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BACK9 – FASHION
Dressed to Thrill by Leilani Marie Labong
Cout ure collector Christine Suppes t urns top model for her new book. Succumbing to tech’s planetary domination, Silicon Valley couture collector Christine Suppes launched Fashionlines, the first online fashion magazine covering the world of Parisian haute couture, in 1999. The digital endeavor seemed a tad ironic considering the inherent craftsmanship of couture gowns—it can take many months to design and hand-sew every stitch of these glamorous masterpieces. In Electric Fashion (Skira Rizzoli), a new book by Suppes and London photographer Fredric Aranda, Suppes’s extensive couture collection is documented as an intricate inventory not just of her rare and exquisite garments—think fantastical eighteenth-century-inspired jackets by Christian Lacroix and Rodarte tie-dyed gowns—but also of the collector’s personal stories. Suppes’s words are conversational and candid, chronicling everything from her cyber litmus test (“Does it look good on the Internet? Can we see the art and return it to our Internet experience in a way that enriches us?”) to an encounter with an indignant police officer at Fort Point in San Francisco. While the initial plan for the project was scholastic—in fact, the couture garments were meant to be shot solely on mannequins—Aranda felt that such treatment would be too dull. “Something was definitely missing,” says the photographer. “So I asked Christine to pose. I actually convinced her to do it!” Channeling her inner Evangelista, Suppes modeled pieces from her collection in places all around the globe, from Chanel cocktail dresses in London’s Marylebone Village to a maize-colored On Aura Tout Vu gown at Fort Point. Turns out the aforementioned guard could not deny a glorious fashion moment. Police officers— they’re just like us.
Above: Christine Suppes
Photograph by Fredric Aranda