Oliver Theyskens | Photo: Monika Bielskyte for SOME/THINGS

PARIS, FRANCE — Olivier Theyskens caused a veritable fashionista frenzy in New York earlier this month when he launched a capsule collection for American contemporary brand Theory, which is known for its accessible prices and well-fitting trousers, but not necessarily for its fashion aesthetic or production quality. It was a surprise move for Mr. Theyskens, a designer who has been criticised in the past as being out of touch with the commercial side of the business during his time at Rochas and Nina Ricci.

The new capsule collection — dubbed Theyskens’ Theory — put that criticism to rest, for once and for all. Suzy Menkes, the fashion critic for the International Herald Tribune, wrote that “if Theory succeeds in raising the quality, while keeping an acceptable price for the workmanship, Mr. Theyskens may be able to express himself even better than when he was at couture’s giddy heights.” Menkes’ colleague and counterpart at the New York Times, Cathy Horyn, said the clothes were “remarkable because they reflect Mr. Theyskens’s signature drainpipe style, but also look like Theory’s urban wardrobe.” And Style.com’s Nicole Phelps concluded that Theory CEO Andrew Rosen “made Olivier Theyskens fans into some very happy girls,” with high-quality fabrics from Italy and Japan, manufactured into desirable garments in America and China, keeping most of the garments well below $1,000.

But don’t let this newfound pragmatism fool you into thinking that Theyskens is out of touch with his more creative, esoteric side. I had the privilege of sitting alongside Mr Theyskens on the graduate jury at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts last year, and witnessed first hand his passion for the raw creativity on display at one of the finest fashion schools in the world. And today, The Business of Fashion can exclusively bring to you an excerpt of an extensive, candid interview with Theyskens by Stephen Todd, kindly provided to us by SOME/THINGS magazine, which was featured in BoF last year.

Photographed by the magazine’s founder Monika Bielskyte in an intimate one-on-one photo shoot, Theyskens reveals himself to be an alluring subject for the camera, distinctly different from the somewhat ethereal images we have seen of him in the past, and shares his love of cats, the creative process, and the role of drama in his life.

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Some/Things Issue 001 | Photo: Monika Bielskyte

PARIS, France — With all the talk of layoffs at Condé Nast in the face of a technological revolution that is transforming fashion media as we know it, the days of the good old-fashioned hard copy magazine may seem numbered. But, while traditional media behemoths struggle to translate their content and brands to the online space, niche fashion publications are sprouting up to offer a completely different kind of magazine experience altogether.

At a soirée on Friday hosted by Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy, copies of two such magazines — Sang Bleu and Some/Things — were laid out sparsely on the galvanised steel tables in the brushed concrete headquarters of Owenscorp in Paris’ Place du Palais Bourbon. Art lovers in town for the FIAC art fair, musicians visiting from Los Angeles and international fashion folk leafed through the heavy matte pages with black and white images of rooftops in Cairo’s Bab-el-Louk and sinewy bodies covered with intricate tattoos.

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