The epic of unique luxury according to Olivier Saillard<

Quelle sont les origines la personnalisation ?Elle est arrivée avec l’essor des moyens de locomotion, à la fin du XIX^e siècle. La première fois que l’on voit apparaître des initiales, ce sont sur des bagages. A cette époque, c’est lié uniquement à un statut de fonction. Il s’agissait à l’origine de ne pas perdre de vue ses objets quand on voyageait en train ou en bateau. Les grands malletiers comme Vuitton ou Goyard personnifiaient — plutôt qu’ils ne personnalisaient — les malles qui étaient toutes identiques avec le monogramme de leurs propriétaires, afin de ne pas les confondre. La manière de personnifier était d’ailleurs toujours un peu la même, avec des lettres et des bandes de rayures bicolores. Ce que les marques refont aujourd’hui de manière assez maligne. Je crois que le premier dans la mode à avoir personnalisé sous forme de logo monogramme, des vêtements, c’est Jean Patou dans les années 1920. Il ne s’agissait pas forcément d’apposer le logo de la maison, mais les initiales de la cliente.

Isn't personalization behind luxury and the essence of haute couture?

Bien sûr qu’elle relève de la personnalisation puisqu’elle est faite pour la cliente. Si on regarde l’histoire de la haute couture depuis la fin du XIX^e siècle, un même vêtement commandé par telle ou telle personne peut avoir des variantes. Car certaines préféreront un col plus remonté ou une jupe plus longue. Certains couturiers comme Cristobal Balenciaga s’y refusaient. Il ne souhaitait en aucun cas que la cliente intervienne sur la proportion ou l’objet même de sa création. Les autres étaient prêts à quelques compromis.

Has it changed a lot since then?

Today, personalization extends its field of expression more and goes far beyond painting bands or affixing initials.You can personalize a room by choosing its colors, its materials and even making it unique in certain houses.It was mainly accelerated in the 2000s when it became a commercial and marketing issue, especially for large luxury groups.They could thus identify, cajolate and initiate their customers to a form of rarity and reactivate their desire, while the market was invaded by the same products.

Does personalization act as a lever to democratize luxury?

Yes, because today, you can also have a sports cap on its initials embroidered. But the more fashionable, the more some will want to stand out. At one time, we thought that buying expensive, it was to buy better. This is no longer the case. This is more the singularity that we are looking for. It is not necessarily in extravagance, but in "for oneself" through personalization. There is this underlying question that shows that, when we wear a product marked with its initials, one is part of a small club. It is also a response to an overly saturated market that will identify something that is really to itself and that does not belong to others. Oscar Wilde said, "What's fashionable is what we wear. What is old -fashioned is what others wear. "This is the whole fashion issue is that there is always a time when when it is unanimity that is value, it gets rid of.

Does it give the object a special dimension?

I am convinced that a personalized room will necessarily remain in a life a little longer than the rest.We will have more scruples to get rid of a garment marked in his initials when it comes to sorting in her wardrobe.These are pieces to which we are more sentimentally attached, because we have waited for them.Their beauty is not at stake, nor the fact that we no longer wear them.Even if we paid for it more, it is its value for oneself that counts.This piece is not necessarily transmitted beyond the family circle.She will also find it difficult to flow on the second -hand market.We want logotypical purchases with the initials of a large luxury group, whether stamped H or LV, but we don't want initials from another!

What is the paradox of this singularity to all crons?

Why pay a certain price to have a widely distributed object? We are ready to pay more to be different. We realized that we had to address the individual and not to the collective for the infused fashion. And often, it is through singular individuals that fashion diffuses. As I sometimes perceive it in luxury groups, personalization makes me think a little about magnets that we would pin on its refrigerator. It’s a way to customize it, but it’s not a stunning creative extent either. Beyond helping to increase turnover, it is above all a way of retaining its customers by offering it a product that is only aimed at it. However, we can see that there is always this paradox between the idea of ​​a fashion that must be addressed to the greatest number, notably thanks to the Internet and the will to cultivate this impression of exclusivity. It’s not because we personalize something better. It’s just a way to flatter the client’s ego, so singularized.

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— BASU Thu Jul 22 01:28:38 +0000 2021

What do you think of the customer, who has become co-creator?

We are not all creator, even if we can be creative.But what is creative is not always assimilated in the street.You really have to have a strong personality or be very broken to the exercise to infuse beyond your taste, its character.Some manage it very well because they are probably a little in creation, but others, not at all.When we offer you all the colors and all the possible materials, sometimes we go to creations so unusual that you never wear them.These excesses of taste, few people know how to measure him.You have to know yourself well to carry out your personalization and remain elegant.Or have a very developed sense of eccentricity.

As an artistic director of J.M. Weston, you see all kinds of special orders.Which ones touched you the most?

What I like a lot about Weston is that we have a lot from African sappers.And when I see some pairs of shoes pass by whose colors collide, I say to myself: "Oh there, I do not know how he will put them these."If I wore them, I would look like a clown.Them no!When you have the chance to meet them, you can see that they are in an excess of fully assumed appearance that works perfectly.They have a clothing culture that goes beyond fashions.And in itself, the special command transcends modes.

Is it cultural?

The European is generally quite reserved.Only very free people with appearance are more comfortable.Mainly African and Asian black communities.The latter draw more easily from other changing rooms, regardless of their genre.As soon as you give someone whose job is not, the possibility of creating, you often fall into excess, because it must be seen.While it’s quite the opposite.It’s not always easy to find the right balance.

What are his limits ?

It is clear that personalization has largely gained ground outside luxury groups and that there are individualization processes everywhere.Finally, personalization is the opposite of the uniform and sometimes it is missed.If everyone is asked to personalize everything, it is a kind of highway towards the non-stick.It’s like a Kelly Hermès that we would come too much.In the end, he would no longer look like a kelly.Anyway, we entered an era dress where the singularity is uniform and becomes banal.A banker covered with tattoos or piercing would have been inconceivable a few years ago.It would not have been recruited on this appearance.Everyone makes a more or less measured effort to stand out.Apart from the political circles that remain hung on their costume, everything else has shattered.

Is having the choice a luxury?

When you can personalize everything, like a costume, on some sites, it destroys.When everything is possible, desire is also vanished a bit.Too many choices kills the choice.It's like when, on a menu, there are too many dishes;It is better to let the server decide.There is also this utopia which insinuates that, because one would decide yourself, you would be happier.It’s almost comfortable not always choosing.Take the Couturier Azzedine Alaïa who dressed every day in small Chinese uniform.It is much more luxurious than wondering every morning what we will be able to wear, right?