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Q1 When did you first want to be a designer?
I've always loved art and history. So much so, that I started majoring in Art History when I was in college. But one day, in the early nineties, I decided that instead of reading about other people who've changed the times through their creativity, that I wanted to BE one of those people who changed the times through their creativity. After that I changed schools and majors and got my BFA in Fashion design.
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Q2 What's a highlight of your recent design career?
This new relationship with Single is definitely the highlight of my recent design career. I've always maintained that fashion is a conversation, and for the first time, because of Single's distribution capabilities, that conversation can take place on a much wider scale.
Q3 Is there a designer who inspires you?
Whenever someone asks me this, I always say "alive or dead?". I'll give you the dead one: Rudi Gernreich. I've always been very inspired by the way he involved social commentary in his work, and yet somehow found the balance through design to create clothes that have a modern, timeless, elegance and freedom. For me, Gernreich's fashion always brought attention to the imperfections in the world, but also provided the necessary diversion and whimsy which makes it possible to live in that imperfect world. |
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Q7 As a designer, who is your muse?
The women in my life are very inspirational to me. My sister is a huge influence. She is one of those women that straight men can't get enough of, and that every gay man wants to be. She has the confidence to be a great boss, and the charm to tame the most savage of beasts. And she's genuinely kind. Not just nice. Everybody is nice, but only truly good people are kind.
Q8 Tell us about your next collection. Any future plans?
The collection for Spring 08 is inspired by the whimsical elegance of mid-20th century American Aristocrats. We were fascinated by the carefree, but practical styles of women like Babe Paley, Audrey Hepburn, and Lee Radziwill. For the After Eight customer, life is a special occasion, so I like to imagine her being able to shop for groceries in these dresses, or wear them to drop a car off with the auto mechanics, not just for going to the opera. |
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Q9 Please tell us your favorite fashion moment of all time.
Wow, that's like trying to name a "favorite movie". I think I like moments of change. Fashion is what we do as human beings to mark time, so for me, it would have to be those moments in fashion history where we really turned a corner as the human race, like Eve's first garment of fig leaves, or Vionnet's bias-cut garments, Dior's 1947 New Look, Gernreich's Monokini, or Diane Von Furstenburg's wrap dress. I guess it hasn't happened yet, because I'd like to be contribute something like these other designers. Their clothes transcended ordinary garments because they intersected with the history of human culture.
Q10 Whose closet would you like to raid?
I would love to raid Tom Ford's closet. He has impeccable taste when it comes to menswear fabrications, and at the moment, the only way I could afford the clothes he designs for his store, would be to steal them. Hopefully, this will change before I loose all the hair on my head. |
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Q13 If you can travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
JAPAN! JAPAN! JAPAN! I've never been, and all of my friends that have gone have told me that Tokyo is planet earth's temple to design. From all that I know, it seems that Japanese culture exhibits the quintessential marriage between humanity and nature. Chinese culture started the idea, but I think the Japanese culture has absolutely perfected it.
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Q14 Music to live by
Claude Debussy. Maurice Ravel, but not "Bolero". God created death after he made the mistake of creating monotony. Currently, I'm charmed by "Peter Bjorn and John", and always John Lennon. Recently, I've become astounded by the profound simplicity of "All you need is Love". The fact that the chorus ends with "Love is all you need" is not just a surprise, but it proves the point by restating the exact same thing. And then sue me, but I have a perverse affinity for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormet. At home, I have a collection of all the elevator music that Americans are embarrassed to admit that they know.
Q15 What is your favorite guilty meal?
Japanese Seaweed salad. I'm a vegetarian, and I don't eat fish anymore, so sushi is out. Seaweed salads are expensive in Los Angeles, so I don't get them as often as I wish I could. |
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| Galina Sobolev of SINGLE, one of the great names of LA fashion and Project Runway Designer Andrae Gonzalo have collaborated to create SINGLE after eight, a line revolving around evening glamour and luxury, for Spring 2008. The line's namesake After Eight is the classic etiquette measure for elegant evening fashion. The design collaboration for SINGLE and Andrae stems from a shared vision of facilitating attainable splendor and extravagance. SINGLE after eight makes it easy for women to find the special dress that makes a statement with quality and style to match. Key design attributes setting a tone of opulence and fantasy are heirloom luxury textiles (silk ottoman, taffeta, and chiffon) coupled with timeless evening embellishments. |
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Q4 Please tell us about your brand. What is the concept behind it?
"Single After Eight" is a collection of dresses designed to appeal to women who not only appreciate good fashion and great design, but more significantly, love to have fun. These are not serious, melodramatic gowns with trains that you are afraid to damage. If the occasion demands it, you can ride down an escalator or even hop on a motorcycle in them.
Q5 In the past, what was your favorite project and why?
There was a challenge on Project Runway which I really enjoyed where I made a gown inspired by a photograph of dirty water in the gutter. This was one of my favorite projects because it truly exhibited, for me, the transformative power of fashion. "Jeans and a t-shirt" are just clothes; they cover the body. Fashion happens when a garment speaks, and I love it when the clothes can say something that transforms the ugly into the beautiful. |
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Q6 Where do you go for inspiration?
I love history. I always think about what might be happening in the future, based on similar times in the past. What I design lies somewhere in a metaphor for the territory between those two things, because as much as history seems to repeat itself, "tomorrow" is always uncharted land.
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Q11 You might be asked for millions of time, but what was your best experience in Project Runway 2? (It showed in Japan, in fact with Japanese subtitle)
Perhaps the best time was something that ended up on the cutting room floor. It happened one night when we were walking home from Parsons, and Santino Rice, Zulema Griffin, and I were singing "just my imagination", you know, the song from the 60's by the Temptations, because it had gotten stuck in our heads from the saxophone player who was always playing outside the building when we left at night. Santino took the base and Zulema the melody, and I floated somewhere in the higher register, all in improvisation. I remember thinking "I am so lucky to be in this place, at this time, working with these fascinating, creative people" It was one of those times where you realize that life is great because it is composed of the fantastic moments which have to end. If they went on forever, we would never know how special they are. |
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Q12 When was the worst?
The worst moment has to have been whenever the show reprised clips of me crying. It happened once, and I wish that it would have appeared once. At least in America, the repeated airing of this experience in commercials and other episodes, magnified it's significance to an unnatural degree. It is fascinating on an anthropological level because it is actual footage of a human being in the absolute depths of despair, at the confrontation of his greatest failure. For me, personally, it is unfortunate that this clip has been used to characterize my public persona. Although my emotions are a colorful aspect of my life experience, they are hardly the psychological liability that this footage suggests. There is a marked difference between a person who is effusive and one who is unstable. |
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Q16 What do you see Japan? (Culture, fashion, life styles etc...)
I'm highly intrigued by japanese interiors. I live in a small space, and I am continually astounded by the innovations in Japan which have been designed to take advantage of small living spaces. Also, I love Japanese paper craft. I'm an origami nerd. And then there is Muji. We don't have one in LA, yet so I still find it fascinating. I must also mention that I am a huge fan of Yoko Ono.
Q17 any last words?
I think we've covered everything you even know what I eat! Thanks for the opportunity, to be translated! I'll have to get to the Floating Kingdom now, for sure! |
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