mmm
the first time that they met Mark
and that was a I would say probably something like twenty years ago he was a
young designer
he was actually just left Perry Ellis somehow it was starting to work for
an Italian company I mean icebergs
and I was the journalists for norm
for love or going to embolden I was I was called to do an interview and to
find out what was these new talent cellmark
on how was a your life before that famous
ground show in 1992 that kinda got you fired but also put your
on feiyr I would say and you know how did you get involved in fashion
I'm hello everybody I
the I my life is pretty much the same as its always been
I i wake up in the morning and I'm pretty excited about what I have to do
kinda scared usually but excited at the same time in
I was I was given the job at perry ellis at a very young age and II when their
everyday certain feeling like I'll just do the best they can
you know it was a little overwhelmed burstyn and kinda
as I became more comfortable there I
I wasn't afraid to just sort of do what my instincts
told me was right and it sorta accommodated in that final collection
which was Brunswick really I mean
even the the collection before that I was just doing I was
I should stop trying to please or doing what I thought other people wanted from
me
because in the beginning I was second guessing in thinking always this with
the people Perry Ellis one is this with the licensees one is this
and then finally I just threw my hands up in the air and said you know I was
given this job based on
what people thought of me and I have to trust my own instincts and and do what I
do
and once I did that I was responding to what I felt
was changing at that time which was
a photography the look of models there was this kind of
anti glamour kind of movement and something that felt very fresh in very
new to me
you know the work at Green Day Juergen Teller models like Kate Moss
sell a tenant I mean they were all sort of coming about and it was very
freshen I also was I've always been very interested in
art contemporary art music and pop culture so I'd love this music and I did
this collection
which was true to me in and I think it really outraged
I some people which which I to this day still serve
I don't know I look back on it I just think it was fine it was and it was no
big deal
and and I mean it which I was just saying earlier before I came here you
know
the irony is so many people dress like that and I felt so many people just like
that then
so again it just some it was always
just what I thought was right out different is New York the New York
up those days from the new york today I mean everything when you come here
now i cant what did excite you you know like you ever been here for
in a few days alike few weeks and do you find
part shows that I XIII like a you go to clubs do you go to
clubs and concerts music club sucks so much music I I always love and I
I yeah I really love music and I i do try to get as many calories as possible
yeah I i mean immediately the day I arrived in fact
on runs and I went to all these galleries we saw some shows in
I'm very stimulated like I said there's nothing that stimulates be more than
something visual in fact my
introduction to music II broder I wrote a
same ones for this punk rock balkan I I kind of had to
I'm not a writer at all and I had to feel like what how could I
right about this that I don't know anything about and and I realize that
get my introduction to things is always coming from a visual place first
I was so enchanted by the look up what hunk look like
that I went to hear the music or you know and that's how I learned about the
Rolling Stones I mean make
and Keith were so incredible looking that I had to listen to what they had to
say
you know and and a son just a very just like Chris Rea
for visuals I i mean image oriented person you know that's what really turns
me on
and then you left and you move to Paris
that was ten years ago yes and
how different is your life there from the life you had here
for on I
it is very very different I'm in New York I kind of came up with this little
summary of like if if you have five minutes free in New York you're a
failure
and if you have five minutes free in Paris your success you know it's just
like
a very different kind of thing like even though I think we
by my cell by myself my team we all work very very hard to mean
we be there's just a very different pace
and a very different energy in a very different spirit
and I mean you know going going from where I live in Paris to the office
like I just marvel at the beauty of Paris and I kinda
really enjoyed a everything in it all seems to move in slow motion
whereas in New York it's just like rapid fast
at it you know cut to dinner cut to next party cut to
you know being at the New York Times and Sunday and that you know whatever it's
just that
you know really rapid fire well it took about the reasons
while you went to Paris that is that work to work for
louis vuitton and you know how
mister I'm no end the group a
approach you in 1994 and then you went well you know I'll October
I think I'll long time before getting to a real contract and
how did you adjust to D's LVMH corporate culture to the suits and
