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LETTERS
“NOW THAT IT’S POSSIBLE TO CONNECT PRINT AND VIDEO, A NEW HYBRID IS BORN.”
Fashion Television is most often described as a magazine show for a reason. Our weekly combination of feature stories and shorter, visually driven items is not unlike the format of most fashion magazines, or any magazine for that matter. It’s a TV format borrowed from the print world. So to go the other way and make a magazine based on a TV show, although rare, makes a lot of sense, particularly now that magazines come in digital form. The digital version of this or any other magazine provides a whole new experience for the reader. It’s not just the backlit display that makes the images so powerful—it’s also the ability to marry and enhance the articles with our video version of the story. (Readers can find a selection of articles and videos for all the stories you see here at fashiontelevision.com, on the homepage.) As video adds complementary depth to each item, print allows us to explore elements of stories that TV cannot convey. Video can only tell the part of the story captured on camera, but a writer armed only with pen and paper can go anywhere their imagination and research take them. Now that it’s possible to connect print and video together, a new hybrid is born, and is quickly becoming the norm. That’s what has compelled us to venture into the magazine world.
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LETTERS
“THE CHANCE TO PROVIDE OUR AUDIENCE WITH A MULTIMEDIA EXPERIENCE IS SOMETHING I RELISH”
We talk a lot about “layering” in the fashion world. Usually it’s used in a sartorial context—mixing pieces for stylish results. But when I think of “layering,” I think of the way I’ve covered fashion over the years. I made the foray into print over 20 years ago, not content with a steady diet of television, my home medium. The luxury of being able to reflect on the TV moments I was capturing with our FT crews was exhilarating. I spent a dozen years writing for fashion magazines—satisfying creative work that not only complemented what I was doing for Fashion Television, but was also a way to touch a whole new audience in a whole new way. By the mid-’90s, I’d launched the Internet’s first fashion site, @fashion, which turned me on to a realm of possibilities that still intrigue me. After all, cyberspace is considered fashion’s final frontier. By 2000, I’d come out with my first book based on my FT adventures, and began writing for newspapers. Three years later, in 2003, I had the honour of launching FQ, a ground-breaking high-fashion glossy I edited for six glorious years. That heady exercise made me fall in love with fashion even more, and helped me understand the nature of this beautiful beast on a whole other exciting level. In my role as host of Fashion Television, I’m often the eyes and ears of our program, out there making the global rounds, getting up close and personal with the scene’s movers and shakers. Along with my talented crews, I have the thrill of capturing some extraordinary moments, which we’re privileged to beam out to viewers around the world. But being able to expound on some of this precious TV material via the printed pages of a magazine provides a different joy: It’s an opportunity to be a little more cerebral, to present fashion fans with more to chew on, something they can spend more time with than the fleeting images of television allow. And who doesn’t adore curling up with a glossy, dreamy fashion book—one that celebrates stellar images and profiles people and places in inspired new ways? I doubt I’ll ever forsake combing the trenches of fashion with my trusty television cameraman in tow—putting fashion on TV has become a way of life for me for 26 years. But the chance to embellish what’s presented on our show, and provide our audience with an actual multimedia experience, is something I truly relish. Welcome to Fashion Television magazine. The whole notion of fashion “layering” just got a whole lot sexier.
IMAGE COURTESY OF JEANNE BEKER
GREAT FRIENDS: MARISA BERENSON AND JEANNE IN PARIS, JULY 2011.
Jeanne Beker Editor-at-large
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 26
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CHIEF CREATIVE & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jay Levine CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ric Little EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & MANAGING DIRECTOR Asha Hodura EDITORIAL CONTENT DIRECTOR Howard Brull MANAGING EDITOR Mary Dickie EDITORIAL & PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Tammy Leung EDITOR-AT-LARGE Jeanne Beker PUBLISHER Geoffrey Dawe PUBLISHING PARTNER Gerry Mamone DESIGN Mamone & Partners ART ASSEMBLY & PRODUCTION Panos Katsigiannis, Gerry Long, Andy Smits CONTRIBUTORS Glen Baxter, Annette Bourdeau, Gary Burford, Nibedita Chakraborty, Laura deCarufel, David Drebin, James Gavin, Julie Hamulecki, Kristina Haugland, Joanne Huffa, Michelle Melles, Chris Metler, Ingrid Moe, Adrienne Reid, Kevin Ritchie, Nora Underwood, Katharine Vansittart, Mary-Lou Zeitoun
PRESIDENT Bell Media Kevin Crull PRESIDENT Specialty Channels and CTV Production Bell Media Inc. Rick Brace VICE-PRESIDENT Specialty Television Bell Media Inc. Catherine MacLeod VICE-PRESIDENT Bell Media Inc. Music & Entertainment Channels Neil Staite EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CTV Production Bell Media Inc. Nanci Maclean DIRECTOR, BUSINESS & LEGAL AFFAIRS Kathy Scianitti BUSINESS & LEGAL AFFAIRS CONSULTANT Terry E. Markus MARKETING MANAGER Ashley Moore SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT FASHIONTELEVISION.COM Jon Taylor, Meredith Duncan, Michelle Villagracia PRODUCTION MANAGER Viviana Kohon PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Ricky Zayshley MAGAZINE ADVERTISING CONTACT GD&CO PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Geoffrey Dawe VICE-PRESIDENT SALES Donna Murphy VP MARKETING Heidi Ferris PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Maria Musikka ACCOUNT MANAGER Sandra Peltier ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Alex Barbaris DISTRIBUTOR Disticor Magazine Distribution Service DIGITAL PRE-PRESS Clarity PRINTING Colour Innovations Inc.
FashionTelevision Magazine is produced by FashionTelevision (FT), a division of Bell Media Inc., and publishing consultants Mamone & Partners and GD&CO. Bell Media is a trademark of Bell Canada, used under license. FT and FashionTelevision are trademarks of Bell Media Inc., used under license. FashionTelevision Magazine is distributed by newsstand, select retail partners and controlled circulation. No part of the FashionTelevision Magazine may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written consent from Bell Media Inc. The views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher, editor or staff. *FashionTelevision Magazine does not take any responsibility for any unsolicited manuscripts or photography. *For more information, contact FashionTelevision Magazine at Mamone & Partners, 400 Eastern Avenue, Suite 201, Toronto, Ontario, M4M 1B9, Canada, 416-466-2522. Printed in Canada. All images courtesy of Getty Images and FashionTelevision (FT), unless otherwise credited. Copyright Š 2011 Bell Media Inc. All rights reserved.
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 28
FIND YOUR CUSTOMIZED FEKKAI COLLECTION AT FEKKAI.COM FREDERIC FEKKAI, FOUNDER AND CREATOR, WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE Volume 1, Number 1, Winter 2012
F E AT U R E S BEHIND THE SCENES AT FASHION WEEK 54 Highlights of a week in fashion: New York, London, Milan and Paris.
MODEL CHILDREN 64 The offspring of rock stars are walking designer runways and appearing in campaigns for multiple brands. Laura deCarufel finds out who’s got what it takes and who’s just riding on the parental coattails.
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98 UNDER PRESSURE 80 Considering the fashion industry’s insatiable demand for more collections, more attention, more success and more revenue in less time, is it any wonder that some designers fall apart at the seams? James Gavin investigates. THE INTERVIEW: Peter Marino 94 Jeanne Beker talks to the biker architect who designs exquisite boutiques for luxury brands in Paris.
COVER STORY: Enduring Style 98 Thirty years after her death, Grace Kelly remains a style icon. Kristina Haugland explores just what it was about the actress and princess that has made her appeal so long-lasting. Plus, photographer David Drebin interprets Kelly’s style for a modern era in a 12-page fashion pictorial.
COVER IMAGE: Portrait of Grace Kelly by Sharland © Getty Images. Digital and colour work by Lorca Moore.
94 FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 34
104
COAT & STOLE, FENDI @ HOLT RENFREW; SUNGLASSES, PRADA @ HOLT RENFREW; BOOTS, GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI @ BROWNS SHOES; SCARF AND BAG, HERMÈS
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Mercedes-Benz StartUp At Mercedes-Benz, we’ve been building cars for 125 years. Now, we’re helping to build careers in Canada’s fashion industry too. Working with IMG, a global sports, fashion and media company, and produced in conjunction with Fashion Design Council of Canada, Mercedes-Benz Start Up is a new initiative providing a national platform to discover and support up-and-coming Canadian designers who have been in the industry for less than five years. The goal of this program is to cultivate and mentor the impressive talent that exists in the Canadian Fashion industry by matching the creativity, drive and determination with the experience of industry experts. Because together, we believe a comprehensive roadmap to success can be developed and a thriving career in fashion can ensue. For the latest news on the Mercedes-Benz Start Up program, visit mercedes-benz.ca/startup.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
D E PA R T M E N T S ONE MINUTE WITH... A brief look at some interesting people making headlines in the fashion world 44
VISIONARIES Photographer Mario Testino’s singular vision 52 The enigma of Vivian Maier 88 Elle Muliarchyk turns the tables on voyeurs 124
BOOKS Former supermodel Marisa Berenson opens up to Jeanne Beker about her life and times, plus three gorgeous new fashion books 72
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72 88 ARCHITECTURE 116 Two very different but equally innovative approaches to house design
MOVING IMAGE 120 Fashion films are the new fashion photography
CLASSIC Two women simultaneously develop a hair-raising idea 128
BEHIND THE SCENES A Toronto illustrator animates Vivienne Westwood’s brain 130
FROM THE ARCHIVES Vintage clips of Azzedine Alaia and Carla Bruni 132
BACK PAGE Everyone loves a fashion disaster 136
120 FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 38
FROM TOP: IMAGES COURTESY OF MARIO TESTINO, ©MARISA BERENSON: A LIFE IN PICTURES, RIZZOLI NEW YORK 2011, JOHN MALOOF ©VIVIAN MAIER, BEHIND THE SCENES - CHANEL, THE TALE OF A FAIRY BY KARL LAGERFELD.
TREASURE 76 Elizabeth Taylor’s unparalleled collection of jewellery goes up for auction
CONTRIBUTORS
FA S H I O N T E L E V I S I O N C O N T R I B U T O R S Glen Baxter Nibedita Chakraborty Julie Hamulecki Ingrid Moe Michelle Melles Adrienne Reid
FA S H I O N T E L E V I S I O N C A M E R A S
The first time you met yourself, would you wonder why someone so fabulous is STILL single?
Patrick Pidgeon Jeff Brinkert Jim Needham Basil C. Young Jeff McNamara Donovan McNiven Dylan McNiven Rylan Vallee Stephen Gelder
KRISTINA HAUGLAND
MARY-LOU ZEITOUN
KRISTINA HAUGLAND (Enduring Style, page 98) is the Le Vine Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles and Supervising Curator of the Study Room at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she has curated numerous exhibitions. She is the author of Grace Kelly: Icon of Style to Royal Bride and Grace Kelly Style. JAMES GAVIN (Under Pressure, page 80, and All that Glitters, page 76) is the author of Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne, Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker and a forthcoming biography of Peggy Lee. He has written for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, FQ, Time Out New York and The Daily Beast, made hundreds of radio appearances and been nominated for a Grammy and an NAACP Image Award.
LAURA DECARUFEL
MARY-LOU ZEITOUN (Elle Muliarchyk, page 124) is the award-winning author of the novel 13 and a journalist who addresses music, fashion, health and world politics in her work. She also writes book reviews and is obsessed with textiles. LAURA DECARUFEL (Model Children, page 64, and Hair-Raising, page 128) has worked in fashion and travel journalism for almost a decade, and has written for a wide variety of magazines. Laura is also the co-editor of Hardly magazine (hardlymagazine.com), an online arts and style magazine for teenage girls. NORA UNDERWOOD (The Enigma of Vivian Maier, page 88) is a Toronto writer and editor who has contributed to
NORA UNDERWOOD
The Walrus, the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s and Zoomer magazine, among others.
JAMES GAVIN
of second-hand, off-therack and designer couture, much like the two houses she wrote about in this issue.
ANNETTE BOURDEAU (One Minute With..., page 44) is a Torontobased entertainment reporter and award-winning business journalist. Her varied assignments keep life interesting —on a typical day, she may find herself interviewing highprofile business leaders and Hollywood stars.
JOANNE HUFFA (Animating Westwood’s Brain, page 130) is a writer, editor and literacy volunteer in Toronto. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including NOW magazine and Magenta: A Journal of International Art. She’s inspired by Vivienne Westwood’s passion for art and social justice.
KATHARINE VANSITTART (Beyond the Box, page 116) is an editor and freelance writer who has worked for Azure magazine, Canadian House & Home, Canadian Interiors and the Globe and Mail, among other publications. Her fashion sense is similar to her approach to home design: a mix
KEVIN RITCHIE (Fashion Films, page 120) is a writer based in Toronto. He interviews pop stars, filmmakers, marketers and music video directors for a living, and recently spent the better part of four years probing the minds of advertising execs for Boards magazine.
