FILEP MOTWARY

INTERVIEW: PAOLO ROVERSI TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY

Dear iDEALS, Paolo Roversi is the past and the future in one. He never set out to be a fashion photographer, though he is one of the most referenced in the world. His is the great paradigm of signature; of identity. He is the only photographer who truly owns his colour palette. The young man who left Italy to conquer, by chance, la mode Parisienne has become the inspirational story of our times. Despite his precision and constancy over 47 years of photography, he continues to surprise. His sweet voice salutes me on the phone; my heart beats faster when I ask my first question for Dapper Dan's issue 04…

Exclusive self-Portrait for Dapper Dan © Paolo Roversi

All the rest image selections, are magazine scans.

Motwary: Mr Roversi, why do you think photography has been such an interesting art form for so many years?

Roversi: I think photography is such a fantastic medium. When it was first introduced in the 19th century, the first important thing about it was that it became a vehicle for presenting reality. Paintings and sculptures were just representations, no? Photography is exactly a mirror; it reflects the form identically to what it really is. I think this is the magic about it. For me it’s something more, though. It’s a revelation and many other things.

Guinevere Van Seenus by Paolo Roversi, Vogue UK June 2009

Motwary: You have insisted on working with a Polaroid camera since the ’80s. How did this obsession start?

Roversi: As soon as I discovered this type of film I was enchanted by it. Even now I still feel this way and I cannot justify the reason. You know how you fall in love with something—maybe it was the colour, the contrast. It became my palette immediately. I also started to work with this camera for its size, the 8×10 format. Taking pictures one by one is a slow procedure. I found my way through this camera— how to work. It was the ideal way to express myself. By now, I know it very well. It has become a part of my skin; my blood.

Motwary: How do you cope with current demands for digital photography, retouching and video? Do you feel threatened?

Roversi: No, no. I am not against any new techniques. I work with Polaroid, but I also work with film, photo booths and plastic cameras, even. I have no complex about trying new things because at the end of the day, we are talking about new techniques. Everything is about the light. I wouldn’t mind if there was no more Polaroid, because I can always find a new way to tell my story.

Motwary: There is an obvious consistency in your photographs. What makes your work so interesting, do you think?

Roversi: [laughs] I don’t know if it is interesting! I hope it is, at least for somebody. I think my photography is honest—it’s a reflection of who I am, what I feel. By using the senses, I try to be a bit more personal; to show a piece of me in my work.

Motwary: With your older work, the passage of time makes it look more current than when it was first published. How do you look at your past photographs?

Roversi: They are part of my life, my photographic life. I do go back to them, but not because I don’t want to live in the present. Every time, I hope that my next picture will be the best one, that tomorrow I will take another one and another one. But when I look at my old work I am touched, because I have memories attached to each one, and the feelings come out again. Sometimes I even see them in a new way, more exciting than when I shot them. When I take a picture I am always surprised, and this makes me happy, because the result is always different from what I expected.

Motwary: So, in a way, you seek advice from the “old” you about how to be the “new” you.

Roversi: Yes, exactly. Sometimes I find things I didn’t notice when I first took the picture.

Motwary: How do you always manage to photograph the most exquisite garments in the market, and how does couture help you create your images?

Roversi: I always say that the designer is the composer of the music, and the photographer plays the instrument—is the interpreter of the piece. I am the player and the designers are the composers, and it’s very important for me to have this music in front of me, playing it the way I like it, and within it, to create this certain kind of woman or man.

The dream of couture is very important in what I do. Some designers, like Yohji, Margiela, Galliano, they inspire me so much. They all showed me a different way, a suggestion, full of feeling, another perspective with which to look at a woman or a man and how to portray them. You know, my favorite fashion picture is always a portrait of a woman, but with such beautiful dresses, the idea of the portrait is always changing. Thanks to them, I have a different point of view.

Motwary: Your models, there’s always something very honest about them.

Roversi: I work in a very simple way with them. When I discover them, I always try to find something that touches me in their faces, if there is a deep exchange and a little mystery about them. They make me dream: through them, everything becomes exiting. I am very seduced by the strange beauty they offer and the question of whether I can touch or not, whether I can discover or not. The truth is, I like to be lost when I look at them.

