Joy is at the heart of French-Japanese fashion designer Noemie Jouas’s label, Noé, and it’s mirrored in the distinctive ruffles, vibrant colours and frothy, capacious silhouettes that form the foundation of the brand. The hallmark characteristics of the loose-fitting dresses she shares on Tiktok point to an approach towards fashion that is uniquely Jouas’s own, and are far from the sultry opulence that underscores Tiktok’s fur coat-clad “mob wife” and “office siren” trends. She describes her designs and style as “flirty”, “fun” and “free”, emotions derived from the way she feels in her dresses. To Jouas, loose fits can be just as flattering as fitted ones.
But in the Tiktok space where restrictive beauty standards are obsessed over and heavily perpetuated—think of the recent return of ’00s waif look, the normalisation of Ozempic for weight loss, and the “clean girl” and “that girl” trends that promote unrealistic lifestyles and workout routines—Jouas’s voluminous designs were not always received well by viewers. Or, in Internet speak: there were girls who didn’t get it.
Suggestions to add belts to her dresses were rife in Jouas’s comment sections, from users who did not realise that the exaggerated silhouette was intentional on her end because it makes her feel joy. This misunderstanding was frustrating at first because it implied that her designs required “fixing” when it didn’t, but the designer soon learned to take it in stride.
@noedresses There will be no furtner explanation #belt ♬ original sound – Kam Tunechi 💕
So when her belt dress went viral on Tiktok, it came as no surprise. Jouas’s design kept the same voluminous shape, only it was made with multiple belts she found at a thrift store wrapped around the dress. Injecting humour into her response to such suggestions exemplifies the fun-filled and emotion-charged way in which Jouas sees her brand.
Below, we find out more about the creation process of the TikTok belt dress, her view on body positivity and her approach to her brand.
What inspired you to create your own brand?
Noemie Jouas (NJ): I didn’t have a moment of epiphany where I decided I was going to start a brand. I’ve always loved fashion design and making clothes from any fabric I could get my hands on. Soon enough I was making all of my formal wear at university, had an Instagram page to track my progress and people were asking me to make dresses for them. I realised I had a brand when somebody saw a friend of mine wearing a dress I had made her and said: “That’s a Noemie dress.”
I had designs distinctive enough to be recognised, and I think that’s the foundation of a brand.
What words would you use to describe your personal style and aesthetic and do these transfer over to your brand’s designs?
NJ: I would say my brand’s designs often transfer over to my personal style. My brand is where I let my creativity take charge and I enjoy incorporating those elements in my everyday style.
The words I like to use are: flirty, fun and free.
What did the earliest designs from your brand look like?
NJ: I did a lot of formal wear, so I made many long dresses. My first ever dress was my prom dress in 2017. Back then I did a lot of two piece sets which were really fun to mix and match. I’ve always made fun things though, I’ve recently been recreating my earliest designs with the skills that I have today and it feels as though I am able to bring to life designs and ideas I’ve always had but didn’t have the skill set to. It’s really fun to compare two pieces with the same idea, made 6 years apart.
For example, in 2017 I made a watermelon dress for Halloween, it was a flat dress, no dimensions, quite plain. When I remade it in 2022, I added so much volume, bows, and ruffles, of course. It’s the same concept, but totally different dresses.
Why are you particularly drawn to voluminous silhouettes in dresses?
NJ: I just think they’re fun. It was never a conscious decision to step away from form-fitting clothing, I just love being able to twirl and have the skirt make a dramatic turn. I love how those dresses make me feel so I started making more of them. It all started from a place of joy.
There are comments on Tiktok saying how your designs go against the obsession with beauty standards and looking ‘snatched’. Are your voluminous designs an intentional response to today’s beauty standards?
NJ: I think I unintentionally did that—I spend a lot of time looking at my body, the way in looks in various pieces I’ve made, prototypes, etc. It’s hard not to notice the way my body looks in them, especially on low self esteem days. Part of the joy that comes with loose fitting dresses is that I don’t have to think about how my body looks in it (because you cannot see my waist at all) but rather how it feels.
