one of the stylishly handcrafted UXUA Casas

Wilbert Das (born 1963) has been ‘the Dutchman at Diesel’ for just about as long as we all know about this Italian über-brand. Twenty-one years to be exact. When news hit that he was stepping out from behind Renzo Rosso to leave the iconic company he helped create as its 360 degrees creative director, all heads turned to his ‘holiday-hobby project’, the Uxua Casa Hotel in Brazil. Like: now we’re talking successful living.

The Uxua Casa Hotel in Trancoso, a tiny coastal village in Bahia, northeastern Brazil, is a cluster of eight separate ‘casas’ and a treehouse, all renovated, rebuilt and restyled using local craftsmen and amplified traditional techniques. Hidden in lush tropical gardens with a full 5-star infrastructure including restaurant, spa, private beach lounge and a healing quartz pool, this luxurious eco-loco getaway is little short of a paradise. A very personal paradise no less, realized by someone who, when it comes to fashionably styled hotels for one, has pretty much seen it all. If Uxua is Wilbert Das’s next step after everything he created at Diesel, which is not just the many clothing and accessories lines, but also the campaigns, showrooms, flagship stores, the Miami hotel, fragrances and in the end furniture, it looks and feels like quite the antidote to all the brash young and trendy violence he’s been responsible for all his professional life. With all the time in the world on his hands these days it wasn’t hard to lure him to the retro-romantic Amsterdam zoo Artis for a good long Style of Life chat.

Mo Veld: Not that we’re going to do a resume interview but since you just closed off your professional era at Diesel, from where we know you, or at the very best ‘should know you’ in retrospect, I’d like to take you on a little regression therapy, back to the Dutch ‘cowboy’ you were before you entered the Arnhem academy to study fashion at the age of 19. Do tell.

Wilbert Das: Oh my, I have such poor memory but maybe that serves me right. But yes, my father had a dairy farm in Brabant, in the south of Holland. I was the eldest of four, with two sisters, twins, and a younger brother. My father always hoped I’d be a farmer too and then one day he had a heart attack and I had to take over more or less. I had always helped out as a kid, I always smelled like shit after working. I would go out with friends and I’d be the one they had to wait on while I took long showers to scrub the farm smells off myself. So I knew all right; never ever was I going to be a farmer. Now I wasn’t really the artistic type but I was always drawing and sketching and one of my childhood friend’s moms had this sewing studio where she’d teach sewing skills, and I would help her on occasion and would model for her circle’s shows. That’s how I started to learn to make clothes. I must have been like 15 or 16, it was the end of the seventies.

It was so much more normal back then to make your own clothes.

Yeah well, you should know I had the weirdest bunch of friends back then. Real heavy boys, rebellious, but they would form knitting clubs and such as well. I still can’t place them after all these years but they were some sort of hippy anarchists, walking barefoot all year through, one was always carrying his hamster, hair down to the buttocks and a lot of smoking dope. That is until the infamous ‘gedoogbeleid’, Holland’s drugs tolerance policy was installed. I was 14. I remember vividly because that’s when we all quit. When we were allowed to smoke dope it wasn’t cool anymore. So it worked all right. I told the Italians many times.

Voila ;-)

So yes, I started to think about what to do with my life and I was drawn to either architecture or fashion. Actually, it was because of my sister’s boyfriend who was Spanish and worked as a coal-miner. His crew really looked amazing. All really handsome boys, who paid a lot of attention to their looks and always wore these cool Italian rags. So they basically introduced me to Italian casual fashion. It was the early eighties; it was all Goldie, Ten Good Boys, Replay, Fiorucci, and I got very interested.

So this was the fashion infusion that would determine the course of your life?

Well, we would also go out to Antwerp and surroundings, which was quite near by for us of course, and that was pretty much the hottest place to be. Clubs like La Rocca and the Viertap, they were crazy and the people all looked amazing. So when I got tired of working at my dad’s farm I entered the Arnhem academy, which had a three day admission exam at the time. I got admitted and I totally loved it from the start.

Can you still recall that early eighties timeframe? The fashion? That was even before Martin Margiela, before Helmut Lang, we’re talking Mügler here.

I never cared for what was hyped as designer fashion, in fact I’ve always hated it. I had altogether different gods, I was into the Fiorucci’s and Adriano Goldschmidt and Goldie, which was absolutely not done in art school. I was quite the odd one. My teacher, the infamous Mrs. Elly Lamaker [the legendary founder of the Arnhem academy fashion department who sadly passed away earlier this year, at the age of 87], would make me out for a farmer all the time, just to provoke me.

But those were also the heydays of The Face and i-D, magazines we all memorized cover to cover, so you could not have been that outlandish with your streetwear tastes?

It was exactly that time when street fashion became massively influential because of The Face and i-D, but this was not recognized back in Arnhem at that time. Gradually they realized I was dead serious about it so they let me get on with it and some classmates somewhat swung the same way. Our class was a bit more realistic, more down to earth about fashion than higher years. We were a real tight group, always hanging out together. We had such a great time.

Mr. Wilbert Das taking it easy at Uxua

Now there’s a theme in your life, the way you find yourself in the good company of a slightly odd but tight family of friends and tucked away somewhere nice and rural, be it at art school in Arnhem, at Diesel in Molvena in northeastern Italy or now in this tiny Bahian coastal village with your resort? Just like your funny friends from back home?

Yes, the same thing happened at Diesel. People from all over the country gathered in Arnhem, which is not exactly Amsterdam but we had a good life. I don’t know, also for brands I think it is better to be based somewhere nice and quiet, away from the big capitals where everything happens. Too many distractions, and everyone and everything will eventually resemble the city, it makes you lazy and it all becomes really hard to digest.

When you finished Arnhem in 1988, Renzo Rosso immediately hired you as designer for Diesel and you moved to Italy. Was that a culture shock?

Not really. Partly because of my sister’s Spanish boyfriend and his Latin crew that included some Italians I really dug. And next to The Face and i-D I read these Italian magazines, Lei and Per Lui, where Bruce Weber basically started out back then. This was all about the ‘Italian wave’, which in my opinion has been so much more influential when it comes to what people are actually wearing today. It’s all rooted in that Italian fashion movement. It was a really exciting time, and it was not just Italians either. Katharine Hamnett, Body Map, there were so many English and French people involved and a lot of casual wear brands were established with this very international approach.

I have interviewed some of your ‘gods’ like Massimo Osti and Adriano Goldschmidt and I noticed they are such a clan the way they are all entangled in businesses they started together and these businesses became such emporiums. Renzo Rosso is also part of that mob. Was it enough for you after twenty-one years?

It had been enough in many ways. It was never really my own company although it always felt that way. I have done everything I always wanted to do at Diesel. At one point all I wanted to add onto the mix was furniture and when we had done that too, I was done.

But in the creative sense, the Diesel we know is your baby.

