Portrait de créateur
Les muses de ZUZWA
The fitting room at ZUZWA's atelier in the 10th arrondissement is smaller than you expect. A single mirror leans against exposed brick. Pins in a ceramic dish. A rail with three coats, two skirts, one dress still unfinished at the hem. Zuza...
The fitting room at Via Gesù, spring 1991
The fitting room at Via Gesù, spring 1991. Gianni Versace circles Linda Evangelista in a column of gold mesh, adjusting the drape at her hip with one hand, a cigarette in the other. She stands barefoot on a wooden platform, arms loose at he...
Les muses de Valentino
The curtain fell on the final Valentino couture show in January 1968, and three women stood backstage in identical white organdie blouses with ruffled collars. They had not coordinated. Valentino Garavani had simply sent each of them the sa...
The fitting room at Tom Ford's Milan atelier, circa 2004
The fitting room at Tom Ford's Milan atelier, circa 2004. A model stands motionless while Ford circles, adjusts a sleeve, steps back. He does not speak. The silence, those who were present recall, was part of the process — a kind of pressur...
The fitting room at 5 avenue Marceau, 1966
The fitting room at 5 avenue Marceau, 1966. Catherine Deneuve stands in a smoking jacket, shoulder seams still pinned, while Yves Saint Laurent circles with chalk in hand. He marks the lapel where it wants to fall, not where convention says...
## Les muses de Prada
Les muses de Prada Miuccia Prada does not, as a rule, speak of muses. She prefers collaborators, or better yet, women who happen to occupy the same moment she does. Yet walk through the archive — the one housed in the basement of Via Foga...
The fitting room at Off-White's Milan headquarters, spring 2019
The fitting room at OffWhite's Milan headquarters, spring 2019. Bella Hadid stands in a deconstructed blazer, one shoulder dropped two inches lower than the other. Virgil Abloh circles her twice, scissors in hand, then cuts the lining out e...
The room is small, upholstered in dove-grey felt, and Miuccia Prada is adjusting a pleat
The room is small, upholstered in dovegrey felt, and Miuccia Prada is adjusting a pleat. Not her pleat — the model's. A wool skirt, cut short enough to provoke, long enough to suggest restraint. The girl shifts her weight, and Prada steps b...
The fitting room at Maison Margiela is white
The fitting room at Maison Margiela is white. The walls, the floor, the chairs — white. The only colour comes from the garments themselves, and even those, more often than not, arrive in shades of cream, grey, and bone. It is here, in this...
The fitting room on the third floor of 2 rue du Pont-Neuf is small, white, and flooded with north light
The fitting room on the third floor of 2 rue du PontNeuf is small, white, and flooded with north light. A model stands in a leather trench coat — one shoulder seam pinned, the other still loose — while a woman in a navy smock adjusts the dr...
Simon Porte Jacquemus stands in the back room of his Paris showroom, pinning a linen shirt onto a mannequin
Simon Porte Jacquemus stands in the back room of his Paris showroom, pinning a linen shirt onto a mannequin. The fabric pools at the waist, gathers at one shoulder, and he steps back. "C'est pas ça," he mutters, and starts again. This is no...
The atelier at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré runs on a different clock
The atelier at 24 Rue du Faubourg SaintHonoré runs on a different clock. Leather cutters arrive before seven. The saddlestitchers work in pairs, one thread per hand, pulling tension through bridle hide that will spend the next forty years o...
Grace Coddington once said that the best models don't wear clothes — they inhabit them
Grace Coddington once said that the best models don't wear clothes — they inhabit them. At Gucci, over eight decades, three women have done precisely that, not on the runway but in the collective imagination of the house. Each arrived at a...
Hubert de Givenchy met Audrey Hepburn in 1953, expecting Katharine
Hubert de Givenchy met Audrey Hepburn in 1953, expecting Katharine. He had been told Miss Hepburn was coming for a fitting. He assumed the studio meant the other one — taller, older, already a star. Instead, a 24yearold in ballet flats arri...
The fitting room on Via Borgognona, sometime in the early seventies
The fitting room on Via Borgognona, sometime in the early seventies. Carla Fendi stands before a mirror, adjusting the drape of a fur coat on a model who is not, strictly speaking, a model. She is Anna Piaggi, then a junior editor, later a...
