Andreas Kronthaler: How are you?

Isamaya Ffrench: I’m good actually. How are you doing?

Andreas: I’m OK as well. It is really good to see you.

Isamaya: Yeah, you look great. I have the questions from System and they are rather good.

Andreas: What is the first question?

Isamaya: What is a typical day like for you in this period of uncertainty?

Andreas: It’s been like six weeks, and since the beginning I have built this routine and I am quite disciplined with it, even if I must say I am getting a bit bored of it now. So, I always get up at 7 o’clock, then I do a bit of yoga and then I have a bit of breakfast, make myself some eggs or porridge or whatever, then I go upstairs to Vivienne and we talk a bit. At the beginning I kept cleaning the house because I love cleaning; it is really relaxing and calming – I don’t need to think. So every day, I would spend an hour or two on tasks. Now I have gone through it all. To begin with, it was a break, time off from the usual rhythm, I didn’t think about work and it was great. Now it’s six weeks – I’ve never been away from work for so long in my life!

Isamaya: I feel like you. Knowing you, and we have talked about this before, you’re never off apart from the short break after the shows. Have you ever been forced to decompress like this?

Andreas: No, but it’s been really positive on a very personal level. In some ways, I never want it to finish. Then there is Vivienne; it is a fact that we went into lockdown very early, because she is quite a bit older, so she is in a high-risk group. So, you know, I took the responsibility.

Isamaya: Is there anything that has surprised you about this, that you didn’t expect, creatively or personally?

Andreas: Absolutely not at all. I think in terms of our relationship, it’s become even more wonderful actually. We’ve known each other for 30 years, so we really do know each other; we know what to expect; we’re so familiar to each other. She’s got her rhythm and I have mine, and we both understand each other’s. It’s really been a most lovely time and we are still having that. At one point, we were cooking in the afternoon, nothing super special, what we’ve always done, but the best thing about this whole lockdown is eating earlier. I really love it, eating early, even around 6 or 6.30. Normally, we come back from work at like 8.30 or 9 and then cook something or have leftovers, and we end up eating at 9 or 9.30. Then an hour later you go to bed, so your sleep is not that great. I am realizing this now and
that’s one thing I hope to continue, if this lockdown ever lifts.

Isamaya: I read something about the importance of having dinner together every night during this period. The importance of maintaining a routine, particularly dinner, as it gives you some form of structure.

Andreas: We are not running around and Vivienne is happy in bed reading for weeks and weeks, so the lockdown for her is no problem. But I am more hyperactive and need to move around, and I do love interaction; I live for that. I feel like I am coming out of it now and other things are starting to become more important again.

Isamaya: It is definitely the longest I have ever spent in my house in my life.

Andreas: Have you been working? Little projects on the social media?

Isamaya: I do a cosmetic range for a company called Byredo, so I have been doing a lot of admin and computer stuff.

Andreas: I have their sleeping oil; I’m running out.

Isamaya: I’ll get you some! It’s strange to have a routine; I haven’t had one since I was at university. I’m alright with it, but it does depress me a bit. I don’t mean I am depressed, but it does depress everything. I’m not trying to be creative. There’s no point in forcing something; it has to come naturally and if there are other things that are more important on a bigger scale to deal with, then I would rather do that.

Andreas: Me, too. I have brought some work home, but in this five or six weeks I have only done the most necessary things. I have really distanced myself; I
might have drawn a few things, but just doodles. Nothing really with any particular aim.

Isamaya: There’s a question here that says, when things go back to normal, do you think your impulse will be to explore notions of fantasy and escapism or will you be more inclined to double-down on realism? I think the question is actually more, how will this change your approach?

Andreas: Guess what? I don’t know, even if, of course, sometimes I think about it. We can’t go back because what happened is the past. At the same time I can’t see into the future.

Isamaya: Do you think it will change your whole rhythm? My idea of you is that every show has a rhythm. You keep going, you build and change, it develops. You have themes that change, but there is a rhythm. Aesthetically, is it good to have a break? Will you go back with a different mindset?

Andreas: I don’t think so. I have experienced so many things in my life, really traumatic experiences, and they have never really shaped my vision or my view that much. It’s just that work is like one thing after the other; it is a development, but I’m not sure what it’s all about. I am just trying to do it better than before, if that makes sense. Sometimes I can be a bit happy about what I have done or what we have done, because it is all done with a big team. That’s what I miss the most, that exchange of thoughts and ideas, of different points of views.

