290 i-Con Michel Gaubert TEXT ANDERS CHRISTIAN MADSEN PHOTOGRAPHY RYAN AGUILAR
Michel Gaubert is fashion’s monarch of music and the blunt social media commentator, whose unrelenting Instagram feed puts pop culture into perspective. In an age where everyone with a laptop and a look can be
a guy called Leopold Ross in Los Angeles and we mixed it
a DJ, Michel Gaubert is the kind of man you actually want
together. It was super clever.” Gaubert has been interpreting
to talk to about music. He’s may have both, but unlike his
the work of the world’s biggest designers in music for over
hipster pretenders he won’t namedrop underground bands
two decades, and has a personal archive that counts more
you’ve never heard of or talk about music as if it’s some sort
than 80,000 records and upwards of 400,000 digital tracks.
of esoteric phenomenon you wouldn’t get. “Because I’m a
The fashion landscape, he says, is suffering from a kind of
fashion DJ, or whatever you want to call me, it’s not like
popularisation and its own excess, he designs his show
I’m supposed to know everything. I to listen to stuff that’s
soundtracks to become an integral, memorable and, as a
disposable just like everyone else. If you’re a stylist you
result, almost invaluable part of the collection. “The movie
don’t have to wear Comme every day. Sometimes you need
of 2014 for me was Under the Skin, because it was a like a
to wear a pair of New Balance or Converse,” he instructs
fashion show. Everything was put together in such a way it
over the phone from Paris, his accent continental though
all made one. I listened to the record over and over again,
slightly Americanised.
and that’s what I like to do: when people walk out of the
For a man usually referred to as a ‘sound designer’ by
show, I like it when they want to listen to the music again.”
a reverential fashion press, and who’s hailed as the
Because of Gaubert’s position as the music prophet of
unparalleled champion when it comes to fusing fashion
fashion, he isn’t just bombarded with records throughout
and music – he counts Céline, Chanel, Dior, and Louis
the season (“piles and piles”) but also with the inevitable
Vuitton among his seasonal soundtrack clients – Gaubert
question of who the next big artist will be. It’s a question
is refreshingly relaxed about living up to his reputation.
54-year-old now lives a sober life in Paris when it comes
he says is redundant in a time when people become fads
He’ll talk about the epidemic of mediocrity in music, but
to all things mind-numbing. “I don’t watch TV anymore. I
that last “for a month and then it’s finished.” In fashion as
rolls his eyes at music snobs and their guilty pleasures.
don’t like to be fed all that stuff,” he says. Overload, in all
in music, he’s excited by longevity generated by making a
“My proudest pleasure is watching Beyoncé’s 7/11 video
its representations, is a big aversion in the world of Gaubert.
bigger statement through your platform than simply selling
20 times in a row when it came out, she’s not someone I
Posed with the question of which music stars employ fashion
your product. “Shows can become a social statement, a
especially like, but I thought that video was clever when it
best, he’s at a loss. “All the stuff I see is mostly red carpet
take on our society and what we’re going through. People
came out,” he says. With some 80,000 followers, Gaubert
with celebrities wearing impossible clothes. People go over
like to make clothes nice… and the point has been proven,
has become the fashion industry’s Instagram oracle of
the top, they look like Christmas trees. I think they’re lacking
you know? When Dior created the New Look he made those
pop culture, feeding his fan base a steady stream of daily
a bit of simplicity. Life isn’t so complicated like that.”
big long skirts and was using a lot of fabric right after the
posts commenting ironically on a celebrity culture he’s as
Turn the question around to designers and their musical
war, and the women wearing them were, like, being stoned
astutely opinionated about outside the social media sphere.
ways, however, and it’s an entirely different case. He lists
on the street because they were wasting fabric, and the
If Gaubert’s line between mockery and salute sometimes
Raf Simons, Phoebe Philo, and Karl Lagerfeld as some of
country was poor and all that kind of stuff. But that was a
seems fine, don’t mistake his fixation for fandom. “Fame
fashion’s top music mavens next to Nicolas Ghesquière,
political statement from Dior: ‘the war is over’,” Gaubert
doesn’t ruin music,” he says. “Fame ruins people. All those
whose soundtracks Gaubert has done since the early
says. “Fashion should reflect what we’re going through,
girls and bands.”
Balenciaga days. “The last Louis Vuitton show we did in
because that’s what makes it desirable. That’s how I see it.”
After hitting the party scene hard in his younger days, the
October, Nicolas wanted the sound of silence. I worked with
instagram.com/michelgaubert
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