## Les muses de Dolce & Gabbana
Les muses de Dolce & Gabbana Milan, 1989. Monica Bellucci stands in a fitting room on Via della Spiga, draped in black lace that stops just below the knee. Domenico Dolce adjusts the neckline. Stefano Gabbana watches from the doorway, arm...
The fitting room on Avenue Montaigne, 1947
The fitting room on Avenue Montaigne, 1947. A woman stands in halflight, shoulders squared, while Christian Dior circles. He has pinned twenty metres of ivory faille into a skirt that will require her to move differently — smaller steps, a...
The fitting room at 31 rue Cambon is white
The fitting room at 31 rue Cambon is white. The carpet is beige. The mirrors are angled so that Gabrielle Chanel, seated on the lowest step of her famous staircase, can watch a model turn without having to turn herself. She does not speak t...
The fitting room at 16 rue Vivienne, spring 1997
The fitting room at 16 rue Vivienne, spring 1997. Phoebe Philo stands in front of a mirror, her hand on the shoulder of a woman who is not a model. The woman is fortythree, works in publishing, and has just tried on a wool coat with no visi...
The fitting room at Burberry's Horseferry Road headquarters smells faintly of cedar and steam
The fitting room at Burberry's Horseferry Road headquarters smells faintly of cedar and steam. A tailor adjusts the sleeve of a trench coat on a mannequin while Daniel Lee, the house's creative director since 2022, watches from a stool by t...
## La Lumière de Solomeo
La Lumière de Solomeo Brunello Cucinelli stands at the cutting table in his Umbrian atelier, adjusting the drape of a cashmere coat on a mannequin. The fabric is the colour of fog over stone, a shade the house calls "grigio nebbia." He st...
Les muses de Bottega Veneta
The fitting room at Bottega Veneta's Milanese atelier runs along the north side of the building, where the light is flattest and most unforgiving. It is here, in the early months of 2001, that Tomas Maier stands with his arms crossed, watch...
The fitting room at 10 avenue George V, sometime in 1951
The fitting room at 10 avenue George V, sometime in 1951. Cristóbal Balenciaga stands behind a woman draped in black wool, pins between his lips, one hand tracing the line from shoulder to hip. He does not speak. The client — a Spanish marq...
Les muses de Loewe
The studio at Loewe's Madrid headquarters smells faintly of leather and something sharper — the acetone from pattern adjustments, perhaps, or just the particular chemistry of a room where cloth meets skin under halogen. Jonathan Anderson st...
Les muses de Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen stood backstage at the Conciergerie in Paris, spring 1998, watching a model step into a white dress. The dress rotated on a turntable. Two robotic arms began spraying it with black and yellow paint. The model stood sti...
The fitting room on Norrmalmstorg is white
The fitting room on Norrmalmstorg is white. Not cream, not eggshell — the kind of white that registers as a dare. Jonny Johansson stands near the back wall, arms crossed, watching a model turn in a leather jacket cut so close to the body it...
The fitting room at ZUZWA's Paris atelier smells of steam and cotton
The fitting room at ZUZWA's Paris atelier smells of steam and cotton. A toile hangs on a dressmaker's dummy, pinned at the waist by Madame Chantal Moreau, who has been with the house since its second collection. She adjusts the dart, steps...
The fitting room on Via Gesù is silent except for the hiss of steam and the rhythmic click of a hand-operated press
The fitting room on Via Gesù is silent except for the hiss of steam and the rhythmic click of a handoperated press. A woman in a white coat adjusts a panel of silk chiffon printed with Barocco swirls — the kind of print that has appeared on...
The atelier at Palazzo Mignanelli runs a second shift most weeks
The atelier at Palazzo Mignanelli runs a second shift most weeks. Not because Valentino is behind — though it often is — but because certain hands prefer the quiet. Fewer distractions. No tourists pressing their noses to the glass partition...
Tom Ford : les artisans qui font le travail
The fitting room at Tom Ford's Madison Avenue flagship is silent except for the sound of a tailor's chalk scraping against wool. The client stands still. The tailor — a man in his midfifties, trained in Naples, name withheld per house polic...
The atelier on the Avenue Marceau runs quiet most mornings
The atelier on the Avenue Marceau runs quiet most mornings. By ten the cutters are already bent over tables, marking chalk lines on lengths of black gabardine that will become trousers by Thursday. The seamstresses work in pairs, one pinnin...
Prada : les artisans qui font le travail
The atelier sits on the third floor of the Prada headquarters in Milan, where natural light filters through industrial windows onto worktables arranged in careful rows. At one table, a woman in her fifties — Carla Bianchi — guides a leather...
The white cable-tie has been photographed more times than most runway finales
The white cabletie has been photographed more times than most runway finales. OffWhite's signature flourish — a piece of industrial packaging repurposed as jewellery — appears on boots, bags, and the occasional sleeve. It is instantly recog...
Miu Miu : les artisans qui font le travail
The fitting room at Miu Miu's Milan headquarters, third floor, overlooks a courtyard where delivery vans idle and couriers smoke. Inside, a seamstress named Carla Bianchi is pinning a pleated miniskirt — the one from the spring/summer 2022...
The atelier sits above the boutique on rue de la Paix
The atelier sits above the boutique on rue de la Paix. Through the window, you can see the Place Vendôme, but nobody is looking. A première d'atelier is pinning the sleeve of a deconstructed blazer onto a stand. The lining is exposed. The s...
The atelier sits on the fourth floor of a Nineteenth Arrondissement building that most tourists will never see
The atelier sits on the fourth floor of a Nineteenth Arrondissement building that most tourists will never see. No brass plaque. No monogram above the door. Inside, twentythree artisans — the house prefers artisan to craftsperson, though bo...
The Anagram bag — a twisted, origami-folded envelope of calfskin — requires sixteen hours of hand assembly
The Anagram bag — a twisted, origamifolded envelope of calfskin — requires sixteen hours of hand assembly. The leather is cut, skived to different thicknesses across a single panel, wetted, shaped over wooden forms, and left to dry under te...
Jacquemus : les artisans qui font le travail
The atelier sits in a converted warehouse north of the Marais, light falling through steelframe windows onto worktables scattered with fabric swatches and halfpinned muslins. Simon Porte Jacquemus moves between them, gesturing at a sleeve t...
The workshop sits on the third floor of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré headquarters, behind a door most clients never see
The workshop sits on the third floor of the Faubourg SaintHonoré headquarters, behind a door most clients never see. Inside, a woman named Corinne Bénéteau is stitching a Kelly handle with a thread she waxed herself that morning. She has be...
The Gucci atelier in Florence occupies a former convent
The Gucci atelier in Florence occupies a former convent. Stone floors, vaulted ceilings, north light through tall windows. On a Tuesday morning in March, a woman named Lucia Moretti sits at a wooden bench, turning a piece of calfskin inside...
The fitting room on avenue George V is quiet except for the sound of scissors against wool
The fitting room on avenue George V is quiet except for the sound of scissors against wool. A woman in a white coat crouches at the hem of a black column dress, adjusting the fall by a quarterinch. Her name is Sylvie Morel. She has worked i...
Fendi : les artisans qui font le travail
The workshop sits one floor above the Via Solari showroom, and the light through the northfacing windows never quite reaches the cutting table. Giovanna Battista has worked here for twentytwo years. She is the reason your Peekaboo closes wi...
The corset leaves the atelier in Legnano at 4pm on a Thursday
The corset leaves the atelier in Legnano at 4pm on a Thursday. By Saturday it will be on a runway in Milan, worn over a black slip and paired with a gold filigree headpiece that took another set of hands three weeks to finish. The woman who...
The atelier on rue François 1er runs quiet at midday
The atelier on rue François 1er runs quiet at midday. A woman named Sylvie Moreau sits at a wooden table near the window, one hand steadying a panel of ivory silk faille, the other advancing a needle through the fabric at intervals so preci...
The jacket arrives on a padded hanger, sleeves forward, lining out
The jacket arrives on a padded hanger, sleeves forward, lining out. Mademoiselle Montex — first name withheld, house protocol — turns it once under the atelier's northfacing window, checking the fall of the braid against the light. She has...
