subscribe to style file blog via RSSBlasblog: how to: countrify a pair of men’s briefs
September 7, 2008
With the exception of maybe one particular person—gay porn star Michael Lucas—if we were to ask any given fashion fan attending Michael Roberts’ book signing at the Dolce & Gabbana store on Friday evening if they were giving special attention to the nearly nude pictures of the main character in Roberts’ fictionalized photographic story, The Good Shepherd, they’d probably deny it. If we pressed the issue, or caught them staring intently at the weathered undergarments of the buff, scantily clad shepherd, the reason they might provide for such an interest might have to do with the stylistic obstacles involved with taking a new pair of men’s Dolce briefs and making them look weathered. Running with that rationale, we decided to ask a few guests, “If you were in charge of antiquing a devastatingly handsome sheepherder’s intimates, how would you go about it?” Joy Bryant and Byrdie Bell said they’d do it the old-fashioned way—by refusing to take the things off till they were the right hue of yellow; Malin Akerman thought food coloring would do the trick; and Dr. Lisa Airan suggested just rolling around in the dirt. But perhaps the most effective suggestion came from Hamish Bowles, a seasoned fashion vet, and Nate Berkus, who has done his fair share of fabric dying: “Tea bags and a lighter, and that’s all you need,” Berkus proclaimed. As far as how Roberts himself achieved that perfect worn-in look sported by his, as he put it, “lonely shepherd,” he’s keeping mum. A shepherd, and his stylist, must have their secrets.
tags: Michael Roberts
Rachel Comey and the Zen of Jewelry-Making
September 7, 2008
Fashion week events turn up in all sorts of places, but Friday night’s Rachel Comey show at the New Dance Group space in Midtown presented attendees with an interesting invitation to narcissism. Comey had set up her runway in one of the rehearsal spaces at the Dance Group headquarters, and inasmuch as the front row faced directly into a mirror, much checking out of selves ensued. Having taken stock of one’s appearance, it was all the easier—once the models began to swan down the catwalk—to mentally try on Comey’s tribal jewelry styling. Mix-and-match earrings were clipped all along the ear, and not only did this represent a kind of earring paradigm shift, but in a welcome concession to the aspirational experimenter, most of the earrings Comey used came from the bargain bins at various flea markets. “I’ve been collecting this stuff for a while,” she explained after the show. “Then I supplemented the thrift pieces with jewelry I made myself.” Indeed, Comey stayed up into the wee hours the night before her show finishing up her debut jewelry collection, a combination of vintage-inspired and abstract, enamel-filled necklaces and earrings. “I’m not sure we’re going to produce any of it, though in theory I’d like to. But for me, it was more of a zen thing in the run-up to the show. Like, while other people were worrying about casting, I got to sit in a corner stringing pieces. I think I was the calmest I’ve ever been before a show. Though I may have driven everyone else a little crazy.”
tags: Rachel Comey
blasblog: the good manners of kelly osbourne
September 7, 2008
News flash: Kelly Osbourne, the notoriously brassy middle child of rock god (and part-time fowl beheader) Ozzy Osbourne, has good manners. Her boyfriend, model Luke Worrall, not so much (at least not when it comes to a model’s fashion show etiquette; we can’t comment on his table habits). We ascertained this bit of information at Victor Glemaud’s menswear presentation on Friday afternoon at Milk Studios. Worrall, who has been making quite the rounds this season, was the very last model to show up and slip into Glemaud’s collection of fancy cashmere sweaters, short shorts, and brightly colored trousers (he’s the one with the I Love You Victor man-purse, left), gliding in just moments before the presentation was supposed to open to editors. But when his plaid-clad and bespectacled girlfriend tried to follow in afterward and was politely asked to wait with the rest of the crowd, there was no scene or tantrums. While everyone waited with bated breath—say it! Just say, “Do you know who I am?”—Osbourne, who only asked once if she could sneak in and deliver her better half’s belongings, just waited with the rest of us. Well-mannered she may have been, but she’s not above teasing; throughout the presentation she routinely made fun of Worrall’s poses. Ah, young model love.