I hate to claim things like that. It was the whole organization and all the people that made everything possible of course. But what was funny, in the beginning when Diesel was really small, when I started there we were only twenty-five people in the entire company, and we had to do everything ourselves, lunch, cleaning, I did it all.

You started out as a designer, designing the actual menswear, accessories and kids lines. But what’s interesting is that you moved up so quickly and became the brands 360° art director. How did that come about?

That actually happened quite organically, simply because there was no one else. And ok, I also took every opportunity. Suddenly there would be a showroom that needed to be designed and I would say; I’ll do that, I have an idea. There was no architect and before they could ask someone I would already have my plans on the table. And that’s how it went with everything, including advertising campaigns. I was interested in advertising and once the company had resources for making campaigns I just started sharing ideas. Or ideas came up when I met certain people. That’s how we started the licenses. I would meet some good people in the watch business, whom I would then introduce to Renzo Rosso. The same happened with shoes.

Are you saying there was never a solid strategy to expand the brand?

Oh no, nothing was planned. Diesel was never a managers’ brand. It was very much the way we did things back in the eighties and nineties. It was mostly for the fun of it. For sure in recent times it has become more corporate and structured, but not in the past.

It’s funny to hear you say that it was never about management because what I hear and read about the way you went about things at Diesel and now with Uxua, that sounds like the schoolbook for new management.

[Wilbert really cracks up] You think so? Well, it was all intuition. Of course I witnessed how the company grew from next to nothing to a little bigger and bigger again all those years so that’s how I learned everything.

One of the aspects you have been praised for is the way you safeguarded the human scale in the creative process, creating conditions in which creative people can function optimally.

I believe that one of the most important success factors has been the kind of people I have been hiring, or we, the company of course. I never chose those who could do the most outrageously beautiful creations. In fact, no, we tried it twice, and both times it turned out to be an absolute disaster. I was always looking for people I liked, intuitively, you see them and you think; hey, that’s a nice character. Of course they had to be talented but they also had to fit in the team. We were stuck there in that little village together, little else going on, so you gather people who fit in and I must say, most of them stayed on for a real long time. So not the best of the class types or necessarily the best portfolio’s I’ve seen, but people that fit in, and that’s how we created a very positive work atmosphere, which fertilized great creativity. And next to work there were lots of parties. Especially when we’d all go to tradeshows there would be an aura around the group that made you think: Wow, this is a happy bunch. I want to be part of that.

That almost sounds too easy, like they were merely putty in your hands?

Oh no, no, no! Quite the contrary. I like strong personalities, people with a strong stance and opinions, but they had to fit in. I have seen it happen, the divas don’t last longer than two or three months. I never wanted to work with people like that, I’ve always revolted. I really hate that part of fashion, the world of divas and the attitudes that go with that. And it wasn’t as bad back in the nineties when most of the luxury brands as we know today were not celebrated as today. We can hardly imagine it anymore. I remember when we started doing sunglasses back in ’96. Few brands were even putting much effort into it, it wasn’t hip at all at that time, let alone sticking all those logo’s on there. There were only a few designer sunglasses, especially in the seventies and eighties, but as an industry it was near non-existent.

You were very much appreciated as the mentor to younger talents yet all the while I can hardly imagine what your working weeks must have looked like flying around the planet with all those strings in your hands, opening stores, launching new lines. Did you ever sleep in the same bed for a full week?

Hardly ever, it was absolutely hectic but that is part of the job and I loved it, living out of a suitcase. And I am still doing that. I have been changing beds the whole year. One of the things I have learned after all those years working with all those people is that I have a real talent for switching subjects in the sense that I can judge creative things on the spot. That’s what I’ve been trained at. Whenever someone comes to me with an idea for a campaign or a garment or whatever, I can immediately indicate what works, what doesn’t, what’s really great or what needs to be tweaked and how. I never have to give it a second thought let alone sleep on it.

A well-developed gut feeling?

It’s complete gut feeling and nothing else. Even though I may not have been one hundred percent convinced all the time but when I went for it that would give people an energy boost and things would end up more or less exactly how I envisioned it.

I read somewhere that you hate market research and forecasts?

Absolutely and utterly hate them. Not for me.

And this quote: ‘Fear needs top be kept out of the creative process.’

Totally. Yes.

And then there’s the irony in all those Diesel campaigns, now again with the Be Stupid…

Oh but I was not involved in Be Stupid, I really want to make that very clear. I have always been involved in the Diesel campaigns start-to-finish up until the last two. I was not entirely happy with the directions they wanted to take so I was asked to concentrate on all those growth businesses instead. The thing is, I never wanted Diesel to tell people what to do. Saying Be Stupid, instead of smart or whatever, seems to be telling people to do something, to be something we were all along, in the gut feeling sense of the word, but that maybe didn’t need to be articulated, right? Before, Diesel would say things mostly meaning to say the opposite. I always liked to create this idea of anti-advertising and it worked. Anti-advertising was good advertising, especially in the beginning. It was great fun.

Yes those were the days, but we’ve been there, done that. Now there’s all these new media, social networks, twitter. It all feels a bit too eager and panting to me to be honest.

Yeah. It’s all getting a bit too much isn’t it? We really need to start thinking about something completely different. That’s what I’m going to be doing now.

Well, looking at your Uxua resort, you are already doing something very different. Even though you make it sound as if this too somehow just happened. But I don’t buy that. It’s all about sustainability, the whole ‘people, planet, profit’ shebang. So how did it come about?

It was definitely some kind of dream project. I had always had this vision in the back of my mind to just get a bunch of nice people together, I’m the kind of person who needs to be part of a team, and then just settle somewhere amazing. Which is quite possible today with Internet and all, so you can pick the prettiest spot in the world to set up base and make something nice together. This idea was the starting point and from there it developed and then morphed into the idea for this hotel. A place where I would like to go for holidays myself. And I had been to Bahia and to Trancoso too, I had spent my holidays there for some six years in a row. I love it. The nature is so lush, the rainforest reaching all the way to the beach and all these animals everywhere. And the village, you see hardly any cars there for instance. Horses, lots of horses. It’s completely idyllic, well, not one hundred percent but pretty close to perfect. No hurricanes, no earthquakes, and the temperature is always somewhere between 23 and 33 degrees Celsius. In fact it’s almost too perfect. And the village is very special. It is one of the very first villages in South America and it has remained practically untouched until the eighties. A lot of hippies from the seventies and eighties stayed behind there, making all sorts of things and getting involved in local politics. And that is why that place is so well preserved. There isn’t a single ugly building and nothing is ever built above the tree line for instance, so when you’re at the beach, all you see is trees. The fact that there are no cars allowed on the town’s square, that there’s no asphalt, it’s still completely cut off from society and this is all due to those hippies. Fifteen years back they allowed the first asphalted road to the village and with it came electricity. Now we have Internet on the beach. Four Seasons and all them have been eager to build big hotels there but the hippies kept them all out. At first, when I dropped my ideas, they were also afraid that I was going to put up a Diesel hotel.

