20 posts tagged "Cecilia Dean"
Borgo Magic
In keeping with the tradition of using his famous stylish fans as his models (Vanessa Traina, Lauren Santo Domingo, and Kate Lanphear, to name a few), Eddie Borgo brought on V‘s Cecilia Dean to star in his latest ad campaign. “Cecilia was a natural progression for us; she exemplifies all those mysterious, sexy elements of a woman with effortless style,” Borgo tells Style.com. “I was so nervous, at first, to ask for her participation, but so thrilled when she accepted at a friend’s dinner party in Paris.” The collection was inspired by magic and the occult, referencing the work of British occultist Austin Osman Spare and Robert Mapplethorpe’s projects outside of photography. “The connection between the two artists was their ability to create imagery that was simultaneously strong as it was elegant and refined,” explains Borgo. His translation of the two artists’ work came in the form of geometric shapes, like stars and pentagrams, which he then covered in white powder “to evoke the feeling of lace.”
For the shoot, he enlisted his go-to team: stylist Keegan Singh and photographer Paul Maffi. Here, catch Dean in action in this Style.com exclusive video along with a shot from the campaign.
Tao And Her Fellow Top Models Sell the Clothes Off Their Backs for Japan
Tao Okamoto was in Tokyo visiting family when the 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit the country back in March. A few days later, the Japanese top model sent out a heartfelt letter to friends and fashion industry contacts expressing her sympathy for victims and her intent to plan a benefit: “I want to tell Japan that a lot of people in the world are encouraging and helping us. We are not alone.” This Sunday, Tao makes good on that promise with Ragtag, a charity bazaar she’s hosting in the basement of Saturdays Surf in Soho. Runway regulars like Heidi Mount, Liu Wen, and Jenny Shimizu, along with Phillip Lim, Pamela Love, and Visionaire‘s Cecilia Dean, will sell pre-loved clothes straight from their own closets to benefit the organization Save Japan! Items up for grabs include Naomi Campbell-signed T-shirts from her Fashion for Relief charity show in Cannes and, presumably, piles of sample-size togs and designer swag.
Ragtag will take place Sunday, May 29, from 12-6 p.m. at the basement of Saturdays Surf NYC, 31 Crosby St., www.saturdaysnyc.com. For more information on Ragtag, visit www.savejapanproject.org.
A Day Off Is A Day On For Rafael De Cárdenas
For many style-world types on the periphery of the interior design world, Rafael de Cárdenas’ opening on Friday night, part of the season’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair schedule, was the first and last ICFF stop. But that’s fitting: De Cárdenas himself toes the line between fashion and design. After studying fashion at RISD and taking a job at Calvin Klein, de Cárdenas quickly figured out that the typical fashion path wasn’t for him. After a second degree in architecture, he branched out into interiors and industrial design—all the while keeping the style world well within his sights. Recent projects include Unknown Union, the Cape Town, South Africa boutique run by the owners of New York’s now-shuttered Bblessing; the OHWOW Gallery in Miami; and the homes of Jess Stam and Parker Posey.
On Friday, he showed his first collection of furniture, an angular, cheerily painted geometric range indebted, he said, to the work of Bruce Goff and Frank Lloyd Wright. (“Actually, this table is called the Wright Table because it’s so similar to [one by] Frank Lloyd Wright,” de Cárdenas admitted. “We called it [that] to get it out of the way.”) Opening Ceremony’s Humberto Leon (above, with de Cárdenas) and Olivia Kim, Visionaire‘s Cecilia Dean, Sophomore’s Chrissie Miller, and artists Aaron Bondaroff and Aurel Schmidt were a few of the many who spilled onto Greenwich Street to sip beers and check out what the designer called a “joyful” collection. The wooden tables, benches, and desks were decorated with pops of metallic gold, painted ombré, or striped with brilliant color. They’re definitely not made to blend in. So where, one had to wonder, would they fit in—say, chez Stam or chez Posey? “That’s the great thing about these,” de Cárdenas said. “I don’t have to worry about what spaces they live in. That’s not my job today, that’s my job every other day. Today my job is to put it anywhere.”
School Ties
For every fashion student toughing it out in the university, take hope: You may just find your future collaborator in the trenches. “We met in a college dorm,” Visionaire‘s James Kaliardos said of meeting his magazine’s co-founders, Stephen Gan and Cecilia Dean (left), during their Parsons days. “Stephen needed my food card to eat back then in the cafeteria.” Twenty years later, the trio is still raising eyebrows with their evocative flagship publication and receiving accolades too; they took home the first ever Future of Fashion Award at the 45th Annual YMA FSF Geoffrey Beene National Awards dinner last night.
Despite a Northeast snowstorm warning, a bevy of Visionaire admirers and original supporters (including Diane von Furstenberg, Italo Zucchelli, and Milk Studios’ Mazdack Rassi) turned out anyway. “I feel like we’re the grandpa and grandma of the publication,” Isabel Toledo said of her and husband Ruben’s involvement. “We used to put together the issues in our kitchen and it was the second issue where I literally bound each magazine with thread.”
Needle and thread will always have their place in fashion (and maybe even in publishing), but the business proposals of last night’s newly-anointed Geoffrey Beene scholars, who took home $25,000 scholarships for their work, ranged from tech-oriented to Web 3.0. But if online offers instant gratification, print still has the potential for shelf life. “I have this edition of Visionaire that I kept from the nineties,” Calvin Klein’s Zucchelli said. “It’s about birth and religion and all these different visual ideas. It’s old now, but it’s still really special.”
A Very Tom Christmas, England Prepares For A New Princess, A Minute With Melodie, And More…
Happy holidays from…Tom Ford? The multitasking designer has apparently been tapped to guest-edit the holiday issue of Paris Vogue, which means that even the naughty will no doubt be rewarded this year. [WWD]
Prince William has finally popped the question to his longtime girlfriend, Kate Middleton (in Philip Treacy, left), and the English media is more than ready. The Telegraph rounds up the lady’s best fashion moments (she’s “a very royal style icon,” the paper asserts), while British Vogue asks leading English designers how they’d dress Miss M for her big walk down the aisle. [The Telegraph / Vogue U.K.]
Runway phenom Melodie Monrose has moved to Paris, discovered cinnamon buns, and generally worships Givenchy. W has more details on the newest catwalk face to watch. [W]
And here’s something we didn’t know: V‘s Cecilia Dean apparently raises chickens in her backyard. [Fashionologie]