Interview in Kleur&Stijl

Paris: the fashion Mecca of Europe. The city where the streets are filled with fashionable residents strutting in high heels. Every fashion student’s dream. Where every fashion designer wants to settle. But … If not the half-French designer Laura Blagogee. “I’m loving my time in the awfully divers  Amsterdam.”

With a Dutch mother, a father from Togo and a (former) residence in Saint Tropez Laura Blagogee has various parts of the world in herself. And where a person feels himself than most at home? The choice was made ten years ago in Les Pays-Bas. “I wanted to go to London to establish myself as a designer there. But life there is so expensive! When I was on holiday in the Netherlands to visit my mother, I stayed. “

For the Netherlands, the modest Laura with her colorful couture is an absolute asset. Still, it sounds strange for a fashion designer to choose for a small country like ours. Why not Paris? “In France, life as a designer is not easy, though. And Paris … Well, it does not attract me. Parisians do quite contemptuous of the people who come from the south. I am from Saint Tropez. Actually, it’s a bit similar to Netherlands: here we tend to stereotypes about people down the rivers “And so we are taught lesson number 1:.How The Netherlands is put together, through the eyes of a moderate Française.

Never overdressed
To stay on prejudices and stereotypes, we ask Laura  the differences between the French and the Dutch women. “French women find the outside is very important. We always say it: you are never overdressed. In The Netherlands you are overdressed has soon has you wear something other than jeans. The women here doesn’t take the outside so seriously. And yet I find the streets looks in Amsterdam more enjoyable then Paris. You can see everything! Tasty diverse. Some outfits are super stylish and other hideous. But in France I see too much of the same. Few original, boring. In appearance, there is a big difference: Françaises are small, slim, petit. The Dutch woman is fuller, bigger. For that matter do I look more like my father; from him I inherited my figure. “But that’s not the only heritage she has her père.

The designer genes does not come from strangers. Laura: “My father has done art school in France. He was a painter, made jewelry, belts, bags and shoes. Every day I was in his studio, I actually do not know better. I always found it very exciting to see my father draw and see the big machines in the back for cutting leather. The messiness of the studio with all the leather pieces and stones, it was great. One of my father’s sister was in Prêt-a-porter and another aunt of mine has a couture atelier in Africa. She use to work for Dior in her younger years. “

From Barbie to Percy

The rest of Laura’s beginners years she calls them cliché, making Barbie clothes, winning an award for her graduation collection when she studied fashion in Paris. In the Netherlands she worked for big names like Monique Collignon and Percy Irausquin. And now she is here, ready to break through. That will probably not be long when you see the beautiful, exciting and above all original color contrasts that she incorporated into her couture. “I think all the colors can be combined with each other,” says Laura, “but you must do it with taste. You are born with color sense or not. “Taste is definitely Laura. And your own signature? She’s not so sure: ” I still need a few years. But knowledge comes with time, right? What always comes back to “a real Laura Blagogee ‘is color, simplicity in form and femininity.”

 Mademoiselle Blagogee does not do trends . “I do not follow trends, I do whatever comes to mind. I do not let myself be influenced by what happens in the world. I make a dress once because I want to keep it exclusive. Unfortunately, it is therefore difficult to break through as a couture designer. Fashion is changing, it’s not like I’ve learned it. Couture has become outdated because people want their clothes quickly, they would no longer wait. The quality of high hand degenerates; even Versace’s designs for H & M! I have the feeling that fashion has become very commercial, money is the big factor. ” Big names are being bought by bigger concern. There is a designer who she still admires, Jean Paul Gaultier. “I’m a big fan of him. He is an autodidact. He was sixteen when he went to work, he is still working and still not bought. I think he willed in his designs and I think he’s a nice guy. I would also want to work together with Van Cleef & Arples. What they do is so exclusive. Perhaps a bit of a forgotten brand, but what they do is really art. “

The Netherlands is a top designer richer
Keep an eye on Laura Blagogee: she dressed in 2011 Glennis Grace for the cover of talkies, her name goes like wildfire through the fashion world. So will see her designs in a number of fashion magazines such as Glamour, Elegance and Beau Monde. “You have to be discovered and that begins gradually to come.” In addition, only better, because “I have not made my best design yet, because it’s never good enough, it can always be better.” We can not wait! Meanwhile, we thank La France for ‘our’ Laura.