauchob Sharon Wauchob and Martin Margiela. Soon propelled into the world, on a constant lookout for novel experiences, she took up various roles, such as art director for Galeries Lafayette, Paris. She gradually moved past the hysteria of runway collections and towards a more timeless approach to fashion.
Living and working in such fast-paced hubs as Paris or Hong Kong, Jacquetton regularly gravitated to the soothing, replenishing qualities of forests and mountains, to reconnect with the place humans occupy in nature. Her lifelong interest in hand crafts rekindled the pleasure she derived from making objects beyond simply designing them. Her new quest leaned towards minimalist essentials since Japanese aesthetics, most notably artisan hand crafts, gardens, and architecture, were already a strong influence. She first had the chance to blow glass while exploring Okinawa. This new emotional experience was life-changing to the point that glassblowing instantly became a vital necessity. She drew upon her influences—the Mingei movement, Yanagi Sōetsu’s writing—to approach glassblowing using traditional blowpipes, a challenging skill that typically takes years to learn.
