Creator, trendsetter and stylist to the artists of Montreal: Éléonore Côté-Savard says her
word on the fashion industry and Covid-19.
Since March 2020, various creators in the local fashion and arts industry have had to make a few
changes in how they present themselves and their brands. Despite this, certain key workers from
Montreal believe that not enough changes have been made and that the industry has unfortunately,
mainly stayed the same. Éléonore Côté-Savard, a stylist, photographer and creative director from
Quebec City, saw the effects of the global pandemic on her work.
Since the start of her career in 2018, Éléonore Côté-Savard, also known as Éléàla on social media,
has worked with many Quebecers in the media and arts industry such as Corneille, Arianne Moffat,
Sarah-Jade Bleau, Alicia Moffett, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse and more. Throughout all of her different
projects, such as her various photoshoots and styling contracts, she has always tried her best to
turn to thrift shops when in need of pieces and material for her work. “I’ve always relied on thrift
shops. This is where I go to for all my stylist needs”, she said during an interview. Despite these
efforts, Éléonore Côté-Savard also understands the reality of the local fashion industry, even in
this phase of the pandemic. “I feel like people that were buying luxury are still going to buy luxury
and people that were buying at Shein are still going to buy at Shein. I don’t really think it’s going
to change anything”, said Éléonore Côté-Savard. Over the pandemic, this stylist’s work has mostly
consisted of searching for and curating looks for various clients and their projects, such as styling
Rick Pagano on-set for a music video. “We were all on set and then the cops just came and everything stopped. They just wanted to see if we had masks, hand sanitizer, and all the things that
are needed now, but it happened a couple of times where the cops would come just to see if
everything was okay”, said Éléonore Côté-Savard.
As values of certain local designers and organizations might have changed, this avid stylist
believes that the visual aspect is still what is at the heart of fashion, and what people are searching
for.
“I can’t deny the environment and all that, I think it’s super important and brands have to make changes, but fashion stays all about the look, about what the eyes want to see. I think aesthetic remains the first thing about fashion,” said Éléonore Côté-Savard, “I think people are going to be a bit more curious as to what’s behind brands, but I think the aesthetic part is still the most important thing. For example, when looking at an artist who’s done bad things, people are still really going to enjoy the music of this artist, and not their past. I think it’s the same for fashion.”
Apart from thrift shops and her surroundings, this stylist, photographer and creative directoralso inspires herself from travel to come up with new ideas and concepts in her work. Although not against the idea of sourcing locally, she thinks that Montreal’s fashion and arts industry should inspire itself from more international sources in order to grow. Not only that, Éléonore Côté Savard also thinks that Montreal’s fashion industry should not only make changes from this global pandemic, but that it should inspire itself from it, “I’d say to people to use the pandemic as an inspiration. I saw many editorial shoots that were inspired from the Covid-19. I would say just use it as an inspiration for new ways to do things, to come up with new concepts.”
In the near future, Éléonore Côté-Savard’s hopes to launch her own collection of gloves, as well
as her own perfume line. Find her here: @ele4la, @eleonorecs, https://www.eleala.com/
