Ekaterina Bazhenova 9.45am (23 minutes ago) Hi Adrian, Hope you’re well. We’re back and radioactive. I’m about to email you the images and the fashion credits for Sang Bleu online feature. But before that just wanna let you know that today at LN-CC Kanae is tattooing all day and giving all proceeds to the earthquake relief fund – LN-CC will probably do it again next week so I’ll let you know. Cheers, x e

Keeping Busy

Photo by Paolo Zerbini

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http://sangbleu.com/sb5/

Many designers use contrast for effect, but few with the impact of Anthony Vaccarello. His womenswear is like a 3D exercise in counterpoints, balancing cold sculpted lines with sheer delicate layers. Toughness and fragility underpinned by a futurist approach to beauty that explains both the Metropolis-inspired silhouettes in his last collection, and the choice of his muse Lou Doillon to model it. Sang Bleu spoke to the young Belgian about the importance of texture, his favourite women, and the new codes in fashion.

Sang Bleu: How did you get to where you are now?

Anthony Vaccarello: Where am I? I’m still working hard every day. I studied at La Cambre in Bruxelles, then won the Grand Prix Mode at the Festival of Hyères in 2006, then worked for Fendi and came back to my first love. After that it’s all about how you love what you do, people you meet and people you trust to grow with.

SB: What do you find exciting about womenswear at the moment?

AV: I think what is exciting is that codes have changed. People want new things, customers know fashion better than before and want new and particular things. They pay more attention to new designers than big established brands that take less risk. They understand new designs and a new way to show them.

SB: Geometric structures feel like an important element in your work, do architectural and engineering theory have a strong influence on your approach to design?

AV: Not directly, of course I love architecture. Modern architecture. But I never create a dress looking like a building. It’s more about lines. Some architects I like are very inspiring but not literally, otherwise it will be too obvious. For the F/W 10/11 collection I was really inspired about the perfection of art deco line. Everything is so tough, so perfect and smart.

SB: What are the qualities that inspire you in the materials you use? Transparency, texture, and sheen seem like strong stories – emphasising the contrast between matte and shine, tactile and polished surfaces, sheer and opaque, and so on.

AV: Everything is in the question! I love transparency… I love working directly on a body. Skin also inspires me. It’s the best fabric but you can’t go around like that (well, not all the time). That’s why I like to create texture, to hide it sometimes and reveal it in a way. To pay attention to a strange part of the body that isn’t normally interesting, then try to make it sexy. I always try to create texture since I started at school because I studied ‘textiles’ before fashion so to me it’s a cool way to be different and to propose something that is not flat. Even if the shape is really simple sometimes, when you play with texture it’s always more interesting.

SB: Does the concept of deconstructing, or reinventing classic shapes have any bearing on your aesthetic?

AV: I love classic shapes. There is a lot to do to always reinvent them in a new way to wear them. Classic is the base of everything. But I hate deconstructing… Too 90s isn’t it? I prefer the word reinvent.

SB: How important is hand-finished craftsmanship and traditional technique in achieving your angular, almost Art Deco-feeling pieces?

AV: I don’t want to be confined as the hand-finished designer. It really depends on the collection and the pieces. Some need to be hand-finished, some not. I like clothes that create an emotion that manufacturers can’t produce. Sometimes you need to touch, destroy some surface finish, or just fix some point to make the clothes more exceptional. Less flat.

SB: Can you envisage a boundary at which the garment ends, and the jewellery begins? They appear to exist symbiotically in your work.

AV: When I’m doing clothes I think accessories are very important but not always visible. For instance, for the S/S 11 collection there is no jewellery in a way. I mean you will not see them directly but it’s more in the structure of the dress. The jewel becomes a dress but without any shining effect outside. I think it’s the ultimate boundary for me. When you wear a dress that hangs as a collar but you seem naked. It’s just about shape and fabric. I love that.

SB: Do you have a muse, or strong feminine ideal that drives the silhouette each season?

AV: I always think about a woman when I’m doing a collection. I think it’s important to see the woman I want to dress, imagine her moving, walking down a street, or smoking in a bar. It’s always a strong woman with some faults. Not the aggressive one but a woman that knows who she is. The best is my friend Lou Doillon, who is perfect for me. I would rather have a living icon in mind than a dead woman. My work is for now; there are no references to the past.

SB: Can you describe the mood and inspiration for your autumn/winter 2010/11 collection?

AV: I played on the contrast of textures around a palette of black, mainly in transparency, like urban and graphic lingerie. Mixtures of velvet and veils, assembled by embroidery stitches to create a graphic silhouette that plays with the body – for a woman who wears her femininity as armour. When worn, transparent parts of the garment create unexpected lines, almost strange, like a new angle, which can be topped by a straight double coat or masculine jacket. The pure lines and graphics that characterize the collection, where Art Deco meets Metropolis, are gathered in a series of jewellery, structures without stones, like cold metal folded into its body, purified to its simplest form.

SB: What are your immediate plans for the future?

AV: I’m working on the S/S 11 collection that will be shown in Paris on September 28th, in the official schedule. The loop will continue but with more and more enthusiasm. It never ends, that’s why I love fashion. I would like to find a cool collaboration in order to make the brand grow healthily.

Photography by Julia Champeau (of Sang Bleu V cover fame)

http://anthonyvaccarello.blogspot.com/

an amazingly beautiful series our dear Adrian Wilson shot.
Soon to be found in the Online features section!…

Bobby C. Alkabes shot this series for us. Thank you!