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๐ฐ๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐?
๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: To be honest, it comes after. We must be careful not to fall into the Milli Vanilli trap [๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ข๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐-๐น๐๐๐๐โ ๐ &๐ต ๐๐ข๐ ๐คโ๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ก๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐คโ๐๐ ๐๐ก ๐ค๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐๐ก ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐’๐ก ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ – ๐ก๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐’๐ ๐๐๐ก๐] and believe that everything is only a question of image. People are really focused on the image of Placebo, talk about it more than about music which makes us uncomfortable. But it's true that we need rock stars, people who are bigger than life. It is the show-biz element - creating a dream for people.
๐ป๐๐๐๐’๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: That's what attracted me to Xavier's clothes. I wear a lot of black, which gave us a reputation as a gothic band when we started out. I dispute this suggestion and find it quite lazy. It's too easy. For us, black is the color of rock, and it’s more about The Velvet Underground than The Sisters Of Mercy.
๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ซ: Black makes you beautiful. This is what gives the most beautiful look. I think of black as of a counter-facility. Looking perfect in black is harder than looking perfect in colour. You can be completely screwed up, but if you want to be all in black your attitude must be precise and determined. You have to control yourself much harder. In terms of the cut, you can't afford to make mistakes. As you are not distracted by the colour, you only pay attention to the basics, to what really makes the garment. It's very technical.
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐: ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐พ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐?
๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ซ: When I was around 10 maybe I started choosing my clothes. I stole a scarf from my father, a neckerchief from my mother. And that kind of bothered people. Because a little boy shouldn’t put on a scarf. A little boy cannot try to be handsome. It's always the same problem: people don't accept that a little boy can wish to be the prettiest. He must be the biggest and the strongest.
๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: A stone's throw from here lives a friend of mine, Eddie Izzard, an English comedian I met on the shooting of the movie Velvet Goldmine. Like me, he's a cross-dresser (person who likes to wear clothes generally attributed to the opposite sex). There is a difference between a transvestite and a cross-dresser. A tranny is a bit like a guy who does karaoke on Saturday nights. It is the image of the drag queen, very trashy, the beard that grows under the makeup. With Eddie, we discovered that we had the same ideas. We like to wear women's clothes, to have the same freedom as women have in wearing men's clothes. Eddie wears a beard sometimes, makeup and a skirt on stage. It's that kind of mix that interests me. We don't put on fake tits to look like women. We're trying to redefine what it's like to look like a man or a woman in the 2000s.
๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ซ: It's a game of conventions. In my work, it all happens by itself. There is no reason for a guy to have no right to wear the best cut piece, the best suited to his body. Or to wear clothes which, because of virtue of their shine, would make them look good. There's no reason for this to be for girls only. I started making clothes for myself very early, around 17. But I didn't really want to wear girls' clothes. I wanted to keep that boyish side.
๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: I think I have more of a provocative urge, I mean what we represent as a band. This aesthetic, sexual freedom is philosophically very important to us. And clothing is one of the aspects. What do you wear at home?
๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ซ: I’m often naked when I’m alone (laughs)... Otherwise I wear my clothes. Lots of T-shirts. Making my clothes it’s not easy for me, it takes a lot of technical effort. But after that, it’s a relief: everything is done, I just have to choose.
๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: At home I wear underpants, shorts. Very casually. I imagine people think that I wear full makeup and fishnet stockings at home... When a woman goes out, she has a choice to wear makeup or not. For me it’s the same. It has to be natural. When I started to go out wearing makeup, around 17-18, it was just for fun. It’s really ok for me to be very masculine one day and very feminine the next one. Sometimes it can change within one day. It's pretty schizophrenic. But I wonder why it's so disturbing for people. Why is a dick in a dress so shocking today?
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๐ฐ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐?
๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ซ: My first collection was called ‘Minimal night, maximum strass’. It was in 1995. I was officially a student but I only had two months of classes during two years. I found myself caught up in the Brussels nightlife. And there was no way I would go out three times in the same outfit. I wanted a different look. Even today, I don't agree with what’s happening on the streets, with the way people dress. It's better now, the boys are paying a little bit more attention. There’s some freshness. They want to be neat. But a mass taste remains. People don’t stand out from each other enough, they are caught in a total banality.
๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: I find all these people on the street really vulgar, they look like walking advertisements for brands. All the Tommy Hilfigers, the Hugo Bosses... The big logo there (touches his chest) to say "I have enough money to buy Gucci or Versace." There was a very interesting thing in New York in the early 90s: "torque". People would steal designer clothes and walk around with the label that still had the price on it as proof that it was stolen. It was quite subversive. The antilogo. In Placebo, we wear Alexander McQueen a lot. I have always adored Agnรจs B. I wear her line for women. Who are the stylists that you admire?
๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ซ: I'm quite a fan of Martin Margiela. Because he was able to impose a new style at the beginning of the 80s. And he never made any concessions in his collections. He created clothes which were difficult to wear and to sell. And with each next season, it goes further and further in its aesthetic which, I must admit, is a bit too much for me now. For his latest collection, he made sweaters that look like they had been worn by a very fat woman for at least twenty-five years. It's incredible work, very technical. The meshes are loose, burnt, damaged. The sweater is filled with fleece. So a girl who is a size 36 makes an impression of 48. Margiela is more an artist than a stylist. It's kind of the opposite of what we were saying earlier about boys who are not supposed to be handsome and therefore become so. He is rather like "a woman must be beautiful, therefore she won’t be."
๐ฏ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐?
๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: When I was little, I liked Dustin Hoffman a lot, because he was very short too (laughs)... I was inspired by the films of Jim Jarmusch and David Lynch. ‘La Haine’ by Kassovitz is a film that I adore because it made me discover another vision of Paris and almost physically made me feel this hatred. ‘C'est arrivรฉ prรจs de chez vous’ [‘Man bites dog’] is, for me, one of the most sublime films in the world. Pretty hardcore movie, very kinky and very intelligent because it makes people laugh about things that shouldn't make people laugh. It calls into question all the mechanisms of political correctness by making you laugh at atrocious things.
๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ซ: I am a big fan of Fassbinder for its extreme elegance which hides only cruelty. It shows how cruel one can be still wearing a white suit. A bit like in Haneke's ‘Funny game’, with these very clean young boys, everyone in white. Terrible, but everyone in Lacoste polo shirts.
๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: What bands do you like?
๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ซ: I don't listen to a lot of music at home. Radio is mostly enough. But music is of paramount importance in my shows. I used The Smiths. Last winter, it was Visage with their ‘Fade to grey’, mostly not because I liked it that much but because of the lyrics above all, this description of a lonely man with his suitcase, with the eyes in the dark, who takes the train, looking lost. A piece of clothing doesn’t exist without musical style. It’s the same about a black suit: when you see it on stage, it loses its classic side and can catch a broken side. In the world of rock, by your look and by what you sing, you can turn everything upside down.
(๐ฟ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ “๐ต๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐ข๐ - ๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐”, ๐ท๐๐’00)
▪️๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ต๐ข๐๐๐๐๐
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Post by Olga
