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June 29, 2007
Source: nytimes.com
Source: nytimes.com
In giving Balenciaga a new silhouette, Nicolas Ghesquiere has created a modern path for fashion. This is the Balenciaga look: lean, seemingly energized with French street cool, relentlessly sharp in its concept. Only 250 people see his shows each season, a fact that has probably contributed to his fashion leadership. Still, he has managed to walk another kind of line. He has made Balenciaga a global brand — through image, accessories, and an imaginative expansion of lower-priced lines such as knits and trousers. Last week, Ghesquiere was in Milan to open a new Balenciaga shop. Another one is set to open later this year in Los Angeles. Yesterday, I sat down with Ghesquiere in the Balenciaga offices in Paris to talk about fashion, multiculturalism, and the influence of designers in a fast-changing world.
Q: Your fall collection took on multiculturalism. This is big issue in fashion — specifically it’s lack of representation. There are so many unaddressed issues, like the rich-poor divide, the fact that more and more people will be living in cities. Why did you go in this direction?
A: It started with the street, really, and it’s been a long time since the street was inspiring. I wanted to show a luxury style in the street? Why should street wear always be casual? My ideal was a mix-and-match — you want to see a girl in that type of jacket but with a real sense of luxury and quality. We are so much into a total look. You have to wear that type of shoe, that dress. There are a lot of stereotypes now in fashion. I wanted to make another proposition.
I wanted to evoke multiculturalism without being too literal — to put it in an urban situation. Even if you wear an African-inspired dress, a Balinese shape, the way you wear it in the city is with a greater sense of protection. I’ve always like the idea of protection but it was the first time I incorporated ethnic elements.
Q: Do you think designers have a hard time with ethnic?
A: Yes. Some designers, of course, are incredible at it. Azzedine [Alaïa] always did ethnic. Jean Paul Gaultier. But I would say it’s never easy to take it out of its context. You refer to an African queen or a Chinese shape, and it’s not easy for the rest of the people to wear it. There’s not much that is twisted in ethnic-inspired fashion, if I can say that. You know all the raves, the techno parties, which are huge and where the kids all wear khakis and parkas with African things? That’s what I wanted to evoke a little bit. It’s a bit aggressive.
Q: Miuccia Prada was also interested in this subject, with the collection that focused on satin tunics and turbans. She spoke of a kind of banality.
A: We all refer to couture, couture, couture. There becomes a moment when you want to go somewhere else, for sure.
Q: I sometimes wonder how attuned designers are to what’s happening in the world today. Can they really incorporate or address these issues in their work?
A: Yeah. Interesting. It could be confusing, though. There is the direct impact on the consumer. And the customer is changing. There is more luxury, more people consume luxury, more people want luxury. It’s going higher and higher.
In terms of design, it’s true the world has an influence. But, as a designer, you have to protect yourself. You have to look at the world and then forget it. Of course I live in my time and I’m really curious. But, at the same time, I don’t think it has a direct impact on my work.
Q: Designers have to compete with so many other distractions today. Do you think they are influencing the world as much as they did five years ago?
A: Definitely. Fashion is fashionable again. You can see the effect in the number of companies that sell copies. Also, what’s interesting is that I can see women on the streets in what was maybe a Balenciaga silhouette. It’s pretentious maybe to think that you created that look or influenced her. But I’m, like, yeah, this is the Balenciaga silhouette. Maybe she is wearing somebody else but, in the end, on the street, you can see the influence. The challenge in our time is branding—to build a brand.
Q: Does that freak you out at all?
A: No, I think it’s very interesting. Your priority has to be the creativity — and build a brand. That’s what everybody did — Balenciaga, Dior, Saint Laurent. That’s the smart thing to do. Why should that change? The system, the access, the forms of communicating — everything is changing, but the real spirit of what you have to do is the same. Some people have a formula or a recipe — that’s why so many celebrities are doing clothes now. They are building a brand on their name or style. This is something that’s valuable.
Q: It’s suddenly as if consumers only recognize big brands…
A: This is why it’s so difficult now for young designers. People talk about exclusivity, discreet things. And the person who will use that idea to invent a different means of distribution will be the next big designer. But, for the moment, you have to rely on the normal system — collections, showing, selling, making an image.
Q: But you feel you can be totally creative?
A: Oh, yes. It’s about becoming consistent and acquiring more confidence. You have more money to do your things. I can see how it’s happened with Balenciaga. Now the company is healthy. We took our time to reach this point. Now we’re going to another level. It’s so enjoyable. To think about direction and products but, at the same, keep your integrity. And not to be a niche brand, as everybody was thinking Balenciaga was. And, yet, still make super-expensive clothes and do fashion shows for 250 people. It’s interesting that you ask me if five years ago I was aware of branding. In fact, I was aware but I had no model to follow.
Q: Are you ever tempted to do couture? Take over an existing house?
A: No, I’m not at all interested. I don’t think couture fits our world. I think the golden age of couture had some of the most incredible customers, women like Nan Kempner and all the icons. But I don’t think it really fits our time. Anyway, I have the luxury of using the couture techniques in my ready-to-wear. One thing about couture is the craft — all those people you see, for instance, in the Chanel ateliers. It’s like when you do a prototype car — one idea that will be massive and it will be the one we will all have. There is that same sense with couture, that someone at one point did something really specific. It’s the only thing I’m a bit sad about with the end of couture. We’re going to lose a part of that, and that’s a shame.
Q: As a leading designer, do you feel an extraordinary pressure to deliver a strong statement every season?
A: Yes. I don’t know if I’m a leader [Ghesquiere laughs]. I can be a leader one season and then totally not the next season. But I feel a big, big respect for the audience. The expectation is super high. The quality of what you have to show, the reason, the sharpness, the idea has to be strong. It’s the respect for the people you are talking to. To try to deliver a strong message. If they get it or not, that’s another problem. My concern is to show that I worked hard to achieve something.
So, yes, there is an incredible pressure, and I love that pressure. It’s a pressure I put on myself. And the luxury at Balenciaga is that I have many pressures, but there is nobody around me that is adding another kind of pressure.
Q: You have total freedom, then, with your collections?
A: No compromises. Zero compromise. If I want to do a super-expensive embroidery or fur in summer — I don’t show the work beforehand to anybody except my staff.
Q: For all the great, emotionally resonating collections we see from designers, do you ever have the feeling that fashion doesn’t touch the world enough?
A: Yes. But I don’t know if we have to, strangely. I mean, it’s interesting what you said at the beginning about the ethical. How do we start to behave like this in fashion? But in another way, I don’t think fashion has that role to touch more people, and I’m only talking about the important collections. Did you see the movie “Babel?” Those four visions — the Moroccan, the American — all related but not directly related to each other? Super interesting, I think. And very interesting for fashion, in an abstract way. The walls…
Q: You could be talking about the vast differences today in the global marketplace, between Russia and America. Who really sees that and deals with it in a first-rate way?
A: I think you start by going to those places.
Eventually it will rise
