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subscribe to style file blog via RSSThe Image Makers: Deborah Turbeville
February 6, 2012 3:30 pm
In a new series, Style.com sits down with the best in the field of contemporary fashion photography to talk about both the process and the product. Here: Deborah Turbeville.
Considering the high romance of Deborah Turbeville’s work, it might seem odd to think of her as a little bit punk rock. But to hear the 73-year-old photographer describe her untrained, just-go-for-it DIY beginnings, comparing Turbeville to Sid Vicious doesn’t seem so far off. “There would be a strange cropping or one girl in focus and three out or a blur,” she said at a recent interview at her Upper West Side apartment. “But I would end up liking the mistakes and incorporating them into my work.” Well, and there’s also the time she got arrested in Texas with Bob Richardson, with whom she worked with regularly while a stylist at Harper’s Bazaar.
It was actually Richardson and his “cinematic” way of working that precipitated her eventual leap from fashion editor to fashion photographer in the early seventies. (She also had encouragement from Richard Avedon and Harper’s Bazaar art director Marvin Israel.) But even though she’s shot editorials for Vogue, Italian Vogue, and W and campaigns for Barneys New York, Oscar de la Renta, and Valentino—for whom she did the current Spring campaign—Turbeville still bristles at the F word of fashion. It’s one of the reasons it’s taken her so long to put out her most recent book, Deborah Turbeville: The Fashion Pictures ($85, www.rizzoliusa.com). Style.com caught up with Turbeville to talk about being Claire McCardell’s fit model, what’s so great about St. Petersburg, and the very Hollywood shoot for her new Valentino campaign.
PLUS: Click here for a slideshow of Turbeville’s work through the years, accompanied by commentary from the photographer >
Why do The Fashion Pictures now?
I have difficulty with realizing that’s what I’m supposed to do. [Laughs.] I don’t really think of myself as a fashion photographer. I’m kind of in denial about it. People kept saying, “You should do a book of fashion pictures. We’d like to see them, after all.” A friend of mine was doing books with Rizzoli, and he said, “You know, that would be a fun little airy project, to do something on my house in Mexico.” I knew I had a lot of photographs hanging about. So I made an appointment to go in to see Charles Miers, the publisher, and he said, “I’ll do the book, but would you also do a book on your fashion pictures?” And that’s how it happened.
They did a nice job. I like the scrapbook format.
Well, the book is really a way to show how my work developed. How it all started. It goes chronologically. It just shows more or less the progression of my work. It’s a bit autobiographical. And I always do that anyway, putting pictures together in a narrative way.
It’s funny, I never realized that your first job was working for Claire McCardell for three years.
Yes, I was a fit model but I also did the shows. But because I had such a long waist, it was hard for the other models to fit the clothes. In the end, she said, I’m going to fire you and hire you back as my assistant. So I was very happy. She was one of the few designers who would use a lot of European fabrics. She used incredible fabrics. She was really a Renaissance woman. She designed shoes for Capezio. She was probably the first one to put girls in flats, in ballet slippers. We all wore flats. Or we wore tiny little heels that were stacked, made out of lizard. She did jewelry, this Chanel kind of jewelry. She was like the Chanel of the United States at that point. It was an incredible learning experience. Read the rest of this entry >
tags: Bob Richardson, Deborah Turbeville, Diane Arbus, The Image Makers, Valentino
Rising Star, Wes Gordon
January 24, 2012 5:49 pm
The night before Wes Gordon was set to make his New York debut, it seemed fate might be against him. “It was September 2010 and there was a horrible blizzard that night—I kept looking out the window every 30 seconds to see if the snow was sticking,” he tells Style.com. The snow wasn’t the only thing that stuck that season—Gordon, a Georgia-born Central Saint Martins grad, made a lasting impression on the editors and designers (including one of his mentors, Oscar de la Renta) who trudged through the arctic weather to see what he had to offer. (Of his first collection, Style.com’s Nicole Phelps said, “With their smart cut and perfect fit, those pieces looked like the work of a seasoned pro.”) Just a few seasons out, Gordon is still wowing the fashion set with his luxe offerings (”my all-time favorite is Hermès, but I think the bar is set by Chanel,” he says), an aesthetic that can surely be attributed to his summers spent working under de la Renta and Tom Ford. Most recently, the Fashion Group International recognized his work, nominating him for an FGI Rising Star Award along with other womenswear contenders like Ally Hilfiger and Nary Manivong (of Nahm), Joel Diaz and Christina LaPens (of Jolibe), and Miguel Antoinne. Before Thursday’s FGI Rising Star Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street, Gordon (one of the most promising nominees on the list) talked to Style.com about everything, and everyone, from Rooney Mara to Tom Ford.
