As of 4:00 p.m. today in Paris, Olivier Theyskens will be back. Don’t even begin to pretend you haven’t missed him. Like all designers, Theyskens has had his highs and lows in his near-two-decade career, but the Belgian prince of poetic romanticism and haute gothica could always be relied upon to serve up something singular and compelling that sprung from his particular fount of raw, pure talent. I went to his live/work space in the Marais a week ago to check in with him and ask him about his return to working under his own name, after periods at Rochas, Nina Ricci, and Theory.
Theyskens preferred to keep the clothes under wraps for this interview—he’d just taken delivery of pieces from his factories in Italy, and he was starting to strip away their plastic shrouds—but he was happy to discuss what drove him to return to a fashion world very different from the one he left in 2014. Still, one little hint: Before you ask, yes, you will see those trademark hook-and-eye fastenings of his.
Olivier, tell me where you’re currently at and what you’re in the midst of doing.
We’ve started receiving pieces from the factories [in Italy] that we’re working with, and we’re basically FaceTiming with everybody. My mind-set at this stage is very much what can I still do, or what can I still make to bring something more? Every minute you’re thinking you shouldn’t be wasting a second.
I know we can’t say too much about the collection, since this comes out before you show it, and you want it to be a surprise! But tell me a little bit about how you’re able to come back.
I really feel that I’m doing the right thing. When I moved to Paris, I was 24, I started at Rochas, and it was a big dream to work in a Parisian house. All the time, I was always willing to relaunch [my own label], and every project I did had the freedom for me to do my own stuff. I never did it because basically I got involved in whatever I was doing, and I just thought, How the hell can I do everything?
Then, two years ago, it felt like the right moment. I was talking with Maximiliano Nicolelli [now his CEO], and he helped me put together the project with a very small team of four or five people. Also, I kept a good relationship with some of the factories that I loved working with 15 years ago in Italy. I always visited them just to say hi and see how they were doing, and some of these people are working with me now, and it’s very important because they know me so well. In the end, it feels like we’re a big team when you put everyone together.
Is it liberating to operate in that way again given that you’ve most recently worked for established names like Rochas, Nina Ricci, Theory?
What was difficult was, if I take the case of Rochas, which was seen as being a big brand, that it had no structure and we had to build everything from scratch. So for a while there, I had the struggle of being entrepreneurial with an established name, when actually, what I love to do is be entrepreneurial with something that’s starting up! I love that what I am doing now is basically a small startup. Sometimes the scale of a company . . . like, Theory had this amazing quality to it, because Andrew [Rosen] brought such humanity that I felt like it was a family company—everything was connected. When brands get too big, you can lose the sense of connection.
How does it feel to be coming back?
It’s good for me. I get to think about my girl again. When I worked for someone else, I brought what I thought was needed, but with this, I want my designs to be the way I believe they should be. Since it’s the first collection, it’s a little bit stressful because I want to make a good impression. I want to be humble, and I just want to say also that it’s not trying to be a big brand. It’s a project that’s just starting, it’s something we want to build, and it’s something that’s really precious to us.
When you weren’t working, were you still sketching and designing for yourself?
I can take time off, but I always feel the clock is ticking. I’ve already archived two collections since I stopped. I joke that if I go to the hospital, the team can just go into a drawer and take everything they find there, because it’s all set to go. I had one collection ready a while back, and I loved it, but it wasn’t the right one to start with. Sometimes it’s good to have some distance. Time off can be scary, but it can also be positive. It just brings you naturally back to a point where there is something more balanced that comes out of you.
What makes the collection you’re going to show a better one to start with?
I had to think about myself a little bit and what is the thing that I have naturally arrived at. I thought a lot about my work in the past. It took me months to go through all of my personal archives, my friends were helping me scan all the sketches, all these old collections, my ancient clothes. Some of them really needed care, and I hadn’t had the time before. I just felt I could see again. I think this is a collection that really reflects my aesthetic. And at the same time, I don’t like to try to make trends. I am not trying to scream. I simply love the idea of doing a dress for a woman in which she would look nice, elegant—that it shows a strength of character. I don’t care if that’s modern or if it’s passé.
Is that more important than ever to you, given that the noise level of fashion has gotten so loud?
Sometimes I feel it gets loud, but if you just step out a little bit, it’s a lot of noise in a little bubble. In the end, for this presentation, I just drew clothes. At one point, I thought we should just put the clothes in a showroom and have the buyers come in. After a while, you start thinking more about fashion, and then, in the end, you think there is no way to present a collection other than to put it on professional models and have it seen by professionals.
Does it feel weird to you to see a generation come up obsessed with the ’90s, the era in which you started?
It’s funny, but I understand it. The thing is, though, when you now look at some ’90s shows, the ones that made you travel creatively in your mind, half of the girls were wearing clothes that were pretty bad and half that were stunning. It was an era when shows weren’t worked on by stylists. There were a lot of ups and downs within one collection. At some point, I became a little bit against styling a collection to make it look all at the same level.
I think maybe the first show I saw of yours was Spring 1999. . . .
