fashion - UnBeige

Target Teams with Phillip Lim for Fall Collection

Stephanie Murg — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:05:09 +0000

So many collaborations, so little time. Last night in New York, Versace launched its Versus Versace J.W. Anderson capsule collection, for which the British designer mixed 90′s-infused androgyny (Body Glove brights, cropped and slashed black knitwear) with house signatures (gold lion heads, safety pins). Those not in the market for pricey unisex clubwear should mark their calendars for the ides of September, when Target will unveil its one-off line with Phillip Lim. The designer, who describes his aesthetic as “something between classic and that sense of madness,” set out to create something “cool and chic, but still very accessible.” For the range of women’s and men’s apparel and accessories, he kept the focus on autumnally appropriate neutral tones and prints in materials such as jersey, French terry, and leather. Prices for the approximately 100 items in the 3.1 Phillip Lim for Target collection will range from $19.99, for a travel pouch, to $299.99, for a leather moto jacket.

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Quote of Note | Vivienne Westwood

Stephanie Murg — Sun, 12 May 2013 05:39:37 +0000

A gallery of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “PUNK: Chaos to Couture” exhibition is inspired by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood and their Seditionaries boutique at 430 King’s Road in London. (Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art)

“I was about 36 when punk happened and I was upset about what was going on in the world. It was the hippies who taught my generation about politics, and that’s what I cared about–the world being so corrupt and mismanaged, people suffering, wars, all these terrible things–while Malcolm [McLaren] hated the older generation as a result of his background; he hated any authority. Malcolm was a great talent, but he was not true to himself or to his talent because he was not really interested in trying to understand the world. Therefore he didn’t learn, and I lost interest in his ideas. And I blamed the older generation for what was going on too, so we wouldn’t even accept their taboos. That’s how the swastika symbols came to be used in punk.”

-Fashion designer Vivenne Westwood in Harper’s Bazaar

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Sneak Peek: Metropolitan Museum’s ‘PUNK: Chaos to Couture’ Exhibition

Stephanie Murg — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:15:56 +0000

Three muses of Ann Demeulemeester, crowned in ‘dos by Guido Palau. (Photo: UnBeige)

Elaborately studded leather jackets, leopard print pants, and neon pink fright wigs were on display this morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art–and that was just among those who had gathered in the Sculpture Court for a press conference, where museum director Thomas Campbell, Moda Operandi’s Lauren Santo Domingo, Givenchy creative director Riccardo Tisci, and curator Andrew Bolton spoke briefly about the Costume Institute’s “PUNK: Chaos to Couture” exhibition, which opens to the public on Thursday.

“Punk’s legacy has had an enduring and pervasive influence on high fashion and on the broader culture, often to surprisingly beautiful effect,” said British-born Campbell, who when first hearing of Bolton’s idea for the exhibition flashed back to images of his youth and the King’s Road scene that is celebrated in one of seven second-floor galleries. Bolton explained that he did not set out to examine the history of punk but rather to focus on the impact of punk on haute couture and ready-to-wear.

“No other subcultural movement has had a greater or more enduring influence on the way we dress today,” said Bolton, as a black-clad photographer with long, pointy green fingernails snapped away, “and I wanted the exhibition to underscore punk’s continuing relevance.” Sneak a peek at the exhibition in the installation images below as you ready your webby knitwear and skull-printed accessories for this evening’s gala.
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Watch: Elsa Schiaparelli on What’s My Line?

Stephanie Murg — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:37:33 +0000

It’s time to swap the surreal shoe hats for safety pin-encrusted fedoras as the Metropolitan Museum of Art puts the artfully distressed finishing touches on “PUNK: Chaos to Couture,” which will be unveiled to attendees of the Costume Institute gala on Monday evening and then opens to the public on Thursday. But before we say “ciao” to Elsa Schiaparelli, who shared the spotlight last spring in a series of “impossible conversations” with Miuccia Prada, we bring you video of her 1952 appearance on What’s My Line?, in which she attempted to preserve her “Mystery Guest” status as long as possible by grunting answers to the panelists’ yes or no questions.

Previously on UnBeige:
• Frank Lloyd Wright on What’s My Line?
• Schiaparelli and Prada: Sneak a Peek at the Met’s ‘Impossible Conversations’
• Chaos to Couture: Metropolitan Museum Goes Punk for 2013 Costume Institute Exhibition

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Pratt Honors Thom Browne with Fashion Visionary Award

Stephanie Murg — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:03:21 +0000

Thom Browne is on a roll. Last fall he received the Cooper-Hewitt’s National Design Award for fashion, and a few months later First Lady Michelle Obama sported his necktie-inspired navy silk coat to the inauguration. Now Pratt Institute is honoring the designer with its 2013 Fashion Visionary Award, which in previous years has been bestowed on fashion greats including Ralph Rucci, Diane von Furstenberg, and Fern Mallis.

