VOICE MAIL isn’t a podcast. It’s not a show. It’s just a call. Go be a fly on the wall, and listen in on an old school chat between friends, old and new.
If you dial +1 (567) 349 5768, you’ll land in the middle of my call with Kris Van Assche, one of the most celebrated designers of the past two decades, and, honestly, one of the most tasteful people in Paris.
I rang him from my new apartment in Amsterdam. He picked up in Paris. The week after what the industry has been calling the biggest fashion week in decades. We’d seen each other at the Hôtel de Crillon the week prior and I wanted to hear what more he had to say.
Kris, for the uninitiated, is Belgian, a country that’s somehow cultivated half of fashion’s current brain trust: Raf Simons (Prada), Pieter Mulier (Alaïa), Julien Dossena (Rabanne), Glenn Martens (Maison Margiela & Diesel), Anthony Vaccarello (Saint Laurent), Matthieu Blazy (Chanel), Julian Klausner (Dries van Noten), Meryll Rogge (Marni), Nicolas Di Felice (Courrèges), and, yes, Diane von Fürstenberg. Demna Gvasalia (Gucci) and Haider Ackermann (Tom Ford & Canada Goose) also studied in the country.
Back to Kris, who launched his own label in 2005, then spent over a decade at Dior Homme, defining an era of tailored precision, before moving on to Berluti as Artistic Director. I remember attending some of those great shows.
Now he’s in a new phase, collaborating with the respected, Belgian design brand Serax and showing work at Galerie Laffanour in Paris, where design meets art meets furniture you probably can’t afford.
We talked about “the industry” (still a circus), the last season (still echoing), and what’s needed from a creative director today. He spoke about finding purpose beyond the calendar, and I asked who his emergency contact is. Because journalism.
Dial +1 (567) 349 5768 for the full talk. Be a fly on the wall.
Tot de volgende keer.