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subscribe to style file blog via RSSParsons: The New Class
May 15, 2012 2:56 pm
“As a designer, I am blown away,” said Donna Karan last night, after making the rounds at “The First Eighteen,” a showcase of work by the inaugural group of 18 students (ages 24 to 31) in Parsons’ graduate MFA program in fashion design and society. “The sophistication, the understanding, the ability to hold a collection together, it is so telling,” she explained. Karan, a Parsons alumna, was joined at the school by co-host Joanna Coles, Simon Collins, the dean of the School of Fashion, Shelley Fox, the mastermind behind the MFA program, and designers Victoria Bartlett, Chris Benz, and Gabi Asfour of threeasfour, in toasting the student designs, all of which had been year-long projects.
The work by Beckett Fogg and Sinead Lawlor, in particular, garnered especially positive reactions from the crowd. Fogg’s monochromatic black and white womenswear pieces were clean-cut, but finished with luxe embossed leather touches. Lawlor went a completely different route, showing a range of bright blue, red, and yellow womenswear separates done in an explosive button print that was bold, yet equally wearable (pictured). There were also a handful of students that went for a more avant-garde aesthetic, showing conceptual designs that, according to Collins, “should be shown at the Met right now” (referring to the recently opened Schiaparelli/Prada exhibit currently on display at the museum). By the end of the night, it was no secret that Karan, who has been focused on her Urban Zen project in Haiti, had acquired some favorites and perhaps some plans for those students’ futures. “There are three that I really love,” she said. “I would like to get their hands in Haiti, you have no idea.”
“The First Eighteen” is on view daily at 1359 Broadway, New York, through May 23.
tags: "The First Eighteen", Beckett Fogg, Donna Karan, Parsons, Simon Collins, Sinead Lawlor
Postcard From L.A.: A Weekend Of Openings With Laure Heriard Dubreuil And Aaron Young
May 14, 2012 5:25 pm
The Webster’s Laure Heriard Dubreuil and fiancé Aaron Young were in L.A. for the weekend for the opening of two shows featuring Young’s art: No Fucking Way, his solo show at The Company Gallery, and Rebel, the James Franco-curated homage to Rebel Without a Cause at MOCA. (For more on Rebel, check out our coverage of the opening party and our Q&A with Franco.) Laure sent back a few shots from her trip, which included plenty of art, plenty of parties, and (naturally) a little L.A. vintage shopping. Throughout, Dubreuil wears a dress by The Webster for Target. She’s encouraging readers to email photos of themselves wearing the collection to socialmedia@thewebstermiami.com.
Aaron and I arrived in L.A. on Friday morning for Aaron’s openings: a solo one at The Company on Friday night and a group one at MOCA on Saturday. We stayed at the Chateau Marmont, which is a key place this particular weekend, as it is basically the set for Saturday’s Rebel show at MOCA. It didn’t hurt that they had the latest Porsche convertible to rent for the weekend, either.
Aaron’s solo show at The Company Gallery is called No Fucking Way and it’s about what he calls “tragic girls that have all been acting in their lives one way or another” (he jokes that it’s site-specific to L.A.). All the paintings are in the colors of the American flag and the canvases are the shape of folded flags. He painted women like Heidi Montag after all of her plastic surgeries posing in an American flag bikini, and Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan posing wrapped up in the flag before the pipe beating incident. After Aaron’s opening, we all went to the opening of Paul and Damon McCarthy’s Rebel Dabble Babble, a continuation of their pieces from James Franco’s Rebel show at MOCA. After that, it was downtown to UMAMIcatessen for a truffle burger before calling it a night.