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 40
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ONE MINUTE WITH…
ONE MINUTE WITH…
When AIMEE MULLINS was born without fibulae in both legs, doctors said she would never walk. Three-and-a-half decades later, the New York-based beauty has walked runways around the globe and set three sprinting world records at the Paralympic Games. The multi-talented athlete, actress and model shot to fame in the fashion world in 1999, when Alexander McQueen flew her to London to walk his runway in prosthetic legs hand-carved from solid ash. Mullins and McQueen sought to subvert the notion that a woman with prosthetic breasts and lips is “enhanced,” while a woman with prosthetic legs is “disabled.” Since then, Mullins, who worked as an intelligence analyst for the Pentagon when she was 17, has posed for the likes of Vogue and Glamour and starred in films by the avant-garde artist Matthew Barney, including the upcoming Ancient Evening, in which she portrays the goddess Isis. She recently signed a contract with L’Oréal Paris to become one of the brand’s global ambassadors. “I really do believe that if you follow what you’re passionate about, you can create a life rather than just make a living,” she told FT at the MET’s McQueen exhibit in New York. “There was no career path for someone like me, whether it was in sports, fashion or the art world, and yet I’m still here!”—ANNETTE BOURDEAU When DAVID BURTON left school at 16 to become a hairdresser, he never dreamed he would one day be a renowned fashion photographer married to one of the most sought-after designers in the world. “I didn’t know I could become a fashion photographer,” he recalled during a recent shoot. “I always wanted to work with the guys who did the hair on photo shoots, but it took me six or seven years to think I could be the guy that takes the picture.” Burton took night photography courses, made the right connections and ultimately found himself shooting for everyone from Vogue Paris to GQ. But it wasn’t until he met his future wife, Alexander McQueen designer Sarah Burton—best known for designing Kate Middleton’s wedding dress— that he really came into his own. “I was basically turning up on jobs and hoping to spontaneously create pictures,” he told FT. “She explained that the way she worked was to fill a room with reference material and strip it away until she finally arrived at a point of view. “Our worlds are very different—the sort of pic I take has got nothing really to do with the world of Alexander McQueen—but she helped me realize my own taste,” the charismatic shutterbug told FT, explaining how he arrived at his signature spontaneous style. “Now, I try to create something that feels like it’s not created. Photography is moments; frozen moments.”—AB
Don’t call DAPHNE GUINNESS eccentric. The stylish heiress flinches at the dismissive adjective that is often assigned to her. After all, just because she wouldn’t be caught dead in jeans and a T-shirt doesn’t mean she’s peculiar. “If you dress in any shape or form in an individual way, you’re thought of as being eccentric, but that’s because no one looks up the word ‘eccentric,’” Guinness told FT. The fashion icon famous for her over-the-top ensembles says she sees clothing as a form of self-expression, and dresses according to her moods. “I’ve never been interested in fashion, really,” she said. “It’s not like I leaf through magazines— it just comes from what I’m feeling.” This approach has resulted in a signature style that is distinctly Daphne. That’s why Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, thought Guinness would be the perfect subject for an exhibit. “Daphne is really flying the flag for individuality in fashion, and that’s why she is the fashion person’s fashion person,” Steele told FT. Guinness was happy to provide the museum with a sampling from her wardrobe. “If it’s just sitting in my cupboard, it’s not giving anybody else any pleasure,” she reasoned. Her enviable collection features pieces by everyone from Gareth Pugh and Rick Owens to Valentino, John Galliano and her close friend, the late Alexander McQueen.—AB
DAVID DREBIN thrives on provocation. The Toronto-born, New York-based photographer specializes in shots filled with drama and intrigue, and he gets them by convincing his models to leave their comfort zones. “I just try to get people out of their heads,” he told FT. “I don’t like photos that look dead; I want them to jump off the page. So I try to keep the energy alive by raising my voice. They think something’s wrong, and they do something, which makes the picture come alive.” Drebin’s latest monograph, The Morning After (shown), is a collection of cinematic, sometimes voyeuristic shots of seductive women in urban settings. But he’s aiming for much more than beautiful photos. “I try to make a great picture,” he explained. “If the models look good, great. But it’s not about people looking good—my pictures are deeper than that. I think the best photos are funny, sexy and sad—I try to get at least two of the three, anyway. I like to get dramatic pictures that make you feel something.” (Drebin also shot our Grace Kelly-inspired fashion shoot on page 104). —MARY DICKIE
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FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 45
WWW.SWAROVSKI.COM ONE MINUTE WITH…
BONUS TRACK JEAN PAUL GAULTIER is a fashion legend not just because of his dazzling technical proficiency and inventive imagination, but also because of his willingness to play with the conventions of gender and sexuality—think of his skirts for men, or the iconic conical bra he made for Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour—and celebrate diversity of age, race and size on his runways. Hot on the heels of the acclaimed exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, Gaultier presented his latest haute couture show in Paris—a retrospective of some of the greatest hits of the designer’s 35-year career. Go to fashiontelevision.com to see FT’s special on one of the world’s most admired designers.—MD
MOMENTS MOM MO OME MEN ENT NTS TS TO TO GIVE GIIVE
© SWAROVSKI 2011
GREG LAUREN has been immersed in the fashion world his entire life, yet the Los Angelesbased artist and former soap stud only recently fell into clothing design. “I learned to sew two-and-a-half years ago, because I wanted to explore identity and how fashion affects who we are,” Ralph’s pensive nephew told FT. The Young and the Restless alum’s “Alteration” exhibit in 2009 featured iconic items like threepiece suits, dinner jackets and superhero costumes constructed of paper. “[It was based on] this notion that image is powerful and potent but paper-thin,” he explains. The project deepened Lauren’s fascination with clothing, and he decided to experiment with cloth. “The first jacket I made came about when I grabbed a piece of canvas from the floor of my studio and turned it into a jacket,” he said. “It was full of imperfections and holes and mistakes, and that was the beauty of it. I wore it because it felt more like me than what I’d been wearing. Clothing is so much about trying to say something to the world about who we are.” Eventually, Lauren developed a line of menswear called GL Men’s. Rather than coasting on his famous last name and family connections, however, Lauren debuted it covertly. “I wanted people to experience it without having a preconceived notion,” he says. Lauren has also launched GL Women’s, a collection of beautifully rough pieces for the fairer sex. (Inspired by his Saved By the Bell star wife Elizabeth Berkley, perhaps?) —AB
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 46
VANCOUVER
EDMONTON
CALGARY
WINNIPEG
TORONTO
OTTAWA
MONTREAL
QUEBEC CITY
HALIFAX
WWW.SWAROVSKI.COM ONE MINUTE WITH…
After 26 years as fashion director for London’s Daily Telegraph, HILARY ALEXANDER is retiring— but don’t expect her to disappear . “I’m not jumping ship, and I am not leaving fashion,” the venerable fashion writer told FT. “I’ve turned 65 and can no longer work full-time, but I will continue to write columns and other projects they want me to do.” The New Zealand-born Alexander, who has twice been named British Fashion Journalist of the Year, told FT that her future plans include writing books—including an autobiography—and studying archaeology, which has always fascinated her. “I think it’s to do with the whole mystery of how they built things, their knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, architecture and language,” she said. “And also the clothing, the jewellery. I think there’s a kind of marriage between fashion and archaeology, because fashion is an expression of the way we live, how we feel about ourselves, how we feel about adornment, colour, shape and texture, and it’s exactly the same with the ancient Samarians or the Incans or the Mayans.” Alexander stands out among fashion journalists not just for her witty commentary and sometimes brutal frankness, but for a previously unknown and rather surprising reason as well. “I’m probably the only fashion editor or fashion director in history who also was a topless waitress at one point,” she quipped. “I’ve mentioned it to a few people, but they thought I was joking.”—MD
© SWAROVSKI 2011
After a blockbuster 2011 in which he turned superhero in The Green Lantern and switched bodies in The Change-Up, RYAN REYNOLDS is gearing up for a big 2012. Aside from starring in February’s thriller The Safe House, which recently wrapped filming in Cape Town with Denzel Washington, expect 2010’s Sexiest Man Alive to keep up appearances as the face of Hugo Boss Fragrances. However, don't count on him ever taking the job for granted. “You don’t just want to go into something like that with a blanket stamp of approval,” he told FT about the campaign for Boss Bottled Night. “They approached me with a really interesting concept.” That concept? A sleek, dark-toned campaign promoting Ryan as a new-generation Boss man who embodies contemporary style while retaining old- school sophistication. “There is a new, modern sense of masculinity that is really interesting to me,” he said. “At the same time, it is a bit of a throwback. There’s a vintage feel... something that is very classic.” With such an affinity for the Boss brand, one would expect to see him always dressed head to toe in the finest Boss silks and stitches, right? “Sure—when I’m wearing something, that is.” —CHRIS METLER
MOMENTS MOM MO OME MEN ENT NT TS TO TS TO GIVE GIIVE
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 48
VANCOUVER
EDMONTON
CALGARY
WINNIPEG
TORONTO
OTTAWA
MONTREAL
QUEBEC CITY
HALIFAX
ONE MINUTE WITH…
In the fickle world of fashion, it’s almost unheard of for a model to represent a high-profile brand for over a decade. But it’s easy to see why Ralph Lauren has held on to NACHO FIGUERAS for 11 years and counting. The impossibly handsome Argentine polo star embodies a glamorous, jet-set lifestyle that anyone would aspire to. His athletic prowess, effortless style and, of course, remarkable good looks have earned Figueras the nickname “the David Beckham of polo.” He even has his own posh wife, modelturned-photographer Delfina Blaquier, who has appeared alongside Figueras and their children in several Ralph Lauren commercials. While the camera undeniably loves Figueras, his own first love is the sport he’s been playing since age nine. He appreciates the exposure his association with Lauren has achieved for his beloved game, and he believes that the relationship is mutually beneficial. “There’s a reason why Ralph Lauren picked the word ‘polo’ to represent his brand,” Figueras told FT at Toronto’s Polo for Heart charity tournament. “It’s about a lifestyle.”—AB
See the video versions at fashiontelevision.com
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 50
IMAGE COURTESY OF L’ORÉAL LUXURY PRODUCTS
MICHELLE HARPER is only in Paris for four days, but she has brought enough clothing to constitute an entire wardrobe for an average fashion-forward woman. Of course, Harper is anything but average, which is why the Colombian-born New York socialite and philanthropist has packed everything from an antique coquet feather shawl to an authentic 1920s flapper step-in for her brief jaunt in the city of lights. FT’s Jeanne Beker got a personal tour of the formidable smattering of Harper’s travel wardrobe before accompanying her to the young Chinese designer Yiqing Yin’s first runway show. Harper sighed as she showed Beker her 1940s bikini that can’t be worn in water. “How practical!” she joked. “I love when things sometimes give up practicality, just for the sake of beauty.” Despite her obvious affinity for antique pieces, Harper also embraces work by current designers such as Yin and Victor de Souza. “It’s so important to mix contemporary with vintage,” she says, adding that quality craftsmanship is the common denominator she looks for in pieces from any era. As passionate as she is about fashion, though, Harper isn’t a slave to style. “I don’t take myself seriously,” she says. “For me, this is just fun! This is theatre. This is play.”—AB
VISIONARIES
MARIO
TESTINO by MARY DICKIE
IMAGES COURTESY OF © MARIO TESTINO
Mario Testino has photographed some of the most famous
“WE KNOW THAT HE WILL TALK US INTO DOING ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING FOR HIM”
people in the world, from supermodels and Oscar-winning actresses to the royal family, but he found himself on the other side of the camera when he received a lifetime artistic achievement award at the El Museo del Barrio gala in New York. “Being recognized by my own community is quite an important accolade, I think,” the Peruvian-born photographer said at the gala, where actress Kate Winslet presented him with the award for 30 years of artistic excellence. “But I have to say that it isn’t all about me. It’s about who you work with; you’re only as good as your hairstylist, your makeup artist, your model or actress or the editor-in-chief who maybe understands what you’re going to give them.” Nevertheless, Testino—who first moved to London from Lima to study photography in 1976—continues to be widely praised for his charm and ability to make his subjects feel comfortable and look beautiful. “No matter how our shooting experiences with Mario may differ, we know that we are in the best hands,” Winslet said to the celebrity-filled crowd at the gala. “And we know that he will talk us into doing absolutely anything for him, because we can trust him to create unique, disarming, beautiful, timeless images that go beyond fashion, beyond art and, more often than not, beyond our own expectation or interpretation of ourselves. So when Mario says, ‘It’s beautiful, but I think it would be better naked,’ quite frankly, how can one refuse? Because no matter what insecurities the subject may have, Mario makes them disappear like a magician.” Testino was also recently given the prestigious Inspiration award at GQ’s 2011 Men of the Year celebration. “He’s a great pleasure to work with; he’s not a pain in the neck like so many people,” said Vogue’s Grace Coddington. “He’ll take on any subject, always with great grace, and he makes people feel very comfortable in front of the camera, so he makes them look beautiful.” Model Carolyn Murphy added that she owes at least part of her success to Testino. “I was struggling as a model when he found me and scrubbed me up and put me on the cover of French Vogue,” she said. “Mario just has this inner zest—it’s contagious. He’s happy, he’s funny, and he makes you feel like a woman.” Testino, who has said that “a great photograph is where you capture a moment that couldn’t repeat itself before or after,” told FT that part of the reason for his continued success has been his ability to evolve over the years. “I don’t think you would stay in a profession for 30 years if your work didn’t change, because it’s so competitive and there’s always somebody younger, with new ideas and better techniques.” But designer Prabal Gurung told FT that it’s Testino’s “singular vision” that makes him stand out: “I find it really inspiring that you can distinctly say, ‘That’s his work.’” See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 52
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 53
Captured highlights through the lens of Fashion Television
Captured highlights through the lens of Fashion Television
See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
Arriving in New York
“SOME PEOPLE ARE DRESSED TO THE 10S INSTEAD OF TO THE 9S—THAT’S FASHION’S NIGHT OUT.”— Stan Herman
Karlie Kloss walks for Anna Sui
Party time at Fashion’s Night Out
Designer Nicola Formichetti and his creation for Lady Gaga
“EVERYBODY ALWAYS THINKS WE’R E SISTERS.”— Marisa Berenson with
Donna Karan at Marisa’s book launch
Oscar de la Renta and Susan Sarandon at DVF Coco Rocha struts for Zac Posen
SHOW IN “I’VE NEVER BEEN TO A FASHION MY LIFE.”— The Edge
front “Yes you have, I’ve interviewed you in the ne Jean !”— show on fashi row of a “NEVER!” — The Edge
FLASHBACK: Jeanne and The Edge in 2005 FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 54
See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
Crowds gathering and going wild
“I USED TO BE A BOUNCER, BUT I DON’T THINK IT’S THE SAME KIND OF PLACE.”— Zom
PISSING “FASHION WEEK IS A BIT OF A WILL LET CONTEST AS TO WHICH DESIGNER THE GETS WHO AND SHOW THE TO YOU GO urne Osbo BEST DRESS.” — Kelly
Spring offerings at Proenza Schouler
Backstage during the Jeremy Scott show
“What do you appreciate about Michael Kors ?”–JB
“HE’S GOT A SENSE OF HUMOUR, AND HE’S QUITE TALENTED TOO.” — Michael Douglas
bie Boy, manager of the Nicola Form ichetti pop-up store
Dramatic whites at Marchesa
Shimmering style on the Marchesa runway
Valentino smooches Jeanne Beker at the Diane von Furstenberg show
Michael Kors runway
Rachel Zoe prepares her collection
Vivid colour at Betsey Johnson
Daphne Guinness at her FIT exhibit
Betsey Johnson backstage with Nicki Minaj
High energy backstage at Stephen Burrows
Dakota Fanning at Marc Jacobs
Dramatic lighting at Marc Jacobs
Next, London calling
“WHAT COULD BE MORE BEAUTIFU L THAN 50 GORGEOUS WOMEN IN DRESSES?– Sting “AND STING IN THE FRONT ROW! ”— Jeanne
“I JUST HAVE THIS DESIRE TO MAKE CLOTHES, SHOW CLOTHES AND PLEA SE THE AUDIENCE, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT FASHION'S ABOUT.” — Marc Jacob s
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 55
Captured highlights through the lens of Fashion Television See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
Arriving for London Fashion Week
“MY MUM WAS A VERY SUCCESSF UL FASHION MODEL IN THE ‘30S AND ‘40S, BEFORE SHE MARRIED AND HAD KIDS.” — Ben Kingsley at Burberry
Dramatic looks at Giles Deacon
Earth tones dominate at Burberry Prorsum
GS AND “I WEAR A LOT OF TERRIBLE THIN NICE THEN SOMETIMES I WEAR VERY THINGS.” — Pixie Geldof
“STREET FASHION HAS ALWAYS BEEN SO EXCITING IN LONDON.” — Anna Winto ur
“Is it hard being a model?”—FT London street fashion
AND “NO, AS LONG AS YOU’RE CALM YOUR FOCUSED AND KEEP A BANANA IN BAG.”— Young model
Creative and resourceful street fashion
g?”—FT “How is your friend John Galliano doin
I’M SURE “HE’S DOING REALLY WELL, AND HUGE A IN BACK COME TO HE’S GOING Berardi sees red for 2012 WAY.”— Antonio Berardi
Vivienne Westwood takes a bow
“IT’S NICE TO SIT DOWN, ISN’ T IT? IT’S BEEN A BUSY WEEK SO FAR, A FANTASTIC WEEK!” — Erin O’Co nnor
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Backstage beauty at Vivienne Westwood
Goodbye London, next stop Milan
Captured highlights through the lens of Fashion Television See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
Milan Fashion Week opens
Behind the scenes at Fendi
VERY “OH, GUCCI IS SEX! GUCCI IS nd Lege John with en Teig SEXY.”— Chrissy
“THIS IS ABOUT DAILY LIFE IN ITALY THE WAY IT USED TO BE.” — Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi
“I REALLY, REALLY WANT TWO ITEMS FROM SUMMER, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.”— Courtney Snakeskin on the Just Cavalli runway
Love at Roberto Cavalli
Kori Richardson in Missoni
Bright colours on the Missoni runway
KNOW “I’M KIND OF A BUM, I DON’T Armani ABOUT STYLE.”— Bruce Weber at
Cool blues on the Giorgio Armani runway FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 58
Slinky gold dresses at Gucci
Lagerfeld’s collection for Fendi
Roberto Cavalli backstage
“THE TRENDS THAT THEY SEND OUT ARE ALWAYS REALLY BOLD AND EXCI TING.” — Poppy Delevigne at DSquared2
Bar Refaeli at Emporio Armani
Captured highlights through the lens of Fashion Television See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
Press entrance for the Paris shows
“A LOT MORE PEOPLE HAVE TATT OOS AND PIERCINGS. IT’S NOT REBELLIO US, IT’S BECOME BOURGEOIS!”— Jean Paul Gaultier
to “What does Stella McCartney represent you?”—FT
out “What would you say to mothers freaked about their daughters’ tattoos?”—FT ltier model “GET OVER IT!”— Aima Indigo, Gau
Orange pop at Hermès
HAS A “I LOVE HER SPIRIT, AND SHE a Hayek WICKED SENSE OF HUMOUR.”— Salm
“SHE’S GOT HER SEXY BACK.” — Paul McCartney at Stella’s show
Sexy at Stella McCartney
Inès de la Fressange at Giambattista Valli
Neon-yellow final look at Giambattista Valli
“From Queen Street to Rue Saint-Honoré !”—JB
“IT’S A FRENCH FLAVOUR!” — Dean and Dan Caten
Bryan Adams at the DSquared2 party
at their store opening party
Flowing sheers at Galliano
OF “IT’S A TRICKY MOMENT, A TIME ” SEE. TO HAVE L WE’L TRANSITION. iano — Bill Gaytten, designer at John Gall FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 60
“THIS IS MY SISTER VALERIE. WE’RE VERY DIFFERENT, AS YOU CAN SEE.” — Julianne Moore at Lanvin
Dramatic finale at Galliano
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FRAGRANCE
We chose the top of the current crop—the 13 names making the most news—then asked Elmer Olsen, one of Canada’s top modelling agents, to share his verdicts on each model. Which are the real deal, poised for modelling superstardom, and which are tourists, larking about before moving on to their next arty ambition? Our predictions may surprise you.
