Aldo Gigli · Mitbegründer des Mirano Continental · Bühnenbildner und Grafiker
Die Bedeutung der Mode im Mirano
Das Mirano Continental war nicht nur ein Nachtclub. In den 1980er-Jahren fanden dort regelmäßig Modenschauen, Wettbewerbe und Abende rund ums Modeln statt, die Mode und Bühnenkunst ins Brüsseler Nachtleben brachten.
Unter diesen Ereignissen blieb der Wettbewerb « Devenir Mannequin » im Gedächtnis des Lokals: Eine an DJs und Scheinwerfer gewohnte Bühne wurde für einen Abend zum Laufsteg, auf dem das Publikum der Modewelt begegnete.
Die belgische Presse begleitete diesen Wettbewerb jahrelang, vom « Starthilfe » genannten Schub, den Le Soir 1992 beschrieb, bis zur Öffnung für 15- bis 30-Jährige 1999: ein Sprungbrett für Jugendliche, die vom Beruf träumten, in Belgien und international.
1983 widmete RTBF dem Wettbewerb « Devenir Mannequin 83 » im Mirano einen Beitrag mit dem Journalisten Joseph Lewkowicz. Am 12. Dezember 1989 organisierte die Zeitschrift Marie Claire im Mirano eine Modenschau rund um das Model Dominique Goossens, vor den Augen von Carl De Moncharline, der ab 1991 die künstlerische Leitung des Lokals übernehmen würde.
Eine weitere Marie-Claire-Schau fand 1986 oder 1987 im Mirano statt, festgehalten von Michel Godfroid Meding, damals ein Anfänger als Fotograf. Er erzählt: « Mein Freund Renaud, Model bei New und Barkeeper dort, hatte mir eine Einladung besorgt. Ich saß auf dem Balkon neben den Beleuchtern, mit meinem Einbeinstativ, der Contax RTS 2 und dem 300-mm-Carl-Zeiss (ohne Autofokus), 160-T-Film auf 640 ISO gepusht. » Seine Bilder, vom Balkon bei sehr wenig Licht aufgenommen, rufen die genaue Atmosphäre jener Abende zurück: gesättigte Farben, Korn, Bewegung.
Das Album unten vereint die erhaltenen Modenschau-Fotos aus den Archiven: die Marie-Claire-Schauen von 1986-87 und 1989, die Herbst-Winter-Präsentation von Charles Dorfeuil aus dem Jahr 1983 und Laufstege der 1980er-Jahre, vom Science-Fiction-Dekor bis zum goldenen Lamé.
Fotoalbum: Modenschauen im Mirano Continental, 1980er-Jahre. Fotos © Olivier Hennebert, © Mark Stevens und © Michel Godfroid Meding, einige Credits: DR. Klicken Sie auf das Foto, um das Album zu durchblättern.
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RTBF news presenter: Another segment offered by our colleagues at RTBF Brussels. A contest whose theme is “Becoming a model”. You be the judge.
Joseph Lewkowicz: The other evening, at the Mirano in Brussels, the suspense could be read on the faces. Twelve boys and twelve girls were taking part in the “Devenir Mannequin” contest.
Make-up artist: Everyone is here. Everyone is here.
Show manager: At the end of the show, Robert Malengreau, the presenter, will call you one by one by your names and you will go and introduce yourselves.
Robert Malengreau: “Devenir Mannequin”? It means wanting to play the game. Wanting to do something that sometimes seems impossible, that often seems impossible in Belgium.
Joseph Lewkowicz: Why does that seem impossible in Belgium?
Robert Malengreau: No, back in 69, when we created this, when I talked about it to the agencies (at the time there was one modelling agency) and when they talked to me about it, they talked about it as a dream. I mean: going to New York, Paris… Models in Belgium simply did not exist. And I was convinced that in Belgium there were absolutely very pretty girls, very handsome guys who wanted to do this job.
Joseph Lewkowicz: Dominique Fache, what is at stake in this “Devenir Mannequin 83” contest?
Dominique Fache: It is a challenge we are throwing at public opinion, because in Belgium this profession is absolutely not recognised as a valuable one at the moment.
Joseph Lewkowicz: You run a modelling agency. Do houses like yours hire these young people afterwards, when they win contests like this?
Dominique Fache: Absolutely. The people we are going to try to make win tonight are guaranteed a career. It will also depend on them. A theoretically international career.
Joseph Lewkowicz: So, what is a model to you?
Dominique Fache: A model is not only 50% looks, it is also 50% mindset.
Joseph Lewkowicz: Do you believe it is a profession with a future in Belgium or even elsewhere?
Robert Malengreau: There is more and more future everywhere. Because in this profession, new faces are needed all the time. People need to be renewed all the time. It is terrible too. It is quite a terrifying law, the law of this profession. But it is there, there is nothing to be done about it.
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Dominique Goossens: Frank, could you bring me a chocolate, anything, something to eat when I'm starving? Yes, I know. If the make-up is beautiful, and he does it as usual, that's already very good; I'll already feel in great shape to begin. It's very important. Today is really the summit in Brussels. It's the event to see. It's the event to live.
Dominique Goossens: It's also the event to do for a model tonight.
Dominique Goossens: Do I like all the clothes I wear? In general, yes, but it's not always the truth, but that's not our problem. That's not what we should think about. You have to know, even if we don't like them, the sine qua non is to wear it well and above all to sell it. That's why we're here.
Dominique Goossens: The accessory is what makes the outfit. It's essential. The accessory, I mean a simple black dress. It can be very beautiful, but it will be much more beautiful if the hat you wear it with is adequate.
Etienne Russo, from the Mirano to Villa Eugénie
One name cannot be left unspoken at the end of this chapter: Etienne Russo. Artistic director of the Mirano before Carl De Moncharline, who would gradually succeed him from 1991, he directed the fashion shows and ran the Smirnoff Fashion Award, whose finals were held in the former cinema on the chaussée de Louvain. For him, fashion was never one activity among many: it was his natural ground, and the club offered it to him as a laboratory.
An der Seite von Aldo Gigli sah Etienne Russo seine ersten großartigen Dekorationen entstehen. Ein Abend blieb legendär: « Die Abgründe » am 25. Juni 1992, mit einer von Aldo entworfenen Unterwasserwelt, die den ganzen Club einnahm und den Großen Wal in eine Bar verwandelte. Das wiederentdeckte Plakat, signiert von Patrick Gennaro Avella und nicht von Aldo Gigli, ist heute das wertvolle visuelle Zeugnis dieses Universums, von dessen Dekoration offenbar kein Foto erhalten ist. Jahre später lässt der Meeresgrund in der Szenografie einer großen Schau von Villa Eugénie schmunzeln: Der Traum hatte sich bereits in einer Nacht im Mirano ereignet.
When Etienne Russo left the Mirano to fly on his own, the career that followed became unique in the world: Villa Eugénie, the first Dries Van Noten show in Paris in 1991, then hundreds of productions for Chanel, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Dior Homme, Moncler and so many others. But something was born here, in this place where Aldo Gigli knew how to turn a drawing sheet into party architecture: it is no exaggeration to say that the Mirano allowed his first dreams to hatch.
Carl De Moncharline also inherited from Etienne Russo a standard that never left him: a perfectionism pushed beyond perfection, a care for detail down to the invisible. It is a line Carl tried to hold throughout his career, in another register, large-scale public events, but with the same conviction: the care given to what the audience will never notice is precisely what gives an evening its greatness.