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AM
Coco Rocha
Take a look at this past interview I did with Coco Rocha for Fashion File.
*click on the orange links below to see videos
Virile, image obsessed, glossy and provocative, 40′sh Tyler Brûlé has made “enigma” his job description. The native Winnipegger and footballer’s son achieved his first publishing coup as creator of the much-lauded Wallpaper* magazine. Not content to stick with a sure thing, Brûlé sold the glossy in 1997 and embarked on writing for the Financial Times, The New York Times and the like. In 2005, he tackled television, hosting BBC’s The Desk. His current endeavour, Monocle, is not as cerebral as it sounds. The international monthly magazine navigates the globe with ease, using current affairs, business, culture and design as its compass points. Now, if we could just steer Brûlé in a more personal direction …
Adrian Mainella
You travel upwards of 240 days a year, which begs the question: Can you be a jetsetter and have romance in your life?
Tyler Brûlé
“You can. I think that is part of the fantasy, though, as well.”
AM
And so many designers try to emulate that lifestyle.
TB
“People still try to emulate Halston.”
AM
I imagine that the idea of romance has changed quite a bit since then, especially in the media.
TB
“Yeah, it’s the watching of media and the conventions of media…Take Tom Ford’s current campaign or the last campaign, where there is a sort of vulgarity…part of our brand is not sort of touchy feely sexy, you know.”
AM
There are some incredibly sexy elements in what you do.
TB
“Sexy elements, but what we want to show is a nice narrative in fashion, with great clothes on a good-looking guy. We want to say, if you want one evening dress or one bag, this is what it is, and put them on people who are—I wouldn’t say fuckable—just attractive-looking people.”
AM
What is sex appeal to you?
TB
“Let’s come back to that. I have to think.”
AM
What do you think your reader finds sexy?
TB
“Come back to that as well. It’s one and the same.”
AM
One and the same? You’re that in touch with your reader?
TB
“I think so. I think I read the room pretty well. [Brûlé points to a marketing sheet outlining the demographics of Monocle readers. An attractive man and woman are pictured in the middle of the page.] Like this document is not how we present ourselves normally, but…”
AM
You’re the man who judges the best cities in the world to live in—which do you believe to be the sexiest city?
TB
“If the sun is out, I think Copenhagen is a sexy city. I love that people are cycling, but not dressed for a purpose — elegant bicycle, elegant outfit as opposed to being on some Cannondale like you’re going to hurtle down a mountain even though you’re just commuting to the office. Sexy cities afford you the maximum amount of experiences across the course of the day, which means you get the minimum amount of friction between your Pierre Hardys and whatever’s under your foot. And I think that’s what makes Copenhagen.”
AM
Would it also have the sexiest people?
TB
“I think Danes are pretty good-looking, you know?”
AM
If you were given $25 to romance somebody, how would you spend it?
TB
“Canadian dollars? It’s all the same now, isn’t it?”
AM
£25.
TB
“£25. I won’t accept that. That’ll be five copies [referring to the cost of a Monocle issue]. I would buy a book and it would be E.H. Gombrich’s A Little History of the World.”
AM
Why that book?
TB
“Because it’s a great adult’s storybook and it’s got this childlike quality even though the topics are very grown-up. It’s a great refresher course on humanity and romance.”
AM
Would you define yourself a little bit like that as well—a grownup with childlike qualities?
TB
Adrian Mainella talks to the Toronto-based designer about ego, survival of the fittest, and why fashion shows are boring.
On a recent trip to New York Fashion Week, I spoke with one Canada’s most revered young designers during the presentation of his latest collection. At 30, Jeremy Laing has become one of Canada’s greatest fashion exports, and a fixture in the NYC fashion scene.
Adrian Mainella
Typically designers are sensitive people.
Jeremy Laing
Yes but they are also typically egotistical people.
AM
Would you consider yourself egotistical?
JL
Sure. It takes a lot of ego to think you have something to put out there to occupy people’s time with…but there is also an equal amount of insecurity that follows.
AM
How do you handle criticism? What happens when you read someone’s critique and they just didn’t get it?
JL
Or what they got was totally inaccurate, which is usually the case… I mean, it doesn’t matter, very rarely does it have an effect that is directly related to our business, at least that we’ve noticed. Either way, if it’s good or bad you have to let it roll off your back, because even if it’s good I don’t believe it. You can’t let the applause or the slaps to your face go to your head. I appreciate when someone who writes about fashion actually makes an effort to understand what goes into making the clothes rather than a superficial assessment.
AM
Has the demise of the U.S. economy created an even playing field with your fellow New York-based designers?
JL
(Laughs) Not really. Even when they are constricted they still have a staff of twenty. I don’t have any, really, so it’s a little hard to call it an even playing field. What I do have to compete with are my ideas and those are as good or better than a lot of people’s.
AM
Does if frustrate you when your end product is compared to those designers who have greater resources than you?
