May There Be Appetite
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An Ode to the Anna Sui Girl
Thank you for taking time today to walk me through all of this. Can you walk me through your initial inspiration for your collection?
ANNA– Of course. So my color palette came from an exhibition that I saw at the Morgan Library, and it was about the Ballet Russes. And so you see all these Léon Bakst costume paintings that he did. You can see that the color totally reflects into the fabrication. We developed the teal and green, the magenta and caramel, and then here, the purples and blacks. But then I also looked at screwball comedies from the thirties. One of my favorites is Bringing Up Baby, and it's about this heiress and her brother sent her a leopard from South America, so that was her pet. And she falls in love with this man that's putting together a dinosaur for the Museum of Natural History. And her dog and the leopard run away with one of the bones. The whole movie is this chaos of them chasing around, trying to get the dog, trying to find out where he buried the bone. And then of course, they fall in love.
Wow.
Another funny movie is this one, she's a secretary and she's walking down the street and his family is in a fight, and he flings her mink coat out the window. It lands on this girl. So she ends up with a mink coat. Then I thought I would look at some real life heiresses like Barbara Hutton and Doris Duke. So Barbara Hutton was the Woolworth heiress that was the five and dime stores, and they both inherited fortunes that people had never even heard of. She spent her whole fortune on men and jewelry and her lifestyle, and she ended up giving her butler the estate and everything, and he would walk around in her earrings and her clothes, but they both had boyfriends that they kind of were rivals for.
Oh, wow.
And Peggy Guggenheim was the Guggenheim heiress, and she bought this palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice, and she wore crazy glasses in very eccentric clothes. So we did eyewear like that. This is a picture of her in a fortuny gown. So we did some modern-day interpretation of fortuny, and this is her throne that she has right in front of her palazzo on the Grand Canal, and that's her bedroom. Her husband, Max Ernst too, was a surreal artist, made her that headboard out of silver and that's all still there at that house.
Wow. So fascinating.
Thank you.
Just the history of all of it and interpreting that into today's modern world of design and clothing. It’s fun seeing you have your own spin and twist on it as well.
Thank you. So yeah, so we have some knitted tweeds that are zigzag and woven. There's this jacquard, there's a lot of wallpaper prints that we did in this hammered satin and lamé. Love. We have a lot of faux fur. Like the faux mink, and then the faux leopard. There's a really beautiful embroidered suede, a tweed. And then for the evening, we have a lot of devore velvet, and we did a washed velvet with a fortuny print on it.
I can't wait to see it on the runway. It's going to be incredible.
Thank you. Well, this is the lineup here. Sort of see how I styled it.
Oh, wow.
I wanted to style it the way people wear vintage these days where pieces are trophy pieces and they just kind of mix it, not necessarily trying to recreate the outfit that the piece came from, but kind of mixing up what they have with other pieces. So it kind of goes together, but doesn't really go together. So I think that you'll see that the mix is pretty eclectic.
It's eclectic, but also it all works together.
Thank you.
Through the color palettes, the textures, the prints, everything. It all just works.
Thank you. Thank you.
You're going through your archives and revisiting some of those pieces for this collection. Is that something that you've done before?
It's something that kind of happened. I dunno if you saw my exhibition that was at the Museum of Art and Design, but that was the first time we looked at the archives and we had to assemble it and figure out what we really had full outfits on. Along with that, Opening Ceremony asked us to recreate 10 outfits from that. So then we had to find the patterns and find fabrication. Then the following year, Marc Jacobs decided to recreate his grunge collection so he invited me to recreate 10 pieces for my grunge collection that he chose.
Wow.
And so it was the first time that we kind of went back and looked at all that. And then at Christmas time when I would go home, my nieces would raid their mom's closet and show up at Christmas dinner wearing dresses from the nineties. And they'd be like, "You should make this again. Look at this sweater. This is so great." So then I thought, "Well, yeah, maybe there's an interest in all that." And then suddenly that became the look, the Y2K and the nineties. On the internet, so many people were posting all those. So there is a mix of all that, but I think this is a different way of showing it. And I think that you'll see the fabrications are different. Very lux.
Has it been nostalgic for you going through everything?
Yeah, because as I said, I never looked back. It was always like, we do one collection, do the production, pack it up, and then move on to the next. And so we just never had the time to revisit. But the museum exhibit moved around to about five different cities, so I kept seeing it over and over and over again. Then with all this renewed interest, or people posting parts of some of the old shows, then it was kind of exciting. And then we've been getting all these requests from celebrities, "Oh, can we borrow this from your 1995 collection?" and be like, "It's in the museum," but there's just that interest about it, which is really, really exciting.
I mean, totally. I feel like you were saying too, that whole Y2K is making such a resurgence. So it's really interesting and exciting for you to dive back into those archives and kind of give it a fresh new twist in today's present time.
I worked with John Fluevog, who I worked with in the nineties as well, and he did all these great shoes for us. We have those touches of leopard and then you can see the color story is repeated in the shoes.
