20 posts tagged "Erin Fetherston"
The Cools Gets Cooler
The Cools launched last summer as an online retail community that offered products by independent fashion and lifestyle designers from around the globe. Unfortunately, the site was “members only”—until now. “Our platform was originally intended to support individuals showcasing their cool, and selling personal products online,” said CEO Olivier van Themsche, who opened the site to the public last Thursday. “We realized that the platform was powerful for brands and designers, and a great opportunity for them to have a new business channel of exposure and sales.” In addition to giving its carefully selected range of about three hundred fresh labels (like Katie Gallagher, Public School, Dominic Louis, and Linda Farrow, just to name a few) a better cut of the sales than most retailers (designers only hand over a 12 percent commission), The Cools provides them with a virtual space where they can upload films, brand bios, and inspiration images that give customers a better idea of what they’re all about. Editorial content is also a focus (Style.com/Print star Grimes makes an appearance in The Cools’ latest online mag), and a slew of handpicked tastemakers in the know—Dree Hemingway, Chelsea Leyland, and Erin Fetherston among them—present shoppers with their favorite sartorial picks. “We hope to offer our customers the best possible brands from around the world, and to give them a unique way to interact directly with their favorite designers—one on one,” added van Themsche. With everything from candlesticks and chandeliers to leather lingerie and edgy staples, The Cools is a one-stop shop for all that is quirky, covetable, and, well, cool.
VERA: Changing the World, One Corset at a Time
Corsets, cell phones, fashion, and microfinance might seem like they’d make for strange bedfellows, but those things are all coming together for a good cause at tonight’s launch event for VERA, a new phone application (created by mobile-intelligence firm Validas) that targets wireless waste (unused minutes and data on your cellular bill) and donates that money to the Seven Bar Foundation—a group that aims to empower women in need around the globe with targeted business investments. Sounds complicated, but basically it’s an innovative way to give back and become a mini-philanthropist, if you will. In the past, Seven Bar has raised funds and awareness for its mission with unique lingerie runway shows. And tonight—at the United Nations, of all places—the organization will be hosting one such extravaganza. “If we’re going to launch this, we’re going to do it in true Seven Bar style,” the foundation’s founder, Renata Black, told Style.com.
Black and the team behind VERA recruited several fashion designers—Erin Fetherston, Zang Toi, Guy Laroche artistic director Marcel Marongiu, and Sarah Shotton of Agent Provocateur—to create corsets for the occasion. (Mary Alice Stephenson is the master of ceremonies, and Tennessee Thomas, Hannah Bronfman, Kelly Rutherford, and Jennifer Creel are among the expected attendees.) Why corsets? you might ask. “They’re traditionally associated with restriction, but we’ve asked the designers to reimagine them as inner armor for outer empowerment,” Black explained. The designers gave Style.com an exclusive sneak peek at the custom corsets that will parade down this evening’s runway. “I’m known for my feminine aesthetic and that comes through in the draped chiffon, embellishments, and sweet bow gathering in the back. It’s romantic and modern,” said Fetherston. Meanwhile, Toi looked to Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE sculpture for corset inspiration, and Shotton did a quintessentially Agent Provocateur (read: sexy) take on the undergarment. To top it all off, Imitation of Christ designer Tara Subkoff will give a live performance at tonight’s event. Known to dabble in all forms of film and theatrics, Subkoff will make her own corset on the spot, and promises that the result will be imaginative. Corsets for change—why not?
Summer Recess With The Cools
Picture a Web site that is eBay meets Pinterest with a dash of Instagram thrown in for good measure, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what The Cools (www.thecools.com) is. It’s a personalized online bazaar curated by likeminded tastemakers, no weeding through pages of junk necessary. “I get e-mailed so much stuff and one thing I happened to click on was this site. I saw like three things I hadn’t seen before that I wanted and one of the three that I could afford, so I thought ‘cool,’ ” The Hole gallery founder Kathy Grayson told Style.com last night at The Cools’ first Jamboree event, which brought the online experience to life. For the occasion, site founder Olivier van Themsche took over the sprawling 15,000-square-foot Old School in Nolita and gave local designers and restaurants, including Grayson, Erin Fetherston, Bing Bang’s Anna Sheffield, What Goes Around Comes Around, Selima, and Miss Lily’s each a classroom to take over and market their offerings. “The offline events are a key part of The Cools,” van Themsche said. “The nature of creatives is to engage with other creatives—I plan to make the Jamboree recurring and it will evolve into a sort of ‘curated’ cool kids’ flea market, which will pop up in New York and also in Paris, Milan, etc.”The result was a laissez-faire bash that drew a line of people (including Hanne Gaby Odiele, Waris Ahluwalia, Fiona Byrne, and Scott Lipps) wrapped around the block on Mott Street waiting to get in. At one point, the police even arrived to break up the festivities. Things were indeed getting a bit rowdy in the space Miss Lily’s restaurant turned into a Jamaican dancehall complete with dance lessons, reggaeton beats, and an emcee. Across the hall, skateboarders were tearing up a half pipe set up by aNYthing, and a floor below, The Hole was selling $100 psychedelic drawings and Sheffield was teaching guests to knit friendship bracelets. Grayson’s favorite part was the room devised by indie film director Adam Green (who was dressed kind of like Captain Crunch), which featured large video game props from his feature film The Wrong Ferrari. “I have a soft spot for anything analog versus digital, and I thought the movie was funny,” said Grayson. “Plus, he was dressed cool and I can pretend in my head he is my new boyfriend.” Overall, it was a rollicking success, and van Themsche plans to hold court over similar events on a monthly basis. Erin Fetherston, who displayed sketches of her ethereal dresses, said, “Olivier has created the ultimate hipster social-commerce platform. There is nothing comparable in the social/e-commerce space that provides the taste level, art direction, or community that the The Cools offers.”
Going Once, Going Twice
Like most designers, Erin Fetherston is currently focusing her energy on Resort, all while prepping for the upcoming round of Spring shows. But that hasn’t stopped her from planning a special charity auction to celebrate the launch of her revamped Web site, which features behind-the-scenes photos and inspiration boards from past collections. “I was recently going through my vintage collection and it seemed like there was such a great opportunity to give the pieces I love another life,” Fetherston told Style.com. Starting at noon today, fans of the designer can start bidding on 12 vintage pieces straight from Fetherston’s closet, including a Lanvin maxi skirt, a sheer floral Sonia Rykiel number, and a mint green Chanel gown. Also on sale is an embellished light blue Pearl Ingham minidress from the sixties (pictured) that the designer wore to the Whitney Art Party last year. Proceeds from the auction will benefit Charity Water. The auction ends June 12 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
Venus Rising
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.”