Tales 16 February 2024

Quentin Tarantino

Agnès recounts her encounters with the director.

One day in the late 1980s, Quentin Tarantino chose an agnès b. suit from the Los Angeles boutique to dress part of the cast of Reservoir Dogs. Agnès tells us what happened next. 

(As this story is in French, see below a transcript) 

agnesb · HISTOIRES D'AGNES - TARANTINO

 

"So Tarantino... We opened a boutique in Los Angeles, I'm having trouble with the dates, end of 80's, or early 90s. Tarantino sent his dresser to pick up agnès b. suits to dress the actors in Reservoir Dogs. So there are agnès b. suits in the film. Not all of them, the best-fitting ones were mine, but some of the pants were wider, and came from elsewhere. So the suits, shirts and ties were agnès b. And you see how it's not dated? You could dress like that today. And Harvey Keitel, whom I know and adore, kept his bullet-riddled jacket because he died wearing it in the film. He's got it in his attic somewhere, he told me. He told me he'd bring it back to me, that he wanted it exhibited in Paris.

Then came Reservoir Dogs and the same story for Pulp Fiction. Tarantino sent his dresser back to the store and that's where he found the black linen jacket with leather collar. It's a funny story, there's a lot to choose from in Los Angeles, but he understood right away that we liked movies, and he liked it. I ended up meeting him, of course.

I went to a hotel near the Champs-Élysées. The meeting was supposed to be 15 minutes long, but I spent 2 hours with him, finally, talking about cinema. He didn't want me to leave. His PR was there, and she said, "Enough about agnès b., there are people waiting". And another time, I was in Cannes with him. He saw me and sat me on his lap, at the parties, on the beach. I stayed there for 10 minutes and then I said, "It's okay, I'm not going to sit like an idiot on Tarantino's lap". But I don't know, it's an encounter. It was written, as they say.

When you see the Reservoir Dogs poster, you see that the garment, the line, there's nothing fashionable about it, nothing exaggerated. It's a suit you can keep for 30 years. I dress people who want to show their passion, not for fashion, I don't like ephemera, but they like things in which they feel themselves. Their personality stands out more than mine. So it's pure, simple, undated lines that mean you can keep the garment for a very long time. The jacket I'm wearing has been with me for 20 years."