And the last thing they want is to become a hip spot right?

Oh the place was hip all right, with the Brazilian elite mostly. But their suspicion soon ebbed away when they got to know me. After coming there for six years I knew just about everyone in the village from the fisherman to the bricklayer. My Portuguese is not fluent but good enough for chatting and the hippies speak English. Not the locals but I am working on that now.

You’re not a very top down person are you? Most people who have the means to create something like Uxua tend to be very top down, like: I am paying for this so I want everything my way.

That is not like me at all, I don’t care for people like that who are just waltzing over everything and everyone. But that is also why I am getting everything done in this village. And I didn’t even make a statement about this or anything; I simply love doing things this way. There are a lot of billionaires coming there as well. To be honest, I am also drawing a certain crew there, [Terry Richardson shot the Pirelli calendar there to mention but one juicy crew] but then, Gisele Bündchen and her lot were already regulars. No one cares who you are over there which is really great and I prefer to barbeque with the bricklayers instead of sipping on something expensive with those billionaire types anyhow. So once the locals saw that, they knew I was good folk. Now they elected me to be ‘The Partyman’, for their big annual fest next February. It’s called festa de Sâo Brás , after the region’s saint, and I get to be the Festeiro, which basically means I have to organize this 24-hour party for the whole village and participate in a few ceremonies. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Your whole life sounds like a lot of fun although I’m sure you have worked your pants off. However, I’m curious, what are you really serious about? You’ve got to be serious about everything you do.

Sure somewhere deep down I’m very serious. Maybe you should ask the people I worked with.

I did speak to some of them. They love you. They all said you’re this super swell guy to work with.

I guess the thing is I’m always sincere with the people around me and really can’t lie. My face will tell you exactly what I’m thinking so there’s no beating around the bush. I don’t even have to say the words when I dislike something. My eyes do the talking. [laughing devilish now] But you’re right. I’m dead serious about each and every detail. Casual fashion is all about details, and denim even more so. And I am…. [a slightly uncomfortable pause], the thing that I’ve become increasingly concerned with is the issue of overproduction. For so long now I’ve been passionately hoping for the fashion system and everything else in its wake to somehow change, secretly wishing the whole thing would just cave in on itself. I know I have been a part of it, the same with globalization, but I am really done with it now. I am still traveling all over the world, I really love to travel, but I have to say this; it’s getting really boring in most cities because everything and everyone looks exactly the same everywhere you go. That’s why Uxua is the opposite, where I tried to make a totally one-of-a-kind, local, and unbranded experience. And really I think we need to start a shift from quantity to quality. We should take more time to produce things of quality, that way we’ll still all have jobs. I know I’m not the only one feeling strongly about this, but in the mean time many big brands are pumping all this crap on the market. This fast fashion machine has to reach its summit soon. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for well made affordable stuff for everyone but there is way too much waste now. I really think we have to reconsider the whole idea behind our production, of everything, not just fashion.

Luckily you are not the only one, although sometimes I am afraid the whole eco trend is just another excuse to produce even more stuff. I am wearing nothing but ‘vintage’ these days, thanks to Internet.

Yeah, I know what you mean, like: oh look, we made this green bag, and I’m thinking: it would have been even greener if you hadn’t made it. Choosing second hand only really makes a difference and I think it is a real statement. What saddens me sometimes is that all people can think about is shopping.

Then again, I don’t know about you, but I am totally fascinated by the work ethos. If there’s one thing that can make people happy it’s work work work. I mean, think of all the amazing things we as a species achieve and build. I guess what I’m saying is, chilling in a tropical paradise is great I am sure but we have systems to change and better products to make so we better work. And while we’re at it we should maybe improve our ideas about work as well don’t you think?

Absolutely. Absolutely. We need to get our balance right. That is also why I’ve always been fascinated by Latino culture. One of the best things I have learned from the Italians is; no matter how busy it got, we always took proper time to eat. I don’t think I could ever do nothing, I am addicted to creating things and taking on new adventures, but for now I love kicking back a bit and reflecting well on the world before starting the next project.

the quartz lined pool at Uxua

During the recent Amsterdam International Fashion Week I had the pleasure to collaborate with designer Stef Bakker and graphic designer Carsten Klein on this ‘open source’ installation called Mode is., as part of SALON/1. Amsterdam’s most celebrated designer store Van Ravenstein offered us their next door gallery space and from thursday 15 till sunday 18 July SALON/1 visitors could leave their thoughts on fashion on large strips of paper, which could then be hanged in a ceiling high wishing tree made of metal hangers. At the end of each day the ‘harvest’ was shared with everyone who had left behind their e-mail address. We were delighted with the result, a long list of highly diverse statements about fashion, most of them rather serious and passionate, some downright desperate or revolting. We look forward to repeat the experiment and keep on growing this tree of fashion thoughts.

Please note: there’s a little interview with Manon Schaap, one of the SALON initiators, on JCReport

Click below to read the harvest of this Mode is. tree (as yet untranslated, so there’s a lot of Dutch, and some German in there, as well as a few hidden inspiration quotes originating from famous designers or philosophers) Mode is.

18.07.10…

… een mogelijkheid om je identiteit te uiten. waar sta je voor, wat vind je belangrijk in het leven

… een plaatje

… Diane Vreeland

… zelfexpressie

… je zelf zijn

… je thuis voelen

… onweer, orkaan en hittegolf

… aantrekkelijk… om aan te trekken

… de optelsom der dingen

… een versleten woord, mode definieert zich altijd opnieuw, mode verdient een nieuwe naam

… to make the difference!

… stof tot nadenken

… een lap stof voor, een lap stof achter

… your message

… een afspiegeling van de tijd waarin we leven

… soms een facade, soms een verhulling van je gevoel en soms een onderstreping van je bui

… door zijn as gezakt

… exhausting

… beauty and superb craftsmanship enhancing the quality of life

… niet altijd mooi

… like coming home: do not worry just be happy

… de wereld van nu

… individual yet a uniform

… lijkt heel snel maar is eigenlijk best langzaam

… een half jaarlijks terug kerend probleem

… onbegrijpelijk

… een spoor

… in

… durven doen

… eerlijker dan beeldende kunst omdat het meteen duidelijk is dat het om geld gaat

… for people who need designers to determine how they look; style is everything

… je zo kleden dat de noodzakelijke lichaamsbedekking een meerwaarde aan het bestaan geeft, zowel voor de drager als de beschouwer

… ademen en met plezier naar mensen kijken

… tijdelijk, soms lijf volgend, soms lijf negerend

… de beste vorm van expressie

… proberen of ‘probare’

… alles

… iets waar niet iedereen zich kennelijk mee bezig houdt

… besloten in Mo Veld

… een goed ontwerp

… geeft een doel cq opdracht om je leven te leven

… mode is een venster

… mode is… mode is… mode is… mode is…

17.07.10…

… expressie, een industrie, een kunstvorm, exclusief, oude wijn in nieuwe zakken, innovatie, ook gewoon best  leuk

… Michou & Maurice op weg naar wer de volgende show somewhere in the world

… over 10 jaar weer mode

… meedeinen op de golven van je intuitie

… not Nigel de Jong!

