Barbara Bui has always flown under the radar. Even though she has a decades strong global cult following, she’s never really fit into the fashion world’s “star system” as she calls it, referring to the industry’s tendency to place certain designers (usually men) on pedestals. So it’s ironic that all of the ideas that she’s built her small global empire on — Parisian rock and roll chic, androgyny, leather –are all having major moments for fall due to collections created by some of her male peers.
“I think it can be difficult for women now,” she says over a breakfast of coffee and cigarettes. We’re sitting in her bright, sprawling work studio in the Le Marais district of Paris. “When I began, we had Sonia Rykiel, but I think it’s changed since then. I think women are judged harder,” the French Vietnamese designer admits.
Rather than design heady collections with fantastical, esoteric references like some of her peers in Paris, Bui creates straightforward, garments in rich fabrics that manage to be both wearable and edgy. When you look at a Barbara Bui collection you know what you’re getting, there’s no need for head scratching or interpretation. And that’s perhaps why women love her. She creates clothing that she would want to wear herself.
Bui began designing fashion in the ’80s during her days as a boutique owner. She would create pieces that she wanted to wear, but couldn’t find in stores. ”I wanted something edgy, to counterbalance the feminine part of myself. I wanted it to be a little androgynous but still elegant and sexy,” she explains. In the ’90s she began having a hard time finding trousers in a silhouette that she liked. So she made her own. “The trousers in the ’90s were awful and boring. The cut was all wrong. It was too much about function and this executive woman. I pushed the value of the feminine. Since then, trousers have become an important part of my world,” she recalls.
That last sentence would actually be an understatement. Her precisely tailored pants, best worn with towering heels, became her calling card of sorts and earned a feircely devoted fan club. When I saw an art gallerist accidentally tear the hem of her Barbara Bui tuxedo pants at an opening, she nearly had a meltdown. Bui’s trousers earn that kind of an emotional attachment. Leather, another Bui trademark, also plays a prominent role in her fall collection from skinny jacket and pant pairings to mini dresses.
It’s very of-the-moment stuff. But Bui could care less about being trendy. “The garment and the idea ultimately has to stand the test of time.”
-photos by Tinko Czetwertynski
