A.F.Vandevorst: An Interview with An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx

REBEKKA AYRES: How are you two? Have you had a busy day today?

AN VANDEVORST: Yes, (laughs) we always think after the show the workload will come down, but then the day after each show comes around and we realise we always say that will happen and we always forget that it never does! It keeps on going after the show.

RA: How did the show go? It must have been a stressful time in the run-up.

AV: Yeah, it was really stressful. Even after 20 years it keeps on being stressful – you never get used to it.

RA: I thought we could begin by talking about how you met. What first bought you two together and when did you know your friendship would offer a great working partnership?

AV: We met on our first day of school in Antwerp at the Academy and there was immediately a strong connection, from that very first moment. First, we very quickly became great friends, and soon after we became lovers, then we decided to live together. That was the point I started to work for Dries van Noten as his assistant, while Filip was doing styling for magazines and TV programs. Then at some point we decided to work on our own collection.

RA: Was that because you felt you had the same vision?

AV: As a matter of fact, first, I wanted to do my own collection, and then when I mentioned the idea to Filip – I’d written the words ‘Autumn/Winter ’98-‘99’ on a piece of paper – and he said, ‘yeah, okay, why not? Let’s do it’. In the beginning, I thought, ‘Huh? The twoof us?’ I found it really weird in the first day or so, and had to think about it a little bit because the working partnership was not so obvious to me initially, but then one day went by and I thought, ‘Yeah, why not?’ We are good together, we respect each other, we complement one another’s characters. So soon after that, we decided we were doing this as the two of us.

RA: Retracing the story of the label right back to its roots must have been an illuminating experience for you. What has changed and what has stayed the same since you first began?

FILIP ARICKX: Going from analogue to digital.

AV: That was a huge change. From fax machines to computers…yeah. Our passion has stayed the same, and the way in which our work and our personal lives are mixed, so much so that we find it hard to see the line that separates the two. But technology has proved a drastic change, especially with social media. Before, you really had to hope and pray that all the key people who you wanted to see your collection were in attendance at the show, because otherwise there was no way for them to see it. Now, of course it’s always nice to have a lot of great people at the show, but if some person cannot make it for one reason or another, it’s not the end of the world anymore because they can always see it online, even in real-time via a live stream. Also, the way things worked before meant that even the general perception of the brand was very different. Most of the time, the customer never knew what else you were doing – they might see maybe one photograph in the newspaper showing one silhouette, but that was it, so they had to go to the store to discover what the rest of the collection looked like. Of course, then, they thought what was available in store was the final collection, they didn’t realise that the store bought only a small selection of the looks. If there are 10 types of trousers, a store buys maybe two or three of those different cuts, maximum. Now, they see everything immediately. And then they’re already bored by the time it arrives in the store! (Laughs)

RA: I suppose a great advantage of that is how much control you have over your own brand image and how it’s communicated, posting photos online whenever and however you want, rather than relying on a much smaller coverage by the printed press.

AV: Yeah, I think every evolution has its positive and negative side. So many people comment that nowadays it’s so difficult to start your own brand, but it’s not, it’s just different. There is always a good and a bad side – there always was. I wouldn’t say it’s more difficult to launch now than it was 20 years ago. There were other issues, and there will always be issues. That’s the thing with fashion, it’s a game of love and hate. The rhythm is always killing, and it was always killing – it’s just faster now.

RA: That’s right, there’s a huge amount of panic concerning technology but it seems like it’s because we don’t really know how to deal with it yet.

AV: Yeah, exactly. And before, you still had to work fast because you had to send everything for approval – physically. Now, if you want to send someone a drawing, you can send an email. That didn’t used to be possible, you had to send it by post.

RA: I can’t even imagine how different the pace must have been.

AV: Now we sound like dinosaurs!

RA: No, no! So many of our jobs have changed completely, even just in the past few years. That leads me to my next question. 20 years marks a long and important relationship for any two people, let alone those who have to work with each other every day. What is it about the way you interact that makes your bond so productive and strong?

AV: In the beginning we did everything together – everything – drawing, looking for fabrics, the administrative side. But then after a while, we realized we were losing so much time and that we would be better off splitting up and dividing the tasks. It was slowing us down, so we reassessed. I was more in charge of the collection, and Filip was more involved with the visuals, the brand development and, against his will, a bit of the bookkeeping side. But of course, nothing ever happened without the other’s approval. Everything we worked on individually was then discussed together. There was always an interaction – always a ping pong process. What’s always been good about that – and that still keeps us strong today – is that there’s always a fresh eye. For example, if I’m doing a garment fitting and it doesn’t quite work, I’ll keep asking for another prototype, then another one, then another one until it looks much better, to the point that I’ll think, ‘Oh yeah, we’re there!’ At this point, Filip won’t have been following that closely, so I’ll show it to him for a fresh eye and he’ll say ‘No, you’re not there at all, it’s awful’. That’s when we know to start again.

RA: The book contains rich insights by figures like Sarah Mower, Suzy Menkes and Dries van Noten. Where does their reading of your work differ from your own? What did you find most interesting in their interpretations?

AV: There’s this really early review by Suzy Menkes where she cites a sportswear sort of feel to our work. That’s something we were really surprised by at the time, we just never saw it in that way. Then recently, after so many years since this first piece, she wrote it again, and we finally understood. We knew then that she had been right all along.

RA: Right from the very beginning. You have a faithful following of very loyal fans. What will the most hardcore A.F.Vandevorst nerds be surprised to see or learn from the book?

AV: Well some will be very surprised that they are actually in the book because we have these three fans who got a cross tattoo on their back. One time we took a picture of them showing us, so we put that photo in the book. That’s the interesting thing though, that’s the remark we get from people who see the book, that it’s very personal. Sometimes it’s funny to see how our personal life – the most day to day thing – sneaks into our collections. When we look back through the pictures and archives, that’s what really grabs our attention. It was very emotional, a trip down memory lane. You could see when certain things in your life happened, like, ‘that was when our dog died’ – all these really important personal moments, they were all visible in the collection in one way or another.

RA: That must have been so special to revisit. I can’t wait to see. Thank you for speaking with me!