System

‘I wanted something calm.’

Issue No. 6 – £7 / €10 / $18

Raf Simons
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Table of contents

58 More More More Dior.

By Cathy Horyn. Photographs by Juergen Teller.

194 A letter from... Beijing: Service not included.

By Hung Huang. Illustration by Jean-Philippe Delhomme.

196 A letter from... London: A class act.

By Edie Campbell. Illustration by Jean-Philippe Delhomme.

198 A letter from... New York: Style conscious.

By Burak Cakmak. Illustration by Jean-Philippe Delhomme.

200 Face à face. Parallel turns.

By Remo Ruffini & Thom Browne.

202 Behind the scenes. Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman.

By Jonathan Wingfield.

226 Chronicles of retail. The Sixth Continent.

By Marion Hume.

234 The legendary... Hubert de Givenchy.

By Hans Ulrich Obrist. Photographs by Jamie Hawkesworth. Styling by Marie-Amélie Sauvé.

258 In the words of... Tavi Gevinson.

By Jonathan Wingfield. Photographs by Brigitte Lacombe.

270 Portfolio. François Berthoud.

By Thomas Lenthal. Illustrations by François Berthoud.

282 The collections. Print matters.

By David Owen.

326 Work in progress. Repossi x OMA.

By Jonathan Wingfield. Portraits by Willy Vanderperre.

338 The edit. Pre-collections.

By Alexander Fury. Photographs by Jamie Hawkesworth. Styling by Marie-Amélie Sauvé.

362 The Saint-Germain questionnaire. Julie de Libran.

By Loïc Prigent.

50
Contributors

Giovanni Bianco is from Brazil. He Jamie Hawkesworth is a photographer exhibitions and sets for Louis Vuitton,
is a creative director and the owner of from Ipswich in Suffolk, England. He as well as windows for Dior. When seek-
GB65. He resides between New York lives in London. When seeking inspira- ing inspiration, the book Faye always
and São Paulo. When seeking inspira- tion, Jamie always turns to an old Will­ turns to is Mister G by Gilbert Garcin.
tion, the book Giovanni always turns to iam Eggleston Christies catalogue: ‘it’s
is O Rio de Janeiro by Bruce Weber. incredible’. Hans Ulrich Obrist is from Zurich,
Switzerland. He lives in London and is
Burak Cakmak is from Turkey. He is the Cathy Horyn is a writer from Coshoc- the co-director of the Serpentine Gal-
dean of the School of Fashion at Parsons ton, Ohio. She currently resides in the leries. When seeking inspiration, Hans
in New York. When seeking inspiration, Hudson Valley, New York. When seek- Ulrich always turns to is Mount Tamal-
the book Burak always turns to is Col- ing inspiration, the book Cathy always pais by Etel Adnan.
lapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or turns to is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott
Succeed by Jared Diamond. Fitzgerald. David Owen is from Suburbia. He lives
in the Barbican, London, and runs
Edie Campbell is from London, Eng- Marion Hume wasn’t born in London IDEA Books with his partner Angela
land. She is a model who dabbles in but calls it home. She’s a journalist and Hill. When seeking inspiration, the
writing to ‘keep ze brain moving’. When avid swimmer, and also works on art book David always turns to is The Flower
seeking inspiration, the book Edie and philanthropic projects. When seek- Shop by Leonard Koren: ‘it describes
always turns to is The Passion by Jean- ing inspiration, Marion always turns the day-to-day practice of the Blumenk-
ette Winterson: ‘she can string a sen- to Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne raft florist in Vienna – I’m going to have
tence together in a way that’s at once Cox: ‘a tribute to the magnificence of to read it again now!’
effortless and the most perfect expres- the human body. And blimey, if she can
sion of everything you’ve ever felt about do that, what are we whining about?’ Gaia Repossi is a designer from Turin,
the world’. Italy who lives between Paris and Los
Nikolas Koenig is from Frankfurt, Ger- Angeles. When seeking inspiration, the
Dennis Freedman is from Harrisburg, many. He’s an architectural photogra- books Gaia always turns to are S, M, L,
Pennsylvania. He lives in New York and pher who shoots mostly residential and XL by Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau,
is the creative director of Barneys. When hospitality projects commercially, and and Molloy by Samuel Beckett.
seeking inspiration, the book Den- land- and cityscapes for his person-
nis always turns to William Eggleston’s al work. He lives in New York. When Marie-Amélie Sauvé is from Paris, the
Guide. seeking inspiration, Nikolas always city where she still lives and works as
turns to The Stranger by Albert Camus. a creative, style and artistic consultant.
Tavi Gevinson is a writer and actress The book she always to turns to when
from Oak Park, Illinois. She lives in New Faye McLeod is from Glasgow, Scot- seeking inspiration is Sigmund Freud’s
York and is the editor in chief of Rookie. land. She resides between New York The Interpretation of Dreams.
When seeking inspiration, Tavi always and Paris, and is the visual image direc-
turns to The Daniel Clowes Reader. tor of the team designing windows,

52
Masthead

Editorial Board
Alexia Niedzielski
Elizabeth von Guttman
Jonathan Wingfield
Thomas Lenthal

Art Director Associate Editor

Mathieu Perroud Rana Toofanian

Editorial Assistant Coordination

Thomas Prees Veronica Latourrette

Subeditor Layout
Tom Ridgway Antoine Seiter

Contributing Writers
Burak Cakmak, Edie Campbell, Alexander Fury, Cathy Horyn,
Hung Huang, Marion Hume, David Owen, Loïc Prigent.

Contributing Creatives
François Berthoud, Jean-Philippe Delhomme, Marie-Amélie Sauvé.

Contributing Photographers
Joe Fletcher, Steve Harries, Jamie Hawkesworth, Nikolas Koenig,
Brigitte Lacombe, Mario Palmieri, Juergen Teller, Willy Vanderperre.

Special Thanks to:

Olivier Bialobos, Thomas Bonnouvrier, Edward Brachfeld, Julie Brown, Sébastien Clivaz,
Kristen Dégardin, Floriane Desperier, Oliver Fiechter, Geoffroy Hassoun, Angela Hill,
Jeanne Hollande, Janet Johnson, Sven Kaufmann, Charles Levai, Therese Lundström,
Rozi Rexhepi, Georg Ruffles, Wolfgang Schmid, Charlotte Selignan, Violaine Willm, Karin Xiao.

Publisher
Tartan Publishing Ltd

System
Tartan Publishing Ltd, 29-31 Brewery Road,
London, N7 9QH, United Kingdom, +44 (0)20 7619 6617.

For subscriptions please visit

www.system-magazine.com

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Distribution by COMAG, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, UB7 7QX, UK, +44 (0)18 9543 3811.

Colour reproduction and print supervision by LBH labs. © 2015 Reproduction is strictly prohibited For more information,
Printed and bound by Grafica Nappa Srl without permission from the publishers. please contact info@ system-magazine.com
in Aversa, Italy. ISSN No.: 2052-0808 or visit www.system-magazine.com

54
Editors’ letter

It was all going so well.

Raf Simons had graciously spent the past six months, on and off,
discussing life at Dior for this issue of System. Cathy Horyn’s resulting
piece presented a designer coming to terms with the ever-increasing
demands of heading up one of fashion’s most monumental institutions
– and the ever-decreasing time he had in which to conjure up newness,
countless times a year. We even had a title for it: ‘More More More Dior’.

And then came the announcement that Raf Simons had chosen to leave
the house of Dior. With half of our pages already printed (that original
title still appears on the contents page), we pressed ‘pause’, asked Cathy
to write an epilogue, and sat down to reread what Raf had said in the
interviews, searching for traces of the deliberation that was clearly in
his thoughts, if not his words.

With hindsight (that most revealing, yet futile of prisms through which
to observe a situation), the intimacy of the piece offers a window into a
man questioning his situation, his life, his future. At one point, Raf asks
the question – as much to himself – ‘How do you pull away from all this
tension in your professional life? Do you buy a house and start doing
pottery?’

Well, we half-jokingly thought to ourselves pre-announcement,

pottery’s gain would certainly be fashion’s immense loss. At the time
of the comment, Cathy responded in faux-firm and affectionate tones:
‘Don’t do pottery, Raf’.

And as she has just now suggested, several hours after hearing the
news of his departure, ‘We really should learn to take Raf at his word’.

56
GIVENCHY.COM
The cover story Raf Simons

‘I wanted
something
calm.’
Raf Simons on his final six months at Dior.

By Cathy Horyn
Photographs by Juergen Teller

58 59
The cover story Raf Simons

Raf Simons’ career can be divided into two distinct parts. In John Galliano. But for ready-to-wear, he and the team sprawl He adds, ‘When I first started at Dior, the ready-to-wear out of the ground.’
the first, beginning in 1995, he was menswear designer with in this sedate dove-grey salon, with racks of clothes (most did not feed off the couture. And now it does, because cou- He thinks for a moment and says, ‘Sometimes I’d like to
a romantic obsession with youth and an equally strong mod- still with basting threads) along one wall and accessories on ture is only for 300 clients and because the reaction to the cou- talk with Karl Lagerfeld. He’s been in it so many years – there
ern view of fashion. A Raf Simons show could imply a world the opposite, and models walking in between as Raf assess- ture shows is so much better. The clothes are more contem- must be a structure to how he works at Chanel. I mean, I can-
– whether through its street casting, or an idealism expressed es each. Sometimes the milliner Stephen Jones stops by, or porary, for one thing.’ not imagine that he’s working at the rhythm and tempo that
in school uniforms, the slim black suit of the late 1950s dan- the music producer Michel Gaubert, and they will watch the ‘So the customers want more newness?’ Pieter and I are working at. I cannot believe it. It’s not possi-
dy or the discontents of a new-wave fringe group. That was scene while standing against the back wall. The atmosphere is ‘Yes,’ he says, slowly. ‘And no.’ ble. I can’t believe he’s working on collections from 10 in the
Raf’s great gift: to put his mind to a truth about young men similar to that of the Chanel studio: open, relaxed, with Raf, He has cranked up the music and a model, in for a go-see, morning until 11 or 12 at night.’
and then marshal relatively simple forms around it. Over and like Karl Lagerfeld, keeping tabs on everything. The differ- begins snaking down the carpet. Pieter and an assistant are ‘You might be surprised,’ I say. ‘He starts very early in the
over he did that. ence is perhaps that Raf prefers to have fewer distractions. reaching for a pair of ankle boots from a group on the floor. morning – at home – sketching. He puts things into motion
Then, in 2005, Raf went to Jil Sander to design men’s and He taps a remote control and suddenly the room fills with ‘Well, this brand can’t get stuck in its heritage,’ Raf con- from there. He also has Virginie Viard, his right hand. You
women’s fashion. On the strength of a handful of collec- a hard electronic beat. A model in a minidress with a chain- tinues, still watching the model. ‘Because everything goes so can’t underestimate her role. And I’ve seen him in the Chanel
tions that refreshed the notion of minimalism, his reputa- mesh collar begins to walk, then stops as an assistant removes much faster today. At Jil Sander, it took us five or six years to and Fendi studios late at night. So…’
tion soared. In March 2012, Raf was hired by Dior as artis- the collar and looks back at Raf. get out of that minimal, monastic silhouette. Here at Dior, it Raf nods. I think he knows that a conversation with Karl
tic director. Although to editors he was a surprising choice ‘I think it’s better without,’ he says. ‘OK, we’re going to has taken us less than three years to make the change. I didn’t might yield many valuable things, but not necessarily the
– wasn’t he a minimalist? – anyone who had followed the first photograph her. And then we’re going to put her in the black expect it, either. But when you do six shows a year the evolu- answer he is seeking. Everybody has to choose a method for
part of Raf’s career knew that he possessed the very qualities boot – to double-check.’ tion is faster than at a house that only does two shows. The himself, though certainly he and Karl are in a unique boat:
needed at a Paris couture house in the 21st century. He was I remark that the swirling patterns (an abstraction of ani- customer gets used to seeing more.’ they alone do six big shows a year, two involving the extra pre-
a master team builder, an engine of ideas, and an extremely mal spots) of the models’ bodysuits recall the pop prints in He looks at Pieter. ‘She needs to be seen with different cision of haute couture. And, as almost everyone in fashion
competitive man who likes to be first. At Dior, he quickly won his January couture show, and I ask if ready-to-wear follows coats. And let’s see the brown boots with the green heel. Yes, knows, there’s a rivalry between LVMH and Chanel. That’s
admirers, not least in its ateliers, as demand for Dior’s mod- its themes. beautiful. Lighter.’ pressure in itself.

‘Every collection is now done in three weeks. When ‘Sometimes I’d like to talk about this with Karl
I think back to the first couture show, in July 2012, Lagerfeld. He’s been in it so many years – there must
I was concerned because we only had eight weeks.’ be a structure to how he works at Chanel.’
ernized fashion grew by leaps. ‘A little bit,’ he says, hesitating. ‘In terms of the silhouette, The day after the Dior show, Raf and I meet for lunch at a Some months ago Raf mentioned that he wanted to create
Still and all, Raf could never have imagined the pace at yes, and also the attitude. Couture was about this kind of mix- restaurant near Avenue Montaigne. He has had some sleep, a new studio structure at Dior, so I ask him about that.
which he would be working at Dior. Six major shows a year ing of three decades that sit close together – the 1950s, 1960s, but not enough to counteract the pace of the previous few ‘When you do six shows a year, there’s not enough time for
– two haute-couture, two ready-to-wear, a cruise, and a sep- 1970s. The 1950s for the Dior kind of thing; the 1960s for days. The show was held in a modernistic tent in the Cour the whole process,’ he explains. ‘Technically, yes – the peo-
arate show in December to compete with Chanel’s Métiers its romantic ideal of the future; the 1970s for its sexual free- Carrée of the Louvre, with more than 1,000 guests. The ple who make the samples, do the stitching, they can do it. But
d’Arts1 presentation the same month. Nor, indeed, could dom. And what came out of that were some things we wanted standout was the tailoring, in particular the lean, dropped- you have no incubation time for ideas, and incubation time
anyone a decade ago have imagined the changes that would to push further for ready-to-wear. Also, our younger clients shoulder coats, worn at times over boldly printed bodysuits is very important. When you try an idea, you look at it and
sweep the fashion world, changes that have forced everyone to would like to see things go further.’ or a minidress. What the collection lacked in classic Dior think, Hmm, let’s put it away for a week and think about it
work harder and faster. This is the ‘system’ that people com- He pauses and addresses the assistant: ‘Change the black romance it made up for in modern ease. And the coats would later. But that’s never possible when you have only one team
plain about. But Raf has actually adapted and thrived – per- boots’. have no equal during the Fall season. working on all the collections.’
haps to his own surprise. I’m struck by how linear and clean the silhouette looks. ‘You know, we did this collection in three weeks,’ he tells ‘Also,’ he goes on, ‘what people forget is that when you do
And that has been the subject we’ve been discussing over a ‘I just think, after three years, we should be able to bring me, not defending the show but, rather, stating the reality a runway show, it eats time away from your schedule. Just the
six-month period: How does the system work at Dior? Dior to where we want,’ he says, ‘whether it’s the shape, the that now faces high-fashion houses. ‘Tokyo was also done prep time before a show is six or seven days, especially when
colours, or the materials. Or a conceptual approach or a sto- in three weeks. Actually everything is done in three weeks, you are showing abroad – ’
The day before his Fall ready-to-wear show, in early March, ry approach. When I feel it, I will always very much go into maximum five. And when I think back to the first couture ‘So you’re constantly creating,’ I say, ‘with no time.’
Raf is overseeing fittings in a salon at Dior. Two tables are set the heritage silhouette. But it feels now like a moment to push show for Dior, in July 2012, I was concerned because we only ‘But I have no problem with the continuous creative pro-
up at one end of the large room, with six or seven assistants away that idea and allow other, new things to come in – just had eight weeks.’ cess,’ he says. ‘Because it’s the reason I’m in this world. It’s
around one table, and Raf and his right hand, Pieter Mulier, as we did in the January couture. Otherwise, you always end He smiles. ‘And now we never have time like that. And you always happening. I just did a show yesterday. Just now, while
along with their friend, the journalist Jo-Ann Furniss, at the up doing a full skirt and the Bar jacket2. All the tailoring this know? It’s clearly possible to do it, if I have my ideas togeth- waiting in the car, I sent four or five ideas to myself by text
other. Plates of chocolate and fruit are set out. For couture, time is not Bar, whereas in the [Esprit Dior Pre-Fall 2015] er. The machine is there. Of course, we have to push really message, so I don’t forget them. They are always coming.’
Raf uses a many-windowed studio – the same once used by Tokyo show3, it was all Bar.’ hard. It’s not like we think the ideas and mushrooms come ‘Like what? Tell me one.’

60 61
The cover story Raf Simons

He shrugs. ‘Stupid things. I was just thinking about this worked in the two teams, so there was a bit of stress. I took a it was nicer when it was more elitist, not for everybody. Now efficiently? How to produce six shows a year and make them
kind of very masculine tailoring you see in the navy. It can be page from the Stone Island book – of a guy in a huge brown high fashion is for everybody.’ vital. You answer those questions. To me, this makes the most
stupid things, like a certain button. But I’ve been doing this waxed coat – and I just cut the coat into the shape of the Bar. A few weeks later I hear from Raf again. It is a Friday even- sense. The journalists don’t know what to do with that larger
my whole life. The problem is when you have only one design I cut his head off and replaced it with a woman’s, and I said to ing (his time), and he is with his driver travelling from Ant- question anyway. And I don’t want to waste my time with it.
team and six collections, there is no more thinking time. And everybody, “This is what we’re going to do”. It was so clear.’ werp to Paris. Sheepishly, he reveals that he was leaving the Consumers also don’t care.
I don’t want to do collections where I’m not thinking. In this At Jil Sander, I recall, he used to sit with his team brain- next day to spend the weekend at Disneyland Paris with his ‘You know,’ I say, ‘there is no more regular print edition of
system, Pieter and I can’t sit together and brainstorm – no storming ideas. boyfriend. Hearing my snort, he chuckles and says, ‘I actual- Women’s Wear Daily. After more than 100 years the news-
time. I have a schedule every day that begins at 10 in the morn- ‘I did that very often,’ he says. ‘And when the shows were ly like that kind of thing, believe it or not.’ paper is finished.’
ing and runs through the day, and every, every minute is filled. running, I would sit with the whole creative team at a big table I don’t, but decide to leave it. During his first two years at ‘Wow, I hadn’t heard that,’ Raf replies. ‘My god.’ He seems
From 10.10am to 10.30am, it’s shoes, let’s say. From 10.30 to and have a dialogue. “What have you seen?” “What do you Dior, Raf rarely took breaks. He would work nonstop for four to mull this over and then says, ‘I’ve been talking to Sterling
11.15, it’s jewellery. Everything is timed – the whole week. If find modern? Old?” At first everyone would sit there with or five weeks, running up to Antwerp to check on his own [artist Sterling Ruby5] a lot about some of these things. Can
there’s a delay in a meeting, the whole day is fucked up.’ their mouths full of teeth and a rat face, but after a while they business, and then he’d be back in the grind of Paris – and ideas only work within existing systems? That’s what I won-
He looks at me intently. ‘What are you going to do? Walk loved it. It became a real dialogue. And I liked it very much.’ complaining that he didn’t have a normal life. So the news that der. I’m in a very well-defined system, obviously. But are there
out of the office at 8 o’clock at night? No, of course not. So ‘But can you do that at Dior?’ he had done something about it was positive. He said he had other situations or places where this might not be true? For
you stay there until midnight. That’s the life. So we created ‘Not at all,’ he replies, shaking his head. ‘Sometimes I do it been spending weekends with his boyfriend’s large family in example, Sterling and I took a lot of emotional satisfaction
two design teams. Each group has a person in charge, and with Pieter and maybe the heads of the teams. But the groups the south of France, exploring villages and just hanging out. from the collaboration we did together.’ In autumn 2013, the
these people are fantastic. If Team A is working on cruise, are too big here. There is also something else. At Dior, the ‘It changes everything now.’ He then recalls a visit to a pri- two friends created a one-off collection that reflected their
then Team B is working July couture. Then Team A will start moment you say, “This is an interesting thing to try”, things vate zoo. ‘They have this kind of antelope,’ he says, and he separate ideas about fashion and art, and also the ideas they
working on the Fall ready-to-wear show. So each group does go very, very fast.’ pronounces it an-TEE-lope, which adds to the childlike won- have in common.
one couture show and one ready-to-wear show.’ In other words, the efficiency of Dior’s ateliers, not to men- derment. ‘They have kangaroos. They have black swans. They ‘I think it worked because it was so unconnected to any-
‘How many people on a team?’ tion the expertise of its 75 seamstresses and tailors, helps have ostriches and pink flamingos. But, I’m telling you, 300 thing we had ever done before,’ he continues, ‘even though it

‘I’ve no problem with the continuous creative process. ‘I think if I had more time, I would reject
It’s always happening. Just now, while waiting in more things, but that’s also not necessarily better.
the car, I texted four or five ideas to myself.’ Sometimes you can work things to death.’
‘Purely designers? About seven or eight.’ to move the design process along, which makes everyone pink flamingos next to that landscape, and 150 black swans, still involved fashion and art. In a way, it was not the same as
After some direction from Raf, a team will begin gather- involved more proficient, but leaves little time or room for and many kangaroos’ – he clicks his tongue – ‘it was incred- doing one of many, many collections, or one of many, many
ing research – mood boards, books. He and Pieter will then second options. ible. And there was almost no one there.’ art exhibitions.’
choose things they feel are worth developing. I ask Raf how We have finished our lunch and Raf is heading back to his Somehow we get into a discussion about the ‘State of Fash- ‘It was an exhilarating show,’ I say. ‘So free in its thinking.’
often the starting point is clear to him. office on the Avenue Montaigne. ‘So, in spite of the incredi- ion’ – the noise, the crowded multiplex of brands, the rise of ‘But can an approach like that exist by itself, and survive?’
‘Tokyo, for instance, was very clear. I wanted everything ble pressures, your system seems to work?’ I ask. bluntly commercial clothes. Where is it all going? ‘No, it can’t survive,’ I say. ‘It’s absolutely contrary to the
in the Bar jacket shape, but I wanted everything urban, like He nods. ‘Technically speaking, it works. Does it work for I tell him I think the question is a waste of time. existing fashion system, which wants stuff it can repeat again
Stone Island,’ he says, referring to Massimo Osti’s utilitari- me emotionally? No, because I’m not the kind of person who ‘I’ve obviously stepped back from the fashion world and again.’
an label, and the Stone Island book4. ‘Away with all the lady likes to do things so fast. I think if I had more time, I would because of my book,’ I say. ‘I spend most of my time in the Raf pauses and, after a moment, says, ‘Everything is so
material! Just rough, rough, rough. So it was clear for the reject more things, and bring other ideas or concepts in. But late 19th century and early 20th century, when fashion was easily accessible, and because of that you don’t make a lot of
team. There was the silhouette and the materials. That show that’s also not necessarily better. Sometimes you can work new and all the writing about it was new. I’ve learned, for sure, effort anymore. When we were young, you had to make up
was driven by the materials, like waxed cotton. When a col- things to death when you take too much time.’ that everything moves in a 20-year cycle. And right now we’re your mind to investigate something – because it took time.
lection is more story-like, it’s a bit more complicated. ‘People are used to processing information much more in this collision of what a consumer culture wants and what You really had to search and dig deep. Now if something
‘With the Tokyo collection, we had the idea a long time and quickly now, thanks to technology,’ I say. ‘Also, shows are the luxury business can deliver – and how quickly it can deliv- interests you, one second later, you can have it. And also one
then we were ready to use it. That’s very often the case with about communicating to large audiences, often via social er. It’s like an earthquake. You simply cannot see over the tur- second later you also drop it.’
me, though. By nature, I’m not scared, but I’m just aware of media. In any age, isn’t the point to master the changes moil. Nobody can. Still, everybody’s predicting. I wouldn’t One of my all-time favourite things that Raf ever did was a
the environment and when it’s a good moment. I’m patient. I around you?’ even bother. You just have to wait until the rumbling stops.’ video called 16, 17 How to Talk to Your Teen. Shot in 1996, in
also respect that some people may not be immediately ready ‘Maybe,’ he says, and with a laugh adds, ‘Fashion became Raf remains silent, so I continue. lieu of a show, when he probably had little money, it featured
for an idea. Not everybody has the same way of adapting to pop. I can’t make up my mind if that’s a good or a bad thing. ‘I actually think that what you do and what Karl does at guys and girls bunking off from school or work to ride their
newness – whether it’s art or fashion.’ The only thing I know is that it used to be elitist. And I don’t Chanel makes the only sense. You focus on the problems you skateboards around Antwerp. It perfectly captured the feel-
Anyway, he says, ‘Tokyo was the first collection where we know if one should be ashamed or not to admit that maybe have in front of you. How to make your studios work more ing of being young – an obsession of Raf’s at that time – and

62 63
The cover story Raf Simons

it came from a very sincere place. I saw the video for the first glorious, utopian, cliff-hanging house that belongs to Pierre ‘Yes, couture is going to be about Flemish primitives.’ He a key reference. But for me the show transmitted a dazzling
time in 2004, and it has stayed with me since. Cardin. The Bubble Palace is another Raf obsession; I’ve says this with energy, as if he has been storing up the idea for sense of freedom and imagination, not only in the variety of
I mention the video to Raf. ‘It was done out of real curi- heard him talk about it for years, never imagining that he’d some time. In fact, certain collections hold more fascination coats – some with a single, wide fur sleeve, others more like
osity and freedom,’ I say, adding, ‘Not unlike the show with show there. A sprawling compound, its round pinkish sur- for him than others, and I could tell this was the former. Natu- cloaks – but also in the serene, very plain floor-length dress-
Sterling.’ face sprouts more round and oval shapes, like the suckers of rally I think of the milky Flemish colours and the more homey es in white organza and in the fresh combinations of colours.
‘In that moment, you’re very eager to get a lot of reaction an octopus. scenes, but he seems to anticipate that, and cuts me off. Like many of Raf’s shows, the clothes were open to interpre-
and you want it to lead to something,’ he replies. ‘You start ‘In many ways it is a form of architecture you cannot con- ‘It’s a big challenge in my head,’ he says, as if he has read my tation: the cloaks evoked both Poiret in the 1910s and Yama-
thinking, How can it become a structure and system? And nect to another,’ Raf tells me. ‘It is more human than ration- thoughts. ‘Well, it has a lot of the colours of the paintings, but moto in the 1980s, as well as capes that Raf did in a late 1990s
what you don’t realize is that if it evolves and evolves, it’s al; individual and playful.’ I don’t want it to be only that. In the end, in fact, I don’t want men’s show. By the September shows in New York, you could
actually going to take you away from the time that you could I ask him how the collection is progressing, and am not sur- people to be able to guess what the inspiration was. see his influence everywhere, especially those extravagant
spend researching and thinking about something in depth. prised when he says it is nearly finished. ‘In those paintings a lot of the clothing was just a drape to sleeves and white dresses.
You don’t know that at the beginning. ‘It’s very Dior,’ he explains. ‘You know, I have to say they make the painting look good. There were a lot of garments, Later, Raf tells me, ‘We have to experiment in couture. You
‘And now, sometimes, I think, How can you get back to are super satisfied at Dior, but if there’s one time I don’t do a of course, but also some unfinished fabrics. It made me think know, in the beginning at Dior I didn’t think like that. Now I
that state? And maybe you can’t. It was connected to so many Bar jacket, they let me know.’ He laughs. ‘I mean, they don’t of how the process in an atelier happens, too. You find pic- think it’s very interesting in couture to experiment.’
things from that time. I find that very complicated.’ pressure me or anything. But on purpose I didn’t do a Bar tures of Christian Dior in the studio doing exactly that kind of I point out that he and his design team also had more time
‘But don’t you think the show with Sterling was a kind of jacket in the March ready-to-wear collection – because the thing, working with a piece of fabric. So in my head I’m ana- to work on the July couture show, since cruise was pretty
opening?’ I ask. ‘Why does everything in fashion – or art – Tokyo show [in December] featured the Bar. And I felt that lysing all the phases that go into making a collection. One much done in late April.
have to be sustainable? Why not do something that takes if you already offer the style six times a year, maybe it’s good collection that I’m really looking at is by Martin Margiela Raf gives a dry laugh. ‘Yeah, but it’s still really heavy. What
two years to create, and not two weeks? Maybe present the to do something different. – the one with the fur wigs by the Bless girls6. Do you know annoys me more, psychologically, is the Antwerp situation –
results in a remote place. I’ve always said that some of your ‘For cruise, we’re doing quite a lot of Bar jackets, but not that one?’ because my own men’s collection sits in the middle of our
best shows have been done outdoors. I know this is harder exactly as you’ve seen them before. There’s a lot of new mate- I confess I don’t. But, in 1997, apparently low on funds, Dior schedule and there’s no structure in Antwerp. There’s no

‘Fashion became pop. And I don’t know if one ‘How do you pull away from all this tension
should be ashamed or not to admit that maybe it in your professional life? Do you buy a house
was nicer when it was more elitist.’ and start doing pottery or something?’
today because of security and crowds. But it would be fun to rials. Mini checks. Pleats with floral prints. Weird, fresh Margiela created an ingenious collection using leftover fab- pattern department. Things take weeks to be made, and often
think about. Having the impulse is important.’ colours… ’ rics, with the models wearing underpinnings that made their they come back with mistakes.’ He pauses. ‘That’s the incred-
Raf suddenly lets out a grunt. ‘You should see us here. We ‘What about the skirts?’ bodies look like the taut canvas forms of a Stockman dummy. ible part about Dior. If the direction is there, then the work
left Antwerp two hours ago and were supposed to arrive in ‘It’s difficult to explain,’ Raf says. ‘If a coat from Dior is 100 The clothes looked half-finished – and all the more lovely and will come very smoothly. The people in the ateliers make it
Paris at 8.30 tonight. But we’re in a traffic jam, and won’t percent, and you take away 20 percent, that portion becomes modern for it. Also, there were substantial coats in the collec- happen.’
arrive until 9.50. I’m supposed to meet someone for dinner. a skirt. If you cut everything from the knee to the waist, and tion, oversized, some missing sleeves, and they easily related In some respects, Raf’s thought processes and his meth-
‘This is the feeling I have all the time,’ he continues, clearly you keep that kind of volume, with the overlaps, then that is to something historical, though just what was hard to identify. od of working have not changed over the past 20 years. He
exasperated. ‘There’s never enough time. You get a tension. I the skirt. There’s also a lot of knitwear. I work now with the ‘That was a masterful, masterful show for me,’ says Raf. has always been good at breaking down an idea, simply and
know how to pull out from this in my personal life. We go and two girls I worked with at Jil – that is really heaven. ‘I always thought of it as “Flemish primitives”. Anyway, the directly, and in trusting his instincts. But a theme common to
look at nature for three hours. It’s heaven. We go to a bakery ‘There’s also a little story that you could say is a marriage July couture collection is hard to explain, and it’s still in the some of his early men’s shows was the power of the individual
and buy a bag of stuff and lie in the grass. Sublime. But how between a bathing suit and an evening dress. The starting early stages. But when you look at a painting, it’s a pose. It’s a to shape his world – as Raf himself has done. This notion was
to do that in the context of your professional life? You buy a point for the collection was to have something like workwear still. My question is, How can you think about that and make at the heart of his History of My World 8 show, in July 2004, a
house and you start doing pottery or something?’ – an overall, for example. But how can workwear grab the it very dynamic and very modern? We already did one cou- personal turning point for him. Not long after, he was hired
He sighs. aesthetic of Dior and also have the same functionality? And ture collection linked to different centuries. So I thought, at Jil Sander, his talent now on display in the larger arena of
‘Don’t do pottery, Raf,’ I say. be made with the minimum amount of fabric and still be cov- OK, this could be the biggest challenge for me yet in couture.’ women’s fashion.
ered? For me, the collection is very sweet and young.’ Personally, I am struck by how far Raf has come since his So I wonder how this notion of the individual fares in the
In May, we speak again. He had hoped to show Dior’s cruise ‘So you’ve already given the other design team the direc- debut show at Dior in summer 2012, a show that featured sep- new system of big brands and teams. Have Raf’s feelings been
collection in Los Angeles. So far, he has shown in Monaco tion for the July couture?’ I ask. ‘Have they started work?’ arate rooms lined with masses of fresh flowers and which was necessarily tempered? And is this idea still considered a vir-
and New York, with the expeditionary forces of the fashion ‘Yes. They began doing the research and then I went captured in the documentary Dior and I. You could of course tue? I ask two people close to him: Furniss, who has known
press following. But there was a snag in the L.A. plans, so he through everything to find what was interesting.’ see the connections to Margiela and the Flemish painters, Raf for about 15 years and who works on texts for him at Dior,
shifted to the Côte d’Azur, specifically, Le Palais Bulles, a ‘And do you have a clear direction at this point?’ mainly Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights7, and stylist Olivier Rizzo, who Raf regards as a brother.

