Portuguese-born Baptista studied Fashion in London before moving to Italy to work at Maxmara and then Paris at Cerutti. He entered the Hyères festival in 2002, won the Grand Prix and set up his own label with the help of two bursaries from Andam and LVMH. In 2005 he was invited by the almighty Fédération to show at the official Haute Couture schedule, where he has been showing twice a year, ever since. 

Kiki Georgiou: Your very first collection was snapped up by Colette. How did that feel?

Felipe Oliveira Baptista: Sarah was really good! She was actually in the jury at Hyères and said she’d love to have some of the pieces. So, we made some for her and then a friend of mine called me during Fashion Week and was like “your clothes are in the windows of Colette!” I went straight away to have a look! Yeah, it was really good because she leads the way for a lot of other buyers too. She’s carried our brand for about seven seasons.

KG: You’ve had really great support. As well as support from Colette you were helped by Andam and LVMH. Did that make you feel more secure in launching the label and doing your own thing?

FOB: The LVMH bursary was really good - we got two, with one right at the beginning so it sponsored that first show and then a second one in 2005. It’s really good financially, and of course, it gets in the news and it’s a really good stamp of credibility and recognition. 

KG: It must be nice to know that the finances are taken care of, so you can just focus on actually creating the collection.

FOB: Definitely.  At the beginning we were all self-financed so we were just going to do a collection and show it in the showroom, so to have that money was great because you can take things all the way with a show, which is always good because it’s the end part of that whole creative process.

KG: You were invited to show at the Paris Haute Couture schedule. Explain for us how that works, and how do you get invited to show in such a prestigious schedule?

FOB: I was approached by the Federation and then was asked to submit a dossier. Then one of the Houses decides to ‘godfather’ you and you’re invited. So, we were ‘godfathered’ by Jean-Paul Gaultier and Hermès!

KG: Jean-Paul Gaultier seems like the perfect godfather, doesn’t he?

FOB: Ha ha, yes!

KG: How was that, to be part of Haute Couture?

FOB: It was quite stunning! It’s all big Houses with big couture collections and you’re there with your small collection but then people get used to it and now there are more and more young designers showing. I think it’s a good idea as it’s more of a quiet week, you have more space and attention from the buyers because they’re less busy. 

KG: Do you think it’s an unusual route for a young designer to take, showing at Couture rather than Ready-to-Wear, or does it fit what you do the best?

FOB: It’s a two-way thing because in a way, we were approached because they thought our work was very much about cut and experimenting with silhouette and techniques, so for that fact, and that there’s more space etc, it’s good. Then, on the other hand, in Ready-to-Wear there’s more international press, but it’s working out for us. We don’t know, eventually one day we might show at RTW. For the time being we’re sticking to this. 

KG: So, how ‘couture’ is what you do or is it more about experimenting?

FOB: Well, it’s that side of couture. Couture, when it started, was all about made-to-measure and one-off pieces, so we’re really focusing on special pieces and quality, which is the essence of the earlier couture. On the other hand, it’s true that there’s a very realistic approach to the clothes that we make, they’re meant to be worn and not just be images, they’re real clothes in that way. For real life!

KG: From Couture to collaborating with Nike! Do you enjoy working on these other projects?

FOB: Yes, that was excellent. We were approached in May last year by Nike. They were launching a new line and asked 5 different creative people to look at their iconic pieces. We were given the hooded top because in the past I worked around deconstructing jersey tops and sweatshirts. The people from Nike saw my sketchbooks and research books and said that it’d be great to turn them into a book with images from my archive, so we did that as well as a fashion show around fake clothes made out of hooded tops, cut and dyed different colours and put upside-down. That book is on the website.

KG: Do you look at a jersey hooded top in the same way you would with your own collection? Do you give it the same amount of thought?

FOB: A lot of times in my own collection I use real garments that I then cut and turn inside-out, searching for new silhouettes and proportions. I had cut one of my own Nike hoodies so that’s why they approached me. It’s research and it’s a process but there’s always part of it that goes back to looking at existing garments and giving them a twist. 

KG: You just showed your latest collection in Paris and it’s got such an amazing response, you must feel really pleased?

FOB: Yes, it was so good to get such a positive response, especially at a time of such a big crisis when everyone is freaking out! We wanted to do something really focused and desirable, so I think the balance between something creative and a real garment was well achieved. We got good reviews and we did some good sales, with some new customers as well, so it’s good because everyone is really afraid of what’s coming next and it doesn’t seem that bad for us – so far!

KG: Was this collection influenced by aviation and flying?

FOB: Each collection is like a collage of all different things. In this one, there was definitely aviation and flying, my dad was a pilot so he lent me all these pilot gear. But also, the dialogue between science and nature, that’s why there are all these birds and feathers, it’s like a patchwork with the contrast, the dichotomy between things that are really hard and very fragile, soft and hard. A bit of what we all have inside us, all these contradictions. 

KG: How did you create those prints? I thought they were incredible, especially the ‘kerosene’ prints, what was your inspiration behind those?

FOB: The prints all started by this photograph that Gursky did of these parting tracks, it’s taken from the sky and I really like these roads that seem really confused, when we don’t really know where they lead. So, we took all the graphics from that photo, did a digital drawing of it and replaced all the lines with textures from nature and pictures of oil. I like that they have a very mad, organic feel to them and again they give a sense of speed and dynamic.

KG: What are your plans for the future? 

FOB: We are moving to a new space in March so we might do a small re-presentation of this collection to press that weren’t there for couture and then, there are quite a few projects on the pipeline. Definitely a menswear collection will be the next step but we don’t know exactly when that’s going to happen. 

KG: And you will continue showing at Couture?

FOB: Yes, next collection for Summer will be shown in July. 

KG: Looking forward to it! Thanks Felipe!

FOB: Thank you!

KG