VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #43 | INTERVIEW COURREGES – NICOLAS di FELICE by FILEP MOTWARY


Opening spread: COURREGES – NICOLAS di FELICE interview by FILEP MOTWARY

The story was published in Vogue Greece, May 2023 issue and was later shared online.

Read it HERE

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BALAMAIN SS24 | Filep Motwary © Vogue Greece

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MARCO DE VINCENZO

Marco, can you tell me more about how you connect with fashion to begin with, what was your starting point – what was your perception of fashion before you got involved in it? What kind of artists and fashion designers were influences on you back then?

In Sicily, as in all of Italy, I would say, it is very easy to be inspired by Christian iconography. As a child, sacred images provided me with more aesthetic than spiritual elements, and the first clothes that fascinated me were those of saints and Madonnas. Then the Made in Italy arrived, with the story of Gianni Versace so handy (Messina my city, and Reggio Calabria his, look from the sea) to make me daydream.

You are heading towards your 2nd year at Etro. I am wondering when you were asked to take over a fashion house as such – that symbolizes classic, luxury, savoir-faire, and heritage what were your first thoughts? And also, what was asked of you to begin with?

When Etro called me, I had to downsize for two years due to COVID-19, so an opportunity like this seemed very distant to me. But my long experience at Fendi, as well as a company with a strong family character and savoir-faire, suggested to me that Etro could be an opportunity to experiment with a new heritage.

What was your perception of etro before you took over and how did that change later?

About Etro, I knew above all the fabrics and the brand’s ability to mix them. That was enough for me as a link to my new approach. Ultimately, I have dedicated part of my career to exploring the textile world.

How easy it is to take over a house that is known for maintaining its values throughout the years with such devotion? How can the past feed the future? What is the most challenging aspect of your collaboration with Etro today?

The past is a great engine. Today, building codes from scratch can be more complex than renewing new ones, because the collective imagination matters, and fortunately, Etro is part of it. I think the most complex challenge is to pass the history to the new generations, and this applies to every area, not just fashion.

You are also the first nonfamily member to lead the Italian house. Was the weight of this responsibility too heavy for you?

I have a lot of respect for those who founded and nurtured a serious project like this, i don’t run the risk of suffocating the spirit of the family, which I try to capture. I’m studying a lot, sometimes recovering, almost with an archaeological approach. Being the first external member to deal with creativity sometimes makes me fresher, because everything seems new and renewable to me.

In general, what is the biggest challenge the brand is facing right now?

Develop your language, make it younger, and adapt it to your era.

What happens when a collection is finished? Does your connection with it fade away, or do you revisit it or keep thinking about it?

I let her go quickly. I admit that I do not know how to appreciate what I do a lot, I must see a limit to overcome rather than observe a goal achieved.

What does innovation look like these days? Is fashion week still relevant you think?

Fashion has returned to the center of the social debate. I believe that its innovation consists precisely in returning to its intrinsic value of self-expression, at a time when democracies and differences are at risk. Fashion has enormous power to fight prejudices, beyond the business it generates.

What are the essential qualities in a woman, a potential etro client, as you see it?

Women are exceptional beings; in the next life, I would like to be one of them. They know what it means to be discriminated against, weakened, and placed in a corner. This is precisely why their power is more conscious and focused than that of men. I like to think of a fashion client as a woman extremely free from any conditioning.

Which is your most important responsibility these days and why? In what ways? For whom?

The biggest responsibility I feel is towards myself. I didn’t want to be changed by the system, which is what happened. But staying authentic is a daily challenge, you can never feel completely safe. I try to be every day a man and a creative grateful for my luck.

During the pandemic, there were a lot of conversations about slowing down fashion. Do you think that the industry is capable today in cultivating these streams?

The pandemic has demonstrated the opposite, namely that the fashion industry does not slow down at all, because money is a constant accelerator. Fortunately, there is a lot of talk about sustainability at the same time, and some results in the attention of the industry can be seen.

Is it necessary to take risks when making fashion? What was the biggest risk you ever took? What does freedom mean to you as a designer? Is it possible that you are ever in conflict with your own taste?

It’s a sign of courage to come to terms with your taste and make compromises when working for others. And I would add that you are never completely free even when you work for your eponymous label, because every path you take generates expectations from which you can’t always distance yourself. I think you need to learn to take liberties and take risks with some wisdom.

Before arriving at Etro, you worked for Fendi, you had your namesake brand which was a great success, now supèrno – an entirely different project and in parallel to your duties at Etro. How would you describe each of these periods of your life and how they changed you both as a person and as a professional?

At Fendi I still hold the role of head designer of leather goods, which I combine with my creative direction at Etro. In my destiny, there have always been more parallel projects, and despite the apparent difficulties of the calendar, this fluid creativity, which moves from city to city and from need to need, continues to keep me fired. I was born as a bag designer, so my work at Fendi represents the experience I have accumulated over more than 20 years. Etro, on the other hand, contains all the possible firsts, i had never managed all the categories of such an important brand, and I feel the adrenaline that comes from experimenting. My brand and supérno, on the other hand, are currently suspended to not bite off more than you can chew, but I miss them a lot, because they have been an important personal challenge and have made me credible as an independent designer, which is not an easy undertaking. In particular, supérno is a project to which I hope to return soon, because the stupefaction that gave me to put my creativity at the service of upcycling anything else had given to me up to that moment.

The essence of the body was presented as the one of a time traveler. It was very bohemian, colorful, warm and sophisticated. Could you please tell me the starting point of the FW23 collection? What story did you want to tell? What was your moodboard about?

The time had come to pay tribute to the history of the brand in a radical way. I felt the need to explore it closely, refining my interpretive skills and bringing it to blend in with the bohemian spirit so dear to Etro. In detail everything is different from the past, but the overall vision of the collection is very etro. I think that after this step, I will explore other areas with more freedom.

At the same time there was an easiness about the silhouette, it was “street friendly” while it maintained its luxurious profile. Do you think there’s anything truly interesting happening on the streets today, in terms of fashion, as it has become so urban?

The effortlessness of the silhouette, the blanket as a domestic element that replaces the coat, the fluidity, the lightness, the masculine and the feminine, are elements that I will still carry with me. In my opinion, Etro will never be a constraint, but a sort of comfortable eccentricity. Which is the one who comes from the street, the overcoming of the eternal conflict between the desire to appear and the desire to blend into the people.

What does rebellion look like in fashion these days?

Inclusion is the most contemporary form of rebellion.

At the end? What is luxury about?

Timing. To get things done and to enjoy them.

How would you describe the period we are in, in terms of aesthetics and theory?

I believe that climate change will irrevocably change our way of life. And like any major change, it will impose new rules on us, also from an aesthetic point of view. In the end, clothing has always adapted to the geography of the planet and will have to do it more and more.

How do you apply the values of savoir-faire in what you do?
How does it resonate with your philosophy of making fashion that is heading towards a fully digitized future that also needs to be sustainable?

The first example of a sustainable approach is respect for the skills and people around you. In any job, there is a human aspect that should never be underestimated. Only in this way parallel, digital, technological universes do not risk becoming dangerous invaders.

Is Etro committed to sustainability as a company? In what ways? Should upcycling become the norm in buying clothing in the future?

We started to face the issue immediately after my arrival with a project of bags made by recycled materials, the love trotters, which we continue to produce by recovering materials intended for stock. I have more radical projects in mind, and I would like them to focus on recovering the finished product.

How challenging it is to create clothes for a universal type of woman today? Who is this woman after all?

Creating more and more transversal products is the key to being contemporary. There can’t be more aesthetic ideals, people need to identify with what we propose.

Marco, what is perhaps the most important quality a fashion designer can have?

Today it’s speed: having an intuition, recognizing it, and defending it.

Were you ever worried about the path you chose?

Never. Fashion has always saved me.

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HARRI

Interview by Filep Motwary

Harikrishnan Keezhathil Surendran Pillai, otherwise known as Harri, was born in Kerala where he grew up with no exposure to the fashion industry. In 2013, he got into the London College of Fashion by accident while accompanying his best friend for her interviews. Fast forward to today, and now he makes balloon pants for a living, blending Indian savoir-faire into his menswear couture-like collections. His creations reflect a contrast and larger-than-life proportions, like those of bodybuilders, shifting between textiles made of wood to performance sculptures and combining references as diverse as Bauhaus, surrealism, and camp. By studying different forms and materials, Harri composes and reconfigures them with ease while he focuses on the duality between the notion of clothing as a mimetic practice and art.

FILEP MOTWARY: Your SS23 collection raises the question: “What do we call clothes that aren’t clothes as we know them?”

HARRI: I grew up in a place where the concept of clothing is quite different. I am from Kerala, which is in the south of India. In the village I come from, the concept of clothing is completely different there. There’s no concept of a jacket, there’s no concept of a puffer jacket. There’s only the concept of one single shirt and then a sarong, a long piece of cloth that we wrap around. There fashion or clothing isn’t a priority; it’s just a utility, nothing beyond that. For 18 to 20 years I lived in that place in that condition.
My thought process is I don’t see fashion as somebody would see it in Europe. I don’t have concepts of the 90s, 80s, 70s. I don’t have concepts of a well-made jacket. These are alien concepts. I had a hard time digesting this when I came to this country in 2018. It took me some time to complete my master’s for that reason. I had to study fashion history and erase everything I’d learned back in India. Now a lot of people tell me my work is original; maybe it’s because I don’t see clothing from a clothing point of view. I don’t know what kind of point of view it is!

FM: There are two types of bodies: the one that you grew up with and the body that you’re suggesting right now…

H: As a person, as a designer, I have a lot of avenues at my work. I work on multiple avenues. I work as a bespoke tailor. This is my part-time profession. I used to be a print designer, and now I don’t know what to call myself. What I do with my personal work, I don’t know what to call it. When I worked as a bespoke tailor or as a print designer, I’m very well aware of the body that I work with or the body that I work for because
then there’s a tradition to it, there’s a history to it, and it’s made for a purpose. I’ve worked in this field, in bespoke tailoring, tailoring and print designing for a long time. When I did my work, what I wanted was a break from that and to be completely different, without thinking about the body or anything else.!

I wanted to create things that people have never seen, and part of that desire comes from a point in my life when I was a bodybuilder and participated in bodybuilding competitions for five years with no other life than that.

FM: Do you consider functionality when you work?

H: I do yes. We can go crazy with a lot of things, but we are in the fashion industry. When I see my work and when I put it out, I do consider how people perceive it and I don’t want my creations to be perceived as alien objects or concepts. I do want people to resonate and relate to certain aspects of it. That’s the reason I apply functionality to my work. The tailoring is there too. I include pieces to make sure that my work is balanced and that it appeals to a wide range of people and not just artists or fashion students. Every time I make a new work I think of how I can make it accessible to a few more people around me.

FM: Why do we have this eternal need to reconstruct the body?

H: I can address this answer from two points of view. Being a bodybuilder, I was trying to break down my body and make it different, and I as a designer, where I’m not trying to break the body but enhance it. The body is like a mere canvas for me and it doesn’t serve any purpose beyond that. My pieces, if you take them out from the body, will still stand as standalone pieces. And I think they would make the same impact. The body is not limiting me in that sense; I don’t think of it and at the same time, I do. Maybe this comes from stories we’ve listened to in the past, from Greek mythology or Indian mythology.
It could be from pop culture. You never know what’s affecting your brain to think in a certain way!

FM: Clay is to a sculptor, what latex is to you. Tell me more about this material and why it’s important to you.

H: This material is important to me as it’s alien from India. When I started designing and when I started working on this project, when somebody said, “It’s too latex to me,” I wasn’t very sure—because it had a very sexual connotation. It had a kinky side to it. It’s always about material that you are scared of or shy away from. When I first approached latex, I was scared of ending up creating something sexual. Then, I started exploring it from a maker’s point of view in the sense that it’s a material that you can only use with your hands.
You have to cut it with your hands. You have to shape it with your hands. You have to stick it with your hands. You have to finish it with your hands. So the time in between the process became like therapy in the sense that you take this time, you cut the patterns, and you don’t need to go to a machinist to finish them off. If you are skilled enough, you can do it by yourself. So that gives me total control over the material. I don’t have to depend on anyone to make my pieces.

FM: Your collection looks very Bauhaus, very sexual too. At the same time it is very archaic this silhouette you suggest, goes back from 1300BC up until the 21st century…!

H: I made a research book where, among others, I placed the images of the Venus of Willendorf on the left and the right side shows Kim Kardashian!

FM: See, I told you!!

H: Yes! It’s not history repeating, but history rhymes. My whole research, my whole journey with this work is just to understand. There’s no conclusion here. There’s no right or wrong, there are no answers here. It’s just constantly questioning: why do we have this desire? Why do we have this? I was doing this with bodybuilding but now I’m doing it with whatever I’m practising with. So although I’m constantly questioning, I don’t have a definite answer for it, unfortunately.

FM: Are we conscious of what we see, buy, or wear?

H: I don’t think it matters in the end. A customer sees a piece, he sees the color first. When he sees color, when he touches the piece and takes the piece, he feels the material. The decision can be based on material. Once he likes the material, he checks the cut and the fit of the garment or the piece in front of him. If the fit and the cut are good, he then checks the price. If he can afford it, he’ll get it. This is a consumer brain. The story and the other things are considered after the fit.

FM: I have noticed that all your designs have a very small waist, which is also something we see throughout the history of fashion…!

H: It is something I’ve noticed. It is not on purpose. There’s a technical reason why I’m doing this because my trousers are filled with air, so you don’t have any control over where it’s going and how it’s going.
The challenge with my work is shaping that air with the panels I cut, with the latex and the shaping. My pattern-cutting skills help the air get inside and take shape. I do have a shape in my head of how the trousers should look: I don’t want this to be a blob or a bulk. I want it to nicely embrace the body and exaggerate the places I want to exaggerate. So the waist part, I’ve purposely cut it tight to make sure it’s not like a sudden blob, but there’s a nice transition from top to bottom. It isn’t about making the base smaller, it’s just about the transition, the smooth transition from the top to the bottom, that flow of it, that sweep of it to get that right.

FM: Tell me more about your experimentation and the ways you adapt body form perceptions, like optical illusions, for example.

H: What we see is not the right perspective of anything, to be honest. Everything is an optical illusion by default, everything we see. For that reason I studied optical aspects, just to see how people perceive things and to what level are they perceive them—is it right or wrong? Why do artists apply certain perspectives to their work? The best example is [Michelangelo’s] David, which is also discussed in my research book. There’s a golden ratio to it, it is a human being, but it is completely distorted in the perspective where the person who is looking at it is standing on the floor and looking up. So the artist was thinking about that and he carved that in a way that looks appealing from that point of view. So it serves a purpose.
And to employ that, the artist, Michelangelo has to have some optical knowledge about it. So I studied this just to know how these artists play with perspective. And this also goes back to my days as a bodybuilder, where you stand in front of a group of people and pose. You have to have the understanding that you are standing on top of a platform and you’re posing to people who are standing under you, or might be standing on the balcony, or who might be at eye level. So you, as a contender, have to have some understanding about what angles would look nice for you, your body, and the people sitting in front of you to give them the best shot. And you take months in front of the mirror to master those angles that you would look good at.!That’s just mastering the perception of optical illusion with your body in bodybuilding.

FM: How is India present in what you do today? Is it present at all?

H: India is present in multiple ways. India informs a lot of my material choices, which I was trying to overcome with latex, actually because coming from India, you wouldn’t touch latex. It [latex] is a place not for embroideries, [it’s] not a delicate fabric, [it’s] not cotton. A lot of designers who come out of India and are known outside India are known for their embroideries or delicate work.

FM: I’m interested to hear how you ended up in London.

H: All I know is I have a strong drive within me to do what I’m doing. For 18 years, I was in a village growing up. My dad used to be an artist, so I was interested in drawing figures. I was brought up in a temple neighborhood where you see statues, gods, and goddesses, everywhere, a religious place. Hindu goddesses are very exaggerated. It’s not something I’ve referenced in my work but I’m sure that this would have influenced the way I think about the body. One reason that I have symmetry in my work, which I’m now trying to break away from, is there’s a level of symmetry applied in those artworks of Indian sculptures and Indian gods and goddesses. It could be because the artist at that time was replicating it—they would paint it once and mirror it on the other side.!

FM: You have previously mentioned that you have two dads—is that correct?

H: Yes. It’s just how my family is: I have two dads and a mum living in the same house, as me and my sister. Ever since I opened my eyes, I have seen two dad figures and two man figures in my house, so I am used to that. It’s a normal thing for me. I call them both my dads. My mom is married to both of them and I never questioned it.

FM: Would you say you design clothes or something else? How would you want to be described?

H: As a maker I take pleasure in making things. To an extent, sometimes I don’t care what I make, but I do take a lot of pleasure in sitting and making things. And making from multiple perspectives, understanding people’s perspectives, and addressing those perspectives in my work. So you can best describe me as a maker. And when I find the next thing, I can tell—I know it.

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YOHJI YAMAMOTO | 2023

Yohji Yamamoto talks to Filep Motwary, Vogue Greece, October 2023

Mr. Yamamoto, what was your perspective of fashion before you got involved in it?

If I can say, a little bit twisted message, or my personal sincerity. When I graduated from Keio University, I wanted to be nothing else. Because in Keio University, I had 8 to 12 friends from very rich families. And every time I was invited to their houses, they were living in gorgeous houses. They even had tennis court in. Can you believe that? So when I was arriving, third year university student, it was a moment the students started to think which company they will choose and preparing for the test. But friends of mine, they are 80% of all my friend. They are not pushed to try the difficult test to enter famous company because they had their family businesses. They were waiting. So from that moment, I became not angry, but a little bit far from them mentally, far from my classmates. I went on a cheap trip for three, four months from Russia to Europe. At that moment, I was traveling alone. And in that meaning, in the condition, I was standing in a very isolated position. At the same time, I started to become a little bit angry about the society. Society, as you know, is not always fair. But at the same time, when I visited Morocco, Tunisia, I met so many people who were not rich, and maybe in French or English, I don’t remember, I could communicate with humble people. And I felt, oh, I found my partners in the other side of the world. And I started from that feeling.
So I really hated fashion because in that moment, fashion was aiming how to be gorgeous, how to show I’m rich, I’m going, you know. And naturally, I had to stand on the other side of this philosophy, this sense of beauty. So after helping my mother’s atelier I started doing ready to wear. Because my mother told me, after I started helping her shop, three years or four years, she told me “Yohji, you can manage the create your own atelier.” So I could manage and I created my own company.

How is the fitting for Yohji Yamamoto POUR HOMME 2024 S/S collection?

At the first fitting for this season, I asked the atelier to make this new sleeve. Because they have enough experience for making men’s outfit. But this time I told them not to make the man’s usual cutting. So they struggled, I told them I am not coming back to the old tailored man’s sleeves. So finally they accepted and it is really going well! I think the collection is light, beautiful and even girls can wear it.

What keeps you going after more than 50 years on the fashion? business?

Factories are decreasing every year in the Fashion Industry. Even thread making, fabric making, and sewing companies that have high technique and are disappearing… They are living treasures, but disappearing… we are losing the know-how and craftsmanship of very good sewing and fabric companies in Japan and you have to answer me. Do you think fashion industry when we talk about fashion industry, do we have a good basic fabric maker, thread maker, sewing maker maybe in Italy, maybe in Japan? So I feel natural I can’t stop this job because if we stop, we’re going to lose the fashion industry. It sounds too arrogant maybe…We have to speak about this point strongly.

 

What is astonishing about you is that from your start in Paris in 1981 until today, you have established a signature that is truly your own. So the 80s was a time of great excess and your creative vision was far from that. So this is what you explained. How do you remember yourself in those days?

I was born in Kabuki-cho with only my mother and I have no memory about my father. But after graduating from the university, I started helping my mother’s shop. So, number one, Kabuki-cho is in the center of Tokyo in bad meaning and I was thinking myself, I hated Japan because Japanese Governor and army, they sent my father to the front at the end of the Second World War. The last words my father told my mother “I was gifted by the army, the summer outfit.” At that moment, Japanese army is losing, losing, losing, losing. So finally, the uniform was made in the cheapest fabric. But at that moment Japanese army they didn’t treat well human beings they treated them like toys. Unfortunately, he was that unlucky age to be sent to fight. My father was sent to the south. At that moment Japanese army didn’t have big boats. They used fishing boats and they put the wooden pole looks like big gun and painted in dark green. Can you believe it? And after he left, maybe two years later, a little yellow paper was delivered to my mother saying “Mr.Yamamoto died in very hard fight in Manila district in Philippines.” It’s a lie. The boys didn’t arrive to Manilla. I read so many war rapports when I was in junior high and a high school, the one guy who came back from the war luckily he told to my mother in Manila harbour so many Japanese ships were sinking, there is no chance to get in there. We were surrounded by so many lies of Japanese army and government. So naturally I started calling me I’m a Tokyo-guy, not Japanese. But when I presented my first fashion show in Paris, they called me “le japonais”. At that moment, I did not think I am a Japanese. I don’t think so. I’m Tokyo-boy. But “le japonais” continued long time. As you know, “le japonais” means Yamamoto because we did something “anti”. We made broken outfits. It became very famous and so many journalists hated it. But some of the journalists, some of fashion specialists they liked us. Finally, naturally it became a kind of war.

What is the role of the body in what you do? has the approach to the body change through the years for you?

After graduating from the university, I went to Bunka Fashion School and one strange thing happened. On the first day of the school, I was sitting on a long table on the left side of the classroom, listening to the teacher’s explanation about how to study. Then one girl asked me “Can I sit here?” “Yes” I answered – and she became my wife. We got married because we became close. Because when I started making patterns, very basic technique, especially this kind of embroidery, I couldn’t do it. So I asked her to help me. So naturally we became close. I thought at that time when I become close to a girl, I thought, I had to marry her. I was a stupid dreamer. Pure, badly pure. I was not prepared for that. I think I’m not answering the question.

Your vision of body. And if this vision of body changed also through the years?

First time after getting married, first time I saw and looked, watched women’s body. My first wife, because she was charming and she had very beautiful body.
When I graduated from Bunka Fashion School they gave me the most honorable price. This price sent me to Paris. And I went to Paris when I was 24 or 25 years old. And I was staying in very small, tiny second floor room. I had no sink nor toilet. For the toilet I had to come down and pay. One or two francs. I don’t remember. I was staying about a year there. And I had a surprise…. My wife was pregnant and my son was born when I was in Paris. I’m telling a secret.

It’s nice to hear some secrets from you.

The owner of the apartment, she was smiling and laughing because I looked so young. For them, I looked very young. So my son came out to the world when I was in Paris, because after that, when we started the small couture company the family became three.

About the body and woman, you say that for you, a woman body is like being in the desert and it’s beautiful.

I am a researcher of the body. Every time I’m introduced to a new model, I found every girl, every model, they have different body like face – the shoulder, the length of the waist are different.

Your work incorporates so many aspects from haute couture, you have reformed the body in so many occasions, either through volume, by constructing crinolines, irregular shapes and florist draping, incomplete silhouette, embellished dress, hand weaved surface and so on. However, you place yourself within the context of ready to wear. Why?

Very first moment when I started Paris collection, even in Tokyo, the “Couture Salons” were disappearing in Japan. And in Paris there were already so many Haute Couture designers but people said that in the world, the Couture customers were only 300 persons, and that’s right. So naturally I decided to start as a ready-to-wear company. But I started and learned all at the Couture salon of my mother. This is why I have Couture and Ready-to-wear all in my mind and work – all mixed.

What about the latest Yohji Yamamoto A/W 2023-24 collections you’ve presented in March 2023? What was the starting point of the creation?

I told my atelier that I want to come back to the first moment I started the collection in Paris. Broken outfit, dirty outfit, so we should make dirty outfit. Don’t make red carpet beauty. So when I wanted to make very simple outfit for the very final four looks with models walking barefoot if you remember, my team was like “oh, no”. And my grandson, came to the rehearsal moment before the show and the real show. And after looking at my real show, he sent me an email writing that it was so beautiful. “Fucking gorgeous show, grandpa.” My grandson could understand. I was surprised.

Does fashion critic matter to you? Are you curious to hear how others observe what you create even after so many years of doing it? I’m interested to know the reasons these observations might interest you?

Please let me speak very frankly. Outfit cannot, really cannot be explained by words. It’s impossible. Did you feel something? This feeling is very important. Don’t try to translate this feeling into words. I don’t like it. So I don’t explain my collection but they want me to explain every time why did I create this collection? So I have to tell stories..

What is the biggest risk you take when designing a collection?

Biggest risk? It is when I have no imagination, no impact, no excitement. When I face those situations, I ask to the sky. Sky means, you know, maybe asking to my father or I don’t know somebody gave me idea and emotion. It falls and I catch it. This is a very nice moment. So look at my studio… my mess.. my chaos…this mess …how many times I looked at old magazines when I don’t have any imagination. I don’t catch new emotion. New emotion comes when I drive and stop in front of the crossing when the traffic light became red so I have to stop and the people pass in front of me…women, girls passing in front of me… they give me some idea not all but some point I feel “Oh” I can simply say “Oh”. And I’m always thankful to my creating team – pattern makers, they can realize my ideas into real outfit. This is magic.

