Julien Dossena: "The Paco Rabanne heritage infused me"<

SHE.How do you feel on the eve of the presentation of your collection in this specific context?

Julien Dossena. C’est un peu étrange.There is not this pressure to have an event to organize with hundreds of people to welcome and where we know that we are going to be taken in a hurricane of questions and contacts.So it's a serene plus and at the same time there is more work.Because we have more zooms, phone calls that are linked ... so it's very different the way the intensity is distributed.

SHE.Are the final issues different from usual?

Julien Dossena. Ce sont les mêmes.It is a different way of presenting the collection so it implies a necessarily different creative work, if only in the way we will unroll the presentation, finalize the clothes and the looks.But it remains the same issues at the end: trying to be direct, to be understood and especially that the collection pleases.The perception of people must, whatever the presentation medium, is also understandable.

SHE. En septembre dernier vous aviez décidé de maintenir le défilé physique, en tout petit comité, cette fois vous testé la vidéo.Why this choice ?

Julien Dossena.First of all because we were really unable to make a show, whatever it is.I didn't want to do a filmed show either because it made me even more frustrated so that it was a parade and not to make a physical reality it.So the video was for me the simplest way that it diffuses on all digital platforms.And in addition, for me, it was important that we have the clothes that were in motion and show their reality in the most precise way.It also makes it possible to offer a more lively perception than a simple look book.

SHE.Precisely, the presentation of the collection is like a shoot of dynamism, joy and carelessness, almost a finger of honor at the current era against the backdrop of Bryan Ferry ....

Julien Dossena. Au départ, on s’est demandé « où est-ce qu’on pouvait trouver du plaisir dans cette situation justement ? » Finalement le plaisir ne se trouvait pas dans les interactions avec les autres, parce qu’on n’a pas la possibilité de le faire.What we wanted to show is this kind of joy a little naive and very energizing that we can feel when we are a teenager and we start to jump on a bed.Or at any age, moreover, even now you ask me to jump on a bed I am immediately happy.There is this idea of finding joy even alone and isolated.We also seek the way to give people if only a smile.

SHE. Vous arrivez à cultiver votre identité personnelle tout en respectant l’héritage stylistique de la maison Paco Rabanne.How do we succeed in this balancingist exercise?

Julien Dossena. Au départ, j’étais plus analytique.At the start, when I arrived, I did a lot of work of adaptation and almost editorial choice.And little by little the approach is more natural and this house was mine.I adapted my vision and that of its founder in a natural way.Today, I no longer even ask myself the question of what Paco Rabanne should be because I have the feeling that I built myself at the same time as I was building this house, Don is as if this heritage had infusedin me.Now it's much less analytical and much more instinctive.

SHE. On dit souvent que la mode est le reflet de la société.After so many years, can fashion still cause?

Julien Dossena.I do not know if it is really the idea of a provocation in the literal sense of the term that the search fashion ... The word seems to me a little bit anachronistic now.This can be a stronger resonance of the society on which we will support to highlight it for example, it can be an anticipation of what we press, of subjects that will annoy, be debated in the coming months ... a question askedalso on a societal state allows people to wonder about it.Provocation is almost the final mission of the proposal, that is to say, support people in their fight, in their questions ...

SHE.During the second confinement, you shared on Instagram an extract from a work by Jean Genêt with this quote "We create the world".Do you think everything will be to recreate after this crisis?

Julien Dossena.Recreate, I don't believe.In any case, I think it is like an accelerator in terms of creation and social advance which was already underway.That is to say debates that were no longer questionable or questionable.And I think this crisis, if it has a positive aspect, was able to speed up these commitments.Don necessarily there will be things to create or recreate.But from a political and societal point of view, there have been so many questions and oppositions that there will be a real questioning upon leaving the crisis.

SHE.You have often revisited the famous cottage of mesh that reminds of the great warriors of history.Can you see a kind of armor of modern women in your dresses?

Julien Dossena. Oui, c’est vrai.Indeed, I worked different aspects of this coat of mesh over the years.Paco Rabanne himself worked it to evoke and express different identities.Armor, in fact, is one of these identities with protection or even the attack are part of this vocabulary.I used it a lot last winter, it was a fairly direct reference in medieval times, to warrior women, fighters.It was certainly a desire that I had to express this because I think women needed to attack.The idea of a fight to be carried out which requires weapons and armor.

SHE. Si le jeune Julien Dossena voyait ce qu’il est devenu en grandissant, que dirait-il ?

Julien Dossena.I don't know ... [he thinks].How to say ... I think he would be surprised and at the same time I think he would be happy that he did not drop what he wanted to do as a child.In any case, the life he wanted to lead.I would tell him not to worry too much.We're really going to enjoy ourselves.

SHE. Quels sont vos prochains défis chez Paco Rabanne ou ailleurs ?

Julien Dossena.There are a lot of things that happen with the collections, always.We will continue to hold the bar of this house to make it grow and that it will always be respectful of the vision of its founder and what it wants to express in fashion.Afterwards, I will always be surrounded by my teams with whom I love to work for them to be as fulfilled as possible.Personally there are other challenges too but there are always things to do anyway.