Fully importable stuff but I was putting

Of Gemini, zodiac sign corresponding to her month of birth, this beautiful large Brown matchlock rock'n roll said he inherited a certain taste for duality. One side yin and something yang that it its origins: a native worker father of Alentejo, in the Portugal, and a nurse, a native of the Flemish Belgium mother. Union of North and South, with at the outset, earned him to master the Flemish and the French (with her father, she speaks in the language of Molière) and a visceral need to open on the world.

It is at Vilvoorde, cited industrial close to Brussels, that the future star of fashion made in Belgium sees the day. June 6, 1973, to be quite specific, which earned him a Lion ascendancy. The astral theme explains the other side of our head researcher: well tempered character and a thirst for independence. As a child, Véronique escapes grey in his town home thanks to reading (passion that she has always, in particular for the novels of Boris Vian and Michel Houellebecq), drawing, to classical dance. Also engaged in of incessant transferred in the flea markets. Fashion It is to one day his profession, even if, at the age of 15, she causes the stir of the inhabitants and the ire of his mother by his outfits shaped detonating "black punkette" crosses way Clash or The Cure, and "glamourous" in Madonna (which she loves). "I was more in an attitude of rebellion from my daily life to real passion for garment.". I particularly remember pants that I Fatima in the oilcloth. Fully importable stuff, but I was putting.

At age 16, strongly worked by creating daemon, is passing through a school of painting before joining the famous Royal Academy of Antwerp, section mode, where it remained four years. "I have not only learned the foundations of the profession, but I also made the learning of liberty in contact with people of all artistic disciplines." Her degree in hand, it crosses the road to Marc Ysemans, a Belgian industrialist who entrusts him with the style of its ready-to-wear brands. "I have decided to stop after a few seasons." To make this kind of collections widely was absolutely not my approach. I to was even arrived at want to just stop.

The idea of a partnership lies yet between the industrial and the young woman, leading to the launch of its own brand in October 1997. In Paris, it presents a first woman characterized by its specific and net style collection, and its beautiful materials, such as the cotton broadcloth, the cloth or tweed. Immediate success with the most prestigious boutiques multi-brand who see "paw" a staggering replay of the classics of the female wardrobe. Beautiful awards also: Fashion Award for the best designer of the year 1998 and Moët Fashion Award in 2000. Driven leader of the new wave of designers from the "flat country", it draws two seasons (spring-summer 1999 and fall-winter 1999-2000) the collections of the Italian brand of leather very upscale Ruffo Research. She participated in numerous exhibitions mode alongside Raf Simons - the current artistic director of the Jill Sander - then his friend to heart claw. In 2003, she launches her male ready-to-wear and opens a shop in Antwerp. 2006 will see the creation of a new line called "Accomplice" is a reinterpretation of the basic of the female wardrobe and the male locker room - tailor, shirt, pants right...-, sold at prices comparable to those of the other two lines, averaging 180 to 200 euros for the mesh, EUR 300 for pants, 350 to 400 euros for a skirt and 500 euros for a dress.

Limited series: You are one of the leaders of the current Belgian fashion scene. To do you a sense of nationalism triumphant as some of your colleagues

Véronique Branquinho: I have, it is true, a sense of pride to my so small country he must continually fight to prove his existence. He passes yet full of things, not only mode, but also in painting, music, architecture. However, I am not especially Flemish in the sense where my father has also just. Unless as in Antwerp, the existence of a strong movement of the far right makes me horror.

S. l.: you are also one of the few women to emerge in a universe of creation still largely dominated by men. How do you explain it

V. b.: there has always been women in fashion, and not least! When a man dressed a woman, it idealized it, fantasy on it and converts it into icon. This kind of spectacular approach effectively polarizes the attention, but is not relevant to the designer I am. Me a woman, it is its complexity, its vulnerability and strength. In short, his humanity! For me, modernity is precisely to not be offset with the daily, the needs and desires of women. Unlike many creative men, I have not thought about trends. I work in a very intuitive, almost autobiographical way, and I decline to obey codes whatsoever.

S. l.: is often compared your style to a classic revisited. Do you agree with this definition

V. b.: it's a Word, a label! But it is true that the major parts of my collections, such as the chemiser, the trench, the tailor skirt or trousers and the caban, rather are timeless style where the footprint of the seasons does not matter. It also explains why I like both resort to traditional, even male subjects such as the cotton broadcloth, the tweed, the cloth of wool or silk. Thus, the term "classical", a little too matter, I prefer that of timeless.

S. l.: when you create a collection, you immerse yourself completely in the fantasy or do do you always keep the concept of portable and commercial

V. b.: I lose never view the concept of portable. It is something essential in my eyes, I do not disguise people, ridicule them. My goal is to offer realistic clothing respecting the integrity of the wearer. Indeed, and even if I am calling a mannequin for fittings, when I have a doubt on a volume or a length from the morphology of a normal woman, I turn myself clothing to try the effect. The commercial, I complete my collection before you discuss it with my sales team to take note of their comments, suggestions. Left to rectify certain details to the requirements of the broadcast.

