RAD HOURANI UNISEX COLLECTION NOW AVAILABLE AT SELFRIDGES IN LONDON
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PAR ÉRIC CLÉMENT
L'exposition Neutralité de Rad Hourani a été conçue comme un voyage de sa naissance à aujourd'hui. Un parcours nourri des thèmes qui construisent sa pensée, tels l'identité, l'égalité, le genre ou la liberté. Cette évasion dans l'univers de Rad Hourani est présentée en anglais, car l'exposition partira l'an prochain en tournée dans le monde.
Neutralité débute par Open Doors, oeuvre simple à première vue, mais aussi dense quant à ses affirmations. Elle comprend trois portes blanches installées de façon ouverte et sans poignées contre un panneau blanc. Sur ces portes, Rad Hourani a écrit «All Genders», «All Skin Colors» et «All Social Classes». Des énoncés que Rad Hourani adopterait sans problème comme postulats.
«On a souvent des portes dans notre propre histoire, dit-il. Les portes de genre, on peut les trouver dans les pays religieux où les femmes ne peuvent aller dans les mêmes endroits que les hommes. "All Skin Colors" réfère aux années 50 et à l'histoire de l'esclavage aux États-Unis, avec ce racisme qui m'a bouleversé.»
Dans le cas d'«All Social Classes», Rad Hourani évoque les endroits où le public n'a pas accès, ce qui le révolte.
«Dans mon domaine, je vois souvent ces espaces réservés aux VIP. De plus en plus, je ne veux plus me rendre à ces événements VIP. Ça ne devrait pas exister.»
Après cette oeuvre en forme d'axiome, on entre dans un espace consacré à l'enfance de Rad Hourani. Un écran diffuse Origin, une vidéo d'images de vagues qui s'écroulent sur une plage. «L'eau, c'est là d'où l'on vient», dit Rad Hourani.
Les couleurs de l'enfance
À côté, il a placé Ageless, huit tableaux peints à la spatule. Les couleurs pastel très pâles symbolisent la lumière, mais aussi l'enfance, illustrant combien l'être est condamné à «foncer», sa «couleur» adulte reflétant à la fois le vieillissement, une tendance à l'aigreur et le noir dessein qu'est son destin.
Dans un cadre posé sur un podium, Rad Hourani a disposé des boucles de ses cheveux. L'oeuvre, Reborn, évoque un tournant dans sa vie quand, en 2004, alors qu'il vivait à Paris, il a eu une révélation.
«Je me suis réveillé un matin et je me suis dit: "Je ne veux pas être toute ma vie directeur artistique", ce que j'étais à l'époque. Je veux faire de la photo, de la vidéo, de l'art, du cinéma. Et c'est sorti tout d'un coup, comme une image très claire. C'est là que je me suis rasé la tête. J'ai gardé ces cheveux. Ce sont les cheveux de la renaissance.»
À côté du cadre, il a placé Anatomy, deux petites sculptures d'un homme et d'une femme, face à face. Leurs corps sont parcourus de points d'acupuncture. Une oeuvre sur l'égalité et la pureté physique.
Dans l'espace d'exposition suivant, consacré à son entrée dans la société, Rad Hourani a accroché un cadre qui contient un des vêtements unisexes qu'il a créés pour sa première collection de haute couture, en 2013. Un costume noir doublé de satin, à la fois sobre et moderne, avec des bandes de rayures de soie cousues sur le tissu en crêpe de soie. Un vêtement caractéristique de son désir de faire disparaître les codes, pour laisser l'homme et la femme choisir leur propre mode de séduction.
Les 16 commandements d'Hourani
Il expose aussi Commandements, un cadre dans lequel il a écrit ses 16 «commandements». Seize, à cause des 16 religions recensées, dit-il. Ses commandements évoquent une vie sans dieu, sans ignorance, sans peur, sans égoïsme, sans haine, sans avidité, sans mensonge, mais avec la paix, la liberté, la fraternité et une soif de connaissance. Un monde idéal, auquel aspire Rad Hourani.
C'est la raison pour laquelle il y a, tout près, le dessin d'une carte d'un monde idéal, sans aucune frontière entre les pays. Il a aussi créé Currency, une sculpture murale sur les fraudes liées aux taux de change ainsi qu'une autre sculpture, très simple, en aluminium laqué, intitulée Equal. Elle résume sa pensée sur l'égalité des êtres qu'il a illustrée, un peu plus loin, avec trois autres sculptures, Upper-Lower, Upper-Middle-Lower et Upper-Middle, qui représentent, schématisées, la richesse, la pauvreté et la classe moyenne.