FAME
1. TALI LENNOX Mario Testino’s assessment of Tali Lennox is unequivocal. “Oh my God, she’s incredible,” says the famed fashion photographer, who shot the daughter of icon Annie Lennox—along with Tara Ferry— for Burberry’s March 2011 campaign. At just 18, Tali is no stranger to breathy praise. She’s walked the runways for Prada and Dolce & Gabbana, and this spring she nabbed Model of the Year honours at the Scottish Fashion Awards. Tali counts art, photography and film among her possible future pursuits, but she’s currently channelling her creative spirit into fashion. Her runway preference? “Adventurous” shows with a strong theme. “You become a whole different character,” she muses. “That’s what I like about fashion. You have fun with it, dress up and forget who you are for a bit.” Immersing oneself in a character runs in the family: London’s Victoria & Albert museum is currently celebrating Lennox mère’s style in an exhibition titled The House of Annie Lennox. “My mom and I are close, and we’ve gotten closer since [I started modelling],” says Tali, whose own vibe is more angelic femininity than eccentric androgyny. “She balances being encouraging and supportive, and gives amazing advice. I couldn’t ask for a better relationship.” ELMER OLSEN says: “Tali is the It girl of all the famous musician offspring. More than her surname, it’s her beauty and elegance which are taking her to the top. She’s the real deal.”
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by LAURA DECARUFEL
children
modelThe genetically
TALI LENNOX
From Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger to Kate Moss and Jamie Hince, models and musicians have long had a symbiotic relationship (read: they can’t keep their hands off each other). Lately, a fresh permutation of the pairing is making headlines: Rock stars’ kids have invaded the modelling world, snagging coveted campaigns, sashaying down the runway as their proud parents sit front row or, in the case of Hedi Slimane’s recent photos of Frances Bean Cobain, sending the fashion blogosphere into a tizzy. FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 64
BOTTOM LEFT PHOTO © GETTY IMAGES
blessed offspring of rock stars are the runways’ new It girls and boys, but do they have what it takes for modelling superstardom?
FROM TOP: ANNIE LENNOX WITH DAUGHTERS LOLA AND TALI; DAISY LOWE ON THE RUNWAY AND WITH MOTHER PEARL LOWE AND STEPFATHER DANNY GOFFEY; RILEY KEOUGH WITH MOM LISA MARIE PRESLEY.
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But, as fit and pretty as this generation’s models may be, can they possibly live up to the glamorous standards set by their parents? Musicians like Keith Richards and Annie Lennox were style avatars. Their rebel chic and raw, uncompromising energy inspired designers, photographers and legions of fashion-conscious fans, while fellow rock stars Simon Le Bon and Bryan Ferry made looking impeccably pulled together seem like an essential pursuit. And if the musicians are connected by their singular style and defiant spirit, their offspring are united by beauty, ambition and a determination to make their own names for themselves. “Your name may get you in the door, but you need to be the complete package in order to succeed,” says Dounia Benjelloul, a Select model agent who reps Tara Ferry, son of the dapper Bryan. “We were interested in Tara before we knew his surname. He has great style, and he’s charming with a cheeky glint in his eyes. All his jobs have been solely down to him and his presence.”
2. DAISY LOWE Daisy Lowe’s life boasts an eclectic soundtrack. Her mother, Pearl, earned indie cred as the lead singer of ’90s Britpop band Powder; her stepfather is Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey; and in 2004, a paternity test revealed that Daisy’s biological father is Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale (a.k.a. Mr. Gwen Stefani). Such lineage offered early opportunities. Daisy began modelling at age two, graced the cover of a Leigh Bowery album at 6 and started posing full-time at 17 in 2005. “I never really saw myself having an office job,” she explains. Instead, Daisy spends her days starring in ads for Agent Provocateur and pulling runway duties for Vivienne Westwood. By night, she lives up to her “It Brit” rep, hitting the party circuit with similarly privileged peers like Pixie Geldof. Inspired, perhaps, by her three parental figures, Daisy’s personal style is an indie-meets-rock mix: thigh-skimming frocks, tousled bangs and a hedonist’s fondness for nudity. Steven Klein, who shot her for Italian Vogue, is reportedly a fan, but Daisy’s mum, now a fashion designer, remains her most committed admirer. “I have Daisy in mind when I’m working on designs,” says Pearl, adding, “But nobody will look as good as her in them.” ELMER OLSEN says: “Daisy has the model look and model body. She’s a little bit quirky but very interesting. This is one to watch.” 3. RILEY KEOUGH Riley Keough was always assured a throne in the pantheon of rock royalty—after all, her grandfather is the King himself, Elvis Presley. The daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and bassist Danny Keough, Riley launched her modelling career with a Tommy Hilfiger campaign at age 12. Two years later, Annie Leibovitz captured three generations of Presley women—Riley, Lisa Marie and Priscilla—for a 2004 Vogue cover. There, Riley displayed the genetic similarities she shares with her famous forbear: high cheekbones, warm eyes, a dangerous smile.
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Recently, she combined two other family traits—a fondness for pushing the envelope and a passion for acting—into one hotly anticipated role, as Jack in Jack and Diane, a lesbian werewolf love story, alongside fellow rock progeny Juno Temple. ELMER OLSEN says: “The most famous grandfather of all has opened all doors. Riley has done major advertising campaigns, but is she really a high-fashion model?”
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4. ZOE KRAVITZ Zoe Kravitz may be the face of Vera Wang’s Princess and Preppy Princess fragrances, but her off-duty style runs more toward boho rocker than ladylike chic. Kravitz, 23, cites her mother, Lisa Bonet, as a sartorial influence, telling Good Morning America, “She definitely inspired me, mostly to wear whatever I want.” Father Lenny Kravitz —who likely follows that same advice—is more of a musical inspiration. When the pint-size Zoe isn’t modelling for Alexander Wang and cool-kid bibles like Jalouse, she helms the indie band Elevator Fight, which she formed in 2009. A passion for acting makes Zoe a triple threat. Recent credits include Californication and X-Men: First Class, where she met boyfriend Michael Fassbender. Soon, Zoe will hit the silver screen in Mad Max: Fury Road. ELMER OLSEN says: “Zoe’s celebrity dad has opened the door for her, but, at 5’2”, I wonder whether she’s really able to walk the walk compared to other high-fashion models.”
6. & 7. PEACHES AND PIXIE GELDOF The youngest daughters of Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates, Peaches and Pixie Geldof are bringing their parents’ signature bedraggled chic into the 21st century. Lauded as fashion icons due to their wild-child charisma and penchant for peroxide, the sisters’ taste for late nights and older boyfriends also makes them favourite tabloid fodder—much like their mother, who famously left Bob Geldof for INXS’ Michael Hutchence. Peaches, 23, started her career as a writer, penning columns for ELLE Girl and Nylon, then signed a reported six-figure contract to model lingerie for Debenhams, the British high street store. After a nude photo scandal sidelined the deal, Peaches decamped for Brooklyn in 2008. That same year, Pixie landed a Tatler cover, accompanied by the line “The coolest girl in town.” More recently, Pixie, 21, has emerged as a favourite of edgy LOVE Magazine and mega-snappers like Steven Meisel and Solve Sundsbo.
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www.pacorabanne.com
6+7
PHOTOS © GETTY IMAGES
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5. TARA FERRY Bryan Ferry, the most fashionable dandy of the ’70s and ’80s (sorry, Bowie), passed his easy elegance on to his three sons: Otis, Isaac and Tara. The brothers have all appeared in Burberry campaigns, but it’s Tara, the youngest, who is FROM TOP: now making a career as a model. ZOE AND LENNY Long-limbed, androgynous and KRAVITZ; BRYAN FERRY WITH SONS pouty, Tara is firmly entrenched OTIS, ISAAC AND in London’s next-gen style scene. TARA; BOB GELDOF When he’s not in front of the WITH DAUGHTERS PEACHES AND camera, he’s behind it, taking PIXIE. doc-style snaps of his jetset adventures—like, say, the helicopter ride to Kate Moss’s wedding, where his father performed. Tara is also carrying on the family musical mantle: He plays drums and writes songs for his rock band, Rubber Kiss Goodbye. ELMER OLSEN says: “Major model qualities. Shooting for Burberry is certainly putting Tara on the international model map. There’s no stopping this young guy.”
FROM TOP: AMBER LE BON AT A FOREVER 21 EVENT AND WITH DAD SIMON; LILY AND PHIL COLLINS.
ELMER OLSEN says: “They’re much more celebrity than model material. They should try following in their father’s footsteps.�
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8. AMBER LE BON Save the “girl on filmâ€? references—Amber Le Bon, the daughter of Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon and model Yasmin Le Bon—has heard them all before. Amber first strolled down the runway as a toddler (with her mother on a Chanel catwalk), and recently started modelling full-time. Now 20, she’s the current face of Forever 21 and Myla swimwear, as well as Smashbox Cosmetics’ aptly named Girls on Film collection, while her tresses spent last year under contract to Pantene. Her parents may be legendary glamazons, but Amber projects a wholesome hipster vibe, favouring blazers, oversized glasses and enthusiastic soundbites. “I like the mysteriousness of not knowing what I’m doing next week,â€? she told a reporter. “It makes life exciting.â€? ELMER OLSEN says: “Amber is a tall, beautiful girl with a model’s body, but it’s really hard to break into the modelling world when your mother is so drop-dead gorgeous. She has big, big footsteps to fill.â€? 9. LILY COLLINS “Model turned actressâ€? is often a laborious transformation, but Lily Collins makes it look easy. (Maybe because she’s an actress turned model turned actress.) Like her father, Phil Collins, who appeared in A Hard Day’s Night and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Lily began acting as a child. By age 18, the fashion world had claimed her: Karl Lagerfeld hand-picked the Chanel gown she wore to the Bal des DĂŠbutantes; the following year, she landed the cover of Spanish Glamour. Lily fit in a few high-profile broadcast gigs for Nickelodeon before guesting on 90210 and starring as Sandra Bullock’s daughter in The Blind Side. Soon, Lily’s delicate beauty will be on full display n The Brothers Grimm: Snow White—one of two hotly anticipated Snow White films—also starring Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. ELMER OLSEN says: “Lily is young and may climb the ladder, but she isn’t there yet.â€? 10 & 11. ELIZABETH AND GEORGIA MAY JAGGER Arguably the most successful models of the rocker-offspring crop, Elizabeth (Lizzy) and Georgia May Jagger owe their genetic good fortune to their mother, model Jerry Hall, and father, Rolling Stones
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 68
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TIFF PRESENTS
GRACE KELLY: FROM MOVIE STAR TO PRINCESS
10+11
AN EXHIBITION
ABOVE: GEORGIA MAY AND ELIZABETH JAGGER; ELIZABETH WITH DAD MICK. BELOW: KEITH RICHARDS WITH WIFE PATTI HANSEN AND DAUGHTERS ALEXANDRA AND THEODORA.
icon Mick Jagger. Sex appeal clearly runs in the family. Busty, boisterous and Texan, Jerry Hall embodied the ripe sensuality of the ’70s, winning both the cover of Roxy Music’s Siren album and singer Bryan Ferry’s heart. (She left him for Mick shortly after.) Jerry introduced her eldest, Lizzy, to the catwalk in 1998, when mother and daughter walked a Thierry Mugler runway together. Lizzy, who shares her mother’s earthy allure, went on to score a coveted Lancôme beauty contract, a Marks & Spencer campaign and, most recently, a controversial June 2011 Playboy cover. Georgia, the recipient of her father’s legendary pout, has parlayed her Bardot vibe into campaigns for Rimmel London and Chanel Resort, the latter lensed by Lagerfeld himself. A longtime model for Hudson Jeans, Georgia recently deepened her relationship with the brand by designing a Hudson by Georgia May Jagger line. ELMER OLSEN says: “How much more famous can your parents be? Georgia is the It girl of the Jagger family. With her Brigitte Bardot/Lara Stone sex bomb qualities, she is the one to watch.”
See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
Discover her story and spirit in the rarely seen treasures of an extraordinary life.
OPENING NOVEMBER 4 ———————————————————— Vintage couture Her classic Kelly bag Tiara & jewels Her unforgettable Oscar gown A North American exclusive ———————————————————— TICKETS ON SALE NOW ———————————————————— tiff.net/gracekelly
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12+13
12 & 13. THEODORA AND ALEXANDRA RICHARDS Theodora and Alexandra Richards have inherited both the sexy swagger of their father, Keith Richards, and the all-American good looks that made their mother, Patti Hansen, one of the most successful models of the ’70s (complete with a Calvin Klein billboard in Times Square). Based in New York, Theodora, 26, is an aspiring artist who once shared a Nylon cover with Bianca Jagger and has also modelled for Tommy Hilfiger and 4Stroke Jeans. Alexandra, 25, DJs and appears in ad campaigns for Diesel and French Connection. The sisters frequently attend events together, and made their all-in-the-family approach official by starring in a Shalimar Light campaign with their mother in 2006. “Both of my parents are forces to be reckoned with: the Hansens and the Richardses combined,” Theodora told Vogue last year. “I thought that I was immortal for a while.” ELMER OLSEN says: “Theodora and Alexandra have had major campaigns over the years and have been the It girls, but now they’re taking a backseat to girls like Tali... and Georgia.” FT
a legacy in one word.
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 70 Produced by the Grimaldi Forum, based on a display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Image by Philippe Halsman / Magnum Photos.
BOOKS
glory
days IMAGES COURTESY OF © MARISA BERENSON: A LIFE IN PICTURES, RIZZOLI NEW YORK, 2011.
LEGENDARY ’70S MODEL MARISA BERENSON’S NEW MEMOIR by JEANNE BEKER CELEBRATES AN ERA OF HEDONISM AND OPTIMISM
MARISA BERENSON WITH PHOTOGRAPHER STEVEN MEISEL.
