VOGUE Australia

SEEING RED

If you weren’t reading Grace CodCodding­ton between the fiery manes of hair and cat-shaped bags at Louis Vuitton’s resort ’19 collection, look again. The pre-eminent stylist speaks about the unpreceden­ted meeting of two creative forces.

-

If you weren’t reading Grace Coddington between the fiery manes of hair and cat-shaped bags at Louis Vuitton’s resort ’19 collection, look again.

You have known Nicolas Ghesquière for a long time: how did you meet and become friends?

GRACE CODDINGTON: “The first time I met him was in 2000 on a shoot for American Vogue with Steven Meisel – we were shooting a bunch of young designers and somehow he really stood out. Then, when I did the Alice in Wonderland- themed shoot with Annie Leibovitz, I desperatel­y wanted to include him, and he made a dress especially for it. After that shooting, we became close friends.”

What do you admire about him?

GC: “That he’s never following a trend; he’s always driving fashion forward. He’s a designer who bravely makes statements that he could be dashed for; he’s always bold, and always convincing.”

Who do you see as his Louis Vuitton woman?

GC: “He has a very particular woman: one who started at Balenciaga, but is really defining herself now. You can also see her in the choice of celebritie­s who sit in his front row; so often when you see those people all dolled up you know that they might have been paid a million dollars to sit there, but they don’t look very comfortabl­e. But his women always look special – at the Met Gala earlier this year, his little group were the ones who appeared truly elegant and original. Theirs was the party I wanted to be at.”

How did this collaborat­ion come about?

“We’d been talking about doing something together for about three years – and when I left Vogue to go freelance, we finally could. It was obvious that it was going to involve cats – but I very much wanted to involve his dog Léon, too. The collaborat­ion is between Nicolas and I – and here we are personifie­d through our animals, so to speak.”

Why do you like cats?

“Either you’re a cat person or a dog person and, in my case, I’m a cat person. I usually find I don’t like people who don’t like animals – it doesn’t matter whether it’s cats, or dogs, or horses, or mice, or guinea pigs, although I like for birds to be wild. It’s tragic to see a bird in a cage, only fluttering around a few square feet … There’s something rather weird about people who like birds in cages.”

How many cats have you had over the years?

“There was Brian and Stanley. Then I had Maureen and Doreen. Then Coco, Henri and Baby. Then Puff, and Bart, and now Pumpkin and Blanket. I’ve always liked heavy, chunky cats more than the very feline, skinny sorts with long pointed noses. I like fluffy ones: I like hair, and so I like for my cats to have a lot of hair. I used to go and hang out a lot at the cat show at Madison Square Garden; I met a woman there

with three kittens and that’s where I got Pumpkin, and later I got Blanket from her, too.”

What inspires your illustrati­ons of cats?

GC: “I’ve been drawing cats for a long time: I did a whole book inspired by my cats, The Catwalk Cats! So I pulled out their characters again: Baby was always fat, and Henri was always chunky; Coco was the thinnest of all cats, she was Coco Chanel, the fashion cat. They have all had their own character, and that’s what I illustrate.”

What about Nicolas’s dog, Leon, do you like?

GC: “Well, I first met him when he was a puppy, always knocking things over with his tail, and I liked him very much. I was having trouble drawing him because he’s totally black and so was disappeari­ng into the monogram, but we worked to make him shiny so that he’d stand out against the matte. Dogs are more like cats when they’re puppies, so I drew Leon when he was a puppy.”

The animals offered a clear inspiratio­n for the collection – but how did the house of Louis Vuitton inspire you?

GC: “I found their travelling exhibition of trunks particular­ly amazing: it’s fascinatin­g to see all of the different shapes and sizes, what they have put in them, how they have tailor-made pieces for particular customers. It is an extraordin­ary house with extraordin­ary quality and an extraordin­ary history. I love that they do collaborat­ions – and that they have a sense of humour. The collaborat­ion with Wes Anderson for The Darjeeling Limited luggage was very funny.”

Is it important to have humour within the world of luxury?

GC: “I think it’s essential. Otherwise it can get very stuffy, and choke you. There has to be irreverenc­e.”

Were there any limitation­s to your creative process?

GC: “No, not at all. At Louis Vuitton they have amazing groups of people working at every different métier, and it feels as though anything is possible. I was worried that people would resent my coming in and making suggestion­s, but they were so lovely and excited.”

The collection includes both accessorie­s and ready-towear. How did you decide what to include?

GC: “I was always thinking of myself: ‘What would I want if I were a client?’ For example, I would really need an umbrella in case it were raining cats and dogs … and I was desperate to have a blanket printed with Blanket, my cat. I even made a trunk – but it’s a soft trunk that you can lift and since I love drawing, it contains bags each filled with crayons, and pencils, and paper … all things connected with what I’d like to do if I were to go on a picnic. I have a tablecloth, a few little stools … my pyjamas to wear so that I would be comfortabl­e.”

The cruise ’19 collection explored the idea of eccentrici­ty: do you identify with that word?

GC: “I think that Nicolas thinks I’m eccentric. I don’t know if I am. I don’t think eccentric people ever think they are; they think they’re normal. I think I’m normal.”

“I was worried that people would resent my coming in … but they were so lovely”

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia