So the shifting seasonal bareness is a result of something else, not an end in itself? The visible hips of last season, for instance, were the by-product of the trouser's falling motion... Exactly. I wanted to have the nonchalance of something falling down. Sometimes, I think it's beautiful when something falls down. I like to play with gravity. I love to change a movement - I want to have control over gravity. Even the jersey t-shirt you're wearing has this neat little forward motion built in...
Visually, it's very subtle, but in the wearing it comes through strongly.
Unlike a lot of clothes at the moment, which seem to be screaming for attention... Yes, but I think there is a place for everyone. There are a lot of people, and a lot of different tastes, and it's good that for every taste there's something. A lot of people don't understand my things. Well, okay, but there are different kinds of houses, of cars, of furniture, and in clothes it's the same. If you go to somebody's house, usually the clothes fit with the environment. Everyone tries to have their own world, their own taste - and if a woman wants to have a lot of fringing or whatever, it's good that she can find it. |
No, it's actually quite spontaneous. I don't believe that men or women have only one or two erogenous zones. I think it's more sexy to show something besides a breast or a hip. In a way, it doesn't interest me. It doesn't make me curious. If I want to show breasts, I will show a breast like a breast. I will never transform a breast into a point or whatever. I love a breast like a breast is - I don't want to change it. Because for me it's the same as a hand or an arm - it's not something to be separated off from the body.
When I start designing, I often start with the idea of a movement. And when I bring this movement and the clothes together, it can happen that a part of the body is not covered, which makes a new thing happen. And that is what makes it interesting for me.
I cut it like that. Sometimes I love a simple movement. See (she stands up), it's flat here, but pushes out here, and makes a very beautiful movement. This movement gives me something which is intriguing, but is not obvious. It's almost cutting an attitude into the clothes.
I think women understand this very well, without words. Because they put it on - it can be a normal jacket, with a collar and two pockets and nothing else - and it's like, Oh, this is giving me another feeling. And that's the communication I'm talking about. Because often you can't see it on the hanger. You pick it up and think, Oh yes, nice jacket. You only realize it when you put it on - it's an introverted collection, not something that talks loudly from the hanger.
Photos (from top): Spring/Summer '95; Fall/Winter '96/'97 [photography: F. Dumoulin]; Spring/Summer '94.
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