Bella Freud’s Semaine | Interview by Marie Winkler | Posted November 24th 2016
There is something mysterious about Bella Freud. If you Google her, you’ll likely notice it, too— that elusive quality I can’t quite describe. In a culture of over sharing and over publicizing, the consistency of her career and the privacy she manages to maintain set her apart. “Bella has a cool that murmurs more than it shouts” described a journalist in an interview. And that’s exactly what I felt. Bella Freud has found a way to build her identity without submitting to the new laws of the 2.0 fashion world.
The first thing that struck me was the ambivalence of her work. Her line is boyish yet very feminine; her witty jumpers are worn by the coolest people on earth (Alexa Chung, Kate Moss, Allison Mosshart and Lady Gaga, to name a few). Her clothes are of high quality with a universally flattering style.
Freud possesses a keen awareness of fashion’s power—namely, in its ability to infiltrate other parts of life; she was one of few to see the opportunity present when collaborating with filmmakers, such as John Malkovich, to shoot fashion films.
Of course, you can’t talk to Bella Freud without thinking of her impressive lineage. Great granddaughter of Sigmund and daughter of Lucian, she has managed to carve her own name in the world as a fashion designer.
As I sit here, considering these details and her understated presence, I feel as though I’ve been granted a rare glimpse into her world. She’s an intellectual, but not obnoxious about it—wholly uninhibited without being wild. And as for her presence, it’s powerful but not imposing. In a word: unique.
Semaine: Do you remember your first Fashion memory?
Bella: I think it started with shoes, fantasizing about shoes in my local Russell and Bromley. It was the nicest shoe shop in the local town where I grew up. They had these lovely platform lace-ups with a stacked heel which I used to dream about owning. When I was 12 I bought a pair in a jumble sale, they were really ugly and a size 8 (I had size 4 feet). I used to take them to places in my bag so my mum didn’t see, then put them on when I arrived.
Semaine: Can you tell me more about your personal aesthetics and inspirations?
Bella: I am quite scruffy and that suits me – I was a tomboy when I was a child. I am still a bit of a tomboy but I like dressing up at night. I like this mix; being very scruffy and then being very feminine – I find it fun. I look at people a lot, at how they dress, but sometimes an idea wil gel more when I read than when I see something. When I read, an idea will crystallize and become more succinct. If you look at something the idea is already there in some shape. When I read, an idea can come from anything – I am able to reinvent it for myself and then build on it.
Semaine: What kind of books do you read?
Bella: I go through phases. When I was in my late teens I read a lot of XIX century French and Russian literature: Balzac, Flaubert, Maupassant, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy… all of that genre. There are authors that stay with you forever like Camus or Chekov.
I have been reading a lot of memoires and biographies lately. Reading about the way other people think can spark ideas for clothes. I also have finally become interested in poetry. I was more interested in words of songs before but now I have started reading poetry, the Beat Poets and Frank O’Hara.
Semaine: Can you explain the story of your famous jumpers?
Bella: I made 3 short films with John Malkovich, then two more with another director. We made a film based on a story about Beatnik girls waiting for their poet guru, The Hideous Man, to arrive. I wanted one of them to be wearing a kind of literary groupie jumper with names like Camus, Godard, and Ginsberg on it. In the 70’s there was a famous t-shirt with ‘Clapton is God’ written on it and a friend said ‘why not so Ginsberg is God,’ which I thought was great. Then my assistant, who had a cold, said ‘What about Godard is dog, I mean God.’ I thought that was perfect! It could mean so much – or nothing; it could be total bullsh*t. Those quotes came from that.
Then Kate Moss wore the jumper and suddenly it became a ‘thing.’ It was 2003, so over ten years ago. I started to make other jumpers with words on them, it built organically with no particular planning.
I made really small collections at the time, 4 styles at the most. I just wanted to do a tiny collection and use them like a flag. I find that I really like thinking about words that would act almost as a pattern and finding sentences that aren’t a slogan. It is not a philosophy. It’s not supposed to be cute. It’s a floating thing that can become whatever you want it to be.
If I am reading and something attracts my attention, I will draw the word out and see if it turns into something. I enjoy that process as I am really interested in words – I think language is everything. With language you can change the world.
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