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subscribe to style file blog via RSSFirst Look: The YSL Manifesto Tote
February 9, 2010 4:09 pm
YSL-philes may be lamenting that the new Chyc won’t arrive in time for fashion week, but here’s your first look at a bag that will: It’s Stefano Pilati’s tote for the sixth YSL Manifesto, which arrives in New York next Tuesday, February 16. Two thousand of them will be handed out—free of charge—in New York, followed by similar drops in Paris, London, Milan, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and, for the first time, Berlin. The newspaper-sized Manifesto inside has all the Inez and Vinoodh shots of Natalia Vodianova in the Spring 2010 collection, but we’re just as into the pixelated, strawberry-printed bag itself. Expect to see more than a few, crammed with invites, bottled water, and all the other fashion week sundries, on your trips from Milk to the tents.
For more information, visit www.yslmanifesto.com.
tags: Inez van Lamsweerde, Manifesto, Natalia Vodianova, Stefano Pilati, Vinoodh Matadin, YSL
They’re On A Boat
February 9, 2010 11:44 am
Name that designer: “I thought it would be kind of hilarious to pair a cougar with two younger dudes and see what kind of story would come out of it.”
tags: Band of Outsiders, Dave Franco, Donald Glover, James Franco, Leslie Mann
Donna Karan, Iron Maiden?
February 5, 2010 10:50 am
Parsons is launching two new master’s degree programs this fall—an MFA in Fashion Design and Society and an M.A. in Fashion Studies—an effort initiated by one of its most famous graduates. Well, almost-graduates.
Donna Karan left Parsons without a degree after she “failed draping and had to attend summer school,” she reported at a chat with FIT’s Valerie Steele at the New School last night; after two years, she simply headed for Anne Klein. That’s the carpe diem spirit she credits with her success. “If anybody has any plans, drop them. You have to be an alive-in-the-moment kind of person,” Karan recommended. She could’ve added alive-and-busy. Karan has been planning A Tent for Today, a Home for Tomorrow, a Haiti relief initiative launching next Monday, along with her upcoming Fall collection for fashion week, which she mysteriously hints will explore a new dimension for her work. “I’m pretty good at draping now,” she told us with a laugh after the talk. “In school, I could never figure out the iron! It was either too hot, or I just couldn’t get it quite right.” Safe to bet that Karan’s ironing days are behind her.
tags: Donna Karan, Parsons
Fortune-Telling With Shipley & Halmos
February 4, 2010 4:06 pm
Sam Shipley and Jeff Halmos may not be in the business of slinging lo mein—too bad, as we imagine they’d whip up an exceptionally stylish version—but at their Fall ‘10 presentation today, we left with a familiar takeaway treat. The boys partnered with the art bookshop and nonprofit Printed Matter to create fortune cookies bearing cryptic pearls of wisdom in the brand’s signature font. Ours reads: ” ‘Rolex, Movado, Gucci, DVD?’ –Canal St.” Call it a critique of consumerism or, more likely, an oft-heard phrase outside their Greene Street office. Curious about other Shipley & Halmos fortunes? Starting next week, they’ll be available at the Chelsea store for 5 cents apiece.
tags: Printed Matter, Shipley and Halmos
Christian Does Dallas
February 4, 2010 2:59 pm
His label may be in liquidation, but Christian Lacroix is keeping busy. The couturier is exploring new opportunities for his talents, the latest of which—the Berlin State Opera’s production of the Handel opera Agrippina, with costumes by Lacroix—opens tonight. The over-the-top story is, as he describes it, is “very Dallas and Dynasty, a bitchy soap opera.” His costumes are hardly melodramatic, however, and are in keeping with the sober, almost minimalist spirit he began to explore in his final collection. Chatting over coffee, Lacroix confessed that, compared to previous costuming projects he has undertaken, “this time it’s closer than ever to the couture. You might have seen some of this in a show if I’d had one this season. I tried not to be caricatural, taking a different, more contemporary approach.” His pared-down take on Baroque styling would no doubt have had couture clients drooling. As it is, we’re sure his new front-row ladies will be just as impressed.
Meet The Chicks
February 2, 2010 3:46 pm
Yesterday the CFDA and the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced the winners of the city’s first-ever CFDA Fashion Incubator program: Bibhu Mohapatra, Prabal Gurung, Sophie Théallet, House of Waris’ Waris Ahluwalia, Subversive Jewelry’s Justin Giunta, Lewis’ Alison Lewis, Gemma Redux’s Rachel Dooley, Alice Ritter, Grey Ant’s Grant Krajecki, Jolibe’s Joel Diaz, Public School’s Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne, and Ruby Kobo’s Yuvi Alpert and Danna Kobo. Chosen by a committee of fashion influencers (among them Style.com’s own Nicole Phelps), the designers’ big prize is a two-year lease on a Garment District studio space and a network of mentors. Of course, the industry stamp of approval doesn’t hurt, either. We caught up with a few of the lucky dozen (a fitting number for an extended egg metaphor) to see what they’ve got planned.
