"Restraint, control with crazy collage, an unexpected collage of different worlds," says Ghesquière later when talking generally of how he works. "This is something of my normal process in fashion, to put together these worlds that are unexpected. I always try to lose the references: Those things are there, but they're transformed into something else. For me it is the definition of fashion: It's about now. It might last for longer, but you have to really work to witness your time; to say, 'This is now.'"
His latest collection conjures and collages the cerebral and the sexual; the wedding and the funeral; the sacred and the profane. Above all, at its heart there is an architectural austerity sliced through with something wild and wanton. Ghesquière has found a way to make something that is stark, sensual, and emotional. "This season is much more about self-confidence," he explains. He then literally drops his voice. "I wanted to say things more quietly." He defines his Spring collection as the start of a new chapter of his work at Balenciaga. There have been others: As a designer, he tirelessly and fearlessly moves on, creating startling collections. "That's the thing in fashion," he says, "because if you do not move, then you are dead." Yet, in many ways, this collection also sees a nod to where he began.
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"You want the woman to put it on and not feel how hard you have worked on it, to not feel how complex it is, to let go of it," says the designer. "It is a faithful relationship I have with my customer, but every season you reset. You have to say, 'I am here, and this is what I am proposing.' But you want a woman to have a personal style, you want to participate in that." He later simply sums up: "I am happy to please people; that's what I like."
At the same time, Ghesquière is a daring designer, and he wants his female clientele to be daring, too. He never patronizes his audience, and as a child of the 1980s, he has a belief in "high art pop culture"—complex work that can span all sorts of reference points and democratically appeal to all sorts of people. "You want the point of view to be stronger than the context," he says. "So you drive, you go. It is your choice, and it is where you want to go, it is a risk—and that I like—because it is honest also."
Ghesquière believes in honesty and a certain unpretentiousness in fashion. What he does might be received as the coolest thing in the world by others, but this defeats the point for the designer himself. "Making fashion is not about being cool at all. Instead it is intense, you have to be very honest," he explains. Ghesquière is more concerned with being true to his own ideas than in trying to impress his peers, even when that means referencing humdrum office workers (as he did last season) or something as clichéd as a flamenco dress (to be found in this collection). "To be surrounded by cool people, people who have a certain voice, is inspiring," he says, "but yes, they are not trying to be cool either!" This means that his inspirations can come from anywhere and can be turned into anything, as long as the result has the feel of the now.
You can read the entire interview on the following link style.com
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