SOIE

SOIE APRIL 2015 $4.75 w w w. s o i e m a g . c o m

FASHION BECOMES

AN ART FORM

A LOOK INSIDE THE CREATIVE MINDS

SOIE ANGÉLICA MONTERO MARÍA TERESA CURE Editors In Chief

ANGÉLICA MONTERO Art Director

EDITORIAL ANGÉLICA MONTERO Editorial Coordinator MARÍA TERESA CURE Editorial Coordinator HEARST CORPORATION Publisher

CONTRIBUTERS JULIET MONTERO THE BLONDE SALAD DOMINICK SHELDON COPENHAGUE FASHION WEEK LOUIS CLÉMENT

HEARST MAGAZINES INTERNATIONAL DUNCAN EDWARDS President/CEO

INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS ANA TORREJÓN Soie Argentina KELLIE HUSH Soie Australia MARIA PRATA Soie Brazil

SIMON HORNE Senior Vice President

MELANIA PAN Soie Spain GLENDA BAILEY Soie United States JUSTINE PICARDIE Soie England

JEANETTE CHANG International Publishing Director

JOANNA GORA Soie Poland NATALYA GUZENKO Soie Ukraine

Bracelet, Valentino

EDITOR’S LETTER

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e a re more t h an h on ou re d t o fi nal l y be able t o re le ase t h is issu e t o the publ i c aft e r so ma ny we e k s of in cre di bl y hard work , an d we are foreve r g rat eful to al l

t h e p e op le wh o con t ribu t e d a n d mad e t h is p oss i ble. Wi th t h is mag a z in e , we wa n t t o make p e op le re aliz e t h at fashi on isn’ t ju st abou t p re tt y clot h e s or ex p e n sive d e sig ners: fas h ion is a n art , a way t o ex p re ss you rse lf t h rou gh shapes a n d colou rs. It ’s n ot ju st look in g g ood for t h e s ake of i t, it ’s a bou t fe e lin g comfort a ble in you r own sk in whi le doi ng so. Th e fa sh ion world ca n be big a n d me a n , bu t there are a lways small p lace s wh e re you n g a n d t a le n t e d people can come t o in ord e r t o sh ow t h e world wh a t t h ey’ ve got under t h e ir arms, an d we h op e t h at t h is mag a z in e be com es one of t h ose p la ce s. We wa n t t o make su re we e mp ower wom en in t h e fa sh ion world in t h e most in clu sive way possi ble: wh it e , black , p oc, t ran s, me n t a lly an d p hysica lly di sabled wome n . Eve ryon e is we lcome h e re , be cau se fashi on i s not exclu sive ly for wh it e t h in wome n , an d like it was sai d before , fash ion is a n a rt , a n d a rt is some t h in g t hat can be used by a nd for a nyo n e . We ve r y m u c h h o pe t h a t t h is ma g az in e re ach e s t h e h an d s of t h e rig h t p eople, and in spires a l l t y p es o f wo m e n a ro u n d t h e g lo b e t o p u rsu e t h e ir d re a m wit h in t h e fash ion cre a t ive world, and let the i r i ma gi na t i o n f low f re e ly. I n t h i s i ssue , we ce le brat e t h e Q u e e n s of Black Powe r in mu sic: El l a Fi t zgerald , Bi l l i e Hol i day a n d Ni n a Si m o n e a n d ou r n ew favou rit e lad y in mu sic, F K A Twig s. We t a lk about the new qu een of f a s hi o n blo g g i n g t h a t ’s t a k i n g ove r t h e in t e rn e t , an d sin ce a n ew se ason of Hau t e Couture has pas s ed by, we h ave t h e se a so n’s c olo u rf ul t re n d s, as we ll as t h e n ove lt ie s on d e sig n e rs eve ryone w i l l be buzzi ng a b ou t i n n o t i m e : d a n i sh Freya Dalsjo, Sop h ia We bst e r a n d ott oma n p rin ce ss Yaz Bu key. We al so discuss t he rec ent so c i a lly i n c lusi ve m ove s wit h in t h e fash ion world , an d fin a lly, we ex p lore Ge h ry ’s Loui s Vuitton Fou nd a t i on b u i ldi n g wh i le Je a n Pa u l Gau lt ie r a n d Comme s d e Ga rçon s p re se n t u s t h e ir la test work, displayed a s ex hi b i t i o n s i n m u se um s. We h o pe you e n joy t h e issu e as mu ch as we e n joye d work in g on i t.

