1 : a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity 2 :minimal art
Today we have Rogan Gregory doing what he terms “soulful minimalism.” Imagine a Richard Serra sculpture (Gregory’s favorite artist, fyi). Minimalism that’s been left outside to rust, weather and age. As the parlance goes: Minimalism with a twist!
Rogan points to the concrete floor inside his showroom and store.
“When they first poured it, they made it perfect and smooth…and I looked at it and thought, no, that’s not right.” Rogan likes things to be a little fucked up, he said. Don’t we all!
Monsieur Christian Louboutin introduced his BFF Philippe Starck at a fashion industry mega event last night (they were both receiving awards) and Louboutin, a self-described teenage punk and “major safety pin victim” talked about meeting Starck for the first time in a Paris nightclub. He describes their encounter (I am paraphrasing): “Whatever Phillipe Starck, I heard you design some furniture or something, but you’re not a punk and you look totally boring and I don’t like your shoes or your tie.” Plus, Starck was totally old. He was a ripe 25.
Starck on Louboutin: “He was the worst teenager I ever saw in my life…he was terrible. He was a gremlin! You could never take him out because he broke everything. He’d burn the curtains, break all the glasses.”
When it comes to design, fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm may emphasize an idea over practicality, but at the end of the day, he’s someone who understands the fundamental concepts at the root of dressing and the psychology behind the urge to costume one’s self. He speaks to the peacock in all of us, that desire to preen and to move our bodies in mysterious and rapturous ways.
On Feb. 1, just before the start of New York fashion week, Paris-based Willhelm flew to town for his first New York event, held at the Tribeca Grand hotel, to present “Men in Tights,” a new fashion-based film. Based around his Fall/Winter 2008 menswear collection, Willhelm produced the innovative short in collaboration with Nick Knight, London-based fashion photographer and founder of SHOWStudio, a website that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the fashion world with some of fashion’s most influential figures.
9.00 pm: Word spreads show is 2 hrs late and clothes have yet to arrive.
9.02 pm: Walk around the corner to Resto
9.05 pm-10.59 pm: steak frites [medium rare], 2 glasses bouchard pere & fils pinot noir
11.00 pm: take seat and wait for Marc Jacobs Spring Collection 2008 to start
Watch the show.
Worth the wait.
Love the dramatic attachments…….waited for many lesser reasons with lesser rewards for the wait in the past and will do it again in the future to be sure.
Thoughts of fondant pansies, luster dust, Peeps and the Easter Bunny, lilac meringues and the perfect dessert plasma.
Dessert.
Creme Brulee au Parfum saisonnier in too-small pumps and trompe l’oeil underpinnings.
Viennese Secessionists on safari, taking a break from long hours spent in the studio ornamenting tarts.
Quite worth the trek to the Park Avenue Armory for the belted vests, geometric pieced linen jackets and raw silk dyed and delicately cut to resemble exotic feathers. Birds of paradise, or a Klimt kimono sleeve. This is no ordinary American Sportswear.
XXX’s people have done such a good job promoting him as the partyboygenius that they were making calls revoking editors seats for his show due to covetous over booking.
One could consider it for a moment, but be too busy with something that is actually of interest :The words “complexity and contradiction v’s simplification or picturesqueness” and “non-straightforward architecture, a gentle manifesto.” What it means? Look it up when you get home. Continue reading ‘Complexity v’s Contradiction’
Alexandre Herchcovitch Spring 2008 collection
Bryant Park- 9/5/07
Rich liquid swelter. 1930’s dissected tuxedo, red roses and flamenco via Valentino’s Hollywood of old.
Down the runway in silk petals, high daggered cheekbones and a sharp tounge, she is content dancing to a frenzy with the armless, motherless whores in Santa Sangre’s orgy of blood, or sitting, ankles crossed eating Bette’s truffle fries. Continue reading ‘Alexandre Herchcovitch s/s 08′
Life: an excuse for an anecdote. Thinking of anecdotes as accessories, carried in a book strap. The title tells you everything you need to know and conveys the essential point. Good title: leaves ...
Coaxed into covering a chocolate show involving fashion made of chocolate, I cast aside my inhibitions. “Unleash the chocoholicism!” is what this event invites. Throngs descend upon the West Side Highway, a sight I’m more accustomed to seeing in the daylight, for the Armory Show. West 50th Street is a desolate strip between 10th Avenue and now, all FedEx and horse stables and double parked cars. I stop over the Amtrak rails, my favorite spot in Midtown, it reminds me of Manhattan’s history as a hub of industry and trade, the grand connector between far off lands and the heartland, the mountains, the desert, the Pacific Coast…now Doritos wrappers and Burger King bags line the rails, probably needles and condoms and shit, too. Well that’s history, too. “What opera is like a railwayline? —The Rose of Castile. See the wheeze? Rows of cast steel. Gee!”
I love how designers are redefining the word "minimalism."
Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry:min·i·mal·ism Pronunciation: \ˈmi-nə-mə-ˌli-zəm\ Function:noun Date:19291 : a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity 2 : minimal art
Today we have Rogan Gregory doing what he terms "soulful minimalism." Imagine a Richard Serra sculpture (Gregory's favorite artist, fyi). Minimalism that's been left outside to rust, weather and age. As the parlance goes: Minimalism with a twist!
Rogan points to the concrete floor inside his showroom and store.
"When they first poured it, they made it perfect and smooth...and I looked at it and thought, no, that's not right." Rogan likes things to be a little fucked up, he said. Don't we all!
How does this translate to the clothes?
When it comes to design, fashion designer 
