PHOTO BY CLEMENT DAUVENT
Carven was once a fashion house dedicated to making garments for petite women. Now it's in the big-time, since the dormant brand was reawakened by young designer Guillaume Henry, who brought with him a whiff of cheeky youth and couture know-how. Interview met him after his show in Paris yesterday to discuss his hybrid of prim school uniforms and lederhosen.
ALICE PFEIFFER: There are a lot of references to traditional craft in your collection; why is this a source of influence to you?
GUILLAUME HENRY: These are values that touch me, which I expressed both in the references and the techniques: I knitted muslin, and I borrowed pieces that you'd find in a more folkloric garde-robe, such as ironworkers' aprons.
PFEIFFER: You mix flouncy skirts and leather, what kind of femininity are you suggesting?
HENRY: The Carven girl will always be in between childhood and adulthood, with plenty of references to uniforms. For this collection, there are dress codes from, say, tiny villages in the mountains, it's a collage between a uniform we already know, and patches of color, like a girl lost in a carnival in Hungary.
PFEIFFER: The brand was first communicated in more discreet, via look books and presentations. Today, you have a full-blown fashion show, how does it feel?
HENRY: I still don't view this as a "real" fashion show, I'd just call this girls walking. It's not models on a catwalks, but girls moving around in space. "Runway" is not the word I would use.
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