«Graduate of Esmod in 1982 majoring in fashion and fashion illustration, and costume and fashion history of the 18th, 19th and 20th century. Kuki de Salvertes debuted as press attaché at Moschino, where he was in charge of the European market until 1989. From 1989 to 1991 he assumed the responsibilities of international press attaché at Vivienne Westwood, all the while free lancing on the the side since 1984 with Marcel Marongiu and Alain Mikli, since 1984 As of 1992, at the center of Totem Press Office, created with Patrick Girault, he contributed to the launches and to the notoriety of numerous avant-garde designers: Jeremy Scott, Olivier Theyskens, Benoit Méléard, Raf Simons, Veronique Branquinho, Bernhard Willhelm, Walter Van Beirendonck, Bruno Pieters, A.F. Vandevorst, Haider Ackermann,Christian Wijnants. Fueled by a genuine passion for design and creation, he regularly detects new talents even before they’ve finished their studies, notably at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in of Antwerp, fertile grounds from where avant-garde fashion stems.
Certain events realized for more institutionalized clients at Totem have permitted the large public to associate and discover the creation of the most inventive fashion.”
Lydia Kamitsis, Dictionnaire international de la Mode. Ed. du Regard.


You are head of Totem, one of the most recognized press offices-showrooms in the world. Was it hard for you to start and finally reaching the level you are on today?
It was a lot of work since 25 years. It’s all about choices: make the right ones from the start in order to be positioned how we want to be. Then, never change from the starting point. On my side, it has always been about working with brilliant designer: the commercial and mass market products never interested me. I built Totem the same way as an art collector.
What’s an agent’s responsibility? During the Fashion Week in Athens, I witnessed your care for the people you represent, the guest designers of Athens, and also your positive energy and help to make everything work..
My responsibility is that everything work,: That the people for who I work are glad and the journalists are interested in what they come from. In fact, it’s all about not disappointing people.

(Photo Thierry Dreyfus)

What are you looking for in a designer’s work?
What I’m looking for is surprise, astonishment. You have to know that I work full-time in fashion since more than 25 years now. I’ve seen a lot of things so I became more and more demanding about that.
How do you choose who’s right for Totem and who’s not? I wanted to know how democratic can you be between the people you represent?
Each client is treated the same, I can’t make it another way. I choose each designer, and continue to do so, in an equilibrated balance between creativity and business potentials.

How important is teamwork for you?
It’s very important of course: alone, we always have limited capacity. Teamwork allows multiplied strength and possibilities.
Out of all the creators you represented so far, who remained loyal to your collaboration and vice versa?
You have to understand that fashion is a very changing environment, and so unfaithful. It’s better to make that report very soon, so you won’t be disillusioned. To answer your question, people like Walter Van Beirendonck, Raf, Simons, Veronique Branquinho, Bernhard Willhelm or AF Vandevorst are loyal to me.
What happened to Yazbukey or Taralis for example? When and how does collaboration stop for you?
At a certain point, paths split for multiple reasons (financial problem, opinion differences…). It has been this case for Yazbukey or Taralis.
Where is fashion going?
Fashion goes badly! The collections are boring, too much commercial, marketing. All the collections look the same, only the label changes. Fashion has to change, find its freshness and creativity, so people will be interested in it again.
Most of the designers you represent are anything but French: Marios Schwab, Willhelm, Arora, Vandevorst? Why? What makes them so special apart from their work?
The problem is that there was no incredible French designer that came out since 20 years. French fashion school are from a very disappointed level and nothing good come out from them. That’s why I searched everywhere else but there.
What is Fashion Intellectualism for you?
Nothing, it’s a very pretentious formula that I found particularly ridiculous. For me, Fashion is an applied art, and has nothing to do with intellectualism.

(Photo Jens Boldt)

What is Totem’s profile? How hard it is for you to keep a valid existence in a world that is changing so fast?
Totem is an international press and public relations, very creative that represents a selection of the best designer of the moment, for the best magazines, stylists and photographers. The only way to continue is to keep an eye on what’s going on and refresh regularly and complete the selection of designer that worth to be highlighted.
Do you think technology helps the fashion industry?
A lot! Fashion needs to take in count all the evolution of new technology to be more successful and sharpened it’s a fundamental thing.
VIKTOR&ROLF or Chalayan use technology in their work quite often. Could all these mechanical clothes become the protagonists of the future?
Certainly not has these two designers proposed it, but I think that reasonable declensions will be realistic in the future.
Are you afraid of the future?
Certainly not! In a general way, I’m a quite unsatisfied person so I put a lot of hope in future.
If you had the chance to be a spectator of your own life, what would you see, think about you. Who are you in your own words?
I think that I would see somebody that had worked too much, that gave too much time and energy to his work and not enough for himself.
What is the difference between clothes we see in museums compared to what one can see in a showroom?
It’s just a question of editing, context and presentation. The clothes remain the same.
What is love and friendship for you?
Two things that I had never known how to manage.

