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A Wink and a Smile
As Richard Buckley points out in his foreword to Taschen’s new tome celebrating 30 years of i-D, the magazine has launched a hundred careers. It was where photographers Nick Knight, Mario Testino, Juergen Teller, Craig McDean, Ellen von Unwerth, and Wolfgang Tillmans published their early work, where Madonna, Björk, and Naomi got their first covers. There they all were, winking on the wall at last night’s book launch party—it’s a signature quirk that every i-D cover star has had one eye closed, a visual correlative of the magazine’s name, geddit? (Turn the logo on its side if you’re still having trouble.) Even as guests partied, Josh Olins was downstairs adding to the gallery, shooting Kristen McMenamy for an upcoming cover.
Eleven-time cover girl Kate Moss didn’t show up, but Buckley’s partner, Tom Ford, came with Elizabeth Saltzman Walker (when Ford fronted an issue with his fox terrier John, even the dog was having a good old wink). And he was just one of a crowd of 450 fashion heavyweights and nightlife legends, an impressive cross section of the characters who helped make i-D the definitive style primer of the past three decades. “The bible,” Dries Van Noten proclaimed unequivocally. “You looked at The Face, but you read i-D.”
The party was a hoot as hordes of London’s bright youngish things—Alice Dellal, Richard Nicoll, Jonathan Saunders, Erin O’Connor, Lara Bohinc, Hannah Marshall—surrendered to Champagne and vodka. But the moments a completist like this reporter relished were these: nightlife royalty Princess Julia skating round in search of Steve Strange (now there’s a Blitz minute for you), or genius illustrator François Berthoud picking the cover of issue no. 8, featuring club queen Scarlett, as his favorite, just as the woman herself appeared in front of the poster. Then, she was the intimidatingly chic teen who ran the door at the Cha-Cha and the Camden Palace, the girl who took the fledgling Leigh Bowery under her wing and taught him everything she knew about self-invention. Now, she’s a social worker with an impressive waist-length mane of white hair and a disinclination to mythologize. “We didn’t think about it,” she said with the fierce here-and-now pragmatism of all true originals. “It was our life.”
Words that would ring true to i-D‘s perennially humble founder, Terry Jones. The turnout was the truest testament to his achievement. For three decades, wife Tricia and he have presided over a whole style subculture, Ma and Pa to brilliant misfits. Terry’s favorite cover? Issue no. 2, September 1980. “Because it meant I didn’t stop at no. 1.” Curiously, it’s the only back issue he himself can’t find. So now you know just what to give Terry Jones for Christmas.
—Tim Blanks Continue reading
Reality Stars
—Tommy Ton Continue reading
Mr. Clean
Francisco Costa is writing the book on contemporary minimalism—well, at least the first few pages. The Calvin Klein Collection designer contributed the foreword to Elyssa Dimant‘s Minimalism and Fashion, which got its sendoff last night at his company’s flagship store on Madison Avenue. Not only that, but Costa delivered his copy in signature fashion. “Everything that I got back was very clean, of course, and in the right font—aligned, immaculate,” Dimant reported. “There were no layout errors whatsoever.”
Dimant, a Parsons professor, places Costa alongside Phoebe Philo as a prime mover in the loftier, more structured minimalism of today, which absorbs influences from sculptors and object designers like Anish Kapoor and Ron Arad. “When minimalism came about in the 1990’s, it was so much about comfort and democratic accessibility,” she explained. “This movement is much more about high art and high fashion.”
It was in that spirit that the party then moved downtown to W editor Stefano Tonchi‘s Greenwich Village apartment, where the likes of Melissa George and Anh Duong toasted Austrian artist Erwin Wurm, whose new show at Lehmann Maupin opens today. Topic A was still the M word. “It’s not about being completely emotionless,” Tonchi offered. “That’s what killed the first generation of minimalism—that kind of coldness, emptiness, bad lighting.” Added Costa: “Jil Sander is the queen of minimalism, and she lives in an incredible castle with gorgeous antiques.”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
Blue Jean Baby, L.A. Ladies
In the past ten days, Decades’ Cameron Silver has been in Beijing, New York City, Phoenix, and Sun Valley. But when it came time to celebrate his new denim line, the L.A.-based vintage store owner decided there was no place like home. Last night, at the Beverly Hills pad of Julia Sorkin, he toasted his latest venture with the likes of Liz Goldwyn, Lake Bell, Rose McGowan, Eva Amurri, Rachel Griffiths, and Cheryl Tiegs (for whom he has named a straight-leg style). An 11-piece jean collection is something of a departure for a man known for his expertise in statement-making dresses that span the eras. “I guess this is what everyone would least expect from me,” Silver acknowledged. “But all of my favorite women base their wardrobes off of denim, so I figured it was the best place to start.”
