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SURFACE
NO. 121
CONTENTS
departments
28 Masthead Editor’s Letter 30 32 Contributors 44 Select 56 Detail Know Now 58 60 Travel 62 Hotel 64 Bar 66 Restaurant 68 Store
70 Taste 72 Art 74 Transport 76 Books 78 Material 80 On Time 82 Gear 84 Survey 102 Executive 104 Endorsement 176 Object
46 product Styling: Courtney Kenefick Photos: Peter Rosa
D E L PH I N E A R N AU LT
FALL FASHION
taste
An obscure Yugoslavian film from the ’80s informs a fashion designer’s upcoming collection.
By Mary Katrantzou
who’s on the cover? LVMH executive Delphine Arnault— the daughter of the company’s chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault— wears many hats at the luxury goods conglomerate. The 40-year-old is the director and executive vice president of Louis Vuitton, and on the boards of Emilio Pucci, Loewe, and Céline. Last year, she established the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, which recently wrapped its second iteration. This is her first time on the cover of a magazine.
34
ideas in design I ris van Herpen goes behind her tech-driven fashion. Lesser-known works by Ettore Sottsass are on display at New York’s Friedman Benda. A Jasper Morrison–designed phone looks smart but hosts no apps.
144 gallery Vacheron Constantin’s Christian Selmoni
shows us around the watchmaker’s newly extended Geneva headquarters.
160 culture club A photo portfolio of recent events in the
Surface universe, including Art Crush at the Aspen Art Museum, an Armory Show party in the Hamptons, and the Watermill Center’s summer benefit and auction.
SURFACE
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PHOTOS: IDEAS IN DESIGN, ESTER GRASS VERGARA. PRODUCT, PETER ROSA. TASTE, OONA BRANGAM-SNELL. CULTURE CLUB, MATTEO PRANDONI/BFA.COM.
ISSUE 121 SEPTEMBER 2015
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SURFACE
CONTENTS
108 fall fashion
132 roman empire
Inside some of the greatest minds in this glamorous yet cutthroat industry.
endi’s monumental new home base F solidifies its stronghold as one of Italy’s most powerful fashion brands.
110 n ext generation
With an eye toward the future, LVMH’s Delphine Arnault creates a prize to honor emerging designers poised for greatness.
138 hard core
he provocative American designer T Rick Owens eschews convention and lives in a world of no shame cover: Delphine Arnault at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris photographer: Jean-François Robert
120 k indred spirits As his brand turns 10, Phillip Lim
collaborates on a runway show with like-minded designer Maya Lin.
126 c harisma verite With an acute eye for detail, the celebrated
fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu creates visually arresting marvels.
SURFACE
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PHOTOS: FALL FASHION, BENOIT PEVERELL. NEXT GENERATION, JEAN-FRANCOIS ROBERT. KINDRED SPIRITS, NATHAN PERKEL. CHARISMA VERITE, RITA PLATTS. ROMAN EMPIRE, STEVE BISGROVE. HARD CORE, DANIELLE LEVITT.
NO. 121
MASTHEAD
S U R FAC E brand development
editorial and design
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contributing photographers Grant Cornett, Adrian Gaut, Dean Kaufman, Mark Mahaney, Ogata, Cait Oppermann, Nathan Perkel editorial interns Sarah Claiborne, Miranda Martini, Jenna Milliner-Waddell, Elana Spivack design interns Nancy Seline Ng, Charlotte Tegen
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´ DUCHAUFO UR - LAWRANCE CO LO URS BY NO E
You may have noticed a major change in last month’s issue: no glossy fashion spreads wedged into the middle of it. This was intentional. In the two years and 20 issues since an editorial and design overhaul in 2013, we’ve gradually taken a hard look at every element of the magazine. Fashion was the one area we felt should be tweaked. Though it was a difficult decision to make—these editorials have been a part of Surface’s composition since the magazine’s inception 22 years ago—in the end we felt they didn’t honor our allegiance to design. Over the past few years, the media and fashion industries have transformed dramatically, and so has Surface. We want our coverage to reflect that. People still want fantasy from fashion, just as they always have, but they also want—more than ever—transparency and clarity. That’s one of our aims: to give you all of that at once. Another is to show that fashion and design are part of the same conversation, not separate ones, and as such should be more integrated. To achieve this, we’re increasing our fashion coverage not through page count, but rather through quality and depth. In each issue, we’ll present this vision through new columns and sections, including Select (page 44), Detail (page 56), Taste (page 70), and Executive (page 102), as well as and previously existing ones, like Product (page 46) and Endorsement (page 104). And, coming soon, we’ll launch two sections primed for further connecting fashion and design: How It’s Made, a process-oriented photo essay that will replace our annual issue of the same name, and Dialogue, a confab between two design minds. We’ll continue to publish our Spring and Fall Fashion issues, and throughout the course of the year fashion will naturally find its way into our pages in other, more cohesive ways. This issue exemplifies these changes. In Select, Product, Detail, and our inaugural Executive column, you’ll see the handy work of our new associate fashion editor, Courtney Kenefick. Throughout, leading voices—including Dutch fashion designer Iris Van Herpen (page 34), LVMH executive Delphine Arnault (page 110), and Rick Owens (page 138)—open up their worlds to us. We also go inside the new Rome headquarters of Fendi (above and page 132) and the Bernard Tschumi–designed extension of Vacheron Constantin’s Geneva base (page 146). Another debut is our Critic column (page 42), for which fiction writer Elliott Holt raves about Smythson of Bond Street stationery. Nearly everything seems so ephemeral these days, but as Holt shows, when something is made with great care, it’s very likely to leave a lasting impression. I believe the same goes for the magazine’s new approach to fashion. — Spencer Bailey SURFACE
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PHOTO: STEVE BISGROVE.
Editor’s Letter
EDITOR’S LETTER
Contributors
STEPHEN HEYMAN A newcomer to Surface, Stephen Heyman interviews fashion designer Rick Owens (page 138), who he says was the ideal subject for a feature. “You can make stuff up,” Owens told him after the interview at his Paris mansion. “Especially if it’s to my advantage.” A recovering Paris expat himself, Heyman found Owens to be a most unusual example of this species. “I love how Rick has lived a decade in Paris and never learned the language,” he says. “For him, it’s exotic not to speak French.” Owens believes this helps keep Paris romantic. “It’s an illusion, of course,” says Heyman. “But Rick is a fashion designer—he traffics in illusions.” Heyman writes frequently about books, travel, and style for The New York Times; his column “By the Numbers” runs weekly in the paper’s international edition. He was formerly the features editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and his byline has also appeared in W, Town & Country, and Architectural Digest, among others. ELLIOT HOLT For our inaugural Critic column (page 42), Pushcart Prize–winning author Elliott Holt ties an ineffable yen for high-end stationery—Smythson of Bond Street—to the endangered tradition of writing thank-you notes by hand. “Etiquette is about consideration, about behaving in a way that takes other people into account,” she says. “In our current culture of self-branding, I do worry that people spend less time thinking about others.” Holt is best known for her novel You Are One of Them (Penguin Press), which was praised by The New Yorker and The New York Times. Her piece for Surface, which could be described as a mélange of whimsy and Waspiness, was a fun assignment for her. “I’m primarily a fiction writer, but I’m also an aesthete,” she says. “I appreciate elegant design.” The editors are grateful to Holt for her contribution. (Thank-you note to come separately.) SHEILA MARIKAR For the Endorsement column (page 104), our new correspondent out of Los Angeles, Sheila Marikar, wrote about another new star contributor, Donald Robertson, the artist behind this issue’s limited-edition cover (to those 1,000 lucky souls who nabbed one: quickly close the magazine to admire his impressionistic rendition of Delphine Arnault). “I interviewed Donald over lunch at his place of choice, the iconic Sunset Tower Hotel,” Marikar says. “A Cobb salad there costs around $30 (sorry, expense department).” The interview about his upcoming takeover of a store in Chelsea went swimmingly, she reports, and it was anything but boring. “An hour with Donald,” she says, “is like 500 shots of caffeine.” Marikar started her career in television production for ABC News shows like Good Morning America and 20/20. These days, her byline frequently appears in The New York Times Styles section, and she’s a contributor to glossy business magazines Inc. and Fortune. PETER ROSA Some think fashion is all glitz and glamour, but Brooklyn-based photographer Peter Rosa will say otherwise. His editorial clients include top fashion magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and Nylon, but he claims he unleashed his inner guerilla while photographing our “Block Party” story for Product (page 46). “It was one of the more renegade still-life shoots I’ve ever done,” he says. He and his crew had annexed a vacant office space in a Chelsea building for the shoot. His mom, visiting from out of town, was on set for extra support—but even she couldn’t keep him and his crew from being booted when an angry realtor arrived for an appointment to show the space. After quickly reorganizing and changing locations, Rosa managed to build a remarkable set and beautifully conceptualized story, using blocks as props. “At the end of the day,” he says, “we had a great shoot and a good laugh.” OONA BRANGAM-SNELL Oona Brangam-Snell created one of the first illustrations Surface has run since the magazine’s design overhaul in 2013, for fashion designer Mary Katrantzou’s Taste piece about the film Time of the Gypsies (page 70). The movie is an inspiration behind an upcoming collection, but it’s obscure, so images are scarce. Brangam-Snell used the assignment as an excuse to watch the movie—and found it to be an odd, though fascinating, starting point for high-end ready-to-wear. “It’s a low-budget production and the characters are living in pretty squalid conditions, so there is nothing tailored about the costumes,” she says. “I was intrigued to think of a designer being drawn to this disorderly world and then distilling it into something as structured as a fashion collection.” A designer for textile firm Maharam, Brangam-Snell is also currently painting a mural for a hotly anticipated restaurant from Dewey Dufresne. SURFACE
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Ideas in Design
IDEAS IN DESIGN
STUDIO VISIT
Iris van Herpen
The Dutch fashion designer and 3D-printing pioneer—whose work is often in exhibitions as well as on runways—has her first U.S. solo show at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art this fall. Here, she takes us into her world.
INTERVIEW BY HALLY WOLHANDLER PORTRAIT BY ESTER GRASS VERGARA Why this space?
There are all kinds of studios with people working in different disciplines in this building. I’m part of a bigger community here, with different artists. And we’re right on the IJ [Amsterdam’s waterfront], so we’re near all the boats. It’s old-world, and I like that feeling. I grew up next to the water in the small village of Wamel, and being on the water really feels like home to me. I don’t have the feeling that I’m inside the city, because it’s really peaceful like in the country. It’s not hectic. This is incredibly important to me, because I really need peace when I work.
