news & views... Il -I Young French Designer Tells How He Works

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31144, 22 August 1966, Page 2

news & views... Il -I

Young French Designer Tells How He Works

“Whatever you do,” they say, “you mustn’t miss the Patou collection.” For anyone interested in fashion, this is sound advice, for Michel Goma’s designs for this house have that unmistakable stamp of success, a blend of individuality, youth and a subtle sense of colour and fabric.

Created in 1918 by Jean Patou, a captain in the Zouave regiment who dreamt about his collection all through the war, the house is one of the oldest in Paris. Michel Goma, aged 32. is one of the youngest designers and cleverly manages a balance between traditional elegance and swinging modernity .

mine is model girls . . . where have they all gone? The i situation is desperate ... if iyou hear of anyone. . . .” In spite of the urgency, heat, lack of models and the stacks of bright wools, from ; floor to ceiling in his studio [all waiting to be cut, Michel I Goma has the leonine look of a man who is at the top and is going to stay there.

Goma is brown eyed, cheerful and a collector of lions . . . stuffed, metal and china ones. Trained as an architect, a lover of classical music, fashion and good food, he is very much the modern designer. “No, I didn't have to make a break in the traditions of Patou. You know fashion and all that it means is an expression of the times. When you are in fashion, you are in it all the way . . . everyone working in a fashion house is sensitive to this atmosphere, and in a sense we are all creators. I always begin with the sketch rather than draping the fabric, so I put my ideas on paper. I may draw lines like this” . . . blocking out two vigorous diagonals above his desk . . . “but it is the cutter who makes these lines just right, who creates the facts from my ideas.

Paris, one finds the right balance. “For example, the other day I had a terrible time in the office and in the evening I was crossing the Place de la Concorde, rather reluctantly, on my way to a cocktail party and I stopped at one of the fountains. You know how it is just after sunset, well, I sat there for an hour and a half, watching the water. I missed the cocktail party, but found enough ideas

“How do I work? Well, I choose the fabrics. No, I wouldn’t say they give me my ideas, but they are at the back of my mind when I do the sketches. Then, when I have finished T bring the two trains of thought together. USED YELLOW “Colour, of course, is terribly important and has so much significance. I had a lot of yellow in the last collection, and in the next one there may be none at all. . . . Ah. if only I could tell you, I don't even know which one will be shown! It is like that in fashion, we do the work of six months in three weeks. “How would I explain the association of fashion and Paris?” Mr Goma’s cheerfulness evaporated briefly in perplexity. “Coming as I do from near Bordeaux, I can’t speak as a true Parisien, yet T feel the influence strongly. Every year I go away for about three weeks, usually to Italy for the swimming and the sun, and there I design my collection. When I come back I have to redo most of my designs. Somehow, away from Paris one sees things' in a different light and my I designs are . . . how would 1 you say . . . more fantastic, more extreme. It is only in j

for a week. That’s Paris. It is the right place for thinking about fashion. “There is a lot of discussion about ready-to-wear being the only way of surviving for the haute-couture, but I don’t agree. I think It is the greatness of Paris, that it keeps up with the times. Yes, a lot of the houses are doing ready-to-wear, but it is couiture ready-to-wear which is a I long way from mass-produc-tion ... I have a week-end .and a boutique collection as well as the ‘grande’ one. No, Paris would never orientate I itself completely towards ready-to-wear. In fact, I would say that there could be no ; ready-to-wear without couture. ! “Problems? What couturier i just before his collection hasn't them? But seriously,