Rebirth of the Fashion King

Chapter 67 Little Sun

Li Xun put the resume aside and took out the three materials of the design assistant candidate.

Then came a series of footsteps that were much faster than Isolde's in the corridor.

There was a knock on the door, three knocks, very quickly.

"Please come in."

The door was pushed open almost immediately.

A blonde girl stood in the doorway, wearing a black dress that reached above her knees, holding a large leather drawing tube and a folder in her hand.

Her face contrasted sharply with Isolde's; she had large, round eyes, long eyelashes, and skin that was a light honey color from sun exposure.

When she smiled, her whole demeanor changed, and Li Xun felt as if a light had suddenly appeared in the room.

"Good morning! You must be Mr. Rhine, right? I'm Audrey Violet, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

Her voice was bright but not noisy, with a natural warmth. Li Xun stood up and shook hands with her.

"Please sit down."

Audrey Violet carefully placed the painting tube next to the chair, put the folder on the table, and then sat down.

Her posture was more casual than Isolde's, but still polite, with one leg crossed over the other and her hands on the table, as if Iang was eager to begin the conversation.

Li Xun opened her resume.

Audrey Violet, 25, is from Paris. She graduated from the École des Arts Dúperé and was nominated for the Emerging Designer Award at the 2007 Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival. This award is quite prestigious among young designers; only ten people were shortlisted that year, and she was one of them.

My internship experience includes one season as an accessories design assistant at Balenciaga and six months as a ready-to-wear design assistant at Chloé. I have only one formal work experience, working as a junior designer at Isabel Marant for nearly two years.

"What did you do at Isabel Marant?"

"I participated in the design of three ready-to-wear collections, mainly in the knitwear and print sections. For the last Fall/Winter 2009 collection, I independently designed six pieces."

She pulled out a few printed pictures from the folder and pushed them to Li Xun.

"This turtleneck cable knit sweater, this printed wool scarf, and these other pieces are all my designs."

Li Xun took it and looked through it.

The design style is clearly influenced by Isabel Marant's overall brand aesthetic, combining bohemian and urban elements, but her personal preferences are evident in the details.

She likes to hide symmetrical details in asymmetrical structures. For example, the cable knit on the left shoulder of the sweater and the cable knit on the right hem are mirror images of each other, and you can't really tell unless you look closely.

Why did you think of placing the cable knit pattern symmetrically in asymmetrical positions?

Audrey Violet's eyes lit up.

  

"Because most people's bodies are asymmetrical, many people have a right shoulder that is slightly higher than their left shoulder, so wearing a perfectly symmetrical cable knit would actually create an imbalance."

I asked the pattern maker to increase the density of the cable knit on the left shoulder and the right hem, which visually leveled the silhouette.

Li Xun continued to ask.

"Do you draw your design drafts by hand or on a computer?"

"I do both, but I prefer hand-drawing. My thoughts flow faster when I'm hand-drawing." She pointed to the drawing tube at her feet.

"I brought some of my manuscripts with me today, if you'd like to see them."

"We'll talk about it later." Li Xun turned to a page of the resume.

"I see you worked at Balenciaga for a while?"

"Four months."

"Why didn't you stay?"

Audrey Violet's expression softened slightly.

"Mr. Nicholas's team made a major overhaul after that season ended. None of the interns were promoted, not just me. And I felt the atmosphere there wasn't good; it was a bit depressing."

Li Xun knew about this in 2007 when Nicolas Ghesquière reorganized his team at Balenciaga, which caused quite a stir in the industry at the time. Her statement was indeed accurate.

In September 2007, Isabelle Guichot took office as the new CEO of Balenciaga and vigorously promoted the commercialization of the brand.

Shortly after taking office, Marie-Amélie Sorvy, a designer who had worked for Gesschürl for many years, was appointed as his assistant.

Amélie Sauvé chose to leave and become an independent stylist, which was a significant change for Nicolas's core team.

Li Xun brought his thoughts back and continued to ask.

What are your strengths?

Audrey Violet said without hesitation: "Color. I have a very high sensitivity to color. I can tell whether a color combination will be out of style in a few months."

"Very confident."

"It's true." She smiled, then immediately realized she might have been a little too casual, and quickly suppressed her smile, but the light in her eyes didn't disappear.

"I'm sorry, I'm not being immodest, but I have indeed put a lot of effort into color. I can stare at the Pantone color chart all day without getting tired."

Li Xun, who had been leaning back in his chair, sat up straight immediately upon hearing those words.

Aren't you tired?

"Really, I'm in great physical condition."