After a couple of hours working to the crowd, he slipped into a more intimate setting, joining close friends for a dinner at the Sunset Tower Hotel. Seated between CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Gregory Parkinson, Shiva Rose, and Balthazar and Rosetta Getty, Silver had his eye on expansion. “The denim is in 150 stores nationwide, and we’re going to be featuring a full collection. So this is just the start.” Mad Men‘s Abigail Spencer (Don Draper’s season three squeeze) was already getting her head around the prospect. “Decades has a legacy all its own,” she said. “But I have to say, I happen to really like this denim.”
—Alexis Brunswick Continue reading
90 Minutes With James Franco
127 Hours is based on the true story of a hiker who spent five days trapped under a boulder in Utah. Luckily for moviegoers, he’s played by James Franco, an actor many people wouldn’t mind being stuck alone with in a canyon for 90 minutes. “We’re sort of banking on that,” director Danny Boyle admitted at last night’s Gucci-sponsored New York premiere.
Franco dieted for the role and spent long hours fused, Prometheus-style, to a big rock. “We’d let him go to the restroom, but that was it,” Boyle said. And because Columbia University declined his request for a leave of absence, the actor had to work red-eye flights, catnaps in LAX, and downtime homework into the shoot. “He was reading Proust at one point, probably in original French,” Boyle joked.
“It was something challenging and unusual, something I’d never done before,” Franco explained. (The film barely co-stars Kate Mara and Clémence Poésy.) “Even Tom Hanks in Cast Away had a whole island to walk over and a ball to talk to,” he added. A graphic scene involving a dull Swiss army knife has reportedly caused fainting during preview screenings, but that didn’t faze the likes of Elizabeth Banks and Susan Sarandon, who turned up for the screening. “I’ll cover my eyes if I have to,” said a defiant Padma Lakshmi. Later, at the after-party at the Bunker Club, Agyness Deyn said she’d found the gory make-or-break moment more inspiring than excruciating. “The adrenaline—it was intense!”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
Century City
Contrary to what you may have heard, fashion reporting didn’t start when Tavi Gevinson founded her Style Rookie blog. Women’s Wear Daily has been at it for a century, and it’s still the first place the industry turns to for the latest scoops. No surprise, then, that fashion’s top brass arrived en masse to celebrate the publication’s 100th anniversary at Cipriani 42nd Street last night. Representing the Seventh Avenue moguls were Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors; the modern iconoclasts, Marc Jacobs, Stefano Pilati, and Alber Elbaz; and the young up-and-comers, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Prabal Gurung, Joseph Altuzarra, and Bibhu Mohapatra. “It was such a big moment for me,” Mohapatra said, remembering the first time his name appeared in fashion’s paper of record. “For designers, it’s like our own little version of the Times. I check it every day.”
But it wasn’t only designers in the crowd. The socials and party types often seen in WWD‘s Eye pages showed up in droves, too, though one or two seemed to have trouble wrapping their minds around the magnitude of the milestone. “I went to the French Vogue 90th anniversary last month, and I thought that was old,” Lorenzo Martone said. “But 100? That’s really old.” That’s 26,000 issues old, more or less. Taking a peek at a giant wall plastered with some of the more memorable examples, Narciso Rodriguez said, “I want to go up close and inspect every one. I mean, who gets to be in fashion for 100 years? Everything moves so fast these days.” There were even more papers inside the look-but-don’t-eat birthday cake that was cut promptly after the model-chanteuse Karen Elson surprised the crowd with a sultry rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Seniority clearly has its perks.
—Bee-Shyuan Chang Continue reading
Blue Jean Baby, L.A. Ladies
In the past ten days, Decades’ Cameron Silver has been in Beijing, New York City, Phoenix, and Sun Valley. But when it came time to celebrate his new denim line, the L.A.-based vintage store owner decided there was no place like home. Last night, at the Beverly Hills pad of Julia Sorkin, he toasted his latest venture with the likes of Liz Goldwyn, Lake Bell, Rose McGowan, Eva Amurri, Rachel Griffiths, and Cheryl Tiegs. An 11-piece jean collection is something of a departure for a man known for his expertise in statement-making dresses that span the eras. “I guess this is what everyone would least expect from me,” Silver acknowledged. “But all of my favorite women base their wardrobes off of denim, so I figured it was the best place to start.”
