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  • Shucks
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2010
    • 3104

    Aganovich

    since they just did a nice job presenting their FW 14 collection... kind of a crap interview (most recent i could find) but they manage to give some interesting replies anyway.




    From ipreferparis.net

    November 27, 2012
    Parisian of the Month: Nana Aganovich and Brooke Taylor


    AGANOVICH

    Where were you born and where did you grow up?

    Nana: I was born in Belgrade and I grew up in former Yugoslavia and in Denmark.

    Brooke: Born in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. I grew up all over; Monaco, Florida, England, New Hampshire.

    When and why did you move to Paris?

    Brooke: We moved to Paris in June of this year to further develop our business here.

    How and when did you meet each other and how did you make the decision to start your fashion line?

    Brooke: We met on the 14th of February 2002 in a great West London pub called The Cow (owned by Tom Conran). The fashion line conclusion was essentially a process of elimination. We knew fairly early on that we wanted to work together for the rest of our lives and we needed to find a project that could provide that. I had experience in DJ-ing and party promotion so we did a few nights but realized, though a great deal of fun, there was no real long term future in it for obvious (late-night) reasons. Nana had extensive experience in stencil-graffiti and we gave that a bash but, again, no real long term future unless you plan to spend most nights in the street. Lastly, despite having developed a strong aversion to the fashion industry, Nana had in fact recently issued from the Saint Martins MA fashion course and clothing had played a huge part in our courtship. We thought, it’s something you can do until you are old, you don’t have to maintain your appearance (like an actor for example) and potentially (since we had become obsessed with the recent revamp of the Bentley motor cars) you can make lots of money. For the record we still can’t afford a Fiat Cinquecento much less a Bentley.

    You were living in London before you moved here. What are some of the differences working and living, in London versus Paris?

    Nana: Since we really started developing the label in Paris and since I work all the time, Paris for me fits perfectly because it’s more cosy and more beautiful.

    Brooke: To be honest I could go on about this one for years since it is all that expats ever really talk about…but right here right now as a city London definitely has the upper hand. The recent ‘rediscovery’ of the East End which was decimated first by the Blitz, then by the closure of the docks and finally by the collapse of the Truman Brewery in the 80’s has resulted in massive investment, first creative then financial (and Olympian) and now both making for a very heady and exciting environment. By contrast Paris feels quite stifled by it’s museum status. It’s becoming a kind of holodeck. And don’t get me wrong I enjoy going to the holodeck as much as anyone else on the Starship Enterprise (I mean we live in Montmartre which is such a karaoke version of history it’s a couple notches away from ending up in Disneyworld and we could not love it more) but it often makes me wonder where Paris will or can go from here…?

    As far as work goes it couldn’t be better. Paris is still the great fashion power and it wields that power with considerable poise and elegance and a great deal less hysteria than other cities (bearing in mind we’re still taking fashion so a periodic dose of hysteria is an enviable and fortifying tonic for the solitary drudge that is much of the fashion process.)

    Can you tell us about your past careers before you started your company together?

    Nana: After Saint Martins since my background was more in art and I was lacking the technical side of making clothes instead of going and working for a house I decided to got to China and start a production facility that later on became a small factory. Where besides ideas I was able to learn the base of clothing manufacture. I have since sold my stake in the facility to my former partner.

    Brooke: Most of mine is relatively off the grid. The death of my father in my late teens killed my ambitions to be a professional tennis player and left me looking forward to what I thought might be a rewarding decade as a trustafarian. Little did I know I didn’t have enough money in my trust to fulfill even a fraction of this admirable ambition. So rather than bouncing from Marbella to Malibu and back to Ladbroke Grove on my bio-fuelled Lear jet with my heroine-chic pals I got stuck on the Circle line for a year with a bag of crap weed and a couple of Withnail and I rejects before falling into a decade of raves and ‘alternative’ lifestyling punctuated by brief periods of promising but short-lived literary activity.

    I know every season you have an inspiration for your collection not necessarily based on fashion. Please tell us what the inspiration was behind the Spring 2013 collection.

    Brooke: In short; gypsies. In long; we are ever exploring the non-place, what we generally call the ‘middle-of-nowhere’ (like the first presentation you came to that was based on a recent visit to Greenland by Nana’s brother Vlada) and the idea, rather than the reality, which is obviously something else altogether, of the gypsy struck us as rich source material for this theme.

    What has been the most surprising reaction to your collections?

    Nana: Rei Kawakubo visiting our showroom and telling me “you are on the right path”.

    Brooke: Anger.

    If you were able to design a garment for one person living or dead, who would it be?

    Nana: Romy Schneider.

    Brooke: My grandmother. She was the product of a minor but influential Chicago dynasty. Very beautiful (but then again isn’t everyone’s grandmother..?). We still have a huge portrait of her in her debutante dress by our bed in London that was painted by her uncle, society portraitist Abram Poole in the late 20’s.

    Who are some of your style icons?

    Nana: Giullietta Masina in La Strada. Joan Burstein aka Mrs.B of the London boutique Browns. Amanda Harlech muse/consultant at Chanel.

    Brooke: Leigh Bowery for sure. Ernie K-Doe, the New Orleans blues musician who I was lucky enough to meet at the reopening of his Mother-in-Law lounge in the 90’s (but more as a Southern archetype than just him), Robert LaSardo, the heavily tattooed American actor though specifically when he wears suits and the tattoos creep out the sleeves; that combination of menace and reserve to me is about as stylish as it gets. And more day to day, the hat designer Justin Smith who we work with periodically; he has that perfect balance of raggedness, elegance and conviction that I find so seductive.

    If money and other obstacles were no object, what would be your fantasy venue to show your collection?

    Nana: La Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris.

    Brooke: I’d rather say if imagination were no obstacle I would love to be able to stage a show in the middle of one of Luis Borges’ short stories like the ‘Library of Babel’ or stage a show with the now dead artist Juan Munoz. But in reality I think Venice is definitely a runner up.

    What do you prefer about Paris?

    Nana: That we can smoke outside and they have heaters on the terraces of the cafes! London is quite less kind to its smokers.

    Brooke: The way they clean the streets by opening the valves on the hills and letting the water run down through the gutters towards the Seine guided by the rolled up carpet swatches. The poetry of that simple process has never ceased to fill me with an incredible sense of well-being.

    Last edited by Shucks; 02-28-2014, 04:27 PM.
  • Shucks
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2010
    • 3104

    #2


    first men's collection (clips by diane pernet. it's pretty weird how he doesn't listen to her...)




    women's S/S 14 'heretic'
    Last edited by Shucks; 02-28-2014, 04:46 PM.

    Comment

    • old
      Senior Member
      • Jul 2009
      • 132

      #3
      Wow, I just went through their SS14 collection and it was quite something as well, Reminds me of Damir in his good years and perhaps even better! Thanks for starting this Shucks!

      I've followed them briefly in 2011/12 but thought that their work hasn't quite matured then, 2014 really is a breakthrough. I am also curious where all the seemingly Asian/Middle Eastern influence came from, I mean the folded trouser tops, overlapped and curved hem and all.

      Too bad like with Junya and Uma Wang, the men's offering is never quite as poetic as the women's line...Not to say it's bad of course(I think Diane Pernet just talked in too low a voice at times?)
      Tradition ist Bewahrung des Feuers und nicht Anbetung der Asche.

      Comment

      • gawkrodger
        Senior Member
        • Jun 2013
        • 334

        #4
        Pleasantly surprised by the Clifford Harper illustrations

        Comment

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