Exclusive ITW with

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.

What is your first memory of Petit Bateau?

The most beautiful girlfriend in a tank top, named Isabelle. I was 17 years old in Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys in the French region of Morbihan.

You are a collector of collaborations (J.M. Weston, Cartier, Cachou, Air France, Swatch, Larousse, etc...). Rethinking the Petit Bateau ‘Marinière’ seems quite logical, why did this collaboration come so late?

It is destiny. Everything has its own time. I still have a number of other legendary brands to rethink.

People call you a fashion designer, artist and author. Which of these roles gives you most pleasure?

They all move me and push me forward. I put myself at risk taking on other experiences that allow my art to progress and make my universe richer. I think my primary goal is still to find love and serenity, because I have realised that life is not about trying out everything, it is about focusing on the essentials.

After 40 years of creation, your stylistic grammar hasn’t lost its strength or uniqueness. How do you see this?

I remain loyal to myself, but never a copy of myself. I am looking for something beyond, I am my own most serious critic. In the meantime I am a fan of the genius in others. I love making the work of the grandest my own and give it a place in my own universe.

And I only have one flag: the sky’s!

Like the vision of the child in you, or like an adult’s vision on childhood?

I will always be a child, because life has decided to start mine as an adult.

Three words that define your style?

History, accident, pop, mystery.

Three words that define you as a person?

Sprezzature, dandystopique, lineage, friendship.

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