Carton d'invitation

Via a childhood in Quebec City, fashion studies at LaSalle in Montreal, followed by tutelage under Louise Wilson at Central Saint Martins, Frederic Tremblay has carved a unique place for himself in fashion. He's worked in design leadership roles with everyone from Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch, Reed Krakoff, Draper James (Reese Witherspoon), Michael Kors, Puppets and Puppets and currently Belle and Bloom.

And lucky fashion students at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) benefit from his mentorship as well.

A "humble" Canadian, Frederic puts the focus on all of the great designers he has worked with, building brands from the ground up - but the more you listen to this podcast, you will understand that he is a visionary albiet discreet powerhouse!

His job title changes depending on the assignment: Creative Director/ VP, Design / Senior Design Director / Design Director/ Head of Design / Design Consultant!

Frederic has wonderful stories about his 80's clothing choices (a lot of London-inspired polka dots); sneaking into Paris shows as a CSM student even if it meant setting fire to fake Galliano "treasure map" cartons d'invitation just outside the tents; the thrill of working as a new graduate in the studio of Martine Sitbon (even if his main job was holding pins)!

He speaks fondly about the process of intuiting what his many high profile clients want to communicate through their brands and he speaks appreciatively of the "village" it takes to launch a collection.

Check Frederic's Linked In for more background. Or visit @tremfred on Instagram.

To learn more about the Carton d'invitation podcast and documentary project, visit Instagram @cartondinvitation

You can find a short video version of this podcast on Instagram and Youtube.

Original music: Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos.

Publicist, model agent, playwright, erstwhile stylist, Fred Howard was the publicity manager for Linda Evangelista’s comeback tour last year. Fred has spent a life in the so-called fashion trenches. Among his skills is preparing models for the red carpet, (avoiding the fries that can bloat and turning up the music and the AC on the way to the venue)! Fred’s worked at Elite Models and DNA, scouted countless models, served as media coach to still more, He even chaperoned models’ apartments years ago, perfecting his knack for helping people be philosophical about failure to launch in the way they expected. He has managed PR and philanthropic initiatives for various celebrities and he continues to write - he and his cousin, acclaimed director, Raelle Myrick-Hodges created the play “He Has The Prettiest Handwriting” which sold out at the Public Theatre in New York in 2022.  Fred is now working on a piece of first person creative non-fiction--sharing tales of growing up in a military family, coming of age as a Black gay man in conservative North Carolina of the 80s, and his youth in the fashion trenches from the late 90s and 00. He’s also serving as a consultant for a scripted series currently in development, set in the fashion industry. Fred is the kind of a person who has always been there but one didn’t always know what he was doing. He is a connector - and someone people can count on to craft - and even protect - their public images. He is an insider who has many stories - and he tells them in this episode of Carton d’invitation!

Find Fred on Instagram @bushwickfreddy

Original music @leonthesinger

Please subscribe here for more fashion conversations! Your support for my project means a lot.

A video trailer for this podcast is available on the Carton d'invitation Youtube channel.

To discover more about my documentary and this oral history project, find me on Instagram: @cartondinvitation

Sibyl Buck is the American supermodel who brought punk to Paris runways in the 90s. 

At the height of her success, she left for New York to become an artist and a musician. 

Sibyl built The Doghouse, an artists’ commune in New York City and toured for years as a musician with lots of different people including Chris Traynor. She and Chris parent their daughter, Puma Rose. 

Along the way, Sibyl has been an MTV host, an actress, in the Fifth Element for instance; she spent 10 years working as a therapeutic yoga instructor and now she’s a permaculture designer (who does some modeling on the side of course. Book her!) 

Sibyl’s called a “Grunge Icon”. 

Her scarlet hair and piercings inspired Jean Paul Gaultier to cast her in 1993. She stuck out her pierced tongue at the end of the runway and the result was her first picture in Vogue.

Soon Sibyl was learning how to breathe into corset fittings at Vivienne Westwood and Thierry Mugler. 

And before she knew it, even the most traditional houses wanted to capture some of her frank freshness to burnish their brands. She even posed with Yves Saint Laurent for a famous portrait. 

I had fun watching all of that unfold back then. Sibyl always made a fashion show more interesting and I liked checking in with her for chats here and there - she was never boring!

So it meant a lot to me to track Sibyl down in Topanga, California where she tends her garden, walks her dog, mothers her daughter, builds just about anything  -  and works on a wide variety of projects aimed at healing people - and the land.

Sibyl's info:

NextLA//MarilynNY//OuiParis

www.sibylbuck.com

Instagram: @sibbyfresh

Please subscribe for more fashion conversations! Your support for my project means a lot.

A video trailer for this podcast is available on the Carton d'invitation Youtube channel.

To discover more about my documentary and this oral history project, find me on Instagram: @cartondinvitation

Original music for this podcast is by Ashley Rivera, Myla Carlos and Chloe Hsu.

