The Gift: Attivo Talks to Agnes B

Interview by Wendy Rigg

Internationally renowned fashion designer Agnes b is known for her statement French chic.

She is also a gallery owner with an extensive private collection and contributor to environmental research with her ocean schooner, Tara.

Art can represent life experiences, shared emotions, or a simple connection. A work of art can capture a feeling and foster a sense of belonging – and that, to me, is a precious gift. I like to help young and upcoming artists by showing their work in my galleries and featuring their artwork in my designer collections. I opened the Galerie Du Jour in Paris in 1984, and La Fab. in 2020, and I show drawing, painting, sculpture, installations, sound, video and films and photography. I love seeing something I haven’t seen before, which can be so diverse.

I’m always looking at walls, I think they talk.

In 1983, I saw a beautiful white painting in the Paris Biennale. I looked at the name, and it was Basquiat. He wasn’t known at all then, but I could tell he would be great, so I sent someone to his studio. I bought his self-portrait and still have it hanging here in my house.

If my customers are happy, then I am happy.

When I opened my first shop [in 1974 on Rue du Jour in Paris], my customers were my friends, and they would come and see me for hours in the store. The walls were covered in posters and graffiti, you could sit and chat and listen to music, and birds flew freely around the space. I sold bicycles and Chinese jackets, workwear and T-shirts, and gym shoes that I dyed and reworked. Today, I love my Floral Street shop (in London’s Covent Garden). I have exhibitions and play music, and my customers can feel relaxed and can spend as long as they like there. I make timeless pieces.

I don’t like fashion – I like clothes.

I have around 40 years’ worth of clothes in my wardrobe and never buy anything anywhere. I like well-made clothes that last. And I never push anyone to buy – only buy something if you really love it. I never want to overcharge people.

Iggy Pop often comes into the Paris shop, wearing my snap cardigans.

I named a pair of jeans after him. I love him, he’s been a friend for years. I grew up in Versailles in a large family, and music and culture were very prevalent in my early life. My line is very popular with so many artists and musicians. As well as Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Thom Yorke, Gillian Anderson, Elle Fanning, Tracey Emin, Monica Belluci and Tom Payne have all worn Agnès b.

I always loved to draw, and encouraged by my father, studied drawing at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Versailles. I am now passionate about photography and use a lot of my photographs to create my prints on clothes. Some of these are featured in the Café du Cycliste x Agnès b collection.

For me, the greatest gift of all has been my success, which enabled me, along with my son Etienne, to buy the ocean research schooner Tara.

Environmental issues have always been important to me, and this year we’re celebrating 20 years of the Tara Ocean Foundation. It focuses on expeditions and scientific research on ocean biodiversity, climate change and plastic pollution in the ocean. We hold awareness-raising workshops for young people and work with political and economic decision-makers for better ocean governance. In 2003, I made a personal commitment to the project, which, at the time, seemed a utopian ideal. It has turned out to be an incredible story!

La Fab., Place Jean-Michel Basquiat, 75013 Paris. la-fab.com.

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