Antonio Berardi is a British/Italian designer whose sensual dresses are craved by the likes of Kylie, Gwyneth, Beyonce, and Rihanna
Liela Moss is the feisty bombshell who fronts London’s psych-garage rockers The Duke Spirit, and current muse for super-fan Antonio.
As their relationship continues to blossom, bringing their two art circles together, Clash brought the pair together on the telephone. Twice, actually, due to a dictaphone malfunction. Here’s part of what was said…
Antonio: Yesterday I downloaded ‘Bodies’ which I absolutely adore.
Liela: That song has now made the entire album glue together for me. It’s not a big, fast, upbeat radio single. It’s a bit of a head-trip, a sort of psychological trip with headphones on, listening to our album, and that was for me what nailed it to the ground really and what gives it some gravitas, which I’ve always found really important.
Because as much as the punk rock element and the physical, frenetic part of our band that I’m so proud of, there has to be something for me that has the emotional intensity that says ‘this is important’ and ‘this is going to be sustaining over time’. You must get that with certain key pieces in a collection where everything’s looking wonderful but one piece defines it?
Antonio: Yeah, there will always be one piece that sums up a whole collection. So even though everything runs smoothly, and it’s the way you want the story told, there is always that one piece where you think, ‘Oh my god, I love that’, and it’s the piece that you will always love. But what I loved about ‘Bodies’, from the first time I heard it, is that it’s big and it’s anthemic and it’s really beautiful as well.
And one thing I find with you, is that you don’t just have a beautiful voice, and you’re not just that person who when on stage is electric, but it’s the way that you breathe when you sing. I’ve pointed out to people that what takes it to another level and makes it so incredibly sexy is the breathing. How much is Duke Spirit really, and how much is Liela Moss that sexual part of Duke Spirit?
Liela: I feel our music through my hips, I think, almost like that’s what’s leading the proceedings. Probably when we’re writing stuff I can be quite ambivalent for a while – I can not be sure of where the song’s going – but once I feel that the beat picks up, as soon as I feel like my body reacts to it, I think, ‘Yes, this is good!’ And suddenly we all lock in. I’ve never really thought about it, but there’s a physicality that has to work otherwise the song probably gets ditched.
Antonio: I know you were a muse for Lee McQueen and I kind of consider you a muse for myself. And I think it’s because when I started out, obviously you want the coolest people wearing your clothes, but then as time moves on you realise that your clothes cost a certain amount of money, they’re bought by thirty-five to fifty-five-year-old women who have money, so as time moves on you tailor certain things to the market that is your market. But with you, it’s like you take certain pieces from the collection and you make them come alive.
The last time I saw you perform was an amazing experience. I came with lots of friends from art and jewellery and magazines, and they were all completely blown away, simply because to them you were like a rock star. And everyone was saying, ‘Oh my god, it’s really weird – you don’t see that many rock stars’, or what we consider to be rock stars. So, how important to someone like you is style? You studied Fine Art I know, but it’s your style; you take pieces and they become Liela Moss – it’s not the case of there is a stylist who is picking things up who is creating an image of you; I get the impression it is you.
Liela: I’ve never used a stylist. I mean I’ve got friends that are and I completely respect their work, but I’ve never felt comfortable leaving the work to someone. I love the process of searching through stuff and feeling the texture and looking immediately and knowing straight away whether there’s something kinetic in it; like, if I put that on will that work when I move? That said, when we started this band I was so ungroomed. I was just a tomboy in some pretty bad ripped trousers. It did allow me to move and it gave me great freedom. I would fuck with things, and I would hang feathers and drapes and do things, but I had very little money and very little time.
We were playing in the smallest greasy rock clubs and I hadn’t really got my head round the sense of costume at that point. I was almost trying to make a statement that I was part of this gang, this rock band, and that I wasn’t a girl trying to be a pop star, because that was sort of the antithesis of what I wanted. So it’s only through the fact that our career has continued and we’ve been able to do so much touring that at some point a couple of years ago, you find something that just pops on stage. And people talk about it, they’re like, ‘What was that?’ And you feel the reaction in the room, and you also realise that you get a sense of grandeur and some extra confidence from something wonderful that you’ve put on. And it was at that point that I became a lot more comfortable with the idea of costumes and dressing up to go on stage. And suddenly it was like this other window had opened and I was like, ‘Yes! I actually totally want to do this now, and I want to find some beautiful stuff.’ Do you listen to music a lot while you’re working?
Antonio: Always. There’s music on all the time. At work it’s kind of like we’re a family – we all work together, there’s no hierarchy. Apart from with music. It’s my studio, the music’s mine! (Laughs) That’s where I become a bit of a dictator!
Liela: What’s the track that you’ll always play at a party?
Antonio: There’s an old Masters At Work track with Barbara Tucker called ‘I Get Lifted’, and it reminds me of I used to go to New York every other weekend, because I loved the clubs out there and I was a real house head. I saw them play there and it was an amazing experience. I thought: ‘this is what it’s about!’ It literally lifts me.
The Duke Spirit’s album, ‘Bruiser’, is out September 19th. Read Clash review of the album HERE.
