You didn’t stage a performance this past season during London Fashion Week — presumably because you were putting a store together. Will you go back to doing shows next season?
Exactly, we held appointments instead. I love doing the shows, but they are quite ambitious productions. We’ve certainly not lost our appetite for them, and as an independent brand, we can be quite flexible. I like that we haven’t committed ourselves to a rigid formula. The format has changed quite a lot over the years, and I think that’s part of what makes it exciting. We’ve done monologues, theatrical performances, and more experimental presentations, and I’m sure there are other things we haven’t thought of yet. It’s not a no, but it’s important for us to evolve the concept. I wouldn’t want to do a show unless we had an idea that genuinely excited us. Otherwise, I think everyone would probably be happier having an extra hour in their day.
Desire and desirability seem to be notions that luxury is grappling with this season. How do you create an object that is desirable?
I always want to make something that you cannot stop thinking about — that you just have to have because it made you look twice. With our designs, we always try to kind of start from a place that is familiar, whether it’s a pearl necklace or a vase, but adding a twist to it. We have these ceramic puffy mugs, for example, that look like they’re made from fabric. It’s the sort of thing you remember.
Who won fashion month for you?
It’s a tricky question, but in London, I just love Pauline Dujancourt. Every season, she goes from strength to strength. There’s something so compelling about the delicacy of her work, and there’s also this quiet tension in it. I love how she uses quite traditional techniques to create something that feels very contemporary. She’s got a distinctive language, which I think is very important and increasingly rare. And goes back to that desirability we were just talking about. So yeah, Pauline wins for me.
Catch up with last week’s Scoop with Guess’s Nicolai Marciano here.