Motwary: I would like to ask about Nevio Natali. It was in his studio that it all started for you.

Roversi: That was a long time ago. But still in my heart. Although Nevio was a commercial photographer, he was the one who showed everything to me. As you know, I never went to photography school. He taught me all the basics at his studio: the speed, the use of film, the lenses, how and when to focus—everything. And it’s very important, as technique alone is not enough to express oneself in this language.

Motwary: Why would an Italian choose Paris as his base?

Roversi: It was by chance, honestly, but I guess I can say the same of most of the things in my photographic life. Many of my pictures happen by chance. And it was by chance that I met this other photographer in Italy, who asked me, “Hey Paolo, why don’t you come to Paris?” So I came. When I arrived, fashion did not interest me at all. It was in Paris that I discovered fashion, through some friends of mine who were working in the business. Then I discovered the magazines and the great fashion photographers: Avedon, Penn, Newton, Bourdin. I was immediately carried away by all this wonderful work of theirs, and by the magazines, their creativity, their elegance. Of course, I was seduced by Paris too!

Motwary: Has your view of the city changed over the years? Do you ever intend to depart?

Roversi: No, I don’t think so, though every time I go to Italy I ask myself, “Why do I live in Paris?” Because I love my birthplace.

Motwary: Your family is there, no?

Roversi: Yes, and it feels like my country, you know? Italy is the home of the language I can express myself with the best, my food, my sky, my clouds, my wind and my fog. Because where I lived as a child used to be very foggy in the wintertime.

Motwary: Are your origins reflected in your photographs?

Roversi: Very much! Sometimes critics see this influence and I go, “Wow,” because I see it too. Within them I carry my childhood, and things like the Byzantine mosaics from Ravenna, or a painting of a Madonna as it was placed in my mother’s house, even the hair, this kind of thick texture. But really, I don’t want to analyze this too much. I like things to be left unexplained.

Motwary: What is your perspective on gender? If you could eliminate it from society, would you do it?

Roversi: This is a good question! But I think I would keep it as it is. Motwary: When is the moment a man or a woman looks most beautiful? Roversi: When they are in love. Or, even better, when they make love.

Motwary: Do you compromise with your stylists?

Roversi: No, I do not compromise, because we work together. Fashion photography is a result of teamwork and I always try to keep the energy and the creativity, the style and everything that the stylist creates, and to enrich the story with anything anyone in the team can bring to it. I don’t want to direct too much or be too powerful. So it’s a question of keeping it together and analyzing it in order to get a good picture that will satisfy us all… that we all have the same dream.

Motwary: Why do you work mostly with women? Is it intentional, or simply a matter of commission?

Roversi: It’s a matter of commission, since I work mostly with women’s magazines rather than men’s. There are many more men’s magazines now than when I started. Maybe there was L’Uomo Vogue back then, though I’m not sure…

Motwary: How different is it for you to express yourself through moving images rather than photography?

Roversi: Sometimes it is different, sometimes not. I think that photography and film are very close, though in film I find it difficult to keep it relevant to my photography. It all depends on the story, the script. I have not done so many films yet—they are so few compared to my photographic work.

Motwary: What about social media—do you think the industry is shifting from the print to the web, from the time- less to the ephemeral?

Roversi: This is already happening anyway, so even if I say yes or no, it’s better or worse, it wouldn’t change anything. Anybody can see how things are moving right now. Of course I was educated to see a photo-graph as an object rather than an image, not just a Polaroid floating on some computer screen. One can smell and touch, worship and frame a photograph; put it on a wall, on a table, in your pocket. Things have become much more ephemeral these days. Things appear and disappear on the screen of an iPhone or a computer, and see you later! I really miss the family album and the pictures you put in a wallet. Now every- body has a screen. One of my favorite memories of my father was the picture of us, his children, in his wallet. I’m nostalgic.

Motwary: How did you feel when fashion started taking a more flashy, commercial turn about a decade ago, with Mario Testino and then Terry Richardson?

Roversi: This is good! I think it is how this business works. Fashion is moving every month, and the same goes for fashion photography. The worst thing for someone in fashion is to be called a ”has-been”. All these people bring new, fresh things in. It’s not a question of quality any more. It’s about new energies, new ideas.