How is your upcoming collection going to expand upon or differ from your last collection?
I know, it’s three weeks from tomorrow! I would say it’s always a continuation. The mood, it’s a little darker this time around than ever before. In terms of attention to luxe materials and elegance, that’s still there like usual.
How exactly is it darker?
It’s darker in a Rooney Mara sort of way—it’s like a blend of Dragon Tattoo and Great Expectations.
Speaking of Rooney Mara, who would you like to see wearing your clothes? Is she the ultimate for you?
The most exciting thing to me is to see strangers, women I have no connection to, wearing my stuff. That’s who I want to see more than anything. Celebrities are really great, but the first time I see a complete stranger in New York in a coat of mine, I am going to give a high five and tackle her. She might call the police. The idea of strangers going to a store and falling in love with my work is so exciting.
Before starting your own line, you learned from a few of the best in the industry: Tom Ford and Oscar de la Renta. Who did you learn more from?
When I was at Tom, they were just doing menswear at the time. Being in both environments you learn so much by osmosis. Tom is very glam and sexy and slick. You learn to be a perfectionist. At Oscar, it’s the drama and beauty of American couture—it’s how you imagine fashion to be. They really are two of the best. Seeing how it all works and happens, at Tom and Oscar, it has merged in my head.
What’s the best piece of advice, in terms of your design career, you have ever received?
When you are a small team making a lot of inventory, it would be easy to look the other way when something is a little off and not entirely perfect, but one thing I learned is, that is the last thing you want to do. The client is so intelligent and the stores are so aware and it’s your name going out there. It sounds silly to say—it would be easy to say, “It’s good enough,” but it has to be perfect every time.
What other young designers do you especially like?
Prabal is amazing and so talented. Going back to Rooney, she looked so good in his dress. Carly Cushnie is also a friend of mine and Michelle Obama looked beautiful in her dress. And Proenza is super-cool but they are pretty big now, so…
You are in good company with a great group of young designers in the womenswear category for the FGI Rising Star Award. What does the FGI Award mean to you?
It’s such an honor, especially in this crazy stressful time, with my show coming up, to find out that I was nominated. FGI is such a great group of amazing people in the industry and I am really flattered.
What’s on the horizon for Wes Gordon?
We have been building a nice base with amazing stores, and each season we grow it. Last season was the first time with knits, I have a line coming out with Jones New York for Bloomingdale’s in March, and I have shoe collaborations (we worked with Manolo Blahnik on shoes for our most recent collection). We are going slowly but in the right way. I want to get more into accessories, increase our ready-to-wear, and I think I might do Resort this time.
tags: Fashion Group International Rising Star Award, Oscar de la Renta, Tom Ford, Wes Gordon
A Cinderella Of A Museum: Francesco Vezzoli On His New Project With Miuccia Prada
January 19, 2012 4:24 pm
And you thought her men’s show in Milan was a spectacle. On Tuesday in Paris, Miuccia Prada will celebrate her label’s new Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré boutique—not with a traditional store opening party, but with an ephemeral museum at the city’s historic Palais d’Iena (home of her Miu Miu runway shows) that has been conceived of and constructed by her frequent collaborators: the artist Francesco Vezzoli and AMO by Rem Koolhaas. Vezzoli, among other things, is famous for a faux Caligula trailer; a premiere of a play that never ran starring Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman; and a performance art piece at L.A.’s MOCA that united Lady Gaga with the Bolshoi Ballet. Style.com sat down with him to discuss his latest “overambitious happening.”
