Faustine Lara
Kristin G
Steve Frous
Olivia P
Lola Mansil
This year, the Tonys red carpet seemed colored with shades of blue as musical darling Dear Evan Hansen swept the 71st annual ceremony with a staggering six awards—including best musical, best actor Ben Platt, and best actress Rachel Bay Jones. “I knew that win or lose, if there was ever going to be a gown moment, it was tonight,” Jones said of her on-theme Christian Siriano strapless design. “It’s been a big, dramatic season on Broadway, and a momentous nomination for me. This gown felt like an outward expression of all of that big, fat joy and drama!” Though no one, not even Jones or Platt, could have predicted the color-coordinated after-party on the rooftop of the Empire Hotel on Sunday. Upon arrival, guests were met with a buffet of sugary delights, such as Twizzlers, marshmallows, jelly beans, and gummies (both worm and bear), all in pastel blue. The open-floor setting was given the candy-coated treatment, too, as the room was drenched in a cool blue glow, while lyrics like “you will be found” were emblazoned by neon signs that decorated everything from the interiors to the outsides of the DJ booth. Meanwhile, waiters dressed as Evan Hansen lookalikes (striped polos and khaki pants) passed out sliders, chicken fingers, and blue lemonade served virgin or spiked with vodka and gin. The festivities ran late into the night, and after toasting the entire Dear Evan Hansen cast and crew, all went home with a familiar button-up shirt to call their own.
Yves Saint Laurent. Ralph Lauren. And as of this morning, Astrid Andersen too. The young Danish designer of ceremonially lush, basketball-based sports luxe took on one of fashion’s most laden tropes: safari. “All the houses have done that safari theme,” she said: “and that’s what I want to do: take something that has a place in fashion history, but do it our way.” Thus, this was not “safari” in the dentist-shoots-lion sense. The only real whisper of that generic source material were the billows pockets that featured on some of her long-yolked collarless shirts and heat sealed technical parkas, plus some sun bonnet headwear. This was more “safari” in the sense of its Arabic via Swahili derivation of travel: an expedition equipped Andersen. It visited several of her landmarks. Iridescent lace from Sophie Hallette was used in those hats, as well as on the hems of cropped logo sweats and panels in parkas. Other fabrics drawn from non-sportswear traditions include crushed velvet used in racerback vests and tracksuits, a bird and flower print on pistachio silk, and a horizontally lined feminine tweed in blue or green. For the first time Andersen incorporated shirting patterns to give added credence to her pitch for the tracksuit as formalwear. With the exception of one mighty fur that looked like it really might have been bagged in the wild, this collection gently stepped back from the baroque opulence of last season to present a more pared down, at least for Andersen, wardrobe for modern wanderers. Chunky jewelry, most of it worn on the arm, made from Brazilian crystals and Philippino acacia by the Danish firm Monies were their souvenirs picked up en route.
When it comes to makeup, there’s only one truly universal rule: Eventually, it must all be washed off. And as for choosing an appropriate remover—gentle yet powerful enough to erase the toughest of waterproof mascaras—who better to ask for advice than Broadway actresses? After all, they spend their nights coated in impenetrable stage makeup, singing and dancing for hours in sweat-proof foundation; cheek-sculpting blush; and, often, eye-opening false lashes, all of which have to be strong enough to be visible from the last row in the house. These leading ladies know how to take it all off post-performance while still keeping their skin hydrated and ready for the next day’s curtain call. With the Tony Awards this Sunday, cast members from Groundhog Day, Anastasia, Dear Evan Hansen, and more share the best makeup removers on the planet.
When contemporary art lands in the news cycle, it’s often for what its devotees may consider the “wrong” reasons, whether because of sky-high auction prices (like last month’s sale of a canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat for $110.5 million at Sotheby’s) or because of calls for censorship from the political right or left.
In 1999, when then–New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani threatened to withhold city funding from the Brooklyn Museum for showing Chris Ofili’s mixed-media canvas The Holy Virgin—an image of a Black Madonna adorned with elephant dung—it was front-page news, and easy for art world insiders to cry, “Philistines!” The storm last spring surrounding Dana Schutz’s painting of Emmet Till in the Whitney Biennial was more complicated to navigate and filled my Facebook feed for weeks, with one art critic after another weighing in on either side of the controversy.
So when news erupted over Memorial Day weekend that the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and its director, Olga Viso, were being attacked for installing a sculpture by Los Angeles–based artist Sam Durant in the Walker’s newly redesigned Sculpture Garden—an almost 30-year-old jewel of the city’s Parks system, curated by the Walker but sited on public land, and reopening today—it gave me pause.