After a couple of hours working to the crowd, he slipped into a more intimate setting, joining close friends for a dinner at the Sunset Tower Hotel. Seated between CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Gregory Parkinson, Shiva Rose, and Balthazar and Rosetta Getty, Silver had his eye on expansion. “The denim is in 150 stores nationwide, and we’re going to be featuring a full collection. So this is just the start.” Mad Men‘s Abigail Spencer (Don Draper’s season three squeeze) was already getting her head around the prospect. “Decades has a legacy all its own,” she said. “But I have to say, I happen to really like this denim.”
—Alexis Brunswick Continue reading
Maria Sharapova, Fashion ACE
Among the honorees at the 2010 ACE Awards: a tennis player, a hip-hop artist, and QVC. The Accessories Council’s annual celebration of fashion influencers drew a mix of creators and retailers to Cipriani 42nd Street last night for an evening of collegial appreciation that was, of course, also about maintaining a few strategic alliances.
At least two of the evening’s honorees came with notable statement accessories: Lauren Bush, who accepted the Humanitarian of the Year award from Gap’s Patrick Robinson, was toting around her latest FEED bag, a hand-beaded linen clutch by one of the evening’s sponsors, Judith Leiber. “It will appeal to a demographic that doesn’t feel as comfortable as I do wearing a burlap bag to a black-tie event,” Bush joked. And Maria Sharapova, who was honored for her footwear and handbag collaboration with Cole Haan, was sporting her new engagement ring. (Her fiancé is basketball player Sasha Vujacic, which makes her a Laker girl of sorts.) Having won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, Sharapova is used to accepting awards—just not in front of a fashion audience. “Everyone looks so beautiful, and not sweating,” she noted.
Other winners included Alber Elbaz, who was named Designer of the Year, and Rachel Roy, for Rachel Rachel Roy. En route to claiming her Style Evolution award, Christina Ricci mentioned that her boot-cut jeans had succumbed to natural selection. “They had to go,” she said. “I gave some to my mom, and the rest I think went to Goodwill.” And in signature fashion, Kanye West (Stylemaker of the Year) grabbed the spotlight with a disjointed apologia that ended on a defiant note: “This is for all the times I felt I made fashion mistakes—all the times where, you know, our photos from fashion week got put on South Park.”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
Fright Night
With its unerring instinct for turning every event, from fashion week to Miami’s Art Basel, into a series of parties, the style set has officially appropriated Halloween. Where once there might have been two or maybe three big dos, the whole weekend is now a nonstop marathon of costume changes and cocktail inhalation. Following Friday night’s Lanvin hullabaloo, Saturday was loaded with at least half a dozen competing bashes.
What’s one way to avoid the Manhattan madness? If you’re Visionaire, bring everyone out to Queens. Cecilia Dean and co. held a celebration at MoMA PS1 for their upcoming issue about children’s tales. The magazine had also helped organize Move, the weekend-long art-and-fashion happening at the museum, so this was an after-party of sorts. Standing by himself early on, Klaus Biesenbach, in authentic getup, including the walkie-talkie, made a quite convincing security guard; later, he fell into his usual role as the museum’s very sociable director.
Meanwhile, over the river and through the wilds of the Meatpacking District’s jammed streets, Purple magazine was throwing an epic Heaven or Hell bash at the Standard, where saints (arguable) and sinners moved between the shadowy haze of Le Bain and the lighter, more comfortable (in theory, at least) environs of the aerie formerly known as the Boom Boom Room. The hotel’s owner, André Balazs, was wearing priest’s garb and stationed in the carpeted purgatory between the two nightspots. “It’s the right mixture,” he decided, even if all the angel wings were making it a bit hard to get around.
Nearby, at The Smile’s Jane hotel party, Carlos Quirarte and Matt Kliegman, who hosted with Nate Lowman, drew a crowd that included Mary-Kate Olsen (dressed as a bunny), Will Arnett, and Justin Theroux, one of the judges of the evening’s costume contest. Amid the more attention-seeking creations, no one paid much heed to a tiny girl in a gorgeous, floor-length red gown and Kewpie doll mask. Well, even Ashley Olsen deserves a night off now and again.
Glancing at the crowd assembled for his Misfits Ball at Don Hill’s, a be-horned Nur Khan said, “Man, I have no idea who’s here tonight. It’s impossible to tell, with the costumes.” Over there—a seventeenth-century English aristocrat, dancing with Flavor Flav. That way, a corpse bride chatting with a guy in a kilt. In the corner, was that John Mayer? (It was.) Trick or treat?
—Darrell Hartman (Visionaire and Purple), Matthew Schneier (The Smile), and Maya Singer (Don Hill’s) Continue reading