SCARLETT ETIENNE. Photo by CAMILLE SANSON. Styling by AIDEN CONNOR. Satin Jacket by ZIAD GHANEM. Shoes by GEORGIE BEE. Makeup by AHMED SHAMI.

Want to know who absolutely rules in both the fashion and the music worlds? Well, if you have not
yet heard from her (seriously!?!) meet the world’s most fabulous DJ/Performer/Model/Style icon/Music Producer: Scarlett Etienne!

As well as gracing the decks in countries far and wide across the globe -on more than a regular basis- Scarlett has enjoyed a prolific production partnership with fellow artists and fashion designers, who not only ask her to create the music for their catwalk shows season after season, but also have her as a model! So it is not rare to see her strutting her hot stuff, dressed in heavyweights such as Mathew Williamson and Ziad Ghanem.

Couture ZIAD GHANEM
Photography CAMILLE SANSON. Styling and Direction AIDEN CONNOR. Make-up AHMED CHAMI. Hair – CRAIG MARSDEN @ Carol Hayes. Photographer

Enough of me talking, so go ahead, meet the girl! Here’s the lovely interview that she did for us:

Hi Scarlett -I actually have butterflies in my stomach as we speak and I haven’t had those in yeeeears – (sorry boys if it looked like I did, I was probably faking them!) – I am totally in love with you and I am a girl!!! Do you get this often from other girls out there? You are such a style icon!!!
Thank you Nonita, you are too kind. I truly enjoy reading your blog, so thank you for having me on board. Have I turned you homosexual? I do have a tendency to turn both men and women gay! Excellent!

- Well, actually, I haven’t quite given up on men (just yet) but if loving you makes
me a homosexual, then sure, I am totally gay!!! Tell us, where are you from
originally and how did you get into the music scene?
I was born in Hong Kong to a typically dysfunctional American military family, therefore
I was a human ping pong ball, moving every six months or so to completely different
cities and countries. Because of this nomadic upbringing, I don’t have a hometown…
but London is home to me now, I love it.

Music has always been something I’ve been consumed by. Throughout my youth I was always
involved in some sort of musical project. Whilst living in NYC, I was obsessed with clubbing and
I wanted nothing more than to be able to control the bodies of several hundred or thousand
people on a dancefloor. So, I went for it with 1000% and before I knew it, I was travelling the
earth on a weekly basis to play records to sweaty dancefloors all over the world alongside my
heroes, such as Tenaglia, Sasha, and Hawtin. I’ve also always been very interested in producing
music as I’ve been a super geek since a young age. I learned to program my first computer,
a Commodore 64, when I was 5, and my first synthesizer around the same time.

Music has always been my first and greatest love.

-Who are your biggest musical influences?
There are a million. I officially have musical multiple personality syndrome. I’m most inspired by enchanting performers. I love living in London because live music is abundant here, everything is
available. In the last year I’ve drawn so much inspiration from seeing live artists like Beyonce, The
Big Pink, Florence and the Machine, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey, Lady GaGa, Siouxsie, Grace Jones,
I Blame Coco, and so many more. Currently, I’m loving the the new Gorillaz album, my favorite album
so far this year. I’ve got tickets to see Mr. Hudson and looking forward to seeing GaGa for the third time soon. I’m also a Glastonbury virgin and that is being remedied this year!

-What is your earliest musical childhood memory?
My mother completely freaking out in complete awestruck hysteria when I was 2 years old, as I had climbed up on the piano stool and had taken it upon myself to figure out how to play the melody to whatever classical music she was playing on the stereo. I also remember experiencing my “musical awakening” upon watching the Madonna-thon on MTV. She has always been a huge inspiration. “What Would Madonna Do” is a question which has often resonated in my head.

-For you music is…?
The best lover I’ve ever had. He loves me so. He keeps me on my toes.

-If you were a song which one would you be and why?
“Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode. It hits on every emotion. Joy, pain, regret, fear, bliss, longing, love. And there’s some damn good synth sounds in there. It was produced by one of my most revered heroes, Flood. Flood is a fucking genius and if I don’t get to collaborate with him before my time on earth is over, then it will have all been for not.

