Charles Guislain | Like Tavi, Only French, Male and Blogless

Charles Guislain was just 15 when he crashed his first Paris runway show, Gareth Pugh in 2008. For a petit écolier, he cuts an unusual image, clad in an apocalyptic Rad Hourani chain mail sheath or a princely Martin Margiela cape with hooflike Rick Owens wedge boots. The fashion commentariat thinks of him as the goth counterpoint to the kooky, hat-loving Tavi, but Guislain is no blogger. He was discovered by the raspy-voiced cult fashion journalist Diane Pernet and became something of a flaxen-haired YouTube curiosity, and he was recently the subject of a spread in Italian Vogue. He’s still in school, studying Rimbaud, Barthes, Proust — serious reading for a serious boy.

“I’m not really into parties, to be honest,” Guislain says. He first fell in love with fashion at age 13, when he came across a pair of Dior Homme suspenders designed by his idol, Hedi Slimane. Now 17, he’s already toying with retirement from the show-hopping scene: “I need to escape European life. I am a little bored with this now, as there are too many rude people,” he says. “People forget that fashion can also be funny.”