雙語達人:重塑品牌Chloé的女人

PARIS

巴黎。

A PIN dropped.

一根大頭針掉到了地上。

Twenty feet from where the designer Clare Waight Keller was sitting in the offices of Chloé on the Avenue Percier, it slipped from the hands of an assistant as he adjusted the hem of a crisp white popover top, worn by the 16-year-old English model Rosie Tapner, who had the sniffles. You could hear the plink of metal as it struck the painted wood floor.

設計師克萊爾·維特·凱勒(Clare Waight Keller)坐在珀西大街的Chloé辦公室，這根大頭針是從她的一位助理手中滑落的，掉到了離克萊爾20英尺的地方。當時這位助理正在調整16歲的英國模特羅西·塔普納(Rosie Tapner)身上穿的挺括、寬鬆的白色上衣的邊緣，而這位模特正在抽鼻子。你能聽到大頭針撞上塗了漆的木質地板時發出的叮鈴聲。

It was proverbially quiet in the Chloé showroom, three days before Ms. Waight Keller's spring runway show here, as critical decisions were being made about the hair and makeup, the order the clothes would be shown, whether the colors and proportions were just right. A steady stream of guests came and went. A plastic box of Haribo gummi candies that had been full the day before was half-empty, but the detail that spoke loudest was the lack of noise.

Chloé樣品間的安靜，人盡皆知；此時距維特·凱勒女士的春裝發佈會還有3天，她們正在做一些關鍵性的決定，比如髮型和妝容，服裝展出的順序，顏色和比例是否合適。客人們來來往往，川流不息。一塑料盒的哈里波橡皮糖前一天還是滿的，第二天就半空了；但這裏最顯著的細節是沒有任何噪音。

In the year since Ms. Waight Keller, formerly the designer of Pringle of Scotland, became the creative director at Chloé, many visitors have noted the remarkable calmness that radiates from her studio. That, and the fact that roughly 80 percent of the hundreds of employees at the company are women, which is a point of pride at a house that has projected an aura of femininity for 60 years.

維特·凱勒之前是蘇格蘭普林格(Pringle)的設計師，在她就任Chloé的創意總監後的這一年裏，很多客人已經注意到了她的工作室散發出來的格外寧靜的氣氛。該公司的上千名員工中有大概80%是女性，這對於這家60年來散發着女性魅力的品牌來說，是一種驕傲。

Guido Palau, the hairstylist, proposed a loosely tied ponytail, sort of half up and half down, with a deep part inspired by Twiggy. Ms. Waight Keller and her team considered whether it looked modern enough, or cool, or sufficiently effortless. They debated, then asked to see another model. Mr. Palau, in mock exasperation, said, “Oh, my God, how many girls are in this room?”

髮型師吉多·帕勞(Guido Palau)提議扎一個鬆鬆的馬尾，差不多是一半紮起來，一半垂下來，其實這是受到模特崔姬(Twiggy)的啓發。維特·凱勒女士和她的團隊在考慮這樣夠不夠現代，夠不夠酷，夠不夠隨意。她們爭論了一會兒，然後要求再看一位模特。帕勞先生假裝惱怒地說：“哦，我的天哪，這個房間裏到底有多少女孩子啊？”

He wasn't being rude. It is a question Ms. Waight Keller has asked herself as she decided how to best approach a label that, for better or worse, has been reduced over the years to terms like "girly" and "flirty," which do not do it justice. It is her job to balance the sweetness with something a little bit cooler and a lot more modern. Though clearly confident, she is prone to questioning her decisions. In moving to Paris, she brought along her husband, an interior architect, and three young children, and so a lot rides on making this a success.

他這樣問並非無禮。維特·凱勒也問過自己這個問題——在她決定怎樣才能最好地經營這個經過多年的發展被簡單地定義爲“女孩子氣”和“充滿風情”的品牌的時候（你不好說這種定義是好是壞，但是這麼說不夠公平）。讓這個品牌不僅甜美，而且還有那麼一點酷，有更強的現代感，是她的責任。她雖然非常自信，但還是常常對自己的決定沒有把握。搬到巴黎的時候，她把丈夫（一位內部建築師）和三個年幼的孩子也帶來了；所以她成功與否關係重大。

"Is the proportion right? she asked. "Do I like the colors? Is it too sweet?"

“這個比例合適嗎？”她會問自己，“我喜歡這些顏色嗎？這個是不是太甜美了？”

She was concerned about a white top with frothy sleeves made of a Japanese polyester that in theory should have looked crisp but in fact were beginning to look like the type of collars that keep dogs from scratching themselves.

她在爲一件日本滌綸做的白色泡泡袖上衣而憂慮，理論上講它應該看起來挺括，但實際上它看着有點像是防止小狗抓傷自己的項圈。

Ms. Waight Keller, 42, English-born (though she has lived and traveled extensively), is the ideal image of the Chloé customer. She was raised in dresses and the skirts of school uniforms and has spent much of her adult life rebelling by wearing pants. And she is the type of designer who can make leather pants — like the forest-green ones she was wearing in the showroom, with a cool blue cotton shirt — look as comfortable as pajamas. She keeps her head down and walks with her hands in her pockets.

