>Fashion V. Clothes: Post #5: The Branding Game

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TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY
If you are a dyed in the wool fashionista, fashion is your religion. As such, you must abide by the fashion commandments. Perhaps the most important fashion commandment is: “Thou Shalt Not Over-License”. The danger that comes from over licensing is that it devalues fashion, whether it be RTW, belts, bags, and shoes and turns them into mere clothes and junky accessories.

The most glaring and well-known example of a fashion designer guilty of defying this commandment is Pierre Cardin, the subject of this column. [I’ll save Halston and the J.C. Penney debacle for another day].
I hadn’t though much about Pierre Cardin since High School, when one of my favorite pieces of jewelry was a gold plated “Pierre Cardin” necklace. Back then, I didn’t know much about M. Cardin other than: he was French, one could buy designer items from him at Bloomingdales’, and it was cheaper than the Gucci bag and LV monogram bags I lusted after.
Cardin products were so available, and even then, in the back of my mind as the sales clerk rang the register for that necklace, I wondered, ‘Is this really a designer item? Shouldn’t it be harder for me to get this?’ The supply and demand aspect of making an item exclusive fashion [or just clothes] is a difficult tight rope for designers to walk when they’re seeking to brand themselves.
M. Cardin will forever be remembered as the man who opened-up the Pandora’s box of branding. His empire included everything from haute couture to sardines, and boy, were they ever available! You could purchase Cardin designs anywhere and everywhere, from the Midwest to the Far East. In 2000, his empire was estimated to be worth$4.97billion and he had 190,000 people working in 840 factories. The amount of money his brand generated is mind-boggling. The obvious lure to designers to go the brand extension route is the huge amount of money branding oneself can generate. But then there’s that matter of exclusivity. As a designer, you need to ask yourself a few questions. 1. Am I over-extending myself to the point that I’m no longer creating fashion?’ 2.Have I lowered my standards to the point that I’m just cranking out mediocre products with my label slapped on it that will only sell to gullible duty free shoppers who will buy it as long as there’s a designer label slapped on it?
3. Is this how I really want to be perceived?
As a consumer, when shopping for say, a bottle of olive oil, I have to ask myself, ‘Do I really want to buy a bottle of olive oil because it has “Pierre Cardin” scrawled across it rather than a bottle of Sclafani or Bertolli?’ For that matter, last weekend I passed on a bottle of “Christian Audigier Vodka”,
even though it was on sale for $25 in favor of the tried and true Absolut. Also, what business does a fashion designer [or Donald Trump for that matter] have “designing” a consumer staple other than to make a buck? It’s not the kind of thing that earns you respect in the fashion business, nor does it have anything to do with fashion. I can’t imaging that fashion designers such as Duckie Brown will be coming out with a “Duckie Brown balsamic vinegar” anytime soon.
Availability kills the notion of exclusivity. Even back in the late seventies, I wondered why it was so easy to pick up a piece of designer – anything. Back then; the word “designer” really did connote exclusivity. The New York Gucci store closed its doors during the office lunch hour, because they didn’t want secretaries and sales assistants coming in to buy. The Ladies of leisure were actually lunching at that time, and had the rest of the day until cocktails to shop.

This past season, when Tom Ford tried to bring that concept back, I gave him a mental high-five. There’s a fly in the ointment though. While I love the idea of fashion being exclusive, I don’t love the idea of being excluded from the party. As I jokingly said to PR Paul Wilmot a few weeks after Tom’s show, “I did not make the list, nor did I expect to, but I sure wanted to be on it.”
Taking it beyond fashion for just a moment, Groucho Marx had a point in his infamous remark, “I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members. ”
While I could buy Pierre Cardin – just about anything – I don’t want to, because so can anyone else. A logo should mean something. A Birkin bag still holds that allure of exclusivity because you just don’t see a lot of them unless you happen to be walking on Fifth Avenue, up by Bergdorf’s.

