Lucien Pagès, the PR Prince of Paris

PARIS — It’s Monday, February 26, the beginning of Paris Trend Week, and the general public relations kingpin Lucien Pagès begins his day with a walkthrough of the house for Saint Laurent’s present, taking place the next night. He returns to his workplace to finalise the seating plan for the reveals of shoppers like Schiaparelli, Sacai, Courrèges, Carven and Rabanne earlier than a planning lunch with the organisers of the following Vogue World occasion. Then he has two reveals by new designers, Marie Adam-Leenaerdt (a finalist for this yr’s LVMH Prize) and CFCL, a Japanese disciple of Issey Miyake, earlier than he ends his day at his buddy (and consumer) Sarah Andelman’s launch of her new challenge, Mise En Web page, on the division retailer Bon Marché. Over the course of the following 9 days, Pagès will handle 25 runway reveals, 11 shows and re-sees, and 9 dinners and cocktail events for his shoppers. The record doesn’t embrace afterparties — of which there will likely be many — as a result of he attracts the road at late late nights.

His shoppers may scarcely begrudge him his mattress relaxation. “I really feel Lucien is my guardian,” says Schiaparelli designer Daniel Roseberry. “I name him the Prince of Paris as a result of in all places we go, he’s so liked and revered. He additionally has completely no ego.” Saint Laurent designer Anthony Vaccarello goes a step additional. “I believe he’s one of the best proper now as a result of he combines the data and tradition of the previous, which we’re lacking in trend, and the codes of at present. For me, that’s the mark of the nice.”

“It’s a service,” is Pagès’s blunt rejoinder. “And I wish to be in service.” On the similar time, he acknowledges he has turn out to be the person who most embodies ‘the style PR’ within the eyes of the business. “As a result of I’m in all probability probably the most uncovered as an individual.” However the course of by which the person who weaves tales for his shoppers has turn out to be a narrative himself was a deliberate transfer on his half.

Pagès needs to show what’s doable in life for individuals like him, he says. No youngster of privilege, he grew up removed from Paris in Vialas, a small city within the distant, mountainous Cévennes within the southwest of France. The area has historically been a magnet for bohemians and non-conformists. His mother and father Patrick and Christiane ran a lodge with a Michelin-starred restaurant. In Could 1987, French president François Mitterand helicoptered in from Paris for lunch. There was, fortuitously, a journalist within the restaurant on the similar time. He photographed the Pagès household with Mitterrand. Lucien refused to vary for the commemorative snap. “However retrospectively, I may say that press modified my life, as a result of after we have been on the entrance web page of the native paper, we turned extra established, extra revered. My father turned a sort of legend.”

There’s a curious psychology hooked up to motels, particularly if you reside in them. “I realised not too long ago we by no means had a household home,” Pagès muses. “We have been at all times residing with strangers, the shoppers, the workers. We’d eat lunch with the workers day-after-day, 20 or so of them. My father and mom had a room, I had a room. As a result of it was within the mountains, we closed throughout the winter and I’d take one other extra fancy room. It was completely like “The Shining.” I’d be operating down the hall as a result of I used to be scared to go to my room. The hall was pink as properly. However rising up in a lodge opens you to individuals. Although I used to be shy, I used to be not that shy as a result of my home was stuffed with strangers, and in addition my mother and father served individuals all their lives. And now I’m serving individuals too.”

Patrick had at all times wished to be a photographer. He was obliged to take over the household enterprise when his mom died younger. And he was equally obliged to make it fabulous, therefore the Michelin star.

“Some cooks nonetheless know my dad, however he was extra vital to the wine business as a result of he created an affiliation of sommeliers, and all his pals turned one of the best sommeliers of the world. We had a tremendous wine cellar.” However operating a lodge in a distant French village was a curse for Pagès père. He travelled continually, taught French cooking in Japan, and opened the primary wine bar in Moscow. And he had a whole lot of well-known pals, singers, writers, even Willy Brandt, the chancellor of West Germany. “How do you make that transition?” Pagès wonders about his father. “What drives you? I’d not have been what I’m with out his ambition as a result of he was a sort of case research of the way you create your self.”