Mayte Cure

Angelica Montero

Reach us on Twitter: @maytecure2 and @angiemonteror

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April 2015 · SOIE · 7

SOIE APRIL 2015

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BLACK POWER Three great style icons from the 60’s

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DIVERSITY Changing the fashion world

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DESIGNERS New talent to be discovered

EXHIBITIONS Fashion takes over museums

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P hot o: C H r ist ian Lou bout in shoes ava ila ble o n w ww. soie st yle .com

IT GIRL Chiara Ferragni’s world

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FKA TWIGS Her music & style

April 2015 · SOIE · 8

Yelena Yemchuk photographs Olympia Campbell for Orla Kiely

Spring/Summer 2015 campaign.

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1. DELPOZO, dress. 2. STELLA JEAN, Coat. 3. DOLCE & GABBANA, Leather Bag. 4. Marni, Earrings. 5. Oscar de la Renta, Clutch. 6. Kenneth Jay Lane, Orchid Pin. 7 . W a l t e r S t e i g e r , T w o - P i e c e P e e p To e S a n d a l . 8 . T o m e , C o t t o n T w i l l C u l o t t e P a n t .

9 . R a u w o l f S h a l i m a r, C l u t c h . 1 0 . G I A N V I TO R O S S I , h i g h a n k l e s t i l e t t o p u m p s .

11 . D E L P O Z O , C a p e C o a t . 1 2 . E k T h o n g p r a s e r t , B l u e F l o w e r s S i l i c o n e N e c k l a c e .

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April 2015 路 SOIE 路 10

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COLOURS NTIALS 19

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1 2 . E k T h o n g p r a s e r t , N e c k l a c e . 1 3 . R e e d K r a k o f f , s k i r t . 1 4 . U n i t e d B a m b o o , To p .

1 5 . M e a d h a m K i r c h h o f f M a r i a , s w e a t e r. 1 6 . S I M O N E R O C H A , S h o e s .

17. Prada, Sandal.

18. Kenneth Jay Lane, Necklace. 19. DOLCE & GABBANA, Sunglasses.

2 0 . F E N D I , Tw o J o u r s M e d i u m S h o p p e r. 2 1 . M O S C H I N O , B a c k p a c k . 2 2 . J i l S a n d e r, t r o u s e r s .

23. Maison Margiela, long cardi-coat. 24. Marni, dress.

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April 2015 路 SOIE 路 11

BLACK POWER WITHIN FASHION Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and Billie Holiday: the three great black style icons that changed the music world and the way black women were seen in it.

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lla Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone represent

like her, extraordinary, and her most popular accesory were flowers

the three most powerful jazz singers of the 20th century.

on her head. Billie loved wearing femenine pieces, combining them

They were all unique talents, who used their voices to raise

with delicate dresses inspired, as Ella, in the new waves of fresh air

awareness on black struggle and kicked doors to let themselves in,

that came from Europe. However, her success wouldn’t last long,

in times where women were not accepted, let alone black women.

because the racism of the 1950’s fell hard on her and she would

Ella Fitzgerald, Lady Ella, Queen of the Jazz, started her career

soon die, alone, pursued by the police. Billie Holiday was the wom-

in Harlem, in the 30’s, in times of war and fear, and quickly earned

an who changed the way pop and jazz music were performed, who

respect on behalf of the music world using her unique and delicate

transmitted charm and grace, but also sadness and disappointment

voice. Her most famous music collaboration was with black genius

from the world that surrounded her.

