Shopping bag.

There is something mysterious about Bella Freud. In the mysterious aura that she emanates on the pictures you can find on Google; in her sporadic media appearances, in her very few interviews.

In a world of over sharing and over publicizing, the consistency of her career and the secrecy that she manages to preserve regarding her private life stand out. “Bella has a cool that murmurs more than it shouts” described a journalist in an interview. And that’s exactly what I felt. Bella Freud has found a way to build her identity without being submitted by the new laws of the 2.0 fashion world.

The first thing that struck me was the ambivalence of her work. Her line is boyish yet very feminine, her witty jumpers are worn by the coolest people on earth (Alexa Chung, Kate Moss, Allison Mosshart or Madonna to name a few) but it seems that she never seized to have a bond with the high street. Her clothes are of high quality with a universally flattering style.

Interested in the way fashion infiltrates other parts of life, she was one of the first to collaborate with filmmakers such as John Malkovich or Laura Bailey to shoot Fashion Films.

Of course you can’t talk to Bella Freud without thinking of her impressive lineage. Great Grand Daughter of Sigmund and daughter or Lucian she managed to carve her own name in the world as a fashion designer.

As I discuss her I discover her unique world, intellectual without being obnoxious, free without being wild, unique without being imposing.

Semaine: Do you remember your first Fashion memory?

Bella:I think it started with shoes; fantasizing about shoes in my local Russell and Bromley. It was the nicest shoe shop in the local town where I grew up. They had those lovely platform lace-up with a stacked heel. And I used to dream about having them. I bought a pair in a jumbo sale. But they were size 8 and I was a size 4 – and they were really ugly: But I used to take them to places in my bag and wear them. I was about twelve.

Semaine: Can you tell me more about your personal aesthetics and inspirations?

Bella: I am quite scruffy and that suits me. I was a tomboy as a child and I am still a bit of a tomboy. She smiles. But then I like dressing up at night. I like this mix, being very scruffy and then being very feminine. That’s kind of fun.

I am always looking and I look at people a lot, the way people are but sometimes an idea will gel more when I read than when I see something.

I suppose I do get lot of inspiration from reading. When I read, an idea will crystallize in my head and become succinct. If you look at something the idea is already there in some shape. When you read about it, the ideas can come from anything. I am able to reinvent it for myself and then build on it.

Semaine: What kind of books do you read?

Bella: I go through phases. When I was in my late teens I read a lot of XIX century French and Russian literature: Balzac, Flaubert, Maupassant, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy… All of that genre.

There are authors that stay with you forever like Camus or Chekov.

I have been reading a lot of memoires and biographies lately. Reading about the way other people think can spark ideas for clothes.

I also have finally become interested in poetry. I was more interested in words of songs before but now I have started in reading poetry. Especially American poets like John Berryman, the Beat poets and Frank O’Hara.

Semaine: Can you explain the story of your famous jumpers?

Bella: I made three short films with John Malkovich and then a few others with a couple of other directors. We did a film based on beatnik groupies: “The Beat poets groupies waiting for their star poets to arrive”. One of them was wearing this kind of ‘literary groupie jumper’. I was thinking of names like Camus, Godard and Ginsberg. And in the 70’s there was a T-shirt that was a (was missing) very popular saying ‘Clapton is god’. Someone said ‘oh but what about: Ginsberg is god’. I thought it was great. It didn’t need to be sophisticated it could be very simple. And my assistant, who had a cold said: ‘but what about Godard is dog – I mean god”. And I thought that’s exactly how it was! It could mean so much nothing and it could be total bullshit. Those quotes came from that.

Then Kate Moss wore the jumper and then suddenly it became huge. It was 2003, so almost 10 years ago, and then I started to make a few other ideas with word. It built up without a particular planning. It grew quite organically.

I made really small collections at the time. 4 styles at the most. I just wanted to do a tiny collection and use them like a flag. I find that I really like thinking about words that would act almost as a pattern and finding sentences that aren’t a slogan. It is not a philosophy. It’s not supposed to be cute. It’s a floating thing that can become whatever you want it to be.

