GILDED BIRDS

Amélie Pichard, designer, on her Playboy magazine with a personal dedication from Pamela Anderson

GB Tell me why you chose this as an object of beauty.

AP I have a collection of Playboy, Lui and other 70s erotic magazines. I bought this one a few years ago. When I met Pamela she dedicated it to me, I was so happy, I was like a child.

GB Is the beauty sentimental to you, or would you still find this magazine beautiful if you’d never met her?

AP I love Pamela and what she represent from my teenage years. I like her as the woman, mother, wife, nature lover and sex symbol she represents. I love that people always  have good or bad things to say about her. I don’t like ‘soapy’ people. (i.e. people that are too clean, smooth, politically correct.)

GB Do you think that Pamela is a beautiful woman? In person as well as in pictures?

AP Pamela is an amazing and strong woman, and she’s becoming more and more beautiful. I love the way that she’s aging. Did you see her in the Luke Gilford movie? It’s very interesting the way they speak about old age. Pamela is very natural, but people don’t necessarily see that.

GB Obvious questions about feminism here – but how do you feel that female beauty is best celebrated? Is Playboy celebrating or exploiting women?

AP For me, erotic magazines like Playboy play with clichés, I love clichés. The way they show naked or nearly naked women has never shocked me. Women are the most beautiful things in the world. From their body, through what their bodies represent like giving birth. Naked girls in pictures are the ones who drive the world, and not the guys who have an eye for them.

GB Do you find this cover cool in an ironic way? Can it be beautiful at the same time?

AP This cover is funny and sexy, I love that. Wittiness is very important.

GB Is the beauty of this image the same as beauty that you’d find in a work of art?

AP For me art is what makes you feel beautiful or touches you. I am very sensitive to photography, for me it’s the best art. I love women, I love photography, so yes I love a lot of pictures in  a Guy Bourdin style, for example, that were criticised a lot in the 80’s. I love anything that will stir up discussion, that will make people express their option and speak.

GB Is beauty always a consideration in your work? Do other factors come before it like fashion or style?

AP I don’t like Fashion for the sake of fashion. I love timelessness, I love style, I love the link between our society and fashion, clothes & accessories that have a story.

GB Do you think this choice of object reveals anything about your personality?

AP Of course. Before meeting and working with Pamela I was totally obsessed about her, and 70’s pinups. Now we made our own campaign with David Lachapelle shooting Pamela Anderson, I feel like a dream has come true, and a fantasy has been realized. It’s like I closed a loop.

GB What makes something worthy of the word beauty to you?

AP The eye of the beholder; our subjective and personal view. If one things is beautiful for everybody it is not as beautiful for me.

See Amélie’s work here