2 Dark MAGIC
French haute couturier Franck Sorbier who presented his fall/winter 2013 offerings in Singapore recently speaks to BAZAAR about the collection and all things haute couture
Franck Sorbier’s haute couture fall/winter 2013 collection resonates with a Victorian vibe—Sorbier has captured the poetry and romanticism of that era’s dressing. “My inspirations are especially based on the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance period. I have always loved history in general and the histories of civilisations in particular,” explains Sorbier. “Previously, I had the opportunity to treat this period but [it was done] in a scattered way. For fall/winter 2013, I wanted a total and actual immersion. It is true that this period has something special: it is poetic, naive and festive. The romanticism is from the 19th century.”
Sorbier’s love for historical referencing is seen in the interweaving layers of scrumptious brocade and structured fabrics in the collection, coupled by the Parisian theatricality brought on by his selection ction of the venue for the show how and the presentation— n— models posed on the manicured grass of the Swiss Embassy. “In the Middle Ages, heaven was usually represented as sa a walled garden where here couples or lovers found themselves. I wanted, with this collection, to find a kind of appeasement and to reject the mere idea of modernity,” says Sorbier. “Haute couture is another world; there is no place for common.”
Sorbier’s affiliation with the beguiling world of haute couture started when he was a mere 16-year-old when he saw a Dior campaign artwork, done by then Makeup Creative Director Serge Lutens. It depicted a woman with musical notes crowning her head. The imagery inspired Sorbier to strive to recreate such archetypal surrealist and fantastical beauty through haute couture.
Having spent the earlier part of his life entrenched in the ateliers of Chantal Thomass and ’ 80s fashion superstar Thierry Mugler, Sorbier’s first commercial collection in 1991 catapulted his fame to meteoric heights, gaining the attention of top buyers from retail behemoths like Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman in New York, and Seibu in Tokyo. When asked about his time with Thomass Th and Mugler, Sorbier replies, “There are a marvellous youthful experiences. To be honest, h I have the feeling it was in a past life.” life
In the following years, with the unconditional u support of Jean Paul Gaultier and Sonia Rykiel, he went on to become a member of then Fédération Française de la Couture, Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers, and Créateurs de Mode. M Sorbier’s panache for couture is distinctive, as even Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune noted. In 2004, she called for a place for him in haute couture, insisting that it “would be sad to think that such a rare and individual fashion fa spirit could not find a niche.”
Boasting several accolades under his h belt, such as the Chevalier des Arts A et des Lettres given by the French Ministry of Culture in 2004 and the S.Webmaster Award for his innovative usage of the Internet in 2009 for a fashion show, Sorbier has held his own against haute couture heavyweights like Givenchy, Iris Van Herpen and Chanel.
Sorbier tells BAZAAR that couture was his first choice, right from the beginning, having been taught how to sew prior to drawing. “It was instinctive: it is in me. Those just are not the sort of questions I bother myself with, I try to be happy with what I have for creating, and there is often a matter of resistance.” he says. “I always try to keep this something inside me, [the fire], this desire to touch and to realise an idea. There is a big difference between the dreamed dress and the dress, which birthed and which lives. Perhaps, one day when I create my ideal dress... at that moment, I would stop.”