Isamaya: What about with Christoph [Dobringer]?

Andreas: Christoph is my assistant, and I talk to him every day. I am also starting to talk to more people now and trying to get the wheel turning again a little. Christoph is a very sweet and talented man, but he is insecure. That’s not bad, though. I always prefer the kind of people who question what they do, rather than the ‘here I am and I am a genius!’ types.

Isamaya: I have been thinking about that recently and I envy people who live their work and their identity like that. These people who really live the image of themselves and the work they produce. I think I could be a bit more like that sometimes.

Andreas: I think you are, even if I haven’t completely grasped who you are yet. Maybe because I haven’t known you that long, but I think that you have a distance to what you do; you are always a bit above it. That is really good; it gives you perspective. You are also very flexible, and that is something I appreciate about you – you are not just this one thing. In the work you can do things 360 degrees – and that’s an incredible ability.

Isamaya: That is very nice of you! Some of the stuff that I’m completely secure about isn’t necessarily the work I am most proud of or have an interest in. I do it because it comes naturally.

Andreas: You should just keep going, as long as it comes easily. I know you want to do this filming and all that. Time is not running away…

Isamaya: But it is!

Andreas: No, it’s not. Not yet, really not yet. You really shouldn’t stress yourself.

Isamaya: Maybe it’s just the universal existential crisis that most people go through. Anyway, question: was there was a defining image, reference or person from your teenage years you can now look back on and say was instrumental in you working in fashion?

Andreas: I have always liked fashion. I have always liked how people looked, so I don’t think there is one defining image. It is step by step, you grow up in a certain way and everything adds to your experience. I don’t really look back that much; it’s not my type of thing.

Isamaya: I suppose they’re asking who your idols were growing up…

Andreas: I was living in the countryside in the 1970s and of course, those roots and experiences shape and form you. It was very, very rural, so there were television shows and films I loved. Films were very important growing up. It wasn’t escapism, but they made me dream and realize that there was an enormous world beyond the one I lived in. There were incredible things going on and they were just fascinating.

Isamaya: The next question: is there an influence that keeps returning to your work, and is that liberating, or do you find yourself wanting to discover new things or a new language?

Andreas: I am never totally satisfied with what I do and that keeps me trying to do something else, or trying to work on it again, to make it better. That is a big force behind what I think.

Isamaya: I definitely agree with that. There are questions, there is one down here about professional disappointment, I think my only disappointment was that maybe I wasn’t working and putting my energy into something I was passionate about. In terms of work, I don’t believe you are as good as the last thing you did; I think it is accumulative. So some days are good, some are shit, and that affects what you produce.

Andreas: Exactly, it doesn’t just depend on you, but also if the sun shines or not. I believe in the spirits and if they are all aligned, you become part of it, sometimes a big part, sometimes a small part. If everything is aligned then it is great and all works, but if something doesn’t work that well, then it isn’t aligned. Things are rarely perfect.

Isamaya: How do you deal with criticism?

Andreas: I like criticism nowadays, but I didn’t when I was younger. It hurt me and my pride. Over the years, I have worked on myself and tried to develop my work and what I do, even as a human being. I explore. I’ve learned that sometimes it’s good for me to look at things I don’t like. I used to avoid things and criticism was one of them.

Isamaya: They say a sign of madness is not having any doubt. I completely agree with that. I remember talking to my psychoanalyst about feeling worried that I might be going mad, and she said, ‘Mad people don’t worry about going mad; they don’t have doubt.’ And I think you can apply that more generally to people and the way that they work. The more criticism, the better, if you trust the people.

Andreas: It depends. As long as it is comes from a good place and you are able to use it constructively.

Isamaya: Did you strive to be different from a young age?

Andreas: I certainly never wanted to have the same pair of shoes as everyone else; I always wanted something else. I’m not sure if I wanted to look different or if it even went that far, but I always liked that variety. It was inborn, one of life’s phenomenon. I like the richness of life, like all the stars in the sky; it is endless. I find it my duty to have another pair of shoes or another hairstyle, or whatever it is.

Isamaya: That’s funny because when I read that question, I approached it very differently. I didn’t think about image. I definitely wasn’t ever trying to be different, but looking back now, I do see now that within my friendship groups I was an absolute loner. I did have groups of friends, but often I would have just one friend very intensely. I would do lots of sport outside of normal socializing. I only realize that now; at the time that was just how it was. What was your social life like as a teenager?

