GQ: You know that show Sex and the City?Manolo says, yes, the interviewer he is not the brightest of the bulbs, but he has nonetheless managed to elicit important responses from the Miuccia about the role of the tradition, respect and dignity.
MP: Embarrassing! I was thinking New York is like that. I have the impression that the people are like that--the women, the bitchiness.
GQ: The thing is, too many women see that show and they think that's how their life should be. Rather than create their life, they imitate a stupid show. And that's the worst thing you can do. Right?
MP: Oh no, it's terrible. Also the way of total and sure unhappiness. It's what I say all the time to my girls in the office here: The more they dress for sex, the less they will have love or sex. These girls throw away so much energy in this search for beauty and sexiness. I think that the old rules were much more clever and better than the rules now. The trouble is, most people are not so generous. Everybody wants love for themselves. I hear this all the time from the women I work with. I hear them say, "I want, I want." I never hear them saying what they want to give.
GQ: Do you tell them that?
MP: Yes, of course. They don't listen. With women, the more unhappy they are, the more undressed they are. This is true. Dignity's another very important part of this. Sex and the City is the opposite of dignity. You have to have dignity for your body--this is with men and women. You need to have dignity towards how you are, how you dress, how you behave. Very important. Men are always much more dignified than most women.
GQ: Why?
MP: Because women have the stress of being beautiful, of age and youth. Men don't have all that. And with women, that stress causes a lot of mistakes and bad choices--a lot of not being their true self. You know, the older I get, the more I prefer to talk to old people. Old people or kids.
It is no secret that the Manolo he is the lover of tradition, and the believer in the dignity of the individual, and in the proper respect for the self and others. This is one of the reasons why he is such the fan of the Miuccia, because she knows that the fashion it is truly secondary to these most important of things.
(By the way, the Manolo he disagrees with the Miuccia about the men having more dignity than the women. There are many of the mens who are completely without la dignidad. It is however true that the pressures on the women they are corrosive.)
Here is the more from the Miuccia.
GQ: [...] So what is the point of fashion? The average GUY pictures a few strange people sitting around indulging their bizarre whims, and I'm not sure you disagree.Manolo says, this is one of the points the Manolo he was trying to make at the Manolo for the Men with regard to the ridiculous men's clothes of the Vivienne Westwood.
MP: Clothes can be important. I am learning this. For instance, often when I design and I wonder what is the point, I think of someone having a bad time in their life. Maybe they are sad, and they wake up and they put on something that I've made, and it makes them feel just a bit better. So in that sense, fashion is a little help in the life of a person. But very little. After all, if you have a serious drama, who cares about the clothes?
GQ: I believe in uniforms—finding a look you like and sticking to it.
MP: I love uniforms because they allow you to hide. No one knows what you are thinking, so it's a very appropriate and correct way to be yourself.
Too often, one sees the person who devotes enormous amounts of the psychic energy to maintaining the outwardly bizarre appearance. Ultimately, this is most often energy wasted, energy that should have been properly devoted to maintaining the inwardly unique or revolutionary way of seeing the world.
We wish to dress well and fashionably for many reasons, for the pleasure of having beautiful objects, for the pleasure of eliciting the envy or desire of others, for the pleasure of the feelings of self-confidence, but most importantly, we should wish to dress well because the clothes they allow others to give us respect.
The Manolo he does not wish to go all Foucault on you, but by this "give us respect" the Manolo he means that the clothes they are the signifiers of position and power.
The fact it is that others they judge us by our clothes. It is not fair, but it is nonetheless completely the way of the world. Thus we should dress well because the good clothes they earn respect and admiration that is not necessarily deserved, but is nonetheless useful.
Of the course, ultimately the clothes they are irrelevant to whether or not that initial respect and admiration they are maintained. True character, as the Miuccia rightly knows, eventually emerges.
Here is what the Manolo he said a few weeks ago at the Manolo for the Men.
The grown up peoples they require the grown up clothes.Manolo says, enough of this! And now, back to the funny pictures of the celebrities.
Do not denigrate the importance of looking "normal". Fashion it is about looking good, not seeking out the look of the abnormal, or the outre, or the purposely ridiculous.
Manolo says, the true radical in the serious well-cut, well-tailored clothes is the one whose thoughts, talents, and actions will change the world. The attention-seeking adolescent in the motley clothes of the fool, this person is merely the comedic sideshow.
(The Manolo he has taken the liberty of adding the illustrative links to the Miuccia's words. And by the way, one these links it is not safe for the place of work. The apologies of the Manolo if this it has caused you concern.)
