Louis Feraud has been designing elegant couture for men and women for over 35 years. The name Feraud may not echo as loudly as Chanel or encompass as much international territory and product as Cardin, but Monsieur Feraud likes it that way. The House of Louis Feraud is very much French, very exclusive and compared to other fashion empires, very small, but this makes it easier for this former artist to embrace two of his biggest loves: beautiful clothes and beautiful women. He talks with Vive La Vie about designing the former and his universal admiration for the latter.

VIVE: What originally motivated you to become involved with fashion and how did you go about establishing yourself?

FERAUD: I began working in this profession 35 years ago in the South of France basically because I loved women and I still love them. It was a desperate way to meet with them: to get in touch with them through fashion. The area in which I was born was notable for all the great painters, the Impressionists like Cezanne lived in Aix-en-Provence and surrounding areas. As a result, each young man who had an eye for design became a painter so originally, I followed the regional tradition. Amongst the people to whom I sold paintings was a man who owned a textile factory with whose family I became friendly, so when I realised that my paintings would never hang in the Louvre I decided to direct my interests towards another sort of design, and fashion, using these colourful materials seemed very attractive although at this stage I continued to paint. My first collection was Mediterranean inspired and I had a little success through the movie stars of the time like Brigitte Bardot who frequently came to nice, Cannes and the Cote D'Azur, and began to wear my clothes. Then in 1955-6, I created a collection in black and they all loved it, but I didn't realise how popular it had been until I made a trip to the Casino in Monte Carlo. As I was looking around the room, I realised that half the women there were wearing my clothes. It was an enormous sense of satisfaction for me and I decided then that my career as an artist was well and truly over and that I had to do something involved with industry. So I spent a considerable amount of time in Japan and New York learning about the industrial side of fashion.

I must emphasise that even now, we are an average couture house in terms of size even though I have been a successful couturier for over 35 years. I still have only 120 people working here for me and this includes, design, technicians and publicity. I have never wanted to have a very large fashion empire like St. Laurent or Chanel. We re the best at what we do for the size of our company and really, I don't want any more.

VIVE: Who were some of the people who you used to dress in the early days and how did they come about wearing your designs?

FERAUD: I dressed many women amongst them: Ingrid Bergman, Brigitte Bardot, Francoise Arnaud, Elizabeth Taylor...

Initially, it was simply a case of passing trade. Any number of these women would pass by the window of my store in the South of France and like what they saw displayed. After a time we would become friends and I would make up something special just for a particular person.

VIVE: Who was your favourite woman to dress, a woman that perhaps embodied your ideal?

FERAUD: Definitely Brigitte Bardot. She was a dream to dress, a fabulous girl; very sexy, long legs, hands and fingers and beautiful eyes. But the times have changed and we have moved with them, the fifties woman is considerably different to the woman of today. the new model of the house is very fine, very intelligent, a much smaller woman weighing perhaps 10 pounds less. It could simply be my personal preference but I think that when a man gets fatter himself, he prefers thin women.

VIVE: What made you decide as a French couturier to explore Japan in the late fifties?

FERAUD: Other countries, foreign places have always offered a strong adventurous appeal for me, even today and going to Japan contained such a sense of adventure, even simply in the travelling process; through the China sea, Hong Kong ... it was the lure of the East. When I arrived in Japan itself, I felt that sense. I had read a great deal of press about Japan and had several friends living there, very clever people who contacted me and told me to come over at that time because they sensed that it was the right time for me there and they were absolutely correct. I had my first real collection in Tokyo, I was 28 years old and I can tell you that they treated me beautifully. There were 20 beautiful Japanese models waiting there when I arrived, I had a beautiful suite in the hotel, a chauffeur-driven limousine, the newspapers had been contacted and two hundred people arrived for the first collection - everything was organised perfectly.

VIVE: What do you perceive as being the difference between the beautiful Japanese woman and her European counterpart?

FERAUD: Well, there is a practical side of course, to dress the Japanese woman takes a very small amount of material, they are so tiny, so petite. But aside from the technicalities of design, Japanese women have a sense of movement that is absolutely amazing. They never seem to be standing still: it is the most precious sense of motion in the world.

VIVE: Did the Japanese culture influence you to think differently in terms of your own method of design?

FERAUD: Oh yes, the quality and the way in which they used the cloth was inspirational. Even then, the Japanese designers were doing some very good work and now they use the Chinese for hand made detail on garments because they are also producing some beautiful quality workmanship. The Japanese would come and investigate each step of my technique as I would observe theirs. It was the same when I went to China: each of us was learning from one another through the ways in which we, as different cultures, approached design. You know, there are 100-300 different nationalities in the world. My nationality, my passport to each of these cultures is that of a couturier - to be a designer. To many people in the world, nationality is linked with fashion, for example, we in France are a small republic, eating, drinking, thinking and living all within fashion and with a certain style.

VIVE: The United States must have been quite a cultural turnaround following your stay in Japan.