Motwary: Agreed, but in the ’70s or ’80s, for example, we had craftsmen like Guy Bourdin or Helmut Newton. Is fashion becoming more laid-back?

Roversi: Of course I am not going to compare Testino to Newton—each of them has his own vision and approach. Indeed, things have become easier with all these new cameras and technology. The quality too. But this is part of the times we are in. If you compare the way Balenciaga or Dior made a dress back then to how it’s done now, you can see that nothing is the same. It’s not about the flash, it’s what our times demand to see. Everything is faster now. You know, Guy Bourdin could take three or four days on 10 pages or even more. Now Testino or Richardson has one day for 20 pages. So yes, times have changed.

Motwary: How do you see the future of photography?

Roversi: I don’t have a crystal ball in front of me. [pauses] I’ll go upstairs, take the next picture and I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you tomorrow.

**Interview originally published in Dapper Dan, Issue 04, October 2011. Special thanks to Stella Roversi

INTERVIEW: KRIS VAN ASSCHE TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY

Balancing a nostalgic sensibility with radical modernism, Kris Van Assche has created a distinctive, refined world of nonchalant elegance. His latest show for Dior Homme, for autumn/winter 2011/12, offered a strict outline for the modern man who wants to dress in fluid forms.

Boys strolled down the catwalk in wide-brimmed hats and drapey cloaks, chandeliers and fireplaces in the background. The Belgian-born designer graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and moved to Paris in 1998, where he worked with Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent and then Dior Homme. His own label was first introduced in 2005; two years later, he was appointed artistic director at Dior Homme...

Motwary: Hello Kris, how does this phone call find you?

Van Assche: I’m good, thank you.

Motwary: How would you describe the Dior Homme man for autumn/winter 2011/12?

Van Assche: I have been at Dior for four years now, and I had to struggle with this heritage, and how to present a new “story” for Dior. I concluded that it is not so much about the silhouette or certain details. It is much more about the artisanship, the way the clothes are made. This is the real heritage of the house. The atelier and its expertise was more of an inspiration than just the means to execute a design. Before, a designer would just go to the atelier with a drawing and expect them to make it. Now, I go with a drawing, but I ask them to make the best out of it and really include their opinion as part of the creative process.

I see a return to what we might call “essential”, and I think this is also what has changed since the crisis. Fashion, for me, was never about extravaganzas. I don’t really like clothes that only impress on the catwalk. Now I feel increasingly at ease with just concentrating on what I see as essential, the quality and the way clothes drape on the body. So, yes, there is a form of simplicity, and it goes together with the idea of using only a few colours—whatever really seems necessary. People have said that it’s quite strict, religious even, and it makes me laugh, because frankly it has nothing to do with that. It’s about the perfection of the clothes, getting the shoulders right, seeing how it fits perfectly on the body. It has more to do with precision than strictness. But I guess that’s where my Belgian roots come out—I hear it all the time!

Motwary: That contradicts something you once said in another interview—that you don’t have a sense of humor.

Van Assche: [laughs] I don’t know. I am quite serious about what I do, but I hope there’s some humour in me.

Motwary: Is the collection a reflection of the economic down- turn that is still haunting us? How do you respond creatively to a crisis like that?

Van Assche: There is no definition of how one should react to the crisis—any crisis. One could be tempted to work on more classical lines that should be easy to sell. But maybe people wouldn’t buy them because customers are looking for more exceptional pieces instead. There is no manual here. Personally, my reaction to the crisis was to try to define myself.

Motwary: Is there any tension between the idea and the execution, in terms of the time that separates them?

Van Assche: Oh yes! It is the big frustration of my job. First, you have this initial idea and ideal image of how the clothes are going to look on the catwalk, the show itself, the models. Then you have a thousand technical things that alter all of the above: putting on the zippers, the buttons, choosing the fabrics… There is a lot of detail that alters the dreamy vision you have in mind at first. I always say that developing a collection is five months of struggle not to lose the initial idea. There is even the possibility of things going wrong two days before the show. You have the pieces you like, and they look exactly as you had them in mind, and then you need to find the right boy to fit the jacket. The wrong choice of model can be fatal for a look.

Motwary: How do you find the right boy?