Browne will receive the award this evening at the Pratt fashion show, an annual affair that showcases the reliably remarkable thesis collections of seniors in the school’s fashion design program. “No American sportswear designer better represents the aspirations of Pratt fashion than Thom Browne,” said Pratt fashion department chair Jennifer Minniti in a statement announcing the award. “His highly conceptual runway presentations and impeccable craftsmanship have set standards for excellence and originality that push forward and inspire our fashion students to do the same.”

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In Brief: D&AD Judging Week, Six-Second Films, Remade Relaunch, Smart Textiles

Stephanie Murg — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:05:40 +0000

Sagmeister & Walsh’s “Now is Better” project, seen here installed at the Jewish Museum, will be included in the 51st D&AD Annual and is up for a Yellow Pencil. (Photo: David Heald)

• On Monday a 192-member jury of leading creatives and designers began the business of judging the 51st D&AD Awards. As you await today’s installment of nominations and “in-books” in categories such as branding, graphic design, and art direction, page through the first five decades of excellence in visual thinking with D&AD 50, new from Taschen.

• The Tribeca Film Festival organizers recently announced its first six-second film competition, challenging amateur and pro filmmakers alike to make cinemagic with the bold, new, yet Super 8ish medium of Vine. The festival’s director of programming has narrowed down the approximately 400 entries to this shortlist. A jury consisting of director Penny Marshall, Vine-loving actor Adam Goldberg, and the team from 5 Second Films will have the final say on the winners, which will be announced next Friday.

• Transform the leather jacket languishing in the back of your closet into something that doesn’t scream “Wilsons Leather circa 1998″ with Remade USA, designer Shannon South‘s freshly relaunched custom service that repurposes individual vintage leather jackets into new one-of-a-kind handbags, through redesign and reconstruction.

• And speaking of textile innovation, on May 1, New York’s Eyebeam presents “Smart Textiles: Fashion That Responds,” a panel that will bring together a diverse group of designers and scientists working in cutting-edge textile research and production–think nanoparticles, circuit boards, and clothing that’s more responsive to changing needs and conditions.

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Jony Ive, Michael Kors, Ed Ruscha, Wang Shu Among Time 100

Stephanie Murg — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:05:15 +0000

Two of of the seven 2013 Time 100 covers, which feature portraits by Mark Seliger.

Today Time revealed its annual selection of the 100 most influential people in the world, and while we remain suspicious of any list that includes both Christina Aguilera and Elena Kagan, it’s difficult not to enjoy the logistical wonder that is the Time 100 issue. On newsstands tomorrow, the massive editorial effort commissions a diverse group of notable figures—many of them Time 100 alumna—to write a paragraph or two about the chosen influencers. And so this year we get Richard “I know a thing or two about building spaceships” Branson on SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, Claire Danes‘s clear-eyed look at the uniquely vanity-free and shameless Lena Dunham, and Michael Bloomberg‘s cliché-ridden paen to Jay-Z, who emerges as a 21st century Gatsby that gets the girl–she also made the Time 100–and the American Dream.

Art and design stars that made it onto this year’s Time 100 include Apple’s Jony Ive, Michael Kors, who joins the likes of Uniqlo honcho Tadashi Yanai and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg in the “Titans” category; artist Ed Ruscha, who Richard Lacayo likens here to “a SoCal Magritte;” 2012 Pritzker laureate Wang Shu; and Jenna Lyons, executive creative director of J. Crew. “She has made fashion relatable,” writes fashion designer Prabal Gurung of Lyons. “Being fashionable doesn’t mean being trendy; it means having a sense of style. Jenna has made J. Crew more than a brand or a company–it’s a philosophy that believes in style.”

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If the Shoe FITs: Inside Museum at FIT’s ‘Shoe Obsession’ Show

Stephanie Murg — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:44:38 +0000

These days, fashion designers rarely agree on seasonal trends such as hemlines and skirt shapes, but runway watchers remain abuzz over statement shoes, even if they are all but invisible to those without front-row seats. Celine’s minimaluxe ready-to-wear and steady stream of hit handbags was recently outshined by the house’s furry stilettos and sandals, including a Meret Oppenheim-gone-grandpa style that is flying off store shelves. The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology has seized the moment to present an exhibition that highlights the extreme, lavish, and imaginative styles that have made shoes central to fashion. We asked writer Nancy Lazarus to put on her reporting shoes and size up the show, on view through Saturday.