… een sociale constructie

… vergankelijk

… een lust voor het oog en een last voor de buidel

… ”betere” herhaling!

… ontzettend leuk en aardig

… dutch for fashion …or is it French?

… the everyday expression of my inner madness through realistic inspiration

… moeilijk

… not what you wear, but how you wear it

… meer dan een outfit

… great ideas, stories are translated to wearable clothing

… erg mooi om te zien, persoonlijk en altijd aan verandering onderhevig

… een vijgenblad

… gevoel naar een hoger plan brengen, dat kan omdat mode snel kan reageren en daardoor een belangrijk medium is om het tijdsgevoel uit te stralen. Die groei is erg belangrijk

… humor

… is like the apple: beautiful on the outside, seductive, but you have to reflect on it and be careful that its beautiful shimmer does not ban you from paradise

… het woord mode is uit de mode

… voor mij: proberen te volgen

… the search for total beauty, the thing that remains after the illusion of total knowledge

… een demo van moed

… salon

… zo inspirerend en kan zeer helend zijn en worden beleefd

… geweldig en interessant

… (be)leven

… unterstreichen der Persönlichkeit

… ein Spiel mit der eigenen Persönlichkeit

… the new is not a fashion… it’s a value

… is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well

… I’d like to see fashion slow done a bit. What freaks me out about fashion today is the speed… the speed of consuming, the speed of ideas

… mode komt van ‘modus’ (Latijn)… het maathouden, maatstaf, wijze, manier

… Laten we in plaats van mode een stijl van kleden koesteren die anti-wegwerp, anti-trend, essentieel, functioneel, elegant en intelligent is

… een koningin, en soms een slaaf

… fashion is all about happiness… it’s fun… it’s important, but it’s not a medicine

… fashion is the science of appearance, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be

… de eeuwige terugkeer van het nieuwe

… het bewijs van de menselijke impuls om het lichaam dichter te brengen bij een ongrijpbaar, vergankelijk ideaal

… als een persoon, soms veranderlijk, soms stabiel

16.07.10…

… meer en meer van een product een taal geworden die alles domineert

… all the world is a stage and fashion helps us to find our true performance

… een manier van kleden

… beweging, beiinvloeden, beiivloedbaar, drama, schoonheid en elegantie

… mijn opleiding en mijn toekomst

… everyday verhaaltje

… jezelf zijn

… persoonlijk … of toch niet

… moeilijk soms

… voor iedereen

… een ambacht! mogen we meekijken met het ontstaan van het ontwerp

… een idee

… beweging

… a sense of pride for every individual

… een persoonlijke uiting

… onbewuste emotie

… mooi, verontrustend, te belangrijk, laten zien wie je bent

… jezelf zijn en jezelf zoeken

… zo veranderlijk als het weer

… om beter bekeken te worden

… the mirror of the presents

… een bewuste of onbewuste uiting van je persoonlijkheid

… een elitair circus

… uniek, dat mis ik wel eens, even als de humor in de mode

… de uitgelezen gelegenheid om jezelf te zijn

… gaat over passie, verbeelding, creativiteit, visionary en het nu

… style is something that comes after fashion

… boeiend en inspirerend

… een haat-liefde verhouding

… that we lying in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars

15.07.10…

… wat je op straat straat ziet

… verassing om te zien hoe het oude weer “nieuw wordt

… anno nu nog steeds een poging tot sociale conventie

… voltreffend, aandachtvragen

… volgen

… geld uitgeven met plezier

… respect en passie

… maar hoe je het bekijkt

… geen kunst

… iedere dag weer een enorme zorg

… wie je bent

… grafische vormgeving en sieraden

… onsportief, dat kan hopelijk anders

… elke dag een feest(je)

… als een huis, als het goed is voel je je er in thuis

… mensen

… aan en uit

… al zo oud als de straat

… meestal veel te duur

… jezelf met andere ogen bekijken

… sinds ik sinds 1991 Dries van Noten draag iets anders geworden dan gewoon kleding dragen

… om van te genieten

14.07.10…

… niet te vangen, soms te koud, vandaag te warm, morgen een last, maar in de toekomst altijd veelbelovend

… nu! morgen nieuwe mode

… mijn ding, geeft zoveel levensvreugde

… geen leven zonder mode

… van alle tijden en waait met de wind mee

… emotie!!

… een gevoel, een smaak, een tijdperk, overal, meer dan een product, mode is verder kijken

… a state of mind

… grappig klassiek

… beweging: staat nooit stil en ziet altijd vooruit

… looking good

… maak je niet dik dun is de mode

—

Thus my newest Skype-friend, Sammy officially goes by her dramatic adoptive name Clothilde Alexandra Cruden [which explains the C.] and she’s been very comfortable ‘off the radar’ working at eco denim start up Kuyichi from 2001, then some Dirk Bikkenbergs and Lidewij Edelkoort, but the Paris fashion set was not for her. After a voluntary fashion recess she chose to go for casual, starting at O’Neil, and with a private ‘pop up’ label on the side. Soon her path crossed that off Wilbert Das at Diesel where Renzo Rosso offered her the amazing opportunity to explore denim with the Diesel Denim Gallery line for women and some Style Lab. After three years in Italy she was lured back to her hometown Rotterdam where she set up her own studio [soon to be studio-cum-store] where she not only develops ‘inspiration pieces’ for Diesel and others, but also her own label C.Cruden. There’s not really ‘a collection’ to be followed by a new collection, C.Cruden is one of those brave labels exploring a new ‘slow fashion’ dynamic with a steadily evolving permanent collection of sublimated ‘pieces’. Her Japan crafted jean is called C01 and marries the ‘Boyfriend fit’ with the ‘nice ass’. The leggings coded C02 are produced closer to home, the leather pieces are made to order by craftsmen, there’s a perfect tubular knit shirt, a simple multifunctional leather lace, an archetype white shirt, over dye-able with the DIY dye kit, and a ‘button ring’ in collaboration with jewelry designer Martine Viergever. The total of all these styles makes for a highly condensed contemporary look, yet highly accessible, for Rotterdam is known for its down to earth attitude. Sustainability is another major motive, no plastics or paper is used, treatments are non toxic and she loves recycling. But the best thing about little treasures like C.Cruden is that they are not too available. Sammy takes her time. Apart from a small however steadily growing number of ‘perfect match’ stores like Sketch and Humanoid she plans to open her studio doors as well as a web shop soon. Alert to Amsterdammmers: during the up coming Amsterdam International Fashion Week C.Cruden will partake in a HTNK meets SPR+ presentation. As much as I am inclined to keep this treasure all to myself, I wish C.Cruden a loyal share of fans.