If I am reading and something attracts my attention I will draw the word out and see if it turns into something. I enjoy that process. I am really interested in words. I think language is everything. With language you can change the world.

Semaine: You were one of the first to do “fashion films”, can you talk to us about your first films and how they have evolved?

Bella: I did my first film in 1990 for the second collection of my own label – I don’t really know why. I didn’t know anything about films or about the process of making them. But I just thought maybe it was a good idea and it would be cheaper then putting up a fashion show.

And that was pretty much it.

I went to the racetracks, because I liked the atmosphere of it. The way people dress up even if it’s cold outside. I asked James Lebon to direct and I found the music that I liked.
I thought it would be about the same length as the show and be about the clothes. I didn’t know what I was doing at all and to be honest it was fine. I learned about it by doing it.

The next year I did another film that was way much more polished. I worked with a director called Kate Garner. It had a storyboard and a little story. It was much more like a little film.

Then I just forgot about films until I was bored of doing shows. I felt like I couldn’t get my message across properly with the shows. It was like I was speaking the wrong language. I wanted to find somebody who would be up for making a fashion film; someone talented who would bring their vision, take my ideas and bring them somewhere I didn’t feel it was going. And so someone introduced me to Jon Malkovich and we ended up making three films together. It was great. I would choose the actors and the models and do the story of the clothes and he would do the story of the film.

The films were quite indulgent and hilarious.

I did two with Martina Amati who is more of an experimental filmmaker. She is very talented and she was my next-door neighbour, which was kind of convenient. I learned a lot.

I directed the last one I did. I would love to go on making films.

Semaine: <You started your career in 1990, working with Vivienne Westwood. Do you think the Fashion world evolved or changed a lot?

Bella: The really big thing that changed since I started in fashion is that the high street, that used to be really bad is now really good. It has brought fashion into everyday use whereas when I started in the 90s, fashion was for a certain kind of people and the rest were just wearing clothes. There was not really fashion for everyone by any means. The high street instead of copying brands badly started employing good designers to work for them, not big designers but people who knew how to be designers.

Semaine: Who is the Bella Freud Woman?

Bella: I think of a few different women when I work. Sometimes it’s people I know, people I love, and love the way they dress. If I’m stuck I would think ‘How would she wear it? What does it need to have in order for her to like it?” Sometimes it’s someone cool or less cool but I want it to work for who ever I am thinking of.

Sometimes it can be a pop star and I think ‘Oh it would be so nice for her’ even though, I really have no idea. But it’s more regarding my fantasy about what she might like. I like to think about people when I am designing. It helps me mostly to sometimes simplify but sometimes the opposite, in order to go further.

Semaine: Ultimate Faux pas?

Bella: I find it a funny idea to be prejudiced about ‘Mauvais-Gout’. Or prejudiced against ‘ Le Bourgeois’. You might miss something amazing because you think it’s bourgeois and actually who cares if it’s just fantastic.

Bunuel, the film director, plays around with a lot with the architecture of the Bourgeoisie but it’s so perverse and kinky.

If you are too prejudiced about something or you are too strict in your idea of what is good taste or not then you miss things. Just watch and listen. It’s all there.

Semaine: Everything seems to be digital now. You are choosing to open a physical shop can you tell me a little about that?

Bella: The idea of having a centre was certainly one of the most important impulses, in order for the ideas to be mixed up together. The inspiration was to have almost a flat. My apartment but where you can buy the clothes. With the architect (Maria Speake of Retrouvius), we wanted to make it a bit like my place.

So when someone comes to the shop they get what I am trying to get at. And the atmosphere is intimate.

I put my favourite books, my favourite records, some of my pictures that I brought from home. So each place you are in the shop I made a little signal for you. So the clothes within that world are easier for them to make sense of, more fun, with a little background or something.

Semaine: You launched a perfume line and candles. What was your intention?

