Category Archives for Uncategorized
Whipped MOCA
“L.A. is now the center of the world for contemporary art,” MOCA’s director, Jeffrey Deitch, late of New York, said at the institution’s fundraiser on Saturday night. Them’s fighting words, but looking around at a crowd that included Kirsten Dunst, Kate Bosworth, Gwen Stefani, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Vera Wang, Ed Ruscha, and John Baldessari, even an East Coast visitor might have felt compelled to concede the point. The boldfacers had shelled out $5,000 each to witness artist Doug Aitken‘s new work, We, which featured rural farm auctioneers, a cattle whipper, sonic tables, drummers, and the Los Angeles Gospel Choir. And that wasn’t the end of the evening’s entertainment. Dinner included performances from Devendra Banhart, Beck, and Grammy-winning artist and political activist Caetano Veloso.
The gala, which raised $3 million, was hosted with Chanel Fine Jewelry and began with a private preview of the exhibition The Artist’s Museum (which runs through January 31, 2011), showcasing the work of 146 artists who’ve helped shape the L.A. artistic dialogue during MOCA’s 30-year history. Liz Goldwyn, though, wanted to talk fashion. Arriving arm in arm with Chloë Sevigny, who was channeling Marlene Dietrich in Chanel suspenders and pants, Goldwyn said, “We’re doing like a Hollywood 1930’s tribute to Les Girls, when lesbianism in Hollywood was really done right.” As for Rachel Griffiths’ 1954 red Lanvin frock, scored at Decades, the actress told Style.com, “I feel like a Christmas ball, only hotter.”
—Victoria Namkung Continue reading
Lose the Dress
Recently, Elettra Wiedemann reached out to a bunch of fellow models and asked each to part with a designer dress. “With Iman, who’s friends with my mother, it was a very formal e-mail,” she told Style.com. (Mom is Isabella Rossellini.) In other cases, her tactics were more direct. “Shalom [Harlow] is my friend,” Wiedemann continued. “So with her, I was like, ‘Give me a dress, girl!’ ” Whatever the approach, Wiedemann (who enlisted her stylist, Nick Steele, in the effort) was very successful, in part because it’s all for a good cause. Her charity, One Frickin Day, is raising money for solar-powered health clinics in Haiti and Rwanda.
The dresses, most of which have been worn just once, are on auction until December 7 at Charitybuzz.com. Friday night, they were on display at Christie’s, where Wiedemann and her fiancé, James Marshall, co-hosted a cocktail party to help get the word out. It didn’t take long for a little black Louis Vuitton number with a rosette shoulder (Natalia Vodianova’s contribution) to catch Lauren Remington Platt‘s eye. “That’s the dress I want to wear when my first husband dies,” she decided.
Over by the bar, Arlenis Sosa was breaking in a form-fitting Hervé Léger cocktail dress for the auction block—and, considerately, ordering sparkling water. (The legendary couture menders and cleaners at Madame Paulette donated their services to get all the frocks in tip-top shape.) Karolina Kurkova‘s contribution was the dress Richard Chai designed for her for the 2009 Costume Institute Gala, when she was five months pregnant—”not because I couldn’t fit into dresses, but because we wanted to make something special,” she clarified. Anja Rubik, meanwhile, had donated a floral-print number by Matthew Williamson she’d worn in the designer’s show. “It was a bit difficult [to part with it],” Rubik admitted. “But if it had been the shoes I wore with it, I would be crying.”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
Lose the Dress
Recently, Elettra Wiedemann reached out to a bunch of fellow models and asked each to part with a designer dress. “With Iman, who’s friends with my mother, it was a very formal e-mail,” she told Style.com. (Mom is Isabella Rossellini.) In other cases, her tactics were more direct. “Shalom [Harlow] is my friend,” Wiedemann continued. “So with her, I was like, ‘Give me a dress, girl!’ ” Whatever the approach, Wiedemann (who enlisted her stylist, Nick Steele, in the effort) was very successful, in part because it’s all for a good cause. Her charity, One Frickin Day, is raising money for solar-powered health clinics in Haiti and Rwanda.
The dresses, most of which have been worn just once, are on auction until December 7 at Charitybuzz.com. Friday night, they were on display at Christie’s, where Wiedemann and her fiancé, James Marshall, co-hosted a cocktail party to help get the word out. It didn’t take long for a little black Louis Vuitton number with a rosette shoulder (Natalia Vodianova’s contribution) to catch Lauren Remington Platt‘s eye. “That’s the dress I want to wear when my first husband dies,” she decided.
Over by the bar, Arlenis Sosa was breaking in a form-fitting Hervé Léger cocktail dress for the auction block—and, considerately, ordering sparkling water. (The legendary couture menders and cleaners at Madame Paulette donated their services to get all the frocks in tip-top shape.) Karolina Kurkova‘s contribution was the dress Richard Chai designed for her for the 2009 Costume Institute Gala, when she was five months pregnant—”not because I couldn’t fit into dresses, but because we wanted to make something special,” she clarified. Anja Rubik, meanwhile, had donated a floral-print number by Matthew Williamson she’d worn in the designer’s show. “It was a bit difficult [to part with it],” Rubik admitted. “But if it had been the shoes I wore with it, I would be crying.”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
The Exposed Midriff: Innie Or Outie?