Louis Armstrong, but her success was not certainly not because

Nina Simone was born in the 1930’s and earned her fame for

of this man: Ella earned her amazing success by recording over 25

being a prolific songwriter, producer, singer, pianist, and Civil’s

studio albums, her most productive decade being the 60’s, in which

Rights Activist. Nina believed in equality, and she fought for her

she recorded most of her albums. Her fashion style evolved as her

rights up to the point where she had to leave the US, for which by

prodigious voice did: the classic 1930 suits quickly received influ-

consequent, she lived in several and different countries around the

ence from the european fashion, that mixed candidly with her black

world. Her voice combined the passion that characterizes jazz and

indentity, expressed in midi Dior inspired dresses, and skirts that

soul singers, but her way to jazz like-sing was her trademark and

suited her perfectly curvy body and always made her look femenine

in her live performances she never stopped singing sermones from

while singing the words “I wish I knew how to break this spell, I ought

her childhood while also letting the audience know about all the is-

to say no, at least I’m gonna say that I tried”.

sues black people were currently struggling with. She became pop-

Billie Holliday didn’t live long enough to enjoy her old ages like Ella did. Her life was tragic, from the very beginning, but her witty

ular in the late 50’s and her boom arrived well into the 60’s and 70’s, just in time for the Blooming of the Civil Rights fight in the US.

ways and her powerful voice marked a difference that made her

It is known that Simone participated in the Selma-Montgom-

earn the title of Lady Day. From a very young age, Billie started

ery marches and was an advocate for reacting instead of pacifically

singing in the same place as Ella, Harlem, but soon she became

demanding change. Her beliefs and her black identity were present

the first black woman to sing for a white orchestra, something that

in her style: the Afro as her symbol of recognition mixed with her

was unthinkanble during the 1930’s, and she suffered and strug-

to wear bright colours, long pants, tunics and comfortable shoes,

gled with racism during those years and the years to come. Her

never losing her elegant touch. Nina died in France in the 1970’s,

success truly started during the 1940’s, when her song God Bless

but her music has and will always be remembered as energetic and

The Child became her most famous song. Her fashion style was,

resounding, just like her style was.

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April 2015 · SOIE · 13

P HO TO: TH E B L ON D E S AL AD

C

C CHIARA FERRAGNI

Chiara Ferragni’s first big luxury purchase was a Louis Vuitton Speedy bag, bought when she was 18 and working as a showroom model. Now the fashion blogger, social media sensation, and international law student, 26, works with the French brand, starring in a promotional video and appearing in LV photo shoots. It’s all thanks to her blog, the Blonde Salad, which she started in 2009 to share photos of her chic outfits and cool trips. (The name comes from Ferragni’s then golden mane and the mix of content she featured.) “I never liked the idea of taking a photo just for yourself—I think everything is better when shared,” explains the native of Cormano, Italy, who favors leggy looks like skinny jeans with a leather jacket and ankle boots, or flirty minidresses. “In the beginning, my boyfriend at the time would say, ‘This will lead you nowhere.

You are wasting so much time on nothing.’ But I always understood the power of the blog, even if I had no clue what it would become.”

What the Blonde Salad has become is a site with 700,000 followers— through which Ferragni has been cast in a video for Miss Dior perfume, designed a capsule collection of Superga sneakers, and launched a line of sparkly slippers, which are sold in about 200 stores worldwide. In December she published a style manual in Italy, and last month she debuted a small collection of shoes for Steve Madden.

And she continues to up her digital game: The Blonde Salad got a design overhaul in January, and Ferragni has found an even wider audience via Instagram, where she has more than 1.5 million followers. She captions her wardrobe changes, travel snaps, and playful selfies with hashtags like #theblondesaladneverstops.

“What I now post on Instagram, I used to post on Facebook and Twitter, and no one got it,” Ferragni says. “They’d ask: ‘Why do you post photos of your new bag? Is it just to make us jealous?’ Now people are starting to understand.”

