您的位置:首页 >娱乐新闻 >

Christopher Kane interview: how London's young gun went global

2019-12-27 15:10:51来源:

The fashion industry has an unusual attitude to the passage of time that could best be described as ???non-linear???.For if its front-row denizens never age, neither do its designers.This is why Jean Paul Gaultier is still sometimes referred to as an ???enfant terrible???, despite being 63.It is also why Christopher Kane is lodged in the mind as a ???young designer???, even though this year marks his 10th in the business.Can it really be 10 years since Kane won over the fashion pack with his debut London show, an energetic paean to elastic and neon?With all that he has achieved ??? the numerous awards, the stint at Versus, the buyout by the luxury goods group Kering, the collaboration with J Brand, the launch of handbags and accessories, the make-up range for Nars, the opening of his first London store and the celebrity clientele that includes Emma Watson, Kate Bosworth, Alexa Chung and the Duchess of Cambridge ??? it is easy to forget that Kane is still only 33.

"I try not to think, "Oh, we???ve made it,"because we???re always making it,"says Kane, sipping a herbal tea in his Mayfair store (he recently gave up caffeine after realising it made him anxious and interfered with his work)."We???re always in the process of making something, put it that way."

The ???we??? in this equation refers to Kane and his 38-year-old sister Tammy, who, while she remains largely behind the scenes, is integral to the brand."We???re almost like twins.We think alike; we do everything together.People ask, "What does Tammy do?"and I say, "What does Tammy not do?"Tammy???s my main collaborator, my consultant, my stylist, my businesswoman and my best pal."

They grew up in Newarthill, a village 16 miles from Glasgow, with two brothers and a sister, in a compact home where intimacy was born as much out of necessity as of choice.In early interviews, Kane was always quick to share a colourful anecdote about his and Tammy???s childhood bond (he once revealed they used to sprinkle salt on each other???s heads, just for the fun of picking it out again).

It says everything about Kane that, despite acquiring the patina of a fully-fledged luxury brand, he is still wonderfully honest ??? as far removed from the bland, corporate robo-designers who populate parts of the fashion landscape as it is possible to be.He lives in Dalston, east London, and has a partner who also works in fashion, "so it???s quite good to have that support.He and Tammy get on really well."

Last year Kane held a life-drawing class in his Mayfair store to celebrate Frieze, where guests were treated to the spectacle of the actress Salma Hayek and her husband, Fran??ois-Henri Pinault (owner of Kering, which bought a controlling share in Chris??topher Kane in 2013), frowning in concentration as they tried to render the planes of a naked malebody in charcoal.The class was overseen by Janey Broughan, who taught Kane at Taylor High School in Glasgow."Even then, he stood out,"Broughantold me after the class."His talent was prodigious."

Talking about his fondness for life drawing, I ask now whether it???s true that he used to sketch his sisters naked."No-o-o,"he scoffs.Pause."But I drew my mum.A lot.Semi-nude."That was one relaxed household, I suggest."Well, that???s what we wanted to do,"he says."Who else would I want to sit for me but my mum?I grew up surrounded by women ??? my sisters, and also my mum???s sisters, who were like my other mothers.So I was always around nudity.It was never frowned upon, we were always very liberal."

Kane???s spring 2016 collection, which he titled "Crash and Repair", was influenced by outsider art, a genre that first piqued his interest when Tammy started teaching art therapy in Scotland shortly after their father, a draughtsman, died in 2006.

"She worked with people outside the community, who were either mentally ill or in a nursing home, and I used to help her over the summer during my time off from college,"he says."I???ve always been intrigued by art therapy, because the people Tammy taught produced the most amazing work.It was very primitive, in a sense ??? instinctive.But art is therapy.You get so much from it."

More than most designers, Kane???s collections always feel deeply personal, so it was inevitable that critics would link Crash and Repair???s "creation coming from destruction"theme to the loss of his mother, Christine, who died three days before the show and on the same day that he opened his first London store in 2015.Were they right?"A little bit,"he says carefully."I think it [the collection] is always personal, and obviously when you work with a family member like your sister, it???s our life.It???s what I love.I live and breathe it."He pauses."Be creative again and it gets you through a lot of things."

"As a small business, there???s only so far you can go.We were like headless chickens, doing everything from the admin to putting the bins out."

As anyone who has suffered a bereavement knows, work can hold a person together who might otherwise have fallen apart, a fact that doesn???t negate the discombobulating weirdness of having to function as you grieve.Where does the sadness go?I want to ask but don???t ??? the mood has grown sad enough already ??? so I veer back to the subject of life drawing.Does he think it???s just Scottish people, with their predilection for smut (I can say this, I???m Scottish), who automatically giggle at naked boobs and willies?

