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Olivier Saillard—author, poet, star fashion curator—tends to prefer a contemplative moment over a grand event. He is also fond of saying that, had he ever studied fashion design, he would have done "just one dress" and then retired his tape measure.
Last night in Paris, he offered both. Eternity Dress, a fifty-one-minute performance starring Tilda Swinton, sponsored by Chloe, and staged at the ecole des Beaux-Arts this week as part of the city's fall festival, has been sold out for months. In it, Saillard and Swinton explore the art of dressmaking, starting with lines and measurements (waist: 28 inches, and so forth) working up through flat patterns and the beginnings of a dress, which Swinton took a moment to sew on herself. As the dress took form, Swinton recited a litany of collar styles in French and released a world of emotion in the turn of a sleeve, finally draping herself in rich-hued chiffon and velvet unfurled from bolts lined up on the floor.
Ultimately, The Dress—a black sheath with long sleeves and an open back—was a stand-in for a century of fashion history, from Paul Poiret to Comme des Garçons. One of the show's high points, as well as its biggest laugh, showed Swinton striking a series of emblematic poses for houses from Poiret to Yohji Yamamoto, by way of Chanel, Dior, Mugler, YSL, and Jean Paul Gaultier. Among a roomful of designers including Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Bouchra Jarrar, Martine Sitbon, and Clare Waight Keller, Haider Ackermann was first on his feet for the ovation. "It's absolutely a piece of my life," said Waight Keller. "They've taken everyday materials like tape and chalk and elevated them to an art form about designing a dress from scratch. It's about craft, measuring, and a considered approach. It's poetry."
"One of the things about Tilda is that she can do anything," noted Saillard after the performance. "She's not a ‘fashion girl,' so she can be a sculpture, an actress, a woman, a man, she can be 18 or 75 years old. It was like we were in a bubble, and the experience gave us lots of new ideas. Fashion has to be surprising."
At the small cocktail party held afterward at Laperouse, Swinton added, "Olivier is a playmate. We work and play together and come up with crackers ideas for some other time—it's wonderful to be able to play off of someone like that." Asked whether she realizes that she would be any designer's dream to work with, Swinton let loose a small bombshell: "Maybe it's because I know nothing about fashion!"
The Oxford Dictionaries, purveyor of the be-all and end-all reference, the Oxford English Dictionary, has spoken. The 2013 word of the year—though I confess I was rooting for obsessed—is selfie. The word, which at this point probably needs no definition, is, of course, a self-portrait by smartphone, usually intended for social media. But I was as interested in the runners-up list, which includes, among entrants like bitcoin and binge-watch this curious verb:
showrooming, noun: the practice of visiting a shop or shops in order to examine a product before buying it online at a lower price. [ORIGIN early 21st century: from SHOWROOM, "a room used to display goods for sale."]
The word, if not the practice, is new to me. Which makes me wonder: Has the world been labeling its online-comparison shopping all this time under my nose? Style File readers: Do you showroom?
In past interviews, Mario Testino has alluded that his childhood in Peru was that of a misfit. He was the fashion-crazed oddball in a traditional Catholic family, and by his early twenties, he had left his native Lima for London. So it would seem a touch ironic that Testino returned to Peru to shoot what are arguably some of the most fantastical fashions of his career. Alta Moda, on view at Manhattan's Queen Sofia Spanish Institute, is the culmination of five years' work photographing traditional costumes worn by the people of the mountain city of Cusco. All twenty-seven images on view are a window into a lush world rarely seen—particularly by Testino's usual audiences. The opulent outfits were shot against a traditional painted backdrop from the archives of Martin Chambi, Peru's seminal indigenous photographer. Below, Testino talks to cbamd.com about the couture-caliber costumes, his fascination with tradition, and the show's notable departure from his usual oeuvre.