I have two main assistants. Together the three of us guide the others in day-to-day work. We oversee the people working with the garments: those who do the hand-work, the little experiments, the laser work. Then there are the people who work on the computer in Illustrator files and on technical drawings. The total team is around 20 to 22 people, depending on the time of year. I’m really hands-on in that I’m always in
You’re a big collaborator. You work with architects, filmmakers, artists. What value do you see in bringing others into the fold?
Every collaboration has a different goal and a different reason. There are a few people with whom I’ve been collaborating with for years, and with them, I really feel connected on a creative level. People like Philip Beesley, Jerry Stafford, and Jolan Van der Wiel. I work on material development with Philip and Jolan, and it’s really not about making a dress together; it’s about pushing the boundaries of materials. Those processes always take a long time. It’s not that you work on a material for a season, because it takes a lot longer. Sometimes it takes one and a half years, and then I use it in my collection right away. Other times, I postpone it and use it later. I like to work with a lot of architects for a practical reason, like scaling and proportions. I also collaborate with artists, like Carlos Van Camp and Lawrence Malstaf. When you work with artists, it’s more a collaboration on a conceptual level. We don’t work on the collection together, but I take their work as an inspiration for my own, and level with them spiritually. I’ve also worked with the sound artist Salvador Breed for years. We SURFACE
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PHOTO: ESTER GRASS VERGARA.
What’s a day in the studio like?
the studio, guiding others in what to do when I design. I have a private office here where I do a lot of design work during the day, and when I finish something, I guide the others to make it. I don’t do hand-work myself so much anymore—I used to do it, of course, but there’s not really time for that these days. The draping, however, I do. Draping is still a big part of the design process, and I do it all myself. Then, for ready-to-wear, it goes to the pattern people. I like working in the evening the most, so most of my design work is done at night. During the day, it’s more practical stuff. The evening I really have for myself.
IDEAS IN DESIGN
PHOTO: ESTER GRASS VERGARA.
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IDEAS IN DESIGN
Are your high-tech fabrics developed in the studio? Yes, we do that here. We don’t do 3-D printing in the studio; because the machines are so big, it’s really not practical. Plus, the new machines are sometimes prototypes, and not on the market. But the laser cutting and a lot of the other special techniques we use are done here. Are you working on any new fabrics right now? Always. It’s a continuous process, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. It’s often the starting point of a collection. I’m working now on a show for October, and there will definitely be some new materials involved. The latest collection was inspired by terraforming—creating a biosphere on another planet. It’s something that people associate with science fiction, but they really are doing research toward it, and so I’ve been imaging how these new places will work and will look. A material I worked on for this was woven from very thin metal that we burn with fire to bring out colors. That was a really special process, discovering the prismatic colors in the metal that were invisible at first. After a while, we were able to find the purple and the blue and the red and the yellow and all of the colors of the spectrum. It was like painting: Each piece of fabric is unique, so it’s a very handcrafted way of using technology. The hand of the human who made it is really a part of it. I think that’s what I’m often trying to do with my work: to combine the two worlds of the very controlled and the chaotic. The design process becomes a lot more interesting for me through this combination. We also just worked on 3D-printed crystal shoes. This was in collaboration with Noritaka Tatehana, a Japanese shoe designer. You have a show opening at the High Museum in November. What was the process of putting it together?
It was part of a longer process that has been going on for quite some time. In 2012, I had an exhibition at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands. We selected the pieces for the couture exhibition, and then I had a meeting with Sarah [Schleuning, the curator of decorative arts and design at the High Museum] and we just continued the conversation that started with the Groninger exhibit. The curated process was a long time of adding pieces. Sarah came to all the fashion shows in Paris, so she was really part of this world for a few years, but the selection process was very organic in the sense that it wasn’t like meeting each other and having to decide, but really growing together and each season choosing a few items to be a part of the exhibition. I like long processes, when there is really time to think about things. The final exhibition is 45 couture pieces. It’s going to be really exciting for me to see all the work together. You studied fashion design, but you’ve shown clothes in museums, which really speaks to the fact that your work is received as art. What differences do you see between art and design? There is a difference between art and design in the sense that design still has other functions than art in its beginnings, but the interesting part for me is finding the overlap between the two, and finding my own space in between them. That’s why it was very helpful for me that I did haute couture when I started my label. I was purely focused on couture and made-to-measure garments. It really gave me space to develop my craft and my language, and since sometimes I’m also doing ready-to-wear, I think it’s important to find the balance between the two. A piece is sometimes seen as art and sometimes seen as a dress as a functional object, but I think that’s a very personal difference and opinion. In the end, it can be both. I don’t have a clear answer about whether my work is art or fashion. It’s in the eyes of the observer, and it will be different for each person who sees it. When I design, I often have a process that is much more connected to the arts, in the sense that I do not envision a particular woman in my mind when I design. I don’t envision the purpose of the garment, either. It’s really a free process, and that’s what it’s really about for me—the process, not the end result. It’s not always a functional design, so I’m playing with both areas. That’s interesting, because so many fashion designers talk about designing for their “woman.” I don’t have a muse. It’s not about a certain identity—that’s too precise for me. It’s more about the body in general: her movement, her transformation, and the beauty within that.
PHOTO: ESTER GRASS VERGARA.
inspire each other in different ways. His studio is in the same building, and I explain to him the concept behind the show and collection and he makes the sounds for each garment. Then, when the collection is finished, we use his music for the runway show. We once did a more intense collaboration for the spring/summer 2014 collection, titled “Embossed Sounds,” where we put sound files inside the clothes, and by touching the clothes you could create different sounds—so the dresses together made the music of the performance. You could touch, play with, and discover the garment in a really tactile way. Today we’re really focused on the visual aspect—by which I mean touch is something we don’t really experience online.
(THIS PAGE) Mannequins in van Herpen’s studio. (PREVIOUS PAGE) A dress in the studio. SURFACE
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IDEAS IN DESIGN
RETAIL
LabSolue
The air smells sweeter at the Hotel Magna Pars in Milan, a 39-suite property owned by Roberto Martone that sits where his family’s perfume factory once stood. With the moniker Hotel à Parfum, it’s no surprise that fragrance is embedded into the details of the space: Each suite is named after and inspired by a different olfactory element (Gardenia, Bergamot, and Patchouli, to name a few). Similar essences are illustrated through commissioned art pieces, and an aromatic garden blooms in the courtyard. The most recent addition to the property is a perfume laboratory called LabSolue where guests can bottle their own custom-made scent with the help of an onsite nose. Designed by Ambra and Giorgia Martone (Roberto’s daughters), the space is a nod to the pharmaceutical laboratory of cosmetic brand Marvin, another facet of family’s portfolio. Within the store’s floor-to-ceiling glass walls—an existing feature from architects Luciano Maria Colombo, Paola Benelli, and Roberto Murgia, who collectively designed the hotel—are wooden cabinets and countertops reminiscent of a contemporary chemistry workspace, industrial beams, and steel light fixtures. Objects from the family archive, along with fragrance-filled glass funnels and bottles, complete the modern-day apothecary’s led-by-the-nose design. —Courtney Kenefick
UP AND COMING
Garciavelez
PHOTOS: UP AND COMING, CARLOS GARCIAVELEZ. RETAIL, COURTESY LABSOLUE.
Carlos Garciavelez can handle the scale of a building: He’s a trained architect who studied at RISD. He recently realized, though, that designing for the body is equally gratifying—and far more manageable. “On the scale of a human form, the reward is faster,” he says. Fashion has long been in pursuit of the 31-year-old New Yorker, originally from Mexico, who debuted his menswear label Garciavelez earlier this year. It narrowly missed being his undergraduate major, and inched closer during a stint at interiors firm Gabellini Sheppard. The stars aligned after Garciavelez finished his master’s degree at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and took a summer internship at Alexander McQueen. “Everything was arranged for the [‘Savage Beauty’] show at the Met,” he recalls. “I was in the archives, having a very intimate moment looking at garments, and fell in love.” He set to work, completing his first collection in six months. Created for city-dwellers with an active lifestyle (he says his muse is “the cultural nomad”), the garments’ elegant shapes and flexible fabrics effortlessly transition from day to night. Thus far, each collection has taken on an ephemeral theme: spring/summer 2016 riffs on Donald Judd’s clever manipulations of light, while fall/winter 2015 (a look from which is pictured) contemplates the horizon line via paneled suits and intricate pleated yokes. The new brand’s e-commerce site launched last month, but Garciavelez dreams of designing a brick-and-mortar store. “I’d design the clothing, the racks, the building,” he says. “It’d be the most incredible demonstration as a designer—all the scales coming together.” —Tiffany Jow
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IDEAS IN DESIGN
BOOK
Vladimir Kagan
“My greatest satisfaction is when the sketch looks as though I had drawn it from the final piece, instead of the other way around,” is the quote scrawled across the back cover of Vladimir Kagan: A Lifetime of Avant Garde Design (Pointed Leaf Press), the newly updated compendium of the 88-year-old designer’s life work. It’s hard to believe it happens any other way for the midcentury modern virtuoso, whose classic furniture pieces like the barrel chair and Serpentine sofa still inspire interior designers in the 21st century. The book’s rerelease chronicles his recent commissions and continuing influence, and includes a foreword by architect Zaha Hadid. The new chapter takes readers into Tommy and Dee Hilfiger’s monochromatic master bedroom, where a white Kagan Crescent sofa sits harmoniously under a series of vintage Marilyn Monroe photographs by Bert Stern; a lobby stocked with reproduced 1958 Ondine wing chairs in Portugal’s L’and Vineyards and Hotel; and high above Manhattan to the dining room of the restaurant Robert, which crowns the Museum of Art and Design and houses a collection of his Floating Back sofas. Count us among the many anticipating the next decade of Kagan’s timeless designs. —Nate Storey
Punkt MP 01 Cellphone
PHOTOS: BOOK, COURTESY TREADWAY GALLERY INC. TECH, COURTESY PUNKT.
Looking for a digital detox? Industrial designer Jasper Morrison has teamed up with the tech minimalists at Punkt to create a radically dialed-back mobile phone called the MP 01, available this month. It has no camera, no apps—not even a touch screen. “Perhaps the only thing we’ve added is the option to separate yourself from the addictive nature of smartphones,” says Morrison, whose task was to create a phone that could help consumers escape the daily onslaught of digital noise. But the technologically basic MP 01 is aesthetically (and ergonomically) advanced: The sleek wedge shape and raised rounded buttons make for easy handling, while a handsome metal body and Gorilla Glass display encase a battery that can last several weeks between charges. Good looks aside, it might actually be the smartest phone to hit the market since 2007. $295, punkt.ch —Nikki Ekstein
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PHOTOS: ARCHITECTURE, COURTESY DIOR. EXHIBIT, ADAM REICH, COURTESY FRIEDMAN BENDA AND ETTORE SOTTSASS STUDIO.
