Say what? #12

- Dries van Noten, fashion designer

Say what? #11

"Clothing is not about being a museum; it's about being modern and taking things forward."

- J. W. Anderson, fashion designer

Say what? #10

Here's what I think: fashion isn't really about clothes. It's about life. Go into the street, and you see it: everyone can afford fashion on some level, everyone can talk about it. So what else can we say? We can't always be writing about flowers and lace and aquamarine."

- Franca Sozzani, editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia

Say what? #9

"And punk is the same. It's about craftmanship. Each person would make his own look. They made it on their body, they fitted it on their own body, and it's basically the same way you do couture. For me, it was amazing to really see the comparison. Two different approaches, but the same concept."

- Riccardo Tisci, fashion designer

Riccardo Tisci,  head designer at Givenchy, will host tonight's Met Gala, the opening event for the Costume Institute exhibition, "Punk: Chaos to Couture". 

In a interview to Style.com, the Italian designer talks about how he discovered punk and how he sees it nowadays, his work at Givenchy and gives some insight into both the exhibition and the gala. You can read the interview here.

To learn more about the exhibition, click here.
To watch the Red Carpet live stream, click here.

Say what? #8

Dries Van Noten is renowed for being some sort of an outsider - he is still based in Antwerp, he doesn't do publicity, he doesn't do pre-collections. The Belgian fashion designer is also one of the most interesting, intriguing fashion designers of the current era.

 

Below you can read a small excerpt of an interview published on The Q+A issue of i-D magazine. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

As a designer, elegance is very important to you.

For me, elegance is style. Sometimes when you think about the word elegant it can seem a little scary and a little old fashioned too. Elegance is not only a way of dressing, it'a a way of living, it's a flair, how you do things, how you approach things and how you look at things also.

Do you think the definition of elegance has changed since you started as a designer?

Elegance is always changing. It goes with the time. As the world evolves it evolves and asks for another approach, another way of looking at things. In the past, being elegant was far stricter and had more codes and rules. But today we are free to do whatever we want. The internet has changed the way people look at things, how people live, how people dress and how people behave too.

Whenever I look at your clothes, I always think of far-flung destinations. Is travel important to you as a designer?

Travel is important, but for my collections I travel mostly in my mind. I go to museums; I look on the internet, in books and in magazines. For inspiration, I only need one little idea, one small fragment, all the rest I can invent myself. When I started out as a young designer, I quite often thought I want to do a collection about such and such a place so I'd go there. But then I'd see so much that in fact I'd have too much information. I prefer to have one little hint of an idea and bring all the rest together as a team. 

That's something I really admire about you. you haven't felt like you have to do pre-collections. You've followed you own path very firmly. 

Quite often people think it's a trick of the system when in fact it's just reality. Reality forces you to make certain decisions. I didn't decide to be different and not do any publicity. I simply didn't have a budget to do publicity. When the company was growing I decided to invest in a fashion show instead. As a young designer, a page in a magazine or a campaign doesn't help you. Whereas a fashion show enables you to tell your story. I think fashion shows are really exciting. You can create an atmosphere. You have light, you have a soundtrack and you can tell your story in ten minutes flat, of what you've been working on for six months. This is also why I've decided not to do pre-collections. Of course, when you deliver new merchandise you sell more but I prefer to be busy with my fabrics, to work on prints and embroideries.

Say what? #7

"Clothing has to make you think. I think it's extremely important that when you present an idea, it has to cause a reaction. You have to question something, you have to think. It has to open up an idea."

- J. W. Anderson, fashion designer

J. W. Anderson presented his menswear collection some days ago during London Collections: Men and indeed it created a reaction. Some people decided to focus on the effeminacy of the collection, on the blurred boundaries between menswear and womenswear. 

Quite honestly, I would like to focus more on this experimental, innovative side of J. W. Anderson's collection. The way he plays with the lines of men's body and the silhouettes that some of the garments create are simply outstanding. There's a very architectural side to the collection, some stiffness, that I actually think is very masculine.

Say what? #6

"During the fitting, it was not about 'is that a good image for a computer?', which nowadays is how everybody looks at fashion, but instead what you would want to keep and wear season after season."

- Lucas Ossendrijver, Lanvin's menswear designer

Say what? #5

"One doesn't want fashion to look ridiculous,
silly, or out of step with the times - but 

you do want designers that make you think, 

that make you look at fashion differently. 

That's how fashion changes. If it doesn't change, it's not looking forward."

- Anna Wintour, US Vogue Editor-in-chief

Say what? #4

"The way that people dress makes them part of an army, dressed in their own uniform, determined to do something."

 - Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune Fashion Editor

Say what? #3

"I think everyone shares a fear of failure - that you're only as good as your most recent collection. That's definitely a fear, but it's a fear that fuels me, that makes me want to work harder, that makes me take on more challenges."

- Alexander Wang, fashion designer

Today we learned that, after all the speculation, Alexander Wang is really going to be the next designer of Balenciaga. Honestly, I am still surprised. Wang's very street style approach is really different from the experimental, conceptual aesthetics that Nicolas Ghesquière got us used to. Obviously, PPR, Balenciaga's owner, wants this brand to move into a different direction. 

Alexander Wang is used to success. Not only is he a talented designer, he is also a really smart, attentive businessman. On the other hand, Balenciaga is a house with a lot of history that was masterfully reinvented by Ghesquière, who became one of the most respected designers of our days. 

Having said this, I am really looking forward to what Alexander Wang will do at Balenciaga and to see how he will combine his aesthetics with the Balenciaga heritage.

Say what? #2

"I love exaggerated, and I love eccentric, but you must be comfortable. Otherwise, it is nonsense. There is nothing charming about a woman who cannot walk in her shoes."

- Manolo Blahnik, fashion designer

Say what? #1

"Nothing looks better dressed than confidence."

- Jeremy Langmead, Mr. Porter Editor-in-chief

Today I am introducing a new feature on the blog called "Say what?". Every now and then, when reading a magazine or online articles, we find some sentences that just make a lot of sense or that we can relate to, right? So, I decided that it would be interesting to share with you some of those quotes that I find interesting. Hope you like it.