These are the very first official lookbook images of C.Cruden and some merchandising design by Nicole Martens.

photography by Krista van der Niet

Writer Kirstin Hanssen, designer Felicia Nitzsche and co-writer Elina Tozzi invited me to write the introduction to one of Fashion Blogs chapters called ’seen on the streets’ to which I happily obliged. Now I’m finally holding a copy in my hand I must say, although books like this tend to be outdated by the time they hit the shelves, this is a great ‘time capsule’ document, not to mention the first on the subject, exploring the international fashion blogging pioneers. Apart from the profiles and interviews with a cross section of today’s influential bloggers in various niches, some 600 fashion blog url’s are listed. Naturally it is published in english, so if you spot a copy, do have a peek!

On the first sunny weekend of 2010 - March 12, 13 & 14 - I was invited to witness Moda Lisboa.

It was a first for me, as for many years I have been hearing lots of positive rumor about this event, so now I am happy to report; it is all true. On the dot organization including 5-star hospitality - we even had an exquisite midnight dinner at the major’s one night  - and an impressive national fashion line up. The ‘hardship’ with a local fashion week like Moda Lisboa is that their 4-day show program mixes just about every segment from newly graduated or highly conceptual talents to typical ’socialite darling’ couturiers, longer running internationally oriented labels and even highly commercial denim brands. New to the Portuguese fashion scene, I decided to simply enjoy the ride while questioning some very nice local colleagues for much needed context. Here’s my pick of labels, presentations and looks, some of which will no doubt be featured in an upcoming issue of Code or Blend magazine:

Katty Xiomara made a fine case of a young-ish designer who, seemingly effortless, blends materials, colors and graphics in a contemporary cocktail of girly silhouettes, but then I was told she has been doing the same thing over and over again, with the same cute cup sleeves and all. In which case ‘effortless’ suddenly becomes a deadly sin. Still…I think she’s got something going there.

The second venue, design museum MUDE, which opened may last year and whose lovely director Bárbara Coutinho I had just interviewed for Code magazine, showed a selection of younger designers under the Lab Fashion flag. MUDE’s vintage design collection and it’s building, an old architectural landmark bank stripped to the naked concrete made for a perfect setting.

So maybe it was the cool MUDE context, but I liked almost all the young guns presented here, like aforestdesign. Especially the two way wearable bags, because as a Dutch-esse I’ve had my fill of all too conceptual clothes for siamese twins, although the gymnast-model-video projected on the 70’s wooden walls worked very well for me.

Lara Torres I suggest you research because her arty but smart  approach to fashion results in the most amazing objects and projects. For this presentation she showed a shirt and shirt sleeve in wax narrating of fashion memories.

The White Tent duo Pedro Noronha-Feio and Evgenia Tabakova may well be my favorites, and it turns out they studied at Central Saint Martens. So maybe that explains the more international, somewhat androgynous, indie femininity with the slashed metallic leather theme for totally covetable armor, mixed in with some great parkas and trenchcoats.

Back at the main venue Pedro Pedro showed some pretty agreeable 60’s style minimalism mixing a cosy brown and grey palette of bouclé woolens, fur and ostrich feathers with black trimmed clear plastic for capes, skirts and booties.

My final pick form this year’s calender would be Filipe Faísca who showed a strong collection full of historical Portuguese references. In fact, there was a lot of regimental and sexual nationalism going on in Lisbon but Faísca got the abstraction just right for a more international appreciation if you ask me. Loved the reflector over the shoe leggings with the little Chanel-esque black nose for their show effect, the medieval influences in jewelery and simplistic lammy skins and most of all this amazing look with plissé pants over a fragile tule top.

Every fashion week needs it’s controversies and this one had plenty, like the masqué  miss-styling at Nuno Gama or Dino Alves showing his entire women’s collection on men in cliché drag make up, but my favorite was this really very pretty young girl totally Vogue-ing one dramatic outfit after the other from the second or third row, but right opposite from the international press catwalk section. I stepped up to her and her chaperone (make up artist Jorge Serio) and it turned out she, Marianne, was doing a 4 day long performance for a young designer label called Storytailors. I know I want to know more of their story.

So what is essential about the collections Niels Klavers and Astrid van Engelen have been putting out ever since the re-launch of their label in the winter of 2007-2008? Like I said they rank among my favourites and I’ve kept a keen eye on them for over a decade so this is not my fad of the week. With their label’s second coming, it’s preview gracefully sweeping up the 2007 Mercedes Benz Dutch Fashion Award, KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN successfully matured on a commercial level without loosing their inimitable artistic approach. In short, what looks like some simple rich and delicate fabrics thrown on these women by a divine breeze, is the result of many years of hard work, processing their conceptual inspirations into unavoidable garments. We all know that ‘effortless elegance’ is hardly ever effortless - it just looks that way – but Niels Klavers and Astrid van Engelen do possess a highly contemporary fashion aesthetic without using any obvious force. Elegant and tough, poetic and straight forward, vulnerable and aggressive, a women in KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN looks all that and more, because even though these clothes actually deserve to be labelled ‘design’, somehow they do not wish to overrule the individual wearing them, which I think is pretty essential, now as much as ever.

Hosted by The White Club in Milan for three seasons in a row KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN managed to rebuilt confidence with former clients who by now sound more than pleased in spite the global recession. The SS10-shows at The White Club however got cancelled last minute for lack of funds, which made KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN redirect to Paris. Also the collection in preparation, fall winter 2011, will be shown in Paris this March, with a private showroom presentation only. Unfortunately maybe, but as Niels and Astrid explain: “We could invest all our revenue from this collection in showing the next– a catwalk show is by far the most ideal way to present a collection - but after all those years of putting ourselves out there like that we’ve come to see it is not realistic for the moment. We’ve finally learned to act and think like a business and for now we just want to focus on steadily growing our client base and keeping them happy. They sell through very well at the moment and orders keep growing steadily. Hopefully with our new sales agent we’ll break some new grounds like the US and we’re interested to intensify our web presence. It’s great how you can trace who visited your site and a lot of that comes from the US, via blogs mostly. We do some interesting art and theatre projects as well, like this modern Orlando play by the Dutch Oostpool Company. These collaborations are very informing and energizing but they’re about all the showbiz we can deal with on the side.”

Oh, and fairy dear, since the open-toe boots are customised showpieces only (what a shame!) do throw in a pair of those nude leather, hand made, one off KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN for Orlando-pumps, will you?

I send in this rare little ‘film bite’ to Fantastic Man Daily some time ago but my fantastic friends didn’t mention the fact that the yummy Snowman scarf modeled so elegantly by Mr. David Bowie in this short movie intro is actually for sale here (limited edition 2oo cm adult version, all sustainable alpaca and with a label signed by Raymond Briggs.) If this doesn’t mean anything to you - after all, it’s not your every day fashion info - see the Oscar winning animation of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman first.

