Flávia Linden
Tini Tani
Crystii Lin
Lola Mansil
Robbie W
The Savannah College of Art and Design has acquired some eighty buildings since its inception in 1978—many of which are historic, and so spread out that a campus tour requires a car—and the development is showing no signs of slowing down. The facilities are even more impressive. Fashion students are trained on state-of-the-art laser cutters, 3-D printers, and every type of textile and fiber contraption the mind can imagine. All of that has made SCAD a hot spot of emerging fashion talent, which the school proudly displayed at Saturday night's annual student fashion show. Beverly Sung's pleated, asymmetrical dresses (above, left) were a respectable nod to Issey Miyake. Sculptural, digital printed dresses from Wenxia Wang and Zenobia Duncan (below, left) were equally impressive. Elaine Lui, a former Alexander Wang intern, drew creativity from her native Hong Kong, with mesh-overlaid streetwear covered with prints of electric wiring and light-up LCD details built into the clothes (above, right). Across the board, fabric innovation was the big story here—burned Lycra, hand-plisséd skirts, digitally printed boiled wool. Dean of Fashion Michael Fink told us, "What sets this year apart is that there is so much textile and fiber development. The fashion students are actually making their own textiles in collaboration with our Fibers students." One-on-ones with the designers after the show afforded an opportunity to hear their stories and inspirations. Michael Mann's conceptual menswear referenced football, a comment on the offense and defense he struggled between while being bullied as a teen. Wesley Berryman's parents drove eight hours from rural Tennessee to come see him show androgynous creations that might feel at home on a rack beside Rick Owens and Gareth Pugh (above, right). Berryman's mother told us, "I don't know where he got his fashion sense—definitely not from me! When we used to go to Walmart [to buy clothes], I was always worried he would put up a fight! But really, I just want to support my son." The real joy in seeing a student fashion show like SCAD's is the opportunity to witness creativity without the commercial restraints many professional designers face. Free from the pressure of having to "sell" anything, and enabled by a supportive faculty and cutting-edge facilities, SCAD's runway served as a rare, unfettered fashion moment.
The sixth and final Vanessa Seward x A.P.C. collection will be unveiled this September, but come 2015, Seward will have a new project: her own ready-to-wear label. WWD reports that Seward will unveil her first namesake collection during Fall '15 Paris fashion week. A.P.C. will provide logistical and financial support for the venture. Best known for giving new life to Azzaro, Seward also held positions at Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. In an interview, Seward said she wanted to create a "chic, timeless wardrobe" for her new line. A.P.C.'s Jean Touitou referred to it as "sensible luxury." Seward's collaborations with A.P.C. are a prime example of the abovementioned aesthetic—she often uses luxury materials in a modern way to create garments at contemporary prices. "I'm going to be able to go futher with my own design identity," she said. The collection will include casual and formal pieces as well as shoes, bags, belts, and costume jewelry. Her first boutique is set to open in Paris in September 2015, and additional locations in L.A. and New York are a top priority down the road. With such strong support from Touitou, we can only expect great things.
Cristóbal Balenciaga reputedly made only three journeys afield in his lifetime and certainly never traveled anywhere as far-flung as Asia. However, forty-odd years after his passing, the house of Balenciaga, with Alexander Wang at the helm, staged its own intrepid China expedition, bringing forty-eight archive pieces to Beijing. Handpicked by Wang, the selection from Cristóbal Balenciaga's Parisian years (1937 to 1968) highlighted the key pieces in his oeuvre. "I think it would be doing an injustice for everybody not to see it," Wang explained. Enshrined at the center of the exhibition, therefore, was the famous Infanta dress (1949), which shows the unremitting influence of Balenciaga's Spanish heritage on his work; the Babydoll dress of 1958; and the famed wedding dress from his last collection presented in 1967. Though he epitomized that old world of couture, Balenciaga was the greatest pioneer of them all. Blockbuster pieces aside, the Fishnet dress (1964), an overlay of net upon a black sheath inspired by the fishermen in his hometown of Getaria, and a reversible fur-lined silk-nylon coat (1959) were just a few examples of the utterly modern. A little-known fact about the famously reticent designer was his penchant for filming his presentations in the last decade of his career, and the videos provided illuminating glimpses of "the master of us all" at work. A suit worn by Marlene Dietrich in the 1950s and the Sari dress, a design owned by Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, and Dodie Rosekrans, also served as a reminder of his legendary clientele. The venue, the China Academy of Oil Painting, was chosen for the church-like structure in its midst (actually the school's lecture hall), where Balenciaga's SS'14 collection was presented. "We could have easily shown the Fall collection," Wang explained before the show, "but I wanted something that would penetrate immediately." Along with the existing outfits, therefore, the models (Shu Pei, Ming Xi, Xiao Wen Ju, Hanne Gaby Odiele, et al.) sported fifteen new looks from a capsule collection released exclusively in Balenciaga's China stores immediately following the show.
