It's very difficult to do street casting with girls, because a beautiful girl in real life won't necessarily have the silhouette or the presence needed for a show.
Christophe LemaitreWhat I like to do is take something from a man's wardrobe and re-proportion it slightly. We've got another jacket in this collection with a smaller shoulder. It's the idea of subtle feminization, to make the clothes more delicate.
Christophe LemaitreIt's a completely independent atelier and company. We develop the prototypes here. There's a pattern maker, a sample maker, a commercial team, a head of sales, an in-house production team. That's the price of independence. And in the studio I work closely with Sarah-Linh on the collection, and Nao takes care of development.
Christophe LemaitreWhat's important for me is to find the right kind of girls who express a vision of a woman. We like girls who look smart and intelligent with natural beauty - a certain quality of skin and hair. And she doesn't look exactly like a model.
Christophe LemaitreWe have a direct contact with our clothes; they're like a little house. You have to feel good and at home in what you wear and. I think that's elegance. Chanel said something like: "When a woman is badly dressed, one sees the dress, and when she is well dressed, one sees the woman." That's what I'm talking about.
Christophe Lemaitre