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Earlier this year, I was reading a magazine and came across an article on Jerome Rousseau–a brilliant new luxury footwear designer.  Upon reading the article and seeing some of his beautiful work, I became an instant fan. Just five months later, I was given the opportunity to have a one-on-one phone interview with Mr. Rousseau himself.  What an exciting experience it was to get to know the designer and to explore the sophisticated brand of Jerome Rousseau.

Q: So, tell me, how’s everything going with the Jerome Rousseau brand?

A: Very good; very well. Perhaps you’ve seen our website. We’ve been fortunate to get some very good press, and some amazing celebrities are wearing the shoes, as well; we’ve had Charlize Theron, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Katie Holmes and Kristen Stewart. In addition, while I don’t know all of their names, we’ve had some very exciting people wear the shoes, and we’re selling the shoes all over the world in places like Barneys and Wish and all over Europe, Italy, Asia, etc. So, I can’t complain. To be honest, things are very wonderful on my end.

Q: That’s very exciting, even just reading about it.

A: Thank you. You know, as a young designer launching your own label after working many years for a different label, you think, “Well, I know I can design a couture collection,” but, as you know, it’s all such an accelerated market.

Q: Yes, definitely.

A: You just need to give it a try and see if it’ll work or not. I did not expect such a positive reaction to my work when I launched it. Things have gone a lot faster than I was planning. So, I’m in a great position at the moment.

Q: Great! So, what started your fascination with shoes?

A: I was quite young when it started, and though it’s a bit strange to say it’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was about 12 years old. It all started because, as a child, I was very inspired and fascinated by music; video clips were very important to me. I would see Duran Duran and Cindy Lauper on TV, andas I grew up, as a young teenagerthere was a band called Dee-Lite; maybe you remember their “Groove Is In the Heart”?

Q: Oh, yes! I remember.

A: Just watching their video clips and hearing their songs was incredible and their style was great; I thought it was genuine and had a lot of credibility. I also fell in love with the shoes that they were wearing. Now, you need to remember that I was very young and had no idea what fashion was like in the ’60s and ’70s; I thought these people invented disco–with the platform shoes and psychedelia all packaged into one look; for me all of these styles were brand new, and I fell in love with them very much. I was sort of spontaneously drawn to the shoes; I thought they were amazing. I started drawing them in art class in high school, and I guess it just evolved into a bigger passion. I started drawing them all the time, then I went to the UK to study shoe design and, yeah, it turned into an amazing career.

Q: It sounds amazing.

A: Thank you!

Q: So, how does it feel to be a part of the Wish shoe event that is showcasing six top designer collections?  (Event at Wish will be Sept. 21-26 with Jerome Rousseau featured on the 25^th; 10am- 5pm)

A: It’s quite amazing. The Wish team is fantastic, and they’re great people to work with.  When you’re a young designer, your passion is all about what you do and you really live and breathe your work, as well as your design. So, it’s amazing when your retail partner is equally passionate about what they do.  I think, in the case of Wish, the whole team is definitely great; the fact that they are enthusiastic about my label and are promoting it in this way means a lot to me and, in the end, I am very happy to do my part in promoting the product in their store which is why I am excited to talk to you today.

Q: So, will you be visiting Wish or coming to St. Louis in the near future?

A: That would be absolutely amazing, but over the next six months I have to be in London, Milan, Paris, Italy (twice), New York, Toronto and Vancouver; all for work, of course. That’s just between now and October 15. I can’t see myself in eight places at once, otherwise I would be there in a heartbeat.

Q: Now, I saw Kristen Stewart on the red carpet at the Teen Choice Awards about a week ago; I actually noticed her shoes first. After doing my homework, I found out that those were by you. Really nice.

JR: Thank you very much. I was very thrilled that she wore them; I happen to absolutely adore Kristen. I also love the fact that she’s not the cliche Hollywood babe at all, you know? She’s a bit dark, and there’s something very edgy about her; she’s very “anti-Hollywood” in interviews. Also, she doesn’t seem to care much, and she’s not trying to impress anyone which is something I really like about her. Another thing that was exciting about her wearing the shoes was that perhaps you aren’t aware of this, but when she normally wears dresses, she doesn’t wear heels. I don’t make sneakers, and I don’t have any flats, so I lucked out. Kristen‘s a sample size; the shoes that she wore were actually my original samples there was only one other pair of those. Apparently, Kristen was obsessed with them. She had the sample for a week, and I didn’t know if she was going to actually wear them until I saw her in them on the red carpet. It really created a lot of buzz for the label. Literally, we spent all of last week catching up on emails from people and press asking about that shoe.

Q: That’s really exciting news.

A: Kristen, she’s definitely created a lot of buzz.

Q: What was the inspiration behind your FW09 collection?

A: There were quite a few things. It was a very musical collection. I don’t always have a muse in a collection but, for FW09, I had two different women that I was looking at a lot; both of them are musicians, of course, and one of them is Kate Bush from the late ’70s who came from a dance background. She was very eloquent in her movement, and she expressed so much through her body language. Also, her singing was very unusual; she had a unique type of voice. That, combined with her songwriting, created a very Victorian image for me. So, as a result of her inspiration, I used a lot of texture and vibrant colors. The other muse that I had was in a French band from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s called Elli et Jacno; you can go on YouTube and look up several of their hits from ‘79 to ’83 and oh, my God! They’re absolutely brilliant, their style is great. Elli is sort of distant; very aloof, and she rarely looks at the camera. There’s something very cold and unapproachable, yet very sexy, about her. For the six months prior to designing the FW09 collection, I’d been listening to Elli et Jacno almost every day on repeat, and I’d been looking at their clips almost everyday, as well. So, I couldn’t resist; when I was doing the collection, they were very much part of my mindset. And, if there was one more element that went into the FW09 collection, it was perhaps the Victorian era of footwear, which Kate Bush got me thinking about. I like a slightly more flared heel, but my color combinations were very much like the Victorian patternsheavy in reds, blues, grays  and purples; very rich, saturated colors that I mixed together.