However in these days Patrick was perplexed by his son. The answer to his skinny, long-haired solely youngster’s perceived effeminacy was judo classes, as soon as per week for 3 years, from age eight to 11. And all of the whereas, Lucien was more and more, mystifyingly drawn to trend. It wasn’t Christiane’s doing. She had little interest in it in any respect. However he’d be shopping for Vogue, Madame Figaro and Marie Claire Bis on the native newsagent, or he’d be transfixed by the nightly information within the hope that there is likely to be a 3 or 4 minute replace on what was taking place on the high fashion reveals. Saturday night time was “Dynasty” night time. Joan Collins was Lucien’s first crush, and in addition the primary time he noticed a homosexual character on TV. “I used to be residing within the village of Vialas, dreaming to be on “Dynasty.” I keep in mind somebody asking me on the time whether or not I used to be learning for my driving take a look at, and I advised him, ‘No, I’ll have a Rolls-Royce and a driver as a result of I noticed that on “Dynasty.”’ And he mentioned, ‘I can’t think about you in a Rolls-Royce.’ Possibly that gave me the drive to finish up in a single. Although I’m nonetheless not there.” Pagès laughs now as he remembers his life as “the one homosexual within the village.” He’s principally blocked no matter torment he suffered. “However when somebody new arrived who was extra homosexual than me, every thing was on him and I used to be so relieved.”

1989 was a watershed yr for teenage Lucien. The Italian Gianfranco Ferré was appointed at Dior and the scandalised French institution was everywhere in the TV. Karl Lagerfeld fired Inès de la Fressange because the face of Chanel for posing as Marianne, daughter of the French Revolution. Extra scandal. And a Saint Laurent present was deemed to be in dangerous style. All Pagès may consider was Paris. “Christiane was at all times on my facet. She knew I used to be homosexual. She knew I wished to do trend so she was facilitating issues. I used to be speaking to her first about learn how to put together my father to simply accept issues.” To just accept, as an example, the truth that his son wished to be Yves Saint Laurent.

When Pagès was 18, he noticed an article within the weekly Nouvel Observateur which ranked all of France’s trend faculties. The toughest to get into was the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, very choose, very BCBG. After all, that was the one he settled on. Household pals mentioned it might by no means occur. That made him all of the extra adamant. Pagès arrived in Paris on a Sunday, and began faculty on the Monday. He was terrified. He imagined everybody could be in Chanel so he wore his most trendy look: black turtleneck, pink Cimarron denims from Spain (very modern within the South) and Kenzo boots. When he received to highschool, nobody was sporting Chanel.

By the point Pagès graduated from the Chambre Syndicale, he knew he may draw, he knew learn how to make a costume, however he additionally knew he may by no means be a designer. “I used to be not capable of do it, as a result of I didn’t dare.” However the expertise colored his profession, at the beginning with the instinctive understanding it gave him of the design course of and the profound respect he has felt ever since for designers. After I ask what his favorite a part of his job is, he takes a very long time to reply. “I prefer it after we assist individuals to have success, however my favorite factor is speaking to the designer beforehand. Discovering the gathering, what they’re creating, what they need.” Designers are his true kindred spirits. “It’s the factor he respects in different individuals as a result of he has it as properly,” Daniel Roseberry observes. “He has a wildly wealthy training within the business.”

His training additionally left him with an urge for food for trend’s interior sanctums. The Chambre Syndicale belonged to the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, so college students had entry to fabulous internships. For 3 years, earlier than each couture and ready-to-wear present, Pagès interned with Ferré at Dior, drifting dreamily within the slipstream of Naomi, Stella, Amber, Claudia and varied Arnaults. Nevertheless it was Saint Laurent he craved.

He finally wangled a gathering the place he was provided a spot within the atelier. He vehemently insisted that it was work straight with Monsieur Saint Laurent that he wished, or nothing in any respect. By some means, it labored, and Pagès discovered himself exhibiting his portfolio to Anne-Marie Munoz, the home’s formidable studio director. He blanches as he remembers a disco assortment that was extra acceptable for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert than the Emperor of French trend. Mme. Munoz felt the identical manner. “It’s every thing we hate.” He was dismissed, solely to be referred to as again as a result of Mme. Munoz had a change of coronary heart. “She’s completely satisfied so that you can keep since you’re discreet.”

