His biography is the result of hundreds of small decisions; professional dancer, translating fashion magazines, part of Maison Margiela’s communication team, stylist for Hermès, Ami Paris, Vogue, Buffalo Zine and fashion editor for Hercules Magazine. We talked to Pau about his influences, nostalgia, and the power of fashion as an element of change.
Your career seems like an accumulation of coincidences that have led you to this day. A little bit of dance, translation, and work at magazines that gradually brought you closer to styling. Looking back, is there any common element throughout your career? What do you think was the key moment in your growing curriculum?
I believe that each and every thing I have done throughout my life has led me to be the person I am today. I do not think there was a key moment, but rather, an accumulation of factors and, most importantly, making decisions. However, yes, I do believe there was a common element and that was perhaps cinema and music. Dance, for instance, gave me the knowledge of the human body and proportions, translation prepares you culturally and linguistically to live outside of your country for a long period of time, to understand reality.
It has been almost a decade since your arrival in Paris, is it still the place to be?
Today, you can be anywhere you want. In my case, Paris continues to work on a personal and professional level better than any other city in which I could see myself, or usually visit for work every year.
As a freelancer, your work sometimes crosses barriers that for others are insurmountable, from brands to magazines and back to brands. Is it very different to work on both sides? Does this give you a broader picture of the fashion world?
Working on both sides definitely expands your vision. It is not the same to work for a publication, or a brand, which in general tends to be a large, or medium-sized company. It is completely distinct, because they have different objectives to follow. Obviously, the commercial purpose of a brand influences the final images of my work as a stylist. When I prepare an editorial for a magazine (in which usually the most recurring request is that you use clothes from advertisers) what attracts me the most is having freedom, although even within the world of magazines you have to know the limits you can push with some and not with others.
It’s possible to identify in your works a type of cinematographic scenography, but also music. Does fashion need external stimuli to grow?
I do not know of any good designer, stylist, art director, or photographer that doesn't grow through external stimuli. In my case, as I mentioned in the first question, cinema and music are essential. Sometimes, a simple song when I'm doing fittings can change my mood and you can see in advance a stronger, or more timeless and classic result. Fashion needs reality in order to be relevant, and art, in any of its forms, to sell the dream.
It is said that creation is nothing more than a new way to organize memories. and knowing your obsession with physical publications, it seems you have a lot of memories to reorganize. How do you combat the danger of converting that information into nostalgia?
Nostalgia is not something that interests me. That is to say, it tends to bore me and it seems insignificant. I would not know what to tell you about what creation is, but information is power and physical publications are knowledge. My obsession for magazines and books has been and will always be there. A life without paper is like a Spanish tortilla without onion! Boring!
It is thought that for every season there is some particularly revolutionary element that serves to keep everything in the same place. Looking back, do you think there have been any structural changes in fashion in the past few years?
I think that a revolutionary element should precisely make sure that nothing stays in the same place. Ultimately, we work in an industry where every 6 months (until now) everything changed… If fashion has remained in the same place, it has been partly due to big corporations. Another different thing are trends, that as you can see, are constantly changing and fluctuate with the reality of the street and energies.
I do not know if you could call it a structural change, but I think that since I started (2008) until now, age matters less, and the vision of today’s youth is supported more widely. Although, I do not think that is enough.
Some understand fashion as a reflection of society, others believe that it works as a social accelerator that allows new debates to come to light, whether about sustainability, or inclusiveness. Where do you find you are most comfortable?
I think that fashion some time ago stopped starting debates and entered a phase of stagnation. We are not anymore the ones instilling change as some people in the fashion industry like to think - as if we couldn’t stop navel-gazing for once and for all. Having been absent for decades, sustainability and inclusivity now loom over us. Just because we have been surrounded by women, or people from the LGBTQ+ community (which I am a part of), does not make us any less sexist, or more inclusive. I am not saying this in a negative way, but unequivocally to show that much work remains to be done.
Having said that, I sometimes think that in the 70’s, in general, fashion was more inclusive and sustainable, with respect to how people lived at the time, than many of today’s brands in this advanced era, and we think it is 2020. To answer your question directly, whenever a debate is started, I feel comfortable.
A debate that can start from within the world of fashion, but in any case, must be nourished with contributions from other disciplines. A lesson from the words of Pau Avia and his work.