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The cover story Raf Simons

Jo-Ann Furniss: It’s that delicate balance of being your- very strong designers have that – a certain sensibility. or a lovely, loose-fitting sleeveless black coat dress with pleat- no gossip, no court intrigue – because there isn’t any. In spite of
self and having other people be themselves as well, but also Cathy Horyn: So, despite the extreme pressures of the sys- ing, force you to look more carefully at the details than a gar- the benefits to both Dior and its 47-year-old designer – a 60-per-
in tune with your ideas. You can see that in his collaboration tem, he still exerts his individuality. Raf, as you know, often ment with glossy fringe or embroidery might. There is a lot cent increase in sales since 2011; the experience of working with
with Sterling Ruby. At Dior, it’s most evident in the haute cou- complains that it would be easier to do three shows a year, like of that in the Spring collections, stuff that immediately grabs incredible artisans – one man has made up his own mind. Per-
ture. The collections are as much about the men and women in some of his peers. But maybe that’s just a case of ‘the grass is the eye online. haps that is the most remarkable thing about the news.
the ateliers as they are about Raf. But he makes that possible. always greener on the other side’… ‘For me, it’s more interesting if you have to look closely at Looking back over the past six months of conversation, I
Lately I’ve been reading a lot about Hollywood’s Golden Olivier: It’s a little bit of that. something,’ Raf tells me. ‘Then it’s purely about the construc- see signs that Simons had deeper doubts about the system of
Age. Who today would be the equivalent of those great stu- Cathy: Because he also admits that having more time to work tion and the outline, not the presence of print or jacquard. It a big couture house than he allowed himself to show. Again
dio bosses? And I thought, It’s the designers. I mean, movie on a collection doesn’t necessarily mean it will be better. You may sound very simple, but it’s not. When you’re working with and again, he returned to the subject of time, especially the
studios are no longer run by a boss. They don’t have that indi- can work something to death… just transparent organza – hmm, well, try to make it great.’ lack of time to think. The measures he took to deal with the
vidual style – when you could tell a Paramount picture from Olivier: I’m actually really happy that he said that. The fact He laughs. ‘The pleating in this collection is really incredi- pressures, like the two studio set-up, didn’t alleviate the prob-
a Columbia picture. Well, that’s what designers are now – that you’re forced to rely on your instincts is often what makes ble, though it isn’t obvious. Some of the pieces took eight or lem entirely. And thinking about Jo-Ann Furniss’ comment
these great impresarios running these huge things, that have the work interesting. nine days, because controlling the pleating on that light mate- about ‘impresarios’ – well, I loved her analogy, but I realize
this identity and impact on people’s lives in a dream-like way. rial is difficult.’ now that it doesn’t accurately describe Simons or his ambi-
With designers like Raf and Karl and Miuccia Prada, you get On October 2, a blue-sky day, Raf presents Dior’s Spring 2016 We have come to the end of our conversation. It is clear to tions. He doesn’t have that kind of ego. He doesn’t care. He’s
these incredible characters. They are not conventional. And ready-to-wear show, back in the Cour Carrée of the Louvre. me that Raf has mastered a complex system even if he has interested in creating things that are genuinely good or genu-
that difference comes out in everything that happens in their A small mountain of sod and delphiniums – some 300,000 reservations about its logic. He will always be self-critical, a inely shocking, not in erecting fairy-tale mountains.
houses. The pressures sound gruelling to people on the out- blue and white stems – confronts guests as they enter the cob- quality that helps any designer. He is also honest. I raise the I also think he was deadly earnest about the Spring collec-
side. But that insanity also worked for the movies. Out of that bled courtyard. Most of Dior’s shows have had a flower theme, question about individuality, referring back to the 2004 men’s tion (his last for Dior) and it being calm. I didn’t appreciate
insanity came some of the great classic movies. but this set is on a bigger scale. The mountain appears to crash show, the same question I had put to Furniss and Rizzo. the remark in the moment. He went on to say, ‘I think a lot
Olivier Rizzo: After Jil Sander, going to a house with through the white-box show space, so that one side of the del- Does he feel, even with the creative measures he has of collections focus on what is possible to please the eye very
installed at Dior – the two-studio system – that the power of easily’. That statement could apply to big shows with elabo-
the individual can still come through in a major fashion house? rate sets or to clothes that must look instantly appealing on a
‘I like the idea of doing something very calming in The answer is not so straightforward, he says, because there
will always be commercial responsibilities you can’t ignore.
tiny mobile screen. Both situations are a contemporary real-
ity, and both require a great deal of manipulation – throwing
the midst of what I think in fashion is now one huge But, no, Raf says, ‘I am not able to express myself the full way
I would wish to. I would be more extreme.’
embroideries onto an outfit, making stuff out of injection-
moulded plastic. And everybody seems to go along with that
mess, a melting pot of overdone clothes.’ On October 22, just three weeks after his Spring hillock show,
approach, unquestioningly.
But, by leaving, Simons is saying that a designer doesn’t
Simons announces he is leaving Dior. The news is delivered in a have to accept that scenario. It’s a choice, for those who are
Dior’s level of possibilities was the logical next step for Raf. phinium-covered hill looms over the audience. In his heart of brief press statement from Dior, with a quote only from Simons, brave enough or strong enough to make it.
You always want more for him. He is someone who needs cre- hearts, Raf might have preferred an actual pastoral setting, who says, in part, ‘It is a decision based entirely and equally Some people find his decision sad. But for me it is a com-
ative challenges in life. For me, the Tokyo show really set the but such a trek wouldn’t be realistic. Besides, the hill is in its on my desire to focus on other interests in my life, including plete affirmation of all the things he has quietly said over the
vision for who he is and what his vision for Dior is – what a big own way beautiful, a blue oddity in the midst of the monu- my own brand, and the passions that drive me outside of my years, and of life. After all, do we really want designers staying
global luxury brand can and should be in 2015. You sensed mental public space. work’. He thanks in particular Bernard Arnault, the chairman in houses forever, until the grave? On the day of the announce-
that again at the July couture show. I think it all felt kind of Work on the collection has gone smoothly, and though Raf of LVMH, and the ‘heartfelt management’ of Sidney Toleda- ment, Simons is out and about in Paris. He goes to the opening
effortless – his evolution from one level, to another step, to and Pieter and other members of the team have been in the no, Dior’s chief executive. And that’s that. There is no drama, of Sterling Ruby’s exhibition, and then to dinner with friends.
another show, to more shows, to shows abroad. I kind of feel it studio until the early hours of the morning, they don’t look
all happened smoothly. Of course we all know that it was not tired when I see them backstage, as the models begin to line up.
1. Chanel has held its Métiers d’Art 3. The show was held in Tokyo, at and the show, he said at the time, was The left-hand panel of the triptych
effortless. It took a lot of work and discipline and delegation. ‘Light, light, light,’ says Raf of the collection, much of it shows for 11 years. The annual shows Kokugikan, the national sumo- the product of their friendship. ‘This shows Paradise and the creation of
You feel a hand throughout all of Raf’s designs, for Dior or done in sheer white organdie, filled with delicate, scallop- visit – and pay homage to – the differ- wrestling stadium, on December 11, is our child,’ Simons told the press. Adam and Eve, while the right-hand
ent workshops that supply Chanel with 2014. Artificial snow fell on the stage panel depicts hell. The central and
his own men’s label. You feel a sensibility. In that sense, if you edge dresses and shorts evoking underwear. Some of the piec-
materials such as buttons or wool. throughout the show. 6. Ines Kaag is German and lives in largest panel is an unsettling vision of
look at his total career, you see that he was born a couturier. es evoke styles from the July couture show, like the fluttery Shows have been held in Mumbai, Berlin. Desiree Heiss is Austrian and life’s pleasures and delights, some al-
It’s actually what he has always done in menswear: couture for under-layers of pleats and, of course, the hint of lingerie, a sto- Dallas, Edinburgh and, most recently 4. Stone Island: Archivio ’982-’012 lives in Paris. Together they are Bless. legorical, many of them sinful. The
in December 2014, Salzburg. was published in 2012 to celebrate the After producing just one piece – a wig painting has been in the Museo del
men. From the beginning. He has always worked on the body, ry he actually began a year ago with white sack dresses that brand’s 30th anniversary and features made of fur – Martin Margiela asked Prado in Madrid since 1939.
the way a real couturier does. And I don’t think Raf even real- vaguely suggested a Victorian night shirt. 2. The Bar Suit is considered as the key 300 classic designs from the archives. them to create wigs for his Fall/Winter
piece of the 1947 collection that Chris- 1997/1998 collection. It was this com- 8. Simons’ Fall 2005 menswear col-
izes this, because he works so instinctively. You know, he nev- But fundamentally the Spring clothes are more about a res-
tian Dior called ‘La Ligne Corolle’ 5. Simons and Los Angeles-based art- mission, they say, that led them to the lection was a celebration of his first 10
er has any restrictions for himself. His mind is totally open pite. ‘I wanted to do something very calm,’ he says. ‘I like the and the press called the ‘New Look’. ist Sterling Ruby collaborated on the definitive decision to create their label. years in fashion; its full title was All
and free. That’s why, if you look at the total line of his work, idea of doing something very calming in the midst of what I The jacket with its trademark cinched designer’s Fall 2014 menswear col- Shadows and Deliverance, History of
waist required 3.7 metres of silk shan- lection, which featured hand-paint- 7. Flemish painter Hieronymus My World.
it’s incredible to put some of the early Raf Simons looks, next think in the fashion world is now one huge mess, a melting pot tung. The full suit cost 59,000 francs or ed coats and oversized boots. The pair Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly De-
to Dior couture, next to Jil Sander women’s looks. Only very, of overdone clothes.’ Certainly the white dresses and skirts, €3,248 (corrected for inflation). have known each other many years lights was painted between 1500-1505.

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Models: Ally Ertel at MP, Annely Bouma at Viva, Greta Varlese at Elite, Julie Hoomans at Supreme, Kinga Rajzak at IMG, Pooja Mor at Premium, Sofia Mechetner at Viva, Tschan at Tomorrow Is Another Day.
Extras: Gisela Teller, Irene Teller, Suzanne Tarasieve. Make-up: Peter Philips, creative and image director of Christian Dior makeup. Hair: Kei Terada c/o Julian Watson.
Casting: Alexandra Sandberg. Photo Assistants: Karin Xiao and Jean Garcin. Stylist Assistants: Rae Boxer, Angelo DeSanto, Marie-Valentine Girbal, Pia Abbar. Seamstress: Marcarine Riaudel.
Make-up Assistants: Grace Ahn, Delphine Delaine, Estelle Jaillet. Hair Assistants: Kevin Rajsavong, Sachi Yamashita. Production by Brachfeld. Post-production: Quickfix Retouch.
A letter from...
from… Beijing

Service not included

The taxing art of chaperoning a Chinese billionaire.
By Hung Huang. Illustration by Jean-Philippe Delhomme.

When my concept store, Brand New China, suffered a cash breakfast at the Hôtel Normandy Barrière, so ramen it was.
crisis last year, I invited my self-made billionaire, tycoon girl- Aside from that, I thought food-wise, I could have some
friend, Zhao Yan, to help me out by investing in the store. She fun, but it turned out that, to my great surprise, my friends
did it in a nanosecond. loved choucroute, the gigantic plateau of seafood, and mus-
This past summer, our two families took a trip to Europe sels in cream sauce. They loved it, except they refused to order
together. It was a learning experience for me, to say the least. their own dishes. It was French food eaten the Chinese way. A
I thought I was travelling with friends; silly me, I was really fork would reach across the long table to stab at some sausage
travelling with a tycoon. The journey started with me totally from the choucroute plate in one direction; a spoon would
in control. I rented a house near Lake Orta in northern Italy, a drip cream sauce from the mussel pot in another. And we
region I have long wanted to visit. We dropped our respective really showed the bourgeoisie how to put down a huge quan-
daughters at Le Rosey summer camp in Switzerland (her pick, tity of food without a trace of good manners. I am pretty sure
not mine) and drove down to Italy. Most tycoons in China I am permanently banned from couple of brasseries in the
have sleep problems. I think it’s the price you pay for being centre of Trouville.
rich in a Communist country. The problem was our villa was Shopping with the tycoon was both fun and nerve-racking.
next to a church, and an active one at that. Every morning, First of all, she insisted on paying for everything, from fash-
the priest would ring the bells promptly at 7am and this would ion to Bellota ham. Between playing assistant, travel guide,
go on at 30-minute intervals until 10pm. I thought my tycoon babysitter, translator and being bought things, I had a major
was going to flip, but she actually held out. And by the third identity crisis and had to almost scream at her to stop paying.
day she proclaimed that she somehow slept better near God’s Yet shopping with my friend was also great fun. In hindsight,
noisy bells rather than under the watchful eye of the Commu- she does have a great eye for the unusual. She avoids brands
nist Party. Point taken. such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci (too common, she says), as
Chinese tycoons, men or women, love history, so north- well as the likes of Hermès and Chanel (too well-known) and
ern Italy was perfect. We spent a whole day touring the goes for the unfamiliar. She does not care about the brand’s
Borromean Islands in Lake Maggiore. After we finished our reputation. It has to be her own discovery. And this could
guided tour of Isola Bella, Zhao Yan and her husband sat serve as a lesson for luxury brands doing marketing in China.
down for a break. ‘Five hundred years,’ her husband reflected, It just might be that while luxury brands are spending mil-
‘this is as if someone was rich in the Ming dynasty and never lions of marketing dollars to impress the average Chinese
lost their fortune.’ In China, there is a saying that wealth can consumer, the only Chinese who can afford them are turn-
never last more than three generations, so the fact that the ing away from these brands for precisely the reason that they
Borromeo family could last 500 years is unfathomable. ‘Our are too popular.
economy is our politics and vice versa,’ the tycoon explained. I ended the summer rather exhausted. After all, my vaca-
‘So when new power comes in, they not only get rid of old tion had not really been much of a break. During New York
power, but also old money.’ We all sighed. There was really Fashion Week, I saw Diane von Furstenberg and mentioned
nothing to be said. Sometimes, I thought, we all stay in China my summer playing chaperone to my Chinese billionaire girl-
against our better judgement. friend. ‘People just stared at us in the restaurants,’ I said. ‘It
For the last week, I decided to take them to Deauville for was embarrassing.’
further education in bourgeois lifestyles. The first day, we all ‘People will get used to it,’ she said, with a little nonchalant
ate breakfast in the dining room, but for the rest of the week, wave of hand. And she’s right. Everyone will get used to it –
it was instant noodles in the room. There was no Chinese and I will, too.

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 from...
A letter from… London

A class act
Why posh girls make frightfully marvellous models.
By Edie Campbell. Illustration by Jean-Philippe Delhomme.

There is a lingering belief that the fashion world is over- an easy and disingenuous life! We really, really, really don’t
whelmingly populated by posh people. Especially in the UK, want people to hate us. It means we can happily agree with
where the fashion industry is seen as just an extension of an anyone and say yes to anything without any internal conflict.
all-girls boarding school, full of lots of girls who know each So, yes, of course that dress is the most beautiful thing I have
other already. I can’t say that this really fits with my experi- ever seen, and yes, I will shave my head and make out with
ence, but then this is a business devoted to transformation and an armadillo – but only because I just cannot work out how
dressing up, so a lot of the posh people are probably success- to say no.
fully camouflaged as not-posh, and a lot of the not-posh peo- The second reason why poshos make good models is that
ple are pretending to be posh. But let’s entertain the thought nearly all of us have daddy issues. In fact, also mummy issues,
for a bit longer. having been abandoned by both parents at birth to a caval-
Whether fashion is – or is not – run by poshos, there has cade of dour nannies with nary a backward glance. This gen-
always been a strange fascination with aristo models. From erally means that we want everyone to fall in love with us.
Honor Fraser, Stella Tennant and Jacquetta Wheeler, to Cara In most professions, this is not a useful instinct to have, but
and Poppy Delevingne, Suki Waterhouse, Georgia Jagger, as a model, it’s ideal: a model’s job is to be scintillating. And
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jean Campbell. given that most fashion photographers are men old enough
If it is true that fashion is inundated by posh models, then to be our fathers, this makes the daddy issues kick into play
why? What makes posh models good models? twice as fast. But don’t jump to conclusions: I’ve never actu-
Firstly, we’re stupidly polite. Hopelessly, helplessly, occa- ally shagged a photographer! I’m far too sexually repressed
sionally dangerously, polite. This has three great benefits and English! And I just want to be loved.
when it comes to modelling. Firstly, we always come across The third reason why posh girls make good models is
as posh and pretty, very eager to please, and with no brain. because we tend to be quite hardy. There is no better prepara­
Models are always underestimated, but the posh models, they tion for a models’ apartment than growing up in a very damp
won’t even be crafty, right? But being underestimated is one and cold castle, sharing a bed with four generations of incon-
of my favourite things: people who expect nothing of you can tinent spaniels, or being shipped off to boarding school aged
never be disappointed. But better still, they will usually be four where you will be mercilessly caned for wetting the bed.
pleasantly surprised even if you turn out to be only margin- In comparison to that, a night spent in the middle seat of an
ally more capable or intelligent than they had anticipated. So overcrowded passenger jet, next to the fetid stench of the loos
a posh model is already intriguing when she turns out to be for 10 hours sounds like a good night’s kip.
anything more than a slightly helpless young schoolgirl. I really don’t know why there is this fascination with the
The second great benefit of this entrenched politeness poshness of models. Maybe it’s because modelling isn’t seen
is that we really hate saying no. This is partly due to a fear as a real job, so to watch a posh girl doing it – someone, after
of confrontation, and partly due to a fear of disappointing all, who isn’t really a real person, but rather a caricature of the
someone. This combination of fears is actually extreme- upper class – is a bit like watching a very camp performance.
ly useful when it comes to being a model. Given that mod- Maybe there’s something innately camp about poshness that
els are required to be in total agreement with everyone they fits very well with fashion. Who knows? But despite having
work with, as well as relentlessly positive and bouncy, this spent most of my teenage years desperately trying to hide my
fear of being in disagreement comes in handy. We are used to poshness, convinced that a person could not be simultane-
repressing our opinions: we have never been totally honest, ously ‘cool’ and ‘posh’, I am now more or less happy to wear
and are entirely used to skirting round conflict for the sake of my poshness with impunity.

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A letter from… New York

Style conscious
Making fashion’s future more responsible.
By Burak Cakmak. Illustration by Jean-Philippe Delhomme.

My (accidental) career in fashion first began back in 2000 and technologies such as 3D printing, are all helpful, but only
has since taken me from global, publicly traded companies to a start. Because as brands are realizing, sustainability and
small fashion start-ups, US to European brands, high-street the ethics of fashion are becoming increasingly important
retailers to luxury houses, every product category – from gar- for the people who keep them in business: consumers. They
ments and leather goods to jewellery and accessories – and are gravitating towards brands that fit their values and which
most importantly to different businesses that all had differ- ‘talk their language’. This means that brands have to foster a
ent values embedded in their production methods. And every long-term and real dialogue with their customers, a retail pro-
step of the way I became ever-more convinced that fashion as cess that passes firstly through building emotional connec-
an industry has to be fearless in investigating the consequenc- tions and trust. This development looks sets to become ever-
es of designing and producing clothing, and determined to more important as the further diversification of the type and
improve our ethical and environmental standards. Because size of brands, products, production methods and retail chan-
we all know they need improvement. nels continues to remodel the fashion ecosystem. And it is a
Since August I have been studying the fashion world from development that will affect the huge multinational brands
a different angle. As the newly appointed dean of Parsons as much as start-ups.
Fashion School in New York I now have a real opportunity to Our role as educators is not just to help our students under-
influence how fashion moves forward in the future. It’s excit- stand this world and to teach them how the creative industries
ing to have the chance to use my past observations, learning work. But it is also about giving them the tools that allow them
and passion with the younger generation; I can’t wait to help to disrupt and revitalize the status quo with exciting inno-
create positive change by instilling new values and beliefs vation. We want our students to begin changing the system
in the industry. Fashion is also a business with innovation even before they join it. And what I have already seen shows
built into its DNA, not to mention the passion of some of the that we can have hope. The current generation of students in
world’s most creative people, so it has always seemed strange design schools the world over are approaching their educa-
to me that, while fashion has evolved in parallel with society tion with open minds and a passion for finding their own dis-
and culture, it has been oddly slow in leading from the front. tinct path to change. They don’t confine themselves to one
There is huge room for improvement in how fashion manu- aspect of the fashion world, but rather explore as much of it
factures and sells its products, so it begins to play a transfor- as possible, from sustainable systems, design strategies, con-
mational role in terms of reducing its impact. structed environments, data visualization to social justice.
This makes the future of fashion retailing exciting and This multidisciplinary approach is allowing them to become
challenging. For both emerging and larger brands, the num- both adaptable and resilient to the often harsh realities of the
ber of prospective consumers is growing around the world, global, connected business environment, while giving them
but problems such as resource scarcity, political instability the freedom to bring creative solutions to the issues they gen-
in global supply chains, and unexpected fluctuations in the uinely care about – and we should, too.
retail environment, are proving that creative thinking really is Today I see these fledgling designers express the same curi-
required. While ideas big and small are emerging, these foun- osity about life that I have felt as far back as I can remember,
dations need further work to ensure long-term sustainability and it is this desire to question, continuously learn and under-
for both companies and consumers. Concepts such as the ‘cir- stand the world that makes me optimistic about the future.
cular economy’ and closed-loop production (as being intro- Many challenges lie ahead, many barriers to overcome, but I
duced by Kering and H&M for synthetic-fibre production), as genuinely believe that together we can help fashion do what
well as smaller-scale visions of promoting local production, creativity has always done best: show us new ways to improve
selling small quantities, upcycling, or using new production our world.

198 199
Face à face Moncler

Parallel turns
Thom Browne & Remo Ruffini on
their enduring Moncler collaboration.

Thom on Remo Remo on Thom

Courtesy of Moncler

Everything that Remo [president and creative director at commercial ideas and not to make them boring or hollow. I After attending my first Thom Browne show, I knew I had to the presentations we’ve done together, by his ability to trans-
Moncler] represents is always just the best of everything. think he is very rare in the way that he conducts himself both work with him! To combine his bespoke tailoring and world form niche intellectual ideas into marketable experiences and
There is so much to respect: his intelligence, his refined in business and dealing with people – it’s not just about the of references with our sportswear was a very strong proposi- products that are very easy to sell. I always say we must be as
taste and commitment to quality. They allow him to take products but individuals. tion for the market. I’m always struck by the concepts behind unique as we can, and Thom is a big part of that uniqueness.

200 201
Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

‘If people look

up from their
smartphones,
you know it’s a
good window.’
Louis Vuitton’s Faye McLeod and Barneys’
Dennis Freedman can make you stop in your tracks.