“Logomania” put a big dent in designer exclusivity.
Logomania was that horrible moment circa 2002 that was dubbed thusly because of the inordinate number of logos consumers were encouraged to wear. The mantra was “the more, the better!”
Logomania represented the total opposite of what Mr. Ford was trying to achieve with his hyper-exclusive presentation. It was as if designers opened the door to what was once a very private club and invited anyone and everyone who could afford to pay the door fee inside. On the darker side, it also generated a huge wave of designer knock-offs. You’d be on the #6 subway going downtown, and every other woman riding was wearing something with a GG or LV or CC emblazoned on it.
I recall flipping through the pages of Vogue, aghast at this reigning trend. It looked “common” as the British so disdainfully put it. I continued to cringe as that particular fashion week, when fashionistas proudly donned designer logos on every square inch of their bodies. All those logos devalued the brand, what’s exclusive if everyone’s wearing it? The most heinous example was a long Louis Vuitton logoed coat. While I can’t recall who wore it, I sure remember the coat – ugh. It was Louis Vuitton but I couldn’t image a fashion icon who wore LV, such as Audrey or Jackie wearing this piece, not even on Halloween.

This is not to say that tasteful branding is not possible. Designers such as Bill Blass and Ralph Lauren have proven that theory out. Mr. Blass was the first to successfully put some “class” into branding. A few years later, Mr. Lauren started his empire, which is probably now the biggest fashion branding success story ever. [Mr. Lauren deserves an article all of his own, which I’ll be tackling later, after a visit to his newest NYC store.]
Mr. Blass “had it all”, and was responsible for helping lead the way for others such as Ralph and Tommy [Hilfiger] to create their multi-billion dollar empires built on “the world of [Tommy, Ralph]. A notable exception to outside logos “working” was Ralph’s RRL line. Somehow, wearing RRL to the gym was not…. Embarrassing, nor did he lose his fellow CFDA members’ respect for doing RRL.

Bill Blass had his fellow designers’ respect because he dressed fashion and society’s elite such as Jackie Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Harriman, and Happy Rockefeller.

His Bill Blass Collection designs
retailed in all the best stores: Bonwit Teller, Lord and Taylor, and Neiman-Marcus and he made money – a lot of it. Unlike M. Cardin, though, no one ever accused Mr. Blass of being foolish or greedy in his brand expansion.
On the more commercial [yet still fashionably so] was the beige Chantilly-lace dress he created for model Jean Shrimpton for a Revlon lipstick ad that thrust him even more in the limelight.
In 1968, he took the next big step and established a Rentner licensing and franchising subsidiary, Bill Blass Inc.
Unlike M. Cardin, he carefully picked and chose what he would design.
There were: shoes, hosiery, scarves, gloves, luggage, jewelry, and wristwatches, and a car. He designed the “Lincoln Mark VII Bill Blass Model” from 1984-1992. Back then, a Lincoln was perceived as an elegant Town Car. The Ladies Who Lunched rode in them to get from their Park Avenue homes to La Grenouille and Mortimer’s. When he added furniture to the equation, Blass completed the circle of “the world of”.
His own homes, the 22 acre estate in New Preston, CT, and Sutton Place pied-a-Terre, were familiar to the society women he dressed and entertained. Unsurprisingly, in 1997, he made a deal with Pennsylvania House, and introduced a 50 piece Bill Blass furniture collection. A few years before his death, he’d pared his licenses down to 42, before selling it all in 1998. His final presentation in the Bryant Park Tent was theatrical and the most memorable fashion show I have ever attended.

All of his “ladies” showed and proudly watched, rapt, in the front row. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, as we all knew this was Blass’s swan song. It there ever was a fashion moment; this was it.

Taking things back to the present, how about Pierre Cardin? When Assouline’s Mimi Crume sent me the digital version of Pierre Cardin: 60 Years of Innovation to review, I resolved to go and see the real book before reviewing it. My chance came during FNO at the Assouline Party at the Plaza.
Flipping through the book was like savoring a gourmet meal – it’s an experience that’s not to be rushed. Half an hour later, I reluctantly left to go uptown to Missoni, reflecting on some of M. Cardin’s groundbreaking designs.

The book was a fitting tribute and wonderful retrospective of a singular career. This is the part where the credits should roll and say “THE END”.
To my dismay, I read in WWD.com and I meanwhat.com that M. Cardin wanted to keep going and going…. And going.
Question: Who ITALS puts on a show with 200 looks?
Answer: No one in their right mind, that is no one who would like to keep their over-scheduled audience of editors and retailers from nodding off after look #50.

