Judassime

I did go to the grocery store in drag and full glam. But my most main character look to go there is very basic. Most of the time, I’m in sweatpants and a little black sweater. It’s just my everyday thing. I feel like a superhero anyway. So, it doesn’t matter how I go. Most important for me in the supermarket is music. I have my music in my ears, and I’m gonna sing all the lyrics. People are gonna be gagged. It’s like a full private concert. I mean, I am not Ariana Grande, but I’ll give the fucking show.

Oh, most likely the things that I’m going on stage with. But there’s one specific outfit, which is the final look of my first collection, 1000 Sins — it’s a fully spiked suit. It fits perfectly, but at the time, I didn’t know how to tailor nicely. So, I just made the suit as it was, and the final version doesn’t give you the space to move your arms that much. When I go on stage with that, I cannot breathe. Also, the fabric makes you sweat enormously. So, after thirty minutes, most likely the jacket will fall off. And the skirt might fall off also. Until I’m ending up on stage with just a corset and a thong. But the looks are not uncomfortable when you wear them normally. It’s just because I do very specific movements with it.

Right? Do you want to serve cunt or do you want to serve comfort?

It’s a big part, I guess. I love the silhouette of discomfort. Like a tiny waist, huge hips. You have to stop breathing. But also, on the storytelling-side itself, I think it’s just how I experience life. It’s from one uncomfortable situation to another one, to another one, to another one. One of the best outfits I created to channel that energy is Entangled, I guess, it’s a couture look from the new collection. It’s fully laced up, and the model can barely move in that outfit. She’s stuck in a situation she doesn’t want to be in. I think it’s my most personal look that I’ve made so far.

Of course. I’m not religious at all. When I was very young, I was really tired of everyone that was going into religion. I thought it was just a cult of people that were insecure. It was just bullshit to me. Religion, for me, doesn’t make sense. Why are people believing in something else than just believing in themselves? It pissed me off. I was in art school in Brussels, and we had an obligated religion class. I was always fighting with the teacher. And then she gave me a painting, The Last Supper. Everyone looks at Jesus. Judas is the only one that looks away, that goes in another direction. I love that perspective of life. That when everyone looks at the same thing and thinks that thing is beautiful, I will look away and try to find something else that is beautiful. I remember, there was one kid in my religion class who turned around to me and said, “You’re such a Judas to this society”. I thought, absolutely. I hate religion, but I love that. And it’s crazy because people do think that there’s something religious about me because of the name.

Yeah, exactly. But I’m going to church every Sunday. My church is the club.

Actually, I got the name after I made the concept for the collection. So, I was not fully inspired by the movie, but the storylines seemed like a perfect match. The idea for the collection came from a traumatic experience and how you go into a rebuilding phase of yourself afterwards. You go through emotions, through fragility and strength, you have to protect yourself. That’s why it relates to the David Lynch movie. It’s this psychosis, this battle, there’s always a thought. The man that is always following you. People trying to lure you, to abuse you. It’s a never-ending tunnel. You are lost in a way. But you try to re-find yourself. That’s where the motor-gear elements come in, because the body rebuilds itself with both protection and risk. Your body becomes its own danger; you make choices that might harm you, but at least they’re yours. It’s that duality of being a threat to yourself while shielding yourself from the world.

Yes. Because once you break the mirror, you destroy your own vision of yourself. Sometimes you need to destroy your old self, to move on, to start a new cycle. And also, sometimes you don’t want to look at the old version of yourself that is stuck in trauma any more.

Yeah! So, when we rehearsed the show in Paris, I think we had like one and a half hours, I told every model about the story of the whole collection. And then, one by one, I went up to them and told them what their individual story was. If there is anything mysterious, anything violent. If there’s damage to the person. If there’s power.

