23 posts tagged "Katy Perry"
Three’s a Trend: Rococo Riot
Eschewing pins, plaids, and pugnaciousness, a few of last night’s Met Gala attendees opted for a different sort of ornamentation: all things baroque. Curious, you might think, since gilt and whorls don’t exactly fit with punk’s middle-fingers-up grittiness. But with parallel underlying airs of metallurgy and commoditized Gothicism, we’d say these ladies picked up on a bloodline between the zeitgeists.
Beyoncé’s hellfire custom-made Givenchy gown evoked monarchal muscle and flamboyant architectural tones. Katy Perry arrived in head-to-toe Dolce & Gabbana—florid gold-leafed crown included. Dolce & Gabbana also dressed Giovanna Battaglia and Tabitha Simmons. The former wore the label’s Alta Moda couture line, and both looks recalled a seaside Palermo church awash in halcyon daylight. Hilary Rhoda also walked the line between rococo and rebellion; her Wes Gordon top featured fine-lined Aurelian patterning on diaphanous black sheer—but her cropped leather pants were 100 percent King’s Road.
Snoop, Top Dogg At Coachella
Top models (Karlie Kloss, Hanne Gaby Odiele, and Raquel Zimmermann), designers (Alexander Wang), and celebrities (Kate Bosworth, Katy Perry, and Lily Collins) decamped to Indio this weekend for Coachella. Photographer David X. Prutting was on the scene for Style.com, capturing the crowd as they took in the headline acts and hit the party scene. What musician proved to be this year’s biggest draw? Two words: Snoop Dogg. The likes of Fergie, Josh Duhamel, Rose McGowan, and Chanel Iman all told us they were there to catch the rapper in action. There was also, of course, a large contingent there for Radiohead—including Alek Wek, Kloss, Jessica Szohr, and Ruby Aldridge—and the Black Keys, Wang and Zimmermann among them. In case you weren’t about to make the trek to the desert this weekend, here is Style.com’s postcard from Coachella.
Body Talk-ing With Robyn
Last year, Swedish pop singer Robyn released her three-part dancehall album Body Talk. She didn’t follow the traditional industry route of putting out an album, then touring; she did both at once, releasing one mini-album and taking it to the stage while plunging into the next one whenever time allowed. Here, in this video from The Creators Project debuting exclusively on Style.com, the singer reflects on her groundbreaking work with friend and music video filmmaker Mary Fagot.
“Celebrity culture and consumer culture provoked me to do something that was more…not old-school, because performance art is hardly that, but hands-on and physical,” Robyn told Style.com from Norway, where she was playing at the Hove Festival this weekend. “What I’m really interested in is the meeting point [with my fans], and that’s what 2011 has been about for me—focusing on touring.”
And touring (and opening for fellow wild child Katy Perry) has afforded her some opportunities to indulge her odder side. “I have this one part of the show, where I eat a banana on stage—because I was raised by chimpanzees,” the pop star joked. “Sometimes, I will catch a little girl’s face and her mouth is gaping open as she wonders what the fuck I’m doing—not everyone gets what I’m about.”
Style-wise, the pixie blonde is hesitant to connect her name with fashion brands, explaining, “I need to keep my credibility as an artist and not be a commercial space.” But she admits there is one house she might make an exception for: “Balenciaga—it’s always been and still is my favorite. I feel like I could front it and be totally cool with it.” Monsieur Ghesquière, are you listening?
Hair Apparent: Julien D’Ys’ First Painting Exhibition At Comme Des Garçons
You’re likely to find master hairstylist Julien d’Ys with a brush in hand these days, but not the kind you would expect. The talented Frenchman (né Pierrick Le Verge), known for such tress moments as Linda Evangelista’s career-launching crop, the Marie Antoinette wigs at the Met’s Model as Muse exhibition, and Katy Perry’s retro wave on the June cover of Vanity Fair, has been devoting his time to peinture of late. He kicks off his first ever solo painting exhibition at the Paris Comme des Garçons store today. We caught up with Monsieur d’Ys after a day of installation setup for a tête-à-tête.
