It's all about setting new goals. I reached one goal when I got the Sports Illustrated cover, which was such a surprise to me. Then after that I had a meeting with my agency who asked, "What do you want to do next?" I'd love to do more TV, I want to do more editorials, more high-fashion stuff. It's like picking it all and doing it.
I know parts of all the decades come in and out of fashion, but you never get to wear an entire outfit exactly how it was.
As for the fashion world, the one thing I respect is its shallowness: it's so deep - it's so serious. It can be hard to get that kind of shallowness because of its depth and seriousness.
I don't think anyone has ever really been able to marry tech, fashion, and this concept that sustainable material, up-cycled material can be luxurious. And nothing is more luxurious than gold, right? Gold is luxurious because it's gold, post-consumer or virgin. Whatever it is, it's just gold.
Electronic music is really weird right, because it is bleeding into the mainstream, but, at the same time, it's fashion.
Fashion to me is very emotional. It's my strongest form of self-expression, and I love wearing a piece of clothing where I feel like I can run around at any moment and dance in it. So you know, I guess when I'm designing, I want the clothes to feel celebratory and feel very light and fun and feel like you could move seamlessly.
As for style, there is something about the way musicians dress-they seem to be able to create their own world within their fashion alone.
'Fashion Star' has been an incredible platform to show America the amount of work and discussion that goes into each garment you see in a store.
My mother is from Paris, so she was quite a fashion plate. I always had that French influence at home.
Between food and fashion, there's always a direct correlations - designers have forever done prints with food on them. Vegetables, fruit, apples. There are some beautiful prints that have been made with fruit over time. I think food and restaurants have become more and more fashionable over time. That's become more of a fashion thing than fashion becoming a food thing. I don't think fashion has gotten so food oriented in the reverse aspect, but I think the whole food industry has gotten very design oriented. I think it's a nice way of putting things together.
Ironically, even the fashion in New York or Paris or Milan or whatever, or music in Berlin, or art in, I don't know, Madrid - all these scenes come and go. Everything leads back to Hollywood.
When my parents realized that what I liked was fashion, they gave me good advice. I remember my father telling me that I should try to do an internship. They never said, "This is a world we don't know; it might be something strange," or "That is not serious," or things like that. They always said, "Try. We'll help you. We'll send drawings to people if you want. We'll write letters for you." What I'm very thankful for is they never made me think that something was impossible. They were really, really supportive. They are still.
I can say, let's go to the DNA of the brand and find something that I can introduce into my work. It's part of the patrimony of fashion.
If I were to find something that is going to be more important to me than fashion - that would be work and love - then I probably would let go. That's a possibility. But fashion is an addiction.
It's true that fashion is looking at fashion all the time, and this is quite boring.
Today, kids are much more aware of what fashion means, but when I was growing up, it was popular, but not as popular as today. Like any kid, I was fascinated by drawing. But when some of the kids let go, I kept drawing and drawing.
I think what we're talking about is a sense of fashion as laboratory work. I mean, we are not scientific, of course, but we are looking for ideas all the time.
There is something I think we share, which is, of course, an appreciation for Helmut Lang. I think at a certain point he really changed so many things in fashion. I'm a bit younger than Helmut, but from my point of view he provided a true entrance into this new way of thinking - not being invaded into couture.
I like the idea of women and men in movement. My fashion is not about being still. It's almost sporty, sometimes. I like the evolution of sports clothes. I think they are very interesting in the cut, in the fabrics.
Fashion, in a way, has become like pop culture today. With all of the communications and the Internet and the designers doing lines with big brands, it's more popular than it's ever been, but everything is all mixed together. It's become like television or music.
People usually forget that fashion designers are not artists, but there is an artistic side that is very strong in my point of view. At the same time, you have to be so organized and so serious. There are two aspects that are quite big contradictions, strangely, in what I'm doing.
It's quite strange in fashion, and it's probably the same with movies and acting - the big choice is between being radical, making a choice that will be more specific that will reach less people but will be very strong and very directional, and making a choice that will be more popular and catch the interest of a large group of people. Sometimes people are trying to push you in one direction or another.
I think creating the clothes is about creating historical images - and that's about more than fashion. It is about the fashion, the photography, what you are doing in the moment. It's what we call in French rechercher, or the search for that thing. So even though fashion is not scientific, I think being a designer is somewhat like being a scientist.
I love what I do and I adore this whole world. I'm able to meet fantastic people. I meet fantastic writers, I meet architects, I meet incredible talent. Fashion is really a world, besides the creation, that I think is super interesting, super inspiring.
With my designs and my ideas, I want to please myself first. I'm always very stressed about making a new proposition every season. But in a way, it's a kind of addiction. In another way, it's a crazy pressure. I try to stay quiet about the whole situation, because fashion itself can be crazy, and everyone wants a part of you.