Little James and his very special scarf

The smoker's lounge offers plenty of space for changing dialoques like this curious snibbit from Waiting for Godot

About Bo Cinq

Tucked away in the city’s throbbing, touristy center you’ll find a new place to hang your hat, to eat and drink and share yourself with old strangers and new friends. Bo Cinq emerged from Amsterdam’s guts, from old dusted off bricks and well traveled suitcases full of treasures, generously offering two terraces, three entrances, one or two bars, two lounges and a fine brasserie with no less than four dining rooms. A wanderer’s home, Bo Cinq is both a cradle for the senses, a familiar feeling place to get together and relax, and a subtle temptress for curious minds and adventurous tastes. The French-Arab cuisine, positioned at the very heart of Bo Cinq, is elegant yet simple, healthy, fresh and tasty, organic and local where possible, serving a casual menu for lunch, a more formal one for evening and delightful, tongue-teasing finger food at the bar.

A selection from the accompanying shoot in Blend magazine by Thomas Whiteside

We spoke last year around the same time. You just won the CFDA award and were about to present your new collection. You were planning to expand Boy & men’s accessories. And mentioned some ‘retail projects that won’t seem much like retail’ starting in Tokyo? So how did all that go?

It’s been a pretty great year. Boy. is now produced in Italy with a really fantastic production facility, so most of my time has been spent going back and forth and working with this amazing team, getting to know each other, developing two collections. And the men’s is continuing its story organically, finding great customers along the way. Sadly the retail project in Japan is still stalled. It’s a long story, but I’m trying to take a very old piece of machinery from the U.S. and re-wire and re-work it to do something entirely different, in a different country where the electrical, err, stuff is different.

Your homepage features a series of Polaroids of LA homes. What’s the relation to Band of Outsiders? They look like crime scenes to me. Or at least invoking fantasies about who lives there, how they live and so on.

Ooh, I like the idea of them being crime scenes, although that wasn’t the point.  I decided we needed a home page, and the most logical subject for the Polaroids on a home page seemed to be homes.  There are some pretty great ones around Los Angeles, so that worked out nicely.  Speaking of, I need to get out and shoot some more - freshen things up.  In terms of what it says about the brand, I would throw that back to you.  For me, all of the imagery and ideas we’re putting out under the Band of Outsiders brand don’t necessarily have to be of clothing or directly related to fashion.  It’s all about a feeling, an approach, and a way of looking at things.

What is essentially Band of Outsiders? (you called it ‘fetishized American Sportswear’ on Style.com) Overstating the understatement? If something matters, everything matters?

That’s a big question.  And there’s two directions from which to answer - the clothes, and the brand around them. Let’s stick with the clothes for now.  The men’s clothes are about looking at the classics and making them feel new, fresh, and completely covetable; the women’s are about that too, but a little more conceptual in their approach, with a heavy anchor in menswear.  Boy is also a bit about playing off of trends, re-working them into our language.  Both have a strong focus on tailored clothing and offering something new and fresh in that category.

What is it exactly that clothes do in your view? How important are clothes on the scale with other expressions like music, movies, art?

Well, clothes clothe, and are a means of personal expression, a marker or signifier of one’s identity within - and the place they see themselves within - a given community or society as a whole. On a different level, Fashion has certainly become a very relevant and active particpant in the cultural dialogue - it can at times both reflect and drive popular culture and the general temperature of society, just like music, movies, painting, theater, etc. all do.

You seem to be on a quiet sidetrack of fashion, designing for people who prefer ‘personal style’ over following fashion trends. But then again, what you’re doing seems to be a big trend, at least in menswear, very ‘Sartorialist’ (Scott Schuman), but maybe more shy or relaxed?

To the first part, I hope so - quiet and personal are the point. I really believe the type of clothes I make (and the more conservative variety that Mr Schuman favors) are always in fashion for men; they’re American classics, nothing too tricky, the building blocks of a man’s wardrobe. The cut and overall approach fall in line with where mens clothes seem to be right nowa balance of something very trim and tailored, yet very relaxed and easy in appearance and feeling. This is something I was striving for regardless of any sort of trend.

How personal is Band of Outsiders? And Boy? What do you think it is you share with your fans?

Band is incredibly personal - it’s a direct extension of me, my past, everything I love. Boy is certainly personal too, but a bit more abstract in terms of the creativeprocess, more conceptual, a bit of a laboratory for ideas and playing around with what I do for the men in a very different way.

Do you consider yourself a craftsman?

I consider myself a designer and creative director much more than a crafstman. I don’t really cut and sew all that much, I drape when it comes to dresses and stuff, but this isn’t the focus of my work or where I want to put my time. I’m much better at other things, and am pretty good at communicating my vision and delegating tasks. Craft requires a singular focus, and years and years of perfecting a particular skill or trade, which I have so much respect for, so instead of trying to do that myself, I make it a point to collaborate with great patternmakers, sewers, tailors, etc. in everything we do.

How does this manifest in your current collection (Fall 09) for example (based on another Godard movie: La Chonoise from ’67)?

In general, the inspiration for the collection never translates all that literally into the clothes - it just serves to give me and my team a bubble of thought and mood within which to work for 6 months, and a context for pulling the presentations together for fashion week. It helps you make design choices - from the cut and color to the smallest details - and really helps in instigating new ideas, unexpected ideas, that lead to garments I never would have..

You consistently choose performance style collection presentations, like a movie still or scene. Do tell….

My feeling as always been that the runway is a forum for a conversation about Fashion with a capital “F” - trends, direction, innovation, etc.  And I don’t think we’re really part of that conversation.  We’re telling our own little story over here.  But, fashion week is too good of an opportunity to pass up - it’s a chance to get one clear message across to the same people at one time.  So we do it in our own way, which is very much about storytelling in a dynamic, cinematic way.

I sense a very boyish attitude in Band of Outsiders, there’s a sense of play, of sophisticated geekiness, and something very ‘insider’ in fact. Who wears it? What is your biggest market?

It is quite youthful, although as far as I understand from the stores, there’s not necessarily one type of Band customer, other than they are probably quite fit and trim as the cut is not so forgiving.  Japan is a huge market for us - the aesthetic, the American roots, the fit, the conceptual approach - all play quite well there.

And does the same go for the Boy collection for women? (Boyish-girlishness?) Who is the Boy girl?

Well, there’s the girl who just wants a great jacket, a beautiful tailored blazer - lots of types fall into that girl.  Then there’s the girl like Kirsten Dunst or Michelle Williams, one who has a sense of ease to their style, who can put pieces together in an effortless way, and responds to that part of Boy.

Is looking ‘good’ all about looking ‘effortless’?

Certainly - effortless, or really comfortable, easy, secure in the clothes.

The Boy part, women looking great and sexy in menswear based styles, how did that take off since we spoke last year? What have you learned about dressing women?

