Florence Muller

Built to last. Interview with Florence Muller by Leah Sandals. Canada.com. 06.04.08.
excerpted text:

"A YSL was one of the first to open this connection in the '60s. But I think it was through the '90s that the idea that art and fashion really became connected. Artists like Vanessa Beecroft had a fascination for this world of luxury together with a critical point of view on it. And on the other side, people involved in these luxury brands were very interested by art and started to support exhibition events. So in recent years this connection has been perceived as completely evident. But this wasn't always so. It was once revolutionary to argue this connection. I can say that I've lived this revolution because when I started to work on the idea of the Museum of Fashion in the Louvre during the '80s, it was very difficult to say that fashion is also a form of art. But now everybody understands it." (Florence Muller)

"A Very often these people don't know how fashion functions; critics might say, "Oh they are just stealing this [idea] from a painter." But if you don't know haute couture, you don't know how complicated it is to translate a bird from Braque into a sculpture around the neck of the model that also holds the drapery of a dress. There is huge work on finding a way of doing something that is not a painting anymore, which starts to be more sculpture, in fact a sculpture alive on the body of the model."(Florence Muller)

"It is also helpful to understand that a designer can be free in front of the white page like an artist in front of a painting. Both have a feeling of freeness in terms of creation. I think Yves said that he was naturally very involved in artistic field because he was a drawer and a painter before he was a designer." (Florence Muller)