The Carton d’invitation Podcast often but not always talks about 90s fashion - but this is a twist and the humour doesn't escape me!  In this episode, we are talking about how some of the famous faces from the 90s (think Naomi, Marpessa and Carla Bruni) stay luminous today! 

“The French Facialist” Sophie Carbonari is often referred to as one of the world's ultimate beauty secrets, whether you pick up Vogue, Town and Country or Goop.

Sophie's famous for gifting “glow” to her clients inbcluding , Rihanna, Caroline de Maigret, Nicole Kidman and Lou Doillon…To be clear, we are talking about something that looks like a facelift but isn't!

A pioneer of the “facialist wave”, Sophie's special techniques and I dare say her deep intuition and care for people have celebrities lining up at her studio in Palais Royale in Paris or once a month in London - or wherever she may be: for instance working her magic installed at Cannes during the festival. 

In this episode, we learn about how she does it - you will be quite surprised!

Sophie talks about her rich childhood in the south of France, being raised by a French mother and an Italian father, some of the discrimination she faced starting out as a beauty therapist and her empathy for her clients who are always being judged in the public eye.

She calls out “beauty shaming” - and for those of us who might not be able to see her for a treatment or buy her “addictive” Le S Serum, she offers her simple “10p” tips for daily skincare! 

Sophie says anti-ageing is a not a thing - you can’t anti-age! But after years of research, she’s developed a protocol that combines customized formulas, ayurvedic  and kobido practices - and her own innovative massage technique that stimulates the fascia (it makes a cracking sound when it happens by the way). She says she just “reveals” people - without the tiredness that accumulates! 

If you want to know more about Sophie after listening, here is her website:

https://sophiecarbonari.com/studio/

Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you are listening!

A video excerpt of this episode is available on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/_yyNDAm0skk

To learn more about my documentary project, go to @cartondinvitation on Instagram. 

Original music for this podcast by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos

Carton d’invitation celebrates the fashion journeys of Supermodels, designers, journalists, stylists, creative directors, illustrators etc. Stars of 90s Paris as well as emerging creatives in conversation about "life before the internet" and making fashion now.
I was a TV reporter in the Golden Age of fashion in Paris in the 80s and 90s, back when it was a new thing to bring video cameras into that elite world. Now I am a documentary maker and writer thinking about embodiment, glamour and sartorial disruption. These podcasts honour legacies. Touching and fun - a fashion history archive.

Sophie Theallet has dressed Michelle Obama and Kim Kardashian. An award winning designer in her own right, she started out assisting Jean Paul Gaultier - and then Azzedine Alaia for 10 years. She saw everything! And in this podcast, she decides she’s willing to tell me about it all. 

It took us three meetings but Sophie was eventually ready to explain what “assisting” really meant - the lines she developed, the prints she designed, the symbiotic relationship between herself and Alaia, who she calls the “Last Couturier.” (Along the way, she was also ready to gossip a bit - and to be honest about how hot under the collar things sometimes got)!

When I interview people who worked as “assistants”, they are always very respectful - careful to protect the mystique of the iconic designers they worked for - Of course, Sophie is extremely respectful of the legacy of Alaia - but she was also finally willing to lift the veil and help me get a real sense of the contributions that so many invisible people working around the great designers made to fashion.

Sophie also talks about how she broke away and moved to New York, built her award winning brand and dressed stars from Lauren Hill to Sharon Stone. We also learn how she ended up in Montreal, launching Room 502, a direct to consumer low waste brand of pitch-perfect pieces every woman wants in her wardrobe - couture quality construction at a small fraction of the price.

Cathy Horyn says her colour sense reminds her of Saint Laurent - Sophie’s many admirers from Obama to Rosy de Palma appreciate her approach to empowering women through clothes. 

Sophie has won the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund award. In addition, to running Room 502, she has been a fashion instructor at the University of Montreal and she offers online tutoring for young designers, including hopefuls putting together portfolios for fashion programs around the world.

Find Sophie and Room 502 at https://sophietheallet.com/

Sophie is also on Instagram @sophietheallet

Please subscribe for more fashion conversations! Your support for my project means a lot.

A full video trailer for this podcast is available on the Carton d'invitation Youtube channel.

To discover more about my documentary and this oral history project, find me on Instagram: @cartondinvitation

Original music for this podcast is by Ashley Rivera, Myla Carlos and Chloe Hsu.

Eve Salvail: Supermodel, Muse to Jean Paul Gaultier, successful DJ, an addiction counselor, frequent television personality in Quebec, author and importantly the energy behind the Eve Salvail Foundation which aims to serve victims of domestic violence.

Along with a lot of people, I will never forget the season Eve arrived on the scene in Paris. Everyone was buzzing: “Who is the extraordinary new Canadian model? Her head is shaved - she has a dragon tattooed...on her skull!” 

