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  • laika
    moderator
    • Sep 2006
    • 3787

    #31


    ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.

    Comment

    • Faust
      kitsch killer
      • Sep 2006
      • 37852

      #32
      Video interview with Maria Luisa
      Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

      StyleZeitgeist Magazine

      Comment

      • Darklands
        Banned
        • Nov 2008
        • 70

        #33
        menswear

        Originally posted by Faust View Post
        The man is awesome. Hopefully he will do menswear one day, although looking at the womens is good enough!
        i am told that he will do menswear again and probably not far off . . . but that the collections may be sporadic.

        Comment

        • Faust
          kitsch killer
          • Sep 2006
          • 37852

          #34
          A fantastic interview with WWD.
          Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

          StyleZeitgeist Magazine

          Comment

          • tricotineacetat
            Senior Member
            • Aug 2009
            • 206

            #35
            Originally posted by Faust View Post
            Could you post it for us here? Thanks...

            Comment

            • noage
              Junior Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 1

              #36
              Originally posted by Faust View Post
              yes please.......! can you post the interview ?

              Comment

              • Faust
                kitsch killer
                • Sep 2006
                • 37852

                #37
                From www.wwd.com

                Just hours after landing in New York on Sunday, Haider Ackermann has something to get off his chest: He is not, contrary to popular reporting, Belgian. Born in Colombia, he was adopted by French parents who then traveled throughout Algeria, Ethiopia and Chad for his cartographer-father’s career. “I’m absolutely French, even though I don’t belong anywhere, because even in France I’m a stranger,” said Ackermann, on this day sitting in a corner chair inside the Mercer Hotel lobby. The mistake stems from his schooling; he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, which counts Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester as alumni. (Demeulemeester and Ackermann share the same Belgian investor, Anne Chapelle.)

                In town for tonight’s party in his honor at Saks Fifth Avenue, following a similar bash in Los Angeles, Ackermann has been on a major roll. His darkly romantic fall collection drew near-unanimous raves — both Marc Jacobs and Karl Lagerfeld sent him postshow flowers — and now he’s rumored to have a role in the potential Dior-Givenchy reshuffles. Here, the soft-spoken Ackermann — who’s prone to the occasional giggle and blushing — talks insecurities, celebrity culture, contracts and karaoking with Tilda Swinton.

                WWD: How was your first trip to Los Angeles?
                Haider Ackermann:
                I had this evening where [Saks Fifth Avenue] invited all these kinds of eccentric ladies — it’s a type of eccentricity we might not have in Europe anymore. They were ladies of a certain age, who were still very young — not lifted or whatever — but young like a rock. I was very attracted to one who had a gold jacket, curly blonde hair and red eyeliner, very eclectic and eccentric. When I got out of the plane this morning, I called a friend and said we should go to Los Angeles for the summer and spend two weeks there. I have to get to know it. I always had the fantasy of going there because in the Eighties, I read this book — I forget the name — but it was about all the gangs and subcultures. I had this fantasy of going for those reasons, not for all the rest. I want to go among the gangs, sit on the street, have a beer and just observe them.

                WWD: And now you’re hitting up New York.
                H.A.:
                I’m fully booked. Hopefully, I’ll have some time to go the McQueen exhibit. Obviously, I have to see it. Everybody interpreted his work in their own way. I always find that interesting. So I like to absorb myself between the people and just listen to what they have to say. I just went to see this exhibition of Anish Kapoor [in Paris’ Grand Palais] and some people found they entered a holy place, others thought they were in the womb of a woman. For me, it was something very peaceful, but at the same time, very violent because [the installation] was red, I was surrounded by those veins of red, so it was an intimate violence.

                WWD: Are you squeezing in any shopping while here?
                H.A.:
                I’m not a shopper. Just let me wander the streets all by myself. Let me get lost in the city and then I’m happy. I remember the first time I went to the office of American Vogue a few years ago, I came out and put Bach on my iPod to calm down. Then I just walked. I didn’t even know where I was going. At a certain point, I was like, “Where the hell am I?” I do this wherever I am — Paris or Rajasthan, India. You learn so much about a country by observing it. You make your interpretation and you tell yourself your own stories and your stories might reflect slowly in your work. It’s sometimes very nice to do one step back and to just absorb. I think that time is our new luxury nowadays.

