the first time that they met Mark

and that was a I would say probably something like twenty years ago he was a

young designer

he was actually just left Perry Ellis somehow it was starting to work for

an Italian company I mean icebergs

and I was the journalists for norm

for love or going to embolden I was I was called to do an interview and to

find out what was these new talent cellmark

on how was a your life before that famous

ground show in 1992 that kinda got you fired but also put your

on feiyr I would say and you know how did you get involved in fashion

I'm hello everybody I

the I my life is pretty much the same as its always been

I i wake up in the morning and I'm pretty excited about what I have to do

kinda scared usually but excited at the same time in

I was I was given the job at perry ellis at a very young age and II when their

everyday certain feeling like I'll just do the best they can

you know it was a little overwhelmed burstyn and kinda

as I became more comfortable there I

I wasn't afraid to just sort of do what my instincts

told me was right and it sorta accommodated in that final collection

which was Brunswick really I mean

even the the collection before that I was just doing I was

I should stop trying to please or doing what I thought other people wanted from

me

because in the beginning I was second guessing in thinking always this with

the people Perry Ellis one is this with the licensees one is this

and then finally I just threw my hands up in the air and said you know I was

given this job based on

what people thought of me and I have to trust my own instincts and and do what I

do

and once I did that I was responding to what I felt

was changing at that time which was

a photography the look of models there was this kind of

anti glamour kind of movement and something that felt very fresh in very

new to me

you know the work at Green Day Juergen Teller models like Kate Moss

sell a tenant I mean they were all sort of coming about and it was very

freshen I also was I've always been very interested in

art contemporary art music and pop culture so I'd love this music and I did

this collection

which was true to me in and I think it really outraged

I some people which which I to this day still serve

I don't know I look back on it I just think it was fine it was and it was no

big deal

and and I mean it which I was just saying earlier before I came here you

know

the irony is so many people dress like that and I felt so many people just like

that then

so again it just some it was always

just what I thought was right out different is New York the New York

up those days from the new york today I mean everything when you come here

now i cant what did excite you you know like you ever been here for

in a few days alike few weeks and do you find

part shows that I XIII like a you go to clubs do you go to

clubs and concerts music club sucks so much music I I always love and I

I yeah I really love music and I i do try to get as many calories as possible

yeah I i mean immediately the day I arrived in fact

on runs and I went to all these galleries we saw some shows in

I'm very stimulated like I said there's nothing that stimulates be more than

something visual in fact my

introduction to music II broder I wrote a

same ones for this punk rock balkan I I kind of had to

I'm not a writer at all and I had to feel like what how could I

right about this that I don't know anything about and and I realize that

get my introduction to things is always coming from a visual place first

I was so enchanted by the look up what hunk look like

that I went to hear the music or you know and that's how I learned about the

Rolling Stones I mean make

and Keith were so incredible looking that I had to listen to what they had to

say

you know and and a son just a very just like Chris Rea

for visuals I i mean image oriented person you know that's what really turns

me on

and then you left and you move to Paris

that was ten years ago yes and

how different is your life there from the life you had here

for on I

it is very very different I'm in New York I kind of came up with this little

summary of like if if you have five minutes free in New York you're a

failure

and if you have five minutes free in Paris your success you know it's just

like

a very different kind of thing like even though I think we

by my cell by myself my team we all work very very hard to mean

we be there's just a very different pace

and a very different energy in a very different spirit

and I mean you know going going from where I live in Paris to the office

like I just marvel at the beauty of Paris and I kinda

really enjoyed a everything in it all seems to move in slow motion

whereas in New York it's just like rapid fast

at it you know cut to dinner cut to next party cut to

you know being at the New York Times and Sunday and that you know whatever it's

just that

you know really rapid fire well it took about the reasons

while you went to Paris that is that work to work for

louis vuitton and you know how

mister I'm no end the group a

approach you in 1994 and then you went well you know I'll October

I think I'll long time before getting to a real contract and

how did you adjust to D's LVMH corporate culture to the suits and

