Camille Liu

Born: Paris, France — 1998 / Living: London, UK

Interview by Speciwomen — February 2017

Speciwomen: Who are you?

Camille Liu: My name is Camille Liu. I’m a French knitwear designer based in London. I love working too much, locked up in my room but compensating by watching countless movies while I work which allows me to live by procuration, and helps me stay sane. Because we do have two lives, the one that we live, and one that we dream of. This process really influences my work.

S: When did your interest in fashion come about?

CL: I wanted to become a painter when I was little. But I think going to my mother’s atelier every holiday, taking naps under the cutting tables on scraps of fabrics, modeling for my mom, and witnessing the making process, having to occupy myself with fabrics and beads and ribbons must have something to do with it. Though I still feel like painting when I knit, there is still this process of composition, choosing materials, textures, colors and shapes. I also believe that the body should be able to express itself through clothing and I would like to create the words in which it would speak.

S: Why knitwear?

CL: Because it’s a way to do fashion that I feel is a little bit left un-investigated. It’s a beautiful skill, I would even call it craftsmanship. It feels very rewarding to start with an abstract spool of yarn and to end up with a beautiful garment. And it results in a fabric that really understands the body, it enables movement, it provides comfort, warmth, it’s respectful. I think it’s a very poetic matter.

S: Who are the top three designers you’d like to work with?

CL: Alaïa , Madame Gres (resurrected) and the Atelier of the Palais Garner (Paris’s Opera house).

S: Now, who are three designers—or trends—you think are overrated?

CL: I think fast fashion is overrated. It’s such an unsettling thing for society. Brands, magazines, ads… they all ask you to be yourself to find your own identity while overstimulating you with new trends, new models and new items that encourage you to change your style constantly.

I would like to see a society that builds its own identity, buying from designers they respect, and approve the ethics and ideology of. 

S: What about designing is more liberating than other artistic forms?

CL: The french dancer Marie-Agnes Gillot once said “Discipline is the cornerstone of freedom, not the opposite”.

I can’t think of a better way to put it. Discipline gives you the rules that you then can play with, bend and break.

Designing is a very constraining artistic form but I think that’s the very reason why it’s liberating.

S: As a woman in the industry, what have your experiences been like?

CL: Being a quiet girl in the fashion industry isn’t easy. People want fashion students’ work to shout loudly and I love to whisper.

S: Where can we buy your clothes?

CL: You can't. I don’t have a brand yet.

S: Describe your aesthetic in six words.

CL: Calm, intelligent, symbolic, precise, delicate, subtle.