Interview with Marc Bouwer
The King of Gorgeous Glam on the Red Carpet
It all started as “Press Week” in 1943, when Eleanor Lambert, the press director of the New York Dress Institute, created a series of fashion-related events in order to take attention away from French fashion during World War II (French fashion was THE only fashion that mattered at the time). Thankfully, Press Week was a huge success, with magazines like Vogue dedicating more and more pages to American fashion.
Fast forward to 1993, when the CFDA introduced the centralized notion of “New York Fashion Week” and created the iconic white tents at Bryant Park. From there, New York Fashion Week has continued to morph and adapt to the changing times and audiences. One thing has certainly remained the same, though: talented designers from all over the world descend upon NYC for two weeks out of the year (one in February, the other in September) to showcase their creations.
I had the opportunity to talk with one of those designers about everything from his creative process to his latest collection for New York Fashion Week. He’s dressed everyone from Mary J. Blige to Emily Blunt to Whitney Houston (THE WEDDING DRESS). His designs? Iconic red carpet moments. His name? Marc Bouwer. The South Africa native has been creating beautiful fashion for years, and I was able to see this fashion firsthand at his NYC studio. I believe the first words I uttered upon entering were: “Oh my God this is fashion porn!”
ANDY: Marc! So thrilled to be able to talk with you at your studio. Walk me through your latest collection for Fashion Week!
MARC: When you do a collection, you try to have a theme. Sometimes you come up with a theme and it doesn’t work out. So, you either go with what’s happening, or you fight it and stick to your theme, which is what I did this time. My theme for this latest collection was taking beautiful sparkly things out of a jewel box.
A: One thing I’ve always loved about Marc Bouwer is that he’s never shied away from an embellishment!
M: I wanted to go NUTS with the stones and jewels this time. I’ve been able to collect so many different stones and other sparkly pieces over the years that this time I said lets just throw them on everything and make it really girly & fun, but also really modern & edgy at the same time. I just couldn’t wait to open that “vault” full of pieces per se and see how I could resurrect these things in a new way.
A: Releasing your collection on Instagram is definitely one way to do that! Tell me about your decision to do it that way.
M: I initially had this idea many years ago, way before anyone thought of using social media as a platform for launching a collection. The shows were costing us a fortune. We were spending a couple hundred thousand dollars for ten minutes of show! Plus, there were so many shows happening each and every day of Fashion Week, that you were lucky to get a picture here or there in a magazine. So we started thinking, why not just make these collections instantly viewable and accessible to everyone by releasing pictures and short films on social media? Whether you’re a school kid learning about fashion or a jaded editor in your bathtub, it’s right there for everyone! Everything is so instantly accessible and available right now. You can’t fight it.
A: Take me back to your early years. When was your sort of “ah ha” moment that success was really happening for you?
M: I met some models and a club promoter here in New York when I created my first collection, and he suggested that we show the collection at a brand new nightclub called The Red Parrot. It had this amazing glass staircase that descended from the ceiling. It was definitely a crazy collection, most of it pretty unsellable.
A: It’s a show first and foremost, though.
M: Right. So those first “ah ha” moments came when all these good reviews started coming in, and then I discovered I got a rave review in the New York Times. I didn’t really know at the time just what the impact of the New York Times was because I wasn’t only new to New York, I was new to America. I knew it was New York’s big newspaper, but I didn’t know it was a paper that was seen across the world. When I got that review in the Times, I think that’s what started to change everything for me.
A: Who was your first big “get” after that?
M: Well, around that time, I got a call from Morgan Fairchild, who was one of the biggest stars and sex symbols out there. She had a television series called “Paper Dolls” and asked me to do all her costumes. Then I met Whitney Houston.
A: Yes! You two forged quite the partnership to say the least.