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MOLLY GODDARD

Molly Goddard interview by Filep Motwary for Vogue Greece © November 2023

Molly, can you tell me more about how you connect with fashion to begin with, what was your starting point – what was your perception of fashion before you got involved in it? What kind of artists and fashion designers were influences on you back then?

Growing up I lived in a very creative area, close to Portobello Road and Kensington High Street, where in the 1990s it was a very exciting and fashionable place to live. My parents have always been interested in fashion and had a sense of style, so I think that played a big part in my interest. I dressed in interesting clothes as a child, nearly all vintage or second-hand, and knew from an early age that clothes were there to be enjoyed.

I was probably 14 years old when I became interested in designers, especially John Galliano and COMME des GARÇONS. I knew that the best British designers had studied at CSM under Louise Wilson so from an early age that became my goal.

If I asked you to describe your identity as a fashion designer?

I just like making clothes, wearing clothes and seeing people wear interesting clothes. What I like changes constantly, but I guess there is a solid interest in fabric manipulation and silhouette that I never get tired of.

Were you ever worried about the path you chose?

I never intended to be a designer, but when I was studying the idea of having any ego enough to start my brand was unimaginable. I wanted a job and the prospect is still quite tempting – much less pressure! But I feel very lucky to do what I do, I have an amazing team and each day is interesting and genuinely creative.

What is the biggest challenge the brand is facing right now?

There are too many to mention, building a sustainable business for the planet and my staff is the most important thing for me at the moment though.

Which is your most important responsibility these days and why? In what ways?

At the moment I feel a great responsibility to myself to not compromise. It’s very difficult when you are compared to massive brands with millions of pounds and there is so much demand for newness. The demands on small businesses, like ours, are endless and it can make it hard to remember why I started in the first place and what is important. Being creative and enjoying what I do each day, goes for everyone who works for me too. It’s easy to get swept up in the drama of it all. But it’s just about making good clothes that people will treasure and doing it in a way that is fair and kind to everyone.

During the pandemic, there were a lot of conversations about slowing down fashion. Do you think that the industry is capable today in cultivating these streams?

It feels like things have sped up to me; the need for more imagery and more of everything feels like a result of the pandemic. I think people have realised they can do things in a way that suits them which is positive and we are certainly working out how to be a more self-sufficient business which feels good.

Do you ever feel a sense of responsibility to talk about your work, to talk about Fashion? – Reworded: Do you feel a sense of responsibility in talking about entering the industry, becoming a designer, the challenges associated, etc. As a leading designer in the industry, is it important to you to pass knowledge on to others?

I feel it’s important to communicate how many amazing jobs there are within the industry, both creative and non-creative. I don’t feel that’s something taught in school and I didn’t even get a sense of it during university. Understanding what it is that excites you and makes you happy is most important, otherwise, it’s not sustainable (unless you just like money, of course!)

Is it necessary to take risks when making fashion? What was the biggest risk you ever took? 

I don’t know if doubling the amount of fabric in a dress or doing a new kind of fashion show is what I would call a risk – I think it’s an odd word for fashion as everything is in some way new and unknown. We have to take risks in the business, as it’s all so unknown in many ways but never risks that put people’s jobs on the line or cause too much stress.

What kinds of questions are you asking yourself when you sit down to design a collection, what is your mood board process until the first pattern is cut?

I begin a collection with research. It’s a very random process and makes little sense to anyone else, but to me, the collection is very clear. I visit libraries, museums, and galleries. I normally know exactly what the next show will be about once I have finished the previous one, and then that idea organically grows based on what I pick up in those various places of research.

The bulk of my research comes from books and magazines. While researching, I’ll be designing at the same time, and then the process kind of continues to develop in that way: research, sketching, and then developing toiles and working on fabrics with the atelier.

Your FW23/24 collection was very down to earth, extremely wearable, and far from the incredibly impressive tulle and hand-smocked taffeta dresses from previous collections. Tell me more about this season.

To be honest, I was feeling quite frustrated with the fashion world and the industry’s relentless pursuit of viral moments and instant visual gratification. I wanted to create a collection that reflected my nostalgia and memories, tapping into something more intimate. I felt frustrated with the emphasis on clickbait and fleeting sensationalism. Instead, I wanted to focus on designing clothes that felt genuine, real and truly resonated with me.

In essence, the collection aimed to emphasize the core purpose of our business, which is to create clothes that people wear. It was about prioritizing the needs and desires of the individuals who would ultimately wear the garments. Pieces that were relatable, practical, and personal.

What does innovation look like these days? Is Fashion Week still relevant?

I’m old school! I love the traditional way of showing a collection and then selling it. I enjoy the relationship you build with buyers and the press. It’s a great expense for a 10-minute show; however, I think there’s no other way of purely communicating what that collection is about.

It’s also the cathartic release that you need each season to keep the creativity alive and ideas flowing or moving forward. I always hope my collections feel new and interesting, but equally, I never follow trends or try to do anything that doesn’t have an element of longevity to it.

Did you have a perception of the body and the art of dressing it or not? What is your perception of the body you design for? How connected are you to it?

I think about the body a lot when designing – I think about my body, my friend’s bodies, different shapes and sizes of bodies. When designing clothes, you are always thinking about the form that they are going to be worn on. It’s impossible to separate the body from the clothes anyway, it’s a bit like saying to design kitchens, you need to think about food.

What is your philosophy when it comes to making fashion that is heading towards a fully digitised future, whilst also needing to be sustainable? 

I don’t envision a fully digitized future for fashion. Physicality and the ability to touch, feel, and wear clothes are essential for self-expression and enjoyment. In my optimistic opinion, physical shops will always have a place alongside online platforms, offering a more sustainable experience. Sustainability lies in keeping things small and minimizing waste. We are currently focusing on a big made-to-order offer. I have no interest in a fully digital fashion future; I love creating beautiful, tangible objects.

How challenging is it to create clothes for a universal type of woman today? Who is this woman after all?

Our customer varies massively which I love – all ages and body shapes. We offer up to a size UK18 wholesale and up to a UK22 through our made-to-order. Our customer is someone who enjoys clothes, appreciates craft, and doesn’t take themselves too seriously.

Molly, what is perhaps the most important quality a fashion designer can have?

Being a fashion designer is one thing, drawing well enough to effectively communicate your ideas is important. However, running a business is also really important, I’m very involved in all elements of running it but appreciate that it’s an amazing job – you can’t do it without the team you work alongside, so the most important quality is to treat people with kindness.

 

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GABRIEL OROZCO

Gabriel Orozco talks to Filep Motwary

Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco has many fans—not just in the art world, but in the fashion
industry too, proof of which can be seen in his unofficial collaborations with Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester. He often wears Yohji Yamamoto and, dividing his time between Mexico City and Japan, regularly bumps into the designer when getting his morning coffee in Tokyo—although the two are yet to be officially introduced. With no studio of his own, Orozco is a nomadic artist. For 30 years now, he has kept many of his works in storage at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York, which has led to an impromptu exhibition titled Spacetime, on view until the end of 2023.

FILEP MOTWARY: Where are you right now?

GABRIEL OROZCO: At the beach, in Acapulco. I have a big palapa [an open-sided structure with a thatched roof] with access to the ocean, so I like to take my swims and work here in the wintertime.
My wife and son are here with me too. My house was made 20 years ago, in a very simple way. It’s like an observatory on the beach, in Oaxaca, five hours driving from here. It’s not big and it doesn’t have glass windows. It feels like camping at the beach, which is something I did for all my life on that coast in the Pacific Ocean. There we are just looking at nature and swimming in the ocean and there is not that much around. There is no internet! Soon I’m having friends visiting too: among them a biologist and a philosopher, along with some other people. We like to play chess here.

FM: Have you always been close to nature?

GO: Yes, since I was a kid. My first drawings were animals, and fish—a lot of it was about marine life. But also I like astronomy, so I used to draw a lot of planets and constellations. I guess from that came my fascination with spheres and circles and movement.

FM: How important are form and discipline to you?

GO: As a kid, I was very much interested in geometry and chess and some structures that were not visible by just simple observation, but they were behind many of the things that were happening around me. Form comes by trying to understand the structures of nature, the universe and our bodies.
Discipline is how you use or study those forms to build up some structure that is based on the concept behind the idea you are trying to express, but also the form or the structure in the functionality of the canvas or the house or the sculpture concerning gravity and technique in terms of the form and the way you are disciplining it. I have always been curious about doing different things and avoided repeating myself. I’ve always been trying to look for materials and new things that I am attracted to, and then I try to transform and apply them in a new way. That’s why the fixed location of a studio or laboratory did not resonate with me. I work outside, in the open and in constant movement, always looking for new experiences after observation, contact and desire. The environment of a laboratory is less interesting for me. I am more about the discipline of constant experience in the real world. That’s what enables the form…

FM: I’m not an art specialist, yet, as an observer of your work, when I focus on your installations, you almost appear like an archaeologist who, after a great period of excavation, suddenly shares their findings, which are mostly from regional resources. Is this the case?

GO: Yes! I try to work with specificity and timespecificity also. It’s not [just] about the location you are in or the street you are walking on or the culture you are researching or experiencing, but also the time and the moment that things happen to you. This becomes a moment of awareness and you end up being intrigued by it, and then you want to explore a bit more. It can be in various situations, especially in common situations. It’s more interesting to find big surprises and then work with them. Everyday life becomes your studio, your laboratory, your working place. You can call it archaeology but, on the other hand, I try [to make it] that they are still about functioning objects. They are not relics, and they are not museum pieces, but they can have new functionality in society, in the public space, in the imagination of the people. I try to recycle everyday objects while their functionality for me is important.

FM: For the most part, your work seems very systematic: everything is put in a certain order, almost like OCD. Where does this come from? What is it that you want to say?

GO: I can work with very small things and humongous things as I like a sense of scale in what I do. All works should have that I think. You always have a connection with a larger scale or with a micro-scale, and that is just a structure that is a little bit geometric, but also in connection to the human body and the perception of the individual.
I’ve always been a chess aficionado and I think that has been influential in my way of looking at art as a game, in a good way, but also at some things about their geometry and behaviour. Scale and metaphorical situations have a lot to do with chess. When I see a landscape or I try to generate landscapes in every object and installation—even in paintings—I think it’s because I try to relate to my landscape in that sense, not just whatever is on my table or on the street, on the floor, but also the horizon, the sky. To have that sense of scale all over, you can achieve that with small objects and also with big ones. In the end, all is connected.

FM: Do these objects reflect some sort of evolution, maybe?

GO: Evolution in what sense?

FM: Evolution in the sense of re-establishing their use in our heads.

GO: Evolution seems to be a very linear world, like developing, or evolving into something better. I think more in cycles, in loops, in processes of spiralling situations up and down, when you transform matter into something else—and that is already something political.
There is no such thing as prime matter or virgin matter. Everything is political, and social content! Even colours, a pigment, a stone, obviously a car and an elevator or an aeroplane. You use those materials that can be ready-made or a piece of what we consider trash—which is also a temporary state because trash is a moment in a matter that can become something else later.
My practice is to generate cycles or regenerate cycles of meaning and transformation of the perception of that thing into, again, making them functional or alive or meaningful.

FM: With what criteria do you collect these objects? How do they resonate?

GO: It’s very basic. First, it’s just some attraction or curiosity that I have had since I was a kid. But, funnily enough, over the years, and now that I’m quite old, I am still attracted to the same things, like frogs, for example. I used to collect frogs just to look at them. I grew up in Mexico City, but in the south of the city, there were some abandoned lands before they were developed. I grew up in a place that was quite close to nature, but also Mexico, and travelling through Mexico was also a big part of my childhood. Books and fantasy have, as well, helped me love nature. Also, I have loved cars for as long as I can remember. I like Formula One and in primary school, all my books were about cars and dragons.

FM: With what criteria do you select the objects to make these systems, these collections?

GO: The first thing is specificity. I try to be open, to not have a preconception about what I want to see, but just be open and then suddenly let myself be surprised by something that I don’t understand. That’s why travelling has been important to me. You are attracted to something because you don’t know what it is or because it’s just attractive for some reason. Like rubber from the tyres of cars;
I love that material. When I see rubber in different forms, its elasticity, colour, flexibility, and plasticity have always been interesting to me. There is something maybe about soft and organic materials that I’m more attracted to about metal, which I don’t use that much in my work unless it’s a car. There is something physical that makes me get closer to some things, some materials and objects. But also there is somehow attraction in the ways they work, how they move and so on.

FM: What comes first, the idea or the findings? What is the role of chance in what you do? How open are you to that?

GO: Maybe finding is first. If you have an idea before you find something it is because you have a preconception. You have a Platonic idea, and I’m not very Platonic. I’m trying to find those squares triangles and circles in life as if they were the essence of nature and the universe. Everybody has prejudices and preconceptions and a culture behind [that]. I have those things too and I tend to look for some things, but I’m also trying to be neutral without prejudice about anything. Finding something is interesting and so is when you know what that something is. I start to explore it and experiment physically or conceptually with possibilities and my connection with that thing or that idea or that landscape or that entity. Then the idea starts to develop. It’s a process.
Chance is very important, yet I don’t call it a chance operation. I call it more of an awareness of the accidents that might occur during the process. Accidents sometimes become the strongest idea. When you are manipulating something or you are moving things around or something crashes or behaves in a different way than you expected, this can become more important than your preconception. Stability is just a momentary moment, a momentary stage of life. We live in constant accidents and unpredictable situations. You have to enjoy that in a way, to embrace unpredictability and accidents in life because that is the constant. In art, it’s the same. That’s why I have my working tables because I like to keep all the accidents that happen in the process of making big pieces and small pieces and things. If I put ideas on a table the brain starts to travel with those objects to generate their universes, developing them and enjoying all the little accidents and leftovers.

FM: Your projects are often incredibly complex. What role does longevity play in what you do? Are you trying to leave your mark?

GO: You mean longevity of the objects or the works, the durability of the works?

FM: As in the work becoming part of this world as something permanent. Earlier you mentioned time as something important in the way, you work. Yet time includes longevity and memory. Time could be short or could be forever, whatever forever means.

GO: I don’t see time in linear terms, but I find that sometimes a small gesture, that happens in reality for just a few minutes, you are able or lucky enough to take a picture of it or make a drawing of it or just remember it. It can have a long-lasting impact stay in your memory and influence your life. Even if it’s a small little thing that is ephemeral, and that has an unpredictable longevity because it is just how life happens.
The discovery of something can be just in one moment. When you make art, you also have that experience if you are aware of these things because sometimes larger works, that take you two years the make, in the end, don’t have longevity, don’t last very long—the impact of that painting or that sculpture or that house. Other times, an ephemeral gesture a joke or just a good romance that lasts for a week can have longevity and be meaningful for the rest of your life. That happens in art too. I decided to not be much concerned about longevity because I will not be able to control it anyway.

That’s why some of my installations or my objects are gestures that look fragile—they are truly fragile. It’s important to accept vulnerability in terms of physical strength. Also in terms of a statement we are trying to make or a discovery we did that can be vulnerable too. We don’t know exactly how people were looking at the Mona Lisa when it was painted.
The contemporaries of the Mona Lisa were looking at the painting that they were looking at in terms of their perception of reality and art, etc. Today, we see it in a very different way. In 100 years, it’s going to be perceived in a very different way. We change our way of seeing things. Longevity is just a social question.

FM: I want to ask you about the Bosque de Chapultepec. The Pedestrian Bridge that you designed in Mexico City, was commissioned by the President. When will it be finished, how did it come about and why is it important to you?

GO: What I was asked was to coordinate a huge project. I did the master plan for the integration of the whole park, which is a historical place around four times the size of Central Park. I just needed to do some interchange so it would start to behave as an ecosystem as it was subdivided with some of its areas abandoned. We have our big Museum of Anthropology and the Museum of Modern Art of Mexico there, also the Castillo de Chapultepec, the château that used to be the presidential palace for a very long time. We needed to work out from zero, to do some landscaping. I proposed to do three bridges on different levels so that a family or someone in a wheelchair can cross it with ease and enjoy it.

During the process, we hired a couple of architects but it didn’t work out so well so I ended up designing it myself and made it happen with very good engineers. It’s also based on my circular structures and arcades and things that are very prominent in all my work. When you are there, you feel that you are in a park. You don’t feel that you are crossing the periférico [ring road]. It’s a nice promenade…

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HERMES SS24 – Filep Motwary © Vogue Greece

HERMES SS24 – Filep Motwary © Vogue Greece

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VOGUE GREECE: RICK OWENS FW23/24

RICK OWENS FW23/24 – photography by Filep Motwary for Vogue Greece

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VOGUE GREECE: GIAMBATTISTA VALLI FW23/24

Giambattista Valli FW23/24 – photography by Filep Motwary for Vogue Greece

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Révélations 2023 presents #craftingcyprus at Le Grand Palais, Paris

Révélations 2023 presents #craftingcyprus

Un film écrit et réalisé par  Filep Motwary –
Cyprus Handicraft Service
Film – Documentaire
16 mn

7 > 11 Juin 2023 – Grand Palais Éphémère

Le Bureau de presse et d’information de Chypre @piocy en collaboration avec l’association @Cyprus_Handicraft_Service est fier de présenter la suite de la série #craftingcyprus , avec trois courts métrages supplémentaires, écrits et réalisés par Filep Motwary. Les trois nouveaux films se concentrent sur les domaines de la vannerie, de l’orfèvrerie et du mobilier et de la sculpture sur bois, ainsi que sur leur évolution tout en invitant le spectateur à découvrir le paysage et l’histoire qui sont à l’origine de ces arts. Soucieux d’encourager les artisans à préserver et à promouvoir l’artisanat d’art, Motwary aborde la vitalité du mentorat, de la synergie, de la vision et de l’importance de transmettre ses compétences à d’autres.Dans ce projet intime à long terme, l’objectif est de mettre en lumière l’artisanat traditionnel et contemporain, qui est peut-être le plus tangible de l’histoire du patrimoine culturel immatériel, et de renouer avec la beauté de Cybèle tant au niveau local qu’à l’étranger.

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Courrèges | Nicolas Di Felice

Interview Filep Motwary

 

Η τοποθέτηση του Nicolas Di Felice στη θέση του καλλιτεχνικού διευθυντή του Courrèges λίγο πριν από την 60ή επέτειο του γαλλικού οίκου, τον Σεπτέμβριο του 2020, σηματοδότησε το πέρασμα σε μια νέα εποχή για το θρυλικό brand και ξύπνησε την ελπίδα για ουσιαστική αναβίωση και επιστροφή στις καινοτόμες ρίζες του.

Από το 1961, ο André Courrèges, μαζί με την αγαπημένη του σύζυγο Coqueline, παρήγαν ρούχα εμπνευσμένα από ταινίες επιστημονικής φαντασίας, τα οποία χαρακτηρίζονταν από καθαρές γραμμές, καινοτόμα υλικά, όπως το πλαστικό, το μέταλλο και το βινύλιο, και έντονα χρώματα. Ο Courrèges ήταν για τη μόδα ό,τι ο Le Corbusier για την αρχιτεκτονική. Ο μόδιστρος-οραματιστής της διαστημικής εποχής έφερε τα πάνω κάτω με το που εμφανίστηκε, απελευθερώνοντας το σώμα από τον κορσέ που είχε επαναφέρει με έναν τρόπο στο προσκήνιο ο Dior μετά τον Β΄ Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο. Εδραίωσε την επωνυμία του δημιουργώντας φουτουριστικά ρούχα, σχολιάζοντας έτσι την εμμονή της εποχής του με ένα υπερ-τεχνολογικό μέλλον, και έτυχε διεθνούς αναγνώρισης και αποδοχής κυρίως από το νεανικό κοινό, στο οποίο άλλωστε επικεντρώθηκε ολόκληρη η δεκαετία του 1960, κατά την οποία γεννήθηκαν εκατοντάδες αντιφατικές μεταξύ τους τάσεις.

Στο σύνολό του, το στιλ Courrèges αποτελεί έναν μοναδικό συνδυασμό μοντερνισμού, καινοτομίας και απλότητας, με τεράστιο αντίκτυπο σε σχεδιαστές και κοινό για περισσότερες από πέντε δεκαετίες. Οι μοντέρνες ιδέες του σχεδιαστή αμφισβήτησαν τους παραδοσιακούς κανόνες της μόδας, ενώ μέχρι σήμερα θεωρούνται καινοτόμες, όπως ακριβώς συνέβη με τους συναδέλφους του Paco Rabanne και Pierre Cardin. Διαβάζοντας τα παραπάνω, είναι φυσικό κάποιος αμύητος να φαντάζεται υπερβολικές σιλουέτες. Αντιθέτως, τα ρούχα του ήταν φορέσιμα, βασισμένα στον μινιμαλισμό που επιτυγχάνεται μέσα από τη γεωμετρία, τη μονόχρωμη παλέτα και την απουσία διακόσμησης.

Μετά τον θάνατο του André Courrèges, το 2016, ο οίκος πέρασε μια περίοδο στρατηγικού σχεδιασμού, που θα του επέτρεπε να διατηρήσει και, κυρίως, να προστατεύσει την αισθητική του στο νέο τοπίο της μόδας, η οποία μετά την εμφάνιση των social media μεταβάλλεται συνεχώς, καλπάζοντας προς άγνωστη κατεύθυνση. Η πρόσληψη το 2015 του δημοφιλούς σχεδιαστικού διδύμου Coperni, Sébastien Meyer και Arnaud Vaillant απέτυχε λόγω εσωτερικών αναταράξεων και εταιρικής αβεβαιότητας. Σε λιγότερο από δύο χρόνια, οι δυο τους αποδεσμεύτηκαν και επικεντρώθηκαν στη δική τους επωνυμία. Ακολούθησε άλλη μια προσπάθεια αναβίωσης, με CEO την Christina Ahlers και τη Yolanda Zobel στον σχεδιασμό, που όμως άντεξε μόνο μία σεζόν. Μέχρι που, εν μέσω πανδημίας, το άκουσμα του ονόματος του Nicolas Di Felice ως επικεφαλής σχεδιαστή του Courrèges τάραξε τα νερά.

Ομολογώ ότι προσπάθησα αμέσως να τον συναντήσω, για να μάθω όσο περισσότερα μπορούσε να μου πει για τον νέο του ρόλο στον οίκο, για τον οποίο τρέφω βαθιά αγάπη και θαυμασμό. Όμως το γραφείο δημοσίων σχέσεων μου ζήτησε να κάνω υπομονή, προκειμένου ο επί δώδεκα χρόνια στενός συνεργάτης του Nicolas Ghesquière στον Balenciaga και στον Louis Vuitton και εν συνέχεια δίπλα στον Raf Simons στον Dior να δείξει για τουλάχιστον δύο σεζόν ότι κινείται στο επιδιωκόμενο πλαίσιο, πράγμα που εκείνος πέτυχε με την πρώτη του κιόλας επίδειξη, τον Σεπτέμβριο του 2021! Δεν θυμάμαι πώς κατάφερα να φτάσω εκείνο το κρύο και βροχερό πρωινό στο Bois de Vincennes, το μεγαλύτερο δημόσιο πάρκο στην ανατολική άκρη του Παρισιού, όπου, σύμφωνα με το δελτίο τύπου, ο Nicolas Di Felice και ο σύντροφός του αντάλλαξαν το πρώτο τους φιλί. Θυμάμαι μόνο πως στην είσοδο μοιράζονταν αδιάβροχα ponchos, το πόσο μου άρεσε η συλλογή και πόσο δυσκολεύτηκα να επιστρέψω στο κέντρο της πόλης. Ήταν ένας εφιάλτης!

Δύο χρόνια αργότερα, μόλις μία εβδομάδα μετά την παρουσίαση της συλλογής Άνοιξη/Καλοκαίρι ’23 του Courrèges, τον περασμένο Οκτώβριο, τηλεφώνησα τελικά στον Nicolas Di Felice. «Γεια σου, Filep, είδες που τα καταφέραμε;» μου είπε χαρούμενος σηκώνοντας το τηλέφωνο. Ο πάγος έσπασε αμέσως και ένιωσα ότι συνομιλούσα με έναν καλό φίλο! Το αμέσως επόμενο πράγμα που άκουσα από τα χείλη του ήταν πόσο αγαπάει την Ελλάδα. «Περνάω όλα μου τα καλοκαίρια στην Αμοργό, στην Αιγιάλη. Εκεί μόνο μπορώ να χαλαρώσω. Κάνω κράτηση τουλάχιστον δώδεκα μήνες πριν, γιατί δεν μπορώ να διανοηθώ ότι το μέρος όπου μένω μπορεί να έχει νοικιαστεί από άλλους και να μην μπορέσω να πάω», αποκαλύπτει.

Γεννημένος στην πόλη Charleroi του Βελγίου, μακριά από τις πρωτεύουσες της μόδας, ο ιταλικής καταγωγής Nicolas μεγάλωσε γύρω από τις βιομηχανίες εξόρυξης χάλυβα, σε μια terre noire όπως τη χαρακτηρίζει, όπου ο άνεμος σκεπάζει τα κτίρια με μαύρη σκόνη. Σπούδασε μόδα στη βελγική σχολή La Cambre, χωρίς ωστόσο να πάρει το πτυχίο του, αφού μια θέση για πρακτική που άνοιξε στον Balenciaga τον οδήγησε στο Παρίσι. «Όλα συμβαίνουν για κάποιο λόγο», πιστεύει.