                WWD: Saks is throwing you another party tonight. As a self-described introvert, are you comfortable doing these public appearances?
                H.A.:
                For me, it’s doing myself violence because I’m a quite shy person. I like to be more in the corner and observing. When you’re in the middle of things and there’s tension and you feel observed, it makes me feel insecure. But at the same time, it’s nice to meet the people.

                WWD: Do those insecurities creep up during your runway shows?
                H.A.:
                Yes, even [at the fall 2011] show, I had many doubts. I admire other designers who just have this ease and confidence to make a collection. I wish I was one of them, to be less complicated, to be less insecure. But this insecurity is what drives you.

                WWD: Your recent fall collection was spectacular.
                H.A.:
                I have the feeling I’m getting egocentric because this collection is more about me than anything. I’m in a more profound moment in my life where I feel much more loved and much more desired. That’s why I used the song “A Thousand Kisses Deep” by Leonard Cohen. It’s like, OK, let’s go deeper into the story. You want the colors to be more profound, to be more noble. It reflects my private life.

                WWD: You’re blushing.
                H.A.:
                To feel desired is the most fantastic feeling, that’s what we all want at whatever level.

                WWD: Since launching in 2003, how has your woman evolved?
                H.A.:
                I understand her more. In the past, she used to be much more a stranger, more unreachable. She was coming from nowhere and was more tormented and complicated. Now, you know when you have a good moment in your life, you want things to be more laid back? That’s why the fabrics are more fainting on the floor, why there is a kind of negligée feel about it.

                WWD: Where did that early torment come from?
                H.A.:
                I threw myself naïvely into this business — naïvely in the sense that I knew I wanted to do it, but I was so badly organized. I just didn’t know where to go. You’re trying to find this signature and you’re doing all kinds of steps and mistakes. But at the same time, that’s good because without any mistakes, you don’t go anywhere. It’s a shame that nowadays people don’t allow people to make mistakes.

                WWD: What do you mean?
                H.A.:
                You are judged every season, one after the other. People are “in” and “out.” It keeps the whole business alive and exciting, but we’re just passengers — or passing persons. Passengers are sitting on a train so I think it’s more like passing persons.

                WWD: People have said your clothes aren’t easy. Do you agree?
                H.A.:
                People are surprised when they come into the showroom because the pieces aren’t complicated at all. But when you’re doing a runway, you want to show your aesthetic. Why should I show this plain jacket you can find anywhere else? Let me twist it a different way and give it a moment. I’m full of admiration for the women in saris, or Tibetan monks, who, with just six meters of fabric, do the most fantastic, elegant piece of clothing.

                WWD: You have a very specific sensibility. Is it a challenge to innovate while staying the same course?
                H.A.:
                Not to compare myself with them, but Helmut Lang or Rick Owens, they’re designers who have one story to tell and they go deeper into their story. It’s a continuation. I’m in that category. Sometimes I wish I could be more like other designers and do something totally different. I would do, I don’t know, just fluorescent colors, all with miniskirts, something which would really surprise, challenge and disturb me.
                Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                Comment

                • Faust
                  kitsch killer
                  • Sep 2006
                  • 37852

                  #38
                  WWD: That’s one of the criticisms lobbed at you this season, that your design range is too narrow.
                  H.A.:
                  You know, when you have to show 30 silhouettes, you just want to go in one direction. You want to send a clear message [rather] than having it mixed with all kinds of things.

                  WWD: Some designers begin a collection with the fabric, others with a story. Where do you start?
                  H.A.:
                  Me, it’s the music. I just spend nights on the street trying to absorb where I want to go, what mood I am in and try to listen to the music. From there, everything goes.

                  WWD: What’s on your iPod?
                  H.A.:
                  Oh, my iPod, I don’t have funky music on my iPod. It’s like Bonnie Prince Billy, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, PJ Harvey. Schubert, Bach and Chopin. I would love to have a happy song in the show. It might come one day. My défilé — I want people to escape for 10 minutes of their life. The collection is a part of it, but so is the music, the light, the hair, the makeup. The show must have something cinematographic, that you just get one hint of an image which is passing and leaving again. That’s why I like short défilés as well.

                  WWD: Do you have a favorite collection?
                  H.A.:
                  No.

