HAVING more FUN

Best known for their diamond-encrusted corsets, eccentric New York-based costume design duo The Blonds have made headlines by dressing pop sensations such as Rihanna and Kylie Minogue. PHILLIPE and DAVID BLOND chat with VIVIENNE TANG about sending Katy Perry off in a clamshell, Louboutin heels and dreams coming true

How did you start your label?
Phillipe: David and I used to make clothes for each other to go out, just for fun, and we started meeting stylists. We realised that this could actually turn into a business instead of a hobby. And The Blonds were born.
David: [New York stylist] Patricia Field had a lot to do with it. She was the first person to spark the idea of actually developing what we were doing for ourselves for fun, and making it into something real. She encouraged us to put a few things in her store, and things grew from there. We kind of fell into it really.

How did you two meet?
David: I moved to New York in 2000, and Phillipe and I met one night out at Roxy. It was one of those things. It was an instant attraction. I saw him in the corner. He was this sparkly little fairy in a beaded tank top [laughs].
Phillipe: I saw him, and I dug my claws into him and never let him go.

So today you produce a new collection every season?
David: Yes, we’re on the same schedule as any other fashion designer. The shows are something we really enjoy doing. [They] help with our creativity, and we don’t do any other advertising. So every six months that’s our form of advertisement, the show. That’s how we inspire the clients.

Are you designers, costumers or couturiers?
David: It’s funny because we’ve often thought about what direction we want to go in, and we’ve had every opportunity to go in a mass-market direction. Obviously we have a costume business, but I typically don’t like to label our label [laughs]. I like to keep things open. That, to me, is more fun than to choose a direct path.
Phillipe: I don’t think I could definitely say that I’m a serious fashion designer or a costume designer or anything like that. I still see what we do as making fun pieces, having fun just making clothes.
David: At the end of the day, what we do is encompass all of it. I’m sure at some point we’ll take advantage of a mass-market opportunity, but right now we’re extremely happy with what we’re doing. We just have our own little atelier and our personal clients. It’s always on a personal level, and they also inspire us in return. So it’s very reciprocal. A collaboration is always fun. It just makes for more personal experience.

You’ve worked with many celebrities over the years. Do you have any favourites?
Phillipe: They’re all so unique and so individual. You can’t really say, “Oh this one is my favourite.”
David: There are some girls who stand out. We’ve had a long-term relationship with Katy Perry. Working with them has always been amazing – with Rihanna, Kylie. We had such a great time working with Kylie.

Are there celebrities that you haven’t dressed yet, but are interested in?
Phillipe: Definitely Janet Jackson. She would be amazing. And Tina Turner would really be awesome.

What do you think of Lady Gaga’s outfits? Do you take inspiration from them?
Phillipe: I think she’s great. She inspires people around the world to take their own style and make of it whatever.
David: I’ve always thought she was amazing. We knew about her long before most people. We see where it comes from and we live the same life. We think it’s incredible that she’s been able to reach so many people.

What sort of interesting collaboration stories do you have?
David: One of the greatest moments we had…it was in Vienna, and we dressed Katy Perry up as a mermaid, because the theme was water. We put her in a shell and lifted her up at least 50 feet off the stage. She was supposed to float down singing, and it was just the funniest thing ever to say, “See you later,” while she was up in the air inside of a giant clamshell.

Do celebrities normally approach you?
David: They usually come to us if they want something special or particular that you can’t find anywhere else. That’s what we try to do: things that are individual and unusual.

Who are your customers apart from celebrities?
David: We have a very large clientele of women who have special needs and want to be catered to. It’s a luxury to have custom-made pieces, and that’s what we do. The shows are not only there to impress but also to inspire the clients we work with. We work with girls from the age of 15 to women in their 40s and 50s. Everything from prom to bridal, any special occasion is pretty much what we do.

Would you be interested in doing a high-street collection?
Phillipe: Absolutely. That’s something that might be coming in the future, and we’d definitely accept that with open arms.

Where do you find inspiration, and how do you come up with new themes?
Phillipe: Well, there are many things that inspire us. Tear sheets that we’ve saved. It’s everything.
David: Films. It’s the dreams we’ve had. The things we used to play when we were kids, like Barbie, old Hollywood like Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davis.
Phillipe: Glamorous girls.
David: There are costume designers who went over the top. Women wore costumes then. They really dressed for a reason and had fun with fashion.

I believe Christian Louboutin designs the shoes for all your runway shows.
David: We partner with Christian Louboutin, and they create all the runway shoes every season. Christian was there at our first official show in 2008, and our relationship grew from there. It’s one that we really value. Phillipe was obsessed with his shoes before we even started working together, so that has been another kind of dream come true.

How do you two divide the work? Who takes care of the design side?
David: Well, when we work on a new collection, we basically scour the Internet. Anything we see, anywhere we go, we’ll just start jotting things down. We just start posting things on our wall and kind of create this giant collage, like a mood board. We just sort of let ourselves go…
Phillipe: You should mention…
David: Yeah, I’m getting to that. I’m making a point [laughs]. We take all that, and once we decide the direction we’re going in, Phillipe will start sketching. As he’s doing that I give my feedback and kind of creatively direct him. But he is definitely the head designer, and I’m more the creative director. It’s sort of 50-50. It’s the yin and the yang.

What about menswear? Is that something that you want to venture into?
Phillipe: Hopefully. I can see some menswear coming along. Adam Lambert actually inspired a few pieces I did for him. So that kind of got us thinking about it, but right now I think we’re just going to focus on the girls. Who knows?
David: It’s funny, because we’ve been exploring different things lately, and we’ve gotten a few male clients from that. We’ve also been exploring the bridal sector, which has been really interesting and fun. The clients are, as you can imagine, even more insane because they’re so psyched up about their wedding. We just had a Romanian bride who we worked with.
Phillipe: The dress was...enormous!
David: It was the most gorgeous scale piece we’ve ever done. The skirt at the base was 280 inches [7.1 metres] in circumference and we had a nine-foot [2.7-metre] train. “The more, the better,” she kept saying. I was like, “You came to the right place.”

How would you define real beauty?
David: I think that true beauty comes from within, and I think everyone has it. Every woman has that little bit of showgirl in her, and that’s what we always try to bring out. We call all the girls we work with showgirls. It’s in there, but you know, you just need that right punch to bring it out.

What do you like best about your work?
David: We eat, breathe and sleep fashion 24/7. There’s not much we don’t like about it. At the end of the day, it’s hard work, and I always tell people who are younger and who want advice, “This is not something you do because you want to do it, it’s because you need to do it and because you love doing it.” You do have to put up with a lot of bullshit [laughs]. But at the end of the day, you love it. It’s like New York City.
Phillipe: When we first started, we listened to a lot of people telling us, “No, you can’t do that. You should do it this way.” Now, we’ve taken charge and we do what we want, and we just love it all.

What kind of challenges do you face?
David: Any time you own your own business, there are a lot of things that go with it. We started with nothing. We’ve been independent this entire time. You have to learn how to do everything. I’m not a paperwork person, I’m not an accountant, but you have got to be all those things. In the beginning you have to do all that stuff yourself. It’s the noncreative stuff. I could work forever on a piece and not complain about it. I love doing it. It’s like you’re in a different dimension or another world when you’re working on something that’s creative. It’s like working on an art piece.

If you weren’t designing, what would you be doing?
Phillipe: I always think about that, and I think if I weren’t doing this label, I would be designing shoes. I would be swimming with mermaids, riding unicorns [laughs].