As Fashion Pundit, Abe Gurko
so aptly said, “Far be it from me to not have the utmost respect for the man who changed the industry. After all, he made pens chic. With his ground-breaking contribution to licensing coupled with his reputation for futuristic fashion, at a time when Cosmonauts were circling the globe, Cardin tapped into the zeitgeist of the 60’s and etched his place in fashion history.”

Silly circus show or not, I still want the book, because at that point in time, M. Cardin designed fashion, not clothes.
Pierre Cardin: 60 Years of Innovation, takes you from M. Cardin’s early years, working for in 1946, to the opening of his own couture house in 1950, and shows some of his most memorable architecturally futuristic fashion.
Prosper & Martine Assouline celebrated Pierre Cardin and the U.S. launch of his book Pierre Cardin: 60 Years of Innovation with a cocktail reception and book signing at the ASSOULINE boutique at The Plaza Hotel, on Tuesday. As I couldn’t make it, I immediately bought a copy online, to make sure I’d have one for my home office collection. Looking throught the book, I can take pleasure in viewing the designs that made M. Cardin one of fashion’s greats and forget about the olive oil and sardines for a while.

>Naeem Khan’s s/s2011 Collection: Collectible Fashion

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TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

Many of the world’s best fashion designers are men. That’s always puzzled me as they can never actually try on the clothes and truly know what it feels like to wear them. It’s an argument Donna Karan made years ago when she brought out her iconic “five easy pieces” collection of black basics she felt all women needed for their busy lives. Obviously, there is a way around this problem, as there are some very talented male designers, such as Naeem Khan, who know just what their female clientele wants and have loyal followings as a result of getting it right.
In lieu of trying the clothes on for themselves, male designers rely on muses and feedback from the women they design for and retailers such as Neiman’s Ken Downing. Ken’s “girls”, he told us, [pointing to his blackberry] consult and confide in him, and tell him – really tell him – what clothes and accessories they love.

As far as muses go, Naeem has his wife, jewelry designer, Ranjana Khan,
to draw inspiration from on a daily basis, and perhaps, his show stylist, Mary Alice Stephenson. Ranjana is gorgeous and exotic and Mary Alice
is blonde and beautiful in that classic Old Hollywood way. Both women look very different, but both look fantastic in Naeem Khan.

The smart designers listen to “their girls” and deliver strong fashionable collections that move women to faithfully buy every season. Some clients even become collectors. Fashion design is like pulling off the perfect recipe in that there has to be a perfect balance of ingredients.
In our backstage chat, Naeem spoke about his philosophy. “My formula” he stated, is very simple: it’s classic, it’s glamorous, and I keep tweaking, every season. I want to deliver classic, wearable glamour that is so wonderful that it is worthy of collecting. I have lots and lots of women who collect me. People have been collecting these [pointing to a rack of the s/s2011 collection], maybe since the day I started, six or seven years ago.”

As I first replayed our interview, I considered Naeem’s philosophy. The words “classic” and “wearable” do not often go with “glamour”. Classic and wearable are in one camp, and glamour, falls in another. Right?
Naeem Khan, like Oscar de la Renta, is one of those rare designers who have made their careers by consistently delivering drop-dead head turning glamour that’s not even remotely vulgar.
Naeem is very aware of curbing any tendencies of excess. “In my case, because of the clothes being so intricate, you have to be really careful. You can really overdo it. Overdo it – really. When you keep cooking for 30 years, though, you become a master chef. I have to make sure that I give my customer newness every year, and that it’s to the time.”

You need self-confidence to wear one of Mr. Khan’s creations. The list of celebrities who wear Naeem Khan is diverse but all of these women have self-confidence oozing from their pores. Angie Harmon, Elizabeth Hurley,

Michelle Obama,
and Kim Cattrall all project extreme femininity and self-confidence whenever you see them in photographs. Put them in a Naeem Khan dress and the result is that classic glamour that all women look for when they tune in to watch their favorite celebs walk down the Red Carpet. If you’re a basic black girl who’s happy with her five easy pieces, you may want to look elsewhere. If though, you decide that you really are a Naeem Khan woman, rest assured that you will in no shape or form resemble a walking Christmas tree in one of his creations.
Naeem is extremely in tune with his clientele’s horror of looking foolish. “When you make fashion, you have to make clothes for the real woman. I make very very intricate clothing. When you are doing my kind of clothing, my philosophy is clothing has to be real, It’s going to land up in the store, and it has to sell.”

