Kris Van Assche Talks Showing in Shanghai and Designing for a global Clientele

Seven years into his tenure as creative director of Dior Homme, it’s safe to say that Kris Van Assche has hit his stride. “One of his strongest collections yet,” said Style.com’s Tim Blanks of the Winter 2014 collection. Good news for Dior and Van Assche, because on Friday, the collection was shown in Shanghai, an important market for the house. Before the show, the busy designer found some time to chat with Style.com about Dior the global brand and what it’s like designing for men all over the world.

—Noah Johnson
Why is it important for you to present the collection in Asia?

It’s become very, very important for Dior Homme as a brand, and so I’m very exited about that because it’s basically proof of how well Dior Homme is doing. We had our first show one year ago in Beijing, which was a huge success, so we’re doing it again now in Shanghai.

So the Beijing show last year, was that your first show you’d done in Asia?

Yeah. We had never had a show outside of Paris before.

What was that experience like?

It was a great experience because I’m used to doing a show only once. Bringing it all to a different country—it’s quite something. We’re trying to keep it interesting, you know? We make a different set, so everybody gets a different view on things. We do a local casting as well. We have to fly in the ateliers to do the fittings on the new guys and all that, so it brings along quite a lot of work, but it’s exciting because it actually allows you to see the same clothes on local guys, and so that together with the new setup makes it a new experience. For me, it’s less stressful because I kind of know that everything will be OK in the first show, so it’s a more enjoyable experience.

It’s interesting that you do a local casting. Do you see the clothes in a new way? Do you feel like they’re worn differently?

Well, even when we’re doing castings in Paris, seeing five hundred guys in castings, picking out the forty-five we’re actually going to use…I mean, the same jacket is going to look different on every guy anyway. So I’m not so surprised about that. And it has nothing to do with continents, Asia, Europe, whatever. That’s why fittings take so long, because we always try to find the right guy for the right look.

I’m very aware that I work for an international brand—I’m not only working for French guys. The collection is going to be sold throughout the world. It’s not about doing specific clothes for specific continents or specific people because it doesn’t really work like that. But you kind of have a worldwide view in a way.

So who is the client?

At Dior Homme, there’s not one type of client—you have different types of clients. You have a very traditional made-to-measure tailoring type of guy and then you have a very high-end fashion type of client and you have whatever’s in between. That’s the case usually in Paris, but it’s the case all over the world. If you go to Asia, you have real fashion people. They really go for the full-on fashion pieces. And then you have some very demanding, tailoring, made-to-measure clients. So you have these different demands of different types of clients, but you come across all of them on all continents.

When you’re designing, do you have that range of clients in mind?

It comes with the job. And my last show in January was really about exposing all that. The first silhouette of this show was a three-piece suit, a really made-to-measure suit with what I call the “Savile Row tradition” very much linked to the personality of Dior Homme. That was look one. And then the last outfit was really about white sneakers, baggy trousers, jeans, and all that. So that’s how big the difference gets at Dior Homme. The high-end tailoring makes my sportswear more luxurious and the activewear makes the tailoring more comfortable, easier to wear. So one constantly influences the other.

Are there other places in the world you would like to bring your collection?

It’ll probably one day make sense to take the shows to Brazil because everybody knows it’s a top growing market and there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on there, but it’s really not on the agenda. For now, we’re really concentrating on Europe, the United States, China, Japan.

I know you’re also coming to New York soon, and you have the pop-up for the Dior Homme Autumn collection with M/M (Paris). Can you tell me a little about that?

I very much like these projects for the Autumn and Spring collections because it’s almost like shows in Paris—one show each, we just do it once, and so it’ll be a premiere. It’s very exciting. I’m actually there in the same space as the client and you get a much more direct reaction from people of whatever you’re presenting. Because behind the scenes for a show, it’s really behind the scenes—you basically wait [until] the day after to see whatever people thought. It’s an interesting experience—it’s a little scary because you’re in the middle of the room, but it’s nice. I very much love working with M/M. They always take things to another step, another level. It’s an inspiring exercise.