In the streets and on Tommy Ton's pages in the latest issue of cbamd.com/Print, jeans are more dressed-down than ever—shredded, distressed, and faded to a fare-thee-well. But it was a different story on the Spring runways, where polished denim ruled. At his Louis Vuitton swan song, Marc Jacobs gave dungarees a couture twist with jet-beaded pockets. Olivier Rousteing upped the ante at Balmain, trussing soft, faded chambray with major metal chains. And Joseph Altuzarra sent out tailored pieces featuring indigo prints in the style of Japan's elaborate "boro" patchworks. Dark-rinse denim was also in the spotlight at Acne Studios, Versace, and Derek Lam. Even the Valentino designers got in on the act, whipping up a ball skirt (actually, full-leg culottes) from the stuff.
Here, a slide show of Spring's dressed-up denim.
Earlier this month, the CFDA elected three new designers to sit on its board in order to replace former members Yeohlee Teng, Kenneth Cole, and Isabel Toledo, who will retain emeritus status. WWD reports today that the newcomers are Prabal Gurung, Deborah Lloyd, and The Row's Ashley Olsen. Strangely, there was no mention of Ashley's twin and co-designer, Mary-Kate. That's not to say that the former Full House stars are required to do everything in tandem, but still…maybe next year?
"You get picked for a building based on an image. The world runs on images," said the architect David Chipperfield on Saturday, at Mexico City's newly opened Museo Jumex. If Chipperfield—who won the commission to design the building in 2009—is correct, then Jumex's inaugural weekend produced enough visual currency to run the whole of Mexico, if not the globe. A bienvenidos dinner in a tangerine-lit urban forest with the likes of Eva Longoria, Richard Buckley, and Stavros Niarchos; a whitewashed penthouse studio with a Damien Hirst cow's head and a Richard Prince sex joke; and Mark Ronson's two-hour deejay set, which was spun for thousands of partygoers in a purpose-built Studio 54-inspired Mayan temple, were just some of the event's highlights.
Located in the municipality's upscale Polanco neighborhood, Jumex will serve as a second home for the Colección Jumex—a contemporary art collection billed as Latin America's largest, spearheaded by the Mexican beverage magnate Eugenio Lopez. With its serrated roof and sand-colored geometry, the building is completely captivating, and will function primarily as a gallery space to house curations from the Colección, as well as exhibitions by other artists. Jumex's current headliner is a blockbuster show dubbed A Place in Two Dimensions, which features artists from the Coleccion such as Thomas Ruff, Jorge Pardo, and Francis Alys alongside a solo display by Fred Sandback, a sculptor best known for his tied-off strings fraught with tension and delicacy. Curator Patrick Charpenel explained, "We wanted to play with the idea of being on the verge of collapse." It's a provocative sentiment, though it may contain a layer of reverse subtext: Mexico City—particularly on the arts front—is in modern-renaissance mode and is poised to flourish as a major and permanent international cultural player. Though, after this weekend, we're sure many would argue that its moment is already in full swing.
Curator Alistair O’Neill only met the late Isabella Blow once. He was at an art opening with designer Julien Macdonald, one of the late, great Blow’s charges, whom he studied with at the Royal College of Art. “Isabella was wearing a famous Philip Treacy hat, which is in the exhibition. It had feathers around the eyes, which covered her nose and her mouth and her forehead,” he recalled. “I spent the evening talking to her and was completely fascinated. But all that I could concentrate on were her eyes, because I couldn’t really see her mouth. I could only just about listen to what she was saying, and I was just mesmerized by this image of these eyes being framed by the feathers. The combination of her intelligence and her laughing was really intoxicating,” he continued. “I’ve never forgotten that.”
On November 20, O’Neill, along with Shonagh Marshall and Central Saint Martins, will aim to bring the editor, patron, and muse’s work and wardrobe to life with the opening of Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! at the Somerset House in London. Before her tragic suicide, in 2007, Blow was a pillar of London’s emerging fashion community. Having worked everywhere—from British and American Vogue to The Sunday Times to Tatler—Blow is credited with discovering such designers as Alexander McQueen (as the story goes, she bought his entire graduate collection after it walked down the Central Saint Martins Runway in 1992), milliner Philip Treacy, Jeremy Scott, and Hussein Chalayan, as well as models Sophie Dahl (whom she once described as a “blow-up doll with brains”) and Stella Tennant.