«Ήταν μια περίοδος που είχα ανάγκη να δουλέψω. Ήθελα να αναπτύξω τις ιδέες μου, ένιωθα δημιουργικός. Είχα κουραστεί στη σχολή και ζητούσα περισσότερα. Όταν με πήραν στον Balenciaga, ήταν ένα πολιτισμικό σοκ για μένα, γιατί έφτασα στο Παρίσι από την underground σκηνή των Βρυξελλών να εργαστώ σε έναν από τους μεγαλύτερους οίκους μόδας, με βαριά ιστορία και τεράστιο αρχείο. Εκεί συνάντησα ανθρώπους που ήταν πολύ διαφορετικοί από οποιονδήποτε γνώριζα. Θυμάμαι πόσο είχα ενθουσιαστεί με τη Natacha Ramsay–Levi, η οποία με παρέλαβε με το που έφτασα. Με συνεπήρε και ήθελα να γίνω μέλος της ομάδας της. Κάθισα μαζί τους δύο μήνες και επέστρεψα στις Βρυξέλλες χωρίς να έχω σχέδια για το μέλλον. Σε λιγότερο από 48 ώρες όμως μου τηλεφώνησαν, προσφέροντάς μου μια θέση με συμβόλαιο! Έμεινα μέχρι το τέλος της θητείας του Nicolas Ghesquière στον Balenciaga. Κατόπιν πήγα στον Dior, όπου τα πράγματα ήταν διαφορετικά. Περνούσα δωδεκάωρα σχεδιάζοντας και ένιωθα πως ήμουν ξανά στο σχολείο – δεν ήταν για μένα, τουλάχιστον εκείνη την περίοδο. Όταν λοιπόν ο Ghesquière πήγε στον Louis Vuitton και με ρώτησε αν ήθελα να τον ακολουθήσω, το έκανα χωρίς δεύτερη σκέψη».

Όλα αυτά τα χρόνια, ο Di Felice απολάμβανε όσα του προσέφερε η καλή του τύχη, χωρίς να φαντάζεται ποτέ τον εαυτό του σε ηγετική θέση. Όσες προτάσεις για δουλειά τού είχαν γίνει σήμαιναν για εκείνον μια αλλαγή που δεν την επιδίωκε. Ένιωθε ευτυχισμένος εκεί που βρισκόταν. «Δεν ήταν ο βασικός στόχος μου. Ήμουν σε μια καταπληκτική ομάδα, με ικανούς βοηθούς, μέλος ενός εκπληκτικού ατελιέ, και είχα ένα αφεντικό σε συνεχή αναζήτηση, γεγονός που έκανε την κάθε μου μέρα ενδιαφέρουσα. Δεν βαρέθηκα ποτέ», ομολογεί. Μέχρι που του χτύπησε την πόρτα ο Courrèges! «Ήταν η πρώτη φορά που έκανα ένα βήμα πίσω για να δω από απόσταση αυτή τη μεγάλη ευκαιρία που μου προσφερόταν. Σκέφτηκα πως δεν ήμουν πια 20 χρονών, είχα φτάσει στα 36 και η πρόταση ήταν κατά κάποιον τρόπο επιβεβαίωση της εξέλιξής μου και μια επιβράβευση, αν θέλεις, για τη σκληρή δουλειά χρόνων. Την είδα επίσης ως μία ακόμη δοκιμασία λόγω της ιδιαιτερότητας του Courrèges. Πρόκειται για ένα όνομα με κάπως απόλυτη ταυτότητα, χρωματολόγιο, υφάσματα και σχήματα».

Βλέποντας τη θετική ανταπόκριση του κόσμου στη σχεδιαστική του προσέγγιση, σκέφτομαι πως το πάντρεμα μεταξύ Nicolas Di Felice και Courrèges ήταν μια σωστή κίνηση για τους ιθύνοντες του οίκου, συμπεριλαμβανομένης της Artémis, εταιρείας του François–Henri Pinault, στην οποία ανήκει το 30%. Τον ρωτάω τι του ζητήθηκε όταν ανέλαβε και ποιες ήταν οι πρώτες του σκέψεις. «Γνώριζα πολύ καλά τη δουλειά του André Courrèges και πριν ξεκινήσω παρακολούθησα κάθε συνέντευξή του που μπόρεσα να βρω, διάβασα τα πάντα γι’ αυτόν. Ήμουν τρομοκρατημένος μέσα μου, γιατί ήταν η πρώτη φορά που βρισκόμουν επικεφαλής οίκου, αλλά αντιμετώπισα την κατάσταση με ηρεμία, όπως θα έκανε κι εκείνος. Αυτό που έπρεπε κυρίως να πετύχω ήταν να νιώσω άνετος και ασφαλής. Ακόμα κι αν πέρασα 16 χρόνια σε γαλλικούς οίκους, παραμένω Βέλγος, με ό,τι αυτό συνεπάγεται. Μου αρέσει να παρατηρώ τα πράγματα με προσοχή, με ενδιαφέρει η λεπτομέρεια και η φόρμα μέσα από μια εμμονική, θα έλεγα, προσέγγιση. Είναι αστείο, γιατί μερικές φορές τείνω να συγκρίνω πράγματα ανόμοια μεταξύ τους, όπως τον Γάλλο André Courrèges με τη Βελγίδα Ann Demeulemeester, που, αν και δεν έχουν τίποτα κοινό, μπορείς να νιώσεις την προσωπικότητα πίσω από τη δουλειά τους λόγω της σταθερότητας που τη χαρακτηρίζει. Όλα όσα έκανε ο André Courrèges δεν αφορούσαν τη μόδα που αλλάζει κάθε έξι μήνες. Οι προτάσεις του ήταν κατά κάποιο τρόπο το μέσον για βελτίωση, όχι μόνο της εικόνας αλλά και του τρόπου σκέψης μας. Όλοι θεωρούν μεγαλύτερο επίτευγμά του τη φουτουριστική μόδα. Σίγουρα ήταν ένα κομμάτι του παζλ, όμως τον χαρακτήριζαν και πολλά άλλα πέραν της εμμονής του με την τεχνολογία. Το διαστημικό στιλ δεν ήταν τίποτε άλλο παρά μια τάση που υιοθέτησε όλος ο πλανήτης. Δεν ήταν δική του επινόηση. Αυτό που έκανε ήταν να την επεξεργαστεί με τον δικό του τρόπο ως χαρακτηριστική της εποχής. Η αλήθεια είναι πως είχε εμμονή και με το streetwear. Ήθελε να βλέπει τα ρούχα του στον δρόμο, και αυτό αποτελεί το κοινό μας σημείο. Στο δημιουργικό του ταξίδι έπαιξε μεγάλο ρόλο και η σύζυγός του, με την οποία έμεινε ερωτευμένος σε όλη του τη ζωή. Ήταν μια παθιασμένη ιστορία αγάπης κι εκείνη τον στήριξε μέχρι το τέλος. Το πάθος πάντα αποδίδει! Αυτό ήταν που με ενθάρρυνε να δώσω όλο μου τον εαυτό στη θέση που ανέλαβα. Θέλω κι εγώ να ντύσω τον κόσμο που κυκλοφορεί στους δρόμους, όπως έκανε κι εκείνος».

Στα παρασκήνια της επίδειξης λίγες ημέρες πριν από τη συζήτησή μας, ο μικρός χώρος πίσω από τις βαριές μαύρες κουρτίνες είναι κατάμεστος και γεμάτος ένταση. Μακιγέρ και κομμωτές κυκλοφορούν ανάμεσα στα μοντέλα προσπαθώντας να τελειοποιήσουν το look τους. Παρών είναι και ο ίδιος ο François–Henri Pinault, ο οποίος παρατηρεί με ενδιαφέρον την καρτέλα με τη σειρά εξόδου των κοριτσιών στην πασαρέλα και τις φωτογραφίες των looks. Απέναντί μου, το υπερμοντέλο Anne Catherine Lacroix φορά ένα δερμάτινο μπουφάν και αιχμηρά ασημένια σκουλαρίκια. Χαιρετιόμαστε με τα μάτια ενώ περιμένει να ακούσει το όνομά της για να μπει στη σειρά. Μαθαίνω πως, πέρα από τη δημιουργία μιας συνεκτικής και παγκόσμιας εικόνας για τον Courrèges, η οποία περιλαμβάνει εκτός από τα ρούχα και την αρχιτεκτονική των μπουτίκ, ο Nicolas Di Felice είναι επίσης υπεύθυνος για τη μουσική -την οποία συνθέτει με τον κολλητό του, Erwan Sene– και τη σκηνογραφία των σόου. Μέσα από τις χαραμάδες βλέπω τον χώρο όπου θα διεξαχθεί η επίδειξη γεμάτο κόσμο. Είναι μαγικό. Προσπαθώ να τραβήξω φωτογραφίες, όμως είναι αδύνατο, γιατί το σόου ξεκινά.

Η συλλογή για το καλοκαίρι που διανύουμε διαθέτει κυρίως body–con ρούχα που αποκαλύπτουν περισσότερα απ’ όσα κρύβουν. Στη λευκή αίθουσα τα μοντέλα περπατούν γύρω από έναν λοφίσκο από άμμο, δημιούργημα μιας αόρατης, υπερμεγέθους κλεψύδρας. Είναι ξεκάθαρο πως ο σχεδιαστής εμπνεύστηκε από το surf και το scuba. Τα μοντέλα φορούν ανακλαστικά αθλητικά γυαλιά ηλίου, υπερμεγέθη αξεσουάρ από δέρμα και βινύλ και μονόχρωμα looks που αποτελούνται από επίσης υπερμεγέθη πουκάμισα-φορέματα, γιλέκα και παντελόνια, με πολλά να φέρουν σε στρατηγικά σημεία το λογότυπο του οίκου.

«Κομμένα» τζιν και τα γνωστά λοξά φορέματα «naiad» συνοψίζουν τη γυναίκα Courrèges. Κάποια από τα μανεκέν περπατούν με βάδισμα αργό και αισθησιακό, κρατώντας στο χέρι τα slingback τους ή με δεμένα γύρω από τη μέση τα σακάκια τους. Διαπιστώνω ότι με αυτή τη συλλογή ο σχεδιαστής κοιτάζει πέρα ​​από το προφανές και ότι η ανοδική του πορεία στον Courrèges στηρίζεται στην ικανότητά του να αντιλαμβάνεται τις ανάγκες των νέων. Όσο η παρουσίαση εξελίσσεται, η άμμος πέφτει όλο και πιο γρήγορα, συμβολίζοντας τη ρευστότητα που φαίνεται να κυριαρχεί εδώ, με τη μορφή επίσης της διαφάνειας και της ελαφρότητας του μεταξιού. Η νεότητα, άμεσα συνδεδεμένη με τη χαρά της ζωής, παραμένει σταθερή αξία στον Courrèges. «Συχνά βλέπω ανθρώπους ντυμένους με ρούχα που ανήκαν στη μητέρα ή στη γιαγιά τους και νομίζω πως αυτός είναι ένας τρόπος ενίσχυσης της οικολογικής μας συνείδησης – να φτιάχνουμε ποιοτικά ρούχα που διαρκούν στον χρόνο. Προσωπικά δεν ασχολούμαι με το greenwashing, ούτε σχεδιάζω συλλογές που έχουν πάνω τους το σήμα “eco”. Αυτό που με ενδιαφέρει στον Courrèges είναι να φτιάχνω ρούχα που έχουν ουσία και δεν φεύγουν από τη μόδα. Ρούχα που ο αγοραστής τους δεν θα τα αποχωρίζεται ποτέ», καταλήγει.

 

 

 

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DAPPER DAN MAGAZINE ISSUE #27 | HARRI TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY

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KIM JONES | FENDI

Ο καλλιτεχνικός διευθυντής της ανδρικής συλλογής του Dior στο Παρίσι και ο σχεδιαστής γυναικείων ενδυμάτων του Fendi στη Ρώμη είναι το ίδιο πρόσωπο. Από την πρώτη κιόλας συλλογή του για τον γαλλικό οίκο, ο Βρετανός Kim Jones φάνηκε να έχει μεγάλη απήχηση στο γυναικείο κοινό, οπότε δύο χρόνια αργότερα, όταν εν μέσω πανδημίας προέκυψε η ευκαιρία να αναλάβει τη γυναικεία σειρά της ιταλικής φίρμας, την άδραξε χωρίς δεύτερη σκέψη, αδιαφορώντας για τον πρόσθετο φόρτο εργασίας.
Ο οίκος Fendi, παρά το βάρος της κληρονομιάς του, υπήρξε λιγότερο προβλέψιμος από τα άλλα μεγάλα brands πολυτελείας. Τη θέση του καλλιτεχνικού διευθυντή του κατείχε από το 1965 –και μέχρι το τέλος της ζωής του, το 2019– ο Karl Lagerfeld, στον οποίο είχε ζητηθεί αρχικά να αναβιώσει τη συλλογή του από γούνες. Περίπου μία δεκαετία αργότερα, ο ίδιος ανέλαβε και το prêt-à-porter, με τεράστια επιτυχία. Ο Γερμανός δημιουργός έχει δικαίως χαρακτηριστεί μία από τις μεγαλύτερες διάνοιες στην ιστορία της μόδας, αφού επρόκειτο για μια αναγεννησιακή προσωπικότητα που πίστευε βαθιά στο «anything is possible». Πέρα από την αξιοσημείωτη θητεία του στον οίκο Chanel, εκτοξεύοντας στα ύψη τη δημοτικότητα και τις πωλήσεις του, κατά τη διάρκεια της μακράς του καριέρας εργάστηκε για πολλά και διαφορετικά μεταξύ τους brands, όπως Pierre Balmain, Jean Patou, Krizia, Charles Jourdan, Tiziani, Valentino, Chloé και σε πολλά άλλα που δεν έμαθε ποτέ κανείς, καταφέρνοντας χάρη στο ταλέντο, στις γνώσεις και στη σχεδιαστική του ευφυΐα να υπηρετεί μέχρι και τρεις οίκους ταυτόχρονα! Ο Jones, πάλι, του οποίου η πορεία είναι επίσης αξιοθαύμαστη, θυμίζει τον προκάτοχό του στον Fendi, όχι λόγω κοινής αισθητικής –γιατί δεν θα ήταν αλήθεια αν ισχυριζόμουν κάτι τέτοιο–, αλλά για την τόλμη και την προσήλωση στον στόχο του. Όπως ο Lagerfeld, έτσι και ο Jones είναι μια «μηχανή» που συνεχώς εργάζεται, προγραμματίζοντας το επόμενο βήμα του. Επωνυμίες όπως Hugo Boss, Mulberry, Iceberg, Dunhill, Louis Vuitton και η σειρά Pastelle του Kanye West είναι μερικά από τα brands με τα οποία συνέδεσε το όνομά του, αποσπώντας ουκ ολίγες φορές τιμητικές διακρίσεις. Κατά τον ίδιο, το μυστικό της επιτυχίας κρύβεται στην περιέργεια που έχει κάποιος να ανακαλύψει τον κόσμο και στην αντίδρασή του στις αλλαγές που συμβαίνουν.

Έχουν ήδη περάσει δύο χρόνια από την ανάληψη των καθηκόντων του στον Fendi, όμως ο ίδιος νιώθει σαν την πρώτη μέρα. «Με το που πήγα στον Fendi, ξεκίνησα χωρίς δεύτερη σκέψη να δουλεύω με την καινούργια μου ομάδα. Αν και οι ρυθμοί ήταν πολύ γρήγοροι, τα πάντα λειτούργησαν τέλεια. Αυτό που χαρακτηρίζει έναν ιταλικό οίκο όπως ο Fendi, είναι οι οικογενειακοί δεσμοί και η αλληλεγγύη μεταξύ των μελών του. Αυτός είναι πράγματι ένας υγιής τρόπος για να εξελιχθούν τα πράγματα, πάντα σε συνδυασμό με τη δημιουργικότητα», μου λέει. Με ενδιαφέρει να μάθω ποια είναι η σχέση του με τη γυναικεία γκαρνταρόμπα –κάτι στο οποίο δεν ειδικευόταν πριν πάει στον Fendi– και από τι εμπνέεται. «Αυτό που είναι ενδιαφέρον όταν πρόκειται για γυναικεία ρούχα, είναι η τεράστια ποικιλία των επιλογών και των δυνατοτήτων που προκύπτουν κατά τη δημιουργία τους», απαντά. «Δεν επικεντρώνομαι μόνο σε έναν τύπο γυναίκας, δεν θα μπορούσα άλλωστε. Συναναστρέφομαι πολλές και διαφορετικές μεταξύ τους και με εμπνέουν όλες! Θέλω να ντύσω τις σύγχρονες γυναίκες με τη δική μου εκδοχή του Fendi. Πιστεύω στην οικογένεια ως κάτι ιδανικό που ενισχύεται από μια πληθώρα αξιών, καθώς και από τη γνώση που μεταφέρεται από γενιά σε γενιά. Κύριος στόχος μου είναι να κρατήσω ζωντανή αυτή τη φιλοσοφία. Αυτός ήταν και ο λόγος που, πέρα από τη Silvia Venturini Fendi, ήθελα στο πλάι μου και την κόρη της, την Delfina, να συμμετάσχει στην προσπάθεια μετάβασης του οίκου στη νέα του εποχή».

Οι προπαππούδες της Delfina Delettrez Fendi, Adele και Edoardo Fendi, ήταν εκείνοι που ίδρυσαν το 1925 στη Via del Plebiscito της Ρώμης την εταιρεία, η οποία ειδικευόταν στις γούνες και στα είδη ταξιδίου. Η παγκόσμια αναγνώριση ήρθε το 1946, όταν την ανέλαβαν οι κόρες τους, Paola, Anna –η μητέρα της Silvia–, Franca, Carla και Alda, πέντε διαφορετικές προσωπικότητες που συγκρότησαν μια «μητριαρχική συμμαχία». Όταν τα σκήπτρα πήρε ο Karl Lagerfeld, δεν ήθελε να παρακάμψει αυτή την τόσο ιδιαίτερη παράμετρο, που χαρακτηρίζει εξάλλου ολόκληρη τη φιλοσοφία Made in Italy. Αντίθετα, την ανέδειξε ως το σημαντικότερο στοιχείο της εξέλιξης του brand. Το ίδιο κάνει σήμερα ο Kim Jones. «Στον πυρήνα της δουλειάς μου για τον Fendi βρίσκεται η επιθυμία μου να γιορτάσω και να ενισχύσω τη δύναμη της θηλυκότητας», εξηγεί. «Στον χώρο εργασίας μου περιβάλλομαι από καταπληκτικές γυναίκες και απολαμβάνω να ακούω τις ιστορίες τους και να μαθαίνω νέα πράγματα μέσα από τη συνεργασία μαζί τους. Αφουγκράζομαι τις όποιες ανάγκες τους και ανταποκρίνομαι σε αυτές. Πρόκειται για πνευματώδεις γυναίκες που εργάζονται σκληρά, έχουν έντονη κοινωνική ζωή και τη δική τους οικογένεια. Στο μυαλό μου ο όρος “συλλογή” είναι συνυφασμένος με τις γυναίκες της ευρύτερης “οικογένειας Fendi”, τις ενδυματολογικές προτιμήσεις και τον τρόπο ζωής τους. Καθώς σχεδιάζω, λοιπόν, η φαντασία μου εστιάζεται σε ιδέες που θα κάνουν την καθημερινότητά τους ευκολότερη και πιο ευχάριστη».

Τον ρωτώ για τη σημασία του savoir faire στη δουλειά του για τον Fendi και πώς αυτό απηχεί την προσωπική δημιουργική του προσέγγιση σε μια περίοδο που η μόδα οδεύει προς ένα πλήρως ψηφιοποιημένο μέλλον, το οποίο οφείλει ωστόσο να είναι βιώσιμο προς όφελος του πλανήτη. «Η χειροτεχνία στον οίκο είναι υψίστης σημασίας και είναι σπουδαίο να γνωρίζεις ανθρώπους που φτιάχνουν πράγματα ανεκτίμητης αξίας, με τα χέρια τους να αποτελούν το μοναδικό τους εργαλείο», μου λέει με πάθος. «Σε μια πρώτη ανάγνωση, η ψηφιακή τεχνολογία και η δεξιοτεχνία φαίνεται να είναι αντίθετες έννοιες, αλλά στην πραγματικότητα αλληλοσυμπληρώνονται. Στον Fendi μάς ενδιαφέρει το ανθρώπινο άγγιγμα και το πώς η τεχνολογία μπορεί να το εξελίξει με τον πιο ωφέλιμο τρόπο. Θέλω ο κόσμος να γνωρίζει όλα όσα κάνουμε με κάθε λεπτομέρεια. Μπορείς να αγαπήσεις ένα ρούχο μόνο αν κατανοήσεις τον κόπο που κρύβεται πίσω του, την αγάπη των ανθρώπων για την τέχνη τους και τη γνώση που διατηρείται για πολλές γενιές ως επτασφράγιστο μυστικό. Ο Fendi έχει μια πλούσια ιστορία, με χιλιάδες διαχρονικά σχέδια που εξυμνούν την πολυτέλεια, κάτι που είναι ζωτικής σημασίας για τη συνέχεια του ταξιδιού μας στη μόδα. Είναι πολύ σημαντικό να σεβόμαστε οτιδήποτε προϋπήρχε, ειδικά όταν πρόκειται για ένα τόσο μεγάλο όνομα, ένα ορόσημο στη βιομηχανία της μόδας». Είναι σαφές πως για τον ίδιο δεν έχει σημασία το κόστος ενός πράγματος, αλλά η ποιότητα, η οποία ορίζεται από την ψυχή που θα του εμφυσήσει εκείνος που το φτιάχνει με τα χέρια του. Η τέχνη είναι που μας συγκινεί, και στη μόδα πολλά γίνονται πρωτίστως για την ομορφιά και μετά για οποιονδήποτε άλλο λόγο.

Η ενασχόληση του Kim Jones με τη μόδα ήταν η μοναδική του διέξοδος προκειμένου να οικοδομήσει ένα προσωπικό δημιουργικό σύμπαν, μέσα στο οποίο θα χωρούσαν όλα όσα του άρεσαν ως παιδί – κάτι που θεώρησε ότι δεν θα μπορούσε να κάνει ως φωτογράφος ή γραφίστας, για παράδειγμα. Εκείνο που τον τράβηξε είναι η πολυδιάστατη φύση της και το ότι σε αυτήν περιλαμβάνονται επίσης η ιστορία, ο κινηματογράφος, η φωτογραφία, η μουσική… Η μαγεία της, μου λέει, του αποκαλύφθηκε στην τρυφερή ηλικία των 14 ετών, όταν η μεγαλύτερη αδελφή του του έδωσε μια στοίβα με i–D, περιοδικό που τον εντυπωσίασε με το περιεχόμενό του και αμέσως ένιωσε πως ήθελε να γίνει μέρος αυτού του κόσμου. Γι’ αυτή του την επιλογή δεν είναι τυχαίες οι διαφορετικές επιρροές που δέχτηκε μεγαλώνοντας, καθώς, έχοντας χάσει τη μητέρα του σε πολύ μικρή ηλικία, περνούσε μεγάλο μέρος των διακοπών του με τον γεωλόγο πατέρα του σε άγονους τόπους, όπου εκείνος εργαζόταν σε αρδευτικά έργα σε περιοχές με πρόβλημα προσβασιμότητας σε καθαρό νερό – στον Ισημερινό, στην Κένυα, στην Μποτσουάνα, στην Αιθιοπία… Τελειώνοντας το σχολείο, σπούδασε στο Central Saint Martins, όπου είχε δασκάλα τη θρυλική Louise Wilson, που έφυγε από τη ζωή το 2014. Μαθητές της υπήρξαν επίσης ο Christopher Kane, η Phoebe Philo, ο Jonathan Saunders και ο Erdem Moralioglu, μεταξύ άλλων. Την καριέρα του την ξεκίνησε στις αρχές της δεκαετίας του 2000 και σε πολύ λίγο χρόνο έγινε γνωστός για την ικανότητά του να συνδυάζει ασύμβατα μεταξύ τους υλικά, δημιουργώντας συναρπαστικά υβριδικά ρούχα και αναβιώνοντας με μοναδικό τρόπο τη δεκαετία του ’90 μέσα από αναφορές στη rave μουσική σκηνή και στις εμπειρίες του από το λονδρέζικο clubbing. Η δική του επωνυμία –την οποία ανέστειλε το 2008 μετά την πρόσληψή του από την εταιρεία Dunhill– σηματοδότησε αναμφισβήτητα το ξεκίνημα του trend με τα αθλητικά είδη πολυτελείας, που έφτασε στο απόγειό του κατά το lockdown. Την ίδια χρονιά, το 2020, του απονεμήθηκε την ημέρα των γενεθλίων του ο τίτλος του αξιωματικού του Τάγματος της Βρετανικής Αυτοκρατορίας (OBE) για τις υπηρεσίες του στη μόδα.