TECH
IDEAS IN DESIGN
Dior’s Seoul Flagship
ARCHITECTURE
PHOTOS: ARCHITECTURE, COURTESY DIOR. EXHIBIT, ADAM REICH, COURTESY FRIEDMAN BENDA AND ETTORE SOTTSASS STUDIO.
PHOTOS: BOOK, COURTESY TREADWAY GALLERY INC. TECH, COURTESY PUNKT.
A passion for horticulture has always been evident in the designs of Christian Dior, from the French house’s first collection in 1947—titled “Corolle,” a reference to a flower’s petals—to Raf Simons’s latest floral-infused collection unveiled at the Musée Rodin’s pointilist greenhouse. At Dior’s newest boutique, in Seoul, this legacy has been reinforced once again. Like a giant flower in the middle of the city’s Gangnam District, French Pritzker Prize–winning architect Christian de Portzamparc’s design features 12 organically shaped, petal-like panels, draped around a six-story-tall structure. Within its walls one finds retail and exhibition spaces, a VIP lounge, and a café under the direction of pastry maestro Pierre Hermé. The interiors, designed by longtime Dior collaborator Peter Marino, display an elegant selection of materials and feature a suspended sculpture by Korean artist Lee Bul. Also inside: Véronique Rivemale table lamps, branch-shaped Claude Lalanne benches, and furniture by artists Hubert le Gall and Hélène de Saint Lager. Connecting the space is a striking spiral staircase that’s part of an immersive installation that features an animation by digital artist Oyoram. Just as Dior’s fashion continues to blossom, so does its architecture. —David Basulto, founder and editor-in-chief of the website ArchDaily
EXHIBIT
“Ettore Sottsass: 1955-1969”
The illustrious Italian architect-designer Ettore Sottsass was a hippy, a don of postmodern cool who hung out with the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Bob Dylan. (The latter’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” inspired the name of the Memphis Group, the trendy-again movement Sottsass founded in Milan in the early ’80s.) The designer, who died in 2007 at the age of 90, was known for bringing a love of Beat and Pop to his legendary consumer goods, like his famous bright-red “Valentine” Olivetti typewriter. A new show at Friedman Benda, “Ettore Sottsass 1955-1969” (through Oct. 17), seeks to look beyond the widget to the designer’s earlier and lesser-known work for the home. From ceramics inspired by his travels to India, to a bookshelf that feels at once futuristic and organic, the exhibit is rife with furniture and design objects in odd shapes, bright colors, and crude materials. All of them notably predate Italian Radical Design, and none have ever before been shown in the U.S. The gallery is staged with furniture laid out as it would be in a home, rather than set out in individual displays as design shows often are. Marc Benda, the gallery’s co-founder, says the show is a labor of love, a desire to “add to the vocabulary” of Sottsass in the States, and as such, only 80 percent of it is for sale. Benda himself is a particular fan of the work the designer did with radical manufacturer Poltronova, for whom the designer served as creative consultant. In this show, such work is seen mostly through jagged-edged Tavolino tables, a must-have for picnics on Mars. “They gave him free reign,” Benda says of the brand. “And everything is always a little counterintuitive. It’s always too big or too small; there’s always something just a little awry.” —Dan Duray
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IDEAS IN DESIGN
Smythson Stationery
My favorite joke goes like this: “Why don’t Wasps have orgies? Because there are too many thank-you notes to write.” I feel entitled to tell that joke because technically, I’m a Wasp, even though I’m not particularly Waspy. I grew up in Washington, D.C., and learned to waltz at age 9, but my family didn’t conform to most Wasp stereotypes. My father is from Alabama and my mother was from Ohio, and they always felt like outsiders in the preppy milieu in which they raised their children, despite being Ivy League–educated. They sent my sisters and me to private school, but they went into debt to pay the tuition. Unlike many of our classmates, we didn’t take ski vacations in Vail or “summer” in Maine. We weren’t members of Washington’s most posh country club and our parents weren’t listed in the Green Book, the city’s anachronistic social registry. But there is one Wasp tradition to which we always subscribed: the prompt writing of thank-you notes. It’s etiquette I continue to practice religiously; a proper note means so much more than a hastily composed email. And for years, I’ve been writing those notes on stationery from the London company Smythson of Bond Street, which I discovered when I moved to England in 1999. Smythson, which was founded in 1887 and is purportedly the Queen’s official stationer, uses dye stamping—“the highest form of printing,” according to the company’s website. When I ordered my bespoke
paper, Smythson engraved my design onto copperplates, dye stamped it onto their watermarked paper, and then stored my personalized plate for future orders. I have engraved note cards and letter paper, with envelopes lined in my chosen navy blue tissue, and whenever I run out—which happens often, given my penchant for old-fashioned correspondence—I order more. It’s not cheap, and as a writer with a modest income, I can’t justify the cost. But I love writing on my stationery; it’s a tactile experience—I can practically feel the ink from my pen seeping into the page. My name—raised and sharp and intensely blue—looks Waspy on that paper. My stationery suggests that I’m more blue-blooded than I actually am. After a childhood spent knowing I didn’t quite belong, every thank you I write feels like an attempt to claim membership in an archaic club. —Elliott Holt
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PHOTOS: MICHAEL RYTERBAND.
CRITIC
WWW.BACCARAT.COM
NEW YORK • GREENWICH • PALM DESERT • SOUTH COAST PLAZA • LAS VEGAS • HOUSTON • 800.777.0100
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Time Honored
SELECT
PHOTO: PETER ROSA.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of beauty, and fragrance. With this, Armani sews Giorgio Armani’s namesake fashion house, a common thread through each element of his which recently fêted the occasion with a star- empire. Take the above pair of runway earrings, studded party and the opening of the Armani/ shown here with a textile from Armani/Casa. Silos galleries in Milan. (Displayed through- The playful and bold jewelry harmoniously out the granary-turned-museum space will mixes against the more traditional home fabric. be rotating exhibitions of Armani’s sartorial Both remain like Armani himself: timeless, concatalogue.) To continue the celebration, a self- spicuous, and more relevant than ever. Enamel authored Rizzoli tome that encapsulates his and mixed metal earrings, $1,495, armani.com revered label will be released this month. Even —Courtney Kenefick at 81 the designer continues to have a hand in the creation of each of the brand’s products—from fashion and home furnishings to accessories, SURFACE
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ALTDEUTSCHE CLOCK CANVAS SOFA & FOOTSTOOL CORKS FESTIVAL INFERNO CARPET KAIPO TOO NUT LOUNGE CHAIR RANDOM LIGHT PROP LIGHT FLOOR THE KILLING OF THE PIGGY BANK ZIO BUFFET ZIO COFFEE TABLE
Brand Store now open! moooi new york (showroom & brand store) 36 east 31st street � new york, ny 10016 t +1 646 396 0455 � ny@moooi.com � www.moooi.com
PRODUCT
Block Party Box-shaped bags and sculptural heels stack up to be fall’s most artful accessories. PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER ROSA STYLED BY COURTNEY KENEFICK
PROP STYLING: CORINNE WEBER AND JAMES LEAR.
Bag, Chanel.
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PROP STYLING: CORINNE WEBER AND JAMES LEAR.
Shoes, Calvin Klein Collection.
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Shoes, Boss. Bag, Edie Parker.
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Bag, Mark Cross.
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Bag, Alexander McQueen.
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Shoes, Pierre Hardy.
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Bag, Louis Vuitton.