He concluded our interview by saying that one-day, he hopes to have a retrospective of his work.
Maybe in a few decades, the MET’s Costume Institute would have one dedicated to the “Best Oscar Dresses, 1990-2020, featuring Naeem, Oscar, Armani, and Marchesa as some of the period’s top looks.
In the meantime, Naeem’s clients continue to buy and his presence on the Red Carpet continues to grow.

>Jeweler Ranjana Khan, Backstage at the Naeem Khan s/s2011 Show

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A great fashion show is memorable because of the clothes, the hair, the makeup, the styling and the accessories.
I’m dedicating this post to one of the supporting players who helped make the Naeem Khan s/s2011 show a memorable and fitting end to NYFW.

Like her husband, Naeem, Ranjana creates beautiful, high-end products, which are sold at top retailers Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Harrods.
Around two years ago, Ranjana made a career change and shut down her Phoenix Hand Embroidery Company, which worked with some of fashion’s top houses including: Stella McCartney, Jean Paul Gaultier and Lanvin. Remember those tulle-covered pearls at Lanvin? If you never got one of those wonderful bib Lanvin necklaces, don’t despair, Ranjana RK for HSN black ribbon bib necklace
at $229.90 qualifies as “fashion” for about one zero less at the end of the higher end version.
Before you wrinkle your nose at the name “HSN [Home Shopping Network] have a good look first. Her lower-priced RK for HSN represents the “low” end of the equation – but it, unlike Rachel Zoe’s faux coyote vest for QVC, looks anything but down-market.
On the “high” side of the spectrum is the Leather-trim bib with black lava rocks with marble and onyx stones in various shapes and sizes, available at Neiman’s for $950.
These two necklaces, and the crystal silk drop earrings
exemplify how Ranjana has successfully straddled high-low accessorizing. And finally, at the very tip top of the high-end side are the unique pieces she collaborated on with Naeem for his latest collection. I got to see the ones that didn’t make it onto the runway and each and every one of them was a stunner.

>The Academy of Art University s/s2011 Show

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TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY
Photos by Randy Brooke
This season, the Academy of Art University student show 2011 show premiered six women’s wear and one men’s wear collections. The AAU show is one of my favorite shows on the bi-annual NYFW lineup. It’s not just because I’m an online instructor for AAU’s Fashion Department – it’s much more than that.

People in fashion tend to be jaded, to great or lesser degrees, which comes from constant rejection and the risk of “putting yourself out there” when you present your creative body of work, whether it be your modeling, writing, PR, styling, or design talent.
What’s different at the AAU backstage scene is the sense of “feels like the first time” excitement that just can’t be duplicated. The atmosphere is stressful, of course – what backstage scene isn’t? but I stayed far longer than I’d intended, caught-up in the festive atmosphere, and arrived late at the Assouline Book Party uptown at the Plaza.
Being late was worth seeing the little girls dancing and posing about in the brightly colored dresses that were inspired by a number of British influences including cricket, the television series “Brideshead Revisited,” British interiors, and the uniforms
of Oxford University.
The eclectic dresses were a collaboration between textile designers, a group of Technical Designers, Fashion Designers and Textile Design students all working together. As Oprah so famously said, “It takes a village”.

After stopping to chat with AAU’s Dino Ray Ramos, he took me over to meet
Maria Korovilas, M.F.A. Fashion Design. On the way there, I stopped to admire Cara Chiapetta‘s Helmut Newton-y black dress, thinking how professional it looked. No wonder, Cara’s won the Fashion Group Foundation Scholarship, and participated in an LVMH Creative Briefing Design Challenge, interned for N.I.C.E. Collective, as well as for Michael Kors. Her muse for this collection was Bridget Fonda’s character Nina in the film “The Point of No Return”.

