Favorite Blogger: Garance Doré

Favorite Blogger: Garance Doré
by Shopbop Shoptalk at 7:36 AM PDT, October 29, 2009

At Shopbop, we spend a lot of time reading magazines and blogs, chalking it up to research (it is, we swear). And though our list of bookmarked sites is long, there are a few favorites we can’t help but check out every day. This week, we’re talking to the stylish ladies behind some of our favorite fashion blogs.

The stereotype goes that in the fashion world, it can be a rare thing to find genuine, kind, and truly considerate people, but French blogger, illustrator, and photographer Garance Doré has found two in international Vogue editors Anna Dello Russo and Carine Roitfeld. And we’ve found one in Garance herself. I talked with this charming blogger about photography, illustrations, her boyfriend Sartorialist Scott Schuman, and what it’s like to be in touch with fashion’s royalty.


Garance Doré at Milan Fashion Week. Photo by Scott Schuman.

When and why did you launch GaranceDore.fr?

I launched it three years ago out of frustration from my job, which was at the time being an administrator. I felt like I was very disconnected from the people who see my drawings because when they’re published in a magazine you have no feedback. I felt far away from the readers, so one day I decided to open a blog.

Your website transitioned from focusing on your illustrations to including photography. Do you prefer one over the other?

No, I think it’s all an organic energy. Photography inspires illustration, and illustration inspires photography. I couldn’t do one without the other.

What do you think is the biggest difference between the two?

Illustration is more like a dream representation, and it’s more difficult to grab. People will look at it, and they won’t identify with an illustration so much. But with a picture of someone they can really identify. And I think for fashion … it’s great to have pictures because you can show the actual clothes. With an illustration, you can show the feeling of the clothes.

Each of your posts includes a personal account about fashion or about the person you’re photographing or about the illustration, but you rarely show pictures of yourself. Now, I’ve seen pictures of you, and you have great style. Why don’t you feature yourself on your blog?

It’s not really a choice; it’s not my first interest. I like to talk about my life, but more in a funny way. I don’t know, I could do it, but my blog is my personal diary. I mean, I know what I look like, so I don’t need to show myself. On the contrary, I love to see other people because they inspire me.

During Paris Fashion Week you had the opportunity to photograph Anna Dello Russo in her room at the Ritz. She’s a fashion masterpiece. What’s it like to encounter and work with icons like her?

It’s great because I totally realize how iconic she is, and I think she will be one of the great fashion figures of our time. She has an amazing collection of dresses because she actually buys everything—everything belongs to her.

But I’ve never felt [very] impressed by people. I come from Corsica, and my parents had a restaurant in Corsica, where all the stars, like Brigitte Bardot, would come eat. Corsicans are super proud and they would never ask “Oh, sign an autograph for me.” So I was very used to being with quite impressive people when I was very young. I would see my father talk with them, and he was just the owner of the restaurant. He gave the same respect to stars [as he did] to the usual customers.

I usually don’t like to meet the people I admire, actually, because you can be disappointed, and I like to keep my dream. But with Anna it’s different because I love how she is and I love to love her because she’s a great person, a great human being.

I just read your story about Carine Roitfeld, the editor of French Vogue. What was that experience like? You got to see fashion week through her eyes.

It was really amazing. Carine is a great person. She talks to everyone the same way, so I felt very good with her. She asked me a lot about myself. She answered every question. There was no subject that she wouldn’t talk about. She’s just so down to earth. It’s incredible. It was a great moment, but at the same time, I’m quite used to meeting the designers, to going to fashion week, and everything, so it was my usual environment. It was more about her, more about the person she is. I wanted to cry in the end because she is so nice.

You know, I told her Scott [Schuman of The Sartorialst] had a book signing, and she said she’d love to come. I thought, oh yeah, she says that but she won’t have the time because her son had an exhibition that night, too. And at, like, 11 in the evening she left me a message for a quarter of an hour to excuse herself for not coming to the book signing. I thought it was so nice. People never do that, but she’s very connected to everybody.

Who are your favorite people to photograph?

You know what, it’s changing a lot, actually. I like to find new people all the time. But, of course, I love Giovanna Battaglia. I think she’s a never-ending source of inspiration.

I love to take pictures of my boyfriend, Scott, but he’s really bored with that. He doesn’t like me to take pictures of him, but I like to think that in a few years I’m going to have all these pictures of him and look at them and remember the nice times. So the people I love—my sister, for example, because I grew up looking at her, thinking “she’s so beautiful.”

Speaking of Scott, he just released a book. Do you have any plans to release a book as well?

I do, I do. I do have a lot of people coming to me to do a book. I don’t even have time to answer the phone so I don’t know how I’m going to do that, but yeah, it’s one of my plans for the future, of course.

And finally, what is the one thing you must have this fall?

Oh my god! Just to say one? Oh yeah, I know, a white shirt. You can go everywhere and you’re always chic, and you can be sporty. It’s just beautiful.

To see more from Garance, visit GaranceDore.fr/en.

In topics: Fashion
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