Something to lighten the mood of the board here 
:-
INTERVIEW
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The phoebe factor[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]When Phoebe Philo arrived at Chloé - one of Paris's more conservative design houses - she came complete with mockney accent, diamante nails and a gold tooth. But when she took over from Stella McCartney that all changed. Now, with the label re-established in the fashion firmament, she tells Harriet Quick why she's cutting her cloth to fit motherhood.[/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Sunday May 29, 2005
The Observer
[/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]In the wonderful world of ego and talent that is fashion, a very unusual thing happened at the Paris runway for Chloé in March. Phoebe Philo, the brand's 31-year-old creative director, took a front-row seat to watch the show and let her key team of five designers take the bow and the applause.
Philo gave birth last December to her first born, Maya, and had been on maternity leave. She entrusted her team to design the Autumn/Winter 2005 collection, which was bursting with the label's hot sellers: billowing bodice-front dresses, neat little jackets and military inspired coats. It was an act that warmed the audience's hearts - designers generally keep their crew in the back room.
'I did not feel like bullshitting, to be honest. It was not my work and I was not going to walk out at the end. I wanted to do it, it felt right, and part of that was me saying it is OK to be a mum and take time off. It's normal.' Philo throws back her head and laughs at this revelation. Fashion people tend to be workaholics - 'normality' is rare.
Philo, who took over creative directorship of Chloé following Stella McCartney's departure in 2001, when she left to set up her own label, has made the brand one of fashion's brightest stars. 'Makeovers have been the story of the new millennium,' writes Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune's fashion editor. 'At Chloé, Phoebe Philo has done a fine job of bringing the house's heritage of delicate fluid clothes up to modern speed.'
Philo's understated way with glamour, and the subtle sexiness of her clothes, appeals to a whole generation of women. Count in there film director Sofia Coppola, Jimmy Choo president Tamara Mellon, and actors Milla Jovovich, Mischa Barton and Jennifer Connelly. Chloé's owner, the Richemont Group, the world's second-largest luxury goods company (it also owns Dunhill and Cartier), reports a 60 per cent sales rise for the year ending March 2005.
Ensconced in her new London studio, on a dull-looking light industrial street in Brondesbury, Philo is back at work. Her creative team is split between Paris and London and her staff travel back and forth. 'I spend eight days a month in the Paris studio and the rest here, and so far so good.'
One wall of the industrial-white painted space is pinned with row upon row of colour photocopies culled from books and magazines - generally, soft-focus imagery of tousle-haired models floating clothes in various states of bliss. Philo's office, by contrast, is bare, save for a couple of big snapshots of her daughter Maya. 'The little munchkin,' says Philo, tapping a photo of her happy, blue-eyed baby popping out of a cardboard box.
'Until you go through with it yourself, you simply can't imagine it. But it is the transition of going back to work and the guilt of how much time you spend with your child that's hard. I worry about not getting back in time for bath-time. I am not a neurotic person at all, but every time the mobile rings my stomach leaps. But,' she smiles, 'everyone says that is normal.'
Philo, who is wrapped in an overcoat - the heating in the studio is still primitive - is strikingly pretty. Her fine blonde hair is pulled back under a hairband, her skin is flawless, her thin, tall frame elegant in a black pin-tucked peasant shirt and black trousers. The broken sleep and stress of early motherhood don't seem to be showing. 'I just have to be very, very organised.'
Philo now walks to work from the nearby house she bought with her husband, contemporary art dealer Max Wigram of MW Projects, two years ago. But there has been little time to be a house-maker; the workload is immense. She designs two main catwalk collections a year, two pre-collections and the latest addition of two cruise collections, not to mention a burgeoning Chloé accessories business. The Paddington bag - a squashy oblong style in antiqued leather with a huge padlock - is currently the 'it' style in fashion. Costing around £750, there is already a waiting list at Harvey Nichols for the new red or blue versions from Autumn/Winter 2005.