—Brittany Adams Continue reading
Aloha Beauty
—Kari Molvar Continue reading
Aloha Beauty
—Kari Molvar Continue reading
Dinner’s on Donatella
During her speech at the dinner for Central Saint Martins hosted by Donatella Versace last night, Professor Louise Wilson‘s voice cracked when she got to the bit about education being ignored for too long. The funding battle is one that she has waged long and hard on behalf of her students at the design school, many of whom have gone on to populate—even dominate—the global fashion industry. Why, in the last week alone, Mary Katrantzou won the prestigious Swiss Textiles Award and Gareth Pugh was selected as the guest womenswear designer at Pitti W in Florence in January. They were both on hand at the dinner, along with fellow Saint Martins grads Christopher Kane, Antonio Berardi, Louise Goldin, and Richard Nicoll.
As Donatella herself noted, the house of Versace, for one, has benefited from the expertise that Saint Martins graduates bring to the cutting table. She was more than happy to be giving something back, not just by contributing to the CSM 20:20 Fashion Fund but also by helping to raise its profile with the launch event at the Connaught. Wilson approached 20 potential donors to give £20,000 each. (First to open his checkbook was John Rocha, whose daughter Simone, a Saint Martins alumnus, has just set up her own label.) Among the other donors on hand were Converse’s Cheryl Calegari and Net-a-Porter’s Natalie Massenet, dressed for the evening by Versace in a sequined backless outfit that reflected the crowd’s sparkly party spirit. It was hard not to zing a little when your eye-line roamed from Daisy Lowe, Poppy Delevingne, and Camilla Al Fayed to Tammy Kane and Alexa Chung.
Donatella was flanked at dinner by her own dream dates, Rupert Everett and January Jones, the latter of whom was channeling Holly Golightly in her updo and L.B.D. She also exhibited Audrey’s consummate grace as she decorously deflected the burbling of one Mad Men fanboy.
—Tim Blanks Continue reading
Dinner’s on Donatella
During her speech at the dinner for Central Saint Martins hosted by Donatella Versace last night, Professor Louise Wilson‘s voice cracked when she got to the bit about education being ignored for too long. The funding battle is one that she has waged long and hard on behalf of her students at the design school, many of whom have gone on to populate—even dominate—the global fashion industry. Why, in the last week alone, Mary Katrantzou won the prestigious Swiss Textiles Award and Gareth Pugh was selected as the guest womenswear designer at Pitti W in Florence in January. They were both on hand at the dinner, along with fellow Saint Martins grads Christopher Kane, Antonio Berardi, Louise Goldin, and Richard Nicoll.
As Donatella herself noted, the house of Versace, for one, has benefited from the expertise that Saint Martins graduates bring to the cutting table. She was more than happy to be giving something back, not just by contributing to the CSM 20:20 Fashion Fund but also by helping to raise its profile with the launch event at the Connaught. Wilson approached 20 potential donors to give £20,000 each. (First to open his checkbook was John Rocha, whose daughter Simone, a Saint Martins alumnus, has just set up her own label.) Among the other donors on hand were Converse’s Cheryl Calegari and Net-a-Porter’s Natalie Massenet, dressed for the evening by Versace in a sequined backless outfit that reflected the crowd’s sparkly party spirit. It was hard not to zing a little when your eye-line roamed from Daisy Lowe, Poppy Delevingne, and Camilla Al Fayed to Tammy Kane and Alexa Chung.
Donatella was flanked at dinner by her own dream dates, Rupert Everett and January Jones, the latter of whom was channeling Holly Golightly in her updo and L.B.D. She also exhibited Audrey’s consummate grace as she decorously deflected the burbling of one Mad Men fanboy.
—Tim Blanks Continue reading
Wing Man
—Tommy Ton Continue reading
“A Gracious Tenacity”
From 1991’s Point Break to last year’s Best Picture winner, The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow has blended adrenaline and artistry as well as any film director over the last few decades. MoMA is the latest institution to take notice; the museum honored Bigelow (a former painter) last night at its third annual film benefit, which also looked forward to the retrospective of her work this coming June.
On her way in, performance artist Marina Abramovic was happy to insert herself among Bigelow’s many admirers. “I don’t believe in female art or male art—I just believe in good art and bad art,” she said. “I think she actually took this male part [of herself] to do blockbusters, which is fantastic, because it’s so hard. You have to operate with an enormous amount of cool, and you really have to understand how infrastructure works and be at the top of everything, and she is. That’s what is fascinating.”
Bigelow, who wore YSL, declined to discuss her latest film project, but succinctly explained the trick to getting things done on set and off. “My own personal answer would be a kind of gracious tenacity,” she said. Hurt Locker actor Anthony Mackie good-naturedly offered a more concrete description: “not-so-subtle nudges in the kidneys.”
Before dinner and an acoustic performance by Canadian indie rockers Metric, Jodie Foster gave a thoughtful summing-up of Bigelow’s oeuvre. “What I see, strangely, is a real question about male connection—what do men do, what brings them together,” she said. “These are questions that Kathryn Bigelow is fascinated with. That may change—she may make a movie about women some day!”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading