LUCIEN PELLAT FINET ON CASHMERE

By Crash redaction

LUXURIOUS STREET WEAR AS A VERITABLE ART OF LIVING: THAT’S LUCIEN PELLAT-FINET’S CREDO. ADORNING CASHMERE WITH SKULLS, PEACE AND LOVE, AND OTHER SYMBOLS, HE AFFIRMS A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO CLOTHING THAT’S IN NO WAY INTENDED FOR MUSEUMS. PREVIOUSLY INFATUATED WITH THE UNITED STATES, THE DESIGNER HAS NOW TURNED HIS EYES EAST, TO LANDS FULL OF HOPE AND GREAT PROJECTS FOR THE FUTURE. IN THIS WAY, SOME OF THE BRAND’S KEY IMAGES ARE NOW ASIAN, AS THE FIRM CONTINUES WITH PLEASURE AND CONFIDENCE, ALWAYS COMBINING ART AND FASHION. HE’S GOING TO OPEN A FLAGSHIP ON FAUBOURG SAINT HONORÉ IN PARIS…

WHAT MEMORIES DO YOU HAVE OF YOUR FIRST TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES?

I first traveled to the United States in 1960. It was a real culture shock. I was fourteen at the time, and I went to the Stanislas school, which is very traditional. Far from that atmosphere for three months, I discovered America in all its splendor. That was after the war, during the Trente Glorieuses, and America was the cultural reference around the world. Everything there was perfect and clean, everyone owned a swimming pool and cars with fins: it was the perfect image of the American dream that we still hear about today, though it no longer exists. Beginning in the mid 1960s, the hippie movement began to clear out all those promises. Then, following the Cold War and its tension came several real wars, which seem never to end, motivated by high economic stakes… Today, it’s a country that tends toward isolationism; it’s even difficult to go there now. But I don’t even want to go there anymore, since I’ll no longer find the United States that I admired so much. Now I prefer Europe. It’s more mature and we can still see a melting pot that’s no longer extant in the U.S. I was shocked to see the photos released last summer of Obama made up like the Joker from Batman and the racist sentiment they revealed…

WHERE DO YOU FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION NOW?

Without a doubt, on Asia. I was brought up to focus on the West, but now I’m resolutely set on the East. For about a decade, I’ve maintained an intense, interesting collaboration with Japan, which has given rise to many projects. I’ve found a very refined people there. We’re also gradually advancing into South Korea, very slowly, as a logical progression. We’re currently studying the potential prospects offered by China, but it’s still very early. The refinement of our products would only interest them mildly; they’re still moving away from a very rigid Communist regime, in which everything was placed under lock and key. They still need more time.

WHEN DID THE LUCIEN PELLAT-FINET SAGA BEGIN?

Fifteen years ago. Before that, I was a fashion consultant, and had accessorized a number of fashion shows. I started with Thierry Mugler, where I worked on ad photos, in editorial, and other things. I had no desire to be a full-time employee, since I put a very high price on my independence… I wanted to be able to share my vision of things without having to be involved in day-to-day affairs. After having collaborated with a lot of companies and doing consulting for others – who sometimes listened, sometimes ignored my ideas – I decided to found my own company, to see the other side. My adventure began in my own apartment with ten sweaters, which turned into 400 articles for the first season, and double that for the next season… Based on cashmere, the collections are now global and embody a veritable way of life. Each one is placed within a book that tells a story. We don’t, however, do fashion shows, as they are far too removed from my practical approach to fashion: when I design a model – a sweater, a pair of pants, a hat, a bag – I want it to be worn in the street, immediately. I don’t want to make clothes that will never be worn. My designs aren’t meant for museums. I like a garment for what it is, for what it offers you, what it gives you, and not for the image it implies. When I was working with Thierry Mugler in the 1970s, he was at the top of his form, just like Claude Montana; it’s not like that today, we no longer know who they are or what they do. There’s nothing of any real substance behind their names. That’s exactly the example I didn’t want to follow. Nor did I want to be a young designer who, with each fashion show, puts together a clothing line that will never be sold and, in the end, will totally disappear. My idea of what a garment should be is miles away from that.

WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO ART?

It’s very personal. I was born in southern France after the war, in lands that happened to have housed a lot of artists: Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Arman, Ben… I used to live in Nice, and every day when going to school I passed the Ben boutique, which is in the Pompidou museum. For me, art was my daily bread; I was used to seeing and reflecting on it from a very young age. Once in Paris, I continued to explore it and visited all the museums. Later I started to acquire a few works of art, once I had the means.
YOU ALSO COLLABORATE WITH ARTISTS… These exchanges allow me to mix work and pleasure. They also provide for an extremely rich dialogue with the artists. Some refuse my offer, with others it’s sometimes difficult to find common ground, but the results of our collaborations are usually quite satisfying. Among those that have particularly marked the public, there was our work with Takashi Murakami, before the LVMH group solicited him. I discovered him in the 1990s in Los Angeles, in an art gallery catalog. I instantly loved his work and started to talk about it with people I knew, but no one knew of him. A few years later, Emmanuel Perrotin organized an exhibition of his work, and I contacted Takashi through Emmanuel. After a year of countless meetings and discussions, complicated by the linguistic and cultural barrier, we were finally able to plan out our collaboration. Recently, we’ve worked with Mr., an artist from Murakami’s group. Art is essential, it’s an image of an era; either you understand and agree, or you don’t get it and will discover it ten or twenty years later.