I can’t believe it’s been more than 10 years since I worked at Chloé.
I will never forget the day when they hired my as an intern (that’s how I started!). That day I was a model dresser at the Chanel Haute Couture Show which, famously that season, was held on the spiraling staircase of the historic Chanel maison on rue Cambon. You know, that famos pic of Coco on her staircase? Yup, that’s the one. While I was still a student at ESMOD, I would work as a model dresser at many of the shows – Christian Dior, Vanessa Bruno, Yohji Yamamoto, Christian Lacroix, Louis Vuitton – in order to, well, meet people, see the clothes, and earn some cash…. Anyways on this day, I was in between the two shows (they did one for the press, and another for private clients) when I made a call to the studio manager at Chloé in order to find out how my interview had gone the week before. I guess it had gone well, because she told me that I was hired!
I was lucky enough to work at Chloé for just under one year (or two seasons) before moving to Milan. I happen to come across these old pics I had stored in my archives from the last show that I worked on, Spring 2003. Here are some of the details I remembered about preparing for this particular show:
– Eva Herzegovina was sooooooo small!!!! She was so tiny. Everything had to be taken in. Everything. Literally.
– Phoebe came to work one day totally obsessed with Amercian football uniform pants (Phoebe Philo was the Creative Director at the time). She had found a pair somewhere. She put them into the collection. I don’t know if there were any store orders for these pants, but on the runway they just worked. Somehow. You can see them twice: once in my own sketch, the other on the runway pic.
– That crazy swimsuit piece that Natalie Vodianova is wearing – I spent an entire day & night draping it with one of the technicians. We totally winged it. Shocking that it made it down the runway.
– The embroidery of this collection is still modern even today. Most of it comes from India. Just a couple of months before the show, Phoebe decided to take some of the team to India for inspiration (sadly, not moi). It sure paid off.
– My favorite runway look is still the one with the layered tank/ tee with the drawstring skirt. My personal contribution was to the 2 layered tops. I still love them today.
– Karolina Kurkova is a dream to work with.
– I worked a lot with the Fabric Buyer, who had been with the company at that point for more than 25 years. This means that she had worked with all of the greats — Phoebe, Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Martine Sitbon… and lots more. She had SOOO many stories, every moment I spent with her was like a little treat.
– At the final fitting for the slip dress with the spaghetti straps and the ruching at the bust, we all just made a *gasp* collectively and sighed at how beautiful is was. So simple. So pretty.
– On a slightly unrelated note: that is Ellen Von Unwerth posing with Phoebe after the show. Ellen is possible one of the nicest people with whom I have ever worked. Although the only time that I worked with her was when I was an assistant stylist at Interview Magazine (ages before!), I still remember her as being such a warm, positive ray of sunshine. Look at her glowing here again. Also, she is a super photographer.
– That huge black top with the wing-like sleeves – do you see it? I had to draw & redraw that sketch 100 times because the product developer kept saying I did not get it right. Actually, she mockingly asked me whether I thought I was designing for a maternity collection. Vive la France.