Artist: Yayoi Kusama © Louis Vuitton Malletier/Photo: Stéphane Muratet

By Jonathan Wingfield Yayoi Kusama

Louis Vuitton Fifth Avenue, New York, July 2012

202 203
Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

Courtesy of Barneys New York

Collaboration with Prada

Barneys New York, Madison Avenue, New York, Spring/Summer 2014

204 205
Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

‘The creative act is not performed by dark, sometimes subversive, and always ways. Yet the work is utterly depend­
the artist alone; the spectator brings eye-catching moments. In 2014, a live ent on the spectator’s perception. So
the work in contact with the external breakdancing elf performed among let’s start by discussing this idea of your
world by deciphering and interpreting psychedelic mushrooms in Baz Daz- windows being open to infinite inter­
its inner qualifications and thus adds zled, a collaboration with film director pretation.
his contribution to the creative act.’ So Baz Luhrmann, whereas earlier in the Faye McLeod: At Vuitton, the windows
said Marcel Duchamp, addressing the year a series of powerful Bruce Weber we create are incorporated across 467
1957 Convention of the American Fed- films representing the struggles and tri- stores, so you obviously keep the per-
eration of Arts in Houston, Texas. Few umphs of transgender individuals were ception of the customer front of mind.
creative acts are subjected to quite so screened across Barneys’ windows in But because both our customers, and
much public interpretation and scruti- support of the LGBT community. any potential viewers, are so wide-
ny as shop windows; and few shop win- With previous experience at Top- spread and diverse, it’s impossible to
dows generate quite the reactions as shop and Selfridges, Glaswegian Faye expect everyone to react the same way
those belonging to Barneys’ New York McLeod has a long and varied history of – but that’s a good thing, too.
flagship on Madison Avenue, and Louis windows that came together when she Dennis Freedman: For me, any suc-
Vuitton’s network of 467 stores situated was appointed visual image director of cessful artistic endeavour has to have
across the globe. Louis Vuitton in 2009 (and of LVMH in ambiguity; it shouldn’t be an easy read.
Inspired by art installations and 2012). Working between studios in New My starting point is that the viewer’s
opera sets, production design and York and Paris, her reputation at Vuit- perception of the Barneys windows
3D imagery, kinetic movement and ton has been forged through an unpar- will reflect their own personal expe-
mechanical engineering, the windows alleled expertise in translating the spir- riences and visual acuity, and it’s that

‘At Vuitton, the window concepts are used in our 467

stores. It’s impossible to expect everyone to interpret
them the same way – but that’s a good thing.’
created by both Barneys and Vuitton it of the brand’s collections – previously range of interpretation that I find excit-
demonstrate how, when the boldest cre- those of Marc Jacobs, and now those of ing. If you think about William Eggles-
ative ideas and the latest technologies Nicolas Ghesquière – via her own high- ton’s photograph of a peony in his book
are refracted through the prism of a lux- ly imaginative and whimsical aesthetic The Demo­cratic Forest1, you can imag-

© Louis Vuitton Malletier/Photo: Stéphane Muratet

ury brand, they go way beyond simply universe. Whether it’s ostrich eggs or a ine that a lot of people will look at it
channelling the zeitgeist and begin to waxwork model of Japanese artist Yay- and see a beautiful flower. But then in
actually set its agenda. oi Kusama, her consistency in the qual- her introduction to the book, the great
Following his 20-year tenure as ity of execution is always exquisite. No Southern writer Eudora Welty2 refers
founding creative director of W, Den- small feat considering the mind-bog- to that same photograph as ‘a bloom so
nis Freedman took his reputation for gling number of stores her creations are full-open and spacious that we could
collaborating with artists and photo­ rolled out to. all but enter it, sit down inside and be
graphers to the next level when he Faye, along with her right-hand Ansel served tea’. The challenge is to create
joined Barneys as creative director in Thompson, invited Dennis and System something that allows for multiple lev-
2011. Since then, he has carved out a over to Louis Vuitton’s Visual Image els of interpretation.
strong identity for Barneys as a depart- Studio in midtown Manhattan to dis-
ment store with personality and val- cuss the power of polka dots, collabo- Faye, the sheer scale of how Louis Vuit­
ues. Drawing upon an eclectic mix of rating with artists, and how life would ton’s windows are rolled out is extra­
cultural references, techniques and be tough without Google. ordinary. Does that scope for potential
observations, every six weeks Freed- interpretation inform the creative pro­
man transforms its windows into an Window displays have the potential cess, or do you consciously try not to
unpredictable series of sometimes to affect different people in different become too influenced by it? Arrows
Louis Vuitton Avenue Montaigne, Paris, April 2012

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Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

Faye: Because of the number of stores sexually provocative pose. Again, it’s all a period of time when I could just let my
we’re creating windows for, repetition in the spectator’s mind. imagination run free, and the irony is
is key. Repetition of concept, of produc- that all these years later I’m returning
tion, of quality, of impact, of interpreta- Tell me about any specific window dis­ to that sort of work.
tion. Aside from the obvious amplifica- plays or broader visual elements from
tion of the idea, at Vuitton we are really your childhood that you now recog­ Windows appear to be the combination
exposed to how much beauty resides in nize as somehow informing your work of many disparate visual elements – art
repetition. today. installation, opera and theatre sets,
Faye: I find that you always end up film-production design, still imagery,
Barneys’ windows present an interpre­ back at the beginning – usually sub- 3D experiences… Are you constantly
tation of what designers and brands consciously. My mum will see the win- bathing in all these references?
create. Dennis, do you feel a responsi­ dows I’ve done and often recognize Faye: Our eyes and ears are always
bility to those brands, to respect their things from my childhood. She’ll say, switched on. It’s not so much a case of
DNA or is your commitment only to ‘You know, you used to love collecting channelling one specific thing, it’s more
highlighting Barneys’ point of view? ostrich eggs, and when we lived in South about being aware of what’s going on,
Dennis: It’s both. When we started col- Africa, you always loved the safari’. just seeing every type of performance
laborating with designers I felt strong- Dennis: I went to Penn State University, and theatre set, and cinema obviously.
ly that the windows should be neither a which is better known for engineer- We recently went to see Kanye live in
reflection of what the designer nor we ing, agricultural studies and its football L.A.; he was keen to show us his stage
at Barneys would normally do on our team than for art. I focused on what was set. It was fascinating to see how Kanye
own. You always hope that the combi- going on in New York at the time, and combines the backdrop of the creative

‘I’d never designed windows before coming to Collaboration with Christian Louboutin

Barneys. For me they were simply large contained

Barneys New York, Madison Avenue, New York, Fall 2011

spaces that held infinite possibilities.’

nation of the two creative approaches started doing large-scale installation set with the concert performance; how
produces something unexpected and pieces. At one point I decided to cov- he choreographs the lighting and eve-
original. One of our first collaborations er the entire campus with polka dots: I rything. It was kind of like experienc-
was with Christian Louboutin. Chris- bought these huge sheets of foam and ing a giant window in the middle of a
tian has a theatrical and humorous side, dyed them all orange with clothing dye, stadium in L.A.
but I was more interested in exploring cut them up into thousands of pieces, Dennis: I find that it’s just as inspiring
the danger and sexuality within his and then one night went out and cov- to spend time in the New York State
work. In one window we created a disc, ered the whole campus with these piec- Department of Motor Vehicles as it is
eight feet in diameter, from which hung es of orange foam. I wanted to create in the Museum of Modern Art. What’s
a large silicone cast of a woman’s torso. polka-dot grass. I didn’t know [Yayoi] interesting are the two radically differ-
The woman was bent over and flame- Kusama’s work at the time. Your collab­ ent experiences: one seemingly mun-
red hair was cascading to the ground. oration with her a few years was so dane, the other high-minded. I always
She was surrounded by black, red- impactful. I guess I’ll always be a sucker try to avoid the middle. For exam- Courtesy of Barneys New York
soled Louboutins, all circling her head for polka dots. ple, I’m drawn to minimalism – like a
at different speeds. Now some people Faye: That’s funny. I’d love to see that. Richard Tuttle Wire Piece or a John
might have looked at that window and Dennis: Another time I wrapped up McCracken polished-resin plank3.
thought, ‘What a strange tableau’. Oth- my entire art-history classroom – the However, at the same time the work of
ers might have seen references to Coc- chairs, the walls, the slide projector, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt fascinates
teau and other Surrealists. But I hope everything – in brown kraft paper. I me. He creates these extraordinary,
that some viewers saw something dark- wanted to make it impossible for the deliriously baroque religious altar piec-
er and more mysterious in this woman’s professor to teach class that day. It was es made out of tinfoil, candy wrappers, Collaboration with Baz Luhrmann
Barneys New York, Madison Avenue, New York, Holiday 2014

208 209
210
Behind the scenes

Louis Vuitton / Marc Jacobs exhibition,

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, April 2012
© Louis Vuitton Malletier. Photo: Stéphane Muratet & Louis Vuitton/Marc Jacobs exhibition
by Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Scenography: Samantha Gainsbury & Joseph Bennett.

211
Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman
Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

beer cans and glitter. The two extremes extraordinary scale as Faye, it would translating the creative director’s vision
feed into the work we do at Barneys. make this kind of experimental work into the windows; we take all the direc-
almost impossible. It’s very time inten- tion we can, because it’s impossible to
I’ve noticed you both refer to your sive, very risky, and it can easily fail. But get it right straight away. We’d been
work as ‘windows’, and never ‘window I like that it can fail. working with Marc for a long time, but
displays’. Is that a conscious decision? Faye: I agree. I think making mistakes – now with Nicolas and Kim Jones, it’s a
Faye: I banished the term ‘window dis- or at least having the freedom to poten- different process.
play’ from our studio! I don’t consider tially make mistakes and learn from
what we’re doing to be displays; I prefer them – is vital to the whole process. In the case of Marc Jacobs, your collab­
the term ‘window concept’. oration extended beyond the windows
Ansel Thompson: That old-school Give me an example of a mistake that’s to creating those fantastic show sets,
world of mannequins and window dis- occurred. like the train and the carrousel. Is that
plays just seems really dated. That’s Faye: We’ve been burned a couple of happening with Nicolas Ghesquière?
why I’ve always admired what Dennis times where we’ve come up with an Faye: Yes, we work on the sets with
is doing, because his windows ask dif- idea that, in the context of the studio Nicolas and his team.
ferent questions about what a window in Paris, seems amazing. But these ide- Ansel: Marc was very much about the
display should do. as can have other meanings in other seasonal moments, whereas Nicolas is
Dennis: When I came to Barneys, I had contexts… more about the continual development
never designed windows before. So for of a process; it’s a language, there are
me they were simply large contained Such as? chords, and it develops over a longer
spaces that held infinite possibilities. Faye: We did a window with paper period of time.

‘If I were working on the same scale as Faye, it would Brothers, Sisters, Sons & Daughters transgender campaign, photographed by Bruce Weber

make this kind of experimental work impossible. It’s

Barneys New York, Madison Avenue, New York, Spring 2014

time intensive, very risky, and can easily fail.’

Our goal was to bring the windows to clothes, which didn’t go down so well Faye: The fact we’re building this new
life. One reference point is the work of in Asia… language and this new Vuitton universe
Arte Povera artist Pier Paolo Calzo- Ansel: …because it’s a funeral tradi- is really beautiful; we are constantly
lari1, whose sculptures often incorpo- tion there! learning, and turning to innovation for
rate refrigeration units that generate a Dennis: One time we were using these the answers. As everyone knows, Nico-
delicate coating of frost on their surfac- custom-designed black lights that were las is a real innovator…
es. He talks about ‘activating the space’. switching on and off, but what we didn’t Ansel: …and he’s genuinely interested
At Barneys, we’re trying to ‘activate’ realize was that they were building up in technology.
our windows by using sound, kinetic intense ozone within the windows, Faye: For us, we are constantly trying to
movement, live performance and oth- which subsequently set off the store’s update, to push things forward, to inno-
er things. In one instance we built a fire alarms. We had to come up with a vate. It is interesting at the moment, all
10-foot-long aquarium and filled it with venting system really quickly, but that’s these tech companies are looking for
rockfish that swam around suspended all part of the thrill of doing this work. fashion people and all these fashion Courtesy of Barneys New York
resin Louboutin shoes. Of course, we companies are looking for tech peo-
chose fish whose colour matched the Faye, one of the key distinctions ple. And if only people grasped that if
shoes. between your work and that of Dennis you want fashion and tech, you need
at Barneys is your continual collabo­ to have fashion and tech together. You
The word display seems almost too ration with the Louis Vuitton creative can’t get one without the other, that’s
passive. directors. Can you tell us about that why you need to build a team that com-
Dennis: Totally passive. Yet I real- dialogue? bines different types of background and
ize that if I were working on the same Faye: We are really very mindful of experience. Shoe windows (fish tank)
Barneys New York, Madison Avenue, New York, Fall 2012

212 213
Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

Tell me about your respective teams. rocking in a wire cage was something behaviour has been put to good use in
It seems that balancing creative, engi­ visually provocative. your work.
neering, and technical skills is key to Faye: It’s about approaching the same Dennis: We once did this apocalyptic
producing successful windows. problems in different ways. window and everything was covered
Ansel: We’re 14 here in New York, and Dennis: Exactly. I know that whole in a layer of black pigmented dust. A
12 in Paris. right-brain-left-brain idea seems pret- mechanical cockroach was supposed to
Faye: But I still consider us to be a small ty outdated now, but these scientists and be jumping slightly from a sofa, but we
entity, and I like it like that. I think engineers seem to me to be primarily just couldn’t get it to jump in a convinc-
that independence is really important; technically minded. ing way. It got to about two in the morn-
Michael Burke and Delphine Arnault 5 Ansel: That’s a bit like me. I don’t come ing and most people were fading, but I
have really supported us having the from a visual background; I come from realized then that the few who were still
space in which to create and come to a product-design background, which I trying to make this work, the ones deter-

© Louis Vuitton Malletier/Photo: Stéphane Muratet

projects with different perspectives. guess is more technical. mined to get that damned cockroach
When you’re so deeply entrenched in Faye: You are way more engineer than to jump, were the ones I wanted on my
a brand, it can sometimes be challeng- me! My brain works very much with team. You know, most spectators were
ing to see things with an objective eye, visual memory – I can remember eve- not even going to see this cockroach – it
but for us, breaking those rules comes ry Barneys window, every Bergdorf was tiny and almost hidden in the cor-
quite easily. window. I can get very commercial and ner of the window – but to me it was a
Dennis: At Barneys, we only have six product-based, really in line with the key element. And if only one person
people on our team, but without all of vision we want to follow business wise; noticed, it was worth it.
them I couldn’t do my job. I have never Ansel will push against my ideas and Faye: It’s that attention to detail we all

‘When I was building the team, the first person Roller Coaster

I brought on as a consultant was an inventor and

Louis Vuitton Champs-Elysées, Paris, April 2011

scientist from the MIT Media Lab.’

worked with such talented people. They I will push back, then we end up get- love about you!
are passionate, obsessive and thankfully ting to an end result that we’ll develop Dennis: So which of you two came to
don’t seem to need much sleep. When I in whatever way, building models, ren- Vuitton first?
was building the team I looked for peo- dering, sketching, plasticine… Faye: I came first. Ansel took some per-
ple who could both solve problems and suading! We totally respected the exist-

Artist: Frank Gehry © Louis Vuitton Malletier/Photo: Julien Boudet

make things work. We build most of our So written into that process is the ten­ ing structure and were able to build a
windows in our studio in Long Island sion between creative feats, technical really diverse team. But what’s impor-
City. This might surprise you, but the feats, engineering feats and then the tant to us is to feel free; we’re quite
first person I brought on as a consult- feats of scale and production… rebellious within a French organiza-
ant was an inventor and scientist from Faye: …and then the commerciality tion. It’s something that Mr. Arnault
the MIT Media Lab6. When I went to that wraps around that, which is the really understands; he’s the one who has
meet with him, I discovered that the core purpose. been with the CEOs, really helping us
building he worked in was filled with to get to a place where we can push ide-
biochemists, scientists and doctors. In What is the common trait across all as and think differently.
one corner I noticed an engineer adjust- your team members? Ansel: There has to be some kind of
ing a cage he’d made. Inside was a plas- Dennis: Curiosity and obsessiveness. mischievousness there.
tic baby doll. It turned out that he was Faye: [Laughs] …is that why you like me
developing a device to help babies fall so much? Can you give me an example of some­
asleep. For him of course, this was all a Dennis: Yes! I’m pretty OCD, too. thing that you thought was perhaps
means to an end. Something pragmat- too radical to be accepted in the con­
ic. To me, the sight of a plastic baby doll Give me an example where your OCD text of Vuitton, but that actually ended Frank Gehry
Louis Vuitton Fifth Ave, New York, August 2014

214 215
Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

Courtesy of Barneys New York

Collaboration with Christian Louboutin

Barneys New York, Madison Avenue, New York, Fall 2011

216 217
Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

up being championed by the company? Ansel: She was really open and intelli- With the maison stores – in places like
Faye and Ansel: [In unison] Kusama! gent and wasn’t precious. As Faye says, the Champs-­Elysées, Bond Street, Fifth
Faye: I basically had to find an art col- it was all about the connection. Avenue and so on – we can be a little
laboration for a window. I felt that it Faye: Yes, there have been a few mag- more reactive.
had to be with a woman because before ical moments when you really connect Dennis: At Barneys we create a new
I joined I felt Vuitton’s windows were with the people you are collaborating window every six weeks, but we work
often quite masculine. I also wanted it to with. Like when Ansel said to me, ‘We on our big November-December holi-
be a Japanese artist because we go there keep doing these art collaborations, but day windows throughout the year. They
a lot and we find it so visually stimulat- what about architecture?’ We had the tend to be technically and creatively
ing. Whenever we get stuck for ideas – chance to meet Frank Gehry because ambitious, so by February or March we
and we get stuck quite a lot – we jump of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, so we are well into it.
on a plane and go to Tokyu Hands7 for a went off to L.A., just to see if we could

© Louis Vuitton Malletier/Photo: Stéphane Muratet

rummage around! [Laughs] Anyway, I connect. The digital world now allows the phys­
really wanted to work with Yayoi Kusa- ical world to be captured, shared and
ma. We love her work and it felt right. Was Frank Gehry’s Fondation build­ disseminated. Does that inform the
Ansel: She can make people feel quite ing completed by that stage? way you now approach your windows?
uncomfortable and we liked that. Faye: It was about a year before. I just Are you conscious of building ‘Insta­
Faye: So we flew over to Tokyo again said to him, ‘We’re here to talk about gram-friendly’ elements? Is the ‘win­
because we were told that she’d only windows’, and he came back with this dows selfie’ a key to success?
ever agree to doing anything if she really old windows book and said it was Faye: You can stand outside a Louis
meets you and connects. We were both his father’s. I still have goose bumps Vuitton window and see the number of

‘The effect is immediate: we can unveil a window in Letters

Paris on early Monday and by the afternoon I can

Louis Vuitton Avenue Montaigne, Paris, April 2015

sit and look at pictures of it all over social media.’

a bit terrified, but it turned out to be one thinking about it today. The amazing people pulling iPhones out to take self-
of the most inspiring days of my life. thing was watching my team – some of ies in front of them. The effect is imme-
We kind of disappeared off the plan- them are these really talented young diate: we can unveil a window in Paris
et for a day to be in her world: we sat guys straight out of Saint Martins – on early Monday and by Monday after-
and watched her paint, and she took us working with Frank Gehry’s team, noon I can sit in my New York studio
through all of her canvases. When we learning their software, and develop- and look at pictures of it all over social
got up to leave her people just said, ‘She ing their skill sets. It was just magical media. That’s enabled us to get a better
will work with you’. Everything else to be so welcomed into his world, with understanding of how far we can push a
followed from there, but the windows open arms. window scheme; of how we can best bal-

© Louis Vuitton Malletier/Photo: Melvyn Vincent

came first. ance our view of the brand with that of
Generally speaking, how far ahead are the audience, and what they are willing
And that’s an exception? you working for a project like this? to engage with.
Faye: The product usually comes before Faye: We have a design team, a tech- Dennis: At Barneys, our strategy is
the windows. But then we said to our- nical team, a production team, and always to amplify one idea across all
selves that we didn’t want to put any a logistics team all working togeth- social-media and digital platforms.
products in the windows. We worked er in order to get the physical compo- The windows are a key component of
really closely with Kusama and her nents shipped to destinations all over expanding our branding opportuni-
teams: we’ve got this fantastic Japan­ese the world by boat. And because of ties. The fact that we incorporate kinet-
guy in Brooklyn who does a lot of sculpt- all of that, we have to work a year in ic and performance elements allows us
ing and he agreed to do the Kusama advance. That’s the general timeline to capital­ize on the hunger for video
waxwork doll. for what we call our ‘network’ stores. content. Ten years ago, the windows Natural History
Louis Vuitton New Bond Street, London, May 2013

218 219
Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

depended on physical traffic; now, we to become the basis of our windows. We having for the brand? And in particu-
have a devoted digital audience, with wanted people to view the films through lar those windows that didn’t even have
over 4 million social-media followers the windows. products in them! I’d say 90 percent of
we can reach via the films we make. Faye: We are starting a more digital the time we do put product in Barneys’
Faye: The windows are central to approach with the Louis Vuitton mai- windows, but we have to be aware that
everything. son stores and we’d really like to push these are huge branding opportunities.
Dennis: That’s right. And the social- into new boundaries. Product is not enough; we need to keep
media and traditional-press impres- reinforcing what makes brands like
sions are intended to lead you back to Aside from social-media coverage, Barneys and Vuitton so special.
the Barneys website. Right now we have how do you personally gauge the suc­ Ansel: Going back to display: it’s
about 3 million unique visitors every cess of a window? not just display, it’s also a cultural
month to our site. We have a luxury edi- Faye: When we put Kusama in the win- experience.
torial site, The Window, where we share dows, you had people with their nos- Dennis: Exactly! With the Brothers,
original content that in turn gives us a es pressed against the glass. You know Sisters, Sons & Daughters windows,
presence on another platform. In 2013, you’ve done a good window when the there was no product per se, except
we launched the Brothers, Sisters, Sons guys have to clean the nose and hand- that the kids were wearing brands we
& Daughters campaign shot by Bruce prints off the windows several times a carry. The important thing that you
Weber. It featured 17 transgender men day! came away with is that Barneys really
and women, but we not only shared stands for something, and I feel that’s
the images and videos shot by Bruce Can this physical experience extend an extremely important message to con-
in the Madison Avenue windows, but into a broader cultural experience, vey. We have our core customers and we

‘With the Kusama windows, you had people Neo Modern window, collaboration with Yuri Ancarani

with their noses pressed against the glass. We were

Barneys New York, Madison Avenue, New York, Spring 2013

cleaning handprints off the windows all day.’

also on our website in a really impact- one in which windows can live on after believe that they will respond positively
ful way. Those campaign images were they’re dismantled? to our view of the world.
shared heavily on both our own social Faye: Ultimately, we’re challenging
channels, but also by others who were ourselves with giving people something Dennis, what comes to mind when you
inspired by the campaign. that might get them off their smart- think of Vuitton windows?
Faye: The windows you’ve done using phones while they’re walking down the Dennis: I think that everything these
film are among the best I’ve seen in street. I always say the windows are the guys do for Vuitton is an expression
Barneys. The transgender windows billboards to a brand. You’re on prime of extraordinary creativity and atten-
made me just stop dead in my tracks. I real estate, you should be having fun tion to detail. That alone says every-
remember getting goose bumps looking with it, you shouldn’t be taking your- thing I need to know about the quali-
at it and texting you immediately to say self too seriously. ty of the brand’s products. I just look at
what an effect it had had on me. What I Dennis: If I think of the Vuitton win- the details in the windows and it blows
admire most is that you can be topical, dows – and I think about this a lot – my mind to think they’re being replicat- Courtesy of Barneys New York
you can push buttons, you can be a little those windows will always be implanted ed all over the world. I will never forget
on the danger level. in my mind. You’ve defined your brand, that gold-plated dinosaur – it is embed-
Dennis: The Brothers, Sisters, Sons & you’ve put Vuitton out there, and you’ve ded in my brain!
Daughters campaign was particularly raised the level. It’s one thing to show Faye: That dinosaur was intense! My
close to my heart: it was thought out the product – you might buy a dress, friend and I had been to the Natural
very carefully and we knew from the you might buy 10 dresses and five hand- History Museum and watched as all the
start that the images and films we made bags – but how does that compare to the kids were completely in awe of the dino-
of these extraordinary kids were going overall effect that those windows are saurs. It got me thinking about how we Collaboration with Dries Van Noten
Barneys New York, Madison Avenue, New York, Spring 2014

220 221
Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

© Louis Vuitton Malletier/Photo: Melvyn Vincent

Ostrich
Louis Vuitton New Bond Street, London, August 2010

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Behind the scenes Faye McLeod & Dennis Freedman

could do a dinosaur that would leave the very best pigmentation, and that meant embroidered on the front. I wanted to
same impression on adults as well. India. The teams research in order to show the dress encircled by a continu-
Ansel: We found a factory in China that get the very best end result, whether ous stream of water. My team tracked
makes dinosaurs for theme parks. that’s for the creative or the production down a water filament in a shopping
Faye: One of the important things to or pigmentation. mall in South Korea and then found a
know about our working process is that Dennis: But that’s the real excitement factory in Texas to construct the shower.
we don’t use the same suppliers all the of when you’re imagining something: Faye: [Sighing] What would we do with-
time; it’s about finding the right suppli- we’re both lucky enough to work with out Google?
er with the right savoir-faire for the task teams who are committed to produc- Dennis: What would we do without
in hand, no matter what country they’re ing the very best result. When we did a Google?
based in. window with Chloé, we featured a sur- Faye: Apple and Google, without those
When we did our Arrows window we realist dress designed by Karl Lager- two we would be in tricky waters!
wanted to get the feathers dyed in the feld that had an image of a showerhead Dennis: Tell me about it!

© Louis Vuitton Malletier/Photo: Simon Gao

1. William Eggleston’s The Demo- 3. John McCracken (1934-2011) cre- 5. Michael Burke is chairman and 7. Tokyo department store Tokyu
cratic Forest was published in October ated his first plank sculpture – pieces CEO of Louis Vuitton; Delphine Ar- Hands stocks a unique mix of prod-
1989 and featured 150 photographs of lacquered plywood that lean against nault is Director Executive Vice-Pres- ucts that includes DIY equipment,
taken throughout the 1980s. the gallery wall – in 1966. ident at Louis Vuitton. stationery and travel gear. It also has
a cat café.
2. Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was a 4. The term Arte Povera was first used 6. According to its website, the MIT
novelist, short-story writer and pho- by critic Germano Celant in 1967 to de- Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachu- *Louis Vuitton Windows, a book featur-
tographer whose work centred on her scribe the anti-establishment work be- setts, encourages ‘the most unconven- ing 35 of Faye McLeod’s most iconic win-
native Mississippi. Her 1973 novel, ing created by a like-minded group of tional mixing and matching of seem- dow concepts, is published by Assouline.
The Optimist’s Daughter, was award- Italian artists that included Pier Paolo ingly disparate research areas’ and
ed the Pulitzer Prize. Calzolari and Michelangelo Pistoletto. creates ‘disruptive technologies’. Ange Leccia
Louis Vuitton, Beijing China World, Beijing, February 2015

224 225
Chronicles of retail The Sixth Continent

‘Your
boarding
pass acts as

© Aéroports de Paris/Photos: Jérôme Galland, Mikaël Lafontan & Olivier Seignette. © Louis Vuitton Malletier/Stéphane Muratet. © Prada. © Dior/Nicolas Dubreuil. © Chanel.
a permission
to shop.’
Travel retail is now so vast it’s known
as the ‘Sixth Continent of luxury’.

By Marion Hume

226 227
Chronicles of retail The Sixth Continent

The suite has plush white carpet, a plump sofa, an array of Hermès to Gucci, ring from 5.30am to 11pm (opening times complete transactions at speed. be buying a gift and not only for yourself but for your loved
accessories arranged just so and a rail on which a carefully vary between brands), half a world away in the Asian airport All the big airports offer price incentives – LHR has what ones,’ says Coen. Chinese in LHR like to buy British; at Burb-
curated selection of clothing is waiting. The difference with hubs the stores run by Duty Free Shopping Group (DFS) are it calls ‘Heathrow Prices’, although the way discounts vary erry, Mulberry and Smythson in T2, they know there will be
any other private-shopping experience is the flight depar- almost never closed. Part of LVMH and headquartered in between brands can be confusing. Sticking at Heathrow for an onslaught before the 10.40pm flight to Beijing. How to
tures board on the wall, tracking take-offs to Chicago, Oslo, Hong Kong, DFS operates in 11 countries and its stores were now, to get some 20-percent discounts, all you need to do is guess the gate of your China-bound flight before it is up on
Zagreb. I am paying no attention to that. At London Heath- visited by over 260 million travellers in 2014. fly 55 minutes to Leeds Bradford. For others, you must leave the board? You could follow the trail of Chinese passengers
row’s (LHR) personal-shopping suite, it is a job requirement Then there’s the Middle East and Asia. Dubai Duty Free the UK; others still, you must leave the EU (the fastest way to past these quintessentially British brands, because they are
of those assisting you to get you to the gate on time. alone generated £1.25 billion in sales last year. The battle for do the latter being a hop to Geneva). Some clients are attract- positioned closest to those departure gates. (This is not a pre-
To be clear, while the service is distinctly VIP, this is not floor space is so intense that at Incheon in Seoul, Korea, the ed not by price, but by ‘airport exclusives’. Mamani recalls a cise science, given the Chinese also love LV.)
Heathrow’s VIP suite, which is called the Windsor Suite and world’s top airport for duty-free and travel-retail sales in 2014, client so keen for a Louis Vuitton Damier toiletry bag, avail- 3. Heathrow doesn’t provide trolleys because the termi-
(for a price) is for those so fabulous that they must be pro- Chanel just lost its two prime slots due to a failed negotiation able exclusively airside, that she bought it, flew to Newcastle, nals are multi-level. Heathrow bags designed to clip onto your
tected from the public. This suite – in Terminal 2 or T2 as it is with local duty-free operators and must wait an estimated five came back again and picked it up (LHR offers a Reserve & own wheeled hand luggage are coming soon – meaning you
known in LHR-speak – is accessible to passengers from any years – when a new terminal will open – to get back in. Collect service across all brands and stores). can buy as much as you can pull, not just as much as you can
terminal and is free, no minimum purchase required. You Travel retail, which includes ferries, cruise ships and down- Heathrow has one of only two Louis Vuitton airport stores carry. ‘But passengers need to be aware of any entry restric-
can book in advance online or just present yourself to one of town duty-free galleria, as well as airport shopping, is now so worldwide. (In contrast, Salvatore Ferragamo leads the pack tions or allowances that apply within their end destination,’
the airport’s 20 ‘shopping brand ambassadors’. (The men are vast it is known as the ‘Sixth Continent of luxury’. As to who with 138 Sixth Continent locations.) At the Heathrow store, counsels Coen.
in grey three-piece suits, the women in black dresses.) Your shops across it – well, operators know who you are. Infor- sales associates are required not only to work testing hours 4. Paul Smith is tucked up by an escalator in T5 out of
associate either ‘travels’ with you to the suite or, if you prefer, mation is harvested from your boarding card, as well as sur- (the second shift finishes around 11pm), but also to run several choice. Ditto, Rolex sitting right near the loos in T2. Both
walks you around the many luxury ‘retail partners’ Heathrow veys, of which Heathrow alone does over 35,000, in-airport, sets of numbers in their heads. ‘How much are those boots?’ are strategically located in the sight lines of those headed to
has to offer, helping you to decide what to buy. each year. I ask Samira (again, first name only). ‘£3,150, or if you are fly- the first-class lounge. Hey, big spender.
Should you be flying out of Terminal 5, but wish to visit For example, data reveals that Chinese nationals return- ing outside the EU, £2,625,’ she replies without missing a beat. 5. Heathrow operates a ‘single till’. The more made from

Heathrow doubles as a gigantic, and increasingly While the tills in Heathrow’s big-brand stores, from
glamorous, shopping mall; the footprint of T2 alone Dior to Hermès to Gucci, ring from 5.30am to
is 40,000m2, four times that of Buckingham Palace. 11pm, in Asian airports they almost never close.
Chanel (only available in Terminal 3), no problem. Well, you ing to Shanghai from London favour sheer coral shades of How’s this for Sixth Continent economics? The cheapest, the shops, the less airport running costs are loaded onto your
do have to clear security at every change of terminal, which lipstick, while those travelling to Beijing go for shades that short UK flight from Heathrow tends to be that Leeds Brad- flight ticket. In other words, the more engagement rings sold
is a bore. And between buying, say, a Vuitton Dora bag in T5 are peachier. (Muscovites like raspberry tones; Sydneysid- ford hop, which might be worth considering should you be by Tiffany, the cheaper your flight to Tenerife.
and weighing up whether to take the Velvet Boy Chanel flap ers, coffee nude tones.) Anecdotal evidence from personal thinking of popping the question with a Tiffany solitaire. It 6. While the recommendation to use personal shoppers is
bag in T2, your transits are by the airport bus service. But shoppers such as Oliver Mamani reveals that, while clients will cost you £89,000 on Bond Street, but £74,000 at Heath- mostly word of mouth in the UK, the service is actively pro-
while the clock’s ticking, there is no need for so much as a heading home to Riyadh favour Bulgari’s Le Gem fragrance, row. ‘Would you be surprised if someone bought that £50,000 moted in China and throughout the Middle East. ‘We’re try-
bead of sweat on your brow. As Olivier Mamani, the person- those on the last flights out from T3 (10.30pm, Lagos) and T5 necklace?’ I ask the sales associate at Cartier, pointing at a ing to reach out of the airport environment in a much more
al shopper assigned to me, puts it, ‘We would never let a client (10.40pm, Abuja) will often buy duos of fragrance, such as stunning circlet of diamonds. ‘No,’ comes the reply. ‘We’re just overt way, to talk about the offers that we have, to create pre-
miss their holiday because we took too long with a Gucci belt’. a flacon of Miller Harris and one from Van Cleef & Arpels. surprised by the amount of cash we sometimes have to count.’ awareness,’ says Coen.
While this is all framed as ‘service’, what it is really about What’s the demographic of the shopper? Almost every- 7. While more private-shopping suites are planned across
is money – some £1.8 billion of it was spent in departures, or one. Or as Josh (who only gives me his first name), who rises Jonathan Coen is Heathrow’s retail director. We chat airside the terminals, the alternative, right now, is to contact your
‘airside’, at Heathrow in 2014. We’ve all noticed how the air- at 3.30am to open up the Rolex store at T5, puts it, ‘There’s no at Gordon Ramsey’s Plane Food in T5, then walk and talk personal shopper in advance at www.boutique.heathrow.
port doubles as a gigantic, and increasingly glamorous, shop- real trend to it. I sold a watch for £13,000 to a casually dressed around Prada, Dior, Tiffany and other stand-out stores in the com and he or she can bring goods to where you are. After
ping mall; the footprint of T2 alone is 40,000m 2, almost four guy before the store was fully open. I said, “Can you come terminal. Here are his Top 10 Tips from the Sixth Continent: the ultra-private Windsor suite, used by royalty, presidents
times that of Buckingham Palace. Of note too is that many of back at 6am?” He said, ‘‘Nah, I’ll take it now”, so I was selling 1. Your boarding pass acts as a ‘permission slip’. ‘That’s and pop stars, the swankiest lounge is Etihad’s1 ‘The Resi-
the 73.4 million passengers who passed through Heathrow in it as my colleague was starting up the till’. That airport stores how I like to think about it,’ he says. ‘For short haul and those dence’ (T4)
2014 en route to 185 destinations are loose with their wallets. are open-fronted, democratic, and have no scary doormen that travel very regularly with us, your mindset today might 8. Heathrow’s pop-up advertisements can be changed in
Globally, people who are travelling, both for holiday and busi- (the security being elsewhere and everywhere) means visi- be about a personal indulgence, your me time.’ (Top tip: the six minutes depending on the taste of the dominant group in
ness, feel freer of the constraints of normal life, which makes tors to the Sixth Continent behave differently from landside. free beauty treatments, including a Jo Malone hand massage the terminal at any time. A retail digital-display station show-
them ripe for the temptations of personal luxury goods. ­­­ You can wander in, be tempted. Or you can have your target and a Crème de la Mer facial) casing Pimm’s2 (60,000 bottles of it were sold in 2014 and it
While the tills in Heathrow’s big-brand stores, from Dior to in your sights, in which case, sales associates are trained to 2. ‘If you are a Chinese national returning home, you’ll is most popular with passengers flying to the US) can shift to

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Chronicles of retail

© Aéroports de Paris/Photos: Jérôme Galland, Mikaël Lafontan & Olivier Seignette. © DFS Group.

