Q&A with Gisele Forget
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Feb 26/01) - Gisele Forget believes in the intimate language of clothing. She revels in the myriad textures of fabric, the poetry of colour and the pure pleasure of dressing up.
 Gisele Forget |
YellowknifeLife: How did you develop this love of clothing?
Gisele Forget: I was a young child. I used to go into my mother's closet and wear all her clothes. She was a very fashion-conscious woman. Even though we couldn't afford it, she made it a point of having very high-quality haute couture clothing.
I remember one outfit. I remember it as very pale aqua ... jacket and matching skirt. And she had the matching shoes. And the shoes, I think, had marabou, which is almost like a very little boa. Very light feathers around the sole of her shoe.
YellowknifeLife: Feathers on the soles of her shoes?
GF: And she always wore four-inch heels. She was - she didn't like the word short - but a medium height woman. And she had the most outlandish jewelry as well. One was a rhinestone brooch dragonfly. Another was a lizard. And a wonderful fake pearl opera necklace. And so I would enjoy my time in her closet.
YellowknifeLife: How did she feel about you going into her closet?
GF: She was OK with it. Mind you ... I've talked with her about these clothes, and she has no memory of them at all. Which is kind of odd, because I remember a jewelry box loaded with wonderful vintage necklaces. But no. No memory of it at all.
YellowknifeLife: Maybe it was just so normal for her. Do you remember your own first absolutely outstanding dress?
GF: Oh yes. It was in the Woolco store window. It was a maxi dress -- dark purple and dark orange. Squares. I remember that dress...
YellowknifeLife:: A maxi dress?
GF: Yes, long. A long maxi dress. Because that was all the rage. We were just out of the minis, at that point. It had the puffy sleeves. And the long ... hmm ... it's not called a frail ... but the long hem --
YellowknifeLife: Oh my God! You mean that extra bit of skirt at the bottom? And gathered?
GF: Yes. And then it had the netting underneath--
YellowknifeLife: To pouf it out?
GF: A little bit but not much. That was the entrance to the late hippie era. And I remember my first shoes. They were two-toned. Plaid. Beige and dark brown. I loved those things! My God! They wore out so I went back and got another pair
YellowknifeLife: Describe to me how you feel when you find a dress.
GF: Elated is the word that comes into my head. I just feel I can play. Now. It's time to play. It's like a whole whirlwind of emotion evolves in my head. Quivering. I'm just so excited to try it on. And to wear it. I look for any occasion to wear these clothes.
YellowknifeLife: You acquire most of your dresses off the Internet?
GF: Not really. Flea markets are really the greatest places to acquire the really neat one-of-a-kind clothing.
YellowknifeLife: Like garage sales?
GF: Yeah. And Sally Ann. And St. Pat's flea market. And then, because I've been in this for a while, I have a lot of friends of friends of friends that say, "Oh, would you give that to her." And what I do, too, is that I pick gowns in the stores and then I remodel them. That's another way to get a really unique dress.
YellowknifeLife: Is vintage about one-of-a-kind? You know, there's no other dress like this one? I won't walk into a party and see 10 other women wearing the same thing?
GF: That's not what vintage is. Vintage is how it's made. The quality. And how it fits. If you get a vintage quality gown, it was hand-made, it has lasted a number of years and it will last a lot longer. It's amazing how well clothes were made at that point. The kids nowadays, in my perception, anything that looks old is vintage. That could be from the 1980s. That's means that we look old.
YellowknifeLife: Yeah, thanks for reminding me. So is finding the right gown a form of self-expression?
GF: Totally. I felt that I was very quiet and very shy as a child. That was my perception. Now my life has exploded to such a point that I'm out there as much as I can be. As much as I want to be. And clothing will make an impression. Make an impression -- and leave an impression.
YellowknifeLife: When you find a gown, do you get a sense of the history of it...of the woman who first owned it? Does it spur your imagination?
GF: What has an impact on me is the feel of the fabric. It's new to my touch.
YellowknifeLife: OK, but for me, when I come across an old book, when I hold it in my hands...I'm in awe that this thing... GF: Yes. How many people have touched that book. Yes. It's the same thing with me. It's all the love that was put into making this one particular gown. Because everything was hand-made, they put their heart and soul into them.
YellowknifeLife: Do you design gowns?
GF: No. I would like to, I guess. I have thought of it. What I'm working on right now is creating a gown from a copy of a gown.
YellowknifeLife: By a copy of the gown, you mean...
GF: You have an original gown and you work with that. Play with it.
YellowknifeLife: You have three children ... but I'm thinking specifically of your daughter because of what you said about your childhood ... does she go into your closet?
GF: Not at all.
YellowknifeLife:What? Because you don't let her?
GF: Well...No. She would not wear a dress. She would not let me play with her hair, or anything, as a young child. 'Leave me alone and I'm going to wear what I'm going to wear and that's it.' My youngest son is more into looking cool. Making his own little fad. My oldest has worn a tux with tails at a wedding-- YellowknifeLife: And ... how did he enjoy it?
GF: Oh, he enjoyed it. He enjoyed it. So my two sons are more likely to wear the clothes - men's clothes--
YellowknifeLife: Oh you mean: not dresses? I just had a flashback to when my son was two-and-a-half years old. I was getting ready to go out. I had a red dress and the red heels were out. So was the red lipstick. I left the room for two minutes and when I came back there he was with lipstick in hand, little feet floating in these big heels...
GF: I'm convinced that if you squelch that when they're young, they're going to try that when they're older so...
YellowknifeLife: Let them play dress-up ... like us.
GF: Yeah. That's what it's all about. Wardrobe is a very intimate language. I'd love to rent a room somewhere and make appointments for clothing to be seen. But it's very hard to come by -- very low rent at accessible locations are very hard to come by.
YellowknifeLife: That whole concept of making an appointment, and to consult with you...it's so classic, as well. It evokes old films...
GF: To have another woman there, who cares, almost as much as you do, how you look, is a real thrill.
