Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss selects the best fashion interviews of 2022 – a closer look at the figures who have defined a year in style. From the industry’s most recognised names – Rick Owens, Manolo Blahnik, Giorgio Armani and Gabriela Hearst among them – to an emerging generation of designers carving new paths, these insightful and revealing conversations recap a definitive 12 months in fashion.
TOP 10 FASHION INTERVIEWS OF 2022
01. Pieter Mulier on ‘modern beauty’ and his vision for Alaïa
Pieter Mulier’s Alaïa in September 2022 Style issue of Wallpaper*
In Wallpaper’s September Style Issue, Belgian designer Pieter Mulier opened up about his vision for Alaïa, one year after taking the helm. A pursuit of ‘modern beauty’ is central to his approach, melding the sensuality of forebear Azzedine Alaïa with his contemporary vision of womanhood. ‘Beauty, body, sex – [Alaïa] is the only place where you can use the word sex without being vulgar,’ he said. ‘It’s sex that comes from the heart, from the inside, where beauty belongs and can be found.’
02. Satoshi Kondo speaks of Issey Miyake’s legacy
Issey Miyake S/S 2023
Speaking after his S/S 2023 show for Issey Miyake – the first collection presented after the death of its eponymous founder in August 2022 – Satoshi Kondo paid homage to his forebear’s legacy of innovation and optimism. ‘Every collection I [have] created with my team is a reflection of what we learned from Miyake,’ Kondo said, having become head designer in 2019. ‘Moving forward, as we have always done in the past, we will challenge ourselves to create original, unprecedented clothing that brings a sense of joy and wonder.’
03. Rick Owens talks from his ‘concrete palace’
Rick Owens at home
As part of our ‘At Home With’ series, the iconoclastic designer Rick Owens spoke about his working process, finding inspiration, and the ‘concrete palace’ he calls home in the run-up to showing his S/S 2023 menswear collection in Paris (the typically dystopian setting saw giant metal balls of fire dropped from cranes into the fountains in front of the Palais de Tokyo). ‘I am on my terrace overlooking the gardens of the Ministry of Defence – the roses are just starting to bloom and the wisteria that always seems to struggle a bit looks lush and confident this season,’ he began.
04. Ester Manas: the label making clothes for every body
Ester Manas adjusts a garment on a model, taken from Wallpaper* August 2022
‘It’s for a woman who really wants to be seen,’ says Ester Manas of her eponymous label, which she designs alongside partner Balthazar Delepierre. Speaking from their Belgian studio, Manas and Delepierre talk about their size-inclusive approach, where a garment can span sizes S-3XL in a singular garment using clever tricks of design. ‘I wanted to do something for myself, because I am plus-size,’ says Manas. ‘When we started, back in 2016, it was not so cool to be big. It was an issue. We thought we needed to address that.’
05. Gabriela Hearst on sustainability and style at Chloé
Chloé A/W 2022 in March 2022 Style Issue of Wallpaper*
Featuring in the March 2022 Style Issue, we caught up with Gabriela Hearst, the creative director of Parisian house Chloé on her sustainably-minded approach to luxury – a process she likened to the creation of an Italian Caprese salad. ‘You need to be working with the best ingredients, great tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella,’ she said to Laura Hawkins. ‘Before I joined Chloé, there was an oversight in the ingredients being used to create its final product.’
06. Manolo Blahnik: ‘the only thing you need is passion’
Manolo Blahnik at home in the Canary Islands
Speaking from his home in the Canary Islands, the legendary Spanish shoe designer talked to Wallpaper* in a wide-ranging interview – from his current reading list to his all-time favourite dish (the bread and butter pudding from Wiltons restaurant on London’s Jermyn Street). He also shared his advice for a new generation of creatives: ‘the only thing you need is passion – a complete passion for what you do, or what you are trying to do,’ he said.
07. In conversation: when Giorgio Armani met Paul Smith
Paul Smith and Giorgio Armani at Armani’s Milan home
As part of Wallpaper’s October 2022 issue, Giorgio Armani proposed a conversation with fellow designer Paul Smith as part of his guest edit. In the expansive interview, Armani and Smith talked shop, discussing everything from role models and career highs to their strong Italian and British roots. ‘Sometimes I think I would have loved to be on the other side, and be the one who asks questions – it is a much easier position in a way,’ said Armani. ’Which, in fact, is what has made this dialogue with you so enjoyable.’
08. New York’s new generation
Diotama, part of our emerging New York brands feature
Seven distinct designers made up our pick of New York’s new generation of fashion talent, all of which are lifting the city’s fashion week with their individual interpretations of style. From Rachel Scott’s Diotama – which draws on the dancehall traditions of Jamaica, Kingston, where she was born – to Carly Mark and Ayla Argentina’s ‘clumsy and chic’ Puppets and Puppets, each speaks to Wallpaper* about what it means to be a young designer in New York, and indeed America, today.
09. Christophe Lemaire on his longtime collaboration with Uniqlo U
Uniqlo U A/W 2022
Christophe Lemaire’s collaboration with Uniqlo is one of fashion’s most successful partnerships; in October, he told Wallpaper* the story behind his latest Uniqlo U collection for the Japanese brand, a modular wardrobe of reconsidered archetypes which are built to last. ‘As a designer, I’m more into deep trends, and not seasonal trends,’ he said from Paris. ‘It’s about having, or trying to have, an understanding of the way people behave, their ways of life, their needs. That is what I’m interested in.’
10. Edward Buchanan: ‘the creative process for me is beautiful as well as painful’
Fabiana Filippi Highline capsule collection, designed by Edward Buchanan
Edward Buchanan – who runs own label Sansovino 6, as well as consulting for Off-White and Agnona – drew inspiration from the biodiversity of New York’s High Line for his collaboration with Italian label Fabiana Filippi. Scarlett Conlon spoke to Buchanan on the collection’s release, which continued his reputation as one of fashion’s busiest men. ‘The creative process for me is beautiful as well as painful, because a part of my process now is, do we have to do so much?’ he says. ‘I like longevity... I like to build something up strong and hard and so you have it for a long time.’
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