Really quickly, designers couldn't get enough of Eve from Gaultier to Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel. She appeared to be taking on Paris on her own terms as she swaggered distinctively down those runways - but it was quite a bit more complicated than that, as she recounts in this latest episode of the Carton d'invitation Podcast.

Eve understands now at the age of 53 that the turmoil she was experiencing inside back then inadvertently offered a sense of representation to other young people (all around the world) who also might have been struggling with identity. 

Please subscribe for more fashion conversations! Your support for my project means a lot.

Gentle warning: Eve discusses her recovery from addiction and her work now helping others as a counselor.

A full video version of this podcast is available on the Carton d'invitation Youtube channel.

To learn more about Eve and the Fondation Eve Salvail:

https://fondationevesalvail.org/en/

Or simply go to Instagram: @evesalvail

Find Eve's book "Sois Toi et T'es Belle". Available in bookstores or through online providers.

To discover more about my documentary and this oral history project, find me on Instagram: @cartondinvitation

Original music for this podcast is by Ashley Rivera, Myla Carlos and Chloe Hsu.

British Patricia Jacobs was a newspaper reporter for The New York Post back in the 80s and 90s. Now known as the artist, PJ Cobbs, she has hilarious gee-whiz tales from the trenches of fashion journalism and much perspective on what it was like for persons of colour to operate in that world.

Listen for a crash course in what being a news reporter back then was like, from scrambling to the phone booth to call stories in, getting the scoop when Karl Lagerfeld started yelling at Denise Dubois of the Chambre Syndicale right in front of her, to wearing her best and only little black dress to her first Paris soiree which happened to be hosted by Roger Vivier at Maxims.

It was bittersweet to share our stories of the designer Patrick Kelly who died so quietly in those tragic days when AIDS was kept a secret.

When I was roaming around backstage during the Golden Age of Paris fashion, I would turn to Patricia for soundbites - she always had something interesting to say! Hence while working on my documentary, I knew I needed to track her down to hear her perspective on that whole scene with the benefit of hindsight. The sting of the microagressions hasn't waned; her tenderness towards defenders such as Hilary Alexander remains.

And I think you will find it interesting that Patricia or  PJ Cobbs as she is now called left fashion journalism behind to become a successful artist in New York. 

I hope you enjoy this episode of oral history from Golden age of Paris fashion and also about what a creative life can look like.

PJ Cobbs is an artist, workshop leader and keynote speaker. To learn more about PJ Cobbs (or to buy her artwork), go to her website: https://www.pjcobbsarts.com/or pjcobbsarts

Find her on Instagram @pjcobbsarts

To learn more about my documentary project go to @cartondinvitation on Instagram.

Be sure to check out the video trailer for this episode on Youtube.

Music for this podcast by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos.

Dawn Wolf stands by the motto that she is only as good as her last booking, A straight-talking New Yorker transplanted to Paris, Dawn says there are secrets she is taking to the grave...but all the same, you will be delighted to hear many, many stories here! She opened Ford Models in Paris and then IMG. Dawn helped launch almost every supermodel from Christy to Naomi to Shalom and Amber to Guinevere van Seenus and Amy Wesson. The list will make you dizzy.

While I was researching my recently released film Carton d'invitation, Dawn was very much a person I needed to reconnect with as a consultant to the project. Her perspective was invaluable.

There's a video trailer for this podcast which will have you laughing out loud:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPguwuuoa68

For more on my documentary project, go to Instagram @cartondinvitation

Original Music: Ashley Rivera, Myla Carlon and Chloe Hsu

Featured in British Vogue, designing for drag influencers, Bailey J Mills and Bimini as well as pop stars CMAT and The Dinner Party, Oran O'Reilly is creating a bit of a sensation in Ireland. His bespoke knitwear sells out. His inventive corsets feature faces of anyone from Kate Bush to Princess Diana. He is just 21 years old - and does his knitting on the bus to college - where he is studying costume design with the illustrious Peter O'Brien at IADT.

(Peter O'Brien is an earlier Carton d'invitation Podcast guest - scroll to find that)!

I met Oran when I went to Dublin to screen my documentary. Of course, his teacher brought some of his students along!

But before I even got to Dublin, I had heard the buzz about Oran - he's been making appearances on Irish national radio and television - and basically charming audiences with his inventive clothes and disarming candour. Among other things, he is honest about how new this career is for him. By the way, since the start, Oran's mother, Orla has been his model for publicity shots - and that launched an unplanned modeling career! As Oran says, Mum taught me to knit and I got her a modeling contract!

You can listen to the podcast here - or watch the full episode on Youtube.

To learn more about Oran: @oranjaurelio on Instagram

And more about my documentary project @cartondinvitation

Music for this podcast: @leonthesinger