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Remaining true to Burberry Prorsum’s British heritage, this men’s utility jacket draws inspiration from Durham quilts, a craft native to Northern England, and is assiduously constructed over a five-day period. Cotton jacket, $3,295, us.burberry.com SURFACE
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Stitch Perfect
DETAIL
«I often need a change of perspective – that’s why I value a system adaptable enough to open up new horizons.» Laura Tusevo, Design Student ECAL, Lausanne
The design icon USM Modular Furniture Haller is turning 50 – time to look ahead and explore new perspectives. Watch a new generation of designers, artists, and architects from seven renowned schools all over the world as they rethink modularity and become a part of a visionary project. Follow their journey at usm.com/project50 USM Modular Furniture 28–30 Greene St. New York NY 10013 Phone 212 371 1230
www.usm.com
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World of Wonder
KNOW NOW
An artist reinterprets Alice in Wonderland for a Marc by Marc Jacobs fall campaign. In this column, we ask our special projects editor, Bettina Korek, founder of the Los Angeles–based independent arts organization For Your Art, to select something in the world that she believes you should be aware of at this particular moment. BY BETTINA KOREK PORTRAIT BY NICK D’EMILIO This fall, in collaboration with Disney, Marc by As soon as he was hired, Ripps rewatched Ripps hopes the campaign will evoke a nosMarc Jacobs will release a collection inspired by Disney’s animated Alice in Wonderland as talgic quality of the 1951 film while having a the 1951 animated classic Alice in Wonderland. well as its 2010 live action Tim Burton feature. decidedly contemporary edge. “Rather than Typically, the line might hire a fashion photog- (A sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, adopting the look of just illustration, or 3-D rapher to shoot its look book and social-media will be released next May.) He considered graphics, or ‘net art,’ I want to create a tableau campaign. Instead, the brand commissioned their mass appeal. “Peoples’ love for Alice that represents the time span from then to now,” the New York conceptual artist and computer starts from a primal place, because they were he says. To reflect Alice’s ungrounded, freeprogrammer Ryder Ripps, known for his digi- attracted to the story as a child,” he says. floating reality, Ripps has been photographing tally rendered and distorted paintings based on The title of the Alice-inspired Marc by screens and experimenting with mirrors to sugmodel Adrianne Ho’s Instagram. Marc Jacobs collection is “I’m Not Like Other gest a portal untethered from physical space. Ripps, who has also developed what he Girls,” and, using that as a jumping-off point, “Being binary and pigeonholing into one thing calls “digital experiences” for Nike and Diesel, Ripps cast a transgender model named Chad is dangerously boring,” Ripps says. “For me, describes the story of Alice as “insane”—i.e., Alvarado in the campaign. He met her in March, both art and business offer ways of becoming really, really groundbreaking—for the eras in around the time of his Red Bull Studios New better as a person, challenging yourself and the which it was first published (1865) and made York exhibition “Alone Together,” which world, and constantly moving.” into an animated Disney film (1951). “Alice explored the paradox of isolated connectivity has been moved around by Lewis Carroll’s pen, that develops through Internet relationships. by the Wonderland he created,” says Ripps, Ironically, Ripps met his muse online, while who, despite his technological prowess, is blast- he was examining the solitude of virtual relaing a cassette tape of Janet Jackson’s album tionships. “We were flirting and became friends Control in the background. “It’s a nice analogy through Instagram,” he says. “I didn’t realize Model Chad Alvarado, left, and artist for unfettered creative freedom. For me, it’s she was trans at the time, but later I realized Ryder Ripps on set for Ripps’s recent about how there are no rules.” how perfect that slogan is to play off of.” Marc by Marc Jacobs shoot. SURFACE
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WI L L I AM | design damian williamson B R U C E design l + r palomba | quickship
WILLIAM FP-SURFACE SEPTEMBER.pdf 1 7/28/2015 2:35:12 PM
BY CHARLES CURKIN
Last June, the Chicago Cubs lost a home game York, where she lives in Greenwich Village to the Cleveland Indians at Wrigley Field— with her husband, the gallerist Bill Powers, the final score a piteous 6-0. Earlier, the and two daughters. For a fledgling fashion New York–based fashion designer (and full designer, going east seemed like a prudent disclosure, this writer’s close friend) Cynthia move. That’s not to say she didn’t try to make Rowley had kicked off the slaughter when she a go of it in Chicago. “In a naive ‘fake it till stepped up to the mound dressed in a Cubs you make it’ kind of way, it got me prepared shirt, denim shorts, and a pair of black high to go to New York.” She has become as much a fixture in New heels to throw the ceremonial first pitch. “Isn’t that insane?” Rowley asks. “It’s weird how York as she is one of Chicago’s proudest exports. comfortable I felt in front of that crowd.” She’s In addition to her namesake label, which has an Illinois native, but she was anything but been licensed by retail giants including Target morose about the game’s outcome during a and Office Depot, to name a couple, Rowley recent interview. Instead she gushed about started Exhibition A, a website that deals in her own triumph. “Yup, I’m a professional limited-edition prints by artists like Richard pitcher for the Chicago Cubs.” Prince, Nate Lowman, and Olaf Breuning; Rowley grew up in Barrington, a suburb Curious Candy, a pair of concept candy one hour outside Chicago, and thought early shops with Expressionistic design elements on that the city would be her ultimate desti- that would make Dr. Caligari feel at home; nation. “It always felt like the Emerald City,” and Rowley Eyewear. On the horizon: she says. “Like you could follow the Yellow October launches of a home furnishing line Brick Road there.” Rowley moved to the and her first fitness collection. Windy City at 18 when she was accepted to Despite a heady business résumé and a long the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “I list of successes, the multifaceted designer totally embraced it,” she says. “I was poor and points to that baseball game last summer as riding my bicycle around, so it seemed like a one of her proudest moments. “My father very sprawling, awesome place.” told me I’d finally made it,” she says affecThese days, Rowley is based in New tionately. “That was his measure of success.” SURFACE
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PHOTO: 01, COURTESY THE PUBLICAN. 02, COURTESY C.C. FERNS. 03, COURTESY TUSK. 04, COURTESY LONGMAN AND EAGLE.
Chicago provided fashion designer Cynthia Rowley training for the big leagues.
PHOTO: COURTESY CYNTHIA ROWLEY.
First Pitch
TRAVEL
TRAVEL
INSIDE GUIDE TO CHICAGO BY CYNTHIA ROWLEY 01 To eat, Rowley suggests not a single restaurant, but an entire neighborhood. The Fulton Market District, which was formerly Chicago’s equivalent to New York’s Meatpacking District—when meat was actually packed there more regularly—is now a dream destination for foodies. “Restaurants like Blackbird, Girl and the Goat, The Publican [pictured], Soho House, and Moto,” she says. “They’re all in the district. If Chicago is known as a culinary destination, this is ground zero.” fultonmarketchicago.com 02 For the obligatory hip café, Rowley suggests C.C. Ferns. “It’s a cool new little coffee shop that just opened in Humboldt Park and it looks like your grandparents’ rec room with its midcentury furniture and topless tiki mugs,” she says. “It’s pure Chicago: homey, slightly twisted, kind of nostalgic.” 2806 W. Augusta Blvd.; 773384-2547; ccferns.com
PHOTO: 01, COURTESY THE PUBLICAN. 02, COURTESY C.C. FERNS. 03, COURTESY TUSK. 04, COURTESY LONGMAN AND EAGLE.
PHOTO: COURTESY CYNTHIA ROWLEY.
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03. With Tusk, a retail space near the city’s Logan Square neighborhood, Rowley says visitors can expect a curated selection of objects, clothing, prints, and locally made pieces. “I’m not big into shopping,” she says, “but with Tusk it’s great to see a really original point of view in a retail store.” 3205 W. Armitage Ave.; 423-903-7093; tuskchicago.com 04 Rowley’s new favorite accomodations choice is Longman and Eagle, a restaurant with a six-room hotel above it. “The restaurant is well known because it has a Michelin star, but a lot of people don’t now they have a very cute room hotel upstairs,” Rowley says. “It’s cozy. More of a wintery kind of feel. It gives you more of a feeling of what it’s like to live in Chicago.” 2657 N. Kedzie Ave.; 773-276-7110; longmanandeagle.com
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Renaissance Faire
HOTEL
The new Hotel de Tourrel combines a French region’s rich history with a contemporary touch.
Throughout history art world giants, culinary pioneers, and enigmatic personalities have all been lured to the hilltop villages of Provence. Home to lavender-scented breezes and the idyllic Mediterranean sun, it’s also a region with contrasting narratives. In the Côte d’Azur, Julia Child and James Beard reinvented American cuisine in the summer of 1970; now it’s a playground for the Alist, with a glamorous film festival and mega yachts plying the French Riviera. On the western side of Les Alpilles, near Avignon, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence is the antithesis of flashy. Not only the birthplace of French seer Nostradamus, it’s also where Van Gogh found inspiration for his 1889 painting “The Starry Night.” Situated among home-décor shops and boutiques is the new Hotel de Tourrel, a 17th-century palais in the heart of the old village. It, too, has a storied past, home to an aristocratic family whose patriarch was a cavalier in service of the king. “You can feel a cool, timeless, and noble elegance in every corner of the house and its facade,” says architect owner Margot Stängle, who scoured the country for two years with partner Ralph Hüsgen before discovering the property. She found some of the spaces in rough condition, including the floors, which had to be restored with locally sourced sandstone. “It was customary in that time to ride a horse to the first floor,” Stängle says, which helps explain the spa-
cious dimensions of the grand staircase. She Restaurant, Wine Bar, and Rooftop Pool tripped over other tidbits along the way, for instance, discovering that Charles Gounod’s Artificially aged brass was chosen for the opera Mireille was first performed in the nouveau Mediterranean restaurant (crab canbuilding’s salon in 1864—providing inspira- nelloni; crispy lamb shoulder with tomato tion for the hotel’s chandelier crafted from confit and local dates), helmed by chef Benoit Fauci of the Michelin-starred Les Chênes organ pipes. Verts in Tourtour. The space’s streamlined color scheme alludes subtly to its location: Rooms Pea-hued sofas recall the region’s famous How do you speak a modern design lan- olive oil while grayish navy tones resemble guage with old materials? Stängle grappled Van Gogh’s paintings. (The artist composed with that question while reimagining the over 100 works in Saint Rémy.) For the bar, main stone manor. “It was important to me she tapped a local carpenter to create a zinc that if you go through the building, you surface using old techniques, then hired an have smooth transitions between old and artist to varnish it with varying shades of blue new,” Stängle says. She chose ClassiCon to that change in the light. Serge Mouille lamps outfit each of the airy, individually designed sit under fruit tree paintings on loan from rooms. In the five restored suites, she discov- a local artist; look closely, and “you can see ered stucco underneath the chipped-paint women’s faces in them,” she says. The wine walls, so she hired plasterers from Breslau, cellar, housed in a Roman barrel vault, is Poland, to rehabilitate it using traditional stocked with over 350 biodynamic varimethods. Next she took to reviving original etals chosen by Hüsgen. The theme of old décor elements such as French herringbone and new oscillates throughout the hotel’s parquet floors, Carrera marble bathrooms, interiors. “With its wonderful basis, the and Renaissance-era beamed ceilings. The cus- building gave us the possibility to comtom midcentury furnishings—Roquebrune bine historical architecture with uncomchairs, Lota sofas, Menton tables—are by promisingly modern architecture in an Eileen Gray. The two modern suites, unagitated way,” Stängle says. What better located in the adjacent house, are bedecked illustration than the sleek rooftop pool—the with pieces by Konstantin Grcic and only one in town—surrounded by the ancient walls and historic towers of Saint Rémy. Jader Almeida.
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PHOTOS: COURTESY HOTEL DE TOURREL.
BY NATE STOREY
HOTEL
PHOTOS: COURTESY HOTEL DE TOURREL.
(THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) The staircase. The Mediterranean restaurant. A guestroom in the main house. (OPPOSITE) The rooftop lounge.
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BAR
Cocktail by Tomas Delos Reyes INSPIRED BY LOGAN’S PUNCH I wanted to work with the organic texture and the graphic patterns of the space, so I looked for color and something with an unusual taste. Singani 63 Bolivian Brandy fits the bill, with a floral, apricot, and peach top notes. Blue Curaçao plays along while adding a pop of color reflective of the bar’s brick walls. Agave and barrel-aged bitters round everything out—and add a touch of spice. Singani 63 Blue Curaçao lemon juice light agave dashes of Fee Brothers barrel-aged bitters
Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake hard. Pour into a highball glass with ice. Garnish with an orange peel expressed over the top and speared. Tomas Delos Reyes is a partner of the restaurant Jeepney in New York’s East Village.