H καλοκαιρινή prêt-à-porter συλλογή Fendi, που παρουσιάστηκε τον περασμένο Σεπτέμβριο, διαθέτει έντονο χρώμα, κυρίως στα αξεσουάρ, που σε συνδυασμό με τη σχεδιαστική ωριμότητα των ρούχων καταφέρνουν να δώσουν μια φρέσκια διάσταση στον οίκο. Φλούο πράσινο, μπλε και φλογερό κόκκινο έδωσαν μια εντελώς διαφορετική νότα σε αυτήν, σε σύγκριση με την άλλοτε ουδέτερη παλέτα, απολύτως συνδεδεμένη με το brand. Οι γνωστές τσάντες Peekaboo επανεμφανίστηκαν με αλυσίδες-ιμάντες, ενώ οι μικροσκοπικές Fendi–First έχουν λεπτές αλυσίδες που τυλίγονται στο χέρι ως κοσμήματα. Η έμφαση στο σώμα ήταν εμφανής, όπως επίσης οι επιρροές από το ανδρικό tailoring, με τον μινιμαλισμό –κυρίαρχη τάση της δεκαετίας του ’90– να αποτελεί την κυριότερη πηγή έμπνευσης τόσο στα μήκη όσο και στην εφαρμογή των ρούχων. «Η συλλογή αυτή πραγματεύεται την έννοια της συνέχειας, καθώς με ενδιέφερε να μελετήσω τις υπέροχες δημιουργίες του Karl Lagerfeld και να εξετάσω πώς θα μπορούσαμε να τις αναπτύξουμε τεχνικά και οπτικά. Ο Fendi διαθέτει ένα καταπληκτικό αρχείο – καταγοητεύτηκα από τα floral prints, καθώς και από ένα λογότυπο που παρουσιάστηκε για πρώτη φορά το 1996 και το οποίο, ενώ σαν ιδέα θα μπορούσε κάποιος να πει πως κρατάει τη νέα συλλογή στο παρελθόν, ωστόσο έχει προσαρμοστεί στο σήμερα», ανέφερε ο σχεδιαστής μετά το τέλος της επίδειξης.

Λίγους μήνες μετά, στις αρχές της νέας χρονιάς, έφτασε η στιγμή για την παρουσίαση της κολεξιόν Fendi Haute Couture στο Παρίσι. Αυτό που είδαμε ήταν μια ωδή σε οτιδήποτε αιθέριο, ένας διακριτικός επαναπροσδιορισμός των κυματισμών του μεταξιού στο σώμα, όπως είχε αποτυπωθεί στο μάρμαρο στην αρχαία Αθήνα και στη Ρώμη, αλλά και στο ασπρόμαυρο Χόλυγουντ του 1930. Και αν η γούνα και το δέρμα που καθόρισαν στο παρελθόν τον οίκο δεν αποτελούν πια τα βασικά υλικά του, έχουν αντικατασταθεί επάξια από το ολομέταξο σατέν, τις δαντέλες Chantilly και τα κεντήματα. Τα χρώματα αυτή τη φορά ήταν πιο ήρεμα και οι σιλουέτες σαγηνευτικές, τονισμένες από το ’90s slip–dress όπως φορέθηκε κατά την grunge περίοδο.
O Kim Jones μετράει ήδη την πέμπτη του σεζόν στον Fendi και η καθιέρωση μιας καινούργιας ταυτότητας γι’ αυτόν βρίσκεται επιτέλους στη σωστή τροχιά, συνεπής αισθητικά με τις απαιτήσεις του κοινού που αγαπά τον ιταλικό οίκο. «Ο σχεδιασμός μιας συλλογής είναι από μόνος του ρίσκο, γιατί μέχρι την τελευταία στιγμή δεν είσαι σίγουρος αν θα εκτιμηθεί και αν θα καλύψεις τις προσδοκίες των πελατών σου», μου λέει λίγο πριν ολοκληρωθεί η συνέντευξη. «Παρόλη την αβεβαιότητα όμως, θεωρώ τον εαυτό μου τυχερό, γιατί αυτό που κάνω είναι για μένα η απόλυτη ελευθερία – το να εργάζομαι δηλαδή ακολουθώντας το ένστικτό μου και εφαρμόζοντας ιδέες στις οποίες πιστεύω. Επιθυμώ να συνεισφέρω στον χώρο μέσα από ένα διαφορετικό από το αναμενόμενο πρίσμα. Πάντα κοιτώ τα πράγματα σαν παρατηρητής και έχω τα μάτια και τα αυτιά μου ανοιχτά. Νομίζω ότι είναι πολύ σημαντικό να σεβόμαστε την ταυτότητα ενός οίκου και να σκεφτόμαστε τι λειτουργεί θετικά γι’ αυτόν ώστε να εξελιχθεί. Προτεραιότητά μου παραμένει ο Fendi. Η κυριότερη ευθύνη μου είναι να τον κάνω υπερήφανο», καταλήγει.

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THOMAS HOUSEAGO

Interview by Filep Motwary

 

Thomas Houseago’s sculptures portray fear and passion, life and death, whimsy, hypnotic geometric walls, and the odd sexual egg. The only thing more fascinating is that this world-class sculptor is suddenly also a world-class painter, documenting his beloved California, his trauma, and his future.
I sat down with Houseago, who was born in Leeds and is now 50, to discuss everything under his moon and sun.

FILEP MOTWARY: You started painting at 50? Why didn’t you paint sooner?

THOMAS HOUSEAGO: I actually started with painting first—way back, in Leeds. It was my act of “resistance”; sculpture came later. I am a sculptor, yet people like to assume everyone can only do one thing, or at least one thing well. I convinced myself of that as well. But the truth is you just have to give yourself permission. I’m from the north of England, David Hockney is from the north of England, from Bradford—right next to Leeds—so his painting is almost in my blood; his journey to LA, the radical search for beauty in his work I had in me somewhere. But I felt I didn’t have the right to really be a painter. I didn’t feel I had the right temperament to paint.

I eventually went to meet David in his studio, and it completely zapped me, and changed me, almost by osmosis. He gave me permission, just by being. I felt I had finally come to a kind of artistic “home” with David. It’s very difficult to describe, but it was like he knew me: he immediately talked to me about Van Gogh and the danger of that energy.
He showed me another way of life and I drove home from that meeting weeping. Recently I saw his new flower paintings in France, and they blew my mind. I hope to one day capture that kind of hope—of light, of life. My California paintings are my attempt, in a way; my ode to David, to California, to the love I feel.

FM: Has David Hockney seen your paintings?

TH: That’s actually how I met David. He went to see the Black Paintings at Gagosian during that show in 2017. I was totally shocked he had gone, and he invited me to his Hollywood Hills studio—that’s how it began. I always felt, and still feel, safe, free, and at ease when I’m with him. My work obviously shifted dramatically after getting to know David.

FM: I can see that. Your use of vibrant colors and landscapes.  And what about your black paintings—who or what inspired them?

TH: Fear and a desire to live. The black paintings were about mourning, about a total loss of hope. They were mirrors, and I didn’t like what I saw so I tried for years to “finish” them in a different way and I lost; they won. They are really about that hopeless fear and yet a desire to live.

FM: “Fear and a desire to live” makes me think of your Bucha painting flanked by the sun and the moon—the magnificent works you created for the Centre Pompidou-Metz. Do you watch the news?

TH: Yeah, I do. I’ve been watching the January 6th attack [hearings] and, of course, following the war in Ukraine. I think, probably, we Europeans feel it in our bodies. This degree of violence to be unleashed is terrible to watch. I keep trying not to let myself get too consumed by it because you could say I’m, on some level, helpless. But on another level, my job as an artist is I’m a set of eyes. I’m a set of eyes and a nervous system.

FM: I totally agree. You’re describing all these things happening around you and inside of you at the same time and it seems to tie in with the title of your upcoming show, WE, at the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Finland. What is it about and how long have you been working on this project?

TH: I think I’ve been working on it spiritually for a very long time, and I think now in very real-time. I opened my eyes to other modes of creativity and understood the WE as joined creative energy; I opened up. This exhibition is hopefully going to tell a story of my journey from isolation: the real hopelessness of trauma through a painful rebirth into accepting love, feeling love, healing, friendship, opening up to and celebrating the collaborators—friends in my life—who were ambassadors of hope for me, no matter what I went through.

FM: Were you open to it?

TH: I was begrudgingly open. I thought art was difficult because sculpture is so difficult. It’s the most brutally impossible mode of creating. As a sculptor, you are trying to reach out. It’s a social act; putting these objects into space requires a social contract.

FM: It’s a big show and you invited your friends Brad Pitt and Nick Cave to be part of it. How did it come about?

TH: The show at the Sara Hildén Museum of Fine art is a show that had been planned for a while. First of all, it’s an incredible museum. It’s entirely female-founded and female-run, and they’ve been following my work forever and asking me to be part of a show. Sarianne Soikkonen is one of the really wonderful sorts of curators and thinkers. A kind, super thoughtful woman. She said, “Hey, how do you feel about finally doing the show? We’ve got you. We know you’ve been through this weird journey. We’ve seen the paintings in Brussels, and we want to do this.” I said, “Well, I’m not the me I was anymore. I’ve got to be honest. I can’t function like that. I don’t want to function like that.” They were interested and said, “Well, what do you mean?” I said, “Well, I’m spending a lot of time with these friends, and this means a lot to me.” Nick was making these ceramics. He’d been in my studio way back during Ghosteen time, and we had a lot of discussions about clay and art. Nick challenged me in the most beautiful ways and that was how I returned to art.
For me, Brad is a brother, family, my collaborator in life! He made me aware of the kind of “performance” sculpture is for me. We kind of parallel play. That was the first creative WE. I loved watching the creative dialogue between the group of us, the works they were making. It felt wrong to do this first show and not include them, that journey, too. My art upbringing, my trauma upbringing is, “I’m me. I’m an island. I’m the artist. I blah, blah, blah. I, I, I, I.” I started realizing, “No, I’m not an I. I’m a WE.” When I drop the notions of my originality and my ego and wanting, I have no I. I’m indistinguishable from anyone who tries to connect to me creatively. “WE become the dialogue.” That was a huge breakthrough, just in terms of grounding me, and making me realize I wasn’t alone. And so very quickly, the WE came about, in the most obvious way.

FM: I also wanted to ask you why we use color when we want to speak about happiness. Because it’s also rare in your work.

TH: Yes, that’s a great question; color is fascinating. I was always really drawn to color. I have a sort of embarrassing childhood love story with Van Gogh and was reading his letters. Color, for him, was a highly spiritual thing. I think I related to it without “knowing” it. Then, as I got into sculpture, I realized that if you look at the Moon Room, or if you look at, as my work got, let’s say, plaster-like, I realized God was in the shadows. And, by God, I mean the sublime, hope, that space—God was in form. God was in the complex tonnage of white plaster or clay with its cast. I saw it in that. Similar to when you look closely at an egg or a shell or the surface of the moon. So that, for me, was God at that time. My monsters, my totemic whatever you want to call it, were my struggle with, “How do I connect to God? Can I connect to God? Am I going to be eaten alive by this? Am I going to survive it?” Then I was kind of landing on these forms, the egg, the moon—trying to find God in these forms, surfaces, and shadows but struggling to reconcile it. Instead of falling into darkness, I landed in Malibu. In Malibu, I’ve found happiness: true friendship, love, joy, and happiness. There are still the dark times: I still need to paint out that poison, but I began weaving in the beauty I saw, memorializing it. The sunsets, moonrise over the ocean, and the trail runs through the hills, oaks, and flowers. My eyes and heart opened to the abundance of beauty: as Nick says in Carnage, “The moon is a girl with the sun in her eyes”.

FM: I love your references.

TH: We decide to find things beautiful. I don’t agree with nihilism anymore. I don’t agree with pure, scientific thought that two and two equal four because it’s not my experience. If two and two just equaled four, I would have never wanted to make art.

FM: Who does Thomas Houseago hold sacred, besides David Hockney?

TH: Well, for me, as a fatherless man, I was blessed to find these guides, these brilliant men, who I could look to. For me, it’s Charles Ray, whose work has impacted me profoundly from the day I saw the fire truck parked outside the Whitney in 93! And who has become, with his wife Silvia, deep friends. Then François Pinault—without him, I wouldn’t be where I am. I’m not sure I would have “survived” the art world. There are too many key works he supported and encouraged that wouldn’t exist without him. But then there are sacred figures in deeper time that I feel I need: right now, I’ve been looking a lot at Giotto. Certain frescos are really in my consciousness: how narrative is depicted, his use of gold, this symbolic vibration in everything he paints—from a boulder to St Francis!

FM: You often talk about the close community of friends you’ve been able to create for each other, but I saw that you had done some outreach work in your wider community. Tell me about your work in Watts, LA, and with The Orchid Foundation in New York.

TH: Deep in the pandemic, Flea [from Red Hot Chili Peppers] and the great artist Lauren Halsey was going to Nickerson Gardens in Watts, to just keep people fed in those awful first months of the pandemic. It really impacted me: I was honored to meet these incredible people refusing to give up hope, and making real, direct change. As I started to rebuild my own life, step by step, I realized it was essential to be part of adding beauty in any way I could. I wanted to specifically help young people who have difficult backgrounds and struggles if I could somehow help in creating opportunities.

And, through a series of almost magic coincidences, I met the incredible actress Nichole Galicia and her Orchid Foundation. I’m on the board of The Orchid Foundation—please check out their web- site and donate: this is a grassroots effort to make real change in the lives of Black and Brown kids from underserved communities. It’s a mentorship and scholarship program that’s really personal and thorough. The work they do is really special, super niche and hands-on. Every year we host an art-based fundraiser to provide college money to kids that otherwise wouldn’t be able to go. I’m proud to say that we put five girls through college last year. I insisted that we add boys this year so let’s see what we can get done. The web address is www.theorchidfdn.org.

FM: It’s interesting that you went from paintings to sculptures again. In the end, if I can say this, this is who you are. These humongous sculptures.

TH: Well, yeah, it’s for sure something I have been, something I needed to be. And I’m just in the last weeks starting to approach it again, hopefully with more mindfulness. But where I’m at now I’m just so in love, astonished by art forms of all kinds, all attempts at connection be it painting, sculpture, music, or film. With this latest sculpture, I’m going back into a monumental work that I’m making for the new LACMA building, where I’m hoping to really reach out to the city in a way I normally would never get the opportunity to. Its genesis began years ago when Trump first started talking about this “beautiful wall” he was going to build to separate the US and Mexico—this totally perverse statement. And, as an artist, I felt the need to try to approach a vortex where sculpture, architecture, politics, and something carrying hope could manifest. I had begun the project and Michael Govan [the director of LACMA] saw it and, without words, instantly understood what I was trying to do. In fact, he saw where I was trying to go and thus years of discussion began. Michael is a visionary, heart and soul—a true believer in artists and art. He also paved the way early for a WE vision of LA: he saw all of this potential that I only now am living and so it’s a deeply meaningful project. I have given, and will give, everything I can to it. I feel so proud our city has one of the greatest architects ever, Peter Zumthor, design this museum. It has been such a joy to meet and work with Peter. Michael does that: brings things together. From day one, he led the way: “Hey, we are all here in LA, a fantastic creative community—let’s bring everyone together. We can learn and nourish each other.” And it’s happening and it’s magic. My Beautiful Wall (for LA) will be my addition, my gift to LA because it’s a city that took me in, and loved on me and I love it with all my heart.

FM: As someone who makes these enormous bodies, whether they are abstract or defined, did you ever compare your body to one of your sculptures?

TH: Where I stand now, with what I now know, yes, totally. These figures were like my hidden alter egos—my demons, my tormentors, yet also my protectors: they held the trauma for me, so they saved me too. So, I tried to find the sublime in forms: the egg, the moon, the temple—places I could literally hide inside, trying to find a space for the sacred, for God. So, the simple answer is yes, because every work I make, from a big baby to a wall, to a thin skeleton, is me. It’s some itera- tion of my body. It’s my way of owning myself, reinventing myself: reincarnation, rebirth, death, dying,
connecting, loving, and releasing. And I can only hope that offering my journey it connects other humans, and makes something manifested, visible that can hopefully be of help.

FM: I totally understand and I think that with what you said before, the WE part, that it’s not about me, but it’s about us coming together and resolving things. I think it’s a perfect epilogue for this interview.

TH: One hundred percent.

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JUN TAKAHASHI | UNDERCOVER

Interview by Filep Motwary for Vogue Greece, March 2023

 

Η ευρωπαϊκή και αμερικανική μόδα δέχτηκαν τις μεγαλύτερες επιρροές στις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα από την Άπω Ανατολή, με ενδύματα όπως το γιαπωνέζικο κιμονό να αποτελούν έμπνευση για δημιουργίες που επέτρεπαν ελευθερία κίνησης, καλύπτοντας το σώμα με ευγένεια και ενθαρρύνοντας ταυτόχρονα τον ερωτισμό. Κατά την περίοδο 1950-1960, η δομή του εν λόγω ενδύματος λειτούργησε ως έμπνευση για «αρχιτεκτονικά» ρούχα, εκτοξεύοντας τη φήμη σχεδιαστών όπως ο Cristobal Balenciaga. Οι ριζοσπαστικοί Ιάπωνες δημιουργοί Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, Hanae Mori και Ιssey Μiyake, που πρωτοεμφανίστηκαν στο Παρίσι γύρω στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του ’70, συνέβαλαν, ο καθένας με τον δικό του τρόπο, στην εξάπλωση του φαινομένου Japonism, που είχε επηρεάσει στις αρχές του 19ου αιώνα και το καλλιτεχνικό κίνημα του ιμπρεσιονισμού. Στο πλαίσιο της μόδας, το Japonism έφερε αδιαμφισβήτητα καινούργια αισθητικά ερεθίσματα, αποτελώντας έναν αντικατοπτρισμό της εξέλιξης του ανατολικού τρόπου ένδυσης, και την οικειοποίησή του από τη Δύση ως ασφαλές μέσο απελευθέρωσης των φύλων, διεύρυνσης των πολιτισμικών ορίων και περιορισμού των ασφυκτικών κατά καιρούς τάσεων.

Ο σχεδιαστής Jun Takahashi από το Τόκιο, ο οποίος ξεκίνησε την καριέρα του το 1990, αμέσως μετά τις σπουδές του στο Bunka Fashion College, ακολούθησε μια εντελώς διαφορετική πορεία από εκείνη που χάραξαν οι προκάτοχοι συμπατριώτες του, πολύ απλά γιατί έκανε το αντίστροφο. Όντας ακόμα φοιτητής, εστιάστηκε στην εποχή του, δημιουργώντας το brand Undercover, που μέχρι σήμερα αποτελεί εξαίσιο παράδειγμα μιας θαρραλέας προσέγγισης του ενδύεσθαι, εμπνευσμένη από τον δρόμο και την πανκ, για να καταλήξει στα μεγάλα σαλόνια, ενώνοντας με επιτυχία τις κουκκίδες μεταξύ mainstream και underground κουλτούρας. Ο δημιουργικός χάρτης του περιλαμβάνει στοιχεία διαφορετικών μορφών έκφρασης, καθώς και εντυπωσιακές συνεργασίες με «ιερά τέρατα» της τέχνης, όπως οι Markus Åkesson, Cindy Sherman, Michaël Borremans κ.ά., τους οποίους συχνά εντάσσει στις συλλογές του με διάφορους τρόπους.

Ο Takahashi, που στα νιάτα του ήταν frontman των Tokyo Sex Pistols –ερμήνευαν διασκευές του γνωστού βρετανικού συγκροτήματος– και εμπνεόταν από την –πρόσφατα εκλιπούσα– Vivienne Westwood, είναι πλέον πατέρας δύο παιδιών και σχεδιαστής με παγκόσμια επιρροή, χάρη στην αντικομφορμιστική αισθητική του. Τον περασμένο Οκτώβριο, και έπειτα από δύο χρόνια απουσίας από την Εβδομάδα Μόδας, επέστρεψε στο Παρίσι δείχνοντας την πιο ευαίσθητη, ίσως, συλλογή του μέχρι σήμερα. Λέω ίσως, γιατί είναι αλήθεια ότι το κοινό φεύγει βαθιά συγκινημένο από κάθε παρουσίασή του. Η επίδειξη, που αυτή τη φορά έλαβε χώρα στον κατάμεστο από κόσμο καθεδρικό ναό της avenue Georges V., ακροβατούσε μεταξύ καθωσπρεπισμού και αναρχίας. Αυτή, άλλωστε, είναι η συνταγή της επιτυχίας της Undercover, που στηρίζεται πάντα σε αντιθέσεις, οι οποίες όμως συνθέτουν μια ενιαία οντότητα.

Εκείνο το απόγευμα, ενώ περίμενα έξω το νεύμα των PR για να περάσω στα παρασκήνια, επικρατούσε πανικός. Μπαίνοντας μέσα μόλις μισή ώρα πριν από την έναρξη του σόου, είδα τα μοντέλα σχεδόν έτοιμα, όλες τους καλλονές, ντυμένες με ρούχα που εξέπεμπαν διάφορα συναισθήματα, περιλαμβανομένης της επιθυμίας του Jun να επιστρέψει στο Παρίσι. Τα μάτια τους έλαμπαν από «παγωμένα δάκρυα» στα μάγουλα, ενώ τα μαλλιά τους, στολισμένα με δύο πλεξούδες που από μακριά έμοιαζαν με κέρατα, γυάλιζαν από την μπριγιαντίνη. Η συλλογή περιλάμβανε κοστούμια, φορέματα και casual πανωφόρια φτιαγμένα από καμπαρντίνα, crêpe de Chine, μεταξωτή ζορζέτα και βαμβάκι, και έμοιαζαν «χαρακωμένα» από μια αιχμηρή λεπίδα, ενώ κάποια είχαν τυπωμένα μηνύματα – «Love», «Dream», «Angel», «Sweet». Στο κουαρτέτο των κοστουμιών σε τόνους γκρι, κόκκινου, lime και καφέ που άνοιξαν την παράσταση, οι χαρακιές ήταν φινιρισμένες με λευκή δαντέλα Chantilly και οι ντραπέ λεπτομέρειες άφηναν γυμνό το δέρμα. Μαύρα, κόκκινα και λευκά τριαντάφυλλα διακοσμούσαν ώμους, μπούστα, πέτα και ζώνες. Μέσα στον πολύ λίγο χρόνο που είχα, προσπάθησα να φωτογραφίσω όσα περισσότερα looks μπορούσα. Ήταν όλα μαγικά! Θα μπορούσαν να είναι ρούχα κάποιου άλλου οίκου σκέφτηκα, όπως η Chanel, και αποφάσισα να το πω στον Jun. Προς το παρόν τον αποχαιρέτησα, επιβεβαιώνοντας το ραντεβού μας για το επόμενο πρωί στο ξενοδοχείο όπου διέμενε. Φτάνοντας εκεί, με ενημέρωσαν πως είχε βγει για τρέξιμο. Μου έκανε εντύπωση που συνεχίζει να κάνει πράγματα που συνήθιζε 15 χρόνια πριν, όταν έτρεχε 10 με 15 χιλιόμετρα την ημέρα, νούμερο που όπως μου είχε πει αυξανόταν συνεχώς. Όταν επέστρεψε, του έδωσα θερμά συγχαρητήρια για την επιτυχία της προηγούμενης ημέρας. Η συλλογή του αποθεώθηκε –δικαίως– από το κοινό και τους δημοσιογράφους, και ο ίδιος έδειχνε ευχαριστημένος.

«Τι είδαμε χθες, λοιπόν;» τον ρωτώ. «Το σημείο εκκίνησης γι’ αυτή τη συλλογή ήταν η επιθυμία μου να δημιουργήσω καθημερινά ρούχα με μια απροσδόκητη ανατροπή», μου λέει. «Αυτή τη φορά τα κύρια χαρακτηριστικά των ρούχων είναι τα αιχμηρά κοψίματα και οι πολλαπλοί τρόποι να φορεθούν. Προσέγγιση που μπορεί να δίνει για ακόμα μία φορά πανκ αίσθηση, ωστόσο εκπέμπει και μια αβίαστη κομψότητα – είναι ρούχα που μπορούν να φορεθούν από το πρωί μέχρι το βράδυ. Δεν θα έλεγα πως είναι κάτι καινούργιο, αυτή είναι η πραγματική φύση της δουλειάς μου, που παραμένει σταθερή για περισσότερο από δύο δεκαετίες». Πράγματι, αυτό που έχει ορίσει εξαρχής την Undercover αισθητική είναι η ασάφεια. Ίσως επειδή ο Takahashi ίδρυσε το brand του τη στιγμή που η οικονομική φούσκα της Ιαπωνίας ήταν έτοιμη να σκάσει και γι’ αυτό οι δημιουργίες του αποκάλυπταν, πέραν της τόλμης και της εφευρετικότητας, μια «επισφάλεια». Στο αβέβαιο κλίμα που και σήμερα βιώνουμε, αυτός ο συνδυασμός αυτοπεποίθησης, ευθραυστότητας και χιούμορ είναι εξαιρετικά επίκαιρος. Τον ρωτώ για την εξέλιξή του από το 1990 μέχρι σήμερα.

