What
was your first introduction to fashion?
I love fashion since I can remember… But I guess that in the
beginning of my teenage years the passion is really born. So my friends and
family started giving me books about fashion, and I really started building my
fashion culture on that. Also I was obsessed with Fashion TV, would only
watch the shows and interviews, to know the best I could all the
designers, models, stylists, make up artists, hair dressers… I could tell by
seeing clothes in a magazine from not only which designer they were from but
also who wore it at the show and who were the people involved in the show.
A bit obsessive!
Who
are you biggest influences?
My biggest influences are not really fashion people. It is weird
I know but I never had a « fashion icon » I stood by. I love and admire many
designers, and many people in this industry, and I couldn’t choose one. But I love
poets like Eluard, Aragon, Prevert, Gherasim Luca…film directors like Bunuel,
Guitry, Almodovar... Painters like Rossetti, Miro, Escudero,
Boccioni… they all are my real influences, I try to create a fashion that
deserves their talent.
When
did you feel that it was the right time to start your own brand?
You never really know when it’s the right time, but you have
feelings, instincts that tell you that this idea /collection deserves to be
done and you should go on and on. It is liberating to test your own
ideas, their limits and constantly challenging and question yourself when you
hold all the cards as a creative director.
Do
you often try to incorporate cultural messages into your work?
There is always a story behind the collection, a certain woman
that I pictured with a song, a poem or a novel, a movie. Unfortunately, when
you present the collection, you show the lookbook, you don’t often get the
opportunity to explain the complexity of a collection and its character. But I
hope it is understandable throughout the clothes, the pictures, the atmosphere…
and the title!
Where
do you get your inspiration from?
As said earlier, by art, always. It can sound boring but it's
what it is I can't help it! Never started a collection out of something else.
In all its forms, my next collection is based on a theater play, but the last
one was based on the movie, the one before a dancing show, or a poem. The world
is full of divine creations.
You
come from a diverse cultural background, being raised in Paris by a French,
Spanish, and Polish family. How do you think that diversity of experience has
inspired your vision?
I guess that when you grow up with different cultures, speaking
different languages, you get a wider view of the world. I got interested in
different cultures, and this is where I got my curiosity. It certainly
inspired, influenced my aesthetic as it isn’t predefined, it’s a balance
of very different things, clashing contraries and making them work in harmony,
a little like my different backgrounds. My Spanish family is crazy
and liberated whereas my Polish part is more focused and quiet. I love
contrasts.
A lot
of your clothing designs seem to depict the duality of women. Women who are
able to
assert
their strength without sacrificing their femininity. Do your clothes aim to
encapsulate this
complexity?
Exactly, my clothes aim to be always on the line, you can’t
really describe the style of the woman in the collections. Is she feminine, not
totally, masculine? Neither, provocative nor conservative? Powerful or shy? You
can’t really tell, and I love this mystery. There is something really
attractive in the mystery behind a woman, her complexity. And I aim to capture
this fascination.
What
do you think is the biggest difference between your designs now and when you
initially
started?
Experience. It changes your perception, it makes you grow and
figure out who you are and what you want to create every minute more and it is
great to see how you can defy yourself.
Emma Rowen Rose