Provided that unusual and shaky begin, it’s small marvel that Pagès encountered some bitchy resistance. He was in his dream job however he was reminded that he didn’t belong. At some point, within the grip of a panic assault, he locked himself within the rest room and wouldn’t come out. As soon as once more, Mme. Munoz got here to the rescue, coaxing him out, giving him phrases of recommendation that also resonate with him to at the present time: “The highway is lengthy and the journey is stuffed with traps.” His encounters together with his idol Yves principally concerned Monsieur’s canine Moujik. The entire expertise was inevitably fascinating for Pagès, however unhappy too. “That world doesn’t exist anymore. It confirmed me that trend is altering, and we’ve to embrace it.”

That realisation led him straight to the center of French trend’s new wave. For 5 or so years he assisted stylist Marc Ascoli. He ended up serving to out Ascoli’s girlfriend Martine Sitbon loads, whose PR Michèle Montagne was old style within the sense that movie star endorsements hadn’t crossed her radar. Which is how Pagès occurred to intercept a fax from stylist Jessica Paster asking for some seems to be for her consumer Cate Blanchett. On his personal initiative, he packed off a choice of clothes, certainly one of which ended up on Blanchett and in Vogue. This primary step into trend PR was hardly Pagès’s Eve Harrington-like takedown of Michèle Montagne. “I wasn’t consciously constructing a community. I used to be a very good assistant, very devoted. I by no means mentioned, ‘Oh, I’ll be a PR.’ On the similar time, I used to be in my late 20s, afraid of the place I’d find yourself, and my buddy Vincent Darré, who was at Ungaro, advised me he was certain I’d be a fantastic PR, as a result of I reminded him of Isabella Capeci at Louis Vuitton. You already know when somebody turns a lightweight on for you? I believed, ‘I ought to do PR.’”

On the time, he knew nothing of publicists like Karla Otto, or KCD in New York. The remainder of Parisian PR was as old style as Michèle Montagne. So Pagès’s first consumer — the American menswear designer Adam Kimmel — was an unwitting declaration of intent. “I began working with Lucien in 2005 and he made all of the distinction in how a younger American menswear model may discover an viewers in Europe,” says Kimmel. They met by the stylist Aleksandra Woroniecka who knew his brother, the photographer Alexei Hay. “It took a little bit of time,” Pagès recollects. “I helped him to do a presentation in Paris. I introduced my pals. After which we determined to open the workplace collectively. He was good. He advised me, ‘If I present in Paris as an American designer, I need the French to like me. I want you as a sort of ambassador.’ In order that was my mission, to make him the American that the French love.” Clearly it labored. Jonathan Anderson noticed the now-legendary presentation that Kimmel did with the artist George Apartment in Paris. “You simply should do one factor proper. It was every thing you’d need in a present. I didn’t know the place Adam Kimmel was from however he appeared so embedded in French tradition, I immediately wished to know who did the press for him,” says Anderson. “I introduced Lucien on the minute I began work at Loewe. He was capable of join me with the French setting, which will be onerous if you’re not from France. He’s good at exhibiting you what the nuances are.”

“Once we have been collectively, we by no means felt like we have been working,” Kimmel remembers. “And the worst stresses that may come, he would flip right into a problem that appeared to amuse him. He had the right mixture of humility and ballsiness, in addition to kindness and sarcasm… and at all times with class and a tremendous sense of humour.” The Pagès company was, at this level, himself and an intern. Via his pals André and Olympia Le-Tan, he realized of a Japanese designer named Chitose Abe. Effectively-known in Japan however nowhere else, she was eager to develop. On a press journey to Tokyo for Kimmel, Pagès noticed a presentation for her label Sacai. He was captivated. Now he had a menswear designer and a womenswear designer on his consumer record. “Folks had by no means heard of Sacai, however everyone was laughing as a result of Ça caille is slang for ‘It’s freezing’ in French. We grew collectively, which is one thing we share. I cherish our relationship for that, as a result of it’s completely linked to my story.”

One of many first massive occasions that Pagès labored on was the 2010 launch of M/M Mink, a collaboration between Swedish perfume model Byredo and the Parisian design company M/M. Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag have been pals from his days with Marc Ascoli. Byredo signed up. “Ben Gorham was the primary one that trusted me for magnificence, so he opened that door for me, like Sacai opened the door for womenswear.”

You’ll be able to see a sample rising. Pals. Pals of pals. Adventurous younger manufacturers. I consider the extraordinary Jacquemus presentation throughout the pandemic, when 100 individuals convened in a wheat area outdoors Paris for the primary trend present in ages. It was a testomony not simply to the younger designer’s imaginative and prescient, but in addition to his PR’s dedication to serving to him realise that imaginative and prescient.