«Ποτέ δεν είδα την εξέλιξή μου αποκλειστικά με βάση το Τόκιο. Έδειξα τη δουλειά μου στο Παρίσι, πεπεισμένος ότι ήταν ο φυσικός της χώρος», απαντά. «Εκεί ήταν που διαπίστωσα επίσης κάτι πολύ σημαντικό: την απουσία σεξουαλικότητας και φινέτσας στα ρούχα που έδειχνα στη χώρα μου. Αναγκάστηκα έτσι να επαναπροσδιορίσω την ταυτότητά μου, δουλεύοντας σκληρά. Έγινα πιο δεκτικός σε επιρροές, ώστε να δημιουργήσω νέα σχέδια που εντέλει αποτέλεσαν τη βάση της εξέλιξής μου. Ήταν κάτι που έπρεπε να γίνει για να προχωρήσω στο επόμενο στάδιο, όχι μόνο της καριέρας, αλλά και της ζωής μου. Μιλώντας για την πελατεία μας, μπορώ να πω ότι πλέον είναι σταθερή, ειδικά οι άνδρες που αγοράζουν τα ρούχα μας με τον ίδιο ενθουσιασμό, σε αντίθεση με τις γυναίκες με τις οποίες η σχέση μας ολοένα και εξελίσσεται. Από τότε που ξεκινήσαμε να δείχνουμε τη δουλειά μας στο Παρίσι, η γυναίκεια συλλογή ωρίμασε, έγινε είδος πολυτελείας, με αποτέλεσμα να είναι ακόμα πιο ελκυστική σε εκείνους που μπορούν να την αποκτήσουν. Οι διαφορές σε σχέση με το ξεκίνημα αυτού του ταξιδιού είναι κάτι περισσότερο από εμφανείς», πιστεύει. Μιλώντας για την εικόνα ως ένα από τα κύρια χαρακτηριστικά της ανθρώπινης ύπαρξης, του ζητώ να αποσαφηνίσει τη διαφορά μεταξύ «ιαπωνικής» και «ευρωπαϊκής» κομψότητας και τι σημαίνει για τον ίδιο. «Οι Ιάπωνες δεν συνηθίζουμε να βγαίνουμε έξω ντυμένοι με κομψά ρούχα», εξηγεί. «Στα δικά μου μάτια η ιαπωνική μόδα είναι κάτι “ακατάστατο”. Όταν αναφέρομαι λοιπόν στην κομψότητα, τη διαχωρίζω σε δύο είδη: αυτήν που προκύπτει από την απλότητα κι εκείνη που απορρέει από τις επιλογές σε συνδυασμό με την προσωπικότητα του ατόμου. Το μυστικό της δικής μου κομψότητας, αυτής που δημιουργώ ως Jun, βασίζεται σε μια μείξη κομψών και άκομψων στοιχείων – αν βγάζει νόημα αυτό που λέω».

Επιστρέφοντας στη φετινή συλλογή του, παρατηρώ ότι κάποιες προτάσεις του για το ερχόμενο καλοκαίρι περιλαμβάνουν oversized Τ-shirts, τα οποία θυμίζουν τη συσχέτισή του με τους Sneaker Geeks, καθώς και με την ιδιοφυΐα πίσω από το brand A Bathing Ape, τον επίσης Ιάπωνα NIGO®, με τον οποίο ο Jun δημιούργησε τη θρυλική Nowhere στο Τόκιο – την μπουτίκ που ξεκίνησε το 1993 και έγινε η πρώτη βιτρίνα που φιλοξένησε τα ταλέντα των δύο δημιουργών. Έχω μπροστά μου μια φωτογραφία της ανεπιτήδευτης βιτρίνας της Nowhere, που δύο δεκαετίες αργότερα αποτελεί ξανά αφετηρία για το δεύτερο κύμα επιρροής της ιαπωνικής μόδας σε όλο τον κόσμο, εξίσου συγκινητική όσο μια τραβηγμένη στο Λονδίνο νεανική φωτογραφία του Jun με ντεκαπαρισμένα μαλλιά, να κάνει μορφασμούς στην κάμερα. Πράγματι, ο όρος «πανκ» περιλαμβάνεται στη φιλοσοφία της Undercover, από μόνος του όμως είναι περιοριστικός σε σχέση με το εύρος της σκοτεινά μαγευτικής, επαναστατικής και συχνά παράξενης φαντασίας του Takahashi. «Από παιδί εμπνέομαι από την πανκ κουλτούρα και από πράγματα απέναντι στο κατεστημένο», παραδέχεται. «Θέλω να πιστεύω πως αυτό είναι εμφανές στις δημιουργίες μου. Το να σχεδιάζω ρούχα είναι η πηγή από την οποία αντλώ ενέργεια για την ύπαρξή μου. Είναι το μόνο που μπορώ να κάνω, ανεξάρτητα από τις συνθήκες. Ως εκ τούτου, όλα όσα κατά καιρούς παρουσιάζω αντικατοπτρίζουν τον σκοπό για τον οποίο έχω γεννηθεί. Δεν με ενδιαφέρει η μαζική παραγωγή “αστικής” μόδας του δρόμου. Για μένα ορισμός του “street” είναι η δύναμη και η φρεσκάδα της νεολαίας, οι σκεϊτάδες της πόλης και οι νέοι που χορεύουν στα κλαμπ μέχρι την αυγή. Από αυτούς εμπνέομαι και θα εμπνέομαι για πάντα», τονίζει.

Ακούγοντάς τον, φέρνω στον νου μου την πρώτη συλλογή που παρουσίασε στην πασαρέλα το 1994, αποδίδοντας τα γνωστά basics ως ξεχωριστά στοιχεία, που με τη μέθοδο του layering κατέληγαν σε εξωπραγματικές σιλουέτες με περιγράμματα υψηλής ραπτικής. Μέσα στα χρόνια οι συλλογές Undercover εξελίχθηκαν, άφησαν πίσω τις πρωταρχικές τους εμμονές και κινήθηκαν προς άλλες, ευφάνταστες εξερευνήσεις της θηλυκότητας και του savoir faire. Όπως συνέβη με τους Rei Kawakubo και Junya Watanabe, και για τον Takahashi η κλασική οδός για τη δημιουργία ρούχων διαφοροποιήθηκε, καταλήγοντας σε ένα πραγματικά μοντέρνο αποτέλεσμα. Παρακολουθώντας κανείς τη διαδρομή του συναρπαστικού brand του, ανακαλύπτει το κινηματογραφικό εύρος του έργου του σχεδιαστή, με επαναλαμβανόμενα στοιχεία που εξερευνώνται μέσα από τις εποχές που αλλάζουν.

Με τον Jun γνωριστήκαμε πριν από πολλά χρόνια στο Παρίσι. Είχα νιώσει τότε ότι υπήρχε μια σύνδεση μεταξύ μας – ως δύο άνθρωποι που βρίσκονται σε μια συνεχή δημιουργική αναζήτηση και προσπαθούν να προσδιορίσουν, μέσα από την ύλη, το άυλο, το συναίσθημα, την πνευματική ολοκλήρωση. Θυμάμαι ακόμα ότι στην εκπνοή της δεκαετίας του 2000, σε μια γκαλερί στην περιοχή St Germain, ο Takahashi παρουσίαζε μια συλλογή από κούκλες που επινόησε και έραψε ο ίδιος στο χέρι και οι οποίες σύντομα έγιναν γνωστές ως Grace Dolls. Δεν έγινε ποτέ ξεκάθαρο εάν αυτά τα συναρπαστικά και κάπως τρομακτικά πλάσματα είναι εχθρικά ή φιλικά, πέραν του ότι ανήκουν σε μια μυστική οργάνωση που ονομάζεται «Gila». Με αφορμή αυτές, τον ρωτώ για το ανθρώπινο σώμα, όπως κάνω με όλους τους σχεδιαστές με τους οποίους συνομιλώ, επειδή με ενδιαφέρει η αντίληψή τους γύρω από αυτό. Γιατί, άραγε, προσπαθούμε να το επαναπροσδιορίσουμε αιώνες τώρα; «Εάν πράγματι υπάρχει ένας νέος τύπος ανθρώπινου σώματος, με ενδιαφέρει πολύ να σχεδιάσω ρούχα γι’ αυτό», μου λέει. «Όπως ξέρεις, οι κούκλες Grace έχουν τέσσερα χέρια, ενώ το σώμα τους είναι πολύ διαφορετικό από το δικό μας. Απολαμβάνω να τις φτιάχνω και να φαντάζομαι ρούχα γι’ αυτές, είναι κάτι διασκεδαστικό για μένα. Η αλήθεια, ωστόσο, είναι πως δεν υπάρχει κάποιος σωματότυπος που να θεωρώ ιδανικό όταν σχεδιάζω. Γιατί, αν αυτά που φτιάχνω αγνοούν το Χ σώμα, μεγάλο μέρος τους θα καταλήξει στον κάδο των σκουπιδιών. Θέλω τα ρούχα μου να είναι πρακτικά και ρεαλιστικά».

Πριν τον αποχαιρετήσω, τον ρωτώ για τη σημασία τού να είναι κανείς ρομαντικός. «Στη δική μου περίπτωση νομίζω ότι αυτό έχει να κάνει με τη δειλία μου. Θα ήθελα να είμαι πολύ πιο τολμηρός», αποκαλύπτει. «Βρίσκομαι πολύ μακριά από το να χαρακτηριστώ αισιόδοξος. Ο ρομαντισμός είναι στο τέλος της ημέρας ο τρόπος για να βρω την ισορροπία μου σε αυτόν τον ανισόρροπο κόσμο. Ρομαντισμός για μένα είναι τα ρούχα που φτιάχνω, και σε αυτά εμπεριέχεται η ισορροπία που χρειάζομαι για να συνεχίσω», καταλήγει.

 

 

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DANIELA BUSARELLO – A FILM WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY FILEP MOTWARY

125SPACE

Daniela Busarello – Levitas in Gravitas

07.03 – 09.04.2023

Curated by Lydia Theodoridou

125SPACE | 125 Georgiou A’ Germasogeia 4048 – CYPRUS

@daniela_busarello    @silvergreenmoments   @Space125 _

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KULT FESTIVE

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #39 | INTERVIEW NOIR KEI NINOMIYA by FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread: KEI NINOMIYA interview by Filep Motwary. The story was published in Vogue Greece, January 2023 issue and was later shared online.

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #38 | INTERVIEW OLIVIER ROUSTEING by FILEP MOTWARY for CHANGE MAKERS 2022

Not available to read online. For more on this years edition of CHANGE MAKERS, tap here

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NOMAS MAGAZINE – MILANO ISSUE | CARLA SOZZANI talks to FILEP MOTWARY

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #38 | INTERVIEW ELIE SAAB by FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread: ELIE SAABA interview by Filep Motwary. The story was published in Vogue Greece, DECEMBER 2022 issue and was later shared online.

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #37 | INTERVIEW No21 ALESSANDRO DELL’AQUA by FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread: ALESSANDRO’S No21 interview by Filep Motwary. The story was published in Vogue Greece, November 2022 issue and was later shared online.

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DAPPER DAN MAGAZINE ISSUE #26 | TERENCE KOH TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #36 | INTERVIEW CECILIE BAHNSEN by FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread: DANISH INTUITION – CECILIE BAHNSEN interview by Filep Motwary. The story was published in Vogue Greece, October 2022 issue and was later shared online.

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #35 | INTERVIEW WITH HERMES – NADEGE VANHEE CYBULSKI by FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread: BEYOND THE EQUESTRIAN – NADEGE VANHEE CYBULSKI  interview by Filep Motwary. The story was published in Vogue Greece, September 2022 issue and was later shared online. Read it HERE

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DAPPER DAN MAGAZINE ISSUE #26 | THOMAS HOUSEAGO TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread from the hard-print issue of Dapper Dan Magazine FW22/23

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #34 | INTERVIEW WITH YE by FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread: THE ART OF COOL – YIORGOS ELEFTERIADES  interview by Filep Motwary. The story was published in Vogue Greece, July – August 2022 issue and was later shared online. Read it HERE

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NOIR | Kei Ninomiya

Interview by Filep Motwary

Ακολουθώντας τον δρόμο που άνοιξαν άλλοι συμπατριώτες του σχεδιαστές, ο Ιάπωνας Kei Ninomiya μπήκε στον χώρο της μόδας με τη φιλοδοξία να παρουσιάσει κάτι νέο. Σήμερα, ο ιδρυτής της σειράς noir οδηγεί τη βιομηχανία του ρούχου στη νέα της εποχή, επαναπροσδιορίζοντάς την.
Σε έναν χώρο που ορίζεται από την ταχύτητα και την αφθονία, όπως είναι η βιομηχανία της μόδας, η φιλοδοξία της δημιουργίας κάτι εντελώς καινούργιου μπορεί εύκολα να οδηγήσει αυτόν που την έχει στο περιθώριο, αφού βασικό κίνητρο είναι κατά κύριο λόγο η επανεφεύρεση οικείων κωδίκων. Σχεδιαστές που έχουν κάνει τη διαφορά, όπως ο Glenn Martens και ο Demna Gvasalia, με έργο καινοτόμο και ανατρεπτικό, θεωρούνται προστάτες άγιοι μιας γενιάς για την οποία τα regrams και τα reworks είναι απλώς μέρος του δημιουργικού της λεξιλογίου. Μέσα σε αυτό το περιβάλλον, κάποιες αξίες όπως η αυθεντικότητα παραμένουν ζητούμενο. Όσο πιο κοινότοπη και κοσμική, δε, γίνεται η ευρεία αγορά της μόδας, τόσο πιο απρόβλεπτοι είναι οι αληθινοί δημιουργοί.
Όπως η χαρισματική, οραματίστρια και αινιγματική Rei Kawakubo, η δημιουργική δύναμη πίσω από την Comme des Garçons, κάτω από την ομπρέλα της οποίας δραστηριοποιούνται δύο ακόμα επωνυμίες με πρωτοπόρο πνεύμα που παρουσιάζουν τη δουλειά τους στην Εβδομάδα Μόδας του Παρισιού: ο Junya Watanabe, ένας από τους πολλούς προστατευόμενους της Rei και από τους πλέον εφευρετικούς σχεδιαστές σήμερα στον κόσμο, ο οποίος ίδρυσε το ομώνυμο brand το 1992, και ο Kei Ninomiya του noir, που αντιμετωπίζει τη μόδα ως το μέσον για να φτιάχνει μεγαλεπήβολα γλυπτά – όπως συμβαίνει εξάλλου και με την Kawakubo. Εκπληκτικά «γλυπτά», πράγματι, που όμως η χρησιμότητά τους δεν εξαντλείται στη θέασή τους, είτε διαδικτυακά είτε σε κάποιον μουσειακό χώρο, αλλά ζωντανεύουν φορεμένα πάνω σε αληθινά σώματα, που αναδεικνύουν τη σύλληψη της ιδέας και την αριστοτεχνία της κατασκευής τους.

Τα ρούχα με την ετικέτα noir kei ninomiya προκύπτουν από μια μείξη αναπάντεχων συνδυασμών, ένα είδος «αλχημείας». Από μακριά φαντάζουν σαν άθραυστες πανοπλίες που κρατούν το σώμα ασφαλές, όσο όμως το βλέμμα φτάνει πιο κοντά, οι σιλουέτες μαλακώνουν, μοιάζουν εύθραυστες. Κάποιες φορές χάρη στις πλούσιες πτυχές των υφασμάτων, άλλοτε επειδή αυτά διπλώνονται και στρίβονται για να μετατραπούν σε παράξενες μάζες που θυμίζουν λουλούδια, αποκαλύπτοντας τη δεξιοτεχνία πίσω από την κατασκευή τους. Πολύπλοκα σχήματα, τεχνικές που θυμίζουν origami, κουκούλια που μοιάζουν φτιαγμένα από πλήθος φυσαλίδων, αιχμηρές απολήξεις, όγκοι που παραπέμπουν σε φανταστικά πλάσματα, άλλα γυμνά και στιλπνά και άλλα τριχωτά, είναι μερικές από τις ιδέες που έχει παρουσιάσει ο Ninomiya στις πασαρέλες του Παρισιού από το 2019, όταν έδειξε εκεί την πρώτη του συλλογή. Ρούχα το ράψιμο των οποίων περιορίζεται στο ελάχιστο, αφού τα ιδιαίτερα σχήματά τους παίρνουν μορφή από την κίνηση των σωμάτων, καθώς τα διάφορα υλικά συνδέονται μεταξύ τους με μεταλλικά στοιχεία ή έξυπνα εσωτερικά συστήματα περιπλεγμένων ιμάντων και ατσάλινων δακτυλίων. Θα μπορούσε κάποιος να τα παραλληλίσει με τη «μεταλλική ραπτική» του Paco Rabanne και του André Courrèges από τη δεκαετία του 1960, όμως μια τέτοια σύγκριση θα ήταν άστοχη, γιατί εδώ δεν έχουμε μια ρετρό αντιμετώπιση, αλλά έναν επίκαιρο μοντερνισμό, απόλυτα εμπνευσμένο από και προσαρμοσμένο στο σύγχρονο περιβάλλον. Πρόκειται για δημιουργίες που δεν στοχεύουν στον εντυπωσιασμό, αλλά σε προκαλούν να διακρίνεις το ταλέντο πίσω τους μέσα από μικρές, «ήσυχες» λεπτομέρειες.

Η συζήτησή μου με τον Kei Ninomiya έγινε διαδικτυακά, ενώ βρισκόμουν στη Φλωρεντία κι εκείνος στο Τόκιο. Μέσα από την οθόνη, ο 38χρονος με τη χαρακτηριστική, άκαμπτη, κατάμαυρη κουπ μοϊκάνα μου εκμυστηρεύεται το πάθος του για την Comme des Garçons από τη στιγμή που είδε δημιουργίες της σε μια μπουτίκ στην πατρίδα του, σε ηλικία 16 ετών. Έκτοτε, όνειρό του ήταν να καταφέρει κάποια στιγμή να ενταχθεί στην ομάδα της. Ευγενικός και φιλικός, κρατάει χαμηλούς τόνους όταν αναφέρεται στη δουλειά του, δίνοντάς μου να καταλάβω σχεδόν αμέσως ότι, όπως και η Kawakubo, είναι ένας από τους πιο λιγομίλητους πρωταγωνιστές της μόδας. Κάτι που μπορεί να προκαλέσει αμηχανία στον συνομιλητή του, ίσως όμως και όχι, αν σταθεί στην ουσία των πραγμάτων. Μου διηγείται ότι, αφού πήρε το πτυχίο του στη Γαλλική Φιλολογία από το Πανεπιστήμιο Aoyama του Τόκιο, συνέχισε με σπουδές μόδας στη Βασιλική Ακαδημία της Αμβέρσας. Το 2008, κι ενώ δεν είχε ακόμα αποφοιτήσει, αποφάσισε να στείλει το βιογραφικό του στην Comme des Garçons και σύντομα κλήθηκε να περάσει από συνέντευξη με τον ανώτερο δημιουργικό διευθυντή του brand, Junya Watanabe. Αυτό ήταν! Η Rei Kawakubo τον προσέλαβε αμέσως, με αποτέλεσμα να εγκαταλείψει τις σπουδές του για να ενταχθεί στην ιαπωνική εταιρεία, όπου εργάστηκε ως δημιουργός πατρόν επί μία τετραετία, μέχρι που το 2012 του δόθηκε η ευκαιρία να λανσάρει τη δική του επωνυμία κάτω από την ομπρέλα της Comme des Garçons, με μοναδικό χρώμα στον καμβά του το μαύρο, που σιγά σιγά έδωσε χώρο στο αγνό λευκό και στο παθιασμένο κόκκινο. Μου εξηγεί ότι επέλεξε το μαύρο για να μάθει να εστιάζει, να ζυγίζει και να δοκιμάζει τα δημιουργικά του όρια.

Ήταν θέμα χρόνου να κερδίσει την εμπιστοσύνη του κοινού. Παρά την επιτυχία όμως, ακόμη και σήμερα στέκεται με δέος απέναντι στη Rei Kawakubo. «Ακόμα κι αν προσπαθείς να δημιουργήσεις κάτι νέο, υπάρχουν στιγμές που δεν έχεις άλλη επιλογή από το να ακολουθήσεις το ρεύμα, σωστά; Αλλά η Rei κάνει οτιδήποτε άλλο παρά αυτό. Ζει και δημιουργεί οδηγούμενη μόνο από το ένστικτό της», μου λέει και μου αποκαλύπτει πως το όνομα noir kei ninomiya ήταν στην πραγματικότητα δική της ιδέα. Ο ίδιος διαθέτει μια σπάνια ικανότητα να φαντάζεται τις φόρμες, όπως ένας αρχιτέκτονας που αντιλαμβάνεται με τον νου του τον χώρο, πριν τον σχεδιάσει. Οι τεχνικές, δε, που εφαρμόζει κατά την κατασκευή των ρούχων του υπηρετούν τη δομή τους, λειτουργώντας ως συνδετικά και μαζί διακοσμητικά στοιχεία, όπως οι κρίκοι μιας αλυσίδας. Αν παρατηρήσετε την εσωτερική πλευρά ενός κομματιού noir, θα νιώσετε σαν να βλέπετε ένα μοριακό μοντέλο επιστημονικού πειράματος. Ο συνδυασμός χειροτεχνίας, τεχνολογίας και μηχανικής που εφαρμόζει για να «χτίσει» τις δημιουργίες του είναι πρωτότυπος, ταυτόχρονα όμως ενσωματώνει την πλούσια ιαπωνική παράδοση, αλλά και την καινοτομία που γιγάντωσε μεταπολεμικά τη χώρα, μετατρέποντάς τη σε αντικείμενο γοητείας και φετιχισμού τη δεκαετία του 1980. Τότε, το 1982 συγκεκριμένα, ήταν που η Rei Kawakubo έριξε μια «βόμβα» στις αστικές παραδόσεις της ραπτικής του Παρισιού με τη συλλογή της Holes, με αποδομημένα φορέματα με ακατέργαστες άκρες φορεμένα από ανδρόγυνα waifs. Ήταν μια εντελώς άγνωστη Γιαπωνέζα που πρότεινε ξεφτισμένα υφάσματα, ρούχα που κρέμονταν από το σώμα, πρόσωπα χωρίς μακιγιάζ και αχτένιστα μαλλιά, κατακτώντας την κορυφή του στιλ. Οι πνευματικοί κύκλοι έσπευσαν να υιοθετήσουν την αμφιλεγόμενη αυτή εμφάνιση, ενώ σχεδόν δύο γενιές σχεδιαστών έχουν εμπνευστεί από τη ριζοσπαστική δουλειά της. «Ακόμα δεν ξέρω γιατί με επέλεξε», ομολογεί με ειλικρινή απορία ο Ninomiya, και του απαντώ πως φαντάζομαι ότι το έκανε επειδή το ταλέντο του είναι αδιαμφισβήτητο.

Δράση και όχι λόγια, αυτή είναι η στάση ζωής της Rei, και ο Kei το ένιωσε από πρώτο χέρι και το εξωτερίκευσε. Τι έμαθε λοιπόν από εκείνη; «Ότι ανεξάρτητα από το πόσο καλή είναι η δουλειά σου, ό,τι κι αν έχεις κάνει στο παρελθόν δεν είναι ποτέ αρκετά καλό», εξομολογείται και μου εξηγεί πως αυτά που μάθαινε όσο ήταν φοιτητής δεν είχαν καμία σχέση με αυτά που έκανε αργότερα στην Comme des Garçons. «Εξελίχθηκα δουλεύοντας ως μέλος μιας ομάδας που αλληλοσυμπληρώνεται, στηρίζοντας μια ολόκληρη επιχείρηση – παίζονται χρήματα και συνεπώς η ευθύνη είναι μεγάλη. Αυτό αναγκαστικά σε ωριμάζει. Διανύουμε μια νέα εποχή και το να είναι κάνεις γενναίος δεν έχει την ίδια έννοια με 30-40 χρόνια πριν. Ο κόσμος είναι πλέον εντελώς διαφορετικός, οι άνθρωποι εξελίσσονται μέσα από τα κοινωνικά δίκτυα και αυτό σίγουρα επηρεάζει τη μόδα – για παράδειγμα, βλέπουμε πια να παρουσιάζονται οι συλλογές μέσω διαδικτύου. Εκείνο που παραμένει ίδιο είναι η χειρωνακτική πλευρά της δουλειάς, την οποία και ξεχωρίζω. Ποτέ δεν προσπάθησα πραγματικά να καθιερώσω ένα προσωπικό στυλ και τρόπο δουλειάς. Απλώς προσπαθώ να φτιάξω νέα πράγματα, που οι άνθρωποι δεν έχουν ξαναδεί, σύμφωνα πάντα με τη δική μου αισθητική». Μου λέει πως δεν απευθύνεται σε κανέναν τύπο γυναίκας, είναι μια λεπτομέρεια που δεν τον αφορά, του αρκεί τα ρούχα του να βρίσκουν ανταπόκριση. «Το ότι κάποιοι θα τα αγοράσουν και θα νιώθουν καλά φορώντας τα, σημαίνει ότι πρόκειται για κάτι περισσότερο από ένα εμπόρευμα», τονίζει.

