Prestige Hong Kong seems to keep itself on our radar with another amazing interview with another huge fashion influential. First Karl, then Ford, now Chloe. She explains the correct spelling of her name (it’s seven-ee), how it was to work with Tadanobu Asano, and why LA sucks.
Below are some of our favorite excerpts from the magazine. Read the full interview here.
What are the greatest misconceptions about Chloë Sevigny?
Well, the pronunciation of my name, first of all [laughs].
[Blushing] Forgive me. At least please tell me I’m close with Se-VEE-nyee.
No, it’s very off [laughs]. It’s Seven-ee. The “g” is silent. It’s okay. In America they all get it wrong as well. I always say just do the number “seven” and the letter “e.” It’s easier.
Tell me about the campaign shoot you’ve done for Japanese brand Uniqlo with actor Tadanobu Asano?
Uniqlo is a very big chain in Japan and there’s only one in America so far, in New York. They’ve approached me every year. The first year they had [musician] Kim Gordon, [photographer] Terry Richardson and others. Previously they’ve done campaigns with about 10 people in each one, so I kept saying no. This year they approached me with just Tadanobu Asano. I always thought the ads looked really great and that it wouldn’t do any harm.
Asano’s a huge star in Japan. How was he to work with?
I don’t know who he is but apparently he’s very cool over there. I like that Japanese style of, you know . . . giving gifts, but then of course I felt guilty in that I had nothing in return to give to him. I should have thought ahead, considering I was working with a Japanese actor and knowing the way they always do that, but . . .
Unfortunately we couldn’t communicate very well because he speaks no English and I speak no Japanese. So I didn’t really get to know him aside from the things he gave me that were very cool.
Such as?
[Laughs] He gave me some socks, which . . . I always love some hosiery [laughs]. He gave me this cardigan made of cotton, and I have a big collection of cardigans, it was kind of like T-shirt material. Then he gave me this little thing that you wrap around the waist, it looks like a pair of sleeves, like a flannel to wrap around your waist but it has a zipper in it. It’s just like a long scarf, or a pair of really long sleeves that you tie around the waist. It’s quite clever. I thought it was very cool.
Are you pretty savvy on the Asian culture front?
[Laughs] I think I’d rather not say for fear of sounding ignorant. I don’t know how even to acquire information about things going on in those countries. I don’t feel like there’s much coverage. I even heard the other day through someone I know that Yohji Yamamoto’s son or daughter is now designing a line, and we don’t even hear about that yet. That should have more coverage, especially for someone who’s doing something really innovative in the way they are.
Did you go to the Murakami exhibition this week at the Brooklyn Museum?
No, I’m not a big Murakami fan. I really had very little interest in going to see that.
What about Cai Guo-Qiang’s exhibition at the Guggenheim?
I did see that. Of course, yes. I was very impressed. I think to see art on that scale is just very rare, and I was kind of blown away and there was lots of crowds. I went one day when it was raining and there was a line about five blocks long to get in and I just thought, forget it, I’ll have to come back another day [laughs]. And luckily the next time I went back it wasn’t as busy. It’s unbelievable though. I’ve heard the crowds have been really big there, every day, which is pretty amazing. I kind of wished that the “place cards,” you know, the things that explain what the art’s about, I kind of wish I hadn’t been reading those and just let myself interpret it in my own way. I felt reading the cards took away from the experience a little, somehow. They were very informative but almost too much, you know, just spelled it out so eagerly for you.
Coincidentally, we’re running a shot in this month’s fashion section of the ballet flat you designed for Repetto’s 60th anniversary. I love your design.
Thank you. I was actually just inspired by the old Vivienne Westwood shoes and the Comme des Garçons shoes, you know, with the straight platform across, not really a wedge, more like a lift. I guess that’s like a traditional Japanese style.
How did you get to collaborate with them?
They gave me a list of the designers and I thought it seemed like a pretty good cross-section of people and we agreed. It was funny. When I was in Paris, outside the store – I had never been there before – there was a line outside the store to get in and I had to queue up behind the velvet rope. While I was in the queue I was like . . . [mock delirious] God, they’re my shoes in the window! Can I cut the line? [Laughs.]
I’ve been strolling around Soho and I see Kate Moss for Top Shop clothes, Olsen twins stuff, Natalie Portman shoes, there’s Jovovich-Hawk. This celebrity-designer market is getting competitive, isn’t it?
