ERROR:
subscribe to style file blog via RSSDenim, Now Officially For Saturdays
May 23, 2012 9:00 am
One hardly needs a reason to pay a visit to the Saturdays Surf NYC office, knowing that founders Morgan Collett, Josh Rosen, and Colin Turnstall will be hanging around. But if the surfer boys are what get you through the door, it’s the clothing behind it that keeps you coming back season after season. For Fall, the brand that is known for its signature logo T-shirts and board shorts is offering denim, available in two fashion-forward-for-the-guy-who-doesn’t-like-fashion fits; the Charlie straight leg (pictured) and the Luke slim fit (both of which were named after friends of Morgan, Josh, and Colin). The jeans, which come in indigo and black, are raw, unwashed, and selvedge, with contrasting colored seams—easy to throw on after a day of riding the waves. For a cool $150, they will be available in August at all Saturdays locations, as well as on www.saturdaysnyc.com.
Saturdays Surf NYC, 31 Crosby St., NYC, (212) 966-7875.
tags: Colin Turnstall, Josh Rosen, Morgan Collett, Saturdays Surf
Therapy’s In Session With Prada And Polanski
May 22, 2012 10:26 am
Yesterday, amid the many other films at Cannes was a notable short: Roman Polanski’s newmini-film for Prada, A Therapy. The diagnosis of this particular therapy session, between Helena Bonham Carter (dressed elegantly in a red Prada pencil skirt and purple button-up) and her Central Park psychiatrist (played by Ben Kingsley): Prada suits everyone. While Carter describes her bad dream at length, Kingsley’s attention is stolen by his patient’s striking purple fur coat, to the point where he can’t take his eyes off it and tries it on. And who can blame him?
Of the project, Polanski says in a statement released by the label, “When I was asked to shoot a short movie for Prada, I did not think I could be myself, but the reality is that in the total freedom I was given, I had the opportunity to reunite my favorite group of people on set and just have fun.” He adds, “The chance to dwell on what the fashion world represents nowadays and the fact that it is accompanied by so many stereotypes is fascinating and at the same time a bit upsetting, but you definitely cannot ignore it.” Check out stills from the film, above, and click here to watch the full video.
tags: Helena Bonham Carter, Prada, Roman Polanski
Down Under, Sooner: Tim Blanks On Sydney’s Shifting Schedule Among The International Fashion Weeks
May 14, 2012 2:37 pm
Friday brought news that Sydney’s fashion week is going to move up from its current slot in May to the end of March, which will align it more successfully with the international show calendar. Maybe there’s some kind of logic in that, but if fashion’s selling cycles, media cycles, and retail cycles are spinning in ever more byzantine circles of overlap, spare a sympathetic thought for Australia’s designers, who are now living through next winter while they just showed clothes for the spring after the one the Northern Hemisphere is currently enjoying (or, in London’s case, enduring). The challenge of rationalizing domestic and international markets has been eased somewhat by the unstoppable phenomenon of the pre-collection, which allows designers from both hemispheres to operate simultaneously, in a nebulous state of seasonlessness, but the calendar adjustment hones in on another challenge: how to market spring/summer while the rest of the industry is focusing on fall/winter. Or, to clarify the question posed by last week’s event (Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, to give it its official nom de guerre): What is Sydney’s fit amongst the world’s fashion capitals?
And back comes the answer: Fit is the city’s fit. Sydney was basking in a freakish Indian summer. Beaches were crowded. The irresistible physicality of the city was in full effect, enhanced by the general glow of prosperity that comes with a boom economy. The designers who flourished on—and off—the MBFWA catwalks were the ones who bottled the glow, corralled the body beautiful. And they were simply the best not just because they made the most of Sydney’s physical assets, but because doing so takes a significant amount of technique. Nicky Zimmermann might start with a swimsuit, but she transmuted a tankini into an entire collection, with splatter prints, biker zips, and a corrugated metallic effect adding an edge to floaty, patchworked floral pieces. Lisa Ho’s specialty is the kind of sleek-lined, palazzo-panted eveningwear that is made to grace a Slim Aarons-like ideal of the languid good life. She’s gotten very good at it, effortlessly crossing over from Sydney socialites to Hollywood hot stuff like Jennifer Lopez, but, significantly, the further from the body she got with her latest collection, the less successful were the dresses. In Sydney, it is, after all, about the body, which golden boys Josh Goot and Dion Lee acknowledged with collections that started with a scuba second skin. Lee previewed some stunning pre-collection looks that were designed to evoke a sense of movement underwater, with thermal film adding a reflective shimmer to dresses bonded with neoprene and a shivering gill-like detail running down the side of skirts.