231
The Sixth Continent
Chronicles of retail The Sixth Continent

a whisky promotion when the Japanese, who prefer hard liq- people last year. That’s expected to double to 200 million by Given that the expert says people like to buy luxury goods that thousands of people are working around. If you look at
uor, are coming through. 2020, which is more than the population of many countries. near their source, we head off to Hohhot Baita International Munich airport in particular, I think around 70-80,000 peo-
9. No cunning tactics, like making the seats uncomfortable airport, the hub for Inner Mongolia, China. The big seller ple work around the airport. And if you want to shop on Sun-
or reducing the Wi-Fi signal, are used to force you to stand up Can you buy the same luxuries right across the continent? here is 1436, perhaps the finest cashmere brand in the world day in Germany, you would find that the only place where you
and shop. Happy passengers make happy shoppers. Heathrow We have big international hubs – Hong Kong, New York, Los and among the rare true luxury brands to have come out of can do so is landside at an airport.
travel retail thrives on ‘your magic moment’, says Coen, ‘so if Angeles, Singapore. Then you have airports that are real- the Greater China region. It is the high-fashion line of the
you have a bad experience as a traveller, your overall experi- ly identified with a destination, such as Okinawa, Bali or Erdos Group5, which claims to account for over one-third of Which of your brands sell best?
ence at Heathrow is poor. That’s not something that we want’. Sydney. Equally, we have downtown stores in Honolulu and the world’s cashmere production. Ray-Ban and Oakley are our absolute pillars; they are so
Neither are delays good for shopping, says Coen: ‘We want our Okinawa, and we are soon going to open in Cambodia. Our At Hohhot Baita, travellers finger the brand’s feather-light strong, they are universal. Then, depending on geographic
customers to travel through the airport as quickly as possible’. first downtown store in Europe will be in Venice, the city from scarves whose fibres are 14 microns in diameter and 36 mil- location: Burberry, Michael Kors for Moscow, Prada too for
10. Who eats those jumbo Toblerones3, ubiquitous in the which Marco Polo, the first luxury traveller, left to discover limetres in length (hence the name). The top-selling colours Moscow, Dolce & Gabbana. At Heathrow T4, we know that
Sixth Continent? ‘We know people eat them in the lounge,’ China, and to where he returned with a lot of luxury items to are bright blue and soft pink. The same colour palate appeals we need to offer a specific nose stat that suits the Asian nose;
says Coen. ‘They’ll eat them in the aircraft. They’ll eat them Europe. Venice has more than 20 million tourists from all 500km away at Beijing Capital International Airport, where you need to have them in the proper fit, otherwise for those
when they get to their destination. If you’re travelling on busi- around the world. In that iconic city packed with thousands 1436 is among the best sellers in Terminal 3. That 1436 prod- on Korean Air, it’s a no sale. And you need to offer what is
ness and you’re arriving at your hotel and you want a bit of of little tourist shops, there is no place where, under one roof, ucts are established as the national gifts China presents to liked by Middle Eastern passengers – Burberry and Coach
sugar, you know… It’s the quintessential travel gift, but we you can find the best luxury brands with a strong local touch. heads of foreign states further encourages its allure on the are very popular – as Emirates and Qatar also fly out of T4.
know people treat themselves, too.’ Sixth Continent.
Do people shop differently airside? I’m obsessed with the Sixth Continent’s ubiquitous gold lux-
Luxury travel retail began with the jet age in 1960, when Rob- You know that you can only carry so much. You cannot buy Another huge luxury category on the Sixth Continent is sun- ury. Tell me, Mr. Gros, who buys those jumbo Toblerones?
ert Miller and Charles Feeney opened the first duty-free store anything too bulky. What we try to do is bring a luxury expe- glasses. So we caught up with Francis Gros, head of global They sell very well wherever there is a Filipino community fly-
at Kai Tak International Airport in Hong Kong, followed two rience to the customer while, at the same time, being extreme- channels at Luxottica Group6, a man who travels so incessantly ing home. I’m sure it’s strong in Kuwait airport where up to
that we can only catch up with him by phone. a few years ago, Tang orange juice also sold so strongly [air-
side] for the same reason.
One client was so keen for a Louis Vuitton toiletry You’re always travelling. Tell us, which is the world’s best
airport? Another dawn, another flight.
bag, available exclusively airside, that she bought it, Francis Gros: I have to answer politically correctly; I have
many friends in the airport industry! When it comes to trans-
I meet with Olivier Mamani every time I pass through
Heathrow for this story and each time he proves style-sav-
flew to Newcastle, came back again and picked it up. iting, you have competition that starts from Istanbul up to
Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, where’s there’s even a squash
vy and also unflappable. Which he needs to be as his official-
looking uniform makes him a frequent target for harried trav-
court in the business lounge. But definitely Heathrow, for the ellers fretting about missed connections. He deflects them
years later by the first duty-free shop in the United States at ly efficient in terms of the transaction. The offer is typically pleasure of the restaurants, Gordon Ramsey’s Plane Food courteously to the passenger ambassadors (there are 129 of
Honolulu’s airport, thus laying the cornerstones of the DFS a bit narrower, very well stocked and with a very well-func- and the caviar bar, which is nice before boarding. them at LHR; easy to spot, they wear purple). But I nearly
empire. Alongside Sephora4 and Paris department store Le tioning cash register. How fast can I buy a pair of sunglasses? break him. I tell him I want to buy underwear. The best he
Bon Marché, DFS is now part of LVMH’s Selective Retailing I like to say we offer Formula One retail to cash-rich, time- can do is a pair of Wolford tights with control top and gusset.
division, which had sales of £7 billion in 2014. We talked to Is everything pre-packed out the back? poor consumers. You really have to focus on training the staff He seems visibly upset he can’t do better so I try to cheer him
Philippe Schaus, current chairman and CEO of DFS Group. No. I personally believe that when you buy a luxury bag, you for the two-to-five-minute sale. up with my Toblerone question.
really want to take the bag that you held in your hand because Who buys them, Olivier?
Who inhabits this Sixth Continent? a luxury brand is an individual item even if there are thou- But I have optical lenses. Can you do that at an airport? ‘Many of my clients!’ he exclaims immediately, warming to
Philippe Schaus: More than 50 percent of all luxury-goods sands made of the same one. It’s made out of natural prod- Some of our [airside] stores are able to provide quick optical the subject of giant Swiss chocolate bars. ‘I had a lovely lady
purchases take place outside consumers’ home countries. uct; it’s not always identical. The product you buy is intimate frame and lens services, but this is not the norm. Landside, who purchased one that cost £86 and was literally a metre
Luxury brands are global brands, yet their story is a local with you. of course. Take German airports, they are also local hubs long. I remember because she was taking it back to Geneva.’
story. Burberry is a British brand; Louis Vuitton and Her-
mès are French; Gucci is an Italian brand. People like to Is time suspended airside? Airports offer whisky at 8am.
shop these brands in their own countries, of course, but they When it is 8 o’clock in the morning for you, it might be 8 1. Etihad is the United Arab Emir- with summer sporting events: during monds and honey. The brand is today coal, electricity, metallurgy and chem-
ates’ second-largest and fastest-grow- the two weeks of Wimbledon this year, owned by US conglomerate Mondelez. icals. Erdos, says the group’s website,
are even more interested in shopping these brands in a place o’clock in the evening for somebody else. If you fly from ing airline. On one of its three Airbus spectators were served 230,000 glass- means ‘Serried palaces in the grass-
where they are even more accessible or ideally in the brand’s Europe to Asia via Abu Dhabi, which is one of the airports 380s, passengers can pay £13,000 for a es of Pimm’s. 4. Sephora was created by businessman land’ in Mongolian.
one-way ticket that comes with a but- Dominique Mandonnaud who in 1997
home country. Asian travellers who shop in France are four we operate in, you could arrive in the middle of night, the
ler, bedroom and private bathroom. 3. Toblerone was invented by Swiss sold the brand to LVMH for 1.6 billion 6. Founded in 1961 in Italy, Luxottica,
times more likely to buy French products than Italian. middle of the day and if you like whisky, cognac and they pro- chocolate-maker Theodor Tobler in French francs so that he could concen- the world’s largest eyewear company,
pose you try it, it could be the right time for you. And yes, in 2. Pimm’s was created by James 1908, its name a portmanteau of its in- trate on his real passion: sculpture. had £5.6 billion in sales last year. It hous-
Pimm, an oyster-bar owner in Lon- ventor’s surname and torrone, an Ital- es its large collection of historical eye-
What are your insights into Chinese travellers? Abu Dhabi, they do authorize the sale of alcohol in the air- don, as an aid to digestion. In Britain, ian nougat. Toblerone became the first 5. Erdos Group is a large Chinese con- wear at Museo dell’Ottica, situated in its
Chinese travellers accounted for more than 100 million port. The places that are stricter, we are not present there. the drink is now closely associated patented milk chocolate bar with al- glomerate with interests in cashmere, hometown of Agorno in the Dolomites.

232 233
The legendary… Hubert de Givenchy 1969-1995

‘Has elegance
disappeared?’
Hubert de Givenchy on the childhood dreams and
occasional disappointments of his life in fashion.

By Hans Ulrich Obrist

Illustration by François Berthoud

234 235
The legendary… Hubert de Givenchy

The Hubert de Givenchy story is a with Hepburn as its face, launched in fashion in your youth? like beautiful things like a lot of other picked out dresses from the collection. Of course, like everyone else.
tale of talent and names. His own, 1957). If, as the decades went by, he I admired the work of Balenciaga and people and I’ve had the opportunity of It was an immense pleasure to work with
firstly: Comte Hubert James Taffin put his name on menswear, accesso- of course that of other couturiers. I was acquiring some sculptures. these extraordinary personalities and I Do you still follow fashion now?
de Givenchy, born into an aristocrat- ries and even cars (the Lincoln Mark already very selective. had different experiences working with No, I no longer look at fashion. The
ic family in 1927. Followed by others: V Givenchy4), it was never for simply Of all the great personalities that you each of these legendary women. world is a very different place now. I
Jacques Fath1 and Robert Piguet2, commercial reasons but rather as a way When you began designing what was met, who are the people – aside from sometimes ask myself, ‘Has elegance
couture giants he almost immediate- to support his first and real love: haute the environment and how did that envi- Cristóbal Balenciaga – who left the As a designer, did you have any rules? disappeared? Is there no longer any
ly began to work for when he moved couture. Because in the 43 years Hubert ronment inspire you? greatest impression? What was important to you? direction in contemporary fashion?’ It
to Paris aged 17. Then Lucien Lelong3, de Givenchy spent making women sub- It was just after the war. There was My mother and Audrey Hepburn. To do my job and strive to do my best: all makes very little sense to me.
with whom he learned his trade along- lime in all those beautiful, personal- no environment; it was another way something that I learned from my moth-
side the then-unknown Christian Dior ized clothes, he never forgot the fash- of looking at things and trying to for- Your creations are so often associat- er. All my life I have tried to forge my Is fashion a young person’s game? Or
and Pierre Balmain. And Elsa Schia- ion essentials he had learned from his get the difficult years that we had been ed with Audrey Hepburn, as well as own path and follow it. is it possible to continue designing all
parelli, who hired him as her first assis- mentor, Cristóbal Balenciaga: the sheer through. Entering the world of fashion Jackie Kennedy. Please could you tell one’s life?
tant and creative director of her ready- power of quiet elegance, the sensual certainly brought great joy into my life us about your first meeting with them You used to sketch. Do you still sketch If you are passionate about fashion then
to-wear line. But back then Hubert de poetry of the pure line, and the simple, and work. and describe your experiences design- today? it is a wonderful profession that can bring
Givenchy was in a hurry to make a name yet wonderful romance to be found in ing clothes for them? Yes. I learned to draw and I had a repu- you much satisfaction and, of course,
for himself, and in 1952, aged just 24, he dressing up. You mention you were touched by Before meeting Audrey Hepburn, I met tation for having ‘un bon coup de cray- occasional disappointments. The ability
opened his own label and first store at 8 Since retiring from fashion in 1995, the work of Cristóbal Balenciaga and Mrs. Kennedy. She loved what I was on’. I always draw when I have the desire of the designer to create his life accord-
Rue Alfred de Vigny, Paris, a beacon of Hubert de Givenchy has largely kept you’ve said that he was your inspira- doing and she trusted me. When she to or when I feel inspired. ing to his desire never changes.
daring in a neighbourhood of bourgeois out of the public eye, preferring to spend tion. Why did his work resonate with became the First Lady of the United
respectability. time at his hôtel particulier on the Rive you? What did you learn from him? States, her feelings remained unchanged Of all your designs, which are you most Do you stay in contact with many peo-

‘It was just after the war. Entering the world ‘When I first met Cristóbal Balenciaga, I was in
of fashion was another way of trying to forget awe of his self-belief, his refusal to cheat, his
the difficult years that we’d been through.’ simplicity, his honesty, and above all, his elegance.’
His innovative approach, immedi- Gauche and his country estate, Châ- Everything. His exceptional work, his and we often worked together. Later, I proud of? ple in contemporary fashion? If so, what
ately seen in his ‘Separates’ collection teau Le Jonchet5, two hours southwest extraordinary career, his creativity, had the great fortune to meet Audrey. That is not an easy question for me to do you ask them about the industry?
of easy-to-wear skirts and blouses, of Paris – from where he told us about his values and above all, his elegance. At the time, she had a major film career answer. The only thing I’m proud of is No, unfortunately most fashion design-
soon made his house’s reputation and his dreams, drawing and why fashion is When I first met him, I was influenced and not only required dresses for her- to have pursued and realized my child- ers that I had the honour of meeting are
attracted new names to his store. Like not what it was. by his self-belief, his refusal to cheat, self, but also for the screen, which hood dream for many years. no longer with us: Madame Grès, Mon-
not-quite-princesses (Wallis Simpson), his simplicity and his honesty. It’s true demanded a lot more creativity. On sieur Fath, Christian Dior, Cristóbal
soon-to-be princesses (Grace Kelly), Hans Ulrich Obrist: Which designers that his work really resonated with me. the other hand, Mrs. Kennedy simply Do you have any unrealized projects? Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent.
and the woman Givenchy considered and artists influenced you? I was in awe of him. I was fascinated by
nobility itself and who would become Hubert de Givenchy: I must say Cris- his meticulousness. He knew how to
his friend and muse for 40 years: Audrey tóbal Balenciaga. do everything – cut a dress, assemble it
Hepburn. ‘With her,’ he said recently, from a pattern. He had worked in Lon- 1. Before his death aged 42 in 1954, umes, such as Bandit and Fracas. Yet industry remained in Paris and was Dark Jade in 1977, Midnight Jade in
Jacques Fath was a leading light of until illness forced him to close his not transferred to Berlin and Vienna. 1978, and Crystal Blue Moondust
‘work became an act of joy.’ And that What triggered your desire to become don and elsewhere, and had forged his
French post-war fashion known for house in 1951, he was perhaps the He is now said to have saved 12,000 Metallic in 1979.
sheer pleasure produced a remarkable a designer? Did you have the ambition own vision of fashion through which dressing ‘young chic Parisiennes’. His most renowned of the designers who workers from deportation and forced
collection of clothing over the years, to be a designer when you attended the he was able to express his creativity. celebrity clients included Ava Gard- refounded Parisian fashion after the labour in German industries. 5. Situated 150kms southwest of Paris
ner, Greta Garbo, Rita Hayworth and Second World War. in Romilly-sur-Aigre, the 17th-century
including that little black dress worn by École des Beaux-Arts? He allowed me to prove myself and to Eva Perón, while Givenchy, Valen- 4. The Lincoln Continental Mark V Château du Jonchet has been Hubert
Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s – a Yes, I wanted to learn how to draw. My develop my own ideas and creativity. tino and Guy Laroche all worked for 3. Lucien Lelong (1889-1958) is now Givenchy was a special ‘designer de Givenchy’s country residence since
the designer before launching their seen as the saviour of the French cout­ edition’ of the US carmaker’s luxu- 1974. Over the years he has complete-
dress that became an icon. ambition was to become an assistant in
own labels. ure industry during the 1940-1944 ry coupe. It was produced from 1977- ly restored the entire château and cre-
Then there was the pioneering work, a couture house and to become a cou- You’re a collector of art and sculpture. Nazi occupation of Paris. As a prom- 1979 alongside other designer editions ated formal gardens based upon the
such as the first ever luxury ready-to- turier myself. Can you talk a bit about your collec- 2. Swiss-born designer Robert Piguet inent designer and president of the from Bill Blass, Cartier and Pucci. design of those at the convent of San
(1898-1953) is perhaps best known to- Chambre Syndicale de la Couture he The models were reissued each year Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. Givenchy
wear line (Givenchy Université in tions? day for giving Christian Dior his start successfully negotiated with the Ger- with slightly different specifications. has said that the house is ‘built like a
1954) and new perfumes (L’Interdit What was your relationship with I don’t like using the word ‘collector’. I in fashion, as well as his original perf­ mans to ensure that the couture For example, the Givenchy came in haute-couture dress’.

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Styling by Marie-Amélie Sauvé
Printemps/Eté 1995

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Models: Mad Manning at The Society and Frankie Akhurst at CK Casting. Hair: Tomohiro Ohasi c/o Management + Artists using Bumble and bumble. Make-up: Christine Corbel c/o Management + Artists using M.A.C.
Manicure: Laura Forget c/o Artlist. Set Design: Sylvain Cabouat c/o Michele Filomeno. Seamstress: Carole Savaton. Photo Assistants: Edd Horder and Tex Bishop. Styling Assistants: Rae Boxer, Marie-Valentine Girbal, Angelo DeSanto,
Fanny Ourevitch and Pia Abbar. Hair Assistant: Sayaka Otama. Make-up Assistant: Anne Amerighi. Set-design Assistants: Emmanuel Vantillard, Aurore Storny and Arthur Braillon. Production by Laura Holmes Production.
Shoes by Arche and Martiniano. Gloves by Portolano.Earrings (worn attached) by Belmacz. Boxers by YUASA.

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In the words of… Tavi Gevinson

‘I tried to
fit in, but it
didn’t work.’
If you want to know what the next generation
is really thinking, listen to Tavi Gevinson.

By Jonathan Wingfield
Photographs by Brigitte Lacombe

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In the words of… Tavi Gevinson

For a publication that generally steers diaries of teenage girls, Rookie’s influ- reactions she got at school, and how she Tell me something from those maga- Let’s talk about your own rapport with Is style overrated?
its focus towards people within the fash- ence on youth culture is at least as tan- just found them amusing. zines that struck a chord. clothes and image back then. Did you No, but it’s over-judged. Someone’s
ion industry, Tavi Gevinson is a com- gible as the queues around the Supreme I was really interested in people’s pro- have an amazing local thrift store or style should be like their sense of
plex and intriguing System subject – an store. Or, as writer Eva Wiseman neatly People were mocking her? cesses: I remember learning that the was it just rooting through your mum’s humour or taste in food: no one ever
ever-evolving anomaly operating both puts it, ‘by unpicking the awkward- Yes, but she didn’t care, which felt Rodarte girls hadn’t studied fash- closet? says you’ve got bad taste in food or a
in and beyond the very system we like to ness of female adolescence and pro- empowering. I remember Anna Dello ion, but that they’d bought and cut up There was a Salvation Army store bad sense of humour because it’s just
explore. Her story is the stuff of outsider viding a place to talk about it, [Rook- Russo saying that when she was little a Chanel dress to see how it had been where I would get clothes. Later on, I the stuff that you naturally respond to.
folklore: in 2008, an 11-year-old bespec- ie has] helped feminism become almost her mom said something like, ‘If you constructed. Or how Alber Elbaz would would go on trips to L.A. and get a lot I think style – for me at least – is the
tacled suburban introvert starts a ‘style fashionable’. wear this you won’t be cool’, and she sketch while watching CNN. I also of flea-market stuff, or visit this antique same.
blog’, finds herself (controversially) sit- replied, ‘But I don’t want to be cool, I remember reading an interview with store in Pasadena. But you have to
ting front row next to Anna Wintour, Were you a bedroom fashionista or want to be fashion!’ For me, I wanted Tim Burton in Interview conducted remember, I was 12, so I didn’t have a Looking back now, how self-aware do
becomes disillusioned and retreats back more the bookish type? When you first to be interesting and creative, although by Danny Elfman 2 where he said that lot of options to buy clothes. you think you were at that time?
to high school. arrived in the fashion industry you that’s not to say I wasn’t immune to feel- when he was a child he wasn’t really I think it was largely a question of just
Destined to be remembered as a seemed like the perfect mix of the two. ings of wanting to be pretty. scared of ghosts and goblins, but he was Style Rookie didn’t feel like it was having some childlike confidence left
quirky also-ran in the annals of fash- Yes, I think a bit of both. In elemen- scared of teachers and dentists and his about actual consuming anyway. over, and trying to get as much mile-
ion, Tavi simply chose a different path. tary school I read constantly and did So seeing this blog inspired you to start parents’ friends, and that helped with No, it wasn’t about shopping: although age out of that as possible. I mean, I
Or paths. In the ensuing years, she’s Reading Olympics, which was really your own. my demonization of everyone I encoun- later on I would get sent clothes from look back at some of those photos and
been in Hollywood movies, moved fun; my dad was an English teacher and Yes, I started Style Rookie in 2008 as tered at school! designers. I remember when I started to it’s like, ‘Oh, I had no awareness of my
to New York and starred on Broad- my mother’s a visual artist who always soon as I saw other blogs, but, you know, make money from the occasional weird body or that it was even changing’. I
way (where she returns next spring to encouraged us to be creative. I wasn’t I never thought lots of people would Who were the first fashion designers campaign or something, I would save up wasn’t interested in make-up, for exam-
play Mary Warren in Arthur Miller’s interested in fashion until I discov- read it. It wasn’t like I was building up you were attracted to? for years and then have to convince my ple; it just seemed irrelevant.

‘I asked this popular boy at school for his number ‘Back then, no one did fashion blogging as a career
and he just said, 123, 456, 789, and I was like, Oh, I or to get invited to the shows; it was just something
see, I’m not going to get what I’m looking for here.’ you did in your bedroom after school.’
classic The Crucible); she’s delivered a ered style blogs when I was about 11. I my style and then saying to myself, ‘I’m It was straight to Margiela, Rodarte dad to allow me to spend my own money Style Rookie started in 2008, which
TED Talk entitled Still Figuring It Out, wouldn’t say I really had a sense of style ready to share this with the world’. And and Comme. I was obsessed with Rei on a Hussein Chalayan dress. was a key year: the year of the finan-
which skilfully suggests why media rep- at the time, but I just kind of knew what anyway, back then no one did fashion Kawakubo and Japanese street style, cial crisis, and the year when the fash-
resentations of women should be com- I didn’t like. blogging as a career or to get invited and a book called Style Deficit Dis- Would you agree that you present- ion industry as a whole finally started
plex and contradictory; and, as if to to shows; it was just something you did order 3. I remember going on Style. ed yourself in a way that was atypical, embracing the digital world. Did you
prove the aforementioned point, has Were you popular at school? after school. com and clicking through every single especially for an 11-year-old growing ever see yourself as part of that shift
been the face of Clinique, as well as one I tried to fit in, but it didn’t work. That designer from that season until I found up in suburban America? towards DIY online culture?
of 12 women (alongside the likes of Yoko was when everyone in my age group Were you aware of fashion beyond something I liked. When I first looked I just felt like whatever was right was I was too young to notice, but because I
Ono, Patti Smith, Serena Williams and started getting cell phones and I asked blogs? at Comme I didn’t really get it, which whatever I liked. Plus, I discovered was young I got attention in the fashion-
Fran Lebowitz) photographed by Annie this kind of ‘popular’ boy for his num- My friend’s older sister Stephanie once is true of a lot of the things that then enough of a community online who blogging community, which at the time
Leibovitz for 2016’s redefining Pirelli ber and he just said, ‘123, 456, 789...’ sent me a list of magazines she liked, so become my favourites. liked the same things as me, so I didn’t was still completely off the radar. That
calendar. And she’s still a teenager. And I was like, ‘Oh, I see, I’m not going I’d walk to the Book Table in Oak Park1 feel the pressure to look a different way. made it easy to keep going without feel-
But it’s perhaps Rookie, the website to get what I’m looking for here’. after school and buy Dazed & Con- You didn’t ‘get’ Comme, but it seemed When I was younger what I admired ing like I was doing market research
and occasional publication she’s run fused, i-D, foreign editions of Vogue; interesting. about women like Iris Apfel and Anna or trying to figure out what would get
since 2011, that continues to best define So you turned to fashion? I remember calling the store and bug- Exactly. I remember I would really dig Piaggi was that everyone would refer more comments or what people would
what Tavi represents to the millions My friend outside of school, who I knew ging them because I knew there was this around for news about Rei Kawakubo: to them and say, ‘The wonderful thing respond to more.
of young women (and men, but main- from doing plays, had an older sister 3D issue of Dazed & Confused coming there was a piece about her in the New about reaching a certain age is that you
ly women) who consider her a guiding who did a fashion blog. I was immedi- out and they were like, ‘Stop calling us, Yorker where they asked her what just stop caring about what other people What about the reaction back in the
voice. Championing the sort of writ- ately struck by how much confidence what is so special about this thing?’, and makes her laugh and she just said, ‘Peo- think’. And I thought to myself, ‘Well, real world, back in school?
ing, doodling and self-expression that and style she had. But what impressed I was like, ‘But it’s 3D!’ Over time I got ple falling down’, and to me that was why don’t I just do that now; why waste It was certainly easier to go to school
for decades never left the padlocked me most was how she’d talk about the to know all the fashion stuff coming out. awesome! time?’ and get picked on for what I was wearing