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I often wonder about the potential longevity of today’s “It girls.” Just what does it take to be a style icon with staying power? We might ask Marisa Berenson—“the girl of the ’70s,” as Yves St. Laurent used to call her. Considered one of the world’s great beauties, Berenson, the granddaughter of legendary designer Elsa Schiaparelli, began modelling at 16, and crossed over into acting with roles in Death in Venice, Cabaret and Barry Lyndon. She’s kept her hand in acting over the years, appearing in a number of projects including last year’s critically acclaimed I Am Love, in which she co-starred with Tilda Swinton. Berenson also continues to dabble in the cosmetics industry. A few years ago, I chatted with her at Paris Fashion Week, and commented on her lovely skin. The next day, she sent me a magic beauty potion, something she’d concocted herself with fig oil from her grandmother’s secret beauty regime. It was one of the best beauty products I’d ever come across. At 64, Berenson still plays muse to some of the world’s greatest designers. Besides her stellar style sense and exquisite beauty, she is a woman’s woman, and I never fail to be inspired by our conversations about art and life. But Berenson has had her share of trials: She lost her only sister, model/actress/photographer Berry Berenson, in one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center on 9/11. Yet she remains positive and productive. She’s been working on another film, and recently released Marisa Berenson: A Life In Pictures, a book based on some of the memorable photographs from her extraordinary life. “It’s been on my mind for so long,” she says. “It’s an homage to all these great people that I’ve worked with over the years.” Art directed by photographer Steven Meisel, the book features Berenson in conversation with designer Diane von Furstenberg, and tells the story of a profound, optimistic and hedonistic era in fashion, when it seemed that anything was possible. “Everybody’s dreaming of that era now—the ’70s—which for us was really special,” reminisces Berenson. “We were so young and everything was so creative and so new and so incredibly fun and free.” Berenson realizes that while there are always creative people around, it’s a very different time in fashion now than it was in those glory days. But she remains positive. “Actually, I’m very optimistic,” she stresses. “A few years ago, I was thinking the world was doomed. But I see a movement now in the world that is encouraging. It’s like a great cleaning up of a lot of very negative, dark energies. The world is going though major turmoil, and horrendous things are happening every day. But I see a generation of young people coming up who are strong, courageous and brilliant. There’s a new creativity and spiritual awareness, and a new way of functioning.” FT See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 73
LEGENDS OF STYLE More than 300 of the most beautiful and arresting covers in the venerable fashion magazine’s nearly 120-year history are featured in Vogue: The Covers, by longtime contributor Dodie Kazanjian. The book includes some early illustrated covers as well as the work of legendary photographers like Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel and Bruce Weber, and provides background info and stories about some of their photo shoots.
It turns out that Harper’s Bazaar is a full 25 years older than Vogue, but it’s the 10 years of Glenda Bailey’s tenure as editor in chief that are being celebrated in Harper’s Bazaar: Greatest Hits. The lavishly illustrated retrospective of some of the magazine’s significant moments includes essays by Patti Smith and Arianna Huffington, a tribute to Michael Jackson by Agyness Deyn and photos of Courtney Love by Karl Lagerfeld, Natalie Portman in Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Naomi Campbell running with a cheetah.
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BOOKS
OPPOSITE PAGE: ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF ABRAMS BOOKS. DEMI MOORE WITH GIRAFFE: MARK SELIGER (HARPER'S BAZAAR, APRIL 2010). NAOMI CAMPBELL WITH CHEETAH: JEAN-PAUL GOUDE (HARPER'S BAZAAR, SEPTEMBER 2009). THIS PAGE: ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF ABRAMS BOOKS. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: HARPER’S BAZAAR, FEBRUARY 1955, RICHARD AVEDON, PHOTOGRAPH © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION. REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE HEARST CORPORATION. VOGUE, JULY 1968, FRANCO RUBARTELLI, RUBARTELLI/VOGUE/CONDE NAST ARCHIVE. COPYRIGHT © CONDE NAST. HARPER’S BAZAAR, APRIL 1947, LOUISE DAHL WOLFE, © 1989 CENTER FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY, ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS. © COLOR IMAGES COURTESY © THE MUSEUM AT FIT. REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE HEARST CORPORATION.
BOOKS
Diana Vreeland, one of the most important style arbiters and fashion visionaries of the 20th century, worked for both Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in her long and distinguished career. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, by the legendary editor’s granddaughter-in-law, Lisa Immordino Vreeland, examines how Vreeland shaped fashion and culture—giving a boost to Diane von Furstenberg, Manolo Blahnik, Twiggy and Lauren Bacall, among others—with the help of essays by Lally Weymouth and Judith Thurman and numerous photos and fashion spreads. Immordino Vreeland also directed a companion documentary film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September. See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
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TREASURE
all that glitters ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S APPETITE FOR JEWELS WAS AS NOTORIOUS AS HER APPETITE FOR MEN. NOW, HER ROYAL-SIZED COLLECTION IS AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC VIEWING BEFORE IT GOES UP FOR AUCTION.
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DIAMOND RING PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD., 2011 / TAYLOR PHOTOS ©GETTY IMAGES
IMAGES COURTESY OF CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD.2011
by JAMES GAVIN
Marilyn Monroe sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” for laughs, but Elizabeth Taylor made that credo a religion. At every public appearance, gems of outrageous value framed the face and adorned the hands of the most iconic beauty in film. Taylor was a woman of gluttonous passions, both in the husband department (she had seven) and in her Herculean efforts to help conquer AIDS. And where jewellery was concerned, quantity wasn’t enough; she had to own the biggest and rarest pieces in the world. The men in her life, notably Michael Todd and Richard Burton, spent millions on the shimmering toys that made her happy. Through her jewels, the actress who played Cleopatra found one more way to ally herself with royalty. Taylor’s holdings included the Duchess of Windsor’s diamond brooch, the Grand Duchess of Russia’s emeralds and a diamond-studded bracelet owned by King Farouk. And between auction wins, she bought from Cartier and Tiffany the way her public shopped at Woolworth’s. Not all her colleagues were impressed, however. “When I see Liz Taylor with those Harry Winston boulders hanging from her neck, I get nauseated,” declared Doris Day. “All I can think of are how many dog shelters those diamonds could buy.” But for Taylor, the baubles were like children. “I’m here to take care of them and to love them,” explained the superstar, who in her dotage enjoyed staying home in Bel Air, California, and regaling her white Maltese, Daisy, with tales of how Mama had acquired her goodies. “When I die and they go off to auction,” she said, “I hope whoever buys them gives them a really good home.” Taylor died in March at the age of 79. This December, Christie’s auction house in Manhattan will disperse nearly 800 of her gems, plus her clothing and memorabilia. Previously, she had allowed the world to wallow vicariously in her glitter via a pricey coffee-table book, My Love Affair with Jewelry. In it, Taylor discusses her favourite piece: the 33.19-carat Krupp diamond, long held by a dynasty of German industrialists who had supplied arms to the Nazis. “I thought how perfect it would be if a nice Jewish girl like me were to own it,” noted Taylor. For Richard Burton, whom she’d wed in 1964 (for the first of two times), no cost was too high to indulge the ultimate trophy wife, even though he wound up in financial ruin. Burton won her the Krupp at auction for $305,000. (Christie’s predicts a top bid of $2.5-$3.5 million this time around.) For Taylor’s 1969 Valentine’s Day gift, the actor scored her the perfect pearl: the hefty La Peregrina, which had been passed down through centuries of royals, including Queen Mary I of England. In 1972, for Taylor’s 40th birthday, Burton got her the heart-shaped Taj Mahal diamond pendant, named in honour of its 17th-century owner, the emperor’s son who built the Taj Mahal. The pearl and pendant will go on auction, but not the famous “Taylor-Burton Diamond,” a 69.42-carat stone that set Burton back by over a million. In 1979, Taylor sold it to fund a hospital in Botswana. After Taylor’s death, it was announced that her jewellery would probably be sold to benefit the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFar). Then AP reported that only a partial amount— “some” of the proceeds from admissions to the exhibitions and sales of related publications — will be given to AIDS research. The anticipated $30 million or so auction take will go to Taylor’s estate, which is thought to comprise mainly her four children and her staff. Because her will has been kept private, we may never know her true intentions versus those of her heirs. But one thing is sure: in death, as in life, a piece of Elizabeth will cost you dearly. FT
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©2011 movado group, inc.
KERRY WASHINGTON, acclaimed actress. new concerto® in two-tone stainless steel with diamond bezel, mother-of-pearl museum® dial. movado.com
I first sensed how monstrous life in the “fashion lane” could be for a designer back in 1992, when the late great Gianni Versace decided it was time to conquer America. Versace, who had struck me as shy and humble during our first encounter in 1986, had hired a PR firm and gone to New York for a retrospective of his work. I was surprised by how much he’d changed—savvy to the techniques of manipulation and even a bit egomaniacal. “Like my friend Elton John,“ he told me, “I can be a rock star too.” Versace was not yet a household name in America, but he had realized that designers were poised to become pop culture’s next superstars. With all that attention, mounting pressures were inevitable, and while being thrust into the spotlight was exhilarating, staying there wouldn’t be easy. By 1996, he had opened a Manhattan store, and his Versus presentation was one of the most star-studded fashion shows the city had ever seen. I asked if he had to work at not getting carried away with it all. “It’s stupid to take yourself too seriously,” he said. “It’s pretentious.” But perhaps he was a little cavalier about his status. The next year, he was gunned down by a madman. It marked a loss of innocence for us all. That same year, I visited Alexander McQueen’s studio after his debut collection for Givenchy was torn apart by critics. He was preparing his eponymous collection, and
showed me a bull skin with a gash in it. “I’m making a coat out of it,” he said. “It represents the pain I went through. That’s what it was like for me, this kid thrown into the ring. And they killed me.” Tears filled his eyes. By 2006, the sensitive McQueen had become one of the world’s most innovative and successful designers. I caught up with him in San Francisco, and learned he was on a path to find inner peace. He admitted that he was lonely, and had a tough time trusting people. Less than four years later, he took his own life, four months after presenting one of the most magnificent collections of his career. When I covered the music scene in the ’80s, I marvelled at how ruthless it was: Musicians were only as good as their last albums, and had to churn one out every couple of years. But what about designers? Their collections have to come fast and furious, be critically acclaimed and resonate with consumers. And beyond the creative output, there’s the business of this enormous, high-stakes industry, and the designer’s personal image, which is under constant scrutiny. The pressures of fashion are relentless. Sometimes, as I sit watching an exquisite creation come down a catwalk, I’m moved to tears because I think about the obstacles the designer had to overcome to get it out there, and just how much some of these visionaries really do suffer for their art. —JEANNE BEKER
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JOHN GALLIANO PHOTO © GETTY IMAGES
BEHIND THE SCENES
ARE THE RECENT DOWNFALLS OF GALLIANO, MCQUEEN AND OTHER DESIGNERS THE RESULT OF UNCONTROLLED EGOS, OR THE IMPOSSIBLE DEMANDS OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY? by JAMES GAVIN
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ALEXANDER MCQUEEN ON THE RUNWAY: AN INDUSTRY THAT PUSHES LIVES AND CAREERS TO THE BREAKING POINT?
To go behind the scenes at a fashion show is to witness the kinds of pressures that are inherent in the industry. For most designers, success depends on the ability to produce more collections in less time, while managing to please everyone. It means making eyes and flashbulbs pop at runway shows, seducing a jaded press into proclaiming one’s genius and charming store buyers and moneyed clients into opening their chequebooks. Creative directors for classic brands must honour a company’s tradition while making it seem fresher and more fabulous than ever before. Veteran designers must constantly break new ground. All of them—especially the heads of high-profile labels—are expected to be as glamorous and media-attracting as movie stars. Failure to measure up in any respect can get a designer axed fast. Then there’s the “self-inflicted pressure” noted by designer Marc Jacobs, who has a towering empire to uphold. “We always want to be better than we were the season before,” says Jacobs. “We want people to love it more. We want it to sell more.” Of course, the fashion industry’s strains may be no worse than those endured by the high-rollers of film, TV, and music—not to mention hospital workers, firefighters or highrise window-washers. But fashion is a uniquely fickle field. By nature, its product isn’t built to last. Designers and corporations can be quickly swept away on the shifting waves of public taste. These kinds of pressures have sent many a designer over the edge. Substance abuse and public breakdowns are increasingly common—and the industry, wrote Eric Wilson in the New York Times, “feasts on the intrigue of disgrace as if it were a long-denied buffet.” Jacobs, like countless others in his profession, has done his time in rehab. But his problems seem tame compared to others that have made recent headlines. In 2010 came the demise of 40-year-old Alexander McQueen, the British fashion dynamo who hanged himself. Last winter brought the fall of John Galliano after a drunken anti- Semitic rant in a Paris bar. And Balmain ousted its creative director,
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PHOTO © GETTY IMAGES
HALSTON IN HIS HEYDAY: A POSTER BOY FOR ’70S INDULGENCE.
PHOTO © GETTY IMAGES
“As long as fashion houses remain intent on fast revenue and megastardom, the situation isn’t likely to change. It’s hardly the most fertile ground for creativity.”
Christophe Decarnin, when he failed to appear at a show, allegedly due to a drug-induced collapse. Previous years are strewn with crash-and-burn stories from the fashion world’s fast lane. Still gossiped about is the case of Donatella Versace, who after her brother’s notorious murder in 1997 took over as VP and chief designer of the Versace Group—and nearly sank the company through drug use and overspending. Whether one blames such behaviour on the strains of the workplace or the ego problems of a privileged and pampered few, it still reflects an industry that pushes lives and careers to the breaking point. By contrast, relatively little hysteria emerged from the ’40s and ’50s fashion world. The scene then was marked by a chilly selfcontainment and helmed by such imperious figures as Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and Cristóbal Balenciaga. The politesse began to crumble in the ’60s, as fashion tilted toward the outrageous. Then came the designer who made excess synonymous with the fashion life. Roy Halston Frowick, better known as Halston, had struck it big with the demure pillbox hat he designed for Jacqueline Kennedy. Later, when his Ultrasuede and cashmere fashions caught on with the ’70s A-list—Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli, Betty Ford, Bianca Jagger—Newsweek anointed him “the premier fashion designer of all America.” He had a lot of hype to live up to, and his success was fuelled as much by his clothes as by his renown as a poster boy for ’70s indulgence. Voracious in most respects, Halston spread himself impossibly thin by taking on more design projects (notably for J.C. Penney) than he could handle. By 1990, when he died of AIDS-related causes, he had lost control of his own name. Halston’s decline helped alter the face of the fashion world, pointing the way to the modern era, when fashion, like so many other businesses, has become increasingly competitive and alarmingly fast-paced. “Even 10 years ago there were two major seasons; now there are five,” observes Bridget Foley, executive editor of Women’s Wear Daily. “Designers literally are leaving the runway
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“Halston’s decline helped alter the face of the fashion world”
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See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
PHOTO © GETTY IMAGES
ALESSANDRA FACCHINETTI: ANYTHING SHORT OF UNANIMOUS RAVES CAN CAUSE THE AX TO FALL. PHOTO © GETTY IMAGES
GIANNI AND DONATELLA VERSACE: AFTER HIS DEATH, SHE NEARLY SANK THE COMPANY.
and thinking of their fabric appointments tomorrow or the day after.” The pressure surely afflicted John Galliano, who designed numerous collections each year for Dior and for his own label. Wanting too much, too soon is now the industry’s theme. The lust for media attention fills runways with outlandish styles that make for fun videos and photos, but at times can prove virtually unsaleable. Hotshot but inexperienced young designers are hired as creative directors, and are expected to revitalize companies speedily with hit collections. In 2007, Ungaro appointed Esteban Cortazar, a handsome 23-year-old prodigy, as head of its women’s-wear division. The company’s chief executive, Mounir Moufarrige, spelled out his intentions in WWD: “The brand has aged, and it needs buzz—and fast.” Cortazar couldn’t deliver what Ungaro wanted; in 2009 he was dismissed. His replacement, starlet Lindsay Lohan, certainly caused a stir; in her short stint there, the stylistically inept tabloid queen turned Ungaro into a laughing stock. Even the most gifted designers are prone to a maddening degree of interference from company presidents and marketing directors, whose eyes are on the bottom line. Collections can be torn apart at the last minute, as designers are told to ape what sold well in a former season or to mimic a successful rival. The clothes that are finally paraded down the runway may have little to do with a designer’s original concept, yet he or she has to stand behind them, taking the lumps with the praise. And anything short of unanimous raves can cause the ax to fall. It happened twice to Alessandra Facchinetti. In 2004, when Tom Ford resigned from Gucci, Facchinetti, a young Italian designer who had worked under him, was elected to succeed Ford to run women’s wear. Gucci clearly expected her to equal Ford’s star quality as well as his business sense; when her early
collections failed to enchant the critics, she swiftly got the sack. Then Valentino hired her to succeed the retiring giant as creative director. Stefano Sasso, the company’s chief executive, extolled her talent and eye for detail. But a day after a weakly received show during Paris Fashion Week in 2008, Facchinetti was out. Kim Hastreiter, an editor at Paper, talked to Eric Wilson about the desperation that leads companies like Valentino to clean house so abruptly. “They are not willing to give it the long haul,” she said. As long as fashion houses remain so intent on fast, huge revenue and mega-stardom, the situation isn’t likely to change. It’s hardly the most fertile ground for creativity or endurance. Many in the fashion world cite Karl Lagerfeld, now 78, as their favourite long-distance runner. Starting in 1953, Lagerfeld worked his way up through the European fashion ranks to become the ceaselessly productive and influential figure he remains today. “Perhaps I’m not a crazy genius who does things nobody wears,” he said recently. “I like fashion because fashion is what people wear; it is a reflection of modern life.” He refuses to wallow in self-pity over the pressures of the business. “I live in a perfectly organized, well- prepared, professional world, so I don’t understand this craziness,” he says. Fashion, explains Lagerfeld, is “like a sporting competition. You have to train all year to do it again and do it again.” Meanwhile, Jean Paul Gaultier has not only weathered the industry’s strains for 35 years, but has spent more of that time on the cutting edge than perhaps any of his peers have. As an indie designer, he has been able to go his own way, creating everything from haute couture to rock-star garb and affordable junior wear; all the while he has kept his playfully decadent, streetinfluenced vision in place. Gaultier has stayed focused on the art of design more than on costly and frantic grabs at stardom. “I started little by little and with no money,” notes Gaultier, who has certainly known his share of slumps in the years since. “One moment you’re loved; the next you will not be loved anymore because fashion likes to change. Sometimes you feel it painfully. It’s truly a very depressing business, but I still love what I do. I am still excited. I am working.” FT
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“Even 10 years ago there were two major seasons; now there are five”
514.385.3335
D i e s e l I s l a n d ´ s S t u p i d C o n s t i t u t i o n i s b e i n g w r i t t e n . L e a r n m o re a t d i e s e l . c o m
VISIONARIES
“SHE SEEMS TO HAVE DIGESTED THE WHOLE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY.”
