Denis. Gagnon. Human. |

***First article of our new fashion collaborator***

By Deb Bee

Denis Gagnon, the well-known “darling of Quebec’s fashion scene” was always a mystical character, a very complex figure to most of us. Our admiration & respect for him, his work, is so immense that we tend to forget that he is human, just like the rest of us. I saw him at the last edition of Montreal Fashion Week earlier this month & I was *this close* to him. I wanted to talk to him soooo bad! I wanted to tell him how I admire his avant-garde work, how I appreciate the fact that he doesn’t compromise his art to become commercial & that he reinvents himself every season. I froze. I decided not to because: 1-I’m very shy 2-I felt like he was not accessible, INSAISISSABLE (ed. : French for not being able to grab, take or perceive).

He is celebrating his 10th anniversary in the fashion business this year in high style not only with an exhibition that showcases 20 of his most breathtaking creations, but with a documentary titled “Je m’appelle Denis Gagnon” a 48 minute film developed produced, edited and presented by young videographer Khoa Lê. I had the privilege to attend the (only!) projection of the film at the Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal last week and it completely changed the perception I had of the designer. This short film helps us take a glimpse in his everyday life, with people that matter to him the most: his mother, who he is extremely close to, his sisters, his partner & friends. We even see him going back to his native city of Alma, in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean area to relax & re-center himself? I must say that I was very pleased to discover this aspect of his life. I saw the man behind the persona through this intimate portrait… He is extremely funny and knows how to laugh at himself, which makes him all the more endearing. He shares his concerns and what inspires him. He is also very opinionated. He tells it like it is and expresses his feelings about today’s fashion and how some designers tend to “sellout” and sacrifice their creativity and integrity in order to sell their products.

What I was expecting to see was the artist at work, his whole creative process in this documentary. And that is what was lacking for me. We do get to see him putting the final touches to his latest collection (Fall’10 at film shooting time) in his basement, his “cave”, as he calls it, but this doesn’t seem to be the focus of the film. I would have loved to see the birth of his collection. Gagnon does know how to draw, but he never “designs” a collection. Like a sculptor visualizing his creation in a clay block, he gets inspired by the material, the fabric, its texture & how it drapes. He tears it up and then sews it back. He destroys to reconstruct and what was a dress in the morning becomes a skirt by midday and then becomes a pair of pants in the evening. I wish we could have seen all of that in the flick but when filming began, Gagnon had already finished his Fall’10 collection, two months prior to the presentation. Lê told us about his artistic approach after the movie viewing, during the questioning session.

I still recommend this movie to those who are fervent admirers of Denis Gagnon and want to discover the man behind those big, thick Lanvin eyeglasses.