Tucked away in a quiet courtyard in the Le Marais district of Paris, the unofficial heart and soul of the French capital’s fashion industry, is designer Anthony Calydon’s studio. Despite the electric bustle of the surrounding neighborhood, Calydon’s space, with its wood-paneled walls and neat rows of clothes, is a Zen haven of creativity—a mirror of the designer’s monkish dedication to his craft. From this space, he and his small team create the tracksuit ensembles that have skyrocketed his namesake brand in popularity two years ago.

Calydon started playing around with clothes making as a child, but it was never with the intention of one day launching her own label. Rather, it was inspired by the Marvel blockbuster Spiderman to create his own clothes – “in particular, the scene of Tobey Maguire (as Peter Parker) in his bedroom sketching out his suits,” he muses. The designer’s mother, a jewelery designer for Swarovski, introduced him to her friend who taught him to cut and sew patterns. But like Peter Parker, all of Calydon’s initial creations were simply to make clothes he felt confident wearing. “I wanted to be able to say to my friends, ‘I did this by hand.'”

After graduating high school, Calydon studied accounting. He has a gentle and caring demeanor about him and a grounded acumen that may account for his label’s steady and steady growth. “I spent days making fabrics at the famous Marché Saint Pierre, then I would sew all night, experimenting with different fabrics,” he recalls. Defining and perfecting his vision day by day, he sold his custom designs through Instagram until he felt sufficiently anchored in his closet to officially launch his own brand in 2023. He had enrolled at ESMOD Paris around the same time, but quit after three months as his brand exploded. Fortunately, he stayed long enough to meet his idol Yohji Yamamoto, whose mastery of cut and construction echoes Calydon’s: “I showed him my work and he said, ‘Yeah, I just have to keep going “.

A video game enthusiast, Calydon approached clothing as armor and uniform from day one. The sleek, ribbed design of his tracksuits was inspired by hours of multiplayer gameplay Monster Hunter with his cousin. “There’s this aquatic monster that I love,” Calydon explains. “I started hunting for a fabric that felt like him. the ribs were developed as a kind of scales.” Sci-fi movies, from Jurassic Park TO Foreign series, they are also a veritable mine of inspiration for the designer. Notions of metamorphosis and structural protection define its aesthetics and process.

Wearing Calydon’s tracksuits means feeling comfortable and safe as you navigate the world around you. There is an inherent dichotomy in his clothes; Calydon is as concerned with the wearer being comfortable as they are feeling protected from their surroundings. His drawings are a magical fusion of the fantastic and the utilitarian, the intuitive and the rational – our inner and outer worlds. “My process is really based on feeling,” he says. “When I feel the texture of a good fabric, I have something in my head that tells me this is for a sweater, this is for pants.” Such personal emotionality is communicated through the soothing tactility of its main jersey material. The neutral palette of white, grey, brown and black is a blank canvas, encouraging the wearer to fill out the garment’s story with their own dreams and aspirations.

Perhaps it is this innate understanding of textile that allows Calydon to manipulate structure into softness and comfort in its protection. Each piece is made of high quality cotton, sewn with strong industrial thread and Riri zippers. Precise ruffle trims in ribbed knits add an element of whimsy without being frivolous.

During Paris Men’s Fashion Week last June, Calydon released denim iterations of its tracksuit, which will remain part of its core collection. Denim elevates his designs — silhouettes become sharper with the material’s edge and rawness.

Despite its rapid growth, Calydon is steadfast in its commitment to local industry. His label is one of the few brands in today’s fashion scene that can honestly claim to be entirely made in Paris: Calydon designs from his studio in Le Marais, and the pieces are sewn by seamstresses in the city’s 19th arrondissement. His clothes are available for pre-order in limited quantities to ensure he can work within the capacity of local businesses without over-producing stock. “The pieces are complicated because we have a lot of signature techniques—the use of unbreakable thread, the unique finishes on the outside and inside,” explains the designer. “It would not be possible to maintain this quality if we were working with larger factories.”

This rigorous and honest approach to fashion production – no corners cut for the sake of scalability – has ensured the healthy evolution of his brand. Pre-order windows only remain open for a limited time throughout the year. “I’ve always said I’m a product guy,” Calydon says. “I’m out here on the sewing machine trying new things, not just thinking about the edges.”

As one of his favorite video games, PokémonCalydon envisages a rapid evolution of its brand. Later this year, he will introduce a series of futuristic gloves, which will be launched through a film project.

“Just like how Pokémon evolve and grow, I hope people can layer the new items with the core collection,” says Calydon. “And he builds (them) to fashion his own armor and uniform.”