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April 2015 · SOIE · 15

TONI HALONEN FOR KENZO

TONI HALONEN FOR KENZO

FKA Twigs photographed by Dominick Sheldon

FKA

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A British musician called FKA Twigs caught the eye of the fashion world from her ver y first magazine shoot — the cover of i-D’s pre-fall 2012 issue, which featured the word love spelled out across her forehead in baby hairs. With a distinct fashion sense and heart-shaped face, Twigs be-

came an instant style icon. But what has earned the self-determined, strong 26-yearold a growing cadre of devotees is her unique, intimate music, which mixes up elements of R&B, hip-hop, and British dance styles for a new kind of avant-garde pop. As a producer and singer, she is a lesson in contrast — her high-register voice is silken among her grating beats, and she is unafraid to tinker with the thin line between pleasure and pain, both lyrically and visually.

Twigs spent much of her life as a professional dancer, and her videos often feature her interpretive skills.

Her background in dance also makes her perfect for high-fashion photography; but don’t let her musical and physical intensity fool you — Twigs is as chill as can be. “Someone asked me yesterday, ‘Do you meditate?’

No, I don’t meditate! I watch trash TV when I get out of the studio,” she laughs. “It’s really easy to project this

TWIGS

whole ideology of what being an artiste is, and I’m just not down with intellectualizing it. I just think, if you feel like doing something, then do it.” Her commitment to artistic fearlessness couldn’t be more evident than in her lyrics. Her songs speak of lust, longing, paranoia and obsession, underpinned with raw melancholic sensuality that teeters from submissive

to dominant within a few bars. She wears her heart on her sleeve at all times. “I don’t know if I’m a tortured soul, but I was born heartbroken,” twigs says candidly. “I remember feeling it when I was so young. I used to talk to my mum about how much it hurt.” She refuses to go into detail about any of the songs’ deeper meanings, saying that they’re open for individual interpretation – and that they are definitely not all about sex. “I’d like to think my songs are empowering,” she says, confidently. “It doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable putting myself out there at all. When I stopped really thinking about writing a song, when I stopped really wanting to be a songwriter and a lyricist, ever ything fell into the rightplace. It wasn’t a conscious thing, it just happened. Even my own style, how I dressed, how I wrote songs, how I heard my music sonically, it was all swilling around, and then ever ything just gelled, literally within a three-month period a couple of years ago. I really understood who I was and what I wanted to say and express through all the things I can do.”

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April 2015 · SOIE · 19

MODEL: WINNIE HARLOW

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April 2015 路 SOIE 路 18

the new faces of

fashion The world is changing. Not evolving slowly like a smarmy Darwin sequel, but twisting, turning and trending into a protostar of a new-wave cultural phenomenon. I realised the truth behind this statement this morning when cultivating a stomach and watching the morning news – the topic was the solar eclipse and the forefront piece of advice was: “Do not look at the eclipse, and do not take selfies with it”. Taking this revolutionary realisation to the Internet, I scrolled the fashion pages execute further research regarding the New Generation 2.0. And I must say – transgender models, political shows and a surge of Sylvia Plath-style article lyricalism – the world of fashion is not changing, the people in it are, for the better. Diverse casting has proved itself to be a worldwide movement. #castmemarc has returned, this time asking one to take a photo with one’s best friend, amputee models are fronting fragrances and it no longer has to be a contracted obligation to feature black models on the catwalk. As David Bowie wished for in the dreamy days of intergalactic nirvana, it is finally time to “turn and face the strange”. The ‘lame’, honest and psychedelically-minded youths who work, respect and dream are rising: and the more individual, innovate and intelligent; the better. This new art and cultural aesthetic is also trickling down to us, the middle-class mass mayhem. And no, it cannot be compared to the enigmatic Margret Thatcher trickle-down system; but rather one where the 99% are being represented. For example, JC Penny‘s mannequins were modelled upon people of multiple shapes, wheel chair-user Dawna Callahan, former Army paratrooper Neil Duncan, (who is an amputee) and the 6 foot basketball player Desiree Hunter. Yet, the fashion world is still under-going a nip and tuck: Helen Williams was the first black fashion model. This was in the 50s, when non-violent resistance, not morality, shaped a civil rights movement. However, when deepsea diving into casting research in regards to the AW15 shows (in all of the four fashion capitals); there was an inordinate divide – out of 9,538 model bookings in 373 shows, 80% were white – only 3% lower than last year’s shows.