維特·凱勒今年42歲，出生在英國（不過她在很多國家居住和旅遊過）；她是Chloé的顧客的理想形象。她成長的過程中常常穿連衣裙和校服的半身裙，長大以後爲了表示叛逆，經常穿長褲。她是那種可以把皮褲設計得看起來像舒服的睡衣的設計師，就像她在樣品間穿的那件深綠色的皮褲，搭配一件酷酷的藍色棉質襯衣。她經常低着頭，走路的時候把手插在口袋裏。

But with the spring collection, which was shown on Oct. 1 in the Tuileries, Ms. Waight Keller gave herself a challenge by chopping and cropping pieces to unexpected lengths. And she sought to reconnect the label with the more playful elements of its past, including tanks that were styled after basketball jerseys, sequined tuxedo stripes that ended with the point of an arrow, and a floral print that resembled something from Hawaiian surf wear.

在10月1日在杜伊勒裏宮舉辦的春裝系列發佈會上，維特·凱勒做了一次嘗試，把很多單品剪切成各種意想不到的長度。她努力想把這個品牌和它曾經有過的比較調皮的元素再次聯繫起來，包括模仿籃球運動衫設計的緊身背心，底端是箭頭形狀的金屬亮片條紋裝飾，以及夏威夷衝浪服風格的印花。

"You can be too familiar with the look," Ms. Waight Keller said. "You have to push forward. It can be a little bit of a trap to be the consumer."

“你可能太熟悉那個樣子了，”維特·凱勒說，“你必須得向前推進。對顧客來說，這可能是個小小的策略。”

The vision of Gaby Aghion, the Egyptian-born daughter of a cigarette manufacturer who founded Chloé and named it after a friend, was not girly. It was to create feminine clothing with less formality and more freedom than what was being shown in postwar couture. The pioneering Ms. Aghion, who is 91 and still attends Chloé shows when she is able, remains a notorious flirt. But she was more likely to describe her own style as "simple" and "classic."

Chloé的創始人蓋比·阿格依奧(Gaby Aghion)出生在埃及，父親是個菸草商；她用一個朋友的名字命名這個品牌，當時她的設想可不是“女孩子氣”。她想要不那麼正式、比戰後的高級服裝店的服裝更加自由的女性服裝。前衛的阿格依奧女士今年91歲，力所能及的時候仍然參加Chloé的發佈會，她還是那麼充滿風情。但是她可能更願意把自己的風格描述爲“簡單”、“經典”。

Ms. Aghion once said something that Ms. Waight Keller found inspiring: "I don't explain anything. I lived the life I wanted."

阿格依奧曾經說過一些維特·凱勒認爲非常鼓舞人心的話：“我從不做解釋。我只是過了我想要的生活。”

"In a way, we have such a recent idea of Chloé," Ms. Waight Keller said, speaking of its growth as a luxury brand, mostly during the decade beginning in 1997, when it was designed with great success by Stella McCartney and Phoebe Philo, producing hit styles and bags like the Paddington.

“從某種意義上講，Chloé給人的最新印象就是這樣的，”維特·凱勒女士這樣說；她指的是這個奢侈品牌的發展過程，主要是在1997年之後的10年裏，當時的設計師是斯特拉·麥卡特尼(Stella McCartney)和菲比·費羅(Phoebe Philo)，她們成功地設計出了一些風靡一時的時裝和手包，比如帕丁頓(Paddington)手袋。

Of course, there was the long association with Karl Lagerfeld, beginning in the '60s, but Chloé has mostly been a house where young designers, like Peter O'Brien, Guy Paulin and Martine Sitbon, were allowed to flourish on their way to becoming stars. Still, there is the sense that the label, which is owned by Richemont, has lost some traction in recent years, with mixed collections by Paulo Melim Andersson and Hannah MacGibbon, the two previous creative directors.

當然，這個品牌長期以來是跟卡爾·拉格菲爾德(Karl Lagerfeld)聯繫在一起的，這種關係始於上世紀60年代，但是Chloé主要還是讓年輕設計師們在這裏大展身手，成爲大師，比如皮特·奧布萊恩(Peter O'Brien)、蓋依·保林(Guy Paulin)和瑪蒂娜·希特博恩(Martine Sitbon)。不過，近年來這個品牌（屬於歷峯集團[Richemont]）在之前的兩位創意總監保羅·麥林姆·安德森(Paulo Melim Andersson)和漢娜·麥克吉博恩(Hannah MacGibbon)的引領下，似乎喪失了部分魅力。

"Honestly,” said Daniella Vitale, the chief merchant of Barneys New York, "I think this past show was the most spot-on I have seen in terms of capturing the spirit of the Chloé girl, which had waned in the years before Clare took over.”

