92 DECEMBER 2017INTERVIEW: LOU STOPPARDFLAT LAYS: GEORGINA EGANIMAGES: JAMIE HAWKESWORTHJAMIE McCARTHY/GETTY IMAGESMERT AND MARCUSDAVID SIMSDAVID URBANKEo you remember the first time you met?
Marc Jacobs: “I don’t. She does. I’ve been reminded
of it, but for some reason I keep forgetting it. She
crashed a Louis Vuitton party.”
Katie Grand: “It was a dinner party at Hôtel Costes. My
friend Giles Deacon is good friends with Peter Copping,
who was the head of studio at Louis Vuitton. Giles suggested
we go. We turned up thinking it was going to be a drinks
party, and, of course, it was a sit-down dinner for about 20
people – just the team. I remember some of Vuitton’s
employees glaring at us. But then it became a funny tradition
that I would be invited after that. They used to do drinks at
Le Bristol after, and we’d also always go. I remember, as time
went on, sitting next to Marc chatting about fashion. Keith
Warren was head of menswear, and he asked me to work on
menswear. So that was how I ended up in the studio.”
Marc, do you remember what you thought of Katie
during those conversations?
MJ: “‘Energy’ would be the key word. That’s how I first
remember her; her laugh and everything like that.”
Tell me how you came to work together at both Louis
Vuitton and Marc Jacobs.
KG: “I started working on the Louis Vuitton ads as well –
Iwas asked by Mert [Alas] and Marcus [Piggott]. But at that
point, Marc wasn’t there on the shoots. The first seasonD
VOGUE VIEWPOINTSuper-stylist Katie Grand and Marc Jacobs on
working closely together for over a decade, first
at Louis Vuitton, then on his eponymous label.Like minds
Pages from
Fashion
To g eth er,
a new book
exploring
influential
creative
partnerships
in the
fashion
world.I did we were in Switzerland, and it was 20 degrees below zero, and we were up
amountain. It was so cold you couldn’t actually hold the camera. Then the model
fainted because of lack of oxygen. It was in the days of the Polaroid, so we’d have to
fax the image back to the studio for them to check. We were ready to set up the second
shot, when the message came back from Marc: ‘Could you try the first again with
adifferent suit?’ I remember we were all like: ‘Argh!’ He was sitting in his nice hot
office! We wanted to kill him! I’ve never been so cold in my life. But really it was great.
And he was right about the suit. I think it only drives you nuts if someone’s not right.”
Marc, I’ve heard that one of the reasons you really love working with Katie is that
she reacts to ideas with a lot of joy.
MJ: “She’ll get quite giddy. It does make you feel good about doing something,
because the reaction is so genuine and particular, rather than just a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
Why has your relationship with Marc has lasted so long? Is it the friendship?
KG: “Actually, I think there’s a definite professional boundary between us, which is
sometimes crossed by how demanding he is. But it’s not like we go on holiday
together – it’s not that kind of relationship. And I quite like that there is a bit of a
formality to it, which I think surprises people, given that he gives me so much credit.”
Marc, the fact that you credit Katie and your team so often runs counter to the way
fashion traditionally has utterly fetishised the star designer, the solo creative.
MJ: “I’ve often said that anyone who pretends that exists is just lying. It takes so
many people to do what we all do. There are the women who sew, the people who
make the patterns, the people who cut the patterns, the people who sell, the PR, the
photographers, the models. Everyone plays a part, and when it works, it’s because
everyone’s brought something very special.”
This is an excerpt from Fashion Together by Lou Stoppard (Hardie Grant, $140).