See You This Summer—That Is To Say, Tuesday
Memorial Day is the traditional kickoff to the summer season—even if forecasts in the northeast make it feel more like sweater weather. In celebration of the holiday, we’ll be off Monday. Here’s hoping you are, too. See you Tuesday.
Kirsten Dunst Gets Personal In Wren’s New Capsule Collection
Wren designer Melissa Coker first worked with power stylist and Lula editor in chief Leith Clark on several short fashion films for the label, starring the likes of Tavi Gevinson and Gia Coppola. At the time, they were designer and stylist. But then, the ideas started to bubble up. “We were on set and I was looking at the clothes, saying, ‘What if you did it like this?’ or ‘Maybe this should be like that,’” Clark recalled. “Eventually she was like, ‘Why don’t you just design a collection?’”
Sometimes it is that easy. Clark took the reins, looked into her own closet for inspiration, and proposed easy pieces that she’d want to wear herself. She created prints from the work of three of her favorite illustrators (Mercedes Helnwein, Fanny Bostrom, and Jenny Mörtsell) on T-shirts, and asked Coker to whip up a rusty knit hat similar to one that a little girl is wearing in a painting hanging in her parents’ bathroom. Other pieces include schoolgirlish floral frocks with peter pan collars and nipped-in jackets with retro appeal.
To keep the more-the-merrier theme going, Clark asked her close friend and client Kirsten Dunst to pose for the look book, which was shot by Dunst’s boyfriend Garrett Hedlund in Los Angeles. “Normally I style her so it was fun to flip roles and design the clothes and see how Kristen would wear them herself. It was a multi-faceted experience,” said Clark. She sent off the clothes and left Dunst and Hedlund to style and shoot themselves; the fruits of that labor debut here on Style.com. “There are some things that weren’t realized from the collection that are still lingering,” Clark hinted, “so stay tuned for a sequel.”
For more information, visit www.wrenstudio.com.
All That Glitters In Cannes Is Carine Roitfeld’s Gold Fashion Show
When a good cause (amfAR) and a major industry figure (Carine Roitfeld) come together, it’s a given that the fashion world will line up to lend a hand. And so it was at “The Ultimate Gold Collection” fashion show that Roitfeld staged at the nonprofit’s Cinema Against AIDS Gala at the Cannes Film Festival last night. The show included golden looks from Tom Ford and Thom Browne, Versace and Valentino, Marc Jacobs and Moncler, Dior, Comme des Garçons, Prada, Ralph Lauren, and Rick Owens—a group that becomes even more impressive given that they represent less than one third of the show’s participants. Add in the twenty-two additional jewelry and accessory brands, the glossy Gianvito Rossi heels…
Suffice it to say, with LoveGold.com as one of the evening’s three title sponsors, the theme was pretty much preordained. Having soft-launched around award season earlier this year, LoveGold is being positioned as the creative, community online platform for the World Gold Council. LoveGold helped support the accessory creations, in addition to hosting the Livestream on its homepage.
“For certain designers, the cost of gold is a barrier to entry,” said Sally Morrison, LoveGold’s director of jewelry in the U.S. “We were interested in creating a sort of incubator program where we offered gold loans for jewelers we were interested in to allow them to work in the medium and de-risk it for them. That coalesced very nicely with designers [Carine] wanted to put in the show.”
Jeweler Ana Khouri has worked with gold since launching her namesake jewelry line; for her, it’s just an extension of her sculpture background. Khouri represents the new generation of precious-metal designers, one whose mandate is as much about responsible gold sourcing as unconventional multi-finger rings. “I think gold is a universal language; it really connects people. And how amazing it is to get all this talent together with gold as the link,” said Khouri, before taking her architectural cuffs to be paired with a J.W. Anderson ruffled look. Continue Reading “All That Glitters In Cannes Is Carine Roitfeld’s Gold Fashion Show” »
Giving The Glitter Man His Glitter
Behind the Candelabra, Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace biopic, takes its tagline from its extravagant subject: “Too much of a good thing is wonderful.” Too much was the standing order for Liberace (a.k.a. The Glitter Man), who dazzled audiences with his virtuosic piano playing and even more virtuosic taste for fashion and decor in the 1970s and ’80s. That put a lot of pressure on costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, who was tasked with creating clothes for one of the twentieth-century’s most famous clotheshorses—the more fur and sequins, the better. Along with the film’s hair, makeup, and production teams, the BAFTA- and Emmy-nominated designer transformed her longtime collaborator Michael Douglas (the two have worked together since Fatal Attraction) and Matt Damon into bronzed, bedecked visions of Liberace and his lover, Scott Thorson. From Atlanta, where she’s working on her next project, the street-racing action flick Need for Speed, Mirojnick spoke to Style.com about flamboyance, functionality, and sixteen feet of white fur.
