There’s a momentous feeling you get when you meet a legend face to face. The feeling that overwhelms you seems to never be of nerves or anxiety. It’s the engulfing sense of being in the presence of one you may not necessarily admire, but respect, for their talent, their dedication to success and drive. An earned respect that no one can strip away. That’s what I felt when I sat down with Lubov Azria, Chief Creative Director of Max Azria Group in her New York showroom. A stylishly classic and beautiful women, Azria gave us a glint into her world of BCBG and Hervé Léger.
I see similar silhouettes each season, but it’s something new you can add to your wardrobe. Where does the inspiration come from?
For Herve Leger or BCBG?
Both.
So, there two completely different lines. For BCBG, the inspiration comes from travel, art, what we see in culture, social media, different things, because we want to be current. We want to wear things that we want to wear. So we always go through the process of ok, “have you seen this art show” “have you seen this exhibit”. Like from biennial, we got so many great ideas about what we wanted to say with the clothing.
For Hervé Léger it’s a little bit different. Hervé Léger is really focusing on technology. If you think about Hervé Léger, you know it’s all bandages. It’s all sweater knit. There’s no fabric unless it’s leather which is skins actually in fur. Everything else is really down to the bandages. So that’s where we go to technology. We try to develop new stitches, new appliques, new ways of evolving the bandage process.
Oh ok.
So it’s kind of two things. One is very technical and scientific. And the other one is like what do we want to do that’s going to be fun and great.
Are their certain prints, textures or patterns we should take notice of, from this season?
You know, I believe a woman dresses based on her body shape and based on her coloring of which she likes. You can always tell, for example, from this season everybody’s doing a little bit more of coats, because of the weather. But in terms of patterns, I think to me, patterns that come from nature are the most prominent and the ones that I think are always timeless.
So what trends are you looking forward to for spring/summer?
We don’t really follow trends (laughs), we embody style. Let’s see. I don’t know. I really like more of a slouchier pants and easier tops. Just more of an active influence, but always dresses. I like the idea of how dresses flow. Whether it’s asymmetrical hems or just straight down, long, it’s always great.
Have you ever seen a woman wearing your collection on the street?
(smiles) Yes, always! Always. I always tell them how beautiful they look!
Do you have any collaborations in the work that we should keep an eye out?
We’re working on a few. We have one with the Whitney [Museum] that we’re collaborating with Alex. We designed a bag for Whitney to raise money for their young artists program. Otherwise just working on a few things