Van Assche: It’s really very difficult. Truly, I spend a lot of time doing the casting. Every time I have this specific type I am looking for. For my own label I have 25 models, so for Dior I use 40 or 45—it’s a lot. There are always 15 who are good and three I really like and see as perfect for the concept. I always wish I could clone those three.

Motwary: Who is the Dior man?

Van Assche: There is not one type of man, and certainly there is a difference between Dior Homme and my own label. For Kris Van Assche I become the client—I make clothes that I want to wear myself, things that are very close to my personal tastes. At Dior, I have a more spherical point of view, in order to satisfy the diversity of their clients. We have the younger customers, who tend to choose pieces that are much more crazy than anything I would wear, but there is also the traditional type who wishes for a tailored suit, a politician or a businessman, maybe. In order to make the perfect suit, I always push myself to get inspired by the challenge and bring out more tailored pieces, like a tailored jacked worn inside out.

Motwary: What’s the balance between refining the signature of the house and doing something new each season? Or lets say, how high is the pressure to do something completely new every time?

Van Assche: At Dior the pressure is huge! Dior Homme had its own success even before I arrived, and it was my task to define a new story, a new outline.

Motwary: Although it haunted you in the wrong way, in the beginning...

Van Assche: Yes. When someone is asked to take over a house, it is usually because it’s already dead or slowly dying. That would have been easy—all I would have had to do is throw everything in the garbage and start over. The previous Dior Homme was such a cliché; the downmarket brands were copying it. Dior had to remain a leading brand and move towards a new phase. I saw it as a great challenge to create a story for such an important house, never mind the pressure. Commercially and financially, it’s a big business and no mistakes are allowed. There are a lot of people working for Dior. I was very aware of all that and I think that together we worked it out. Now that I’ve found this new silhouette that I am very comfortable with, I don’t necessarily change it every season. I redefine it, making everything more evolved, but staying loyal to what I started eight seasons ago: luxury, comfort and exquisite craftsmanship.

Motwary: Do you consider yourself lucky?

Van Assche: [laughs] Of course I am lucky to be able to do this job. I am lucky to have my own label too—it’s very hard for a young designer these days. A lot of people would probably like to be where I am, but I worked very hard, for many years, to be where I am today—since I was 18 years old and still at the Academy. I don’t see time just flying by; my life is completely devoted to what I do. So yes, I am lucky, but nothing fell into my hands either.

Motwary: How do you balance your role as creative director of Dior Homme with running your own label? And how do you balance it all with a personal life?

Van Assche: Obviously it took me some time to find a balance, but the good thing about it is that both labels are in Paris. It’s only a 20-minute drive from one office to the other. What I do is spend two or three days at one or the other, wherever I need to be the most at the time. It allows me to work constantly with both my teams, and I’m very proud of all of them because they know how to continue what they are doing even if I am not there.

The teams are really strong; they allow me to be flexible. Right now a three-week holiday sounds like a good idea, especially after the shows, but the truth is that I cannot take it because I will definitely regret it for the whole next season. A few days off do just fine. I’m also aware of the fact that I’m the very first step of the whole process. If I am late, the whole chain will be late: the design process, the making, the price-tagging, the deliveries, the sales.

Motwary: Christian Dior never created anything for men. Do you translate the history of the house of Dior into a masculine vision, or is it purely your own ideas for Dior Homme?

Van Assche: The Dior atelier is about craftsmanship. This is a very important point to make, since not many menswear labels work in such a way. In Dior the customer can find quality and creativity, all in one piece of clothing. Of course I spend a lot of time going through the archives of Monsieur Dior, but I don’t really relate to it, or to couture as it was back then. There is a great deal of respect for beauty and M Dior’s view of modernity, and that certain kind of elegance, which comes naturally to me. Today, Dior Homme is about what I think his message would be for the man of today.

Motwary: In what way can one still make a statement with fashion today? For example, in the 1980s and ’90s, Katherine Hamnett’s slogan T-shirts literally conveyed a message. A printed sentence on a shirt doesn’t really mean the same thing any more.

Van Assche: It has become much more subtle and much more difficult. I don’t really know how people go about it, but personally I feel clothes should underline one’s personality and not the other way around. When you have a lot of choice, it becomes difficult to pick. Some people choose certain labels because they want to express though them a certain power. Others go for a total look, which conveys the message of the designer, not the wearer. I prefer to see people mix and match to achieve something that really represents them.