Photo: Courtesy of Dior Homme

CREDITS:STYLECOM

Designer Update Pratt Honors the Past and the Present

 

“We all started here,” related designer Byron Lars of his experience studying at the Pratt Institute. “Up all night, working tirelessly on your collection—your first collection—the first one that anybody in the industry will actually view. It’s a really big thing.” Lars and the legendary Stephen Burrows were honored by Pratt in a ceremony just before the annual Pratt student fashion show yesterday at Center548 in NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood.

“To be awarded for [something that I feel is a privilege every day]—it’s like, that feels really wrong!” exclaimed Lars upon receiving his Fashion Visionary Award from longtime friend and fan Angela Bassett. (“Uptown they call it swag. Downtown, struts. But up the way where I’m from, they say, ‘I’m feeling’ myself,’” said Bassett of what it means to wear Lars’ colorful creations.)

Burrows thanked his muse, Pat Cleveland (who danced down the runway to present him with his Lifetime Achievement Award), for inspiration for his game-changing designs. “What inspired me to even want to do this? What I thought of first was my mother’s black patent-leather pumps—and, of course, my meeting with Pat Cleveland,” recalled Burrows. As a student fresh out of Pratt, “I didn’t see a need for a lining.That was a little avant garde at the time, but it was fantastic,” he said. “It’s all about freedom.”

For the students last night as well, there was a sense of uninhibited creativity on the runway. Sixties space-age-style wares, monochromatic sculptural separates, deconstructed sweaters dripping in cakey off-white paint, and pastel color-blocked, candy-sweet knit crop tops represented just a few of the twenty-one student collections on view. “[The landscape of fashion] has always been mercurial by nature, but now…social media and online sales have changed everything we do,” said Lars. “It’s just about being sensitive to the opportunities that are presented—the real opportunities.”

“You never know what you’re going to see,” added Burrows just before the show, “but hopefully it’s something innovative and new and exciting.”

Photo: Fernando Colon

 

Creativity Without Commercial Restraints at SCAD’s Annual Fashion Show

The Savannah College of Art and Design has acquired some eighty buildings since its inception in 1978—many of which are historic, and so spread out that a campus tour requires a car—and the development is showing no signs of slowing down. The facilities are even more impressive. Fashion students are trained on state-of-the-art laser cutters, 3-D printers, and every type of textile and fiber contraption the mind can imagine. All of that has made SCAD a hot spot of emerging fashion talent, which the school proudly displayed at Saturday night’s annual student fashion show.

Beverly Sung’s pleated, asymmetrical dresses (above, left) were a respectable nod to Issey Miyake. Sculptural, digital printed dresses from Wenxia Wang and Zenobia Duncan (below, left) were equally impressive. Elaine Lui, a former Alexander Wang intern, drew creativity from her native Hong Kong, with mesh-overlaid streetwear covered with prints of electric wiring and light-up LCD details built into the clothes (above, right). Across the board, fabric innovation was the big story here—burned Lycra, hand-plisséd skirts, digitally printed boiled wool. Dean of Fashion Michael Fink told us, “What sets this year apart is that there is so much textile and fiber development. The fashion students are actually making their own textiles in collaboration with our Fibers students.”

 

 

One-on-ones with the designers after the show afforded an opportunity to hear their stories and inspirations. Michael Mann’s conceptual menswear referenced football, a comment on the offense and defense he struggled between while being bullied as a teen. Wesley Berryman’s parents drove eight hours from rural Tennessee to come see him show androgynous creations that might feel at home on a rack beside Rick Owens and Gareth Pugh (above, right). Berryman’s mother told us, “I don’t know where he got his fashion sense—definitely not from me! When we used to go to Walmart [to buy clothes], I was always worried he would put up a fight! But really, I just want to support my son.”

