Is the gloved-one, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, taking a page from the Philippe Starck playbook entitled "Talk About How Disappointed You Are In You"? Well, certainly they're both more than a little nutty, but when Lagerfeld says he's "suffering from an overdose of myself" and worries that perhaps he's become too overexposed and sought after far too much, we feel it's probably maybe just an instance where the world of fashion get very near to a sense of "humble" but maintains their ironic detachment from the real world (like when certain artists complain that it's just so hard being a genius). But we're always one to give Lagerfeld the benefit of the doubt, as we still maintain that soft spot for the guy after reading that New Yorker profile on him from a while back. Here's a bit:

With his trademark white ponytail and dark glasses, the pop culture icon is the subject of an umpteenth documentary, to be shown on French television on Sunday, and even features in the latest installment of the video game "Grand Theft Auto."

"I'm suffering from an overdose of myself," Lagerfeld told reporters after the show. "At a certain point, you ask yourself, am I a puppet or not?"

In the beginning, there was Louis Vuitton and Takashi Murakami. And the luxury goods industry saw that it was good. Since then, the limited-edition artist "collaboration" handbags have been coming fast and furious: Kiki Smith whipped up a whimsical tote for Coach, Richard Phillips pitched in on some Jimmy Choo clutches, and Tracey Emin put a folksy spin on Longchamp bags. The latest artist to get in on the craze is Donald Baechler, who has collaborated with Samsonite-owned Lambertson Truex on the "Index of Happiness Bag" (pictured above), yours for $1,000 and with 15% of the purchase price to benefit the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The suede tote is in the boxy "caboose" style, a Lambertson Truex signature that we can't help but associate (lovingly) with Will & Grace's Karen Walker, an early fan. Both sides of the bag feature a print based on an original Baechler mixed-media canvas, but the effect is ruined by loony details like mismatched plaid-printed leather handle anchors and a leather luggage tag (embossed with the Baechler trademark figure, but still). A leather patch stitched inside is numbered (1 through 200) and signed by Baechler, while the lining is screen-printed with images of a Baechler sculpture. For those with simpler handbag needs and less spending money, Lambertson Truex offers another limited-edition bag to benefit the Whitney: a leather-trimmed canvas tote called the "Gertrude" (pictured above, at left), named for Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sells for $120.

A while back we told you about the shoes that will make your feet feel like they are the rulers of a mid-sized outer space kingdom and now we return to Zaha Hadid's pairing with the shoe company Melissa. First up, on the Melissa company blog, there are some photos and info on the shoe launch party during London's Fashion Week, as well as a couple of stories from days prior about all the buzz leading up to what's likely been the biggest "starchitect makes footware" story of the year (or at least we hope so). Also, somehow we're just seeing this flashy animation for the new shoe by go-to starchitect motion graphics firm, Neutral:

It's a designer bag, and she got a hefty discount. Former Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO Susan Lyne recently announced that she will become CEO of Gilt Groupe, by far the best in a growing breed of members-only online sample sale sites (other include ideeli, Editors' Closet, Top Secret, and Rue La La). In January, Gilt Groupe entered a savvy partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), which led to the CFDA's endorsement of the site's ability to "distribute excess inventory and overstock in a discrete and efficient manner" and sales of CFDA member-designed merch from seasons past, with some of the proceeds benefiting the CFDA Foundation. Earlier this week, amidst financial market floundering of historical proportions, Gilt swiftly sold out of last season's Chloé (departed designer Paulo Melim Andersson's sailing-inspired spring collection for the French house). Our sister blog, FishbowlNY, talked with Lyne about her transition from MSLO to Gilt. What's the common thread? Branding!

Every great consumer-facing company starts with a brand promise to its customer: this is what we will deliver; this is how we will make your life better, or easier, less complicated, more fun. Each job I've held had a different core customer and a different brand promise. The key is never forgetting who you serve and what they count on you for.

As we persist in sprinkling UnBeige with the tastiest morsels we happened upon during the Fashion Week that was, we couldn't help but notice the higher than usual number of designers that pointed to artists (and other designers) as among the influences for their spring 2009 collections. You know that Ralph Rucci was inspired in part by the work of Mark Rothko, and the Rodarte girls were swooning for Robert Smithson (crossed with Star Wars), but what about everyone else? Unable to resist a good round-up, we present the following list of artists and the designers that they inspired for the clothes and trends that will blossom come spring.