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knowing that all these other people Looking back at it just makes me feel also had a lot of respect for everyone we have to go back to school and I’m nev- democracy!’ I remember feeling good sit up and question things. I was seat-
thought that I had become something glad that I got a lot of the ‘Wowwww!’ came across. Some of my fondest mem- er going to get to do anything like this about writing that, thinking it was a ed next to Anna Wintour, the lights
of an authority on fashion. It meant the out of the way early on. ories are of being in-between shows, again! I was completely aware that thoughtful response with a good meas- went down for the show to begin, and
world to me that this one kid at school getting a bagel with my dad and us just the cycle is so brisk and of the whole ure of sass thrown in. The End by The Doors started play-
said, ‘I just love seeing what you wear Didn’t you find attending the shows talking about how amazing that design- 15-minutes-of-fame thing – it was sad. ing… and I just felt bored! And when I
every day; I am excited to see it, it’s like intimidating? er or editor was to talk to. By now, had your newfound fashion looked around me everyone else looked
art’. I was excited, I was thrilled, but I was Are you still like that about things? industry status – whether critical or bored. I remember thinking to myself,
also trying to keep my wits intact. I Who made the biggest impression on Oh, absolutely. Right now, I am still otherwise – reached your school? I ‘Hold on, this really isn’t what had excit-
What was the first sign that your blog remember at the Rag & Bone show a the two of you? recovering from the play that I did, This mean, were people aware you were fly- ed me about fashion to begin with’. I
was hitting the fashion industry’s guy behind me said quite loudly, ‘Is I guess Rodarte. We have since spent a Is Our Youth, ending. I was saying to my ing off to fashion shows? probably came across as ungrateful,
radar? that a boy or a girl?’ and I was think- lot of time together with them. I think friend, ‘I’ll never get to do anything like People would come up to me and be but it’s important to be transparent
I got an e-mail from the Rodarte sis- ing, ‘Hey, you’re the mean one, there is my dad had concerns about the world I this again!’ It reminded me of Joan Did- like, ‘Do you know Miley Cyrus?’ Just about aspects of these very inaccess­
ters saying, ‘Hey, our friend Miranda nothing wrong with me looking androg- seemed to be dabbling in, and they were ion’s essay On Keeping a Notebook6 in throwaway comments. But I recently ible worlds that are unfulfilling or
showed us a video you made’. They later ynous.’ It was like being back at school. an example of people who were truly which she says something like, ‘Note- got an e-mail from this boy who I shared unattractive.
told me that their friend was Miranda concerned with their own art and were book keepers are afflicted during child- a few classes with but who I never really
July4. But the moment it really escalated Were there moments during that week really passionate. I attribute so much of hood of a pre-disposed sense of loss’. talked to. He wrote, ‘I don’t know if you You’d become jaded!
for me was when Dasha Zhukova wrote that made you stop and think about my sense of wonder to them. And I think that kind of sums me up remember me, but I just wanted to tell Well, while I hadn’t much liked middle
saying she wanted me to come to Lon- what you were getting yourself into? pretty well. you that Style Rookie was really impor- school, I really enjoyed high school. I
don with other bloggers to curate a sec- I remember my dad and I going to the You say your dad had concerns, which tant for me at high school; it changed felt very precious about the experience
tion of her first issue of Pop magazine. Alexander Wang after-party at Milk is probably to be expected, but did he The more prominent you became, the the way I felt about being a guy, and of just wandering around the suburbs,
While we were there she asked if I want- Studios. Courtney Love was play- also have his own ‘Wowww!’ moments? more I remember people in the indus- assured me that I didn’t feel I had to or having a crush on a boy, or sneaking

‘It was certainly easier being picked on at school for ‘I was seated next to Anna Wintour, the lights went
what I was wearing, knowing that all these other down for the show to begin, and The End by The
people thought I’d become an authority on fashion.’ Doors started playing... and I just felt bored!’
ed to be on the cover and I remember ing and when I think back to walking Right back before the whole fash- try regarding you as this polarizing fig- identify with a certain idea of mascu- out with my friends. It felt good to do
talking about it a lot with my dad who’d through that crowd it wasn’t all, ‘Wow, ion week thing started happening, I ure. What do you recall about that? linity. I have seen you saying in inter- that stuff because I had seen this other
travelled with me; he’d talked to [Pop this is everything I’ve ever wanted’, it remember showing my dad a binder I remember one of the first negative views that kids at your school ignored side – fashion shows and parties – and it
co-founder] Ashley Heath who had told was more like, ‘Eurgh, gross!’ I had made full of runway photos. He things that got written about me: it was you or weren’t interested, but that had left me craving my own life.
him, ‘Fame is utterly meaningless but it didn’t respond at all, which makes him really snarky, saying that the only rea- wasn’t true – we were just intimidated
can give you power’. That’s stuck with You weren’t as awestruck as perhaps sound like a bad father, which he isn’t; son people were interested in Style and actually looked up to you’. And I One thing I’m struck by is the fact that
me. People might mistake it for ‘evil dic- you should have been. he’s an English teacher who refreshes Rookie was because of my age, and that was like, ‘Oh, great! Why didn’t you say you could probably have pursued the
tatorship power’, but I see it more as a Right, and there is this certain lifestyle his wardrobe every two years at Eddie I probably wasn’t even writing it. After that at the time? It would have changed fashion route, successfully emulating
question of gaining access and doing that comes with all that, like a party life- Bauer5. Anyway, one time at fashion that I stopped the blog and took a break everything!’ say, a stylist or editor a generation or
what it is I want to do. style. It’s kind of helpful when you’re week he was talking to an editor and he for a bit. two older than you, and playing out
that age to see people who are out of said, ‘I think it’s really great that you’re Let’s talk about your decision to stop that lifestyle you’d been exposed to.
Having options. their minds. supporting Tavi; she makes me really That must have been upsetting. the Style Rookie blog, retreat from the Or you could have continued Style
Yes, choice. When Pop came out, Dasha proud because when I was growing up It was. I lined our basement walls with fashion shows, and launch Rookie as Rookie, and amplified your profile and
flew my dad and me to New York for They should make the Wang after-party everyone just wore Eddie Bauer’. And newspapers and took photos of myself a broader platform for writing, self- financial gain. But you chose not to.
Fashion Week, and that was when I start- a national curriculum field trip. he was stood right there wearing head wearing all black outfits, and I wrote expression and life beyond fashion. The night when there was that first neg-
ed showing up in the front row and stuff, [Laughs] It’s like seeing the movie Kids to toe Eddie Bauer [laughs]. a whole thing about how condescend- Was that something that just naturally ative thing written about me, my dad
although a lot of the time not in front way too young! I mean, it obviously ing it was. I am almost ashamed that played itself out, or was it a conscious handed me a short story called Clau-
rows, but you don’t see those photos! helped to be with my dad or my mum. What was it like returning to school it has stuck with me to this day, but I decision? dine’s Book. It’s about a girl who keeps
For them, those moments were almost after your first fashion week? remember writing something like, ‘I’m It just felt like a natural evolution, a journal that her stepmom finds and
Tell me about going to New York for like an anthropological case study; well, I remember sitting in the airport with sorry, we are talking about the fashion although I did have an experience at a publishes. All of a sudden there are
the shows. not just anthropological because they my dad and crying because, like, now I industry here; it’s not exactly the perfect Band of Outsiders show that made me journalists at her door every day, asking

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her questions, trying to figure out if it Swift and Miley Cyrus. It’s almost like of everything that I’ve done. Even the having. I knew right away it wouldn’t all these other things’. And then there Month to month there are 3 million hits.
was really Claudine who wrote the jour- you’re being sent as the rational voice things that now embarrass me have led be a Rookie piece, not that I feel I have are those people for whom it does just
nal, but the stepmom takes credit for it. of reason. to everything else’. And that just makes to censor myself or make myself more feel like, ‘Fuck you!’ Do you have organizations or brands
Claudine is happy to let them believe Well, it’s certainly interesting to con- so much sense to me. relatable or anything, but I think it that approach you thinking, ‘Because
that and marches up to her tree house sider the argument for and against rec- would be in poor taste. When you were Do you think the Rookie community is of her relationship with Rookie’s size-
whistling a kind of victory march. I’m ognition. Miley is going through this So let’s talk about Rookie. Would you talking before about success, it made a tangible demographic or rather a dis- able community, Tavi is worth aligning
really glad that my dad showed that to transition, and to her there is no differ- agree that the outsider-ness of your me think of a conversation I was having parate group of individuals? ourselves with?’
me because I think we’re conditioned ence between public and private. That middle-school years, and perhaps that the other day with my friend. We were I feel like earlier on it was a little niche: There are brands and companies that
to believe that the ultimate reward is is what I took away and ended up writ- sense of introversion or at least awk- discussing when Jon Hamm said that at that time there was more of a divid- are certainly interested in the loyal-
recognition. But it’s important to know ing about. I asked her, ‘Why not just wardness, inform a lot of the site’s edi- thing about Kim Kardashian: ‘I’m not ing line between mainstream and alter- ty our readers have with us. But I feel
that recognition doesn’t necessarily do drugs in private or have sex instead torial voice? a Kardashian, I’m an actor! I didn’t ask native culture, which has since been like people would have better luck sav-
mean understanding. Because I didn’t of performing sex?’ and she was like, Yes, I find that I frequently end up talk- to be photographed by paparazzi!’ And blurred – and I think Rookie can take ing their money and looking at people’s
really just want to be heard, I wanted to ‘There have been paparazzi outside my ing about or referencing it, not because I my friend was saying, ‘He’s not wrong, some credit for that. I mean, we have Twitter and Instagram accounts.
be understood. house since I was 14. I don’t even feel feel a responsibility or that it is my duty, he just sounds like an asshole’. heard from girls who’ve said Rookie
like me, like when I see a picture of me, but just because it is an inevitable part used to be more punk and I feel like What I found so laughably out-of-
Do you feel that your life now is one it’s not me’. I can’t imagine that level of life for me; I don’t know how not to Are you uncomfortable with how I never wanted it to be punk. I never step about The Sartorialist’s dismiss-
that is better understood? of… I don’t even know what ‘it’ is. talk about it and I don’t have any shame Rookie’s readers might think you’re wanted it to be a ’zine. Counter-culture ive comments regarding you 8 is that
Well, I met this girl yesterday who came about it. I feel like Rookie is such a sup- preaching from an ivory tower? comes out of people feeling excluded brands seem keener than ever before to
up to me and said she was a Rookie Sounds terrifying. portive community – from the contribu- First of all, Rookie is not my personal from mainstream culture, but what if tap into the voice of the youth market –
reader; she was telling me about an I summarized that Miley piece by say- tors to the girls who read it – so it’s never blog and there are plenty of girls read- we could change the mainstream cul- essentially because it holds the keys to
essay that she’d written called Rein- ing: we have created this person where felt embarrassing to talk about. ing it who don’t know I’m the editor, or ture instead? I was just at a Taylor Swift the next generation of consumers.

‘I asked Miley, Why not do drugs in private or have ‘There used to be more division between mainstream
sex instead of performing sex? and she said, There’ve and alternative culture, which has since blurred.
been paps outside my house since I was 14.’ I think Rookie can take some credit for that.’
ventions of Love and it was apparent there is no line between public and pri- It feels extremely inclusive. don’t know me full stop. I am in a posi- concert and I was so happy at the num- Yes, it was out of step, but he doesn’t
that we shared similar touchstones of vate; she is going through this in her I am so happy that you get that vibe tion where I can promote it, and maybe ber of girls coming up to me and say- seem interested in the future; he’s part
movies and books. I can’t believe I get own way. Young people who I talked to from it, because I sometimes worry there are people who come for me but ing that they read Rookie – I don’t think of a group of people who want fashion
to meet someone on the street and we at Miley’s concerts seem very inspired about the tone; I love the things that I then stay for all these other voices. The those girls are into Riot grrrl7. to remain elitist, as if the values held by
already have this established language by her. It was almost like the level of love and I want people to know about girls reading it are still in high school, keeping it that way are in some way inno-
through the works of art that have reso- compassion that people had for Katie them and love things as well, but I wor- and when I was in high school, adult fig- People presumably refer to you as the vative, artistic or interesting. The irony
nated with us. I have friends who have Holmes breaking out of Scientology; for ry that it can also seem like welcome to ures in my life would constantly tell me, voice of a generation. How does that is that he wants it both ways: the street-
insane amounts of fame and the peo- Miley to go against everything she had the cool kids’ club… ‘Don’t worry, you are going to get out of make you feel? style photography, democratic blog-
ple who approach them are either like, represented as a Disney star, it felt very school and you are going to go to college I never wanted to speak for teenage ger guy who’s also in the ivory tower.
‘You’re a celebrity!’ or they genuinely symbolic for these kids. How do you reconcile the fact that and you will go live in New York, you’ll girls; I wanted to have my voice and cre- I think the people who really know
love their work, but they don’t have any Rookie positions itself as this very be fine, it does get better!’ Even though ate a space where other people could what’s up – the ones who are going to
way of knowing, unless they were to talk What are your thoughts on teenage inclusive platform for girls to connect they are right you still feel like shouting, have their voices. I never wanted Rookie keep their jobs – are the ones interest-
to them for a long time. So I think the rebellion? and express themselves when your ‘Fuck you, I’m in so much pain!’ to be just giving answers, but giving ed in young people.
nice thing about writing is that some- When I interviewed Taylor Swift for own life – being on stage in New York, options and perspectives; I didn’t want
one has to read your work to know who Elle, earlier this year, I asked her, ‘You dabbling in Hollywood – could now And now you feel like you’ve become us to dictate. I think it can be weak edi- Tell me about, for want of a better
you are. might not have had Disney or Nickelo- be perceived by Rookie’s readers as that adult figure. torially if you include everything – just phrase, ‘Brand Tavi’. Multination-
deon to rebel against, but did you ever detached, no longer relatable to them, Well, there are some people who go figure it out! al companies such as Clinique are
Talking of celebrity culture, it’s feel the need to rebel against yourself?’ aloof even? respond to that and are like, ‘This increasingly interested in you.
intriguing to me that mainstream mag- And she said, ‘I have no interest in burn- I’m writing something at the moment inspires me; it makes me feel like I How many people look at Rookie, give That is the one thing that’s a bit tricky.
azines commission you to interview ing down the house that I have built; I about recently moving to New York should express myself and get to do me some stats so I can get an idea of its I really value the fact that some people
pop-culture celebrities, like Taylor can redecorate it but I am really proud and getting to have the experiences I’m what I want and move to New York and scale and resonance. read Style Rookie for years and now

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read Rookie, or have just recently start- she has permeated this space that she discomfort that people feel if they think liveliest debates that have taken place felt differently about it, but I was just good, but now everyone is like, ‘Nah,
ed reading my work and are really sup- wasn’t ever supposed to: she is really Kim represents an unhealthy ideal of on Rookie’s comments section? so happy that it could unfold in such a the Oscars basically represents 97 per-
portive. I don’t want to betray that, but rich, but it’s not a wealth people in posi- beauty, but it’s not like Vogue doesn’t do The Rookie comments section is thoughtful way. cent old white guys in an academy’. You
I do have to make a living and I want tions of power are comfortable with, that, too! If anything, Kim diversifies the probably the most civil and loving don’t have to listen to those authorities
freedom and I want choices. I’m think- because it’s not old money. beauty standard. The idea that an inter- place on the Internet! We once had a It seems like you’ve brought together a if you don’t want to: there are other
ing about something I posted on Insta- racial couple is the most powerful and girl write in about needing to get an rational community of voices. Which voices; there are people who look like
gram this morning about the Clinique What do you think she represents? glamorous in the world is great I think. abortion, and I don’t think abortion on the Internet is rare. you, and whose life experience is closer
campaign I did and someone said it Well, her demographic is thought of as has ever been discussed on the Inter- For my dad growing up – I don’t know to yours. Maybe listen to them once in a
was not ‘Tavi-like’. And I was just like, trashy, lowbrow and mainstream. But Do you think people are sceptical net with so much respectful disagree- why I keep using him as an example, but while. [Pauses] Did that come across as
‘Well I’m kind of the barometer for anyone mad about her being on the cover about how they’ve achieved that power ing and compassion. Of course, girls he is 64 – the Oscars told you what was a rant? It wasn’t supposed to!
that’. But I think I can do these things of Vogue is missing the point: Vogue is and wealth?
and be completely transparent about about trendiness, so it makes perfect When it comes to questioning the way
them. It’s not like I’m being forced into sense, and she is one of the most pow- Kim, or other celebrities of her ilk,
doing things that I don’t feel comfort- erful and relevant people in the world. I make their money or promote them-
able with. was talking to someone who was going selves, I’m just not interested in being
to the Met Ball and – referring to Kim – mad about that. I’m not interested in
You mentioned before that brands she said, ‘I feel now they just invite eve- telling other women what to do. I’m
would be better off looking at social ryone!’ And I was like, ‘Yes, but who not interested in creating a hierarchy
media than at Rookie in order to were they inviting before?’ This is not about what is the most dignified way
understand youth consumer behav- a meritocracy, and I don’t say that to to be public because, as we have estab-
iour. Do you find that images in a fash- invalidate anyone’s hard work, but in lished, there are gross people in every

‘I posted on Instagram about the Clinique campaign

I did and someone said it wasn’t Tavi-like. I was like,
Well, I’m kind of the barometer for that one.’
ion magazine like Vogue have more or the same way I work really hard there industry and medium.
less cultural weight than those on Ins- has also been a lot of right-time-right-
tagram feeds? place luck involved. That is true of eve- What is the general perception within
Probably less, based on the number of ryone and our culture has largely been the Rookie community regarding Kim
people seeing one versus the other – one that creates more of a time and and Kanye?
it depends on the feed. That has place for some people than others, for It’s a combination of a lot of things: we
always existed: some things are influ- people who are already privileged or have readers who say, ‘I don’t love the
ential through their popularity; oth- from old money or are conventionally way that Kanye talks about women’. Or
ers become more influential within a beautiful and skinny and white. And I they don’t like the way Kim perpetu-
community of influencers. But I think think that even if people don’t explicit- ates certain beauty standards. I’m just
it’s goofy to try and uphold values that ly express why it makes them feel weird glad that they can have those opinions 1. Tavi was born in Chicago but grew Street Fashion by Tiffany Godoy a badminton shuttlecock still used to- Bands identified with Riot grrrl in-
up in Oak Park, a suburban town in (Chronicle Books, 2007) day, and 40 years later was named ‘Re- clude Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile
are elitist and classist, and that is why to see Kim Kardashian on the cover of and that it is up for discussion and they
Illinois. triever Breeder of the Year’ by the US and Bikini Kill. The movement was
it bothered me when people were up in Vogue, it’s definitely there. I don’t think can learn from one other. The conver- 4. In 2014, artist, author, actor, screen- Professional Retriever Trainers Asso- also closely associated with a vibrant
arms about seeing Kim and Kanye on there is any point in denying that we sation about Kim and Kanye played out 2. Before Danny Elfman ever wrote writer and film director Miranda Ju- ciation. He died in 1986. ’zine culture that sprang from its anti-
the theme tune to The Simpsons and ly added app developer to her résumé. consumer, DIY punk ethic.
the cover of Vogue. I’m not saying there have been influenced by those systems on Facebook among our Rookie con- began collaborating with Tim Bur- Somebody, an iOS app, allows peo- 6. On Keeping a Notebook is includ-
aren’t certain things about the Kar- in the world. tributors, like Julianne Escobedo Shep- ton, he had moved to Paris; joined ple to send messages that are deliv- ed in Slouching Towards Bethlehem, 8. In a 2011 interview with The Talks,
and toured with French musical-thea- ered verbally to their recipient by a Joan Didion’s collection of essays first The Sartorialist, aka, Scott Schuman,
dashian brand that make me uncom- herd, and I feel like I’ve just borrowed
tre company, Le Grand Magic Circus; stranger. published in 1968. said, referring to Tavi’s Style Rookie
fortable, but I also think those are the Do people who voice an opinion a lot of those thoughts in what I’ve just visited Ghana, Mali and Upper Volta blog, ‘It is like a five-year-old Michael
things people love and perpetuate every against that have a problem with the been telling you. (now Burkino Faso); and caught, and 5. Born in 1899, Eddie Bauer opened 7. Riot grrrl is an underground femi- Jackson singing about love – to him
recovered from, malaria. his first outdoor-clothing store in nist movement that came out the alter- they are just words’.
time they talk about how much they blurring of high-end and mass culture? 1926. In 1934 he was awarded US pat- native- and punk-music scenes in the
hate her. That’s why Kim is amazing: That is part of it. I understand the Besides Kim and Kanye, what are the 3. Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku ent number 2025325 for the design of Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s.

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Portfolio François Berthoud for Vanity

François
Berthoud
for Vanity
magazine
Anna Piaggi’s entirely illustrated magazine
depicted the anything-goes spirit of 1980s Milan.

© François Berthoud/Courtesy of Condé Nast

By Thomas Lenthal
Illustrations by François Berthoud

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Portfolio François Berthoud for Vanity

© François Berthoud/Courtesy of Condé Nast

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Portfolio François Berthoud for Vanity

© François Berthoud/Courtesy of Condé Nast

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Portfolio François Berthoud for Vanity

© François Berthoud/Courtesy of Condé Nast

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Portfolio François Berthoud for Vanity

Anna Piaggi’s magazine Vanity, which was eventually shuttered in the mid- Paris felt like more of an obvious choice, Could you describe the fashion land- What was your rapport with the kind collection, and you would listen to her
emerged in the 1980s, was a unique 80s when, says Berthoud, ‘[Publish­ but I had this feeling that Milan could scape, specifically in Milan, in the of fashion illustration that had come and her opinion would somehow con­
moment not just in François Berthoud’s ers] Condé Nast lost interest in the pro­ be different and interesting. I also had 1980s? directly before you? vince others, too. I think her credibil­
life, but also in the history of fashion. ject’. Anna Piaggi continued working the chance to meet the people at Con­ It was the beginning of everything. My cultural references came more from ity and creativity in terms of both how
For Berthoud, the Swiss artist, who had with the company, her celebrated dop- dé Nast through friends and got a job Milan was starting to become what it comic strips. That was my thing. In fact, to present and communicate fashion
moved to Milan after his studies, it was pie paggine in Vogue Italia making her in Milan. is now. Armani and Moschino were I immediately began doing comics that were certainly highly considered at
the first place that his striking, erotic­ a constant and vital presence until her already there. I remember seeing the were published in Italy while I was the time.
ally charged illustrations were seen by death aged 80 in 2012. ‘She had a great Laying out pages? second Moschino show, which was quite working at Condé Nast.
the fashion cognoscenti. For the indus­ understanding of and passion for fash­ Yes, as a graphic designer. provocative and over the top. Then Ver­ So before having an official outlet or
try it was an emblem of the enormous ion,’ says Berthoud, who now lives in sace came along. The whole system of What kind of comics were you doing? role, she was an opinion maker, some-
changes it was undergoing: a time when Zurich, ‘and she could write really well. For what magazine? Italian fashion emerged and developed It’s hard to explain. There was one mag­ one who was socially active, who peo-
a new generation of designers brought She was truly unique.’ We were doing Vogue Pelle, Vogue Spo- during those years – not only the brands azine called Alter5 in Milan. The con­ ple were interested in and who had a
their raw talent, creative desire and cou­ sa and Vogue Bambini. My boss was and designers but the advertising, the tent was really varied, and really, real­ point of view?
ture-like approach to ready-to-wear, François, when did you learn your craft Carla Sozzani2. I was 22 – this was right publicity, the ideas of how to show and ly funny. At the time, there was a strong Yes. She had a very good relationship
and then added a radical dose of street as an illustrator? after school in 1982. promote products. The entire system group of illustrators there. Comic art­ with creative people because she could
smarts. Paris was shaken up by design­ François: As a kid, I just drew all of the was being built day by day. ists in Italy were either published in understand what they were doing, and
ers like Claude Montana, Thierry time. I did a foundation year at an art So Milan wasn’t the master plan but Alter or in Frigidaire 6 in Rome. It was she loved them and helped give them
Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier, as well school in La Chaux-de-Fonds1, Swit­ rather an opportunity to get out of So essentially when you arrived in very experimental; it had nothing to do visibility. She was not the kind of per­
as by Japanese imports, Yohji Yamamo­ zerland, and learned the basics of draw­ Switzerland? Milan, you had no idea that it was start- with the [comic-book] movements in son that you thought would become the
to and Issey Miyake. Milan was treat­ ing, sculpture, colour theory. It was the Exactly, escape! But I was definitely ing to become the place to be. Belgium or France and was rather more editor in chief of a magazine. She was a
ed to Romeo Gigli, Franco Moschino kind of place where you could also study interested in fashion. And as I men­ It was a total coincidence. I don’t think influenced by American comic artists. free spirit rather than a manager.

‘Armani, Moschino, Fiorucci… the whole system ‘We were all trying to work out how to tell fashion
of Italian fashion emerged and developed during stories through non-photographic images and
the years that Anna Piaggi was editing Vanity.’ communicate about fashion in a different way.’
and the effervescence of Fiorucci. And jewellery or engraving the movements tioned, I was drawing all the time and anybody there even knew that then. When I started to work at Vanity, I So how did you meet her and start
observing it all was Anna Piaggi, an of watches – which was the industry in doing illustrations. By the time I had There was this demand for people who didn’t know exactly what fashion illus­ working on Vanity?
already legendary figure, muse for crea­ that area – but I wanted to study graphic completed my studies, I was getting could do things. When people need­ tration was – besides of course know­ I had met her a couple of times before,
tive people of all types, and the embodi­ design, to make images that were in confident with my own style – it had tak­ ed stylists for magazines then, there ing about the work of René Gruau7 and here and there, so we knew each other.
ment of fashion’s newfound spirit. the streets, which could be visible all en time to focus on what would make weren’t people who had any profes­ Antonio Lopez8 . When Antonio Lopez could no longer
She founded Vanity in 1981. Entire­ around. That was my aim. I was 17 and my drawings recognizable and unique. sional training for that, so they would work because he became ill, they decid­
ly illustrated, at the beginning by a sin­ things were very different then; the just hire girls who dressed nicely and Tell me about Vanity. How and why ed to continue the project – even though
gle artist, it instantaneously resurrected industry was much smaller and people Did you know you wanted to eventually had a mother with some couture dress­ was it launched? the magazine was so connected to him.
fashion illustration, bringing back from didn’t really know that imagery would venture into illustration and away from es in her closet. That was the best refer­ Vanity was created by Anna Piaggi and They were looking for new contribu­
the dead a genre whose raison d’être explode the way it has today, that there graphic design or did you see yourself ence you could have to become a styl­ was devoted to new and emerging Ital­ tors and they picked up on my work and
had been eclipsed by photography. The would be this proliferation of photogra­ becoming an art director? ist at Condé Nast. That was how it was. ian fashion. The entire concept of the a group of other comic artists – I sup­
magazine was also a showcase for Anna phy and printed images. I actually became the art director of Later, I had an apartment in Paris, in magazine was that it was illustrated pose they felt we were capable of draw­
Piaggi’s vision of what fashion could be Vogue Sposa! The good thing was that Rue des Archives, and I spent some entirely from start to finish by Antonio ing, creating interesting images and that
– forward-looking yet anachronistic, After your studies, what prompted I was qualified to do many different time there but I was attracted back to Lopez. He did four or five, maybe even we were hip and young. They called us
popular yet anti-commercial, individ­ your move from Switzerland to Milan? things – graphic design, typography and Milan because it was more dynam­ six issues. He was amazingly talented all in for a big meeting at Condé Nast. I
ual yet part of a movement – illustrat­ What made Milan the right city to photography. At Vogue Bambini, they ic – I was constantly working and get­ and capable of expressing the fashion knew some of the others, most of them
ed by the particular talent of a group begin your career at that moment in would ask for illustrations and I would ting involved in projects there. I was at of the moment. were living in Bologna or Rome, not
of young artists that included Antonio time? do those, too. People liked me because I Fiorucci’s store3 before he became a Anna Piaggi was enthusiastic about Milan. Lorenzo Mattotti was in Milan,
Lopez and François Berthoud. Firstly, I could speak the language could do things. However, I was definite­ world phenomenon; Madonna was sing­ things and helped people. So she would so I knew him. Suddenly there was this
Vanity survived the death of Lopez, because my mother is Italian. At the ly more interested in painting and illus­ ing at Plastic 4, she was unknown then – talk enthusiastically about this person, group of crazy kids in their 20s – I was
one of its key contributors, aged 44, but time, the choices were Paris or not Paris! tration than in becoming an art director. so it was a really exciting place to be. about this young designer, this special 25 or 26 – in Condé Nast’s offices.