That collection was the first time I had to deal with factories. I did two collections before that, and I still love them because they were done at home with my mother helping, but I couldn’t imagine ever making them. Julie Gilhart [then at Barneys New York] came in, holding up all the leather pieces, and saying, “You have to make what you just showed!” That collection: Some was nice, some was like, oh my gosh. It was one of the collections where I had to do most of the patterns by myself. I was at an age where I could spend all night working to get things done. When I look at that collection, it is so much of that.
I think we forget you were super young. How old were you—20, 21, something like that?
Yeah, yeah, it’s true. I had not guessed that I would have to do that so quickly. When I left school, I thought I would have to wait 10 years to do my own thing, but it just happened very quickly. I was very happy about it. In the end, one of the reasons I wanted to move to Paris was because I was exhausted after three years of working out of Belgium, and I needed to structure my company because we were two people in Brussels and three people in Italy that were doing all of the technical work. I was thinking, oh my god, working in Paris for a brand that has a structure would be amazing. So now I think and laugh; why did I forget what it was like to do things on your own? You basically have to think of everything!
How is it to be back in Paris after being in New York?
It’s nice, because actually this place where we are, I basically got this place just after I finished with Nina Ricci. Very soon after, I left for New York, so I never had the chance to work or really live here. I feel like this place was waiting for me to do my own thing.
Tell me a little bit about what you feel you got out of New York.
Well, I felt I would be more often in New York, but this year I have only been once. It’s a bit sad for me because I love my friends there! What I liked about New York, and why I could have easily continued working there for years, was I had very good working relationships with everybody. I’m very conscious of the fact that I want to have that here.
New York showed me how a team can work together, much more so than in Paris. In Paris, I was working in such a way that I had everything on my shoulders, and that became not so nice. It was one of the motivations for me starting again: I liked the positive experience I had of being in a team.
Is it good to be working at a more rarified, elevated level again?
It is. What I really felt was my thing was working with Italian factories—I love them, I love their approach, they really excite me. I have to say that after a while, one reason I came back to Paris was to be closer to Italy. In the beginning, I was thinking whatever I do I have to be working in New York, and after a short time, I’d imagine the schedule, and it would be so tough to travel so much. I just felt no way—it has to be Paris.
It feels like the fashion world has changed so much since you stopped. We’ve seen such a turnover of designers at houses. As someone who has worked at two French houses, how does it feel to be looking at that world and that pace of change from where you are now?
For me, it feels less magical than what it was. The thing about the end of the ’90s was that you would see a designer starting something that they likely hoped to do for a long time. For example, around that time, I had some people offering me various positions, and I couldn’t imagine myself doing them for 20 years. Then, when I got the offer from Rochas, I could see myself doing it, and I thought that it would be forever. It was natural to think that way then, because then you didn’t have people staying for just three years.
Three years sounds like a long time, but I guess it’s not.
It’s hard to really do much in that time. Also, it’s not great to think you have someone starting somewhere, and the first question is: How many years are you going to be here? How many years are you signing for?
It’s a bit like putting a time limit on a relationship!
Yeah, it’s not that sexy! I don’t know if people are getting blasé about their time. Maybe it’s all going to change again.
If you were offered a house again, would you do it?
Sincerely, when I left Theory, I thought this is not going to happen again, to be in a place with hundreds of employees. I’m going to be focused on something much more personal. I think it’s important now to bring something new. It’s so annoying these days to be stuck on just a few names; years ago you’d look around, and it would feel that 20 designers were part of the conversation, not just a few.
The other big thing in fashion in the last few years has been the rise of social media. Is it something you look at?
It’s terrible because I like not to think about it! I was on Instagram kind of early, and after a while I just started deleting my accounts; I got bored of putting up selfies! Fashion is a bit more about depth, or it should be. It takes time to look at it. In the end, I have to admit, I understand why it’s happening, and I’m a little bit on it, but I’m not that obsessed. When I started looking at fashion, it was about buying the right papers and magazines.
What were you looking at?
French Vogue, Italian Vogue. If I opened a ’90s magazine now, I would remember everything about it—the advertising, the pictures, whatever—it got into my brain. It’s bizarre, because there were fewer elements to look at, but they had more impact. We didn’t have access to everything. When I was 17, 18, my friends and I would sometimes have a party where instead of watching a movie, we would watch a VHS tape of a fashion show!
Which ones did you watch?
There was an Alexander McQueen for Givenchy and a John Galliano for Dior. We were so excited we could see them.
When you look at the fashion landscape right now, what do you feel is missing?
I want to bring this sense of luxury and personality, and to feel that I can bring something really sincere and true with a lot of love, to take risks. But I don’t know if there’s anything missing, as such. There are a lot of good things out there, but the industry has become so much bigger. I think that’s why a lot of people feel it has gotten messy: There is so much stuff.
There were a few big names who have just shown collections that are available immediately, which is also something else that’s transpired in the last year or so. What’s your view on that?
To do that, you have to be really firm about what clothes are really working. Sometimes you present a collection and then you need to see the buyers’ reactions and press reactions; it’s important to get them. Personally, to be frank, I don’t want right now to be the reality of my life. I’d rather see something around for a little while and think about it. For me, it takes months to really desire something.
Amazing news! Welcome back Olivier, we've missed you!
