Import Genius
Piombo and Uniqlo Open Up Shop With a Pair of Fêtes
Barneys New York celebrated the U.S. launch of the Italian menswear label Piombo last night with Massimo Piombo, the label's new poster boy Max Snow, and the stylist Robert Rabensteiner. "I can't imagine why they would ask me because I'm the least stylish person I know," Snow told Style.com. "Everything [in my closet] is black." Color, for those of you not in the know, is a signature part of the Piombo look, but then again, so are artists. "Normally, we work with people like Nan Goldin, so this time we chose a young artist like Max," Piombo said of the Olivier Zahm-lensed ad campaign. Zahm himself couldn't make it to the celebrations, but there was no shortage of revelers at the private dinner hosted at the downtown penthouse of Barneys' Mark Lee afterward.
A few blocks away from Barneys, Uniqlo was on fire. As piercing alarms sounded on all three floors of the new Fifth Avenue flagship, thick crowds parted for a squad of firemen. Uniqlo fashion director Nicola Formichetti, who was standing near the exit downstairs, wasn't worried. "I'm obsessed with pop-ups now," he said, referring to his recent BOFFO project. "I've been talking with Tadashi [Yanai, Fast Retailing's founder] about doing a shop-in-shop here." When the fire turned out to be a false alarm, festivities, including a traditional sake barrel breaking and a performance by Santigold, resumed. A dinner at the Monkey Bar followed. Brand campaign girl Susan Sarandon was there singing Uniqlo's mantra: "Clothes for everyone at a reasonable price, in good quality—that's important in this economy."
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