Photo
“Personally, I’m beginning to think that Karl Lagerfeld might be the Woody Allen of couture.”
- Cathy Horyn
Jul 09 2011
Mar 11 2011
chapter two: a foot in the door [p. 41]
Paris, 19 October 1990
I didn’t sleep at home. No time. There’s another intern in the Press department who lets me stay with her at her parents’ place the day before the show. Her name is Florence, she’s twenty and it’s her third internship with at a major design house. I fall asleep on the sofa in her huge apartment, while listening to her list off funny anecdotes about fashion journalists. Florence is bright and caustic, but above all else…she’s originally from Dijon. This kind of coincidence is common and our status as “seasonal workers of Parisian couture” has brought us closer together.
Mar 10 2011
chapter two: a foot in the door [pp. 40-41]
It’s 8 PM, I’m getting ready to leave the office and head home when Eric Wright stops me with the following greeting: “So, little Arnaud, I’d like to you to stick with me during the runway show. You’ll give us a hand with the accessories. OK?” I’m speechless. “I…I don’t know, Eric, I’ll have to ask Caroline and Sophie…” Eric is already gone. My legs feel like they’re made of jelly. Sophie de Langlade overheard everything. “Arnaud, that’s great! You have to say yes right away! You know, that’s the first time that Eric’s asked an intern to do something like that. You know that you’ll be backstage with Karl, do you realize that?” No. Not at all. I hadn’t understood the favor that was asked of me. At the same time, I’m a little disappointed not to be working the show from the room itself…how terrible for me!
Mar 09 2011
Photo
Bridget Foley, Patricia Field and Daphne Guinness - plus anyone other major players who are slobbering to defend Galliano but not quite ballsy enough to do it publicly -you are all on notice.
Karl, tell them why:
“I’m furious, if you want to know. I’m furious that it could happen, because the question is no longer even whether he really said it. The image has gone around the world. It’s a horrible image for fashion, because they think that every designer and everything in fashion is like this. This is what makes me crazy in that story. The thing is, we are a business world where, especially today, with the Internet, one has to be more careful than ever, especially if you are a publicly known person. You cannot go in the street and be drunk — there are things you cannot do… I’m furious with him because of the harm he did to LVMH and Bernard Arnault, who is a friend, and who supported him more than he supported any other designer in his group, because Dior is his favorite label. It’s as if he had his child hurt.”
Mar 08 2011
chapter two: a foot in the door [p. 40]
It’s a clever technique. Finding the right words in order to avoid an embarrassing situation, choosing the right story, the prettiest lie for putting off a decision or staving off demands, it’s one of the many threads that makes up the fabric of the universe of luxury fashion. At our place, execution orders are given with a smile, with sweetness and with grace. That year, I joyfully surveyed these strategies with the optimism of a novice…
Mar 07 2011
chapter two: a foot in the door [p. 40]
Every day, all kinds of people try to get a free pass to one of the runway shows from Public Relations. The most commonly used technique consists of calling the fashion houses and proclaiming in a sharp tone that you are shocked that you haven’t received your invitation yet. If that doesn’t work out, the would-be freeloader opts for an emotional appeal, complete with wavering voice. I open my large address book to verify their names and confirm that their invitation was sent to the correct address. This is never the case. Either their name doesn’t appear on the list, or if it does, it’s been crossed off by Sophie, who’s decided for any number of reasons that this person doesn’t have a place at Karl Lagerfeld’s show. In any case, I always hypocritically suggest that they wait a few days and I take their names off the list. At the end of the day, Caroline looks over my list to make sure that we haven’t made any blunders.
Mar 06 2011
chapter two: a foot in the door [pp. 39-40]
Paris, 17 October 1990
We find ourselves on the day before the opening of the collections. Almost three weeks have passed since I arrived at the House of Lagerfeld. After carefully copying a litany of addresses, I had quickly learned how to…lie. Oh, excuse me, that’s not quite right. Nobody who works for Karl Lagerfeld lies. Really, they just train us to answer the telephone by rattling off a bunch of nonsense, in order to discourage any unwelcome inquiries. No one gets hurt.
Mar 05 2011
Photo
Take heed: “I sketch when I’m alone. I can sketch for hours. That’s when I dream and those dreams become collections. I cannot stand designers who cannot sketch, who send out sketches done by others that they sign their name to. It’s so dishonest. Just because you can drape on a model or mannequin doesn’t mean you are a designer. You must sketch.”
Mar 04 2011
chapter two: a foot in the door [p. 39]
From then on, Caroline and Sophie start trusting me with their most important tasks. They also start telling me all kinds of little secrets. The best strategy for getting ahead? Master the delicate art of “seating.” The seating chart for the runway show is a veritable brainteaser. Who will sit where? This is a crucial question. You have to juggle between precedence, immovable traditions and immediate priorities. Without forgetting to arrange the clients, the buyers and the journalists. It’s clear that all the guests dream of sitting in the front row while their enemies are relegated to the back of the house. It’s a task that has to be approached with diplomacy…