The atelier on rue Vivienne runs quiet
The atelier on rue Vivienne runs quiet. No music, no chatter — just the tick of a regulator clock and the intermittent hiss of steam from the pressing station. At table four, Sylvie Marchand guides a length of calfskin beneath the presser f...
The atelier at Burberry's Horseferry Road headquarters smells faintly of steam and wool
The atelier at Burberry's Horseferry Road headquarters smells faintly of steam and wool. In one corner, a woman named Susan Pattison is pressing a trench coat collar by hand, easing the cotton gabardine around a curved wooden former with mo...
The fitting room in Solomeo smells of wool and espresso
The fitting room in Solomeo smells of wool and espresso. Brunello Cucinelli stands to one side, hands clasped behind his back, watching a woman named Franca adjust the shoulder line on a cashmere coat. She is sixtythree. She has worked in t...
Bottega Veneta : les artisans qui font le travail
The intrecciato weave — that trellis of leather strips folded at precise right angles — does not exist until someone's hands make it exist. At Bottega Veneta's atelier in Montebello, twenty minutes north of Vicenza, that someone is usually...
The fitting room on the second floor of 10 avenue George V is silent except for the sound of chalk on wool
The fitting room on the second floor of 10 avenue George V is silent except for the sound of chalk on wool. A première d'atelier — her name is MarieLaure Geffroy, though you won't find it on the label — is marking a sleeve head that refuses...
The pattern cutter's name was Joanne Eley
The pattern cutter's name was Joanne Eley. She had been with Alexander McQueen since 1996, when the studio was still above a pub in Hoxton and the cloth arrived in rolls you carried up two flights of stairs. By the time McQueen showed Voss...
Acne Studios : les artisans qui font le travail
The atelier sits on the third floor of a converted warehouse in Stockholm's Södermalm district, where light slants in at angles that change by the hour. On a Thursday in late November, a woman in a linen apron is pinning muslin to a dress f...
## La maison qui n'existe plus tout à fait
La maison qui n'existe plus tout à fait Zuza Kalinowska et Wawrzyniec Pietrzyk se sont rencontrés à l'Académie des beauxarts de Varsovie en 2009. Elle étudiait la peinture textile. Lui, la sculpture. Aucun des deux n'avait prévu de faire...
The fitting room on Via Gesù was narrow, and Gianni Versace preferred it that way
The fitting room on Via Gesù was narrow, and Gianni Versace preferred it that way. He could reach the model's shoulder without stepping forward, could pin a seam while his sister Donatella held the fabric taut from the other side. This was...
## The Fitting Room on Via Condotti
The Fitting Room on Via Condotti Valentino Garavani was adjusting a sleeve when Giancarlo Giammetti walked in. The year was 1960, the apartment was borrowed, and the fitting was running three hours over. The client — a minor Roman countes...
## The Fitting Room, Then and Now
The Fitting Room, Then and Now Tom Ford once said — in a 2004 interview with Vogue — that he didn't design for women who wanted to disappear. The remark was made in a fitting room at the Gucci atelier in Florence, with a model in a biascu...
Les fondateurs de Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent stood at the top of Christian Dior's atelier staircase in January 1958, twentyone years old, wearing a dark suit that did not quite fit. He had been appointed artistic director three months earlier, after Dior's sudden de...
The workroom is not what one expects
The workroom is not what one expects. No mood boards, no bolts of fabric stacked like a library. Just a long table, fluorescent light, and Miuccia Prada in a navy cardigan, turning a sleeve inside out to check the seam allowance. She does t...
Les fondateurs de Off-White
Virgil Abloh stood in the wings at the Palais de Tokyo in January 2018, watching models walk his first runway show for OffWhite in Paris. He wore a white tshirt printed with the words "PERSONAL STYLIST". The collection was called "Business...
The first Miu Miu collection, spring 1993, arrived with very little fanfare
The first Miu Miu collection, spring 1993, arrived with very little fanfare. Miuccia Prada had been running Prada proper for nearly a decade by then — the nylon backpack had already done its work, the minimalist turn was well underway — and...