A Shanghai bar recalls the city’s alleyways of yore and honors a timeless cocktail. BY CRYSTYL MO
Street Smart
A century ago, this handsome brick complex surrounding the Zhong Plaza in Shanghai’s central Jing’an district was home to the city’s first flower conservatory. Now it’s a nightlife hub housing design-forward restaurants and watering holes like Logan’s Punch, Logan Brouse’s boisterous punch bar that’s a throwback to vintage American culture and turn-of-the-century Shanghai. The bar is set in a revived early-1900s lanehouse with interiors that evoke the city’s traditional longtangs, the narrow, interconnected residential warrens with small courtyards that are under siege from 21st-century skyscrapers. To bring his culturally clashing vision to fruition, Brouse tapped Neri & Hu, the Chinese architects known for their multidisciplinary approach to design. The duo employed the city’s indigenous materials throughout the space, including reclaimed wood, slate-hued brick, brass metalwork, and bamboo slats. The concept flows from the cocktail den’s eponymous drink, whose origins trace back to the 17thcentury when it was invented by British East India Company sailors (the largeformat communal bowl made it a natural party drink). “Our design takes inspiration from the social quality of punch, reminding guests of the drink’s multiple origins and harkening simultaneously to both low-brow and high-
brow cultural references,” says Lyndon Neri, half of the brain behind Neri & Hu. “The space’s layout is a direct interpretation of Shanghai’s lanes.” The interiors reflect the nature of the fruity libations and the divergent Western and Eastern cultures, and are reached by a dark alleyway reminiscent of the “light and dark side of punch, the happiness and the drunkenness,” Brouse says. The division of the main bar area and a series of private rooms is both poetic and practical; with years of experience working in Shanghai nightclubs, Brouse understood that while expatriates enjoy being at the central bar “in all the action,” locals prefer the exclusivity of the sequestered booths. The main bar represents a courtyard and is done up in green-bricked walls and a draped copper ceiling—an undulating overhead curtain that introduces “a sense of ceremony, temporality, and grandeur,” says Hu. Pendant lights on pulleys create pockets of light and shadow tinged by the Heinekengreen hues of glass encasings, while custom spherical mirrors at varying heights allow unexpected peeks into opposing spaces. In the private enclaves—“the alleys”—walls are lined with contrasting media such as bamboo, which was historically used in lanehouses, graphic-print wallpaper, and period images from the 1960s. The result is a welcoming atmosphere that marries old and new, rawness and polish; a metaphorical punch bowl, says Neri, overflowing with a “mélange of characters and conversation, a dash of conviviality and intrigue, and, of course, a sprinkling of that special secret ingredient.”
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PHOTOS: COCKTAIL, LESLEY UNRUH. BAR, COURTESY NERI & HU.
11⁄2 oz 1 ⁄2 oz 1 ⁄2 oz 1 ⁄2 oz 2
In Guadalajara, two brothers have conceived their most profound—and unusual—concept yet. BY SARAH KHAN
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PHOTO: MICHAEL RYTERBAND.
For eight months last year, a team of creatives only one request. “An open kitchen — I want fanned out all over Mexico on a peculiar to cook with freedom.” errand prompted by designer Ignacio Cadena: Hueso marks the brothers’ third collaboBring him bones. Lots of bones. ration, but it’s a departure from Alfonso’s “It was a very unusual mission, and there larger-scale La Leche in Puerto Vallarta. “He was a very unusual bunch of people that we really wanted to go back to a more explormet during this discovery journey,” he recalls. atory culinary concept,” Ignacio says. “A raw, “It was kind of crazy — I mean, ‘What do you going-back-to-the-caves way of cooking. The want bones for?’” plates look beautiful, even if they remind me At that point, Ignacio wasn’t entirely sure of caveman food.” what he wanted the bones for, aside from Ignacio boasts about the experience, which knowing they were essential to his vision for he calls the best of his career. “It’s about my Guadalajara’s Hueso restaurant, helmed by his brother and me. It’s been therapeutic, spillbrother, chef Alfonso Cadena. Hueso means ing our guts out about how we feel and the bone, and it was only when he had amassed relationship that we have,” he says. “For me, a warehouse full of skeletal bounty that the it was slowly drawing the character of my Darwinian concept clicked into place. “I was brother through design.” more of a naturalist cataloging all of these If the aesthetic is, in fact, a testament to species,” says Ignacio, who is president of Alfonso’s disposition, then he’s clearly a comCadena & Asociados Concept Design. “When plex character: Hueso’s exterior is whimsical, I saw all of the pieces lying on the floor, I saw while the insides are more raw, anchored by the possibility of what the restaurant could a hulking 52-seat communal table fashioned look like.” from reclaimed pinewood—this is a restaurant The result of this somewhat morbid quest with some serious spine. What could have is manifested in Hueso’s curiously arresting been a rough, unrefined interior is softened appearance. The facade of the 1940s house by the interplay of chromatic color and natuin Guadalajara’s design district is a shell of ral lighting, and darkened by a bit of shadow. custom-crafted ceramic tiles in graphic prints, “At the end, it’s incredible to see how someserving as the restaurant’s skin; inside, walls thing that could be so aggressive becomes so are bedecked from floor to high ceiling with a soothing and comforting,” Ignacio says. Is he textural collage composed of more than 10,000 referring to the chef or his workspace? The whitewashed bones, along with plants, seeds, answer is likely both. and culinary implements. “The design of the restaurant is very important; we had a blast,” says Alfonso, who had
PHOTO: COURTESY HUESO.
Bone Yard
RESTAURANT
RESTAURANT
Dish by Justin Smillie INSPIRED BY HUESO At first glance, the spare, primal, and raw interiors of Hueso and the bold, traditional flavors of Central Mexico don’t seem like a match. But after thinking about the relationship between décor and food, it became clear to me that this restaurant is the perfect place to showcase the region’s cuisine—it’s a blank canvas that lets the color splash. And despite a vibrancy and rich taste, the style of cooking is actually minimalist. For this recipe, everything is roasted on the frame. I riffed on classic ingredients like smoky chicken and corn seared hot and dry, not unlike Guadalajara’s climate. Then I spiced it with pico, lime zest, and chili powder. It’s a really unique space that lets the food speak for itself.
PHOTO: MICHAEL RYTERBAND.
PHOTO: COURTESY HUESO.
California native Justin Smillie is the executive chef at the restaurant Upland in New York’s Flatiron neighborhood. His first cookbook, Slow Fires: Mastering New Ways to Roast, Braise, and Grill (Clarkson Potter), will be released in November.
Ingredients
To assemble
1.5 free range chicken 85 grams buttermilk 60 grams labne 180 grams corn kernels cut from the cob 20 grams mimolette 15 grams quicos (Mitica brand preferred) 5 grams super green, peppery olive oil 1 gram tajin spice 1 gram lime zest 10 grams watercress
Pre-salt the chicken at least one hour, but preferably 24 hours, before cooking. Grill the chicken over live hardwood charcoal. The coals should be medium to medium-high heat (approximately 425 degrees). It should take 16-18 minutes to cook, then let sit for five minutes in a warm setting. In a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, slick the pan with one tablespoon olive oil, and sear the corn for about 11.5 minutes. Add the mimolette and stir aggressively. Pour into another bowl, and stir in the quicos, remaining olive oil, lime zest, then season with salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk into the labne, then gently spoon over a serving platter. Sprinkle the tajin spice over the labne. Cut the chicken into four pieces and arrange over the platter. Spoon the corn over the chicken and garnish with watercress.
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Scent Station
STORE
A Swedish perfumer makes its mark in America with a warm, clean-lined flagship. BY HALLY WOLHANDLER
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PHOTO: COURTESY BYREDO.
For Ben Gorham, the owner of cult fragrance line Byredo, scent is more a sense of place than smell, so getting his brand’s second store right was a must. The perfumer, who was compelled to enter the business following a chance encounter with someone in the field after he graduated from art school in Stockholm, is known for products that evoke experiences—he says scent is “all about memory”—and for bringing craft and deliberateness to a market dominated by luxury-brand monoliths. His new flagship in New York’s Soho neighborhood is much larger than the original location, in Stockholm, with a back lounge area where customers learn about the products in detail. Gorham took part in the design process, working closely with architect Christian Halleröd, a craftsman who mostly designs products and furniture but who also did
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Byredo’s first shop. “He wanted to open it within three weeks, which is kind of impossible,” Halleröd says. “It’s typical Ben—the store actually opened in three weeks.” The Wooster Street outpost not only gives Byredo international presence, but marks a product expansion: The brand’s offerings recently extended to leather handbags and an Oliver Peoples sunglasses collaboration, and the Soho store is the first brick-andmortar space to carry it all in one place. “I’ve always wanted to open a store in New York,” Gorham says. “I feel Byredo has a downtown spirit.” Halleröd and Gorham looked to 1980s Japanese interior design for inspiration, particularly the work of Shiro Kuramata, but also studied spaces by midcentury Italian architect Carlo Scarpa. “We wanted it to be sharp but also warm—ethereal yet precise 69
and a bit hard,” Halleröd says, “like the glassiness of a perfume bottle.” Indeed, the design is meant to be a kind of extension of the products themselves. “We chose wood for the leather goods displays; the perfumes are placed on glass or polished aluminum to create a play of reflections and gradient of transparency,” Halleröd says. Perhaps the most literal representation of this “glassiness” is a cube made of the same frosted vitreous bricks used in Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre in Paris, and some of Le Corbusier’s buildings. The box divides the store into two parts, and serves as a sometimes-workshop for the perfumemaking process. The atelier’s terrazzo stone walls contrast with the glass and polished aluminum, while Douglas fir wood beams and shelves provide needed warmth. Besides two Nakashi-
ma chairs, Halleröd designed all the furniture himself. The most eye-catching pieces are a couch and daybed with solid teak bases and Brazilian pony fur–upholstered cushions in a pattern that recalls paint splatter. “They capture a feeling of Japanese and Swedish woodwork,” Gorham says. “Luxurious,” Halleröd adds. “But in a very graphical way.” Gorham’s fondness for conceiving perfumes that arouse memories is unmistakable in his newest creation based on New York. The aroma? The city’s ultimate accessory: decadent, tannery-fresh leather.
Gypsy Things
TASTE
The magical realism of a 1988 Yugoslav film informs a fashion designer’s collection. BY MARY KATRANTZOU ILLUSTRATION BY OONA BRANGAM-SNELL
A depiction of a scene from Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica’s movie Time of the Gypsies.
