Cultural omnivores in possession of a clever way with draped silks, the designers can blend references to Belgian kinetic artists and heavy metals into the same seamless print.
Precision of technique and accomplishment in the digital-print realm hasn't stood in the way of innovation—Pilotto and de Vos sidestepped their signature technique once imitation rendered it ubiquitous, and the draped, silken, screen-printed separates that replaced so many digitally dappled dresses earned them an entirely new sector of fans... fans including two first ladies (Samantha Cameron and Michelle Obama ), a clutch of actresses (Carey Mulligan , Freida Pinto, Kristen Stewart ) and a sizeable chunk of the ELLE masthead, too.
Ten days before fashion week, there’s still much to do. Pilotto took a few moments out of the task of the day (sending garments to India for hand-beading) to speak with ELLE about rivalries, shunning sleep during LFW, and why he’s not looking to replace John Galliano at the top of Christian Dior.
See you at the shows...
- Hi Peter. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us during such a busy week. To start, how would you describe your aesthetic? What do you find beautiful?
- We are very much visual thinkers, and we love to express what we love in our collections. There’s a lot of quite contradictory things that we bring together within what we like. Rather than being restricted to one silhouette, we like to have several, and print-wise and colour-wise we like to have diversity.
- What is your starting point for a collection?
- We try to avoid having too much a formula, which at the same time of course is a nightmare because it’s harder, but then in a way I guess it should be hard. We mostly start with research. It might be something that Christopher and I see. For pre- and then for main this time, we walked by a gallery in Mayfair that had an exhibition of the Belgian artist Walter Leblanc, and we really loved it. It’s like ‘60s optical stuff, but it’s all made in twisting portions of two colours. It shows one colour on one side and one colour on the other, but it twists so you see them both. We thought that was a great inspiration for prints and colours, that sort of layered approach.... But obviously, using those images wouldn’t be enough, so we used those as a form of guideline, and reproduced them with images of mercury that we cut into stripes. It’s a creative process.
- But the person who looks at the design doesn’t need to know all of this. They just need to go and feel attracted to the colour and combination and drape and all of that.
- I’m curious about your prints, which have become such a signature of the label. Do you ever second-guess your prints? What kind of a process do you have to go through to arrive at the final versions?
- There are a lot that we start and don’t use in the end, a lot of side product that might be useful in the future. It’s like a massive collage, in a way. Obviously we go on the computer, because it’s a nice, modern tool, but it could also be done with just paper and scissors. We hate to use any computer effect. There’s this one print where one of our print designers here was cutting for three days an image of mercury into fine stripes, and making it into a sort of flowery layout. And one of the interns who came a few days later was like, ‘Can I have that filter?’ We were laughing, because it’s not a filter, it’s like a fine mosaic, just done on the computer.
- You recently showed your first Resort collection in New York. Does that mean that you’re considering showing there in the future? Would you leave London?
- Who knows what the future will bring, but there is no plan at all yet of leaving London. With Resort, it’s kind of fun to do things differently, so it was really great to go to New York and meet the editors and buyers there. It’s nice, the new experience. But who knows? We’re showing in London now and London has been amazingly supportive, but at the same time, you never know.
- There have been so many changes at the top of the major fashion houses lately, and everyone always looks to young London designers who determine who might be the next big ‘whatever.’ Can you see yourself—you and Christopher together—wanting to design for an established house, or would you prefer to focus on your own label for the time being?
- Right now, we’re working on creating a team. Every part of the studio is growing—production, print design, pattern-making—every department is growing, and that’s a really great thing.... Eventually, we can delegate better and could take on other projects. But in general, we are really careful with the steps we take. So maybe right now it wouldn’t be very wise to yet jump into a consultancy or a massive project.... There’s a big demand on designers nowadays. It’s so important that we travel and visit our stores worldwide, but that requires a massive organisation, and it’s important that the studio keeps functioning at the same time while we’re gone. But you never know in the future. It would be fun to work for a house, when the time is right.
- What would be your dream label to design for, someday?
- The way it works now, there is no relation between what the house stood for originally and what you make out of it. In that sense, it doesn’t really matter. If you really loved something from the ‘20s, it anyway shouldn’t look like this nowadays. So it wouldn’t really matter.
- You were just talking about the organisation and your working processes. I’m curious about your working style. You and Christopher have known each other since fashion school. Why do you think you work so well together?
- Ever since we started, there was some tension with each other’s work. We met at first in Antwerp, and whenever we showed our work to each other, it was always like, “Oh my god, it’s so amazing, I want to be better than that,” or “I want mine to be as good as that.” We pushed each other from the start. Even during our studies, there was a bit of competition, but then it was great to put that together, because we always felt that the other one had that missing element. We compared ourselves to each other, without knowing it, for a long time, while respecting each other’s work. We never even spoke about working together; we just at some point did it.
- Speeding ahead, London Fashion Week is coming right up. Where are you in the preparations? What are you working on today and this week?
- It’s always crazy how last-minute everything is. We knew what we were doing for a long time, but by the time you get the final samples back, it takes so long. There’s still a lot to do before Fashion Week and our studio is working like crazy. Holidays are over for everybody. But we’re really excited. It’s our first time that we did Resort, and it’s a new way of designing, in a way, because the two collections have to end up on one rail at the end. The plan is that main is going to be a pushed-further version of pre-, but that looks kind of all new. Pre- was everything printed; for main, there’s going to be a lot more. Every look has a lot going on—beading and all kinds of things. It’s going to look good.
- What’s the first thing you’re going to do after your show on Monday the 19th?
- My god. The thing is, then we have to rush and prepare everything for [the agency showroom in] Paris, but going for breakfast with our whole studio is what we normally do, and that’s always quite a nice moment when half of the people fall asleep.
- So you do breakfast with the whole studio. What other rituals or lucky charms get you through the show?
- Before, we don’t sleep. We realised that if we would sleep, it would be scary. Our show has always been in the morning in the past few seasons, so it’s anyway impossible because call time is at about 5:00 AM. It’s kind of, yeah, sleeping at some point on the Monday, but then trying to go to the parties. A nap at lunch time, and that’s it. Back on the road!
- I understand that you designed a dress for Coutts—can you tell me about it?
- We took inspiration from our Resort collection for the dress. We wanted to create a design using one of our favourite silhouettes in a new print, and give it to Coutts for London Fashion Week. They’re really such a great partner to have. They are supporting the BFC Fashion Forward fund, and we are already working on some other projects with them. That’s one of those reasons why London is amazing, because there is all this incredible support.
- About that, we reported on your Fashion Forward sponsorship when it was announced earlier this year—congratulations. What does that support mean to your label?
- It’s financial support for two seasons. It’s a certain amount that you get that simply supports the show itself, and the models and so on. But then Coutts seem to go a step further, and they are open to doing projects together and so on. That’s really exciting, that they’re interested in keeping a relationship with the designers they’re supporting open.
Peter Pilotto’s Coutts dress for the British By Design initiative will be on display in the window of Coutts’ flagship branch on The Strand during London Fashion Week.
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