Autre ode à l'égalité, Rad Hourani a élaboré une impression photo à partir d'un cliché en noir et blanc d'une femme blanche et d'un homme noir qui se font face et dont on ne voit pas les têtes. Une photo magnifique, construite comme une abstraction et détruisant les codes sociaux.
Ne pas se limiter...
À côté, une oeuvre, Limitless, est constituée de cinq formes géométriques de couleurs fluo qui rappellent les panneaux du Code de la route. Une création sur l'attention qu'on porte aux choses et aux gens.
«L'être humain a une énergie qui le connecte à tout ce qui l'entoure. On est beaucoup plus grands qu'une religion, qu'une race, qu'une nation, qu'un genre ou qu'un âge.»
Limitless contredit les limitations inventées par la société qui, selon lui, peuvent avoir l'effet de brider la volonté humaine. Le côté libertaire de Rad Hourani.
L'impression au jet d'encre Mental se veut également un reflet de la construction de notre esprit pendant notre vie. L'artiste a dessiné 13 rectangles. Le premier est blanc immaculé quand l'esprit est en cours d'édification. D'un rectangle à l'autre, Rad Hourani a densifié l'espace jusqu'au dernier rectangle, tout noir. Il n'y a plus d'espace libre... comme parfois dans un ordinateur.
Sur des panneaux, Rad Hourani a placé Raceless, cinq écrans vidéo qui projettent des images sur les nuances de couleur de chair des êtres humains quand on se base sur nos cinq sens, soit en comparant les yeux, les lèvres, les oreilles, la peau et le nez. En rappel, au centre de cet espace, il a rassemblé des pénis et des vagins en PVC qui évoquent que la couleur de la peau et l'orientation sexuelle sont des notions bien superficielles.
Dans le dernier espace sur le thème de la nation, huit tableaux intitulés Nationless représentent les huit couleurs qu'on trouve le plus fréquemment dans les drapeaux des pays. Rad Hourani a disposé à côté Self Construction, trois trophées de couleurs or, argent et bonze qui représentent la construction de l'estime de soi. Ces trophées sont de grandes vis utilisées dans le bâtiment pour consolider une construction...
La visite s'achève avec la sérigraphie d'un manifeste, une déclaration de l'artiste couturier sur la portée universelle de sa création. Et sur sa volonté d'encourager les autres à se distinguer, «à créer leur propre monde». Hors des modes.
Rad Hourani a imprimé ce manifeste sur des vêtements unisexes qu'il expose sur 14 mannequins, en marge de l'exposition. Un espace-boutique et une salle d'essayage permettent aux visiteurs et aux visiteuses de découvrir la singulière signature de son style qu'il veut, justement «hors des modes».
La singularité et la simplicité sont aussi le sceau de cette exposition conceptuelle soignée, aérée et d'une neutralité qu'on peut qualifier de nourrissante. Si Boileau disait que ce qui se conçoit bien s'énonce clairement, cette formule s'applique à merveille à Rad Hourani. Quant aux mots, c'est à vous de juger...
VIA LA PRESSE
RAD HOURANI UNISEX COLLECTION NOW AVAILABLE AT SELFRIDGES IN LONDON
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I've wanted to make a film about French youth since I went to Cannes with my first film Kids in 1995...
In 2010 I had a fifty year retrospective of my photographs at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and my films at La Cinemathèque française... during the month I was there hanging my show I used to work late so I would have to leave the back way and walk around to the front of the building through all the skateboarders next to the Palais de Tokyo… it reminded me of the kids skating in Washington Square Park in Kids. I would just stand there and stare and think what a visually good way to start a film about kids in Paris... I met a young French poet, SCRIBE, and he and his friends started taking me around to the teenage nightspots and clubs where the kids hang out and I started to talk to the kids and listen to their stories and I asked SCRIBE to write The Smell of Us for me, after having spent every free moment I had with him talking about the story. Later during shooting, I changed the storyline and certain characters. It’s a fiction by inspired by stories that were really lived.
I wanted to show this microcosm that is constantly changing. Some details are shocking to me while others are not; but that's the world of these young Parisians today. Youth is my biggest source of inspiration and I am often criticized for it! I’ve photographed and filmed for the last fifty years and the world has had time to change its relationship to teenagers as well.