And once I felt that I wanted to keep feeling it, and also share it with others. Also, loose fitting dresses has changed my perception of what looks “flattering”. I genuinely think that I look really great in loose-fitting dresses, I think the proportions are just right and that shift in mentality has been quite freeing.
Flattering doesn’t have to exclusively be tied to a snatched waist. I’ve gotten so many lovely comments from people saying that focusing less on how their body looks all the time helped them have a better relationship with their body and that really warms my heart.
What do your clients love about your designs and your approach to fashion?
NJ: I think they really trust my vision. Making clothing that’s more focused on someone’s feelings when wearing it rather than looks is something that I think a lot of people look for. A lot of my clients will come to me with their ideas but will say: “But I trust your vision and your decision with this,” and I am always so warmed by people’s trust in me and my designs.
How has your reaction towards suggestions to add belts to your designs changed, and what caused that switch in perspective?
NJ: I think at first it was frustrating because I felt that people didn’t understand that I was intentionally making things that weren’t snatched at the waist. People suggesting how to “fix” my designs implies my design needs fixing. But soon enough it became a big joke. People leave belt comments to see how silly it looks when I try it and we have a good laugh with it.
I want to clarify, I love pieces with a snatched waist, I’ve made many form fitting dresses and continue to do so. I just don’t think every single dress needs to show off your waist, some are designed not to and it’s okay to leave your belt in your closet in those instances.
People have very strong opinions on the internet, and leaning into that with a comedic intention has been really fun, and clearly people find it funny too.
How did the idea of the belt dress on Tiktok come to you, and how did you execute that vision?
NJ: I can’t take the credit for it, I had multiple comments say: “You should make a dress entirely out of belts,” and it went from there.
I’ve wanted to execute this idea for a while but always had different projects to focus on, until I had the opportunity to make some pieces for a fashion show. I absolutely love partaking in fashion shows because it’s much more about ideas and self expression rather than wearability so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to execute the idea.
Finding the belts probably took the most amount of time. For months I would go to a charity shop near my house and buy all the £1 belts I could find. The hardest part was trying to get all of the belts to stick to the dress, it was a lot of hand sewing, glue gunning and hoping for the best. It would never hold long term though, I’ve had a few people ask to get a custom one made and I don’t see how I’ll be able to make it for others to wear regularly.
How has your degree in business management helped you as a fashion designer?
NJ: My experience as a student for four years has strongly impacted my career as a fashion designer. St. Andrews has a huge entrepreneurial scene, I’ve got many friends who started their own brands, businesses, ventures and even wrote books while they were still at university. I had a particular class, Entrepreneurship and Creativity, with an incredible professor that I think about often when reflecting on my time at university.
Tell us more about your recent July & August drop of aprons and picnic mats with ruffles with no other purpose other than to look pretty. Where did you get the idea for picnic mats and aprons and how do you plan to apply your signature aesthetic to future releases?
NJ: I’ve always wanted to make a large picnic blanket, and when my friends Rosie and Charlie and I decided to host a picnic for our first London Creativity Club event, I knew this was the perfect time to execute it. I just love ruffles, I love the way they look, I love making them with my gathering foot, it’s such a soothing process. My cousin then told me a matching apron would be cute and that’s all it took for me to make one. With silly ideas, I usually take very little convincing.
My monthly drops are designed to make me share with my followers pieces that I am enjoying making that month, so although it felt silly to do a picnic blanket, I thought it perfectly encapsulated what I loved in June and what I wanted to share with the world. Gingham is also a pattern I’m absolutely loving this summer, so I wanted to lean into the “picnic bitch” aesthetic as much as I could, and do it quite literally. Sometimes I think that perhaps I should make my drops a little more “polished” but I love how my aesthetic will change alongside my various drops and that people will be able to buy what I authentically love making that month. I’m sure by next summer I’ll be making completely different pieces with a different aesthetic and that only makes me more excited for what’s to come.
READ MORE
Susan Fang Wants To “Spark Joy” With Her & Other Stories Collaboration
Yayi Chen Zhou Is The Fashion Designer Giving New Meaning To East Meets West
What Is The Future Of Fashion? These Two Fashion Insiders Are Trying To Answer That Question