Yes, I agree with you, but I think there’s so much variety. For instance, what Kate Moss is doing for Top Shop is very mass market produced. And the Olsen twins is very high end, high-end fabrics, very expensive. Natalie’s is a very small niche and what she’s done is very personal. What I tried to do with Opening Ceremony, I hoped people would be able to recognise that I put a lot of work into it, rather than it just being something I approved. It was very thought out and very personal for me as well.
It seems you have a love/hate relationship with fashion. Can we expect more fashion from Chloë Sevigny?
No, absolutely not. I’m taking a big break from fashion. I’m not going to do another line. It was a one-off. We decided maybe in a couple of years we’ll do a boy’s line, but I think for a little while I should step out of fashion and concentrate much more on the film work. The problem – well, it’s not a problem – but I had signed on to do this HBO series called Big Love and . . . the problem with Big Love is that it’s not a regular schedule like network television. They have you on a retainer and you’re not allowed to do other work because they say, “Well, we might need you.” So for the past three or four years, getting film work has been much more difficult because people aren’t as apt to hire me because they don’t know if I’ll have to go back and do the series. It’s been really fulfilling, a great experience, I love doing the show . . . but my film work has really suffered because of it. So I need to stay in Los Angeles for six months and concentrate on finding something to do when the season ends in November.
So you actively dislike Los Angeles.
Yes. I have to drag me kicking and screaming, as a matter of fact, to LA.
Do you feel differently about your sexuality in New York and Los Angeles?
I was thinking about that just the other day. Whenever I’m here in LA, whatever kind of confidence I’ve gained in New York goes out the window [laughs] . . . because the city is built around the industry or something, I’m not sure what it is, but the town always does my head in and I’m trying to get over that.
Having lived as you did for a long time with the It-girl label, is it a good or bad thing?
I’m not sure. The It-girl concept has been around forever and people don’t have very long attention spans these days, so it’s out with the old, in with the new over and over again. I’ve tried not to let that dictate me and what I’m going to do, but do what I want regardless. I haven’t been like, “Oh my God, I have to be out there, I have to be present.” I’ve never really felt like that. As where, a lot of people when they become successful, that kind of bogs them down. Because once you get really big and on top, you have to try very hard to stay there, I think.
What are you reading?
Right now I’m reading a biography of Judy Garland, who I’m obsessed with, so I’ve been watching a lot of her films and listening to a lot of her records. I’ve been reading about fascinating women. Before that I was reading about Nancy Cunard, who was a socialite, a champion of equal rights and dated black men in the ’20s and was very controversial, so I’ve been in kind of a “bio” moment.
What’s your politics? Where do you stand on Clinton versus Obama?
I’m undecided. I tend not to get political in magazines. But I’m definitely left-leaning. The problem is, I like Obama’s policies but I like Hillary’s personality a little more. Not that one outweighs the other, but yeah . . .
What was Woody Allen’s perception of you when he cast you, and did it change?
[Laughs] Woody Allen probably said about four words to me the entire time we were shooting. I read something about Judy Davis, who said she’d worked on a bunch of his films, maybe four or five, and he’s probably said four or five words to her, so . . . I felt like I was in good company. I thought at least if he doesn’t say anything to me, he must be happy with what I’m doing.
If you were me, trying to “package” you in this cover story, what’s the angle, what would you say?
I think a lot of people probably assume with the fashion that I love it, that I court it, but I don’t necessarily. That’s not something I’ve really admitted before in the same way. Some people know me solely for that and it’s frustrating, but at least more people are watching Big Love and I think opinions are starting to change.
Popularity: 1% [?]
So I’ve already talked about the 
“Sometimes people get overly competitive. At the end of the day, fashion should be fun. It’s supposed to be beauty, it’s supposed to be fun. Sometimes some people take it too seriously. But it is a business. It’s a very serious billion-dollar business. It’s never gone to my head.” - Nina Garcia before her break-up with Elle to Fashion Editor Vivienne Tang of Prestige Hong Kong.
The Agyness Deyn phenomenon is one which will either blow up in her face (over exposure is not a good thing in our post-Britney times) or give us an honest to Vogue, modern day supermodel (gasp and awe at the idea that Janice Dickenson is not the first and last of her kind). 
