But with curators Neville Wakefield and Joyce Varvatos at the helm of upcoming shows, it may be hard to keep the fashion crowds at bay.

Plenty of creative types came out last night for the opening of fordPROJECT, a new gallery venture from Altpoint Capital Partners (the parent company of Ford Models), but catwalkers were not among them. Under the direction of Rahel Vancelette and Tim GoosSens, the new art space (which occupies two floors at the top of the venerable modeling agency's building on West 57th Street) is aiming to make a name for itself without milking the expected fashion tie-in. To that end, the inaugural exhibition, curated by Lara Pan, has a fairy-tale theme and includes works by Kenny Scharf and Paul McCarthy. But with curators Neville Wakefield and Joyce Varvatos at the helm of upcoming shows, it may be hard to keep the fashion crowds at bay.

David LaChapelle came by later in the evening, en route home to Maui from Singapore; his New York pit stop included talks with Lever House for a show of his work there in May. With him was Daphne Guinnness, who mentioned that she first liberated her trademark platforms from their heels during a shoot with LaChapelle in the Hawaiian jungle. "The heel kept getting stuck in the ground, so I broke it off," she explained. If LaChapelle, Guinness, and co. make a habit of art-watching at fordPROJECT, the models can’t be far behind.
POST: 2024-11-24