ANTHONY VACCARELLO

---

Anthony Vaccarello knows how to satisfy—his clothes hit the head and the heart at the same time, a modern synergy in dressmaking that traverses sex and the cerebral. Born in Italy and raised in Belgium, this designer combines the best traits of both nationalities to create his own 21st-century Parisian love story.

“I think I’ve always been interested in fashion,” Vaccarello explains. “But at that time,” he says, referring to his adolescence, “it was not like nowadays. Today there is an obsession with fashion itself, whereas then it was cooler, more about the whole universe around it.” Back then, in the golden age of supermodels, Alaïa, and Versace, he remembers being “in love with an Alaïa dress worn by the French actress Béatrice Dalle. It was a shock.”

His own vision for strong women began at Brussels’ esteemed La Cambre, however, where he learned how to cut clothes, push boundaries, and met the first of his muses, Laetitia Crahay, who today creates jewelry and accessories at Chanel and is the artistic director at milliner Maison Michel.

Leaving college with a High Distinction in his low-slung jeans pocket, Vaccarello entered his graduate collection—which commanded fabric and navigated the body in a fresh way—entered the Festival d’Hyères in 2006. Rising above his competitors, Vaccarello snared the festival’s top honor, the Grand Prix mode, before being snapped up by Karl Lagerfeld to work on furs at Fendi, in the most prestigious division of the Roman powerhouse.

Then, as fast as his career was accelerating, Vaccarello decided to turn left. He moved to France for love—and set about establishing his own eponymous collection in 2008. “My boyfriend was working in Paris and we only used to see each other every weekend,” he tells honestly. “It was exhausting and expensive. So love can make me do strange things sometimes. But I don’t regret it.”

Why would he? First of all, there’s more to life than clothes—even if they are the dream-stalking, daydream-creating visions of idyll that this designer conjures up. Secondly, despite his purest of personal motives, a brighter flame than ever would burn professionally there in the French capital, guiding his future path. In Paris, his fashion clicked (and cliqued), alluring a group of empowered, creative, and hedonistically beautiful women who brought his designs to life. Women who, despite their genetic blessings, probably think there’s more to life than clothes too.

“I’m such a lucky guy to have the chance of meeting all these girls,” Vaccarello says. “It may sound stupid, but I always fall in love with them. They make the collection live. Without them it’s better to stop.”

Lou Doillon has been a supporter since his arrival. “What can I say about Lou that I didn’t already?” he muses. “I can’t stop thinking of her whilst working on the collection. I’m not asking myself, Will she wear it? but, How will she wear it? Because Lou can wear everything, she can bring that coolness to everything. And that’s inspiring. Like Caroline de Maigret, Laetitia Crahay, Anja Rubik—all these strong women, friends that I really love. I don’t want to be surrounded by a lot of women, but only those who touch me, who can make me feel nervous, excited.”

His respect for the opposite sex is obvious. In the wrong hands, the Vaccarello signature would be tabloid material, yet he is a stylist who is able to show serious skin without veering toward the gratuitous. Yes, he’s bringing sexy back, but he’s doing it intelligently. Panels, voids, and suspension map the body, in coalition with great tailoring, to empower their wearer rather than making her feel vulnerable.

Winning the ANDAM prize in 2011 provided an injection of financial stability, but there is no hurry to grow his house quickly—everything has to be done right. He works from the same studio as always, at the edge of the Marais, where Spotify is a constant soundtrack. “My assistant loves to put on very, very bad, tacky songs. Yes, that’s a hidden message for him!” he jokes.

Fall 2012 sees the designer collaborating with Giuseppe Zanotti on catwalk shoes for the first time—something he is understandably thrilled about. And recently he released a capsule collection for iconic French catalogue La Redoute. It is probably the first and last time you’ll see Rubik rocking mail-order, shot by Karim Sadli.

Strip away all this vitality, and you’re left with a steadfast work ethic, a designer who is constantly refining and evolving his design language through new fabrics and construction. He sees just one overriding difference between his first official season, Fall 2009, and Spring 2012: “The models that walked for me. The models injected life into a drawing.”

Such modesty. That drawing enabled all this.

Anthony Vaccarello will present his Fall 2012 collection Tuesday as part of Paris Fashion Week. For more information, please visit AnthonyVaccarello.com.