-If you were an instrument which one would you be and who would you like to be played by?
That’s easy, I’d like to be Jimi Hendrix’s Sunburst Fender Stratocaster. I want him to play the Star Spangled Banner on me with his teeth, straddle me, and then set me on fire.

SCARLETT ETIENNE. Couture ZIAD GHANEM. Photography CAMILLE SANSON. Styling and Direction AIDEN CONNOR. Make-up AHMED CHAMI. Hair CRAIG MARSDEN @ Carol Hayes. Photographer

-Have you ever been serenaded, mariachi style? You know with 24+ Mexican men with a tash playing outside your window, clad in full mariachi’s costumes and sombreros?
No, unfortunately. However a trick that I fall for every time is when a boy serenades me with “Boys Don’t Cry”. It’s happened several times and I fall for it every time. No sombreros as of yet. I do have a soft spot in my heart for Mexicans. Tashes, not so much.

-Which 2 songs would you pick for: a) your wedding b) your funeral?
My wedding: “Is that all there is?” by PJ Harvey and my Funeral: “Interlude”- Siouxsie and Morrissey.

-Top music recommendations to make luuurve to? (Apart from Barry White and Marvin
Gaye… ) We really need some help here!!!
Well, my dear, that all depends if you’re interested in just having a shag or making
love. Big difference. If it’s one of those situations where you’ve just fallen hard for
someone and desire to have sweaty, passionate teenage love-drunk lovemaking for
12 hours without coming up for air, then I’d make a playlist of the following albums:
Cocteau Twins – Heaven or Las Vegas, The Cure – Disintigration, The Jesus and
Mary Chain – Automatic, Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, and Big Pink – A Brief
History Of Love. All on shuffle and repeat, repeat, repeat. If I were to have just a
cold, hard shag, then Nine Inch Nails – Head Like a Hole. (another great song produced
by Flood.) The deed would be done by the end of the song. Both situations can be
equally as satisfying.

Jazz is also quite good to listen to whilst engaging in ‘carnal knowledge’. Ella
Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington…. That stuff
has got sex written all over it.”

Couture ZIAD GHANEM. Photography CAMILLE SANSON. Styling and Direction AIDEN CONNOR. Make-up AHMED CHAMI. Hair CRAIG MARSDEN @ Carol Hayes. Photographer

-Now, onto catwalk music: The soundtrack that you produced for Ziad Ghanem’s stunning Fall 2010 show recently was absolutely amazing. How did all that come about? And what was the creative process like for that piece?
Thank you! I was introduced to Ziad by a brilliant photographer named Paula Harrowing.
I walked in his Spring/Summer 2010 show, and we fell in love instantly. He knows about
my production background, so he asked me to compile the music for his show at London
Fashion Week in Feb. It was a long process. I would go round to his studio and spend long
afternoons with him and his right-hand-man, Aiden, going over references.

He had his sketches scattered everywhere and all the garments were being constructed.
We would eat cake and I would bang on his beautiful antique piano while he pranced around.
We had such a laugh talking about music and and fashion and gossip and boys. Initially,
the project was slightly outside of my comfort zone, as it was agreed that we wouldn’t use
ANY electronic music! So I used electronic remixing techniques with programs like Ableton
Live and Native Instruments Traktor Pro, but using classic textures, orchestral drama,
and vamp diva voices.

SCARLETT ETIENNE and ZIAD GHANEM - Photography by PAULA HARROWING

The highlights were mixing Yma Sumac with Alma Cogan, Benny Goodman with Copacabana
and Carmen Miranda , bits scattered from the World Of Warcraft sountrack, orchestral sounds
from Horror films, Bizet’s Carmen, Eartha Kitt, London’s own Puppini Sisters, Sergio Mendes
mixed with Psycho Strings, and Zorraida Marrero. I wanted to create the atmosphere of the
old glamourous big band clubs with various vampiric sirens floating on and off stage to perform
in their Couture masterpieces… utter madness, decadence, ecstasy, and femme fatal glamour.