I don’t like logos, never did, and I’m happy that the trend is almost off the map.

Motwary: What is the meaning of fashion now?

Van Assche: Fashion is totally necessary, even if it’s considered superficial by some. Life is tough for everybody. We constantly work, are stressed, are in a rush to get things done—so all the simple things that embellish everyday life have become really impor- tant. Fashion is one of the things that can make a dull day seem beautiful. Clothes make you feel nice. No one can deny that.

Motwary: Are you following the rise of the fashion bloggers, or the fashion film mania?

Van Assche: I’m obliged to follow them, although I try not to feel victimised by it. The fashion bloggers are often the first to know the news, but also the first to spread false rumours. I follow them from a healthy distance. There are some very talented and inter- esting ones, but they are only a few. There is a lot of rubbish on the net. Fashion films are something I quite like, as a matter of fact. I feel that fashion should always be in touch with new technologies. I’ve been doing these videos with the Belgian photographer Willy Vanderperre for Dior. 

I’m very proud because through them, I can show the clothes with movement and music, from different angles, and so on. It’s another way of expanding the message.

Motwary: How do you see the future of fashion? And what about young designers who are truly talented but have no financial support?

Van Assche: I have no worries for the future of this business. It’s always been, and will forever be, a tough place to work, but it will also remain active forever. Clothes are the only way for a person to complete his personality. As for the creative youth, I can only speak for myself. As a young designer, I had to find investors who believed in my work and helped me to push it further, and I think this is still the way it works for others.

I would advise young people to start by working in a big company for a few years, to see how this industry really functions. Fashion is not about parties and famous models. It’s a tough business and it should stay that way.

Interview originally published in Dapper Dan, Issue 04, October 2011. Photography by Vassilis Karidis. Styling by Nicholas Georgiou. Modeled by Dan Felton at MGM

*Portrait of Kris Van Assche by Paolo Roversi

CHARILAOS M. / PARIS

Photos Nicholas Georgiou

INTERVIEW: WALTER PFEIFFER TALKS TO FILEP MOTWARY / DAPPER DAN ISSUE 03

Walter Pfeiffer has been making pictures since the early 1970s. His photographs and short films evoke both the glamour and the grit of hedonistic youth. His influence is seen in the work of photographers like Juergen Teller and Wolfgang Tillmans, who have achieved the kind of recognition he has never enjoyed. He has published six books with Ringier and Hatje Cantz: odes to homoeroticism, drama and imperfect beauty, measured out in off-kilter crops and that omnipresent flash. Here, he chats with Dapper Dan from his home in Zurich.

Motwary: Are you having a nice day, Mr. Pfeiffer?

Pfeiffer: Yes. I am lecturing this afternoon at an art school. So I will take some photographs for them. Since I’m old-school, I always photograph on my terrace and then I mix those photos with my new works in a slide show for the students.

Motwary: But you like being old-school, no? It is what people know you for.

Pfeiffer: (Laughs) You know, it’s not nice of me to call myself old-school, because there are many moments where I have to learn how to deal with something new, like a new camera. But I can’t learn too much. Maybe for a new commissioned project I might adjust to a more modern way.

Motwary: How difficult is it for you to look at your work as a spectator?

Pfeiffer: That’s one of the hardest things to do. When it’s a commission, I sometimes leave it to the client to decide how they want it. Sometimes we choose the finals together. I don’t fight. For my own work, once I am done I put everything away and take my time to go back to it. I had a big exhibition, which finished last week, in a very nice gallery. I wasn’t very fortunate with gallerists in the beginning of my career.

They would say, “Oh, your drawings are beautiful but your photos look like something that anyone can do.” Of course now, after the retrospective, things are different. You know, when you come from the country, you tend to be suspicious of success. You can’t trust success too much, and you shouldn’t. Today people may be screaming for your work, but tomorrow they’ll be moaning about it. Two days ago I had a beautiful experience. We went on a tour near the lake and my friend turned to me and said, “Why don’t you ever relax?” I always have to be doing something. I swim, walk and hike. And that’s the relaxing part of my life. But when I am at home, it is time for me to prepare and research my next project. I am so old that it feels as if time, for me, is getting narrower.

