Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story Among the striking, seductive and undeniably stylish photos that make up The World To Come: Visions of an Image Maker , a book that opens a window into stylist and creative director Marie-Amélie Sauve’ s extensive body of work, there is one that stands out for a different reason. It captures a moment of sheer giddiness between Sauvé and Nicolas Ghesquière from his Balenciaga days when she was his fit model. Whatever prompted this outburst of giggling, the photo attests to the closeness they established early on as their respective careers were rising.
Arriving on October 8th, the tome in all its chicness starts off with Polaroid and hazy film throwbacks to this era 30 years ago chez Balenciaga and beyond, when today’s established fashion figures such as Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin or PR Consulting’s Pierre Rougier brought a fresh and, sometimes disruptive way of doing things to the industry. Interspersed with cerebral essays by the likes of Donatien Grau, Alexander Fury, Emanuele Coccia and Sophie Abriat, the sections gain slickness as Sauvé shifts into stylist mode, shaping editorials and campaigns for major magazines and luxury houses.
But Sauvé—who has gained mononym “Marie-Amélie” status among a core group of fashion people—has proven polyvalent and even a little elusive in the ways she has transcended her stylist title. The book’s timing coincides with the 10-year anniversary of Mastermind , a magazine she founded that explores broader cultural and contextual subjects that fascinate her beyond what appears on the runway from one season to the next. That each hefty issue contains profiles of Nobel Prize-winners or emerging literary voices is essentially Sauvé flexing her creative director taste as substantive versus superficial. And perhaps because many of the additional roles she assumes—whether repositioning a brand’s identity or advising designers—happen out of the spotlight, she often operates like an éminence grise working with a constellation of talents that are determining a certain ‘look’ to Parisian high fashion without most of us even realizing.
When we met at the Café de Flore last week ahead of her auspicious dual debut—also ahead is a Mastermind podcast, plus an exhibition at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac—she pointed to her nose, explaining how the innate act of sniffer (English word, French accent) leads her to what’s next. Wearing a Louis Vuitton leather jacket and jodhpur-like jeans with Phoebe Philo oxblood ballerinas, she delved into her enduring friendship with Ghesquière (they spent the Covid lockdown together in the countryside along with Julien Dossena) before moving on to how she separates her work and personal interests (spoiler: she doesn’t).
Nicolas Ghesquiere and Marie-Amelie Sauve
Vogue: Many people are already familiar with your work. What might surprise them in the book?
MAS: There are some Balenciaga fitting photos; these truly belong to Nicolas. Nobody has ever seen them, and nobody could imagine what it was actually like inside Balenciaga back then. At the time, Balenciaga was very closed off, like a laboratory of ideas. He even created fabrics. When fabrics were presented to him, he might say that it was not what he had in mind. So he had them made. He managed to push people right out of their comfort zone.
What went through your mind as you revisited these moments?
MAS: It was amazing to transport myself back to that era. And t…