An interview with Michel Gaubert, fashion’s best-loved soundman

“Music and fashion were made for each other,” says Michel Gaubert. But then, he probably would say that. The French noise provocateur is the industry’s best-loved soundman, known for his encyclopaedic musical knowledge, a list of clients that reads like Anna Wintour’s phonebook and his trademark dad-style reflective sunglasses. He’s worked with the biggest names in the business including Balenciaga, Chanel, Chloé, Dior, Fendi, Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Dries Van Noten and Valentino, among others, and boasts a long-lasting friendship and working partnership with Karl Lagerfeld. Having started his career in 1978 as a buyer for an independent record shop in Paris called Champs Disques, Gaubert’s skills are today are like gold dust in fashion, and any designer in their right mind would jump at the chance to collaborate with him.
When I talk to Gaubert, the first-round of the annual fashion week-cycle has finished. But for this 60 year old, work seemingly never stops. “I’m working on the Cruise collections, they’re happening next month.” he reveals. It’s a full-time job for one brand to labour over the never-ending cycle of Cruise/Resort/Spring/Autumn/Ready-to-Wear collections, but when your client list is as extensive as Gaubert’s, the workload is duplicated by the dozens. “The process is hugely different from one designer to another,” Gaubert explains. “Some designers build their whole collection around music, others don’t think about it until three or four days before the show.” With such hectic ways of working, Gaubert’s job is to slot in when he’s needed, which means his life has to revolve around sound as well as the relentless fashion calendar. To make life easier, he has over 2,000 days’ worth of music on his iTunes, so is always well-equipped for the next project.

Chanel AW18, photo: Olivier Saillant

Gaubert’s love for music began in childhood. “I fell in love with music when I was very little,” he endearingly admits. Growing up in a household that always appreciated music – jazz, Serge Gainsbourg, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones – it’s easy to see how Gaubert’s own life-soundtrack shaped his diverse musical interest. But it was David Bowie who cemented his passion: “He was the person who taught me that music was more than music.”
Gaubert fell into the Paris DJ circuit in the Eighties, spinning everything from Reggae to New Wave, Rock and Pop, and soon be- came known for his eclectic taste. “Other DJs were playing more specialised stuff,” he remembers, “but I didn’t want to be like that. I wanted to do a bit of everything.” He stumbled into the fashion world by happy coincidence. “It was an accident,” he admits. “I got approached to do one fashion show, and then I got caught in the game.”

And thank god he did. He’s the man responsible for overseeing that 80-piece orchestra at Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2011 show, as well as producing the sound for Fendi’s “Great Wall of China” catwalk in 2007. His talent for juxtaposing samples, constructing soundscapes and his no-holds-barred approach to curation has earned Gaubert the trust of multiple couture houses. Above all, he works closely with designers to cultivate a brand identity through sound. When Michel Gaubert wants to soundtrack an event with Frank Ocean’s “Pyramids” – as he did at Louis Vuitton’s Paris Fashion Week event at the Louvre in March last year – who’s to question him? He’s frequently dubbed a ‘sound artist’, but Gaubert rejects this description. “I don’t consider myself an artist,” he explains. “I have artistic sensibilities and creative sensibilities, but I’m not an artist.” What he actually sees himself as is an aural curator. “I bring music alive with images, I create atmosphere.” He crafts these sonic moods by interlacing music and samples, chopping and changing tracks as he sees fit.

Music in fashion is about more than providing a beat for models to walk to. “Music has a lot to do with style, and the way you show yourself, and I think that’s part of fashion,” says Gaubert. And, as he’s quick to point out, music itself often forms the foundation of a collection. Raf Simons, for example, has created several collections influenced by Peter Saville’s designs for Factory Records, home of Joy Division and New Order. Such explicit musical references in fashion make Gaubert’s job easy, but when inspiration springs from elsewhere, the process has to be different. “I mostly work with moodboards,” he explains. “A designer shows me a collage of images and their inspiration — a movie, a place somewhere in the world, a plant, it could be whatever. And then I take it from there.”

It’s a strange thing to put so much work into perfecting an event that’s over in a matter of minutes, but such is the nature of the runway. Thanks to YouTube, of course, 10 minute catwalk shows can now exist online forever, but the atmosphere can never translate to video. “It’s very diluted,” Gaubert affirms, “it’s never the same.” But the contrast is even more acute when it comes to sound. “A lot of people are doing more elaborate set design because it’s more attention grabbing, and it’s very much a part of the image. But for the sound it’s very different,” Gaubert explains. This is down to copyright: fashion is mono-branded, but sound isn’t. “I’d say half the time, we can’t get the copyright,” Gaubert reveals. This makes it impossible for the show’s full components to be conveyed online. “It’s extremely rare that you’d see a fashion show on a website that has the full music.”

Fortunately, this was not the case with Chanel for the maîson’s Paris Fashion Week catwalk this year, set against a woodland backdrop staged inside the Grand Palais. The full event can be relived online, with a soundtrack featuring the French psychedelic-indie duo, The Limiñanas, and supplemented by A.R Kane and Erol Alkan. “We decided we didn’t want to do a poetic forest thing, you know,” Gaubert explains. “The music was really rocky.” This “we” refers to Gaubert and long-time friend Karl Lagerfeld, who came across the young DJ when he was working in Champs Disques. The pair have since developed a partnership that extends beyond fashion. “It’s a dream,” Gaubert says. “It means so much more to me than just a work relationship. Karl is very witty, he’s lots of fun and he trusts me intensely, so that’s very rewarding.”

Michel Gaubert at Calvin Klein, Sterling Ruby, photo: Ryan Aguliar

Despite his presumed acquaintance with anyone-who’s-anyone in the fashion industry, Gaubert insists he’s always excited to meet new designers. “It’s not that I’d be dying to work with someone,” he explains, “but I always like to meet new people and discover new experiences.” And there’s one fashion figure with whom he’s yet to make contact. “I’d love to meet Donatella Versace,” he admits.

Though Gaubert remains silent about his upcoming projects (all firmly under wraps), he is willing to impart some musical recommendations. “I love the new Nicolas Jaar release,” he tells us, in a soft French accent that makes the experimental artist’s name sound infinitely more beautiful, “and King Krule just did a cover of Connan Mockasin’s “Forever Dolphin Love” — I really like that.” Whether they’ll be worked into one of Gaubert’s upcoming shows, we’ll have to wait and see, but what we can expect is a thoughtful dialogue between music and fashion. As Gaubert says, revising his opening statement, “I don’t know if they’re made for each other, but they reply to each other.”