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Portfolio François Berthoud for Vanity

So you worked on all the issues after Nodolini, who was also the art director And that was something you estab- far, but at the time it was perfectly fine short space of time. a great opportunity, that I had access
Antonio’s departure from the maga- of Vogue at the time. He was what you’d lished while at Vanity? Would you say and good fun. I am very sentimental to a playground where I could really
zine to the end? call a real art director: he would call us it was where you developed your style? about it because it was a great period. It When it was happening, did you realize push myself and create the most fantas­
Yes. I did many of the covers, too – to his desk and spend a lot of time com­ Yes. It started from there and it evolved was amazing, I could not have expect­ how exceptional the experience was? tic things I could think of – it was the
around seven. Mattotti also did the cov­ municating with us. in a lot of other ways. ed more than what happened in such a No, but I was aware that this thing was moment and the place to do it.
ers for a period – they had this idea of
having one illustrator do a series of cov­ Would they give you pictures of the col- It is something you own, no one else
ers. Mattotti knew nothing about fash­ lections as starting points? does it.
ion and was not interested in it, but he is Yes, and slides. I would also go to see Yes, basically. Just by chance from my
such a good draftsman that he could do the shows. bedroom! It was an incredible period
anything at all, and he is fast. He was a really.
real maestro. He did lots and lots of pag­ How many drawings would you pro-
es. We were all working like slaves and duce for each issue? Looking at Vanity now, what do you
being paid 200,000 lire a page. In some issues I would do 30 pages and think it says about its context, origin
the cover, too. I was working day and and fashion in general?
That’s around €100 a page. That was night on it; I was totally stressed. I think that the Vanity experience was
quite some money in the 1980s, did you one of a kind. For fashion people, as well
live off it? You are very fast though. as the art world and graphic designers,
Yes, that and some other things. I also I am fast, but at the time I was using it has always been seen as exception­
did advertising – some of it was illustrat­ demanding techniques like woodcarv­ al. People often tell me that they have
ed in-house. ing and linocutting – there was a lot of a collection of copies. It was a remarka­

‘We could do virtually anything we wanted:

I placed the Gaultier bra on the head of a girl to
make Mickey Mouse ears – no one said a thing.’
What were the first illustrations that blood involved! And no possibility of ble experience for all of those involved.
Anna Piaggi commissioned from you? retouching either. We were all trying to work out how to
For the first issue they asked each one tell fashion stories through non-photo­
of us to do between three to six pages – Why did you use lino? graphic images and communicate about
we all had very different styles and I could have definitely done something fashion in a different way. It was kind
approaches. Most of the other contrib­ simpler for sure! I was looking for those of crazy because we could do virtually
utors didn’t have any interest or experi­ really hard, sharp, black lines. I was anything that we wanted. There was an
ence in fashion. I was probably the one using ink and markers on acetate, and opera section at the end of each issue
most connected to the fashion world then with a knife I would scratch it so I because the art director was an opera
1. La Chaux-de-Fonds, a town in the store 10 Corso Como in Milan which 5. Alter was a left-wing comics magazine ences with comic creators, lending and
because I had already worked on mag­ could have negative lines – very sharp lover! When I was doing those covers, canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, she continues to expand globally. published in the 1970s and 1980s in Mi­ borrowing ideas and approaches’.
azines and had learned a lot very quick­ in the blacks – and then I would make they would give me a dress to show, but burned down in 1792. It was rebuilt lan. It was the sister magazine to linus,
the edges even sharper. I thought, I’m I would do a head shot, a close-up, so using a rational grid system that 3. Elio Fiorucci’s revolutionary store the only Italian comics magazine aimed 7. René Gruau was a celebrated Ital­
ly under Carla Sozzani. For me it was
mixed housing and factories to maxi­ on Via Torino, Milan, opened in 1974. at adults when it first appeared in 1965. ian fashion illustrator. He was a friend
interesting because I could mix fashion, engraving, so let’s try and do the real in the end you saw nothing of the dress mize the efficiency of workers at local Spread over three floors, it had foun­ of Christian Dior who created iconic
which I liked, with drawing and illustra­ thing and see what happens. And when really. Some drawings didn’t even real­ watchmakers. Karl Marx analysed tains, an ‘antique market’, a restaurant 6. In Drawn and Dangerous: Italian advertising for Dior’s perfumes from
the town’s system in Das Kapital, and a performance space. Comics in the 1970s and 1980s, Si­ the early 1950s until the 1980s.
tion; it was the perfect cocktail. I tried it, I was super excited because ly make sense. For instance, I placed while its mix of industry and domes­ mone Castaldi states that from the
the result was beyond my expectations. the Gaultier bra on the head of a girl ticity may have influenced Le Cor­ 4. Opened in 1980 at Viale Um­ mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Italian 8. Antonio Lopez (1943-1987) was a
to make Mickey Mouse ears – and no busier. The architect was born in the bria 120, Plastic was considered Mi­ comics such as Frigidaire, Alter and much-loved Puerto Rican illustrator and
How was it working with Piaggi? It created effects I could not have imag­
town in 1887. lan’s answer to Studio 54. During the linus, ‘served as a neutral meeting photographer. In 1969 he moved to Par­
Very easy. She was always happy. She ined. It was powerful and in your face. one said a thing. I don’t know if that’s 1980s, it played host to stars includ­ ground, a vital link between popular is where he discovered Jessica Lange,
always had intelligent insights and Also, the colours with the ink, the com­ a reasonable way to present fashion 2. Carla Sozzani was an editor at ing Prince, Madonna, Pink Floyd and art and the exponents of sanctioned inspired Karl Lagerfeld and created il­
Vogue Italia in the 1970s and 1980s, be­ Freddie Mercury. In 2012, Plastic cultural areas. Thanks to this unsus­ lustrations for all of fashion’s major pub­
could open your eyes to things. There bination was just right and it became a in the long term. I don’t know if those fore launching Elle in Italy in 1987. In closed its doors before relaunching at pected medium, painters, art critics lications. Vanity was created as a vehicle
was also an art director, Alberto signature. tricks could only have been pushed so 1990 she founded gallery and concept Via Gargano 15. and literary authors exchanged experi­ for his illustrations by Anna Piaggi.

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Print matters Books

‘There’s
nothing like
the substantial
heft of a
good book.’
The founder of IDEA Books
on why print still matters to some of us.

By David Owen

282 283
Print matters George Lucas

George Lucas Collection

Lucas Research Library,
Skywalker Ranch, Northern California
Photographs: Joe Fletcher

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Print matters George Lucas

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Print matters George Lucas

George Lucas needed an assistant and then when she over 30 years and along the way we have of them are picture books. Years ago historical images now available online, Fortunately, after you’ve been working
retired several years later I took over as acquired two historical collections from someone came to our library and he was that our outside-client requests have on Star Wars movies for 15 years, you
‘There is something unequivocally spe- manager of the library. movie studios. The old Universal Studi- looking at the books and he said, ‘This decreased. So we are not working with kind of know what production designers
cial about reading and researching with os research library was acquired when is like the largest collection of coffee outside clients as much as we used to. are going to want to see; the terrain, the
physical books and libraries,’ filmmaker Do you have people working for you? it closed down in 2000 and the Para- table books I’ve ever seen!’ Of course, animals, what is going to inspire them…
George Lucas tells us via e-mail from Right now I have one research librari- mount Studios research library, which we do have other books because we do How are you treating that within the I’ve been thinking lately how books
Skywalker Ranch in northern Califor- an and we do basically the same thing: had been dormant since the late 1960s, story research for our productions. For library? Are you digitalizing things? compare to digital material – it could
nia. ‘It often allows a more in-depth provide research and reference search- we acquired in 1987. Since our collec- all the Raiders 2 movies we have a large No, we are really not – there is so much. be generational. We have production
look into materials that may have yet to es to our company and to outside clients tion started in basically the late 1970s, mythology section. We just don’t have There are also amazing picture files, designers who come in here and who
be digitized or presented fully online. in the film and TV industry. these historical collections added to our any fiction in our library. which are in 500 filing cabinets. They are in their 50s and 60s and they just go
You can find information of a rarer resources a lot. It preserved these his- are organized by subject and they have wild for the books. They could stay here
nature and distinctive images that differ What are the origins of the collection? torical collections and kept them intact. And is the library itself unique or do stills that were taken of New York street all day. But some of the younger artists –
from the same top few Internet searches Around 1978 George decided he want- George is always thinking about that, other companies still maintain them? scenes from the 1930s to 1950s. There although they like books – are comfort-
everyone else also sees. The Research ed to have a full-time research library preserving these book collections. All the studios used to have research are clippings from newspapers and an able with getting images and referenc-
Library and its trusted librarians have and librarian for productions – mainly libraries like ours. These days there is amazing periodical collection: Harper’s es online.
helped me research film, costumes, story research, set, costumes and hair There must be amazing books… Warner’s that’s still around, as well as magazine going back to the late 1900s, That said, there were younger art-
hair and makeup for years. On a more research for films that he was going to In the Paramount collection, if you the Fox research library. Disney has a a whole run of Life magazines. That ists working on the Star Wars prequels
nostalgic note, there’s nothing like the be working on. look at the check-out card in the books couple of research libraries. What is sort of material is so entirely different and their art department was actually in
tangible nature of turning actual pag- you pull off the shelves, you’ll see that unusual about ours is that it has con- to what’s available online. the same building as our library. Even
es of paper, the smell of the print, the And has it always been located here in Alfred Hitchcock took this book out tinued to grow and expand and acquire Of course, if people don’t have time though they were younger, they did love
substantial heft of a good book.’ That northern California? in 1964; and Cecil B. DeMille checked material. A lot of these other libraries to come in and browse the shelves to have books by their computers. They

‘If you look at the check-out card in the books ‘After you’ve been working on Star Wars movies
you pull off the shelves, you’ll see that Alfred for 15 years, you kind of know what books
Hitchcock took this one out in 1964.’ production designers are going to want to see.’
research library, an Arts and Crafts- At that time George’s company was another one in the 1940s. And of course, have had their budgets cut – probably then they are depending on us more were drawing on their computers, but
style building with a skylit dome Lucas based in L.A. He subsequently bought Edith Head1, the costume designer, back in the 1970s, the 1980s – which has to deliver what they want. There is not they loved having the physical books
helped design, is managed by his trust- the property that was to become Sky- used the Paramount library a lot, so obviously affected their growth. that, ‘Oh, turn the page’ and, ‘Wow, there, too. They worked on all three epi-
ed librarian Jo Donaldson, who gave walker Ranch. Although he’d lived in there are many books that have her sig- look at that image, I didn’t even know sodes and the books would just stay up
us an insight into the galactic storytell- L.A. for a while, he really wanted to nature on them, thanks to her work with Does it feel like you are working in the I wanted that image.’ Or the chance there. It wasn’t unusual for an artist to
er’s reasons for accumulating so much move to northern California. It’s a rural Hitchcock. There’s a book on British past? to look at that book that is next to the have 20 books from our library by his or
paper-bound knowledge. setting. The ranch looks like a residence, cooking that Cary Grant checked out. Over the last couple of years we’ve book that you requested. It means that her computer. Some of the books they
but it was built for commercial use. noticed, because of the Internet and the they are depending more on our take. had checked out for about eight years!
So tell me your role and job title. This must really appeal to the people
Jo Donaldson: Manager of the Lucas The library is a really beautiful build- who use the library now…
Research Library. ing. Did George design it? It does. One of the downsides is that so
He is a frustrated architect, I think. many of our clients don’t have time to
How long have you been in that posi- He came up with all the designs and actually come and browse the library.
tion? worked on them with the architects. Most of the outside clients are in L.A.
I started in the library in 1984. The main house looks very Victorian and they can’t come and look at the col-
in some rooms, but the library has an lection, so we gather the information for
Wow! Arts and Crafts feel. And it is all natu- them and send it off.
1. Edith Head (1897-1981), perhaps cluding 11 with Alfred Hitchcock, and 2. George Lucas co-wrote the sto-
I was hired as an assistant librarian. ral light coming in the dome. Hollywood’s most celebrated costume won eight Academy Awards (no other ry and was an executive producer for
The six-month job turned into a 30-year Is the collection predominantly visual? designer, got her first big break in 1933 woman has won more). More recently, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and its
on She Done Him Wrong, starring she is said to have been the inspiration three sequels.
career. Debbie Fine started the library And it’s vast. We probably have 16,000 books in the Mae West. By the time of her death for the character of Edna Mode in the
for George back in the late 1970s. She We’ve been building our collections for Lucas Library collection and most she had worked on nearly 450 films, in- 2004 Pixar film, The Incredibles.

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Print matters Giovanni Bianco

Giovanni Bianco Collection

Studio65, Greenwich Village, New York City
Photographs: Nikolas Koenig

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Print matters Giovanni Bianco

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Print matters Giovanni Bianco

Giovanni Bianco god, the first time I make money I prom- books and my relationship with these books and fewer working books, fewer or rare books, but also books that relay way. It is not easy because doing a foun-
ise I will go buy books!’ I was so frus- objects changed a lot. I started to under- fashion books. In São Paulo I have more some message to me. It is about love. dation is so complicated. So what I am
Biography or bibliography? Giovan- trated. At that time there was no cul- stand about the papers, the materials, on Brazilian culture. Of course I have doing is starting to think about how we
ni Bianco’s life is made of books. Born ture. Not like now with the Internet. We the volumes, everything. The books books in my house; I need them there! Did someone design your office space do this. I’m not going to start giving my
in Brazil, he moved to Milan aged 23 didn’t have all that. In Rio, if you were are not just about the contents or what or did you design it? books away for, well, another 20 years!
where he met Gianni Versace and studying you needed to have the object. is happening inside but everything else: And is it important for you that other I drew my first idea but my friend, who I hope I live a little more!
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabba- My dream was to buy art books. the smell, the colour, the object. people in your life and your work know is a young Brazilian architect, he said
na, and began his career as an art direc- you have a lot of books? I needed help. I needed a space where You’ve got time to plan it, but it gives
tor. After a childhood when books And that happened… When you were young you wanted It’s for me and not for anybody else; it is I could put all my books together. The you a focus to what you are doing. I like
were an unaffordable luxury, Bian- In my first year in Milan I started to books to have access to culture, but not something I am doing to showcase. most important thing is the library. the fact there is a result, that you have
co used his earnings to begin building have some money, so I bought my first now your young employees can see eve- I am not like, ‘Come and see my collec- an ending.
an impressive library, book by book. book. It was on Picasso. I am not a real- rything they want… tion of books!’ The books are the centre of everything. It’s very important. At the same time I
When he moved his business to New ly big fan of Picasso. I mean, I love him, I think how lucky my guys are who come The books are the most important thing don’t want to give the problem to friends
York, he built a studio in Manhattan but in art I really love Braque more. here and have everything that I didn’t How do you respond to other people in my life. I am starting work on a foun- or somebody in my family because, can
that he designed around his book col- I don’t know why I bought it, proba- have, but the reality – the sad reality – with great books? Do you warm to dation in Brazil for the poor in Rio and I you imagine if something happens to
lection. The library is at the core of the bly because it was really obvious – the is that I look and I never see anyone out people who you know also buy lots of am going to donate all my books to that me? [Knocks on wood.] Where are you
man and his work. The 20 or so young first book I buy about art, I buy Picas- of the 25 people working here, looking books and love books? when I die. going to put all this? I don’t want my
designers working quietly away during so! And one of my first jobs in Milan at the books! Maybe once every three Yes, when I realize people have this love books staying here; I want them to go to
our interview may have been looking at – this is before I met Domenico and weeks there is someone with a book! It’s we exchange information, of course. I What was the thinking behind that? Brazil, you know. Years ago I decided to
screens, but the business that employs Stefano and started working in fashion – the saddest thing because Google and went to my friend’s house and he had Well, I don’t have any kids and I don’t donate all my books when I reached 65.
them was built on print. Indeed, the was with the Brazilian Consulate. I was the Internet killed all that. a billion beautiful books and I real- have anyone in my family who cares And then my friend asked me, ‘Giovan-

‘Thirty percent of my books, the contents are not ‘Books are the most important thing in my life. I’m
incredible; but the binding and the paper and the starting work on a foundation in Brazil for the poor
packaging and the object are so beautiful to me.’ in Rio; I’ll donate all my books to that when I die.’
books may well survive both Giovan- hired for four hours a day to clean and But they are designing for non-print, ized right there, I don’t have this or about these books. I had to think what ni, in 15 years are you sure you will be
ni and his company. The narrative arc catalogue their library because it was digital products. that and it is so weird because in the I would do with them all. So this is my able to live without your books?’ I need
of the library is shaping up to be a per- so disorganized. For me it was a gift to Yes, I can understand because in the arts and fashion I thought I had every- dream. It is what I didn’t have when to believe I can exist without my books;
fect circle: he is planning to establish a be touching and working with books last years my clients no longer want a thing. I have bought a million books, I lived in Brazil. I didn’t have a place I need to do some therapy! In my heart I
foundation in Rio to house the books every day. catalogue so much. We do it for Miu and duplicates! where I could look at real books with would not like to live without my books.
and bring culture to disadvantaged Bra- Miu. I think Miuccia Prada is the only incredible collections of images. I But on the other side I don’t want to do
zilians, young people facing the same When you say you were in love with client who still likes a catalogue and How many books do you have? Not a think it’s good to do something in Bra- this when I am dead! I would like to see
challenges he did not so long ago. books, was it ‘books’ or was it the con- thank god for her. It’s weird in a way million, surely! zil because I was born there and I am my foundation opened in my lifetime.
tent and the art inside them? how I still have my passion for books. I don’t know, 4,000 maybe, 6,000? I pre- completely crazy for my country. I am I would like to go there and see people
Do you remember the first book you I think in the beginning it was about My passion is huge, it’s such a contradic- fer not to know. I have some amazing crazy for my city. So I really want to cre- look at my books.
bought? how I could get my hands on culture. tion with the time. I thought that may- books, some very important books and ate an opportunity for the people who
Giovanni Bianco: Everything started How I could touch the information be over the years my passion would slow some very cheap books that I am very don’t have the money, so they can touch
when I was young. I come from a very because I wanted more tools and instru- and that I would not buy so many books, attached to. It’s not just about expensive them and see these collections in a free
simple family in Brazil. I started work- ments for my life. But it was also a love but no way, it’s the opposite! I respect
ing with my father when I was five years for the object. Today, probably 30 per- the times, I love the Internet, but books
old, selling fruit in the street markets. cent of my books, the contents are not are my love, my passion, my life.
We were really poor. I would see books incredible, but the binding and the
in a friend’s house and in the library, but paper are so beautiful. The packaging Do you also have books at home that
I didn’t have any money. I studied arts and the object are so important to me. aren’t in this studio library?
when I was 21 – two years before I left Often my job, my profession, has been A lot! A lot! In my house in New York
for Milan – and I would think, ‘Oh my related to that: I made books, I designed I have the books I really love. More art

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Print matters André Balazs

André Balazs Collection

SoHo, New York City
Photographs: Nikolas Koenig

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Print matters André Balazs

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Print matters André Balazs

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Print matters André Balazs

André Balazs them. I would date when I started them million designs before, so to get it just of the dance and movement that came library and when we were moving into I like how closely the library influenc-
and when I completed them. They were right is tremendously difficult. To have out of that, which then got picked up a loft in SoHo we put our belongings es and then reflects your life and work.
André Balazs is both a public figure meant to be physical objects that were access to the original attempts at this by the Denishawn School. That spoke in her parents’ house in Connecticut. I grew up in Sweden; my parents are
and a private man. And the success of destined to be kept as part of my intel- kind of stuff was very interesting and to me very deeply because they were They had a fire and the tragedy for me from Hungary, but in 1943 they moved
his hotels is based on the similar offers lectual journey through life. I always I started finding the original sourc- located across the street from the Cha- was that many, many books I had per- to Sweden and lived there for 16 years
of privacy when desired and public thought of it that way. es in old books. And I started to real- teau Marmont. So, for example, when I ished, including all my personal jour- or so. They lived in a very modern house
exposure when required. His group ly get into these photographs from the bought the Chateau about 25 years ago, nals. I think the subsequent interest in just when all of the most modern Scan-
grew from the purchase of the Chateau Were you always using books to 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, and buying col- we actually started running ads just to collecting friends’ books was a direct dinavian work was coming out after the
Marmont in 1990 and now includes advance your knowledge and yourself? lections of everything from catalogues give atmosphere to what I hoped the evolution of that. I found myself ear- war. When they moved to Cambridge,
the Mercer, the Standard hotels and, Well, it depends on which books. I live and magazines to unique one-of-a-kind Chateau would become – which is this ly on in the words of others and in the we moved into a house that was radical-
most recently, the Chiltern Firehouse with books both at home and in the books. At one time, early on, I wanted very free, open-minded, healthy envi- worlds of others. Part of my life contin- ly modern. And a few years ago I was up
in London. And while Balazs has been office. There are four main categories of to be a dancer. I was always very inter- ronment. ued on in the writings and thoughts of there and I just bought a book published
successful on a grand scale, as any- books in my library. Very early on I was ested in it. My mother was a gym mis- my friends; it just happens that they are in 1963 on modern Scandinavian design
one who has worked with him or even interested in philosophy. I never read tress and dancer. I was very interest- That’s two categories; what’s the next? incredibly prolific. in a used bookstore. I took it home and
stayed at one of his hotels will know, it fiction. I always hoped my life would ed in early dance groups, pre-dating And then the last category I have sim- To me, having books and a library is I was so proud of it. And the next week
is a success built on an extreme atten- be more interesting than fiction. There Martha Graham1, like the Denishawn ply because of the kind of friends I all part of the richness of document- I went to see my mother who was still
tion to detail. For every hotel, from city were a few writers who I admired for School of Dancing 2. Also the early keep and enjoy. I just started real- ing your own experience, bringing you living in the house I had grown up in. I
to neighbourhood, building to room, their participatory nature: Tom Wolfe, naturist, nudist movement – I became izing that probably one out of every closer to those things that inform you. was browsing through the library there
chair to the joinery, Balazs has a hand Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal, who very, very interested in that. Post-world four people I know has published at This is all very eclectic; I probably have and I found exactly the same book that
in decisions about them all. In his office was an early hero of mine. They were wars in Europe, there was this tremen- least one book. So I have a section of as many political biographies as I do my father had bought in 1963! So I sud-
and his home, he goes even further into people who were not just observers but dous emphasis on good health. And books that are by my friends, good or design books. But about 10 years ago, I denly had two books side by side, one I

‘Books were meant to be physical objects that ‘I realized that one out of every four people I
were destined to be kept as part of my intellectual know has published at least one book. So I have a
journey through life. I always thought of it that way.’ collection of them; good or bad, it doesn’t matter.’
the details, pointing to a specific page also participated in the rough and tum- fresh air, clean living and exercise was bad, it doesn’t matter; I have hundreds decided I wanted, for professional and bought years later and the other that he
marked up in one of the hundreds of ble of life and I felt that was compelling. all part of it. And with that came, in of books by people I consider good other reasons, to have design and photo- had bought the year it came out, com-
books in his impressive design refer- So my early readings were philosophy Germany and Scandinavia, this whole friends. I had a minor accident that history books. I don’t mean regurgita- plete with the markings on the pages of
ence library. From an early age he used and about people like that. I very much naturist movement, which is accompa- was emotionally very traumatic for me tions of texts, I mean original stuff. I things that he admired. So I now have
books to fuel his ambitions, and diaries saw these as journals of a life well lived, nied by group exercise, like archery or when Katie Ford4 and I first got mar- decided that I was going to try and build two identical books, one with my own
to record his progress. Now, with many fully lived and documented, and that dancing. I became a very, very big afi- ried. I had a very extensive post-college one of the better design libraries. tabs and one with his from 1963.
friends in the media and creative indus- is what I started collecting. Well, not cionado of this naturist movement com-
tries, Balazs has devoted a section of his collecting, but I found myself keeping bined with modern dance and images
library to the books they publish. It is a them and storing them next to my own of it, because I found them very beau-
complete circle: books as impetus and diaries up on shelves where I grew up in tiful and very modern. Unlike those
end result. Cambridge, Massachusetts. kind of more overtly erotic pictures
from the 1920s in Paris and the Wei-
I am going to say very little. You tell me So that’s one category. What are the mar Republic, these were pictures
about you and books. others? based on body types that in today’s lan-
André Balazs: First I should explain When I got into the business I am in guage you would view as the ultimate
that I use books very interactively. I now I started to look at design books in good health. Not overbuilt, not ano-
1. Choreographer Martha Graham Los Angeles by Ruth St. Denis and Ted World War I broke out. It was here
mark them up; I tag them; I use them for particularly. I found certain things rexic, but healthy bodies. It’s not sexu-
(1894-1991) influenced generations of Shawn. Alumni included Martha Gra- that he perfected the exercise regime
reference. I started collecting my books just require tremendous repetition to al at all: it bears a closer resemblance dancers and was named ‘Dancer of the ham and silent film star Louise Brooks. he called Contrology and which now
and using them as a form of diary in and get right. It’s an old adage that there is to dance and physical health. I am a big Century’ by Time in 1998. bears his name.
3. Joseph Pilates (1883-1967) was born
around eighth grade. I would underline nothing harder to design than a chair fan of Pilates and I just read the histo- 2. The Denishawn School of Dancing in Germany. He moved to the UK, but 4. Katie Ford was the CEO of Ford
books heavily, date them and annotate because, basically, there have been a ry of Joseph Pilates3 and the aesthetic and Related Arts was founded in 1915 in was interned on the Isle of Man when Models from 1995-2007.

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Print matters Kim Jones

Kim Jones Collection

Paris, 75002
Photograph: Mario Palmieri

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Print matters Kim Jones

Kim Jones You are extremely thorough in your Farm3 was something I picked up and It can’t just be people in fashion like book and turn the pages and see what is introduce them. It is like building bridg-
buying… got obsessed about: how these people you who have this obsession with look- on the other side of that page. Because if es, you know. I love Stefano’s work and I
There are many minimal executive I am definitely a completist. If I like had no money and styled themselves. ing… you like that picture in that shoot, then think he is amazing as a person. Those
offices lining the corridors of Lou- something I want to get every single The Kim Jones 2007 Spring-Summer A lot of my friends are DJs and they the chances are you will like the pic- sorts of things, where he was also like,
is Vuitton’s headquarters in Paris, but thing of it. Whether it’s Bloomsbury1 or collection was based on it. Now I work travel the world. They are in a city that ture on the other side and that might be ‘Oh, you’ve got to go and see this sup-
Kim Jones’ is not one of them. His Omega or modern things, just things I with Jackie and she does all our pre- they don’t know for two days, so they’ll something less obvious, so go and think plier…’ That give and take in fashion is
office could best be described as busy. love. They have all become part of my collection lookbooks. She is such go and explore it. And anyone who has about it. kind of rare now because it’s all about
There are people ducking in and out life. You could take me out this room an amazing woman. She is out there half a brain cell who’s got an interest numbers and figures and stuff. But I
and asking questions, but there is also and still see who I am through the books obsessing about the same details. We in the world and a passion for meeting You give out a lot of books as well as think there is a lot more to give in that
stuff: books, photographs, auction cat- or clothing or the art I have. I can also might both be behind the camera and people and seeing new things will then advice. sort of way because I think if things are
alogues, keepsakes, African and Asian picture other people through things she’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s a bit weird, get interested in other stuff. And then Quite often I will see something I’ve good then you should celebrate and
art and craft, vintage clothing, scrap- and that is why I love those auction cat- shouldn’t it be like that?’ She has that there is someone like Michael Costiff4, already got and I will multiple purchase enjoy them.
books, gifts and gift notes. To many alogues [such as the Yves Saint Laurent sixth sense. for example. He has the eye of the world if it’s a book that I really love. That
people these might just be inanimate or Versace house sales] where you can that he’s seen, whether it’s Burkina Faso Hiroshi book [Hiroshi Fujiwara and I think you enjoy these things perhaps
objects, but to Jones this is where the see interiors and ideas and how people And there are periods of history that or Brazil to the carnival. I just think it’s Jun Takahashi’s Seditionaries clothing more than anyone we know. You really
action is. A copy of Antonio’s Girls by put things together. you love… those people who are visually aware or book] for example, I gave [model] Matt love finding and buying things.
Antonio Lopez, dedicated by Lopez There are whole subjects. Studio 54 was who understand the importance of cul- Will­iams one; I’ve given Kanye one; I I sometimes joke when friends go to
to Studio 54 impresario Steve Rubell, And can you see how it ends up in your such a massive thing. This place where ture. It’s a way of thinking. think Marc [Jacobs] just got one. museums, ‘Oh, I don’t want to go that
is a source of creative energy. And that work in terms of the collections? When everyone went. So to get all the Steve museum because you can’t buy the
copy is only one of three, all signed to you travel somewhere in the world, the Rubell books and ephemera [at a 2013 It is a way of thinking that may be And do you share much with other things and it gets annoying.’ I went to
different people, that he has to hand. culture or craft are shown in designs. sale of Rubell memorabilia] was amaz- changing… designers? a Native American museum once and

‘I’m definitely a completist. If I like something I ‘I will multiple purchase a book that
have to get every single thing of it, whether it’s the I really love. I’ve given copies of that Hiroshi
Bloomsbury Set, Omega, or modern things I love.’ Seditionaries book to people like Kanye.’
He likes it to be personal and he likes But when you go somewhere through ing. Just pulling things together, they tell One thing I say when I talk at Saint If I know someone is really into some- I said, ‘Wow, those slippers are amaz-
it to be real. So he has a complete look books, how does that work? a story of a time that is interesting. You Martins is that it’s fine to look at things thing. Like I know that Stefano Pilati ing’, and the guy said, ‘Well they’re for
from Vivienne Westwood’s ‘Pirates’ For me Louis Vuitton is a travel house can sort of create an impression of it. on the Internet, but then you need to loves Kansai Yamamoto5. We were in sale if you want them!’ That’s my kind
collec­tion; a full run of WET magazine; and I base every collection around go and find it for real. Go and find that Japan together and found someone to of museum!
the actual desk from Virginia Woolf’s something related to travel or a desti- Are you constantly interested in find-
study. Jones holds a great respect for nation, because it is what our customers ing new subjects?
the creative lives of others. In acquir- understand. They like the storytelling My eyes are never shut, that is one thing
ing something of those lives and keep- and understand that. There have been I can say. When I walk down the street,
ing it close, he channels that spirit and pivotal books for me. Leonard Freed’s compared to someone else, it’s totally
talent into his own work. Black in White America 2 was some- different. Everyone is like, ‘How do you
thing I used to drag in front of Louise see that? What made you look at that?’
Tell me about your books. What do you Wilson when I was at Saint Martins. It’s probably down to growing up some-
have here? There is a guy in the book leaning where like I did. I was living in Africa
Kim Jones: There isn’t one specific gen- against a wall with the perfectly cut for quite a long time when I was a kid.
re. It’s not just fashion. I like facts. I’m chino. It was just me, her and a pattern A lot of our time was spent spotting ani- 1. The Bloomsbury Set was an infor- known work Black in White America of pictures of farm workers in Malawi, 2013, Jones published a book of Cos-
not very good at reading fiction I have cutter and because the guy in the pho- mals in the wild and, you know, to see mal grouping of writer, artists and in- (1967-68) is a striking look at the Afri- Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South tiff’s photographs called Michael &
tellectuals, including Virginia Woolf, can-American community, particularly Africa that has since been widely ref- Gerlinde’s World: Pages from a Diary.
to say, but I love a biography. I love any to is in such an awkward shape, we were a leopard in tall grass is impossible. We
John Maynard Keynes and E.M. For- in the Deep South, and an innovative erenced in fashion design.
sort of photo book of an era or a time. like, ‘How the fuck are we going to do would be on these trips in a car for nine ster, named after the London neigh- mix of photographs and snippets of 5. Kansai Yamamoto is a Japanese
I look for an insight into people’s lives, this?’ I was just screaming and shouting hours, so you sort of focus on stuff and bourhood where most members lived. text written by Freed himself. 4. Michael Costiff and his late wife fashion pioneer who provided many
Gerlinde were at the heart of the of the costumes worn by David Bowie
not just their art. Culturally I’m inter- and then laughing when we finally got look at things, so that was definitely one 2. Leonard Freed (1929-2006) was a 3. Farm (2002) by Irish photographer 1980s London club scene thanks to during his Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin
ested in so many different things. to the point. Jackie Nickerson’s book of the founding influences. Brooklyn-born photographer. His best- Jackie Nickerson features a portfolio their club night, Kinky Gerlinky. In Sane periods.