"Then you are indeed a talent."

Li Xun simply put a five-pointed star on his resume.

What is the most important thing for a fashion designer besides talent?

Of course, it's all about having a body of iron!

This extraordinary physical talent is a fundamental requirement for becoming an excellent designer.

-

It was only after starting work that Li Xun truly understood the importance of the saying "health is the foundation of everything."

Why did you come to Chanel?

"Because, because I feel that I can do things here that I can't do elsewhere."

Chanel's atelier system is unique in the world. Lemarié's feathers, Lesage's embroidery, Massaro's shoes, Micheál's hats—any designer who can use these resources, even just once, will make a difference. I want to work with these ateliers.

"If you come to Chanel, your job won't be independent design; you'll be assisting me in completing designs. Your sketches will need my revisions, your ideas need to align with mine, and the final product might not be credited to you. Would you accept that?"

"I accept." She didn't hesitate at all.

"I know very well that my design skills are far inferior to yours. I'm here to learn, to help you with your work, and to see how you transform an idea from a sketch into a wildly successful product."

She spoke very frankly, and Li Xun did not feel that she was being hypocritical.

He closed the folder.

"You just said you brought a manuscript?"

"I brought it!" She immediately bent down to get the painting tube. Her movements were a little too fast, and she almost knocked over the mineral water bottle, but she reacted quickly and grabbed the bottle, then smiled sheepishly.

"Feel sorry."

She opened the drawing tube and pulled out about twenty sheets of sketch paper of different sizes, some A4 and some A3.

She spread the papers out on the table, arranging them in two rows.

Li Xun stood up, walked to her side, and looked down at her.

Her lines are clean, without any trace of repeated smudging; each stroke is precise and decisive, which is truly remarkable and indicates that she already had a complete picture in her mind when she drew.

The manuscripts contained a variety of subjects, including women's clothing, accessories, and a few drawings of men's clothing, which set her apart from most women's clothing designers who do not draw men's clothing.

Several other drawings depict the pure texture of fabric, created layer by layer with colored pencils, with the twill weave structure rendered in exquisite detail.

Li Xun looked at it very carefully.

Audrey Violet stood silently to the side, but her knuckles were slightly clenched as she clasped them together in front of her, indicating that she was nervous.

"You drew a sketch of men's clothing." Li Xun picked up a sketch of a men's coat, a double-breasted overcoat.

"I studied menswear pattern making in school, and I think the structure of menswear can be helpful for womenswear design. For example, the way a double-breasted coat is treated at the shoulders can look great on an oversized women's coat."

Li Xun put down the draft and picked up another one, which was a design sketch of a dress. The skirt hem was painted with a gradient of colors, from dark green to gray-blue, to almost transparent white, and the transition was very natural.

"Was this drawn with colored pencils?"

"Yes, layer it up from dark to light, one layer at a time."

"Do you know how many types of fabric would be needed to create this gradient effect for a real-life application?"

Audrey Violet thought for a moment. "If you're using the fabric's own colors for patchwork, you'll need at least six colors. If you're using a dyeing process to create a gradient on a single fabric, you'll need to find Lesage or a specialized fabric dyeing workshop, which will be very expensive, but the results will be much better."

Do you have any questions for me?

Audrey Violet blinked, then nodded immediately. "Yes, three questions."

"Go ahead and ask. Generally, I don't answer this many questions, but today is an exception."

"Firstly, when you design a new collection, where do you begin? The fabric? The silhouette? Or a specific image?"

Li Xun nodded. It was a good question, so good that he was a little surprised.

When interviewing young designers, most questions will be such as "What is your work rhythm like?" or "What is the team atmosphere like?" These questions are safe, but also meaningless.

Her question was different; she was asking about creative methodology.

"A scene from a movie," Li Xun explained.

"It might be a sentence from a book, or a detail about someone I see on the street. It may not be the same every time, but it must be something specific that evokes my emotions. The fabric and silhouette came later."

For example, Jessica Stan, her eyes are one of my sources of inspiration.

"My second question is, what do you think is the most important skill a design assistant should possess?"

"Predict what I'll do next," Li Xun said.

"It's not that you wait for me to tell you before you do it; it's that you're already prepared before I even say anything."

Audrey Violet nodded thoughtfully.

"And the third one?"

"The third one—" Her tone suddenly became a little embarrassed.

"How did you determine the gradient of gray tones in your handbag designs? I've studied the images for that series, and the transition between each gray tone, from white to gray to dark gray, is exactly in the golden ratio. Is that a coincidence or was it intentional?"