The real joy in seeing a student fashion show like SCAD’s is the opportunity to witness creativity without the commercial restraints many professional designers face. Free from the pressure of having to “sell” anything, and enabled by a supportive faculty and cutting-edge facilities, SCAD’s runway served as a rare, unfettered fashion moment.

Photos: Courtesy of SCAD

 

Dressing for Fame

With an impressive CV that includes stints working backstage at fashion shows for the likes of Alexander McQueen and Hermès when she was just 14, as well as a degree in fashion design from London’s Central Saint Martins, Cher Coulter is a rare breed of fashion stylist. The deeply passionate Coulter has cultivated a portfolio of scene-stealing looks and a uniquely cool aesthetic among her coterie of clients that includes such A-listers as Nicole Richie, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Elizabeth Olsen. Coulter took a break from her busy schedule to talk to Style.com about what happens if she disagrees with a client, the stylist who continues to inspire her, and whose wardrobe she’d like to steal.

 

Why did you start styling?
For me, I think it goes hand in hand with design. When I first moved [to L.A.], I actually came out here with clothing designs of things I had been selling in London, and I just fell into styling. But after I graduated from Saint Martins, I did both. It’s all fashion, and the more qualified in the more areas you can be, the better.

When did you feel as though you’d made it?
I don’t know if you ever do. But I remember when I first went on a press tour with Orlando [Bloom] for Pirates of the Caribbean and thinking, Oh, God, this is a really big deal, being in the same room as people like Johnny Depp. I also won a Hollywood Stylist Award a couple of years ago, and I felt like that was good to get recognized. But sometimes I think, Oh, my God, have I lost it? Am I losing it? That’s the thing with fashion, it’s very up and down. You’ve got to maintain credibility. You’ve got to keep fashionable, haven’t you?

How do you balance what the client wants and what you want for the client?
You’ve always got to do what the client wants ultimately. I think as long as you feel as though you’ve had some sort of creative input, there’s compromise all along the way. Even if you’re doing an editorial, there’s compromise—you’ve got to use advertisers, you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that. Unless you have your own blog, it’s never 100 percent you.

Do you ever disagree with the client on a look?
I’m pretty obvious when I don’t like something. Sometimes there are too many choices, and I’ll be like, “Look and see these pictures and sleep on it and wake up in the morning and see what your gut reaction is. What leapt out more to you in the night? What dress does your mind keep going to?” That’s a really good test. But there have been a couple of times when people have worn things that weren’t my first choice. But ultimately, I’ve pulled all the clothes. Normally, what can sometimes happen is that I just want it to be even more fashion, and at the end of the day, sometimes the person wearing it is like, “Well, you aren’t the one who has to walk out there and be up for criticism.” That’s why I never push someone into doing something they don’t want to do, because it will backfire…and then they’ll just hate me.

Do you prefer editorial work or red carpet?
I think variety is the spice of life, and ultimately you need to do a little bit of everything. I like to do an ad job as well when there are parameters where they might say to you, “We just want white swimsuits.” And then what you do is focus in on white swimsuits and you have to find the best swimsuits. I like research. But then I also like working with a brand like J Brand. I worked on their Pre-Fall collection. I like going in there and getting into the designer’s head and aesthetic and then looking at the real subtleties in that collection and styling it. I like that as much as working with a celebrity on the red carpet.

What do you think is the most underrated part of your job?
How much work goes into the prep. I don’t think anybody ever gets that. I can spend two days solid on Style.com looking for gowns. Of course, I’ll start with the designers that I like the most and I’ll put those all into files. And then I send those to each PR and they’ll say, “I don’t have this, this, and this.” So then I’ll say, “Well, what do you have?” It’s such a back-and-forth with each designer. And what’s really important to me is to make sure there’s representation from the client’s favorite designers. So maybe I can’t get the Stella dress, but I got you these Stella pieces instead. They need to know that I’ve approached everybody.