                  WWD: Really? What about your least favorite?
                  H.A.:
                  Many. I do have a lot of affection for the first one just because it was my first. The rest, do not ask me to look back at them. It’s more than embarrassing when people reflect on them or when magazines want to do a [retrospective] shoot.

                  WWD: You sound like your own worst critic.
                  H.A.:
                  Aren’t we all? I think for any designer, to move forward is to criticize yourself as well.

                  WWD: Let’s talk about your background. You were born in Bogotá, Colombia.
                  H.A.:
                  My parents traveled immediately, from when I was six months old. I was adopted. I didn’t grow up in Colombia. I haven’t gone back, but I won’t speak about it in interviews because for the simple reason that my birth story is.…The fact that I am adopted and things like this are, for me, a beautiful story. My family and friendships are very sacred for me. So just to read two words about a family affair, which is so beautiful, I find it kind of insulting toward my parents who did this beautiful gesture.

                  WWD: Do you speak Spanish?
                  H.A.:
                  No, but I’m going to learn now.

                  WWD: And your dad was a cartographer — that must have been an exotic childhood.
                  H.A.:
                  No, he’s more a mathematics, square person — totally the opposite of myself. I am more of this kind of free bird. They’re two totally different approaches. More than 10 years ago, he retired and now he’s involved with Amnesty International, not to keep himself occupied, but because he’s very interested in humans. Now, my parents are based in the South of France.

                  WWD: Does that nomadic upbringing play into your designs?
                  H.A.:
                  Of course there is an influence. You draw on only who you are, so of course it’s a part of you. Yes, it’s been a part of me. But perhaps now I’m less interested in it. I don’t neglect it and I highly respect it, but perhaps now I’m much more looking to a future than the melancholy and nostalgia that I have toward my childhood. I’m looking for more new adventures. Before, I was very concentrated on my past adventures.

                  WWD: Does your family come to see your shows?
                  H.A.:
                  Yes. My brother, from Korea, comes too. He’s working real estate in Paris. I also have a sister from Vietnam; she’s in Holland now.

                  WWD: Where do you consider home?
                  H.A.:
                  I have no home. I only have a home the moment I settle down with the person I love. That’s going to be my new home. For the moment, I’m wandering.

                  WWD: When you were younger, growing up in Africa, when did you know you wanted to pursue fashion?
                  H.A.:
                  There’s not one moment. You’re attracted by those fabrics when you’re a child, you’re trying to capture this mystery about women — those veiled women — that you don’t understand. It’s a very romantic point of view of trying to find something which you will never find out at the end of the day.

                  WWD: But when did you begin to think of fashion as a career?
                  H.A.:
                  It’s only now that I think of it as a career. In the past, I was naïve. You know, my first show, I didn’t invite any shops. But now that things are getting serious, I see it much more as a career than I have before.

                  WWD: People read a lot of Yves Saint Laurent and Gianfranco Ferré in your last collection. Are they your designer influences?
                  H.A.:
                  I think journalists are always trying to put names on top of everything. I could understand Saint Laurent because of the colors, although how can you associate the name Haider Ackermann with Saint Laurent? Honestly? We’re talking about genius and we’re talking about me. Gianfranco Ferré, I didn’t understand why. I have to figure that out.

                  WWD: So who most influenced you?
                  H.A.:
                  Madame Grès, for me, has this perfectionism and this architectural modernity. She’s got it for me.

                  WWD: You spent three years at the Royal Academy and left before graduating. Where did you go from there?
                  H.A.:
                  Despair. I traveled a lot. I clubbed a lot. I lost myself in the night. Everywhere where night was to be found, I might have been there.

                  WWD: And the story that you once cleaned toilets?
                  H.A.:
                  That was in Antwerp. My press agent hates it when I talk about this. But it’s my reality, you know?

                  WWD: As was interning at John Galliano.
                  H.A.:
                  It was the best study ever. You know, at the time, I had no money, nowhere to stay, so I was sleeping on the street and going every day to work. I put my luggage in a locker at a youth hostel and went there to take a shower.

                  WWD: What do you remember about your time at Galliano?
                  H.A.:
                  I remember a sense of humor…I cannot talk about it though, because it was so sarcastic and it’s bad to talk about this now. Due to all the respect I have for Mr. Galliano, I prefer not to mention his name. It’s not healthy to talk about a company who suffers and a designer who suffers.