'Everyone wants new things all the time, shops require so much - there has to be consistency. My boss, Ralph Toledano [president of Chloé], always says to me that people come to buy at Chloé for what it is, so it does not make sense to order a Chinese and get delivered an Indian!'
What women come to Chloé for is Philo's easy-to-wear, feelgood designs, which mix boyish and girlish, retro and contemporary in a deft way. From the Spring/Summer 2005 collection, in store now, there are gently gathered washed-silk skirts which hang just so from the hip; bib-fronted blouses; slim-shouldered Victorian military jackets, and shimmering plisse emerald silk dresses trimmed with crystal at the decollete. There's an air of ease to her clothes which belies the intense work on design, cut and delicate embellishment. Dressmaker details such as pin-tucking, ribbon and sequin trims seem fresh rather than precious.
As Averyl Oates, fashion buying director of Harvey Nichols, says: 'It is sexy and glamorous, but it does not scream "Chloé!" I think it appeals to sophisticated, understated, intelligent women. But the brand has been clever; it has not inundated the market, so it remains quite exclusive.' And Philo, she adds, is an aspirational figure: 'People want to buy into a brand and also into the name of a designer.'
'I try not to intellectualise what I do,' says Philo, laughing. 'In fact, I've always been rather sh*t at that. I'm not good at summing up what Chloé is. The way I work is an organic process. Some things you design you think are going to be great, and they come back from the atelier and I think, "Hell, what is that!" Every day you have to adjust and rethink. It is work in progress right up until the show, and even then you are never quite sure how things are going to happen. But that is the nature of the beast.'
Philo was brought up in London, the daughter of a surveyor and a graphic artist, and although not academic, she had a talent for art. A foundation course at Wimbledon School of Art was followed by a fashion degree at Central Saint Martins, where she developed an interest in tailoring. After graduating, she was whisked to Paris as Stella McCartney's deputy when McCartney became creative director in 1997. The appointment was one of the most talked about in fashion. For this Parisian house, set up by Jacques Lenoir and Gaby Aghion in 1952, to hire two young, cool London girls complete with mockney accents to take over the reins sent the industry reeling.
What McCartney did was give Chloé a sexy-chick, street savvy modernity and put it back on the map. Super-skinny hipster trousers, diaphanous tops and swaggering jackets soon became part of the repertoire. Those early shows were a blast of hip-hop music and lots of posturing. Philo lived that role, too: super-long diamante-studded nails, high high heels, combat pants and a gold tooth were part of her image.
When Philo was appointed in the key role, however, things changed. Chloè became less about street culture and more about femininity. Philo, the true chameleon, changed her image, too, becoming classic and modest.
In many ways, she and her team took Chloé back to its roots. The house was known for its sweet cotton poplin dresses and blouses. Christina Onassis once ordered 36 silk Chloé blouses on discovering the label. A number of high-profile designers have run Chloé, most famously Karl Lagerfeld, the man responsible for the signature print chiffons and diaphanous evening wear. He returned in the mid-Nineties, but the brand had fallen off the radar. The attention had turned to a new school of minimalists such as Helmut Lang and Ann Demeulemeester, and to the avant-garde Alexander McQueen. The romance of Chloé just did not feel right.
The house undertook an extensive market research project a few years ago to try to pinpoint the Chloé-ness of Chloé. 'What was clear is that the French have a real feeling for it, it is something very close to their hearts,' says Philo. 'There's also a strong element of nostalgia, which came from the time Karl Lagerfeld was designing it, and also from the first perfume. It was not hard to get people to like Chloé, which was very fortunate.'
Philo is the latest in a long line of British designers, including John Galliano (Dior), Alexander McQueen and Julien Macdonald (both Givenchy), hired to overhaul a traditional Paris house. Those designers were appointed to master both the couture and ready-to-wear sides of the business, and excelled in very theatrical shows. Chloé is solely ready-to-wear and Philo has the real touch. Watch her shows, as models stroll down the catwalk hands in pockets, jackets hung loosely, and it could be the street (albeit a very glamorous one). There are no high concepts, stylised themes or fantastical show-pieces, but clothes that you could slip on straightaway with your jeans, and without going through an identity crisis. That image is an attainable fantasy: 'You too could be that pretty girl.'
