Is this the beginning of a new chapter in your fashion career?
Everything you do in life drives you to another chapter!
How did the collaboration with Bond come about?
Through relationships as usual. Bond hired Jungmi Park, who I worked with in the past. She is in charge of the development of designer collaborations, thought of me, and introduced me to Peter Griffith. We had a quite short meeting actually, as we were on the same page, and we started quite immediately.
What conditions made it right for you?
I liked Peter’s energy and passion, the new way of selling luxury brands. The opportunity for me to make a collaboration with an app, not a brand, was quite new and intriguing.
The idea we shared to only have two jeans, limited edition, was the right thing for me; not to be specifically elitist, but more as a certain way for me to re-define luxury. Too many brands are using that word today as marketing. Expensive doesn’t always mean luxury—and not only in fashion. Luxury is rare because of quality and handcraft, so it can’t be produced in big quantities. Look at a Hermès bag for example—a Kelly or a Birkin—you have to order it, then to wait months sometimes, and your bag is totally hand made by only one craftsman, perfectly mastering each step of the process, and it lasts forever. That is luxury. But luxury today can also be, for example, having time, being in a quiet place with space, switching off your phone, no internet or social media. This is rare.
Why denim?
I was already thinking about making a small Japanese denim capsule. I have a real passion for denim forever, even if it’s a long process, with fabric and fit changing at each step. But the more you wear it, the more it ages, the more you love it. It’s an all day garment, for any occasion, any generation. It’s like a part of you, reassuring, and allowing you to do everything. Denim goes through time, trends—it is maybe the garment. And Japanese denim is the best quality [in regard to] fabrics, savoir faire, treatments. There is a real denim culture in Japan, an exigency of perfection, that is why made in Japan denim was obvious for the Bond collab. It is also the reason why, for the first time, I put my name on a garment not as a brand, more like signing a work.
Can you share some of the details that make these jeans so special?
Anatomic cut, removable straps…also, they are proposed in three different length x size
for a perfect fit.
Are the buckled straps a reference to old school British punk?
Punk, goth, so many things !
Being away from the industry (or the public eye) what have you concluded about the fashion business? Is it sustainable the way it works? How has it changed or how would you like it to change? Of course it’s not sustainable, and it’s worse every day. [As to how I’d like it to change], maybe [people] knowing more about the process, the real value of fabrics, quality—like previous generations knew—more repair options….