Dressing women is a constant learning process - women’s bodies are so diverse, and their tastes and the trends are constantly changing.  I’ve tried to be both loose and strict with the Boy. concept, staying focused on what we do well (tailored, shirts, etc.) and experimenting with dresses and other pieces through the Boy. lens.

How is the Sperry collaboration going? What is it about the boat-shoe for men that fits Band of Outsiders. Ps. Your Boy-women don’t get to walk so comfortably!

Sperry is winding down. It was a great collaboration, lots of fun. The boat shoe is an American staple, which Band is always focused on updating. It’s a silly little shoe, and so easy to wear, so non assuming.  Regarding the Boy shoes, they’re pure show shoes, not for real life - I always have Manolo make them as high as possible, with any extra lift possible, so the girls look as gargantuan as possible for the show. Somehow that always looks better.

What’s in the pipeline?

I just introduced a new men’s collection called This is not a polo shirt. by Band of Outsiders.  It’s a collection entirely made up of polo shirts, that’s sort of about the iconic polo shirt.

What makes Scott Sternberg really happy and going these days?

Tough times, right?  I’m inspired by pure ideas, honest people, great art, most types of music.  I’m reading a lot more.  Watching old movies as always.  And back episodes of House on TV.  Can’t get enough of those lately.

Who would you LOVE to dress? (a band? A movie? A person?)

It’s always cool when someone whose work I’m a fan of likes and wears the clothes, somehow very gratifying. And it’s just as cool when a total stranger on the street is in them.  We sell to a lot of bands, and have worked on a few TV projects here and there.  It would be cool to work on a film, but I can’t imagine having the time just yet!

Cover of The Look, an absolute must-read if you love your all time favorite rocker's styles and want to know all about it. There was never a more complete account...

British journalist and author Paul Gorman wrote the most exhaustive celebration of rock and pop fashion spanning five monumental post war decades. First published in 2001, followed by an update in 2006 and another one in progress, The Look, Adventures in Rock and Pop Fashion is not just another must read style bible to top your night table stack. With his The Look-blog, a London club night and fashion label The Look Presents, all born in the wake of his applauded book, Paul Gorman is on a mission to safeguard the holy grail of flamboyance. “When great music meets great style, that’s when things really start to pop.”

The Look had been on my professional literature wish list ever since raving reviews of the 2006 re-release started popping up in all my fashion feeds. Code’s gutsy timed Rock Star theme literally made me jump to the occasion of digging into this beefy, juicy and bloody fabulous chunk of fashion history, starting in the spring of 1952 with a seventeen year old Elvis pressing his pretty face against the Lansky Bros menswear store window on 126, Beale Street in Memphis, and closing with Hedi -“I was born with a David Bowie album in my hand”- Slimane’s triumph at Dior Homme, crediting rock and roll buddies ranging from Pete Doherty to Mick Jagger. The Look’s threefold foreword, by Paul Gorman, Paul Smith and Malcolm McLaren, had cast a bit of a blues-y ‘those were the good old days’-shadow ahead, but this is the first thing the rock-and-fashion-jive-talking author wishes to set straight in our interview. “The collective conclusion is that the potency that occurs when fashion and music combust has been all but lost as celebrity culture goes into overdrive and big business dictates like never before in this Starbucked age.” states Gorman’s introduction while Paul Smith concludes his with the observation that today “everything is over-considered”, in contrast to the ‘blank sheet’ his generation started out with after the war. Malcolm Mc Laren, who unchained quite the fashion movement together with Vivienne Westwood at the dawn of the 70’s, is most grim about the loss, noting that fashion no longer drives subcultures but has become an industry merely producing product to supply our global mall-culture.

Paul Gorman: “I think it’s just become very fragmented. It’s still out there, but in different ways, like the rest of culture.” ‘It’ referring to that certain X-rated good stuff that The Look is all about; unpredictable, sexy, dangerous style, fearlessly served up by likewise musical talents and their tailors. “There was always boring and predictable stuff around. You gotta keep your eyes open and I guess that’s what we always did, didn’t we?”

Still, The Look weighs heavy on seriously sharp sartorial dressing for men. Although this currently enjoys renewed interest, I guess at least in those first post war decades guys were accustomed to wearing suits? Now there’s a whole generation out there that grew up with nothing but jeans, sneakers and T-shirts. Those can be very rare jeans, sneakers and T-shirts, but it’s just not the same thing.

Yes, young people are missing out on some rich scenes for design. My label The Look Presents, which sells through Topman, offers a limited range by Anthony Price, who is also in the book. Anthony had followed Ossie Clark out to the Royal College of Art and he worked at Stirling Cooper, which was a very big store in terms of importance. They both merged this interest in 40’s movies, the gangster look, with a kind of soul boy, glam futuristic look, resulting in Roxy Music and Brian Ferry, Duran Duran, David Bowie. Suits were very available when I was younger. Anthony Price’s shop was there on Kings Road less then a mile and a half from where I am sitting now, and I could go in there at the age of 18 and buy a shirt, a suit, and a nice pair of shoes at Johnsons opposite…. Well, we all know what happened with globalisation. Basically that took the road of least resistance, the GAP-approach: American sloppy dressing. The other thing is, there was this democratization of style that occurred in the late 80’s, coinciding with the big boom of initially rare groove and acid house. Those were worldwide youth cults, not select little street tribes. It was absolutely out there in the mainstream. As a result, casual clothing coinciding with that, global companies had a ready audience for the clothes they wanted to sell. I think what we are seeing now is a reaction against that. I see a lot of young guys in London really making an effort, really dressing up. In fact they look quite uncomfortable. Almost as uncomfortable as I did when I was a kid, getting myself into these heavily buttoned suits with tight trousers and all that stuff. It was great, really fantastic, but I don’t want to be too down on ‘it was so great then’, because actually quite a lot of the time it wasn’t.

Also, now, there is no longer ‘a fashion’, but there are many fashions going on and it’s all about pick and mix.

Yes, and it is available to all. You have to watch out for this appropriation of things. It happens naturally. Some stylist will see a punk rock T-shirt, like a Too fast to Live-Malcolm Mc Laren-Vivienne Westwood T-shirt, and take it out of context by putting it on one of the Spice Girls so to speak, which renders it kind of meaningless. But then again: why not? Everything should be up for grabs and available to all.

Because this is a sign of our times, like The Look is all about those signs of the times. They were just much more local or scene specific back then. Sometimes down to a single street even, like the story with Elvis and Bernard Lansky. This ‘fashion’ was only going down that particular curb in Memphis.

