4 posts tagged "Yasmin Sewell"
Damien Hirst’s Art Collection—Now In Dress Form
The family that rents together, sticks together. So Maia Norman borrowed her partner Damien Hirst’s bookstore/gallery, The Other Criteria, on London’s New Bond Street, emptied it out and, voilà, an instant pop-up for her own clothing line, Mother of Pearl. “Business is booming in every corner of the world, Colette and others like that can’t get enough of us, but we don’t have a London stockist—ironic, isn’t it?” Norman deadpanned. “This was the perfect way to bring the collection to the city, see what the public wants and what they respond to.”
If last night’s opening cocktail was any indication, they’re responding quite well. An A-list crowd came out to celebrate at the shop (wrapped in vinyl for the occasion), including co-host Hirst (in a suit, no less), the Clash’s Paul Simonon, Moda Operandi’s Yasmin Sewell, Mary Charteris (above right), and model Sara Blomqvist (above left, with Norman, center, all in Mother of Pearl). Guest DJ and good buddy Jarvis Cocker manned the decks. Even Norman’s collaborator of the season, reclusive artist Jim Lambie, showed up. (“Actually,” Norman says, “he is not as reclusive as he is shy.”) “It stimulates in a different way,” Lambie said of seeing his prints—wildflowers, duct tape, and, no joke, eyeballs—on fabrics like nappa leather and washable silk, rather than on gallery walls. “It is much more evocative because it places itself directly onto the body. It becomes the body in many ways; it reinterprets our understanding of the body. It’s shape, movement, and overall sex appeal.”
Artistry, for obvious reasons, is part of Mother of Pearl’s DNA, but equally important is freedom of movement. “The clothes have to be easy,” says Norman, famed for her love of danger sports, like motocross, riding, and boarding. (Earlier in the week she was surfing in Devon with her new toy: a heated wetsuit.) “I need things to be unrestricted as I am always on the move, but the clothes have to be interesting as well. That’s why Jim Lambie was an easy choice for us. Damien has been collecting him for years, and he was part of our circle, so to speak. I had been loving his works for years now, seeing it in galleries, and then the next thing was just to convince him to do it. I think the results really excited him.”
Speaking of exciting: good to know whom Damien Hirst is collecting. And now on New Bond Street, a Lambie can be yours—at a fraction of the price.
Tommy Ton’s Best-Dressed Of 2010
The year in style from the year’s best street-style chronicler. Below, Tommy Ton’s favorite subjects this year. Click here to check out TT’s snaps, and see below for our handy gloss on who’s who.
Giovanna Battaglia: Stylist, honorary Roitfeld (dates Carine’s son, Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld).
Leigh Lezark: DJ, Misshape, Chanel beauty ambassador.
Vika Gazinskaya (left): Designer of Vika Gazinskaya.
Emmanuelle Alt: Runway stylist for Balmain and Isabel Marant, rédatrice en chef mode (and possible successor to Carine Roitfeld) at Paris Vogue.
Michelle Harper: New York party fixture, muse to designer Victor de Souza.
Yasmin Sewell: Creative consultant, formerly of Liberty of London.
Miroslava Duma: Russian fashion editor, formerly of Harper’s Bazaar Russia.
Milan Vukmirovic: Creative director of Trussardi 1911, co-owner of Miami’s The Webster.
Anya Ziourova: Stylist.
Susan Cernek: Fashion and beauty editor at Glamour.com.
Viviana Volpicella: Assistant to Anna Dello Russo.
Aurora Sansone: Assistant to Anna Dello Russo.
Caroline Sieber: Stylist, Chanel beauty ambassador.
Marina Munoz: Argentine stylist, brow naturalist.
Nickelson Wooster: Men’s fashion director at Neiman Marcus.
Taylor Tomasi Hill: Style and accessories director at Marie Claire.
Vanessa Traina: Downtown fixture, muse to Joseph Altuzarra, contributing fashion editor at T.
Hanne Gaby Odiele: Model.
Guerre: Street-style blogger at Swagger360.blogspot.com.
Shala Monroque: Pop contributor, Miuccia Prada confidante, unofficial first lady of the art world (dates gallerist Larry Gagosian).
Anna Dello Russo: Editor at large at Vogue Nippon, blogger, gift recommender, all-around phenomenon.