Η παρουσίαση της συλλογής του για την τρέχουσα σεζόν έγινε στο Τόκιο, στα γραφεία της Comme des Garçons. Χωρίς καμία δυνατότητα παρέμβασης, οι θεατές -δημοσιογράφοι, φίλοι του brand και κοινό- παρατηρούσαμε σιωπηλά στην οθόνη μας μια συλλογή που έμοιαζε με φόρο τιμής στις κινηματογραφικές ηρωίδες του Tim Burton, χαρακτηριστικό της οποίας ήταν τα χρώματα που φώτιζαν τη γνώριμη, μαύρη του παλέτα. Τον ρωτώ για την έμπνευση πίσω από αυτήν. «Ξέρεις, Filep, δεν ξεκινώ ποτέ από ένα mood-board. Φτιάχνω κάποια πρώτα δείγματα και συνεχίζω να δημιουργώ αυθόρμητα, ακολουθώντας το ένστικτό μου. Αυτή τη φορά σημείο εκκίνησης ήταν τα tailored jackets και η ανάγκη μου να βρω μια νέα μετάφραση για το μαύρο, που αποτελεί στοιχείο της υπογραφής μου». Έτσι, αναζητώντας φωσφορίζοντα υλικά, επινόησε ένα καινούργιο, ζωηρό προφίλ για το brand του, χρησιμοποιώντας avant garde τεχνικές και μικρές λεπτομέρειες που κάνουν, τελικά, τη συλλογή συνεκτική, με κάθε ρούχο να διηγείται τη δική του ιστορία. Ξεχωρίζουν οι τρισδιάστατες υφές που ζωντανεύουν το περίγραμμα της σιλουέτας, τα αξεσουάρ κεφαλιού από πλεγμένο σύρμα που μοιάζουν με φωλιές πουλιών, τα κολιέ-ακίδες, τα νέον χρώματα πάνω από τα μαύρα ρούχα που λειτουργούν σαν βάσεις – όλα μαζί συνθέτουν δυναμικές και ενδιαφέρουσες εμφανίσεις που καθόλου δεν στερούνται κομψότητας. «Σε αυτή τη συλλογή υπάρχει ένα κοινό, οργανικό και γήινο θέμα, που μπορεί να διακρίνει κανείς σε όλα τα σχέδια. Οι φωτεινές πράσινες λεπτομέρειες μοιάζουν με φύκια ή βρύα, οι τούλινες δέσμες θυμίζουν την υδρόγειο, ενώ οι οριζόντια τοποθετημένες αλυσίδες τα λέπια ενός ψαριού», εξηγεί.

Όπως κάνει συχνά, πειραματίστηκε και αυτή τη φορά με τις υφές, δίνοντας βάθος ακόμα και στα πιο σκούρα υφάσματα. Οι πρώτες δύο σιλουέτες που εμφανίστηκαν στην οθόνη ήταν από μαύρο τούλι και από ένα εμπριμέ ύφασμα με ανάγλυφα καπιτονέ σε μοβ τόνους που τόνιζαν στρατηγικά σημεία, όπως οι γοφοί και οι ώμοι. Τα φερμουάρ ήταν ένα άλλο κοινό στοιχείο τους, όπως επίσης τα λουριά και οι αγκράφες που διασταυρώνονταν στο μπούστο και στα μπατζάκια, δίνοντας μια αίσθηση workwear. Και, τελικά, σε ένα απόλυτα φουτουριστικό φινάλε, εμφανίστηκαν μια σειρά από εξαιρετικά ρούχα-γλυπτά. «Δεν θέλω να περάσω κανένα μήνυμα με τις συλλογές μου», μου λέει όταν τον ρωτώ για τη σύνδεση μόδας και περιβαλλοντικής κρίσης. «Προσπαθώ να σχεδιάζω δυναμικές και όμορφες δημιουργίες. Υπό μια ευρεία έννοια, λοιπόν, μπορούν άνετα να συνδεθούν με τη δύναμη της φύσης». Ωστόσο, λαμπροί σχεδιαστές, ιδιαίτερα αυτοί που υποστηρίζονται από την Comme des Garçons, έναν από τους σημαντικότερους οίκους μόδας της εποχής μας, δεν δημιουργούν απομονωμένοι, είναι δέκτες των προβληματισμών του κόσμου, που αυτή τη φορά φέρνουν στο επίκεντρο την προστασία του περιβάλλοντος. Η μόδα έχει λάβει το μήνυμα και γι’ αυτό παρατηρούμε μια στροφή στις χειροποίητες τεχνικές, σε αναζήτηση αυτού που θα κάνει τη διαφορά, αλλά και στη μείωση της παραγωγής μεταξύ άλλων. Και η σειρά noir φαίνεται να καταγράφει όλα αυτά τα ρεύματα. Για τον Ninomiya, η όλη διαδικασία είναι καθαρά ενστικτώδης. «Είμαι εργασιομανής. Μου προκαλεί δυσφορία να αφήνω τη δουλειά μου στη μέση. Η μόδα με γοητεύει ως μέσο έκφρασης. Όταν δουλεύω, πάντα αναρωτιέμαι πώς θα αντιμετωπίσουν οι επόμενες γενιές αυτά που φτιάχνω. Εργάζομαι στον ίδιο χώρο με άλλους, αλλά η πορεία που ακολουθώ είναι εντελώς διαφορετική. Το ιδανικό για μένα είναι να σκέφτονται οι άλλοι ότι κάνω κάτι ενδιαφέρον. Όχι μόνο η Rei και ο Junya, αλλά και άλλοι παίκτες στη βιομηχανία της μόδας. Υπόσχομαι ότι θα προσπαθώ πάντα για το καλύτερο», καταλήγει.

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ALESSANDRO DELL’AQUA

Ο Alessandro Dell’Αcqua αναδεικνύεται σε κυρίαρχο του παιχνιδιού, δημιουργώντας για άλλη μια φορά στην καριέρα του μια αναγνωρίσιμη ετικέτα, η οποία συνδυάζει τις διαχρονικές αξίες της μόδας με τις επίκαιρες στιλιστικές αναζητήσεις. O Filep Motwary συνάντησε τον Ιταλό σχεδιαστή μόδας.

Από το 1996 που πρωτοεμφανίστηκε στην Εβδομάδα Μόδας του Μιλάνου μέχρι σήμερα, ο Alessandro Dell’Acqua είναι ένα από τα πιο σημαντικά ονόματα που ορίζουν το Made in Italy, με μια πορεία-εξαίρετο παράδειγμα τόλμης, αυτοπεποίθησης και δεξιοτεχνίας. Ο σχεδιαστής από τη Νάπολη έγινε γρήγορα γνωστός για την εκλεπτυσμένη προσέγγιση του γυναικείου σώματος, και παραμένει επίκαιρος χάρη στη συλλογή N°21 που υπογράφει τα τελευταία δώδεκα χρόνια. Αυτό το δημιουργικό εγχείρημα, του οποίου το όνομα εμπνεύστηκε από τον τυχερό του αριθμό -την ημερομηνία των γενεθλίων του-, αποτελεί τη διέξοδο που χρειαζόταν ώστε να εκφραστεί αυθεντικά και πέρα από κάθε περιορισμό που πιθανόν του έθεταν οι οίκοι με τους οποίους συνεργάστηκε κατά καιρούς.

Μιλάμε μέσω Zoom και η γεμάτη ενδιαφέρον κουβέντα μας κυλάει αυθόρμητα. Θέλοντας να πάρουμε την ιστορία από την αρχή, του ζητώ να μοιραστεί μαζί μου τις νεανικές του επιρροές. Μου απαντά με ενθουσιασμό ότι το μεγαλείο, η εκφραστική και η αισθητική γενναιοδωρία του κινηματογράφου ήταν αυτά που τον ενέπνευσαν να ξεκινήσει το δικό του ταξίδι. «Τα πάντα για μένα άρχισαν από το σινεμά – από τον ιταλικό νεορεαλισμό και τις όμορφες πρωταγωνίστριες, που παραμένουν ανεξίτηλες στον χρόνο», μου λέει. «Ίσως να έπρεπε να γίνω ηθοποιός, ώστε να παραμείνω κι εγώ στην αιωνιότητα μέσα από ταινίες, γεμάτες καλαισθησία και σημασία στη λεπτομέρεια. Ήμουν όμως ντροπαλό παιδί, κι έτσι προτίμησα να γίνω σχεδιαστής μόδας. Εύχομαι με αυτά που κάνω να συμβάλω κάπως στην ομορφιά, όπως την προέβαλαν οι μεγάλοι σκηνοθέτες που τόσο θαυμάζω».

Ο ίδιος γνωρίζει καλά τη διαφορά μεταξύ πραγματικότητας και φαντασίας, και αντιμετωπίζοντας και τις δύο ως αστείρευτες πηγές έμπνευσης, δημιουργεί εκπληκτικά ρούχα που συμβάλλουν στην επικοινωνία μεταξύ των ανθρώπων, αποτελώντας μια καλή δικαιολογία για να επενδύσει κανείς σε αυτά. Μου λέει πως από την αρχή είχε την υποστήριξη σημαντικών ανθρώπων, όπως η Franca Sozzani, ο Edward Enninful, εκπρόσωποι του ιταλικού και του διεθνούς Τύπου και στιλίστες. «Όταν ξεκινούσα, ομολογώ ότι δεν ήμουν βέβαιος πως θα μπορούσα να ενταχθώ σε αυτή την τόσο απαιτητική βιομηχανία. Ήθελα να είμαι αυθεντικός και μέχρι σήμερα παραμένω πιστός στις αρχές μου και στους λόγους που επέλεξα αυτό το επάγγελμα. Την περίοδο μεταξύ 1996 και 2000 περνούσα φανταστικά, γιατί ήμουν πολύ νέος και ένιωθα πραγματικά ελεύθερος, χωρίς εμπορικές δεσμεύσεις. Με την ωρίμανση του brand Alessandro Dell’Acqua, όμως, η επαγγελματική μου στάση αναγκαστικά έπρεπε να αλλάξει και μαζί ο τρόπος σκέψης μου».

Το 2009 αποχώρησε από την επωνυμία του, αφού πρώτα κοινοποίησε μια ανοικτή επιστολή προς τον Τύπο, στην οποία μεταξύ άλλων ανέφερε ότι η Cherry Grove, η εταιρεία που παρήγαγε και διένειμε τις συλλογές του, δεν του επέτρεπε να ελέγχει πλέον την ποιότητα των προϊόντων που υπέγραφε. Η απόφασή του να φύγει ήταν μονόδρομος, ώστε να προστατεύσει τους επαγγελματίες και το κοινό από είδη που του ήταν παντελώς άγνωστα. Ωστόσο, όταν μια πόρτα κλείνει, μια άλλη ανοίγει, κι έτσι τον Μάιο του 2010 προσλήφθηκε από τον Brioni ως δημιουργικός διευθυντής της σειράς γυναικείων ενδυμάτων του, συνεργασία η οποία τερματίστηκε τον επόμενο χρόνο. Την ίδια χρονιά γεννήθηκε η επωνυμία N°21, με μοντέρνα γυναικεία ρούχα, στην οποία προτέθηκε αργότερα η ανδρική σειρά, με άμεση διάθεση σε καταστήματα στο Μιλάνο και στο Τόκιο. Παράλληλα, το 2013 ο Dell’Acqua ανέλαβε δημιουργικός διευθυντής στον θρυλικό Rochas, όπου παρέμεινε έξι χρόνια. «Θεωρώ υγιές το ότι εργάστηκα και σε άλλα brand πέραν του δικού μου», παραδέχεται. «Αυτή η συνεχόμενη εναλλαγή ρόλων από τη μία αισθητική στην άλλη μού χάρισε την ευελιξία που μου έλειπε. Η περίοδος στον Rochas, για παράδειγμα, ήταν πολύ σημαντική, γιατί βρισκόμουν σε ένα περιβάλλον όπου δουλεύαμε με τις αρχές της υψηλής ραπτικής. Υπήρχαν μέρες που εργαζόμουν ταυτόχρονα για το δικό μου brand και για τον Rochas. Με φαντάζεστε να φτιάχνω στενά δερμάτινα παντελόνια με τρουκ για τη N°21 και δύο ώρες αργότερα να σχεδιάζω βραδινές τουαλέτες από satin duchess με κεντήματα από τον Lesage; Πρόκειται για δύο πράγματα εντελώς διαφορετικά μεταξύ τους. Ήταν σχεδόν σχιζοφρενικό! Από τη μια ένιωθα πως όλο αυτό με έσπρωχνε να γίνω ακόμα καλύτερος και ταχύτερος, από την άλλη όμως, και βλέποντας σήμερα τα πράγματα από απόσταση, δεν μπορούσα να αφιερώνω τον χρόνο που έπρεπε στις συλλογές, και αυτό ήταν λάθος. Το τρελό μου πρόγραμμα επηρέαζε αρνητικά και την ομάδα μου, που έπρεπε να είναι συνεχώς σε εγρήγορση, έτοιμη να φέρει εις πέρας κάθε νέα ιδέα. Ήταν πολύ δύσκολο».

 

Μελετώντας την πορεία του, γίνεται προφανές ότι μεγάλο μέρος της φήμης του βασίστηκε στην αξία των δημιουργιών του, δεδομένου ότι έγινε γνωστός χωρίς τη βοήθεια των social media, σε αντίθεση με τους νέους σχεδιαστές σήμερα. Η επιτυχία τότε εξαρτιόταν απόλυτα από τη σκληρή δουλειά, την επιμονή και, βεβαίως, από το ταλέντο. «Τα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης άλλαξαν τον κόσμο και συνεπώς την αισθητική και τα όριά μας», εκτιμά. «Θυμάμαι πόσο σημαντική ήταν η κριτική των δημοσιογράφων μόδας και πόσο επηρέαζαν το κοινό με τα κείμενά τους στις εφημερίδες και στα περιοδικά, που ήταν πάντα αιχμηρά και ειλικρινή. Είχαν όση δύναμη χρειαζόταν για να ανυψώσουν έναν σχεδιαστή ή να τον ενθαρρύνουν να εξελιχθεί. Σήμερα όλα εξαρτώνται από τους followers. Είναι, ίσως, ευκολότερο να είσαι φωτογενής και αυτό είναι αρκετό για τον περισσότερο κόσμο, που δεν έχει πια τον χρόνο ή τη διάθεση να ψάξει και να μελετήσει κάτι εις βάθος. Όλα κινούνται με γοργούς ρυθμούς. Προσωπικά προτιμώ έναν κόσμο χωρίς την επιρροή των social media, τουλάχιστον σε ό,τι αφορά τη μόδα. Ίσως χρειάζεται να βρεθεί ένας νέος τρόπος επικοινωνίας, πιο ειλικρινής. Στα social η δράση και η αντίδραση είναι πλέον άμεσες και πολλές φορές δεν έχουν καμία απολύτως σημασία. Θυμάμαι ότι παλιά μεσολαβούσαν μέρες, μπορεί και εβδομάδες, μέχρι να λάβουμε τις πρώτες εντυπώσεις από τον Τύπο. Και ήταν πάντα ακριβείς. Το μεγαλύτερο πρόβλημα σήμερα είναι πως το ενδιαφέρον για τη μόδα έχει μετακινηθεί. Οι σχεδιαστές εστιάζουν περισσότερο στο εφήμερο, στην ατελείωτη λίστα των celebrities και όχι στα ίδια τα ρούχα. Για να οικοδομήσουμε το μέλλον, όμως, οφείλουμε να γνωρίζουμε καλά την ιστορία αυτού που έχουμε αναλάβει να υπηρετήσουμε και να εξελίξουμε», πιστεύει. «Η περιέργεια και, επιτρέψτε μου να πω, η αυτοβελτίωση είναι απαραίτητα σε κάθε δημιουργό, πόσω μάλλον σε αυτή τη δουλειά, που βασίζεται στη συνεχή εξέλιξη. Δεν πρέπει όμως να ξεχνάω πως ανήκω σε άλλη γενιά και ίσως είμαι περισσότερο αυστηρός απ’ όσο πρέπει».

Δεδομένου ότι μου αρέσει να παρακολουθώ τη νέα γενιά, να γνωρίζω δημιουργούς οι οποίοι δεν έχουν ακόμη ιδρύσει δική τους επωνυμία ή, απλώς, μόλις έχουν τελειώσει κάποια σχολή, να βοηθώ όσο μπορώ εκείνους που βλέπω ότι έχουν προοπτική, δεν μπορώ να μην παραδεχτώ ότι υπάρχουν πολλά ταλέντα εκεί έξω που χάνονται μέσα στην ομοιομορφία που επικρατεί στο ίντερνετ. Για να υπάρξει εξέλιξη, χρειάζεται να βάλουν την προσωπικότητά τους σε αυτά που φτιάχνουν, αλλιώς η δημιουργικότητά τους θα εξανεμιστεί. Και η εξίσωση αυτή είναι πολύ δύσκολη.

Ας επιστρέψουμε όμως στον Dell’Acqua, για τον οποίο η κάλυψη των γυναίκειων αναγκών μέσα από μια σχεδιαστική προσέγγιση που τείνει να είναι περισσότερο ανδρική είναι κάτι φυσικό. Όμως, δεν του αρκεί η απλή αποδόμηση ενός μπλέιζερ, για παράδειγμα, επιδιώκει να απαλύνει τις αυστηρές γραμμές του προσθέτοντάς του καμπύλες -το πιο θελκτικό χαρακτηριστικό του γυναίκειου σώματος-, κάνοντάς το έτσι να μοιάζει με κορσέ. Η τεχνική της «κορσερί» επαναλαμβάνεται στη δουλειά του, χαρίζοντας αισθησιασμό στις κατά τα άλλα απατηλά αστικές προτάσεις του.

Η συλλογή του γι’ αυτόν τον χειμώνα έρχεται με δυνατούς, κάπως πεσμένους ώμους, άψογο tailoring, τονισμένη με μαεστρία μέση και σιλουέτες που θυμίζουν κλεψύδρα. Όμως, το σώμα προσεγγίζεται με σεβασμό, χωρίς να ασφυκτιά. Αν και το σεξ στον χάρτη της μόδας αποτελεί για κάποιους ταμπού, ο Dell’Acqua το ασπάζεται και το προβάλλει χωρίς δισταγμό. Η σαγήνη, το φλερτ και το πάθος αποτελούν συστατικά ενός κόσμου που αποθεώνεται μέσα από τη μυθοπλασία του σινεμά, και αυτό τον εξιτάρει ακόμα περισσότερο. Για την τρέχουσα συλλογή του δεν χρησιμοποίησε καμία προφανή αναφορά ή έμπνευση. Όπως μου εξομολογήθηκε, ήθελε απλώς να επιστρέψει στη ραπτική, εφαρμόζοντας τις ιδέες του πάνω στο ίδιο το σώμα. Υπάρχουν αρκετά δείγματα draping, πότε σε δέρμα, μοχέρ ή τουίντ και πότε σε κασμίρι και σε αραιοπλεγμενα knitwear, που αγκαλιάζουν τη σιλουέτα σχεδόν με στοργή. Ο αισθησιασμός κυριαρχεί και σε άλλες προτάσεις, με παγέτες, στρας, νεοπρέν υφές και χαβανέζικα μοτίβα με φοίνικες και εξωτικές παραλίες σε κάπες, παλτά και εφαρμοστά κολ ρουλέ στις αποχρώσεις του καφέ – όλα ιδέες που υποστηρίζουν μια μοντέρνα επιτήδευση. Οι συνθετικές γούνες, πάλι, κλείνουν το μάτι στις καμπάνιες για τη διάσωση των ζώων του πλανήτη, παρατείνοντας τη ζωή τους για ακόμα μία σεζόν. Τι πλούτος, τι φρεσκάδα, τι ελευθερία! σκέφτομαι.

«Η μείξη γυναικείων και ανδρικών στοιχείων, οι απροσδόκητοι συνδυασμοί και τα εσκεμμένα λάθη με ωθούν να δίνω νέα πνοή στο όραμά μου. Θέλω οι γυναίκες και οι άνδρες που φορούν τα ρούχα μου να έχουν εμπειρίες, να μην είναι πολύ νέοι. Το street style παίζει σημαντικό ρόλο στη μόδα εδώ και χρόνια. Ο όρος έχει ευρεία εφαρμογή και μπορεί να σημαίνει πολλά διαφορετικά πράγματα την ίδια στιγμή. Αυτό είναι κάτι που θέλω να αλλάξω μέσα από τη διατήρηση της υψηλής ποιότητας και την επαναφορά αξιών που σιγά σιγά χάνονται. Το sportwear τα τελευταία χρόνια έχει γνωρίσει ευρύτατη αποδοχή, ειδικά μάλιστα μετά την πανδημία. Πάει πολύς καιρός όμως που η μόδα βίωσε μια πραγματικα μεγάλη αλλαγή, μια ουσιαστική επανάσταση, μια αφορμή για επανεκκίνηση. Όντως υπάρχει κρίση και ένα ταρακούνημα είναι αναγκαίο για να πάμε μπροστά. Θα ήταν ωστόσο καλό να γίνει αυτό ανατρέχοντας με κάποιον τρόπο στο παρελθόν, στις ρίζες της καλαισθησίας. Πιστεύω πως ο κόσμος έχει κουραστεί από τη βαρετή άνεση του sportswear που δεν διαχωρίζει τις ώρες της ημέρας και της νύχτας. Θέλει να νιώσει ξανά κομψός και σέξι, να ντύνεται με ρούχα υψηλής ποιότητας και κατασκευής. Ο Anthony Vaccarello στον Saint Laurent είναι ένα καλό παράδειγμα σχεδιαστή που υπερασπίζεται την κλασική έννοια του ενδύεσθαι, μεταφράζοντάς τη με εντελώς καινούργιο τρόπο», πιστεύει.

Τον ενημερώνω πως η ιδέα γι’ αυτή τη συνέντευξη ήταν της Θάλειας Καραφυλλίδου, η οποία, καλεσμένη στο σόου του N°21 για τη σεζόν F/W ’22-’23, ερωτεύτηκε τα ρούχα του. Τον ρωτώ ποιο ήταν το αρχικό του όραμα και γιατί πέρασε τόσος καιρός μέχρι να γίνει δημοφιλής η σειρά. «Όταν την ξεκίνησα, έπρεπε με κάποιον τρόπο να αποτινάξω την ετικέτα Alessandro Dell’Acqua με την οποία είχα γίνει γνωστός και αφορούσε κυρίως τα βραδινά ενδύματα. Για μένα τότε όλα στροβιλίζονταν γύρω από το κόκκινο χαλί και τις διασημότητες. Η επωνυμία N°21 γεννήθηκε κατά την κορύφωση της παγκόσμιας οικονομικής κρίσης και εκφράζει μια πιο σύγχρονη ιδέα για το τι σημαίνει μόδα, περιλαμβάνοντας ρούχα για μια στιλιστικά ελεγχόμενη καθημερινότητα τόσο για τους άνδρες όσο και για τις γυναίκες. Ζητούμενο ήταν η καλή σχέση ποιότητας-τιμής και σε αυτό οφείλεται η επιτυχία μας. Ακολούθησα μια συγκεκριμένη στρατηγική -σχετικά απλή θα έλεγα-, ώστε να χτίσω κάτι ουσιαστικό βήμα βήμα, μέχρι να καθιερωθεί η επωνυμία. Οι συλλογές μας ήταν στην αρχή μικρές, με πολύ λίγα κομμάτια, που αυξάνονταν κάθε νέα σεζόν. Πλέον δεν έχω να αντιμετωπίσω την πίεση του χρόνου και πρέπει να πω πως δεν μου αρέσει να κάνω μακροπρόθεσμα σχέδια. Στην επόμενη δεκαετία ελπίζω ότι η N°21 θα συνεχίσει να διατηρεί την ταυτότητα και την αναγνωσιμότητα που τη διακρίνει. Αυτό που έχει σημασία είναι να ελέγχω οτιδήποτε φέρει την υπογραφή μου».

Η κουβέντα μας έρχεται στις αλλαγές που συνέβησαν στη μόδα πριν αλλά και μετά την πανδημία, καθώς και στις διαφοροποιήσεις στο επάγγελμα του σχεδιαστή. «Σήμερα, μέσα από μία μόνο συλλογή προσπαθούμε να ανταποκριθούμε σε ένα πλήθος αναγκών και στον τρόπο ζωής γυναικών διαφορετικής ηλικίας και καταγωγής. Δεν είναι εύκολο», τονίζει.

«Είναι απαραίτητο να λαμβάνουμε κάθε φορά υπόψη διάφορους εμπορικούς περιορισμούς, ωστόσο προσωπικά μου αρέσει να εμπιστεύομαι το ένστικτό μου. Η γυναίκα της συλλογής N°21 χαρακτηρίζεται από έντονη προσωπικότητα, που της επιτρέπει να συνδυάζει διαφορετικά, ακόμη και αταίριαστα μεταξύ τους κομμάτια, τονίζοντας τη θηλυκότητά της. Ας μην ξεχνάμε ότι στη μνήμη μας παραμένουν πάντα εκείνες που ακολουθούν με συνέπεια το στιλ που έχουν επιλέξει, δημιουργώντας μια απόλυτα προσωπική, αναγνωρίσιμη ταυτότητα», καταλήγει.

 

 

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ELIE SAAB

Filep Motwary: Mr. Saab, you have been dressing women all your life, as a child, as a young man and as an adult you embrace the woman’s body with the finest designs and materials. This is a long and prosperous journey – Can you walk me through your personal development that came in parallel to your work development?