Q: Wow!

A: That was a long speech, I’m sorry.

Q: Oh, no; it’s all fascinating to hear. I could envision it as you were saying it.

A: Thank you. It was quite visual; as a matter of fact, they were all visual references, and you can definitely see how it all came together. When you design a shoe or a collection, it’s not like you sit and think,  “Okay, I have to design a shoe that looks like that.” It’s never so obvious; it’s all very subtle. You have quite a lot of different influences and, for me, they all start to come together when I design. When I explain it, I sound a bit precise, but it’s really very subtle. There’s not one shoe that you’d look at and say, “Oh, that’s Kate Bush” or “This is Jacno.” It’s a bit more subtle than that.

Q: So, though those are your two particular muses for FW09, but who would you say is the “Jerome Rousseau woman“?

A: Who is she? Hmm… I think she’s quite ageless; I don’t categorize her as a woman of a certain age. I think you can be 18 and love beautiful shoes, and you can be 65 and love beautiful heels. Especially if you go to New York, Los Angeles and Paris–you see women of all ages wearing the most amazing shoes and wearing them extremely well. So, the Jerome Rousseau woman doesn’t have a specific age, but I think she’s glamorous, fun and she’s very confident. I’d like to think two things about her; number one is that she has a dozen lovers, at least, and number two is that she likes to wear her stilettos at home whether she’s washing the dishes or just dancing in front of her mirror to her favorite song.

Q: So, she’s a music lover?

A: Oh, yes. Have you ever met one person who doesn’t like music? She doesn’t take it for granted, but she’s probably very emotional about it. She plays her favorite Duran Duran track while dancing in her living room, and is very happy by herself while wearing nothing but the most beautiful shoes.

Q: Wow, very interesting. I love it. Do you see yourself branching off into accessories, or elsewhere?

Q: I think about it, but at the moment there is still a lot of work to go in order to get the shoes established. So, I’m not rushing it; however, in the long term, the plan is to get into handbags and men’s shoes would be amazing. I’m definitely going to focus on footwear for another few years.

Q: So, what makes that Jerome Rousseau brand so distinctive?

A: There’s a very good balance in my designs. I’m not trying to create something over the top; I really design the simple, yet distinctive. For me, it’s very much about studying the colors and the materials, which is what makes my collection rich and different. There is definitely something sexy about the Jerome Rousseau shoe. And, when you put it on the foot, it really elongates the leg. I’m sort of cheating with proportions to basically accentuate the woman’s body and make it look wonderful.

Q: So, what would you say a shoe brings to an outfit?

A: How about, what does an outfit bring to a shoe [laughs]? I think a lot of women nowadays dress up thinking of the shoe first.

Q: Right.

A: I know I do. Shoes are really the most important part of the outfit because they also change the posture and the attitude of the person wearing them. They give women confidence and make them feel sexy. I mean, put on a dress with flats, and then put on a dress with heels. You’ll notice immediately; it’s much more than the outfit.

Q: I hear a lot of women say they dress around their shoes.

A: Exactly. I agree with that; it’s so true. Especially when they have an event to go to. They plan the shoes, then the outfit.

Q: Exactly. Do you have a favorite?

A: There’s one shoe that’s a patent leather, with a print between a tortoise shell and a leopard print. It’s a very beautiful print. I have two different shoes in that print; there’s the t-strap with a delicate buckle a very exquisite shoe and a square-toe pump. It has a lot of character; I like that one a lot.

Q: I would say the t-strap shoe in the tortoise is one of my favorite also. I actually saw it on the website, and though I love the whole collection that’s the shoe I kept going back to.

A: That’s a very nice shoe. A lot of celebrities are looking at peep-toe booties. There is something very funny about the peep-toe bootie. When I first started a couple of years ago, the peep-toe bootie was so new, and now it’s a common shoe of footwear.

Q: So, tell me how did you get into working for John Rocha and Matthew Williamson?

JA: I lived in London for 10 years, almost 11, and I was a freelance shoe designer. When you do work for one designer, you often end up meeting another. I think it fell into place quite naturally. These two are brilliant, and I was very fortunate to work with them.

Q: What is next for Jerome Rousseau?

A: Right now, I am showing my spring 2010 collection, and it’s my best work so far. In fact, I showed it to the team at Wish a few days ago, and they were also very enthusiastic about it; it’s a great collection. Also, there is a film by Terry Giilliam called The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus–it’s Heath Ledger’s last film; he died during the making of it. Somehow, he was replaced by three amazing actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. It also stars my favorite model, Lily Cole; it was her first acting role. In this one incredible scene–a fantasy world of giant shoes–Johnny Depp and this woman character are seen dancing around the shoes. All of the shoes in the scene are from my collection.

Q: Wow, I actually believe I saw that the trailer online, and I remember the shoes!

A: Yes, those are my shoes. It’s quite amazing.

Q: So, tell me how has your brand has grown within the last year.

A: One year ago, I had my first collection hitting retail. So, although I’d been working on this for quite a few months prior, I debuted my collection in stores one year ago this week. We have come a long way. A year ago, no one knew about the label. Today, we’ve been in Vogue and Elle and are sold in some of the best stores around the world. We’ve come a long way further than I’d expected.

Q: That’s very amazing!

A: Yes, quite an amazing growth.

Q: So, what advice would you give to any young designers out there?

A: To have an original product and stand behind it. Also, present what you do with pride and enthusiasm. Work hard because, if you love what you do, it isn’t hard; it is your passion.

images via google.com

jeromerousseau.com