                  WWD: Your name always comes up when someone leaves a house — Martin Margiela, Galliano. Do you feel the added pressure?
                  H.A.:
                  Yes, of course there’s pressure, there’s tension. But you should embrace them as gifts because at least people are looking at you. Let’s be honest, next season it’s going to be someone else and fair enough.

                  WWD: Do you think the fashion system puts too much pressure on designers?
                  H.A.:
                  We should not forget we’re designers. We all have the chance and the luck to tell a story, to have a voice, which is a luxury position compared to so many people who don’t have [that opportunity]. So, yes, it might be a tough job, yes, there might be tension, but there’s much more tension and hardness and despair out there. I mean, give me a break. My father now works for Amnesty International, so let’s not talk about that.

                  WWD: Is it true you’ve turned down nine contracts in the past?
                  H.A.:
                  Yes, but you can never mention those things because it will be very un-elegant to the other persons who accepted the jobs.

                  WWD: Anything you can say about possibly taking over Dior or Givenchy?
                  H.A.:
                  Let the rumors talk. But I would, at a certain point, accept a house which might fit me and which I would feel comfortable with — but there are not many. I don’t think one single person knows the house I’m dreaming of.

                  WWD: Can you elaborate? American, European, Japanese?
                  H.A.:
                  I won’t go there. Nobody is going to figure it out because it would be a total surprise.

                  WWD: I’ve read that you’re not a fan of Twitter or Facebook.
                  H.A.:
                  Honestly, I hardly have any time for my friends so how can I be on Twitter and Facebook and all of this? And not everybody has to know what I’m doing every minute of the day. I don’t understand why people have to show pictures wherever they are and things like this. I mean, who gives a damn what I will do every minute of the day? And if that person gives a damn, is he that bored with himself?
                  Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                  StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                  Comment

                  • Faust
                    kitsch killer
                    • Sep 2006
                    • 37852

                    #39
                    WWD: Does that opinion extend to the bloggers?
                    H.A.:
                    No, I don’t read them. Perhaps I’m very old fashioned. Not everyone has got the knowledge to criticize each other. When you go to fashion shows and you see all those people outside taking pictures of each other — the street is almost getting more important than what’s happening inside the space. I don’t get it. I like to meet people in the street, but I think it’s taking things to proportions which are absurd.

                    WWD: What do you think of the circus element of shows, of celebrity culture taking over?
                    H.A.:
                    I’m really sorry, I’m going to sound so rude, but some of those girls don’t do anything. Yes, some people are entitled to be a celebrity because they did something, they proved something, they made tremendously good movies. But then all those young girls, they might have done one movie and just because they’re pretty, they’re out there. I believe we’re spoiling those girls’ careers. We throw them out there, in their first role, they get all the hype — but then we’re searching for the next new thing.

                    WWD: So how do you feel about celebrity designers?
                    H.A.:
                    Everybody is a fashion designer nowadays. But then again, sometimes you’re surprised that a celebrity-singer can make quite a fantastic collection. When you look at Ms. Victoria Beckham’s collection — chapeau! Chapeau in French means “wow, fantastic.”

                    WWD: Which designers do you follow?
                    H.A.:
                    You cannot talk about favorite ones because you put people in certain categories and you neglect the other ones. But yes, there are some. When you look at Nicholas Ghesquière from Balenciaga — I’m sorry for the words, but fu--, how does he do it every damn season?

                    WWD: You’re open about your love of jewelry. Does this mean we’ll see a collection from you soon?
                    H.A.:
                    That’s something I would really love to do. Recently, I’ve tried to draw things and define where I would place myself, but I don’t know how to translate it. I need to find the right person to work with. I got attracted to jewelry when I was younger. Living in Africa, you only hear the sounds of jewelry because everything is covered and hidden by veils. But my jewelry wouldn’t make noise. I don’t want my woman to be like a cow walking around.

                    WWD: What about a Haider Ackermann fragrance?
                    H.A.:
                    It has to be something very mysterious and it has to be wood. The bottle would be a very old-fashioned one, pure crystal, kind of heavy.

