CITY Issue 58 - (Page 61) him to elaunch L’Officiel Hommes, and he began photog aphing fo the magazine, but unde anothe name. (“ e a while, people would ask why I had two names,” he quips.) Soon, he began eceiving adve tising p oposals f om mani, Hugo Boss, and T ussa di. Fo the T ussa di ole, Vukmi ovic demanded ca te blanche. “I wanted to c eate something to put the soul back in the b and,” he says. The esult is T ussa di , a small menswea line that will be ca ied at the company’s new sto e in Milan, along with F ed Segal, Jeff ey, and, of cou se, The Webste . While b eathing life into an aging b and might seem like an odd choice because of his instinct to always emain fashion fo wa d, Vuk///// / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / THERE WAS A TIME WHEN PEOPLE DIDN'T RESPOND WELL TO THOSE WHO WERE TRYING TO DO DIFFERENT THINGS, LIKE A MODEL WHO WANTED TO BE AN ACTRESS —BUT NOW IT IS ACCEPTED mi ovic is d iven by tackling p ojects he’s neve t ied. “When we fi st opened Colette, the e was nothing on Rue Saint-Hono é,” he says, “and when Ma ieJosé asked me to be an edito , I told he I had no expe ience, and she said, ‘Well, you had neve been a buye befo e eithe !’” It’s this kind of fo wa d thinking that has led to f equent visits to a const uction-laden st etch of Collins venue in Miami Beach, whe e wo k is still unde way fo The Webste ’s pe manent home. ( tempo a y boutique opened down the block in Janua y .) “I discove ed Miami while on location fo shoots. Pa t of Miami’s tacky image is t ue, but the e a e a lot of cool people the e who love design and fashion,” Vukmi ovic says. His pa tne s in The Webste , Lau e He ia d Dub euil and F ede ic Dechnik, favo ed Los ngeles but we e swayed by Vukmi ovic’s belief in South Beach. “He knows what’s going on in the fashion wo ld befo e eve ybody else,” Dub euil says. “I don’t know of anybody like him.” Vukmi ovic swo e he would neve do a sto e again — “I don’t like to do things twice,” he says — so his concept fo The Webste is almost no concept at all. “I wanted to etu n to eal fashion — big, luxu ious b ands. It’s a ve y pe sonal selection, the best of the best f om each collection.” Balenciaga, P ada, and Ma tin Ma giela a e just a few of the big names. “Ten yea s ago I was happy to have the last pai of limited-edition t aine s. Now I don’t ca e. We don’t eally need mo e sto es with Diptyque candles and Comme des Ga çons.” He says this not with distaste fo the way that Colette evolutionized etail o with contempt fo fashion t ends, but because his pe sonal taste has evolved a e yea s in the business. “I like to do c eative things, but being comme cial is a positive thing. I have this knowledge of doing a lot of things befo e, so I feel f ee in eve ything I do now,” he says. Spoken like a t ue f ee spi it. THE WEBSTER WILL SELL CLOTHING LABELS INCLUDING LANVIN, STELLA MCCARTNEY, PIERRE HARDY, TOM FORD, AND JEWELRY FROM CHRISTIAN DIOR. CITY TY 61
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.