A small gaggle of photographers and I were transfixed by the incredible tambour beading coat
Maria was applying some final touches to. Simultaneously working and speaking, she explained that she was resewing some of the nuts and bolts “just in case” to avoid a disaster on the runway [like the metal bits falling off - that did not happen]. Tambour Beading is a specialty which originated in 1770, and was established in Paris by Charles de Saint- Aubin.
There were workrooms dedicated to making beadwork for the French court, who prized these intricately worked garments.
After completing classes in Tambour Beading at AAU’s School of Fashion, Maria incorporated metal encrusted pieces and details into her collection. The hand beading took her over 600 hours to complete. The starting point of her inspiration was the Jenny Lewis song “You Are What
You Love” from which she pulled visual and conceptual references for her collection.

>The Joanna Mastroianni and Elene Cassis s/s2011 Collections

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TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY
The last lap of NYFW ended nicely thanks to the highly wearable retro inspired dresses we saw the last afternoon of shows. Once we arrived at the Mastroianni studio, I was happy to have braved the drizzle.
There was a definite sixties vibe at
Joanna Mastroianni’s s/s2011 collection, which she unveiled as a laid-back presentation at her Manhattan atelier. The atmosphere was more akin to a swank cocktail party at an art gallery, rather than yet another presentation. It was the chicly cozy white space, the designer’s adorable Pomeranian, Natasha, and house mascot, and above all, the clothes.

Twentieth century English potter,
Clarice Cliff, was Ms. Mastroianni’s muse for this collection. Cliff was known for her cheerful patterns, vibrant colors, and bold outlines. The pottery’s collage effect
works well with Mastroianni’s signature, mixed-media treatments that combined embroidery, patent leather and a palette of sunshine yellow, tangerine, chartreuse, lapis and black and white. The run of show notes made further reference to the role of pop culture in this collection. “Some sculpted shapes reference the Sixties to satisfy our current fascination with midcentury modern aesthetics escalated by “Mad Men.”
There was a definite sixties reference, particularly when it came to the black and white bracelet sleeve collarless jacket and a YSL Mondrian style colorblock mini dress with patent leather detailing. Modern of the moment accessories such as Lucite sandals and the popular runway hair [Barbie doll updos] made it look updated rather than just a straight blast back to the past.

Right after, we made our way West in the rain to see
Elene Cassis’ s/s2011 collection show.
Elene Cassis was the perfect show to go to after seeing Joanna Mastroianni’s collection. Both designers referenced the sixties, but each did it in their own way. While Joanna showed an orange strapless chiffon dress,
Elene Cassis countered with a long sleeved one in linen. Joanna’s color blockdresses juxtaposed black and white with pops of color and Elena’s played black and white off each other with interesting detailing
such as colored pentagon shapes and pointed collars.

Both versions looked great. Best at Elene Cassis was her pretty “Lauren” peony print dress
meant for a romantic night in the Caribbean.

>High-Low Accessorizing, by Amanda Ross for Carolee

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TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY
I was inspired by a recent conversation with Paul Wilmot in which he sang the praises of “high-low dressing.” He made the point that a white shirt and skinny black pants from the Limited are perfectly acceptable. Going “low” then allows one to splurge on a great designer item from Christian Siriano,or some top of the line skin care
from Nicholas Perricone. This got me thinking about mixing costume and real jewelry in a fearless fashion.
The first fashion icon to use costume jewelry to enhance her overall look was Coco Chanel. Her approach to high-low was innovative and unique. Most of the costume jewelry of the 1920′s was based on the Art Deco aesthetic and mimicked the trends initiated by Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. Brightly colored fruit salad glass stones
imitated the carved precious and semi-precious gemstones used by the fine jewelers, and were combined with rhinestones in geometric patterns. Chanel, typically, went her own way. In 1924, she established a relationship with Maison Gripoix, masters of fine glass jewelry. In 1927, she hired jewelry desigener, Fulco Di Verdura to work with her. Said Verdura,
“She was the first person ever to take me seriously.”
Carolee Friedlander took a page from Chanel’s book and dedicated her career to making great classic costume jewelry. Carolee started making jewelry in 1972 in Greenwich, CT, as a kitchen hobby and grew her eponymous company into an international recognized jewelry and accessories power house. Like Coco,
Carolee follows trends, such as the recent craze in the accessories sector for black jet, which played into Karl Lagerfeld’s The Last Days of Marienbad inspired s/s2011 Chanel collection. Years earlier, Coco herself designed actress Delphine Seyrig’s clothes for the film, and as www.style.com writer, Tim Blanks stated in his review “they were echoed in a final passage of black lace dresses tufted with coq feathers.” If you want to partake in a bit of Marienbad/Chanel glam, Carolee’s Retro Glam 60″ Jet Rope with a flower pin at $75, is a good option.