There’s certainly a sinister edge to the One of my favorite movies, Time of the Gypsies, was a source of inspiration behind movie, but it’s balanced with beautiful scenmy spring/summer 2016 collection. I first ery, magical realism, and incredible music. watched it when I was studying at RISD— The sense of a very grounded reality coman old friend of mine had recommended it— bined with supernatural powers has really and I’ve revisited it every couple of years stuck with me. The film has a snapshot quality, and it worked really well to use stills as since then. The film came out in the late ’80s, and it’s inspiration, drawing on elements from the set in what was then Yugoslavia. It’s a com- characters, costumes, and landscape. The references I’m looking at now are very ing-of-age story about a Romani gypsy teenager, Perhan, who has telekinetic powers. It’s different from what initially made me want a strange but wonderful concept. I love the to look to the film when I began thinking soundtrack by the composer Goran Bregov- about the new collection. When I started, I ic; the score is hypnotically melodic and the was looking at both the ’80s and the dress of people with nomadic lifestyles. Not just perfect counterbalance to the dark narrative. A lot goes on in the film: Perhan starts out the Romanis in the Balkans, but also other as a teen, in love with his girlfriend Azra, but groups, like the Hmong in Laos and Vietnam. then he gets recruited by an older Romani I think the mix of traditional and modern hustler and becomes wrapped up in a world dress is really fascinating. In the movie, they of petty crime. Realizing the dark world he wear these floral skirts with intricate details has become a part of, he attempts to go back that show a real history of craftsmanship reto his old life. He marries Azra, who is preg- lated to tradition, but worn with something nant with his child, but she ends up dying contemporary, like an Adidas track top. I during childbirth, in this really strange and love looking at contrasts and opposing concepts and combining them to create a new viyet eerily touching scene. Consumption, greed, jealousy, and a strug- sion of modernity. Now that I’ve watched it through every gle between tradition and modernity are all at play, and they all result in Perhan’s eventual single film still, I see a pattern between what demise. It’s a gritty depiction of gypsy life, they’re doing and what they’re wearing that I and most of the actors are real Romani gyp- didn’t notice the first time around. It’s about sies, which gives the film an unusual authen- reading between the lines and finding new ticity. No one is really acting out anything ex- layers of meaning; the more you concentrate cept how they normally live, and you see the on it, the more you discover. marginalization that happens when they try to fit into society. They have their own rituals, The author is a Greek-born, London-based traditions, and lessons, and they struggle to fashion designer. keep that alive while trying to evolve. SURFACE
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Light Waves
ART
Artist Keltie Ferris rides each abstract work she creates to the next. BY MARINA CASHDAN PHOTOS BY NICK D’EMILIO Trays of paint tubes, buckets of brushes, and an between digital photo manipulation, textiles, eclectic mix of chairs litter artist Keltie Ferris’s and abstract expressionist painting. Though fourth-floor studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. many have asked if her technique involves some Paint is splattered on the floor; tables and sort of digital intervention, Ferris explains that stretcher bars are leaning against the walls. The her process is entirely analog. “I’m interested space is full with new paintings, some in pro- in artificial light, I’m interested in the grid, I’m cess and others finished, including several that interested in a constructed reality, and I’m will appear in her solo show at Mitchell-Innes interested in imaginative spaces,” she says. “All & Nash from Sept. 10 to Oct. 17—Ferris’s those things, I think, in this moment in time first major solo exhibition in New York in are interpreted as ‘the digital,’ but it’s much three years. larger than the digital. I’m also interested in “The paintings at this point actually are realness and a feeling of here and now. Like: making their own children,” Ferris says, laugh- ‘A person was here. A person did this.’ I’m also ing. “I think of them as family trees; each paint- really interested in the history of painting. All ing has many paths not taken, and so the next those things are really the opposite.” painting is often a riff on a path not taken in To make her paintings, Ferris first applies oil the last one.” and acrylic to canvas, initially sprayed through The show brings together for the first time an industrial air gun and then carefully painted her signature large-scale paintings and her by hand and with a palette knife to create, lesser known “body prints.” The latter are accentuate, or distort lines and color. Many the result of a process in which Ferris covers are in her signature 80-by-80-inch format, or herself in vegetable oil and lays her body across a size larger than that, but more recently she the paper; she then applies pigment to the paper, has been making paintings on 30-by-40-inch which is picked up by the oil to produce figura- canvases—a departure for her. “I’m an athletic tive works that are akin to the respective body person, and there’s something about a large works of David Hammons and Jasper Johns. bodily performative scale that’s more at home Ferris, most of all, is known for her dreamy, for me,” she says. “But I love intimate work as intensely hued paintings that are a cross well. It also has a different emotional register.”
Ferris has taken a lot of new approaches to her practice as of late, including a change of environment. After joining her partner in Los Angeles for a temporary teaching gig and getting the chance to live the Angelino life for several months, Ferris says she was eager to come back to New York. “Space is much more affordable and available in L.A. And there’s a lot more solitude, which is like a blessing and a curse … [But] what I missed the most was seeing all kinds of people several times a day, people who I have nothing in common with,” says Ferris, who commutes from her home in Fort Greene to her studio every day. Nevertheless, L.A. had an impact on Ferris’s recent work, introducing a sense of expansiveness that likely couldn’t have been achieved in her Brooklyn studio, as well as a glowing color scheme that feels more sun-kissed than previous palettes the artist has used. If anything, from her experience on the West Coast, Ferris now craves more space. Thus her recently embarking on another shift in environment—this time, closer to New York City: The artist and her partner purchased a property in Bearsville in the woods of upstate New York. There, she plans to spread her wings, or paint brushes, further. SURFACE
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New Orleans motorcycle designer JT Nesbitt returns to his craft after a hiatus. BY JONATHAN SCHULTZ
The new Bienville Legacy features the Motus MV4R engine, which produces 180 horsepower and 126 pounds of torque. The bike’s front and rear ends are suspended by a single longitudinally mounted composite leaf spring.
“It’s the difference between designing a home in rural New Jersey versus an apartment in Lower Manhattan.” These are not the words of an exasperated real estate agent griping about deluded nesters of the tri-state area. They belong to JT Nesbitt, maybe the most enigmatic and exacting motorcycle designer in the world, who is weaving an exegesis on the differences between car and motorcycle design. Granted, Nesbitt is keener to highlight the interplay of disciplines, the points at which mismatched cogs mesh to make forward movement. For someone with such a slim portfolio—you can count his produced and sold designs on one hand—he has the bearing of a grizzled veteran. It all leads to a new Nesbitt creation called, paradoxically but perhaps inevitably, the Bienville Legacy. The project was commissioned by the American Design and Master-Craft Initiative (ADMCI), a Detroit-based business working to elevate understanding of the importance of master craftsmanship. Nesbitt affixed the brand name “Bienville” to his studio, an allusion to a life rooted in that French ville way down the Mississippi, New Orleans, and the new design was named similarly to reflect his commitment to the city. Waves of renown flowed Nesbitt’s way in 2005, with the debut of his visually unsual—but stunning—Confederate Wraith motorcycle. Nesbitt’s trajectory, however, would be radically altered later that year by Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed his production facility. Though he continued to design—creating the natural gas–powered Magnolia Special roadster, which he drove cross-country—Nesbitt effectively took a
break from two wheels. Until now. “After a 10-year hiatus of my work from public view, [the Legacy] should reflect an intense period of personal growth and a new level of design economy,” Nesbitt says. His maturation is reflected in the materials employed: aerospace-grade titanium and steel, as well as custom-woven carbon fiber. Like the Wraith, the Legacy is distinguished by a substantial fork, its tines sitting like twin scythes on each side of the front wheel. Nesbitt is quick to discount the notion that such similarities give rise to a signature look. “I hope that I am playing a small part in what the words ‘New Orleans Motorcycle’ will mean 100 years from now,” he says. “If that’s traceable to some of my design philosophy, well that’s lagniappe,” he adds for emphasis, using the Louisiana French for “bonus.” A motorcycle like the 300-horsepower, supercharged Bienville Legacy sits at a tipping point. It at once marks the apogee of muscle-bike building (and at $350,000, the outer limits of customer credulity) and also signals its high water mark. Indeed, analysts suggest electric motorcycles show more potential for customer adoption than battery-powered cars do, with even Harley-Davidson looking to commercialize its Project LiveWire concept. Don’t count Nesbitt among the cheerleaders. “I know that a Casio watch tells better time than my grandfather’s Rolex, but I have trouble forming a romantic connection to electrons flowing through circuit boards,” he says. “I like mechanical things that were created by passionate people—and so does history.” SURFACE
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PHOTOS: MARC BONDARENKO.
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Books
BOOKS
“The problem is to decide whether the objects of machine production can possess the essential qualities of art,” wrote Herbert Read in 1934’s Art and Industry, a sentence reprinted in an epigraph (one of three) in Digital Handmade (Thames & Hudson). Set up almost like an exhibition catalogue, this
visually engaging book forms an answer to Read’s conundrum, illustrating the artistic merit and craftsmanship of the machinemade by taking a close look at the process behind pieces created by designers like Iris van Herpen (see our Studio Visit with her on page 34), Elaine Yan Ling Ng, Antony Gormley, and Tord Boontje. Considering the book’s author, Lucy Johnston, is a cultural trends commentator, it’s no surprise that there’s a lot of 3-D printing here, but overall her choices show an interesting range of the technical tools designers have at their disposal—and how they make them their own. Sustainability is an omnipresent buzzword these days, from the energy we use to the buildings we erect to the food we eat. But what about our cities? In Beauty Redeemed (Birkhäuser), Ellen Braae, professor of landscape design at Copenhagen University, explores the reuse of post-industrial areas through the history of trailblazing projects in Europe. Cases in point: Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, a German coal-and-steel plant that was reinterpreted as a park by architecture firm Latz + Partner in 1990, and Barcelona’s Parque del Clot, an industrial complex once inhabited by old railway factories and mechanics’ workshops that’s
now considered one of Sant Martí’s “green lungs.” The unifying thread that weaves throughout these concepts is the interlacing of existing infrastructure with green spaces, a recycling-based design theory that could provide a roadmap for future urban decay. The History of Modern Fashion (Laurence King Publishing) is a decade-by-decade examination of the trends, technology, and power players within the garment industry. “There is a spirit that prevails through each decade,” reads the introduction from authors and fashion historians Daniel James Cole and Nancy Deihl, “and human beings tend to identify those 10year periods with their individual clothing perceptions.” Surprisingly, the book has the ability to alter those perceptions by going beyond stories of style, and diving into the global impact that political, social, and pop culture happenings have on fads. Certain mentions, like the popularity of Sex and the City protagonist Carrie Bradshaw, are expected. References like the Space Race and Germany’s short-lived Weimar Republic, however, provide an insightful approach to sartorial expression, and prove that under fashion’s surface-level vanity exists a depth that reflects a period of time. SURFACE
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PHOTO: MICHAEL RYTERBAND.
Over the past decade, architects Marion Weiss and Michael A. Manfredi have amassed an impressive portfolio of groundbreaking public-minded projects, from the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center. Public Natures (Princeton Architectural Press) delves into them with aplomb. The book, which was designed by Project Projects and includes an essay by history professor and former MoMA architecture curator Barry Bergdoll, explores how Weiss and Manfredi’s firm has combined architecture and landscape to ingenious end by offering design solutions not just for its clients, but also for the various visitors who will use—and, it should be added, enjoy—the spaces well into the future. With a thoughtful, farsighted approach rare in most of today’s architectural offices, the firm has shown that the natural and the urban are running on parallel planes and are not opposites.
