Fast Confession - Ornella Koktová: Without the Wrappings!
For our Luxury Prague Life magazine she made an "all wrapped up” photo shoot, but usually our fashion editor has a razor-sharp tongue, telling the naked truth openly! Because of the interview we have met up with Ornella in one of Prague cafés. When I arrived at the place there was a girl sitting there in jeans and a jumper, with a cup of coffee in her hand. An ordinary woman, who has a husband and a five-year-old son. Basically a normal family. Up to the moment you turn on the TV.
Recently you have launched a reality show "Pikes". Why was this project created in the first place?
This programme was speculated upon as far back as when I was pregnant, but nothing ever came out of it. And then when I moved out of the house, suddenly I met up with my family only very sporadically. It means only if someone had birthday and my Mum babysat Quentin once a quarter.
So it was supposed to be a way to improve family relationships?
Those relationships were kind of tepid, mainly with my Mum. It certainly was not ideal, because my mother is still in that hysterical phase of hers. Well and I sometimes watched the Kardashians and even if the girls sometimes had an argument it was more or less positive. So when the TV came up with that I thought that it could help us, too. We will be more exposed, to have to be together. I simply thought that we would simply somehow strengthen those relationships. Unfortunately, the opposite was the case. If I knew what to expect, I would not have signed that TV contract.
I have a feeling that your mother doesn´t behave as a mother should behave towards her daughter...
Well, she doesn´t. A lot of people wrote to us that they are convinced that there was some kind of a screenplay. Because it´s not possible that there really would be someone like that on this planet.
And is it not the case that your mother behaves like that precisely because she is watched by the public?
No, not that. Since my leaving the house and since Quentin was born she has changed terribly. I would say that it is the middle age crisis. In my childhood she herself laughed at women in their forties and didn´t understand when they put on a miniskirt. And now? Now she is the one who wears miniskirts. She started to meet with girls in their twenties and goes to bars to which I once used to go myself. She cut of my Dad completely and started to live in her own universe. Indeed, she began to listen to rap when driving. Do you understand that? That kind of change. And in the end she laughed at me that I am an old woman and too conservative. It is terrible. You come to your own mother and she won´t offer you a glass of water.
Do you have a feeling that she is pretending to be someone who she isn´t?
She turned herself to a second Karel Gott. We came to visit her and the first thing she wanted to tell us was how many people wanted to take a picture with her and how many “likes” does she have. Instead of asking how Quentin is doing in the nursery or if we have any problems, simply whether we need any help with anything.
Aren't you afraid that this reality show could have a negative impact on your son?
He is fortunately no weakling. And most importantly, a lot of the shooting is done when he is at the nursery. So fortunately he hasn´t been there all the time. But when we all met like that we were filming even for ten hours. My son is five and how do you want to tell him that all that time he will be sitting on his bum and not walk around the house? He simply wasn´t allowed to do anything. Because my mother would then immediately go mad, even because normal crumbs on the floor. Quentin himself said that grandma is bad.
He really said that?
Yes, he did. He moved a bit and she immediately began to shout as though he was holding a match and had a pile of newspapers in front of him.
What is your father´s attitude?
My dad is basically cowardly. He does not have his own opinion. But now I think they may have definitely broken up with my mother, so perhaps he might even be seeing someone else. He simply repeated everything my mother said. Just imagine. It is daytime. I would say that it is evening and dad would have nodded and said: "Yes, it is evening." Even at ten in the morning.
How will this reality show continue do you think?
There was also a lot of quite funny and lightweight situations, too. We wanted to have a little fun with Charlotte, so we tried to mess about a bit. But then I saw what the director made of it during the editing. She kept only the yelling, quarrels and the harshest situations. I do not know how this could develop.
What kind of relationship do you have with your son?
With regard to the fact that he basically does not have a grandmother, he is with us all the time. So this relationship is super. My mother says that I am too soft with him. I say that I have a more liberal approach.
Does he help you at home? For example with the shopping?
Of course he helps. When I tell him to bring some fruit, he will bring it. But it is more like that he keeps discussing whether he could put some chocolate and ice-cream in there, too. (laughter)
What is your arrangement with shopping bags?
I wonder that they still sell plastic bags. I bought those sturdy bags that last for a long time. Automatically I put all the foodstuff there and take it to the car booth. And it seems to me that increasingly less people use those plastic bags, which is great. Recently it has even happened to me that I went to the chemist´s to buy bottled water and there were 12-year old girls saying how horrible it is when people have tap water at home. That this is how people are destroying the planet. At that moment, with the bottled water in hand, I felt really stupid. But what was I supposed to do, it was 30 degrees outside and I was dripping with perspiration.
Can you imagine that you would become a waste-free lifestyle enthusiast and went to specialised shops with containers?
If I were a pretentious liar, I would have said yes. But for me this is too much. However a lot of products now are not even sold in plastic packaging any more. So to some extent I try.
And what about sorting out waste?
I bought three bins and I automatically throw it where I am supposed to. While it is true that Quentin sometimes makes a mistake, so sometimes I am surprised about what I find.
What does it mean to you when I say "no wrappings", what do you imagine under that expression?
When it is said for the first time, then sincerity. But we are talking here about the environment and attitude of mankind to our planet. So about the protecting of nature.
How do you perceive plastics in the sphere of fashion? Do you think that it belongs here?
Well, when I see such quantities of those fashionable pieces, for example plastic boots. I do not understand it. Firstly you sweat in it, basically stewing in own juice and secondly, to do they put it afterwards? In some storage place? Although when I went to Cannes in summer nobody wore anything crazy like that. Plastics in fashion is simply perverse. I think that it should be banned. We have just recently been photographing that and we tried to highlight the fact that it is really nonsense. It took 15 minutes and my feet were roasting. I thought to myself: "Karl Lagerfeld, you went completely mad". (laughter)
Photo: Jaroslav Urban
Dress: Barbora Sirová, Anna Havlíčková, Martina Šmalclová
