15 posts tagged "Italo Zucchelli"
Aussies Do It Better
“I’m an honorary Aussie,” Jason Wu told Style.com last night at the annual Australians in New York Fashion Foundation cocktail party. “I have worked with so many Australian models, have lots of friends from there, and Mardi Gras there is so insane.” Last night’s soirée in the penthouse of the High Line’s new HL23 building didn’t quite reach that level, but as one Australian grabbing a drink from the bartender sporting an “Aussies Do It Better” shirt reminded us, “Watch out—when you get a bunch of Australians together, you never know what’s going to happen.”
Burgers, musical serenades, and an auction are what happened. Both honorary and native Australians, including Italo Zucchelli (center, with Lorenzo Martone and Quin Aluni), Karlie Kloss, Ajak Deng, and Julie Anne Quay, enjoyed the surrounding views of the city before a short performance by the divas from Broadway’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert performed “I Say a Little Prayer.” Aspiring designer Laura Wade and fashion journalist Mitchell Oakley Smith had their prayers answered this past year, when the foundation announced them as grant winner (Wade) and runner-up (Smith). To raise money to support these young antipodean talents, the foundation auctioned off images by Australian photographers, such as Daniela Federici and Jason Kibbler.
“I like photos, but I don’t ever take them. It’s weird,” said Zucchelli, as he looked on at an image of Anna Nicole Smith by Federici. “It’s better to live in the moment, you know?”
Bill, Please
In the bygone days before street-style blogs, there was just one man whose eye you hoped your outfit would catch. That’s The New York Times‘ Bill Cunningham, of course, a beloved staple on the fashion circuit for the last 50-plus years and the man who pioneered the art of snapping fashion trends as they happen on the street, at the gala, or in the front row. So no surprise that last night, several of his acolytes turned up at the CFDA and Calvin Klein-hosted screening of the documentary Bill Cunningham New York to pay tribute. “Of course we had to see this film,” Garance Doré said. Her date, Scott Schuman (a.k.a. the Sartorialist) agreed: “I think any street-style photographer is familiar with his work.”
This was a tribute paid in absentia: The modest Cunningham has made it mostly a point not to attend screenings of the film. But he was practically the only person in fashion not present. Calvin Klein’s Francisco Costa and Italo Zucchelli (above, with BCNY producer Philip Gefter and director Richard Press), Carolyn Murphy, Rag & Bone’s Marcus Wainwright, Bergdorf Goodman’s Linda Fargo, and editors like Grace Coddington and Sally Singer all made a Monday evening appearance. So did model Ginta Lapina, who saved her last night out before fashion week fittings for the documentary. “I love movies. It’s one of my favorite things to do in cold weather,” the 21-year-old blonde told us before the lights dimmed. “I see him all the time during the shows and he’s always so sweet. But then I watched the trailer before I came here and I’m excited to find out a different side.”
It’s that different side that the doc highlights, particularly Cunningham’s deep commitment to his craft. “You see him at all the events, but you didn’t know about his integrity,” Costa marveled. “One of the most amazing things is his honesty. It’s beyond inspirational.”
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.”
Designers And Artists On The MOVE!
At Visionaire‘s Halloween party on Saturday, an elaborately costumed crowd took to the sweaty dance floor to cut loose. The designers on hand deserved it. They’d been in the museum all day, installing MOVE!, an exhibition curated by Visionaire‘s Cecilia Dean and journalist David Colman that paired artists and designers to create—well, whatever they wanted.
“MOVE! is a unique experience of art and fashion, where one is a reflection of the other,” explained Italo Zucchelli. “Reflection” was literal in the case of the “live sculpture” he and Terence Koh created: two silver-painted and -cloaked men (above), walking continuously toward and away from one another. “Bringing the future into history and presenting it as a perfect present,” Koh described it in a rare moment of verbosity.
Performance artist Ryan McNamara—who recently completed five months of public dance lessons for a project called Make Ryan a Dancer—took the weekend off to act as instructor. McNamara and 11 dancers, in costumes designed by Robert Geller, taught museum-goers everything from strip dance to traditional Korean moves. “We created this McNamara/Geller carnival of dancers, with Ryan as this kind of crazy Andy Warhol carnie directing the whole thing,” Geller said. “Sometimes art and fashion can be too serious. This was meant to be fun, and even a little funny.” Continue Reading “Designers And Artists On The MOVE!” »
The Most Powerful Women In The World, Where The Fashion Set Will Be This Halloween, And More…
The Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women is out, and fashion plates are well represented: There’s our impeccably attired FLOTUS, Michelle Obama (we like to think of her as Clotheshorse in Chief), holding strong at #1, as well as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (#35), Heidi Klum (#39), Sarah Jessica Parker (#45), and Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts (#97). [Vogue U.K.]
If you’ve ever wanted to see a Robert Geller “old-school French boudoir type of” stripper’s outfit, you’re in luck: It’s one of the many artist/designer collaboration projects at Move!, an exhibition and party that’ll be held at P.S. 1 at the end of October. (The collaborator in question is Ryan McNamara, the performance artist who’ll be learning to strip-dance, as well as soft-shoe and plié.) Proenza Schouler, Narciso Rodriguez, Rodarte, Italo Zucchelli, Terence Koh, Kalup Linzy, and Dan Colen are all also involved in the project, organized by Visionaire‘s Cecilia Dean and The New York Times‘ David Colman and capped off with a Visionaire Halloween party on the 31st. [WWD]
Dolce & Gabbana made a short ad for their new Martini Gold vermouth, starring Italian sexpot Monica Bellucci. It’s almost enough to convince you to buy vermouth. [Fashionista]
And Brooklyn boutique Epaulet has opened a Lower East Side pop-up shop, which will be vending exclusive designer collabs through October only. Head over for Gitman Vintage shirts, Japanese twill chinos, hand-knit cardigans, and Wisconsin-made boots. [NYT]