François Berthoud: As a kid, I just drew all of the time. I did a foundation year at an art school in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and learned the basics of drawing, sculpture, colour theory. It was the kind of place where you could also study jewellery or engraving the movements of watches – which was the industry in that area – but I wanted to study graphic design, to make images that were in the streets, which could be visible all around. That was my aim. I was 17 and things were very different then; the industry was much smaller and people didn’t really know that imagery would explode the way it has today, that there would be this proliferation of photography and printed images.

Firstly, I could speak the language because my mother is Italian. At the time, the choices were Paris or not Paris! Paris felt like more of an obvious choice, but I had this feeling that Milan could be different and interesting. I also had the chance to meet the people at Condé Nast through friends and got a job in Milan.

Yes, as a graphic designer.

We were doing Vogue Pelle, Vogue Sposa and Vogue Bambini. My boss was Carla Sozzani. I was 22 – this was right after school in 1982.

Exactly, escape! But I was definitely interested in fashion. And as I mentioned, I was drawing all the time and doing illustrations. By the time I had completed my studies, I was getting confident with my own style – it had taken time to focus on what would make my drawings recognizable and unique.

I actually became the art director of Vogue Sposa! The good thing was that I was qualified to do many different things – graphic design, typography and photography. At Vogue Bambini, they would ask for illustrations and I would do those, too. People liked me because I could do things. However, I was definitely more interested in painting and illustration than in becoming an art director.

It was the beginning of everything. Milan was starting to become what it is now. Armani and Moschino were already there. I remember seeing the second Moschino show, which was quite provocative and over the top. Then Versace came along. The whole system of Italian fashion emerged and developed during those years – not only the brands and designers but the advertising, the publicity, the ideas of how to show and promote products. The entire system was being built day by day.

It was a total coincidence. I don’t think anybody there even knew that then. There was this demand for people who could do things. When people needed stylists for magazines then, there weren’t people who had any professional training for that, so they would just hire girls who dressed nicely and had a mother with some couture dresses in her closet. That was the best reference you could have to become a stylist at Condé Nast. That was how it was. Later, I had an apartment in Paris, in Rue des Archives, and I spent some time there but I was attracted back to Milan because it was more dynamic – I was constantly working and getting involved in projects there. I was at Fiorucci’s store before he became a world phenomenon; Madonna was singing at Plastic, she was unknown then –
so it was a really exciting place to be.

My cultural references came more from comic strips. That was my thing. In fact, I immediately began doing comics that were published in Italy while I was working at Condé Nast.

It’s hard to explain. There was one magazine called Alter in Milan. The content was really varied, and really, really funny. At the time, there was a strong group of illustrators there. Comic artists in Italy were either published in Alter or in Frigidaire in Rome. It was very experimental; it had nothing to do with the [comic-book] movements in Belgium or France and was rather more influenced by American comic artists. When I started to work at Vanity, I didn’t know exactly what fashion illustration was – besides of course knowing about the work of René Gruau and Antonio Lopez.

Vanity was created by Anna Piaggi and was devoted to new and emerging Italian fashion. The entire concept of the magazine was that it was illustrated entirely from start to finish by Antonio Lopez. He did four or five, maybe even six issues. He was amazingly talented and capable of expressing the fashion of the moment.

Anna Piaggi was enthusiastic about things and helped people. So she would talk enthusiastically about this person, about this young designer, this special collection, and you would listen to her and her opinion would somehow convince others, too. I think her credibility and creativity in terms of both how to present and communicate fashion were certainly highly considered at the time.

Yes. She had a very good relationship with creative people because she could understand what they were doing, and she loved them and helped give them visibility. She was not the kind of person that you thought would become the editor in chief of a magazine. She was a free spirit rather than a manager.

I had met her a couple of times before, here and there, so we knew each other. When Antonio Lopez could no longer work because he became ill, they decided to continue the project – even though the magazine was so connected to him. They were looking for new contributors and they picked up on my work and a group of other comic artists – I suppose they felt we were capable of drawing, creating interesting images and that we were hip and young. They called us all in for a big meeting at Condé Nast. I knew some of the others, most of them were living in Bologna or Rome, not Milan. Lorenzo Mattotti was in Milan, so I knew him. Suddenly there was this group of crazy kids in their 20s – I was 25 or 26 – in Condé Nast’s offices.

Yes. I did many of the covers, too – around seven. Mattotti also did the covers for a period – they had this idea of having one illustrator do a series of covers. Mattotti knew nothing about fashion and was not interested in it, but he is such a good draftsman that he could do anything at all, and he is fast. He was a real maestro. He did lots and lots of pages. We were all working like slaves and being paid 200,000 lire a page.

Yes, that and some other things. I also did advertising – some of it was illustrated in-house.

For the first issue they asked each one of us to do between three to six pages –
we all had very different styles and approaches. Most of the other contributors didn’t have any interest or experience in fashion. I was probably the one most connected to the fashion world because I had already worked on magazines and had learned a lot very quickly under Carla Sozzani. For me it was interesting because I could mix fashion, which I liked, with drawing and illustration; it was the perfect cocktail.

Very easy. She was always happy. She always had intelligent insights and could open your eyes to things. There was also an art director, Alberto Nodolini, who was also the art director of Vogue at the time. He was what you’d call a real art director: he would call us to his desk and spend a lot of time communicating with us.

Yes, and slides. I would also go to see the shows.

In some issues I would do 30 pages and the cover, too. I was working day and night on it; I was totally stressed.

I am fast, but at the time I was using demanding techniques like woodcarving and linocutting – there was a lot of blood involved! And no possibility of retouching either.

I could have definitely done something simpler for sure! I was looking for those really hard, sharp, black lines. I was using ink and markers on acetate, and then with a knife I would scratch it so I could have negative lines – very sharp in the blacks – and then I would make the edges even sharper. I thought, I’m engraving, so let’s try and do the real thing and see what happens. And when I tried it, I was super excited because the result was beyond my expectations. It created effects I could not have imagined. It was powerful and in your face. Also, the colours with the ink, the combination was just right and it became a signature.

And that was something you established while at Vanity? Would you say it was where you developed your style? Yes. It started from there and it evolved in a lot of other ways.

Yes, basically. Just by chance from my bedroom! It was an incredible period really.

I think that the Vanity experience was one of a kind. For fashion people, as well as the art world and graphic designers, it has always been seen as exceptional. People often tell me that they have a collection of copies. It was a remarkable experience for all of those involved. We were all trying to work out how to tell fashion stories through non-photographic images and communicate about fashion in a different way. It was kind of crazy because we could do virtually anything that we wanted. There was an opera section at the end of each issue because the art director was an opera lover!

When I was doing those covers, they would give me a dress to show, but I would do a head shot, a close-up, so in the end you saw nothing of the dress really. Some drawings didn’t even really make sense. For instance, I placed the Gaultier bra on the head of a girl to make Mickey Mouse ears – and no one said a thing. I don’t know if that’s a reasonable way to present fashion in the long term. I don’t know if those tricks could only have been pushed so far, but at the time it was perfectly fine and good fun. I am very sentimental about it because it was a great period. It was amazing, I could not have expected more than what happened in such a short space of time.

No, but I was aware that this thing was a great opportunity, that I had access to a playground where I could really push myself and create the most fantastic things I could think of – it was the moment and the place to do it.