INTERVIEW: On Aura Tout Vu Still Has Plenty Of Surprises Up Its Sleeve

By Jessica Ye (Jessica Yap)

The first time I encountered On Aura Tout Vu was in Singapore, when two rather extraordinary centaurs appeared on the runway.

It was 2012, and I remember thinking that there was something wonderfully unapologetic about the Paris-based duo of Livia Stoianova and Yassen Samouilov. Their work has always had a way of refusing to behave like ordinary fashion, whether through couture, jewellery, sculpture, performance or the occasional creature that looks as though it has wandered in from another universe.

And after more than three decades of On Aura Tout Vu, they still seem to enjoy that part enormously.

CT: Where does an On Aura Tout Vu idea usually begin?

LIVIA & YASSEN: It can really start anywhere. Sometimes it is a story or an image, sometimes an emotion. We can be looking at a painting, watching a film, looking at nature or reading something about history, and suddenly there is an idea.

We are always observing what is happening around us too. Society changes, people change, the way we see things changes. For us, fashion should react to that, but it can also question it a little. We like the idea that a garment can make you look at something differently.

Then the difficult part begins, which is turning that first idea into something real. We start looking at materials, volumes, colours and silhouettes and seeing what happens. Sometimes something completely unexpected comes from the material itself.

That is probably one of our favourite moments, when you have an idea in your head and then suddenly you are holding something that has become much more interesting than the original thought.

And we always go back to our archive. We do not see it as something finished. There are old ideas that can suddenly become interesting again years later, perhaps because we are looking at them differently now.

CT: Your early work was already very interested in fantasy, transformation and excess. Has that instinct changed as your careers have developed?

LIVIA & YASSEN: The instinct has not really changed. We still like questioning things. We still like taking something that might seem too much, or perhaps even a little inappropriate, and asking ourselves, “Why not?”

What has changed is that we know ourselves better now. When we were younger, there was a tendency to put everything into one piece. We wanted to say everything at once.

CT: Your work is often spectacular, but the spectacle never seems to be there simply for the sake of spectacle. How do you decide when a piece has gone far enough?

LIVIA & YASSEN: We love spectacle, of course. It is part of what we do. But if the only reason for a piece to exist is that it looks spectacular, that is not enough for us.

Usually there is something we are trying to say first. There is a character, an emotion or an image in our heads, and then we start building from there.

Craftsmanship is a huge part of that. We love embroidery, crystals, sculptural volumes and unusual materials because they allow you to take an idea much further. Something can look completely different from a distance and then, when you come closer, you discover all these details.

And then someone has to wear it.

That changes everything. The personality of the person becomes part of the garment, and sometimes they bring something to it that we could never have planned ourselves.

That is when we feel the piece is really alive.

CT: You have created costumes for performers from very different backgrounds. What does a performer bring to a piece that a model cannot?

LIVIA & YASSEN: A performer moves differently, and that changes the whole way you think about the garment.

On a runway, you are thinking about the silhouette and the attitude of the model. On stage, there is movement, choreography, light and everything that is happening around the performer, so the garment has to respond to all of that.

We also have to understand who the performer is. Every artist has their own personality, their own way of moving and their own universe. We do not want to cover that up. We want the costume to help bring it out.

Sometimes costume can become almost like a second skin. Sometimes it is armour. Sometimes it gives someone the confidence to become a completely different version of themselves.

And you discover things when the garment starts moving that you could never see in a photograph. A sleeve moves differently, a volume opens, something catches the light.

The garment and the performer become one thing. That is what we are looking for.

CT: Your work for LISA’s Muay Thai-inspired performance was particularly striking. How did you approach combining the physical strength of Muay Thai with the glamour of couture?

LIVIA & YASSEN: Muay Thai already has such a strong visual identity, so we did not want to remove that. The gloves, the helmet, the belt, all of those things already tell you something about strength, protection and movement.

We wanted to keep that strength and then introduce the crystals and the couture elements.

For us, beauty does not have to be delicate. It can be strong. It can even be a little intimidating.

There was also a very practical side to the work. The crystals and embellishments had to be properly secured because the costume was going to move. You cannot just make something beautiful and forget that the person wearing it has to perform in it.

LISA has that combination of delicacy and strength, which made the idea particularly interesting for us.

We were not trying to turn her into someone else. We wanted to show another side of what was already there.

CT: You move between couture, jewellery and costume design with remarkable ease. Do you see these as separate disciplines?

LIVIA & YASSEN: Not really. They are different forms, but for us the way of thinking is quite similar.

You are still telling a story, still working with materials, still thinking about the body and how something changes when it is worn.

Jewellery can sometimes take an idea from a costume and make it much smaller and more intimate. That was part of what we enjoyed with the Moulin Rouge work. We could take that feeling of glamour and performance and turn it into something people could actually wear.