Whilst 8% of all models at the four fashion weeks (collectively) were black, less than 1% were Middle Eastern. Models should be recognized, essentially, as a clothes hanger with spunk and personality – someone who makes the clothes look groovy, not someone who is noted for their skin colour or waist size or whatever. But within the high fashion world, individualism will only be prized once diversity is no-longer the Toxic Waste of a sweet shop. This week, 14 year-old transgender activist Jazz Jennings has been announced as the new face of Johnson & Johnson brand Clean & Clear, whilst New York Fashion Week showed American Horror Story actress Jamie Brewer (diagnosed with down syndrome) salubriously strutting down the catwalk, and vitiligo model Winnie Harlow has been announced as the face of Diesel. Because you may think it sounds false, brands boasting diversity for the sake of commercialism, highlighting the fact that they cast a human with a disease or syndrome as if they were some sort of circus freak.

But there must be some honesty behind it – for something to become normal it has to be believed. People have to deem it “right” to see a girl with a skin condition in the place of a lithe limbed Lolita because then that belief can become truth. The need for truth in fashion sprouted from the grungy cracks of the late 90s, when Alexander McQueen was attacked by the British press when Paralympic athlete and (later) McQueen muse Aimee Mullins opened his show wearing a pair of wooden legs. McQueen simply replied with the following: “I made a point of not putting her in sprinting legs. We did try them on but I thought no, that’s not the point of this exercise. The point is that she was to mould in with the rest of the girls.” McQueen chose Mullins to open his show because she represented what he wanted to communicate with his collection: strength, beauty, and individuality — not for shock factor. Begin to see the world for how it must become if you are to live in it.

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April 2015 · SOIE · 21

Ta ken f r om S le ek 40 “M an & B oy” . Total loo k by Fr ey a D al sj ö

freya dasjlØ FREYA DALSJØ is designed by Danish fashion designer Freya Dalsjö. After living in Berlin she moved to Antwerp to study fashion at the renowned Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and in June 2012 she launched her own brand FREYA DALSJØ. The same year she was granted the honour of opening Copenhagen Fashion Week SS13 with her debut collection. A debut which Didder Rønlund describes this way: “She arrived, presented and scored with a collection filled with fashion boldness, …” FREYA DALSJØ provokes the establishment with an artistic and architectural approach to fashion. Her signature is the beauty in the balance between contrasts; materials, textures, colours & emotions. Her love for fur has been further explored through a collaboration with Kopenhagen Fur. A material which she irreverently mixes with neoprene. The ideal of FREYA DALSJØ is a woman, who is not even doubting. She is not innocent, but confident and seductive. She doesn’t uniform herself with clothes, but frames herself in it. As to what her inspiration comes from, she says she mostly wanted to go in depth with the classical tailoring in a modern way, recurring to the well-known art of reproduction in the fashion design world. Freya and her team would design a single print, and then everything that came after that, proceeded from the print itself: they would try out embroidery, and then mix the print with the fur, and have even the cut outs be based on the original print design. It all ended up looking like a puzzle, but definitely a neatly organized and well-crafted one. She also remarks the importance of showing your collection in contrast to just having it in a showroom, given the fact that showing the collection is a way to create an entire identity and expression for it instead of just having it hanging in there; it’s important to create a whole atmosphere that matches the look you’re seeking, with the help of elements such as music, to help communicate the main idea. The concept of sustainability in her designs and productions is also a huge part of her essence as a designer: she says that sustainability in fashion is not just about the materials, but also about making things that people would want to have in their closets for a long period of time, not just stuff that they would consider throwing away after a month or even a year later. The point is to design unique, timeless pieces that people can use to express their mood, or feel identified with.

