La Smole started from one very simple realization: I couldn't find anything that fit me. So I made it all myself. The first fittings in a Paris studio, the thrill of seeing the collection take shape for real. Marseille under harsh light, hair in our faces, salt on our skin. Phnom Penh, where it all began, long before the swimsuits.
Three cities, zero filter, girls who look like us.
The Backstage
The behind-the-scenes of a brand that doesn't cheat.
Three cities. Three lights. Real girls. Welcome behind La Smole's curtain.
Marseille - Cassis
Harsh southern light, the calanques in the background, the mistral on our skin. The first (real) La Smole shoot happened here: between Anse de la Fausse Monnaie and Cassis, two days flat, legs like lead, and a crowd of Sunday chillers as our welcome committee. We ran everywhere, barely slept, and shot until the light gave out on us. We could almost start again tomorrow (we couldn't).
Breakfast at 5am, a photographer (and very dear friend) who came all the way from Brussels just for the occasion, a drive to Cassis before sunrise, and against all odds, we got hot in March. No rigid direction, no calculated pose. Just the girls, the water, the swimsuits, and the Mediterranean did the rest of the work.
Phnom Penh
The humidity, the saturated colors, the golden light of the Khmer golden hour. Bringing La Smole back to where part of the story begins (because that's where I come from), was an obvious move.
Cambodia is personal, it's where I'm originally from. And unfortunately, given the current geopolitical context, I couldn't be there for this shoot.
It's my cousin Somaira, with Khemma, Clarice and Mathilde, who did everything! An iPhone, the light of Phnom Penh, and four girls who wore La Smole in the water as if it were obvious. Seeing them in the swimsuits, over there, that was exactly what I'd had in mind from the start.
Paris - Studio
Paris, March 7, 2026. A studio, natural light, and Olary, my childhood friend, the one I've known since I've been old enough to have memories. She's on every packshot on the site. She brought a rare level of focus and patience, and every image we got that day is thanks to her. Seeing the swimsuits exist for the first time on someone you trust completely, that's a luxury no casting can replace.
In the studio, there's nowhere to hide. No landscape to pull the eye away. The swimsuit has to stand on its own. It's the ultimate test, and that's where you see whether the cut keeps its promises.
A huge thank you to every single person who made all of this possible.
And a special thank you to Andrei Baicu, official photographer of Collection 01. We first crossed paths more than five years ago on a beach in Hossegor, but that's a story for another day.
What matters is that he managed to capture the La Smole universe when even I couldn't articulate it clearly: fuzzy briefs, references all over the place, and still, he got it. Everything you see here is largely thanks to him.
To all the girls who posed, to those who held the iPhone, to those who drove at 5am, to those who proofread, advised, put up with the 2am doubts... La Smole wouldn't exist without you.
« When I couldn't find what I wanted, I decided to make it myself. »
