ABOUT ME

 

Pretty Vacant video by Gertrude on YouTube

THE SEVENTIES

I was born in France and was brought up in a suburb West of Paris. I started making clothes for myself when I was still a teenager, in the late 70’s. The magazine 100 idées was my source of inspiration then, even though I only had basic knowledge of sewing.

When I caught the end tail of Punk in 1978, sewing for myself became a necessity. First, because no punk clothes were available ready-made in those days, and second, because the ethos of punk was Do-It-Yourself anyway. Which I eagerly did, scrawling band names with marker on men’s T-shirts, sewing tartan pants, printing T-shirts with stencils. One worried teacher asked me: “You’re not going to the Baccalauréat wearing that?” pointing to my ripped and torn creation. No, I didn’t, and yes, I passed. And I still listen to Punk rock.

With the Mod revival, 60’s fashion made a come back and I started to make more sophisticated clothes, especially mod dresses. By then, London was teeming with amateur fashion designers selling their wares on markets such as Camden Market, Kensington Market, Hyper Hyper, Petticoat Lane.

London was very exciting then, with tribes dressing up in their own very individual style, populating the streets of the capital. It was a golden age for youth culture. However, wearing the wrong clothes in the wrong place could see you banned from clubs or even whole areas, beaten up by the opposition, or stopped and searched by the police. Which happened at an alarming rate for me. Dressing dangerously had a real meaning then. Ironically, Seditionnaries, Westwood’s punk shop, banned me for that specific crime. The fashion police is not always who you think.

 

THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

I moved to London permanently in the early 80’s and ran a stall at Camden Market, selling stencilled T-shirts. By then, Goth and New Romantic had taken hold and I was making more outlandish dresses. I can’t remember using patterns or even copying from magazines, it all came straight from my imagination. I was living in a squat where I made my own curtains and matching quilt, and why not?!

I had my babies in the early 90’s and started to make baby clothes and quilted bedding for them. I knitted baby gowns in wool and cotton, embellishing them with frills in Liberty prints. I had very stylish babies. However, I was too busy for making clothes for myself.

21^ST CENTURY

I was working as a freelance French copywriter in international advertising which drove me crazy. Literally. By 2000 I had a serious mental breakdown and was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder (or DID) as well as Autism. I stopped working in advertising altogether and started to look for an healthier occupation.

Sewing came almost automatically as a form of therapy and a new start. I studied Fashion Design from home, gained a City and Guilds Certificate. I decided that I needed more practical advice and enrolled in weekly adult classes at my local college for a year (Hampstead Garden Suburbs Institute, East Finchley).

Empire dress made at the Hampstead Garden Suburbs Institute

I also went to workshops at the V&A (pattern cutting, paper dresses with Juliana Sissons), and at the Fashion and Textile Museum (embellishment with Naomi Ryder, fashion illustration with Dennis Nothdruft, FTM curator). I’d encourage anyone to attend classes such as these, wherever you live, even for a short while. They provide practical guidance, discipline and new techniques. You won’t always find the company to your taste, I’m afraid some women attend them as talking therapies, but they will improve your skills, no doubt.

 

Dress after the Tsar exhibition made at the V&A 

 

60's inspired paper dress made at the V&A

 

VIVE LA RÉPUBLIQUE

I launched Vive la République in 2007, again to regain my health and sanity after a breast cancer.  Born from the ideals of the French Revolution and the chaos of British punk, Vive la République is a vision where the spirit of the French Revolution, May 68 and the energy of the street of London where once upon a time everything was possible meet. I believe we are at the end of history and now is the time to look back and grab anything we can before the final meltdown.

 

Toile de Jouy provides a background to my creations, old buttons and ribbons, Liberty prints and any fabric I can lay my hands on. I believe in recycling, ethical fashion and sewing as a mean to express philosophical and political ideals. An artist like Tracey Emin is a case in point I look up to. In other words “sewing pretty” has never been for me. When everybody is taking refuge in vintage worlds, it is time to re-invent new codes and live in the present. I went through Punk and I’ve experienced its excitement, I am not about to forget it.