Elie Saab: My personal and professional developments are intimately linked. I started my career very young, so my personality and my vision of the profession have evolved together. My ambition has always been to magnify everyday life; I was always seeking beauty, and women were my main drive. Over the years, I have gained personal but also professional maturity. My vision sharpened and it shows in my creations. As I matured, I became tolerant, and more patient because I understood that business development takes time, effort, and perseverance. Nothing is easy and nothing is granted.

FM: How did one help the other and how do you see your achievements today?

ES: When I look back and see how far I have come, I am satisfied to have accomplished so much and above all to have survived so many ordeals. It has not always been an easy path, but a gap has been crossed and today ELIE SAAB is an established lifestyle brand. I still have a lot of dreams and plans in the pipeline, but I still want to achieve more. I have endless ambitions; many dreams and I hope I will live very old to fulfill all my wishes for the brand.

FM: How difficult was it for you to establish yourself at a time without social media, allow me to say- as someone who was determined to follow his destiny as a fashion designer? Those were times of bravery based on entirely different morals…

ES: Before the era of social networks, it was harder to expose our work to the world. It took me years to make a name in the industry when today everything can go very fast. I like this progress; I think it’s an extraordinary opportunity. Social networks can be a real springboard for upcoming designers, it accelerates their communication networking and awareness. If we use them correctly and with respect, they are very powerful communication tools.

FM: How have you experienced adapting to your own authority as a designer? Did it take some time for you to feel comfortable creating collections and saying this is the way to do it?

ES: When at the beginning of my career, I would ask myself a lot of questions even if I knew where I wanted to go, today my decisions are very sharp.
My style has always been very clear in my mind, the femininity and elegance I wanted to show in my collections are present since the first day. Also, being my own master and the feeling of not being accountable to anyone gives me leeway of creating, I was lucky to be able to follow my instincts.

FM: How challenging it is to dress Arab women compared to the women of the West.

ES: A woman is a woman, no matter where she comes from. I don’t make a difference; my goal is to sublimate her, to make sure that she feels beautiful and confident. My Arab clients have the same expectations as any other of my clients; they used to have more requirements but today, they are active and their profile is similar to the western woman.

FM: How important is the consideration of the male gaze in your creations for women?

ES: I don’t create for women to please others, but to embellish their own beauty. You can immediately see when a woman feels comfortable and shines in her clothes. If she receives compliments from her entourage, it is even more flattering for her but I don’t create for the gaze of others.

FM: Which is your most important responsibility these days and why?

ES: When I was younger, I thought that when the brand would be settled, my responsibilities would be smaller. In fact, I have always had a lot of responsibilities, and the bigger ELIE SAAB is, the greater the responsibilities are. The hardest is to maintain success, everything is important when you reach a certain level of success. Nothing is left to chance.

FM: Why was it important for you to move and showcase your work in Italy and then in France when you already had found success in Lebanon?

ES: It was important because I felt limited by the opportunities in the Middle East. My network was strong in the region, but I had bigger ambitions for the House. I wanted ELIE SAAB to become an international brand. I first chose Italy because I wanted the production of my RTW to be Italian. Then, I headed to Paris because it was the main fashion capital where I can show my Haute Couture collections and because I became a member of La Chambre Syndicate de la Haute Couture. It seemed very natural to me to present there. I have been showing my collections in Paris since 2000. After Beirut, Paris is my second home.

FM: What does it mean to dress a member of the Royal Family or hundreds of Hollywood stars for you?

ES: Red carpets have brought international visibility to the brand and the exposure driven by the celebrities is big. Back in 2002 when Halle Berry won her Oscar wearing ELIE SAAB, the exposure for the brand was huge; this moment put ELIE SAAB’s name on another level. It was the most important red-carpet moment of my career as she also was the first African American woman to win an Oscar. I am forever grateful for this red-carpet moment.
But in the end, my relationships with all the celebrities (including Royal) are very simple and respectful. For me, the important is not who wears ELIE SAAB but that celebrities reflect our DNA and feel beautiful when wearing the brand.

FM: You are one of the few designers that all women love. Why do you think so?

ES: That’s flattering, thank you! If so, that means I achieved my goals and I am following the right track.

FM: Is it necessary to take risks when making fashion? What was the biggest risk you ever took? What does freedom mean to you as a designer?

ES: I consider risks as a challenge that can only make you move forward. In the end, when you want to be an international brand, you have to take risks, they are a necessity to grow.
In every decision that I take, there is always a risk. I analyze every step to reduce faux pas. The first big risk I took was to present to Milan and enter a new battlefield when I had already a name in the Middle East. As I said earlier, freedom is linked to my success because I have always been my own master and I had the liberty to create under my own terms.

FM: Is it possible that you are ever in conflict with your own taste?

ES: “Conflicts” is too strong to say; I might be uncomfortable with some products or take bets on dresses that I like more than others but I am not in conflict with my own choices. Today, my decisions are very clear.

FM: The Beirut explosion in the summer of 2020, forced Lebanon to restart. Your company had great losses too. However, it didn’t stop you from being creative. Can you describe to me that day, the steps that followed, and how you managed to keep your head above water?

ES: This day started like any other day; I was in the office with my team, working on the next collection. Our headquarters is located not far from Beirut’s port so when the explosion took place, the blast blew all the windows of our building and everything inside. It was so violent that I was thrown against the opposite wall of the room. At first, no one understood what was happening, the impact was so strong that I thought an attack had taken place on the ground floor of our building. I didn’t realize until a few minutes later when my family and friends started calling me, that it was general.
It was a terrible shock for everyone, but we had to move on, rebuild the country and help each other. I never imagined stopping creating because, on the one hand, the Lebanese are resilient by nature, never lament and always recover from the worst. In addition, I have a responsibility toward my country, my employees, and my customers. I have commitments with all these people, I cannot stop my activity without consequences.
It is for all these reasons that two weeks after the blast, we reopened our offices and resumed the activity.

FM: Over the years I found myself backstage writing and photographing your shows. I always observe how calm you are and always with a good word to say. Where does this serenity come from?

ES: As a matter of fact, I am still very nervous on the day of my shows; each one is just like the first one. I am stressed because the bet and responsibility are big. I control my emotions to avoid communicating this stress to the team but it’s also part of my character, I take a lot on myself and never exaggerate my emotions. My serenity comes after the show, everything before is a lot of pressure.

FM: How does the term luxury resonate with the present?

ES: I always say that luxury is not material. Today, luxury is the time I spend with my family. I have grown up with 3 boys and I recently became a grandfather; family is my priority and as my schedule is very busy, the little free time I can share with them is my luxury.

FM: Could you please tell me about the starting point of the FW22 collection? What story did you want to tell? What was your mood board about?

ES: After the pandemic, I wanted to create a strong collection that shows the return to life. This collection is designed for women who need to express their wild confidence and wear their fearless grace proudly, for everyone to see. I wanted the collection to be extravagant and to bring opulence and minimalism together. I used striking tones, lavish textures, and strong mono-block colors. The cuts are elaborated and sharp to give an attitude to the silhouettes. There is also a hint of rebellion and grunge in the collection but still very feminine and elegant.

FM: Has the pandemic compelled you to change the ways you work, think, and how your company functions? In what ways?

ES: The first two months of the pandemic were very disturbing, our daily lives were turned upside down, and we all had to learn to live and work differently. We had to adjust to this new situation while respecting our schedules. From a professional aspect, it was challenging at the beginning but working remotely worked well. From a personal perspective, I enjoyed the serenity and the calm of these few months; I used this time as a personal reflection. I consider that this break has had some positive consequences. I had never had the time or the opportunity to put my ideas in order, to view things from another angle and in a more serene way. This confinement was an important period of reflection and contemplation.

FM: Do you think fashion critique still matters to designers? Are you curious to hear how do others observe what you create? The reasons these observations might interest you?

ES: Yes, some criticism matter as it can be constructive. It is important how the collections are received. These feedbacks help me to push some styles more than others. Sometimes, I am surprised to see that some looks are extremely well received more than excepted. I also listen to trusted people from the industry who have a sharp vision that can help me to improve.

FM: Are you committed to sustainability as a modern company? In what ways? Should upcycling become the norm in buying clothing in the future?

ES: When I see my clients passing their dresses to their daughters or granddaughters, it is sustainability. My designs don’t follow trends, they are timeless and last more than a season. Even some celebrities, such as Jane Fonda, have worn my dresses several times on the red carpet.

FM: Speaking of which, is isolation an impossibility for a designer?

ES: Speaking for myself, I won’t be able to be creative if I would be totally isolated. I take inspiration from women but also from the world around me. Anything could be a source of inspiration so being cute from the world would be difficult.

FM: Did you always have a perception of the body and the art of dressing it or not? What is your perception of the body after all and how connected are you to it?

ES: I have always respected women and their bodies. I like to reveal without showing too much and I always emphasize the waist to mark the silhouette. I always create thinking of the general allure and paying attention to all details. To be elegant and feminine, the most important is to respect the body when creating.

FM: Do you think as a designer you need to have an awareness of fashion history? Can everybody become a fashion designer? Are you ever misunderstood as a designer?

ES: To become a fashion designer, you should surely be talented, have your own signature, and create your own identity. Having an awareness of fashion is also important because fashion follows history. No, I have never been misunderstood by my peers but at the very beginning of my journey, it was difficult for my parents and family to understand what I wanted to do. At that time, the job of “fashion designer” did not exist in Lebanon. We had a lot of seamstresses but no fashion designers. So, it was a little bit confusing for them to understand and they are worried for my future.

FM: For a long time, people would think of fashion as a place of exclusivity. Should fashion have followership limitations? Who puts these limitations at the end?

ES: Fashion is a small world that’s maybe why people thought it was a place of exclusivity.
Everything is changing, even Haute Couture. For a long time, Haute Couture was worn by the same profile of customers when today the clients are younger and the occasions to wear HC have diversified.

FM: Mr. Saab, what is perhaps the most important quality a fashion designer can
have?

ES: Patience, you don’t have to rush and skip the steps. It’s a long-term job, patience is part of the journey of a creator.

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NADÈGE VANHÉE-CYBULSKI

Interview and Photography by Filep Motwary

HAVING DONE STINTS AT THE HOLY TRINITY of minimalist fashion (Maison Martin Margiela, Céline, The Row), Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski, the French graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp, assumed the role of artistic director of Hermès women’s ready-to-wear after the departure of Christophe Lemaire in 2014. She is the fourth woman to hold this position at the historic brand, many years after Catherine de Károlyi, who in 1967 designed its first women’s ready-to-wear collection, Lola Prusac, who designed for the house from 1925 to 1935 and Claude Brouet who was the “directrice de collections” from 1989-1997.. Her appointment was the first major move by the house’s then new executive chairman, Axel Dumas, a decision that marked the new direction that the company was going to take, with an emphasis on prêt-à-porter.
As for Hermès, everyone knows that it’s a family business that was founded in 1837 and is identified with luxury without compromise. From the saddles made for the aristocracy that are its signature piece, for many decades now its creativity has been channelled into other products, such as ties, scarves, watches, perfumes, select clothes collections and, of course, the bags, which are a status symbol and every woman’s object of desire. Other designers, such as Martin Margiela and Jean Paul Gaultier before Lemaire, have also served in Vanhée-Cybulski’s position. All three designed clothes for Hermès alongside their own separate namesake collections, although this is not the case for the current artistic director, who has made her talents available exclusively to the house.
Antwerp defines a radicalism that has nurtured artistic movements, which are constant sources of inspiration. Although the well-known Antwerp Six come immediately to my mind, I nonetheless think that their successors, like Nadège, are perhaps closer to the concerns of today’s public. A low-key person, she moves forward with insight and responsibility, managing within eight years to successfully defend the craftsmanship and traditional techniques of the house. The traceability, guarantee of quality and preservation of values that the brand name Hermès represents are for her non-negotiable.
The conversation during our meeting was warm and friendly. I ask her how she managed her entry into the historic house, as such a collaboration can’t but follow certain conditions. “I was excited about returning to France. I’d spent a decade outside of the country and was looking for a way to reconnect with values such as expertise, which for me is the basis for all creative things,” she tells me. “I’d worked with many people and lived in different major cities, which broadened my horizons, so it was natural for me to look for something more meaningful. The big change came the moment I had the need to communicate with an ‘entity’ with a strong background, which is distinguished by a deep knowledge of sewing techniques and their complexity. I confess that I’d missed this while I was in America. Arriving at Hermès, I wasn’t given specific instructions on the direction I should follow. I joined the team with an open mind and with respect, having its historical legacy as a safety net.
Bringing the younger generation closer to Hermès is something she is particularly interested in, as this signifies evolution. How much, though, does the reality of the street coexist with such a high-profile brand? All those of us who lived through the 1990s remember the influence that the large brands had on youth—Miuccia Prada, Gaultier, Helmut Lang, Owen Gaster, XULY.Bët are some of the names that were in a continuous dialogue with boys and girls under the age of 20. Thirty years later, streetwear has gained an ideological angle and new actors, such as Marine Serre, Y/Project, and Off-White. At the same time, since 2020, other priorities have emerged, which the pandemic brought with it, such as comfort and ease.
“I DESIGN FOR women WHO FEEL VERY OR LESS sexy AND FOR OTHERS WHO ARE PERHAPS MORE shy.
It is surprising, however, that, despite the uncertainty of the time, the industry has found a way to embrace new creators. Nadège sees them as revolutionaries because, as she says, “they are able to resist the disruption and, at the same time, put their radical fashion proposals onto the fashion map”, something that for her is a healthy form of development. I think about the degree of difficulty and responsibility that someone must face when they assume a role such as hers in a company such as Hermès and attempt to make a comparison with the other brands she has worked with. Although in her current situation, values appear to remain constant regardless of the era, it is a fact that there are questions hanging over luxury and its relationship with the present. “Behind each product that we design there must be a relationship with reality as well as imagination and pleasure for the customer. It’s a challenge for us to remain relevant and faithful to the brand’s identity,” she explains. “I express myself and create within a specific context, with respect for what my team proposes. At the end of the day, my job is to design clothes that are functional, inspire emotions and preserve memories. I believe that only if we keep up with the times will we be able to decode the present, bridging it with the past and the future. This approach is in itself evolution. We need to understand people’s needs through a new context of design and production, one based on sustainability. It’s not enough to use safe raw materials such as cotton or ECOTEC® yarns to save the planet. The problem begins with the very mentality of fashion, which needs to change.” And how will we save the industry, I ask her. “There are so many useless things on the market. The change will only come if we’re honest when we create. To take the next step, we must rescue the techniques that are passed on from generation to generation so that there is no inequality in terms of the possibilities that they offer. This can be an achievement for our industry. It saddens me when I hear that a traditional factory is closing because there is no one to continue it. Knowledge must be preserved and perpetuated.”
In the aftermath of the pandemic, we are heading towards the future armed with the experiences of the past two years, which have forced humanity to redefine itself and restart. Nadège explains to me that, despite the difficulties, during the daily contact she had with her team through Zoom, an unexpected interest was expressed in the digital design of the Hermès collections. She says that she was satisfied with this, as she was able to maintain her creativity at the same levels as before. She believes, however, that “those who truly struggled were the craftspeople, the seamstresses and the models, because their jobs cannot be done at home. Our work is a chain in which each link has its own significance for the result.”
One might say that the emphasis she places on the sensuality of the Hermès woman is perhaps the biggest risk of her collaboration with the house. I wonder, then, if and to what extent her work clashes with her personal aesthetic style. “I have my own taste, but when you work for someone else, you have to understand their taste too,” she replies. “The Hermès style can be conservative and at the same time carefree and imaginative. Fortunately, I’m able to work without any restrictions. I wouldn’t say that I’m in conflict with my own taste, no. I’m in favour of experimentation and full of curiosity. As such, I might design things that I would perhaps never wear myself. The process of exploration ends up being educational, and this makes the result interesting.”
As I listen to her, I recall the first Saturday of last March, when I was in the Bastille district, for the Hermès F/W ’22-’23 fashion show. Tents had been set up in the inner courtyard for the creative team, who had been working since early morning. The show, however, took place directly opposite, in a high-ceilinged hall filled with people. The clothes were sexy, clearly sporty (!) and modern, based on ideas that a woman can easily adopt. Each look translated values such as classicism and elegant sophistication, while the clothes, every piece, liberated the silhouette. The body and its outline played a primary role in her designs, in tones of brown—primarily terracotta—black, blue and white. As did the play between transparency and opacity, the knitted forms that were sometimes combined with leather, as well as the body-con trend for each body type. “The body is indeed the starting point for my work,” she acknowledges. “My perspective on this is accomplished through the prism of duality, the relationship between the inside and the outside that personifies our products. Hermès is a way of life and our clothes have a physical relationship with the person wearing them. I will never stop exploring the body. I like anything that has to do with progress, I’m not afraid of it. I think courageously and enjoy today and tomorrow as a new experience. For Hermès, the saddle connects the human body with that of a horse, as such it is the link in a symbiotic relationship. When we created this collection, I asked one of the women in my team what she would like us to do that we hadn’t managed to do. ‘To work with fabrics like loden,’ she replied, and we got to work immediately. The feel of this Austrian fabric is intense, like the complexity of nature and woman. With it, I tried to explore concepts such as sexuality and elegance, even if in a clichéd way, yet inspired by the present. Our aim was to design contemporary clothes without nostalgia for everything vintage. It would not be honest of me to say that I’m interested in only one type of woman. I design for women with different sensitivities and concerns, who feel very or less sexy and for others who are perhaps more shy. I design for different cultures and that’s what matters most for me. The essence lies in the beauty. Rick Owens’ heroines, for example, are very specific. If you buy his clothes, you automatically become part of his ‘tribe’, and if you combine one of his pieces with others you are still relaying the message of the designer. Why not? What’s more beautiful than that?”
I ask her to tell me about her earliest aesthetic interests. She thinks that for most people fashion 30-40 years ago was not as affordable as it is today. “I was attracted by the beautiful images in the magazines and was full of admiration for my parents when they got dressed up for a night out. I recognised the power of clothes from early on and think that what drew me to fashion was the cultural context that they are part of. I have different origins, and fashion became for me a way to discover my North African roots, observing what people wore there. There are many members of my family whom I don’t know and clothes became the connecting link between the two sides. I think that in adolescence things start to get confused; there’s a kind of schism between childhood and what you want to become as an adult. That’s when you start to explore your personality through clothes and they in the end contribute to building it. I suppose clothes for me are what social media is for young people, an extension of their reality. For my generation clothes were a further way to hide, to emphasise something, even to transform yourself.” Does she think the ritual of dressing has changed? “People have changed; they want to feel strong, to be sexy and to have fun as though there’s no tomorrow. We change clothes several times a day now, depending on how we present ourselves on social media, when we go out onto the street or go to a party. The mystery and essence of elegance have almost disappeared.”
Before we say goodbye, I ask her to reveal to me what has always inspired her. She replies with a quote from Victor Hugo: “Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery.”

“I LIKE ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH progress. I ENJOY TODAY AND TOMORROW AS A NEW experience.

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ALESSANDRO SARTORI

Interview by Filep Motwary – Season SS22

Zegna’s artistic director Alessandro Sartori talks about sustainability, high quality, Made in Italy and the value of comfort.

FILEP MOTWARY: What was your perspective on fashion before you became involved in it? Because I realize that from the moment you finished your studies you joined a big company and you never left.

ALESSANDRO SARTORI: Everything was very organic. The journey started much earlier because my mum was a seamstress: she had a team of eight people and for a town in Italy this was not a small atelier: it was a good size apartment with two cutting rooms, a little warehouse for fabrics and materials. And then there was a beautiful hall for the fittings, filled with mirrors and a nice car-pet and lovely chairs to see the dresses and all the clothes she was making. I was like five or six, entering her atelier that was just a door in front of our apartment. As an adult, the choice of my profession came naturally. To this day, I have a very tactile and a very manual approach in making shapes, working around volumes, handling the fabric, the toile. Honestly, dressing a woman or a man, for me, is the same thing and this is what I like doing…

FM: Or dressing the human body…

AS: Yes, the human body! Often today we enter into this discussion about sex, about gender. Our world is running much faster than what people and politicians are trying to organize. This democratic perspective has always been my way to accept people for what they are, to enhance their beauty, to underline each with much respect and not to transform them. I have no right to that. Often people ask me, “What would you have done without this job?” I would have done the exact same job but in my little apartment, you know? Dressing people, which is actually the beauty of this work, gives me a good reason to do it. My be-ing is entirely about dressing people.

FM: Your collaboration with Zegna has been long and prosperous. How has your approach changed over this time?

AS: Now I am more concentrated on the bigger picture and on the aesthetic as a global message. Aesthetics is not just about a garment, a detail or a pocket. When I started, my focus was on things like stitching, the cut and so on. Today a great pocket, pants and jacket still matter of course, yet through a larger frame. I try to view things from a different perspective and build a story fully, which is not related to one season only but to the whole idea around the brand. It’s like a film or a book where you deliver chapters, an ongoing story. In every collection, all the pieces are part of the same vision, all of them [are] garments to collect and to cherish, to respect and to blend with old-er things according to one’s personal style. This is how I wear things too. I like the emotion that is connected to clothes and the circumstances [in which] they were worn, the weather, the occasion, the memory.

FM: Do you ever step out of your life and look at it as a spectator?

AS: There are moments when I try to observe myself from the outside. For my work especially, yes. Today what I do is also related to the idea of image-making—starting from the store, the store windows, the store design—simply because you cannot build an aesthetic without thinking of the whole. When I see people I don’t know wearing my stuff, or when I go visit our stores, I always stop in front of our windows and listen to people’s comments on the garments shown or the set design and decoration. I love when I come across strangers that know of my work without being aware that I am the same person they speak of. Or when I listen to people describing shows they liked and Zegna is on their list. So, I really like the feeling of watching without the lens of a relationship, in a neutral way. These comments are very interesting and at times helpful.

Recently we had this 50-year-old customer in the shop buying a suit accompanied by his son, who was around 23, 25 years old. The young man chose the new outdoor collection along with shoes and technical pants. Two different generations in Zegna!

FM: What are the biggest challenges you have come across designing for Zegna all these years?

AS: Working for a small independent company, you do whatever you like and nobody says anything. When you move into the big arena with a brand, everyone notices what you do. But, at the same time, in a big brand, things can happen more easily compared to a small one. Each big brand usually [distributes] around the world with its own logic. If you own only one store you can build the image you like. But if you have partners, you push your image through them.

One of our vital strengths is that we have five wool mills that do our fabrics. So, I can have any sort of material, from women’s jacquard, the fully recy-cled product of Bonotto, to the extremely high level of the Zegna cashmere or Zegna vicuña fabrics. It’s like we have a garden or the grocery behind the restaurant and the people making the bread or growing the ingredients for the salad. You see what I mean? I think only Chanel has a similar situation. Zegna is the only menswear brand with such an extended, intense, deep supply that offers me everything.

FM: Zegna is strongly linked with quality, elegance, savoir-faire. Are these important values for the brand?

AS: What is interesting at Zegna is that we have very few competitors. I mean we have many but the real ones are very few precisely because we are in a very unique place in the market. There are many brands doing quality yet most of them are very classic and conservative. There are several brands producing lifestyle products. But they don’t have our craft and quality. So already the junction between high quality and very interesting life- style and fashion is an interesting place and there are not many brands there. Maybe there are two brands, three brands in the same segment, but not I’m not naming them!

FM: Has the meaning of luxury changed during the pandemic?

AS: Yes, totally! There is an element that has al- ways been considered a commercial one that to- day became a fashion element or a very important design pillar: of course, I am referring to comfort. When I heard the word comfort back in the late 90s, early 00s and even four or five years ago, it was about comfortable garments for people with- out the right fit.

Luckily, today any barriers around dressing have collapsed: people can wear whatever they want— as long as you feel happy and look good! Comfort also means a larger silhouette, dropped shoulders, beautiful materials, nice touch, compact construction to avoid too much lining or too much canvas.

It’s basically a language that requires a high level of stylistic design silhouettes. This has changed the dimension of luxury a lot. Luxury today has to do with personalisation, with one-to-one experience and exclusive situations like a Zoom call, let’s say. The pandemic forced the evolution of luxury and comfort.

FM: How does “Made in Italy” resonate with the present?

AS: I consider “Made in Italy” a brand, as “Made in Switzerland” is a brand for watches or “Made in France” is a brand for many other industries. I think that “Made in Italy” goes hand in hand with design, not only fashion but also furniture, home design. I see it as a brand as it is related to the deepness and the soul of the most interesting Italian values. Italians are great creatives, but also great artisans. So, the creativity and the artisanal factor are very well-connected together.

Luckily today the world is open, you can have an- yone from any country with creativity, but it’s difficult to find what you want. “Made in Italy” was a pillar of the Italian society that was working in small ateliers with excellent artisans, small family businesses that focused on handcrafted work: from blankets, to pillows, to chairs, to fashion, to bags to… you name it! “Made in Italy” is literally the branded value of this country.

I’m always very, very sad when some atelier, when some tailor, when some very crafted little company is closing. Once we lose artisans, you don’t have them back. Luckily today to be an artisan and to make things with your own hands is important again.

FM: At the fashion show of your winter collection for 2019, you unveiled a series of clothes under the slogan USETHEEXISTING which was entirely made from pre-existing sources. Is this an established method for the Zegna collections?

