POP 303 Monday 31 May 2010

Today’s POP is Tui and she is turning to the dark side.

In celebration of Olivier Theyskens' and his long term friend Julien Claessens’ first book The Other Side of the Picture, Liberty arranged a book signing for all his die-hard fans and I, of course, HAD to go! Originally I went there as an eager fan waiting to get my book signed but when I arrived the lovely Liberty team managed to schedule me in for a quick interview.
Enjoy!

Tui Lin: Hi Oliver, thank you so much for taking time out for this interview. You must be tired by now answering the same questions over and over again!
Olivier Theykens: No it’s ok. If it’s not everyday it’s ok.

T.L: Well we’ve all been wondering what your next project was going to be and here we are sitting at your book signing. Explain to me what it is about.
O.T: What is great for me with this project is that it is friendly because it’s my really close friend, Julien Claessens, who took the pictures. He’s made these beautiful photographs of my backstage [shows], of my world, so it was a really good experience. There is a friendship behind it. Actually, Julien and I were in the same school so we met there, became very close friends and he was studying photography and I was studying fashion and he began taking pictures of me. When I started doing shows he was coming to the shows and once he asked me if he could take pictures and I told him ‘maybe you can take some backstage photos’ and he came back and took some more pictures. One day he came back and was like ‘look I’ve got a lot of materials and I was thinking maybe we should publish them'. I was like ‘ok yeah show me’ and then I saw them and discovered that it was beautiful work.

T.L.: I really think the book reflects you and your work in that the pictures are quite dark and mystical.
O.T: I think it reflects very well my work. The clothes do not have an important place in it. I think its more the girls, the emotions, you know, this fragility. Also the strange thing is that when I see his work it doesn’t look like anything that I see in reality. Because what I remember is this crazy backstage but he finds these special little moments and situations that I was not aware of.

T.L.: I had a quick look at your book and I noticed that the pictures do not resemble backstage pictures in anyway. Normally backstage is full of people running around and acting all manic.
O.T.: Voila! This is not reportage. I mean he is an artist, a photographer artist. He is not a fashion photographer.

T.L: I found out yesterday that you are working with Theory. Can you tell us a bit more about the collaboration?
O.T.: I’m doing a project with them, Theykens’ Theory and I’m really thrilled with that. It was one hundred percent what I was looking for and I’m very very excited! I think they make very beautiful work, super well-made. I remember when I used to enter the shop stores and feeling that I loved their products so I feel like I have a very strong vibe about it.

T.L.: Can you reveal what we will be seeing?
O.T.: No, you will have to wait and see…

T.L.: What other future projects can we expect from you?
O.T.: I’m always looking for things things that interest me. I still have a lot of work to do and to show.

T.L.: I know that when you were younger you had your own label, do you think you’ll start up your own fashion house one day?
O.T.: I’m always thinking when I’m doing projects that I want to be free to launch my brand at the same time, but every time I go into something I put myself so fully into it so it’s like 'whatever'.

The Other Side of the Picture by Olivier Theyskens and Julien Claessens is out now, published by Assouline.