Behind the Candelabra premieres Sunday, May 26, on HBO.
Tell me a little about the research you did to prepare for this film.
First and foremost, I watched as much video as I possibly could. There’s quite a lot of videos of Liberace’s shows—you know, his early TV shows, his stage shows—up until through Radio City, so that spans, like, thirty years. We were actually very fortunate to be able to, through the Liberace Foundation, work with an archivist and see everything, as much as we possibly could. I would say it was quite a lot of research and quite a bit of a cross-section from his personal life on through his stage life, so it was pretty great.
Did you get feedback from the actors that the costumes helped them to develop their characters?
Yes, absolutely. It was very evident early on that one of the challenges that I had to meet was what was going to be that piece that would help Michael Douglas and help Matt Damon transform. There was a magical element that occurred with both men, and it had to do with the rings that Michael Douglas wore as Liberace and Matt Damon wore as Scott Thorson, and in Michael Douglas’ case, putting on the white fur iconic coat. To watch him walk and watch him move with the sixteen-foot train…he needed to understand that there was a different body language. As soon as he put that coat on and his body started to move, he molded into Liberace beautifully. And in the case of Matt Damon, as soon as he put his jewelry on, he melded into Scott Thorson.
Given the materials, did you run into issues of weight and mobility for these pieces?
Oh, absolutely. What we discovered in research is the weight of Liberace’s costumes—the design and the weight was extraordinary. Michael Travis did work for Liberace in the same period of time [as the film depicts], 1977 to 1982, and he is an exquisite designer. His work was extraordinarily textured, many different levels of embellishment and stoning, and so on. And those stones in those days were hard-punched, which meant that metal in itself added weight. Now we are able to have a creation that is not as heavy, and clearly [the costume] was not something that had to be worn every night, twice a night. But the weight… for example, the coat that we made did weigh more than twenty pounds, but the [original] coat probably weighed seventy-five or more. His costume could weigh seventy-five pounds in real life.
You’ve said that your role as a costume designer is to interpret the director’s vision for his characters. What kind of discussions did you and Steven Soderbergh have as you were fleshing out Liberace and Scott’s characters? What was his vision for these two?
We looked at all the visual research that we had accumulated—photographs, books, show pamphlets, and especially the black-and-white imagery of Scott and Liberace—we looked at all of it. There were elements that Steven responded to, for example, their twinlike effect. He said, “Look, I just really want you to do it straight. I want it as is, no tricks.” And he wanted to create a story that was authentic. So we basically had the luxury of designing the entire film and just delivering it to Steven, and he captured it in the most magnificent way. He really was after the reality of what—if you could believe this—really existed, of what they were, who they were to one another, how they lived their lifestyle. And there were some photos that were actual terrific inspirations, and then you just go off from there and design. Continue Reading “Giving The Glitter Man His Glitter” »
Exclusive: At Givenchy, Flower Power, Military Might, And Even A Cameo From Bambi
Givenchy’s Mert & Marcus-lensed Fall campaign broke today, starring two generations of Roitfelds, Amanda Seyfried, and models Dalianah Arekion and Quim Gutiérrez, but time and tide wait for no label. Hot on the heels of the campaign, Riccardo Tisci unveils its Pre-Spring men’s collection exclusively on Style.com. Anyone who’s had an eye on the Fall womenswear will recognize it as a cousin. Florals, flames, and camouflage motifs abound, and those who eyed the bricolage Bambi tees that look likely to be the latest runaway hit will be glad to find them here in men’s versions, too. Even Luigi Murenu’s painted hairdos from the women’s show get translated for the guys. (The sharp tailoring and sporty Bermuda short/leggings combination is classic Givenchy men’s.)
The collection, Tisci says, takes inspiration from Latin culture, and has the potentially sensitive name of Favelas 74. (1974 is Tisci’s birth year.) “Men in favelas are more natural and more confident about their sexuality,” he explains. “They are not scared to mix and match clothing. They represent sensuality, street, and elegance—what I recognize as elegance. I love the fact that they play with opposite things like flowers (which represent peace and serenity) and camouflage (which represents the army), but all interpreted in a very colorful and positive way.”
Here, the exclusive debut of Givenchy’s Pre-Spring 2014 menswear.