My Standard
- Illustration by Yoshifumi Takeda
- Photography by Otman Qrita
- Coordination Masaé Takanaka
- Text by Marc Beaugé
Episode 6
Franck Durand
Founder and creative director, Atelier Franck Durand. Editor and publisher of Holiday Magazine, a semiannual lifestyle magazine based in Paris. Franck is also founder and creative director of Holiday Boileau, a brand aesthetically aligned with his magazine, and a creative director at French fashion magazine L’Etiquette.
- Colorful 50 Socks
- Sweatshirt
- SUPIMA Cotton Crew Neck Short Sleeve T-Shirt
“A Uniform Makes Everything Easier”
It doesn’t take me long to pick out my outfit in the morning. I have a kind of uniform and I rarely deviate much from it. On my feet I wear loafers, brown Weston 180s, but I used to wear Aldens. I pair them with brown socks from UNIQLO, who knows how many of them I own. The color matches perfectly with one-wash denim jeans. On top of that, a gray sweatshirt worn over a white T-shirt, both from UNIQLO, too. Then a jacket. This style is a no brainer. I wear it no matter what. I can work, I can ride a bike, I can go to a meeting or out for a drink. It’s always appropriate. In the evening, I take a moment to pick out the right jacket for the next day. Then in the morning, I just grab my clothes and put them on without a thought. But to do this, you need to be confident in your clothes, and it takes some time to find the right ones. Fortunately, I was able to identify the clothes I really liked and I buy them as needed.
I might have about twenty UNIQLO Supima cotton white T-shirts. That’s usually where I start getting dressed. It makes everything so much easier. I can wear them under a sweater, under a jumper, under a shirt, and in the summer without anything else on. My favorite things never change, so I buy the same models. My interest in fashion started when I was fourteen or fifteen. I grew up in the countryside, so fashion was not part of the background as a child, but I still have a vivid memory of the seersucker jacket and shorts set I wore to a wedding when I was eight years old. Later, as I went to boarding school we were all wearing blue smocks. But surprisingly, that’s where I discovered fashion. One of my classmates came back from London with copies of The Face and i-D. I remember being smitten with all the images. I was taken by the sense of style and imagery I saw in these magazines. Since then, they never left me. They are wonderful bridges to discovering cultures, music, books, movies... there is often a lot going on inside a good piece of clothing.
*A thin blue coat worn at school, as a uniform.
From Franck’s bookshelf. From top left, l’étiquette (SO Press), Vintage Music T-Shirts Scrapbook (Grand Gallery), La leçon d’élégance (Séguier), a French translation of Inu wo kau by Jiro Taniguchi, entitled Terre de rêves (Casterman) and a copy of Holiday Magazine, which Franck edits.