How did the idea for an ephemeral museum come about?
Mrs. Prada and I have already worked together. For many years, we looked for a new project, but not to do another exhibition, not to do anything predictable. We’ve often discussed how these huge companies have big budgets for parties. And we brought up the idea of baroque parties. In the sixteenth century, great architects would produce these feasts. Mrs. Prada liked the idea. It’s taking the funding that normally would be used for something frivolous [a store opening party] to produce an artwork. An artwork involving different brains, and involving them in a big, risky, and funny game.
What will this game, as you call it, look like?
We will upholster the whole grand room with neon lights like a big cage. There will be a nightclub with a dance floor. And I produced all these sculptures which are sort of a fake pseudo parody of a retrospective. And we are transforming the Palais d’Iena’s mini parliament just for the night into a movie theater, where we put my favorite movies. So, it’s like a big fantasy. Both to Mrs. Prada and I, it seemed like a good place to make our dreams meet.
Why the Palais d’Iena?
It’s an incredible building, the size of the New York Public Library. On top of that, it’s a pillar of modernism. Auguste Perret did it between ‘36 and ‘46 and it was supposed to be a museum, but it never really became a museum. Today, it’s the Conseil Economique, Social, et Environmental. So, there’s this idea that we are squatting not only on the history of architecture but squatting on politics as well. We are occupying it for 24 hours. We are political Cinderellas. The beauty of the project, the true Prada nature of the project, is that Mrs. Prada is putting into a clash two aesthetics that are very different—mine, which is perceived as more melodramatic and camp, and Studio Rem Koolhaas’, which is perceived as dry or sophisticated.
And you’re tearing it down the next day?
It’s a 24-hour experience. You can call it a climax or an anti-climax depending on your perspective. It starts with a dinner hosted by Mrs. Prada, with only the people close to her. And then there’s a much bigger party, and then it’s going be open all night, hopefully for mischievous and vicious and dangerous events. Then there’s going be a pseudo press conference, and then an opening to the public until exactly 24 hours after the first person stepped into the room for dinner.
How do you see it, as a climax or an anticlimax?
For the celebrity seekers, it’s an anticlimax because the dinner comes first. Me, I’m way more interested and worried about the general public’s reaction. I’m worried that nobody will show up, or that they all show up and they hate it, or they feel it’s vilifying a monument. This is the risk that we’re taking. It’s not an institutional critique, I don’t have that pretension. But it’s certainly a way to discuss the role of institutions today. For me and you, a museum is a museum, but for a president of a bank, a museum is a venue on his list. It’s like, “Oh, where do we do the Christmas party? Do we do it at such-and-such museum, or do we do it at Cipriani 42nd Street?” Museums have become hubs for different types of social gatherings. Here, we are doing the opposite; here we are taking a place used by politicians and turning it into a Cinderella of a museum for 24 hours. And after that, all this extravagant setup will disappear. Read the rest of this entry >
tags: Francesco Vezzoli, Lady Gaga, Miuccia Prada, Prada, Rem Koolhaas
Valentino’s Creative Directors Prepare For Their Men’s Runway Debut
January 10, 2012 4:21 pm
Tomorrow in Florence, Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli debut their Fall ‘12 menswear collection as the invited guests of Pitti Uomo. The occasion marks the first runway show for the men’s collections, which the designers took over several season ago and have been quietly showing by appointment in their Place Vendome showroom—where it has been a quiet highlight of the Paris collections—ever since. In advance of tomorrow’s show, Chiuri and Piccioli spoke to Style.com about their couture sensibility, the idea of individual luxury, and their quest for the perfect piece. They’ve also shared two sketches of pieces that will hit the catwalk tomorrow; check back for the full looks, as well as Tim Blanks’ review from Pitti.
How do you approach designing menswear differently from designing womenswear? How do you see the Valentino man in relation to the Valentino woman?