Motwary: You have said, “as the past gets blurred, my diaries help me remember”. 

Pfeiffer: In 1976 I had this petite notebook – like an agenda, with the hours as numbers on the left and the name of the day on the right. I was writing my notes on each hour, my appointments, etc. After six months I thought, “This is so boring.” Since then, I have started writing down my thoughts. At the end of the year I glue the pages together and they are still sitting on my shelves, never to be opened again.

Motwary: So you never read them?

Pfeiffer: No, because my then masters tutor told me that it would be wrong to do so. I’ve had 30 years of putting down my life in notes. In the beginning, I would glue Polaroid pictures in the empty pages. When the Polaroids got more expensive, I stopped using them. At the time, they were so cheap, and my Polaroid camera was the only thing I had.

Motwary: It’s a bit crazy how things are valued today.

Pfeiffer: Yes, and you know, when I glued them I would think, “Oh, these Polaroids are bad.” But as time passes, especially when I had to make the choices for my retrospective book, I went back to that material, and now I feel they look beautiful. It was a good way for me to see how much I have changed throughout my life.

Motwary: There is not a hint of ego in that idea. I’m impressed with how you don’t interfere with your clients when working on a project. 

Pfeiffer: Well, for a commission I am hired to do a certain group of things for somebody else’s needs. Thank God my super-agency gives me projects that I like, so I am never bored. If I have to wait sometimes for the right thing, I’ll wait. I’m used to it. I have been waiting my whole life.

Motwary: What’s the impact of other people’s opinions on your work?

Pfeiffer: For the show, it was hard. Although most people said it was great, all I kept were the bad remarks. So I try to avoid hearing people’s opinions most of the time. Still, it is preferable to discuss the reasons someone doesn’t like my work. If it’s a superficial remark, I forget it immediately. My first book was released in the 1970s and no one said a word back then. No critiques were written. Not even one! So I am surprised now when they write about it.

Motwary: Were you disappointed back then?

Pfeiffer: Yes! I was on my way to America, where I would stay for a year in New York. I was very young at the time, 35, and out of the country for the first time. It was 1980; I had my book with me as Xerox photocopies. The actual book was on the printing press back home. By the time it came out, I was already out of America. So in a way, I lost my chance to show the book to the people I wanted. Nobody wanted to see a book in Xerox anyway.

The book was released upon my return and could be found through the art world, but it didn’t really get any official comments. Maybe some gay library here in Munich invited me to hang some pictures on its walls, but that was it. Nothing much happened. It was too early for a book with such content. I wanted to make a book that wouldn’t be the same as what people already knew. It wasn’t a coffee-table book – it was like a movie book without any text. A mixture of wonderful Polaroids and photos, all blown up in perfect lighting. Flashy, like what I am doing now. I dreamed of a book that would be fun and sexy and erotic. Back then, sex was not as easy as it is today. It had another meaning.

Motwary: Your heroes are always so young, but so real.

Pfeiffer: You know, when I first started to work in Germany, the same period when my book Welcome Aboard 16 came out, after 10 years of painting and drawing, I had this new chance. There was anger in me and I was feeling dated. So when the first magazine offer came, I thought, “I should do it, because I’ll learn it by doing it.” My first job was for Achtung magazine, which was very fresh then. I had never done a casting before, so it was a new experience that got me quite nervous, seeing all those young boys with their lookbooks. I got so scared, thinking, “I cannot do that, they’re so perfect.” So I asked the magazine to leave me with only the beginners. We sent home the experienced models. That was exciting. I love real beauty. I like things that are not easy to get. This old song comes to mind, by the Rolling Stones… I cannot recall the title. Anyway, I like working with people who don’t know my name. But it’s getting harder, because when you ask them for a photograph they are suspicious, as if it’s for pornographic material for the web…

Motwary: How does it interfere with the reality of the moment when you press the shutter?

Pfeiffer: I always start with an idea, though most of the time, the result comes out different. It’s just that you have to direct people a little bit. Last week I was photographing an athlete who did everything from jumping to laughing and kicking. People are more at ease when they’re asked to do something they are familiar with. That works for me. Work must be linked with fun. And the right timing.

Motwary: Did you doubt yourself?

