It was a Perfect morning for a talk with one of the Fashion Heroines’ Lovers into the Portuguese fashion. The sea that he loves so much was a mirror and the beach was the bottom pluperfect of our trip to the studio, in Cascais, of a big name in the Portuguese Fashion World.
Jose Antonio Tenente received us with his natural kindness and charm (he told us he was shy but we gave it for nothing). It was two "short" hours of an interesting talk that took us to the designer’s universe, childhood recalls (few), his professional career and personal concepts of life, inspirations and aspirations ... among many other topics.
Adapted from "Proust Questionnaire" here's the interview with Jose Antonio Tenente, the pulp of a fruitful conversation with the lucky editor of Fashion Heroines.
JOSE ANTONIO TENENTE: Right now some tiredness, but always positive.
FH: Where and when do you feel happy?
JAT: In the beach.
FH: What is your greatest fear?
JAT: It isn’t something that haunts me, I don’t live obsessed with it, but losing faculties of the mind is a fear.
FH: What makes you laugh?
JAT: A lot. I love to laugh and have fun. The advertising makes me laugh and some series of humor too. Just as talks between friends. Not too hard to make me laugh.
FH: What historical figure you most identify with?
JAT: This is hard! There may be some historical figures who occasionally I can admire, but I do not identify myself with any in particular.
FH: What do you consider to be the best invention of all time?
JAT: It's hard to resist saying it was the internet. "Googler" is part of our daily routines.
FH: What fault you hate most in others?
JAT: I cannot stand bad manners.
FH: What is your greatest extravagance?
JAT: Not doing what I don’t feel like.
FH: What is the occasion where you usually lie?
JAT: No claims usually I don’t lie. Maybe some white lies that are invented when we were late to give an answer and we have to justify it.
FH: If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
JAT: In physical terms a lot, and without having to go to the gym (laughs). The most complicated characteristics of my own I have already been changing a lot and it is my shyness. It was one of the good things that my work has brought me. It forced me to adapt myself to a certain record of exposure and I had to learn to deal with it. But still I would like to eradicated completely this side of me.
JAT: I love Lisbon, but there is another city where I would not mind to live that is Paris, and not because of fashion. On the other hand, I could live perfectly in Alentejo’s coast, beside the beach.
FH: What is the quality that most inspires you in a woman?
JAT: In a woman or in a man it’s always the truth, honesty, fairness, these very basic principles that have to do with education. The outer level is something that belongs to the natural elegance that is not too built or what we can see in a magazine cover, that does not inspire me at all.
FH: What is the car of your life?
JAT: I have no license ever (laughs). But for me it's the Citroen DS "mouth-to-frog." It's beautiful!
FH: What do you consider your major achievement in life?
JAT: I am proud to have built this career in a country that isn’t easy to artistic activities, with no tradition in fashion design. If we go back to the mid-80s, in Portugal, when I started, Ana Salazar was the only example of a fashion designer. In a more personal level it was a feat to have come so far since I started. When I started I didn’t realize at all what it was being a fashion designer, and the public exposure that it would cause, If I could know perhaps I hadn’t dared. I considered that my work was enough, but over the years I realized that I had to change that attitude and that it was necessary to disclose it, appear, and give interviews to promote the products. Because of my shyness it was a hard struggle, and in the beginning of my career, not a few times, I seemed to be a kind of rude and arrogant because of my timidity. I confess I do not think much of it, and might never have addressed this issue of the 'great achievement', but in fact now that you force me do it (laughs) I think it was a personal victory that I have learned to deal with the public exposure to naturalness.
FH: What is the greatest treasure you have?
JAT: My principles.
FH: What is for you the deepest misery?
JAT: Excluding the material plane in which poverty should not exist obviously, I think that happen when a person is completely lost, oblivious to one direction, not knowing what to do with our life, to get caught up in addictions. This condition can actually lead to a status of 'poverty'. That’s really a shame because there are people with incredible potential who are lost.
FH: What are your heroes in real life?
JAT: The common citizen. People who earn little, who have difficult lives, they rise at five in the morning, crossing the city to go to work, they have many children to care, and still manage to be happy.
FH: And in the comics which is your hero?