                    WWD: Are you seriously looking to build your business into a larger brand?
                    H.A.:
                    For the moment, I want to keep it niche, just to grow the clients and shops we have. When you say brand, it makes everything sound so calculated, that you know exactly where you’re going to take it. I’m not that far along. Perhaps I’m tormented to think of it this way.

                    WWD: You’re good friends with Tilda Swinton and she’s often in your clothes. How did you meet her?
                    H.A.:
                    In a Chinese karaoke. I think we were both pissed [drunk]. It was in Paris, in a very lost area in the fourth arrondissement. I don’t even know how we ended up there. She’s has a quite nice voice, which is not my case. I mean, this is quite embarrassing, but I like to sing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong.” Actually, that was the second time we met. It’s funny, we were in Istanbul the other weekend talking about how we met and I told her perhaps not remembering is the best thing.

                    WWD: Current obsession?
                    H.A.:
                    My obsession? I just want to go back to L.A.

                    WWD: I have to ask about your glasses — they’ve become your signature look.
                    H.A.:
                    They’re very old models, called the Schubert. They’re from the 18th century. I bought them in Amsterdam. I’ve already broken eight pairs. You know, when you have sex you break them very easily. The other ones were very fragile.

                    WWD: That’s a good place as any to end. Any last thoughts?
                    H.A.:
                    It’s enough violence to talk about yourself the whole time. When I’m going through a museum, I love to see a painting without any explanation and just absorb it the way that I feel like absorbing it. I like this freedom. When I give interviews, it also feels like I’m dictating. I just want you to see me the way you want to. I don’t want to be such an open book.
                    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                    StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                    Comment

                    • rider
                      eyes of the world
                      • Jun 2009
                      • 1560

                      #40
                      he seems very soulful albeit very vulnerable. i admire the fact that he doesnt hold back these traits but it does make me wonder if he can survive the big fashion arena without losing what is driving his work in the first place, freedom.

                      thanks for posting.

                      Comment

                      • CAIN
                        Member
                        • Jun 2013
                        • 66

                        #41
                        H.A back to his roots

                        I read that he is going to have a big show in Colombia this year, he went there last year and decided to start relationship with his natal country.

                        Not sure if he is going to take a different collection than the one he will show in Paris or some new for Colombia.

                        How ever I think that to be close to his roots can be very positive!

                        Comment

                        • interest1
                          Senior Member
                          • Nov 2008
                          • 3351

                          #42

                          the perfect capture


                          SS06
                          .
                          sain't
                          .

                          Comment

                          • Faust
                            kitsch killer
                            • Sep 2006
                            • 37852

                            #43
                            Haider Ackermann is a designer who prefers to shun the limelight

                            I love my work but I'm not one of those designers who needs to be noticed," Haider Ackermann confides.

                            Many would disagree. In the past few years the designer has gone from an emerging talent to a fashion star that everyone wants. Right in the middle of Paris Fashion Week, the Haider Ackermann showroom is packed. Buyers are busy filling orders, while models navigate the tiny aisles dressed in floor-sweeping coats and tailored separates. In the corner sits a pensive, solitary figure, quietly observing the scene around him. He looks out of place among the glamazons with his dark unruly hair, rounded spectacles and yards of fabric draped around his neck. It's only when people greet him excitedly that you realise that this is the man behind the elegant creations that line the racks.

                            "Now that my show is over I just want to escape. Being a designer is so different now. I don't think it's necessary to show yourself everywhere, or be a part of everything. This is not something that intrigues me. I don't understand things like Instagram. Why do you need to keep the audience updated about your life? I don't see the point. Who would be interested in my life in the first place?"

                            Many would disagree, especially in his case. Ackermann's name has often been bandied about in recent years, especially when there's been an opening at a big fashion house. First it was rumoured that Martin Margiela asked him to take over his brand when he retired, then he was apparently up for a role at Givenchy. In 2010 Karl Lagerfeld famously told Numero magazine that Ackermann would be ideal successor for his job at Chanel. When Galliano was ousted from Dior, the press insisted that he had the job until it was announced that Raf Simons had taken the role.

                            "My name was placed with so many houses - it felt like I had many lovers. At a certain point it was annoying as it was disrespectful to other people. I found it hard, because everyone had something to say.

                            "It was so sad when Mr Galliano left Dior. I would love him to come back because he is the person that made me dream. Not many people can do that. If people carry us away and make us travel with our minds it's such a luxury these days. We are not able to do that any more," he says.

                            Travelling has been a big theme in Ackermann's life - both personally and in his collections. Colombian by birth, he was adopted by French parents whose work took him to exotic places such as Africa, where he was raised until the age of 12. It was his memories of women in countries such as Ethiopia, Algeria and Chad that sparked his fascination with fabrics and draping.

                            "I was always in those countries where fabric played such a huge role. Women were always wrapped up in metres of fabric or covered and hidden behind it, so it was also very mysterious. It was more the curiosity and the movements of fabrics that I was interested in. It was the mystery that lured me in," he says.

                            At 17 he moved to Amsterdam, before ending up at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp to study fashion (he said he chose the city because he was in love). Unfortunately, the school's regimented schedule didn't suit him, and he left early even though his tutors, including Raf Simons, recognised his unique talent.

                            "I never decided to go to school and neither did I finish it. People ask me all the time when fashion came into my life, but things just come to me and I don't question it. It's difficult to do interviews, because I am the most boring person," he says, jokingly.

                            In 2002, he launched his own collection in Paris with a small show. He forgot to invite buyers but that didn't stop industry insiders such as Lane Crawford fashion director Sarah Rutson from attending and snapping up the collection.

                            From the outset, there was something beguiling in Ackermann's languid draped silhouettes which featured an elegant yet edgy mix of sculpted leather jackets, trailing blouses and androgynous tailoring. You could sense wanderlust in his exotic shapes that brought to mind Japanese kimonos or robes worn by women in North Africa. Then there was his amazing sensitivity to colour with a palette that ranged from rich desert hues to vibrant jewel tones.

                            His collections are made all the more evocative thanks to his emotionally charged presentations. Ackermann composes his shows like a musician, often starting with a slow tempo before reaching a crescendo.

                            "The emotional connection in the show is the music, the lighting, the hair, the make-up. When I start a collection it is part of a whole fantasy. I fantasise about her life - clothes are just part of the process. Some designers concentrate on the clothes and you can see it, like with Rei Kawakubo. But for me perhaps it's more about a global atmosphere and feeling," he says.

                            It makes sense then, that Ackermann starts each collection with a story, preferring to write words in a notebook rather than sketching. This approach has resulted in a woman that is strongly connected to him and his personal life.

                            "I think she has become more mature, and is now closer to me than she's ever been before. Before you are in search of yourself and so is the woman, but now I feel I understand her more. It's become less complicated to dress her. She's more in my family now. At the same time I don't know who I am, so how can I describe her?

                            "The egocentric in me means my work relates to my private life, so sometimes you will see lots of colour and other times it's different. I know I am searching for elegance but to define that woman is not interesting. It's more interesting to explore her," he says.

                            This exploration came to a head in his recent autumn-winter 2014 collection, which is more austere than past collections. Free of his usual drapes and twists, Ackermann stripped everything down by including more masculine tailoring in the form of wide-legged trousers and floor-sweeping coats. The palette was subdued with shades of grey and taupe while he also introduced knitwear and easy pieces like the funnel neck grey jumpsuit made from a menswear fabric.

                            "This one started with colour then it changed. I wanted simplicity, soberness, purity. I wanted her, in her masculine attitude, to find some graciousness. I was searching for the word grace - masculine is always heavy with strength and force. I really wanted to have this heavy feeling and in between there's this lightness. It's easy and feels comfortable. Sometimes I am scared she will be too bourgeois," he says, laughing.


                            Looks from Haider Ackermann's spring-summer 2014 collection.
                            Interestingly, Ackermann says that his woman changed most when he relaunched his menswear line. His first foray into menswear came in 2010 at the Pitti Immagine trade fair in Florence, but the line disappeared soon after. Last June he decided to make a comeback with a collection that featured silk jacquard bomber jackets and waistcoats, in his signature jewel tones. While there are connections between both lines in terms of aesthetic, Ackermann says he prefers the menswear.

                            "When you are working with men it's more an exercise of style because you are focused on the clothes. I tried to choose fabrics that were too heavy for me, that I wouldn't wear, to make it different and challenging. Men's is nice - it's newer and everything is much smoother. Even at the presentations the crowd is different and more relaxed. For me I feel I can breathe," he says.