“I believe that’s nonetheless my repute,” Pagès says. “It’s one thing that we preserved. We’re working for the massive corporations — LVMH, Kering, Richemont — however I nonetheless need that we’re seen as this place for expertise, as a result of I believe it’s a part of what we do properly.” The younger weapons be a part of an extended record, round 100 shoppers in all. Magnificence alone might be 25 accounts.

As with every artwork gallery or company, the consumer record is the important thing to success. “I knew that since day one,” Pagès agrees, “and that’s why I say cash was by no means my motivation. I knew that the consumer record was the curation and I knew that the curation was a key to the enterprise.” However you’ll typically hear artists complaining that another person is getting all the eye from their gallerist. Has that ever occurred for Pagès? “No, as a result of I’ve to be honest. There’ll at all times be frustration. It’s regular, it’s human.”

I envisage dozens of fragile egos needing a superb therapeutic massage and the exhausting levels of dedication that should take. “It’s important to love each challenge,” Pagès counters. “It’s important to consider in it. Should you consider in it, it may be gratifying. The place it’s difficult is if you lose religion.” That occurs often. “Yeah, I’m human,” he admits. “Typically there’s a challenge that doesn’t final lengthy. They by no means take off. Additionally, I’ve expertise. I see rapidly when one thing will work or not. Three seasons, press individuals with expertise know if there’s an opportunity. We all know the traps.” Does somebody of his reputation assume he can save careers with slightly even handed PR? “If I arrive too late, no. As a result of it’s a mix of occasions. I can re-animate the curiosity, but when there is no such thing as a follow-up with the industrial, with the construction…” The remainder of his reply dangles unstated over the void of oblivion.

“Typically PR’s will be overpowering in a bizarre manner,” Jonathan Anderson says. “They need to maintain the narrative. However Lucien is sweet at making a framework for the narrative to work inside. Lots of the massive PR corporations are relics. Or they’ve collapsed. Lucien was on the cusp of change when that change was taking place. He doesn’t do imply PR.” That’s an excellent level. The meanness of conventional trend publicists is without doubt one of the most caricatured sides of the business. However Pagès agrees that the job has modified. “It’s important to behave otherwise. We aren’t allowed to scream at individuals. I used to be by no means tempted to be a monster. I don’t assume it’s my nature. However if you’re a poisonous individual, you should have hassle on social media.”

I really feel I’ve been begging the essential query this entire time. What precisely is trend PR? Pagès solutions like somebody who’s been requested it a thousand occasions. “For me, it’s actually primary. It’s the hyperlink between a model or designer and the media, the outside world. I at all times give that definition as a result of saying you’re doing consultancy and blah blah blah… I imply, I generally is a guide and typically I generally is a therapist. It’s a combination. I’m there if individuals want my recommendation, but when they don’t want it I don’t give it. And typically I will be improper. Should you say the improper factor on the improper second, you possibly can fuck issues up.”

“I perceive why individuals don’t need to get too near PR, as a result of you possibly can find yourself feeling manipulated,” he continues. “However I take heed to journalists. I actually study loads from them. Somebody as soon as advised me a few PR who saved telling her she wanted to see one thing as a result of it was good, when it wasn’t. ‘She ought to simply inform us, I want you to return.’ That stayed in my thoughts. Typically if you want individuals, you simply have to inform them.” Pagès is at all times telling his staff to not overlook that public relations is concerning the relationship you create together with your consumer or the media or celebrities or opinion leaders… whoever, simply don’t overlook the relationship. “Everyone issues on this business,” he provides. “It’s a small world and creating this relationship is a key to success.”

In 2007, his father was recognized with most cancers on the age of 57. Throughout his 4 yr battle, Pagès was backwards and forwards to Vialas on a regular basis. However when Patrick lastly surrendered, Lucien was busy at Paris Trend Week, supervising the launch of a Claudia Schiffer cashmere assortment and the primary present of recent consumer Julien David. Father and son managed to iron out these childhood kinks earlier than the top. “Dad didn’t know Adam Kimmel or Sacai, however he liked Claudia Schiffer,” Pagès says wryly. He was not too long ago profiled within the newspaper Libération. His father’s pals referred to as to inform him how proud Patrick would have been. No Rolls-Royce but although.