THE ENIGMA OF
VIVIAN MAIER THE DISCOVERY OF A CACHE OF PHOTOGRAPHS IN CHICAGO REVEALS THE SECRET HISTORY OF A RECLUSIVE NANNY WHO MAY BE A BONA FIDE ART STAR
IMAGES COURTESY OF JOHN MALOOF © VIVIAN MAIER
by NORA UNDERWOOD
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When a young Chicago real estate agent named John Maloof put it in a bid for a box of negatives at a local auction house in 2007, he had no idea how much that particular lot would change his life. At the time, Maloof, then the president of the Northwest Chicago Historical Society, was on the hunt for photographs for a book he was co-authoring about his neighbourhood, Portage Park. While the negatives weren’t ultimately useful for the book, they proved to be the work of a very private Chicago woman who may well turn out to be one of the significant American street photographers of the 20th century. The negatives were the starting point for piecing together the intriguing story of photographer Vivian Maier, a Chicago-area nanny who had an uncanny eye for capturing on film the real-life drama of city streets. She documented the people and places she saw with her Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera, and kept her work a secret—which couldn’t have been easy, considering how prolific she was. Since he started archiving Maier’s work, Maloof has
amassed more than 100,000 negatives, a few thousand prints and several hundred rolls of black-and-white and colour film. In addition, there was 9,000 feet of home movies and dozens of audiotapes of Maier interviewing people. “She was a documentary machine,” says Maloof. “She would just basically document things she thought were important historically or artistically.” But the realization that he was sitting on a veritable gold mine came slowly to Maloof. “I was interested in [Maier’s photographs] from a historical perspective,” he says. “I liked the old architecture in the city, the way it looked in the 1950s.” Maloof took his own point-and-shoot camera and started to take modern versions of Maier’s pictures. Along the way, he got hooked. “Little by little, I would scan more negatives and I would research photography masters and the history,” he says. “And I began to familiarize myself with what good work was, and understand it, and then I understood that Vivian’s work was actually good.”
Maloof was promoting his discovery through a blog, and the widespread positive response he got to the photographs made him realize that he might be onto something, as even an untrained eye could appreciate Maier’s skill. But the first really big boost he got came when the Chicago Cultural Center expressed interest and ultimately mounted an exhibition of Maier’s photographs. “What interested me about her, more than other street photographers who come walking in the door, is that she seems to have digested the whole history of photography,” says Lanny Silverman, chief curator at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. “There’s a lot of the ghosts of many photographers, and she also has her own voice.” Silverman adds that such work does not come about by chance. “Your technical facility has to be so good that you’re not thinking about lighting and composition; all that stuff just has to come together. It could be luck, but then maybe you only get one of those shots in a lifetime as opposed to the numbers here.”
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“IT'S THE CONTRADICTIONS THAT MAKE HER STORY SO INTRIGUING”
As well, Maier was interested in a wide range of people—all ages and races and social strata. “I think she had a compassion for people,” says Silverman. “There’s something very confronting about Diane Arbus’ work, which occasionally comes out in Vivian Maier’s, but by and large it seems like she was able to make people more comfortable with her so that they’re not aware of her.” The fact that Maier was so obviously well-versed and widely influenced in her art yet so private—and possibly even oblivious to her own talent—spurred Maloof to start working like a detective to put together the clues to her life. Initial searches produced nothing, but when Maloof came across an envelope with Maier’s name on it, he searched again—and discovered Maier’s obituary in 2009, only a few days after she had died. By finding previous employers and other people who knew Maier through pieces of old mail, receipts and phone numbers she had scribbled on bits of paper, Maloof has been able to construct a sort of time line—and get a sharper picture of the type of woman Vivian Maier was. Aside from being private, Maloof says, Maier was politically knowledgeable and interested in theatre and foreign films. “She was an eccentric character,” he adds. “She would dress up in a floppy hat and a giant wool overcoat every day, just basically to not attract people to come up to her or talk to her. Perhaps it was to take pictures better…or maybe she just didn’t want to socialize.” Curiously, for a woman who wanted to remain anonymous and who dressed in a way to discourage social interaction, it’s interesting to note that her hobby involved sticking a camera in strangers’ faces— something she would never have allowed to be done to herself. “When we were interviewing one of the children she nannied for, she said that if you were to take a picture of [Maier], she would grab the camera and take the film out,” says Maloof. But it is these contradictions, as Silverman notes, that make the Vivian Maier story so intriguing.
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SELF-PORTRAIT OF VIVIAN MAIER, WHO HAD AN UNCANNY EYE FOR CAPTURING ON FILM THE REAL-LIFE DRAMA OF CITY STREETS.
this enigmatic woman. Aside from the exhibition in Chicago, there have been shows of Maier’s work in Norway, London, Munich, Hamburg and Denmark, among other places, and at least two are planned for New York and Los Angeles. Maloof is working on a documentary about Maier, and a book about her is due for publication soon. “I think the photographs speak for themselves,” he says. “She captures these moments that are very powerful, and when you see them you don’t need anyone to explain them to you. They evoke a lot of emotion. I think understanding that this could have just been in the garbage can really hits a nerve with people… and maybe they even think how many other Vivian Maiers are out there.” See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
Born in New York City in 1926, Maier lived in France for many years, then moved back to New York in 1951 and, finally, to Chicago in 1956. She spent much of the next 40 years working as a nanny (for American media personality Phil Donahue, among others). Maloof figures Maier took up photography around 1949. By 1951, in New York, he says, “She seems very ambitious on the streets. Maybe she was just young and energetic, but she was really aggressive and going on adventures and finding people in parades or in the parks or in handcuffs.” Several years later, she moved to Chicago and worked for 17 years as a nanny with a family with access to a darkroom. The rolls of undeveloped film must have piled up from 1971 on, Maloof says, once Maier no longer had
a darkroom. “The more we find out,” he adds, “the more fascinating the story is.” Considering that the photographs may never have seen the light of day, it will be interesting to watch as their value increases. But by how much is anyone’s guess, says Silverman. “How do you value something that is ethereal?” he says. “It’s based on the market, and the market is determined by history and by how she’s valued by curators and museums.” There’s no doubt it will rise, particularly once her photographs make it into prestigious —or celebrity—collections. “Does it stay there?” he adds. “Who knows? It depends on more of the story.” Now, more and more people are getting the opportunity to learn about
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INTERVIEW
architecture and how they all come together under fashion’s umbrella. I was totally charmed by the down-to-earth and playful Marino—no wonder the great fashion houses all scramble to work with him.
PM: Much, much better. I miss the Nan Kempners, the Pauline de Rothschilds and the Babe Paleys—those great women of style from whom you learned everything. I don’t know who the young ones are going to learn from now.
Jeanne Beker: Let’s start with the question of whether fashion is art or applied art. Giambattista Valli said, ‘I’m not an artist; I don’t really think of fashion as art.’ Do you beg to differ?
JB: You have an amazing sense of style. Was it something that just evolved naturally?
Peter Marino: Strongly. I think the Alexander McQueen show proved it. Fashion can be art, just like anything can be art. A chair can be art. It depends on the design you put into it, and what its purpose is. I certainly think a fashion designer can make a dress that is art. It depends on what the final result is. I don’t like the term ‘decorative art’—I think it’s pejorative. JB: Architecture is something you became intrigued with after you had studied sculpting. Why did you veer off in that direction? PM: Because I could earn a living? No, that’s not why I went into architecture. I ended university in the late ’60s, and there was a period when I thought if I could do some social housing I’d really be doing something good and decent and blah blah blah. So I sort of went in for those reasons and did some work for UDC [Urban Development Corporation, a New York affordable housing initiative]. Now I do luxury things, but in the beginning it was strictly UDC housing. JB: That’s interesting. And what did that phase in your career contribute to who you are today?
peter marino
PM: I worked for large firms and government for 10 years, and when you go out on your own, your commissions tend to come from wealthy individuals. My first commissions were from Andy Warhol, Yves Saint Laurent and the Agnelli family, and that led to the fashion world going, ‘Oh, look who they’re using!’ In those days, the late ’70s and early ’80s, a lot of wealthy people were fashion leaders. Today, it’s a mingy movie star or someone who’s been on TV for two weeks. So there is a difference in who we look at as our leaders. Now, the wealthy people have pulled back and are enjoying their privacy a bit more.
the interview
The first time I met Peter Marino, I thought he was Marisa Berenson’s bodyguard.
The two friends were leaving a Dior show in Paris, and as I walked alongside them, chatting up the stylish pair for our camera, I distinctly remember thinking that Marino was some kind of heavyweight handler for Berenson. He kept telling her that the car was waiting and that they were going to be late. Marino’s black-leather motorcycle get-up and burly presence took on
caricature proportions in my mind—his larger-than-life look seemed incongruous with the haute fashion environment, and his off-the-cuff humour gave him a warm and grounded aura that was rather refreshing in light of the somewhat stuffy surroundings. Not long after that, I discovered that the biker mystery man was Peter Marino, a passionate art lover and one of the most well-connected and prolific architectural design wizards in the fashion world. He’s masterminded some of the most beautiful
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retail spaces on the planet, from the ground-breaking 1986 design of Barneys in New York to mega-luxe boutiques for Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton in Paris and elsewhere. He’s also designed private residences for pop culture’s elite. Needless to say, FT was eager to profile the man with the bulging muscles and major tattoos whom John Galliano once called “his own greatest creation.” Last summer, I caught up with Peter at Paris Couture Week for a lively tête à tête about art, retail, design,
JB: What’s great about you is that you’re comfortable in your skin, and you make people feel good about themselves too. PM: We’ve got a wonderful client, Lawrence Saper, for whom we did this huge research and science laboratory. I mean, this was a very serious building, and he was interviewing architects and he said, ‘You’ve got the job. I interviewed six architects, and you’re the only one who bloody smiled.’ JB: But it can be a serious business, because there is so much at stake. You’re creating things that cost a lot of money and affect a lot of people. PM: It’s the largest capital expenditure of any corporation, so it tends to make some people a little grim. Keep in mind that financing is not my strong suit; the people in my firm who pay attention to timing and budgets are a bit more serious! JB: But isn’t it daunting when you know there’s so much pressure involved in these commissions? PM: I thrive on pressure! JB: You started doing retail spaces in the ’80s with your revitalization of Barneys; no one had seen anything like it before.
JB: Would you say that era made for a better sense of style?
IMAGES COURTESY OF PETER MARINO ARCHITECT; LOUIS VUITTON STORE © PAUL WARCHOL
by JEANNE BEKER
PM: It’s all about returning to my roots—being into motorcycling as a kid, then doing serious architecture for 20 years and then kind of just going, ‘OK, I’ve sort of made it now, and I don’t have to do the businessman thing anymore, I can return to my roots.’ At first, it shocked some people. But I had one client who said, ‘Peter, if that’s how you work, just go with it—you’ll create your own brand very quickly.’ He put the idea into my head, and it eventually just happened.
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MARINO’S LOUIS VUITTON STORE IN LONDON: TAKING THE BRAND TO A NEW LEVEL.
maybe bikers couldn’t afford his watch. I said, ‘I can afford it!’ and he said, ‘I know—that’s why we’re coming to you!’ I like it because it’s a super-masculine, athletic brand, very high-tech, but their stores were a bit on the cheapy side—they didn’t reflect the fact that the watches cost more than 10 dollars. They didn’t know how to do luxury in a way that’s masculine but a little sporty, and I said, ‘Give me a shot.’ JB: So you become an image-maker more than just a builder of buildings and creator of spaces. PM: That’s our specialty. We’re involved with the advertisers of the brand as well as the product designers. It’s a different approach. For Hublot, we chose ebony for the walls, which is a very luxurious material, and suede as the backdrop for the watches. We also got this very high-tech cast titanium, which the watches are made of. Hopefully, it’s a fusion of elegance, sportiness and masculinity. And we commissioned Swiss artist John Armleder to do a wall mural. I’m proud of convincing him to do that, because a lot of artists don’t want to go into a commercial venue. But with me they understand that I’m going to give them proper placement and respect. I’m very proud of being able to take commercial companies to that level. I think the bar of commercial spaces has been raised because of me. JB: And how much input do the clients have, or do they give you carte blanche? PM: In the creative area, yes. I don’t accept comments on how things should look, because that’s why they’re hiring me, but I want all the input I can get into what the product is supposed to represent. So they know I always listen to them. I always point out that the product is theirs, but the visuals come from me. JB: It almost becomes an art gallery in a sense. JB: You’ve got a huge frame of reference, because you’ve had all these adventures and seen the world, and you’re plugged in to the heartbeat of the culture. PM: Well, I go to the fashion shows, I’m friends with the designers; they are the creative forces who are interpreting the society in which we live. I like to think of myself as an interpreter, but I’m not sure if I’m an interpreter or a mirror.
PM: I combine architecture with fashion and fine arts. This triple play, as it were, is what I’m all about. I involve artists in the very beginning, I create the architecture and I work with the designers. The involvement of furniture and architecture and art is my way of defining the times in which we live. It’s a tradition from the Renaissance. That’s one of my strengths, and I think it’s what sets us apart from other companies. JB: Can you tell me about your work for Hublot? PM: It’s a fantastic Swiss watch brand. Jean-Claude Biver hired me, and he said they came to me because he specifically went after athletes for his clientele. He said they wanted an athletic image, but
PM: No, the owners of Chanel are very respectful of me as the creator, just as they are very used to working with Karl Lagerfeld and his adaptations of Chanel. The Chanel space on Place Vendôme is sort of what I’m all about—modernity with luxury. I hope you get the feeling of complete and utter modernity but at the same time a kind of richness. JB: There’s a real nod to Coco and the past with this salute to the Orient. PM: We put Oriental screens at the entrance, and then the portrait of her. I love that sort of homey aspect, like ‘Oh, here’s Momsie over the mantel.’ And we got the artists Robert Goossens and François Pascal to create raw-crystal chandeliers. We didn’t want granny chandeliers; we wanted modern ones. I just love that you can keep interpreting old things in new ways. We involve major furniture designers and artists from the time in which we live in every project. They bring something new to the table, which is what fashion designers do as well.