-I love creative catwalk music. I think it is such an art to orchestrate the right tunes
with the clothes, the timing and the models with the perfection that you did it at Ziad’s
show this season, we absolutely loved it! Have you done any more catwalk music? Or
any other performance music?
-Thanks again, Nonita. The timing just seemed to work out, it wasn’t planned that way! It was magic,
I tell you! I would love to get involved with compiling the music for more projects including art, performance art, installation, film, and of course fashion. I would readily accept the challenge of reaching out into other areas of artistic expression beyond my comfort zone.

Photography CAMILLE SANSON. Styling and Direction AIDEN CONNOR. Make-up AHMED CHAMI. Hair CRAIG MARSDEN @ Carol Hayes. Photographer

-Have you listened to the music in any other catwalk shows this season? Or in previous seasons? And do you have any favourites?
Yes, I have! Most recently, Thom Yorke did an eclectic mix for Rag and Bone at New York
Fashion Week. As for London, I loved the music at the KTZ Show, and Hanna Hanra’s mix
for Matthew Williamson. Previous seasons of Alexander McQueen and Dior Haute Couture
are always packed with quite interesting and unknown tunes.

-A little bird tells me that you also sing/write songs and play the piano
(Amazingly!) Please tell us a bit about that?
Thank you. Songwriting is something I got back into this past year. I’ve been writing
and producing synth-pop songs and performing them live before my DJ sets, all over
the place. It’s great to have a platform for experimentation on an international stage.
The piano is something I have also recently rediscovered… I was a concert pianist as
a child, but in my angst-ridden teenage rebellion I traded the piano for Guitar and then
gave up “real music” completely when I hit the decks. I didn’t go near a piano for years
which is such a shame, then of course when I started DJing I thought it was too late to
pursue playing the piano. I started taking lessons last year in London, both Classical and
Jazz Improvisation. I love it, I kick myself for not having the sense to embrace the piano
earlier on, but I’m glad we found each other again.

-You have also launched your own music label recently, where you produce your own
music as well as represent other artists, tell us about that too?
I set up Starlett Records as a fun little side project. It’s nice to be able to discover
new artists and give them a chance to release their music whiLst trading remix
projects with friends.. I recently signed an electro trio in Italy called Synthbros.
Other artists on the label include artists Joe and Will Ask?, Mat Playford and Stu Hirst.
The next release on schedule is one of my synthpop tunes, “Favorite Decoration”. With
a B-side called “Electric Love”.

-Now lets talk style! You seem to be at home at the decks, on the piano as
well as in Vogue! We absolutely love your style. How would you define it?
Scarlett Chic, of course.

-In your eyes who are the ultimate style icons?
London Club Kids, the ones who frequent places like Caligula, Circus, Punk, Reeperbahn,
BBB, etc. They make such an effort and never cease to impress.

-Favourite fashion designers this season?
“Why, this brand new fashion house called “HOUSE OF STARLETT”…

SCARLETT ETIENNE in ‘HOUSE OF STARLETT’. Photography by DAVID VIGNES.

I design and construct pieces for my performances, inspired by fashion from films
of the era of Greta Garbo or Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Rock and Roll icons such as
Freddie Mercury, and Vegas showgirls. I pick up bits and pieces to make things with
when I’m abroad. I’m also doing frequent collaborations with people like the super
talented Giles Pearson from London. I met him when I walked the runway at the
House of Blue Eyes fashion show in 2009. He has made some beautiful masterpieces
for me.

I’m lusting after pieces from Pam Hogg, I saw Siouxsie Sioux backstage at her LFW
show and nearly died. The bodysuits are delicious.

And of course I love Ziad Ghanem’s beautiful clothes.

Couture ZIAD GHANEM. Photography CAMILLE SANSON. Styling and Direction AIDEN CONNOR. Make-up AHMED CHAMI. Hair CRAIG MARSDEN @ Carol Hayes. Photographer

-If you were only allowed to wear one outfit from your wardrobe which one would it be?
It would be the ridiculously amazing purple hologram dress that Giles Pearson designed for me.