Menswear in our vision is very close to the idea of personal and private luxury such as with the haute couture. It is a different result, of course, but the approach is quite similar… Volume and proportions are contemporary but with an echo of memory of sartorial and couture culture, silhouettes are cutting edge and sharp, constructions are very precise, maintaining lightness. [The Valentino man and the Valentino woman] share the same culture of couture and same spirit of effortless elegance.
How did you begin designing this season: Were there specific inspirations or ideas in mind, and how do these compare to what you’ve done in seasons past?
The world of couture. La sala Bianca. Antonioni and Pasolini. Mastroianni and Roman style. In the other collection, we were concentrated on translating the culture of couture in sportswear and modern wardrobe for contemporary men. In this collection, we aim to define our men with a more cinematographic attitude.
How did you research this collection? Does it relate to Valentino’s archival menswear, or is it more of a break with what’s come before?
This collection is close to the values of beauty and luxury of the brand, but our man is definitely far from what [he] was before. Beauty is individual and luxury is understated. You need a workmanship culture to buy a couture piece as you would need it to buy a sartorial jacket with the kind of innovation that takes place when tradition meets technology.
You’ve been showing your men’s collection in the showroom for the past several seasons. What do you have planned for your first presentation? Will it be a static presentation or a runway show? How are you working to incorporate Florence into the presentation?
A runway show, but with the intimate feeling of a couture show. Digital screens will give a new perspective and balance to the frescoes of the baroque rooms of Palazzo Corsini.
What do you think is the ideal outfit for a man? Do you feel that the ideal men’s outfit has changed over the years?
The perfect suit. The perfect shirt. The perfect tie. The perfect shoes. The perfect outerwear. The perfect denim. To be perfect, everything has to be authentic, but with the perfect proportions and a subtle something—everything is just about the obsession for perfection!
tags: Maria Grazia Chiuri, Pier Paolo Piccioli, Pitti Uomo, Valentino
Ralph Rucci: The Film, A Princeling Of Leon, Going Gaga On eBay, And More…
December 29, 2011 1:11 pm
February’s set to bring out whole new sides of Chado’s Ralph Rucci. The couturier (one of the only Americans ever to show at Paris Couture) is the subject of a new coffee-table book celebrating his 30 years in business and a new documentary film, to be screened at New York fashion week, by director and former curator Christian Leigh. “If he wants to work on one dress for 16 weeks, he won’t compromise,” Leigh said of his tireless subject. [NYT]
The Wall Street Journal takes on the phenomenon of pre-fall, which is gaining ground in celebrity dressing. Attention, celebs and stylists: We’ve got it all right here. [WSJ]
Is there about to be a Prince of Leon? Sources say that Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill and his wife, model Lily Aldridge, are expecting their first child—and that she’s three months along, meaning she would have walked the Victoria’s Secret runway show pregnant. [E!]
If the Lady’s a tramp, she’s an expensive one. A nude sketch of one Lady Gaga (above) by Tony Bennett (her duet partner on a new version of “The Lady Is a Tramp”) sold for $30,000 on eBay, as part of Vanity Fair’s auction of items from its January 2012 issue. The entire sale raised $46,261 for Exploring the Arts and Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. [Vanity Fair]
tags: Caleb Followill, Lady Gaga, Lily Aldridge, Ralph Rucci, Tony Bennett
The Image Makers: Inez And Vinoodh
December 14, 2011 1:45 pm
In a new series, Style.com sits down with the best in the field of contemporary fashion photography to talk about both the process and the product. First up: the husband-and-wife Dutch shooters Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.
At exactly 34 characters long, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin easily have the longest photo credit in the business. Admittedly, the count includes A-N-D, but that little linking word is crucial. Van Lamsweerde and Matadin are partners in every sense—creatively, romantically, as parents of their 9-year-old son Charles Star Matadin, and seemingly everything in between. The Dutch natives have been together for 26 years, and to sit with the two of them for an interview is to witness genuine sentence-finishing synergy.