I had toured the garden in April, when bulldozers were still moving dirt around, and had spoken briefly with Viso about her reasons for undertaking this massive, $33 million renovation, which included making the garden more environmentally and user-friendly, and moving its contemporary sculpture program into the 21st century, with 18 new acquisitions and commissions, many by women and people of color. German sculptor Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn/Cock—a 13-foot-tall rooster, cast in ultramarine blue resin and set atop a 10-foot-high pedestal—was meant to be a focal point, a reflection, at once feminist and Pop, on monumentality and absurdism.
Only a few works were installed when I visited, including beautiful figurative bronzes by Dutch artist Mark Manders and Los Angeles–based sculptor Matthew Monahan. The Durant piece, Scaffold—a large, stark, and somewhat forbidding timber and steel structure resembling a Piranesian jungle gym or an unfinished house—hadn’t impressed me visually, though its backstory seemed compelling. Durant had based its design on seven different scaffoldings that had served in executions between 1859 and 2006; he had first exhibited it in Kassel, Germany, in 2012, where it was understood as a critique of capital punishment.
But in Minneapolis, local members of the Dakota Sioux nation understood it differently. For them, the sculpture recalled just one of Durant’s sources: the gallows that served in the 1862 public hanging of 38 Dakota Sioux men, which took place in nearby Mankato. The largest mass execution in U.S. history, it remains an open wound for their people.
In late May, after protests by Native American groups and others, Viso and Durant began a process of mediation with Dakota Sioux elders. “When we understood that Sam’s piece was being seen by the Dakota community in literal terms, it was very painful,” Viso explained by phone recently. “The sculpture sits on public land—on former Dakota land, in fact. So that’s a very specific context. For them, Scaffold was not about raising awareness of this suppressed history: It was the killing machine itself.”
Durant, she said, was “very clear that if he had understood the trauma this work would have induced, he would not have made it in the same way. It was he who volunteered the idea of giving the gallows to the Dakota community.” One week ago, workers began dismantling the sculpture; the fate of its timber, which now belongs to the Dakota Sioux nation, remains uncertain.
The controversy has cast a shadow over the garden’s reopening. But Viso remains guardedly hopeful. As a museum professional, she noted, “Every fiber of my being is focused on the preservation of art. But I think, with Sam’s participation, we remade the work in a new way. It’s still very much alive. It may not exist in physical form. But it exists in archive, in oral history, and in the lives of all who were transformed by this process.”
Bella Hadid is fast becoming one of fashion’s biggest style chameleons. Earlier this week, the model accompanied Off-White designer Virgil Abloh to the 2017 CFDA Awards in a modern and slick spin on the ’80s power suit, before (accidentally) twinning with pop superstar Justin Bieber in Abloh’s plaid shorts, a collaboration with Umbro. Arriving in Paris earlier today, Hadid ushered in a fresh take on a familiar trend: Matrix-inspired style. The younger Hadid’s penchant for futuristic dressing is well documented, from her metallic jackets and boots to uniforms. However, this black turtleneck top and white scallop-hem skirt felt simultaneously ladylike and fashion-forward. The black and white palette is classic Parisian cool, but the accessories lifted the ensemble to new directional heights. Square-edged shades kept prying paps at bay, while a bronze python shoulder bag brought sci-fi polish to the traditional micro lady bag. Grounding the look were charm-adorned strappy sandals to put a spring in Hadid’s step.
When you're in lingerie-level shape year round, there's no reason to keep abs under wraps. Just ask Victoria's Secret model Romee Strijd, who yesterday celebrated the release of David Guetta and Justin Bieber's new "2U" music video—which harnesses the can't-look-away power of the Angels' pre-VS Fashion Show lip sync ritual—by taking her toned stomach to the streets. While the partially black-and-white video finds Strijd strutting herself in a blowout and bra, yesterday's look centered on a lacy crop, rose-colored glasses, and rumpled waves topped with a black fisherman's cap. In both cases, though, Strijd's abs stole the show, their on-display nature nodding to a commitment to fitness that makes donning abbreviated tops a no-brainer. And considering the video also finds Stella Maxwell, Jasmine Tookes, Sara Sampaio, Martha Hunt, and Elsa Hosk faux-singing, tossing manes, and posing in characteristically minimal outfits, "2U" easily doubles as a groovable excuse to hone your summertime workout regime.
First, it was an eco-resort on a French Polynesia atoll--where President Obama had recently stayed. Then, it was the harbor city of Sydney.
But now, Pippa Middleton and James Matthews’s honeymoon has reportedly continued on to a third destination: Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef, a beach-set safari camp.