Monumental. There's really no better word for the new Balenciaga flagship at 148 Mercer Street, in Soho. With its triple-height ceiling, curving skylight (a clin d'oeil at Cristóbal's sculptural volumes), and green Verde Ramegiatto marble walls (an echo of Alexander Wang's debut collection for the label), the 4,120-square-foot, two-floor store resembles a museum or a cathedral nave. The objects of worship: Wang's ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, jewelry, and eyewear, each of which will be housed within its own distinct space. But if it's grand, it's intimate as well, with the ready-to-wear tucked away in the far reaches of the basement level. A low-slung couch and chairs upholstered in caviar embroidery, another nod to Wang's first show for the house, lend the room the look and feel of a VIP salon. Wang worked with his friend of ten years, interior designer Ryan Korban, on the project, as well as its brother store across the street, which will sell the brand's menswear. (Korban also designed the Alexander Wang boutique a few blocks south, on Grand Street.) "It's thrilling to have created a new home in Soho, a neighborhood everyone in the world crosses," Wang said from Paris last week. "From here, we'll focus on a new statement in Tokyo next year; this is just the beginning, and I'm looking forward." Above, an exclusive image of the new flagship. Wang will christen the store tomorrow night with a cocktail party. Both shops open to the public on Friday, November 22.
According to our Spring '14 Trend Report, art and fashion are sharing a major moment. But for Mother of Pearl's Maia Norman and Amy Powney, this isn't anything new. Each season, the duo works with a contemporary artist (Gary Hume and Mat Collishaw have been past collaborators) to design Mother of Pearl's clever prints, and their latest offering, which debuted exclusively today on Net-a-Porter, got the Jim Lambie treatment.
This isn't the first time Lambie has teamed up with the brand. The artist lent a hand to the Spring 2011 collection, which was Powney's first as head of design. "Working with Jim Lambie helped me set the tone for Mother of Pearl, so in some ways, I feel it is not just complimentary of our aesthetic, but also part of the foundation," Powney told Style.com. Two of Lambie's major works lent themselves to the new capsule. His "Found Flower Painting" series, in which surrealist blooms are collaged with posters of musicians, inspired the black-and-white striped gown, blouse, and sneakers splashed with fuchsia florals. And his eye-catching vinyl floor installations, which mimic a 2-D rainbow beneath your feet, were transferred to a T-shirt and column skirt in thick bands of pastels. Over the past few seasons, mixed stripes, florals, and unexpected hues have become ingrained in Mother of Pearl's DNA, but the Lambie style makes it all feel fresh as a daisy for Spring. Now that's what we call wearable art.
Ranging from $275 to $900, Mother of Pearl's Jim Lambie collection is available, from today, on cbamd.com
This week was highlighted by a whirlwind European press tour for the cast of Hunger Games: Catching Fire, with photo calls and premieres in London, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, and Oslo. Leading lady Jennifer Lawrence donned a bevy of gorgeous gowns to promote the second film of the trilogy. And while she mostly stuck to her red-carpet favorite, Dior (she is the face of the brand, after all), the actress did throw in a sprinkling of Alexander McQueen, Louis Vuitton, and Proenza Schouler. At Tuesday's Berlin premiere, Lawrence wore a pale blue double-breasted coat-dress with printed guipure panels from Dior's Resort '14 range, which was a perfectly chic way to battle dropping temperatures (remember Leelee Sobieski's black version last week? We sense a trend coming on). Elizabeth Banks also shined on the red carpet, choosing two shimmering Elie Saab Fall '13 Couture dresses for the Berlin and Oslo premieres.
On Monday, the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards and Glamour's Women of the Year Awards brought out a stylish crowd. Lily Collins walked the red carpet at the WOTY Awards in a silk flesh-toned gown with a plunging neckline from the Julien Macdonald Spring '14 runway, while Lady Gaga paired a pearl-adorned jacket with a cargo-pocketed pencil skirt and tall, pearl-encrusted platform shoes from Thom Browne's asylum-themed Spring '14 lineup. At the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards, Ciara wore her first Calvin Klein Collection ensemble, stepping out in a tweed wrap vest and cotton twill painter's pants, with a jacket draped around her shoulders from the Spring '14 runway. Considering the result, we have a feeling there's more Calvin in the singer's future.
Here, more of this week's red-carpet highlights.
