A few months ago I had the pleasure to meet the French Haute Couture designer Franck Sorbier.He has more than 30 years of experience in fashion. Franck Sorbier is the only Master of Art among all fashion designers, and he is one of only 14 designers in the world with the title of Grands Couturier.He welcomed me to his studio, where I had the opportunity to discover his last Haute Couture collection and personally interview him. I was able to enjoy a private view of some of his art works: recycled vases, drawings, collages, accompanied by descriptions from the artist himself.
Franck is a very unique designer. He is the last Couturier of our time who creates with his hands and a sewing machine. He doesn’t betray the traditions of his craft, and at the same time he is a progressive man of our time. Franck Sorbier combined the latest technology and fashion, he cared about the sustainability of his brand before it became a trend.
We’ve been doing this for a long time. We keep unused pieces of fabric to use later. No waste is an important principle for us. Everything can be reused. You can make a vase out of broken pieces of plates. And small pieces of fabric can become a skirt.
Yes, I was involved in art from the beginning. I can tell you an interesting fact. The very first publication about me in the English magazine The Face was about one of my sculptures. The theme of the issue was about the new forms that would appear in the future. I offered them a lot of clothes, but they chose a sculpture!
For me, art is the expression of beauty in different ways. I look for beauty first and foremost every time.I think what’s important about art is that it’s always in step with society. For example, constructivism reflects the industrial society of the early 20th century, and romanticism reflects the other side of human history, politics, literature, fashion – everything is connected.
It’s a difficult question. I think beauty is something you can feel. For example, the feeling you get when you meet someone’s eyes, that can also be beautiful.When you look at clothes, sculptures you get a feeling, an emotion. I think emotion is very important in defining beauty.
I love photography. It’s a very important witness to an era. It’s something that will remain in history. And I also love to draw. Every season I like to express new inspirations in drawings. I am from the old generation of designers who draw on paper and don’t use a tablet.
New technologies have always intrigued me. In 2012, we did a new version of Charles Perrault’s tale “Peau d’Âne” (“Donkey Skin”). The model on stage wore a large white dress, which was a projection screen on which the 3D mapping system projected various images and simulated ultra-realistic effects.
I think that fashion always reacts to its era, to the needs of its time. For example, in the 1920s, we wanted to be free. Dresses were not tightened at the waist, hair was cut. After the war, Mr. Dior came with a new look. Big puffy skirts, body in a corset – it became the opposite. In the seventies, people were once again free. Times change, so does fashion.
A transformation must take place. I think Haute Couture needs to think broader, to be more than just expensive dresses for events. It has to become more cultural, to express the reality of the times and become more and more exceptional.
If it doesn’t go that way, then I think only the big houses will be able to continue Haute Couture because they can sell perfumes, ready-to-wear collections, accessories, but for designers like me, we have to be really different.
At the end of our interview, Franck gave me one of his drawings, a portrait of a woman. That was a very kind. This is Franck Sorbier! The only one of his kind in the world.