JL
Perhaps a little bit, but at the same time, what can I do about it except do the very best that I can do. Maybe it’s because I just turned thirty and I’m feeling a little more like an adult, I’m a little less concerned with what others are doing and I can’t judge myself against much bigger machines.
AM
Does that make you more competitive?
JL
All I can do is find a way that makes sense for me. I try to idealize my brand like that of designers such as Comme des Garçons and Dries Van Noten; big small companies.
AM
Since you’re a Toronto based designer but you only stage your collection in New York, let’s talk about Toronto as a fashion city.
JL
Well it’s not, and it doesn’t have to be.
AM
Is that your reason to not show at Toronto Fashion Week?
JL
No, the reason is by the time we’re done with New York and Paris I don’t want to think about the season anymore, nor do I have time or money left for another fashion show. Also, I don’t think fashion shows are all that interesting. Typical runway shows can do all sorts of shit to try and make them seem interesting, including making all kinds of crazy clothes that no one is going to wear, but I don’t think it is a particularly contemporary approach. It doesn’t seem like it’s the most right thing right now. Editors are tired of going to twelve shows a day.
AM
Since you only show in New York, why not relocate there?
JL
The cost of doing business here is much easier to swallow, and I couldn’t afford to be there with my current circumstances. Plus, I don’t know if I really want to go there, I don’t want to get sucked into the New York machine particularly.
AM
What is it about that machine you dislike?
JL
It’s never been my ideal, I’d be much more interested in relocating to Paris than New York. The history is different and their values are different, I mean I don’t really feel like part of an American sportswear tradition which is what New York is known for. I mean, I’m not obviously part of any real tradition (chuckles).
For over thirty years, Diane Von Furstenberg has been setting trends that have changed the world. From Commoner to Princess by 22 (through her first marriage to Germany’s Prince Egon of Furstenberg), to Studio 54 revolutionary, this famous American Fashion Designer is one of pop culture’s original influencers. Born in Belgium, Diane moved to America in the seventies and by 1975 made her mark in the fashion world with her iconic wrap dress. Today Diane continues to influence fashion as head designer of one of America’s most successful fashion houses, DVF. If that weren’t enough Diane further influences American Fashion with her prestigious role as President of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America).
AM: There almost seemed to be a nomad quality to your spring collection…
DVF: There is always a nomad quality to all of my collections. Spring was
called Oasis but the inspiration was taken from Pre-Raphaelite
paintings that looked to antiquity for inspiration. The fabrics are very fluid, very liquid. The colours are very much sunset colours, there are a lot of knits and
a lot of macrame.
AM: You’ve been surrounded by people with great influence on pop culture. How did friends like Andy Warhol have an effect on you?
DVF: Everybody wants to know about Andy Warhol! Andy was really a voyeur
you know. He was somebody who was taking pictures and taping you, but Andy Warhol understood our time better than anyone. He understood branding before anyone really knew what branding was.
AM: Did you know that this group you were involved with was going to set
trends that would change pop culture forever?
DVF: You don’t think like that, you just do your thing. It’s like you
can’t tell history while you’re living it. It’s only when you look back, and even then you don’t say: “Oh look at what I have done”. Youjust live it.
AM: At the time, did you have any idea what kind of impact your wrap dress
would have on the fashion world?
DVF: I don’t know, you don’t know. You don’t sit and analyze it. I
mean did I know that this wrap dress would last for so long? No you
don’t know those things, and those are not things that you decide,
it’s the public that decides it.
AM: Let’s talk about the very idea of trends, Why does the fashion world need
them in order to successfully make change?
DVF: That’s the mystery of fashion—those things you can’t determine. Why
all of a sudden everybody thinks yellow, why all of a sudden all young
kids wear combat boots? It’s not always the designers that make the trends. Designers interpret the trends. The trends come from the streets, the mood comes from the streets, and that’s why fashion is a reflection of our time–it’s a very mysterious thing. Even if you made nothing new and there were no more designers designing, there would still be fashion, and there would still be trends.
AM: Are there any trends in fashion today that you are gravitating towards?
DVF: Freedom, the trend of freedom through prints and colour.
Colour is very good for me—I’m riding that wave right now. I
have always designed with colour–I am the most colourful of them all.
Imagine a garden in black and white! What I do is always right on trend.
AM: Freedom? What other trends unfolding in fashion right now are a good
example of that?
DVF: Well the shoes that we are doing right now aren’t liberating women except breaking our legs!
AM: Do you feel trends have the power to liberate women? The wrap dress could arguably be described as a liberating moment for women at the time.
DVF: And it still does.
AM: How would your closest describe you as a friend?
DVF: That I am generous, and that I take time for them.
AM: What do you think they would say your biggest downfall is?
DVF: I don’t know, (laughter) I have no downfall.
Fashion File’s award to Linda Evangelista for winning our world wide contest as the greatest supermodel of all time. Watch this exciting segment to see how great Linda still looks after 25 years in the business.Linda Evangelista-The Greatest Supermodel Of All Time Award