Read the rest of this entry >
tags: Akira Isogawa, Jennifer Lopez, Jenny Kee, Lisa Ho, Nicky Zimmermann, Slim Aarons
Foreign Exchange: Alexander Wang Brings New York To Beijing
May 14, 2012 12:04 pm
“It’s about energy, doing something different—bringing a bit of New York to Beijing,” Alexander Wang shouted over the din at a party celebrating his new flagship in Beijing on Friday night. For Wang, “different” meant going underground, literally: The bash took place in the subterranean parking garage beneath his store. (The invitations? Battery-powered traffic wands.)
Entering the two-story shop in the city’s Sanlitun Village North complex, where Wang joins Balenciaga, Lanvin, and a spinoff of Dover Street Market, guests first sipped Champagne within a glam-modernist interior of gray terrazzo floors, white marble plinths, and bronzed mirrors before being ushered into an elevator heading downstairs. Once there, hundreds of revelers including Zoë Kravitz, Penn Badgley, model Du Juan, and Beijing it girl Mega Meng Meng could be found packed inside the blue-lit parking garage, thumping to tracks courtesy of Diplo and a performance by A$AP Rocky. “This is out of control—I can’t hear a thing and love it!” one local heiress was (barely) overheard saying.
Before long, the party reached its apogee with a seemingly spontaneous act of catharsis: The crowd of partiers, models, and socialites sent sprays of bottled water, Absolut vodka, and Yanjing beer flying all over. The shopping center’s famously persnickety management probably wasn’t happy. But just before midnight, Wang’s mother, Ying, could be spotted heading out with a big grin on her face.
tags: Alexander Wang, ASAP Rocky, Penn Badgley, Zoe Kravitz
Thomas Tait, Vika Gazinskaya, And Calla Haynes Make The ANDAM Finalist List
May 9, 2012 10:07 am
ANDAM’s 24-judge panel announced the six finalists for this year’s Fashion Award. On the list: Thomas Tait (who also took home the prestigious Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize in 2010 ); up-and-comer Julien David; Calla Haynes (who has been nominated for the ANDAM before); designer-slash-street-style-star Vika Gazinskaya; Cedric Charlier; and Nicolas Andreas Taralis. The judges, a group that includes Style.com’s executive editor Nicole Phelps, Humberto Leon, Emmanuelle Alt, The Daily Telegraph fashion editor Lisa Armstrong, and Virginie Mouzat, will meet in July with the finalists to select the winner. The prize, which has previously gone to the likes of Hakaan Yildirim, Giles Deacon, and last year, Anthony Vaccarello, is a total of €600,000, €10,000 worth of Swarovski crystals to use for their Spring 2013 collection, mentorship from LVMH CEO Pierre-Yves Roussel, and support from the Hudson’s Bay Company to buy the Spring 2013 collection. Stay tuned for the winner, to be announced this summer. All six of them, however, will have a space on www.thecorner.com in September to showcase and sell their collections. Pictured, a look from Tait’s Fall 2012 collection.
tags: ANDAM, Anthony Vaccarello, Calla Haynes, Cedric Charlier, Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize, Emmanuelle Alt, Humberto Leon, Julien David, LVMH, Nicolas Andreas Taralis, Nicole Phelps, Thomas Tait, Vika Gazinskaya
The Seven-Thousand-Hour Dress, And More From China’s Most Extravagant Couturier
May 8, 2012 1:58 pm
Guo Pei is China’s answer to haute couture. The last time she showed her collection, she sent Carmen Dell’Orefice out in an embroidered, fur-trimmed cape so heavy it took four men to help the legendary model make it down the runway. So expectations were high earlier this week when Guo, whose sculptural, over-the-top creations have drawn admirers including Lady Gaga, mounted her first fashion presentation in more than two years, in Beijing.
In the second of two showings in a soaring industrial space, visitors on Monday entered via a blacked-out exhibition displaying Guo’s 30 startlingly handcrafted takes on traditional Chinese wedding dresses: sunburst collars, acres of silk, and more hand embroidery than you could shake a needle at. According to the punctilious wall texts, one dress took 7,412 hours to make; another incorporated 465,756 pearls. And the show hadn’t even started yet.