Bella: Instead of doing a second line I wanted to take the fashion into different areas. With the perfume and the candles, I wanted them to feel very much like a fashion item rather than going into beauty , which is a different world. I wanted it to be connected and representing the things that inspire the fashion line as well. They have the words on. The packaging are connected to the jumpers. It has a feeling of intimacy about it and thoughtfulness. I have really been enjoying doing that.

Semaine: Would you mind telling me a little about your involvement with the Palestinian refugees?

Bella: My best friend and I started a charity in 2003 for Palestine refugee children. I became interested in the issue and I have noticed that when there is a catastrophe there will be a huge push around the world to support the victims, and a general good will. And I have noticed that it didn’t happen for Palestine at all.

Because it has been so politicised. As if people didn’t know how to show their support. It’s very small but we manage to do a lot and raise awareness and we do educational artistic and sportive grants. It’s very humble but goes to those children that have been left out of the general charity talk. I’m proud of doing that and it’s good to be able to do however small and however simple. It’s called the Hoping Foundation.

People want to support without feeling like they have to understand or know everything about politics.

It’s important to help without turning away.

Semaine: You are inspired by lyrics?

Bella: The last Gil Scott Heron record is so beautiful and the lyrics so poetic. I find Nick Cave lyrics fascinating. The way he thinks. How he decided to use the thing he does and create something so evocative.

This band from the 60s called the Last Poets really inspires me too. They are really a group of poets and they have been through various people and permutations and they are of protestors.

They came out of the Civic rights movement and I am interested in how people can say things in a way that people actually notice what’s required of them. It’s very subtle.

To get people to listen to you is a real talent. I am very interested in those people who are able to do that. Generally people don’t want to hear a message. They just want to be entertained. But when someone is able to say things open peoples heart and minds it’s really exciting.

Semaine: You don’t do a lot of press. Is there a reason for that?

Bella: It’s fantastic if Kate Moss or someone famous wears my clothes because it makes people notice it.

The clothes should be in the limelight ideally – I feel like they do the talking.

In the end I want to be working and reading and looking around and drawing and making, that’s the most important thing I could do. Otherwise there is no substance and substance is everything really.

Semaine: What do you think of Instagram?

Bella: I understand the people who loathe it but I think it’s quite fun really. I like using Instagram. I used to be on Twitter and I liked that because of the words, trying to get a message across in a very concise way.

It’s interesting and it’s a good discipline. Now that I switched to Instagram, I don’t really use Twitter anymore. It’s kind of interesting to understand what people respond to and I don’t take it overly seriously.

I’m interested in that kind of guerilla marketing. I like doing things in a more free way rather than advertising which is a serious business. You can play around on Instagram a bit more, which suits me.

The only thing is that you can waist a huge amount of time. And you could be reading a book, which is more important.

Semaine: Future projects? Is there anything you haven’t done that you would like to do?

Bella: I have a couple of things in the pipeline. I am working on a few collaborative projects. I am doing a collaboration with Fred Perry, With Cutler and Gross. We will do a couple of Dark glasses, which to me are the epitome of glamour.

I would like to do more home wear. I am more and more interested in interiors, and the way in which fashion can grow into interiors instead of being a separate thing. It can infiltrate every level.

And definitely more films. I haven’t done one in a while.

One thing is for sure is that we are, at Semaine, very excited to see what’s next. The coherence and timelessness in Bella’s work seems to be built in the authenticity and honesty that is put in the process of creation. Her jumpers are not just jumpers. There is an intention and reflection behind them. Her films are not just films. They are part of a larger creative process and are meant to translate her aesthetic identity in a more personal manner than catwalks. Her collaboration could never be mistaken for marketing stunts as she respects her own identity too much.

Bella Freud chose fashion, feeding from every other type of art, literature, music and poetry. 
 
There is something very sincere and very true in Bella’s discourse, as well as something calm and serene – a bit dreamy maybe. 

Bella Freud is cool because she doesn’t try to be cool. She is not trying to prove something, she is not trying to scream louder, she is not fishing for compliments. She is doing her thing with sincerity and a desire to share her vision, and that translates into any language really. So let’s decide to let the mystery be.

Photography by Felix Cooper.