At London Fashion Week: The News Is Shoes, And More From Liberty
Nicholas Kirkwood isn’t the only London-based designer with shoe news, it turns out. At the party i-D threw for him, Christopher Kane revealed that the heels on his Fall ’10 runway (left) are the first styles in a new collaborative range with Giuseppe Zanotti. And on Tuesday, at her traditional London fashion week tea, Charlotte Olympia designer Charlotte Dellal ‘fessed up that she’s opening a store off Bond Street in seven weeks or so. Come fall delivery time, shoppers will find satin-covered footwear in rainbow colors, vertiginously high or ballet flat, and each pair will come in a set with matching stockings, a first for the brand. “We’re not selling the stockings separately,” Dellal explained. “They’re designed to go with the shoes, tone-on-tone.”
London shoppers looking for a louder volume, meanwhile, should head to Liberty. The buzz in the U.S. has centered on the store’s collaboration with Target, which will bring Liberty-print apparel and housewares to both countries, but on Tuesday, the celebrations were for a different collab—with Milan’s 10 Corso Como. Liberty CEO Geoffroy de La Bourdonnaye and 10CC’s Carla Sozzani co-hosted a cocktail party to celebrate the effort, which prints bikinis (below), sun hats, wallets, and scarves from the Milanese store with Deco-era Liberty prints from the archives. Yasmin Sewell, Liberty’s chief creative consultant and one of the driving forces behind the update of the store’s fashion floors, was on hand and took the opportunity to talk up the latest local designer to blow out the doors. “Michael van der Ham is killing it,” Sewell said of the designer, who showed his second collection earlier in the week at Fashion East. “We just got his first collection in, and it’s selling out.” Coincidentally, we’d caught up with van der Ham the day prior, at his stand at the New Gen installation at Somerset House, and he’d explained that one of the inspirations behind his collaged designs is a series of Warhol films composed of sundry, spliced-together footage. Van der Ham is on the laconic side, and he speaks softly, but it’s worth pricking up your ears: You’ll be hearing more from him soon.
a day in the life of: yasmin sewell, buyer for liberty of london
Wednesday, October 1
8 a.m.
I’m not so great with early starts, but during Paris fashion week I need to break all my rules. I’m sure I’ll perk up once I see the extraordinary dresses at Balmain, which is my first appointment. I’m thinking I need to wear a nice dress today—I’m tired of looking like a slouchy boy. I decide it’s time for my new YSL stone wool jersey dress. The temperature dropped about ten degrees overnight, so that pretty much marks the end of my summer wardrobe until May.
9 a.m.
Balmain is out of this world—and so are the prices. One of the hardest thing any buyer has to do is work out which $25,000 dress to choose. And what size? It’s really a guessing game when you get to that level. The team at Liberty, including the CEO and I, deliberate over this for most of the morning without reaching a decision.
12:30 p.m.
Lunch with Antonio Berardi at Bouledogue. He’s one of the loveliest designers I know and a pleasure in every way to work with. We both eat some damn good swordfish with sweet potato. Batteries recharged for about two hours.
2 p.m.
I have an appointment with David Seeto, a personal favorite of mine. I’d like to order every dress I see. His color palette is divine this season—he has a way of designing the chicest dresses that are just so easy to wear all the time, with no expiration date.
3 p.m.
Meaning 4 p.m. because of the late start. It’s the Dries show. This is an important one to attend, as it’s a big one for Liberty. It’s not as strong on print as last winter and summer, but I guess he couldn’t continue that OTT floral print for yet another season. It’s still beautiful, though, and I know it will work well in the new Liberty space.
I find it impossible to feel grounded when I’m doing a lot of shows and appointments in one day. There’s so much around me that is capturing my attention and dozens of people to tune into…it’s hard not to come across a little scattered!
5 p.m.
An appointment with Acne, my other personal favorite. I should note that today is a particularly lovely day. It’s not always this pleasant, believe me! We are doing Acne’s first big space in Liberty when we relaunch next season. It’s a label that ticks every box—even boxes you didn’t know you wanted to tick! It’s a time-consuming appointment, as we are discussing their area and the many collaborations we plan to do together as well as the buy, which is usually a minimum two-hour appointment on its own.
8 p.m.
Back to my hotel, where I’m having a little dinner party on my private terrace. Just good friends, all of us here for fashion week. These kinds of nights take our minds off the job. There’s nothing like good music, great friends, and Hôtel Amour’s famous roast chicken to bring you back down to earth.