It’s good to have access to interesting pieces, but many women are flummoxed when it comes to incorporating fun pieces with fine jewelry, and are loathe to look like a jewelry Christmas Tree.
That’s where celebrity fashion stylists such as Amanda Ross fit into the equation.
Amanda was the woman who put together the looks for the heroines in “Lipstick Jungle” – a show I actually miss. These days, Amanda is the Carolee Company’s official style consultant. Her duties include personal appearance working with big high-end retailer, Bloomingdale’s and their personal shopping department to meet with customers and discuss the latest trends with them.

I’ve known Amanda since her days at Self Magazine, and watched her career blossom as she became a go-to celebrity stylist whose credentials include consulting for Dennis Basso, Elie Tahari, as well as being named the first-ever Global stylist for the W Hotel chain.

In spite of all of her multiple duties and travel, Amanda took the time to answer some questions I had regarding her work with Carolee, and how to successfully mix and match costume jewelry into a high-end wardrobe.

TheFE: Most favorite pieces from Carolee. Why are they your faves?

Amanda Ross: The Carolee gold charm pieces are my favorite-the charm bracelet

and coin drop earrings are great for Fall. I love their drop earrings in general. Jet is also huge this season, and Carolee has a whole jet collection– everything from chandelier earrings to rope necklaces. Carolee’s brooches are also great, either clustering several together or pinning them on a chain or leather cord to make a necklace. Carolee’s maltese cross brooch from this season is my favorite. And always lots and lots of pearls!

TheFE: I have to bring-up Coco Chanel and Babe Paley for popularizing the concept of “high-low” accessorizing. Do you think it works with Carolee? Do you agree with the concept, practice for this yourself? For your clients, or not at all?

Amanda: Carolee was the first company to offer a “Chanel” look at an affordable price. I love the idea of mixing costume with real jewels.

TheFE: What can a good stylist such as yourself do for a woman, a man?

Amanda: A great fashion stylist brings out the best in the people they dress, enhancing confidence while educating on one’s own personal style.

TheFE: When employing/searching for the right stylist, what questions should they ask you?

Amanda: “What is your vision for me?”

TheFE: What is the #1/most frequently asked question your clients ask you?

Amanda: “How do I look?”

>Neiman Marcus’ Ken Downing: Fashion V. Clothes, post #4

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TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY, w/ Contributions by Mark Behnke of www.fashiontribes.com

We caught up with Ken Downing, Neiman Marcus’ SVP and Director for Stores, to get a retailer’s perspective on Fashion V. Clothes outside the Catherine Malandrino presentation. I say “outside” which made it all the more frustrating, even for heavy-hitters such as Ken. The crowd of onlookers was so thick, that even Ken had problems getting into the cordoned-off viewing area. Once I secured a spot, it seemed that the media-genic Malandrino, who’s been tapped to design Lacoste, over-indulged her inner hippie. Much of what she designed appeared to be mostly crochet garments that looked…odd, even on the sub-size zero models posing in the Lincoln Center courtyard.

Ken made the droll comment, “Women do not want to look like they just dipped into a vintage trunk to get dressed.”

He went on to say that his customers text and email him constantly, asking him what he thinks is new and great, and most importantly, is there something for them he’s seen? They’re very conscious of what designers are showing, but they rely on him – heavily – to make sure they look trendy, but not like foolish fashion victims.
Ken’s experience at Neiman’s is similar to the one Ballietes’ co-owner, Bob Benham,
has but on a somewhat smaller scale.
Bob told us he also gets texts and calls on his phone about special pieces his best clients want after they’ve viewed the latest styles on sites such as www.style.com. He hedges his bets by collaborating with similar high-end specialty stores. Lela Rose is one of the biggest sellers in his Oklahoma City based boutique.