Philo's 2004 British Designer of the Year award was a timely recognition of her talent and influence. The high street from Zara to Topshop is awash with Chloé-esque chiffons and blouses. Keeping the Chloé appeal is the real task.
'It's so important to keep things steady. Such quick success puts you in a vulnerable position, because fashion is fickle and you can fall out of favour just as quickly. I feel like cleaning things up now,' she adds. 'Much of what we have been doing is about layering and how an outfit is put together, and that is integral to the brand. I want to make things tighter and cleaner and about the individual pieces.'
Philo is working on the next Spring/Summer 2006 collection, which will debut in October. She works with her team on ideas, and the Paris atelier makes up her designs. 'I am working a lot on the stand, manipulating the fabric to create detail and shape. It is an exciting and creative process. I like slightly heavier fabrics at the moment that you can cut into and create a silhouette mixed with lighter fabrics. I think that could be beautiful.'
Her inspiration now is for very proper clothes: matching dresses and coats and neat trousers, which one associates with older ladies. 'I just think it is so flattering. Maybe it is having the baby, but I'm not feeling that youth thing.'
What Philo feels is her drive. 'I am emotional, and rather than deny that, I allow myself to work on that. The clothes are a bit emotional and I think that is what the customers respond to.'
'I think having Maya has given Phoebe a different perspective,' says shoe designer Olivia Morris, a friend of Philo's since they were students at Wimbledon. 'She has grown into herself.' Phoebe Philo has signed to Chloé for another four years - although, as she says, a contract is only as good as the paper. 'With the internet and such immediate access to information it can be overwhelming. Everyone is chasing after the same thing, the same references. The only thing you can do is try and create something authentic and real... beautiful clothes that have an emotion and a wonderful structure that hopefully are desirable.' And, one should add, make you desired.
A ' light ' reading task for this bright morning .
[/font]
:-INTERVIEW
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The phoebe factor[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]When Phoebe Philo arrived at Chloé - one of Paris's more conservative design houses - she came complete with mockney accent, diamante nails and a gold tooth. But when she took over from Stella McCartney that all changed. Now, with the label re-established in the fashion firmament, she tells Harriet Quick why she's cutting her cloth to fit motherhood.[/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Sunday May 29, 2005
The Observer
[/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]In the wonderful world of ego and talent that is fashion, a very unusual thing happened at the Paris runway for Chloé in March. Phoebe Philo, the brand's 31-year-old creative director, took a front-row seat to watch the show and let her key team of five designers take the bow and the applause.
Philo gave birth last December to her first born, Maya, and had been on maternity leave. She entrusted her team to design the Autumn/Winter 2005 collection, which was bursting with the label's hot sellers: billowing bodice-front dresses, neat little jackets and military inspired coats. It was an act that warmed the audience's hearts - designers generally keep their crew in the back room.
'I did not feel like bullshitting, to be honest. It was not my work and I was not going to walk out at the end. I wanted to do it, it felt right, and part of that was me saying it is OK to be a mum and take time off. It's normal.' Philo throws back her head and laughs at this revelation. Fashion people tend to be workaholics - 'normality' is rare.
Philo, who took over creative directorship of Chloé following Stella McCartney's departure in 2001, when she left to set up her own label, has made the brand one of fashion's brightest stars. 'Makeovers have been the story of the new millennium,' writes Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune's fashion editor. 'At Chloé, Phoebe Philo has done a fine job of bringing the house's heritage of delicate fluid clothes up to modern speed.'
Philo's understated way with glamour, and the subtle sexiness of her clothes, appeals to a whole generation of women. Count in there film director Sofia Coppola, Jimmy Choo president Tamara Mellon, and actors Milla Jovovich, Mischa Barton and Jennifer Connelly. Chloé's owner, the Richemont Group, the world's second-largest luxury goods company (it also owns Dunhill and Cartier), reports a 60 per cent sales rise for the year ending March 2005.