You’ve had this long-standing work relationship with Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. What’s the process like working with Rei on a show?
Working with Rei, it’s always a surprise. We’ve been working together for almost 23 years now. Maybe two weeks before the show, she’ll give me some background. For example, she’ll say, “Black and gold.” I’ll work on it and then we’ll see each other one day before the show to fine-tune the look. I respect her a lot. She gives me a lot of freedom but at the same time I try to find an idea that she is going to like. I like to think between the two of us there’s this osmosis of creation.
When you first started your career, did you ever think you’d have the creative reins to take hair to, pardon the pun, such heights?
No, not at all. I never wanted to be a hairstylist. I just wanted to create, to do things that didn’t exist yet.
Now you’re showcasing your first painting exhibition. Are there similarities or differences between working with hair and paint as a medium?
People know my wig creations but not my paintings. For me painting, drawing, and doing hair are similar. At the very beginning, I was painting and drawing. It was only after that I started doing hair. I treat hair as if I’m painting. During shoots, I think of all the people I work with as canvases.
Is fine art where you find the most satisfaction creatively these days?
Definitely. It has been always like this. To create is my life.
What do you think of Lady Gaga? She seems to have a penchant for outlandish wig and hair pieces.
I met her in 2009 in Grace Coddington’s office. When I first met her, I didn’t know who she was. The meeting was to prepare for a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz: “Hansel & Gretel,” and in the story Lady Gaga was playing the witch. For the meeting, I went with some of the wigs I made for the Metropolitan Museum. I tried a white wig on her and she really liked it. She’s really inspiring. Ours feelings about art are really close.
What other projects do you have coming up?
I don’t know yet. My motto is “go with the wind.”
“They Will Not Be Satisfied By Just Initials On The Edge Of Underwear”:
Jean-Charles De Castelbajac On Fashion’s Young New Clientele
It’s the rare fashion auteur who can lay claim to both Madonna and the late Pope John Paul II as fans. Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is one. The Moroccan-born, Paris-based designer (who created custom rainbow-print vestments for the late Pope, if you were wondering), got his start in the seventies and helmed Iceberg in the eighties. Now an elder statesman among youthful acolytes, Castelbajac dresses some of the world’s biggest pop stars (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Rihanna among them), shows his eponymous collection in Paris, and designs a ski range for Rossignol, which he showed in Aspen this past weekend to kick off the ritzy mountain enclave’s 2011 fashion week. That’s where Style.com caught up with JCDC, as he’s often known, to talk hip-hop, the changing customer base of designer fashion, and those famous Iceberg sweaters.
Kanye and Katy Perry were at your show in Paris—what’s the connection there?
I’ve known Kanye for quite a long time because he used to buy my Iceberg sweaters. And I would say I’ve been designing performance dresses for Katy for three years.
Tell me about hip-hop’s embrace of those cartoon sweaters you did for Iceberg in the eighties.
This was huge, actually. The nineties were not so much my period because so much was minimalist, but the hip-hop community was totally fascinated by these really particular sweaters of mine. LL Cool J explained to me that it’s an urban crest, or coat of arms. Jay-Z has collected 150 of them. I was amazed because originally I was not a fan of hip-hop—I was more electro. But when I realized, it was a really huge pleasure.
You’ve also been designing skiwear for Rossignol. Is there any overlap there with hip-hop?
Actually there is, because in the hip-hop community there is this idea of loose and cool, and you have that also in the skiwear collection. It’s really another development that I’m doing in my pret-a-porter line, which is evolving to be a twisted chic, a new—how do you call it—funky bourgeoisie. Rossignol is exciting because you work like a painter on the blank canvas of snow. And in skiwear, what is very interesting is the duality between your imagination and the challenge of technology. Continue Reading ““They Will Not Be Satisfied By Just Initials On The Edge Of Underwear”:
Jean-Charles De Castelbajac On Fashion’s Young New Clientele” »