Yeah, and all it took was appropriation. It took a young, very bright, very handsome white kid to wear ‘black clothes’, making it dangerous, giving it that edge. That is what always happened. I don’t want to go on about fashion too much, I think its kind of boring that whole seasonal thing. I was talking to Malcolm McLaren the other day and he said, about the punishing schedule of putting out something new every season; “what happens when you run out of ideas?” People do, you know? It should be much more about putting out stuff when you are creatively ready. That was the beauty of this era The Look deals with. All the boutiques we had, probably a couple of hundred by the late seventies in London alone, they were not subjected to that system; they could do things on a whim. Old Johnson was sick of selling Mod clothes, so he just started stocking Rocker clothes. You know, the opposite. It wasn’t dictated by what’s in and out this season. I hate all that; I find it very fascistic, being told what to wear by mainstream high street stores. They don’t know where its at.

You mention an amazing list of influential people in The Look, some of whom I’ve never even heard off. Who would rank on your shortlist?

Well, there was John Stephen for instance, ‘the King of Carnaby Street’, he created Carnaby Street. He was a millionaire by the age on 26, who was openly gay at a time when that kind of stuff was quite difficult, who produced flamboyant clothes for the young men of England trying to escape the grey austerity. He basically dressed Swinging London when everything went day glow. To go into one of his shops was an experience; they were environments with music blaring. Everything we take for granted now, he kind of introduced. Mind you he opened his first shop in Carnaby Street in 1959! By ’64 - ’66 he had 26 shops in London. He is very important and much overlooked these days. Nobody gives him credit but everyone, The Stones, The Beatles, The Who, everyone wore his clothes and broadcast his message of flamboyance to the world: freedom from the older generation’s mores.

Also the Granny Takes A Trip-gang are very important because they kind of opened up a reaction against John Stephen. The action-reaction thing of fashion is a beautiful thing. They opened a very small, very hip boutique at the wrong end of King’s Road way away from Carnaby Street, selling antique clothing. One of them was a tailor and started making long college shirts and brocade jackets. Granny Takes a Trip was the breeding ground for the look that became ‘hippy’ across the world.

I think Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood are the most important people in this story. What they did in the years of their creative partnership, from 1971 to 1984, is nothing less then stunning. We are still breeding from it now. The thing about all those people in The Look is that they are interesting because they fast track cutting edge ideas into the mainstream. Malcolm wasn’t interested in holding on to his beatnik literature and his S&M catalogues. He wanted secretaries to wear his work. He wanted to make subversive statements, particularly about the British attitude towards sex. Just in the same way that David Bowie and Boy George and John Stephen fast-tracked subjects like homosexuality and put it on the agenda. If there is a common strand between these people who make things happen, it is that. Elvis did it, maybe unwittingly, but he brought black music into the homes of the white bread Mid West.

He was also criticized for doing that.

Obviously! All these people were. In fact if they weren’t criticized; they’d be a bit disappointed. You’ve got to upset people, don’t you? Take Kevin Rowlands, from Dexy’s Midnight Runner, best known for Come on Eileen some twenty odd years ago. He has been at the cutting edge with very radical ideas, opting to wear very feminine attire causing absolute outrage. Even among dressed down Indie kids. What he did was incredibly brave, saying; you can be a tough guy but there’s a feminine side to everybody and if you don’t at least engage with that you’re gonna be in trouble. In fact he made a very serious point. His outfitter was Mark Powell, a very macho character with a very tough London tailoring edge, near Edwardian, very dandified. One of the reasons to write The Look was to give people their due; because I felt these people were about to get ignored if they didn’t get a proper assessment of their careers.

How exactly did The Look Presents-label come about?

First The Look became this club, with people from the book and people sympathizing with the book, fellow travellers. We had DJ’s and performances by people like Pam Hogg. It seemed a natural thing, since a lot of these people were nearly forgotten, to explore their archives and present them again. We’re doing that with Topman now but I want to get away from that stuff because I think we’re all just making too many clothes. We all have too many clothes and too many clothes are being sold cheaply. We did very limited runs with Topman but now I’m working with Wonder Workshop, with designers who for instance did Iggy Pop’s jackets and clothes for The Wings and The Stones and Led Zeppelin. I also work with this crazy guy called Romulus Von Stezelberger at South Paradiso Leather on Sunset in LA. He is basically the heir of this label called East West Musical Instruments, who produced leather wear in the late 60’s early 70’s for all these bands we talked about, particularly in America. Romulus is kind of channelling that and he produces incredibly glamorous but very tough leatherwear for the LA set. He made a suit for Prince last week, for The Dead Weather, Devendra Banhart, Jack White’s band are wearing his stuff on their current tour. We are supplying him with the limited edition Wild Thing tee and coming this fall Iggy Pop’s vinyl-leopard print jacket, as worn on the back cover of  The Stooges album Raw Power. I far prefer working with people like Romulus for The Look Presents, because we know someone will be wearing it in 20 years from now.

We talked on and on about great music and great style, then and now. Betsy Johnson - who dressed everyone from Jackie O. to Amy Winehouse via Edie Sedgewick and Madonna - now being revived by Opening Ceremony, super-stylist Simon Foxton showing at the V&A, Adam Shecter’s heartbreaking video for contemporary style icon Anthony (& the Johnsons), Roisin Murphy peerlessly donning the likes of Garreth Phug, Barbara Hulanicki disappointing her fan’s during a Q&A after the premiere of her movie “Beyond Biba”, Balenciaga and Urban Outfitters ripping off the original East West ‘Parrot’ jacket. Stories that started popping up on The Look’s blog within days after the interview, so we strongly recommend you read on there. But not before you check Paul Gorman’s thumbs-up list of today’s ravishing rock stars, designers and boutiques.

Paul Gorman Recommends:

Pippa Brooks - “She’s got a band, she DJ’s, she dresses, its a performance. She had ‘Shop at Maison Bertaux’ in Soho and is now making her new shop ‘M. Goldstein’ in Shoreditch, London.” //mgoldsteins.com

Kate Moross - “She’s only 23, she’s a graphic designer and an illustrator, she has her own clothing label, which was selling through Topshop, and her own record label Icomorph Records” www.katemoross.com

Poppy and the Jezebells - “They’re like 16, a funny little Indie act from Birmingham. They came down to London with a copy of The Look, and before they came to the club they went around, spotting where Mary Quant, Sex and Granny Takes a Trip had been. Poppy, who is the drummer, wears her mother’s Biba clothes.”

The Broken Hearts - “They are two DJs from Beyond Retro Vintage Clothing, and they dress in absolutely perfect 30’s and 40’s clothing. They had a great single and they’re really great performers so I really rate them. They’re not precious but they’re really good fun.” www.beyondretro.com

Peggy Noland - “A designer from Kansas City who dressed this Brazilian band CSS in sequined and madly printed body suits. Looks great, sounds great, very sexy. Peggy Noland has a fantastic sense of fun and is also exploring Lycra in quite unusual clothes.” www.peggynoland.com

Pokit - “A great little shop for women’s and menswear including a made-to-measure service. The owner is Nigerian; their offering is very British, lots of traditional craftsmanship. I’d recommend them; they are continuing that tradition of great boutiques.” www.pokit.co.uk

New Romantics Robert Elms and Melissa Kaplan 1980. Photo: Graham Smith.