Kitsuné's Gildas Loaëc on What Makes the Parisian Culture Hub So Foxy

Parisian culture hub Kitsuné, a project undertaken by Gildas Loaëc, Masaya Kuroki, and London based design collective Åbäke, began as a clothing line and store in 2002. Although sartorially focused in the immediate, Loaëc approached the project after canoodling with Daft Punk and helping run Thomas Bangalter's Roulé label, a ten-year project that put forth a curated catalogue of releases from the Daft Punker himself, DJ Falcon and Roy Davis Jr, among others.

Shortly afterwards, the label threw it's finely crafted hat into the music game and never looked back. Kitsuné, as a record label, has developed a reputation for straddling the line between organic and electronic, while maintaining a distinctly indie vibe that falls in lock-step with their visual aesthetic. "Kitsuné is all about music and fashion, when it makes sense, we are not forcing anything," says loaëc. "There are no particular rules for this, but it happens sometimes in an organic way."

The label has put out music from Bloc Party, Boys Noize, Cut Copy, Hot Chip, Phoenix, Yelle, and famously launched the careers of Two Door Cinema Club. Kitsuné has been a busy little fox, putting together a perspective that's hard to place a finger on, but somehow makes perfect sense. "We love music when it's good," says Loaëc. "We pay attention to the track itself, the beats, the melody, the lyrics, the emotion, not its genre, if a track is great we will want to release it. We are releasing r'n'b, rock, electro, hip hop. I don't want to be stuck in one genre."

Kitsuné's New Faces II is set for release on February 23rd and features 15 tracks of finely curated tunage. We've got the premier of the pick of the litter, Jai Wolf's remix of Mocki's "Weekend." Although Kitsuné's selections may be forever progressing, there's a timeless aesthetic quality that draws everything together, and that synergy has been a big part of the organization's success.

"I would say there is some synergy between Maison Kitsuné, our clothes brand, and our music label Kitsuné," says Loaëc. "For example, the compilation artwork features seasonalpatterns of the clothing line. Our artists sometimes are the faces of our campaign. Tom Burke, the lead singer of Citizens! And Kilo KIsh were the faces of our latest collection Fall-winter 2014."

Never ones to rest on their laurels, Loaëc and the gang are already on to the next one. "We opened a 3rd parisian boutique in Paris 10 days ago, 68 Rue Condorcet in the 9th district, and will open a fourth one in le Marais this spring," he explains. "We are working on the opening of a second store in New York on 5 Rivington for March, a third store in Tokyo also is in the building now. And we'll open our first store in March in Hong Kong. We are developping Café Kitsuné – We've got two Café Kitsuné in Paris today and one in Tokyo, we have a few ones in the making."

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