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April 2015 · SOIE · 27

P H OTO S: C O U RT ES Y OF YA Z B U K EY

HAND IN GLOVE causse + yaz

Fashion designer Yaz Bukey, originally from Paris -and ottoman princess- mostly well known for her jewelry shop made from Plexiglas, has teamed up with the infamous Maison Causse to create a unique collection. Yaz’ most characteristic elements turn the fine leather skin gloves into a jewelry itself; besides, the packaging for the gloves is a box with a 1930’s vibe that can be used as a clutch. There are three designs from Yazbukey’s world: the famous C’est Ahh… lips, Eye Spy eyes, and Hand in Glove jeweled fingers. The Plexiglas elements are added to Maison Causse’s black lambskin gloves. Fantastic piece!

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April 2015 · SOIE · 29

SOPHIA WEBSTER

behind the new great shoe designer

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After school she worked with Nicholas Kirkwood for two years as his first-ever assistant. He offered to mentor her for those two years, with the promise that he would help her launch her first collection. This is the result. She’s already been picked up by Bergdorf, Net-a-Porter, Neiman, Saks, Harvey Nichols, and Colette, to name a few. The theme of her first full collection--which she showed in London last week--was “Welcome to the Dollhouse.” Models posed as “dolls” in boxes, sort of like giant Barbies, complete with tons of extra shoes for accessorizing. The shoes themselves are a riot of color and quirky design elements: Aztec prints, hearts, polka dots, flamingoes, and prints of colorful houses in Brazil. “I went on a holiday for 10 days in Rio [the shoes are also produced in Brazil] and I saw all these colors and went a bit crazy with the colors and the prints,” Webster told us at her presentation. “All the prints are hand drawn...I like to have my ‘handwriting’ on [my work].” A picture of Patricia Arquette in True Romance, which appeared on the show notes, gives you an idea of the aesthetic: Hyper, in-your-face femininity. The shoes range from flats to stiletto, with every sort of platform in between. They are absolute street style fodder and I guarantee you’re going to be seeing them everywhere.

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April 2015 · SOIE · 30

TOMMY HILFIGER

Photography courtesy of Siobhan Pitchfork

FASHION exhibitions

LOUIS VUITTON a glass palace designed by Frank Gehry A very much-anticipated Louis Vuitton Foundation, in Paris, is now open to the public. The massive museum for contemporary art, designed by Frank Gehry, is a spectacle: The gallery spaces are contained in cement blocks covered by massive, curved western

pieces of glass. Set in a public park in the Bois de Boulogne in the part

from the future. Ber-

of the city, the structure seems to alight on the earth like a spaceship nard Arnault, the 65-year-old chairman and chief executive of LVMH Moët

Hennessy Louis Vuitton, commissioned the museum, and both he and Gehry hope this building will be an indisputably positive contribution to a complicated legacy. Museums, opera houses, and the like are generally considered the domain of government bureaucracy in France. But LVMH managed to sidestep the usual objections by building the structure in a public park. In an agreement with the city for the plot, ownership of the museum will revert to Paris in 55 years. Even though the ostentatious design rankled a NIMBY group, the museum is, in essence, a gift to the city worth a reported $134 million. In France, Arnault is known as a ruthless businessman who descends upon and snatches up family-run luxury businesses at the first sign of weakness. The museum is one part of a PR campaign to show Arnault’s softer side and his commitment to culture and heritage. Jean-Paul Claverie, who’s in charge of LVMH’s philanthropic endeavors, told the New York Times that the foundation is aimed at yielding “not economic returns but emotional ones.”

Gehry doesn’t have a spotless reputation, either. Critical opinion is often split over his creations, and the cantankerous octogenarian isn’t known for his diplomacy. Most recently, at a press conference in Spain, he dismissed “98 percent” of today’s architecture as “pure shit.” Regardless of where you fall on the Gehry appreciation spectrum, you can at least give him credit for defining a distinctive aesthetic rooted in digital computing. The Louis Vuitton Foundation takes his signature approach to the next level.

According to his office, more than 400 people contributed design plans, engineering rules, and construction constraints to a shared Web-hosted 3D digital model. The 3,600 glass panels and 19,000 concrete panels that form the façade were simulated and then molded by industrial robots working off that common model. Gehry says the glass structure echoes 19th-century glass garden buildings. But he also revisits his obsession with maritime imagery.

