i'm creating this post while i should actually be finishing up / formatting / deciding on a stock photograph for a magazine article that i have a deadline for tomorrow..
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Rick Owens for AnOther Magazine:
how would you connect fashion to elegance?
everybody probably has their own definition of elegance. personally, i’ve seen some pretty transgressive fashion that was elegant in its wit or exuberance. i think everyone would agree that elegance is the most desirable part of fashion.
what is the role of history and art history in your conception of fashion?
history has provided us with touchstones and symbols that we get to mix and rearrange to create new compositions in fashion. these arrangements can at times hit similar chords that art can..
would you describe fashion as a language and a discourse, as Barthes did it?
Barthes would be a lot more elaborate. i like to think of fashion as a quiet opportunity to participate and communicate. first impressions can be significant and i like the idea of putting your best foot forward. the effort to charm is generous and never hurts.
the word 'intellectual' was coined in a time of great political distress. does fashion have a political role? and in which way?
i think fashion can only comment, react or protest. i’m not sure that it really has that much more power.
how would you relate the concept of 'fashion' to the one of 'style'?
fashion can be cruel. style is a gift to others.
what does fashion have to do with intellectuality?
how we present ourselves can be the first step in setting the tone of how we hope to behave.
your designs seem to be based on a confrontation of elegance and a certain wildness. would that be a way, for you, to redefine beauty?
the story i’m telling is about the balance of control and collapse and the temptation to overdo either. i like the idea of idealism, misguided or not, and its inevitable defeat. i like self-invention and even more when it goes a bit morbid.
you pay a lot of attention to the presentation of your collections, working with the same stylist and creating fascinating pictures. how would you relate the clothes themselves to the way they are 'staged'?
when i started, runway shows weren’t in my plan. i felt that my aesthetic was too grey and narrow to endure the scrutiny of a status and novelty driven system. and i don’t mean that disapprovingly. but the opportunity was presented to me in such an ideal way that it would have been ungrateful not to try, and after a while i grew to really enjoy them. i feel that the clothes become relics of a ceremony that we’ve experienced together. a harmless ceremony to enjoy a communal moment of beauty. and those shows hopefully can give us a perfect moment to think about living up to.
XXXXXXXXXX
Olivier Theyskens for AnOther Magazine:
how would you connect fashion to elegance?
i think that elegance evolves. when i put clothes on a girl today i find her elegant in a way that probably 50 years ago people would not have found elegant. there is an elegance that can be inherent, natural, personal: you put a trash bag on a certain girl, and she’s elegant. it’s a gift that is almost physical. and you don’t need a particular type of culture: i saw such elegant girls out of Siberia or out of Angola. it’s a mesmerising grace. it’s the gesture, something in the eyes that really brings a certain depth. as a designer, you also work to design clothes that help to be elegant. the way clothes are cut, jackets unfold on the body, it’s designed to make people look elegant. girls come to the fitting for the show. they’re good-looking, of course, but they become really beautiful when they have these particular clothes on.
what is the role of history and art history in your conception of fashion?
it depends on the type of fashion. fashion as designed by people that really have a strong point of view often has a deep relationship to history, because history brings obvious and hidden cultural references. culture is something i want to feel in my work, even with a very modern silhouette. in my way of handling fashion, there will always be references, even hidden and simplified, brought to the essential. you will have these proportions that relate to the past, or another moment.
the word 'intellectual' was coined in a time of great political distress. does fashion have a political role? and in which way?
some designers have a great intuition and are very reactive. often he would react to his environment. you can act politically with fashion, but it very quickly becomes distateful. many people in the fashion world are probably not very good at politics: it’s a mental disconnection.
how would you relate the concept of 'fashion' to the one of 'style'?
there is a fashion world, but in the fashion world, very few people get what 'style' actually is, even in the work of a designer. they get used to seeing so many collections, many propositions, and it becomes like browsing books for kids. many people in fashion have no clue about what style is.
what does fashion have to do with intellectuality?
sometimes it’s good for fashion to have fresh inspirations, a certain degree of lightness. but’s it’s also interesting when it’s pushed to the limit of the process of intellectualisation. i come from Belgium. i’m not from Antwerp, but from Brussels, i’ve been balancing the intellectual side of Belgian designers, and the easy-going way of Paris fashion of the 80s. it’s not always so good for a designer to be systematically intellectual. sometimes it’s amazing, but sometimes you want to tell the designer: 'would you just mind thinking that these are just clothes?'
you designed costumes for the theatre. what part does theatricality play in your conception of fashion?
a little part. to me, it’s almost pejorative to say that it looks 'théâtreux'. i am not driven so much towards people that have a very 'théâtrale' attitude. on the other hand, theatre is a scene that may interest me. it interests me as much as going to a pottery lesson and make a beautiful vase. it’s not my calling, but i feel that i can bring something there. i don’t need to do it, but if a great guy comes along and is interested in doing something fascinating with theatre, film, i would be a very fulfilled partner, just for the sake of doing that work really well.
your work seems to connect your personal style and addressing the mainstream. how do you see the relationship between people in the street and your creativity?
more than ever, this is an important part of my work. for the two last years, i’ve been developing my work with a specific girl in mind. i imagined what i would like to wear if i were in her place. my whole work is not supposed to excite an audience at a show. it’s about bringing pants and clothes to this girl, who could go out now. i should probably travel a bit, and diversify my inspirations. as a boy, i always wear jeans and t-shirts. i hate to wear shirts, suits.. when someone writes about the character of a novel, you can imagine yourself in the skin of another human being. i do the same: i imagine myself in the body of someone else. it’s the sensation of fiction.
XXXXXXXXXX
Rick Owens for AnOther Magazine:
how would you connect fashion to elegance?
everybody probably has their own definition of elegance. personally, i’ve seen some pretty transgressive fashion that was elegant in its wit or exuberance. i think everyone would agree that elegance is the most desirable part of fashion.
what is the role of history and art history in your conception of fashion?
history has provided us with touchstones and symbols that we get to mix and rearrange to create new compositions in fashion. these arrangements can at times hit similar chords that art can..
would you describe fashion as a language and a discourse, as Barthes did it?
Barthes would be a lot more elaborate. i like to think of fashion as a quiet opportunity to participate and communicate. first impressions can be significant and i like the idea of putting your best foot forward. the effort to charm is generous and never hurts.
the word 'intellectual' was coined in a time of great political distress. does fashion have a political role? and in which way?
i think fashion can only comment, react or protest. i’m not sure that it really has that much more power.
how would you relate the concept of 'fashion' to the one of 'style'?
fashion can be cruel. style is a gift to others.
what does fashion have to do with intellectuality?
how we present ourselves can be the first step in setting the tone of how we hope to behave.
your designs seem to be based on a confrontation of elegance and a certain wildness. would that be a way, for you, to redefine beauty?
the story i’m telling is about the balance of control and collapse and the temptation to overdo either. i like the idea of idealism, misguided or not, and its inevitable defeat. i like self-invention and even more when it goes a bit morbid.
you pay a lot of attention to the presentation of your collections, working with the same stylist and creating fascinating pictures. how would you relate the clothes themselves to the way they are 'staged'?
when i started, runway shows weren’t in my plan. i felt that my aesthetic was too grey and narrow to endure the scrutiny of a status and novelty driven system. and i don’t mean that disapprovingly. but the opportunity was presented to me in such an ideal way that it would have been ungrateful not to try, and after a while i grew to really enjoy them. i feel that the clothes become relics of a ceremony that we’ve experienced together. a harmless ceremony to enjoy a communal moment of beauty. and those shows hopefully can give us a perfect moment to think about living up to.
XXXXXXXXXX
Olivier Theyskens for AnOther Magazine:
how would you connect fashion to elegance?
i think that elegance evolves. when i put clothes on a girl today i find her elegant in a way that probably 50 years ago people would not have found elegant. there is an elegance that can be inherent, natural, personal: you put a trash bag on a certain girl, and she’s elegant. it’s a gift that is almost physical. and you don’t need a particular type of culture: i saw such elegant girls out of Siberia or out of Angola. it’s a mesmerising grace. it’s the gesture, something in the eyes that really brings a certain depth. as a designer, you also work to design clothes that help to be elegant. the way clothes are cut, jackets unfold on the body, it’s designed to make people look elegant. girls come to the fitting for the show. they’re good-looking, of course, but they become really beautiful when they have these particular clothes on.
what is the role of history and art history in your conception of fashion?
it depends on the type of fashion. fashion as designed by people that really have a strong point of view often has a deep relationship to history, because history brings obvious and hidden cultural references. culture is something i want to feel in my work, even with a very modern silhouette. in my way of handling fashion, there will always be references, even hidden and simplified, brought to the essential. you will have these proportions that relate to the past, or another moment.
the word 'intellectual' was coined in a time of great political distress. does fashion have a political role? and in which way?
some designers have a great intuition and are very reactive. often he would react to his environment. you can act politically with fashion, but it very quickly becomes distateful. many people in the fashion world are probably not very good at politics: it’s a mental disconnection.
how would you relate the concept of 'fashion' to the one of 'style'?
there is a fashion world, but in the fashion world, very few people get what 'style' actually is, even in the work of a designer. they get used to seeing so many collections, many propositions, and it becomes like browsing books for kids. many people in fashion have no clue about what style is.
what does fashion have to do with intellectuality?
sometimes it’s good for fashion to have fresh inspirations, a certain degree of lightness. but’s it’s also interesting when it’s pushed to the limit of the process of intellectualisation. i come from Belgium. i’m not from Antwerp, but from Brussels, i’ve been balancing the intellectual side of Belgian designers, and the easy-going way of Paris fashion of the 80s. it’s not always so good for a designer to be systematically intellectual. sometimes it’s amazing, but sometimes you want to tell the designer: 'would you just mind thinking that these are just clothes?'
you designed costumes for the theatre. what part does theatricality play in your conception of fashion?
a little part. to me, it’s almost pejorative to say that it looks 'théâtreux'. i am not driven so much towards people that have a very 'théâtrale' attitude. on the other hand, theatre is a scene that may interest me. it interests me as much as going to a pottery lesson and make a beautiful vase. it’s not my calling, but i feel that i can bring something there. i don’t need to do it, but if a great guy comes along and is interested in doing something fascinating with theatre, film, i would be a very fulfilled partner, just for the sake of doing that work really well.
your work seems to connect your personal style and addressing the mainstream. how do you see the relationship between people in the street and your creativity?
more than ever, this is an important part of my work. for the two last years, i’ve been developing my work with a specific girl in mind. i imagined what i would like to wear if i were in her place. my whole work is not supposed to excite an audience at a show. it’s about bringing pants and clothes to this girl, who could go out now. i should probably travel a bit, and diversify my inspirations. as a boy, i always wear jeans and t-shirts. i hate to wear shirts, suits.. when someone writes about the character of a novel, you can imagine yourself in the skin of another human being. i do the same: i imagine myself in the body of someone else. it’s the sensation of fiction.
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