tags: Kelly Osbourne, Victor Glemaud
Dick Page Gets Busy
September 6, 2008
Fashion Week notes from the makeup artist and artistic director of Shiseido
tags: Alexander Wang, Avatar, Dick Page, United Bamboo
Olivier Zahm
September 6, 2008
Fashion Week news from the co-founder and editor of Purple
tags: Avatar, Olivier Zahm
what the well-dressed shepherd is wearing this season
September 6, 2008
“My first trip to Italy was a hundred years ago!” Michael Roberts laughed at last night’s party to celebrate his new photo story collaboration with Dolce & Gabbana, The Good Shepherd, at the duo’s Madison Avenue store. Still smiling mischievously, Roberts then confessed that he was exaggerating just a bit—it was 1987, on a lark, but he fell in love enough to return to Sicily at least four times annually ever since. “I was in Italy this Easter, and Domenico Dolce asked me to do something with the clothes,” Roberts explained. “Something” turned into a book of elegantly rendered black-and-white photography shot over two days with accompanying English and Italian text, the story of a year in the life of a kind, hardworking, and admittedly hunky sheepherder. Not surprisingly, the titular character, a young man alternately scantily clad and donning leather and fur (sometimes both), dresses quite well for a country boy—all looks are from Dolce & Gabbana’s Fall 08 Collection.
tags: Michael Roberts
blasblog: wet locks? make like the euros
September 6, 2008
While the rest of the fashion world was–to put it lightly–irritated by today’s less-than-pleasant weather conditions, we found one girl who was using the downpours to her advantage. Daisy Lowe, BrIt girl and current squeeze of superstar producer and part-time DJ Mark Ronson, appeared at the Alexander Wang show with messy, wet hair. “You have to work with what you got,” she said, shaking out the raven mane she had worked on the Charlotte Ronson runway just a few hours earlier. “I didn’t have an umbrella.” She wasn’t the only girl who arrived with damp, tattered locks: Both Wang’s pal Alice Dellal and Julia Restoin-Roitfeld showed up looking weathered, literally. “And we even had umbrellas,” Roitfeld said. “They didn’t help much.” Ah, the Euros know the importance of nonchalance.
tags: Alexander Wang, Daisy Lowe
Cushnie et ochs get their freak on
September 6, 2008
First, to assuage the curious: The song soundtracking Cushnie et Ochs debut show at the Chelsea Arts Tower yesterday was “I Need a Freak” by Sexual Harassment, and it was released in 1982, and if the synths seemed familiar, that’s because the Black Eyed Peas copped a feel off that hook for their rather lesser tune “My Humps.” “I Need a Freak” was a hot topic of conversation after Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs took their bows, but it wouldn’t have made so much of impression on the crowd had the song not been so eerily suited to the clothes. Body-hugging sheaths with winking cutouts and sheer tops with opaque inserts like censor’s strips conjured a woman with some perverse sexual authority, and gave credit to Cushnie and Ochs’ stated American Psycho inspiration. The designers deserve their next-big-thing reputation. But a question lingered in the mind, as the models sashayed down the runway: Can girls actually wear this stuff? “We wear it,” said Ochs, and indeed, both of the (enviably slender and long-limbed) designers were kitted out in pieces from the collection. “It’s not like we design with ourselves in mind,” elaborated Cushnie. “But we know what we want to reveal, and what we want to keep secret.” “The fun,” added Ochs, “is playing with that.” For the record, the girls are in no way freakish, except perhaps freakishly in tune with each other. Both of the recent Parsons grads attested to the fact that, despite never working on a student project together, they always sensed they’d make a natural marriage as designers. “We share a pretty specific sensibility,” explained Ochs. Or to put it another way: Freaks or not, these two need each other.
tags: Cushnie et Ochs
Jefferson Hack’s Obedience Lesson
September 6, 2008
Fashion Week news from the editorial director and publisher of Dazed & Confused
tags: Avatar, Jay, Jefferson Hack, Raincoat, Red Hook, South Park
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