4/27/2014
Anders Christian Madsen / Linda Farrow - Linda Farrow
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LINDA FARROW 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
ANDERS CHRISTIAN MADSEN 10. 09. 13
Linda Farrow has caught up with Anders Christian Madsen, a London based Fashion Journalist & the Fashion Features Editor for i-D magazine. In this intimate and exclusive interview Anders, a close friend and a dear supporter of the Linda Farrow brand, tells us about the importance of what he calls "Magic".
POSTED IN: By Designer, Men, Sunglasses, Dries Van Noten
Linda Farrow: Hi Anders! Where do you live and what do you do? Anders Christian Madsen: I live in West London, in Shepherd’s Bush, which is very unchic, but I like to be away from the East. I am a writer and also the Fashion Features editor at i-D Magazine.
TAGGED WITH: Interview, LF10YEAR, Anders Christian Madsen
LF: What is your favourite subject to write about? ACM: ‘MAGIC’. Not magic in the sense of magician, but magic as in greatness and eccentricity and people that are larger than life and [I find] amazing.
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LF: Can you give a recent example? ACM: I’ve been writing a lot about Galliano, because I am a huge supporter of his work and I think everything that has been done to him, is very sad. I think he is a bit like a king who has been stripped of his magic, and I find it very sad because I think he is one of the greatest people in fashion. If not the [greatest]. LF: Now I’m going to skip a few questions, and mention Michael Jackson, because I know that you like him and I wanted to ask about him anyway, what happened to him sounds like a similar story…. ACM: Completely. To me everything that is magic and [the origin of] that interest, it all comes from Michael. Everything I do in life comes from Michael. F: When did you discover Michael first and how? ACM: I don’t remember, it’s just always been played in my house, my whole family is obsessed with Michael. I never really say I am a fan, but when he passed away I felt like it was a family member who had passed away. I love him. LF: Where were you when it happened?
http://uk.lindafarrow.com/diary/2013/09/anders-christian-madsen/
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4/27/2014
Anders Christian Madsen / Linda Farrow - Linda Farrow
ACM: I was in The Diner in Shoreditch, with my 2 best friends. I got a call from another friend who told me. I didn’t believe it so we started to googling it, and all of a sudden I started believing it. Then they started playing thriller and my friend asked if they could turn it off because we thought it was an inappropriate song to play, because of the lyrics. It was very sad, and after that it was all kind of a blur. I was shipped off to Switzerland basically the next day, and drove around in the mountains in Switzerland listening to all of his music. I basically only talked about him for a week. I was working for Dansk magazine at the time and three days before he passed away I had contacted Rushka Bergman who was his stylist at the time, about doing an interview with her. I wanted to talk to her about his looks for the ‘This Is It’ Tour, and when I got back my editor said - “you can do whatever you want with those pages”. I wrote a story just about why I love him, why I think he is magic and how I think he’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to fashion, and the world. We contacted Gottfried Helnwein who is an amazing artist, and I knew he knew Lisa Marie from scientology, so we contacted him about featuring some pictures that had never been published. Afterwards I received the nicest email from Lisa Marie’s publicist saying she loved the story. It was quite amazing, it felt like the right way to do it. It was a very long year 2009. LF: Is that one of the highlights so far that you had professionally and personally through your career? ACM: I wouldn’t say it’s a highlight, because it was awful. But it’s the most important thing in my entire life. LF: What is your current goal? ACM: I don’t know. I would just like to have a lot of fun in whatever I do. I don’t really mind so much about what I do, as long as I get to observe and write about the things I see. And get to talk to really interesting people, and get to know them. I like building relationships with the designers and talking to them every season. That’s really amazing, that’s what I love to do right now. LF: I read your recent article about men’s fashion and what you kind of expect, can you share some of your thoughts on the recent Men’s shows? ACM: I wasn’t in the land, sadly, but I really loved Neil Barret. What he’s doing at the moment is insanely good. I think he is doing something people can really relate to, people want to wear it. It’s easy to wear. He really puts a lot of effort into the signing for all different kinds of men. I think a lot of different people will like it, and I think that’s a good thing in fashion. I think things in fashion should be for the people and not just for one specific person! Which is also why I love Dries. Dries is my favourite designer, I think what he does it very magical. His show was like an epiphany, but it is every season. I just cannot understand how he can do it every time. He is a bit shy, and he is very gentle. I just always want to know “Where does it come from?”. Because I think these people that are alive and are doing these [magical] things… you know, people never asked Michael “Where does it come from?” they always just ask him about his nose, or whatever. That is what I want to know from him. If I could interview him today I would ask “Where does it come from? “How in the world did you do that? How did You come up with that?”