11 posts tagged "Debbie Harry"
Dita in 3-D
“I can get out of a lot of things, but this dress is not one of them,” said burlesque star Dita Von Teese of the gown she donned to last night’s party at the Ace Hotel. The dress in question was the first fully articulated 3-D printed garment, which was conceptualized by designer Michael Schmidt. And the party, which drew the likes of Debbie Harry, Bob Gruen, and Andrej Pejic, served to toast its unveiling. “I was interested in finding the middle ground between the world of mathematics and the world of ephemeral beauty,” Schmidt told Style.com. The L.A.-based designer, who has crafted looks for stars like Madonna, Cher, and Lady Gaga (the latter wore his glass-bubble costume on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2009), conceived Von Teese’s frock with Fibonacci’s Golden Ratio in mind.
With the help of computational designer and architect Francis Bitonti, Schmidt used 3-D software to realize his space-age gown (think cinched waist and steroidal shoulders). The dress began as a digital rendering, which was then engineered in powdered nylon by high-tech collaborator Shapeways. “As an architect, it’s all about dealing with facades, and this was just about making a curvy one,” mused Bitonti. The body-skimming dress featured an undulating mesh silhouette of three thousand articulated joints fashioned out of layered nylon powder. As if that weren’t complicated enough, it also boasted twelve thousand Swarovski black crystals, which were painstakingly placed by hand after printing. “It’s obviously very futuristic, but I tried to retain a level of old-world glamour that was befitting of Dita,” added Schmidt. Indeed, the Blade Runner-meets-Bettie Page ensemble was worthy of the millennial pinup. “It’s superlight,” Von Teese mused later that evening after slipping into a demure Roland Mouret shift. But was it comfortable? “The only uncomfortable part is that I needed to be very cautious about how I walked. I had to make sure my heels wouldn’t get stuck in the hem.” Even in the future, glamour’s got its obstacles.
Dior Pearl Pinball, McQueen Portrait Finds A Home, Andy Hilfiger’s Rock Shop, And More…
This is our type of game: Dior pinball with pearls. In Arcade Couture: Mise en Dior, a video debuting on Nowness today, the game has been reimagined with a focus on the brand’s signature Mise en Dior necklace, “to show, in a light and fun way, the richness and savoir faire of Dior,” says Dior jewelry designer Camille Miceli. [Nowness]
For the first time in the U.K., a portrait of Alexander McQueen and Isabella Blow is on display at the National Portrait Gallery, thanks to financial help from McQueen and Daphne Guinness. The photo by David LaChapelle, Burning Down the House, originally appeared in a 1996 issue of Vanity Fair. [Vogue U.K.]
Andy Hilfiger is rocking and rolling a new pop-up shop into the former CBGB’s Gallery on Bowery Street today. The three-month shop, called RIFF, has everything from clothes inspired by Steven Tyler to Guns N’ Roses memorabilia. [WWD]
The latest addition to this year’s annual MOCA gala, featuring An Artist’s Life Manifesto by Marina Abramovic, is a performance by Debbie Harry. Blondie follows in the footsteps of musicians like Kanye West and Lady Gaga, who both performed at past MOCA bashes. [Hint]
Tara Subkoff Pledges Allegiance…To Downtown New York
Would you like to have lunch on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange? Perhaps a late-night repast at Macy’s, the night before Christmas? If so, then the vibe at last night’s opening of Co-Op at the Rivington Hotel on the Lower East Side would have greatly appealed to you. Thronging is, perhaps, too gentle a word. A clublike atmosphere prevailed as Tara Subkoff, who designed the uniforms for the restaurant’s staff, hosted a dinner for a couple dozen pals, among them Chloë Sevigny, Michael Stipe, and Debbie Harry (left, whose Polaroid portrait also hangs, with those of other downtown notables, on the wall). For Subkoff, the meal may possibly mark a homecoming: As she held court with her boyfriend, King’s Speech director Tom Hooper, Subkoff revealed that they’ve been apartment-shopping in the city, and are planning to decamp from L.A. as soon as they’ve found a place. “That’s part of the reason I liked the idea of doing the uniforms,” Subkoff said. “It’s a way of showing my allegiance to downtown New York, and the Lower East Side in particular. I love it here. And I love the idea that this place is kind of amping up the glamour of the neighborhood.” The glamour quotient was certainly high last night: Besides Subkoff, fashion faces spotted amid the revelry included designers Yigal Azrouël, Katie Gallagher, and Johan Lindeberg.
The Keith Haring Party Goes On
Last night would have been Keith Haring’s 53rd birthday. The late Pop artist, alas, is no longer around to celebrate, but the Gladstone Gallery’s new show, which includes rarely seen drawings from his sketchbooks, brought out friends and family to toast his life and work. “It’s a big occasion,” said gallerist Barbara Gladstone. “His sketchbooks have never been seen…it’s a revelation, it’s really like an index. You can see what he was thinking and what he would do and what his thought process was.”
“It almost made me nostalgic for when New York was this wide open space for artists,” said Paper magazine’s Carlo McCormick, who’d known Haring in the eighties. “I have really fond memories of the energy—you’d see these rich people come from Europe in their limos and then from uptown and they’d be mixing with a bunch of really degenerate people and weaving their way through junkies. Keith’s sense of having a party was all-inclusive that way.”
So was the party in his honor, held after the opening at Del Posto: Haring’s parents and sister rubbed elbows with downtown fixtures like Debbie Harry (above, with Gladstone), artist Cory Arcangel, and Thelma Golden. The dress code? Pop-y and Haring-bright, of course. Harry chose a red and white polka-dot top, bright red leggings, and snakeskin skirt and bag for the occasion. And José Freire of TEAM Gallery (who pronounced the Haring drawings “shocking—because they’re so good”) stepped out in a landscape-printed coat by the Japanese avant-gardist Miharayasuhiro. “This is its New York debut,” he said proudly.
Keith Haring runs until July 1 at Gladstone Gallery, 530 W. 21st St., NYC, www.gladstonegallery.com.
More On McQueen, Mouret And Schiffer On The Fringe, Remembering Don Hill, And More…
At the Telegraph, Hilary Alexander scores a preview of the forthcoming catalog for the Costume Institute’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, which will include images by Sølve Sundsbø (left), and an interview with the house’s current creative director, Sarah Burton, by Style.com’s Tim Blanks. [Telegraph via Racked]
London’s Fashion Fringe competition has added two new judges to its roster: Joining Selfridges’ Anne Pitcher, London College of Fashion’s Roy Peach, and Metro‘s Bel Jacobs will be Roland Mouret and Claudia Schiffer. (Last year’s honorary chairman, John Galliano, was originally intended to serve for two years, but will not participate.) The program awards a package of cash, business advice, studio space, and mentorship worth an estimated £100,000; applications are open now, and those shortlisted for the prize will show their collections at London fashion week. [WWD]
Following last night’s wake for late club impresario Don Hill, a few well-placed friends, collaborators, and admirers—including Leigh Lezark, Paul Sevigny, Nur Khan, and Debbie Harry—share their memories of the man and the club. [T]
And tonight, rocker-approved menswear label By Robert James opens up its first-ever pop-up shop, in Tribeca’s John Allan’s grooming club. Which leads us to wonder: Will BRJ’s typically scruffy clientele emerge from the new shop fresh-faced and clean-shaven? [By Robert James]