Philipp Plein Immerses Us in His Creative Universe

In Cannes with Philipp Plein at La Jungle Du Roi

Earlier this month, Whitewall ventured to Cannes, France, where designer Philipp Plein was hosting a black-tie soiree at his home La Jungle Du Roi. There with attendees like Flavy Barla, Jonathan Germain, Ambre Abadia, and Antoine Constantin, the evening of live music and merrymaking was held in celebration of the latest releases from Plein’s eponymous brand—a series of eyewear, Luxury Time Machine watches, and a sumptuous new fragrance. Surrounded by twinkling lights and swaying palms, we enjoyed beautiful poolside installations inspired by products like the golden credit card packaging of the No Limits fragrance, along with a comprehensive display of the collections.

The Designer’s Spring/Summer 2024 Collection

This year, Philipp Plein is also celebrating its 25th anniversary, and debuted its Spring/Summer 2024 collection during Milan Fashion Week last month. In true Plein fashion, the presentation at the Allianz Cloud was lively and entertaining—more of an immersive experience than fashion show, featuring a light-up amusement park ride in the center of the arena-style seating. Ahead of the show, the designer came to speak to the audience, his ten-year-old son by his side, thanking the crowd for being part of his family.

To a soundtrack of 1980s classics, along with performances by contemporary musicians, we saw joyful looks full of alluring prints and hues. Sartorial silhouettes and playful shapes were seen for men and women, expanding on classics and recontextualizing them for a fresh, contemporary feeling. Concurrently, the house’s rock and roll spirit was present in sensual cuts and daring details, juxtaposing bubble graphic lettering and ruffled skirts with flames, studded leather, and skulls—an iconic Philipp Plein motif—in a representation of the brand’s enduring family ethos and stylistic evolution.

With Plein’s runway presentation still on our mind, Whitewall caught up with the designer during the party at La Jungle Du Rois to learn more about his creative universe.

Philipp Plein’s Creative Universe is All-Encompassing

WHITEWALL: Tonight, we’re at your home, La Jungle du Roi. What does this place represent for you? How is it linked to the brand’s spirit and lifestyle?

PHILIPP PLEIN: It’s everything. I created my own brand and my own world. There is no border between my lifestyle and my brand, because we as a brand today sell a lifestyle to our clients. It’s a way to sell the brand, and also communicate it to your clients.

When I bought this house, it was called “Oasis.” In France, all the houses have names. In reality, “Oasis” was a wild jungle because nobody lived in the house for many years. I thought it was nice to name the house La Jungle du Roi because in Saint Tropez, when I was a kid, I went to that nightclub in Byblos. It was a nice way to associate my memories from childhood to this place.

It’s very flamboyant. I mean, the South of France is exactly what you’ll discover tonight. It’s fun—it’s dancing, it’s music, it’s good energy. When I design a collection I give everything a theme. When I was at the house, the theme was “the jungle of the king.”

WW: You decorated La Jungle Du Roi yourself. What were your inspirations? How would you compare designing interiors to working in fashion?

PP: The beauty of building a home is that it’s timeless. You don’t change your home or your concept every season. When you work in fashion, your work gets replaced very fast because there are four seasons in the industry. Some even have six seasons. Especially when you’re in a contemporary fashion business, you always have to come up with new ideas. It’s a very fast pace.

It’s a completely different approach if you consider that there are brands or businesses outside where you sell a product for decades. Here, we are in a very innovative, demanding business. Designing a house is nice because it stays for years or decades.

The jungle brought the mood and I have a lot of inspiration from the jungle—the wallpapers, the materials. In the jungle there are a lot of mystical things happening. It can be beautiful, it can be dangerous. It can be romantic, you know. In a jungle you expect the unexpected. Everything can happen in the jungle. That’s why I like this idea, especially for the South of France.

WW: Does your love of interiors carry over to art? Do you have any favorite artists?

PP: I really enjoy art and my favorite painter is Mark Rothko. He’s been my favorite artist since I was a little guy. I love the color combinations and the compositions he puts together. He was always my favorite artist.

“To create something that doesn’t exist out of nothing—this is the real pleasure in life.”—Philipp Plein

WW: What do you love most about art?