With The Smell of Us, I wanted to pay a tribute to youth to show its naivety, its confusion, its errors and even more than before, its solitude. The youth portrayed here, if one looks at appearances more than opportunities at the start, shows Math and his group evolving in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the nicer neighborhoods. But they are also lost souls, navigating carefully as much as any other born with less privilege. These teens share in common a mastery, better than most, of new technology, but these children of the Internet, born with a proverbial joystick between their fingers, were cast off by adults. They play the role of free men and they can be cruel, but they are the victims. I wanted to show their beauty, their freedom at risk. They are misled by their attraction to money, consumerism, brand names etc. They consume and are also consumed and manipulated. It is adults and their fucking marketing that created all of this.
The Smell of Us is written like a manifesto that lies at the heart of all my work as a photographer and filmmaker, and one that provides some answers about it.
Larry Clark
Interview
What’s the genesis of the film?
I was at Cannes in 1995 where I was presenting my film Kids and it was at that moment that I got the idea to make a fiction about French youth. I spoke about this to different producers who all gave me the same categorical response. They were all adamant that I couldn’t make this film because I wasn’t French. It took me twenty years to take on this challenge! Paris is my favorite city in the world; I was dying to go back. The production team is entirely French, and the same goes for the casting.
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HAIR BY RAMONA ESCHBACH - MAKE UP BY LUC BOUCHARD
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CAROLINE DE MAIGRET PHOTOGRAPHED BY RAD HOURANI FOR MYKROMAG
Styled by Sonny Groo - Make up by Helene Vasnier - Hair by Vinz
WEARING UNISEX RAD HOURANI COUTURE COLLECTION #12
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LIVE PIANO BY COEUR DE PIRATE - VIDEO EDITING EMMANUEL MAURIÈS RINFRET
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photos by Donald Gjoka
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CLOTHING RAD HOURANI UNISEX HAUTE COUTURE - COLLECTION #11
PHOTOGRAPHY WIKKIE HERMKENS - STYLING SONNY GROO - HAIR TOM BERRY - MAKE UP THOM WALKER - MODEL PASCAL BONVIE at REPUBLIC MODELS - INTERVIEW SAVI KURUPPU
SAVI KURUPPU Recently you were invited to Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture and you made history as the first unisex designer to present a collection. How does that feel?
RAD HOURANI I must say that I think a great deal about myself when designing. Of course, I didn’t create a brand just for my own sake, but I believe that using what I would like to wear as a starting point for the design process is the most truthful and straightforward approach. It allows me to stay focused on my aesthetic and assess my commitment to wearability, functionality and comfort.
I have always been interested in creating something that looks minimal but is complex to make. For me, that is the most challenging part of my work. I also admire the craftsmanship of making something extremely luxurious without it being showy. Attending to complexity and simplicity at the same time is a very long process. It’s all about “savoir faire” which is working with the best of the best in every aspect: fabrics, tailoring, cutting, fitting, proportions, etc. I did my first collection for my personal wardrobe and I had no idea that it would go this far. I like taking risks to make a difference in what we do in life. I like to create my own rules and not follow rules just to be part of an industry or a category. I do what makes sense to me and it always works out very well. Today, I am very proud and honored to be an invited member of haute couture and to be the first unisex designer in history. I never thought that the past five years of doing what I love would bring me to this point.
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RAD HOURANI Distils His UNISEX with Choreographer Édouard Lock at PHI
Ballet dancer Zofia Tujaka transforms from ingénue to hard-edged vamp in Unisex, a neo-noir short directed by Rad Hourani. Shot in Montreal’s Phi Centre, the atmospheric performance sees Tujaka gesticulate to a haunting score by New York composer Nico Muhly. “Before I started designing my collections I bought a video and a photo camera,” explains the Jordan-born designer, who has cultivated a following with his all-black, cerebral collections from his Paris studio. “For me, movement is as important as design; as much as literature, as much as food.” Enlisting David Bowie and Frank Zappa collaborator Édouard Lock for the original choreography, the piece comes as part of Hourani’s multi-channel exhibition, Seamless, featuring five-years of graphic design work, photography and bespoke looks from his unisex haute couture collection. “For me, Édouard’s work represents the masculine and the feminine, the fast and the slow, the hard and the soft—all the contradictions.”
