March 18, 2013 |
Pedro Lourenço has been designing for 10 years. Officially. Though it’s more like 14 or so unofficially. He made his debut at São Paulo Fashion Week in 2002. He was 12. Which would make him a child genius or something. Though he would prefer not to think of himself in that way. Fashion is just something that comes naturally to him. His star sign is Cancer and his favourite colour at the moment is pink. If he could be any animal he would be a black panther. Because he likes the look.
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Congratulations on your show. It was great. Are you happy with it?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “Very happy with the show.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “What was the inspiration behind the collection? What was your starting point?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “The starting point was the work of Richard Mosse, and the pictures he takes in the Congo with a special camera from Quebec – it’s not a camera, I think it’s a film that makes everything green become pink.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Oh wow.”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “So the local area that he has shot and, like, the army’s green uniform became pink. So that was the idea. To have this contrast between lightness and hardness. Like the very hard shapes of the military uniform, the coats, balanced with the lightness of pink.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “That sounds great. How long does it usually take you to create a collection?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “Actually six months. Yeah, because I started with resort at the same staring point.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “So it takes you the whole six months. Are you decisive or do you sort of deliberate over every single detail and change things up to the very last minute?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “I’m kind of… It depends on the collection. I will have some key looks or key pieces that I keep, but I also like to have the process so I can change pieces one week before the show.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “How long have you been a designer now?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “Ten years now. I started at 12 years old, so exactly 10 years.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “According to legend you apparently designed your first collection when you were seven or eight.”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “Yeah, I had a collection that I showed to friends of my parents in my house in Brazil when I was seven years old.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Do you remember your very first collection?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “I remember it very well. In the beginning I used to attend pattern-making classes and I was sewing my own pieces. So when I was seven I wasn’t doing that yet but I was making clothes in a very organic process. I was just feeling on my own the pieces and the shapes, sometimes with the help of my mother, and then I started to have the classes and everything became more sophisticated. At 10 years old I showed at home a much more sophisticated attempt. It was a nice process.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “It sounds so funny, you talking about your collection getting more sophisticated at the age of 10, that you went to pattern-making classes, because at that age, most children usually want to grow up to be an archaeologist or a hairdresser and you’ve obviously always wanted to be a designer. Where did your fascination with design come from?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “My parents are designers. I have always followed them to shows in Paris, and on business trips, so I was always visiting shops, libraries. I was brought up with the whole process. It was very organic for me to start liking fashion. I don’t know exactly the age – I think since I was born.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Did you ever want to rebel. Did you ever say, ‘I don’t want do fashion, I want to be a writer, I want to be a scientist’ or something?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “My mother always wanted me to be a scientist – it’s much more interesting than being a designer. But, you know, I always wanted to be a designer.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “And then you were appointed head designer at Carlota Joakina. How old were you?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “I had been the designer for one year. Actually three seasons I think. A year and a half.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Was it daunting? Was it scary?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “I always knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it, so actually it wasn’t scary. It was very natural for me. I was looking forward to this kind of challenge. It just happened organically, you know.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Was it weird having your mum as your boss?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “Actually, I think it was more difficult for her – for me to be her employee than for me to have her as a boss. I was kind of obsessive with what I wanted to do, you know, so maybe it was harder for her than for me.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “How has your aesthetic changed as you’ve grown up? Do you have the same aesthetic? Do you still design things in the same way? Do you still have the same influences?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “I think it was something organic. I think that I have matured in my point of view. I was 18 when I moved to Paris. So I think when I was out of Brazil, like, out of contact with my parents, and much more on my own and studying subjects that were interesting to me, at the time it opened up my point of view. But I also feel that to create your own aesthetic is a work in progress and I always will be working on that – to the end of my life, you know. It will never end. And that’s what I think is interesting.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Why did you choose to move to Paris? To leave Brazil?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “Actually Paris was more the city… I’ve always loved Paris. I was born in São Paulo, but I always loved going to Paris when I was small, so I wanted to be more enriched – with the cultural life of Paris, I mean. Also I did pattern making and a French course, and made lots of friendships there, so it was a nice experience going there.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “And why did you choose to show in Paris, rather than Rio or São Paulo?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “I think maybe because, since I was small, I was always showing in São Paulo. And I’ve always wanted to have a very high standard of show, from the hair and make-up to everything else. I think, maybe because Paris is a fashion place, for me it was organic to choose Paris. It just happened.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “How important is Brazil to what you do and who you are? Does it influence your work in any way?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “I think that it’s very important in a way, because I feel that I have been in touch with a type of woman, the Brazilian woman, and that I have, like, a special point of view and that I have a lot of references to Brazil in my work that are very important. I think it’s very interesting the way São Paulo, the city, is built. I have many Brazilian influences in my work, but it also is not about doing something about Brazil. It’s more about doing something global.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Being Brazilian is just a part of who you are basically.”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “Yeah, definitely. But I think there are interesting things for me about being Brazilian. There are many things that happen organically in my work that wouldn’t happen if I weren’t Brazilian.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Like what? The prints? The colours? Is it the shapes?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “No, I think maybe the hotness and the colours. And I also think that the mix of intellectuality and sensuality, which is a very fine line, and I think that’s something I have managed to balance, being Brazilian. And I think, also, the amazing references we have here – the architecture, which inspires me a lot.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “What drives you? What motivates you?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “What motivates me? I think it’s my profession. My work. The process that never ends.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Never-ending. Once it ends it just starts up again. You never get a break.”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “And for me it never ends. I always need to learn something new and to prove more. That’s what is delicious.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Do you find it hard to design? Because, in a way, everything has been done. Everyone redoes the past. There’s nothing new coming out. How do you move forward to stay relevant? Do you find it difficult?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “I don’t find it difficult. I think it’s a new age that is going to bring new mixes and new knowledge, mixing the shapes, mixing the references and I think actually it’s possible to create something new. Not everything has been done yet. There is a lot to be done on the technological side of fashion, there’s space for revolutions to be made. It’s much more about an industrial, technological revolution than an aesthetic revolution.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “Your designs seem quite futuristic. Are you a sci-fi fan?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “Actually I’m really crazy about the time I use and I view what I do in a way that’s not kind of futuristic. I think futuristic is a word that defines an aesthetic from the 1920s and I think today is not about that. I think it’s like a technological – a digital, more than technological – a digital point of view more than futuristic. And I think it’s of my time also. If you think about how our lives are today, the way communication – everything – is, we are already in the future. There’s nothing much bigger to happen in communication. We are in the future.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “What do you like to do? What’s your favourite thing to do apart from designing?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “Actually I love movies. I love cinema.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “What’s your favourite film?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “My favourite film? I love L’année dernière à Marienbad. The name of the film in English, I think, is Last Year at Marienbad.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “What do you do to relax?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “To relax? I kinda try to think about anything connected to my work. That’s the best way to relax.”
NATALIE DEMBINSKA: “If you weren’t a designer, what would you be?”
PEDRO LOURENCO: “An architect probably.”
Text Natalie Dembinska