Roger Vivier’s Eyelash Heel pump, designed by Bruno Frisoni for the fall 2012 “Rendez-Vous” limited edition collection. (Photo: Stephane Garrigues, courtesy Roger Vivier)

“Everything here is wearable, it’s just not walkable,” said Colleen Hill, co-curator of the Museum at FIT’s “Shoe Obsession” exhibit. Leading a tour of the show during its final week on display, she explained that the focus was extreme, extravagant 21st-century shoes and boots. Hill and co-curator Valerie Steele included not only fan favorites like Blahnik and Louboutin, but also the latest experimental prototypes.

The exhibit’s selections represent a commentary on an era rather than a reflection on wearability, Hill noted. “The inspiration for these shoes is sculpture and architecture. Some are shoe objects, one-of-a-kind or limited editions,” Hill said. Three styles are on display: single-sole stilettos, platforms, and more avant-garde heel-less shoes favored by the likes of Daphne Guinness and Lady Gaga.

Recent shoe designs tend to rely more on manmade materials. A few prototypes utilized 3-D printing processes. One experimental design was made of resin, while a pair of slippers was glass. A pair of Pierre Hardy heels sported neoprene, more often associated with athletic wear.
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Flowers Afoot: Peter Saville’s New Order Album Art Blooms on Sneakers

Stephanie Murg — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:06:15 +0000

Are you a graphic design junkie? A devotee of New Order? A fan of Henri Fantin-Latour? Or simply a lover of roses? If you answered yes to any (or all) of these questions, then Supreme has the sneakers for you. Among its freshly released spring covetables are three styles of Vans–the SK8-Hi, the Chukka, and the Era–splashed with original album artwork from New Order’s 1983 album Power, Corruption, & Lies, for which Peter Saville deftly selected Fantin-Latour’s 1890 “A Basket of Roses” (in the collection of the National Gallery in London) and appended the modern wink of a color code in the upper right corner.

“When I heard the title Power, Corruption, and Lies, the first thing that came to mind was the dark side of the Renaissance,” said Saville in a recent interview. His viewing of the 1981-82 BBC series The Borgias sent him on a hunt for sinister images. “I went to look for a Machiavellian prince in various museums, and I found some, but a corrupt despot was painfully literal when confronted with it.” On his way out of the National Gallery, Saville stopped to purchase some postcards, including one of Fantin-Latour’s drowsy bouquet. “There was a kind of elegant kitsch to it. I always liked that style and I still do–it’s my mother’s living room.” He later decided to deploy the image as “a foil to the literal meaning of the [album] title but a perfect cypher. It was charming, seductive, and apparently innocent, and in that sense, a more insidious evocation of corrupt strategies.”

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New Show! Elevator Pitch Fast Forward: I-Ella

Kevin Eck — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:00:20 +0000

They came on the mediabistroTV series “Elevator Pitch” hoping someone would take a chance on their ideas. In our new show, “Elevator Pitch Fast Forward,” host Alan Meckler checked up on the new business owners to see how they’re doing.

In our first episode, we dropped in on I-Ella CEO and founder, Ella Gorgla to see where the fashion insider’s marketplace is today. Gorgla showed us how giving clients a red carpet experience put new life into her business. She also gave “Elevator Pitch” hopefuls some solid advice to make sure their startups never go out of style.

For more videos, check out mediabistroTV, and be sure to follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

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Quote of Note | Glenn O’Brien

Stephanie Murg — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 07:00:13 +0000

“Advanced fashion usually makes me feel like turning around. I see a neon jumpsuit or a button-down shirt with sentences written on it, and I start thinking about fracking, Fukushima, voting machines, the Bilbao Guggenheim. But, reassuringly, a lot of people seem to agree with me. The future is iffy. I guess that explains the boom is what is referred to as ‘retro,’ which is manifest lately in a return to tailored clothing, beards, gray flannel, tweeds, and waxed-cotton outerwear.

Years ago, I couldn’t find a three-piece suit, so I had one made. I couldn’t find a three-button seersucker suit, so I had one made. I guess I am a fashion leader, but in reverse. Sorry, but I just like reading silver fork novels by candlelight in my smoking jacket.”

-Renegade traditionalist Glenn O’Brien, in an essay that appears in the spring 2013 issue of Bergdorf Goodman Magazine

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In Brief: Met Museum Admission Fee Kerfuffle, Swiping at Pictures, Fashionable Philanthrophy

Stephanie Murg — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:13:42 +0000

• Elsewhere in museum thievery news, a disgruntled former employee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art who we’ve identified to be Gerald Jones–and who insists to the New York Post that he is not disgruntled but a whistleblower (someone’s been watching Enlightened!)–is speaking out about the museum’s tactics for getting visitors to pay the suggested $25 admission fee. “I arranged for security officers to forcibly remove the museum visitors who demanded entry without paying,” he told the Post.