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ARTICLE PAR EMMANUELLE VIEIRA / PHOTOS PAR Vittorio Vieira
Ce mois-ci, il est l’artiste et le commissaire invité du Centre Phi avec son exposition Rad Hourani sous toutes ses coutures, 5 ans de créations unisexes. À l’initiative de la fondatrice et commissaire permanente Phoebe Greenberg, le créateur a accepté de se dévoiler sous ses angles de grand couturier, de photographe, de réalisateur, d’architecte des corps en mouvement et de l’âme humaine. Virtuose du visuel, le premier designer canadien à être entré dans le cercle fermé de la haute couture parisienne aurait pu exposer à Paris, à Londres ou à New York : Rad Hourani a choisi Montréal pour faire le bilan de cinq années d’exploration.
Rad Hourani est un être à part. Il fait penser au Petit Prince de Saint-Exupéry. Avec son monde à lui, son regard frais sur les choses et sa beauté intérieure qui transperce tout ce qu’elle touche, il est attachant et redoutablement intelligent. L’exposition au Centre Phi, c’est son bébé : il a mis neuf mois à la peaufiner. Le résultat est à l’image de tout ce qu’il crée : en équilibre entre le noir et le blanc, tout en nuances, riche en subtilités et en non-dits.
Il aurait pu rester centré sur lui-même, comme le font beaucoup de créateurs, mais il a opté pour l’ouverture, invitant architecte, peintre, designer, chorégraphe et musiciens à se joindre à lui pour chanter en choeur cette symphonie de l’unisexe : un monde libre dans lequel les opposés s’attirent et se complètent plutôt que de se repousser. « Je n’aurais pas pu m’exprimer aussi bien ailleurs, souligne Rad Hourani, le Centre Phi est le seul endroit qui permettait d’utiliser autant de supports et de voix à la fois. »
Phoebe Greenberg a d’abord entendu parler de Rad Hourani par son fils, un admirateur inconditionnel du couturier, mais c’est l’artiste Renata Morales qui les a présentés. « J’ai tout de suite trouvé la démarche artistique de Rad très intéressante, explique Mme Greenberg. Il possède une grande culture en arts visuels et une compréhension très pointue de l’esthétique en trois dimensions. Il réfléchit beaucoup à la manière de porter un vêtement, au mouvement, à la façon dont le corps voyage dans l’espace. C’est un grand couturier, mais c’est aussi un grand photographe et un remarquable réalisateur. »
Ce « voyage du corps » se transpose dans l’exposition sous forme d’immenses murs en papier peint sur lesquels défilent des anatomies de tous âges et de toutes origines, de manière rythmée et graphique. « Avant de dessiner un vêtement, dit Rad, j’ai passé un an à étudier le corps humain, des corps de toutes les tailles et de toutes les formes. »
À cette murale succède celle des patrons aux formes architecturales. « Une fois le corps humain disséqué visuellement, j’étais prêt à fabriquer mes propres patrons unisexes. J’ai toujours vou lu faire des vêtements pour l’humain, en dehors de tout effet de mode, d’âge ou de sexe. »
Mais derrière cette absence de genre ou de race se cache une volonté beaucoup plus grande : celle d’exister loin des codes et des barrières qu’on nous impose. Et l’exposition rend admirablement cet aspect. En déconstruisant anatomies et silhouettes, on finit par se concentrer sur l’essentiel : le mouvement, l’énergie, un frisson, la beauté, la vie.
Aux côtés des murales des corps et des patrons unisexes, des murs des portraits et des collections, se trouve un mur de six vidéos qui sont l’aboutissement en trois dimensions de toute cette analyse et dissection en deux dimensions. Dans la grande salle de projection, un montage de poèmes visuels réalisé par Rad Hourani finit d’éveiller tous nos sens et réussit à nous placer dans un état d’apesanteur, une forme d’apothéose du questionnement par rapport à notre corps et à ce que nous sommes réellement.
La vie, une création
Pour Hourani, la vie est une création, mais aussi un partage continu, une communion entre disciplines et créateurs. Au rez-de-chaussée du Centre Phi, il a ouvert une boutique éphémère dans laquelle il a placé les livres de sa bibliothèque personnelle, des oeuvres exclusives réalisées en collaboration avec d’autres artistes, un choix de vêtements issus de toutes ses collections de prêt-à-porter, une réédition du parfum Ascent et son tout nouveau livre Rad Hourani 5 Years of Unisex, tiré à seulement à 300 exemplaires.