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Print matters 2manydjs

2manydjs Collection
Ghent, Belgium
Photograph: Mario Palmieri

308 309
Print matters 2manydjs

2manydjs Collection
London, EC2
Photograph: Steve Harries

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Print matters 2manydjs

2manydjs gardening or, you know, psychology records or the same books or the same Stephen: We want to do something. David: Yes, but on Pinterest or Ins- these things physically but young kids
books. trainers, the same. But I think we’ve Storing books like this… putting the tagram you look at the online collec- are looking through it all online in a
You’ve heard (and heard of) Soulwax become experts in trying to go even spines towards you and classifying tion of what someone is saying they are digital way. I do feel that it does influ-
and 2manydjs. You are probably less And why are you buying almost eve- deeper and get to the next level. them like this is annoying. We have so into, and it’s like, ‘Wow, cool’, and then ence them. I think in music and in print-
familiar with the names David and Ste- rything? David: With music we have even come many good things and the reason we you click on it and you actually know ing there are artisanal ways of creating
phen Dewaele, the brothers behind the David: When it comes to music books it to the point, Steph and I, where we go have them is to be inspired by them. In who that person is in real life, and it is these objects that we might think we
label-band-DJ duo. And you’re proba- is very clear why we buy them. It is easy to record stores and buy things we don’t the studio we are trying to find a way like, ‘No way is that the same person!’ would lose in the digital world, but then
bly completely unaware that the Dewae- to trace back. We grew up in a house like yet but that we think we might like that we can display them, sort of like in There’s no connection. It’s only because on the other hand you see these kids
les are dedicated and voracious book where there were always promotional in 10 years! a shop. So you can change around the that person has seen that someone else obsessively going back to that record or
collectors. From their bases in Ghent copies and pictures and press kits and covers that are on display. Otherwise has liked it that they think that’s what that book or that espresso machine.
and London, and everywhere from all that stuff lying around. That is crazy. Do you do that with with records and books, you store them they need to show, to come across as
Mexico to Tokyo, they are constantly Stephen: That’s where we come from. books, too? in a beautiful way and you always see more intelligent. And it doesn’t only Online or real world it may well be the
travelling, DJing by night, book-hunt- David: I mean, I don’t want to get too David: The one thing I would say is that the spines, but you never see the cover apply to records or books, now it’s just same obsession.
ing by day. The brothers were brought Freudian here, but it might be reaching we’re not completists. If we’ve got issue art and you kind of lose track of them a part of life. People are living a second Stephen: For me a really amazing book
up in a musical household (their father back to where we came from. It doesn’t five and seven, we do not need to get little bit. We want to have a shelf where life, one that’s an extrapolation of what fair is like a holiday. There is nothing
was a well-known radio DJ in Belgium) explain why we buy Archigram books issue six. we can just put up new stuff every week. they live in real life. We are dinosaurs cooler for me than going there and com-
and formed Soulwax in 1995 when Ste- though. because we don’t do any of that. We are ing out with unexpected things.
phen was 25 and David 20. Today their Stephen: I think that as kids we saw new With music it is clear: you buy records Displaying the covers is a means of [gesturing to all the books] real life!
world of music, books, magazines, doc- record sleeves all over the place and our and you are also making music. But sharing them and the ideas. Is sharing It is like going to Japan.
umentaries, films and art has become mum and dad were buying the maga- with books, you are not making books what you’ve found a motivation? Kids now might not have the compul- Stephen: I dream about Japan…
a self-sustaining culture machine fuel- zine Hara Kiri3 all the time. That was or magazines… Stephen: I think that a lot of the sion to buy the things they like. David: We call it Treasure Island

‘We buy books on everything: Fiorucci, Woody ‘In Tokyo, you go three flights up and there’s a guy
Allen, anything counterculture, 1960s, 1970s, sitting there: he’s got every book you ever dreamed
cybernetics, Archigram, Sottsass, Memphis...’ of, or didn’t know that you were dreaming of yet.’
ling the creation of new ideas and work. normal. So we grew up amid this image- Stephen: When you look at our record- friendships with people who are real- Stephen: But why would they? They because there is always something and
We met up in London where they stock ry that’s evocative and sometimes takes ing studio you can see we are using real- ly important in our lives have come don’t even have the money. They it’s usually not in the place you expect it.
their books on everything but music you to another world. When you are a ly old mixing desks and a lot of materi- through shared taste and enthusiasm. wouldn’t think about it. There was a You walk two blocks and there’s a new
– those are back in Ghent, with their little boy, you get lost in that. als that have a character and a sound Fergus [Purcell, aka Fergadelic 4] is a long time when we couldn’t afford to shop that wasn’t there the last time. You
55,000 vinyls – to discuss what drives David: It still doesn’t necessarily that we like. It is a medium. We have really good example. He is someone buy a £100 record or book because that go three flights up and there’s a guy sit-
their passion for the printed page. explain why we have got a big collec- never made or published a book, we who gets it on every front: music, film, was a lot of money. And we would grav- ting there and he’s got everything you
tion of typewriter-art books! have never done any of that, but it is def- photography… itate to whatever was free or whatever ever dreamed of or didn’t know that you
Tell me what you buy. Stephen: Because they’re amazing! initely a medium that really interests us. was cheap or what you could steal. I do were dreaming of yet.
David Dewaele: I guess maybe every- David: There are a lot of things that You start getting into how something is But these days kids do all that connect- think that if I was growing up now that Stephen: Japan is Treasure Island, like
thing. The obvious ones are books on we buy where there is no direct vehicle printed and there is a whole technical ing via social-media profiles… it would be an amazing time. We collect Amazon for cool people…
Fiorucci, Woody Allen, anything coun- for them in our work, but we are still as layer that we are really, really interested
terculture, 1960s, 1970s, cybernetics, eager to buy them or get them. in. The same interests we have in music,
Archigram1, Sottsass, Memphis2; eve- the same thing with us buying 16mm
rything that’s airbrush, photography… Like books on Concorde. cameras and finding out how they work. 1. Archigram was an architectural 2. Memphis Group was a collective jects went on to symbolize the best 4. Fergadelic (Fergus Purcell to his
collective made up of Warren Chalk, founded by Italian architect, design- and worst of 1980s postmodernism. mother) is a tattoo artist, and cloth-
but obviously photography is such a David: Yes! There is also an element of experimen- Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, Da- er and photographer Ettore Sottsass ing and graphic designer, based in
broad label it can mean anything… It’s tation. Maybe searching for something. vid Greene, Ron Herron and Michael (1917-2007) and supposedly named 3. French satirical magazine Hara Kiri London. He made his name with Pal-
Webb. Its eponymous magazine, first after a Bob Dylan song (Stuck In- was founded in 1960 by François Ca- ace Skateboards (he created its trian-
books about everything. Do you both approach your book col-
published in 1961, was an ongoing cri- side of Mobile with the Memphis vanna and Georges Bernier. Effective- gle logo) and has since collaborated
Stephen Dewaele: But in reality it’s not lecting the same way? Tell me about the spaces you have. You tique of the perceived stasis of the ar- Blues Again). After a September 1981 ly banned by the French government with Stüssy, Marc by Marc Jacobs and
actually everything… Stephen: In the beginning if both of us built your studio in Ghent around your chitectural establishment. Their work launch party that created a near-ri- in 1969 after a cover making a joke McQ, among others.
remained largely unbuilt, but influ- ot among the 2,000 guests, Memphis’ about the death of Charles de Gaulle,
David: When we go into a bookshop went to the same place separately, we record collection. Do you have similar enced a generation of architects in- brightly coloured, asymmetrical and it was replaced by a new magazine:
we don’t necessarily gravitate towards would both come back with the same plans for the books? cluding Renzo Piano and Toyo Ito. ephemeral furniture and design ob- Charlie Hebdo.

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Print matters Grace Coddington

Grace Coddington Collection

Chelsea, New York City
Photographs: Nikolas Koenig

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Print matters Grace Coddington

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Print matters Grace Coddington

Grace Coddington they don’t fit in. It’s not just me – a very where you might say what the hell is that Tell me about the process and how it took on his love of photographs on the a little longer. Not as long as books, but
big percentage belong to my boyfriend. doing in there, but it will be something works with books. For example, the wall. That is where my collecting photo- they do last a little bit longer and people
Pre-Internet, pre-digital and pre-emi- He runs out and buys books every single to do with a shoot. It’s like a tree with Bruce Weber British Vogue story graphs comes from. Also the books and do pass them on.
nent. Grace Coddington has been a goddamn day and he doesn’t just buy branches and then they all lead to the ‘Under Weston Skies’2 . vintage buying and the whole layout of
Vogue fashion editor for three decades one copy; if he sees a book he likes he story that you are trying to tell. Bruce gave me all the Edward Wes- a place. Yeah, I completely ripped him They survive, yes. Like you have books
and thanks in large part to The Sep- buys six. So we have so many books and ton Daybooks3 to read. I’m not a great off! I used to think I was kind of mini- that are signed or full of Post-it notes.
tember Issue, is now one of the indus- hundreds of the same book and that’s Many people who read this won’t work reader so I must say I didn’t actually mal, but I’m not. There are too many Yes, and that’s fabulous. Imagine com-
try’s most recognizable figures. Grace’s why every little corner is full. And then with books and I think they will find it read them all, but I looked at the pic- things that I love, that I want to have. ing across a book with little things jot-
entire working life has been in print – it’s the same again in the country. interesting to try and understand that. tures! And then we went out and had ted in the margin by some fabulous
as a model, as an editor, as a vora- There are lots of people who go out and ‘an Edward Weston day in America’; There is a possibility that future gener- writer. I don’t know, it just adds anoth-
cious researcher and book buyer. As Immediately, I can see books that copy pictures. I am very opposed to that’s what it was. The idea was inspired ations will just be less bothered about er layer to it. I have the most incredible
the world becomes ever more digital, relate to your work. Are these books a that, particularly in the fashion world. by that – but no individual picture was books and possessions… handmade Bruce book from the Wes-
Grace retains her love of objects. The reflection of your career? Helmut Newton is endlessly copied; directly inspired by another picture, I don’t think people are so focused on ton story.
Manhattan apartment she shares with Yes, they are. One has a lot of inspira- Guy Bourdin is endlessly copied. And and that is why it’s so fresh. Bruce books anymore. When I did my mem-
her partner Didier Malige and their tions and you know, for want of a bet- sometimes the pictures people are cop- brought me to American culture and oir and they said, ‘Oh, we’re going to That’s what I was going to ask to see…
cats Bart and Blanket is packed full ter example, maybe you are doing ying I actually got to work on! I think it’s I was completely ignorant about it. He be doing an e-book’, I said, ‘Oh please I tell you, it’s amazing. It’s in a paper
of books, while on the shelves stuffed something that’s inspired by a Picas- ironic. There’ll be an inspiration board taught me so much as a whole, a fash- don’t’. But they did. Well, I think they bag and falling to pieces now. The
toys, ornaments and mementos fill any so exhibition and so you might go out and there will be all these pictures and ion photographer coming from a differ- did an e-book; I haven’t seen it. I don’t National Portrait Gallery has asked
gaps between the books. The walls are and buy six Picasso books because I see them setting off and putting peo- ent angle. All these references: Geor- care. I just wanted to make it as beauti- to borrow it. Bruce made one book for
filled with framed photographs; look you know you want you see the whole ple in the same positions and I say, ‘You gia O’Keeffe and Andrew Wyeth4, and ful as possible – and they just wanted to me and one for himself. That is what he
in any direction and you see back in breadth of it. can’t do that, I was there on the original then we did Weston. make it as convenient as possible. used to do with a lot of shoots in those

‘I had all the interns at Vogue help me move in. ‘When I did my memoir they said, We’re going to
They just opened up all the boxes and shoved the do an e-book, and I said, Oh please don’t! But they
books on the shelves. It’s not ideal to find things.’ did. Well, I think so. I haven’t seen it. I don’t care.’
time to classic shoots by Bruce Weber Other people might have a book collec- shoot!’ I don’t need to do it again and And Bruce is a big book buyer… At least at Vogue you work in print. days. And they are fabulous, but they
and Steven Klein. Yet, for Grace, these tion that is very aspirational with trav- actually you can’t better the original Oh my god! He’s another one who buys It’s a whole turnaround now at the mag- are falling to pieces. I treasure it but I
books and photographs are perhaps the el books of places that they would love photograph. Reference pictures are my 10 of everything and he gives you a hun- azine: the digital side is so much more don’t know what to do with it to pre-
future, too, maybe the spark for the next to go to… pet peeve. Photographers say, ‘Where dred books for Christmas. That’s anoth- important. It just is. We’re old has-beens serve it. The one he did for himself, the
shoot or issue. This organized chaos is I don’t have that. are your reference pictures?’ and I say, er place that these books have come and they are plodding on and they need same thing has happened. He does put
her inspiration, her frame of references; ‘Oh, you know, just go and read the from. He goes shopping with an entou- us for the moment because they haven’t them together with this black sticky
the work itself is all around her. Her ide- Or objects they would love to have… story of Alice in Wonder­land’. I don’t rage. He does it all through the year. quite figured out – well they have fig- tape and then it dries up and then it
as, her friendships and her books are all I don’t have that either. They are all want to see how other people inter- He drags the books back to his loft and ured out the digital thing, but not so that curls and falls off.
interwoven. It is a network, if you like. somehow related to a shoot I’ve been preted it; I want it coming fresh from has them sorted into ‘this is what Grace it makes money. The whole digital thing
The apartment as a model of the crea- doing or am going to do. Obviously, you and the story. But now people rely would like’ or ‘this is for friends’. And I only has to take your attention for one It is amazing.
tive working mind. there are others I have because they are on reference pictures because nobody guess the Christmas present pile keeps second and then it doesn’t matter and It’s priceless and if there was a fire that
by a friend of mine, a photographer, or has any time and everybody shoots growing. It’s amazing. I completely it’s gone, and I think that magazines last would be the first thing I would save.
You have the books piled up in what I I’ve contributed to the books in some back to back because of digital. They
consider quite a Parisian fashion, lying way. Joe Szabo1 just had a book come think they can do it faster and actually
flat rather than spine out. out on the Rolling Stones and he asked it takes the same amount of time, they 1. Joseph Szabo’s book Rolling Stones 3. ‘I see no reason for recording the tographed since 1929, was renamed is now his most famous work, Chris-
Grace Coddington: I moved in one day. me to write the foreword, so I have that just don’t print it in the bath at night. Fans is a collection of images the US obvious,’ wrote legendary photog- Weston Beach. tina’s World, in 1948, he told his wife,
photographer took at two Stones con- rapher Edward Weston in the dia- ‘This painting is a complete flat tire’.
I had all the interns from Vogue help me and that’s not really related to anything They just move onto the next story and
certs in 1970s Pennsylvania. ries he kept between 1928 and 1943. 4. Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) was an It was bought soon after by MoMA
and they just opened up the boxes and I’m doing. But his first books – Teen- they don’t actually have time to think Published in 1961 as Daybooks, they American realist painter who worked in New York, quickly became a pop-
shoved them on the shelf. It is not the age and Almost Grown – I found very anymore. I want them to go through the 2. Published in 1982, ‘Under Weston chronicled his struggle to under- largely in egg tempera. He was highly ular success, and is now considered
Eyes’ was shot by Bruce Weber, styled stand himself, society and his art. Af- controversial throughout his long ca- an American icon alongside Grant
most convenient way to find things and inspiring fashion-wise. process. Nobody goes through the pro- by Coddington, and starred Talisa Soto ter his death in 1958, a beach at Point reer, his work lambasted and loved in Wood’s American Gothic and Edward
we’ve got a million books since then and There are also funny random books cess anymore. and Bruce Hulse. Lobos, California, that he had pho- equal measure. When he finished what Hopper’s Nighthawks.

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Print matters Hans Ulrich Obrist

Hans Ulrich Obrist Collection

London, W8
Photograph: Mario Palmieri

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Print matters Hans Ulrich Obrist

Hans Ulrich Obrist Post-it notes I stick into them. I need to percent because it meanders, so then but I do buy a book every day. I cannot always want to hear a number. Do you Show I got a grant in Paris at the Fon-
own the books so I can do what I want you follow one source and you establish survive if I do not buy a book every day. know how many books you have? dation Cartier and I drove my very
Hans Ulrich Obrist likes a good con- with them. an order, but that order implies again It’s very much a vital thing, like drink- There are probably 30,000 in Berlin. old Volvo to Paris; I’d jam-packed it
versation. (The Interview Project, his also a disorder. So in an interesting way ing coffee or breathing. We’ve got about 5,000 in London, and with books – as many books as I could
series of marathon discussions with key It sounds like you aren’t precious. it is order and disorder rolled together. there are probably about 2,000 in my fit – and I went to Paris with this kind
figures on the global cultural scene, is It is not fetishistic, and it’s not icono- I was kind of interested in this because Perhaps out of necessity because you mother’s home in Switzerland. These of transient library, on the move. So I
now 2,000-hours long.) But if there is clastic either. Pierre Klossowski1 was I didn’t want there to be a system in my have so many books, your archive is not are the archives of my books, but then was at the Fondation Cartier for three
one thing that Obrist likes more than my great friend and he gave me a book library where everything would be mil- just reference and inspiration, but also there are the archives of my work. months and then from there I went to
the spoken, it is the printed. An invet- many years ago. He dedicated it, ‘Ad limetre precise, yet I wanted to find the subject of your work… I am very bad at archiving my own work with Kasper Koenig in Frank-
erate collector of books since his child- Usum’ or ‘to be used’ – because books things again. So I created this system of I became a professor at the Univer- work because when one starts index- furt. Then in 2000, I began to spend
hood, the globetrotting curator-writ- are to be used. This beautiful Latin sen- order and disorder. I took archive box- sity of Lüneburg in 1994 and my first ing one’s own work it is very suffocat- four or five days every week in Par-
er-publisher now has three archives of tence was always my motto in a way for es and I would put every single docu- professorship was to solve the issue of ing. I always have to think about the is, but I would still travel every week-
books in three different countries, to the archives. ment about an artist inside a box. So archives. I invited the German artist next show and not look back. Serge end. So that means we created the Paris
which he adds a book a day. For Obrist, it was easy to find an artist’s box, but Hans-Peter Feldmann, who is a great Daney5, the French film critic, wrote archive, because we rented an apart-
paper not only has a future, in many And so the book buying fuelled your within the box there was kind of cha- master of archives, to do the project his mother and father a postcard every ment there, but with the old archives
ways, it is the future. career and that in turn fuelled the book os. It was every invitation card, press with me. So with my students we got week from wherever he was, and I too still in Lüneburg. Then in 2006 I came
buying? releases and it was pre-Internet, with a room in Lüneburg, an attic room started to travel a lot when I was young, back to London to work, but the Paris
When did you start acquiring and col- Very early on when I was a universi- the fax machine permanently running that the university didn’t use. Hans- so I started to send my parents every archive was the newer one and my most
lecting books? ty student I started working as a cura- in my apartment, so thousands of fax- Peter would always come and so we single article I published, every book important, because that was where I
Hans Ulrich Obrist: I had these very tor in parallel to my studies. I did my es, too. Little by little these boxes got had this sort of Feldmann study centre which came out with contributions of kept my interviews. I didn’t want to rely
strange feelings already as a teenag- Kitchen Show2 when I was 23 and then stacked into gigantic piles. Box on top with the archives. We called it Inter- mine, catalogues I edit, all of that, it all on the removals firm because the inter-

‘I’ve got approximately 30,000 books in Berlin, ‘It’s always spontaneous, but I must buy a book
about 5,000 in London, and probably another 2,000 every day. I cannot survive if I don’t; it’s very much
at my mother’s house in Switzerland.’ a vital thing, like drinking coffee or breathing.’
er that I wanted to do books. It was I started to work with Kasper Koenig3. of box and sometimes they would col- Archive. It’s very interesting because goes to my parents’ house. My mother view archives are so precious, so I put
always my kind of dream to be able to I was curating this big painting show lapse. It was a kind of architecture in there I was, 26 years old, teaching at always reads what I write so that keeps them into two gigantic suitcases and
do books, to write books, to edit books. with Kasper and he insisted that I got the apartment. this university and how pretentious the connection. took the Eurostar to London.
So from the very beginning the acquir- the same fee as him. So suddenly I could would that be to suddenly attribute The Paris archive had become the
ing of books was some form of non-sys- buy books. I had a job for the first time How systematic are you at buying value to my archive? Hans-Peter Feld- It must be nice to feel like it is gone but London archive, but then the bad news
tematic collecting. that lasted for more than a week! Every books? mann came up with the most wonder- not lost. came: the University of Lüneburg had
single penny I earned went into books. Utterly, completely unsystematic. Some ful ideas about how to classify books, Yes, and a second copy of everything appointed a new dean and that new
I understand. It isn’t about being a col- So soon the apartment I shared was of my friends really are book collectors. like weighing my archive, describ- goes to Chicago, to the American artist dean had basically asked McKinsey to
lector… completely jam-packed with books. They collect all the books by an art- ing the smell, so many different cri- Joseph Grigely6, who decided to archive make the university more efficient. As
I believe very much in this idea that ist and then they have to find, at huge teria. You can do it by colours and it me early on in the 1990s. He thought it you can imagine one of the first things
when we use a car, we don’t necessar- I know you have always had more expense, what they are missing. That is creates a very beautiful system. Then was funny for an artist to archive a cura- McKinsey asked was, ‘Why does some
ily have to own it; the same is true for books than space. How do you man- not my methodology. That is not part order and disorder. When you do that tor because normally it is the other way Swiss guy have 100m 2 in the attic filled
houses, you don’t have to own a house. age that? of what I do. It is more like being per- in your library it suddenly creates very around. So he asked me to send to Chi- with books when he doesn’t even live in
I’ve always been rather nomadic, so in I was very inspired by Kasper and he manently inspired. I am driven by this interesting conversations. Feldmann cago a copy of every single thing I do. It Lüneburg and only comes a few times a
different cities I rent apartments. But had this wonderful system of order and curiosity, fuelled and driven by endless did many classifications, by weight, fills maybe a FedEx box or so a month. year?’ So they threw out my books and
with the books, I do like to own them. disorder. I also went to see Alighiero curiosity all the time. I buy books that I what they felt like, touch. My archive So those are two more archives. And I in 2006 I found myself with nowhere to
I don’t like to borrow them because I Boetti4 as a teenager. Boetti was a great want to read all the time, but I also buy became a kind of experimental field. am sure there are others that I forget. put them. London has exorbitant rents
like to carry them when I travel. I want inspiration in terms of classification. books because of their physical pres- so I could never rent 200m 2 here for the
to use them, I want to annotate them, He made this beautiful book about the ence – some I just need to have. So there As you said, there are lots of ways of Can you talk us through the construc- 30,000 books. So then I needed to come
and sometimes I need to keep them 1,000 longest rivers in the world. You are different reasons as to why I buy classifying and lots of ways of looking tion of the archive? up with a new plan and that triggered
because of those annotations and the can’t ever really measure a river 100 books. It is always very spontaneous, at a library, but people reading this will When I was 23, 24, after the Kitchen this idea to have a London archive

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for the Interview Project in my small culture of fanzines in the 89+ genera- because it does not really have anoth- and digital research, but I would hate to love to continue on this track. Archives handwriting project on Instagram. I
apartment and then put the Lüneburg tion, a lot of artists doing their own DIY er way of understanding them. So it is give up one for the other. I would miss always get brought to you on a trolley now have thousands of Post-its – and
archive in Berlin because rent there was publishing. These are all things where fascinating that from this new scientific something; I think we need both. I nev- and so this trolley became our display that of course is another sort of archive.
cheap at the time. So I rented a very big people are not even relying on formal point of view, books will not disappear, er understood why you would give up feature. So we are back to the idea of the
apartment there in 2006, and the books publishing anymore. which is great. Paper books have a more radio in the age of television. archive on the move. In a way I would How old were you when you started
are still there. But they have never real- obvious topography than books on the love to invent an archive that functions acquiring books?
ly been unpacked; they are still in these I wonder how much books have been a screen. A reader can focus on a single What are you going to do with it all? Do like this pavilion, but with a base where I think it all started when I was a teen-
boxes. So it’s a kind of situation in wait- convenient medium and that conveni- page of paper without losing sight of the you already have a plan? new people can give it new meaning, ager in Switzerland, in my room. My
ing. It’s a place where I write because ence is shifting? whole text; one can see where the book No, I was happy with the books at and that is what we are going to do in childhood room became more crowded
I accumulate books to stimulate my You can see it also with hardbacks and begins and ends and one can even feel Lüneburg because they were used by Brussels. For me the archives are like with books. It was initially literature –
writing. paperbacks. I read a lot of stuff on the the thickness of the pages. Turning the the students. I don’t want this to be a Russian dolls, there is an archive within like Robert Walser who became my
Rents in Berlin have gone up con- Kindle and my iPad, and I wouldn’t nec- pages of a book is like leaving one foot- dead archive; I want it to be a living an archive within an archive. For exam- childhood obsession – so there was a
siderably so I recently began mov- essarily buy a paperback any more, but print after another on the trail, there is a archive. We did the Swiss Pavilion that ple, there is another archive between lot of literature books and then when
ing the archive to Brussels. It’s cheap- I buy far, far more hardback books. So I record of how far one has travelled. All I curated for the Venice Biennale in here and Berlin, which is all the signed I was about 13 I discovered Giacom-
er and also really convenient to visit think in a way what is interesting is that these things make reading a book more 2014 and we tried to manifest a state- books, what artists, poets, architects etti. I saw these long thin figures and I
on the train. Flying is harder to justify there are certain types of books I don’t navigable, but also it creates a mental ment about living archives by revisiting could sign or write in a book. What became pretty obsessed and I started to
now – too polluting – so I take a lot of have anymore: I certainly wouldn’t map. two great visionaries, Lucius Burck- one writes in a book I think is always buy more and more art books.
night trains, but it takes 15 hours to get have a telephone book; I have it online. hardt and Cedric Price, through their very interesting. It gives me ideas for
to Berlin! Brussels is much easier. My I don’t have an A-Z anymore; I have Mental map is great way of putting it. archives. You would walk into an emp- my own book signings because I nev- And you’ve never stopped?
archive has always been in-between and Google Maps now. Yet I don’t buy few- So what I did this weekend: I looked ty pavilion and then a student would er know what to write and some peo- No! On Saturday I saw this wonder-
now it is an inter-archive, literally. er books than I used to buy and I think at hundreds and hundreds of books at come up to you with a trolley of papers ple have great ideas. So I have a whole ful book shop and suddenly thought,
and engage you in a conversation. It was archive of signed books. And that is the Wow I need to go there, and I bought
live; it was performed. After Feldmann beauty of handwriting and that signed five new books. I hadn’t even planned to
‘We thought radio would vanish when television was in Lüneburg and then Venice, I would book archive was the trigger for my buy books, but it’s always like a flânerie.

invented but the opposite happened – radio became

more creative. The same is happening with books.’
Is it possible for you to do what you do that idea of the book’s reinvention is home because we are working on a top-
without your books? really interesting. We thought radio ic of resistancies and transformation,
Art books always have played a role and would disappear when television was and I just went through all my books
they still do. I have friends who are col- invented, but the opposite happened and made towers out of them. I think
laborators and who are 10 years young- and radio became more creative than that very physical thing has to do with
er, so now in their 30s, and they still have ever before. So I think in a way the same memory, and the books prompted lots
an attachment to books. We started this thing is happening with the book. I read of ideas. So it is like a mental map and
89+ project for which we talk to artists this great piece the other day in Scien- in a way there is so much information
born in 1989 or later. We already have tific American that suggests reading on my laptop and my computer, it’s like
more than 6,000 people in that archive on paper still has great advantages, in an infolded monster, it folds in so much
– designers, artists, architects, and so on spite of e-books and tablets, and those information. But with a book, you have
– the first generation that grew up with advantages are not going to disappear. your four corners, your eight corners;
the Internet. And what is interesting is The brain interprets words differently it is simplified, that is also true for the
that one of the first patterns we observed on paper to screens. We often think of book as an object. It is a very simple
1. Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001) was nent artists such as Fischli and Weiss, 4. Conceptual artist Alighiero Boetti be the best American film ever made
– because we wanted to detect patterns reading as a cerebral activity concerned frame and that simplification allows a writer, translator and artist and an Christian Boltanski and Hans-Peter (1940-1994) was a member of the Ar- ‘because cinema is childhood’.
in that generation – is that poetry is what with the abstract, with thoughts and ide- you to build up a different kind of com- expert in the work of the Marquis Feldmann. About 30 people visited it. te Povera movement and is perhaps
de Sade. He was the elder brother of now best known for his embroidered 6. Joseph Grigely is a Chicago-based art-
links them all. There is this new ener- as, themes, metaphors, motifs. As far plexity, plus I can get lost in this enor-
painter Balthus. 3. Kasper Koenig was 23 when he organ- Mappa. ist. Deaf since childhood, his work often
gy for poetry. It is amazing how many as our brains are concerned, however, mous mass of information. So I think ized his first show, Claes Oldenburg, at questions conventions of language.
brilliant young poets there are on the text is tangible. It is part of the physi- for my thinking and my writing it is an 2. In 1991, Obrist curated his first the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The 5. Influential French critic Serge Daney
show, Kitchen Show, which despite German curator cofounded the once- wrote for Les Cahiers du cinéma
social networks. Yet for that generation cal world we inhabit, the brain essen- essential thing. The research happens being held in the kitchen of his stu- a-decade Münster Sculpture Project in and Libération. He believed Charles
the book is still relevant. We see a great tially regards letters as physical objects both ways: there is analogue research dent apartment included work by emi- 1977 and has curated it ever since. Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter to

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‘This new
approach
might be too
extreme for
jewellery.’
Why Rem Koolhaas’ new Repossi store is bringing
revolution back to the Place Vendôme.