S. l.: in the light of your collections, cannot help but imagine working in a fashion house. Would it be a secret dream

V. b.: I have no experience in sewing, but I love the know-how, the technique, the tradition related. Yesterday, I would have said you not me to feel able to because it's too foreign to my way of understanding the mode. Today, I feel more open to the idea of working for a House because the sewing is disappearing. And the idea that any

a generation does not know something exceptional touches me and makes me want to go to it.

S. l.: only what is elegance, for you

V. b.: this is never a garment, but the woman who is elegance. Hence the difficulty in defining both this refers to a style, an attitude that was and that it does not manufacture.

S. l.: to move at the speed greater than the level of the development of your brand, would you ready to totally sell your name to a group

V. b.: I don't know. For now, this makes me fear. I would like to control my image, decide where the manufacture must be, with which I want to work together and in what points of sale I would like to see my broadcast products. I am inherently independent, even though I know that I must still roll in a system to survive. But I like the idea of feel me free! It continues to say that, for a creator, point of salvation in the long run outside of a group! Yet, I exist. It is sometimes very hard to resist the temptation to just send walk...

S. l.: you started your activity with a women's ready-to-wear. Launch a male ready-to-wear seemed you really essential

V. b.: I work much my collections for women with male fabrics. And shops stopped not encourage me to also create for human. Finally, the decision to start on this niche gave me a breath of oxygen to the level of creation, in the sense where the approach of the style is completely different from that for women who, for me, is instinctive. With the man, I had questioning me from his profile, its looks, what it should be. A challenge.

S. l.: while both brands are struggling to impose consistency of style between female and male lines, consider you that women Branquinho has really found a man his height

V. b.: this limits too the words of consider it this perspective. Say that there is as an idea romantic make accomplices the woman and the man, like Bonnie and Clyde. But I also believe that women Branquinho is so open to life she finds men that correspond to where it wants.

S. l.: you put in orbit a third line entitled "Accomplice" of the autumn-winter 2006-2007. What is the concept

V. b.: it's a line based on the notion of transversality and dress complementarity of a couple. Contents, color codes, as well as the silhouette reflect each other. It is therefore a partner-look. Indeed, at the level of the presentation, most women and men who have agreed to participate form real couples in life. But attention! This line has absolutely nothing to do with the concept of unisex clothing that I am not at all interested. This is not a line for a wider dissemination because its prices are at the same level as the other two lines of ready-to-wear.

S. l.: Accessories weigh increasingly heavier in fashion. What place yourself them

V. b. > I like accessories. I am indeed a few bags models have a very similar history of my clothes and shoes. But I do not feel the need to produce each season. If I am still looking for a form I like, I have any desire to change every six months on the pretext of fuel sales. I love the accessories if they have a meaning to my history of fashion.

S. l.: many designers complain about their difficulty to sell less and less numerous and more demanding multi-brand shops.

V. b.: it cannot have the cake and of butter! Claws, developing more and more shops own, this may not arrange the Affairs of the multi-brand which the principle of operation is based in large part on an exclusive character... The idea of having to sign shops in some capitals seduced me, of course. But I think it is more interesting for the consumer to have spaces where he has the choice between several brands to integrate them into his own universe. This at the same time allows him to escape the trap of total look! In any event, I am for the mixing of people, genres and styles.

S. l.: you scroll in Paris for several years now. For a designer, especially foreign, the French capital remains it a forced crossing

V. b.: Paris remains an engine at the level of the image and I can't imagine a moment present in London or Milan. However, even if I consider Paris as my second home, I could not consider live elsewhere than in Antwerp, at least for the moment. It is a friendly city, small where there everything under the hands. There is the mode and can work at their own pace.

S. l.: the press continues to deplore the too many parades. Are crucial for your image and help you sell

V. b.: for the man they me are not necessary. But for women, if. I like to show my world as a whole. And the parade seems to me the way most effective to reveal and explain it.

S. l.: it is often alleged fashion designers too give in the jeunisme at the level of their image.

V. b.: most of the time, we work with Agency Dummies very young people. I must admit that this problem me sometimes in the sense where they have a body of teenager and not women. Even if I like and I find beautiful this youth, this does not correspond to my history of fashion. That said, this is not the age that matter to me, but envy to propose a luxury adapted daily clothing and incite a woman to want to wear anything simply because it is beautiful inside.

BOX .

A fierce commitment to independence

Since its official launch in February 1998, James SA (the name under which the company Veronique Branquinho is recorded) is always based on an association with the Belgian industrial Marc Ysemans where the creator is in the majority. The beginnings were heroic, in the apartment of the young woman when the dining room table became Office and where the bed was relegated in the bathroom... Then, the company has invested on Nationale Straat, a popular neighbourhood in the centre of Antwerp, a former garage transformed into head office and production workshop. There are two years, and always in the same street, new redeployment in a building of three levels, with a shop on the ground floor and all the creation activity in the upper floors.

After a meteoric growth, Véronique Branquinho crossed, as most of the creators, a period of reflux requiring him to downsize (now number 15) to avoid a takeover. It announced a turnover of 3.9 million for 2005. Side distribution, the brand has approximately seventy outlets internationally, including the prominent multi-brand the cheap and Maria Luisa in Paris.