From a rare glimpse inside the V&A’s extraordinary Chanel archive with Oriole Cullen, to conversations with some of the world’s finest designers and creative directors – among them Margaret Howell, Martine Rose, Véronique Nichanian, Julien Dossena and Lucie and Luke Meier, as well as on-the-rise names, like Willy Chavarria and Aaron Esh, who are reimagining the fashion landscape – I’ve chosen these interviews for the way they reveal the stories behind the figures who have defined the year in style.
Top 10 fashion interviews of 2023
01. Julien Dossena on the evolution of Rabanne
‘I can feel the evolution,’ Rabanne creative director Julien Dossena told me of his ten-year tenure at the French house in a wide-ranging conversation taken from the September 2023 Style Issue of Wallpaper*. Following founder Paco Rabanne’s death earlier in 2023, he spoke of keeping the pioneering couturier’s spirit alive (‘he left behind so much, all those radical moments of modernity’) while forging his own path forward. ’When you wear Rabanne chainmail, it’s really a feeling,’ he says. ‘There is a sensation between the garment and the skin,’
02. Oriole Cullen takes Wallpaper* inside the V&A’s extraordinary Chanel archive
Taken from the November 2023 Issue of Wallpaper*, V&A senior curator of fashion and textiles Oriole Cullen granted us a rare look inside the institution’s extraordinary Chanel archive just prior to the opening of ‘Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto’, its latest blockbuster fashion exhibition. ’It’s about chic, simple clothing, looking at movement and the body,’ Cullen says of the French couturier, whose designs set the template for the modern woman’s wardrobe, while also setting a blueprint for the contemporary designer with astute branding and self-promotion. ’She was happy to be front and centre.’
03. Véronique Nichanian talks seeking pleasure and perfection as artistic director of Hermès’ men’s universe
‘We are always thinking: what is the classic of tomorrow?’ said Hermès’ Véronique Nichanian, artistic director of Hermès’ men’s universe, of how she approaches her celebrated menswear collections for the house in our March 2023 Style Issue. Inviting me into her Paris studio, the designer – who has been at the French house for three decades – talked about seeking pleasure and perfection in her clothing, and never looking back. ‘I want to bring happiness to people – in the sensuality of the fabric, or the colour, or something that makes you say “wow”.’
04. At home with Margaret Howell
As part of our ongoing ‘At Home With’ series, cult British designer gave Wallpaper* a glimpse inside her domestic life – which is split between south-east London and a holiday home on the Suffolk coast – in our March 2023 Style Issue. Accompanied by her own iPhone photographs, Howell talked to me about her treasured objects, finding inspiration and her favourite place to spend a rare spare moment: ‘relaxing in my little bathtub with a view of the setting sun on a summer’s evening, listening to In Tune Mixtape on BBC Radio 3.’
05. Norbert Stumpfl of Brioni is making clothes to feel good in
In Wallpaper’s November issue, Brioni creative director Norbert Stumpfl opened up about his creative process and design philosophy, which centres on creating truly luxurious menswear that’s a pleasure to wear – and has gained him a legion of high-profile fans during his five-year tenure, from Brad Pitt to Jude Law. ‘[I’m drawn towards] reduction, the desire to make something more simple, but still leave a powerful image,’ he told me. ’In collection fittings, we put on a lot of details to try things out. Then we take things off until we arrive at the place where [the garment] speaks for itself.’
06. American designer Willy Chavarria on his lifelong love of Dickies
Selected as part of the ‘Wallpaper* USA 300: A Guide to Creative America’, the award-winning designer Willy Chavarria – whose distinct approach sees him infuse his collections with references to his Mexican-American heritage and the melting pot of cultures he witnesses in his home city of New York – spoke in August about his collaboration with Dickies. Talking utilitarian design, authenticity, and buying his first pair of Dickies at Kmart, it’s a collection which gets to the heart of his lifelong fascinations. ‘It’s very special to get to design a collection for a brand that I have grown up wearing and admiring,’ he says. ‘To me, the most elegant look will always be a clean, pressed pair of Dickies pants worn with a crisp white T-shirt.’
07. Lucie and Luke Meier’s eclectic new vision for Jil Sander
Speaking in the run-up to their A/W 2023 show for Jil Sander, wife-and-husband duo Lucie and Luke Meier talked to Scarlett Conlon about their latest collection, which began with the pair looking back to the 1990s music scene. ‘It's quite unexpected,’ they said at the time of the heady, freewheeling collection, presented in Milan in February. ‘We’re always evolving as people and our ideas are always progressing are always changing,’ said Luke. ‘Fashion is exhilarating because it’s a dialogue with what's going on in the world.’
08. Sofia Prantera introduces a new chapter (and address) for her cult streetwear brand Aries
Just prior to its opening, Aries founder Sofia Prantera invited me into the brand’s first-ever store in Soho as the label completed its evolution from niche streetwear brand to cultural ubiquity – all the while retaining its DIY roots. ‘I think what I picked up from skateboarding is this DIY attitude to things – you don’t need everything to make something work, you just need an energy,’ she said. ‘When people say ”the death of streetwear”, it’s just the death of a kind of streetwear – the type replicated by mass production. But it’s not the death of the spirit of streetwear.’
09. Aaron Esh takes us behind-the-scenes of his debut London Fashion Week show
British designer Aaron Esh – a recent Central Saint Martins graduate – invited Wallpaper* beauty and grooming editor Hannah Tindle into his London studio in the run-up to his much-anticipated debut show at London Fashion Week. Taking place on one of the upper floors of Tate Modern’s Blavatnik Building, with expansive views of the city beyond, the assured debut cemented him as a young designer to watch. ‘It’s the clothes that I see when I’m at a house party; or the clothes someone would wear to do an off-license run,’ he said. ’There’s an authenticity and realness to the clothes, mixed with beautiful tailoring and amazing craftsmanship. That’s what we’re trying to achieve.’
10. ‘I wanted sexiness, and cheekiness, and fun’: Martine Rose on her Italo-disco-inspired show at Pitti Uomo
Early in 2023, Martine Rose decamped from London to Florence to show her A/W 2023 collection as part of the city’s historic menswear fair Pitti Uomo. Choosing Florence’s outdoor Mercato Nuovo and transforming into a shag pile-carpeted, mirror-walled nightspot for an ode to Italo-disco that merged ‘Italy and London together’. ‘I wanted sexiness, and cheekiness, and fun,’ she told me after the show, which captured the feeling of letting yourself loose on the dancefloor – all in the designer’s unique, idiosyncratic style.
