Interviewer: Hello, everybody, and welcome to our daily program Stardom. Today in our studio, we have Oliver Gray, the world famous fashion designer. Hello, Oliver.
Oliver: Hello. It's so nice being here. Thank you for inviting me.
Interviewer: Well, you are 31 and you are already successful. How does that feel?
Oliver: I don't know. How can we estimate the success of a fashion designer in the digital age? If we're going by sales and market shares or even buy those other shares and their accompanying likes and followers, then you can say I've been a smashing success. But what of the subtle social impact the designer has had on culture? No real metric exists to quantify the effect I have on, say, the aspirations of a young girl following along on Instagram or on the industry brass or on the aesthetic of our time. So I really don't know.
Interviewer: What is it that makes you a unique designer?
Oliver: Again, it's hard to say. I don't feel unique. Still, I guess one thing which is special about me is that I've always been living in a fantasy world. To be fair, I have quite a vivid imagination. From the time I was ten years old, when I learned that I wasn't the biological son to the parents with whom I'd grown up, but had, in fact, been adopted from an orphanage in Paris. Then I began to dream up stories of myself, and I've never stopped doing it.
Interviewer: Have you always wanted to be a fashion designer?
Oliver: I have always felt there's some passion to create inside me. After an attempt at law school, I eventually submitted to my passion for design and went first to Paris to study and then to Italy, where I worked my way up from an assistant to the right hand man at Chanel.
Interviewer: What is your working day like?
Oliver: What people think my life is, like partying in L.A., certainly not my reality. And my reality goes on until 3 a.m. Like, I'm going to work every night for the next two or three weeks. You won't see it on my Instagram profile. The reality is, I'm not sitting around the pool all day. Chilling, fittings, late nights spent working - this is what you don't see on my Instagram. That's my life.
Interviewer: What is your creative process like? Are you always surrounded by people?
Oliver: I'm actually locked away. I think I had 4.6 million Instagram followers, which is obviously a great way to communicate my work and my life. But it's also a form of protection because I don't want everybody to see my process. I love solitude, I love escaping into my mind and sketching. Sometimes I travel alone. I'm the first one at the office in the morning, the last one closing the door. People don't expect that because on Instagram I have a reputation as a party boy who takes selfies all day.
Interviewer: I think you anticipated something about the way that the projection of image of fantasy has come to dominate our culture. And because you were there early, you face some criticism for it.
Oliver: Well, when I was starting my Instagram, my team was really scared. But when you want to promote new ideas, you need to be the face of it and not be scared. That's why I decided not to hide on my Instagram. But it hasn't been an easy process. As a public figure, there are a lot of people who love you and hate you. I really respect the new generation, and I think it's really important to understand the future customer, their tastes and their dreams. What my generation is dreaming of is different from what my parents dreamt.
Interviewer: Thank you very much, Oliver. It has been a real pleasure talking with you today.
