Volume Control

Atlantique Ascoli had an early career as a singer and a songwriter—the latter for bands like Unkle and Talk Talk—but she wouldn’t call herself a musician. Neither does she think of herself as an art director, although she’s designed numerous album covers, including one for Carla Bruni. Rather, the Paris-born daughter of the fashion designer Emmanuelle Khanh and the inflatable-furniture pioneer Quasar Khanh simply sees herself as someone “who does things,” albeit with enviably chic style. Her latest creative endeavor is a line of “overblouses,” as she calls them—clean, crisp cotton shirts and tunics inspired by her personal stockpile of Victorian tops. With the exception of her logo design, which she entrusted to her brother-in-law, the legendary art director Marc Ascoli, she’s assumed control of all aspects of the business. That’s her modeling the blouses, and it was she who personally got them into places like Barneys New York, Dover Street Market New York, and the Webster. “I do it as if it were my own little bakery,” she explains—hinting, perhaps, at her next project.