Andreas: I was outdoors a lot; we weren’t allowed to be inside. I wanted to watch films, but my mother would just turn the television off and send me out. I had a group of friends and I was very close to them, but I am only in contact with one of them now. Martin. He was my best friend, who I’ve known since kindergarten. He’s the only one I am still in contact with. At a certain point, one looks back at one’s pains and growing up and it has a certain colour, and I tended to colour it wonderfully. It was a nice place with a lot of nature and fresh air around me, and nice people, but I am not sure how happy I was as a child. I always wanted to go out into the world.

Isamaya: Is there someone in the fashion industry you admire, and why?

Andreas: I admire Vivienne, of course, I would say that. I love her work, and not just because I am with her. I love the way she approaches her work: so straightforward and so outspoken.

Isamaya: Does her liberated and free way of thinking and being inspire you to be like that as well?

Andreas: I’m not sure because one is who one is. Maybe I tried once to be like her, but I don’t think so. She just encourages me and that’s so generous and special. She has always been that way; I try to be the same to her. At one point we were working extremely close together; we chose every little button together; we put it all together. That has changed over the years because she is so much more involved in her activism and that is not my battlefield; I get on with the fashion. But she is the one who I truly admire. I respect everybody who makes clothes, even a single collection. It’s a hell of a difficult job.

Isamaya: Remaining true to who you are is the most impressive thing. The majority of people, whether it is in music or fashion, are making things to satisfy an audience or a market. Things used to be a response to something. Now, it’s like, what can you respond to? Creativity and fashion are like a rollercoaster.

Andreas: It was too fast before all this. You made clothes and they were in the shop for a month or so. Someone would see this great suit but then it disappeared after a month and another suit came in. It wasn’t a better one; it’s just the other one had already disappeared. Nobody can enjoy things – there isn’t
even enough time even to consume it properly.

Isamaya: What continues to motivate you is probably the right question to follow on. When you are constantly consuming information, how do you find space to make stuff?

Andreas: Something feeds me, gives me food for thought, and that triggers something and then I start working on it. Now I tend to carry on and go to the next. Before the lockdown, we had more or less finished next summer, so when the lockdown started, we reduced it again. All these exercises help to focus. With circumstances as they are, no one is in the studio. In Italy, they are just starting to work again, so what do you do? You reduce things to a minimum, and you refer to things that already exist because there aren’t the facilities and time to do something new.

Isamaya: Do you ever go through periods of nihilism?

Andreas: Oh yes, sometimes I am extremely frustrated and think it is all total rubbish and nobody needs any of it. Especially in relation to the state of the world and where it is going. That seems so dramatic and you think, who needs another pullover or sweater?

Isamaya: But your work is as much art as it is fashion. Do you search for meaning in what you do?

Andreas: I don’t know. Fashion is about people, humans; they’re very central to my interests. I like animals, of course, but I don’t need to dress them. Of course, you can dress them, but I am not sure how necessary that is. I like people; they are amazing creatures.

Isamaya: When was the last time your work was copied? Is imitation ever a form of flattery?

Andreas: Sometimes people say to me that they find the work inspiring and of course, that is flattering. It can happen that they copy things. It is good to copy;
we all copy from somewhere.

Isamaya: People who copy maybe don’t have many ideas; I’m not scared of not having ideas. More questions: your visions of femininity are unlike anyone
else’s. When did they become full-bodied and more consistent?

Andreas: When I met Vivienne, for sure; she really taught me this. I am not really a woman, so she taught me how women think and how they feel and can feel. I am so happy that I worked with her. I have always been quite comfortable with women. I used to go to a psychoanalyst, a woman, and at one point after years, she said, I think you should go to a man, you are missing something. It was true and since then I am much easier with men. I had always preferred women to that point and that was right into my 40s.

Isamaya: Was your dad quite an oppressive figure in your life?

Andreas: No, he was a lovely man. I wasn’t sure about my father until late, maybe because I am very like him. All the supposed talent, the creativity, I inherited from him. I wasn’t that respectful of him until recently; now I realize what a great, wonderful man he was. He was a superman and he always knew what he was doing. I should have respected that, but I didn’t somehow.

Isamaya: It’s a hard question about femininity; I don’t even think in terms of femininity or masculinity, but I am not designing clothes for women or men! My job is just about individuals.

