sOle mate

PIERRE HARDY is a shoe collaborator par excellence, but his biggest dream is to turn his label into a full-fledged brand. vivienne tang sits down with the sole man in Paris to chat about his eccentric heels and high-tops, rap stars-turned-fashion designers and why he would decline certain high-street retail offers

PIERRE HARDY IS without doubt one of the top shoe maestros of our time. He can choose his collaborators carefully, having reached the pinnacle of his industry, a coveted spot that he has defended for more than two decades. In fact, a number of venerated male shoe designers have confided to me that they admire Hardy for his unique designs and that they like to wear his famous trainers, which have become something of a cult item among the fashion crowd. Parisian streets wouldn’t be the same without his inventive creations, and neither would the brands with whom he’s worked, such as Hermès and Balenciaga. He has been designing bold and iconic chaussures – perhaps better described as footwear sculptures – for the two labels for a number of seasons now, and he’s paid his dues at Dior, doing couture shoes back in the day.

With growing fame and multiple crossovers also come responsibilities, but Hardy, who trained in fine arts and dance, doesn’t seem to mind the pressure. On the contrary, when others bail in the face of fashion’s frenetic turnover, he happily rejoices, cherishing every busy moment he’s designing his umpteen styles and collections.

“Actually, it’s what I like about the industry,” he says. “It’s probably one of the only industries where you can imagine and create something every three to six months. It’s not always reinventing everything. There’s a part that you have to reinvent and recreate, but there’s also a part that you want to continue and that you want to make better and deeper. It’s about continuing certain things that you love deeply and things that you discover by chance sometimes, which become a leitmotif or a gimmick, like the cubes. It wasn’t supposed to become a print, season after season,” he says of the 3D-perspective design on trainers and bags, “but in the end it became recognised by everyone. So one part is reinvention, and on the other hand I have to find new shapes and new combinations, because a brand, especially a fashion brand, needs new blood every season. But for me it’s the fun part of the job.”

His Paris showroom on Rue de Lancry is full of eccentric and colourful styles for spring/summer 2012. He assures me that he designs no more than 50 women’s styles each season, and 25 for men, but his collection appears to be much more voluminous than that. He says the big perk of his job is the extensive variety of whatever he cares to dream up. After all, that’s what he associates with luxury.

“Most people try to push me to continue certain things,” he says. “You know, ‘This style works so well. You should continue and do it again.’ Normally I reply, ‘Oh no, let’s do something different.’ ” He laughs, a tad guiltily for enjoying his job so much.

“For a luxury brand, people expect an abundance of styles. Not too much, though, otherwise you lose them because they can’t make a choice. But I think part of the meaning of luxury is choice; not to be too restricted.”

For Hardy, there’s no enjoyment in rummaging through brand archives to find inspiration. And he admits that he’s not designing timeless shoes. He prefers to create trends instead, while not considering the past or the future when designing. Also, he’s more drawn to details, such as black and white.

“For the special-edition sneaker collection (pictured opposite), I started with dots. Polka dots, the most classical thing in fashion. So I played with it, made it small, big, multicoloured. In the end, when I painted it, it looked like a [Roy] Lichtenstein painting. It’s a pop object.

“I think what defines something in the moment is because of many reasons. The way it’s done and the time when it was created are very important, too. When you isolate it and transplant it into another collection, for me it rarely works. What is clever, modern and fashionable? Because between art and fashion there is a gap, and this gap is just the feeling of the moment. Something can be beautiful forever, but not so beautiful for this moment. For fashion it’s about what is good now, for six months or maybe a year.”

When Hardy isn’t designing in his attic-like atelier (connected to his showroom by a spiral staircase), you can find him sketching in a restaurant, in bed or in his car. And despite his compulsive urge to design new things, he’s not obsessed with creating the perfect shoe like so many other footwear designers are. Instead, he goes with the times.

“I think it’s a dream that everybody runs after,” he says with a laugh. “It’s a permanent wish. It’s a quest, but it’s also like a fantasy. It’s something that you want and that you try to reach, but it always escapes, because the circumferences around you are changing all the time. And that dictates the wish. The design is always evolving.”

Hardy calls couture footwear “an old way of thinking.” He leans towards a much more contemporary approach. Apart from designing for some of Paris’s most influential fashion houses, he collaborated with Gap for four years. While it’s a partnership he’s proud of, it’s not necessarily something that could easily be applied to other high-street retailers such as H&M or Zara.

“To Gap I said yes, because it’s a real brand with a real identity,” he explains. “If you think about Gap, you have a perfect picture. It’s California early ’70s, late ’60s, jeans, cool attitude. It’s strong. It’s almost like Ralph Lauren but for the street, and you can build something on this image. If I would do H&M, what would I do? I would possibly do this [pointing at his own collection], but cheaper? I’m not interested in that. H&M hasn’t asked anyway, but some others have.”

He chuckles and attempts to be secretive, but I get it out of him. One of those who have come knocking on Hardy’s door is none other than rapper-cum-fashion designer Kanye West, who made his Paris Fashion Week debut with his first womenswear line in October. Critics came down hard on the hip-hop star, but West seems keen on pursuing his new passion nonetheless.

“It’s difficult because often celebrities don’t have an understanding of the industry,” says Hardy about the harsh reviews of West’s collection. “He’s insistently trying to collaborate with me. He’s done an internship for six months at Fendi in Rome. I admire that he’s consistent. He loves fashion. He came over to our studio and I started sketching a few things. I love his music, and he’s such a great guy. But it didn’t work. Time was running out, and I told him that we can’t do a shoe in two weeks.”

Hardy’s resumé includes working with fashion’s most exclusive brands. He has even turned his hand to Hermès high jewellery, and he has celebrities lining up to join forces. So what’s next? A fashion line?

“When Hermès asked me to do the fine jewellery, I had never thought about it before. And now I love it. It’s always about designing, so it’s fine. If you asked me to design a car, I would say yes. A house? Yeah, let’s try. I don’t know if I would be able to do it, but the wish and the desire are there. With clothes it’s different, because I work with people, especially Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, and I see and know how sharp and accurate you have to be to create a beautiful piece of clothing and how difficult it is. Would I dare to do it? I don’t know.”

Collaborations and fashion lines aside, there is one goal he is willing to share with me. “I don’t know if I’ll live long enough for that, but I’d love to make this company a real brand.”