There’s yet more neat duality in their work, which straddles art and fashion, gives you high glamour with a touch of the surreal or grotesque, ranges from classical black-and-white portraiture to near camp, and inevitably includes some degree of gender-bending. It also extends to their hefty new monograph, called Pretty Much Everything ($700, www.taschen.com), which comes out this month and encompasses their work for magazines like Paris Vogue and V, campaigns for houses like Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, and their art projects. In the two volumes, van Lamsweerde and Matadin scrapped chronology, and instead painstakingly went through the 666 photographs to create very specific pairings, each with their own visual logic. “It takes time away so it becomes one body of work,” explains Matadin. “You see a picture from 1985 next to one from 2011, and they’re still holding up.” Van Lamsweerde and Matadin talked to Style.com about their unique relationship, the wonders of Lady Gaga, and why you shouldn’t peer into the inner workings of a fashion shoot.
You have this book now but you had the retrospective exhibit last year in Amsterdam. Had you always planned to do that at 25 years?
Vinoodh Matadin: This actually started nine years ago when Inez was pregnant. Karl Lagerfeld said, “Oh, you’re pregnant. You should do a book.”
Inez van Lamsweerde: He said, “Oh, you have to have a project while you’re pregnant.” Which is very cute.
And very Karl.
IVL: Yeah, it was sweet. So we started working on it and kept shooting and kept adding pictures and the book grew and grew. When it was done, it was kind of 25 years of us together. And by now, it’s again a year later so it’s 26 years of work together. But the show was based on the book.
VM: Basically we started the book putting everything in order.
IVL: Chronological order.
VM: But then we thought, it’s too soon. We’re not there yet. So we decided to redo the book.
IVL: The exciting thing for us was the editing and putting it together. Once we decided no chronological, which for us was not interesting, it became really about the combination of the pictures.
The pairings have a nice rhythm.
IVL: It’s really about how all those images that we’ve made in the past 26 years live inside our heads, especially this idea of art, fashion, and portraiture being all the same, from the same source. It really depends on the context or the venue in which you see the image.
VM: It also became one body of work because it takes time away. You see a picture from 1985 next to a picture of 2011 and they’re still holding up. You don’t know when this picture is from. It could be yesterday or 26 years ago. Read the rest of this entry >
tags: Camilla Nickerson, Inez van Lamsweerde, Lady Gaga, M/M Paris, V Magazine, Vinoodh Matadin
Summerville Brings Salander To H&M
December 12, 2011 5:12 pm
Conditions on location filming The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo weren’t pretty. According to costume designer Trish Summerville, David Fincher shot scenes at night in below-freezing temperatures to get the look he wanted—which left Summerville with the task of keeping Rooney Mara’s Lisbeth Salander not only looking sharp but remaining frostbite-free, too. “To keep Rooney warm, we dressed her in two to three pairs of thermal socks, put foot warmers in her shoes and hand warmers in her pockets,” she recalled. “At one point we just lined her whole ankle to calf with hand warmers in her boots, but it was tough because no one wants to look 40 pounds heavier on screen just because you are trying to stay warm.”
She pulled it off—and while proof is coming December 21 to a multiplex screen near you, it’s arriving this week at H&M as well, where Summerville designed a 30-piece capsule collection modeled on Salander’s on-screen wardrobe. Summerville will be on hand at the H&M Girl With the Dragon Tattoo pop-up shop opening Wednesday in New York’s Meatpacking District, but Style.com caught up with the costume designer beforehand to get the inside scoop on her first clothing collection and working with Mara. We also got an exclusive first look inside the pop-up shop (pictured).
H&M’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Pop-Up Shop will be open December 14-16 from 12 p.m. To 10 p.m. daily, at 72 Gansevoort Street, NYC.
How did you translate Rooney’s character’s wardrobe into a fast fashion collection?
We wanted to use the Salander signature pieces. She has several staples, and in doing the film she had between 45 and 50 wardrobe changes—that’s quite a lot. (We filmed from Christmas to Christmas.) Her wardrobe is more function than fashion, so of course we tried to take them up a notch and make them more fashion. With everything, like the long wool overcoat, the combat boots, and the leather boots, it was about cleaning them up, changing the fabrications, and making the aging and dyeing techniques a little cleaner.