« Exposer et vendre des livres qui m’appartiennent depuis l’âge de 18 ans, c’était important pour moi », dit-il. Parmi ces ouvrages phares, on trouve un très beau bouquin sur Coco Chanel qui trône aux côtés d’un ouvrage sur Pierre Cardin : « Chanel, c’est l’érotisme élégant, le noir et blanc, l’audace d’une créatrice qui a su amener l’idée d’un pantalon pour femmes. Cardin, c’est aussi l’avant-garde ; il a apporté quelque chose qui n’existait pas, une mode plastifiée, accessible. »
Il y a aussi plusieurs livres du photographe américain Robert Mapplethorpe, l’un des artistes fétiches de Hourani, et des ouvrages consacrés à l’oeuvre d’Helmut Newton. Puis, pêle-mêle sur les comptoirs, il y a des livres sur la typographie Helvetica, sur l’étu de des visages, sur l’architecture moderne, sur le cinéma érotique, sur Warhol et sur Almodóvar. Parcourir les pages de ces magnifiques documents grand format nous fait pénétrer dans un monde où l’esthétisme côtoie le mystère, où la beauté a parfois des allures très cruelles et où le décalage est permanent, bien loin de la vie édulcorée à laquelle on nous a habitués.
Dans l’oeil de l’autre
Face à cette bibliothèque très personnelle ouverte au public, Rad Hourani a demandé à des amis créateurs de concevoir une ou plusieurs oeuvres uniques pour l’événement. Une photographie noir et blanc d’un escalier et deux sculptures tranchées en noir et blanc de l’architecte Gilles Saucier interrogent la matière noire et son potentiel de contenir l’espace.
Comme dans les oeuvres de Hourani, le noir n’est pas le négatif du blanc, mais le complément de celui-ci. Il est la représentation d’une création en devenir, un espace imaginaire dans lequel bouillonnent vie et mouvement.
D’autres créations enrichissent cet espace de communion artistique. Il y a d’abord les aquarelles-imprimés de Renata Morales, pleines de spontanéité, de joie et de noirceur. Puis la série Mask-à-Rad conçue par la peintre Leela Sum, dont les mystérieuses silhouettes en noir et blanc se font l’écho d’un art primitif ou de dessins africains très anciens.
Sur le mur, une magnifique chorégraphie d’Édouard Lock filmée par Rad Hourani met en scène une danseuse vêtue d’un corset qui se transforme peu à peu en veste, rendant l’apparence féminine plutôt masculine. Pour Lock comme pour Hourani, danse et visuel ont un impact sur le public qui n’est pas aussi rationnel et défini que celui du mot.
Intéressés par le mystère inhérent à la danse ou aux images, les deux artistes aiment disloquer la perception que nous avons de notre propre corps en nous offrant une approche plus viscérale et beaucoup moins contrôlée par l’intellect.
À côté de la boutique éphémère se trouve un autre espace d’échange dans lequel Rad Hourani expose sa fameuse veste interactive, qu’il avait déjà présentée à la Tate Modern de Londres. Avec des caméras intégrées au vêtement, la veste capte les visages des visiteurs qui sont ensuite projetés sur différents écrans du Centre Phi.
Penser en images
Cette exposition est l’occasion rêvée d’apprendre à penser en images plutôt qu’en mots, à déconstruire notre univers pour en rebâtir un plus libre et plus ouvert.
Débarrassé de toutes les étiquettes qui collent à la peau, Rad Hourani nous montre comment déchiffrer les zones d’ombre qui sont presque plus importantes que les choses elles-mêmes. Ici, l’âme humaine et ses secrets s’expriment pleinement dans les craquelures d’un monde étrange et Rad-icalement beau.
by Anca Macavei
What do you consider as being “Sacred” nowadays?
We live in a very fast society today and things are made to consume more and more. I don’t feel like I belong to this kind of way of living as I do things that I find a necessity for, there’s a meaning to what I do. I don’t do things to fill in a category or in a society and that is “Sacred”.
One of your key approaches to life is the “no restrictions” one. Where is your limit on this topic and which are the topics on which you impose yourself limits or allow others to do it?
Restrictions should be only for criminal acts, murder or stealing or any negative act that can happen in our life. I can’t tell anyone what to do or not to do, I can only suggest my vision and it’s each person choice to take what makes sense to them from what I do. I’m anti all limits in life that can stop us to evolve and move forward. Everyone should feel free and positive in there life to do what ever they like to do without living in the eyes of others.
“Beauty is everywhere, yet perfection is nowhere“ you once stated. Point me one thing/concept/idea that embody the concept of perfection for you.