AS: Quality and sustainability have a lot of different layers. It’s important that each one of us does the most where we can. But there are many ways to be sustainable. The most important thing is to talk real and not use words simply as a marketing tool without any reality behind [them].

Some years ago, we evaluated how much waste the fashion industry [generates] and unfortunate- ly it’s huge. And I’m not referring to fast fashion and I’m not talking generally about companies of product of the same level as Zegna, nor their production process.

We decided to enter into this mechanism in order to understand how much our waste is, which is ex- actly the industry’s benchmark. We don’t do more, we don’t do less. We do like everybody else. And we truly were shocked about the global amount of wasted fibres in fabrics and that is when we decided to work very hard on changing that.

We named the project USETHEEXISTING. We collect all broken fibres and yarns and divide them by composition and colour and, with the help of special technology, we restart the process from scratch. There’s so much we can all do, and no- body speaks about it. All you hear is “Oh, overproduction”. Just with complaining, things cannot be changed—we need to act!

FM: What was the starting point for the SS22 collection?

AS: Though this collection we embrace a new path where indoor and outdoor are colliding and where the creation of a new aesthetic doesn’t have a for- mat for the day, night, party or travel. It’s about a single aesthetic, one new silhouette. It was my way to speak a modern language and communicate with the people out there.

The mood board is like packing a suitcase to travel, a journey that blends each wardrobe with this new aesthetic that is relevant to the world as it is now. If you have a jacket, it needs to be wearable from day to night, from a business meeting to a good dinner with a friend. If you are wearing the product you need to be able to mix them and match them and create a new silhouette. Before, you were doing one silhouette maybe with four pieces; today you need to do at least two different silhouettes.

So maybe it’s one pants with two totally different tops, but they are both creating a suit.

So, the full vision is a model wardrobe that fus- es when you need and speaks to the guy that is indoor, outdoor, business, not business, traveling, [for] dinner, a meeting, in a very confident and comfortable way.

Comfort is also very important along with new materials that are travel friendly and compact or technical. New shapes such as the new oversized jacket, some beautiful technical pants, an amazing short coat, very interesting new shirts ….

FM: The collection—the outline of each silhouette, the colour palettes you worked with—was also youthful. How do you infuse youth into what you do?

AS: I think that I never put age into the cluster because I always like to be open, rather than just [aiming for] a specific target of people. My customers are like my ambassadors. I like dressing everybody, just with the right mindset and right aesthetic. For me, it’s important that I keep evolving and [don’t] stay stable. I keep manipulating the silhouette and the fabric to be fresher and fresher.

There is a constant dialogue with the silhouette, with my designer’s team, with customers. It’s an evolution, a constant evolution.

 

 

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VALERIE STEELE

Interview by Filep Motwary

 

Valerie Steele always has something important to say. Just before Christmas, the fashion historian, published author, public intellectual and director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology received my call at her office in New York. Throughout the years, what I have enjoyed most in the several conversations that we have had, is the absence of anything complicated. Every explanation is as simple as it can be.

FILEP MOTWARY: What is fashion exploring at this specific moment?

VALERIE STEELE: Well, things are still up in the air because COVID has not disappeared. Nor has the industry made the kind of dramatic changes or instituted a kind of system of dramatic changes that people had talked about during that first year. So, you remember a lot of people said, “Oh this is going to get us to stop thinking in terms of being on the hamster wheel: season, season, season, produce, produce, produce”. And there have been a few movements in that direction but, on the whole, there’s also been a strong sense that a lot of people wanted it to go back to normal. So, it’s like, “Okay, now we can have the shows again”. Even though the shows were not quite the same, it wasn’t the same mix of people. And although people are buying some things, it seems to me also that there’s a hesitancy there. A lot of things are seen to be even more on sale, earlier than be-fore. It’s not that COVID caused these problems, it just highlighted problems that we’ve been talking about for the last decade.

FM: How can one remain creative under so many restrictions?

VS: I think that all creatives—including fashion de-signers, fashion photographers—are used to thinking in terms of some restrictions, but it’s going to become a question of which ones that we picked up during that first year, that first isolation COVID year, can we continue to build on, and which ones weren’t leading us in the right direction? Because, let’s face it, it wasn’t a wonderland of creativity before COVID either. It was an awful lot of sameness, a lot of over-production, a resistance on people’s parts to buy the clothes until they went on sale. So there was a lot of homogenization in fashion before the pandemic, which I think is a problem for creativity.

And we see that in the fact that independent de-signers are ever more squeezed: even before COVID, the big luxury houses and the big fast fashion houses were taking more and more of a share of sales. And the independents were get-ting squished smaller and smaller. How could they survive? And yet that’s where the greatest creativity, I would argue, is emerging—from those independents.

FM: Would you say young people have this need for clothes to be inviting rather than just be wearable?

VS: To some extent, yes, of course, young people are more concerned with just expressing what they want to do. On the other hand, I think it’s also partly the fault of the industry. […] As my old friend Richard Martin, who was a great fashion scholar, said, “the industry keeps looking for the young salvific male designer and this young man who’s going to come up with a great idea”. First of all, they cut out half of the people. Cut out the women.
They weren’t so interested in the young female designers. But it also meant that old-er designers are not necessarily just in this sort of routine. If we look at the history of creativity among painters and writers, there’s no question that old-er painters and older writers often come up with their masterpieces late in life. There’s no reason to think that fashion designers are going to be systematically different in that way. I think it’s more a question of being able to follow your own sense of where you want to go without being too con-strained by shareholder demands.

FM: If clothes are always for the indistinguishable human body why should there be an urge to reinvent the ways that fashion is showcased and presented?

VS: Well, we talk about fashion being a second skin, but it’s not just a second skin, it’s a constantly renewable and changeable second skin. And in that way, it does seem to defeat the idea of death and of just sort of sameness and ordinariness so that depending on where you are in time and in space, where you are in terms of your own person-al development, you’ll want something that’s going to be different for the way you’re presenting your-self to the world.

Changeableness in fashion is built into it. It perhaps is being pushed too far by the industry that wants it to change every three months, if not every three weeks. It probably would be more intelligent to think in a way of more slowly changing fashion, in a bit like the way that an artist will have a show in a gallery every year or two. A musician will put out a new album every year or two; you don’t expect them to do it every three months.

FM: How do the body and fashion react to each new regime, in this case, COVID-19?

VS: When I first started studying fashion, I immediately locked onto the idea that it couldn’t exist without the body. It’s so closely tied to the body that you might as well say body plus fashion, body plus clothes. They always go together. I used to think of fashion as being mostly in terms of the body as a gendered and sexed entity. It was about sexuality, gender… But, getting older and confronting COVID, I see there are other aspects of it. It’s not just that the body ages and dies eventually, but also there are all these things we’re anxious about. The body is vulnerable. And a lot of what clothes do is not just to make you sexier— that’s part of it, sure—but clothes also protect you against other people’s hostility and the hostility or the indifference of the world at large.

FM: In that case, would you say a dress is more than a commodity?

VS: At all times the dress is more than a commodity. In fact, I think this is one of the biggest errors in the fashion system that too many suits with power running fashion companies have thought of fash-ion just as a commodity. Fashion is a symbolically freighted thing that you attach to yourself. It’s not art! It is a part of yourself and it’s a symbolic addition, a symbolic second skin that comes onto yourself.
And you have to have it, not that it serves a useful purpose exactly, but it serves a psycho-logical and symbolic purpose for you at any given time. There are reasons why we keep going in the closet and choose this one piece when you have 50 other pieces. What is it about that one piece that makes you feel better about yourself? It’s a question of feelings. And it’s about making you feel and look certain ways.

FM: What can we learn from casual wear in the context of the pandemic?

VS: Well, casual wear has become more and more important. That’s a long-term trend that goes back now more than a century. It’s happened because the way we relate to our society and the way we relate to other people has been changing for a long time. We saw a big break in the 1970s with the kind of rebellion against a lot of social rules, including social rules about how much you dressed up.

And with the pandemic, when we were so isolated, and we really only had to please ourselves, except for looking okay when we faced our office on the screen, that just emphasized even more what hip-pies had been saying in the 60s and what younger generations had been saying for decades before that. We don’t really need or want all of those rules. We’re increasingly more narcissistic if you want to put it that way: more concerned with pleasing our-selves than with pleasing other people.
The designers who have been most successful are those who have their finger intuitively on what their generation of people are interested in. You know, you look at Demna Gvasalia bringing in all of these things from casual-wear, even into the haute couture. You look at those big things and you go like, “Yes, he’s got it. I want it big; I want it comfortable; I want it to enhance my sense of myself in the world, but I want it to do it in a completely comfort-able way, a way which is not fancy, not formal”.

And that, I think, is plugging into people’s relationship with how they feel in their body and how they want to feel vis-à-vis other people. It has to do with urbanization, it has to do with child-rearing, it has to do with the whole way that people are growing up in a different sort of relationship to authority and to other people so they don’t have to make the kind of accommodations that earlier generations did. And, of course, when you’re at home suddenly you really did have to please only you.

FM: Should fashion be a place of exclusivity? And who creates these limitations?

VS: There’s been a lot of discussion over the years about the extent to which fashion is exclusive or democratic. What Georg Simmel said back in 1905 is still very much true. Fashion exists in a tension between distinction and community. On the one hand, all of us still want to say, “I’m special, and I’m like these other special people”.
It’s not a class thing anymore. It’s a kind of self-chosen thing where you’re saying, “people like me”, but it’s not just class. And it’s not just gender or nationality. It’s a kind of self-chosen group.

FM: How much does keeping up with current events influence your curatorial approach?

VS: I think we’re a little ahead of the curve, partly because we’ve got young curators here who are very keen on addressing contemporary issues. For example, the whole emphasis on diversity that came out with Black Lives Matter, we already have been working on things about black designers and we already had a big show about LGBTQ influence on fashion and sub-cultural things like the Gothic: Dark Glamour show we had at FIT.
All of those were already part of what we were looking at because we all had so much interest in different kinds of fashion, not just in the sort of high art or great designer thing.

FM: How accurate can a curator be in narrating the lives of others?

VS: At this moment in time, there’s a lot of people who prefer false history, we’re seeing that all over the world. Everybody tells themselves stories about their country or the history of fashion or whatever. What you want to do is remember that the more you find out, the more nuanced the picture will be. And you just try and give as nuanced and accurate a picture as you can and leave things open when you don’t know. You don’t want to homogenise it. Like when our curators worked on the black fashion designers, they made it really clear they wanted to emphasize the multiplicity of different black designers. They didn’t want to say, “This is black style, black designers do this,” because that’s so grotesquely oversimplifying. And your audience won’t necessarily simplify things in that way, but you don’t want to push them there. You want them to try and be challenged to think critically about something.

FM: Social distancing has created a barrier be-tween us all. How has this affected fashion?

VS: Touch is a very, very important component of having people maintain a sense of unity with other people. If you imagine how, we realize now, when babies are born that they really need that skin-to-skin touch with parents and caregivers, which is something that nobody really thought of before, although it had been proven in some rather cruel animal studies that mammal babies need to be touching a caregiver.
That touching, that tactile element is also an element in clothing that is reassuring and is, can be, like that maternal skin next to you. In a way, I think that people who’ve suffered, not just trauma, but childhood losses, which all of us suffer, one of the things that fashion and clothing can give to you is a kind of an embracing second skin, like a feeling of repairing the damage in your own sense of self. And I think that is one of the crucial elements that only a few designers, I think, really understand that reparative, tactile quality of clothing. So much of clothing now feels so unpleasant. It’s not the kind of lush materials that existed in the past which perhaps were more sensual and more consoling and reparative.

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ODES for NOMAS MAGAZINE

NOMAS MAGAZINE – JULY 2022

ODES

Photography Filep Motwary, Art – Direction Nicos Yfandis, Fashion Editor Vina Neofotistou, Make-Up/Hair Yiannis Siskos, Models Diane & Mike, Photo Assistant Vassilis Karagiannis – Thank you Yiannis Bournias & Lina Stefanou. The story was shot on the island of CRETE

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #33 | INTERVIEW WITH LUDOVIC DE SAINT SERNIN by FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread: EMPIRE OF THE SENSES – LUDOVIC DE SAINT SERNIN  interview. The story was published in Vogue Greece, JUNE 2022 issue and was later shared online. Read it HERE

Interview and Photography by Filep Motwary

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SHIRIN NESHAT

Interview by Filep Motwary

World acclaimed visual artist Shirin Neshat opens up about her largest exhibition to date—Living in One Land, Dreaming in Another at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich—for which, among other works, she has photographed a series of brutally honest portraits featuring minorities of the US. During our call, Neshat analyzed what the American dream stands for today, through her own experience and perspective as an immigrant Iranian woman in exile, living in New York.

FILEP MOTWARY: What was the starting point for your exhibition at the Pinakothek der Moderne?

SHIRIN NESHAT: It started with the film Land of Dreams (2021) which was a major project—my first project to be done in the United States. [It] allowed me to go back to my obsession with dreams. I’ve been, for several years, writing down my dreams and even filming my dreams and other people’s dreams. My own dreams have always been about my nightmares, like they’ve been a lot about fears and my own anxieties. This is my first time attempting to make a narrative about the US. I thought it would be really powerful to make a work that is very satirical and poetic and almost absurd as I touch on this bigger question of the identity of the US and whether it is truly a land of dreams. Is this a place that has historically welcomed the displaced and a place that was made with the blood of immigrants? Or is it changing? What does it mean today? Living in One Land, Dreaming in Another is based on this idea of choosing one state in America,
which became New Mexico, because it is the poorest state in America yet demographically very diverse. I needed a way to express a concept about an Iranian woman protagonist, myself, as an artist, going after American people’s dreams, American people from diverse races and backgrounds, and to see what they’re dreaming about, what are they thinking about, through photography, video and a movie. My fears were mainly not so much about the US, but my dreams were always about this unresolved relationship between Iran and the US and the fact that I live in exile or that I never see my family, etc.

FM: Do you think that the meaning of being a mother and motherhood changes depending on where you are?

SN: Well, I don’t know about other people, but for me, it’s been a very sad situation because I have a very elderly mother that lives in Iran. My sisters [live in Iran] as well. I speak with my mother every single day while I truly feel that she has been my very last strong tie to my country. If she dies, that relationship, not just to my parents, but to my country may end in a very big way. My fear is always the loss of that last thread because I’ve lived here for so long. The Land of Dreams obviously was the perspective of an immigrant looking at the issue of immigration in this country. It was to explore in a very kind of, again, poetic yet poetical way what are people fearful about these days, especially if they’re minorities. And what does America look like? I think we all suffer a great deal like negotiating between what we bring from one place, what we gain and what we lose from another. A lot of people choose to emigrate, by choice, while a lot of others don’t. There are political reasons, financial reasons. So, you can’t really put them in the same package.
For people like me, it is a question of revolution, risking life, etc. For example, the photographic installation—maybe you have seen some shots: there are like 111 photographs of very powerful faces of Americans, from Mexicans, black, natives, to white, to poor, rich, middle-class, young, old, men, women, functional, dysfunctional and, at the same time, beautiful. Together they create this tapestry of faces which, in my mind, represents what America looks like.

The video is 23 minutes long, it’s about my alter ego as an Iranian woman, going places door-to-door, asking Americans to see if she can photograph them and collect their dreams. To make this story short, the whole project of the artwork, while very satirical, very funny, absurd, very dark, [was] also extremely poetic as I’m humanistic as this woman. The more she goes after collecting people’s dreams, of her enemies’ dreams, the more she identified with their nightmares and dreams that, in the end, are quite universal and they cross cultural boundaries. A lot of what we fear is very common, regardless of whether you come from Cyprus or I come from Iran: we often worry about death, about displacement, about loss, about abandonment, about violence, separation.

FM: With the rise of social media, we are now discussing issues like never before like immigration and immigrants—people who rarely have the chance to have their voice heard.

SN: My work effort since the start has really taken my own characteristic in terms of the way I view the world, the way I function, the way I always try to see some poetry and beauty within the disturbing dark and melancholic and tragic material, and so I’ve always lived in my head and I’ve always created this universe, ever since I was a child. […] It has helped me to really find a way of escape from the banality of everyday life and also, I have periods of very difficult time being alone in this country, etc.
In general, the art that I make, and to this day as I go and think about new ideas, it’s always emotionally driven. And it’s a gut reaction but sometimes purely existential issues, but a lot of times it’s not. It’s really to do with a response to something that is happening around me. And that’s kind of inescapable. I realize that I’m not an activist, I’m an artist. I’m like a poet. What I’m trying to say is that I process material that comes my way being an Iranian; I’m surrounded by Iranian people who are extremely intelligent and extremely connected to that country, to their country and what’s going on in Iran. Yet living in New York, I am also American and I am surrounded by art and artists, western, and then I have my own issues as a human being, above and beyond being Iranian, you know?

FM: What does it mean to be a Muslim and a famous immigrant artist in the 21st century? What sort of power does it give you?

SN: At the beginning, when I came into the scene, especially with Women of Allah, the work was completely misunderstood and became very problematic, especially for the Muslims, because they thought I was radical, revolutionary. And then the ones who really hated the government, they thought that this work sort of endorses the rhetoric of the revolution, Iran. Later a lot of people felt it was an insult to Islam.

And so, then I moved on to making much more, I would say, poetic, lyrical work that is not directly political. I think that, in the beginning, also a lot of people suspected that I was tapping into a lot of subjects that were related to Islam or Iran because they were very sexy subjects and very controversial and it attracted a lot of interest because people were finding it kind of sensational. And then, slowly, they were able to give me more respect, understanding that I do many different kinds of work, which is layered. I frame questions, I don’t provide answers, and I think that’s a very important factor. I don’t know the answers. I don’t even live in the Islamic world. I don’t live in Iran. And even with the misunderstood Women of Allah, it was that it was a series of questions I had about martyrdom, about terrorists, to make people consider and think about it, to discuss it. A lot of people didn’t get that. If I’m making Land of Dreams about the United States, I’m questioning the issue about identity of the US, the question of race, the diversity of religion and what really constitutes the identity of this country. Of course, it’s allowed to have a lot of open space for interpretation.

FM: Why is the notion of belonging so important?

SN: It gives people a sense of security, yet personally, I have always felt the opposite because, since I was 17, I’ve been in between so I’ve never completely belonged to Iran or belonged to the United States. When I’m with a lot of Iranian people I feel slightly an outcast and when I’m with Americans definitely I feel like an outcast. I’ve al- ways been an outsider. When I speak with my sisters in Iran, I really do envy them because I feel that they are very grounded. They may have problems politically and economically, but when you talk to them there is a sense of profound sense of security and comfort in being in their own place and their own culture. And rituals that they can celebrate, people that they can visit, places that they don’t have to be so distant from. There is a great value in that which then becomes consequently very nostalgic and tragic when you don’t have any of that.

FM: Focusing on some of your past works, specifically Unveiling and Women of Allah, how relevant is the principle of covering the female body to conceal it from the male gaze?

SN: Obviously that’s a really big question. When I made [this] work, it was always in relation to women in Iran, not Muslim women in general. And, for example, I’ve done many different types of work that really explore the idea of the veil being as a sort of a sexual and political boundary between the private and public life of women and how, for example, men cannot control their sexual temptations while the women have to be always concealed. There are other aspects of the veil that is very folkloric for a lot of women; it’s a very traditional garment, so they don’t necessarily always treat it as a religious item. The work that I did in the past 10, 15 [years goes] beyond that: it focuses on modern Iranian women or Iranian women outside of Iran. Do you know Rapture, the video I did in 1999? It was about a group of women wearing black veils versus men with white shirts. It was very sculptural, a very visual story and not political at all. But in my photographs the veil was treated as a political symbol that was questionable in terms of both as a symbol of repression, but also, I [would] say, [a] symbol of solidarity, religion, etc. The veil is a choice for women. Whether they want to wear it or not, I respect but, but I do know some people wear it by force while others not. But it’s been always very interesting. The Unveiling, for example, was all about the relationship between the body and the veil. And the Women of Allah was the body, the veil, the weapon. I was very, very interested that the less you expose your body the more sensual and erotic the woman be- comes, ironically. So, it sort of defeats the purpose of concealing and sort of highlights that kind of eroticism.

FM: What does it mean for you to share your work with the public?

SN: I ideally like to see that the emotions of the work resonate with the people regardless of where they are from. That would be the most satisfying thing for me because my work has all these references to politics, to religion, history, but, in the end I really, really think that the highest priority for me, as an artist, is to make an impact on people more on the guttural level and more on a humanistic level that does not get reduced to being evaluated in terms of, “Oh this artist is trying to say this about culture or this religion”. Rather: how does it emotionally impact you?

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DAPPER DAN MAGAZINE ISSUE #25 | ALESSANDRO SARTORI TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread from the hard-print issue of Dapper Dan Magazine SS22

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DAPPER DAN MAGAZINE ISSUE #25 | VALERIE STEELE TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY

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DAPPER DAN MAGAZINE ISSUE #25 | SHIRIN NESHAT TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread from the hard-print issue of Dapper Dan Magazine SS22

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #32 | INTERVIEW WITH COPERNI by FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread: ODE TO THE SUN –  COPERNI  interview. The story was published in Vogue Greece, May 2022 issue and was later shared online. Read it HERE

Interview and Photography by Filep Motwary

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Révélations 2022 presents #craftingcyprus

Révélations: International Biennial of Crafts and Creation

presents #craftingcyprus

écrits et réalisés par par Filep Motwary
Cyprus Handicraft Service
Film – Documentaire
1 x 11 mn

Le Service de l’artisanat chypriote est fier de présenter une série de courts métrages sous le titre général de #craftingcyprus écrits et réalisés par Filep Motwary, qui se concentrent sur trois genres de techniques artisanales locales et leur évolution : Broderie, Céramique et Tissage.

Les films racontent l’histoire du patrimoine culturel immatériel et de l’artisanat contemporain tels qu’ils sont vécus par les artisans et les artistes chypriotes.

Visant à encourager les artisans à sauvegarder et à continuer à produire de l’artisanat, le réalisateur aborde la vitalité du mentorat, la synergie, la vision et l’importance de transmettre ses compétences aux autres.

 

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #31 | INTERVIEW WITH VIVIENNE WESTWOOD and ANDREAS KRONTHALER by FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread: Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler talk to Filep Motwary. The story was published in Vogue Greece, April 2022 issue and was later shared online. Read it HERE

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DAPPER DAN MAGAZINE ISSUE #24 | NICOLAS ANDREAS TARALIS talks to FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread from the hard-print issue of Dapper Dan Magazine FW22

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DAPPER DAN MAGAZINE ISSUE #24 | DAISY COLLINGRIDGE talks to FILEP MOTWARY

DAPPER DAN MAGAZINE ISSUE #24 |DAISY COLLINGRIDGE talks to FILEP MOTWARY

Opening spread from the hard-print issue of Dapper Dan Magazine FW22

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VOGUE GREECE ISSUE #30 | INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTELLE KOCHER by FILEP MOTWARY


Opening spread: Christelle Kocher talks to Filep Motwary. The story was published in Vogue Greece, March 2022 issue and was later shared online. Read it her HERE

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SYNERGY: ART INTO FASHION

SYNERGY: ART INTO FASHION

Exhibition dates: 14 April – 28 August 2022

The A. G. Leventis Gallery presents “SYNERGY: Art into Fashion”, an exhibition that merges contemporary fashion, and creativity with original artworks from the gallery’s Parisian and Hellenic collections.

Synergy: Art into Fashion is an open invitation for viewers of all ages to experience in person the collections of the A. G. Leventis Gallery. The incredible paintings encouraged a creative dialogue between the distinguished fashion designer KIKA IOANNIDOU and the businesswoman MARIA NEOPTOLEMOU who during the worldwide lockdown designed an impeccable haute couture collection inspired by the Collections of the Gallery.

Filep Motwary, the Head Curator of the #SYNERGY exhibition has put together the fashion objects presented aiming to achieve a hymn to creativity and to mankind’s love for things beautiful.

Along with the deep knowledge of Myrto Hatzaki, the A. G. Leventis Gallery Paris Collection in-house curator, who acted as the interpreter of the artworks, this project reflects the deep relationship between art and fashion, past and present.

PRESS HERE TO WALK THE EXHIBITION

 

Credits

HAUTE COUTURE COLLECTION CREATORS:
Kika Ioannidou
Maria Neoptolemou

HEAD CURATOR
Filep Motwary: Author, Fashion Editor
and Curator

ART HISTORY CURATOR
Myrto Hatzaki: Art Historian, Curator
of the Paris Collection, A. G. Leventis

GENERAL COORDINATION:
Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel
Katerina Stephanides

ADMINISTRATOR:
Despina Georgiou Hadjinicolaou
DESIGN AND SUPERVISION:
Nayia Savvides

TEXTS:
Filep Motwary
Myrto Hatzaki

TEXT EDITORS:
Alexandra Pel (English)
Georgia M. Panselina (Greek)
TRANSLATIONS:
Sotiris Lappas & Associates
EXHIBITION GRAPHICS / BRANDING:
appios® creative studio
TECHNICAL SUPPORT:
Charalambos Charalambous
Iacovos Papantoniou
LIGHTING:
Iacovos Papantoniou

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