GARANCE DORE'

 

Inspired by a true passion for fashion, Garance Doré has created her particular language with her blog. Using pictures and drawing, this blogger has conquered the web and beyond


Visual arts critic? Cartoonist? We should coin a new word to describe Garance Doré's work; her nom de plume is a homage to great engraver Gustave Doré, but her real name is a mystery. "Fashion is like a mix of chocolate, cream and butter in a cake mould! It's the right ratio of ingredients that make the mix yummy!". Following this conviction, the Parisian talented blogger and illustrator, born in Corsica and constantly carrying her digital reflex camera, tells the history of fashion through her snapshots, her delightful drawings, her words and her videos, interspersed with stories, thoughts or images of her life, in a unique formula.

From her blog garancedore.fr she launches lots of daily diktats in 3.0 style: pictures of girls with a strong style and several cute illustrations that have caught the attention of big brands. Gap asked her to make drawings for t-shirts to symbolise democratic fashion. Another important recent collaboration is with Petit Bateau, a monument of French fashion both for adults and children. For their second collaboration they have reinvented classic garments like serge trousers and braided sweater. In this occasion we find Garance in front of the camera, surprising us again, becoming an actress for Zoe Cassavetes. Funny and feminine, she is enthused by the two young men with her, like a wink to the culture of lightness that was the Nouvelle Vague in the 1960s. She and her fiancé Scott Schuman, the creator of fashion blog The Sartorialist, are the most credited and liberal fashion couple on the net. But how did she come up with the idea of creating a blog, when there were already plenty of fashion images available? As a child, she wanted to be "a traveller" and wanted a future in the arts. In an interview on Marie Claire, Garance said "My mother has always been able to teach me what luxury is, and how to love beautiful things even when we were skint, combining different forms of art". She began to work as a PR in cinema, even though her instinct brought her towards creativity.

Her taste, in fact, wasn't formed by fashion industry or seasonal trends, but was built brick by brick by going to exhibitions, reading books, watching films, travelling. With the intention of putting on paper the sketches she had in mind, she took on drawing lessons. Until one day she realised that her life was too dreamy and lonely. She sent her portfolio to fashion brands but had no contact with those who receive it. Of course she was always happy yo work for all the magazines that she madly loved. But she didn't really need them in order to express herself and to show her work. So she starts to prefer web to print. In June 2006 she decides to personally contribute to the growth of this mean of communication by opening her blog. First she publishes a few drawings, then adds short blurbs of text. With time she discovers the pleasure of writing and telling episodes of her life, realising that she has finally found her way to express herself. A look at her blog is enough to understand how luxury, in Garance's opinion, means to have a personal taste. And her elegance resides in always being kind.