Bruno Pieters | Rigorous Design (engl.)

A Belgian again! Bruno Pieters almost didn’t participate in last year’s Swiss Textile Award; the chance of winning seemed too slim. After all, it was Raf Simons, Haider Ackermann and Christian Wijnants, who had been awarded the prize three years before. But Pieters submitted his work and won. No wonder! The whole fashion world seems to be his oyster right now.

A few months ago, Yves Saint Laurent fell on the street in front of the luxury hotel Plaza Athénee in Paris. The septuagenarian’s face was covered with blood when he was rushed to the hospital, and the media and fashion world prepared to mourn the loss of one of the world’s greatest couturiers. After all, icons are scarce: Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld dwell on Olympus, high above the rest. That is one of the reasons why season after season, the industry yearns for a new designers on whom they can pin their hopes.

One of those who gain a proportionate amount of attention is Bruno Pieters. As early as 2001, he had just finished his fashion studies at the famous Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and shown his first couture show on the Seine, Suzie Menkes, the grand dame of fashion critique described Pieters as a “intriguing talent”. Ever since, the Belgian has won one prize after the other. He received his last one in late July at the Andam-Awards: two scholarships from the house of Yves Saint Laurent, that are endowed with a total of 36.000 Euros. As chance would have it, a certain resemblance between Bruno Pieters and the young Saint Laurent cannot be denied, most of all because of his prominent horn rimmed glasses. His slim, tall stature, well-defined facial features and curly hair do the rest.

When meeting him in his studio in Antwerp’s old town, he sits at a white desk: the only object on it is a mobile phone with a text message notification flashing on its display, but it is being ignored. Behind him are bare, yellowed walls, to the right a big shelf with neatly archived magazines. Bruno Pieters is wearing skintight black jeans, a black t-shirt, a black pin-striped jacket and a black scarf around his neck. He embodies the perfect counterpoint to the minimalist environment. Only his slight stoop and his coarse voice seem somewhat out of place. But that too, has a reason. Two days ago he celebrated his 30th birthday, from which he is still recovering. He didn’t drink any alcohol, though: There were a lot of guests and he didn’t want to lose track in the thick of the fray. A brief intermediate diagnosis: control freak.

Bruno Pieters comes from Bruges, a mediaeval town in Flanders, where flocks of tourists are constantly teeming the narrow alleys. His parents are self-employed; his father in the food industry, his mother in advertising. They believe that effort pays off, and so they wanted their son to take up a decent profession, become a banker, maybe. But he remained undecided for a long time, had his lip pierced, listened to grunge music and was interested in art. Not until he accompanied a friend to the annual defilée of the fashion graduates in Antwerp completely by chance and saw the graduation collection of Veronique Branquinho was he struck and knew immediately: “That’s it!”

The academy is known for its very tough selection procedure. Twice a year, they mercilessly sort out students and only a fraction lasts until the end. But Pieters hardly suffered under the team of professors around Walter van Beirendonck. “I guess they liked what I did,” he says. “Although I like being criticized, because I’m never content myself.” He graduated at the age of 22. In retrospect, he thinks it was too early. He should have gained more hands-on experience, maybe done an apprenticeship. On the other hand: “I have no regrets, everything happens for a reason.” Early, he fell into a sort of limbo: “First, you do your show, then you hang out in your show room and people order your designs – and then what?” Panic arose, which he coped with by simple means: applying Occam’s razor: “In the end, it’s just about creating clothes and selling them.” Here, another characteristic trait comes to light: pragmatism.

After college, he signed on as an assistant of Martin Margiela and Christian Lacroix, among others, but soon, when he was barely 24 years old, he started his own prêt-à-porter line. One particular feature of Bruno Pieters’ fashion is the combination of perfect cuts and homage to craftsmanship, especially because this seems neither boring nor outmoded. First and foremost, Pieters is a technician, a constructor, one who experiments with profiles and proportions. In doing so, he often goes willful ways: At his first couture show, he presented suits only, although in twelve different versions. At his first men’s collection, he showed hardly any more outfits: all dandy styles, with a love of detail and bursting with historic references. If that is going to sell, remains questionable. But it’s probably that very mix of skills, unconventionality and willfulness, which aroused all that enthusiasm in the first place.

Meanwhile, his clean, architectural fashion is sold in 40 boutiques worldwide. Bruno Pieters’ design is in vogue: technically flawless and close to the latest taste, but more feminine, less aggressive than the pieces by Nicolas Ghesqui re for Balenciaga, for example. He also successfully designed shoes and handbags for the Belgian traditional manufacture Delvaux, taught as a guest lecturer in Antwerp and at the UdK in Berlin, photographed for various magazines and took part in art projects together with colleagues like Bernhard Willhelm and Kris van Assche. Since January, he has been bringing out an additional men’s collection. Jeans are to follow in September. Considering the multiple jobs in the face of which others would have surrendered, Bruno Pieters just says: “It was a little much.”

“My work is more important to me than anything else. There’s no other way if you really want to achieve something.” The only important thing is to stay on top of things. Therefore those naked walls, the sparsely furnished apartment, nothing to disturb or distract him; there needs to be room for ideas. Even his self-decreed abstinence at his own party fits in with this concept. Bruno Pieters is willing to subordinate his life to work: one long-term relationship broke up because of it. When he comes home at night, he continues to draw and he only takes one week of vacation a year at the most. But he is willing to make sacrifices: “Work isn’t work to me, it’s a hobby, fulfilling a dream”.

Also, he has freed himself from the high expectations people have of him with increasing success. When asked the legitimate question what is yet to come for someone who has reached so much at such a young age, his reply appears naive: “Why, I’m still at the beginning – I’m just taking my first steps right now.” He keeps repeating this line to himself over and over again, a mantra whose psychological effect he wants to question just as little as its substance.

Pieters is also immune to the common fear among almost all creative people that one day his inspiration might run dry: “If I can’t come up with something anymore, I just return to draping fabric. In fashion, everything has already been done and no one wants to repeat himself. That can have a debilitating effect. But for draping, there are endless opportunities, so I will most certainly find a new approach.” Even the relentless rhythm of fashion that dictates presenting something new every six months is no burden to him. “I could do six or eight seasons a year,” he says. “I’m always happy to be starting all over again. I love this business because it renews itself all the time. I can’t get enough of that.” But the reverse also applies: “I don’t want to be reminded of what I’ve done in the past.”

Rather, he proceeds quickly or takes the next big Step. In late May, he signed as a new art director for Hugo of the Hugo Boss Group. Bruno Pieters has negotiated a “huge deal that means turning over a new chapter for both sides” and looks forward to his “entrance to the world of major enterprises”. He wants to return to the roots of the label “as the most fashion-forward brand within the group”.

Yves Saint Laurent has recovered from his fall. A hero of fashion remains to the world. One who revolutionized clothes, made tuxedos for women, was the first one of his guild to offer pieces “off the rack”, thus conquering the less moneyed customers. One who evoked the pressure to change things and which eventually broke him. Bruno Pieters, too, is obviously obsessed with fashion, but seems to have found a way to keep a level head. By staying down to earth and by not perceiving the big empty as a threat, but as a playground.

Text > Susanne Haase

Bruno Pieters > Article published in style100 #09.07 (September 2007)

www.brunopieters.com

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