Fortuitously, right after our chat with Ken, I was able to get a good look at one section of the Malandrino presentation. What I saw was dismaying – crochet sweaters that were a way too literal take on the “flower power”
years, and frayed leggings

that looked like something a Bon Jovi groupie might have worn back in the eighties. It is extremely hard to believe that sophisticated women in New York, Boston, D.C., Chicago or Dallas would want to blast back so literally to the past. A reference is just that, a reference, not a straight-out reinterpretation of the past.
While it’s commendable to try something different, the risk is that a designer [as we witnessed at Sinister] can fall flat on their face doing so. This brings to mind joke about the “cutting-edge” sweater with three arms. Why?? Who is actually wearing that?

Vintage can be done right. Fashion has been preoccupied with vintage and many fashionable women have worn vintage pieces with pride and looked great. I’ll be discussing that some more in a post later this week, which features Joanna Mastroianni and Elene Cassis. The Look On Line’s Marilyn Kirschner
always looks amazing and I can’t remember a day I haven’t seen her wearing something vintage. She is one of The New York Times Bill Cunningham’s favorite subjects to snap because of her highly individual style. The word “something” is key. Marilyn’s look works because she incorporates vintage into her look and does not wear it literally, or look like she fell into the vintage bin. In the end, if the women reject it [the collection], it’s clothes. If they accept it, it’s fashion.

>Dick Page for Shiseido, Backstage at United Bamboo s/s2011

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TEXT, Vivian Kelly
Video, Lisa Johnson

Dick Page, Artistic Director for Shiseido is the man when it comes to doing polished makeup with one distinct element that has you looking again at the model’s face.
That was the unifying thread between the different looks he created for these NYFW shows Zero + Maria Cornejo, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez
Michael Kors, United Bamboo and Band of Outsiders.
I first became aware of Dick and his work in the late nineties, when my boss, Michael Kors, hired him to do the spring show. Michael had decided to show at Bryant Park and wanted some edge to the look. Show Producer Alex de Betak thought it would be interesting to do something on the dangerous side [a departure from the beautiful glamazons Bobbi Brown used to help create in the prior seasons.].
He referenced Brian de Palma’s 1984 thriller, ‘Body Double’, starring a dangerously somewhat punk Melanie Griffith,

“A well built woman who strips with her window open each night” who tempted ‘Jake”, who was house sitting for his actor-friend, ‘Frank’. Jake becomes obsessed with meeting her and gets caught in a bizarre web of murder and intrigue.

These days, Dick is still doing Michael’s show, and is among the most sought-after editorial stars for runway shows, and he’s added commercial and theatrical projects to his body of work. Add to that, his job as Artistic Director for Shiseido, and doing the makeup for a Broadway Play. His collaboration with Shiseido started way back in 1997, when he worked on the Japanese-based INOUI line, which he helped to relaunch in 2002 as Inoui ID. In 2007, he was named Artistic Director of Shiseido The Makeup, in which he’s a color creator and Product Developer for the brand- worldwide. The best part about this is that now we can go to the counters in the USA and pick-up the shades he’s created rather than begging a friend to ship it to us from Japan.

In our interview backstage, pre-United Bamboo, Dick showed us a gorgeous new color he was excited about,Dragon Red [a best-selling Shiseido lipstick] with some gold flecks in it”. On the other side of the spectrum, is a beige-gold color that is pretty, and anything but “EMU”. This nude-ish color is perfect if you’re looking to channel a look seen in the Michael Kors Collections ads, in which Carmen Kass looks natural and polished, each and every season. The ideal lip color to achieve this look is Shiseido Rouge Perfect Lipstick in Dune [BE310], which he used later that week for the Michael Kors s/s2011 show.
Another great look is the bold, fun one Dick created for Marc by Marc Jacobs. The eye-catching red lip at Marc Jacobs – Shiseido Makeup Perfect Rouge Lipstick in Day Lily (OR418) is on my fall makeup buy list.

