Thinking about Panties: Belgian Lingerie Designer Murielle Scherre [Interview, Fashion]
Posted at 2:18 PM Jul 25, 2008
Murielle Scherre designs lingerie that is both super-sexy and highly wearable for her small company La Fille D'O in her home/shop in Ghent, Belgium. We met at the Pinched festival in Amsterdam in June and got to talking, so I thought a follow up interview would be lovely.
Naked City editor Audacia Ray had questions for Murielle about her creative process, the lingerie business in Europe, and her special approach to shooting photos of models wearing her designs.
Audacia Ray: What inspired you to start your business and what inspires the designs you make?
Murielle Scherre: Simple things inspired me to start, but I find it’s the more complex things that keep me going. The start was mainly about being intrigued by the human body, so in the academy I was working with sports-influenced shapes and performance fabrics and seams that are body dynamic. But I found something missing: the excitement, the fire. I didn’t want to do just functional stuff. I wanted fun and games. And if you add those to performance and close to the body wear, you soon get to the field of lingerie. Or at least that is what I thought. I quickly found out that was not the other brands’ motivation since they mainly surf on the commercial wave. Humor, sex and adoration for the human body is hard to find in most other brands so I decided I could do better.
When I design lingerie or when I need to decide on a project or a look for a show or whatever, if it’s linked to my brand I will think of something I would like to see happening in other brands. I try to think as a consumer, I think of the demand. I don’t want to be the stuck up designer bitch who saw the light and is so nice to share her wisdom of what we plebeians want. I don’t want that and I don’t need it. If I see a brand I need to feel that the people behind it have it in their blood. I want to be seriously crazy about it. In love with every single one of their products, willing to lose and arm for it. I want the product to be clever but also naïve in a way. I want the designs to become a second skin that draws the eye of the beholder to where I want it. And the next time I hold that piece, I want it to give me a flash back of every single memory it holds, of each adventure it had. I want that adventure slightly showing by my blushing cheeks. That’s how I do my designs – ior at least I try to.
Three more questions and their answers -and more pictures- after the jump.
AR: What is your approach to making and marketing lingerie and how is it different from the ways that lingerie is usually marketed?
MS: I have no clue what marketing is. A friend of mine studies it and she has no clue either. I think it is just a name for good common sense. I try to figure out how things are done and then I ask myself why. When I can’t find a decent anser I start fooling around, messing up the rules and making things more human.
I don’t do seasons. I don’t think its logical to have winter season delivered in shops in August when that is our only chance, in Belgium, to have some sun. I don’t understand why clothes can only be interesting for five months and then they are on sale. I don’t get why all models are the same. I find that pretty boring instead of pretty. People who know my brand, know me. I have my own shop on the groundfloor of my own house. People that email “us” email me. I like this super small business that actually allows me to know what happens all over the brand and its playground. It’s like some old skool candy store, and I like it that way.
AR:What is the lingerie business like in Europe? How do you see your business fitting in with other lingerie businesses in Europe?
MS: It’s about as opposite as it can get to what I do. I fit in like the ba-ba-black sheep, but I don’t want to be an empty rebel without a cause. Not fitting in is just a side effect of what I do. I want to make a brand that is what women –me included- have been waiting for. There is comfortable lingerie, there is hardcore sexy lingerie, there is high class lingerie, there is cute lingerie. It’s all there. But I like to combine it all. I want my undies to be able to stand by me when I need to visit the doctor or my friends or strangers. I don’t like the word sexy because it has been claimed by vulgar brands that think posing is attractive. I think imperfection is attractive. I don’t think lace is mandatory for une nuit blanche. I think underwear should emphasize the body of the woman wearing it and accentuate her every move. I think the biggest difference is this: La Fille D’O is not a business. It keeps me busy, but I see it as pleasure.
AR: Explain a bit about how you do the photo shoots for your lingerie.
MS: A collection and a show and the shoot all must breathe the same aid when I think of something new. I want the location and the smell and every single impulse must point in the same direction, I like to give my brain a little playground of which the borders are marked by some keywords but where I can let me brain run freely. Deciding what to shoot is almost obvious because all the decisions have been made before that. I want to make a complementary image to the design, something that tells the story or confuses you a bit but sets the mood all the same.
I always work with makeup artists, photographers and models I have known for a while: like-minded creatures. I have even created my own agency for models although “agency” doesn’t really cover it: Deville Harem Girls are a bunch of friends that happen to be fierce and funny and hot and wild and playful and willing and able. They are my partners in crime. They are not your average model puppets; they come in al shapes and sizes and characters. It’s an adventure for all of us, time and time again, because we don’t have any pre-fab shows or poses. The plan is that there is no plan. That is the best thing I have planned in my life so far.