In keeping with Moschino's tradition of irreverence, Jeremy Scott's twisted, Chanel-meets-McDonald's debut ready-to-wear collection for the house ruffled a few of fashion's fabulous feathers on the runway in Milan during the Fall '14 shows.
What then does the designer have planned for his Moschino men's debut? For one thing, it was announced today that the men's show will take place this June in London, where it may be more at home with the international crowd and diverse casting pool. "It's fun," is the statement we got from Scott. What else would you expect?
People have been documenting the history of clothing for a long time, but the analytical study of fashion as a key sociological phenomenon has only existed for three decades. That it exists at all is mostly thanks to Gilles Lipovetsky, a French philosopher and sociologist whose book The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy (1987) is still the definitive staple if you really want to know what's at stake when you buy a dress.
Lipovetsky, a father of two and author of thirteen books (translated into twenty languages), has stayed away from the cities where fashion is shown, living and teaching at the foot of the French Alps, in the city of Grenoble. Given the opportunity to interview one of the world's most prominent academic specialists in fashion, we didn't want to ask him anything as trivial as who his favorite designer is (OK, it's André Courrèges). We certainly didn't wish to pry into the elements of his personal style (black suit, black shirt, black shoes, if you must know). We even thought it might be a bit banal to inquire as to what has been the most decisive event in the way fashion has come to dominate our lives (that would be the development of mass luxury-inspired brands such as H&M and Zara). Instead, we figured we'd dive right into a discussion of fashion hermeneutics (dictionary apps at the ready).
This afternoon, the fashion set chowed down on bacon, rigatoni, and cream sauce, which can mean only one thing: the biannual Pitti Immagine Uomo/W luncheon. Held at downtown Italian eatery Da Silvano, the afternoon gathering gave Pitti CEO Raffaello Napoleone the opportunity to speak with press, buyers, and more about the plans for the Spring '15 Florence fashion fair—and boy, are there a lot of them. 2014 marks the 60th anniversary of the Centro di Firenze per la Moda Italiana (essentially the organizing body for all things fashion in Firenze), so in addition to exhibitions and presentations from emerging and established designers, fairgoers will be treated to a three-museum exhibition by Francesco Vezzoli, who will insert his own work among classical paintings, sculptures, etc.; an opening opera starring Andrea Bocelli; an exhibition of Roman costume atelier Sartoria Tirelli's confections; a bevy of film screenings; the debut of Nick Wooster's capsule collection; and more. Also on the docket? Florence-born brands Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci, Emilio Pucci, and Ermanno Scervino will each host special events.
As reported last month, Z Zegna will be the featured guest menswear designer, but there will be no guest womenswear designer this season due to the many other events on the itinerary. We suppose the abovementioned powerhouses' Florence-centric projects will suffice. "We don't want it to be just another fair," Napoleone told cbamd.com while sipping a glass of vino rosso. "We want to create a cultural experience." Provided the itinerary lives up to expectations, it seems he's done just that.
The overcrowded menswear schedule also came up in discussion this afternoon. If you'll remember, there was a bit of a tiff between Pitti Uomo and the London Collections: Men last season, as the recently founded London shows conflicted with the Florence fair. "There will be no more troubles in 2015," announced Napoleone. While the showcases will once again overlap this time around, next season the calendar for all four cities will shift, allowing London, Florence, Milan, and Paris each to have its fair share of time in the spotlight. (This helps explore the new dates for Paris Couture, too.) "This is better for everyone," asserted Napoleone, telling us that it took one year to reach the final agreement. "Having four menswear events in Europe is a good opportunity because the manufacturers will remain strong and [we] can drive the [menswear] sensibility," he added. It's nice to see all the fashion cities (finally) playing nice.
Unexpected news comes from the house of Sonia Rykiel today. The brand announced that Julie de Libran has been appointed as artistic director, replacing Geraldo da Conceicao, who spent only five seasons at the helm of the label. Like Da Conceicao, De Libran comes from Louis Vuitton, where she essentially served as Marc Jacobs' right-hand woman during her five years as the house's studio director of women's ready-to-wear. She also headed up Vuitton's Resort and Pre-Fall collections. De Libran, who did stints at Prada, Versace, Gianfranco Ferré, and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac before her Vuitton tenure, departed LV after Nicolas Ghesquière took the reins. Her first collection for Sonia Rykiel—a house best known for its Parisian irreverence and gorgeous but wearable knits—will debut in Paris during the Spring '15 shows.
