Dear iDEALS, Viktor & Rolf create a whole new fairytale season by season. It is always impressive how this creative duo, always manage to touch the heart of every single person with what they create. Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren met while still students at Arnhem Art Academy. When they won Festival D’Hyeres in 1993, the world was introduced to a new vision and a different approach of creativity, walking between Haute Couture and Pret-A-Porter.. So far, they presented a 10-year retrospective of their creations at the Fashion Museum in Paris in 2003, a true experience for spectators ( as I was one of them- I remember walking in to see two waxen statues of the designers welcoming us) and later in 2008 another exhibition entitled “The House of Viktor & Rolf” , covered some of the most important moments of their career at the Barbican Art Gallery in London.
Counting a number of memorable collaborations: Tilda Swinton, Bjork, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Tori Amos..V&R are the proof that fashion has no boundaries when it comes to a perfect result. Recently they have been working on their second collaboration with the director and artist Robert Wilson, in creating the costumes for "dER fREISCHUTZ", a romantic opera by Carl Maria Von Weber at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in Germany...
(Photos: Stephan Moskovic)
In the following conversation we had, I tried to find out more about how they see their own universe..
FilepMotwary: It’s been 16 years already since the world of Fashion discovered you through Festival D’Hyeres. Where do yourselves today compared to your stardom?
V&R: Always still at the beginning.
FilepMotwary: Apart from receiving international recognition, where else in your
opinion, Fashion Festivals/Competitions can help a young and creative
individual?
V&R: Exposure nowadays is much easier to obtain. St Martin’s does a great end-of-
year show that is well attended by professionals. “ITS” in Trieste is a good
platform. But you can do a lot on your own initiative using the internet
too.
(The "NO" collection, photo courtecy of ShowStudio)
FilepMotwary: When someone is considered as too old for Fashion? Is creativity a
matter of age, having a good team or simply ideas?
V&R: Creativity evolves as you get older, even if talent is something you possess
or not. It is always an individual choice how you deal with your talents. It
seems to us that it is an important purpose in life to make the most of
them, in whatever area. It depends on your energy, health and general
perspective on life until what age you challenge yourself.
FilepMotwary: Your earlier catwalk presentations were more like performances. Since
the “Flowerbomb” launching and your collaboration with L’Oreal, your work is
more to the ground. It is less art and more consumer product, the exact
opposite for where you started. How and why?
V&R: In our shows and collections, there always is, and always has been, a
wearable and accessible part. This is not always what we show on the
catwalk. It differs from season to season where we put the emphasis, but in
general we notice that what works on the catwalk does not necessarily work
in the showroom, and vice versa.
(Second time designing Opera costumes)
FilepMotwary: Although you present your work in Paris, your studio and home is in Amsterdam. You did spent some time in Paris though as students interning for houses like Martin Margiela. You can be in Paris today, under different terms but you chose not to. Why?
V&R: We like Amsterdam because it is isolated and we need peace and quiet to work and concentrate.
FilepMotwary: There is a very old video of you on YOUTUBE, before your brandname’s success, where you analyze your work. It was before you decided to dress identically and launch a very specific image for V&R’s profile. What was the motive that pushed you in creating your own self-outline?
V&R: People could never tell us apart anyway so we decided to play with it. It also expresses how we feel: like one designer, one person at work.
FilepMotwary: Only V&R, achieved what we call International recognition from the Dutch designers. Knowing that the Dutch practically started their “fashion protest” at the same time with the Belgians, during the 80’s, I want to ask you why the Antwerp scene is more powerful with such clear identity.
V&R: Which “fashion protest”? Antwerp has more coherence: the scene is centered around a good school with a great curriculum and an international orientation, there are production facilities in the country (few, but still), and even some media that discuss fashion seriously. On top of that, there was a group of designers with talent and international ambition. All of this did not exist in the Netherlands.
(Viktor & Rolf "Paris-Tokyo" performance in Van Gogh Museum. Summer 2006. Music: Eddy de Clercq, Choreography: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Concept & design: Siebe Tettero, Viktor Horstin)
FilepMotwary: How much power does the press give to a brand? How important is the
press for you. Where is the thin line that separates business and friendship
when talking about designers related to fashion editors etc?
V&R: Something exists once it has been published. When we just started out we
were obsessed by the magic of seeing our work reproduced in magazines. It
seemed to breathe life into it. We are less romantic about that phenomenon
nowadays.
FilepMotwary: How do you decide the theme of your collection each time?
V&R: By talking to each other.
FilepMotwary: What do you enjoy most: the desire, the process or the result?
V&R: The moment when we have an idea.
FilepMotwary: It’s strange, though, how young women grasp the work of a virtually
unknown designer ‹ without magazine hype. What would you say about this
phenomenon? What is your opinion about this blossom of pseudo-couture
designers that “gain ground” practically in no time?
V&R: It is one thing to cause a sensation in the press, but to establish a brand
as a business is something else..
FilepMotwary: For some time now, designers take over old fashion houses in the blink
of an eye. For example, Marios Schwab just took over Halston..Would you dare
taking such responsibility? In your opinion, what does a designer need to
offer to a practically dead fashion house, to remain its creative
director…apart from the obvious sales?
V&R: We have been approached many times but we always turned down any offer
eventually. We want to concentrate on our own house.
Having said that, a great designer at an august maison, can work wonders, as
long as the designer’s vision is supported by the business management. A lot
of business people are afraid of creativity and so you end up with neither
meat nor fish.
FilepMotwary: How difficult is for you to secure your public image from your private
life?
V&R: Very easy. Amsterdam is a cool city where it is very easy to live a secluded
life. When we need a “glamour moment” we travel..
FilepMotwary: What is your opinion about the Chinese departure on the map of fashion?
Is it threatening?
V&R: No, it’s a challenge and an opportunity.
FilepMotwary: Some of the biggest luxury brands open more and more boutiques season
by season. How can a product remain luxurious, by all means, if it is so
easily purchased by everyone? Is luxury the aim for our future living, like
the magazines in the 1950’s, showing perfect families, interiors and Colgate
smiles?
V&R: And look at what happened to THAT ideology… Exclusivity is an integral part of the concept of luxury. So is craftsmanship, quality and originality.
FilepMotwary: Why is there so much drama in your work?
V&R: We like to tell stories and express emotions. We do that through our shows.
A catwalk show is like a performance, not just a parade of dresses.
FilepMotwary: Your collection for fall 2009 is very much focused on “creative
surfaces”. I would kindly ask you to analyze the concept, the colours and
the total presentation.
V&R: In this time of turmoil and panic, we were inspired by the serenity of
statues and the way they stand the test of times. That’s why we turned all
the girls into walking statues by painting them white and making parts of
the garments equally white. We also worked on draperies, taken from
antiquity: trompe-l’oeil draperies, real draperies.
FilepMotwary: What is humor for you?
V&R: An aspect of the complex, multidimensional universe we want to portray.
FilepMotwary: What is fashion’s future as you see it?
V&R: We don’t have a crystal ball..
Backstage B/W photographs by Stephan Moskovic
Backstage Color photographs Peter Stigter
Note: Copyrights of this interview belong to Un nouVeau iDEAL and Viktor&Rolf
A great THANK YOU to Issabel Mossinger
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