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April 2015 · SOIE · 35

G A U L T I E R

FASHION exhibitions

T h e

great

Brooklyn Muse-

um is the only

East Coast venue for The

Fashion World of Jean

Paul Gaultier: From the Sideinternational

exhibition

walk to the Catwalk, the first

ded-

icated to the groundbreaking

French couturier. Playful, poetic,

and transformative, Gaultier’s su-

perbly crafted and detailed garments are inspired by the beauty and diversity of global cultures. With his avant-garde fashion creations and cutting-edge designs, Gaultier has shaped the look of fashion over the last 40 years. His reputation for witty and daring designs and a ceaseless interest in society, identity and a beauty borne of difference has earned him a place in fashion history. Gaultier is fascinated by world cultures and countercultures, conceiving a new kind of fashion in both the way it is made and worn. Through twists, transformations, transgressions and reinterpretations, he not only erases the boundaries between cultures but also the sexes, redefining the idea of androgyny or subverting fashion codes. This theatrically-staged exhibition brings together more than 165 cutting-edge couture and ready-to-wear garments including iconic costumes for film and performance from the early 1970s to the present day. The infamous conical bra and corsets Madonna wore during her 1990 Blonde Ambition World Tour are showcased alongside stage costumes designed for Kylie Minogue as well as pieces created for the films of Pedro Almodóvar, among others. Gaultier’s rich collaborations with renowned artists and photographers such as Miles Aldridge, David LaChapelle, Pierre et Gilles, Peter Lindbergh, Herb Ritts, Stéphane Sednaoui, Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol are also shown together with footage of catwalk presentations, concerts, music videos, films and dance performances. This multimedia exhibition is organized around seven themes tracing the influences on Gaultier’s development—from the streets of Paris to the cinema—since he emerged as a designer in the 1970s. It features approximately 140 haute couture and prêt-à-porter ensembles, from the designer’s earliest to his most recent collections, many of which are displayed on custom mannequins with interactive faces created by high-definition audiovisual projections. Accessories, sketches, stage costumes, excerpts from films, and documentation of runway shows, concerts, and dance performances, as well as photographs by fashion photographers and contemporary artists who stepped into Gaultier’s world, explore how his avant-garde designs challenge societal, gender, and aesthetic codes in unexpected ways. The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk is organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in collaboration with Maison Jean Paul Gaultier, Paris. The exhibition is curated by Thierry-Maxime Loriot of the MMFA. The Brooklyn presentation is coordinated by Lisa Small, Curator of Exhibitions, Brooklyn Museum.

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April 2015 · SOIE · 37

A LL P H OTOG R AP H S TAK E N BY: C LÉ M EN T LOU I S

“I want to find something nobody has ever found.. it is meaningless to create something predictable.”

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April 2015 · SOIE · 38

FASHION exhibitions

Comme des Garçons is somewhat of a paradox.

On the one hand, it is a concept-led label created by Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo in the early 1970s a label that has never ceased to push boundaries.

On the other hand, Comme is also a tentacular business model managed with her husband Adrian Joffe, which boasts countless diffusions lines, a range of perfumes and three massive concept stores in London, New-York and Tokyo. Still, these two sides remain indivisible, and a cult brand has emerged from this ambivalence.

Within fashion itself, Kawakubo’s work is often perceived as obscure and challenging. Her singular stance is that of an artist rather than a designer, as she systematically questions our conceptions of what clothing is. “I break the idea of ‘clothes’” she wrote in System magazine (2013). Her collections do not reflect trends, reject gender binaries, ignore the human body. They are essentially un-fashionable, evolving in the secluded, intriguing sphere of her intellect.

RED, Comme des Garçons : Innovation and Provocation is set as an immersive experience, bathing in a glow of blood-red light, and features a selection of iconic pieces drawn from Strut London’s archives, from 1994 to 2012.

A series of photographs by James Ari King and stylist Amanda Hansson punctuates the exhibition alongside fragments from various interviews with Kawakubo. RED is curator Jeffrey Horsley’s look on the essence of Kawakubo’s unique vision.

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April 2015 · SOIE · 39