Then you take something you learned from jewellery and it can come back into couture in another form.

We like moving between these things. We have never really wanted to be defined by one medium.

CT: You have also used fashion to address social issues. What do you think fashion can actually contribute to those conversations?

LIVIA & YASSEN: Fashion can make you feel something very quickly. Sometimes you see an image or a silhouette and you react before you have even worked out why.

That can be useful when you want to talk about something bigger.

With projects such as Sunlightpower and the Vaccine Dress, we were responding to things that were happening around us. We wanted to say something, but we also wanted people to stop and look.

Of course fashion cannot solve every problem. We are not pretending that a dress is going to change the world.

But it can make someone think differently. It can start a conversation or make a subject feel closer to people.

And we do not think a serious subject has to look serious all the time. Beauty and extravagance can carry a message too.

CT: You have worked together for decades. What is the secret to keeping such a long creative partnership alive?

LIVIA & YASSEN: Trust, definitely.

We are not the same person, and we do not always think the same way. That can actually be useful. We argue sometimes. We disagree. But you have to trust the other person enough to know that the disagreement is part of the process.

After so many years, you also learn when to push and when to leave something alone.

Sometimes one of us has an idea and the other immediately understands where it could go. Other times, one of us has to convince the other!

We have a shared ambition, but that does not mean we have identical ideas all the time. We like being curious about each other’s references and seeing where that takes us.

And as for the secret, we would rather not incriminate anyone!

The important thing is that we still encourage each other to go further.

And, somehow, we still manage to surprise each other.

CT: You are now moving further into ballet, cabaret and live performance. Is that a new direction for On Aura Tout Vu?

LIVIA & YASSEN: It does not feel completely new to us. Performance has always been close to what we do.

Ballet is particularly interesting because of the movement. You have to think about the body differently, and the costume becomes part of the choreography.

Cabaret is another world again. With Paradis Latin and projects like that, there is the glamour, the stage, the music and the audience. Everything is happening at the same time. We enjoy that.

The Moulin Rouge jewellery is another example. It takes something that belongs to the stage and brings it into everyday life.

So we see these projects as a continuation of what we have always been doing, rather than a sudden change of direction.

CT: Looking back through your archive, is there one piece that still feels particularly representative of On Aura Tout Vu?

LIVIA & YASSEN: That is a difficult question because there are so many pieces that belong to different moments in our history.

If we had to choose, perhaps it would be a piece where you are no longer completely sure whether you are looking at fashion, sculpture or something else.

We have always liked that moment when a garment stops behaving like a normal garment. You see the body, but you also see the construction, the materials, the object itself.

Sometimes it is the crystals or the volume that does it. Sometimes it is simply an unusual material.

CT: What would you still like to explore in the years ahead?

LIVIA & YASSEN: What excites us most today is the possibility of reinventing our creative language without losing its essence.

We are fascinated by the dialogue between traditional craftsmanship and new technologies, particularly by the way technology can interact with the human hand.

We are constantly exploring materials, textures and techniques that allow us to transform the familiar into something unexpected. We are also excited by collaborations with artists and creators from other fields that challenge our habits and introduce completely different ways of thinking.

Our work across couture, ballet, cabaret, jewellery and performance continues to inspire us because each discipline brings a different perspective.

What feels most urgent is preserving the freedom to imagine. We live in a world where everything moves very quickly, and we believe the role of a creator is still to take the time to dream, question reality and propose new possibilities.

CT: After everything you have created, does the name On Aura Tout Vu still feel like a challenge?

LIVIA & YASSEN: Yes. Definitely.

The name was always a kind of challenge, and after all these years it still makes us laugh.

That is part of the fun.

So yes, On Aura Tout Vu… But apparently, not quite everything!

Fourteen years after I first watched two centaurs walk onto a Singapore runway, I am rather glad to discover that Livia Stoianova and Yassen Samouilov still have no intention of behaving sensibly.

Their work has travelled far beyond the couture runway since then, into jewellery, ballet, cabaret, performance, music videos, film and some very memorable celebrity wardrobes.

But the curiosity remains, as does that slightly mischievous refusal to do the obvious thing.

Perhaps that is the real secret of On Aura Tout Vu.

You think you have seen it all.

They are still thinking about what comes next.

Featured image: Madonna wearing On Aura Tout Vu pearl necklaces and hand-crystal cuffs; Dita Von Teese in a black couture dress by On Aura Tout Vu for PhotoBook magazine; Lady Gaga in a bodysuit from the “Under My Skin” Couture collection and the “Kirill” ring for Haus Laboratories; LISA in ‘Sawadika’ music video, dressed in a custom crystal-encrusted boxing helmet, gloves and belt by On Aura Tout Vu; Chinese singer Liu Yu in a couture jacket from the “Sunlight Power” collection; and a look from On Aura Tout Vu’s Out Of This World 2025 Couture collection.