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As industries go, fashion may be the least closeted there is: No one can deny the massive impact made by men and women who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered in the history of fashion and costume. Fashion historian Valerie Steele addresses the contributions made by LGBT people in a new exhibition, A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk, opening this week at the Museum at F.I.T. It includes pieces ranging from designs by Jean Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace to Edwardian suits and nineteenth-century finery; clothing made by gays and for gays; as well as those items and styles co-opted and fetishized by gay audiences, and from gay audiences. (See, for example, Versace's adaptation of leather fetish regalia into his women's haute couture.)
As the exhibition makes clear—not that it wasn't out, as it were, already—the gay contribution to fashion is beyond doubt. The question that's much harder to answer is why. Shortly after the show was announced last year, I sat down with Steele, who co-curated the exhibit with Fred Dennis, to try to tease out the curious correlation and connection between gayness, politics, fashion, and style.
There's no shortage of Reed Krakoff in the headlines today. As the designer prepares to show his Spring '14 collection this afternoon, yesterday news broke that Krakoff had officially acquired the majority share in his eponymous company from parent brand Coach Inc. In WWD, he called the move "simultaneously a new beginning and a culmination of something." The price of independence? A reported $50 million—which makes us all the keener to see what he'll send down the catwalk today.
Watch out, Kering. LVMH is comin' round the bend on the young designer investment front—or it's rumored to be, anyway. Today, WWD reports that LVMH is believed to be in talks with London-based up-and-comer Jonathan Anderson of J.W.Anderson.
The emerging talent, known for his wares' slick cuts and androgynous appeal, has been on the rise for the past few seasons. Earlier this year, he launched his very first ad campaign, which debuted exclusively here. And who could forget his collaboration with Versace's Versus? No doubt, a little help from LVMH would further elevate his line—and his profile. In related news, there have been whispers the past few months that LVMH is looking to invest in accessories designer Nicholas Kirkwood's growing business, too.
This all comes on the heels of Kering's headline-making move to buy a 51 percent stake in Christopher Kane in January, as well as the company's purchase of shares in Altuzarra just last week. All in all, it looks like luxury parent corps are invested in funding the future of fashion—here's hoping the designers will continue to stay their respective creative courses.
For AnOther Magazine's twenty-fifth issue, Jefferson Hack, the founder of Dazed Publishing Group, has tapped renowned Belgian stylist Olivier Rizzo as the guest editor of the British culture and fashion biannual.
Centering on the ideas of travel and transformation, Rizzo brought a rich texture, wit, and sense of performance to his three shoots with photographers Willy Vanderperre (above) and Alasdair McLellan (below). "Guest-editing the well of AnOther Magazine was fantastic," Rizzo told Style.com. "Jefferson, [creative director] David James, and I have a long-standing, close relationship in the magazine, where the mutual respect and support leads to total creative freedom." For the cover, he styled actress Cate Blanchett in the midst of a decadent night garden, channeling the theatricality of new-wave Berlin. Hailing from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Rizzo has some pretty serious styling cred: He's done Prada's shows since 2006, as well as the runways of Jil Sander and Louis Vuitton, and the campaigns for Raf Simons and Dior.
Furthermore, he's known for working with photographers such as Paolo Roversi, Steven Meisel, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Craig McDean, and Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for publications such as Vogue Italia, W, i-D, Fantastic Man, Love, and Vogue Hommes International.
Take a sneak peek at Rizzo's AnOther spreads, which debut exclusively here, and check out the full issue when it hits newsstands on September 12.
Last night, Vogue Italia's Franca Sozzani staged an exhibit at the Italian Trade Commission celebrating—you guessed it—Italian fashion. The free-thinking editor mixed old and new, asking eight up-and-coming directors to present their fashion film spin on some of Italy's biggest names, from Prada and Giorgio Armani to Missoni and Versace. "We chose the brands, they chose the clothes," Sozzani said at yesterday's exhibit-turned-party, wearing a bold print dress by emerging Italian talent Stella Jean.
"Everybody is Italian tonight!" exclaimed Calvin Klein's Italo Zucchelli. True enough, the party had the likes of Joy Bryant, Amanda Hearst, and Johan Lindeberg showing off their Italian side—if only for the night. DJ Mia Moretti held out her Ferragamo clutch and Fendi shoes like an badge of honor.
Guests clamored inside the space, where digital screens broadcast each of the films. Headphones allowed them to listen in. Ann Dexter-Jones pointed to Carlo Lavagna's An Italian Adventure, which had its Dolce & Gabbana heroine swimming in the Mediterranean. "I want to be in Sicily in that one," she said.
