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"  In this era of agent-brokered designer/muse relationships and pay-for-play red-carpet dressing, what Nicolas Ghesqui\u00E8re and Charlotte Gainsbourg share is unusual, if not downright oldfashioned: a friendship\u2014one based on more than a mutual taste for radical fashion moments. Both are quiet, limelight- eschewing characters who make bold choices in their work. Gainsbourg bravely tackles risky films such as last year&amp;#039;s horror headtrip Antichrist (for which she won Best Actress at Cannes). Ghesqui\u00E8re, of course, has spent nearly 13 years at the pinnacle of Paris fashion, marching Balenciaga&amp;#039;s style army\u2014 and, arguably, the rest of the fashion universe\u2014forward in immaculately constructed, spacey silhouettes, Nike-meets-Gehry heels, and the odd pair of metal-plated robo-leggings. Long before the designer knew that Balenciaga Paris, the brand&amp;#039;s first fragrance in 55 years, would feature notes of violet leaf, cedar, and patchouli, he knew Gainsbourg would be its face. &amp;quot;For me, she represents real talent, vision. A true beauty, too, of course,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;But it&amp;#039;s really about the choices she makes every day.&amp;quot; ELLE: Charlotte, you&amp;#039;ve described your discovery of Nicolas&amp;#039; clothes as a revelation. Charlotte Gainsbourg: When you find a silhouette that&amp;#039;s so close to your own...I felt like myself, and at the same time, I was taken somewhere else. Just looking at his clothes, you want to project yourself into them. Nicolas Ghesqui\u00E8re: I had a feeling that I knew her before we met. One year, she wore a vintage Saint Laurent dress to Cannes; it was gold with one shoulder. Today, everybody would say, &amp;quot;Oh, wow, vintage!&amp;quot; But back then, it was completely out of time; it wasn&amp;#039;t right. To me, it was so right. I thought, She can wear that and be so cool? That&amp;#039;s someone I would love to dress. ELLE: It&amp;#039;s fitting, then, that one of your first big projects together was for Cannes in 2001. Gainsbourg: I was part of the festival jury and needed a wardrobe\u201410 days of clothes. You need something that puts a little distance between what you really are and what you want to show; it&amp;#039;s a shield, a protection. The first night at Cannes, we chose a suit that made me look like a little soldier, and that was exactly the feeling I had. Ghesqui\u00E8re: I didn&amp;#039;t want her in head-to-toe Balenciaga, like, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m wearing this brand.&amp;quot; I said, let&amp;#039;s mix, use some vintage, and choose things from your wardrobe. It&amp;#039;s naive, maybe, but I want you to look like you went into your wardrobe and put the outfit on. It has to tell that story. ELLE: Still, you both seem slightly wary of the red-carpet phenomenon. Gainsbourg: It&amp;#039;s not something that I do very well; I&amp;#039;m always embarrassed. You see pictures of all the beautiful girls who know how to pose and smile\u2014I&amp;#039;m not a professional in that way. Ghesqui\u00E8re: I disagree! Few women are brave enough to take the risks you do. ELLE: Is that why you don&amp;#039;t dress more stars for these events? Ghesqui\u00E8re: It&amp;#039;s strange to see someone who&amp;#039;s so incredible in a movie suddenly become this nostalgic image of Hollywood glamour....It&amp;#039;s 2010. I&amp;#039;d rather work with someone who likes what I do than create something for the red carpet that won&amp;#039;t make me happy. It gives us visibility, but not the kind of visibility I&amp;#039;m looking for. ELLE: What is the essence of Balenciaga today? Ghesqui\u00E8re: Casual things elaborated upon from a collective idea of streetwear; sporty elements, which are a part of me; mixed with\u2014and this is the difficult part\u2014the graphic, radical tradition of Cristobal Balenciaga [who founded the house in 1918]. ELLE: Your clothes suit a particular type of woman, but a successful fragrance has to please a crowd. Ghesqui\u00E8re: I like the idea of touching more people than we can with fashion. What&amp;#039;s fun about Balenciaga\u2014 the handbags had a big success without advertising or promotions or logos. Suddenly, women wanted one because they saw another woman with it. It was like a tribe. With fragrance, I hope women will recognize one another as they did with the bags. ELLE: Charlotte, you started off by spritzing it on your luggage? Gainsbourg:  I&amp;#039;ve never worn perfume before. I liked the idea that it spread into my clothes and the objects I was carrying before I actually wore it. Now I enjoy it on my skin, but it came gradually. ELLE: Being the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin must have had a tremendous influence on your style. Gainsbourg : I grew up with the idea that once you found yourself with your clothes, why change? In the &amp;#039;60s, my mother was very trendy; she wore everything. But later it was jeans, old T-shirts, much more androgynous\u2014the same stuff every day. My father, too, had the same pair of jeans, the same shoes, the same color. For a long time, my uniform consisted of a trench coat, wide flared jeans, and these little bottines\u2014I copied a pair that my mother had in this theater place. I had, like, 10 pairs of the same shoes. Ghesqui\u00E8re: Amazing. It&amp;#039;s the hippie version of American Psycho! ELLE: Nicolas, people often describe your work as futuristic. Ghesqui\u00E8re: It&amp;#039;s called futurism because it has to be called something. But I don&amp;#039;t think it&amp;#039;s futuristic. More than anything, I&amp;#039;m designing for a woman of today. I want to be a witness of my time. But every Balenciaga show is like a laboratory. I put pressure on myself to propose something new\u2014I think it&amp;#039;s the minimum that you can do as a fashion designer. ELLE: But what about all those sci-fi shapes? Ghesqui\u00E8re: I do love science-fiction and horror movies. Dario Argento films, De Palma&amp;#039;s Carrie and Blow Out, Alien, The Grudge. ELLE: Are your clothes supposed to be scary? Ghesqui\u00E8re: A bit. I like the scary part. That confidence, the distance Charlotte talked about? Clothes are a good way to define that. Balenciaga is architectural, strong. That&amp;#039;s what I like. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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