A Conversation with Alexandre Vauthier

It's like so natural, you know. I learned with Mugler, the king of the cut. When I learned with him, I was 20 years old, something like this. And he was yet working with Lemarié for the feathers, Lesage for the embroidery, Goossens for the jewelry. So I learned with this. So it was like for me, you know, you are the child of your parents, your own parents, and professionally speaking, it's the same.

I think I've got a supernatural rapport with crystal. I think, you know, when you're young, you are impressed by the shiny things. I think so, by the light, by the reflecting, the crystal, something like this. Oh, you know, we're just finishing Christmas and the Christmas trees, you know, and it's magic to see something shining. So I think it was with Mugler, my first real pieces where I was super impressed by was bustiers, totally crystal, made by Goossens. You know, it was all in crystal. And this period wore that, and it was like amazing technically to do, and the result was like flowers in crystal directly on the body. It was so amazing.

You need to work fast, super quick. You need to answer before the question. You need to find solutions before everybody. And I think real complexity, you know, to explain something, like teaching somebody something, it takes time. I don't know why I love too much that, because each season I can see the impossible things are possible at the end.

You know, I finished this couture yet, this is super early, this season. You know, because two weeks before the real event of the show, it was a super, a real challenge when you see the technicity of the collection. But this is the rules of the game, you know what I mean?

You know, it's like in sports. When you train a lot and when you arrive to be better than you think, you know, I think you progress each time. And sometimes I say to myself, well, it's not possible to do. But impossible is not impossible in the end.

Of course, in the same way, people, you know, it's always a ceremonial outfit. No, it's wrong. You can work with it all day long if you want, you know. It's a question of education and sensibility.

You can buy couture for different reasons. Because you want to have the best for you, because you love this relationship with your favorite house, with the first of the year, or because you love to understand how a coat is made. But you can also buy couture for the technicity. This is the top of the ice cream, you know. This is a reflection of a context and also a period, you know, and you can read the world through the fashion.

I think, you know, way or a visionary or something, like when you do a collection, it's always in a context. I think it's important to understand the world where you live to make clothes reflect the real mood of the woman.

When you do a collection, it's not only about a designer producing a collection. It's a team. And me, without them, I'm nobody at the end. These artisans are architects of my ideas.

When young people are going back to this kind of work, you know, with something with your hand, with creativity, something more in the reality, more human, I want to say also. You know, not only, like in the 80s, everybody wants to be like an accountant or something like this. I can feel this kind of interest from a young generation.

You know, I think when it's enough, because it's super strong, to be passionate, to be passionate by that, you know.