CLUB MONACO: What Childhood memory inspires your personal style?
LOU DOILLON: My grandmother, the actress, Judy Campbell.
CM: What music do you listen to when you’re getting ready to go out?
LD: Siouxsie and the Banshees.
CM: What book you are you reading now?
LD: The Skin by Malaparte.
CM: Music that inspires you?
LD: Honest music, mostly under-produced! Nick Drake, Lhasa [de Sala], Cat Power, Daniel Johnston, Jeffrey Lewis, etc.
CM: What was the last trip you took and what did you bring back?
LD: I went to Cuba and brought back their smiles and some cigars!
CM: What’s the one thing you can’t take off?
LD: My perfume, Mitsouko by Guerlain.
CM: Who is your style icon?
LD: Little Edie Bouvier.
CM: Favorite movie?
LD: I never have favorites, but I love Withnail and I and Les Diaboliques (Clouzot version), La Drolesse (my father’s work), Some Like it Hot, etc.
CM: Favorite director?
LD: I don't have a favorite, again, but [Charlie] Chaplin, Max Ophüls [Carl] Dreyer, Mel Brooks - let's only talk about the dead ones!
CM: Last project you worked on?
LD: The Image, a Samuel Beckett monologue, that I performed in the National Theatre.
CM: Favorite thing to do in a hotel?
LD: Order food.
CM: The one person you’re dying to work with on a project?
LD: Thank God I’m not ‘dying’ to meet anyone. I’m happy to meet anyone!
CM: Favorite piece from the Club Monaco shoot?
LD: The loose trousers, Indian style, and all the basics!
CM: What attracts you to Ryan McGinley’s work?
LD: The spontaneity of his work, his ‘method,’ which is closer to a director than a photographer. And, his singularity; I have a tremendous amount of respect for him.
CM: You have your fingers dipped in a lot of projects – film, music, fashion – how did that come about?
LD: Yes, I have tendency to express myself on whatever medium I can find. I need to alter things, rearrange others and one thing leads to another. It wasn't intentional but, in the end, I found myself doing a lot of things...
CM: What do you find most inspiring about your work?
LD: I am lucky to have found a balance with all the things that I do. On one side, I have acting, in films or in plays, where I form a relationship with the text, the audience and the team. Then, there is modeling, where again, I have the opportunity to meet people and travel. But, this involves and forces me to depend on others. Finally, I have the music, the writing and the drawing, and that's wonderful, because it only involves my own will and patience. So it's the ‘traveling’ between all of this that inspires me.
CM: You come from a very famous family. How did your mother influence your love of fashion?
LD: She did without wanting to. I was born in the 80's, when my mum had the ‘I don't have a style’ style. She, my father and my sisters (three at the time, now, 5) all wore Levi's jeans, a white t-shirt and a pair of Converse [sneakers]. That made me sick, so by rebellion, I wore colors, dresses, Indian pink stockings, a black tutu, a rock band t-shirt, and my grandpa’s hat! Wearing what no one else in the family dared to became my ‘style.’ Little did I know, at the time, that my mother before me had been a style icon. I discovered this through the internet because she had never mentioned it.
CM: What is your favorite thing to do with your son?
LD: Build things, discuss history, make lead soldiers, play video games, cook, draw, etc. We do a lot of things together, even music. He plays the drums, and I sometimes fantasize that, like Grace Jones, we'll tour together. But, I hope he'll have better things to do than be with his mum!
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