He brightens."You know what?I was pretentious as a child.I knew what I wanted, I was confident, I knew what I was good at and I knew I wanted to go to Saint Martins.Tammy pushed me, my mum and dad pushed me in the sense that if I wanted it, I had to work for it.That???s the Scottish mentality.So the first taste of that was going to art school and doing life drawing.I was 14.I remember doing those drawings and thinking, "This is what I want to do."I knew that to get into Saint Martins, your portfolio of drawings had to be really thick.You had to show your expression.So I was quite determined."

His focus paidoff, and after being accepted on to the Central Saint Martins womenswear BA in 2000, he went on to do an MA under the tutelage of the late Louise Wilson, the highly respected course director.Kane never looked back.Straight out of college, he staged his first show to rave reviews.The top make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury and hair stylist Eugene Souleiman worked on the show."I thought, "If they say no, they say no","he says of asking these industry titans to be involved with such an unknown quantity."I always aimed high."

It was this same ambition that led Kane to sell a 51 per cent stake to Kering in 2013."The only wayforward was to get an investor,"he says of the decision now."As a small business, there???s only so far you can go.Me and Tammy were like headless chickens, doing everything from the admin to putting the bins out.We were a small group of people, and we got to the point where the bit of the job we loved doing [the designing] was so last-minute ??? even though it was still amazing.But it almost killed us."Today, Kane employs around 60 people, with more stores in the offing ??? something that would have remained a pipe dream without Kering.

As vast luxury-goods conglomerates with a keen eye on profit go, Kering seems pretty benign, I say."We met other investors, but when I met Fran??ois- Henri, it was so??? casual.I connected with him.He understands how creative people are tainted with madness!"Kane laughs."No, I???m joking.But he understands the process of how it can be so torturous to be creative every single day of your life, but that the whole point is to stand out.He knows how to nurture creativity.And he has a great stable of British brands ???Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen ??? from small to really big."

Every look from the Christopher Kane AW16 show

And Kane gets to hang out with Salma Hayek, I say.That???s a perk."I???ve always been surrounded by strong women.Salma???s just one of many who have inspired me."Who else?"Well, obviously my mum and sisters.Louise Wilson was a huge influence.Janey Broughan.Anna Wintour, from the beginning, has been a huge support to me.[Net-a-Porter founder] Natalie Massenet too.And Donatella Versace.She???s done everything, seen everything.And she still has the strength to go on, despite what she???s been through.All these strong women???"he pauses for thought."I can???t tell you a man.OK, Fran??ois-Henri.But when I try to think of other men???It???s all women."The youngest of whom ??? his four-year-old niece, Bonnie, daughter of Tammy ??? has wasted no time in making her opinions known."The other day she was in the studio, drawing, and she said to Tammy, "Mummy, am I a better designer than Uncle Christopher?"And Tammy said, "Yeah, they look amazing.That???s pre-fall done!"???"

"I liked the mystery of fashion.And I feel that it???s losing that mystery.But I do think it???s good that people can see collections straight away."

Talking of pre-fall, how does Kane cope with the vast number of collections he is expected to put out?The pace of fashion has been a topic on everyone???s lips recently, and not one that is likely to go away."The job is hard ??? really tough,"he admits."The landscape has changed so much.There???s so much pressure on designers, and your life is public now."Ah, yes: social media.On that subject, he is ambivalent."I liked the mystery of fashion.And I feel that it???s losing that mystery.But I do think it???s good that people can see collections straight away, and have an opinion about them.But then, people get bored easily.They???ve seen it [the collection] and are like, "Oh, what???s next?"But that???s the culture we live in. It???s only going to get faster."

Last week, watched by Samantha Cameron and Anna Wintour, Kane unveiled his autumn/winter 2016 collection, a tourde force that riffed around the theme of "making the ordinary extraordinary"and revisited Kane???s obsession with recluses and outsiders.The craftsmanship was superb, the quirky "Rain Mate"bonnets full of Kane???s trademark humour, and the clothes possessed of a delicate beauty that could only be fully appreciated up close.

Will the fashion show ever die?"I don???t think so.People keep saying so, but the shows are so damn good ??? why change something so good?We need to touch and speak to each other.Say you???re [seeing the clothes] on Instagram, you lose that.You lose the way the clothes move.Why have virtual reality when you can have reality?"

On the topic of how to make that reality a less pressurised affair, Kane is pragmatic."I don???t know what you can do. We???re on such a roller coaster that we???ve become???We???ve evolved into dealing with that way of life.We???re forever on a deadline.I???m not saying that???s a negative, I???m saying it in a positive way ???I???ve adapted into being that person.It???s hard to be creative every day.I became a robot,"he says with a laugh, "but a good robot."

Stars at London Fashion Week