News From Home: quarantine offers a chance for exclusive phone calls with LVMH Group creative talents

Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Creative Director of Kenzo, is the second guest on News From Home. He says maintaining the warmth of human contact and daily yoga workouts help him stay balanced. He tries hard to limit screen time and is looking forward to getting back together with his teams to craft more magnificent pieces.

LVMH next reached out to Thierry Wasser, Guerlain Master Perfumer. Surrounded by flacons of perfume during the quarantine, the virtuoso of scents says the lockdown has not hampered his creativity since imagination is “something we all carry inside us”, wherever we are. Reveling in the irresistible smell of cookies baking in the oven, Thierry Wasser remains resolutely optimistic about what the future holds.

Nicholas Kirkwood sees the lockdown as a creative opportunity. Isolation gives him more time for himself to pursue interests such as modern art classes and research into Brazilian architecture and furniture design. The shoe designer believes that this period is a chance for fashion houses to focus on the essential, and is definitely upbeat about the future.

Silvia Venturini Fendi, Creative Director of the Roman Maison, doesn’t really feel that this period is an interruption, since the essence of her creative work consists in thinking about and anticipating the reality of what is happening in our times. She’s taking advantage of the positive aspects of staying at home and spending more quality time with her family. Silvia Venturini Fendi finds inspiration in the words of artist Niko Shilari, who said: “In dark times, we must dream with open eyes.” An appropriate mantra for the present and motivation for action in the future.

The sixth episode of News From Home catches up with Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of Loewe, who says that paradoxically, distance has in fact strengthened the sentiment of belonging among Loewe teams and encouraged people to challenge the current system. The British designer believes that this complete upheaval of our habits comes at a propitious time to get people to rethink the way the fashion industry is structured. Like the other LVMH Group creatives contacted, Jonathan Anderson remains resolutely optimistic and confident that a crisis like this can spur a fresh burst of creativity and ingenuity.

Speaking from his Paris apartment, where he has been spending the quarantine, Francis Kurkdjian explains that the creative timeline for fragrances is much longer than for fashion, and that he is thus already working on scents to be released by the Maison in 2022. The lockdown has not altered his creative process, he says, and staying at home has certainly not dampened his imagination. The perfumer dreams of creating a fragrance for the Eiffel Tower and finds infinite sources of inspiration in the history of fragrances and history in general. This familiarity with the past in fact reinforces his optimism regarding the future of fragrances, an art that has flourished over the millennia since Antiquity.

Human contact is probably what Berluti Artistic Director Kris Van Assche misses most since he really likes working with a team. He feels that these unprecedented times have stimulated creativity in all Berluti’s métiers. He himself has rethought his priorities and wonders about the pace of collections. Above all, the lockdown has given everyone a chance to refocus on what is essential and appreciate the simple things in life.

Maria Grazia Chiuri, Creative Director of Women’s collections for Maison Dior, has spent the lockdown at her home in Rome. She continues to find inspiration in the works of feminist artists, including those featured in her recent podcast for the Dior Talks series. Maria Grazia Chiuri is especially proud of the way that the fashion world has stepped up to join the collective effort to fight the epidemic. On a personal side she has had a chance to sort through her photo archives and straighten up her library, as well as return to collages, a favorite creative pursuit. A natural optimist, Maria Grazia Chiuri believes that solidarity is an essential value that will help the global community get through this crisis with greater resilience than ever.

In the final episode of “News From Home”, Lucia Silvestri, Jewelry Creative Director of Bvlgari, expresses her surprise at how the lockdown has actually made her and her teams even more creative and active. Having at last had time to look through her photography books, she has found a lot of new ideas for future collections. She is confident that excellence and creativity will triumph, and she expresses hope that this period will teach us to rethink our priorities and focus more on quality rather than quantity. She believes that people will want to buy things that last to offset the passing of time, such as jewelry crafted with exceptional savoir-faire.

Find all the episodes of “News From Home” on the LVMH Instagram account.