FERAUD: I went to New York in 1957-58 and began working with the American women whom I found to be very strong in physique, obviously very different to the Japanese woman in build. They fascinated me actually because I read a good deal - probably more than I should - and one of the things that I discovered about American women from my research is that when European women first arrived in the United States, they had hips measuring about 110 cm, fifty years later they were down to 90 cm and now they are 70 cm. I wanted to spend time in the States at this time to see what the differences were between the European woman and the American woman comparatively and to learn how to accommodate these differences in dressing them.

VIVE: What lasting effects did you encounter from your experiences in both countries?

FERAUD: Well, from all the flying I lost three centimetres in height! Seriously though, I learned things about women from all over the world, elements of their style, the way they move, the design of their bodies ... I learned things that after 50 years of existence, a computer still cannot ascertain. The major element I learned about fashion is that there are three main types of women throughout the world and none is the same.

VIVE: At this stage, were you doing both mens and womens fashion and how did you find the different types of men around the world?

FERAUD: I had always created a line for both women and for men. In comparing the different types of men I would say that the major difference is again a question of measurements, of centimetres. Maybe one day, men from around the world will meet each other and they will be wearing the same fashion, the same length but for the time being there are very large differences between physique of an American man and a Japanese man, for example, that are very important considerations in styling fashion.

In the fifties, I found a very curious similarity between the two cultures which really surprised me when I was in Japan at that time. The Japanese were playing baseball with a passion. This fascinated me because the game is so much a part of American culture that you really had to be born in the States to understand it. I couldn't understand it at all, yet many miles away, in the Far East, this small culture was absorbed in it! Sometimes it is the strangest things that bring two nations together.

VIVE: Does the quality of detail and design structure influence the Japanese in buying your fashion more so perhaps than the overall look or image of the garment?

FERAUD: Well, I'll tell you that the most striking feature when showing clothes to the Japanese is that they know exactly what they want. When you show clothes to a Japanese man he will not buy just one jacket. He will choose a suit with jackets, trousers and ask for the shirts to match with several ties all in the same material. To the Japanese, all business is a serious business.

VIVE: In regards to fashion today, what would you nominate as the most important elements of Haute Couture?

FERAUD: There is no fashion any more now as we used to know it but there is something else, a new element has appeared in fashion design. I would say the most important element now is quality. Today the quality of the sketches, of the business operations, of the fabrics is exceptional. People in haute couture now must use materials of only the finest quality and create things that defy the transience of fashion. To me, one of the most unusual concepts that has marked the passage of time, is the curious passion which women held for the designs of Courreges in the sixties. Everyone had to have Courreges, I simply didn't understand it, especially when twenty years ago he chose to have a collection completely in white. It was 'fashion' in that it encompassed a style that would quickly pass and I think that there is less place in fashion today for this sort of 'trendiness'.

In terms of the couture of Louis Feraud, when I said initially that we are average in terms of size, I emphasise again that even though we are small in comparison to Pierre Cardin's huge business interests, we are the best at what we do. I don't want to be that vast, for what? I love my life, I have an apartment upstairs, my daughter works in the business, and I am a grandfather of two beautiful babies. The business of haute couture is it own nationality, its own family so of course I know all these fashion people, I meet with them two or three times a year and we are friends - I even take vacations with Cardin. I admire them all and I think that Cardin is particularly clever but I am very content to stay at this level of haute couture.

VIVE: What do you think has been the strongest element of Feraud throughout your history?

FERAUD: I believe that I have the best creative team in Paris and have had throughout the years. I have been a part of the training of famous designers like, Jean Louis Scherrer and Per Spook who worked here many years ago before establishing their own houses, so there has always been a strong creative sensibility and input involved with a Feraud collection.

VIVE: What is instantly recognisable about a Feraud product?

FERAUD: You have to have a good eye. But generally, a Feraud garment is more comfortable and much lighter, easier to wear than the others. It is often more colourful than other designs, sometimes maybe too much!

VIVE: What would you advise a young designer who wanted to become Louis Feraud today?

FERAUD: Find a job at the bottom level of a couture house perhaps after having completed a course in fashion. but it is important not to jump immediately into the area of pure creative design. One must become very conversant with technicalities like sewing, pattern making, design structure, machining. It is vital to understand the fundamentals completely, to learn the basics of detail before creative design.

VIVE: What do you think is the desired image of a woman these days?

FERAUD: In France, we are always talking about the eternal woman: she is not too tall but she is very feminine, she has a spirit, she is quite slender and she knows how to talk and how to carry herself. I think that today she is also the universal woman, not just the French woman.

VIVE: The name of Louis Feraud has been a part of European fashion for many years now. What do you think is the popular perception of Louis Feraud in the fashion world?

FERAUD: You know it is funny, my first boutique opened in the South of France 40 years ago, but I think that people assume that I have been around for much, much longer. Only recently, an Italian client met me for the first time and exclaimed, "Oh, you must be the son of the very famous Louis Feraud!" I think he expected me to be long gone, but then again the Italians have a good sense of humour!