X Earlier this summer, over breakfast with Rachel Shechtman, owner of the New York concept shop Story, Surface editor-in-chief Spencer Bailey was asked if he had heard of the fashion illustrator Donald Robertson (see page 104 for our Endorsement profile of the artist). Bailey’s answer—surprisingly—was no. Shectman then mentioned that Robertson, who’s also a creative director for Estée Lauder, was about take over her constantly changing retail space in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Everything in the store, from a customized Canada Goose jacket to Urbanears headphones, would receive the “Donald” touch. Shechtman and Bailey then dreamed up a scenario in which Surface and Story would partner to create a limited-edition version of the September Fall Fashion issue, to be sold exclusively in the store. Packaged in a box with a set of colored pencils, the resulting product features a cover illustration by Robertson and sketching paper in the back of the magazine. Only 1,000 copies have been produced, 500 of which are being sold at Story, the other 500 through surfacemag.com.
#surfacesketchbook
Material
MATERIAL
In this column, we ask Material Connexion vice president Andrew Dent, Ph.D., to select one innovation that’s set to influence what designers will be using tomorrow. BY CAROLYN STANLEY PHOTO BY MICHAEL RYTERBAND Not many textiles are as luxurious as velvet, with its heavy softness and subtle sheen that call to mind 17th century Baroque opulence. Concrete, on the other hand, produces an opposite effect; it’s hard, utilitarian, and austere. Tactility Factory, a Northern Ireland– based company founded by architect Ruth Morrow and textile designer Trish Belford, finds an unlikely harmony between the two with Velvet Infused Concrete. The duo drew on their respective areas of expertise to produce a dual-textured material that enhances interior spaces. “Technically, there are huge challenges in what we do,” Morrow says. “It really
doesn’t make sense to put textiles into con- a need to be sensitively skilled.” The resulting panels are then cast onto a crete really.” To overcome the seemingly incongruousness of the two materials, Mor- metal substrate through an embedding prorow and Belford developed a patented pro- cess and into one of 11 replicable designs. cess in which each component is specially While the specifics are proprietary, one engineered to bond to the other. The alka- major principle is that the textile is spread line nature of concrete creates an unfavor- across the entire expanse of the concrete, yet able environment for most textiles, so the only remains visible in select areas. Once hardened, the surface receives a raw fabric—in this case, a composite of 28 percent polyester and 72 percent viscose—is stain-resistant coating. The resulting panels, actually deconstructed, the fibers tested for 10 to 15 millimeters in thickness and availresistance, and then reconstructed specifi- able in a range of sizes, are high in tensile strength and less harsh acoustically than cally for use with concrete. An equal amount of attention is paid to concrete. Those qualities combined with a the other half of the equation: polymer- rich, nuanced aesthetic, make Velvet Infused modified concrete—what’s called a “face Concrete ideal for both residential and commix”—is tailored to interact with the textile mercial interiors—either as wall panels or to achieve the optimal bond and visual ef- smaller accent pieces. And true to the company’s name, the feel fect. “We have to understand how the concrete element will work with the textiles so of the material is as important as anything it neither subsumes nor fails to bond to the else. “It’s quite difficult to stand beside our textiles,” Morrow says. “While some of our surfaces and not want to touch them,” Morsurfaces may look organic and eroded, in row says. “We call touching the velvet conreality they’re heavily controlled. So along crete surface the ‘ooh-ouch experience.’” with getting the chemistry right there’s also SURFACE
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designjunction 24–27 Sept 2015 London’s leading design show returns
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Piaget’s lean, exquisite designs for women have turned it into a market leader over the past 60 years. BY KEITH W. STRANDBERG
Swiss brand Piaget is known for its highly the dial was thick, the watch was abomidecorated women’s watches, but for most nable. When the movement was thin, we of its existence—the manufacture was could do elaborate dials. In the 1960s, we founded in the Jura Mountains in 1874—it started putting diamonds on the watches, solely produced the insides of timepieces. In and then little by little, they took over. We a rare move, though, Piaget successfully went went quite quickly from being a movement from being a supplier for others to becoming maker, to making thin watches, to speciala brand of its own. Its identity as a move- izing in jewelry watches.” ment-maker is directly linked to its current In a borderline unorthodox approach reputation as a producer of elegantly crafted for the industry, Piaget also makes quartz timepieces: By using its technical expertise watches—unusual for a company with a to make unprecedentedly thin watches, the strong background in movements. Leopoldbrand has become known and respected for Metzger explains that it’s because Piaget creating elaborately set bulk-free dials. wants to provide the customer with what she The company’s focus on women’s watches wants. “I really believe that quartz are still began when it cracked the code of thin move- something that women are very happy with,” ments. “Piaget produced only movements he says. Mechanical watches, however, will until the mid-1940s, then in the 1950s we remain the company’s major focus, with jewdid watches that were very thin, and that elry pieces as a distinct segment within that. changed the way we were working,” says The customers remain the focus throughout. Philippe Leopold-Metzger, the CEO of “We don’t take a man’s watch and make it Piaget. “When the movement was thick and a woman’s watch,” Leopold-Metzger says. SURFACE
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PHOTOS: COURTESY PIAGET.
Going for Bold
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PHOTOS: COURTESY PIAGET.
“We have a lot of references that only exist for women.” Timepieces with thin movements and the smallest possible parts continue to be the manufacture’s hallmark. Some of the brand’s wheels are only 0.12 mm—almost as thin as a single human hair. The process of making everything tiny is tricky, and Piaget takes it very seriously. As Leopold-Metzger puts it, “Thin is our religion.”
(THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Piaget’s Limelight Magic Hour in a 18-carat white-gold case, set with 302 brilliant-cut diamonds. A historic 18-carat yellow-gold Polo quartz watch. The Mediterranean Garden Secret in a 18-carat rose-gold case, set in 668 brilliant-cut diamonds. (OPPOSITE) The Limelight Dancing Light in a 18-carat white-gold case, set with 68 brilliantcut diamonds. 81
Soft Skins
GEAR
In this column, Josh Rubin, founder of the website Cool Hunting, highlights top-quality outdoor clothing, products, and equipment. BY DAVID GRAVER
as the products of its competitors do—but also implements “body mapping.” The garments are designed to accomodate the needs of specific body parts based on their different reactions to extreme conditions. This technology has been applied to a series of styles, including pants, quarter-zip tops, and a men’s one-piece fullbody base layer. Similarly, since 2007, performance apparel brand Nau has demonstrated a mastery over the fashion component of its wares. “Without style, there is no attraction,” says Nau’s general manager Mark Galbraith, “and unless it performs, there is no lasting satisfaction.” The brand’s M2 line demonstrates the marriage of attraction and satisfaction with its men’s and women’s tees, tank tops, and sweaters that evoke casualwear more than activewear. “There can be tension between function and style,” says Galbraith, “but like a good cocktail, a nuanced balance achieves the right taste and effect.” We’ll drink to that. JOSH RUBIN’S TAKE ON MERINO WOOL: Outdoor attire has always had a sporty aesthetic that has been considered stylish among a specific crowd. Lately, though, there’s a welcomed increase in apparel that has both the chops to perform in the great outdoors and an aesthetic to blend into the streets of Manhattan. While some of this is about design, a lot of it is about the use of versatile materials. Merino looks great no matter its setting. SURFACE
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PHOTOS: TOP, COURTESY ICEBREAKER. BOTTOM, COURTESY PATAGONIA.
A look at history shows that wool is a tried-and-true material. Man has outfitted himself in its fleece as far back as Babylonia and the Roman Empire. In the 20th century, designers like Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Karl Lagerfeld popularized the fabric within the fashion sphere. Presently, athletic brands are creating hybrids of these two elements— fashion and performance—using Merino wool hewn from a specific breed of prized sheep. More than breathable and soft to the touch, the textile’s miniscule all-natural fibers deliver an impressive warmth-to-weight ratio and wick moisture to regulate body temperature. As three performance-wear brands are proving, applications for the material haven’t reached a dead end. With an ever-advancing eye for functional structure paired with streetready design, Patagonia’s recently released Merino Air works in both the mountains and the city. The line’s hoodies, bottoms, and crew neck T-shirts (all in men’s and women’s iterations) maximize the fabric’s usefulness while still emphasizing aesthetics. Thanks to a proprietary spinning process that thickens the fibers and bolsters insulation without sacrificing softness, the Merino Air happens to be one of the most technically sound versions in its class. New Zealand’s Icebreaker, which stakes claim for introducing Merino wool to the outdoor industry, is another company pushing the material to create new innovations. Earlier this year, it introduced its Bodyfit Zone line, which uses Merino wool to maximize mobility—just
PHOTO: COURTESY NAU.
Outdoor brands Patagonia, Icebreaker, and Nau turn Merino wool base layers into street-friendly threads.
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PHOTOS: TOP, COURTESY ICEBREAKER. BOTTOM, COURTESY PATAGONIA.
PHOTO: COURTESY NAU.
(THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM) Merino wool base layers by Icebreaker and Patagonia. (OPPOSITE) A cardigan from Nau’s M2 line.
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New earth-toned seating is designed to make your home look—and feel—good. BY JORDAN KUSHINS AND HALLY WOLHANDLER
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Copenhagen studio Gam Fratesi created the Traveller daybed for Porro with globe-trotters in mind. Structured from painted black metal, it’s available in a number of upholstery options and with natural aged or dark brown leather. porro.com SURFACE
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Move the cushions, backrest, and marble of Casa International’s Mauro Lipparini– designed Positano sofa anywhere along its walnut base to create customized seating, available in 12 wood finishes.
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From its aluminum base with ever-so-slightly angled legs to its distinctively segmented wood armrests and backrests, Nendo’s Twig chair for Alias makes disparate materials come together seamlessly.
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04 This compact lounger by Christophe Delcourt is part of an exclusive collection for Avenue Road. The base and frame are available in solid oak or walnut, with a choice of fabric and leather upholstery.
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Midcentury design legend Giò Ponti created the D.154.2 chair in 1954 as a special commission for the Villa Planchart in Caracas. Now Molteni & C is manufacturing the curvy classic, which can be customized with different textiles.
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French designer Rémi Bouhaniche conceived Ligne Roset’s new Toa chair. He began the design process by folding paper in different ways, an influence seen in the final product’s origami-like cushions. ligne-roset-usa.com
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It’s been a decade since B&B Italia introduced Patricia Urquiola’s now-iconic Tufty-Time series. This year, the multifaceted modular system gets a new textile cover, with large squares drawn by pleats, to celebrate. bebitalia.com SURFACE
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08 Andreu Carulla originally designed the minimal Bernardes bench for a convent-turnedart-gallery of the same name in Spain. It was so popular that he’s now expanding it into a collection for new brand Cru.
