Clippings.reblog

Fashion designers all seem to be at it these days: Vivienne Westwood with her Motorola mobile, Wayne Hemmingway with his Bug Radio and Julien MacDonald with his laptop bag. Well, now it s the turn of Roland Mouret. He s designed some skins that you can stick onto the front of your laptop to add a bit designer customisation. The skins are based on Mouret s latest Cruise Collection (see pics from New York fashion week here) and are available for free from Net-a-porter. However, because the they are being released in small batches (about 10 a month), they ll still have that exclusive feel.

Yesterday, we went along to meet Roland. We asked him some questions and he gave us some proper fashion-speak answers that we didn t fully understand. What we can t convey is his lovely French accent and our simpering laughter in response to everything he said.
Click the link to find out what he said.

Q. Why laptop skins?
A. The concept came from the fact that I wanted to create a relationship between the laptop and the woman. I liked the notion that a laptop can become more of an identity of yourself and to give some effect to a box which is quite cold normally.

Q. Why are there so many fashion designers designing gadgets and gadget accessories at the moment?
A. I think that technology has become a really big part of people s lives. In a way it s very close in concept to the way we do clothes: it needs to be practical, designer, light. The way we live now, we like to travel easily and I think that something like a laptop is the beginning of being able to travel with your whole culture, your whole personality. In a way it has become your house because you can put in it everything that s about you your music, your movies, your photos. And the fact that you can go from one place to another where you don t want to have a suitcase, I really think that it s becoming part of our lifestyle. And clothes are part of our lifestyle too, so I think the two are linked. Technology is not going to go away, it s in our life and it s going to become more and more part of our life and we have to embrace it.

Q. What sort of woman do you imagine using one of your skins?
A. I love the kind of women who enjoy to be women, who use everything around them to express their own identity. And in customising their laptop they re saying it s not just a laptop . You know it s quite like surrealism, like, this is not a dress! And these kind of women, they re quite curious and they re quite imaginative and they don t take things just at the face value they see things in other ways. That s the kind of woman I see using these skins.

Q. What were your influences when creating your collection and the subsequent skins?
A. The style of the print was inspired by early 20 s Art Deco. Because my big things all the time are metropolis and I quite like this kind of structure in the print. And at the same time, it s quite aesthetic, but it s not pretty; there s quite a dark side to it and I quite like that. I don t like to make prints where you think oh, this design is pretty . There not that dimension of women who are girls .

Q. And what do you think of technology? Do you have a laptop?
A. I don t! I refuse to use them. But I have a team of 12 girls in the office, they re all on laptops and computers. And it s very important for me: one of the rules in the office is to be proactive. It s not enough just to be reactive, and technology helps us because we re doing everything from A to Z from the creative to the production and distribution. Technology allows us, all the time, to go further. And I think that has been really important not just for my creativity, but also the way we run the company.

Q. How interested do you think women are in gadgets?
A. You know you say boys with toys , and I think women are more clever with gadgets than men. Women use gadgets to become more perfect as a human being, they use them more cleverly. Boys are interested in them more to play with. With boys it s more their own little pleasure. It s like (excuse me) a quick wank with boys. Gadgets are becoming more part of women s personality. It s surprising the way they use technology.

Q. Why do you think so few women s magazines cover technology?
A. I think it s stupid! I think maybe it s because we re arriving at the tail-end of this girly period and I think that s now so completely over. I think women love technology. They have it and they re very easy with it. And especially when you think about the handbag of a woman and how much technology you can fit in it. How many guys carry a suitcase with them everywhere?

Like with the 20 s Art Deco period, women were carrying cigarette cases, powder cases, everything was in cases, and that s what technology and gadgets will become like the new cases and I think women will change that. In fashion, men change when women change. And the same in history.

Roland then went on to give more generalisations about how much better women are than men, while we continued to simper. Then he announced he had to go to Paris, jumped up, kissed everyone, and left.