Nicolas Ghesquière (French pronunciation: [ni.kɔ.lɑ ʒɛs.kjɛːʁ]; born 9 May 1971) is a French fashion designer and the current creative director of the house of Louis Vuitton (owned by LVMH).
For a long time, my uniform consisted of a trench coat, wide flared jeans, and little bottines - I copied a pair that my mother had in this theater place. I had, like, 10 pairs of the same shoes.
That's what I think when people do their "best stuff" collection. When you start to think, "Oh, I will just present my 10 years of work," that's not a good sign.
I like the idea of women and men in movement. My fashion is not about being still. It's almost sporty, sometimes. I like the evolution of sports clothes. I think they are very interesting in the cut, in the fabrics.
Designers are more like artistic directors now. Before, there wasn't this idea of supervising the artistic direction of the entire house. The old way was to think you could be this couturier or designer or stylist.
I do love science-fiction and horror movies.
When my parents realized that what I liked was fashion, they gave me good advice. I remember my father telling me that I should try to do an internship. They never said, "This is a world we don't know; it might be something strange," or "That is not serious," or things like that. They always said, "Try. We'll help you. We'll send drawings to people if you want. We'll write letters for you. " What I'm very thankful for is they never made me think that something was impossible. They were really, really supportive. They are still.
I'm the kind of person who, even after a shoot that I've loved, is always moving on. There is no gap.
I grew up in such a small city, I had to be popular or I'd be dead. So I had to be popular!
I'm always curious. Every day. As we get on in life, we must be grateful.
For me, I go somewhere for three days, and then I come back and I want to change everything, and so it's a fight with everybody. I'm transforming and convincing. It's more than designing. It's shaking people and trying to give them direction. I'm a bit of a control freak. This is a problem as I get older, and it's something I should work on. I should be more confident - learn to trust people and give them freedom and delegate.
I'd rather work with someone who likes what I do than create something for the red carpet that won't make me happy.
It was time to come up here and retire with my wonderful husband, and my children and my grandchildren, and make that change. I'm not good at hanging on. When I make a decision to cut it off, I have to cut it off completely. I'm not good at, "Oh, I'll stick around and consult a little bit. " I'm not good at that and I don't want to do that. I don't think you get anywhere doing that. I mean, I don't, although other people might. But that's not my personality. It's not my id. I have to make the break and be a good sport and adjust to it.
Why isn't Tilda Swinton on the covers of tons of magazines? Well, she's not that. It isn't her thing. But I don't know. I think that suddenly a time came when models, after the Linda Evangelista crowd, and Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington, when the models for me became a bit bland. But I think more than that, the culture changed. The movies, television, music, and all of those things - those people were more visual and therefore more interesting.
You never do things thinking you will make a big statement. It just happens sometimes and you are lucky.
Today, kids are much more aware of what fashion means, but when I was growing up, it was popular, but not as popular as today. Like any kid, I was fascinated by drawing. But when some of the kids let go, I kept drawing and drawing.
What I find most interesting in fashion is that it has to reflect our time. You have to witness your own moment.
It's quite strange in fashion, and it's probably the same with movies and acting - the big choice is between being radical, making a choice that will be more specific that will reach less people but will be very strong and very directional, and making a choice that will be more popular and catch the interest of a large group of people. Sometimes people are trying to push you in one direction or another.
I remember Grace (Coddington) looking at me and said, 'Can you do something?' and I was like, 'OK, how long do you give me?' and she said 'Half an hour?', I said 'Forty-five minutes?'
I love what I do and I adore this whole world. I'm able to meet fantastic people. I meet fantastic writers, I meet architects, I meet incredible talent. Fashion is really a world, besides the creation, that I think is super interesting, super inspiring.
To look deeply into the lawn and see six shades of green - there is hardly that respite for you. And that's our job that we're doing. And it's even more demanding for someone like yourself, who is so extremely creative. But you have to move forward. You cannot just wallow or sit back and take in the accolades. They're wonderful, the accolades, and you appreciate them. But then you go on to the next moment. You have to always be going out to the end of the diving board and diving off.