Pfeiffer: You know, the big Hollywood films had such an impact on me as a young man. I admired all those big stars, Brando and so on. Warren Beatty. I was always into art but back then; artists were all about masculine, good-looking men with ladies who knew how to party all the time. Me, I had to find my own surroundings, the people I could belong with, my own world. So I didn’t really care that nobody reacted to what I was doing. Obviously I had to go on and try out new materials like clay, just to keep myself working. You can’t sit down and cry, you have to be… up.

Motwary: At what age did your vision take form?

Pfeiffer: When I was offered apprenticeship training as a window-dresser in a huge department store. As a young man coming from the depths of the country, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I was rejected at school, so I had to do something about it. Although I managed to get this apprenticeship, my teacher advised that I should apply again to art school. So I did, with no result, and that made me feel even sadder about myself. Then I went back to another department store as a decorator, thinking, “That’s it! My life won’t be that great.” Until another letter came, informing me that I was finally accepted into the first-year class. This changed me, changed the way I felt. I became confident all of a sudden.

I learned how to deal with people finally, after going through hell as a teenager, like we all did, as an innocent young man. Going to art school was a great opportunity to be surrounded by other artists. It felt like a rebirth.

Motwary: But as a window decorator, you had the chance to showcase your poetry in the store’s windows for everyone to see.

Pfeiffer: Well, it wasn’t Bergdorf Goodman, but the advantage was that this store had everything from womenswear to hardware. Cheap stuff. I had a whole range of materials to play with. And it also had these salesgirls and their dramas, which put me through hell, but frankly, it helped me to be stronger. When I started as a so-called artist at the age of 26, my first photos were cheap Polaroids, which I would use for my drawings.

I never used a photograph as something beautiful. The whole thing started when I would take pictures for my drawings, directing people or props. Then I would use them as inspiration for my drawings or commissioned illustrations for magazines.

Motwary: In your last book, Cherchez la femme, you focus on women. It’s totally different to everything you’ve done before.

Pfeiffer: It was never really fun for me, going to gay bars when I was younger. I don’t know why! I always felt at ease when surrounded by straight people, and since women were always better friends to me, I followed them. They would always help and care for me, as well as serving the role of a muse, giving me inspiration.

Motwary: You had beautiful women as friends?

Pfeiffer: I would say that I had the most exquisite and most tasteful women friends ever. They taught me a lot about style, beauty, cooking… everything. I always loved being in the position of a learner, having teachers around me. I still do. I always value a woman’s opinion.

Motwary: What is the difference between man and woman?

Pfeiffer: For me, men are more difficult and more suspicious of others’ intentions, my intentions included. I am not interested in their sexuality. It was a problem for me in the beginning, when I had to work with them, because I was always interested in straight men and their masculine beauty.

Motwary: How about women?

Pfeiffer: They have to be witty and funny, good-looking and clever… With boys, I don’t care so much about all that. Anyway, women last longer with me.

Motwary: Do you see them as more intellectual than men?

Pfeiffer: Maybe I treat them more intellectually. I don’t know. I do respect their advice as they are more advanced, in a way. Boys can be a problem sometimes.

Motwary: Do you enjoy the company of others?

Pfeiffer: I am a loner.

Motwary: You have said, “Reality is great, but not always”.

Pfeiffer: Sometimes you have to create reality in exactly the way I build my sets. It’s like when I go to a person’s home and borrow the way he placed the furniture, the light, the plants, and I think that it suits my reality perfectly. Borrrriiinnnggg…

 

Self-portrait with mask © Walter Pfeiffer. Interview originally published in Dapper Dan, Issue 03, March 2011 Thanks to C. Scott Lyles

REI KAWAKUBO TALKS TO ANGELO FLACCAVENTO / DAPPER DAN ISSUE 03

Rei Kawakubo is, without a doubt, the high priestess of the avant-garde, and Comme des Garçons is the cult she has created. Not only does she possess a religious following and a body of work that spans four decades of uncompromising radicalism, but her cryptic silences, black-clad persona and commanding bob make even her most absurd style declarations – men in skirts being a favorite – sound serious rather than ridiculous.