Influence | Influenced
Lee Bontecou | Richard Chai
Louise Bourgeois | Frank Tell
Nina Bovasso | Verrier
Coco Chanel | Derek Lam
Dan Flavin | Adam Lippes, Proenza Schouler
Lucio Fontana | Jeremy Laing (at left)
Naum Gabo | Ohne Titel
Alexander Girard | Anna Sui
Ellsworth Kelly | Pamella Roland
Morris Louis | Wren, James Coviello
John McCraken | Calvin Klein Collection
Bruce Nauman | Doo.Ri
Marilyn Neuhart | Anna Sui
Kenneth Noland | James Coviello
Emil Nolde | Sabyasachi
Verner Panton | Miss Sixty
Richard Phillips | Frank Tell
Ettore Sottsass | Phi
Grant Wood | Organic

A few years ago, Kate and Laura Mulleavy got some good advice. "We had designed ten pieces of clothing and we didn't really know what to do with them," says Kate, 29. "And someone told us, 'Maybe you guys should go to New York.'" And so they did. After a blizzard-abridged plane ride from Los Angeles and a train ride from Boston, they were in Manhattan for the first time in their lives. Within two days, Women's Wear Daily had called them in for a chat that would lead to their Rodarte collection being featured on the coveted cover of WWD. Today, having won critical acclaim, industry support, and the 2008 Swarovski Award for Womenswear for their otherworldly designs, the Mulleavys are among fashion's brightest young stars. After a whirlwind fashion week, Kate (at left in the above photo, with sister Laura, 28, and model Liya Kebede) took time to answer our seven questions.

1. What was the inspiration for your spring 2009 collection?
Our spring collection was really inspired by Robert Smithson and earth or site-specific art. In a strange way, Laura and I were really interested in the idea of looking at works by Smithson and exploring the idea of remnants, so we kind of played with the idea of fossils, of skeletal shapes and silhouettes. And that's really what we based the collection off of. In a lot ways, it was a mixture between science fiction and site-specific art. I think that the link in our mind was what's left—this idea of remnants—and we kind of explored that in the show, which moved toward lightness and playing with color, borrowing from different science fiction palettes and this idea of outer space toward the end of the show.

2. You and Laura are both self-taught. How did you gain your design skills?
In all honesty, it's just a lot of trial and error. We look at what we were doing at the beginning and see how it's evolved slowly. We work a lot with tulle and draping, and that's just kind of evolved from collection to collection. We are not afraid of trying new things. We always worked from the very beginning with a small team of people, and we learned a lot from them. I think that we jumped right into the idea of designing, but at the same time, there's so much to learn every season that the learning process will span our career. We're always learning. So I think that we weren't intimidated by that, but we were also really open to knowing that there's so much that you do have to learn and absorb, so just to take it one step at a time.

continued...

Sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy are the designers behind Rodarte (their mother's maiden name), the extraordinary young fashion label that won the 2008 Swarovski Award for Womenswear and gains legions of fans with each meticulously crafted new collection. Last week's standing-room-only show saw the debut of not only Rodarte's spring 2009 collection but also the fruits of the designers' collaboration with Lexus Hybrid Living, the luxury car maker's initative to showcase luxury products that prioritize sustainability. "Laura and I are very very particular about the things that we do, and particular about our own creative process, and we started working with Lexus Hybrid Living out of a mutual concern for the environment," Kate Mulleavy told us. "My dad was a botanist and my mom was an artist and we grew up in this really beautiful, amazing landscape right near Monterrey, and that's been such an overwhelming inspiration to us in most everything that we've done."

The Rodarte show's Chelsea venue was fragrant with the blend of Hawaiian orchid, camellia flower, sweet musk, Mirabelle plum, and Japanese quince that infused the natural soy candles (pictured at right) that attendees found on their seats inside glass containers (recyclable, of course) printed with rope imagery inspired by the work of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki and encircled by a removable bracelet made of recycled Lexus car leather. "Laura and I really wanted to do something special and develop a candle to explore this idea of sustainability and how you can make things that really have an impact and a meaning in people's lives—things that are thoughtful but that also do a lot in terms of getting the word out there about taking care of the environment," said Kate. As for the limited edition scent, designed by the sisters along with the packaging, "It has this really beautiful, light floral note but in a more icy way," Kate noted. "It reminds me of the idea of a blossom in snow."

