January 29, 2012 |
FROM THE VAULT (WINTER / SPRING 2012)
What’s new for spring/summer 2012?
“Working with fur in a collaboration with Saga Furs. I love the wild and erotic dimension of fur. There is something primal, tribal and overly sensuous in the encounter with fur. It should never be slipped on as a trophy, but assimilated as a second skin in which women become a new creature, whether as a goddess or a predator. I love experimenting with volume and texture and fur is completely three-dimensionnal. One design was a jigsaw puzzle made of over 300 pieces of fur, three kinds of mink and two kinds of fox, mixing into each other in order to create a new ‘animal’.”
What was the inspiration/idea behind the collection?
“The ‘flayed one’, or an anatomical study of the female body turned inside out. I wanted to scratch the surface and peel away the layers to reveal the insides.”
Do you have a favourite piece? Or do you love them all the same?
“I have a personal preference for the little red dress. There is a raw, carnal feeling about it. I also like the ‘Zeus face’ one, which I had to remake twice, as it burned the first time… ”
Does your Chinese heritage influence your work in any way?
“Not that I m aware of but perhaps on a subconscious level. I have travelled a lot since childhood and I find that the place of ‘in between’ and wandering is a more fertile ground for creativity, rather than the place you come from.”
What made you want to become a designer? Did you have a ‘eureka’ moment?
“The first ‘trigger’ was probably Yamamoto’s exhibition Juste des Vêtements in 2005 at the Arts Décoratifs museum in Paris. I was moved by this simple yet very dignified approach to fashion, clothes being just shelters for the body, the honesty and the silence surrounding it. It made me think of the emotion and memory a garment can carry, its core function and its necessity. This idea of the garment as an experience of identity was later reinforced when coming across Wim Wenders’s Notebook on Cities & Clothes, which is brilliant and unpretentious, and supports the idea that despite all the glints and powders, something much more meaningful could still be found in making fashion.”
What’s your Chinese horoscope sign?
“Ox.”
Do you believe in fortune cookies? In fortune-telling?
“Does anyone believe in fortune cookies? I believe in instinct before fortune-telling.”
Favourite Bruce Lee movie?
“Enter the Dragon.”
What’s your favourite Chinese takeaway?
“Ew… Chinese takeaway is pretty tough on any real Chinese… Can I say sushi? Most sushi shops here in Paris are owned by the Chinese.”
Are you the queen of Chinatown? Or does that crown still belong to Amanda Lear?
“Haha. No one in the universe could ever top THAT performance.”
by Natalie Dembinska
Photograph by Andre Wolff
