8 posts tagged "Theophilus London"
Wild ’n’ Out: Gisele Goes Guerrilla for BLK DNM
At this very moment, cult sub-Fourteenth Street denim label BLK DNM is plastering downtown Manhattan with its newest “Wild” poster campaign—the company’s only form of advertising since its inception in 2011. Lensed by the brand’s founder and creative director, Johan Lindeberg, the sixth installment of the guerrilla promos feature none other than genetic Powerball winner Gisele Bündchen. But this isn’t your standard Gisele fare—in fact, all that’s shown is the model’s mile-long legs and covetable Brazilian posterior in a pair of second-skin jeans as she’s inspecting the engine of a vintage automobile.
“We drove together in that car to Brooklyn for the shoot,” Lindeberg laughed. “It’s an ’85 Mercedes!” The designer and model celebrated their collaboration last night at BLK DNM’s Lafayette Street store, where guests such as Marina Abramovic, Theophilus London, and Waris Ahluwalia perused an expansive series of Lindeberg x Bündchen imagery. In darkened gray scale, the arguably austere shots depict Bündchen in various states of undress and undulation. “Maybe it’s a little bit the dark winters [in Sweden], and both my grandparents were priests,” said Lindeberg, addressing his style. “I like that kind of deeper expression, somehow.”
Bündchen, perhaps, paraphrased the Lindeberg aesthetic best. “He sees women as real—or, he has a very real idea of women. There’s no retouching. There’s a rawness that’s just kind of who you are, you know?”
An exhibition of Lindeberg’s Gisele portraits will be on view at BLK DNM’s 237 Lafayette Street boutique for the next month.
Big Party, Small World
Invite-only social-networking site ASMALLWORLD is basically Facebook for well-connected frequent fliers. So for the platform’s party celebrating its relaunch as a travel and lifestyle club last weekend, the site and its CEO Sabine Heller flew a slew of jet-setters—such as Dianna Agron, Mamie Gummer, and Olivia Wilde—to party in Marrakech. New York deejay Chelsea Leyland was among the guests, and here she chronicles the Moroccan getaway via personal snaps with pals such as Lily Kwong, Theophilus London, Waris Ahluwalia, Ben Pundole, a couple of camels, and more.
I snapped this upon my arrival. Believe it or not, this was my bed for the weekend. INCREDIBLE!
Waris Ahluwalia and my boy Ben Pundole having what looks like a very important conversation in the swimming pool at the Taj Palace in Marrakech, which is probably one of the most amazing pools I’ve ever seen.
Theophilus London and myself having a little hug. Theo bought this outfit that morning and was pretty proud of it. I think his exact words were, “Doesn’t this look like it could be some Rick Owens shit?” Continue Reading “Big Party, Small World” »
Hood By Air’s Zombie Walk
New York’s own Hood By Air bills itself as “ghetto goth.” That’s a niche market if we’ve ever seen one. But in spite (or perhaps because) of its cult appeal, HBA can certainly draw a crowd. Theophilus London, Nicola Formichetti, and his two Pomeranians, Tank and Bambi, were in the front row at the label’s Fall ’13 show at Milk Studios yesterday afternoon. The theme was techno-tribal-street-zombie—a concept that was magnified by performance artist Boy Child, who would sporadically interrupt the catwalking by creeping through a cloud of smoke and contorting his body into morbid positions.
Designer Shayne Oliver moved away from his usual all-black palette this season with splashes of yellow, blue, and X-ray green. “Before, I enjoyed black because I thought it looked the best,” Oliver told Style.com, “Now I’m learning how to express that darkness without actually doing black.” This collection is also markedly more complex than what we’ve seen on the racks in previous seasons. Sweatshirts are done in oversize neoprene to distort the body, Bermudas are slit open and worn over skinny pants, and zippers transform one garment into something else entirely, like a pair of loose shorts into a kilt. It’s an aesthetic that really appealed to A$AP Rocky, whom Oliver enlisted to close the show. “Growing up in Harlem, hanging out in Soho, I had to deal with the transition between different worlds. Shayne’s stuff is totally something I can get with.” Thanks to A$AP, HBA’s niche might soon get a little bit bigger—Oliver will be dressing the rapper as he opens for Rihanna on her world tour this spring.
Paradise Now
Rappers have long bragged about repping that Gucci, Fendi, and Prada, but this year, Givenchy is the label with all the street cred. Its graphic birds-of-paradise pattern, in particular, has become a cult status symbol for artists including Jay-Z and Kanye West (the duo also commissioned Riccardo Tisci to do the album art for their Watch the Throne album), Theophilus London, and A$AP Rocky (pictured). Pusha T (member of the Kanye-led G.O.O.D. Music tribe) wears the printed T-shirt under a denim button-down in his latest video for “Exodus 23:1
CLICK FOR A SLIDESHOW of rappers wearing Givenchy’s birds-of-paradise print.
Toasting The Artist Who Saved The Standard From Itself
Multimedia artist Marco Brambilla’s (pictured) work is very familiar to a certain partygoing set. He’s the man behind the trippy elevator video, Civilization, that plays on the long ride to the 18th floor of the Standard hotel. “I’ve seen Marco’s work too many times going up to Boom Boom Room,” Waris Ahluwalia admitted last night a private dinner to fête the artist’s latest exhibition, RPM, at the hotel’s High Line Room and Terrace. “I know every scene and every bouncing breast.”
It almost wasn’t to be. “We originally had a lame concept for the elevators: gold bricks to convey that we were the ‘gold standard’ of hotels,” André Balazs said in a toast. The audience—which included Cecilia Dean, Marina Abramovic, Jacqueline Schnabel, Dustin Yellin, and Casey Neistat—groaned. “It was a terrible idea.”
When the lights dimmed, the guests dutifully put on red stereoscopic shades they had been given to watch the psychedelic 3-D video, featuring a continuous loop of racing clips from the Monza Grand Prix processed with archived Ferrari photos and set to the sound of roaring Formula One engines. Midway through the screening, a rowdier set spilled in. The group, including Theophilus London, had come from the OHWOW fête taking place just upstairs to check out what Brambilla had created. “I wanted to capture the feeling of euphoria and danger, which are equally present in the mental state of a driver during a race,” the artist explained. Luckily, cabs were the preferred mode of transport home.