Eyewear label Oliver Peoples has deftly carried the lofty title of "classic" while remaining innovative in its field. Now the twenty-five-year-old brand has just relaunched its Web site, creating an overhauled digital flagship. "Although in my opinion, nothing can really compare to our in-store experience," Oliver Peoples co-founder and creative director Larry Leight admitted, "the new site is as close as it gets."
Split into four interactive categories, the site delves into Optical, Sun, the World of Peoples, and Working Opticians. The former two categories offer customers an array of current and classic styles, as well as street-style photography. The World of Peoples is where the brand's voice comes to life through editorial content, campaign videos, collaborations, and interviews with relevant tastemakers, starting with Bret Easton Ellis, who just happened to name-drop the label in American Psycho. "The goal was to make our site a place where [customers] could not only find a great pair of sunglasses or optical frames, but also come to learn about our Southern California lifestyle, inspirations, collaborations, and alignments," Leight said.
And as for Oliver People's heritage, Working Opticians brings the site back to the intricacy of the brand's design process, offering detailed peeks at OP's start-to-finish craftsmanship. Needless to say, the new Web site really does convey the label through a more focused lens. Here, Oliver Peoples shares the finished product for the first time, exclusively with cbamd.com.
Labels: LPD New York, designed by 22-year-old Benjamin Fainlight, and Conflict of Interest NYC, whose designers are not yet ready to expose themselves and thus want to be known, for now, as "agents." The collections were presented in tandem at an installation-cum-party in New York's Garment District.
Need to Know: Let's start with LPD (left), a one-year-old label that gained notoriety thanks to its mesh athletic jerseys emblazoned with designer monikers—SLIMANE 68, for example. Yet wisely, the label's young founder recognizes that a one-trick pony does not a brand make, and, for the first time, will offer a fully cut-and-sewn Spring '14 lineup that extends well past the gimmickry. On mud-covered models, he showed both men's and women's separates, some rendered with eye-catching grayscale landscapes or Japanese lettering. LPD's inherent street sportiness isn't sacrificed, though—this was lean, mean, and greased to the concrete bone. In particular, keep a lookout for sweatshirt-material shorts with a leather-mimicking finish, as well as an upcoming collaboration with Jessica Stam.
Label: Houghton, designed by Katharine Polk
Need to know: Imbuing Katharine Hepburn's unfettered spirit has been Houghton's calling card ever since the brand launched last year. Deceptively easy yet feminine, Houghton's wares quickly earned fresh-faced celebrity fans, including Lucy Hale, Selena Gomez, and Dascha Polanco.
Stylist-cum-designer Katharine Polk extolls the value of simple, effortless dressing with Spring '14, taking cues from a recent trip to Miami. She confessed to having sketched the entire collection poolside. Pleated tunics and basketweave dresses (each handwoven and crafted using as many as a hundred strips) recalled lounge chairs and the swaying of palm trees. Elsewhere, there were drop-waist dresses and jumpers in a minimal palette of gray, mint, white, and black. Embroidery with gold threading, which appeared on everything from bikini tops to the collaborative Birkenstock sandals, was a nice punctuation. But it was the onslaught of shimmery chiffon gowns, which, catching hold of the Hudson River wind from the catwalk of the Standard Hotel's balcony, really succeeded in bringing Miami to New York.
She says: "I always describe her [Houghton girl] as a 'tomboy in a gown,' " said Polk. She then added, "She's someone who really appreciates fashion and quality—she'll wear the gown, but wear it with flats."
It seems that Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle site, Goop—which has, in the past, collaborated with the likes of Warby Parker, Clare Vivier, and Butter London—has a new project in the works with Stella McCartney.
While the Telegraph speculates about the details of the partnership—Sportswear? Lingerie? Skincare?—all we know, per the site's homepage, is that it's launching in September. As if next month isn’t busy enough, we'll also be tuning in on the first to get the scoop on Goop.
Oscar de la Renta is fed up. This season, the designer is slashing the number of invites that will be sent out for his Spring' 14 show—a move that follows his choice to host two back-to-back shows last season in order to accommodate more guests. "It's important for [certain industry professionals] to look at the clothes and see them. They shouldn't have to go through 30,000 people, and 10,000 who are trying to take pictures of all of those people who are totally unrelated to the clothes," the designer told WWD. "When you do megashows, it loses the reason of why we're showing…Why have 20 million people with zero connection to the clothes?" he added. A fashion show that focuses solely on the new collection? What an incredibly novel (and dare we say welcomed) concept.