Saturday morning we went to the MOCA space for Aaron’s press conference and interviews (he was wearing his The Webster at Target T-shirt for good luck!). We met up with James Franco, who curated the show. He told me he wanted to collaborate with artists he looks up to, who have dealt with film in their careers: Paul McCarthy and Aaron; there was Harmony Korine, Ed Ruscha, Terry Richardson, and Douglas Gordon. Read the rest of this entry >
tags: Aaron Young, Andre Balazs, Harmony Korine, James Franco, Laure Heriard Dubreuil, MoCA, Paul McCarthy, The Webster
Venus Rising
May 10, 2012 4:36 pm
After the fluorescence of Frieze, last night’s cloistered and barely candlelit opening of Venus Over Manhattan was a shock to the art system. The new gallery at 980 Madison Avenue is the latest passion of Adam Lindemann, and if it seems strange for an art writer and collector to turn dealer at age 50, well, strangeness is part of the aim. “I was fascinated with the novel À Rebours,” Lindemann said, referencing Joris-Karl Huysmans’ decadent classic. “It means ‘against the grain,’ and it’s about a debauched nineteenth-century aristocrat who destroys his life with drugs and art.” (It also gave him the title of his inaugural exhibition.) He was offering a modulated version of excess: a late, 10 p.m. start time (the better to coexist with Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale, one of the big events of the auction house’s year) and a different drink from the usual gallery-opening Champagne. “Have you tried the absinthe yet?” he asked the crowd, which included Linda Evangelista, Rita Ackermann, Hope Atherton, Charlotte Kidd, and Richard Kern.
Elise Øverland had not. “I can’t do hallucinogenics,” murmured the designer (pictured), just back from sabbatical in India. “It’s trippy enough just being in the dark,” added art world impresario Yvonne Force Villareal. “I think this is my first candlelit art opening, and I love the mystery, the feeling that anything could happen.” Erin Fetherston felt it, too. “It’s been so long since I did anything spontaneous,” she said. “I love it. My friends said let’s go to this art thing, and now I’m in a haunted house.”
“Isn’t it so weird here and wonderful?” sighed curator Stacy Engman. “I hardly know what time it is or where I am, but it could only be New York.”
tags: Adam Lindemann, Charlotte Kidd, Erin Fetherston, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Linda Evangelista, Rita Ackermann, Sotheby's, Venus Over Manhattan, Yvonne Force Villareal
The Heavenly Host (Committee)
May 10, 2012 1:06 pm
Fresh from his Malibu event to reveal an Angel—that’d be Gisele Bündchen—as his new campaign face, David Yurman headed for Heaven. Yurman joined the Art of Elysium’s Jennifer Howell last night at the L.A. home of artist and musician Mark Mothersbaugh (famously of Devo, to say nothing of many Wes Anderson soundtracks) to toast the host committee of the nonprofit’s 2013 Heaven Gala. Justin Bartha, Abigail Spencer (pictured, right), and Amy Smart were among the Young Hollywood-ites who turned out for the evening, but it was Amber Heard (pictured, left) who elicited singling out from Howell. “Did you know she’s bilingual?” she asked the crowd. The actress makes use of her two languages in her work for the L.A.-based organization, which encourages artists, actors, and musicians to donate their time and talent to seriously ill children. “She’s in the hospital with the kids—and talking to them—every chance she gets.”
The evening presented itself as an opportunity for David Yurman, in town for a mini tour that includes the reopening of his expanded Rodeo Drive flagship, to lend his support and champion the charity that has become a cause célèbre for celebs. “We want to find some way to give back,” he said, and Art of Elysium is “heroic, and unbelievably charitable.” Heroico, as Heard might say.
tags: Abigail Spencer, Amber Heard, Art of Elysium, David Yurman, Justin Bartha, Mark Mothersbaugh
Master Class
May 7, 2012 4:58 pm
It might have been a balmy after-work Friday evening, but an impressive fashion lot made their way to Washington Square to preview Helmut Lang’s latest show, titled simply Helmut Lang: Sculptures. The power players in the room, including Barneys’ Mark Lee, Ed Filipowski, and Cecilia Dean, were a testament to the designer-turned-artist’s lasting draw. “It’s really a confirmation of Helmut’s style,” said Giambattista Valli, who was in town for the Met gala and was taking in the rubber, foam, sheepskin, and tar stacked sculptures—modern totems of a sort (pictured). Valli, who has never met Lang, admitted he had long been an admirer. “He came into fashion and completely changed the aesthetic,” he said. “It went from the over-the-top eighties to his own clean and spare aesthetic. If you look around, his aesthetic continues to today.”
Lang’s forward-thinking, stark work contrasted particularly nicely with the classic parlor-floor town house space, including vintage moldings. The viewing venue came courtesy of art veteran Mark Fletcher, who co-curated the exhibit with Neville Wakefield. “It’s not easy to make the transition from fashion to art,” Fletcher said. “But when Helmut shredded his fashion archive, I thought ‘This guy is really serious.’ ” Fletcher was also quick to point out, though, that those with vision shouldn’t be restricted. “People like to keep people in specific arenas, whether it’s art, music, film, or fashion,” he said. “But transgressing cultural boundaries is what’s interesting. Look at Tom Ford.”
Helmut Lang: Sculptures, 24 Washington Square North, is on view until June 15.
tags: Cecilia Dean, Ed Filipowski, Giambattista Valli, Helmut Lang, Mark Fletcher, Mark Lee, Neville Wakefield, Tom Ford
Are These America’s Next Top Models?
May 7, 2012 9:15 am
Each year, Condé Nast celebrates Take Your Children to Work Day, and for Style.com’s station, our editors set up a mock photo shoot to create new covers for Style.com/Print. The participating kids styled themselves in an array of accessories, from tiaras and fake mustaches to feather boas and sunglasses, courtesy of Guess, H&M, Forever 21, Old Navy, and Claire’s, before posing (and jumping) for the camera. The results? Let’s say 2012’s top glossy faces will have some serious competition in the coming years. Are there a few models in the making? See a few of our favorite photos, above.
tags: Claire's, Conde Nast, Forever 21, Guess, H&M
The Revolution Will Be…Blue?
May 4, 2012 1:57 pm
“It’s a blue revolution!” exclaimed Lydia Fenet of Christie’s while walking the indigo carpet in an aqua-hued Rachel Roy frock at last night’s screening of La Revolution Bleue—sponsored, thematically enough, by La Mer and Oceana. The documentary, which chronicles the French artist Yves Klein’s work and creation of the painting FC 1 (Fire-Color 1), lured Dr. Lisa Airan, Anh Duong, and Susan Rockefeller to the Paris Theatre, all eager to see the story behind the controversial piece, which involved nude models and gas burners. (On May 8, the oeuvre will be listed at Christie’s Post War & Contemporary Evening Sale, where it’s expected to fetch over $30 million dollars—a record for the monochromatic master.)
“As an artist, to have your name forever associated with a color is very powerful,” Duong told Style.com. “Like Schiaparelli pink, it’s as if Klein invented blue.” Before the screening, host January Jones (in Mary Katrantzou, with a hint of blue eyeliner) talked nursing and baby clothes. “I don’t know if it’s because he’s a boy but Xander responds to blue really well,” she said of her newborn son. The new mom has been painting the town, er, blue, hitting an array of parties in the Big Apple this week. As for her proclivity toward fine art? “I’d love to be a collector, but it’s an extravagant thing,” the Mad Men actress mused. “Fashion is more affordable.” Her wardrobe essentials? “Jeans and a good white men’s shirt.”
tags: Anh Duong, Christie's, Dr. Lisa Airan, January Jones, La Revolution Bleue, Lydia Fenet, Mad Men, Mary Katrantzou, Yves Klein
Plus-Ones: Who’ll Be Arm-In-Arm At The Met On Monday
May 4, 2012 11:21 am
Last night’s model-packed dinner for Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing reminded you of what you already knew: The world is in town for Monday’s Met gala. Rousteing had flown in from Paris for the occasion, as had his fellow designer Anthony Vaccarello, also in attendance. And so, too, had some of the runway’s top models, who are fitting the gala in between their hectic shooting schedules. So who’s going with whom?
Rousteing revealed that he’s taking Joan Smalls as his date, though he couldn’t say what she’d been wearing: He made four dresses, and Joan will make her own pick. Vaccarello is taking Anja Rubik, who closed his Fall ‘12 show. Constance Jablonski, who spent dinner tête-à-tête with Kasia Struss, will be with Haider Ackermann. And Karlie Kloss, fresh from shooting in Bahia, will accompany Jason Wu. “He comes up to about my waist,” the Amazonian model said with a laugh. “But it’s his own fault. He picks the shoes!”