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IMAGES COURTESY OF PETER MARINO ARCHITECT; BARNEYS BY PETER AARON / ESTO
JB: So let’s talk about your approach to some of these projects.
JB: Let’s talk about Chanel’s jewellery store in Place Vendôme. Chanel has such a distinctive image—was it a challenge for you to work within certain parameters?
IMAGES COURTESY OF PETER MARINO ARCHITECT; DIOR STORE BY KRISTEN PELOU / COURTESY OF DIOR
A MARINO-DESIGNED STORE FOR DIOR: COMBINING ARCHITECTURE WITH FASHION AND FINE ARTS.
PM: We really created a new brand. It had been a sleepy men’s store that just sold wedding and bar mitzvah suits. The owner, Fred Pressman, wanted to get his younger sons involved in the business, and he realized he could do that if he brought women’s wear in. He brought me to the Paris fashion shows with them, and while Mr. Pressman was selling the idea of fashion to his sons, I was the one who got sold. I went, ‘Yeah, I can do this!’
PM: Absolutely—you want everything to be seen at the same level. Jewellery objects take thousands of hours to make, and I like the artisanship to be reflected. There is a gallery aspect to what I do— I like presenting things a bit like objects of art. I think I kind of escape what a lot of modern architects fall into, which is a paucity of richness in the materials. Richness doesn’t mean you’re using gold and marble, it just means there’s a certain depth to what you’re using. In our studio, we’ve got artists who are always developing wall textures. Richness is not about money, it’s about thinking of texture in new ways, and I’m very proud of all the wall surfaces my studio produces. If you give texture and beauty to every surface, the results are going to be richer. For a lot of architects it’s all about the design; the materials are less important. My firm is known as a materialist firm, and the way we begin designing a store is not by making sketches of the space. I gather the materials on a table. I go, ‘To me, this store is about Coromandel lacquer, it’s about a trim of gold, it’s about rich embroidered walls.’ I begin with materials—it’s a very unusual way to begin. JB: What satisfaction do you derive from creating a public space as opposed to a private residence? PM: For me, it’s great because people can see it. I mean, the Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Élysées gets 2.5 million visitors a year. My newest commission on Place Vendôme is to do the first free-standing Louis Vuitton jewellery store. It’s a new way of
presenting something for Vuitton. High-end jewellery is not what it had been known for, and that’s what’s so exciting—taking the brand to a new level. JB: What I find amazing is that these brands compete against each other, but they’re all coming to you. Is that a little crazy? PM: Yeah, it kind of tickles me. At a fashion show I went to, someone said to Karl Lagerfeld, ‘How can you do Fendi and Chanel and your own line?’ And he said, ‘There are only two designers who can get away with this.’ And he pointed to me. JB: If you had to boil it down into one philosophy, what would you say makes a great retail space? PM: It’s a space in which you feel comfortable the minute you walk in, and not think, ‘I can’t wait to get out of here!’ I went into a certain department store in London where I saw husbands being dragged around by their wives, and I wanted to make a space where they don’t go, ‘Honey, I want to get out of here!’ I was thrilled recently when a Russian mogul came up to me and said, ‘Oh, you’re Peter Marino, I’ve been in your Louis Vuitton shop in London, and I loved it!’ I asked him why, and he said it was the only place where he didn’t mind waiting while his wife was shopping. They took him to the apartment on top where they bring you the clothes; the man can sit on a sofa watching a sporting event, it’s very comfortable and there’s a bar. He said, ‘What a clever idea!’ When I get this from a complete stranger, I’m kind of feeling like, OK, that’s good, some of these things are really working! FT See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
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PETER MARINO WITH JEANNE BEKER; THE BARNEYS STORE IN NEW YORK THAT MARINO REDESIGNED AND REVITALIZED IN THE ’80S.
COVER STORY
ENDURING STYLE GRACE KELLY’S REGAL DEMEANOR AND CLASSIC GOOD TASTE, COMBINED WITH COOL CONFIDENCE AND DETERMINATION, CREATED A LEGACY OF UNDERSTATED ELEGANCE. A MULTIMEDIA EXHIBIT AT TORONTO’S TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX EXPLORES THE PRINCESS’ LASTING APPEAL.
IMAGES COURTESY OF TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX PRESS
by KRISTINA HAUGLAND
PRINCESS GRACE WITH PRINCE RAINIER ON THEIR WEDDING DAY; (OPPOSITE PAGE) WITH JAMES STEWART IN ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S REAR WINDOW. FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 98
Nearly three decades after her death, Grace Kelly remains a bit of an enigma. Despite the considerable pressures she faced in her life—to be a proper young Catholic girl in Philadelphia, a successful movie star in ’50s Hollywood and the perfect consort of the prince of Monaco, an ancient city-state ruled by her husband’s family for 800 years—Kelly managed to keep her head, maintain her polished, elegant image, stick to the looks that worked for her and, occasionally, reveal a determined confidence and a surprisingly strong will. And, after all these years, she is still a fashion icon with endlessly enduring appeal. Her influence is reflected in innumerable red-carpet gowns, and still inspires contemporary designers from Tommy Hilfiger to Zac Posen and Janie Bryant, the costume designer for Mad Men. It’s also served as a model for thousands of brides, including Kate Middleton, and set an intimidating standard for Monaco’s new princess, Charlene. If you need more proof, there is even a series of collector’s- edition Princess Grace Barbie dolls available. Popular exhibitions of Kelly’s celebrated wardrobe—at the V&A Museum in London last year and at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox until January 22 — demonstrate a continuing fascination with the same question that was first posed about the young actress long ago: What is it that makes Grace Kelly different? Kelly possessed undeniable talent and beauty, of course, but also a certain elusive quality that set her apart from her peers. In early 1955, Time magazine identified the source of her uniqueness by quoting a Hollywood producer: “The thing that made her stand out is what we call ‘style.’” And that style, while reflected in her wardrobe, was as much about her character as her clothing. Born in 1929 to a wealthy but self-made Philadelphia family, Kelly was a sickly and shy child. With impressive drive and
dedication, however, she pursued her dream of becoming an actress, studying in New York despite her family’s objections and working in summer theatre, in television plays and on Broadway. Although her goal was a serious stage career, in late 1952 the 22-year-old signed a contract with Hollywood’s largest studio, MGM, and quickly rocketed to stardom. Kelly’s blonde beauty could make her appear either aloofly patrician or as accessible as the girl next door—indeed, Vogue pronounced, she was both “remote as a Snow Queen” and “too wholesome to be mysterious.” She was slim, although she sometimes had to diet, and was considered tall. Her height of 5 feet 6½ inches proved a handicap early in her career, when she often auditioned in her stocking feet, but her face and figure allowed the fledgling actress to support herself by modelling. This experience taught her to objectively evaluate her good and bad points. She improved her posture to the extent that it became one of her best features. Fussy fashions, she discovered, were not for her— she looked best in under- stated clothing, off-the-face hairstyles and minimal makeup. Once she arrived in Hollywood, myriad professionals helped polish her image, but the young actress had the confidence to maintain her simple look, explaining, “I had to follow what I knew was right for me.” By early 1954, Kelly was being hailed as Hollywood’s brightest star and hottest property. Director Alfred Hitchcock, impressed by her talent and what he called her “sexual elegance,” declared that there was no one like her in Hollywood. After working with her on Dial M for Murder in 1953, the perfectionist director became her mentor. He showcased Kelly in his next two films, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief, which also utilized the skills of famed costume designer Edith Head. Head’s designs carried out Hitchcock’s carefully crafted vision, reinforcing the cinematic plot and mood and showing the new star at her most glamorous and alluring. Her vivid on-screen image made a big impression on audiences then, and it
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the day of her engagement announcement. The bag had already been given its name before her first pregnancy and, as countless photographs make clear, the forthright Kelly made no secret of her pregnancies once they were announced. During the following months, an enthralled public followed the bride-to-be as she filmed the musical High Society, purchased 40 ensembles by America’s top designers for her trousseau and sailed for Monaco in early April. A week of celebrations there culminated in two royal weddings, one civil and one religious. Both bridal ensembles were specially created by MGM studios, which filmed the wedding, and their chief costume designer, Helen Rose, who had worked with Kelly on four films and knew how to set off her famous beauty. Romantic, appropriate and becoming, the magnificently simple gown for the religious ceremony has influenced popular conceptions of bridal elegance to this day; 55 years after Grace Kelly’s wedding, another famous royal bride, Kate Middleton, looked to it to inform her choice of wedding dress. In her new life, Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco dedicated herself to her roles as a wife and, soon, a mother. The princess redefined royal style, setting trends with her streamlined maternity clothing, some designed by Christian Dior, and by choosing baby clothes in gender-neutral yellow. Her American wardrobe was now augmented by clothes from Paris’ leading couturiers, including Dior, Balenciaga and Givenchy. Although her royal position demanded more formal daywear and evening gowns, she continued to dress in the simple yet elegant fashion that she had made famous, and candidly admitted that she did not spend a lot of money on clothes and wore things longer than most people did. On a trip to New York after the birth of her third child in 1965, she unabashedly wore the nine-year-old navy-blue coat she had selected for her pre-wedding arrival in Monaco, asserting, “It’s still just as good as ever. I’m a little overweight since my baby, and it fits.” Princess Grace was a fashion celebrity in the ’60s, dressed by Balenciaga, Givenchy, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Marc Bohan of Christian Dior. But while she sometimes sported elaborate coiffures or donned formal costumes for masquerade balls, she favoured casual clothes for relaxing with her family. The newest trends—miniskirts, see-through clothes and exaggerated makeup—were not for her. Although generally conservative and committed to upholding the dignity of her husband’s position, she did sometimes endorse change, dispensing with the protocol requiring women to wear hats to lunch at Monaco’s palace, for example. In her 40s and early 50s, she favored designers who understood her style and knew what was appropriate. As her children grew, the princess became more involved with charitable and artistic causes, including the Red Cross, and found a creative outlet in poetry readings and work reflecting her love of flowers. She frequently went out of her way to comfort and encourage others, from aspiring artists to Josephine Baker—whom she supported financially when the legendary performer was facing bankruptcy—and a young Diana Spencer, whom she put at ease during the future Princess of Wales’ first public appearance after her 1981 engagement. Tragically, in 1982 Kelly’s life was cut short at age 52 when she suffered a stroke at the wheel of a car. Grace Kelly’s classic, understated style did make her stand out, but it was about more than the clothes she wore: whatever might have gone on behind her cool exterior, she projected a consistent image of elegance, restraint and dignity. As a star, as a bride and as a princess, she remained true to what she knew was right for her, and to this day her look continues to be emulated and admired. FT
IMAGES COURTESY OF TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX PRESS
continues to do so now: Visitors to the TIFF Bell Lightbox’s Grace Kelly: From Movie Star to Princess exhibition, which is screening all three films, can experience Kelly’s magnetic cinematic persona for themselves, and also see a collection of objects that includes home movies, telegrams from Prince Rainier, original dresses and a replica of her storied wedding gown. Head and Kelly became good friends and successful collaborators; the designer credited the actress with having a great eye and great style, along with an unmatched ability to wear anything well. Their next project together, however, required them to work against these assets. In The Country Girl, Head’s wardrobe of drab housedresses and unflattering cardigans helped transform the lovely young star into the dowdy, bitter wife of an alcoholic. In March 1955, this role earned Kelly the Academy Award for best actress, adding to the numerous professional honors she received during her time in Hollywood. Throughout 1954 and 1955 the actress’ off-screen qualities also garnered intense interest. Her slim figure, quiet good taste and reserved manner distinguished her from the era’s typically voluptuous, flashy and publicity-hungry stars. Even the press, which delighted in romantically linking Kelly, often with little evidence, to virtually all of her leading men—including Clark Gable, Ray Milland and William Holden—described her as a lady. In early 1955, Vogue declared that was in fact “the one phrase that pegs her,” while Time placed her on its cover with a caption that emphasized the attraction of her refined manner: “Gentlemen prefer ladies.” Kelly’s style at that time exemplified the uncluttered, classic look favoured by young, well-bred American women; indeed, Oleg Cassini, the fashion designer who was her on-and-off romantic interest in 1954 and 1955, referred to her “Bryn Mawr look,” and others described her appearance as that of “a dream schoolmistress.” Her wardrobe included subdued evening gowns and meticulously tailored suits, as well as casual clothes she made look elegant with her faultless carriage and grooming. She wore low-heeled shoes and—uniquely in Hollywood—prim white gloves that became her trademark. The near-sighted actress made no secret of her glasses, even wearing them at the Oscars. Although she was the highest-earning female star in Hollywood by the end of 1955, she bought clothes on a modest scale (in a 10, the smallest size then commonly sold) and wore them for years, explaining that her loyalty to her old clothing was the same as her loyalty to her old friends. Kelly garnered numerous fashion awards in recognition of her “taste, elegance and restraint.” She was named to 1954’s Best Dressed List, and the following year she tied for its top position. By this point, Kelly’s stylish simplicity had begun to influence fashion trends. In December 1955, Women’s Wear Daily welcomed the appearance of something at once fresh and classic—the Grace Kelly Look. As the Associated Press noted, “Grace Kelly, a nice girl from a nice family, has made good taste glamorous.” In January, 1956, Kelly was at the height of her stardom when she stunned her friends, fans and the press with the surprise announcement that she would marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco, whom she had met the previous spring at the Cannes Film Festival. The future princess was pictured clad in an understated shirtwaist dress and white gloves, and carrying a large Hermès handbag. This oversized bag was a favourite of the actress, who owned at least two versions. The proliferation of images of her carrying it helped popularize the bag, dubbed the “Kelly” in her honour, and it quickly became a status symbol. The commonly held belief that its name originated when Kelly appeared on a magazine cover using it to disguise her pregnancy, however, is inaccurate. No such magazine cover has been found, and the photograph that sometimes accompanies the tale is not of the expectant princess but of the star on
See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
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G U CC I
R AC H E L ZO E ONLY AT HOLTS
V I S I T O U R S TO R E S O R H O LT R E N F R E W.C O M
GracE and me Photography by David Drebin
S H O T E X C L U S I V E LY AT T H E T I F F B E L L L I G H T B O X
Behind-the-scenes video captures by FT’s Jim Needham & Jeff Brinkert
DRESS, CHRISTIAN DIOR VINTAGE @ VINTAGECOUTURE.COM; EARRINGS & CLUTCH, SWAROVSKI; SHOES, ALDO MAKEUP, HARMONIE DE BLUSH IN ROSE BRAZILIA BY DIOR; FRAGRANCE, DIOR J’ADORE.
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“I don’t want to dress up a picture with just my face”
JACKET, CHANEL; PANTS, GUCCI @ HOLT RENFREW; BAG, HERMÈS; SHOES, ALDO. MAKEUP, STUDIO SKIN 15 HOUR WEAR HYDRATING FOUNDATION SPF 10 IN 1.2 WARM FAIR BY SMASHBOX; FRAGRANCE, GUCCI GUILTY INTENSE.
DRESS, YVES SAINT LAURENT VINTAGE @ VINTAGECOUTURE.COM; SHOES, MANOLO BLAHNIK @ BROWNS SHOES; NECKLACE, CAROLE TANENBAUM VINTAGE COLLECTION. MAKEUP, ROUGE ALLURE VELVET LUMINOUS MATTE LIP COLOUR IN LA RAFFINテ右 BY CHANEL; FRAGRANCE, CHANEL Nツー 5.
