{"id":245833,"date":"2025-12-16T18:19:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/?p=245833"},"modified":"2025-12-16T18:21:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:21:50","slug":"exclusive-interview-with-bernard-fouquet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/exclusive-interview-with-bernard-fouquet\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview with Bernard Fouquet"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Giorgos Archimandritis<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Paris, rue St Honor\u00e9. During a brief stop in the City of Light, Bernard Fouquet – one of the most recognizable and long-standing male models – talks to us about his profession, menswear, and the evolution of fashion, while also sharing his love for the sea and travel.<\/em><\/p>\n

How did your career as a model begin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was pure coincidence. I had left my hometown, Royan on the Atlantic coast, and come to Paris with a surfboard, planning to head to California to surf. While walking around Paris, I ran into an acquaintance who worked for a pr\u00eat-\u00e0-porter company and later became an agent for female models. She introduced me to my first agency. It was 1976. I did a test shoot and within ten days I passed my first casting and landed my first job. Since it was well paid, I thought that instead of leaving immediately for California, it would be worth continuing for a while to see how things would develop. That\u2019s how it all began. I went to California much later, and in fact I stayed in the U.S. for a full 26 years.<\/p>\n

How do you view the evolution of fashion over the past decades?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I really loved the entire period from the \u201970s, \u201980s, \u201990s up to the 2000s. I believe that back then there were fabrics with character, beautiful lines, and well-tailored garments. Today, street style dominates more; everything is a bit mixed together, which doesn\u2019t particularly suit my personal taste. Of course, there are still wonderful pieces today; they just no longer correspond to what I personally love about clothing. For example, when it comes to jackets, I prefer English tailoring. I adore English tweeds\u2014the British excel in this area. Italian cuts are a bit slimmer, but I love their style and fabrics.<\/p>\n

What should a man\u2019s wardrobe include?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll start with formalwear: a tuxedo is essential in my opinion. A beautiful flannel suit is always excellent, as is a dark blue blazer and tweed jackets. I\u2019m particularly fond of jackets with a herringbone weave. I also prefer double vents at the back rather than a single one. And of course, good shoes are necessary. Clothing is elevated not only by good tailoring, but also by a beautiful pair of shoes and a quality belt. As for colors, I personally prefer beige tones and I love khaki. I\u2019m not particularly fond of bright colors for men. I like faded oranges, khaki cashmere sweaters. I adore cashmere – a collection of cashmere sweaters is always an excellent choice.<\/p>\n

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Which moments would you single out in your career as a model?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, the most important thing was working with great photographers. I was fortunate to collaborate with Peter Lindbergh, Annie Leibovitz, Craig McDean, and Paolo Roversi. It\u2019s a great joy to work with such people and to see how their beautiful photographs are born. Of course, being in front of the camera isn\u2019t easy. Especially when you\u2019re starting out, you hesitate a bit and wonder what you\u2019re supposed to do. Over time, however, being photographed becomes a pleasure. You try to give your best through your posture, the way you move, suggesting different poses and expressions – sometimes smiling, sometimes serious. It\u2019s a job you learn by doing. When you\u2019re a beginner, you watch the more experienced models on the same set, you take elements from the way they work and then adapt them to your own personality. It\u2019s not simple. It requires a lot of serious work.<\/p>\n

What are the greatest pleasures this profession offers you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travel. You discover new places, new people. Every time I go somewhere unfamiliar, the first thing I do is drop my bags and put on walking shoes. I like to see a country\u2019s culture, the way its people live. Sometimes you find yourself in incredible places. In South Africa, for example, I often went to downtown Cape Town. It was a bit dangerous, but I liked seeing what was happening there. Another place I truly loved is the Philippines – a real paradise. When I was in Miami, I also worked frequently on the Caribbean islands. I\u2019ve worked in China and in other countries that are wonderful to discover. I really love this cosmopolitan aspect of my work – meeting people from different countries, even if you\u2019re never going to see them again. What matters is the moment; when it\u2019s good, the exchange is rich. I always loved that very much. And of course, seeing incredible landscapes.<\/p>\n

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What is your favorite landscape?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am a person of the sea. I was born and raised next to it, and my home is almost on the beach. I love the ocean, its open horizon. The ocean, for me, means freedom. I no longer surf now, but when I was younger I loved it. Being in the water, in the waves – this always appealed to me. It\u2019s wonderful to stand upright on a wave. It\u2019s not about domination; it\u2019s the miracle of following it in its movement and its path. I\u2019ve always loved sports. Now I do intense athletic walking. I ran for many years, but now I find that walking has more benefits – it\u2019s gentler on the body and more pleasant. I also play golf. I\u2019ve done all kinds of sports: water skiing, snow skiing, and a lot of horseback riding. I\u2019ve done everything.<\/p>\n

What does elegance mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, elegance is a way of being. It\u2019s not found in the clothes someone wears, but in the way they wear them. Someone else can wear exactly the same clothes and they may say nothing on them. I think it\u2019s a kind of aura, a gift. And I believe it\u2019s more innate than acquired. It\u2019s a way of being, as I said – a way of moving, a way of behaving. It\u2019s not just about clothing; it\u2019s about how you speak, how you treat others. Respect for your surroundings. That\u2019s very important. You don\u2019t have to agree with someone, but you can express your opinion with courtesy. And if you don\u2019t like something, you can simply leave, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t belong here.\u201d That, to me, is elegance.<\/p>\n

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Photos Courtesy of Bernard Fouquet Portfolio<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Giorgos Archimandritis Paris, rue St Honor\u00e9. During a brief stop in the City of Light, Bernard Fouquet – one of the most recognizable and long-standing male models – talks to us about his profession, menswear, and the evolution of fashion, while also sharing his love for the sea and travel. How did your career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":245830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18542,18563],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245833"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245836,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245833\/revisions\/245836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}