My reunion with French couturier and inventor Olivier Lapidus.
Olivier has dressed everyone from Celine Dion to Amal Clooney. Designing haute couture from a young age, Olivier came by his talent naturally as his father was Ted Lapidus, iconic designer in the swinging 60s and 70s who dressed John Lennon among many others and his mother Veronique Zuber was Miss France, a model and an actress. In the 90s, Olivier took over design at the house of Lapidus – and it was there that I interviewed him many times for Fashion Television – the program I reported for back in the day and that I'm making a documentary about now.
In this episode, we meet again after almost 25 years and have lots to reminisce about.
Olivier won the Golden Thimble in 1994 and also created collections for Balmain and Lanvin but he was never satisfied just designing clothes. For more than thirty years, Olivier has been working with craftspeople and scientists to patent cutting edge inventions in fibre, light-technology and more.
Long ago, Olivier took my cameraman and me with him to Pakistan to meet Benazir Bhutto and cut the ribbon at the Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design, a ground-breaking school he helped found. We share our memories of interviewing a frankly feminist Benazir who sent us her own limousine to drive around Islamabad.
Olivier's latest work is with the Lucibelle group on the Ove Mask for Dior - and as far as I can tell, it means we can all say goodbye to wrinkles!
We take time to talk about Olivier's talented wife Yara who reinvented herself after an accident; she was a designer, now she has hit records on Billboard. Find her beautiful music in the link below - and lots of links to the rich story of Olivier Lapidus, a tireless inventor who embodies French style.
https://www.instagram.com/olivierlapidusofficial/
http://www.creationolivierlapidus.paris
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Lapidus
https://www.lucibelleparis.com
https://www.cafedeladanse.com/event/yara-lapidus/
Original music for this podcast is courtesy of Ashley Rivera, Chloe Tsu and Myla Carlos.