To attend perfection can be in anything ; designing, cooking, studying, etc. It’s like making no mistake at all, but it’s impossible. Perfection for me is the illusion of attending something that it’s at it best forever. It can’t be possible if you want to grow and learn in life, it’s like stopping to evolve. What is perfect for someone can be imperfect to another.
You have listed Michelangelo Antonioni's “La Notte” among your favorite movies, why is that? How do those cinematic concepts of interrupted journeys, dysfunctional relationships and a seemingly unattainable search for sincere passion echo in your life?
I really enjoyed how the story was told in such a simple and poetic/modern way. Everything seemed perfect but again it’s like dying to yourself by having everything set to an illusion of comfort or finding love. It’s a very good example of relations in monogamy. I’m in love right now and I don’t know where it will go as I don’t want to set rules to my relation, I want to enjoy every moment if possible and we’ll see where it will go.
You always mention how much you want your designs to be anchored in contemporary, and you try to avoid as much as possible the vintage look. Do you think there is present without past?
There’s definitely a present without a past. A pure present can’t be pure if you are not in the now. You can’t be present and having the past in you at the same time. To be in the present is to be free of all the past and future. And I think it’s the same for clothing, it is about creating a form that can be the present at all time without fitting in any past categories. It’s a very challenging thing for me as it’s very easy to be designing trends or being the cool thing one day and nothing the next day… I want to be true to my vision only and to the people that see themselves in it, it’s very uncompromising.
The geometric shapes like rectangles constitute a strong base for all your collections. Do patterns or geometry have any particular meanings to you as sacred shapes, or else, where does this aesthetic come from?
Symmetry and rectangles shapes are the main base of my design. They help me to attend the “Unisex” vision that I have been building for the past 6 years. The geometry in my shapes are made of these to things and I find that they make the human body look longer and modern. I think that I’m very unconsciously attracted to architect and I think that’s where all of it come from.
The concepts of timeless and genderless are your main distinctive elements. Did they come up from just the idea of doing something different, opposite to the current state of fashion or is it something more personal? Do you see yourself as belonging to only one gender or category?
They came up from the idea of no trends and no rules or codes of dressing and that is different in our society. I have no intrest in fashion, I am interested in the human being and they way we live in our world, especially on planet earth. I 100% belong no category or gender as my message is all about not limiting yourself to any of that.
Unisex refers to things that are suitable for either gender that are shared by both sexes. Is it just a somehow utopian approach that you reflect artistically in your work or would you really like the world to be constituted on this premises?
I would like to see a world built with complete freedom and new way of thinking and to have more people that observes things rather than just following others. Religion has always exsited as we always need a guide in our life and I’m not interested in being a guru or a chef. The hope is not in me but in all of us. Unisexe is a new way of being that can be applied by anyone, anywhere at anytime.
“Fashion is an illusion” you said. Therefore you see yourself as a creator of illusions and the magicians of the 20th century are the fashion designers?
I always say “Everything is an illusion” and that include fashion, art, design and me. Today’s fashion designers are just making collections to sell and to please editors and press, there’s nothing magical about that. Very few designers make things differently that can inspire people to think forward and dream. There’s magic in everything in life but you have to look deep for it, it’s not always evident but I’m thankful to know that it’s always possible.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARCO VAN RIJT - STYLED BY SONNY GROO - MODEL WEARING RAD HOURANI UNISEX HAUTE COUTURE COLLECTION #10 IN VOGUE Nederland
"I've never followed rules in my life '
Rad Hourani writes HISTORY with its timeless couture collections aimed at women and men, thus Hourani themselves asexual and aseasonal are. This is HIS YEARS.
- Text Georgette King
In an Amsterdam studio, Rad Hourani wears a spotless white vest, it is tight and reminiscent of a Star Trek uniform. "You like it?," He asks with a lilting, dark brown voice. He always wears his own architectural design, including self-designed high-heeled shoes. "The heel gives the silhouette elegance. I never wanted to walk on flats but my heels are now slightly lower, because I have problems with my hip. This is fixed. Lol! "While he giggles he turns his head away beautifully.
Quirky Hourani is one of a kind. As a personality and as a fashion designer. Trends? not interested in at all. Color in his collection? He does not see where it is needed. Mode? He has nothing.