“坦白地說，”紐約巴尼斯(Barneys)精品百貨公司的採購總監丹尼娜·維塔爾(Daniella Vitale)說，“我覺得這次新發佈會最準確地捕捉到了Chloé女孩的精髓，這一點在克萊爾接管之前的那些年裏有些衰落了。”

Barneys had not carried the Chloé fashion collection since the '80s, but when the buzz started, "we wanted in," Ms. Vitale said, noting that over the last year the store has expanded its selection to include ready-to-wear and accessories, based on its confidence in Ms. Waight Keller.

巴尼斯精品百貨公司從上世紀80年代開始就不再銷售Chloé服裝系列了，但是在它重現活力的時候，“我們也想加入，”維塔爾女士說；她指出去年這家百貨公司擴大了進貨範圍，包括成衣和配飾，這都是基於對維特·凱勒女士的信心。

"She embodies that Chloé spirit herself," Ms. Vitale said. "She's nice. And you can really talk to her. She's interested in your opinion, and she's not removed at all."

“她本人就體現了Chloé的精神，”維塔爾女士說。“她很溫和。你真的可以跟她深入交談。她對你的觀點很感興趣，一點都不疏遠。”

MS. WAIGHT KELLER was not very well known when she was hired at Chloé, but she had impressed the company's chief executive, Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye, when she was at Pringle and he ran the Liberty store in London.

維特·凱勒女士被Chloé聘用的時候，並不是非常出名，但是公司的首席執行官傑弗瑞·德拉波多那耶(Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye)對她印象很好，那時候她在普林格，而他在倫敦經營自由(Liberty)百貨公司。

She displayed both creative and managerial maturity, Mr. de la Bourdonnaye said, a combination that is becoming more valuable in fashion as designers are expected to produce more and do more. And she had previously worked at Calvin Klein in New York, where she learned the power of minimalism, and at Gucci during the Tom Ford years, where she learned the importance of meticulous planning. At Gucci, she worked on a team that included Christopher Bailey and Francisco Costa, both of whom have gone on to personify the broader role that designers are taking as brand managers.

德拉波多那耶說，她在創意和管理方面都表現得很成熟，這兩種才能的結合在時裝界越來越有價值，因爲公司都希望設計師們能生產得更多，做得更多。她之前在紐約的凱文·克萊恩(Calvin Klein)工作的時候，領會了簡約的力量；在湯姆·福特(Tom Ford)做古馳(Gucci)的創意總監期間她在那裏工作，明白了謹慎規劃的重要性。在古馳的時候，她所在的小組還包括克里斯托弗·貝利(Christopher Bailey)和弗朗西斯科·考斯特(Francisco Costa)，這兩位設計師後來也承擔起了品牌經理的部分職責。

In the showroom, there was a life-size mock-up of what the actual runway would look like, with blinding lights to simulate those of a show so Ms. Waight Keller could be certain the colors would read exactly the right way.

在樣品間，有一個實物大小的秀臺模型，跟真實的秀臺一樣，燈光炫目，這樣維特·凱勒女士能夠準確判斷顏色出來的效果是否正好。

"Clare is very pragmatic, very determined and she has a very clear vision," Mr. de la Bourdonnaye said. "But she also has a soft and pleasurable way of dealing with the team around her."

“克萊爾非常務實，非常堅定，有非常清晰的願景，”德拉波多那耶先生說。“但是她跟周圍的團隊打交道時，又很溫和，讓人舒服。”

Ms. Aghion had that ability to inspire her designers as well. According to an anecdote in WWD, she was known to address them as "my little kittens."

阿格依奧女士也有那種鼓舞設計師的能力。根據《女裝日報》(WWD)上的一則傳說，她稱呼設計師們爲“我的小貓咪們”。

During Paris Fashion Week, there was a sweet moment when Mr. Lagerfeld, who had lost touch with Ms. Aghion after he left Chloé in the '90s, was reunited with her at an exhibition covering the history of the label at the Palais de Tokyo.

在巴黎時裝週期間，在東京宮(Palais de Tokyo)展示該品牌歷史的展覽上，拉格菲爾德先生與阿格依奧女士再次重逢，這一時刻非常溫馨，因爲自從上世紀90年代離開Chloé，他跟她就失去了聯繫。

"She's still funny," he said, after posing for photographs.

“她還是很風趣，”在擺好姿勢拍照之後他這樣說。

The exhibition was meant to remind audiences that Chloé is a French label with a history not unlike those of Dior or Saint Laurent, where the news of two new designers this season overshadowed just about everything else happening in Paris. What struck Judith Clark, the art historian who curated the exhibition, was that after founding the label, Ms. Aghion remained so open to the work of others.

該展覽意在提醒觀衆，Chloé這個法國品牌的歷史，與Dior和Saint Laurent一樣悠久而輝煌；這一季關於後兩家公司的新任設計師的新聞，蓋過了巴黎時裝週期間發生的所有其他新聞。本次展覽的策展人是藝術歷史學家朱迪思·克拉克(Judith Clark)；讓她感到震撼的是，阿格依奧在創建了這個品牌之後，依然對其他品牌的作品保持包容的態度。

"It's not about a cult of personality," Ms. Clark said.

“這不是個人崇拜，”克拉克女士說。