                            This breathing space has done wonders for Ackermann as his collections have grown from being cult favourites with editors to a commercial success. He boasts a mile long list of stockists worldwide, including Joyce in Hong Kong, who will be hosting the designer's trunk show next week Wednesday. The obvious next step would be more lines or even a store.

                            "I want to know more about the business; why one piece sells more than another. My favourites always sell less.

                            "Suddenly this season, I am also thinking about opening stores. Another thing I would love to explore is haute couture. I know where I'd do it, the music, what it would look like. I don't forget these things - they haunt me every night. Sometimes I feel I have a pile of ideas that I am keeping aside because I can't use them [for ready-to-wear]," he says.

                            With the future holding so many possibilities, one wonders what sort of legacy the Ackermann is looking to leave behind with his work.

                            "I won't be remembered. We have amazing designers like Cristobal Balenciaga, Coco Chanel, Madame Grès - those are people to remember. I am living in the moment, doing what I like to do, searching for something, and clothes are the way I do it," he says.

                            "I don't know what else to do if I wasn't a designer. I would have loved to be a ballet dancer. I like any kind of job in which anyone can escape. I do this job to escape from reality. To escape a certain part of myself."
                            Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                            StyleZeitgeist Magazine

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                            • gaborb
                              Junior Member
                              • Jul 2009
                              • 24

                              #44
                              Thanks for posting. Would love to see him do an haute couture collection.

                              Comment

                              • Ahimsa
                                Vegan Police
                                • Sep 2011
                                • 1879

                                #45

                                With an air of aristocratic nonchalance, Haider Ackermann’s designs beget magnificence, comfort and wanderlust. Eugene Rabkin talks to the designer about this luxurious ease and his love of colour

                                Despite being fashion's darling for a number of years, not to mention garnering a loyal celebrity and art following, most notably Tilda Swinton, Columbian-born designer Haider Ackermann's line still feels intimate. Like a club not marked by exclusivity, but by affinity. Everyone is welcome, but you either get it or you don't.

                                There is an unapologetic luxury in Ackermann's work, to the point of decadence, as if his ideal woman (and more recently, man) spends her time lounging around in pyjamas so elegant that she need not bother changing when she finally goes out in the evening. Well, maybe she'll throw a sharp-shouldered jacket if she must.

                                Even a pedestrian material such as cotton jersey takes on a new meaning when Ackermann simply adds a silk ribbon to it. The message is the same - a kind of cultivated laziness that comes not from sloth but from the luxury of not having to deal with quotidian existence, its routine and banality. Another thing that prevents Ackermann's clothes from being ordinary is his masterly use of colour. His hues are so rich they negate any trace of the gauche in the clothing. When that satin is done in eggplant and olive, it is toned down just enough to hit the spot. Adopted by French parents at a young age, Ackermann travelled the world as a child. So the rich and vibrant colours come from his worldly experiences in Africa and the Middle East.

                                In a way, Ackermann's work is refreshing, because it makes no apologies for high fashion. All this makes you wonder if Ackermann spends his days in detached, aristocratic aloofness, which could not be further from the truth. Energetic and clever, for this designer, perfection is boring and imperfection is worth exploring. Just after his first ever men's runway show, for S/S'16, I sat down with the designer to talk about his luxurious, colourful world.

                                People usually talk about fashion as change, but often things that last are more beautiful, would you agree?
                                Yes, and it is also the same when everybody talks about luxury. Luxury is not something you should throw away every season, or that you change every season... There is a kind of an intimacy and longevity in it.

                                You have developed luxury that is specific to you, in a way that is very relaxed, nonchalant. How do you find that balance?
                                It is very strange because, especially in the men's collections, there's too much noise. When men are being admired, when all those men are immaculate and perfectly dressed, it makes me want to be one of them. I would like to be properly dressed and I would like to be exact and sharp in my appearance. But I am not one of those men. When I dress, I want to put the garment on and everything is here with me. It's basically a part of who I am. I'm not an anxious person. I have to feel at ease to feel comfortable.

                                Continue Reading Here: http://www.buro247.com.au/fashion/in...adent-col.html
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