Rules of Style

Rules of Style

2007 — fashionconsultant

1. Style is about personality. The same thing can look cool on one guy and disgusting on another. A basic suit would never look boring on Sean Penn because he has so much character. 2. Hats should become a “must” again. All my shows have had hats made with Parisian milliner Maison Michel. The models try to steal them.

3. Jeans aren’t my thing. My version of jeans are baggy black pants. The only real pair I own are Helmut Lang.

4. The ruggedness of a three-day beard balances a nice suit. I don’t like a shaved face. It’s a problem when we do the shows in Paris after Milan. The models come back looking like Barbie dolls. I don’t even recognize them.

5. The Belle Époque was such a stylish time for men—it was all about bow ties and hats, black and white. You can’t go back to that, but you can draw inspiration from it.

6. The vest is the new jacket. It looks smart, but it’s not restrictive. In the summer, I’m always wearing T-shirts with vests.

7. If you asked me a year ago which color I would never use, I would have said yellow. But the inspiration of my spring show had a slight eighties feel—American Gigolo—so there was a lot of yellow and red. Never say never.

8. I love tattoos on other people. I’ve always been too scared to do it. It’s not the pain I’m afraid of—it’s wanting to get rid of it the next day. Body piercings are not for me, but I do wear Cartier diamonds in my left ear.

9. Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis are the coolest couple on earth. When you see them together, it’s like, “Wow!” He‘s the only man who can make funny glasses look cool.

10. I’m not a white-space addict anymore. My old apartment was a loft in a very gray industrial building with nothing inside. Now my home has objects and paintings, like a little framed Madonna from a flea market, to make it my own.