• How has technology reshaped contemporary life and what does it mean for photography? Curator Christopher Y. Lew considers “Swiping at Pictures” in an online-only essay that accompanies Aperture‘s boldly redesigned spring 2013 issue.

• Fashion powerhouses such as Donna Karan, Michael Kors, and Zac Posen are serious about philanthrophy. Gotham goes inside the minds of “6 Designers Who Give Big.”

• The selection of a new pope prompted Norma Kamali to consider how much the Catholic church influenced her career in fashion. “The tapestries and brocades, the candles, and the bar reliefs, and sculptures, and the holy water. Every one of my senses was a part of the experience,” she wrote of her childhood churchgoing in a recent “Note from Norma.”

• And speaking of fashion influences and pyramid schemes, Vince Camuto has ripped off Valentino’s wildly successful rockstud heel. Camuto’s “Mikhal” model is priced at $118, while the Italian original goes for around $950.

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CFDA Award Nominations, Honorees Revealed

Stephanie Murg — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 02:34:35 +0000

The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)’s new HQ in lower Manhattan was the setting for last night’s party at which the nominees and honorees for this year’s CFDA Fashion Awards were announced. Will Alexander Wang ride his Balenciaga debut buzz to nab a womenswear win, besting the unstoppable Proenza boys and three-time womenswear winner Marc Jacobs? In the menswear battle of the Brown(e)s, will Thom triumph over Duckie? And how many CFDA award statuettes can fit in a 3.1 Phillip Lim 31-hour bag? Answers will have to wait until this year’s awards ceremony, set for June 3 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Here’s the full list of nominees and honorees:

Womenswear Designer of the Year Award nominees: Alexander Wang, Marc Jacobs, Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler

Menswear Designer of the Year Award nominees: Steven Cox & Daniel Silver for Duckie Brown, Michael Bastian, Thom Browne

Accessory Designer of the Year Award nominees: Phillip Lim for 3.1 Phillip Lim, Alexander Wang, Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler

Swarovski Award for Womenswear nominees: Shane Gabier & Christopher Peters for Creatures of the Wind, Carly Cushnie & Michelle Ochs for Cushnie et Ochs, Erin Beatty & Max Osterweis for Suno

Swarovski Award for Menswear nominees: Dao-Yi Chow & Maxwell Osborne for Public School, Tim Coppens, Todd Snyder

Swarovski Award for Accessory Design nominees: Irene Neuwirth, Jennifer Meyer, Pamela Love

Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award: Vera Wang

Media Award: Tim Blanks

Founders Award: Oscar de la Renta

Board of Directors’ Tribute Award: Colleen Atwood

International Award: Riccardo Tisci

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Up Close and Peacocking: Garage Considers ‘Street Style’ Snapping Epidemic

Stephanie Murg — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:07:33 +0000

Après the Satorialist, le déluge! Dasha Zhukova and the gang at Garage magazine, her artsy biannual, set out to make a short film exploring the world of fashion bloggers and the stylish types frequently featured on their bottomless digital pages. They ended up with something else entirely. “As we started to review the footage, two salient trends became apparent,” note the editors, “fashion editors frustrated by the ensuing commotion outside of shows, and the rise of ‘peacocking’ street style stars as a result of the proliferation of blogs.” The freshly completed short, “Take My Picture” (below), digs into both perspectives. Style.com stalwart Tim Blanks provides valuable perspective, pointing out Tommy Ton‘s exceptional eye, but it’s veteran street style photographer Phil Oh who takes the prize for best soundbite, comparing the fashion week pre-show melee of posing and snapping to a battle scene. “It’s become trench warfare,” he says.

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Quote of Note | Terry Jones

Stephanie Murg — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 06:18:32 +0000

A photograph by Terry Jones taken at the Comme des Garçons showroom.

“My creative inspiration [for putting together these books] was seeing how [my wife] Tricia arranged her wardrobe. Fashion is not about the latest item you’ve bought–it’s an evolution of personal style. Today’s wardrobe is most inspirational when it has a history…

Selecting from the pages of i-D and sometimes making repro-facsimiles of the fashion pages to reflect the graphics of the time, together with transcripts of conversations or interviews with designers, then adding footnotes and facts, gave me opportunity to add a depth of hidden information. I avoided putting the book in chronological order–I prefer the moment being right, and these books are portfolios of moments in time, much like how the brain works. We have included images that I’ve found in i-D‘s archive or been given permission by the designer or some of our photographic contributors. We have also included video stills taken from screen grabs from my personal footage, as I love the blur of fashion.”

-Terry Jones, founder and creative director of i-D magazine, on his new Taschen series on contemporary fashion designers. The first three monographs–on Rei Kawakubo, Vivienne Westwood, and Yohji Yamamoto–will most likely be followed by books on Raf Simons and Rick Owens, according to Jones.

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