What is the purpose of making clothes? They should make you feel good. Underneath it all is desire, that's what we want to create. This is the essence of fashion. When I met Vivienne, I was totally smitten that she was into history just as much as I was. It was the first passion we shared.
I decided to look at late Renaissance costume because I went to a Giovanni Battista Moroni exhibition in Milan which reminded me very much of the beginning of me working with Vivienne. His images are iconic, the austerity and elegance are striking, how he could capture the character of the sitter, the black clothes, the face and the hands showing.
Everybody knows the Patterns of Fashion by Janet Arnold which is published by The School of Historical Dress in South London and run by Professor Jenny Tiramani. What they do is very important and helpful to draw inspiration from. Vivienne and myself have worked with a lot of historical patterns from this source.
At the same time, I got some sports protection gear from a good friend and I could see a connection. We referenced the 1600s playing with codpieces, with slashing and piercing materials, pluderhosen, breeches and doublets. You see a lot of black because of it being very fashionable then, we love this colour, it's very convenient but at the same time the most elegant of all colours. What is elegance? Elegance is all about how one moves through life. It is less to do with what you wear, or how you smell, it's much more to do with your inner self.
It means a lot to know there was a life before ours.
'A tradition is kept alive only by something being added to it.' - Henry James
