HYPEBEAST Interview - Stephane Ashpool of PIGALLE

Opening their doors back in October of this year, PIGALLE became a life-long dream for owner Stephane Ashpool, stemming from his passion for design, fashion culture and strong family roots. The Parisian boutique has brought a breath of fresh air to the already historically rich city of Paris, France. Introducing a mixture of street wear and couture stylings to the 9th district, PIGALLE displays a true appreciation towards apparel design and creates a family oriented atmosphere rarely seen these days. We caught up with Stephane recently, getting a rundown of his inspiration behind PIGALLE and what the future has in store. Check it out after the jump!

Interview with Stephane

Stephane, could you tell us a bit about your background within the industry and how you came about opening a clothing boutique in Paris?

It’s before anything else, a passion that has been transmitted down by the women in my family and mainly my mother, then from curiosity (from couture to streetwear). We created a family company called, Vida9, almost 5 years ago, doing post production, casting and such things on runway shows for designers like Rick Owens, Gareth Puth, and Sharon Wochob. There’s also my crew, PainOchoKolat, with whom we love to have “style battles”, big Parisian baller style. And finally there’s the store that was a natural fit but mostly a childhood dream.

What is the inspiration and meaning behind the name, PIGALLE?

PIGALLE is mainly the neighborhood I and most of my friends grew up in. The architecture, the food, the people, their energy, it’s a very rich melting pot that influenced directly our way of life. Here anything goes down, whether it’s day or night, PIGALLE is a perpetual ruckus.

The 9th district is a popular touristic area in Paris, what influenced your decision to open up shop at this particular location?

The area’s touristic because it’s close to Montmartre, but it’s pretty simple, I would have never opened a store anywhere else but here. I was fed up with going to the Marais, Rue Saint-honoré or Etienne Marcel to do some shopping. Real people hang out in the north of Paris and we’re pretty lucky because the neighborhood became very trendy in the last year or two. Plus, we were born here.

Certainly a city rich in fashion history, how do you feel street wear differs in Paris than in other cities across the world?

The street wear scene was pretty different here. Street dudes from the hood used to be dipped in Lacoste, Sergio Tacchini and Fila back in the day. They adopted American fashion (baggy jeans; hoodies and New Era caps). But now that all that has matured a bit, there are a lot of people starting to develop with some inspired mixes of designers and street brands. Like in my store, I believe in mixing genres, materials and styles but I believe I will be able to speak more on this in two or three years.

Stocking quite an impressive array of labels from around the globe, how did you come about selecting which would make the roster?

Travels, networking, friends of friends, resourcefulness, love of great clothes. For the selection, its a mix of genres, a contemporary look circa 2010!! But it won’t stop, there are a lot of brands that I love that I’m not yet carrying, soon hopefully I will continue to push forward European and Japanese brands. There will be some exceptions though, of course.

In addition to these brands, what can we expect from your in house label, Pigalle?

Haaaaaa, a lot I hope. We’re mainly going to do it for the love of our neighborhood, PIGALLE and Paris. I’ll say we’ll start off with simple and inexpensive things. Before targeting the world, we’ll
focus on our surroundings, everything that’s too expensive and isn’t worth it, we will boycott it. Fuck 100 Euros T-Shirts, but at the same time, we would love a Lanvin jacket or a Dr. Romanelli piece although both cost a grip. So we will, as with everything else, look in between those lines.

Is the label another hands on project for yourself or are there others involved in the process?

For now it’s just Ashpool and friends. Who knows later? I’d like to work with two Paris-based designers, Felipe Batiste Oliviera and Gustavo Lins. For now it’s all about getting that dough, lol.

Heading into 2009, what can we expect from Pigalle?

First of all there’s our crew, PainOchOkolat, that’s the posse to watch. We’ll be trying to shake things up a bit in here. Aside from that, for PIGALLE, it’s all about energy and carefreeness. We’ll see what happens next. I hope this crisis everyone keeps talking about doesn’t get any worse. “La Vie Rapide” continues.

Interview: Luis Ruano