Film Stars
Two Great Photographers, Two Packed Parties
Milk Gallery filled the house for the launch of Fashion Etcetera, a book highlighting five decades of work by prolific photographer Sam Haskins. Tommy Hilfiger, who wrote the foreword and published a special slip-covered edition featuring an iconic image from Haskins' Five Girls, played host. "She's very inspirational to our company," the designer said of one of Haskins' most famous muses, Cowboy Kate. "That's what the girl is all about: uncomplicated, confident, cool."
Having suffered a stroke earlier in the week, the 82-year-old Haskins was unfortunately laid up at nearby St. Vincent's and thus unable to take in the show of his new work that's now running at Milk through October 26. There was no shortage of appreciative photographers on hand, though, from Ben Watts (who has a book of his own coming out in October) to Christopher Makos, who had dropped in not quite knowing what to expect. "I liked the pictures on the invitation a lot. Between Tommy and the invite, that's what drew me here," Makos said, adding that he'd just "met those two guys with the big bellies." (That would be adorably ursine Brooklyn-based designers Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra.)
Meanwhile, uptown, Whitewall was toasting cover-story subject David LaChapelle at the Royalton hotel. In the magazine's latest issue, the photographer and filmmaker talks about transitioning from fashion magazines to the art world and relocating to a farm in Hawaii. "I was always subverting the images as much as I could, for my own purposes. But I had said everything I had to say about American consumption, compulsions," LaChapelle said of his work for glossies. "I never took pictures for the fashion world, and I'm not really taking pictures for the art world," he added. "I'm taking pictures for people, for the public; I think that's why I have a following." Apparently, it includes Courtney Love and Chuck Close, who both stopped by. In terms of audience, it doesn't get a whole lot wider than that.
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