Cédric Van Hool
“I am a 25 year old designer living in Brussels. Fascinated by all the things aesthetically pleasing to all senses.”
What inspires your work and what is your creative process? How did your alter ego Alizée develop?
“I get inspiration from everywhere, a walk, a nap with vague dreams, everything around me, images on socials, museums and my friends. When I'm working on a project I try to dive into it completely. Which in the long run makes everything seem to be connected to it.”
“My creative process is rather intuitive and organic, everything needs to grow and mature. I don't like predetermined steps and methods, not my style.”
“Alizée came about by participating in a workshop on drag curated by Veronika Deneuve. To get more in touch with drag, I decided to give it a try myself and step out of my ivory design tower. Initially a stand-alone thing a try-out, she eventually grew into my personal creative director.”
Pictures by saverio sammartino
What about design and the intersection with drag as a medium speaks to you? How did you get your start in it?
“Of the many subcultures that make up queer culture, drag stood out the loudest. The lavishness, the enormous creative abundance, the various expressions of it, everything screamed for my attention. It is one chunk of design potential. Every drag artist is a designer. Apart from that, the method is also interesting to implement during a design process.”
Are there any recurring themes/issues you like to address within your work?
“I try to focus my design career exclusively on queerness and queer culture. I never really had queer role models, immediately the reason why I want to focus on queerness. I am a fan of all artists who are unambiguously theirselves.”
Are there upcoming events/appearances that you would like to bring attention to?
“Nothing concrete is planned yet, but I am brewing up a new project where again Alizée will be creative director. I hope to realize it around the holiday season.”
