Thierry Dreyfus
Zen Master of lighting

Thierry Dreyfus is the guru of fashion show lighting—a master of illumination and martial arts (Tai Chi keeps him centered).
Yves Saint Laurent, Zac Posen and Roland Mouret all rely on the magic Dreyfus touch, who learned his trade tinkering with the lights at the Strasbourg Opera House.

-TRACE : How do you come up with a lighting concept for a show?

It’s about making an emotional connection with the designer. I work with the fabric samples and get ideas from the hair and makeup design. From there, I can choose the light accordingly ; there are so many tints in the spectrum of white light, some aren’t even visible to the naked eye. The idea is to provoke an emotion in your audience. You also have to remember that the lighting in Paris, where the shows ends, must by much more forgiving than the lighting in New York, where the shows begin. By this time, the girls are all tired and so is their skin.