The atmosphere at United Bamboo was decidedly more mellow than backstage at a Marc or Michael show, so we had time for some fun questions, in addition to the usual, “So, what’s your inspiration?” ones.

I found-out a few things about Dick that I didn’t’ know before our informal pre-show chat.
#1: Dick is a Pilates Fan.
#2: Dick was a butcher, in a previous lifetime, before he began his second career is being one of the world’s top makeup artists.
#3: He’s got one foot into his third and fourth careers –
doing photography, and working on the makeup for a Broadway Play.

>Backstage Beauty at Yigal Azrouel’s s/s2011 Show

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TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

While I love the pretty slightly mussed look makeup artist Bobbi Brown and Kevin Ryan/Frank Rizierri concocted for Tibi, it was great to see some avant garde beauty looks that could have played on the more cutting edge Parisian runways. Such was the case when we stepped backstage to speak with Yigal Azrouel about Fashion Verus Clothes. [watch for Post #4 the week of 10/11].
We lingered to stop and chat with Nonie Crème of butter London [prior post]. While Mark Behnke of Fashion Tribes caught-up with Nonie, I was busy snapping-away at the makeup look created by M.A.C. Cosmetic’s Lucia Pica.
Lucia has countless editorials and show credits under her belt, including the sexy femme fatale for Louis Vuitton Cruise.

I was drawn to what she’d done for Yigal’s show, a makeup look that gave the models’ face an eerily plastic and futuristic appearance, amped up with a splashes of neon pink or orange. The plasticity was highlighted by Bumble & Bumble’s Neil Moodie’s
“wet head”
hairstyle. The slicked-back hair was a welcome alternative to the plethora of seventies frizzy crimped hair and sixties beehives that were all over the runways in both New York and Paris. The look was sexy and urban-futuristic. Neil’s no stranger to sexy though. He’s the man behind the sexy beach hair in the A/X Armani
ads.
The overall effect Pica and Moodie achieved, reminded me of something you’d see at a Galliano show. Neon is “yesterday” when it comes to clothes, but it’s a fun alternative if you want to channel the dangerous female replicant, ‘Pris’, played by Daryl Hannah, in Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic, ‘Bladerunner’. Even though the movie’s

over 20 years old, the look is still compelling, and fashion has always loved a dangerous woman, be it one of Helmut Newton’s
chic dominatrixes, or Yigal’s coolly confident woman.

>Molly Grad’s s/s2011 Gottex Collection

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TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

I first met Molly Grad at Mercedes Benz Swim in Miami last year, when Lou Iacovelli introduced us, telling me she was stepping-into Gideon Oberson’s shoes at Gottex. I wondered if she shared Gideon’s point of view – that one should dress for the pool.
I was dubious. Gideon Oberson was the Karl Lagerfeld of swimwear. I wondered if Molly [or anyone for that matter] could live up to his high standards. My guess was that Molly would go for a harder, more avant-garde take on Gottex. I envisioned lots of shiny latex, something Helmut Newton-esque, perhaps. This, I based on research, in which I discovered that the Central Saint Martins grad had some beautifully edgy demi-couture collection under her belt. The collection dated from London Fashion Week 2006, but the exaggerated silhouettes and glam factor were already in place.

After viewing Molly’s first Gottex collection at NYFW, I stopped doubting.
The first show she did featured just such a Newton-esque suit, and I loved it, as did every editor I spoke with post-show. While more “modern”, like Gideon’s Gottex, Molly’s Gottex was about suits made for posing and partying- not do laps – in. In that sense, she’d succeeded, on her first outing, but I wanted more of those sexy suits. They fit the Gottex brand, but they were younger, more modern.
My wish was granted at the s/s2011 show.
The models looked as if they were on their way to a night of parties, in which they’d hop from yacht
to yacht, moored on the Pointe Croisette.
Maybe the night’s festivities would include stopping-off at the bar at the Hotel Majestic Cannes, for drinks and then finish-up at someone’s fabulous villa for some pre-dawn
partying. The music at the show, [watch video], the gorgeous red sun at the top of the runway, the done hair all added to the louche fantasy.