Ensconced in her new London studio, on a dull-looking light industrial street in Brondesbury, Philo is back at work. Her creative team is split between Paris and London and her staff travel back and forth. 'I spend eight days a month in the Paris studio and the rest here, and so far so good.'
One wall of the industrial-white painted space is pinned with row upon row of colour photocopies culled from books and magazines - generally, soft-focus imagery of tousle-haired models floating clothes in various states of bliss. Philo's office, by contrast, is bare, save for a couple of big snapshots of her daughter Maya. 'The little munchkin,' says Philo, tapping a photo of her happy, blue-eyed baby popping out of a cardboard box.
'Until you go through with it yourself, you simply can't imagine it. But it is the transition of going back to work and the guilt of how much time you spend with your child that's hard. I worry about not getting back in time for bath-time. I am not a neurotic person at all, but every time the mobile rings my stomach leaps. But,' she smiles, 'everyone says that is normal.'
Philo, who is wrapped in an overcoat - the heating in the studio is still primitive - is strikingly pretty. Her fine blonde hair is pulled back under a hairband, her skin is flawless, her thin, tall frame elegant in a black pin-tucked peasant shirt and black trousers. The broken sleep and stress of early motherhood don't seem to be showing. 'I just have to be very, very organised.'
Philo now walks to work from the nearby house she bought with her husband, contemporary art dealer Max Wigram of MW Projects, two years ago. But there has been little time to be a house-maker; the workload is immense. She designs two main catwalk collections a year, two pre-collections and the latest addition of two cruise collections, not to mention a burgeoning Chloé accessories business. The Paddington bag - a squashy oblong style in antiqued leather with a huge padlock - is currently the 'it' style in fashion. Costing around £750, there is already a waiting list at Harvey Nichols for the new red or blue versions from Autumn/Winter 2005.
'Everyone wants new things all the time, shops require so much - there has to be consistency. My boss, Ralph Toledano [president of Chloé], always says to me that people come to buy at Chloé for what it is, so it does not make sense to order a Chinese and get delivered an Indian!'
What women come to Chloé for is Philo's easy-to-wear, feelgood designs, which mix boyish and girlish, retro and contemporary in a deft way. From the Spring/Summer 2005 collection, in store now, there are gently gathered washed-silk skirts which hang just so from the hip; bib-fronted blouses; slim-shouldered Victorian military jackets, and shimmering plisse emerald silk dresses trimmed with crystal at the decollete. There's an air of ease to her clothes which belies the intense work on design, cut and delicate embellishment. Dressmaker details such as pin-tucking, ribbon and sequin trims seem fresh rather than precious.
As Averyl Oates, fashion buying director of Harvey Nichols, says: 'It is sexy and glamorous, but it does not scream "Chloé!" I think it appeals to sophisticated, understated, intelligent women. But the brand has been clever; it has not inundated the market, so it remains quite exclusive.' And Philo, she adds, is an aspirational figure: 'People want to buy into a brand and also into the name of a designer.'
'I try not to intellectualise what I do,' says Philo, laughing. 'In fact, I've always been rather sh*t at that. I'm not good at summing up what Chloé is. The way I work is an organic process. Some things you design you think are going to be great, and they come back from the atelier and I think, "Hell, what is that!" Every day you have to adjust and rethink. It is work in progress right up until the show, and even then you are never quite sure how things are going to happen. But that is the nature of the beast.'
Philo was brought up in London, the daughter of a surveyor and a graphic artist, and although not academic, she had a talent for art. A foundation course at Wimbledon School of Art was followed by a fashion degree at Central Saint Martins, where she developed an interest in tailoring. After graduating, she was whisked to Paris as Stella McCartney's deputy when McCartney became creative director in 1997. The appointment was one of the most talked about in fashion. For this Parisian house, set up by Jacques Lenoir and Gaby Aghion in 1952, to hire two young, cool London girls complete with mockney accents to take over the reins sent the industry reeling.
