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March 6, 2008 10:57 am
Unlike, say, Manolo Blahnik or Jimmy Choo, shoe designer Pierre Hardy is not necessarily a name with which the average fashion fan looking forward to the release of the “Sex and the City” film is conversant. Hardy’s more of an insider’s cobbler—he tends to attracts the kind of customer who considers no Balenciaga style too extreme. So when Gap announced that Hardy would be designing a range of shoes for the retailer, we were curious. Though Hardy’s no stranger to collaborating, his other side projects, with Hermès and the aforementioned Balenciaga, are very definitely in the milieu of high fashion, which Gap, no matter who many cute separates it makes, is not. But judging by the shoes—pointed flats, chunky wedges, strappy flat sandals—there’s not such a wide, er, gap between high price and high style. (You can judge for yourself—the styles hit U.S. shops today.) Here, Hardy talks to us about glamour, therapy, and what he loves about Gap.
Was it difficult to adapt your vision to a more mass-market point of view?
Actually, I accepted the challenge because it was interesting to test what I like to do in a different market. So the aim was not to adapt a recipe to Gap, but to try to find a new expression of what I love with different materials and different technology.
You also collaborate with Hermès and Balenciaga. What was it like working with Gap—any surprises or things that went differently from the way you thought they would?
The surprise has been that they have been quite easy people to work with. I was expecting many more constraints, but in the end, they really let me go wherever I wished to go. The fact that Gap is a really big brand meant that the collaboration was not so different from another one. I felt I got really great respect and enthusiasm for the proposals I made.
What were your inspirations for the line?
I tried to evoke the feelings of freshness, freedom, and spontaneity that are the kind of values from the early years of Gap. I also worked with the ready-to-wear collection.
Are glamour and mass mutually exclusive?
Because glamour supposes quite a lot of sophistication, it was not exactly the aim. I would say that I tried to introduce a twist of it in the collection by using some more sophisticated materials like patent or gold leather, bright and feminine colors, more feminine straps. So, I tried to reconcile them.
You were one of the stars of a Gap ad campaign in the U.K. and France. What was that like?
Surprising. I didn’t anticipate the scale of the campaign and of the images. It was quite a shock to discover my portrait in the middle of the street. In a way it has been also a kind of therapy.
Do you wear Gap?
Yes! The shirts are great and the new slim jeans are perfect.
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