Lutz Huelle

Yes indeed. I have been here for fourteen months now and I can say that the atmosphere is great.

I never really understood why fashion had this inclination… It is an absolutely brilliant profession, very humane and which combines many skills. We do many things, we work altogether. All the elements are there for it to be a positive job. Besides, when you love fashion, you love looking out for others, right? How can one dress people, without a form of love towards them?

I have always worked in schools, because I like to get out of what I call my creative comfort routine. As a designer, you are constantly working, you have to come up with collections one after the other. It is good for morale as well as for creativity to sometimes get out of the mercantile aspect of fashion. I like the idea of ​​leaving my office, going somewhere else, seeing other things. I also do a lot of consulting for other brands. I like to do all these different things, it allows me to take a step back from my own work. I think if I was constantly at my desk, I would go mad. I also took part in juries in schools, in particular at Saint-Martin where I studied. During the Covid crisis, HEAD contacted me to find out if I wanted to apply for this position. I had already had the opportunity to visit several times, and I loved the people… so I accepted!

What is interesting in Switzerland is that everything is very democratic, politically, but not only : people listen to one another, they talk to each other, in meetings they raise their hands to ask questions or to say something. There are many meetings, in other places, where we talk for hours, but at the end no one knows what they are supposed to do.

It’s true. It all depends on the people and the years, some people have very clear opinions. I prefer when we can talk. A jury is not a single opinion, it is a group of people who must agree on something together. It can be complex when you don’t agree, but in the end, it is the group that makes the decision.

You know, when you do something for more than 20 years, you understand the way you work and you have it under control. Experience comes gradually and when students ask me questions, I often say to myself “Hey, I used to think like that 20 years ago”, so I know what to reply, because I remember what it was like for me. That’s one of the reasons why I love this job. I’ve had a lot of different experiences, I started my own brand, I worked for big houses and in schools, I can talk about these experiences with hindsight.

I do hope so..

I don’t really think about it. I have an absolutely brilliant team on site, which helps a lot. I am here on a part-time basis, two days a week. The rest of the time, I am in Paris. But I am constantly in touch with the person who manages here, we talk to each other every day. It’s very nice. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t stay.

I never use my work because I think students need to find their own personal universe. They need to explore what they love. The choice of fabric comes from that universe. These days we talk a lot about “sustainability”, but I refuse to lecture students, for example if they want to use plastic. Of course, you have to tell them that some fabrics have more impact on the environment than others, but then it’s up to them to make a choice. It would be really unfair to ban things when our generation has done what they want for more than twenty years. But it goes beyond that. I refuse to have personal judgment on the work of my students. When there is something to say, I say it, I can also push them in one direction rather than another, but then, it is up to them to decide what they want to do. Students must leave HEAD with their own universe, their message, knowing what they want to do. And always be comfortable with what they say.

Yes, that’s what I really like here, the way it works is not very academic. Teachers don’t go by, saying “remove this, remove that.” They ask the question: “What do you mean by this piece? », « Who are you going to dress?” What’s important is that there is consistency. It is not our place to be the artistic directors of their collections. It wouldn’t be fair.

Staying objective is not always easy, there are necessarily things that do not please me aesthetically. But I can only say something when I consider that the job is not accomplished. If I fix things behind their back, they won’t learn, it’s for them to find the solutions for their own work. 

Yes, experience brings perspective, but having an opinion on the work of others is always complicated. I have an opinion on my own work, because I have the right to have one. For students, it’s different, I have an opinion but it’s not for me to impose it on them. It is up to them to find their own method. Nowadays young people no longer want to be told that their work is “no good”, they want to be taught in a constructive way.

We raise our hands and everyone expresses their preferences. It’s very democratic. And these are all people I adore.

Yes, they are friends, people I work with or have heard of. All I want is for the jury to have a positive and fair attitude. But again, why would someone without some sense of goodwill want to take part in a jury?

I have always enjoyed doing several things at the same time. I find it difficult to stay in one place. So for me, it’s not a problem to work on several projects simultaneously, on the contrary. In two weeks, I am taking part in an exhibition at the Ricard Foundation, with Wolfgang Tillmans and Alexandra Bircken. It is a three-person exhibition, with a small part of each of us. We were invited by curator Claire Le Restif.