JAT: Asterix
JAT: So many ... I remember that in my work I had started several collections inspired from historical figures, composers ... The winter 2006.07 we worked an universe of images linked to Joan of Arc. In summer 2002 we were inspired by the epistolary novel of Choderlos de Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons (1782), particularly in the love triangle between the Marquise of Merteuil, The Viscount of Valmont and Madame de Tourvel. They are just a few examples, among many others, of characters who directly inspired my work
FH: What do you dislike the most in contemporary culture?
JAT: The easy consumption, its speed and greediness that lead to those who do not truly enjoy what others do. And also the war of audience’s rating related with this instantaneous consumption. Everything is measured in this logic, including success. There are people / projects that may have great value and often it wasn't given to them even the opportunity to develop because it is all too fast. Another very negative aspect of our Era is the tyranny of the myth of eternal youth, which is even more painful for women. Indeed, the world is particularly cruel to women because it requires that women must be in a constant competition. They have to be very good in all matters: in their careers, as mothers, housewives and still look beautiful forever, and nowadays beauty is always associated with youth. Even men are affected by these standards of beauty. The eternal youth is one of the misfortunes of the modern world, a truly curse (Laughs).
JAT: All these advices which made me believe I was on track and gave me the strength to continue. For that personal struggle against shyness and introspection, the advice my parents gave me to overcome these negative characteristics that in some way made me seemed arrogant and with bad manners. Looks like a 'pittance' but in fact only those who know me from a teenager and as a young person can evaluate the dimension. Advices are not always well accepted or effective, but time ... helps you see clearer.
FH: What was the biggest risk you committed in life?
JAT: The career I chose.
FH: And your biggest regret?
JAT: The idea that we should not regret anything and that's all part of learning, is pure fiction. There is much that you don’t need to do if you were in possession of all data. In a professional level, for example, we had developed some projects in which we had placed higher expectations and then they proved to be too negative. Of course I could go perfectly well without these experiences.
FH: Which book, poem, song or picture inspired you or changed your outlook on life?
JAT: I'm not sure if they changed my perspective on life, because it seems to me too strong, but there are many things that taste great and inspire me, especially in painting, the Renaissance to the end of the Nineteenth Century. I'm not a Twentieth Century person in what artistic matters it concerns, and there is little contemporary art which I like. I really like the Italian painters of the Renaissance, Dutch painting of the Seventeenth-century, the eighteenth-century English painting, symbolist painting of the late Nineteenth-century. In music is even more difficult to choose, but even though I love Vivaldi, Handel and almost all Italian baroque, I have to mention Bach as the one closer to this ability to change someone's life. It is indeed huge and makes us feel very, very tiny.
JAT: I have a bad childhood memory, and I got very confused with what it was told or what it was only memories from photos. I have such a perfect notion of my room to be bottle-green, I think I was seven years. And I remember always having a very active role in choosing what to wear. I remember when I was about eight years old and I wanted so much a red corduroy pants, with which I went into the backyard to play, and I ripped the pants at the very day I wore them. I also remember to go watering the garden in white trousers ... those funny little things (laughs).
FH: What was your most romantic attitude?
JAT: So many ... (laughs). In my work it is very easy to detect many collections which have a very romantic point of view. In summer 2002, I was inspired by this 'Dangerous Liaisons' that I mentioned above. This is one of the best examples of this lavishly romantic imagination. The pieces were embroidered with many messages of love, medallions with images of each lover, letters to come out of the pockets and cuffs. It's actually a very romantic view that I still have in my work, even in the songs I chose for the catwalks. The most recent and glaring example is the first perfume of JAT, Perfect Love.
JAT: I know this will sound completely cliché, but with a question like this I am compelling to answer that I would like to end the hunger and misery. Global information gives us the chance to see an increasingly unequal world. It is shocking the level at which certain cachets were achieved, which amount would be enough to buy vaccination for the children of an entire continent. Regardless of the value of whom earn these money I think it’s immoral if they earn such amounts that would ensure the survival of thousands of people. But maybe I’m also here a romantic view of the situation. In the end, everything boils down to whether or not political will to end with these very degrading situations that only shame us all. And it is not always easy to think this way and continue with my work focused in my life and my problems…
FH: Have you a motto?
JAT: In my microcosm’s level it is to enjoy life with minimal stress as possible and give importance to things that are really important.
JAT: In 20 years I hope to be retired, living in Alentejo (South Portugal) with a house at the seaside. It would give me a certain pleasure to enjoy my retirement with all my faculties (laughs).
Text: Paula Lamares
Photography: Joao Lamares
Visit also: http://www.joseantoniotenente.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment