Carton d'invitation Nancy Devitt Tremblay

Sophie Theallet has dressed Michelle Obama and Kim Kardashian. An award winning designer in her own right, she started out assisting Jean Paul Gaultier - and then Azzedine Alaia for 10 years. She saw everything! And in this podcast, she decides she’s willing to tell me about it all. 

It took us three meetings but Sophie was eventually ready to explain what “assisting” really meant - the lines she developed, the prints she designed, the symbiotic relationship between herself and Alaia, who she calls the “Last Couturier.” (Along the way, she was also ready to gossip a bit - and to be honest about how hot under the collar things sometimes got)!

When I interview people who worked as “assistants”, they are always very respectful - careful to protect the mystique of the iconic designers they worked for - Of course, Sophie is extremely respectful of the legacy of Alaia - but she was also finally willing to lift the veil and help me get a real sense of the contributions that so many invisible people working around the great designers made to fashion.

Sophie also talks about how she broke away and moved to New York, built her award winning brand and dressed stars from Lauren Hill to Sharon Stone. We also learn how she ended up in Montreal, launching Room 502, a direct to consumer low waste brand of pitch-perfect pieces every woman wants in her wardrobe - couture quality construction at a small fraction of the price.

Cathy Horyn says her colour sense reminds her of Saint Laurent - Sophie’s many admirers from Obama to Rosy de Palma appreciate her approach to empowering women through clothes. 

Sophie has won the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund award. In addition, to running Room 502, she has been a fashion instructor at the University of Montreal and she offers online tutoring for young designers, including hopefuls putting together portfolios for fashion programs around the world.

Find Sophie and Room 502 at https://sophietheallet.com/

Sophie is also on Instagram @sophietheallet

Please subscribe for more fashion conversations! Your support for my project means a lot.

A full video trailer for this podcast is available on the Carton d'invitation Youtube channel.

To discover more about my documentary and this oral history project, find me on Instagram: @cartondinvitation

Original music for this podcast is by Ashley Rivera, Myla Carlos and Chloe Hsu.

Eve Salvail: Supermodel, Muse to Jean Paul Gaultier, successful DJ, an addiction counselor, frequent television personality in Quebec, author and importantly the energy behind the Eve Salvail Foundation which aims to serve victims of domestic violence.

Along with a lot of people, I will never forget the season Eve arrived on the scene in Paris. Everyone was buzzing: “Who is the extraordinary new Canadian model? Her head is shaved - she has a dragon tattooed...on her skull!” 

Really quickly, designers couldn't get enough of Eve from Gaultier to Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel. She appeared to be taking on Paris on her own terms as she swaggered distinctively down those runways - but it was quite a bit more complicated than that, as she recounts in this latest episode of the Carton d'invitation Podcast.

Eve understands now at the age of 53 that the turmoil she was experiencing inside back then inadvertently offered a sense of representation to other young people (all around the world) who also might have been struggling with identity. 

Please subscribe for more fashion conversations! Your support for my project means a lot.

Gentle warning: Eve discusses her recovery from addiction and her work now helping others as a counselor.

A full video version of this podcast is available on the Carton d'invitation Youtube channel.

To learn more about Eve and the Fondation Eve Salvail:

https://fondationevesalvail.org/en/

Or simply go to Instagram: @evesalvail

Find Eve's book "Sois Toi et T'es Belle". Available in bookstores or through online providers.

To discover more about my documentary and this oral history project, find me on Instagram: @cartondinvitation

Original music for this podcast is by Ashley Rivera, Myla Carlos and Chloe Hsu.

British Patricia Jacobs was a newspaper reporter for The New York Post back in the 80s and 90s. Now known as the artist, PJ Cobbs, she has hilarious gee-whiz tales from the trenches of fashion journalism and much perspective on what it was like for persons of colour to operate in that world.

Listen for a crash course in what being a news reporter back then was like, from scrambling to the phone booth to call stories in, getting the scoop when Karl Lagerfeld started yelling at Denise Dubois of the Chambre Syndicale right in front of her, to wearing her best and only little black dress to her first Paris soiree which happened to be hosted by Roger Vivier at Maxims.

It was bittersweet to share our stories of the designer Patrick Kelly who died so quietly in those tragic days when AIDS was kept a secret.