So why the sudden switch? For starters, De Libran has more experience—and industry clout—than Da Conceicao. She was more or less the face of Vuitton's pre-collections and is familiar with speaking to the press, and designing in line with a particular style or vision. It's worth noting that the house and First Heritage Brands, which acquired an 80 percent stake in Sonia Rykiel in February 2012, have expressed via a release that De Libran's hire is part of a "relaunch strategy and accelerated international development." One might argue that given her name recognition and design track record, De Libran is more qualified than her predecessor to "develop" the label. Furthermore, as Sonia Rykiel's daughter Nathalie states, De Libran is "a woman, a Frenchwoman. An international woman and a talented one. A woman who enjoys dressing herself and designing for other women." While one could, I suppose, make a case for reverse sexism here, the fact that De Libran is a femme française who adores fashion (just take a look at the street-style blogs or her Instagram account for proof) and manages to juggle a career and a family allows her to understand the Sonia Rykiel ethos better than a male designer might. Whatever the reason for her appointment, I look forward to seeing what the designer brings to Rykiel in September.
Tao Okamoto is a "model" in every sense of the word. Since she began appearing on runways and in glossy editorial spreads fifteen years ago, the Japanese beauty has become one of the industry's most sought-after faces (and helped break down barriers for Asian catwalkers). In recent years, Okamoto has extended her influence beyond fashion. In 2011, she helped raise funds and awareness for victims of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked her home country. Last summer, Okamoto made her acting debut in the X-Men blockbuster The Wolverine. Keeping up her silver-screen streak, she was cast in the upcoming action flick, out in 2016, Batman vs. Superman, and also made her first TV appearance in the new Japanese miniseries Chi no Wadachi.
Adding to her already-full plate, Okamoto has found time in the past year to do a special series of shoots—commissioned by her New York agency, The Society Management—with fifteen emerging photographers to honor her fifteen-year-long career. The resulting exhibition, Tao Okamoto 15, will be unveiled tonight at Hudson Studios in Manhattan and is open to the public for one day only. On view are unique images lensed by up-and-coming talents including Max Snow, Victor Demarchelier, and Santiago & Mauricio. An exclusive sneak peek of Tim Richardson's portrait debuts here on cbamd.com. Below, we spoke with Okamoto about her latest showcase, balancing acting and modeling, and more.
Nick Knight and SHOWstudio just launched a series of video interviews called "Subjective" that attempt to tell the history of contemporary fashion photography as seen through the eyes of models.
His first subject: Kate Moss. Moss shares stories with Knight about her early modeling days, living off of fish and chips and Guinness, shooting with Corinne Day, and getting flack for being a heroin-cheeked waif—"I'm a fabulous scapegoat," she says.
The conversation is casual, intimate; Moss is charming and beautiful. What Knight says about her early photos remains true: "It's a very powerful thing to have that honesty and fragility." Head over to SHOWstudio to watch.
If you didn't catch Prada's Spring '08 collection (this reporter was still in high school), you now have a second chance at those botanical prints, metallic leaf dresses, and sheer parkas. Dover Street Market has teamed up with Prada for another exclusive women's capsule, this time reintroducing twelve key styles and prints inspired by that vibrant and memorable season.In true DSM fashion, these aren't just copies of past designs; each piece is hand-painted and thus one-of-a-kind for a thoroughly modern spin. A first look at the lineup, which hits DSMNY tomorrow, May 8, debuts exclusively here on cbamd.com.
"I am so delighted to be receiving this second very special collection by Prada for Dover Street Market," Adrian Joffe, CEO of Comme des Garçons (the parent company of DSM), told cbamd.com. "Their willingness to create these unique capsule collections for us fills me with endless pride and proves how much they understand what we are trying to do. I think it is fair to say that our mutual admiration and respect knows no bounds."
The collection is just one element of a wider project that DSMNY is opening in celebration of New York's forthcoming cultural events and art fairs, including Frieze. Palace Skate's installation from Tate Britain, Comme des Garçons' giant Kewpie, and a special exhibit of archive hats by Stephen Jones (which coincides with the launch of his new Wisteria Hysteria perfume) will be unveiled at an open house tomorrow.
The second Prada x DSMNY collection will be available exclusively at Dover Street Market New York, 160 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016.