La Memeso: La Manso launches first campaign with conceptual artist PZWorld.
Over the past year, as our hands became a problematic site of tension, Adriana Manso decided to relieve our anxieties. Through ornate plastic sculptures La Manso reminded us that beyond the sanitiser and gloves, how our two multiples of fives are canvases for personal expression.
Catching up in the heights of global lockdown in March 2020, La Manso was in the initial stages of design, slowly fostering an audience online from a small Atelier in the heat of Barcelona. Fast forward over twelve months and La Manso’s rings are the coveted finger moulds, adorning the hands of Bella Hadid to Dua Lipa.
Before the pandemic, I also caught up with Art Director and maximal enthusiast PZ Opassuksatit on launching PZWorld Weddings, a conceptual catalogue and a jibe toward consumerism containing an ephemera of gifts to mark the Wedding day. Through each exchange, Adriana and PZ expressed a need for more frivolity and humour in fashion and after referencing their Instagram accounts to one another, a year later La Memeso, the most playful collaboration appeared on my news feed.
Introducing La Memeso, the designer’s first campaign celebrating the expansion of La Manso and the launch of SS21. Championing the sarcastic undertone and predominant internet presence of both artists, the campaign launches a new sculptural ring alongside belts and clips, jacquard and pearl bags and 100% cotton t-shirts dedicated to La Manso’s thriving fanbase. Inspired by the iconoclastic looks of the ‘90s, the campaign dances between the ordinary and extraordinary, conjuring a space for fantasy and for its wearers to dream beyond the toils of our everyday lives.
Marking a union with each creative, Perfect caught up with Adriana Manso and PZ Opassuksatit to discuss the most syncopated collaboration of the year for any collector’s paradise.
Perfect: So who kickstarted the conversation and instigated the campaign to work together?
Adriana Manso: Well after you introduced me to PZ’s Instagram, I really wanted to work with her. I started to think of many crazy ideas.
PZ: Adriana wrote to me a few times but I had no idea and didn’t check. But when I got back home and looked through my phone, I saw this amazing person and thought, oh my god why didn’t I know about it? We connected and I really felt like it was the right time to do this. We wanted to take famous pictures from films and from celebrities for the bag to mirror the effect of a bikini, to show the funny undertone.
Perfect: So, where did the initial idea for the campaign come from?
PZ: I wanted to know all about the universe of La Manso, so I would go to her page and start scrolling. I also love memes and was seeing so many and thought why not do a meme of La Manso? La Manso always presents itself online in a funny way, not taking itself too seriously and I think it’s a very interesting way to approach a first campaign. We discussed what should be the story for each scenario and what famous meme it should relate to.
Perfect: What made you feel like now was the right time to put out your first campaign Adriana?
AM: I started to organise the wholesale process and getting La Manso stocked in the places I’ve really dreamed of. I wanted to be in the right place to show campaigns, the new bags, the T-shirts and all of this work. I wanted to work with incredible creatives because I’ve never made a campaign before so I really wanted to have a team who could make this campaign different. With all my crazy ideas, PZ was super open. I gave her a few conditions such as working with my friends and people I feel comfortable with as it’s a big opportunity for them to participate in the campaign.
At the point we met, I was a bit like a young girl wandering. I was trusting so much in myself and the rings. I then started with the tables called MuTable and we’ve gone a long way since then. It’s important to me that you can create an experience when you receive the objects through the packaging and we make everything in house. All of the logistics take place here now.
Perfect: What was your favourite thing about working with one another?
AM: PZ was a big inspiration to me of making things fashionw without it being directly about fashion and this feeling that it doesn’t have to be completely perfect. It’s crazy how this girl works and when I saw the campaign, it was better than in my imagination. She made it better than what I thought it could be. She just makes things happen.
PZ: La Manso is very cheeky, very witty. It’s kind of clever, always bringing things to a good level. It’s really about the energy between the two of us combined. When I visited the La Manso atelier, I was so surprised. It’s so homely and there’s real supportive female environment. It’s refreshing. Being in the first campaign was so important too.
