Yes. I have the great luxury of being able to make exactly what I want. I see it as a big luxury, it's not an obligation for me - I'm so happy if I can take it and put it on. It comes very naturally - I don't have to think 'now I'm going to put on this or that', I just take it. I'm not somebody who spends hours in Yes, but you only wear black, that makes it a lot easier! Ah yes, that's my only lazy attitude. I started wearing black when I was 15 or 16 and at that time it was very much a rebellion thing for a young girl to do. The colour of the poets, strong, different. Of course, that's all old news now. But it's still the most poetic, the strongest colour for me. Everybody has tried very hard, but it is not easy to replace black. Sometimes it feels like there's a kind of melancholy, a blackness, in your work. If you ask me my favourite movie, I think we have more chance it will be a sad film than a comedy! It's not that I'm so fond of sadness, but I do love emotions - a work with emotions touches me much more than something empty - and I think sadness, or whatever you want to call it, is part of human emotions. So, since my work follows my life, and since I work with all kinds of emotions, it's understandable that that emotion is there too. And it can be a beautiful emotion. At least it's not an empty, false thing - life is just not that frivolous.
It's not the same as if I tried it on myself, but it's almost the same, because he's someone I've lived with for...longer than I've lived alone! Eighteen years. We grew up together, we formed our taste together, it's not difficult at all. But it's very fragile for me, designing for men. A man that I like, that I think is interesting, is a man who has not only this macho thing, but also has a certain femininity, but in his own masculine How do you translate that into menswear? Does the menswear also start with movement? Yes, it's there in the beginning, but less so than for the women. But the cuts are about an attitude. Sometimes it looks like it's just the boy sitting like this (slouches over a little, cool). The clothes cut is not something immediately obvious, it's more like an attitude that seems to be coming from the person. But it's already cut in the clothes. |
front of the wardrobe every morning. I just pick out something, and that's it.
You always try on all the womens clothing yourself, to check that they feel as you want. You've just presented your third menswear collection, using your husband Patrick to guide you in how the garments feel. Does that satisfy you?
way. It's much more delicate than women who have masculine characteristics - especially in terms of design - and that's very interesting to work with. You must not touch it too much, because a man still has a certain reality that women lost, in a way, and you have to respect this.
Photos (from top): Spring/Summer '95; Fall/Winter '96/'97 [photography: F. Dumoulin]; Spring/Summer '97; Fall/Winter '95/'96.
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