Located on the western side of the continent, and more specifically, in Cape Range National Park, the camp bills itself as “Where the Outback Meets the Reef.”
Sounds pretty dreamy—and is a combination of sorts of the couple’s last two stops on their trip.
Not far from the town of Exmouth, the eco-retreat offers a host of accommodation options.
Many guests stay in “wilderness tents,” while others opt for the lodge.
There is also, in case you were wondering, a honeymoon tent as well that is available to book.
But the biggest appeal for the new Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, both of whom are noted outdoor enthusiasts, may be the variety of activities that Sal Salis offers.
There’s fishing, snorkeling and kayaking, and for the brave, swimming with humpback whales and whale sharks. Easy makings for the trip of a lifetime, it would seem.
Above, a look inside Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef.
At his showroom today, Joseph Altuzarra talked about mixing urban and rural references. He said his touchstones for Resort were the films American Psycho and Working Girl, both of which portray Manhattan corporate culture in the ’80s, and the traditional lacework and floral motifs of Brittany, France. An unlikely combination, maybe, but one that worked rather well because of his larger project, which was to inject the clothes with a new sense of ease. “It’s a softer, relaxed collection,” he said. Altuzarra arrived on the scene with a design identity stamped in Paris; he specializes in a sensual allure, hourglass tailoring, and side slits—and it seduces. But with the world tilting in a more casual direction—see the athleisure phenomenon, see fashion’s rush to streetwear—he’s doing some timely rejiggering of the formula. Think Working Girl, think Wall Street, and think pinstripes. Tailoring is a key category for Altuzarra, but there were no straight-up suits here. In fact, his only true two-piecer came in shocking pink; otherwise he split up his suits, an idea he said he picked up from clients who’ve been wearing—and buying—their tailored pieces separately. The corporate raider connotations of those pinstripes, meanwhile, were tempered by cut and fit; in one case he cut them into an apron dress, in another he layered a lace slip under a cropped jacket. Banker button-downs got a rethink too, with collars peeling off the shoulders and the placket removed to the side of the torso. Sometimes he layered a snug, smocked bandeau over the top of them. Not boardroom-ready, but that’s entirely the point. Draped under jackets, Brittany’s traditional scarves, or fichus, further deformalized his tailoring. And don’t get it wrong, there was still plenty of that signature allure, but in a decidedly lower key. His most innovative idea for evening was pairing a sequin- and flower-embroidered tulle cape with a bright pink camisole and, marking a first for brand Altuzarra, dark rinse jeans.
Now more than ever, the idea of Wonder Woman is important. And last night in Paris at the Pavillon Ledoyen, model Liya Kebede hosted a star-studded silent auction in celebration of the comic character’s 75th anniversary. Up for grabs were pieces inspired by the iconic superhero’s signature garb, with designs from Andrew Gn, Christopher Kane, Haider Ackermann, and Louis Vuitton, among others. Taking in the wares and bidding were Aurélie Bidermann, Melanie Huynh, Sylvia Toledano, and countless more, who looked in awe at the haute spin on all-American style. But the top three pieces from Dior, Givenchy, and Roland Mouret all contributed to the over-20,000-euro haul from the evening, benefiting Kebede’s Lemlem Foundation. Truly a wonderful result for an amazing woman.
Somewhere between signing off on an encyclopedic monograph and staging a massive retrospective exhibition in London, Anna Sui found time to design one of her most focused collections to date. Her jumping-off points for Resort 2018 were the otherworldly photographs Sarah Moon, Deborah Turbeville, and Guy Bourdin shot in the ’70s, namely Moon’s Cacharel campaigns and Bourdin’s pictures for Charles Jourdan. Their evocative colors and ethereal dream girls set up the palette and spirit of the collection. Rich eggplant, azure, black, rust, and a delicate beige lent a moody quality to nostalgic dresses and layering pieces such as geometric lace shorts, sheer star-print robe coats, and wide-leg pants that work on their own or under a tunic dress. What made Resort feel like more than just a string of vintage-tinged hits was the vastness of the prints and the mashed-up way they were styled together. A big cabbage rose–print skirt was paired with a fairy intarsia crop top, the way a modern Sui girl might style her pieces. Another dress combined a shooting star, a full moon, and swirling ribbon patterns, topped off with a swingy asymmetric hem. Sui left no stone unturned with her fabrics, meaning the tiny cupids, stars, and swallows that appear boldly on frocks made cameos in lace trimmings and as patches. The repetition and consistency of motifs will give customers something to pore over and play with when the clothes hit stores.