-We have seen you rocking the catwalk for Ziad Ghanem for a couple of seasons now and you look like you own it, even though you don’t consider yourself a model. Where did you
learn your catwalk confidence from? Have you done any other modelling before? – You looked stunning by the way, we love you in the catwalk!!! (Guys, check her out at minute 1:58 in the below video)

Babe, you’re making me blush. All the modelling I’ve done has come about through
my music! I was chosen for the face of CNC Costume National’s campaign in 2007
based on my personality as a DJ. The caption was, “DJ SCARLETT ETIENNE ENJOYING
AFTER-HOURS”, whilst I and all these gorgeous Parisian models in a Chateau outside
Paris sprawled all over the Rococo sofas, playing video games and drinking gin.
I have also featured in the Zoe and Morgan Jewelry campaigns for the last 2 seasons.
If I were a piece of Jewelry, it would be the Zoe and Morgan amethyst Snake Bite ring.

My first runway experience was at the House of Blue Eyes fashion show in Feb 2009.
I was so nervous my first time, I stomped down that runway SO fast and forgot to stop
for the photographers!!! Now when I’m walking down the runway I just channel a more
modern Sofia Loren and recite over and over in my head “sex, sex, sex, cunty, cunty, cunty,
fierce, fierce, fierce” in a very Zoolander-esque voice, I learned that from Johnny Blue Eyes!

SCARLETT ETIENNE in ZIAD GHANEM COUTURE on the runway at Ziad Ghanem

- Best style tip?
Live a cinematic existence and dress yourself accordingly.

-What’s inside your make up bag?
I quite often like to see Mika at Illamasqua to give me makeup advice, he’s so beautiful, and is capable of completely transforming a woman’s face into something otherworldly. I have loads of Illamasqua, Le Metier, Chanel, Laura Mercier, and YSL products in my bag.
And I never leave the house without a tiny pot of Crème Le Mer.

-Recommend us a book, poem or film that has changed your perspective on life
Two years ago on that mysical island of Ibiza, my friend Ryan played me Howard
Goodall’s “How Music Works” programme, we watched all four episodes after a proper
rave-up at DC10 where I had been DJing the night before. Seeing Howard Goodall break
apart and explain in great detail all of the elements of music immediately woke me up
from a techno coma. The programme inspired me to pick up my instruments again and
open my face up and sing. I immediately started to look inside myself to realize my true a
rtistic calling. It’s a very inspiring for anyone who wishes to learn about why we all love
music so much.

- Favourite London hangout?
It’s a close tie between Your Mum’s House @ Punk and Reeperbahn in Shoreditch.
My favorite Dirty Martini is the one from Saf in Shoreditch. They use Basil Infused
Juniper Green Organic Gin and Albelha organic cahaca. It’s my favorite thing in
the whole world to drink.

-What’s the best advice that you have ever been given?
Art, like music, is not a competition. Don’t treat it as such’ – A brilliant writer
named Vista gave me that little jewel in New York City.

-Where will you be playing next?
All over the place!!! Italy, Austria Slovenia, Switzerland, Paris, Los Angeles, Moscow…. it’s never-ending.

-If you could add one question to this questionnaire what would it be?
Do you have pets? If so, what are their names? I have 2 gorgeous Burmese cats,
named Billy (after Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins) and Robert (after Robert
Smith of the Cure).

-Thank you so much Scarlett and finally please choose the song of the day.
Grace Jones – Libertango. She was fucking brilliant at the Royal Albert Hall. I’m totally gay for Grace.

Couture ZIAD GHANEM. Photography CAMILLE SANSON. Styling and Direction AIDEN CONNOR. Make-up AHMED CHAMI. Hair CRAIG MARSDEN @ Carol Hayes. Photographer

That was the fabulous Scarlett Etienne everyone! Now here’s a surprise treat
from Scarlett… She lovingly made us this amazing exclusive mix for us all here
at the Model Management Blog, enjoy!

xoxo
Nonita

Links:
www.scarlettetienne.com
http://www.facebook.com/scarlettmusic
http://www.gilespearson.com/
http://ziadghanem.co.uk/
http://www.paulaharrowing.com/
http://www.zoeandmorgan.com/

http://www.hellogeorgiebee.com/