Jerome C. Rousseau chats about his inspiration
In 1990 Deee Lite released the single “Groove Is in the Heart,” and it became an instant pop classic, hitting the top of the dance charts and scoring No. 1 on international billboards.
For shoe designer Jerome C. Rousseau, the iconic ‘90s hit was more than just a song to tap his shoe to. With a video featuring psychedelic colors and platform shoes, Rousseau credits the single for being his original muse.
“It was quite a discovery at 12 years old to discover psychedelic and disco in one video clip,” Rousseau said. “I really fell in love with it, to be honest. That’s where my love of shoes started.”
No longer a music-obsessed teenager, Rousseau is an acclaimed shoe designer whose designs have topped the toes of celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson, Katie Holmes and January Jones. Known for his ability to create modern, timeless designs that still push the envelope, Rousseau believes his artistic vision is still drawn from his love of pop culture.
“I always loved musical artists that have a really distinct fashion sense,” the Canadian designer said. “Be it – when I was very young – David Bowie to Cindi Lauper to Duran Duran to, as I said before, Deee Lite.”
Still heavily influenced by music, he uses French actress Roxane Mesquida as a muse.
“She has those piercing eyes that communicate a lot, yet she remains sort of mysterious and distant. There’s something really special about her,” he said.
Rousseau also loves the band Elli et Jacno, an electro-pop group from the late ‘70s. He said their aloof, distant attitudes combined with their confidence are an enormous inspiration.
“I’m completely obsessed with that woman,” he said about the lead singer.
Most recently, one of his favorite celebrities to don his designs is the singer Feist, who also hails from the country of the maple leaf.
“I adore her. I’m very happy that she likes the label,” he said.
Born in Quebec, the designer has had quite the travel trajectory as well. Although he started sketching in his teens, Rousseau isn’t solely self-made. He’s also got an esteemed education under his belt. He attended Cordwainer’s College at the London College of Fashion, the famed institution that taught Jimmy Choo how to make a shoe, where he studied footwear and accessories design.
Out of curiosity, he said, Rousseau decided to move to California and take a stab at starting in the States. There he set up shop in Los Angeles, where he now lives, and started his namesake line in 2008.
Rousseau is humble about his beginnings and laughed when probed about his “big break.”
“It came into its own really … Almost regardless of me,” he said. “I don’t know if I want to call it a break. Sometimes I feel like I haven’t broken yet!”
In the beginning, his line received a fair amount of press, startling the new designer, who at the time still felt rather green in the industry.
“When you launch a collection and immediately you have Charlize Theron and Cameron Diaz wearing it … (Then) you get featured in British Vogue … It sort of opened a lot of doors very quickly,” he said. “To be honest, I wasn’t immediately ready for that. I embrace it and run with it as much as I can.”
And he has run with it.
Recently, Disney approached the LA-based Rousseau to create a shoe for its new film “TRON: Legacy,” which is set for a December release. The pop culture junkie couldn’t say no.
“I really love the modernity of the film. It’s difficult to do a science fiction film that ages well,” he said. “I think aesthetically it’s aged very beautifully and kept a lot of class somehow.”
Besides the obvious aesthetic similarities between “TRON” and his line – both have a modern pop/electronica feel – he also knew it was something the young Rousseau would have died to be a part of.
“‘TRON’ is one of my favorite films … At five years old, I was a little bit too young to really capture it,” he said. “It was really as a teenager that I fell in love with TRON again.”
The “TRON” shoe, a modern, Space Age silver sandal, will be sold at the Disney pop-up shops for the film. The shoe will also be part of his Spring 2011 Collection, which debuts in March.
Rousseau’s collections all exhibit a myriad of design and texture. Although there are similarities within a collection – maybe the use of denim, a leopard print or even just the line of a shoe – each design is completely distinct and easily stands on its own.
How does he do it?
“I don’t know,” he laughed. “I’m very instinctive about it.”
One thing Rousseau doesn’t want to do is conform to trend.
“Women have been wearing a lot of things that are quite tough and severe in some respects,” he said. “I really feel strongly about doing something that is more feminine, not boring and not less fun, but definitely more feminine … a more playful point of view rather than the female warrior.”
Rousseau gave LadyLUX a sneak peek of a design from his Spring Collection, which he won’t unveil until late winter. The strappy gladiator platform with an embroidered fabric heel he showed us brings a new ethnic, tribal vibe to his line. LadyLUX is looking forward to the coming months to see what Rousseau has in store for 2011.
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