All photos: UnBeige

Last Friday, 2008 National Design Award winner Ralph Rucci ended New York Fashion Week with a black silk tulle bang. Inspired in part by the work of Mark Rothko, Rucci's dazzling spring 2009 collection (pictured above, in photos that don't do the garments justice) experimented with texture and transparency, structure and weightlessness, drama and restraint—continuums that both characterize his oeuvre and propel it forward. Crafted in luxe, often double-faced fabrics ranging from silk faille and wool crepe to pailette-studded fishnet and silver mylar, the 51 looks that Rucci sent down the runway had all the hallmarks of haute couture, although Friday's show was in fact his first exclusively ready-to-wear presentation in some time.

How does Rucci manage to make us crave cerise silk radzimir in a world of distressed denim? How does he instinctively know that a sprinkling of rocaille beading is all a black evening dress needs to go from beautiful to breathtaking? What does his design process, which he has described as "metaphysical," entail? Find out tomorrow, when Rucci sits down for a chat with artist and photographer Iké Udé, founder and editor-in-chief of aRUDE magazine, at New York City's 92nd Street Y. This is the first event of the 92nd Street Y's "Dialogues with Design Legends" series curated by design historian Daniella Ohad Smith. Next month, architect Peter Eisenman will be interviewed by Greg Lynn and Kurt Forster, and in November, Milton Glaser takes the stage to talk with Stephen Doyle and Paul Stirton.

Photos: UnBeige

Those who made their way to downtown Manhattan earlier today for the showing of designer Christian Francis Roth's comeback collection, Francis, in the gym of the St. Patrick's Youth Center found Mulberry Street decked out for the annual San Gennaro Festival, which runs through September 21. While one might expect a funnel cake stand (pictured above) operating beside a snaking line at lunchtime to be overrun with takers, the fashion crowd was more interested in the woman handing out complimentary copies of WWD and the list-wielding PR reps scribbling seat assignments.

The afternoon may have been a bust for the funnel cake sellers but more sweet treats were waiting inside for showgoers. The brown paper lunch sack-style gift bags—on each of which a very patient someone had written "Francis" with black marker—held a trio of "CFR" cookies from Cookie Panache. Their subway signage look was a nod to Roth's inspiration for his exuberantly colored, Teen Vogue-flavored spring collection: New York cliques, described in the show notes as "equal parts Gossip Girl, The Warriors, and A Clockwork Orange." Alas, the show didn't get out in time for attendees to make the San Gennaro Festival's 7th Annual Cannoli Eating Competition, which kicked off at 1:00 P.M. a few blocks away. There's always next year.

Photos: Marcio Madeira

BCBG Max Azria has nearly 500 stores worldwide, and filling them with the merchandise mix befitting a "lifestyle brand" can distract from ready-to-wear: the line technically known as BCBG Max Azria Runway and one of a mind-boggling 22 brands shaped by the indefatigable Parisian-born Max Azria, the founder, designer, chairman, and CEO of the BCBG Max Azria Group (read: empire, and surely the subject of more than one business school case study). But those who write off BCBG Max Azria as a mall store that embarks on twice yearly shopping sprees for design cachet haven't been paying attention for the last few seasons, during which the Runway collection has blossomed into one of fashion's well-kept (and most affordably-priced) secrets.

Photo: UnBeige

Most impressive is the line's smooth yet innovative design evolution, which can be traced from last spring's collection through that of this fall and on to the spring 2009 collection presented last Friday at Bryant Park. Spring 2008's frothy translucency and textured layers gained opacity and greater structure for fall but retained consistency with wrapped leather belts, prim pleats, and ruffles. For spring 2009, the collection managed to toughen up without tightening up: relaxing the silhouette with draped silks and jerseys in an urban palette of grays (here a dove, there a shimmering anthracite) and brights (fuchsia, orange, dark teal), sometimes used as '80's-flavored colorblocking. These clothes—Grecian formula dresses, cropped jackets, and yes, jumpsuits—are made for a land where sun, fun, and skyscrapers aren't mutually exclusive.

The innovation this season for BCBG came in the proportions, which the show notes described as "evok[ing] the sensibility of innate seduction" while "exploring the functionality of everyday classics." Gone were the leather-tied waists of last spring and fall, but they were echoed in strappy platform sandals and a few thick belts accented with chunky parallelogram buckles that would make Zaha Hadid smile. The only problem with draping that takes one's breath away when viewed loping down the runway is its tendency to lose some of that magic in still photographs, a format that was equally unkind to the subtleties of the collection's color palette—a dazzling one-shoulder ruffled number in gas blue georgette turned floppy and grayish when frozen on film under the klieg lights. Fortunately, BCBG will likely avoid this problem by signing up for spring the same photographer it used for its ethereal fall campaign. His name? Patrick Demarchelier.

Previously on UnBeige: