some excerpts from a Scott Schuman interview from 2012:
how would you connect fashion to elegance?
'elegance is a certain gracefulness. Garance and i were recently talking about the most elegant people we’ve met and she mentioned a couple of names. i said, 'you know, it’s interesting, i knew of all those people. and i don’t know if we could call all of them fashionable or stylish'. but what they all had in common was that they all had good manners. they were very graceful, very well-mannered, very polite. a lot of these things are what actually most people see as elegance. elegance really expresses itself through one’s actions.'
the word 'intellectual' was coined in a time of great political distress. does fashion have a political role? and in which way?
'maybe not so much fashion as style: it has a political role in the sense that social implications go with the way you are dressed. no political candidate would dress in Rick Owens. that doesn’t say 'political power and stability' to most people. they are dressed in the wardrobe that says 'political power, political stability'. these people are not really expressing who they are through fashion. they’re actually hiding it in the idea of what political power should look like.'
how would you relate the concept of 'fashion' to the one of 'style'?
'i’ve thought about this a lot. fashion and style are like the wheels of a clock. fashion runs more quickly. and like in a clock, the smaller wheel makes the larger work. so many people like to say 'style is eternal, but fashion is right now'. what you have to do is fashion history and see that, even in men’s wear, a navy blazer from 1970 looks totally different from a navy blazer from 2010. lthough most people say that fashion is going faster and faster, yet, my book from three years ago, continues to sell very well; to inspire people. fashion’s cycle may have spinned up, but the way people want to change their look simply hasn’t.'
what does fashion have to do with intellectuality?
'to me, the question would be more about 'style' than 'fashion'. fashion doesn’t have anything to do with intellectual, unless you’re a designer and you have the intellect to put together different inspirations. someone like Dries van Noten really puts together separate ideas, from different cultures, different concepts. style relates more directly to the intellect: everyone uses his or her style to fit in the social group they want to be part of. nobody dresses different from what they want to be. when guys wear football clothes, they want to look like the regular guy, they don’t want to express the same thing as when they wear ties and jackets. the expectations are different. their style is different. they use their intellect to find how to fit in.'
the impact of blogs, and the importance of street photography, seems to indicate that fashion is becoming somehow democratic. do you believe in that?
'the medium now is so inexpensive: it’s so cheap to do a magazine, to take photographs. so it means that more people can produce it, and that people have more choice. they can choose who they want to listen to. i don’t think that the rise of the Internet has hurt Condé Nast, but now, instead of three voices on fashion, it’s like television: there are the big majors, and many other channels to choose from. so people want one international channel, like a Vogue, a Harper’s Bazaar, and something local, that relates to who they are. there’s more of it, and people can select. they want something good.'
how would you connect fashion to elegance?
'elegance is a certain gracefulness. Garance and i were recently talking about the most elegant people we’ve met and she mentioned a couple of names. i said, 'you know, it’s interesting, i knew of all those people. and i don’t know if we could call all of them fashionable or stylish'. but what they all had in common was that they all had good manners. they were very graceful, very well-mannered, very polite. a lot of these things are what actually most people see as elegance. elegance really expresses itself through one’s actions.'
the word 'intellectual' was coined in a time of great political distress. does fashion have a political role? and in which way?
'maybe not so much fashion as style: it has a political role in the sense that social implications go with the way you are dressed. no political candidate would dress in Rick Owens. that doesn’t say 'political power and stability' to most people. they are dressed in the wardrobe that says 'political power, political stability'. these people are not really expressing who they are through fashion. they’re actually hiding it in the idea of what political power should look like.'
how would you relate the concept of 'fashion' to the one of 'style'?
'i’ve thought about this a lot. fashion and style are like the wheels of a clock. fashion runs more quickly. and like in a clock, the smaller wheel makes the larger work. so many people like to say 'style is eternal, but fashion is right now'. what you have to do is fashion history and see that, even in men’s wear, a navy blazer from 1970 looks totally different from a navy blazer from 2010. lthough most people say that fashion is going faster and faster, yet, my book from three years ago, continues to sell very well; to inspire people. fashion’s cycle may have spinned up, but the way people want to change their look simply hasn’t.'
what does fashion have to do with intellectuality?
'to me, the question would be more about 'style' than 'fashion'. fashion doesn’t have anything to do with intellectual, unless you’re a designer and you have the intellect to put together different inspirations. someone like Dries van Noten really puts together separate ideas, from different cultures, different concepts. style relates more directly to the intellect: everyone uses his or her style to fit in the social group they want to be part of. nobody dresses different from what they want to be. when guys wear football clothes, they want to look like the regular guy, they don’t want to express the same thing as when they wear ties and jackets. the expectations are different. their style is different. they use their intellect to find how to fit in.'
the impact of blogs, and the importance of street photography, seems to indicate that fashion is becoming somehow democratic. do you believe in that?
'the medium now is so inexpensive: it’s so cheap to do a magazine, to take photographs. so it means that more people can produce it, and that people have more choice. they can choose who they want to listen to. i don’t think that the rise of the Internet has hurt Condé Nast, but now, instead of three voices on fashion, it’s like television: there are the big majors, and many other channels to choose from. so people want one international channel, like a Vogue, a Harper’s Bazaar, and something local, that relates to who they are. there’s more of it, and people can select. they want something good.'
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