Once it did, it was an immaculately constructed dark fairy tale of dragon manes, impossibly high wedges, vertiginous headpieces, and ballet dancers, all under the rubric “Legend of the Dragon,” and all slowly paced, shown one at a time. With arguably her country’s most high-wattage client list, Guo in many ways represents China’s new Gilded Age. But her true message was rather more understated: “My goal was to let more people see beautiful things, especially beautiful handicrafts,” she said. “We want to inspire a greater appreciation for traditional crafts, so that they can continue.”
tags: Carmen Dell'Orefice, Guo Pei, Lady Gaga
Richie’s Run As A Macy’s Designer
May 8, 2012 9:02 am
Karl Lagerfeld did it, Giambattista Valli did it, and more recently, Alberta Ferretti joined the list of Macy’s guest designers. Today, one more fashion star got added to the group: Nicole Richie. Though images of the Nicole Richie for Impulse line have not been revealed yet, it will reportedly include a peacock print Richie has used before and “bright jewel colors as a big theme in the line, which will offer 24 to 30 styles,” according to Macy’s Inc. chief marketing officer Martine Reardon.
Of the collection, which is set to hit select Macy’s stores and Macys.com in mid-September, Richie (who also has her House of Harlow 1960 and Winter Kate collections and is busy as a mentor on NBC’s reality fashion show Fashion Star) says, “With each collection I do, it all starts with music,” adding that the Macy’s collection “represents the many different layers of a modern woman. This collection has a strong mix of masculine and feminine: printed chiffon mixed with faux leathers. I focused on the details, from the zipper pulls to the buttons.”
tags: Giambattista Valli, Karl Lagerfeld, Macy's, Nicole Richie
Schiap Is Back
May 7, 2012 1:46 pm
Ever since Diego Della Valle bought the name and the archive of Elsa Schiaparelli’s legendary house, he’s kept his plans for its future mum. But the opening of the Schiaparelli/Prada show at the Met and tonight’s Costume Institute Gala made the timing perfect for a big announcement: Schiaparelli is coming back. (Della Valle was on hand this morning for the exhibition’s press conference.) The revived label has no designer yet attached, but it does have a spokeswoman: Farida Khelfa (pictured), muse to Azzedine Alaïa and Jean Paul Gaultier, who will reportedly wear vintage Schiaparelli to tonight’s gala.
“The idea with Schiaparelli is to propose the brand with all its modernity, and represent dreams, art, and all the most sophisticated things we can do,” says Della Valle. “This brand doesn’t have to get involved in the frenetic world of numbers, accounts, and dimensions, but it just has to express itself at its best. The heart of this project will be the Parisian maison in Place Vendôme, in the original location where the first atelier was.” Issuing from that atelier will be “accessories, fragrances, and cosmetics, along with some clothing” beginning February. Rumors that John Galliano would helm the label were denied by his spokesperson as well as one for Tod’s Group, Della Valle’s company. The designer is expected to be announced in October in Paris.
tags: Costume Institute Gala, Diego Della Valle, Elsa Schiaparelli, Farida Khelfa
Versailles On Video, Courtesy Of Inez And Vinoodh
May 4, 2012 3:27 pm
Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin had enviable access for their latest project: the run of Versailles, a luxury that’s historically been reserved for the likes of Louis XV. For Secret Garden, the video they created for Dior and posted to their Tumblr today, the duo shot models Daria Strokous, Melissa Stasiuk, and Xiao Wen Ju careering through the palace to the sounds of Depeche Mode. They’re not the last fashion tenants to take over Versailles, either. Next month, Chanel will show its Resort collection in its hallowed halls.
Plus, for more on the photographers, visit Style.com’s The Image Makers: Inez and Vinoodh.
tags: Chanel, Daria Strokous, Depeche Mode, Inez van Lamsweerde, Louis XV, Melissa Stasiuk, Vinoodh Matadin, Xiao Wen Ju
Peter Pilotto To Show At Pitti W
May 2, 2012 11:54 am
June’s Pitti fairs got a little richer this morning: Pitti Immagine announced this morning that Peter Pilotto will be the womenswear guest designer at the tenth edition of Pitti W this June. “We were looking for a modern approach to feminine elegance that is constant, profound, and has the ability to think about itself,” Pitti Immagine’s Lapo Cianchi explains of the decision to select Peter Pilotto, designed by Pilotto and partner Christopher De Vos. The duo will show their pre-collection at the fair.
