How Hing
Presenting fashion is a tough job. Etienne Russo is the man to do it
BY JAMES WALLMAN
It’s Paris fashion week, 1991, and designer Dries Van Noten is nervous.
On the other side of the curtain a crowd of journalists and buyers has gathered to pass judgement on Van Noten’s first show in the world’s fashion capital.
This is his big chance.
It’s also a big moment for Etienne Russo, the man in charge of producing the show, because it’s his debut in Paris too. He and his team are frantically directing the models, the lighting, the sets, the music.
As the models strut onto a stage of real grass, the Italian theatre sets behind them change from sunny days to moonlit nights.
The audience is enrapt.
From that first small show, in a hotel basement for an undiscovered talent, Etienne has come a long way. He’s become one of Paris’s go-to people for producing amazing fashion shows.
His story, a compelling cocktail of passion, fashion and fabulous parties, begins in Belgium in 1957.
Born the son of Sicilian immigrants, bullies at his school called Etienne “spaghetti”, and he grew up feeling far from his roots, far from 100% Belgian. Later, this mix proved useful.
“I have an Italian’s passion and energy,” he says. “But I also have that Flemish side of being rigorous and getting things done.”
In the 1980s, Etienne was modelling by day, and by night he was up mixing cocktails at Brussels’s hip Mirano Continental nightclub. Soon he was organising the city’s most outrageous parties there. One time he turned it into an underwater paradise, transforming its bar into a killer whale. Another, guests were serenaded by a half-naked opera-singing model.
Through his modelling career, Etienne met Van Noten and started working for him, modelling and merchandising the clothes, and then producing that show in Paris in 1991.
Four years of shows later, he set up his own fashion show production company, villa eugenie, naming it after the house he rented for his first office near Brussels.
Now, 14 years later, his client list reads like a who’s who of fashion, including Lanvin, Hermès, Miu Miu and Chanel.
So how does Etienne constantly impress his fashion clients, surely the hardest people to please in the world?
“Each collection has an inspiration or story that underpins it,” he explains. “The idea that underpins the show generally comes from the fashion designers. My job is simply to help them present that idea the best way.”
Etienne works in two broad ways with his clients. Some, such as Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, use villa eugenie simply as a production company. In this case, Etienne’s team adds value with the engineering of the show, such as the lighting and the sound.
Other clients, such as Dries Van Noten and Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, work alongside villa eugenie to come up with the ideas.
“It’s like a ping-pong match,” grins Etienne.
Whichever the route to the show’s concept, it’s certain that villa eugenie has worked wonders for its clients.
The team once spirited a group of journalists and buyers to the sandpit in a bullring in Barcelona, as around them 18,000 LED lights lit up a 30m high, 360º wall to show off a Boss Orange collection.
Another time, in New York, the team took the theme of extreme cold for a Y-3 fall/winter collection to, well, extremes.
To create a truly cold, outdoor feel, Etienne wanted ice from a frozen lake near the Ice Hotel in northern Sweden, but the local tax duties were too high. So, his team found an ice-maker to produce the ice – and had them make six different types, to replicate the imperfections of natural ice.
It’s this attention to detail that marks villa eugenie out.
“Getting it right for your clients means you have to be a control freak,” Etienne says. “You have to fight to the last second, for the final detail, to get things right.”
After each show, Etienne analyses in minute detail what could be improved and what went right, to make it better next time.
Now, with more than 600 shows under his belt, Etienne is using villa eugenie’s conceptual and production genius in other fields.
I wonder if this is extending the brand and skills too far.
“Not at all,” Etienne replies. “Work is like a cocktail. By mixing different fields together, it can work even better.”
The team has designed packaging for a high-end natural liquor brand, created Hugo Boss’s 500m² Berlin concept store and completed the design of a Balinese home and an apartment in Miami. In the near future Etienne hopes to finalise a hotel project. It seems the ex-cocktail waiter from Brussels may have a point.
And wherever villa eugenie goes in the future, you can be sure of one thing. Etienne Russo and his team will be creating some very memorable spectacles.
RUSSO’S RESUME
1957: Born
1970s: Works as model
1980s: Cocktail barman at Mirano Continental nightclub in Brussels
1991: Produces Dries Van Noten’s first Paris show
1995: Launches villa eugenie
2009: Passes 600-show milestone
2010: An hotel? Watch this space!
THE FIVE SECRETS OF ETIENNE’S SUCCESS
1. His total dedication: he will go to any lengths and never give up until he gets every last detail just right.
2. Understanding his clients’ needs: including post-show analysis to see what worked and what can be improved
3. Long-term relationships: Etienne has worked with Van Noten for 18 years, producing more than 70 shows. By working so well with his first clients, they did his marketing for him by speaking highly of his work so that others came to him.
4. Extensive testing: he spent years perfecting his production skills at Le Mirano Continental nightclub.
5. Contacts: Etienne knows the fashion business inside out.
LEMON AID
Etienne’s current favourite cocktail is the Lemon Pie martini, served at the Park Hyatt Hotel, Paris (www.paris.vendome.hyatt.com). “I love the way they’ve turned lemon meringue pie into a drink. You even have to eat your way through the cooked crust at the top.”
Check out Paris Fashion Week from 6-9 July.
For more information, visit www.modeaparis.com