When I was roaming around backstage during the Golden Age of Paris fashion, I would turn to Patricia for soundbites - she always had something interesting to say! Hence while working on my documentary, I knew I needed to track her down to hear her perspective on that whole scene with the benefit of hindsight. The sting of the microagressions hasn't waned; her tenderness towards defenders such as Hilary Alexander remains.

And I think you will find it interesting that Patricia or  PJ Cobbs as she is now called left fashion journalism behind to become a successful artist in New York. 

I hope you enjoy this episode of oral history from Golden age of Paris fashion and also about what a creative life can look like.

PJ Cobbs is an artist, workshop leader and keynote speaker. To learn more about PJ Cobbs (or to buy her artwork), go to her website: https://www.pjcobbsarts.com/or pjcobbsarts

Find her on Instagram @pjcobbsarts

To learn more about my documentary project go to @cartondinvitation on Instagram.

Be sure to check out the video trailer for this episode on Youtube.

Music for this podcast by Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos.

Dawn Wolf stands by the motto that she is only as good as her last booking, A straight-talking New Yorker transplanted to Paris, Dawn says there are secrets she is taking to the grave...but all the same, you will be delighted to hear many, many stories here! She opened Ford Models in Paris and then IMG. Dawn helped launch almost every supermodel from Christy to Naomi to Shalom and Amber to Guinevere van Seenus and Amy Wesson. The list will make you dizzy.

While I was researching my recently released film Carton d'invitation, Dawn was very much a person I needed to reconnect with as a consultant to the project. Her perspective was invaluable.

There's a video trailer for this podcast which will have you laughing out loud:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPguwuuoa68

For more on my documentary project, go to Instagram @cartondinvitation

Original Music: Ashley Rivera, Myla Carlon and Chloe Hsu

Featured in British Vogue, designing for drag influencers, Bailey J Mills and Bimini as well as pop stars CMAT and The Dinner Party, Oran O'Reilly is creating a bit of a sensation in Ireland. His bespoke knitwear sells out. His inventive corsets feature faces of anyone from Kate Bush to Princess Diana. He is just 21 years old - and does his knitting on the bus to college - where he is studying costume design with the illustrious Peter O'Brien at IADT.

(Peter O'Brien is an earlier Carton d'invitation Podcast guest - scroll to find that)!

I met Oran when I went to Dublin to screen my documentary. Of course, his teacher brought some of his students along!

But before I even got to Dublin, I had heard the buzz about Oran - he's been making appearances on Irish national radio and television - and basically charming audiences with his inventive clothes and disarming candour. Among other things, he is honest about how new this career is for him. By the way, since the start, Oran's mother, Orla has been his model for publicity shots - and that launched an unplanned modeling career! As Oran says, Mum taught me to knit and I got her a modeling contract!



You can listen to the podcast here - or watch the full episode on Youtube.

To learn more about Oran: @oranjaurelio on Instagram

And more about my documentary project @cartondinvitation

Music for this podcast: @leonthesinger

Justin Teodoro is a fellow Canadian - based in New York - and an illustrator whose work is followed by tens of thousands of people. His art offers witty and very stylish commentary on pop culture and the world of fashion. 

Enjoy listening to a person who has carved a unique niche for himself by trusting his instincts and leaning into his creativity!

In 2023, Justin was part of the Costume Department for Madonna’s Celebration Tour.  His role was as the Costume Illustrator, working closely with the Costume Team sketching the looks of the show. 

And at the start of 2024, Justin’s original illustrations were chosen to be printed on exclusive merchandise for The Celebration Tour.

Graduating from the Parsons School of Design in 2006, Justin built a successful career as a Womenswear Fashion Designer for such companies as Tuleh, Cynthia Steffe, and Kenneth Cole Productions. 

But after 8 years in the fashion industry, Justin decided to merge his two passions, Fashion and Art to forge a new career as a fashion illustrator and artist.  His illustrative work has been featured in many publications including WWD, WSJ, Vogue, Glamour and GQ.  

As a creative consultant, he has worked with clients such as Nespresso, Hugo Boss and many more to create illustrated & graphic imagery and campaigns that are all infused with his own unique sensibility. 

To find Justin: https://www.justinteodoro.com/ or @justinteodoro on Instagram.

Visit @cartondinvitation on Instagram to discover my ongoing project.

Original Music: Ashley Rivera, Chloe Hsu and Myla Carlos