Since Kawakubo arrived in Paris in 1981 with monochrome designs that radically challenged common perceptions of beauty and completely rewrote the staid relationship between clothing and body, nothing has ever been the same again. Hiroshima chic was the not entirely complimentary descriptor bestowed on those early, allblack, hole-y, asymmetric efforts. In hindsight, though, it is apt; Kawakubo’s debut was akin to a creative atomic bomb. And she accomplished all of it without sacrificing commerce on the altar of creativity. Forty years on, she is still the president and owner of her own independent, profitable company. Notoriously a woman of few words, Kawakubo knows how to deliver a resonant sentence. She never draws, preferring words to brief her team. Her latest men’s collection, which features tutus and skeletons, bears the jolly riddle of a title Skull of Life.

Flaccavento: The new Comme des Garçons Homme Plus collection literally drips with skulls, from the clothing to the hair. Why?

Kawakubo: There is never any particular reason. Collection after collection, for 40 years, all I have been doing is searching and looking and trying to find an idea that expresses something new.

Flaccavento: What do you like about a man in a skirt?

Kawakubo: I just want to create something strong and new: to find new ways to express beauty.

Flaccavento: Do you like to provoke extreme reactions?

Kawakubo: Obviously, any reaction is better than no reaction, but shock is not my main aim. Moving, questioning, creating a feeling never felt before is good.

Flaccavento: Is radicalism a relevant concept to you?

Kawakubo: Comme des Garçons is about creation, about always looking for something new. This is the pillar around which I founded and built the company. There can be no wavering from this primordial value.

Flaccavento: The avant-garde is, by definition, transitory. How have you managed to stay at the forefront of the avant-garde for such a long time?

Kawakubo: I kept doing what I decided to do when I started the company.

Flaccavento: What motivates you after so many years?

Kawakubo: Responsibility for my staff and the welfare of my company.

Flaccavento: How can you change the world through the medium of fashion? Is this your aim?

Kawakubo: My aim was to be independent; to have a working life in order to be free. This is my only aim.

Flaccavento: Is an aesthetic revolution still

possible?

Kawakubo: Everything is always possible.

Flaccavento: Is it necessary?

Kawakubo: Without creation there can be no progress. No freedom.

Flaccavento: What do you think of the “conceptual” label that people apply to your clothes?

Kawakubo: Although I don’t take any notice of the labels anyone wants to give me, the starting point of every collection is a theme or a concept, then a sub-theme and a sub-concept…

Flaccavento: How do you marry business and creation?

Kawakubo: It is a very fine balance. Comme des Garçons consists of many different collections.

Flaccavento: What’s the essence of the Comme universe?

Kawakubo: See above.

Flaccavento: What is the creative process like for you?

Kawakubo: More and more difficult. The weight of experience is heavy. It is harder and harder to create something new. More often than not, it is hell.

Flaccavento: Which do you like best: the process or the product?

Kawakubo: Everything or nothing: I can’t separate.

Flaccavento: Finally: is fashion serious or frivolous?

Kawakubo: Fashion is simply a great way to express one’s individuality and feelings.

 

Interview originally published in Dapper Dan, Issue 03, March 2011. Photography by Vassilis Karidis

DAPPER DAN FEATURED ON MODELS.COM

Costumes by Christopher Kline Photography by Philip Wiegard | Featured in Issue No. 3

Click on the images to read the article.

 

DAPPER DAN ISSUE 03 / VITAL SHOCK OF THE HAPPY ACCIDENT

In Dapper Dan’s third issue, Angelo Flaccavento studies the cult of Rei Kawakubo; legendary designer Yohji Yamamoto pulls a bomb from his heart; Berlin-based artist Christopher Kline guides us through the stations of a snakebraid; Thomas Eberwein and Jerome Rigaud discuss the creative potentials of technology; photographers Charlotte Ballesteros and Hubert Marot explore the paradox of beauty; Epic artist Jannis Kounellis declares art a sacrifice; Filep Motwary discovers talent in the work of new designer Takashi Nishiyama; Walter Pfeiffer is having a nice day; Shumon Basar shares an excerpt from his novel-in-progress and Jeff Clarke talks about his polka-dot guitar. Photo Genevieve Majari

Coming out late March 2011, Dapper Dan 03 will be available worldwide at selected newsstands, bookstores and fashion boutiques. Follow this link for more stockist details.

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