Dear POP iDEALS  I decided to re-post and older conversation I had with  photographers duo , German Zoren Gold and Japanese Minori Murakami who met by accident a few years ago. It always sounds like the iDEAL fairytale when two people come together and work as one, especially if the result is good enough to be gathered all together and be published in a Book. Their photographs can be seen in some of the most important Fashion Bibles…Images that include collages, illustrations and graphics..Nick Knight’s Show Studio is one of their biggest supporters. Don’t you think we have enough evidence already to free ourselves and fall in MI-ZO’s fantasy world…? Let’s see what they told me..

FilepMotwary: So we have two people, coming from two entirely different civilizations, working together. Is there and an example of this mixture detected in your work?
MI-ZO: There are some differences we find in each other culturally, which gives us a fresh point of view. We also get lost in disagreements realizing our different upbringings, thinking we could never understand each other. but, personally, i wouldn’t like to be categorize and bound by nationalities. I consider our collaboration as the mixture of two different individuals rather than to emphasis on our cultural background. I think art is a place to be free and is the universal language. We started working together because of our curiosity in mixing each others skills and to invent a new aesthetic in photographic imagery. Our desire of wanting to see unborn and unseen images has lead us to experiment with combining photography with other mediums such as drawings, collage, hand-made props and computer graphics. The fusion between photography and illustration, digital and its analogy… The manipulation of images made us more optimistic about modern-day photography, its no longer only to capture the moment of physical reality.

FilepMotwary: How do you feel that now your work has been squashed in a book? Does is mean the end of your collaborations first chapter?
MI-ZO:”Object That Dreams” is our personal journey to the unknown. The search to find our aesthetic lead us to unveil and be confronted with our unconscious thought & desire. we had evolved a lot both technically & personally. the unity lead us to become more aware of individualities, and made us realized there is something it can’t be shared. Self-quest is necessary after all for the next step to be true collaborators.

FilepMotwary: Someone would expect Minori moving to Europe instead of Zoren moving to Tokyo. To be frank with you, I am totally unaware of what is really going on fashion wise in Japan. All I know is the legend of “MONEY RAIN». Please help me built a picture here.
MI-ZO:Coming to Tokyo felt like a good choice at the time we moved. We had some contacts and people here were quite excited about our works. When we moved to tokyo, we worked a lot with record companies. the music packagings here were very creative and highly sophisticated. The budget was not as big as the US since it is only for the domestic markets. However, we had opportunities to work with outstanding artists in music, and were able to produce creative images. It also gave us opportunities to work as art directors and also video directors. Tokyo offered surprising opportunities for us. The fashion photography, on the other hand, is much more conservative than i expected. There are many fashion magazines which write about fashion and trend, but, there is not much supports from magazines for photographers to be creative and original. so, i prefer to work with international magazines.



FilepMotwary: A few months ago, you participated in an ambitious project for Nick Knights “Show Studio”, chosen as the representatives of Tokyo Fashion. Do you think that the incident forced you to become part of an “artists category” who are considered big only in JAPAN?
MI-ZO: We had been recognized as unique creators since we were based in tokyo. We have been featured and interviewed in various media definitely more press offers than fashion editorials…. I don’t really know why we have been chosen to do “representative” demo shoot at the party, maybe they wanted to unveil how we work together and who we are. we had to shoot more than 70 non-models in 2 hours straight …. Coming up with individual pose and shooting them one after another was a pure marathon. Now, we must be known as an artistic-athlete photographer duo:)
FilepMotwary: Which type of clothes do you find more intriguing when working on a fashion story? I don’t mean the trends. I am trying to understand what MI-ZO want to “get” out of an outfit and what makes it special enough to be photographed?
MI-ZO: Our taste and interests in fashion changes from time to time. But, we are often intrigued by unusual beauty. The fashion should supports the role of the character and enhance our imagination. Mystery,nature,magic,sex, etc. Something that stimulates our fantasy.

FilepMotwary:Your work reflects a variety of different styles: from over styled images to completely pain and minimal. Where is your “RED THIN LINE” that separates things?
MI-ZO: It depends on how we feel about the images and story. The way we create images, its process varies time to time. we don’t have certain steps in order to get to the final images. however, when we actually see the images from the photo shoot, it gives us a chance to see images (photographs) from different angles. so, we often use this time to enhance our ideas, and experiment a image with a graphical treatment to include our visions which we can’t capture at the photo shoot. We always try to keep room for creativity like playing with images, improvising with materials because the action of spontaneity could unlock our fantasy. There is no guideline or certain style we have to follow; we just have to like the outcome.

FilepMotwray: What does URBAN fashion mean to you?
MI-ZO: To invent a character of who we are, or who we want to be. I had dressed up once like a geeky secretary with hideous glasses at the club and introduce myself as a secretary of Mr. Gold. Surprisingly, everyone became nice and more friendly than usual. The character who we want to be is up to us in the city…..

FilepMotwary: Would you share with us your future plans?
MI-ZO: We would like to tour around the world with our exhibition of “Object that Dreams”. We had the first show at the Viaux gallery in Berlin for launching our book, and we would like to continue to show it around and meet creators in other countries. do you know anyone who will be interested to have our show in Greece?


FilepMotwary: I am sure that someone will be interested after reading this interview…Is there a message from MI-ZO to the readers of this interview who want to be Fashion Photographers? MI-ZO: Simply, LOVE WHAT YOU DO. Because it is a very subjective world, especially in art, you just can’t take every opinion seriously. With Love, everything is possible.

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