6 posts tagged "Kurt Cobain"
Happy Birthday, Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain would have turned 46 today. Considering the Nirvana frontman’s all-around greatness (and, of course, Spring’s grunge revival), we thought it necessary to remember the rock star on what would have been his special day. Judging by all the plaid, faded denim, and baggy, low-slung trousers, Cobain had quite an influence on the Spring ’13 collections. For instance, while watching Dries Van Noten’s impossibly cool Spring wares glide down the catwalk (above, left), one couldn’t help but recall the iconic image of Cobain jamming on his guitar in a floral dress (above, right). (Fun fact: The musician wore a similar number on a 1993 Davis Sims-lensed cover of The Face). A flowery frock may not have been the most likely sartorial choice for a rocker, but Cobain wore it well. And he offered no apologies.
Woo-hoo! Juergen Teller Opens at the ICA
Artist, photographer, and all-around troublemaker Juergen Teller’s latest exhibition, Woo, opens at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts tomorrow. And, as always with Teller’s work, it promises to be a visual and conceptual feast. Covering the photographer’s extensive career, which spans over twenty years, the show will include some of his most iconic fashion and pop-culture works, like images of Vivienne Westwood (above), Kurt Cobain, Lily Cole, and Kate Moss (below), as well as shots from his innovative and sometimes shocking Marc Jacobs campaigns (remember when he shot Victoria Beckham’s suggestively parted legs popping out of an MJ shopping bag?).
Teller’s photographs aren’t all fashion focused, though—his art photography, which most recently includes landscapes and intimate family portraits, will be featured, as will shots and witty writings from his controversial column in Die Zeit magazine (think photos of Teller passed out next to a roasted pig’s head). The letters of complaint that Teller’s Die Zeit contributions elicited from readers will be proudly displayed next to the photographer’s work.
Woo runs from January 23 through March 17 at London’s ICA, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH, +44 20 7930 3647.
What’s Kurt’s Is Yours:
Own Cobain’s Own Nirvana Albums
Next week, James Franco, Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic, and more hit the legendary nightclub AREA—no matter that it closed in 1987. The New York nightspot is being recreated for Creative Time’s spring gala by its original owners and creative directors, Serge Becker and Eric Goode. (Becker went on to create The Box and La Esquina; Goode, the Bowery Hotel and the Jane Hotel.) The scene won’t be the only vintage part of the evening. As part of the silent auction, Creative Time fan Courtney Love has donated a selection of vinyl from her late husband’s collection to be sold for the cause. Cobain’s own copies of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Talking Heads’ Talking Heads:77, and an EP single of Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” are set to hit the block. Fair warning, they’re sold as-is. Or should that be As They Are?
For tickets, visit Creativetime.org.
The Roth Revival
It wasn’t just records—whatever Kurt Cobain wore won cult status. (Just think of the generation of kids he introduced to Daniel Johnston with his famous “Hi, How Are You” T-shirt.) And now, for those who missed them the first time around, Jordan Silver of the excellent Silver Lining Vintage—Jay-Z’s preferred vintage-sunglass dealer, not to mention Bergdorf Goodman’s—is reissuing the Christian Roth specs that Cobain made famous, in a new collaboration with Opening Ceremony. Silver supplied deadstock Roth frames (including the cat-eyes the Nirvana frontman preferred) kitted out with new lenses, in tortoise-print and violet-lensed versions ($450, available at OpeningCeremony.us). Kurt wears his (left) alongside some woman you may recognize if you hit a party or two in 2010.
He’s Got 99 Problems, But A Cardi Ain’t One
Jay-Z’s performance at last night’s World Basketball Festival tip-off brought out some fashionable faces, including designers Alexander Wang and Joseph Altuzarra. But the evening’s main style statement occurred when the headliner took to the Radio City Music Hall stage…in a cardigan (top). That may sound more Crosby, Bing (bottom right), than Generation Bling, but—with the help of some shades and beads—the rapper more than pulled it off. Of course, the cardigan has been busily shedding its stodgier associations for the last couple of years, and Jay-Z has been at the forefront of that movement, repeatedly wearing button-front knits in his offstage appearances. So let’s call last night’s black version with patent arm patches an evolution, not a revolution. Perhaps it was no coincidence that moments before the start of his set, the P.A. system blasted Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” recalling one of music’s most memorable cardis: the fuzzy green number Kurt Cobain wore on MTV Unplugged (bottom left).
In related sartorial news, Jay-Z has teamed up with Nike to design a range of blacked-out Air Force 1′s commemorating the World Basketball Festival. The only way to get your hands on a pair is to bid in eBay’s charity auction, and all proceeds will benefit the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. You have until August 22.