What was the most difficult piece to pull off in terms of getting the wash and aging you wanted to achieve for the H&M collection?
Her clothes in the film are pretty dirty. With the combat boots, it took a bit of a process with the distressing. I don’t think they had ever done something like that, and I got to sit on the floor with the shoe guy showing him how everything needed to be. When you take away color, it can come up a different color, so we had to try it several times. We were really excited because they came out perfectly. More importantly, the shoes are really comfortable. I am on my feet from 12 to 20 hours a day and need something really comfortable.
What was your first meeting with Rooney like?
The first time we met was when she came in for one of the readings [before she was cast]. We had six different girls come in and I pulled similar items for each girl and let them dress however they wanted with the clothes so we could see how they put their outfits together. I wanted to see what kind of Salander they would be and then we had several more tests. She is such a trooper and people will be shocked to see how she became Salander and truly transformed. Read the rest of this entry >
tags: H&M, Lisbeth Salander, Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Trish Summerville
More Flash Than Trash:
Olivier Rousteing At Balmain
December 12, 2011 12:30 pm
After creating, with stylist Emmanuelle Alt, the phenomenon of Balmainia, former creative director Christophe Decarnin abruptly departed from the house he’d brought back to relevance, citing only medical concerns. As the press buzzed about the escalating pressures of the industry (in the wake not only of Decarnin’s departure but of Galliano’s anti-Semitic outburst and McQueen’s suicide), the label appointed an impossibly young, all but untested designer to take his place: The then-25-year-old Frenchman Olivier Rousteing, who’d worked under Decarnin at the height of Balmain’s moment.
Rousteing, a veteran of Roberto Cavalli under Peter Dundas and Balmain under Decarnin, presented his first collection for Resort 2011 and followed it up with a well-received first show for Spring that kept the glitz and glamour but lost some of the rock ‘n’ roll trashiness that had given previous collections their edge. Critics and buyers—even those who had been Decarnin’s boosters—responded. On a recent trip to New York, Rousteing spoke with Style.com about his vision for the house, the high pressure of the industry, and why you won’t see any shredded T-shirts on his watch.
You joined Balmain in 2009, at a time when there was so much excitement around the label—Balmainia, as it were. What was that like?
I went there when it was Balmainia…I understood when I came to the house that it was a really small house with a really big name. But there wasn’t all the structure. It was super-interesting—there was not a lot of people. What is nice at Balmain is not only this part, the Balmainia, but even before; you have access to amazing archives. That was a good thing too with this house. It’s a really French house; it [has] old history.
Is that what you still look back to for your own collections?
When I arrived, I loved the rock ‘n’ roll sex appeal that was in the house, [and] I loved to work with Christophe, obviously. But what I learned from this house is that there is a real DNA, something from the past that I want to bring back. I want to bring the couture feeling that I tried to during the summer [for Spring 2011].
To temper the rock ‘n’ roll with something a little more classic.
I think “classic” is the right word. I want to go to something more timeless. Something that goes for the future. What I love from the old French house, it’s not seasonal. It’s something that stays. That’s my goal for Balmain. Keeping the sexiness but a bit dressier. For a woman who’s more chic, [to] expand from the woman who was before.
There was obviously an enormous amount of pressure on Christophe Decarnin, as there is on all major designers today. Is that something that concerns you?
