Millaux’s third collection, Park, to be released on May 18, bridges nostalgia and city sophistication. Last year Tanzer and Simpson moved from Zurich to New York City, where they have full-time day jobs: Simpson as a brand consultant, Tanzer as collections director at the Tremaine Emory label Denim Tears. They envision Park’s abstract Dalmatian print, inspired by Simpson’s childhood dog, and the Magpie series, rendered in combinations of black, ivory and gray, in a Manhattan loft.
“It looks like something Mae West would have slept on,” said Peter Copping, the artistic director of Lanvin, who met Tanzer while working on Balenciaga’s couture collections. “It’s hard to do something original these days that’s not referencing something else.”
Copping and Tanzer bonded over their interest in interiors. In addition to his fashion work, he designs a small collection of homewares called La Carlière, named after his 16th-century country house in Normandy. Tanzer and Simpson shot the imagery for Park at Château d’Autricourt, a private 12th-century castle with a moat in France.
Millaux seeks to evoke a vibrant and surprising world, where a messy bed can be beautiful, a leopard-print duvet cover can be tasteful and pillows trimmed in flaglike triangles can be deployed like earrings accenting an outfit. Fiona Blakeman, a textile designer in London who has worked with Phoebe Philo, Grace Wales Bonner and Jonathan Anderson, develops prints for Millaux. Its gothic branding is by Simpson’s sister, Roxanne Simpson. The sachet that accompanies each piece of bed linen was created by Simpson’s aunt, Karen Simpson Blomerus.
“They gave me a lot of descriptors that were quite grand but also dilapidated, like mansions with broken doors and entranceways covered in creeper,” Blomerus said. A blend of Namibian myrrh, Scotch pine and sweet basil wood is meant to capture the sense of past and currency with scents that are warm, earthy and calm.
