Madbros 24 04 16 Laetitia Versace The French Go Better →
This numerical sequence is an ISO-style date: April 16, 2024. On this specific Tuesday, something dropped. According to digital breadcrumbs, this was the release date of a limited capsule collection and a 44-minute continuous mix titled “Le Transit.” Why this date? April 16 sits exactly between the Paris fashion week and the Cannes film festival, a dead zone that the Madbros used to launch a "guerrilla elegance" campaign.
On April 16, 2024, the Madbros released a three-part digital artifact:
Part 1: The Film (6:09 minutes) A short film starring Laetitia Versace. Shot entirely on a Nokia N95 (vintage 2007), the film shows Laetitia walking from a laundromat to a jazz bar. She spills red wine, fixes her lipstick without a mirror, and quotes Marguerite Duras. The final frame reads: "MADBROS 24 04 16 – THE FRENCH GO BETTER."
Part 2: The Audio (The "Better" Mix) A 24-minute DJ set (note the 24 for 2024) that blends Franco-Italian disco (think Dalida), industrial techno, and the sound of a Vespa engine starting. The voice note of Laetitia saying "Allez, on y va" (Let's go, we're going) is sampled 16 times—a nod to the "16" in the code. madbros 24 04 16 laetitia versace the french go better
Part 3: The Merch (The "Imperfect" T-Shirt) A screen-printed shirt that looks like a vintage airline crew tee. On the front: "MADBROS." On the back: "LAETITIA VERSACE – THE FRENCH GO BETTER – 24 04 16." The shirt is deliberately misprinted (the collar is slightly crooked), because, as the Madbros say, "Perfection is boring. Going is messy."
The phenomenon reflects broader trends:
MADBROS—the elusive duo known for their grainy, 90s-inflected fashion drops and sync-sound experimental shorts—have always treated dates like coordinates. 24 04 16 isn't just a timestamp. It’s a mood code. This numerical sequence is an ISO-style date: April
The release, which surfaced at 07:00 CET without warning, features a single 48-second loop: Laetitia Versace lighting a cigarette in a bistro mirror, wearing a washed-out satin jersey and racing gloves. The audio is a slowed-down sample of a Roland TR-909 kick layered over what sounds like a train announcement at Gare du Nord.
The "Madbros" are not a brand in the traditional sense. Emerging from the European underground scene in late 2023, the Madbros are a collective of digital artists, DJs, and disruptive marketers. Their ethos is "Creative Chaos." They reject minimalism in favor of maximalist texture. If you see "Madbros" attached to a phrase, expect neon fonts, glitch effects, and a heavy 2000s Y2K revival aesthetic mixed with cyberpunk anxiety.
Given the nature of the title, here's a structured approach to what a review might entail: Performance :
Performance:
Direction and Script:
Overall Experience:
You don’t need to be French or wear Versace to embody this philosophy. The Madbros manifesto, as filtered through Laetitia, offers three actionable principles: