Dear Diane and Shaded Viewers,
Jean-Pierre Braganza has been a fixture on the London Fashion Week schedule for nearly a decade. Focusing on futuristic digital prints, geometric structure and strong tailoring, the Canadian designer manages to take subjects ranging from faeries to cyber wolds and turn them into a range of wearable yet unique garments, gathering a steady following of devotees along the way. In the following interview, Braganza discusses the inspiration behind his upcoming S/S 13 collection, the beauty of darkness and Freudian theories of creativity…
You first knew that you wanted to do fashion when you started going to runway shows, but was there a certain moment or show in specific that set the ball rolling?
That show in particular, McQueen [pointing to an image of a spray paint covered Shalom Harlow during the S/S 1999 finale on his wall]. It was just groundbreaking. There was something about that particular time that spoke to me and made me want to do it. It was a genuine epiphany; I was studying Fine Arts at York University in Toronto back then. I was chosen to do a solo exhibition in the university hall, but on the day of my show, I found myself more concerned with what I was going to wear that night. I thought to myself, why am I so obsessing over clothes, it's about the artwork. Intuitively, something was telling me to jump boat. But I was very naive to, because I thought, I'd rather be a successful fashion designer than a starving artist. Turns out, it's all a big lie [laughs].
How has your outlook on the industry changed since your runway debut in 2004?
I recently, as in four seasons ago, stepped back. Really, in order to know where you're going, you must know where you've been, like Freud said. I really looked back and concluded that I am more evolutionary than revolutionary. I have rejected that categorising or packaging a season into one particular idea. But there are natural influences and there has to be a cohesion whether I like it or not. Every season has its themes but there are so many facets to the aesthetic of Jean-Pierre Braganza. I choose to constantly explore it in many different ways but always adhering to that idea of evolution. I started out as being rock 'n' roll through and through, even having played drums in a band.
What type of music was it?
Heavy industrial rock. It was such a nothing band though, just me and my mates in high school. But there's always a hard, austere edge to my work because of that heavy metal influence. I'm really harsh in my aesthetics, almost macabre, but you don't see it in the work. Visually, I do like the dark side of life, the aesthetics of the dark and the beauty of things like gargoyles, Renaissance periods and medieval times. There's beauty in anything
