Just in from Paris: coo-coo-couture! - interviews with fashion designers - Interview

Remember when couture was something maybe fabulous, but not necessarily having anything to do with you and me? Well, get ready for the change. Couture is really cooking with contemporary life. It's chopping! On the following pages are some of the designers who are making it such a dishy, delicious part of our world.

I'm Alexander McQueen!

KARL PLEWKA: I am really interested in how the theme of Greek mythology that you used for Givenchy reflected the odyssey you were embarking on, this being your first collection for a couture house.

ALEXANDER McQUEEN: It all started with the gold-and-white Givenchy symbol. I wanted to be really direct and straight to the point. It was mainly about the search for the golden fleece. The funny thing was that hardly anyone got the Maria Callas/Aristotle Onassis connection. They didn't see the funny side when we used that Shalamar track "Take That to the Bank."

KP: You often leave people stunned. To me, that's one of your big strengths.

AM: For people who know McQueen, there is always an underlying message. It's usually only the intellectual ones who understand what's going on in what I do.

KP: All of the plumages you used made me think of couture as an endangered species. Because It has often been so irrelevant and elitist of late, couture's role has been slipping away in modern culture, but it's alive as a subject again.

AM: I'm here for a modern customer. People like Courtney Love or the type of person who wants something crazy - you know, fun stuff. It's only fashion; my God!

KP: Exactly. I have often felt that couture has been executed in a very heavy-handed way - all those over-the-top displays of workmanship and jewels can look vulgar.

AM: Some couture collections have everything including the kitchen sink! Everything gets thrown on to make it look expensive. I find it grotesque when clothes hit you in the face and there's no room for fault. But I don't expect to turn things around all by myself. I'm not a saint.

KP: Thank goodness. So how did you feel after giving all this creativity to the fashion world?

AM: You mean how did I feel, after all that, to get the mixed reviews?

KP: Right.

AM: Well, I think sometimes I might scare the editors, because they might feel they're getting old and they're not understanding it. The problem lies on their side of the fence, not mine. I come from a different era and I design clothes for our era. I think of people I want to dress when I design. Of course I make mistakes. I'm human. If I didn't make mistakes, I'd never learn, You can only go forward by making mistakes. I'm twenty-seven, not fifty-seven. I'm not Givenchy, I'm Alexander McQueen.

Why people believe in Valentino's magic

KARL PLEWKA: Your haute-couture collection looks so effortlessly created, You really only see the exquisite craftsmanship of the clothes when you get up close to them or look inside them. Does it bother you that some people might take the workmanship Involved in your couture for granted?

VALENTINO: It doesn't bother me at all. The essence of creative work is exactly that - not to took as if one has tried too much. I am against the heavy couture that you see on some runways. I like that people think it has been done without an effort. Of course, I work a lot on it. Every stitch is a thought.

KP: But people don't have to be beaten over the head with it, right?

V: The times and the style of today demand a lighter fashion. Not just in the sense of weight, but even in the sense of effort.

KP: You've often been called a man who understands how women want to feel when they want glamour. How do you see glamour today?

V: A sense of seduction, a sense of sexiness. Today is more about a less obvious sexiness, but it is still there. One can be very seductive even without showing too much. In this collection there is a lot of flesh seen, but not just for the sake of it. It's there because I like light clothes, I don't like heavy clothes. I don't like stiffness. The message is that there is a new fragile sexiness.

KP: And what of your invocation of the East in this collection?

V: Today, fashion has to be made up of different inspirations. I like the idea that one can be inspired by different civilizations without making costumes.

KP: Would you say a bright future lies ahead for couture?

V: Yes. There is a new future, and it is definitely very bright. When couture is able to give to the creators, the designers, a way of expressing themselves without boundaries, without limits, and without a commercial aspect, which sometimes limits the creation, then there will be an enormous future.

Make way for Gaultier

DAVID FURNISH: You've never done couture before. This time you not only did it, but you did It for men as well as women. Why couture? Why now?

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER: We are in a world, at the moment, where so many people are staying at home on the Internet, not moving, not doing anything. In contrast, I think the moment now for couture is right because couture is a small fantasy. It's special, and for only one customer [at a time]. You have more contact with the customer. You have to see the people because it is made to order. You have to take care of somebody.