Through the Eyes of Gauthier Borsarello (Fursac)

By Laurence Benaïm

THE EYE OF THE SON 

His cap is barely placed yet seems to hold miraculously on this mobile head with its powerful gaze. The eye of Gauthier Borsarello, artistic director of Fursac since 2021, is a style in itself. It is way of upholding an education, an inheritance – the one handed down to him by his father, hardly a fashionista, but such an aesthete, a lover of the 18th century and of classical music. Borsarello collects archive pieces (he owns more than 2000 of them) out of loyalty to the man who taught him to appreciate beauty from every angle. By hunting, by tinkering, by redesigning, by observing. “When my father looks at a landscape, he sees a painting. When I go to the cinema, I see a character,” he says. 

“At a very young age, I learned how to observe. As a suburban boy from a modest family, I used to take the train from Juvisy sur Orge to Octave Gréard, a music school in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.  We had no money. I used to go to the Château Rouge district to buy Diesel jeans that I slimmed down and made as if they were brand new. I learned to identify the black and gold Napoleon III as the selvedge stitch of well-made jeans from thrift shops and second-hand dealers. My idols were Coluche, Dutronc, Gainsbourg – those whom my father ‘validated’ for their art, and whose allure I admired.” He continues: “My mother was the mainstay of my father’s vision. I did everything I could to live up to his standards.”

Borsarello is also the founder, with the journalist Marc Beaugé, of the magazine for men l’Etiquette as well as the podcast Habitudes and the American-themed clothing shop, Le Vif in the 16th arrondissement. But this man in a hurry also knows how to pace himself. His high standards shine through this presentation of Fursac’s Fall Winter 2023-24 collection at the Comédie Française, featuring the contribution of his musical family playing Fauré, Ravel and Debussy, whom he refers to as the impressionists of music”. “In my eye, everything has to fit into a frame. I am a builder. Fursac reflects France in its great diversity.”