WORKING THE FASHION BEAT
Where fashion and music meet, there’s gotta be a party, where Jerry Bouthier will most likely show. This French dude’s been representin’ the best of both worlds ever since his stint at London’s hip haven Boombox, where indie-disco was served with a cut of fashionista pie. And he’s still got a thing going: JBAG, for which he’s working with Andrea Gorgerino to service Vivienne Westwood’s catwalks, remix everything, and fatten up Kitsuné’s catalogue (their debut single appears on the label this Spring). Jerry put in a great night at The Butter Factory recently and we got him to deliver this party line.

So how did you, a Frenchman, end up in London?
Only for the music. I grew up with British pop music, and I moved to London as soon as I was 18 – I really couldn’t wait! I didn’t enjoy Paris so much growing up ‘cos at the time, if you had tattoos and crazy haircuts, you’ll get beaten up. But now things have changed, and being different is more acceptable…

Indeed. But tell us more about your work in fashion – we hear you’re good with catwalk soundtracks.
That’s one of our main activities with JBAG. We work on all the fashion shows for Vivienne Westwood and London designers like Peter Jensen, Jonathan Saunders and Osman. It’s very much like DJ-ing, but the idea is not to get people to dance, but to create a little story with different tracks. We like a lot of different music, so there’s some rock, electro and virtually everything. It actually creates a lot of impact at the shows. It’s almost like a little film.

It’s also a nice meeting between music and fashion.
Yeah, I mean, these young fashion designers in London are almost artists because their goal is not to make a lot of money (if it was, they would do something else), but to express themselves and push fashion forward. So I feel really honoured to work with these designers who are really exciting, creative and don’t conform to the idea of fashion on the high street or in the mainstream.

That seems to be at the heart of Boombox – all that’s exciting, creative and imaginative.
Boombox really happened at a time in London when all the clubs were playing techno, house, very druggy and dark music – they were just not very fun. And somehow, there was a need for something like Boombox. It’s just a very open place where people could come be whatever they want to be and dress however they want.

Read up on the full interview in the January issue of JUICE, now out at these spots.

www.myspace.com/jerrybouthier

Text: Min Chen
Interview courtesy of: The Butter Factory