when did that relationship like with the retreat on kinda

turn around I mean basically when did you fall in love with the bags

you know I E was a nervous wreck about the whole thing and at the time the new

yorker did this

to profile and I must say I mean I literally alienated myself from everyone

in the suit at LVMH because

II I've always been very outspoken and I don't know how to behave another way

maybe it's the new york

June erotic person that I am but mom

you know I just say with some I'm a beast too many years of therapy or on

I don't know but so I would say things in this article like I'm afraid you know

I don't really understand what the Purcell once the me in the summer could

be a drives me not seen is that a communication but I really don't like

him

so this all came out this very extensive profile and I mean literally

rover every resident have every brand her

turned their backs on us and I just thought of this is great like for some

american

nobody wants me here but mister are now and then he takes me out to lunch and

says you're really gonna have to fight to get things done here cuz

you know they don't want you yeah and as a gray this call

so I don't know that I've ever really adjusted but with again to demystify the

whole experience what changed things

is when I embraced the thing that I that I think most people identified with

louis vuitton which is their famous monogram

and I said I'm gonna celebrate this this is the only thing I've got to go

with because it's the company I mean it's not

they don't have an equestrian heritage they don't have a designer who

you know created a look in the twenties the there was no archive there was no

nothing

so how are you you know how where travel clothes today

I mean people wear what they want to travel to Iran you know anyone strong

and I don't think there's anything practical about traveling with the trunk

you know there's

with the most luxurious way to travelers with a toothbrush you know that that

it's like end of story who haven't you know the people who really live

luxurious lives

don't need to pack they've got stuff wherever they go

so I thought I so i thought well this is not what we talked about what return is

about is this

i'd it's this branding this is what makes it actual

what people love is being a member of this club this club that says

I have a Louis Vuitton bag and the symbol love it is this iconic Monogram

soon as I decided to embrace that I had a much easier time

and what changed my life there with corporate LVMH

was basically the opinion of one person I only work to please one person and

that's mister are no

he gave me the job he wanted me there he believed I could do it

and when he's pleased I'm pleased and the only way he's pleased as we sell

a lot Prada but that's all so things really have changed for me

when we had our first commercial success and I was like you know what

his stay that said they sold X millions of dollars the bags in two weeks

his stay and live with that and that's what my life take its

what is your creative process how do you start a collection and how does it

level up i've seen you know documentaries we have a little familiar

with like these

handover starts with an idea and then your move into something else and

you know it I i'm nonlinear younger

yen my attention spans pretty short but I am

what happens is you I mean it can come from different places we always start

the season

looking or talking about I mean we all do I mean it's a group of designers

their people work on hand thanks people specifically work on shoes

on textiles et cetera we'll just have to bounce ideas off each other

and I mean I have those meetings a couple things taken then we

we sort of develop a color palette but again nothing's ever etched in stone and

I'm a big believer in it ain't over until

it's on the runway so you know a long dress could end up a short dress and a

red what

if read was the most important color to you at the beginning of the season

you still have six other colors in the palette and read may not be important in

the end it may just be a punctuation at the end or

so you know a collection is a collection of thoughts and ideas

and for us in the way we work with the at leaa

or the studio here it's an evolutionary process it's not like

it's decided in the meeting and then we go about executing this one

singular idea but one thing is like a ping-pong sorta

match for something an idea goes that way then it comes back that way and then

one things worse burns

you know or or Spurs another thought and

and that's where it goes and and sometimes you know me being here in New

York and then

arriving in Paris I see something unlike I love it I love

those rabbit series lead to more about you know I was something silly you know

you have some kind of a childlike attitude some kind of freshness i mean

you know it's like you have the sense of wonder as you said before

you know that you bringing always to

the job to the product actually I

love doing it i mean again with all the difficulties in the obstacles one has to

deal with it still what I want to do it's a joy and

it's not necessary this is all a luxury I mean passion isn't what people need it

it's a joy it's it's part of the art of living