What McCartney did was give Chloé a sexy-chick, street savvy modernity and put it back on the map. Super-skinny hipster trousers, diaphanous tops and swaggering jackets soon became part of the repertoire. Those early shows were a blast of hip-hop music and lots of posturing. Philo lived that role, too: super-long diamante-studded nails, high high heels, combat pants and a gold tooth were part of her image.
When Philo was appointed in the key role, however, things changed. Chloè became less about street culture and more about femininity. Philo, the true chameleon, changed her image, too, becoming classic and modest.
In many ways, she and her team took Chloé back to its roots. The house was known for its sweet cotton poplin dresses and blouses. Christina Onassis once ordered 36 silk Chloé blouses on discovering the label. A number of high-profile designers have run Chloé, most famously Karl Lagerfeld, the man responsible for the signature print chiffons and diaphanous evening wear. He returned in the mid-Nineties, but the brand had fallen off the radar. The attention had turned to a new school of minimalists such as Helmut Lang and Ann Demeulemeester, and to the avant-garde Alexander McQueen. The romance of Chloé just did not feel right.
The house undertook an extensive market research project a few years ago to try to pinpoint the Chloé-ness of Chloé. 'What was clear is that the French have a real feeling for it, it is something very close to their hearts,' says Philo. 'There's also a strong element of nostalgia, which came from the time Karl Lagerfeld was designing it, and also from the first perfume. It was not hard to get people to like Chloé, which was very fortunate.'
Philo is the latest in a long line of British designers, including John Galliano (Dior), Alexander McQueen and Julien Macdonald (both Givenchy), hired to overhaul a traditional Paris house. Those designers were appointed to master both the couture and ready-to-wear sides of the business, and excelled in very theatrical shows. Chloé is solely ready-to-wear and Philo has the real touch. Watch her shows, as models stroll down the catwalk hands in pockets, jackets hung loosely, and it could be the street (albeit a very glamorous one). There are no high concepts, stylised themes or fantastical show-pieces, but clothes that you could slip on straightaway with your jeans, and without going through an identity crisis. That image is an attainable fantasy: 'You too could be that pretty girl.'
Philo's 2004 British Designer of the Year award was a timely recognition of her talent and influence. The high street from Zara to Topshop is awash with Chloé-esque chiffons and blouses. Keeping the Chloé appeal is the real task.
'It's so important to keep things steady. Such quick success puts you in a vulnerable position, because fashion is fickle and you can fall out of favour just as quickly. I feel like cleaning things up now,' she adds. 'Much of what we have been doing is about layering and how an outfit is put together, and that is integral to the brand. I want to make things tighter and cleaner and about the individual pieces.'
Philo is working on the next Spring/Summer 2006 collection, which will debut in October. She works with her team on ideas, and the Paris atelier makes up her designs. 'I am working a lot on the stand, manipulating the fabric to create detail and shape. It is an exciting and creative process. I like slightly heavier fabrics at the moment that you can cut into and create a silhouette mixed with lighter fabrics. I think that could be beautiful.'
Her inspiration now is for very proper clothes: matching dresses and coats and neat trousers, which one associates with older ladies. 'I just think it is so flattering. Maybe it is having the baby, but I'm not feeling that youth thing.'
What Philo feels is her drive. 'I am emotional, and rather than deny that, I allow myself to work on that. The clothes are a bit emotional and I think that is what the customers respond to.'
'I think having Maya has given Phoebe a different perspective,' says shoe designer Olivia Morris, a friend of Philo's since they were students at Wimbledon. 'She has grown into herself.' Phoebe Philo has signed to Chloé for another four years - although, as she says, a contract is only as good as the paper. 'With the internet and such immediate access to information it can be overwhelming. Everyone is chasing after the same thing, the same references. The only thing you can do is try and create something authentic and real... beautiful clothes that have an emotion and a wonderful structure that hopefully are desirable.' And, one should add, make you desired.
A ' light ' reading task for this bright morning .
[/font]
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