PANTS, CELINE @ HOLT RENFREW; JACKET, PRADA @ HOLT RENFREW; TURTLENECK, AKNY @ THE BAY; SHOES, ALDO; KELLY BAG, HERMÈS. MAKEUP, MASTER FLUID PRIMER BY ARMANI; FACE FABRIC FOUNDATION BY ARMANI; CHEEKS, SMASHBOX CONTOURING PALETTE; NAKED EYE PALETTE BY URBAN DECAY; EYE LINER, MAKEUP FOR EVER WATERPROOF CREME EYE SHADOW; MASCARA, DIOR BLACKEST BLACK; LIPS, ARMANI 101/400; HAIR, TRESemmé HAIRCARE EXTRA HOLD MOUSSE AND STRONG HOLD HAIRSPRAY.
“As an unmarried woman, I was thought to
be a danger.”
DRESS, MARC JACOBS @ HOLT RENFREW; SHOES, GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI @ BROWNS SHOES; KELLY CLUTCH, HERMÈS; LEATHER GLOVES, HERMÈS. MAKEUP, ELNETT SATIN HAIRSPRAY EXTRA STRONG HOLD BY L’ORÉAL PARIS; FRAGRANCE, ANGEL BY THIERRY MUGLER.
GOWN, RAMONA KEVEZA; NECKLACE, CAROLE TANENBAUM VINTAGE COLLECTION; SHOES, ALDO. MAKEUP, LITTLE ROUND POT BLUSH IN 34 ROSE D’OR BY BOURJOIS PARIS; FRAGRANCE, CHLOÉ ROSE.
STYLED BY ZEINA ESMAIL FOR P1M; HAIR AND MAKEUP: ANNA NENIOU FOR TRESemmé HAIRCARE / P1M; MODEL: JULIA EVGENOVA, NEXT CANADA EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: MIKHALA MILLER, LISA KISBER, TAMMY LEUNG; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: MARK COOPER, JACOB MULIK SPECIAL THANKS: AMY WATERS, PATRIC CARNEGIE, KRISTINA GOVAN AT TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX.
BEYOND THE BOX
TWO EXCEPTIONAL MODERNIST HOMES AROSE FROM VERY DIFFERENT BUT EQUALLY INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION by KATHARINE VANSITTART
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IMAGES COURTESY OF SHIM-SUTCLIFFE ARCHITECTS. LARGE PHOTO BY JAMES DOW: CORAL PERFORMANCE & PHILIP GLASS PHOTOS BY BOB GUNDU: FASHION INCUBATOR PHOTO BY SALIM BAMAKHRAMA
ARCHITECTURE
THE VERTICAL OAK PANEL “FINS” IN TORONTO’S INTEGRAL HOUSE ECHO THE SURROUNDING FOREST AND PROVIDE A BEGUILING VENUE FOR LIVE PERFORMANCES. FROM OPPOSITE PAGE, BOTTOM LEFT: THE ALDEBURGH CONNECTION’S CHORAL AND DANCE PERFORMANCES; A FASHION INCUBATOR RUNWAY SHOW; A SOLO PIANO CONCERT BY AMERICAN COMPOSER PHILIP GLASS.
Whether you buy haute couture or off-the-rack, if a garment doesn’t fit well, the investment is a flop. Two architectdesigned houses—one a home for music in Toronto, the other an engineering experiment outside Madrid, Spain— demonstrate different methods of fitting
a house to a site. Each is designed in a modernist mode, yet the approach to construction couldn’t be more different, echoing the unique requirements, tastes and imaginations of the owners. Epic in scale, the 15,000-sq-ft Integral House in Toronto defies predictable
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notions about what a home is, both in how it looks and how it performs. The owner, James Stewart, is a math professor who made his fortune writing calculus textbooks. A former concert violinist, he is now a patron of the arts, and has long made his various homes impromptu
“ MOVING FROM ROOM TO ROOM INVOKES A SENSE OF TUMBLING WONDERLAND-LIKE INTO AN OVERSIZED INSTRUMENT.”
IMAGES COURTESY OF ENSAMBLE STUDIO
A LAP POOL PROTRUDES OFF THE SECOND FLOOR OF MADRID’S HEMEROSCOPIUM HOUSE, WHICH WAS ASSEMBLED IN ONE WEEK WITH PREFAB ELEMENTS TYPICALLY USED IN HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION.
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venues for local concerts. After his publishing success, he thought: “It would be nice to build a brand-new house.” For this magnum opus he hired Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, a Toronto-based team known for seamlessly tailoring buildings with their sites. “He told us he loved curves,” recalls Brigitte Shim. Other than that, the architects pretty much had carte blanche. As the name suggests, Integral House integrates a private residence with public performance space. It took six years to build, accommodates up to 350 guests and is a favourite with local music festivals and theatre companies. It’s also been a venue for fashion shows and performances by dance artists and international acts including Philip Glass. But there is more to the label: Integral means integrity of the whole—and belonging to, not just attached. In math, it refers to whole numbers, not fractions, and connotes curves in calculus equations. Musically, the S-shaped calculus symbol for integral is like the sinuous curves found in violins and treble clefs. Architecture, math and music have ancient ties. Amassing them harmoniously on a steep ravine with a complex human program was the challenge for the architects. From a typical streetfront lot, the house is a wood and glass waterfall spilling down into the trees. Two storeys at front unfold into five down the slope. Full-length windows on each floor rise to the sky, while vertical wood “fins” interlaced between windowpanes echo the surrounding forest. To complete the equation, three central concrete forms—a stairwell, a chimney and an elevator shaft—ground the translucent exterior to the land. Inside, intimate and opulent meet and mingle. Conventional single-storey kitchen, dining and bedroom areas wrap around, above and below the double-height performance spaces, overlooked by three balconies. A reflecting pool at the entrance and two pools on the lowest level (regular and lap) enhance the indoor-outdoor
connection, evoking “the journey of water,” says Shim, and “exploring the idea of water as a material.” Materials are key—for structural and visual effect but especially for acoustics. “We used a lot of wood,” explains Shim. Later in the process, professional acousticians were consulted. “Musicians love it,” notes Shim. “They love being in the space, playing in the space.” And guests feel privileged to be engaged with the artists in such a beguiling milieu. The salient elements are the wood fins, strung top to bottom on the windows. Each oak panel is tilted at a different angle and distance from the one next to it. Moving from room to room, level to level invokes a sense of tumbling Wonderland-like into an oversized instrument. The house is an ongoing composition of people, materials, ideas, land, even climate. “Seasons are really important to us,” says Shim of the approach to orienting the building and organizing interiors. Windows were positioned to register subtle shifts of natural light throughout the days and months. At night, energy-efficient LED lighting creates distinctive effects. Geothermal piping in the driveway enters the home via a radiant floor system that supplies all heating and cooling, silently. No noisy furnaces or chillers, notes Shim. “For performances, we really wanted it to be quiet.” As well, segments of “green” roofing enhance the interrelatedness to the topography while offering environmental benefits. Furniture designed by Shim-Sutcliffe is currently being introduced. And there is always another performance event to look forward to. The actual construction process of Madrid’s Hemeroscopium House was a performance event. Hemeroscopium, in Greek, suggests a place where the sun sets, something on the horizon but present. For all the high craft and considerable construction time of Integral House, Hemeroscopium came together in one
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week in a “perfectly coordinated rhythm of assembly,” say the architects. They should know: it’s their home, and they watched as cranes hoisted huge prefabricated elements into place, including seven colossal concrete beams and several steel trusses typically used in bridge and highway construction. “It was like action building,” says Deborah Mesa, partner with Antón Garcia-Abril in Ensamble Studio, the Madrid-based firm behind the project. Still, it wasn’t all Lego fun and games for a week and voila—a home! It took the architects a year to engineer the apparently simple prefab structure. The subtle central-helix design required complex planning, including calculations of tension and stresses on the steel rods that Mesa says “sew the web of beams” together. Not vigorously site-specific like Integral House, Hemeroscopium functions as a kind of “laboratory,” states Garcia-Abril, allowing he and his family to experience the novel building type themselves to see how it will perform for future projects and different sites. For all the industrial methodology and standardized materials, Hemeroscopium House has elegance. Like Integral House, it welcomes crowds and is infused with natural light. Paradoxically, the heavy elements allow for a weightless, wideopen aesthetic and spaces that flow from the inside outward. Similarly, there are two pools, though here the main-level pool sits like a giant mirror in the floor, while a lap pool cantilevers off the second floor. These feel more solid than liquid, frozen like the 20-tonne granite slab poised precariously on the roof. The architects playfully call this sculpture the house’s “G-point.” It is a pun but also a philosophy, “a stone expression of the force of gravity,” they say, and a meditation on a key issue that interests them; balance, in architecture, in home, in nature, in self. FT See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
MOVING IMAGE
CHANEL, THE TALE OF A FAIRY BY KARL LAGERFELD
FA S H I O N FILMS
IMAGE COURTESY OF SHOWSTUDIO.COM
BEHIND THE SCENES - CHANEL, THE TALE OF A FAIRY BY KARL LAGERFELD
OBJECT FETISH 2011: PRADA, BY NICK KNIGHT
“This is a new way of showing fashion. This is what’s happening: There’s a great move to the Internet, fashion film is taking over from fashion photography, fashion designers are doing films instead of shows, it’s all changing.
The whole thing is a revolution, really.” —Nick Knight, director and fashion film pioneer
IMAGES COURTESY OF CHANEL
by KEVIN RITCHIE
BEHIND THE SCENES - CHANEL, THE TALE OF A FAIRY BY KARL LAGERFELD
BEHIND THE SCENES - CHANEL, THE TALE OF A FAIRY BY KARL LAGERFELD
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MOVING IMAGE
“Fashion film fundamentally isn't anything new. What's changed is that fashion film has a place to be seen now.” —Marcus K. Jones, director
Over the past few years, many film directors have turned an eye to fashion—usually creating experimental shorts with varying degrees of quality—while fashion photographers, faced with the pressure to keep up with the new way of capturing fashion on film, access to inexpensive, high-quality cameras and ubiquitous smartphone screens, have also jumped on the fashion film bandwagon. What began with amateur directors filming models running around forests in expensive dresses is evolving into more complex narratives with bigger budgets that attract the likes of Martin Scorsese, Harmony Korine, Karl Lagerfeld and Sofia Coppola. The best of these films are selected to play in a growing list of fashion film festivals around the world, including Diane Pernet’s A Shaded View on Fashion Film in Paris and Fred Sweet’s La Jolla Fashion Film Festival in California, which programmed 38 films from 4,000 submissions this year, and will expand to three days next year. If a collection can tell a story, so should its film. Here are some of them.
RED STAIRS, DIRECTED BY MARCUS K. JONES
“Something like this hasn’t happened since MTV started up.” —Todd Cole, director
See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
THE CURVE OF FORGOTTEN THINGS, RODARTE A/W 2011, DIRECTED BY TODD COLE
RADO, DIRECTED BY MARCUS K. JONES
IMAGES COURTESY OF THE LA JOLLA FASHION FILM FESTIVAL, TODD COLE, MARCUS K. JONES, MIGUEL JACOB
COCOON, DIRECTED BY PHILLIP NEIL MARTIN
NOW I NEED YOU, DIRECTED BY MIGUEL JACOB
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THE MURDER OF JEAN SEBERG, DIRECTED BY JOSEPH LALLY
SPIRIT, DIRECTED BY TAK KUROHA
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elle muliarchyk by MARY-LOU ZEITOUN
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IMAGES COURTESY OF ELLE MULIARCHYK
VISIONARIES
A willowy, 21-year-old Belarusian woman browses a luxury boutique. The saleswomen, while curious about her changeroom pickiness, are polite and hopeful. She looks like a model, and models have money. But in the changeroom, Elle Muliarchyk is not trying on clothes; she is modelling them. For herself. Once in the mirrored space, she slips out and expertly de-articulates a tripod from her bag, then sets up a camera and begins to photograph herself. FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 125
Sometimes she poses with stuffed pandas. Once, with a giant King Kong hand. The resulting photos, exhibited at New York’s Via Bus Stop boutique in 2006, are shockingly intimate. They are rich and beautifully lit, coalescing feelings of both voyeurism and envy, and underscored with the deep phobic horror of the changeroom. “People want to be beautiful, to be skinny, to dress up beautifully and have enough money to buy this expensive clothing,” says Muliarchyk, who, born in Belarus and raised in Vietnam and the Czech Republic, is happily unfettered by political correctness. “I am experiencing this just momentarily.” She laughs. “Like the smell of delicious food.” One photo shows her crumpled in a corner, a broken doll with knees pulled up. Are the velvety folds between her knees her skin, or are they the dress? In another she is standing in
something ever more dangerous. So in between skydiving, my hobby, I go and take pictures in dangerous places.” When designer Bella Freud, daughter of Lucian and great-granddaughter of Sigmund, suggested a collaboration, Muliarchyk leapt at the opportunity “to create something that would rep both of us.” “I loved the beauty of her pictures,” Freud told FT about the Via Bus Stop show. “They really sort of struck me, and I thought, ‘She is young, so I’ll get in quickly before she becomes a megastar.’ Which I’m sure she will be.” The result was “Journey to the End of the Night,” a series of photos of Muliarchyk wearing Freud’s knitwear in various sketchy locations exhibited in London in 2007. Working in dangerous places like abandoned alleys and parks, where she once escaped an actual assault, Muliarchyk continued her vision
of “self as muse” in the tradition of iconoclastic photographers like Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin and Janieta Eyre. Like her mentors, she is not redefining the male gaze, but embracing it. Although Muliarchyk’s slenderness, height and blonde hair flag her as a model—and she began modelling after Patrick Demarchelier discovered her at 16—there is maybe too much character behind her forthright chin and her unrepentant enthusiasm for supermodel status. One can see how she couldn’t replicate that aura of dampened inertia required by so many models, and why she has thrived more as a creator than as an object. “For the most part, it’s a model’s job to have no personality,” she says. “That’s not an easy job, it’s a big skill! Models are fast-food goddesses. I didn’t understand this for a long time, and the conflict made my own modelling career harder.”
Her portfolio now includes a series of collections: “Begotten” (2009) reinvents religious icons through contemporary fashion, for instance, while “Designing our Fortunes” is about the effect of fashion on psychics. She’s also a contributor to the New York Times Magazine. Recently she worked with W magazine on a series about hats and time travel. She has also moved into filmmaking, and is currently developing a horror-film project that addresses voyeurism, fame and narcissism. “The most transformative, orgasmic experience to me is collaborating with a team on a creative project,” says Muliarchyk, “creating unforgettable images that touch something in your heart and make you stop for just a moment in these semi-virtual lives of ours.” For all her investment in creative projects, Muliarchyk still has the modelling bug, celebrating the fact that she could fit into runway clothes at a recent shoot. Nonetheless, she is keenly aware that her photography is a full-time commitment. “When I’m working on a project that allows me four hours of sleep a day for two months, with no gym or vegetable juices, then I feel like I’m turning into Orson Welles,” she says, referring to the legendarily obsessive, plussized director. Fortunately for Muliarchyk, if her modelling career sags, she clearly has the capability of becoming a cinematic talent—and probably without having to hit the girth of Orson Welles. FT
“PEOPLE WANT TO DRESS UP AND BUY EXPENSIVE CLOTHING. I AM EXPERIENCING THIS MOMENTARILY, LIKE THE SMELL OF DELICIOUS FOOD.”
