Palace and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac celebrate the urban dandies
If JCC’s bold designs are good enough for Zendaya and Madonna, they’re good enough for us – and London’s skaters.
Never mind Glasto, dig out the Pritt stick: for the third time, Palace has collaborated with cult French artist Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. For the first time, the collection is inspired by the fine art of collage. Putting a playful, Dadaist spin on classic skate silhouettes and workwear garments, JCC’s take on Palace is as fun and surreal as ever. We got him to break it down on the blower.
Name three core inspirations for this collection.
Dada, for its anti-art, anti-conformist, and manifesto-like dimensions.
Heroes, to express that we are all potentially heroes, depending on our choices and commitments. I also refer to skaters and the boldness of their passion, a form of urban dandyism, where their courage becomes an artistic performance.
Raw power, as seen in my collages: cutting out photographs from magazines, pieces of coloured paper, words; applying them onto functional, essential, cool garments. Then taking those same images and pasting them onto city walls so they speak to everyone. It’s the ultimate link between art, fashion and movement.
Who’s your ultimate style muse?
My wife, the very talented poet Pauline de Castelbajac, she’s sharp, chic and deeply inspiring. She is also my studio director.
What do you listen to whilst you’re collaging?
Modernist Survival Unit, a 2024 track by Wolfgang Tillmans.
Also, suprême disco and la réponse, tracks I made in collaboration with the artist 3010 in 2025.
Are you any good on a skateboard?
I’ve never really practiced skateboarding. I tried, but I came to it too late. But I’m a skateboarder at heart, in my taste for risk, my love of danger, my drive to push my limits, the boldness of my challenges, and in the beauty of elevating what others fail to see. I belong to that community of everyday heroes, the urban dandies.
If you’ve never collaged before, where’s the best place to start?
We usually start collaging in kindergarten, then abandon it in adolescence, but we shouldn’t. Collage is a discipline you can practice under any circumstance; it erases the boundaries between gesture and space. You can even start after the age of 70, like Henri Matisse did, and like I did.