With aesthetics though, he loves graphic and symmetrical, black and white. Whether he is in everyday life as well as pronounced? "Yes. There is no gray area. I love honesty, of strong but sensitive. 'You wonder whether his outspoken attitude does not work regularly against him in the fashion world, where compliance is often seen as a good feature. Certainly, "My whole life, I never followed rules, what matters is individualism, I follow my vision." Laughs: "It has 130 outlets brought me so far in 30 countries. I just do what I feel is right. "
Hourani has never followed a training mode even with his Unisex haute couture, . He explains that he designs as an architect. His sketches - "they look like houses' - are converted with his patterns maker in perfectly fitting clothes. In 2006, the talented designer from Montreal moved to Paris. Because he can not be 'severe' personality underlined, finding the right clothes he makes his own wardrobe that opens into a unisex collection, presented in Paris in 2007. He is currently working on a first retrospective of his work for a cultural center in Montreal, and of course his second couture collection. Through the influential Sidney Toledano, CEO of Christian Dior, he ends up last January at the couture calendar. "That was the first time in fashion history that unisex haute couture was shown." Each piece can be worn by both a man and a woman. Hourani's clientele is also quite varied. Actor and musician Jared Leto wears his designs, like stylist Patti Wilson, actress Elisa Sednaoui and model Crystal Renn. "But an older woman standing in my designs feel timeless and powerful."
And then Hourani, it's time for his portrait. He fumbles a bit of a zipper in his neck, the jacket fits perfectly around his tight body. He looks approvingly in the mirror and asks again: "You like it?" -
Rad Hourani, 5 Years or Unisex. Photography, fashion and videos in the Phi Centre in Montreal, Canada, from November 1 this year. At the same time get a book and a DVD out.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR MELISSA MATOS PUT TOGETHER A PHYSICAL COMPUTING, PROJECTION MAPPING,
INTERACTIVE WEARABLES AND ELECTRONIC SOUNDSCAPES TO CREATE AN IMMERSIVE
360 DEGREE RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENT WHERE JACQUES GREENE IS WEARING CUSTOM MADE RAD HOURANI UNISEX HAUTE COUTURE ENSEMBLE DURING HIS LIVE PERFORMANCE AT THE TATE MODERN MUSEUM IN LONDON.
Rad Hourani is the first unisex designer ever invited by La Chambre Syndicale de La Haute Couture in Paris to show a couture collection. In 2006, he relocated to Paris to devote himself completely to designing. Since then, Hourani has built up two successful lines: RAD by Rad Hourani (ready-to-wear) and Rad Hourani (haute couture). And yet, for all these accomplishments, Hourani is gentle and generous; never dragooning or demanding. He's an observer who listens intently and responds with sensitivity and the quiet confidence of an artist who believes in his work.
Every piece is designed and drawn exclusively by Hourani himself. Agnostic with respect to a wearer’s gender, he knows precisely how a perfectly constructed garment will feel in use. For him, design is synaesthesis: when he sketches a design on the page he feels it on his body. Although he prefers and respects silence, his speaking voice is warm, simultaneously intellectual and sensual, enveloping the listener in his point of view. SSENSE caught up with him just weeks after showing his collection at Paris’ Haute Couture Fashion Week. In the process, we discovered why his designs transcend the typical — the man himself is extraordinary.
There’s a poster that you pinned up backstage at a RAD by Rad Hourani show in 2011. It was for the models to see before they walked out, and it read: “Walk straight ahead look straight ahead don’t stop don’t pose sharp turns be confident love yourself.”
Yup! Absolutely!
Those are such pretty words, it’s like a poem, but it seems like it could also be read as a mantra, or a dictum.
Yes, absolutely. It is a way of living, a way of being. I think what I do is about complete lifestyle. In that lifestyle this is the way I like to be. What you like in these words is a reflection of my life.
Are you a workaholic?
I am really obsessed with what I do and I really love what I do. But, for me, I don’t see it as a problem. I am definitely an extreme person. When I love, I really love, and when I work I really work, and when I concentrate on something, I give everything. I don’t look at it as a job. I am doing it because this is my life, this is who I am. That is why I’ve refused many offers from backers and things like that, because I don’t want to be controlled.
Did you come by that attitude on your own or was it something that you were taught?
I always knew what I wanted. Of course my tastes have changed, and I’ve definitely evolved, but I think I’ve always been sure of what I want. It’s something that you can learn from experience, from life, but it’s not something that someone can program in your head. It has to come from you. I’m sure I’ve felt fear too. For instance, I built up a career, five years of styling, and one day I just completely stopped and went to design. Of course I had some fear in me. We’re all fragile, and insecure, and vulnerable, too.
