In The News

Catching Up: Francois Girbaud

By: Nicola Harrison Ruiz

October 26, 2007

Over 1,000 people RSVP’ed for a cocktail reception at the Marithe+Francois Girbaud store in Soho last Tuesday night. The reason to party? Girbaud’s fifth installment of an experimental design series, Construckt, that not only celebrates the relationship between architecture, design and fashion, but also helps explain the thought process behind his clothing designs. The exhibition featured sculptures by Belgian architect Jeroen de Schrijver who was commissioned to reflect upon the theme of Girbaud’s current fall/winter collection.

From left to right: Sebastien Agneessens, Jeroen de Schrijver, Francois Girbaud. Photo by Gaetan Rousseau.

At first glance you see a beautifully designed store (complete with a floor to ceiling vertical garden, cultivated on felt with over 50 live plants growing right there in the middle of the store), incredibly detailed menswear on the left and women’s wear (with pockets everywhere!) on the right, and some corrugated cardboard sculptures placed throughout. It wasn't until I got talking to Francois that I grasped the concept.

He explained that the cardboard and marble sculptures on display had been created using a laser jet and water jet only, showing the layers of each material used. This mirrored the laser cut detailing and use of layers in Girbaud's current collection. A laser detailed velvet blazer, layers of pockets and zippers on fashion cargos and a sportcoat with hidden slots for scarves to weave in and out.

He was deep in conversation with a French journalist, but I snuck in to ask him a few questions of my own. He’s known as one of the original denim designers (he invented stonewashed denim and baggy cargo styling in the 60's and 70's) so I asked him what he thought of the current premium denim phenomenon.

“What does premium even mean anymore? You can get premium denim everywhere at every price. It doesn't have the same meaning as it did when it started. When True Religion and Seven first decided to elevate the jean to a $160 pricepoint with premium fabrics, that was genius, but that's been lost and manipulated,” he said.

Later I asked him about the controversial coverage he got in the press recently after “apparently” snarling at the idea of his clothing being so heavily associated with the Hip-Hop culture. The controversy got started after an interview with the New York Observer. [Read it here] But Girbaud told me the journalist greatly misconstrued his words.

“I don't design with a class, culture or race in mind. I just design. I don't care if you are black, white, Asian whatever, I am just happy that people like to wear my designs and I am proud to be connected to the hip-hop culture. Yes, my clothes have been very popular with black people, but why would I turn around and spit on people who have supported me for so long? Our roots are not in music the way that people like Russell Simmons are, our heritage is in design, but we often share the same consumer and I'm proud of that.”

Next up, Girbaud says that he's focusing finding new technologies that will allow him to design while conserving water and reducing pollution. One such example is the laser cutting that he says is environmentally safe and reduces the need for dying fabrics. He’s also working on new technology that allows him to create new jean washes without using or polluting any water

“I'm sixty-something and I feel that when I design I have a responsibility to the next generation to come up with ways to make beautiful clothes without ruining the environment.”

In February of this year he launched a multi-million dollar advertising campaign featuring Seeds of Peace, a non-profit dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict. He’s creating a new line that will be exclusively for sale on the Seeds of Peace website where all profits go to the non-profit, confirming that looking good and doing good can go hand in hand.

 

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