Bonaveri Magazine

“Darkly romantic”. This is how famous
journalist Suzy Menkes has defined him.
Olivier Theyskens, Belgian fashion designer
with Paris as his second hometown, fell in love
with Bonaveri mannequin collection while he
was planning his own exhibition, “She Walks
in Beauty,” at the MoMu fashion museum in
Antwerp, in Belgium, two years ago.
Born in Brussels in 1977, Olivier started his
own label at the age of 20; then he became
Artistic Director for the historical maisons,
Rochas first and then Nina Ricci; a jump to the
US for the American-wear label, Theory, and in
September 2016 his return to Paris to re-launch
his eponymous current label.
A gifted child in drawing with a keen sense for
detail, he declared he wanted to be a couturier
when he was only 7 years old!
We reached Olivier over the phone in his studio
in Paris - tucked inside the historical landmark
Hotel de Bourrienne - one early January morning,
feeling and enjoying his sincere passions not
only for couture but for mannequin bodies and
their world of movement and postures.
“She walks in beauty”, what a fascinating title
for your exhibition, that sounds like it is leading
us to another world and feelings.
The title comes from a poem by Lord Byron.
You like him and poetry?
I like poetry for sure, I like the sky and of
universe of poems, from Baudelaire to Lord
Byron. I wanted to have some quotes in the
exhibition from the world of poetry to give more
atmosphere, something reminiscent of strong
words that make people think.
“She walks in beauty” is a poem that speaks
about an extremely beautiful widow dressed in
black. I thought it was a good fit and also when I
sketch collections a lot of times I sketch figures
that are in movement, like they are walking…
And you in the rooms of MoMu were replicating this
idea of movement.
Well, I think that the very important thing in the
exhibition, which was a monograph, was to give a
feeling of who the Theysken girl was. Her posture and
physique had to link to my shows.
It was essential to transcribe something that was
coherent with what I have done through the years,
so the choice of the mannequins was extremely
important. We started the process of the exhibition
probably more than a year before its opening. I wasn’t
finding the right attitude to present my work, then I
happened to understand there was a new collection
coming at Bonaveri, called Tribe, that was just what I
was looking for.
I saw the first prototypes; we were very lucky because
we could use them to shoot the images for the
exhibition catalogue. We had to start working on the
book six months before the exhibition itself and I had
the possibility of playing around with the mannequins’
positions: we had five shapes and five postures that
I could mix to recreate new positions to shoot the
photos.
You loved the Bonaveri Tribe* at first sight.
The Tribe silhouettes, the postures were very
Theyskens, because they really look like real girls.
I understood from Bonaveri that their poses were
inspired by models’ attitudes and gestures when they
are backstage at fashion shows.
As I was saying, I could experiment with these new
mannequins earlier for the catalogue. I could mix
them: for example, I could use the bust of number one,
a leg of number three, one arm from another… and
make new postures with new and different attitudes.
An employee of the museum who was there on the
shoot started writing down how I used each silhouette,
each mannequin, how I combined the parts…
The goal of the book was to give the feeling the clothes
were shot on alive models. And this complex combining
really gave the feeling that you had real girls wearing
the clothes.
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