PP: I enjoy art, but I also enjoy the creativity behind it. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a famous artist, but to create something that doesn’t exist, out of nothing, this is the real pleasure in life. This is the real luxury for me. People think that money or material objects are the real luxury or the real target, but for me, the real luxury is having the possibility to create your dream.. It can beyoura dream occasion, your dream dinner, your dream dish, your dream furniture.

To have the vision and then see the vision come to life—that is luxury. It can be small scale and big scale. It can be a painting or it can be a house you built. But to be creative, it’s the real possibility to realize it. A lot of people dream, but they don’t have the ambition to realize the dream. People think about it, they dream about it, but then they don’t do it.

WW: Would you say that’s your message to people? How you want to inspire them?

PP: Yes. Dreaming, and believing in the dreams at the same time, is the message. When you don’t believe in your dreams, nobody else will ever support you. You have to dream and believe in your own dreams before anybody else does.

I see a lot of people being unhappy and not being fulfilled in their life because they are scared of their dreams. There are people who dream of living in Australia, but they are scared to leave their life, go there, and to try to live there. I think this is the biggest obstacle of people. They dream, but they don’t take the next step to realize it.

The First Philipp Plein Hotel in the Works

WW: You recently announced that you’re going to open your first hotel. Can we expect the same atmosphere, the same elements, the same creativity as we see here at La Jungle Du Rois?

PP: Yes. It’svery inspired by my life and by my experiences—traveling, and my own homes. In fact, we have one restaurant called La Jungle de Plein. We have another restaurant The Skull Bar, we have Crystal Beach, and we have Philipp’s, which is a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant, a nightclub, and also a private cinema.

All of these different concepts under one roof are pretty much inspired by one or the other of my homes. The Skull Bar is inspired by my house in L.A. I have a room which I created, La Jungle de Plein by La Jungle du Roi,where I translated my own world.

Nowadays, it’s very important to engage with your clients on a different level. We’re not only selling a product anymore, we are selling a lifestyle and a dream—especially in the luxury segment. If we are not able to connect with our clients and to transport this dream, it will be difficult for us to survive in the future. Otherwise, you are replaceable.

There is so much product on the market and it’s not only the product that sets you apart anymore. You can find beautiful dresses and shoes everywhere. You don’t need to go to a specific brand anymore. I think the supply is more than the demand can ever request, so the only way to survive is to have your dream and lifestyle connected to your product. At the end, this is what people are going to buy.

The Designer’s Unprecedented Runway Approach

WW: We were lucky to attend your last collection and show. It was a true experience, which is something you’re known for. How did you begin incorporating these experiences into your runway presentations?

PP: I started maybe 15 years ago a concept during Milan Fashion Week to create a show that was more of a party than a fashion show. The brand Philipp Plein has really changed this landscape of fashion shows, because our shows over the years became more and more crowded, bigger and bigger. a

When I started doing this 15 years ago, a fashion show was a short runway spectacle for a very small exclusive audience—mainly editors and some VIP buyers,. We made it a very democratic event. Fashion is democratic; fashion should be for everybody. Maybe the prize is not accessible for everyone, but at least, everybody should be able to access and enjoy it. It’s like art.

The Mona Lisa is not for 20 VIPs, it should be accessible for everybody. That’s why we have a museum. So, my fashion shows have changed the landscape of fashion shows completely because I was the first one to bring performers, especially rappers, on the catwalk.

When I started doing this, it was not hip, it was not cool. People said “This is not luxury. It has nothing to do with exclusivity.” In fact, now everybody is inclusive. Everybody started to copy this concept. You see a lot of brands doing shows with rappers and performers—a spectacle.

So yeah, it was a classic Philipp Plein show. Though I think now it’s time to change the concept soon because everybody has started to do it and it’s not interesting anymore. We did it only because we wanted to be different and now so many other brands are doing the same kind of approach.

WW: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the new collection, as well as the show?

PP: The idea of the show was ‘80s-inspired. The music was from my childhood, I was born in ’78, so it’s the music that played on the radio when I was five, six, seven years old—the first time I started to even understand music and listen to music. I put this playlist together. You know, at Philipp Plein we do everything self-made. I do everything by myself, the concept, the show, the project.