Oh, for The Devil Wears Judassime you also have to look at another silhouette that is called Corporate Genius, which is the feminine version. The story is, the male abused the woman, basically. That male was represented by the other figures. Corporate Genius on the contrary is a male-based silhouette in a couture womenswear. It’s the lady that understood the system of what’s going on in the world. And she’s going to apply it for herself. She’s going to go into the biggest CEOs and the biggest corporate company. She’s going to play the game. And then there’s The Devil Wears Judassime, which is the assistant of that person, basically. They understood what kind of game the males are playing. They are the traders of the power.

It’s my only language. I mean, the world would never understand anything I was going through. Not my parents, not my family, nor my friends. It was always too heavy. So, my only language to the world was to create an image or an energy. All the power that once got taken away from me was built back into fashion. So, I create something that can be raging, or furious, or powerful, or simply beautiful. It’s the only way that I get my emotions out. It’s really weird because once I get to the end of a collection and I drop it, I feel so empty because then the package is fully out. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means there’s space and time for a new cycle, for something new. It’s like waking up from a dream, almost. Sometimes it can be depressing, there’s that very heavy thing that just falls on me. My emotions are out of me. But then I can heal again. Fashion is my psychologist.

Yeah, to be honest, while I was working on the new collection I was stuck in a very abusive relationship. And once we finished with the collection, my assistant told me “I hope that next collection, we’re going to build it on something more healthy.” And I wish that for myself, but also, I know that I have a cycle in life that keeps on attracting unhealthiness. I know that some things that have happened, I could have stopped. But I still went through it because it’s a choice also. That’s also why there are so many BDSM elements in my collections, as a symbol for self-harm. But for the next collection I was thinking of kind of a dream world, which is very exciting. I’m going to do a ready to wear show in February, but the next big one, is going to be the continuation of Lost Highway. Kind of the ending of that story.

I partied. No, actually, not even. Because I thought I was going to do a huge after party, which I was in the end too tired to do. So, the first thing I did when I came back to Belgium was take some days off. I just stayed home. I enjoyed my time with my friends. I went to museums. I slept a lot.

Of course. Every time someone who doesn’t know my brand asks me what I do in fashion, I always say it’s like this gender-fluid, alien kind of creature that wears it. I still keep up to this idea of my brand.

Yes. It comes from very far away. From like the 80s, the 70s in London. Like Kiss for example, there’s Leigh Bowery, there’s like so many of my friends in London. Parma Ham, who was also in the show. We are all doing the same, it’s a very underground thing to do because we’re just rebuilding something very new to our own. It’s like a new canvas for ourselves to just translate into. I can put on that makeup and transform myself into something I have full control over. I can really be my own superhero. It makes you look like a freak of society, but that’s the most powerful thing you can do. Because once you purposely detach yourself from all the stigma and the rules, you are free to be whoever, whatever you want to be. So, when we do our punk gathering, we feel so sexy, so hot, so beautiful.

It’s everything. It’s what saves you from dying, I guess. A chosen family are the people that are going to support you because sometimes you cannot go to your own family. They would do anything for you. So, I would bring my friends everywhere if I could. They are so talented, so careful. One of my really good friends Kim Peers performed for the finale of my runway show with Skemer, for example. And she’s a fashion icon since the 80s, 90s.

Right? Like, what the hell are we doing? People are so scared to give opportunities to other people because they’re scared to lose their own opportunities. But if you’re doing something right, and you’re doing it with heart, you have no competition, from my point of view. So, why not bring all your friends with you? Also, ideally, you should have even more opportunities bringing your power together, sharing stuff. That’s why I asked Kim to perform at my show. I’ve performed earlier with her on her tours. And after I heard the song Apocalypse live, I knew this was the perfect ending of my runway show. So, I asked her to join me, she said yes, and we went together to Paris. It was such a magical experience. The best thing was to see how much power she felt wearing my clothes. Afterwards she was like “thank you for letting me be myself.” And that’s the whole point in the end.

I’m a kind person. Everyone thinks I’m a bitch for some reason. A lot of people are misinterpreting that I just take my job very seriously, and I know where I want to head. I don’t want to mess around with anyone. They think I’m arrogant. But arrogance and confidence are not the same thing. I love people. I love experiences. I love everything about fashion and sharing.