Yeah. It's so exciting to see. I feel like that shape also is just so iconic to the brand and everything, I feel like it really ties everything together.
Karen Erickson, of Erickson Beamon made all these jewels for me, and I wanted everything to be jade, coral, emerald, or in black. It all compliments the clothes, not necessarily matching, but kind of standing out. The way those heiresses would have worn their jade or coral necklaces.
That's so beautiful.
Thank you. It kind of juxtaposes against the clothing, but also is harmonious and works together. They would wear their diamonds with their tweeds or their jade necklaces with their tweeds.
So when you're conceptualizing and thinking of these ideas, I know you have your board right there, and that's where the initial inspiration is drawn from, but when it comes to clashing all of these fabrics, prints, and colors, is there sort of a little secret, a little technique that you have?
No. I just kind of throw it together and then see if it's going to work. I don't have a plan in my head beforehand. I like seeing the swatches together. So then I just make the clothes and mix and match depending.
What's something that you want the audience to take away from this collection?
I think that there's a real sense of humor behind it, all the way those movies were, but there's also that kind of elegance behind it too. I think that it's time for us to add a little more elegance into our clothes and how we dress, because it just got too casual at this point. So I mean, that's why I like playing dress up with the faux mink and the mink stoles. It's almost like playing princess with the jewels.
If you could describe the Anna Sui girl in one word, what would it be?
One word? That's hard.
Or a couple of words.
Obsessed with clothes.
Cute. I like that. Obsessed with clothes. I also think just having that sophistication while also just having fun. It's really fun at the end of the day while maintaining that level of sophistication and refinement with all the juxtaposition.
I love the way it looks like you just piled on all your favorite stuff.
Yeah, definitely.
Because it's not necessarily made to all go together, but I think it works.
Well, thank you for walking me through everything. It was incredible. It's so fun and exciting to see your process behind everything.
Thank you. I'm so glad that you like the influences and the process because it's what I'm obsessed with. I just like learning all these things and then kind of throwing it all together.
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'Other People's Money': LEBLANCSTUDIOS FW25
I appreciate you taking the time. I know it's a crazy day for you guys. How are you feeling?
Yamil – Good, good. Yeah. Thank you for coming.
Where did your design journeys start?
Yamil – We started in 2014. Angelo was doing a Hypebeast contest and I was designing my own t-shirts.
Angelo – He already had in his notebook full of designs.
Yamil – And then my sister was friends with Angelo and she told me, "Hey, I want you to connect with my friend", and she just put him on the phone and we started speaking. I was in D.R. I was like 13 years old and when I spoke to Angelo he just mentioned, “Oh, I like Raf Simons.” In D.R., nobody knew who he was, so I was surprised. And we met, I think the next day or that same day.
Angelo – No, the same day.
Yamil – The same day, because he lived across from my building, across the street.
Angelo – Because he told me, “Come to my house. Let's start designing." And we started right there, taking pictures, doing graphic design.
Yamil – Then from there we went to a fabric store and we bought some fabrics.
Angelo – We started making t-shirts.
Yamil – We bought some fabrics, and then we went to the tailor. We did the first pants. It didn't work out. The seams were bad, the quality was bad, and we started learning, learning and learning. And then after school, I used to start going to big factories from D.R. just to learn and sometimes pushing the owner to give me a tour and explain to me how it works. And I think that's where we start to understand quality, what we need to do.
Who would you guys say you're designing for? Do you have an audience in mind when you're making clothes?
Angelo – Of course, we're designing for the Latin Americans, for the Caribbeans.
Yamil – Yeah. I also think we want to celebrate people that are unique and diverse and they can look different, but at the same time, beautiful. I think our definition of what is beautiful is very particular and unique, and we want to reflect that in our clothes. And we always think of how you can identify the Latin American people, the Caribbean people, and how they can become global with clothes, how you can redefine it.
Angelo – Also how you can take that identity and put it out in the world.
How do you translate that Caribbean influence and make it international but make it digestible?
Angelo – With the dyeing techniques that we use for clothes, with the specific colors, with the graphics. Graphics comes from the archives, from traditional materials and feminist movements.
Yamil – I think something that helps a lot is looking at Latin American films because they're from the seventies or sixties, they have a very strong identity that is very unique. It's like when you see a British suit, you know it's British, and when you see Americana, you know it's Americana, cowboy. So I think the filmmakers were really clear about this, so we take a lot of inspiration and help from it. It has Latin American colors, particular colors. It has a nostalgic feeling, and I think that helps to inform us.
How much do you allow the international factor to influence the brand in terms of making it accesible for people outside of the Caribbean, but also making it sellable.
Angelo – It's a symbiotic relationship. It's a conversation between those two things. Because we come from a very small country.
Yamil – We get influenced somehow, of course.