“There isn’t going to be much upgrading,” Waris Ahluwalia, ever practical, assured us. “Maybe some new pencil sharpeners. And a comfy chair for the president.” For Lewis’ Alison Lewis, who designs, ships, and balances the books out of her West Village apartment, the only person happier to hear the news than her may have been her boyfriend. “I think he’s probably a little thrilled that all that stuff is moving out of there,” she admitted, reminiscing about stacking furniture onto tarps on their bed to make room for clothes. “It’s going to be so nice to have a little bit of separation between home and work.” Justin Giunta agreed: “It is bummer to have your business in the living room.” Giunta, who eventually upgraded to studio space in Brooklyn, is most excited about growing his business. “For the first time I will be seeking outside funding,” he told us, which could result in the biggest upshot for an overworked craftsman: “More people!” Knowing that a lot of designers applied to the program, relative neophyte Prabal Gurung (his label celebrates its first birthday this month) says he was shocked at the news. Gurung, who counts Alexander Wang, Chris Benz, and Brian Reyes among his Parsons classmates, is looking forward to getting to know his new neighbors. “It’s not like we’re going to have a slumber party,” he joked of the space on W. 38th Street where the designers will move in mid-March. (That’s it in the artists’ rendering above.) “But it will be fun. I am really looking forward to all of us being together. And imagine for all of the editors coming to appointments—it’s like a one-stop shop.” See? We’re all winners.
tags: Alice Ritter, Bibhu Mohapatra, Gemma Redux, Grey Ant, House of Waris, Jolibe, Lewis, Prabal Gurung, Public School, Ruby Kobo, Sophie Theallet, Subversive Jewelry, Waris Ahluwalia
The Second-Biggest News In English Football (After That Whole Sex Scandal), And More From Aitor Throup
February 2, 2010 2:48 pm
With England in the grip of a Tiger-sized sports scandal—one involving John Terry, captain of the national football team, and his best friend and teammate’s girlfriend, who he apparently got pregnant (bad move for 2009’s Dad of the Year)—last night’s launch of the kit the team will wear for their World Cup bid in South Africa this year was a surprisingly low-key affair. Mind you, there were no actual footballers present, just a small group of sponsors, reps from Umbro, and the uni’s designer, Aitor Throup. He’s been busy. The Best-Looking Designer in Fashion™ is moving out of his years-long best-kept-secret phase with the launch next fall of a capsule collection of trousers, to be followed by a full collection the following season. Throup debuted the pants during the men’s shows in Paris with an elaborate, eerie installation (pictured) that highlighted the complex conceptual thought that goes into everything he does. Concepts aside, his designs offer a genuine re-evaluation of basic items, subtly with the footballers’ gear, more overtly with his own line, which promises to make you look and feel quite different in your clothes. And if that sounds mysterious, that’s because Aitor is also the Most Enigmatic Designer in Fashion™.
tags: Aitor Throup, John Terry, Umbro, World Cup
At Cheap Monday, Gray Skies Aren’t Going To Clear Up
February 2, 2010 11:51 am
The Cheap Monday look—the skinniest of skinny jeans—stays its course season after season, but for Fall, the blues are going gray. The Swedish label showed an almost entirely gray collection during Stockholm fashion week yesterday (its second with new creative director Ann-Sofie Back) that drew on some unlikely inspirations. “We were thinking a bit about the apocalypse, but with a feeling of hope,” said founding designer Örjan Andersson. “And of construction sites. We think construction sites are beautiful.” That may explain the city-street palette, as well as the silvery white hair and makeup accents, as if the models had trudged through the concrete dust of a live site without benefit of a hard hat. (The stiff bouffants worn by both guys and girls might’ve eliminated the need for those.) Back, for her part, played with proportion, cut, and layers but kept to the understated Cheap Monday aesthetic. “With my own collection, people always want more designed bits,” the Swedish-born designer told us. “If people buy Back, they want to show it. But sometimes I feel like you just need a pair of black pants.”
Generra’s New Girl
February 1, 2010 3:57 pm
With a name like Harley Viera-Newton, it was only a matter of time before someone set the DJ and girl-about-town on a hog. The moment has arrived. For their first collection as creative directors of Generra (though Swaim consulted on the menswear last season), Swaim and Christina Hutson commissioned photographer and filmmaker KT Auleta to shoot Viera-Newton raring around town on a motorcycle to the sounds of indie band Sleigh Bells. Between Auleta, Viera-Newton, Sleigh Bells, and the Hutsons themselves, it’s enough cool-kid cred to make your head explode—which may explain the video’s colorburst effects. (Well, that, or Generra’s status as the ancestral home of Hypercolor, the eighties color-change fabric.) Does it contain any clues to the label’s upcoming NYFW presentation? Not exactly. “It’s 40 models riding Harleys down the runway!” Christina joked when we checked in with her and her husband at their NYC studio. Next year, maybe. This season, “we’re trying to make it more of a party than a runway,” Swaim said. “And Harley really fits that. It’s not going to be such a serious thing.” The party begins below.
tags: Christina Hutson, Generra, Harley Viera Newton, KT Auleta, Sleigh Bells, Swaim Hutson
First Look: Evisu, Reborn
February 1, 2010 1:23 pm
In the beginning, there was Evisu. And, at the risk of going biblical, it was good. The cult-worshiped Japanese label helped pave the way for designer denim back in the nineties, before every brand on the block was paying fanatical attention to cut and wash and selvage. It’s had a quiet few years, despite the explosion of the denim market, but a makeover, courtesy of Paper, Denim & Cloth and Earnest Sewn co-founder Scott Morrison, may change all that. After getting tapped as Evisu’s creative director, Morrison recruited a few friends to help with the revamp, among them Carlos Quirarte, proprietor of The Smile and party host extraordinaire, and designer Catherine Holstein, who is overseeing the new range of women’s apparel launching Fall ‘10. Holstein sent Style.com a few snaps of the debut collection, which she says “brings a little softness” to the upper-contemporary market. “I find myself using the word ‘nubby’ a lot,” Holstein says, citing a loosely draped cardigan as evidence of said nubbiness. The silhouettes are likewise soft: loose button-downs, draped jerseys, fluid trousers. What’s hard? Getting into the party that Quirarte is planning for fashion week. Details are still under wraps—nubby ones, we assume.
tags: Carlos Quirarte, Catherine Holstein, Evisu, Scott Morrison
