The Fur Is Flying
Gilles Mendel Wins the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award
Presenting Gilles Mendel with his Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award at the museum's annual gala last night, Bergdorf Goodman's Linda Fargo credited him with revitalizing fur, refreshing a stale industry with his "utterly tasteful designs." Sharing her first impression of the French designer, she said, "I noticed in his rack there was a little brown mink pullover, the kind of thing that Audrey Hepburn would have worn in the opening scene from Charade. And I was kind of shocked that someone would irreverently treat that classic symbol of status—brown mink—as a casual windbreaker."
Mendel beat out Prabal Gurung and Jason Wu for the award. Accepting the prize before a crowd of 600 at Pier 60, he said, "my total lack of experience allowed me to create new ways of using this beautiful material against all my good father's advice. A proud salesman once told me, 'Gilles Mendel, you make furs that don’t keep you warm.'" Warm or not, there were plenty of women in the audience wearing his designs. Some of them joined the designer at his Boom Boom Room after-party. "I am so excited," Mendel told Style.com. "I have never won an award in my life."
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