Have you ever felt like you’ve wasted time?
No. I don’t think I ever wasted time. Without everything that I loved before I wouldn’t be where I am today. In that sense I never wasted my time. I don’t regret anything that I have done or that has happened to me. I think everything was perfectly at the right stage and right moment. And it had to to be the way it was.
Do you have any obsessions at the moment?
Well, recently I am a godfather to two kids.
Congratulations. How do you find being a Godfather?
Just to be with a baby, it gives you so much life and light. The baby is always observing and always present — there is nothing in their mind that is programmed. That is something that I really love, because what I do is about erasing rules. And to see a baby! How pure and powerful that can be, just to restart again from zero and to observe all the time and be present all the time.
Do you remember yourself as child?
I was very particular. I never wanted to wear what other kids were wearing. I never wanted to do what other kids were doing. And I was a very quiet child. When there was a lot of people together I would leave the gang and go sit by myself…because maybe I did not like the noise or something like that.
Was it always in your nature to want to erase the rules?
I was questioning things since I was a kid. I remember one night at my grandparents house — I was really a kid, a child — and I was looking at the sky and the stars and questioning what is up there…kind of asking myself how we are, how we function…what are these stars and what is this planet that I am on. I remember that moment was so…not intense, but…it was almost as if there was a light coming out of my head, that moment was really strong.
Do you have memories of being a little kid with your parents?
When I was a child my mom used to get her dresses made in an atelier. I would go with her every time. And she would be standing there with these patternmakers around her and sewers around her and she would tell them, ‘I want to make the neck lower or higher’ or ‘I want the epaulettes smaller or shorter’. We would go to the fabric stores all the time and when she’d come in, the salespeople would say ‘Ah, Madame Hourani, we received this new silk or this new crepe that you really like’. So the words of the fabrics were always in my head. I think I was always influenced by that. I am not doing the same kind of design but I think these moments really influenced me in an indirect way.
That sounds so romantic. Do you remember what those dresses looked like?
She has lots of black dresses, she likes blue dresses, she likes silk. There was this nice dress I always liked: it was a very straight black dress, to the knee, and it had a big shoulder. All the rest of the dress was black and the neck was kind of a round shape that had a gold line around it. It was one of my favorite dresses she made. It is not my style of dress today, but it’s something that I liked when I was a kid.
Let’s talk about your ready-to-wear and haute couture lines.
Rad Hourani is now the official haute couture line and RAD by Rad Hourani is the ready-to-wear line, and I think both of them complete each other in a way. First of all, everything I create, I create what I feel like wearing, so I feel all of my collection is basically made for myself.
I am the only designer. I completely design everything from A to Z, with no exception. It’s not an assistant that draws it for me and puts it out there. And this is something interesting to talk about because I never talk about it in other interviews: I think it’s important to understand that my creations come from how I feel about something. My hand will draw something that I am feeling on my body at the same time. For example, if I think of a shape, when I draw it I think of myself wearing it right away, and it’s almost like the pencil is moving on the paper but the paper is my body in a way.
Most of my designs are symmetrical and they are very graphic, 90 degree angles, very rectangular. I’m not attracted to round shapes or shapes that make the body look short. I like shapes that can be adapted to any kind of style. Since the beginning I took a year to understand a mans body and womens body. My designs have always been unisex and unisex design means each garment can be worn on men or women.
That's another way that you are erasing rules.
I’m trying to erase everything that is learned, in a way. When someone looks at my garment I am not interested in being put in a category of 60s, 70s or 90s. It is absolutely not and I don’t have any vintage reference in my clothes.
What did you study about the body and what did you understand about the male body or the female body?
For me my study was mostly about, a male body needs to have this part covered or that part not covered or this part comfortable for movement...I studied the body in terms of a physical comfort more than in an aesthetic way — it’s not about beauty necessarily. Its more about physical comfort and physical movement...When people wear my clothes they say 'I feel protected, I feel powerful, I feel comfortable, I feel confident, I feel timeless.'
Everyone wants to know about your plans for the future, but is it fair to say that you can't dictate what the future will look like?
It’s exactly that! I never thought five years ago that I will be an invited member in Haute Couture, so in the next five years I don’t know where I am going to be. But I know that I will continue to do what I love the most, and give it everything I can give it. I’ll keep on loving every part of it.
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