Angelo – Yeah, of course. But at the same time, it's like it's an opportunity for us to be unique in this space because we're always thinking, 'Okay, everybody's doing clothes, everybody has a brand, but how can we make our brand unique?' And it's always going back to our roots and exploring what we are in the country and how we can bring this vision globally.
We want to celebrate people that are unique and diverse and they can look different, but at the same time, beautiful. I think our definition of what is beautiful is very particular and unique, and we want to reflect that in our clothes.
You guys mentioned making clothes for a diverse range of people and also for Caribbean islands, but Caribbean islands tend to still have these very traditional views of masculinity and femininity.
Yamil – We always try to redefine those traditional values and to break them.
That's not easy coming from an island like that.
Yamil – It's harder.
Do those traditional views ever cross your mind when you're designing?
Angelo – Yeah, of course- they're always there.
Yamil – At the beginning we had that pressure. It's a small country, like, family, friends saying, “What are you doing?”
Angelo – Everybody said that we were crazy. We're not traditional in that sense.
What does it mean to be debuting at New York Fashion Week to you guys?
Angelo – It feels amazing.
Yamil – No, it feels great.
Angelo – It's a lot of pressure too.
What's the balance of pressure versus excitement right now?
Yamil – I think it's more excitement.
Angelo – More excitement.
Yamil – More excitement than pressure. Things are running smoothly because we have a good team helping us and people that believe in us and people that we also believe in them. So we are growing together. We are young production companies, young lighting designers…
Angelo – We're all on the same level.
Is there something you want to say with this collection, something you want people to take away from it?
Angelo – Yes. 'Other People's Money' is the name of the collection, and it is a reflection of our current state, and how power structures and dynamics are playing in the field. So we're investigating banking systems, technology and how they affect society and how they affect clothes because social classes are divided with clothes too. So that's what we're exploring.
Yamil – We were also thinking about how a farmer, a factory worker, an aristocrat or even a CEO, visually and materially, how it will look in 10 years from now, and getting inspired by that.
Angelo – We're using salt as a central material for our runway because it comes from the word ‘salary’ and we're tying that to a concept. So the model is going to be walking over the salaries of the people.
Yamil – Also, the collection is influenced and inspired by workwear motifs, but also medieval elements. So it's a mix of both things. What are the elements of workwear that we need? Functionality, thinking about all that.
Angelo – You see people wearing Carhartt and lounge pants with suits, and we're exploring those ideas too.
I know that collaboration's a big part of the brand. What do you guys look for in collaborators?
Yamil – I think we look for people that are open and that enjoy the process. I think having a good process, it's the best when we are collaborating with someone.
Angelo – They trust us and trust our brand.
Yamil – And having them from the beginning or maybe a little bit earlier in the collection. We also look for someone that has a unique vision in what they do. We have collaborated with an illustrator from Angola in Africa, with Dominican artists. We try to also collaborate with people that are aligned with the vision, I guess.
What do you think will be important for LeBlanc to maintain its longevity in the industry?
Yamil – So we are always thinking long term.
Angelo – Being consistent with our message.
Yamil – Having a good product.
Angelo – Having quality products.
Yamil – Quality products, good products. That's a conversation we have every day. How can we be timeless? And we ask ourselves, ‘If you were an investor, would you invest in these brands? Would you invest in LeBlanc Studios or no?’ If not, why not? And we always put The Row as an example. Yeah, it's simple, but it's a brand you will invest in because they have their customers so narrowed down that it's like Uniqlo, but more expensive. So we're always thinking, what can we do to be like that and have that specific customer that will never go away.
Yeah, I feel like being timeless in this day and age is such a hard thing. We’re so caught up in the moment and what's trendy and influencers and people telling us what we should be wearing.
Angelo – People are always following the trends and if you realize real designers always say they don't follow trends, they make their own taste and they always follow that.
Yamil – And I think it's good for us. For example, we always use a diverse cast, and some models in this collection are also non-traditional models, and some people in the team don't like them, but I was yesterday like we need to have them because that's been part of our story and DNA and past collections. So even if it doesn't look good, we need to work it out because if we don't, then our message gets lost. So I think keeping consistency with the message is key for longevity.
Is there anything you've learned about yourselves throughout the process of this show?
Angelo – [Laughs] A lot.
Yamil – I mean a lot, but design-wise, for a collection, time and money is always a problem, even if you're big or small. So we learned that. So it's like how do we get more prepared? We need to get more clothes to then eliminate, to be able to edit better. And also to work with people, I guess, you learn always.
Cool. Finally, what are your hopes? Where do you see the brand going in the years to come?
Angelo – Expanding first here in the United States, because we're here right now and then we want to move the brand to Europe and maybe distribute in some stores in Asia.
Yamil – Also doing in D.R., A key part of the brand is doing physical events, music events, dinners, whatever we can do to maintain the brand. And that's something we enjoy a lot. So I want to keep doing that in New York as well. And creating dinners, creating experiences not only like a pop-up shop, but having the brand involved with the community.
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