When clients have brand partnerships or act as ambassadors, does that make the job easier or more challenging?
It’s better. And I am part of getting to that place. I encourage someone to go to [the designer’s] show, I encourage them to go to any event they do. I think that’s all very important. Designers become close with celebrities, and I think ultimately you can get pushed out as a stylist because they forge friendships and stuff. But you’re also the person who has the objective view and can be a third eye.

Are there any stylists who inspire you?
So many stylists are great. I think Camilla Nickerson is the one. Her attention to detail is amazing. She’s worked hard, she gets to work with the best photographers, she gets the best clothes, but she’ll always put them together with really good flavor. I like how her work isn’t just straightforward pretty. There’s always something out there about it, and the details are spot-on. I think she’s brilliant.

If you could swap style or wardrobes with one client, who would it be?
Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley]. I’d swap wardrobes with her because she has the most insane wardrobe. She has the most amazing vintage, the most amazing Isabel Marant. She has every girl’s dream wardrobe.

Photo: Roger Kisby/Getty Images

Melinda Gloss’ Menswear Is Confectionné With Care

If Melinda Gloss cofounders Mathieu de Ménonville and Rémi de Laquintaine seemed slightly jittery before presenting their Spring menswear collection, they sure didn’t look it. Both disarmingly attractive, the guys are their own model customers, applying their confident mien to a contemporary-classic range that has steadily built a following among young, discerning fashion types.

For their Friday show, models walked through the cloisters of a 17th-century abbey, the Cloître de Port-Royal, in the far south of Paris. The designers, who met while studying philosophy at the Sorbonne, said they chose this obscure venue for the color of its stone and the natural light—but of course, it also speaks to their pursuit of a distinctive identity. They proposed a collection loosely based on a nostalgic view of travel, refreshing fifties-era tailoring by offering double-breasted blazers in softened neoprene. Roomy, pleated trousers sat higher on the waist—and puddled perfectly around white canvas Spring Court kicks. Their exploration of print, which they described as loosely African, included a large pair of abstracted shells as a knitwear intarsia and a geometric micro motif in repetition across a silk blouson and masculine foulards. The main showpieces, however, were the leather goods: a vivid blue in lambskin, suede pants the color of wet sand, and a shirt in dusty stucco. Square-framed duffel bags in sturdy calfskin were well-constructed and sized for daily city needs or overnight trips.

Melinda Gloss manufactures its suiting in France, said De Ménonville. Stitched inside one of the brand’s jackets, a label proudly read, “Confectionné en Limoges.” Confectionné conveys a savoir faire that its English equivalent, made, is unable to capture. And as the four-year-old brand pushes further into international markets (apparently Japanese customers have already proved widely receptive), craft will matter as much as Parisian cool.

In September, the duo expects to open their third Paris location—a flagship on the Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire, steps from Acne Studios, A.P.C., and Ami. In positioning Melinda Gloss as entry-level Hermès, the designers are convinced that the brand is a key player in a coveted niche—call it low-key luxe—now brimming with options. Certainly, they’re ones to watch.

—Amy Verner

Photos: Courtesy Photos
CREDITS:STYLECOM

Face Time With Marc Jacobs

 

After entering the world of prestige cosmetics with quite a bang (debuting with 122 SKUs), Marc Jacobs has given himself some sizable shoes to fill. So it’s no great surprise that the designer has pulled out all the stops for his spring lineup, debuting not one, but five new products—our favorite being the Marvelous Mousse Transformative Foundation. Jacobs’ buttery new complexion perfector melts dreamily into skin when applied with a brush or with fingertips, and leaves behind a satin finish that lingers for hours. Though the featherweight formula is billed as full coverage, we’d say it’s more likely to delight those who prefer a medium finish. Plus, it’s infused with skin-soothing Indian ginseng, redness-reducing amino, and hydrating coconut.