Top to bottom:
By Jonathan Wingfield Gaia Repossi,
Portraits by Willy Vanderperre Rem Koolhaas,
Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli

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Work in progress Repossi x OMA

Ever since 1893, when Boucheron will look and function. We then gath­ to operate, not between conservatism
opened a store at number 26, Paris’ ered in OMA’s Rotterdam HQ, along and disruption but between a historical
Place Vendôme has been to fine jewel­ with OMA partner Ippolito Pestellini consciousness and modernization. We
lery what Savile Row is to tailoring, its Laparelli to discuss the future of shop­ modernize when it makes sense to.
harmonious Corinthian pilasters and ping, Gaia’s Instagram account and why
columns providing the ideal backdrop three’s the magic number. Gaia, are there specific aspects of
for the biggest names in this most rari­ Rem’s rhetoric you were keen to bring
fied of retail experiences. Gaia, what initially attracted you to into this project?
Repossi’s store at number 6 was the idea of collaborating with Rem and Gaia: Rem’s S, M, L, XL book contains
the seventh jeweller to arrive when it OMA? some interesting thoughts about fash­
opened in 1985. The house’s third store Gaia Repossi: I called Rem and his ion and about the place that shopping
after Monte Carlo and its historical base team because I knew they would want holds in society. A lot of what he wrote
of Turin, it is today at the heart of Gaia to break codes and create a jewellery makes sense to me: you make a prod­
Repossi’s profound reassessment of her store that is everything but generic – an uct, you are responsible for it; you can­
family business. It began with design. antidote to what Rem refers to as ‘junk­ not just put it out there and add to the
Gaia, who became creative director in space’. OMA constantly proves its abil­ junkspace.
2007, creates jewellery almost like an ity to reinvent established methods, and
industrial designer would, constructing jewellery is virgin territory for archi­ S, M, L, XL is now 20 years old. What
pieces that she then strips back to their tecture. So many other fields have gone role does shopping play in society
essence to reveal the purity of forms. through reinvention, why not jewellery? today?
This less baroque approach is now part Rem Koolhaas: I think there is a ten­ Rem: Shopping is changing so fast. In

‘Jewellery can be a boring field with little room for

creativity beyond marketing targets, but working
with OMA feels more like an artistic experience.’
of her broader questioning of the very dency in contemporary culture to be the past 15 years we have obviously seen
fundamentals of jewellery – from why it totally redundant, which oppresses the emancipation of Asia and the Mid­
is made to how it is sold. materials and oppresses environment, dle East, and we’ll soon see the eman­
To help foment a revolution in jewel­ and so on. Ultimately I think that con­ cipation of Africa, too. With this comes
lery retailing, Gaia got in touch with tributes to widespread dullness and a the many possibilities of articulating
Rem Koolhaas’s OMA architectural lack of contrast, which is very important these influences and these potentials.
practice with a view to giving number to confront and interrupt. I’m really happy that we started to pay
6 more than a spring clean. No stran­ attention to those places at a time when
ger to conspiring with fashion brands Is questioning the status quo some- there was little focus on them. Today, of
(OMA has been working with Prada thing that OMA does in any given course, it’s staggering what can be done
since 2001 and recently completed work domain? in those places.
on the new Fond­azione Prada in Milan), Rem: The way you put it seems a little
Koolhaas relished the opportunity to bit May ’68 reactionary, and that makes Online shopping has obviously had a
bring his wide-ranging, deep-thoughts it difficult to wholeheartedly say, ‘Yes, fundamental impact on the way soci-
approach to an often hidebound con­ we question everything’. We try to be ety consumes, but how does this affect
sumer experience. a little subtler and so we simply try to the thought process of an architectural
Image courtesy of OMA.

Gaia and Rem invited System to take work in different ways. We’ve always firm like OMA?
an exclusive look behind the scenes of realized there are certain things that Rem: We were discussing this with Gaia
their collaborative process, and get you could change, but then we also real­ earlier today. What’s interesting is that
first eyes on how the new Repossi store, ize that disruption simply for the sake people come more prepared now.
which is set to open in January 2016, of it would be irresponsible. We like Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli: Basically

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Work in progress Repossi x OMA

we don’t think that digital will ever stakes involved. Obviously the more What elements of jewellery do you now
replace physical because the two offer money; the higher the stakes. understand better?
such different experiences. The e-com­ Rem: Well, it starts with something as
merce domain is principally based on Do you think that anxiety is palpable basic as finding myself paying more
presenting products, accessing those in luxury shopping? attention to what are on ladies’ fingers.
products and then eventually buying Rem: Very much. Ippolito: I barely knew anything about
them. OK, so you have these huge dig­ jewellery before working with Gaia; she
ital databases, but then you want to go Which is quite paradoxical since there really helped define some guidelines.
to a store and actually touch and feel is no luxury in anxiety! Gaia, to what But then we went off and explored the
them, and understand where the prod­ extent have you reconciled in your history of jewellery ourselves because
uct is coming from… mind the rapport between experience we wanted to know how Gaia was
Rem:…and what the narrative is behind and product display in your store? changing the perceived normal meth­
that product. Gaia: My initial concern for the store ods of operating.
Ippolito: This inevitably affects the way was aesthetic, followed by experience.
that physical spaces operate: you often The difficulty has been in finding the What did you learn?
have much less merchandise exhibited, right balance between the physical Ippolito: I can certainly say that Gaia
but it is done in a more curated way. The architecture and the existence of the has a different way of working from other
product becomes a vehicle for the cul­ jewellery. I mean, you could opt to go companies. I naively thought what she
tural understanding of what has gen­ very minimal – though OMA tends not did was an artistic exercise around a
erated that product, from its choice of to – or there is the route of presenting very precious stone, which is the idea I
materials to the creative process. lots of complex beautiful aesthetics… had of traditional jewellery. Gaia con­

‘Gaia is one of the first people to have modernized

jewellery – not necessarily because she wanted to
change it but because she realized she had to.’
Gaia: The most popular stores these but then how does the jewellery exist firmed that jewellery designers normal­
days are technology stores, which seem within that? ly start from the material – from the
to be everywhere. People just walk Rem: That’s the beauty of this situa­ stone – and that the design is developed
in, like it’s a museum or a gallery, and tion: it really is a test, like a laboratory, around that stone in order to create the
hang out and want to experience things and you can learn from it. For me, it was product. Hers is a different approach:
that are new every six months, every amazing to discover that the world of she starts from the design – from the
four months, every month. This new jewellery had such a furious degree of idea, almost on a conceptual level – and
approach is perhaps too extreme for the discipline. then you get to the product. It’s a com­
jewellery industry, but I was really look­ pletely different mindset, which allows
ing for an experience beyond just feel­ Which can obviously be perceived as her to move faster and produce more
ing comfortable on a couch looking at both positive and negative, right? collections throughout the year. This in
jewellery. The experience is especially Rem: Yes, I was made aware of the dis­ turn allows her to think about the rap­
poor in the jewellery industry; the more cipline and ambition and tradition. port between the space and the product
you go high-end and luxury, the less When you’re working in fields such as in different ways.
experience you’re likely to encounter. jewellery, it is really nice for history to Rem: This is also a very important
Ippolito: It is the dictatorship of sales: suddenly become vivid and begin to res­ point: all of us are influenced by our
Image courtesy of OMA.

the profits are always in front of you onate more. To be honest, prior to col­ desires but there is an enormous pres­
and immediately accessible. There is laborating with Gaia I had never really sure from the outside, so even if we
no staging of the ceremonial that brings given much thought to jewellery beyond wanted to stay the same, we could not
you close to the product. the simple act of giving, so it’s quite rev­ because we have to work at different
Rem: I think it is anxiety about the elatory to have a more complete picture. speeds and with different countries

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Work in progress Repossi x OMA

and so on. Gaia is one of the first peo­ Gaia, people often refer to your aes- knowledge, but we also looked into
ple who has actually modernized jewel­ thetic as minimalist, almost as an Gaia’s personal tastes and interests, as
lery – not necessarily because she want­ antidote to the traditionally baroque well as interviews she’s done. We actu­
ed to change it but because she realized jewellery environment. ally borrowed pictures from her Insta­
she had to. Rem: But Gaia, do you consider your­ gram account – mainly art and archi­
self minimalist? Just look at her hands! tecture – to create these kind of image
So if you don’t believe in a system, you [They are covered with rings.] campaigns. It was all part of developing
have to create your own. Gaia: I don’t consider myself minimal­ tools in order to establish a dialogue.
Rem: It’s also born out of the sheer accel­ ist, because my designs are complex. Gaia: It is a very unusual way for archi­
eration; the way that more collections Minimalist is just a label. I am attracted tects to work: they absorb you for a cou­
have to be launched in a shorter time… by less, but for me that’s more a question ple of months, in the same way that may­
Gaia: It’s what people expect, and even of constructing things that are reduced be a film director would. Following that
that’s not enough for them. to the essence. period, they started responding to my
Ippolito: For me, the most revelato­ Ippolito: There is something very archi­ references and sharing their aesthetic.
ry moment in this project was visiting tectural about your way of working.
Gaia’s ateliers in Italy and Paris. I got Gaia: Well, we’ve found ways of work­ Were you aware of that absorbing pro-
to see things being made in the same ing that place a little less emphasis on cess even taking place?
ways that they were centuries ago, but luxury and more on design and the Gaia: Not really because it was the first
they are implemented now by new expression of shapes and form through time I’d worked with OMA. It was a
technologies. It’s the perfect combina­ jewellery. As you discovered, it starts discovery, but a beautiful one. I gen­
tion and balance of the two worlds and with a structure rather than a stone. erally love to overanalyse things and

‘Rem came to my office in Paris, looked at the

jewellery, and said, If the design is simple I go
complex, if the design is complex then I go simple.’
it was extremely constructive in terms Tell me more about the first conversa- this became a very deep analysis of the
of crafting some of the concepts of the tions that you had together. environment in which I work. The col­
store. So where you have a combina­ Gaia: Rem came to my office in Par­ laboration with OMA goes beyond just
tion of things that are extremely sim­ is, looked at the jewellery, and said, the store; we are reinventing the whole
ple, they are just recombined into more ‘But this is architecture!’ He then said identity of the brand in the context and
unexpected relationships. For example, something very straightforward: ‘If environment of the jewellery world.
normally when you walk into a jewel­ the design is simple I go complex, if the As I was saying before, it’s generally a
lery store everything is very rigid and design is complex then I go simple.’ pretty boring field in which there is lit­
static, as minerals don’t move. We intro­ Ippolito: When we first met Gaia we tle room for creativity beyond market­
duced subtle degrees of movement in felt there was a clear affinity between ing targets. But this feels more like an
the store. the two companies, and that is some­ artistic experience because I consider
thing we always ask ourselves, in order OMA to be artists.
Like kinetic displays? to gauge the potential to create some­
Ippolito: Yes, exactly. Every sin­ thing interesting. I remember the con­ Can you give me an example of how
gle component has a degree of move­ versation: we were talking about some OMA challenged the confines of the
ment that forces you to have a relation­ references hanging from the wall in her jewellery field?
Image courtesy of OMA.

ship with the product that is constantly office, such as movies, sculpture, some Gaia: Within the jewellery industry you
changing. And that for us was a revela­ furniture, something with Le Corbusier. usually make a store that is described as
tion because the norm in jewellery is to I just wanted to know more; I acted like an écrin – like the little box for a ring. So
approach everything with strict symme­ a sponge. As I mentioned before, we had the traditional wisdom is that the inte­
try. We had a lot to play with. to fill the gap about our lack of jewellery rior has to be soft, and it has to be full

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Work in progress Repossi x OMA

of comfortable materials. In one of the How does the wall rotate? medium of jewellery design to the
first research books that the OMA stu­ Ippolito: The interior wall is made of physical size of the store. To what
dio team created for us during the pro­ strips that can rotate into three posi­ extent does the size of the end result
ject, they made a collage of what they tions. In position one, you have a huge determine the process, the resources
called a ‘generic jewellery shop’, enti­ visual that folds around the entire wall; and so on?
tled What We Don’t Want. We then it could be the brand campaign, or a Ippolito: I think that small scale is a
started by discussing speed and really piece of art or a visual reference. universe unto itself; the deeper you go
got to the heart of analysing how speed Gaia: Brand image is obviously really in scale, the more you discover. In 10
determines the jewellery-shopping important, so this option is essential. It years of working at OMA I can honest­
experience. is the first thing you’ll see from outside. ly say I’ve never gone so deep into the
Ippolito: Each of the three floors of the Ippolito: Then, when the wall rotates exploration of a project as I have with
new store is a different experience and into position two, it becomes a different this one – we’ve really had to consider
has a different speed. Firstly, the base­ material: a gradient mirror that looks the display of every single jewel. I can’t
ment is the most intimate, the space almost like metal and from outside the say for sure if there is a direct rapport
where you spend the most time and are store creates this void. The third rota­ between scale and effort, it’s perhaps
attended to the most. tion will then reveal products, which are more a mental shift towards another
Gaia: The basement is actually closest placed within insets in the wall. kind of domain.
in function to the classic écrin, but it is
not at all that experience. Nonetheless, So the product is constantly rotating What about the pace of working on the
I thought it was still important to have and only displayed one third of the project?
a space where customers could isolate time? Ippolito: Speed is a really interesting

‘When the store originally opened in 1985 my

mother was pregnant, and now I soon turn 30.
Would Freud say something about that? Probably.’
themselves and discover the more com­ Gaia: Yes, I love the idea of introducing issue: for this project I think propor­
plex jewellery pieces. movement into a store environment that tionally we invested more time given
Ippolito: Secondly, the ground floor is is usually rigid and frozen. This whole the size of the store if we compare it to
where you might have a rapid consum­ system offers an alternative to just hav­ much bigger projects. But those projects
er experience: you know which products ing a window with products in it: now it often have timeframes that need to go
you want, you buy them, you leave. can display the best pieces in the collec­ faster simply because the investigation
Gaia: It has a standing counter that tions; it can show images of them; or it of materials, skills and design was so
allows for five-minute sales. can simply let customers see themselves accurate. So there is actually a sort of
Ippolito: Rather than the ground floor when they try things on. reverse proportion between the size and
simply having an outward-facing win­ Ippolito: Finally, on the top floor is the the actual time that we invest.
dow in which to display products, we gallery, there is this intermediate-paced Rem: I agree; I think that is very well
refer to it as an extension of the street. experience where the majority of the put. I’ve done both houses and much
It can offer a real void, an empty space, collection could be exhibited. bigger projects and have discovered that
which on the Place Vendôme is the Gaia: It allows you to see everything doing a house is at least as complex as
most surprising and luxurious thing displayed at once, like a sort of cabinet the biggest project out there. I think it’s
you can find. We’ve introduced a sys­ de curiosités, where the woman can buy a very comparable situation.
Image courtesy of OMA.

tem where on the ground floor the walls anything she sees without much expla­
rotate so they can have different func­ nation. Why do you think that is?
tions and different backdrops. It’s one Rem: Partly because you discover more
of the key kinetic elements we men­ I wanted to talk about scale. This and more intricacies and therefore
tioned earlier. project is inherently small, from the more challenges and more possibilities.

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Work in progress Repossi x OMA

But it is also because you have a differ­ Ippolito: It’s a very interesting point Finally, Gaia, the Repossi store has
ent sense of responsibility. In the case because as Rem was saying earlier, been on the same Place Vendôme site
of Gaia’s store, she can make the deci­ you develop a personal and intimate for 30 years. What does this current
sions directly, and we are talking direct­ exchange during a project. There is a deconstruction and reconstruction of
ly with Gaia, not a committee of 20 peo­ process to developing a specific lan­ the store – and the brand – reveal about
ple. It naturally becomes more personal guage over this intense period of your rapport with your own family his-
and so you feel more responsible for the exchange, according to the client’s back­ tory and the family business?
outcome. It is so precise and on such a ground. So in the case of the 45 options Gaia: More than questioning my own
traditional human level that there is no that Gaia is referring to, our engineer family brand, I’ve gone on a kind of
escape from going to the very essence develops these in order to actually gen­ personal questioning of what luxury
of it. erate the best exchange possible, tai­ is – or could be – today. It’s something
lored to the process. I’ve been pursuing for the past few
Do you think that with such a small- years; but for longer still, I have been
size project there is a greater impor- Do you think creative collaborations questioning the function, design and
tance on editing? require harmony between the various utility of jewellery today. I’ve ques­
Gaia: OMA is so prolific and can pro­ individuals or can interesting ideas be tioned if the next generation even
duce 100-page documents in a week born out of discord? needs jewellery and what luxury might
and propose you 45 different options, Ippolito: I would say there is never com­ mean for them. I’ve questioned these
so from my point of view editing was a plete harmony. We had multiple con­ things in order to offer my family brand
real task. versations and divergences during the something that made sense to me, and
process. that was relevant. With regards to the
You’d get 45 different options? 30-year historical coincidence, when
Gaia: Absolutely. Of materials, stair­ Tell me about some of that. the shop opened in December 1985 my
case designs… Visually it becomes like Ippolito: The choice of materials. What mother was pregnant with me, and I
an artwork: you need time to absorb it, I find really helpful and constructive will turn 30 this March. Would Freud
and of course there are references from with a collaboration, though, is that say something about that? Probably.
my work and references from OMA’s when we didn’t find a solution we would All I know is that I’m very proud to be
work, so the editing for me was very simply exchange references to reach a able to give this 90-year-old house a
complex. possible conclusion. new direction.

Image courtesy of OMA.

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The edit Pre-collections

To pre
or
not to pre
When will pre-collections shrug off
their persistent, insistent prefix?

By Alexander Fury
Photographs by Jamie Hawkesworth
Styling by Marie-Amélie Sauvé
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The edit Pre-collections

Pre-, simply defined, means before – in time, place, order, Those figures cannot be ignored, which the brands certainly So why are pre-collections – which have existed in some New York Times, at a show in London. She remarked at how
degree or importance. The last word is the main issue: pre- aren’t doing. The triumvirate of French fashion behemoths – form since the 1970s, and have been a core of fashion retail- she had seen reflections of Simons’ first Dior cruise show – an
collections are perceived not simply as before, but lesser. Less Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Chanel – are shipping guests across ing since the 1980s – only now moving into the limelight and easy, breezy Monégasque escapade of patchwork lace and zip-
important, less worked. When, in conversation with Louis the world to experience theirs. ‘Experiential’ is the word being given their creative dues? There are multiple reasons, front, free-flying silk – in the collections of numerous other
Vuitton’s CEO Michael Burke, I referred to them as ‘interim’, most frequently tossed about, by people like Burke and Sid- and in microcosm they summarize what’s going on in fashion designers. I agreed. ‘That one collection has been a gold-
he shot me straight down: ‘They’ve become the major collec­ ney Toledano, his counterpart CEO at Dior, to describe today. That, in itself, is why they are now being given so much mine,’ she commented.
tions; the major collections have become interim. Because the importance of taking the fashion press on a voyage to attention, because they feel relevant and exciting and new. Cruise collections wouldn’t traditionally be the ones that
they’re very timely. Whereas cruise takes you from Novem- express the ideas behind these collections. ‘You have basical- Frequently, newer than the catwalk collections they are sup- mass-market retailers (and lesser high-fashion designers)
ber all the way through to June. It hangs there that long. It’s ly three days to tell your story,’ states Burke. ‘As opposed to posed to punctuate, but in many instances, supersede. pick over for ideas to filch. It’s all part and parcel of that new
actually who you are.’ 15 minutes.’ That explains the lure of the pre-collection show: Newness is a major reason for the pre-eminence of the pre- pre-eminence of the pre-: when they are being presented by
Which is an interesting concept coming from someone who brands can monopolize the time of some of the world’s most collection. It’s something every CEO and many a designer designers of the calibre of Simons, and Ghesquière, and Miuc-
knows. Pre-collections – the inbetweener seasons, shown influential press, pulling them into another world, a world of has cited to me as something their clients demand, painting cia Prada (who shows a pre-collection in Milan during mens-
across a few drawn-out weeks in December and January, and a brand’s own creation. That’s why the French trio was joined them as insatiable fashion nymphomaniacs driven by an over- wear for her main line, and butts against the haute couture
then again from May to July, have soared in importance, and this June by Gucci, the multi-billion-dollar jewel in the Ker- whelming lust for novelty. ‘They are excited by new things,’ in Paris to present Miu Miu), you pay attention. That’s a new
prominence. Phoebe Philo’s Céline, arguably the single most ing crown, which staged its first ever pre-collection show, in asserts Toledano, discussing the house’s pre-collections and development, too: before, pre-collections were put togeth-
influential fashion brand of the past half-decade, has already New York. the fact that Dior product is now spliced into multiple frag- er by back-room teams, by people like Julie de Libran, Marc
dropped the pre-. It carves its clothing, internally, into four Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s freshly appointed creative ments to feed Dior boutiques on a monthly rather than sea- Jacobs’ former right-hand woman at Louis Vuitton, who was
seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. How long before eve- director, said his collection, and that show, was about ‘the sonal basis. ‘For us it is six collections a year,’ states Bru- solely responsible (and credited as such) for the house’s cruise
ryone else follows suit? (And they so often do, with so many girl on the street’. But really, these clothes are about anything no Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel, ‘which means and pre-fall. She’s no longer with Vuitton; she was lured away
of their clothes.) but her. That’s what all those trips express – it is about living a collection every two months.’ That’s not clothing deliver- to become creative director of Sonia Rykiel, her practical
‘The season has grown in importance as European design- the lifestyle of the cosseted clients who will actually be buying ies, but entire, individually conceived collections. Burke and and pragmatic pre-collection approach an attractive prop-

Pre-collections are no longer an afterthought, but These collections were born in the holidaying
a precursor. They are the main event of the fashion wardrobes of those fictional one-percenters with the
calender, both geographically and ideologically. wherewithal to chase the sun in the winter months.
ers gain strength in this country and require new merchandise the clothes, the ones you often see at said shows, out in force Vuitton are similarly motivated by their clients’ wants and osition for a house looking to reposition itself in the fashion
to fill their shops and departments between fall and spring,’ in their natural habitat and dressed to the nines. They’re the needs. Burke allowed how, today, people don’t only cruise to firmament.
Bernadine Morris wrote in the New York Times back in June, frequently assumed fictional one-percenters – except they’re warmer climes but, in the topography of contemporary lux- As Michael Burke at Vuitton said, pre-collections are no
discussing the contemporary fashion wonderland of the pre- real (at least, parts of them still are). I’ve shared boats with ury, live there year round. Perhaps that’s why the pre-collec- longer an afterthought, but a precursor. They have become
collection. ‘In recent years they have all added collections them in Dubai and New York; I’ve watched them take seats in tions, with their climate-flexing drops of summer knitwear the main event of the fashion calendar, both geographically
they generally call “cruise” for American stores. They also the blazing sunshine of Monaco and Palm Springs. and winter chiffon, nothing too heavy and nothing too light, (it takes a while to let the schedule settle, and figure out which
find that these collections are gaining ground in Europe.’ Pre-collections aren’t about me – me being the fashion critic. have become such a vital component of the contemporary far-out locale you’ll be flung to next) and ideologically. You
When I say June, I actually mean June 1989. Yet it could They’re all about them. They were founded on the needs of fashion landscape. The pre-collections are a no man’s land, could argue that, today, everything feels like a pre-collection
have been written yesterday. We think of the pre-collection those women, established with the sole aim of pleasing them. the all-important in-betweeners. A leveller. when you wind up touching cloth. Garments are lighter, eas-
as a phenomenon of fashion in the here and now, but they’ve More specifically, they were born in the holidaying wardrobes That seems disparaging – as if pre-collections are fashion’s ier, simpler and, it must be said, commercially enticing. At
been around for years. Formerly presented by scrabbled- of women with the wherewithal to chase the sun in the win- equivalent to the musical term ‘middle of the road’. They’re base, more attractive.
together showroom presentations and rudimentary racks ter months. Sunning themselves while the rest of the north- not, at least, not any more. Designers like Nicolas Ghesquière That should be the point of fashion, though: to get these
of garments only shown to buyers, journalists were blink- ern hemisphere shivered in triple-layered cashmere, they at Vuitton and Raf Simons at Dior have made sure of that. I clothes onto people’s backs. Which explains the pre-emi-
ered to pre-collections – by both themselves, and frequently demanded something unseasonably light. Hence the names remember seeing Cathy Horyn, then fashion critic for the nence of the pre-collection. With or without the prefix.
the designers. They were begged, like Dorothy Gale in The given to the pre-collections shown in May and June, which
Wizard of Oz, to pay no attention to the clothes behind the drop in stores around November: cruise and resort, because
curtain, that may dispel the myth of the Great and Powerful you do the former to get to the latter in these easy, breezy
Designer. clothes. Sometimes designers have gotten trapped in that
Only, pre-collections always made the money. They still mindset – the ruse that cruise demands fashion straight off
do. Brands from Proenza Schouler to Prada have told me the Good Ship Lollipop. Of course, that’s rubbish, as were
their ranges account for 60-80 percent of overall turnover. many of the clothes.

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The edit Pre-collections

Grey ribbed dress with belt (worn as necktie) by J.W.Anderson

Blue check poplin dress (worn underneath) by Stella McCartney
Socks and shoes by Miu Miu
Bag by Burak Uyan
Earring by J.W.Anderson

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All clothing, accessories and jewellery by Céline

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Black top and skirt by Paco Rabanne

Yellow knit jumper (worn underneath) by Proenza Schouler
Leather socks by Collina Strada. Shoes by Céline. Bag & earring by Paco Rabanne

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Top by Baja East

Earring (worn as clip) by Louis Vuitton
Earring by Paco Rabanne

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All clothing by Louis Vuitton

All clothing and accessories by Miu Miu Shoes by Maraolo from New York Vintage
Bag by Issey Miyake Leather straps (worn on boots) by Collina Strada
Earring by Alexis Bittar Backpack and earrings by Louis Vuitton

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Coat and skirts by Christian Dior

Shoes by Louis Vuitton
Earring by J.W.Anderson

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All clothing by Miu Miu

Earring by J.W.Anderson

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Dress by Paco Rabanne. Shirts (worn as shirt and skirt) by Charvet

Leather socks by Collina Strada. Shoes by Maraolo from New York Vintage
Bag (on floor) by Isaac Reina. Earring by Paco Rabanne

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Vintage burgundy top by Helmut Lang from the David Casavant Archive
Zebra print top (worn underneath) by Bouchra Jarrar
Skirt by Gucci. Shoes by Louis Vuitton. Bag by Jaana Parkkila
Belt by Collina Strada. Earring by J.W.Anderson

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The edit

Model: Rianne Van Rompaey at Viva London. Hair: Tomohiro Ohasi c/o Management + Artists using Bumble and bumble. Make-up: Christine Corbel c/o Management + Artists using M.A.C. Manicure: Laura Forget c/o Artlist.
Set Design: Sylvain Cabouat c/o Michele Filomeno. Seamstress: Carole Savaton. Photo Assistants: Edd Horder and Tex Bishop. Styling Assistants: Rae Boxer, Marie-Valentine Girbal, Angelo DeSanto, Fanny Ourevitch and Pia Abbar.
Hair Assistant: Sayaka Otama. Make-up Assistant: Anne Amerighi. Set-design Assistants: Emmanuel Vantillard, Aurore Storny and Arthur Braillon. Production by Laura Holmes Production.

Earrings by Louis Vuitton

Dress and shirt by Louis Vuitton
Shoes by Maraolo from New York Vintage
Leather straps (worn on boots) by Collina Strada

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Pre-collections
The questionnaire

The Saint-Germain
questionnaire:
Julie de Libran
By Loïc Prigent

What’s your favourite street in It’s said that Sonia Rykiel is both mad When you’re doing all-night fittings,
Saint-Germain? and a liar. Which of these qualities do what song do you have on repeat?
The Boulevard Saint-Germain. you share with her? Hijk by C.A.R.
Mad.
If the Café de Flore’s Club Rykiel What’s best to drink before a Juergen
is a club sandwich without the bread Which book is the Rykiel woman Teller photo shoot in Saint-Germain?
or the mayonnaise, what would the devouring this season? Red wine.
Club de Libran consist of? 4 décembre, Nathalie [Rykiel]’s new
Hard-boiled eggs. book. What’s the best design advice
Marc Jacobs ever gave you?
What’s the perfect time to be at the Greco or de Beauvoir? Attention to detail.
Café de Flore? Greco.
7pm. Aperitif time. What’s the best professional advice
Bardot or Birkin? Yves Carcelle ever gave you?
What’s the perfect time to be at Birkin. Attention to quality.
Chez Castel?
I love having dinner at 9pm at Castel, Kendall or Gigi? What’s the best life advice
then staying to dance. Gigi. Sonia Rykiel ever gave you?
Photograph by David Bailey

Don’t be afraid to say no.

Pain au chocolat or croissant? How high should a high-heel be?
Pain au chocolat. Twelve centimetres. What’s the best advice you’d give
to a woman who doesn’t live in
Cigar or pipe? Why wear fur? Saint-Germain?
For me or my man? Out of nonchalance. Laugh and have fun.

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JUERGEN TELLER

A curated series of photography:

JUERGEN TELLER and B R U C E W E B ER

Sold exclusively in Louis Vuitton stores. louisvuitton.com