39 posts tagged "Pamela Love"
The Return Of The Roi
The nineties got its fair share of love at the Spring shows, thanks to designers like Phillip Lim, Dries Van Noten, and Olivier Theyskens. But spare a thought for Alice Roi, who has a better claim to nineties appreciation than most. Roi’s name has been absent from fashion pages for a few years, but her namesake line, launched in 2000, generated plenty of buzz, won celebrity fans (Liv Tyler notably among them), and earned her a CFDA Award nomination. For seven years, Roi’s collections referenced her own nineties coming of age, until the arrival of her first child gave her a reason to take a break. But for Spring ’13, Roi is back—and as for her inspirations, not much has changed.
“I was thinking a lot about myself in high school,” the New York native told Style.com. “It’s about emulating hip-hop stars with oversize shirts and pants.” The boxy cut of blouses and baggy trousers did nod in that direction, though the hip-hop emulation is hardly literal. Her “suped-up sweat suit”? Silk pants and a pocket tank. Thrown into the mix, too, were silk slip skirts and dresses, accented with contrasting leather whipstitches to keep things elegant. “I wanted to embody the nineties silhouette without losing the femininity,” she said. Perhaps that explains the look of the shoes: block-heel pumps with metal charms, courtesy of jewelry designer Pamela Love. (They’ll be available by special order.) As for the full collection, it debuts at Louis Boston, as well as on Roi’s e-commerce site, launching this Spring. Her video tour of the collection appears exclusively on Style.com, below.
Altuzarra, Pamela Love, And Creatures of The Wind Arrive At J.Crew
The winners and runners-up of the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund are once again getting an added boost with the accolade: capsule collections debuting this spring at J.Crew. Last week, the retailer hosted a dinner to toast Joseph Altuzarra, this year’s winner, as well as Pamela Love and Creatures of the Wind’s Shane Gabier and Chris Peters, all of whom will see their wares sold at www.jcrew.com, at the chain’s Fifth Avenue store, and by phone. Altuzarra’s seven-piece Saint-Tropezienne-inspired collection goes on sale tomorrow, with Breton-stripe sweaters and dresses, pencil skirts, and suede espadrilles among the offerings. Pamela Love and Creatures of the Wind each created three pieces; they’ll go on sale on May 17 and June 14, respectively, though they’ll be available for preorder by phone tomorrow as well
Pictured, top left: Altuzarra for J.Crew Manon back-pleat pencil skirt in denim, $168, and Corinne suede espadrilles, $345.
Pictured, top right: Creatures of the Wind for J.Crew sleeveless zip dress in Liberty-print chambray, $350.
Pictured, bottom: Pamela Love for J.Crew Lorimer jean jacket with pins, $295.
Factory Girl
Pamela Love’s bold designs have always jibed with an individualistic, downtown kind of aesthetic, so it was on an intriguing note that she looked to factories as a starting point. “I was plowing through books on the Industrial Revolution—I must have read about six or seven of them,” the designer said. “I thought there was an interesting irony, comparing factories to how I actually produce my jewelry, which is in limited runs.” You could see the industrial weightiness in her sturdy arm and neck cuffs, but otherwise the inspiration wasn’t taken so literally. Pieces were accented with turquoise, jasper, and malachite, and there was a warmth to the metals, courtesy of an antiquing process with the silver. The entire effect was slightly tribal and that was helped along by the show’s styling.
More noteworthy were the geometric shapes, which, in a couple standout necklaces, tumbled together to form a sort of deconstructed Rubik’s Cube. The designs felt modern but also had retro flavor. “I also looked to the Art Deco and Bauhaus eras for visual references,” Love explained. Whatever the era, the pieces had versatility. They had the wow factor to hold their own at a black-tie gala, yet weren’t too precious to wear over a simple white T-shirt.
Pamela Loves Morocco
Pamela Love might cater to the hip downtown girl, but when it came to conjuring up the inspiration for her Spring collection, she bypassed all boroughs and landed smack in Marrakesh. What gives?
“I’ve been dreaming of Morocco,” she told Style.com at her presentation over the weekend. “I’ve never been, so I brought it to New York.” She certainly did—the setting she had created could have been mistaken for a Marrakesh souk, complete with models perched atop jewel-toned handwoven rugs and a 10-piece orchestra hitting the drums.
While she’s always been known for her bold, subversive jewelry, this collection has evolved to include bigger pieces with more intricate patterns and semiprecious stones like malachite and red jasper. Working with bronze and silver, Love fused the symbolic styles of North African nomadic peoples and polished it with her signature style. Triangular shapes, such as triple pyramid rings, were a nod to traditional zellij tile work. An elliptical series, crafted into necklaces like double-bib breastplates, was inspired by the Berber tribes. The good thing, for girls who live below Houston Street, is that Love’s Spring 2012 collection looks equally appropriate for globe-trotting and strutting on the city blocks of Manhattan.
Rusch Hour: Toasting Montauk’s New “Summer Camp”
With its fishing village roots, robust surf scene, and long association with art world figures like Andy Warhol, Montauk has always been the cooler alternative to the Hamptons—and while some may grumble that the place is becoming too popular, it still stands safely apart from its over-gentrified neighbors along Route 27. One of the attractions of Ruschmeyer’s, a newly renovated “summer camp” from Ben Pundole, formerly of the Mondrian Hotel Group, and Rob McKinley, who opened the nearby Surf Lodge a few summers ago, is that it fits right in with the area’s laid-back mood. It features a rustic lakefront setting, a ring of casual but stylishly appointed guest cabins, and a restaurant where Pundole and McKinley have partnered with the team behind lower Manhattan’s Fat Radish to put a focus on fish and other locally sourced ingredients (don’t miss the clam pizza if it’s on the list of nightly specials). The property also houses a nautically themed late-night hangout, the Electric Eel (below), which could put a serious crimp in your early-morning surfing plans. For those who insist on exercise, there are yoga sessions, a rack of handsome bikes, and, more essentially, a massage room, among other options. Ruschmeyer’s opened over Memorial Day weekend with a friends-and-family gathering that included a Saturday night dinner attended by Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber, Rogan Gregory, Pamela Love, Magnus Berger, and Tenzin Wild. After the meal, Waris Ahluwalia stepped outside to take a call with his newest collaborators, the alternative hip-hop group The Cool Kids. For an upcoming movie role, the jeweler and actor is adding the title of rapper to his résumé.
For reservations and more info, see www.visitruschmeyers.com or call (631) 668-2885.