11 posts tagged "Wren"
Today’s Mailbag: Flora, Fauna, Belgian Chocolate
The latest in our occasional series spotlighting the fashion miscellany our faithful mail guy, Wayne, brings our way.
The holiday season brings with it warm wishes and, occasionally, succulents. The hardy little plant came courtesy of our friends at Wren in L.A., who sent a pair along with a copy of The Graduate on DVD; meanwhile, Belgium’s finest (Dries Van Noten), sent along Belgium’s finest (a pound-plus of milk chocolate). Rounding out the day’s haul are two of our favorite books of the season: The Best of Punk Magazine ($17.72, amazon.com), whence the “Punk playmate of the month” Debbie Harry spread above, and Toilet Paper ($65, artbook.com), the new compendium of Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari’s weirdo, wordless Toilet Paper ‘zines.
Wren, A Songbird! Joanna Newsom Lends A String
The fans of Melissa Coker’s L.A.-based collection Wren aren’t limited to the West Coast, but when you’ve got California scenery like she does to draw on, it’d be a crime not to use it. So for her Fall ’13 video, she packed up collaborators Sarah Sophie Flicker and Maxmilla Lukacs and headed to Malibu. “I love the contrast of the whimsy of the clothes with the ethereal setting of the mountains and outdoors,” Coker said. Whimsy is just the right word for the video’s star, the adored singer/songwriter and harpist Joanna Newsom. Newsom, harp in tow, performed a cover of Sandy Denny’s folksy, 1971 sea shanty “The North Star Grassman and the Ravens.” “Aesthetically, her songs are really inspiring to me—they’re really bold strokes that feel sort of theatrical and they’re interested in story,” Newsom said of Denny’s melancholy track and creative collaboration it inspired. “The fashion and design that I’m interested in also has to do with story, very strong statements that have some sort of narrative to them, that they aren’t just interested in the now.” Coker and co. invited Style.com to take a look at the shoot in progress; the video debuts early next year.
Tavi Time
“I was a choir kid for a long time; it’s a nice thing to know how to do,” Tavi Gevinson revealed to Style.com of her vocal talents, while on the Los Angeles set of Wren’s Fall ’12 video shoot. Directed by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Maximilla Lukacs, the film (featuring Wren’s footwear collaboration with Minnetonka) quickly became a reflection of Tavi’s own style evolution. “We went into the project with this new wave sixties vibe,” explained Wren designer Melissa Coker of the film’s retro aesthetic, styled and creative-directed by Lula editor Leith Clark. “And since Tavi has been going that way naturally with her own style, she immediately came to mind.” Enter Tavi singing Dory Previn’s 1970 classic “Beware of Young Girls,” a pitch-perfect homage to an era that equally informs Coker’s Fall collection in print and silhouette. “The song’s about a young girl and it’s being performed by a young girl, but it has the weight and sophistication of an older soul,” says Coker.
The transformation came naturally. “My style used to be a lot about colors and prints on their own, outside of any cultural context, just looking at the colors and images and composing it all like a painting,” she said. And now, nearing her sweet 16, her choices convey more purpose. “Now, I’m more interested in the context of it, and for some reason the sixties style really appeals to me—the hairstyles and the makeup and the prints. I get excited to wear these clothes and have this hair and embody that world a little bit more.” And while Coker channels that winsome element that so keenly characterizes the Wren girl, Tavi is plum for the part. “I like trying to create some sort of character with every outfit that I put on.” Before the film screens at a private party in New York tonight, Style.com has the exclusive first look at the full film, below.
What’s Up? L.A.
“It’s inspired by that winsome time period in your life that she just captured so well,” Wren designer Melissa Coker said last night of What’s Up?, the short film by Gia Coppola presenting her Spring ’12 collection (and Fallon jewelry collaboration). “Everything from the way Gia captured light to the performances was so inspiring.” The film made its official debut during New York fashion week in September, but last night, Coker and Coppola set up shop at Kristen Lee and Brady Cunningham’s West Hollywood boutique Tenoversix, where they were joined by the likes of Clémence Poésy, Nora Zehetner, Allison Miller, and Fashiontoast’s Rumi Neely, for the film’s coming-home party of sorts.
To tell her story, Coppola—along with Lula‘s Leith Clark as stylist and creative director—chose a teenage protagonist and set her against a languid Los Angeles afternoon haze. Filmed on location at Coppola’s mother’s house during what Angelenos affectionately dubbed “Carmageddon,” the movie shoot faced its challenges when the city effectually shut down as the famed 405 freeway was closed for repairs. It was that isolation that rang true for Coppola’s heroine, 16-year-old Bella Zarember. “We were at my mom’s house with the freeway in the foreground and we just felt stuck. The feeling of that weekend began to really shape the project,” she told Style.com before the screening. Equally influential was Coppola’s own southern California upbringing. “Just being back in my room,” she recalled of the experience, “it reminds you of that feeling of not being able to drive and just feeling confined.” Cue the signature Coppola take on teen angst—an unlikely but fitting backdrop for Coker’s playful Spring collection.
West With The Night
L.A. took New York by storm last night. Wren’s Melissa Coker breezed into town to debut her new Spring collection video (as well as a jewelry collaboration with Fallon’s Dana Lorenz, collaborating right and left this week). “We wanted to capture a specific world,” Coker said, “a place full of humor and charm set, against a perpetual golden hour.” To get it, she enlisted Gia Coppola to shoot L.A. girls Natalie and Laura Love (and one very mouthy, smoking crab), styled by Lula‘s Leith Clark. “Gia has such a thoughtful, beautiful manner about her,” Coker told Style.com. “I really relate to her aesthetic and felt like she perfectly fit in to what Leith and I had been discussing creatively for a film project.” Last night at Mister H at Mondrian Soho, Sofia Coppola and Miranda July—two women who know a little something about filmmaking—stopped by to lend their support. Above, the film premieres exclusively on Style.com.