IMAGES COURTESY OF ELLE MULIARCHYK
See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
frisk position, her red dress endlessly reflected in the three-way mirror. “What I like about Elle, both in life and as an artist, is that she’s fearless,” Horacio Silva, former features director of the New York Times’ Style magazine, told Fashion Television. “It’s really clear in her work. It takes guts to do that sort of kamikaze dressing-room photography. It’s not that easy taking a $10,000 frock into a dressing room and pretending to try it on, and meanwhile creating these elaborate tableaux and getting away with it, and making beautiful art in the process.” Once, Muliarchyk was even arrested in London. But the risk doesn’t bother her a bit. (Unsurprisingly, it all ended with grinning policemen.) “I’m a person that needs more emotion, more adrenaline,” she says. “I need
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CLASSIC
Margaret Vinci Heldt Doris Paul BEHIND THE SCENES
HAIR-RAISING
A TALE OF TWO BEEHIVES
A HALF-CENTURY AGO, TWO WOMEN IN TWO CITIES SIMULTANEOUSLY INVENTED THE BEEHIVE—A NOVELTY HAIRDO THAT HAS COME BACK INTO FASHION OFTEN ENOUGH TO BE DUBBED A CLASSIC.
by CHRIS METLER
come back into fashion many times, and now it’s buzz-worthy again as Heldt, now 93, is back in the news. In January, Cosmetology Chicago announced that they were creating an annual beauty scholarship in her name, and, this fall, Heldt was inducted into the Chicago History Museum for her contribution to hair. Says a perfectly coiffed and impeccably dressed Heldt, “I don’t think anybody could be more honoured.” All the attention also unearthed controversy about the beehive’s roots, however. Officially, the look originated in Illinois in 1960, when the editors of Modern Beauty Salon (now Modern Salon) magazine asked Heldt to create a new style for their pages. “Hairdressing wasn’t going anywhere—it was sort of stagnant,” Heldt explains from her home in Chicago. In search of inspiration, Heldt crept downstairs while her family slept and experimented with a
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mannequin’s hair. The shape of a small velvet cap resting nearby triggered a eureka moment. The next day, Heldt re-created the look on a model, using backcombing and hairspray to construct a tall rounded cap of hair. As Heldt remembers, “The girl doing the write-up said ‘Margaret, this looks like a beehive! Will you care if we call it a beehive?’ I said no, and the beehive was born.” But Doris Paul, a retired, award-winning Toronto hairstylist, maintains that she actually created the look—and named it—a year earlier, in 1959. “It just happened,” Paul says, displaying black-and-white photos of a model with a low blonde beehive. “I kept going round and round and round until the hair was way up at the top. I called it a beehive because it looked like a beehive. It’s a simple, simple hairdo.” Whatever its exact origin, there’s no denying the beehive’s legacy, even if it has been altered
IMAGES © GETTY IMAGES
One of Hollywood’s most fashionable films begins with Audrey Hepburn emerging from a yellow cab on Fifth Avenue at dawn. Her dress is an ankle-skimming Givenchy, her gloves are opera- length. As the movie title appears onscreen, Hepburn stands silhouetted in front of a Tiffany’s window, her elegant ensemble punctuated by an exclamation point: a perfectly crafted, sky-high beehive. Hairstylist Margaret Vinci Heldt created the beehive hairdo in 1960, and a year later, Breakfast at Tiffany’s marked its first foray into film. It was a sensational introduction. Bolder than the bouffant, sexier than the chignon, chicer than the ponytail, Hepburn’s beehive rivalled the sleek polish of New York skyscrapers and helped turn the actress and her character, Holly Golightly, into icons. “She got it,” says Heldt approvingly, of Hepburn’s take on her ‘do. Over the ensuing 50 years, the beehive has
IMAGE © GETTY IMAGES
by LAURA DECARUFEL
and adapted over the years. In the early ‘60s, Brigitte Bardot added a sensual edge to the style, pairing it with cat-eye liner and a suggestive pout. The Ronettes, a New York girl group, soon followed suit. “[We] used to have contests to see who could get their hair to grow to their waist the fastest,” lead singer Ronnie Spector told Vanity Fair in 2010. “Then we’d want to do something fun with it.” The Ronettes’ secret weapon? “It’s all about Aquanet, and then teasing it, and then more Aquanet, and then teasing it a little more.” Later, in the ‘80s, the B-52s borrowed the hairdo’s nickname for their band moniker and embraced its campy glory in their retro look. There were other variations on the look— Dusty Springfield’s towering coiffure, Tippi Hedren’s structured pouf, Star Trek’s Yeoman Janice Rand’s futuristic braided take—but the basic principle of vertical tresses quickly exploded into the mainstream. “The little old ladies who didn’t have too much hair wanted it,” recalls Heldt, who went on to open an eponymous salon on Michigan Avenue. “It looked more like an anthill than a beehive, but they liked it because they were in fashion.” And by 1964, hairspray sales had surpassed lipstick as America’s bestselling cosmetic. Although hair came down to earth in the ’70s, beehive chic never went the way of the finger
wave. It survived in different incarnations, particularly on the small screen, with Marge Simpson and Absolutely Fabulous’ Joanna Lumley flying flags of varying heights. Then, in 2006, Amy Winehouse and her signature locks burst onto the scene, and the fashion world fell in love. “She is a beautiful, gifted artist, and I very much like her hairdo,” said Karl Lagerfeld of the late singer, who once said, “My hair is always on point, even if the rest of me is naff.” For his 2007 pre-fall Chanel show, Lagerfeld combined the sensibilities of Winehouse and Bardot to create soaring, half-undone beehives. (Coco Rocha embodied the look in the print ads.) More recently, at the fall 2011 shows, the beehive was front and centre in a classic spunsugar style at Bottega Veneta and at Jean Paul Gaultier, where Guido Palau and Josh Wood created silvery-grey wigs—similar, in fact, to the shade currently favoured by both beehive innovators, Paul and Heldt. “Today, you don’t have to be an artist,” says Heldt. “[All you need is] a good haircut, good colour and maybe an occasional perm because everything seems to be so straight. But it will change. Someone will throw in a little bit of a curve, and before you know it, we’ll have the big thing again.” FT See the video version at fashiontelevision.com FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 129
Sometimes, an idea occurs to more than one person at about the same time. Fashion Television producer Tamara Petrie remembers how she found out that credit for the beehive’s invention might have to be shared between two women in two cities. It started when Doris Paul’s son, Mark Roberts, watched FT’s piece on Margaret Vinci Heldt, the still elegant, vivacious and perfectly coiffed 93-year-old beehive inventor. “Mark turned to his partner and said, ‘Wait a minute, my mom told me that she invented the beehive,’” Petrie recalls. “‘And she won an award for it at a competition a full year earlier than Margaret says she invented it!’" Roberts and his partner, who live upstairs in his mother’s Toronto house, hurried down to urge her to tell FT’s producers her story. At first unwilling to offend Heldt by making any accusations, Doris eventually contacted FT’s Jay Levine to claim that she had originated the beehive, and had the photos to prove it. An interview was then booked with Doris at her home. Petrie remembers being welcomed by Mark, who admired her shoes, and finding Doris sitting on a sofa by a grand piano, smoking. “We sat down together, and she pulled out binders and photo albums,” says Petrie. “She showed me her first beehive, and the photo of her Canadian award for the beehive with a 1959 date on the trophy that she was holding.” Eventually overcoming her reticence, Paul spoke with Petrie for more than an hour about the beehive and the hairstyling community in Toronto. “She told me that she called it a beehive because her original design wrapped around the head like a beehive, and that she’d wanted to have fake bees in the hair, but her boss at the salon wouldn't let her,” Petrie recalls. “And she said the beehive was boring to her after the first competition, and that she never looked back, creating more elaborate hairstyles from there on in.”
BEHIND THE SCENES
“BY UNDERSTANDING THE PAST, YOU CAN SEE
HOW THE FUTURE COULD BE.”
WESTWOOD’S BRAIN WITH THE HELP OF SOME BRILLIANT HAND-DRAWN ANIMATION, A DOCUMENTARY EXPLAINS THE ICONIC DESIGNER’S COMPLEX THOUGHTS ABOUT ART, CULTURE AND THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
ILLUSTRATIONS COURTESY OF MARYAM MAHDAWIYAN
A N I M AT I N G
With her trademark brilliant-orange hair and offbeat style, Dame Vivienne Westwood has built a career on the marriage of art and fashion, starting by creating and capitalizing on the looks associated with England’s ’70s punk movement—bondage pants, safety-pinned T-shirts, pirate boots—and eventually becoming one of the most iconic clothing designers in the world. In the early days, she worked with Malcolm McLaren, her then-husband and the Sex Pistols’ manager, with whom she opened the shop Let It Rock. It has since undergone a number of name and style changes, and for the past 30 years it has been known as Worlds End, where fashion-forward individuals immerse themselves in Westwood’s vivid imagination. But dressing the rich and trendy isn’t the only thing on Westwood’s mind: sustainability, human rights, global warming and fostering an appreciation for art are all on her radar. In the recent FT-produced documentary Vivienne Westwood’s London, the outspoken clothier takes us on a whirlwind tour of her hometown, while offering a glimpse into her thoughts and ideologies. “I won’t show you the tourist attractions,” she says. “What is so amazing about London is art. London is one of the great cultural capitals of the world. And I want you to become an art lover, because it helps you to understand the world you live in. We suffer incredibly from a lack of culture.” During the hour-long program, the 70-year-old Westwood cycles around London, making pitstops at galleries and restaurants to muse on Modigliani and share some bread-and- butter pudding. One minute, she refers to people as “ciphers of consumerism” in their enjoyment of popular culture; the next minute, she’s extolling the virtues of the Lavender Hill fish market. Although she speaks of slowing down to take in and enjoy art, it’s difficult to imagine her stopping to take a breath. “This is the one painting that I would save out of the whole world,” she says of Titian’s The Death of Actaeon at the National Gallery. “It seems to have little colour, yet it’s got every colour. It’s magical, it’s mystical, I can’t say what it is except that this painting has got a secret bigger than anything I’ve seen, ever.” It’s not easy keeping up with Westwood’s complex, rapid-fire thought patterns, or her varied interests. “Vivienne has some strong-minded ideas,” says Howard Brull, the show’s writer/director/producer, “and it sometimes takes her a while to explain them. You have to really pay attention to understand.” Brull, senior producer at Fashion Television, decided that some of those ideas might best be explained with visual aids. He turned to graphic designer Maryam Mahdawiyan, who created a number of animated sequences that pop up to illustrate some of the more
elusive or elaborate points. Despite Westwood’s status in the fashion world, the 24-year-old Mahdawiyan had never heard of the designer, yet her vivid drawings cut right to the core of Westwood’s meaning. “She has quite a complex chain of thought,” Mahdawiyan says of Westwood. “There are several segues in the documentary where she steps back from the tour to emphasize the importance of art and culture in society. My aim was to characterize these segments as teacher-student moments, so to speak. I created a series of simple sketches to help visualize the discrete concepts in her talk, and then I tried to break down her thoughts to their simplest form.” The result is a series of black-and-white drawings—some of which directly illustrate Westwood’s words, while others take a more interpretive approach—that are both amusing and informative. It would be easy to get lost among the frequent costume changes, multiple backgrounds and gilt-framed paintings that populate Vivienne Westwood’s London, but Mahdawiyan’s art complements Westwood’s, and is bold enough not to get lost in the fray. “She was brilliant; she just nailed it,” says Brull. “It wasn’t just that the audience enjoyed it; Vivienne herself was thrilled with it.” For Mahdawiyan, the program was an opportunity to show her work to a large audience, and a chance to flex her creative muscles in new ways. “I played around with hand-sketching and line animation as part of my coursework in school,” she says, “but this was my first commercial production, and my first experience with using line animation as a means of storytelling. It was exciting, because the audio and visual [elements] go hand in hand.” While Westwood pillages the world’s history and culture for ideas that can be transformed into fashion, the Iran-born, Dubai- and Toronto-raised Mahdawiyan seeks inspiration in design, typography and fashion, as well as the natural world. Most of her work includes people, flora and fauna; even the typeface she created, called Havah, has a roundness to it that is in keeping with the shapes of nature. “I didn’t attend any special school for arts,” she recalls of her years prior to attending the York University-Sheridan College partner program in design, “but I remember drawing at a very early age. It came to me very naturally. “Looking back, I always remember drawing flowers, so much so that my teacher in Grade 1 sent one of my illustrations to the local newspaper as part of a school competition. To my surprise, my drawing was featured. It was such a great feeling; it might have been the trigger that got me to where I am today.” FT See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
by JOANNE HUFFA FASHION TELEVISION MAGAZINE | 130
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ARCHIVES
FROM THE ARCHIVES 1993
CARLA BRUNI In 1993, Carla Bruni was a 24-year-old supermodel at the peak of her career. Long before the Italian-born heiress married French President Nicolas Sarkozy and became First Lady of the French Republic and Vanity Fair’s 2011 Best Dressed Woman, before a nude photo of her caused a stir on the eve of a state visit to Britain, before she was blamed for Mick Jagger’s divorce or acted in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris or recorded two albums, she sat down with FT to talk about her body, her work and what she might do with her life in the unforeseeable future… ON NUDITY “I’m not shy; I don’t have a problem taking off my clothes. There is a different culture of the body in Europe than there is in America. I don’t love my body but I don’t dislike it, and I take care of it. So I use it. And if it’s a beautiful nude, why not? I think some nude pictures are very strong and interesting and pure, far from being vulgar.” 2000
AZZEDINE ALAIA
1992
Azzedine Alaia stands apart from most fashion designers, both for his skill and for his obliviousness to the standard rules. The 71-year-old Tunisian-born couturier works on his own schedule, without regard to the timing of fashion weeks or seasons; his many devotees don’t mind waiting for his collections, because there is no one who dresses a woman’s body quite like him. Alaia moved to Paris in 1957 and worked for Christian Dior, Guy Laroche and Thierry Mugler before producing his first ready-to-wear collection at his own atelier in 1980. He quickly became a favourite of the fashion press, as well as stars like Grace Jones, Tina Turner and Madonna, and earned the nickname “the King of Cling” for his sexy, body-hugging designs. Last summer, he released his first collection in eight years to wide acclaim, and his current fans include Michelle Obama, Katie Holmes and Sofia Coppola, who wore an Alaia dress at her recent wedding.
ON SUCCESS “Some girls make it in six months, but when it takes a while, you get professional, you learn how to handle people better and you bring something else. It’s not only about beauty; it’s about what you bring out, what you learn, how you move, how you know yourself, and that takes a while. It can be very difficult for a young girl, and if you’re not used to having money, and all of a sudden you have all this money… I’m used to it. I never was extremely spoiled by my parents, but I always had a certain quality of life., so modelling didn’t make a big change. My job gives me freedom to spend my money the way I want. I like to buy dinner for my friends, go on holiday, buy a whole shop
1992
of clothes or makeup if I want, whatever. But mostly it’s freedom— not being dependent on a man.” ON MEN “I don’t like very young men. They cannot follow our rhythm of life, and that’s humiliating for a man and bad in a relationship. So of course I have to take somebody very strong, because I am very strong myself.” ON GOSSIP “At the beginning I would react violently and give replies and comments. Then I realized the best thing would be to say ‘No comment.’ Because the more you give them, the more they’ll take. And I have more important things to take care of. I don’t think it’s such a drama. I’m alive, I’m fine, I’m working, what more can I ask?” ON THE FUTURE “I don’t know. I’m looking for a job that brings me as much fun, money and travel as modelling does, and it’s difficult. I mean, you can be an actress or a singer, but you need talent for that. I don’t want to act—I don’t like the thought of getting into a different character. I can sing, but I will not be a singer. I hate mediocrity. If you’re a medium actress, a medium singer, it’s better to stay home and watch them on TV. But I have a lot of passions, and there are a lot of things I want to do.” See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
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BACK PAGE
Apparently, people love to watch other people fall—especially glamorous, high-paid models who tumble on runways in full view of numerous TV cameras and the elite of the fashion world. This clip has proven to be the most popular FT piece ever posted on YouTube, with over 2,683,882 views. See the video version at fashiontelevision.com
CTS-V COUPE
PHOTO © GETTY IMAGES
HAZARDOUS R U N W AY S
WITH A 556 HORSEP OWER SUPERCHARGED V8 ENGINE. A SUSPENSION THAT RE ADS THE ROAD 10 0 0 TIMES A SEC OND. AND A DESIGN THAT’S A PURE HE AD TURNER. THE CTS -V C OUPE. WE D ON’T JUST MAKE LUXURY CARS, WE MAKE CADILL AC S.
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