Life After the Runway
By Elizabeth Paton Sept. 24, 2018
Bouchra Jarrar
Most recently: Lanvin creative director, 2016-2017
Previously: Founder of Bouchra Jarrar label, which she closed in 2016; Balenciaga studio director, and head of couture design at Christian Lacroix
Living in: Paris
“My year off allowed me to pause, something I had not done in 25 years, and take stock of what was important to me. In particular, I wanted to help those in need. Together with a close friend of mine, Laure du Pavillon, I started work on a new charitable project. Our focus has been on women between the ages of 18 and 26 who have led incredibly difficult lives and how we can expose them to the power of fashion. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs and its director, Olivier Gabet, and his team were critical in helping this idea come to life, through both creative workshops and
the Dior exhibition. Many of these young women had never set foot inside a museum before. Witnessing the depth of their emotional reactions to what they saw was all the validation we needed for the project and that we were doing the right thing.
“I have always firmly believed in the power of fashion as an essential tool in helping women to build confidence, which is why it was both rewarding and challenging to work with women who had lost all self-esteem. I wanted to help them test their own creativity. To find their voices. It is clear to me that this project, in some incarnation, will be an ongoing feature of my life.
“The past year has also been full of my own creative development. For a few months now, I have been working on the art direction for an album of a beautiful artist, which will be released soon. These different projects have helped me to plan my future. The main idea now is to return to fashion. It could be at another big brand, or it could be that I work under my own name again. But either way, one of my prerequisites will be to do this in partnership with an excellent C.E.O., a partner who can competently manage all aspects of the business and has a strong global vision.”