Andreas: In recent years, this is what you are always asked about, the blurring between men and women. I have always thought the same, so nothing has ever changed. Of course, it is great now that things are not put in these clichés and categories any more. I am happy about this. I remember 20 years ago when we did men’s shows that pushed certain buttons, people were so critical and laughed. Not that I mind this, because I think humour is an important aspect of fashion or one’s being. But they didn’t laugh about it in a good way. I remember thinking: half the men in the world wear a dress! Anyway, I never put men in real women’s dresses. There is a difference between a dress and a dress; a dress looking great on a man and dress looking not great on a man. Then there is drag, but that is a whole other world.

Isamaya: I was just going to say, it’s only really in the past few years that I’ve come to accept that I am a woman. That may sound ridiculous because obviously I look very feminine, but I was mostly brought up by my dad, who has Asperger’s, and I was a very late developer and felt so much more comfortable in adopting a boy’s approach to life and communication: not being overemotional, being quite logical. It’s still something I need to investigate and feel more comfortable with, because I am definitely not accepting and using my femininity…

Andreas: That is what I like about you; you are going both ways. You can be this tomboy or a femme fatale. Stupid words, but you go down both roads, and I think that is really good.

Isamaya: Everyone is on a sliding scale. People want to define themselves because it is important, but it is very hard. Are you this or that? Are you gender fluid? You even have to define that now, but who cares, just be.

Andreas: I don’t like this categorizing, all these boxes; I really don’t.

Isamaya: I mean, it’s important to recognize what people have done before you in order to give you that freedom to be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do. I was watching The People vs. O.J. Simpson recently and it made a point about him rejecting his heritage and instead wanting to be known for being O.J. He didn’t want to be defined by his ethnicity or his heritage, and that is sort of understandable. I don’t know why I am bringing that up! I suppose it’s the idea of him feeling like he wanted to be him for him – that I understand. So, who did you find the most beautiful when you were 12 years old?

Andreas: Like I said, I really liked films and was glued to the television. Then as soon as I could go to the cinemas, I saw all the classics in this world. There were amazing women in them and I was really taken by them. People were so extreme; they looked so extreme. Brigitte Bardot might be OK now, but when she hit the screen with her undone hair, she was just incredible. The opposite was Ava Gardner. So many incredible beauties!

Isamaya: I know it is an obvious reference, but Madonna and her message were so powerful – and still are. She was so unique in her place, and her message of authenticity and not giving a shit is so inspiring. At the time, people maybe didn’t like her or what she stood for and found it distasteful, but that is now why we like her: she was a boundary pusher who challenged people’s ideas. It is hard to be that today. There is so much scrutiny from social media to be woke and PC and not offend anyone. You know what I mean?

Andreas: I love Madonna; I am very happy that you mention her. I grew up with her and she was really clever. As you say, she could do so many things; she had really a lot of different facets. Amazing.

Isamaya: Just the things that she did, she did some shocking things, socially shocking videos and her choice of characters…

Andreas: She is brave.

Isamaya: She is. It’s hard to be shocking any more, because everyone is so fearful of being offensive – but that is a whole other discussion! Final question, what do you now know about the fashion industry that you didn’t know when you started?

Andreas: I didn’t know how much work it was and is! I didn’t have a clue. Even if I don’t think it would have stopped me entering it. Before I knew that, everything looked amazing and it felt like the dresses just fell from the sky! But no, it’s a hell of a lot of work; I think it’s the same in your field. Actually, the faces that look the most effortless are those that take the most work.

Isamaya: I didn’t realize I would be dragging four suitcases around with me every day! If I could give up one thing, it would be that.

Andreas: I wouldn’t want to be a make-up artist or a hairdresser. The best thing is to design lingerie because you can just stuff it all into a tiny little carrier bag and have a huge collection in it! Do you go out every day as well?

Isamaya: I do exercise and I am making lots of music at the moment.

Andreas: How?

Isamaya: I have a sound-engineer friend, we’ve been working a lot together and will probably put some stuff out soon.

Andreas: So you are keeping busy.

Isamaya: Most of the time. Are you not really allowed out?

Andreas: I think it will start loosening up next week.

Isamaya: We will see what the next steps are. I don’t know about you, but I think it will be hard to go back, to do work that doesn’t feel vital and necessary. It reminds you, time isn’t infinite and it is important to do what makes you happy, be with people who make you happy because we only get one shot. This situation has definitely made me feel that. It might be harder to do jobs that I don’t really care about, because I now care more about what I do with my time.

Andreas: You will make the right choices, Isamaya, once you are front in them. It would be great if we do see a difference between before and after, because there should be – I just don’t know what it will be like.