. Even with his clothes, “Why did you wear military Liberace things all the time? Where did that come from?”. That’s what I tried to ask Dries about. I have interviewed him quite a few times before, and he made some very interesting points about the way he works. He is a very gentle soul, he likes gardening and he is not into the fame circus. He is just like an artist. He is an artist. Yeah, and an incredible incredible genius! LF: Can you share some insights into Kris Van Assche? ACM: Yes, absolutely. I am a big supporter of Kris’s. I think he had a really tough time in the beginning, taking over from Slimane, I don’t think it was fair. He actually had a very good idea about what he is doing, he knows exactly what he is doing. I like that he never goes by making mood boards for inspiration; he will take the white shirt, and base an entire collection on the white shirt. He does a lot of things like that. I think he’s very clever, takes his work incredibly seriously, to a really impressive degree, also he is interesting to talk to and very earnest. LF: And how did you like the SS14 show? ACM: I like the bottled green a lot. I always like a bit of bottled green. I have some Dries sunglasses in bottled green. I thought it was really nice. He seems so much happier at the moment. It’s like something happened and I don’t know what it is, because I wouldn’t ask him a personal question like that. He just seems happier. He did tell me last season that one of his friends told him to just have fun with it, “You are Kris Van Assche, you are there, have fun with it!”. You can really tell he is having fun with it. The colours were nice. He did colour in a very Kris way, I guess. So it wasn’t like a shock, it still looked ‘Kris’. There’s a certain pristine quality about everything he does that I’m completely obsessed with. If I wore it for like 10 minutes I wouldn’t look as pristine. Even himself and what he wears he manages to look super pristine. LF: Have you seen anything that is new and different? ACM: There’s a sudden degree of newness to hopefully most things that we see when we are here. I think it’s more in terms of what is new in terms of the person that is doing it. As we know nothing is really new anymore. I thought it was new for Dries and what he was doing in a way. Cindy Blackman playing the drums; It was very rock and roll in a way, and that in contrast to all these beautiful historical floral prints. Yes, it felt quite new for Dries. Of course flowers are not a new thing for Dries but the show felt new, the production and the way he did it. LF: So you have interviewed all these great designers, what did each experience leave you with? ACM: Dries just left me in awe. I interviewed him when I first got into Dries and kind of learnt about him and got to understand him, so that interview was amazing. He was amazing in that interview. With Kris he always makes me think a lot about things. He’s very good like that. I love talking to Ann Demeulemeester she gives really good quotes. She is also this very gentle and sweet person and there’s so much there I just want to pull it all out of her. All these thoughts that go through her head, and she very rarely gives interviews. She has this amazing summer house in Belgium with this amazing garden, and she loves birds. She wants to do something new for the world. Yesterday she told me she really wanted to bring sophistication back. When I walked in she said “Did I surprise you?”. I love talking to her; she is so dreamy and sweet.
http://uk.lindafarrow.com/diary/2013/09/anders-christian-madsen/
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Anders Christian Madsen / Linda Farrow - Linda Farrow
LF: What does Linda Farrow mean to you? ACM: Linda Farrow to me means an amazing legacy. A very, very cool family. From both sides, Tracy Sedino and Simon Jablon. They are people that work extremely hard for what they have and do, but make it seem like they are never in the office. I think that’s amazing. You just know that they’re working 24/7 but every time you see Tracy and Simon it is like a breeze. Everything is super fun, here we are, we have this amazing brand, we work with all of these amazing people. They are not star struck by anyone. They are like everyone’s friends and everyone likes them. They are very like-able people. Tracy is one of the most amazing people I know. I have a lot of respect for them. LF: If Linda Farrow was a persona, can you describe it? ACM: She would be like the character off Sophia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette, played by the actress Rose Byrne. When she arrives she is this duchess who is super, super fun, laughing all of the time. She turns Versailles upside down. She turns Marie Antoinette into this person she became, this incredible person who loved fun. A certain frivolity. That is Linda farrow. LF: It has been 10 years since Simon Jablon and Tracy Sedino re-launched the luxury eyewear label, what do you envision for Linda Farrow in the 10 years yet to come? ACM: I think it’s going to get absolutely massive, it’s going to be a super brand. I think it’s going to take over the world really, because it seems like every day they take another step towards that. It seems to be very easy for them, well they make it seem easy anyway. I think they are going to be everyone’s number one choice for eye wear collaborations. The interview with Anders Christian Madsen was conducted by Linda Farrow in Paris, on 29/06/2013. Anders Christian Madsen, www.anderschristianmadsen.com.
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