For some buyers, or customers, that idea must be quite difficult to come to terms with.
The moment that you believe in your clothes, you deliver them and then they're out of your hands. But it doesn't have to absolutely disturb me. It's like, I do a proposition, I show them my vision, my universe, then it's up to the customer what they want to take from my proposition. I don't want to be a dictator. I think it's really interesting to see what happens to the clothes afterwards - who's wearing what, who's doing what - it's all very different. I have clients of 16 and also And exactly the opposite of the old concept of the 'total look'... Yes, that old fashion dictatorship. I simply try to give the maximum, to make beautiful clothes, and it's each woman's decision as to what she wants to use. If she takes a piece of the collection and she's really happy with it, that's the best compliment someone can give me. That means I've managed to make something that means something to someone's life, that enters into someone's life - that's the communication of the garment, and that's what I'm working for. It's not about making something to hang on a wall, or about doing a fabulous fashion show, or whatever - the end purpose is that the clothes are worn and people are happy with them. |
Yes, that's an easy immediate reaction. But a woman is not like a Barbie doll, and if you show a woman as a woman is, with all her feminine and her masculine elements, then all of a sudden it's 'androgynous'. But, for me anyway, it's not - it's just a modern woman. I'm not trying to make a woman look masculine, I just think that women have masculine elements, and so it's normal that I use masculine elements. Of course, if you want to look at it in a very classical way, then it is androgynous. But if you say it's androgynous, then it comes from a mind which thinks that a woman should look like Barbie. The problem is the category, that there is this fixed idea of 'feminine' in the first place. For me, it's this idea of balance in human nature that makes creating interesting.
women of 66 who wear my clothes. Of course, every woman has a different background, different taste, a different wardrobe with which they will mix my things, and each time it becomes another thing, another vision. It's an interpretation of what I did. That's a more modern way to wear clothes...
Photos (from top): Spring/Summer '97; Fall/Winter '95/'96; Fall/Winter '96/'97 [photography: F. Dumoulin].
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