Sabine Morandini : Where do you find your inspiration?
Romain Kremer : Everywhere and nowhere. Everywhere because it's the everyday business and the personal analyze that comes from it, and nowhere because it's never one thing in particular, never a fixed theme, it's more of an intangible theme. I don't like to have a precise theme, I like the idea of dispersion, to be surprised by the whole thing, we have to accept the fact that we can't control everything. Possibilities are multiplying.
The last collection was a concept on anachronism, a sort of desire to be in history even though I have no formal knowledge on history, it was a development on Greece, statues, the idea was to liquefy the statues. There are prints that were inspired by marble.
SM : What are your origins, how did you get where you are, what's your work style?
RK : I was born in Aveyron, papa was an accountant and mama a hairdresser, a modest family. They've always liked fashion, my father loved cloth, the big names. At 14 years I already had a notebook where I sketched silhouettes.
I work often alone because I have a hard time delegating, but sometimes it's important to have a team.I do have a lot of friends around me.
I always start with the fabric , I was never big on drawing, until the Hyères Festival, where I had to submit a portfolio of drawings that we had to be faithful to. Since that, I draw first, but I keep my options open. If I need to start with the fabric, I take that option.
I don't name my collections, it's tacky. It's my 6th right now, the last one being really official. I love the work that I'm building and just that. I do like Parisians but not the energy that comes out of the city. My work is connected to the culture, Paris architecture bores me, and beside work, it's not very interesting. If I wasn't into fashion, I wouldn't live in Paris. If I had to chose, I would live in Rotterdam or Amsterdam.
I do like Vogue magazine. I feel that they have the most integrity, they make the most sense.
There is nothing on the walls when I work...
SM : Is fashion important?
RK : No, but there is something tangible in fashion that I like, something a bit lost in advance, and everybody still believe in it, a little bit like going into a wall in a deliberate fashion and I like it. It totally illustrates my relationship with life.
I like agressive things, but with moderation, we can't make progress without agressivity, I would like things to be different but it's not the case.
I love Jan Fabre, the film director, I like people who ask themselves what is the public's interest, and rough it up a bit.
I don't like what is frozen. I'm part of a generation that break the old molds, and try to associate all the creative universes into one., shatter the standards, i'm inadvertedly part of a new trend.
I realised the Preljocaj Ballet costumes, for a show, as a partner with the Hyeres Festival.
I take responsability for the fact that I'm in fashion, and I go along with it, I'm aware of the business notion in it, and of the development that I have to achieve.
SM: Art and Matter?
RK : As far as the colors, materials and forms of the last collection, I used black, vert de gris, it came from a picture at the Père Lachaise cemetery, that we turned into techno, after being digitalized. There was also a lot of black (a first for me) because I wanted to know if we could still do , something interesting with it, I still don't have the answer.
The materials are diverse, silk cotton, cotton, sweat, basic mixed some more sophisticated, borderline tacky fabrics, some lurex and lames.
I love to start with something not that great and transcend it. Volumes were very accentuated at the waiste and voluminous, a little heavy, I like the idea of the technical challenge, a garnment that becomes an art piece, without having to worry if I will sell it or not.
SM : Who do you think is the best dressed actor in movies?
RK : The actors in "The life of Jesus"
SM : Do you wear brand names?
RK : Yes, before the fashion industry became my world. Since I work in it, I have a harder time to buy names. Before I loved it!
SM: What is the last fashion show that you saw, and it made you feel like eating what?
RK : I can't remember what it was, but nothing made me hungry.
SM : Have you seen Zoolander?
RK : Yes and I loved it.
SM : What is the relationship between fashion and the movie industry?
RK : Often not that great! I don't like this wannabe hip vibe that we can see in certain movies. (Marie-Antoinette)
SM : Can you tell us about the show during the "J'en Rëve"exhibition at the Cartier Foundation?
RK : There was 9 actors wandering around in the foundation, I didn't want to have a definite script, and I let them improvise instead..Create sensitive moments, intangible, a succession of images.
Collection Hiver 2006-07
Perfomance "J'en rêve"
Soirée Nomades
Fondation Cartier
Pierre Marie