when did that relationship like with the retreat on kinda
turn around I mean basically when did you fall in love with the bags
you know I E was a nervous wreck about the whole thing and at the time the new
yorker did this
to profile and I must say I mean I literally alienated myself from everyone
in the suit at LVMH because
II I've always been very outspoken and I don't know how to behave another way
maybe it's the new york
June erotic person that I am but mom
you know I just say with some I'm a beast too many years of therapy or on
I don't know but so I would say things in this article like I'm afraid you know
I don't really understand what the Purcell once the me in the summer could
be a drives me not seen is that a communication but I really don't like
him
so this all came out this very extensive profile and I mean literally
rover every resident have every brand her
turned their backs on us and I just thought of this is great like for some
american
nobody wants me here but mister are now and then he takes me out to lunch and
says you're really gonna have to fight to get things done here cuz
you know they don't want you yeah and as a gray this call
so I don't know that I've ever really adjusted but with again to demystify the
whole experience what changed things
is when I embraced the thing that I that I think most people identified with
louis vuitton which is their famous monogram
and I said I'm gonna celebrate this this is the only thing I've got to go
with because it's the company I mean it's not
they don't have an equestrian heritage they don't have a designer who
you know created a look in the twenties the there was no archive there was no
nothing
so how are you you know how where travel clothes today
I mean people wear what they want to travel to Iran you know anyone strong
and I don't think there's anything practical about traveling with the trunk
you know there's
with the most luxurious way to travelers with a toothbrush you know that that
it's like end of story who haven't you know the people who really live
luxurious lives
don't need to pack they've got stuff wherever they go
so I thought I so i thought well this is not what we talked about what return is
about is this
i'd it's this branding this is what makes it actual
what people love is being a member of this club this club that says
I have a Louis Vuitton bag and the symbol love it is this iconic Monogram
soon as I decided to embrace that I had a much easier time
and what changed my life there with corporate LVMH
was basically the opinion of one person I only work to please one person and
that's mister are no
he gave me the job he wanted me there he believed I could do it
and when he's pleased I'm pleased and the only way he's pleased as we sell
a lot Prada but that's all so things really have changed for me
when we had our first commercial success and I was like you know what
his stay that said they sold X millions of dollars the bags in two weeks
his stay and live with that and that's what my life take its
what is your creative process how do you start a collection and how does it
level up i've seen you know documentaries we have a little familiar
with like these
handover starts with an idea and then your move into something else and
you know it I i'm nonlinear younger
yen my attention spans pretty short but I am
what happens is you I mean it can come from different places we always start
the season
looking or talking about I mean we all do I mean it's a group of designers
their people work on hand thanks people specifically work on shoes
on textiles et cetera we'll just have to bounce ideas off each other
and I mean I have those meetings a couple things taken then we
we sort of develop a color palette but again nothing's ever etched in stone and
I'm a big believer in it ain't over until
it's on the runway so you know a long dress could end up a short dress and a
red what
if read was the most important color to you at the beginning of the season
you still have six other colors in the palette and read may not be important in
the end it may just be a punctuation at the end or
so you know a collection is a collection of thoughts and ideas
and for us in the way we work with the at leaa
or the studio here it's an evolutionary process it's not like
it's decided in the meeting and then we go about executing this one
singular idea but one thing is like a ping-pong sorta
match for something an idea goes that way then it comes back that way and then
one things worse burns
you know or or Spurs another thought and
and that's where it goes and and sometimes you know me being here in New
York and then
arriving in Paris I see something unlike I love it I love
those rabbit series lead to more about you know I was something silly you know
you have some kind of a childlike attitude some kind of freshness i mean
you know it's like you have the sense of wonder as you said before
you know that you bringing always to
the job to the product actually I
love doing it i mean again with all the difficulties in the obstacles one has to
deal with it still what I want to do it's a joy and
it's not necessary this is all a luxury I mean passion isn't what people need it
it's a joy it's it's part of the art of living