In other Met news, Roland Mouret will bring Doutzen Kroes, and Chanel will bring Gaspard Ulliel, the French actor who is the face of its Bleu de Chanel fragrance. Nordstrom’s table, hosted by Pete Nordstrom and Jeffrey Kalinsky, will seat several of the nights heavy hitters: Alexander Wang with Azealia Banks; Erdem Moralioglu with Arizona Muse; Rachel Zoe with Karolina Kurkova and Zoe’s husband Rodger Berman; and Thakoon Panichgul with Christina Ricci.
tags: Anja Rubik, Anthony Vaccarello, Christina Ricci, Constance Jablonski, Doutzen Kroes, Gaspard Ulliel, Haider Ackermann, Jeffrey Kalinsky, Joan Smalls, Karolina Kurkova, Kasia Struss, Met gala, Olivier Rousteing, Rachel Zoe, Rodger Berman, Roland Mouret, Thakoon Panichgul
Hick Flick
May 4, 2012 9:00 am
A brief glance at the trailer and one might think Hick is just your average chick flick—a tale of two girls from the midwest on a road trip to Vegas. And according to the film’s star, Chloë Moretz, it felt like one, too. “We stayed up all night cooking, until like 4 a.m. making cupcakes from scratch—it was amazing. I thought, ‘Oh, I’m just making dessert with Blake Lively, no big deal,’ ” she said last night of her co-star (who wasn’t in attendance) at the film’s New York premiere, hosted by the Cinema Society. “She got pretty crazy, she was making like baked Camembert and bananas foster.”
Off-screen, Hick might have been a sweet encounter for the cast (which also included Alec Baldwin, Juliette Lewis, and Burberry ad model Eddie Redmayne) and crew thanks to Moretz and Lively, but the film itself is a real gun-slinging, gritty affair. Before the lights went down in the theater at the Crosby Street Hotel, the film’s director, Derick Martini, warned the audience (which included the likes of Emma Roberts and Kieran Culkin). “It’s tough, it’s not Mary Poppins,” he said of his screen adaptation of Andrea Portes’ novel. “I just want you to be prepared.”
So how did Moretz, in her Dolce & Gabbana dress and Jimmy Choo heels last night, transform herself into Luli, the Nebraska teenager who sets out on her own after her parents abandon her? She admitted it was certainly not personal experience she drew upon. “I have pretty normal parents and stuff like that,” the 15-year-old said. “But I really felt for Luli. She is opened up to this adult world and things that she had never encountered that is really scary, but that’s just life, you know?” Spoken like a seasoned vet.
tags: Alec Baldwin, Blake Lively, Chloe Moretz, Eddie Redmayne, Emma Roberts
FIT For The Fashion World
May 3, 2012 10:04 am
“These are the future Donna, Calvin, and Ralphs,” said Kate Betts in a video that played at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s 2012 graduate student runway show last night. Betts’ description of the design students went hand in hand with the show and its outright, optimistic title, “The Future of Fashion,” which drew a packed house of FIT faculty and fashion notables, including Dennis Basso, Josie Natori, and Rebecca Minkoff. Also on hand to support the students were some of the school’s famous alumni, designers Nanette Lepore and Calvin Klein. “It is such a pleasure to give back,” said Klein, who recently donated to the school a generous $2 million gift. FIT president Dr. Joyce Brown said the gift would sustain the school for the next decade.
“I was so struck in awe of the students and their ability to sew,” said Natori, who, along with nine other designers, served as an FIT mentor and critic throughout the spring semester. Standouts included Critic Award winner Mimi Prober and Jordan Randolph, whose black wool dress (pictured) with lace detail caught the eye of industry vets and their company CEOs. As for these students’ future in fashion, it’s looking quite bright.
tags: Calvin Klein, Dennis Basso, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Nanette Lepore, Rebecca Minkoff
