A PRESTIGE HONG KONG EXCLUSIVE
THE RELUCTANT ICON - CHLOË SEVIGNY
by Stephen Short

Asano’s a huge star in Japan. How was he to work with?
I don’t know who he is but apparently he’s very cool over there. I like that Japanese style of, you know . . . giving gifts, but then of course I felt guilty in that I had nothing in return to give to him. I should have thought ahead, considering I was working with a Japanese actor and knowing the way they always do that, but . . .

Unfortunately we couldn’t communicate very well because he speaks no English and I speak no Japanese. So I didn’t really get to know him aside from the things he gave me that were very cool.

Such as?
[Laughs] He gave me some socks, which . . . I always love some hosiery [laughs]. He gave me this cardigan made of cotton, and I have a big collection of cardigans, it was kind of like T-shirt material. Then he gave me this little thing that you wrap around the waist, it looks like a pair of sleeves, like a flannel to wrap around your waist but it has a zipper in it. It’s just like a long scarf, or a pair of really long sleeves that you tie around the waist. It’s quite clever. I thought it was very cool.

Are you pretty savvy on the Asian culture front?
[Laughs] I think I’d rather not say for fear of sounding ignorant. I don’t know how even to acquire information about things going on in those countries. I don’t feel like there’s much coverage. I even heard the other day through someone I know that Yohji Yamamoto’s son or daughter is now designing a line, and we don’t even hear about that yet. That should have more coverage, especially for someone who’s doing something really innovative in the way they are.

Did you go to the Murakami exhibition this week at the Brooklyn Museum?
No, I’m not a big Murakami fan. I really had very little interest in going to see that.

What about Cai Guo-Qiang’s exhibition at the Guggenheim?
I did see that. Of course, yes. I was very impressed. I think to see art on that scale is just very rare, and I was kind of blown away and there was lots of crowds. I went one day when it was raining and there was a line about five blocks long to get in and I just thought, forget it, I’ll have to come back another day [laughs]. And luckily the next time I went back it wasn’t as busy. It’s unbelievable though. I’ve heard the crowds have been really big there, every day, which is pretty amazing. I kind of wished that the “place cards,” you know, the things that explain what the art’s about, I kind of wish I hadn’t been reading those and just let myself interpret it in my own way. I felt reading the cards took away from the experience a little, somehow. They were very informative but almost too much, you know, just spelled it out so eagerly for you.

I thought the boat you could get into was a bit odd.
Yes. The room when you go around with the river, somehow I didn’t feel that fit in so easily with the rest.

I thought the wolves running into a sheet of fibreglass really did it for me.
Yes. I did too. And did you see the watercolour of the tigers, like the classic kind of woodcutting. Was that his father’s or had he done that? I like the cars suspended from the roof, too. That reminds me of a friend of mine, an artist, Spencer Sweeney. He had a show, I guess a couple of years ago at Gavin Brown’s, and they had an old New York City police car which they had gutted and hung upside down that had all the disco balls and lights, and all the lights were flashing like a disco thing. That was really amazing, too.

Coincidentally, we’re running a shot in this month’s fashion section of the ballet flat you designed for Repetto’s 60th anniversary. I love your design.
Thank you. I was actually just inspired by the old Vivienne Westwood shoes and the Comme des Garçons shoes, you know, with the straight platform across, not really a wedge, more like a lift. I guess that’s like a traditional Japanese style.

How did you get to collaborate with them?
They gave me a list of the designers and I thought it seemed like a pretty good cross-section of people and we agreed. It was funny. When I was in Paris, outside the store – I had never been there before – there was a line outside the store to get in and I had to queue up behind the velvet rope. While I was in the queue I was like . . . [mock delirious] God, they’re my shoes in the window! Can I cut the line? [Laughs.]

I’ve been strolling around Soho and I see Kate Moss for Top Shop clothes, Olsen twins stuff, Natalie Portman shoes, there’s Jovovich-Hawk. This celebrity-designer market is getting competitive, isn’t it?
Yes, I agree with you, but I think there’s so much variety. For instance, what Kate Moss is doing for Top Shop is very mass market produced. And the Olsen twins is very high end, high-end fabrics, very expensive. Natalie’s is a very small niche and what she’s done is very personal. What I tried to do with Opening Ceremony, I hoped people would be able to recognise that I put a lot of work into it, rather than it just being something I approved. It was very thought out and very personal for me as well.

It seems you have a love/hate relationship with fashion. Can we expect more fashion from Chloë Sevigny?
No, absolutely not. I’m taking a big break from fashion. I’m not going to do another line. It was a one-off. We decided maybe in a couple of years we’ll do a boy’s line, but I think for a little while I should step out of fashion and concentrate much more on the film work. The problem – well, it’s not a problem – but I had signed on to do this HBO series called Big Love and . . . the problem with Big Love is that it’s not a regular schedule like network television. They have you on a retainer and you’re not allowed to do other work because they say, “Well, we might need you.” So for the past three or four years, getting film work has been much more difficult because people aren’t as apt to hire me because they don’t know if I’ll have to go back and do the series. It’s been really fulfilling, a great experience, I love doing the show . . . but my film work has really suffered because of it. So I need to stay in Los Angeles for six months and concentrate on finding something to do when the season ends in November.