How did you go about deciding what you assume has essentially the most cultural worth? Say, the Mugler piece worn by Beyoncé for Cowboy Carter. I’m assuming these concerns are a part of the method?
The Beyoncé piece is attention-grabbing as a result of I truly approached Mugler about getting it final yr once we had the present in Milan for a unique part in that exhibition. Mugler stated they couldn’t lend it, because it was on mortgage for one thing else. Later I clearly came upon it was for Cowboy Carter. However I believe it’s good for there to be some issues that really feel perhaps barely extra obscure—it was actually vital to have the Greta Garbo and the Marlene Dietrich outfits to point out the depth of Swarovski’s historical past with cinema and Hollywood, in addition to the Moulin Rouge!, which is so immediately recognizable. And the Shakespeare In Love outfit—you realize precisely what these items are once you see them. So, for me, it was actually vital to have the extra historic issues to point out the depth and breadth of that historical past in addition to these super-recognizable twenty first century issues. With the Beyoncé piece, you get each, it’s super-recognizable, but additionally there’s all these different histories which might be type of attention-grabbing and tied into it.
I’m inquisitive about you liaising with homes and pulling issues from different archives, like, say, Daphne Guinness’s pink Chanel.
I flew right here with that one; typically you must hand carry [laughs]. I really like Daphne, she’s somebody who I’ve been actually privileged to have a relationship with for years. I’ve labored together with her on three music movies, and she or he’s all the time supported this. This time she lent this wonderful Chanel piece. I didn’t know this, nevertheless it’s the present pattern. They offered her the couture piece from the present. That’s what she believes it’s; she thinks it’s the one one they produced. It was fairly humorous as a result of I used to be supposed to choose it up final Friday, after which she despatched me this textual content message like, truly, may you decide it up on Monday? As a result of I’m going to the British Museum Pink Ball, and it’s the one pink factor I personal. Giovanna was texting me being like, are we getting the Daphne Guinness? I’ve simply seen her sporting it. However that’s Daphne, at some point you’re sporting it and the following day it’s in a museum exhibition. That’s wardrobe targets.
Earlier than you went to the archive and earlier than you began digging, was there one thing that you just thought: this must be in it?
After we began speaking about it, and we got here up with the thought, it was truly Giovanna who stated, I believe it might be nice if we tried to do trend and costume. And I used to be like, okay, let’s have a assume. I began to analysis and see what costumes have been round, and I discovered this wonderful costume collector known as Larry McQueen. He’s bought a dressing up assortment. It’s all on-line, it’s all documented, photographed and accessible on-line. And he’s simply launched a ebook. I can’t even keep in mind how I stumbled onto it, nevertheless it was to the purpose the place I used to be checking if it was actual, as a result of it was so unreal. He had the Cleopatra costume worn by Elizabeth Taylor. And he’s a bit like me. We’re two males who spend all of our cash on girls’s attire [laughs]. I discovered that he had the Dietrich costume. Now, Greta Garbo is nice. Marilyn Monroe is nice. However I reside for Dietrich because the individual I’ve been obsessive about since I used to be a teen. And so once I came upon that this costume existed, as a result of I’m a geek, I knew right away that there was a Yves Saint Laurent costume that was based mostly on this costume, and that Marc Jacobs had based mostly a costume on the Saint Laurent costume. So I knew we needed to get them collectively as a result of they belong with one another. For me, that was type of the set off level.