I like to invite people to have fun, to bring a positive energy. It’s very inviting. People after the show can enjoy the event, can sit inside, and have fun. The models have fun. You become a child again. This was part of the idea. Then, of course, the rappers and the contemporary touch of the music was also a nice twist in the beginning and at the end.

The collection was colorful. It was a summer collection, full of joy. Color is important. Most of the time people wear black, and I think it’s time to show color again and to bring color back, especially in the summer.

We had some beautiful rock- and gothic- inspired at the end of the show. The typical Plein DNA is rock’n’roll, gothic, luxury-chic. So, we have some beautiful rock’n’roll pieces; classic Plein, classic DNA. It was a little bit of a journey through the brand.

[There were] some sartorials. Sartorial became more and more important to the brand in the last couple of seasons because during COVID a lot of brands were focusing on casual-wear, sneakers, and now people are going to events again. People are catching up on what they missed—red carpet events, dinners, galas—so people need to be dressed up. It became an interesting niche for us, to sell sartorial.

You saw colorful suits. You saw a lot of blazers and jacquard workmanship on the blazers. Blazers for ladies.

WW: You might be the only designer to come on stage before each show and talk about the collection. What made you decide to do this?

PP: I think it’s a nice gesture to connect with the people, because I feel they come for me. They come for the brand and I represent the brand, so it’s a way to show them that I’m grateful and thankful, but also to connect with them in a certain way.

Philipp Plein is a people’s brand. We are for the people. You know, just showing the collection and hiding yourself behind the model and running away again… I think it is a matter of respect to say thank you for coming, thank you for being our client, thank you for being part of this, thank you for being there for us.

WW: The idea of family is also an important thing for the culture of the company. Can you tell us more about this?

PP: We are authentic in what we do and what we say because we are a family company and we do not have managers in the company who only work for profit or for the balance sheet or to make investors happy. You know, when you have an investment fund or when you make an IPO, people want to see close and development and you have the pressure to deliver.

This is different in our company. An investment fund goes into a company in order to sell the company again. I’ve never seen an investment fund go into a company that they didn’t want to sell after five years. After five years, they exit and they want to exit with at least 100 percent profit. So what do they do? They put the company on steroids. They inject a lot of money to artificially boost the business. This happened with one brand after the other. You can see it, it’s very obvious. It’s not even important that these brands are profitable at this moment, they just want to develop growth and take market shares. They do this with injecting a lot of money and cash.

We are working hard for our results and we are building a long-term strategy. The long-term strategy is to have a client who grows with us and stays with us and believes in us. This is how this company is built. It’s built on the money that we receive from our clients. Now, as we are 25 years in the market, we have clients who have been with us for 20 years and longer.

We have a partner from Vienna who opened his first Philipp Plein boutique 20 years ago and they are still here and still working with us. Somehow, we’re doing something right. That is what I call brand equity. This is what I call the value of a brand. This is why I think it’s important to treat your clients how you want to be treated. And I want to be treated like family.

Philipp Plein Celebrates 25 Years

WW: It is also the 25^th anniversary of your brand. How do you feel abou that?  Did you envision this moment?

PP: It’s a long time. I’ve never envisioned it. 25 years ago, I registered Philipp Plein as a brand at the WIPO—the World Intellectual Property Organization. I was a law student so I did it by myself. This is when the trademark was born, 25 years ago. I still have the registration with the date, it was 1998.

I think we have proven to us, but also to our clients and competitors, that today we are a brand. We’re not a trend, we’re a brand. I’ve seen many brands bigger than us vanishing, going away, disappearing completely from the market. I think in 25 years, we have steadily developed the company. Apart from COVID, 2020, when we lost a substantial amount of turnover (nearly €90 M in one year), we have always developed the business from year to year, steadily. I think this is where we are today.

I always say, we have something very valuable, which is time. Even still, at 45, I’m old but I’m still young enough to go another 20 years in one direction. This is a situation that many brands don’t have. A manager is hired for five years and he wants his bonus, and he wants a bonus every year until the end of his period, and so on. We have a really long way to go and eventually there will be kids and family who will be involved with the business, too. I want to build something with substance, and if you want to build something with substance, you have to build it on stone, on concrete, not on sand.