I believe a lot in the place where I work. I love the brand. The people that work with me are my friends. Already that creates a really good structure, a good system. When Christophe [was] gone, for sure, it was hard for us, but I love [for] the brand to keep going. What I think is nice now is that I can give myself inside the house now, more than before. There were many things I liked with Christophe, and many things that were not me. Now it’s completely me. Read the rest of this entry >
tags: Balmain, Balmainia, Christophe Decarnin, Olivier Rousteing, Peter Dundas
Julia Restoin-Roitfeld Gets Intimate
December 9, 2011 1:40 pm
“It’s hard to know what to expect, but this is all quite amazing,” Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, who is pregnant with her first child, tells Style.com. “What I do know is I definitely need a bigger bra size!” Luckily for her, Restoin-Roitfeld has designed a new capsule collection for Kiki de Montparnasse to fit those needs. She was diligent, however, to make sure her black and white, lacy silk underthings (in the store and online December 14) are tailored for women with all body shapes. “It’s really, really technical,” she says of her collection of slips, bras, and panties. “We all have different bodies and we wanted to see what works on all of them, so there were lots of tweaks made during the design process.” Here, the photographer, brand consultant, graphic designer, and model tells us about the latest additions to her résumé—lingerie designer and mom-to-be.
How did this collaboration with Kiki de Montparnasse come about?
I have always been a lingerie fan. Lingerie and shoes are my two favorite accessories, and for many years I was hoping to do a collaboration with a brand like Kiki. Out of the blue, the Kiki PR girl reached out to me about hosting an event with them and I knew I really wanted to do something more creative than that, so here we are.
Tell me about the collaboration and design process in creating your capsule collection.
I had strong ideas about what I wanted. Right away, I did sketches for the first meeting. It’s really, really technical—it’s not just doing the drawings. We all have different bodies and we wanted to see what works on all of them so there were lots of tweaks.
What do you look for in lingerie?
I do not like bandeau bras. I think it’s OK when you have really small breasts, but otherwise it just looks awful. You want lingerie that makes you feel good about yourself and makes your body look your best. Sometimes it can be too tight and uncomfortable. We were careful to have no visible panty line.
What other projects are you working on right now?
I have really focused on this one for the past few months. The team there is so amazing and I would love to work on something else with them. I have some other brand consulting and art direction projects but I don’t like to talk about them until they are out. Then I am mainly just focusing on my pregnancy. Read the rest of this entry >
tags: Carine Gilson, Carine Roitfeld, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Kiki de Montparnasse, Marianna Rothen
The Artist’s Artist
December 1, 2011 1:45 pm
“When we wrapped, we had no idea how things would turn out,” says costume designer Mark Bridges of The Artist, the nostalgic silent film (in theaters now) about Hollywood’s golden era by Michel Hazanavicius, starring Bérénice Bejo and Jean Dujardin. “We thought, it could be the greatest thing since sliced cheese, or it could go direct to video. There are no guarantees in this business.” (He would know, having costumed everything from Boogie Nights to Blow.) But after scoring five nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards, it looks like Bridges, Hazanavicius, and company have their answer.
The Jazz Age isn’t just enticing filmgoers at the moment; fashion audiences are eating it up, too. Coincidentally or not, the costumes Bridges created for Bejo echoed the twenties-inspired and Deco shapes on the Spring runways, at shows like Gucci, Marc Jacobs, and Etro. And though they’re currently hanging in Bejo’s closet in Paris, those costumes are also getting attention from museum curators, including those from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, and will be included in FIDM’s annual Motion Picture Exhibition this spring. Here, Bridges speaks with Style.com about re-creating the spirit of an era in crepe de chine.
How did you prepare for the movie?
I have an extensive library—every birthday when I was a kid my parents would ask what movie or book I wanted so I have built up a big collection over the years. I watched a lot of Turner Classic Movies—like, 24/7. There are people who don’t like to use other films as research but I love it. I looked at old silent film stars and pulled candids and press images of them. It was important to look at that era and notice what changed or didn’t change during those times. Even in the thirties, they kept the same hat shapes from the twenties. It was great that we were filming in Hollywood because I was set up to walk into Western Costume Company and go to the twenties section and I could just see what speaks to me.
Did you look to specific silent film stars or certain silhouettes they were wearing?
Yes, Bérénice and I both felt that [her character of] Peppy could be based on a young Joan Crawford, who hadn’t gotten very mannered yet. We looked at a lot of her early films and the dress Peppy wears for her first dance has the same DNA of the fringed one Joan wears in Our Dancing Daughters. Read the rest of this entry >
tags: Berenice Bejo, Mark Bridges, Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
