In September last year, the Duchess of Sussex arrived at the WellChild awards in what was possibly her least "royal" outfit yet. Her sleek black trouser suit was simultaneously demurely understated and outrageously glamorous; she could either have been stepping into a job interview or on to the set of a Helmut Newton photo shoot.
The man behind the suit was Joseph Altuzarra, a designer who has made it his business to create these dichotomies for his customers. In a decade when sportswear and mannish minimalism has dominated the fashion conversation, Altuzarra's sensual and feminine, yet polished and work-ready, aesthetic has offered a refreshing alternative that has been embraced not only by Meghan but Michelle Obama, the Duchess of Cambridge, Rihanna and Jennifer Lawrence as well as a faithful coterie of clients.
"I just really wanted to create clothes that you would want to wear when it's beautiful out, and that make you feel in love and happy," Altuzarra tells me when we meet in Paris, as he leafs through a rail of floral-printed pencil skirts, gingham tailoring and crocheted sundresses that make up his summer-in-the-Mediterranean-inspired spring/summer 2019 collection; Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name, was an important reference.
Altuzarra, an infectiously smiley 35-year-old Chinese/ French/American who wears a white T-shirt, leather trousers and trainers for our interview, has never been one for overwrought concepts, preferring to infuse his offerings with ease, optimism and a dash of modern sexiness.
For example, the reason that so many of the looks he shows me expose the décolletage "came from an article about chakras. The solar plexus is the seat of where your self and confidence is, and exposing that is so open and freeing". Doing sexy clothes as a male designer is something he's grappled with in the wake of MeToo, he admits, but his focus is firmly on "body positivity and helping women to feel empowered".
Altuzarra, who is married to husband Seth, has been revered in fashion circles for years: he has won several CFDA awards and, in 2013, Kering, the conglomerate that owns Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, took a minority stake in his business but there is nothing like a little royal patronage to take one's name stellar.
The Duchess of Sussex has several Altuzarra pieces in her wardrobe, including a pinstripe dress, a white blazer and, of course, that suit. Many of these pieces sold out after she wore them, “a rare power” in the realms of VIP dressing, he tells me.
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Advertise with NZME.“The really nice thing about Meghan, which obviously we could not have planned, was that we actually started working with her prior to Harry,” Altuzarra confides. “She came to the party for our Target collaboration five years ago and we’ve worked with her ever since. She represents such a modern idea of womanhood, as well as a new idea of royalty.”
He’s proud of dressing her in pieces that a designer may not have ordinarily expected a duchess to select: “It sets a nice tone for a newer generation.”
He lives and works in New York, and showed his collections at the city’s fashion week until 2017 when he decided to take himself from “a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond” and show in Paris instead. Having been brought up in the city, it seemed like a natural move. “I think a lot of French style is ingrained in me,” he says.
One of his muses is Carine Roitfeld, the 64-year-old former editor of French Vogue. "She embodies the idea that you don't need to stop being seductive because you're ageing. America is a society of correction, a lot of it is about getting yourself to be perfect through plastic surgery or exercise or nutrition; in France, it's much more of a society of acceptance of your flaws and sometimes even highlighting them, celebrating them." Altuzarra has made this celebration of ageless glamour a central tenet of his label, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2019.
His signatures include nipped-in tailoring, curve-enhancing skirts and sinuous dresses that are imbued with flattering, feel-good power. “I have been really conscious of being respectful of how women want to feel and actually dress,” he says. “They need to wear a bra and maybe some of them want to wear Spanx, it’s got to work with that.“
A lot of the women we want to talk to are not just 20, 30 or 40 but also 50, 60 and 70. The root of my idea for the brand was looking at women like my mum, in their 60s and still wanting to be sexy and not wanting to feel like society was relegating them to having to wear tweed suits.”
The Daily Telegraph