09 The solid Iroki heartwood that makes up the base of Minotti’s Rivera sofa by Rodolfo Dordoni is hand-finished and cantilevers beyond the silhouette of the weaved frame to act as a built-in side table.
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10 Playful Dutch designer Marcel Wanders made this Mad King seat more functional by attaching a tray to one of its asymmetrical arms. It’s the latest piece in his growing Mad collection for Poliform.
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With arms that appear to open up like a flower at the first light of day, Roberto Lazzeroni’s Aida chair for Poltrona Frau has natural appeal. The midcentury modern–style seat is available in fixed and swivel bases.
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The gunmetal gray buckle accents along the base of Toan Nguyen’s Soho sofa reference leather-working traditions. Fendi Casa recently released this update of the 2012 model with new prints and fabric options. luxurylivinggroup.com SURFACE
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Danish modern meets Chinese contemporary in De La Espada’s Solo sofa from Neri & Hu, an interdisciplinary Shanghai-based architectural design practice. It comes in a variety of upholstery and wood options.
Clean lines characterize Roberto Lazzeroni’s small Ermione armchair for Flexform. The solid wood legs are available in a variety of finishes, with a frame that can be upholstered in a mix of leathers or fabrics.
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Expormim wasn’t planning on including a chair in its collection with Mario Ruiz, but that all changed when the Barcelona-based designer revealed his sketches of Huma, made of rattan and Elmosoft leather. expormim.es 95
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Patricia Urquiola’s pillowy Love Me Tender couch for Moroso looks light as air, but it’s sturdy enough for lazing. Rounded wooden legs sit on the outside of the sofa’s cushy bench seat, which is covered in a soft wool jersey. moroso.it SURFACE
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The striking wooden frame of Rolf Benz’s RB 580 appears to be in motion, as if folding around the low-slung chair, thanks to the expert joinery skills of Claudia Kleine and Jörg Kürschner, the duo behind Studio Formstelle. poltronafrau.com 97
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The Bart Swivel from Bart Schilder and the Moooi Works team spins 360 degrees on a wooden frame wrapped in foam and Dacron. It’s topped with changeable covers and a removable cushion. moooi.com SURFACE
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Gordon Guillaumier designed the Lennox lounge chair for Italian brand Lema. The gentle curves of the silhouette are meant to evoke the look of a petal blooming, with a simple base that mimics a series of stems.
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Piero Lissoni collaborated with Cassina to create the Scighera set, a modular system inspired by Milan’s dense fog. The featherpadded polyurethane cushions come in four fabric or leather color options.
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The Era rocking sofa sways gently on a slim chrome base that supports the equally minimal molded frame. Normann Copenhagen’s in-house designer Simon Legald created it as part of a larger lounge collection.
A thin-lined latticed grid supports the cushions of the Ant chair by Dutch master Marcel Wanders for Cappellini. The metal frame can withstand indoor and outdoor use, as does the selection of upholstery options.
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Talent Scout
EXECUTIVE
Serial entrepreneur Kal Vepuri invests in people, not the product. BY COURTNEY KENEFICK PHOTOS BY SASHA MASLOV
You cut your teeth investing in megabrands like Warby Parker, Harry’s, and Reformation, to name a few: How do you go about choosing projects?
I think first and foremost it comes down to people. Those behind these brands are, with- I think everyone is part of it—that’s how we out exception, exemplary human beings— think about it. In some ways there’s still [trawhat I would call “unicorns”—people who ditional] organization and decision-making really understand the product and loved that happens through various structures. building brands that they’re excited about. At the end of the day, for every CEO or When you find that unique combination, founder of these businesses, their number one it’s pretty easy as an investor to get excited job is to make their customers happy and put yourself. them first. There’s a clear direct-to-consumer trend in your ventures. Is there something in particular about that model that appeals to you?
Kal Vepuri at his company’s Manhattan office. (OPPOSITE) The Brainchild & Co. headquarters.
Judging by the success of these companies, there’s clearly been a shift in consumer buying patterns. Do you think that along with that change corporate culture has adjusted?
There’s obviously no shortage of conversation going on around the value proposition of direct-to-consumer businesses. That’s an obvious win. To me, it’s a little bit broader than that. These are customer-centric businesses. They build products that are high quality at a great value, but also provide a mission, and a brand, and the product experience, and a user experience. It’s frankly really hard to do if you’re not touching the customer directly.
How do you think that applies to the employees at the company you founded, Brainchild & Co. [parent company of outerwear brand The Arrivals and skincare line Onomie, among others]?
I think the great thing for employees that work in these organizations is that they see the flatness of the team in that every single person is highly engaged and energized by their experience. As a result, the organization itself tends to be very, very closely knit because everyone is so enthusiastically aligned throughout that whole process.
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Does that enthusiasm come from the product itself or the team structure?
I think it comes from alignment—from the mission. Every one of these organizations sets out to be something different. It’s not just hitting revenue targets or anything like that. It’s about building a business that’s sustainable. There’s a real sense of community around these businesses. Everyone wants everyone to be happy and successful versus optimizing one portion to get better numbers. That’s obviously important to build sustainable businesses. There’s a sense of sharing the wealth, which really helps attract and retain talent. How do you find that talent?
I do a lot of interviewing. That’s probably the biggest part of my job. I would say that one of the most important questions I ask is: What gets you excited about what we’re doing? There’s a lot of ways to answer that question. It’s a very open-ended one. Through that, it’s a way to judge their own enthusiasm for our products and our mission. It’s usually one of those questions that the really talented people or the stars tend to answer really, really well. The other things that we tend to talk about are
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where people grew up and their backgrounds. I find that’s an area where a lot of people don’t spend enough time to understand what makes people who they are, and the fabric of their character, and their beliefs, and their interests. We probably spend a majority of time talking about that as well. Tell me a little bit about your upbringing.
I grew up as the oldest son to immigrants. Both my parents are from tiny villages in rural India. My father came [to the United States] in the late ‘70s and my mother in the early ‘80s. She came from a very large family and was the most highly educated in that group. My father, likewise, is the most highly educated in his group. They both took a big risk in coming to the States. They really, really hustled the first 15 years of their adult lives to build a home for their kids, but also to build businesses. Sounds like they really set you up to be an entrepreneur.
Yeah, it was one of those things that didn’t seem so scary to me, certainly. At the same time, it was something that I looked up to, admittedly. I don’t think coming out
of that experience I could have really done anything else. How would you describe your leadership style?
I tend to have a lot of faith in my team. I spend most of my time really identifying stars and trying to invest in them so they can become the best version of themselves as leaders of their own. My goal is not necessarily to oversee the organization, but rather to be a guide to it. My role is more as an advisor than a boss. In your mind, what do successful moments look like?
It’s really achieving the goal no matter how big or how small. If you meet a goal—whether that’s for yourself, or for your team, or for your entire organization—that is how I think about success. The happiest moments are when I see people achieve their goals. There’s no better feeling.
Drawn Together
ENDORSEMENT
A fashion illustrator creates his very own retail experience with New York concept shop Story. BY SHEILA MARIKAR PHOTOS BY NATHAN PERKEL
Donald Robertson sitting on an Essent’ial’s paper chair he painted for the Story collaboration. (OPPOSITE) Robertson painting.
Donald Robertson gazes past the pool of the Sunset Tower Hotel, tap-tap-tapping away on his iPhone. “It doesn’t matter if anyone’s late anymore,” he says, “this thing always has something to keep me busy.” Like his drawings, Robertson, 53, projects a somehow glamorous sense of being hurried, like someone running to a catch a subway dressed in Saint Laurent. He shapeshifts. Officially, he is the senior vice president of global creative development for Estée Lauder. But in practice, he is an artist and illustrator, connector, and collaborator— his latest joint venture is with the Chelsea boutique Story, a “takeover” that opened in August and runs through Sept. 18. Stocked on the shelves is an assortment of Robertson’s art and accessories bearing his art (and, at some points, Robertson himself). “It will be half art, half my friends from Smashbox,” an Estée Lauder subsidiary he works with, “and then all these exciting brand partners who’ll come in to make it a fuller
experience,” he says. “It’s an orgy of collaboration. It’s just going to be a mess.” Among the many brands participating are Bamford Watch Department, S’Well water bottles, iZZi Gadgets, Warby Parker, Urban Ears, and Bow and Drape. (Full disclosure: Surface is part of the project, too; see page 77.) Robertson started on a more clear-cut path. He attended art school in Toronto, his hometown, but was deemed “too commercial” and got asked to leave after suggesting that he and his classmates sell their sketches instead of crumpling them up and throwing them away. He took off for Paris in search of illustrator gigs, and when that proved fruitless, returned to Toronto and linked up with the founders of MAC Cosmetics, who brought him on as their first creative director. He accepted a job at Condé Nast, he admits, largely to get a green card, and served as a creative director there as well as at Hearst. All the while, he sketched: figures, lips, faces, even stuff he’d assign at the SURFACE
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Robertson lounges inside Story on another Essent’ial’s chair he painted. (OPPOSITE) Giraffes Robertson painted inside the shop.
office. “If you were going out to do a fashion Yourself’ station where people can draw and story for me, you were handed an eight-page color themselves,” Shechtman says. “There’s drawing, and I was like, ‘Please make it look paper [Essent’ial’s] furniture from Italy that like this,’” he says. he’ll scribble all over.” Three years ago, when his kids made him Two months ago, after 25 years in New ditch his Blackberry for an iPhone, he joined York, Robertson and his family moved to Los Instagram as @drawbertson and started shar- Angeles, where he’s helping Estée Lauder make ing his cheeky, pop art-y sketches. The world inroads with the beauty and fashion companies lapped them up. He has collaborated with on the West Coast and in Asia. He has taken to J. Crew on a line of T-shirts and is releasing the space. “I can do fucking gigantic stuff here,” his own collection of emojis. Last spring, he he says, pulling up a photo of a dinosaur he invaded Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman, recently painted on a wall. “It just shifts your painting passersby “like an in-store Santa” and focus a little bit.” putting his signature scrawls on a whole host Brushes and markers aside, Instagram conof merchandise, including an Alice + Olivia tinues to be his medium of choice (he likens blouse and Claire V. clutch that Beyoncé’s styl- the app to “a giant cocktail party”). “I tried ist bought. Beyoncé did a photo shoot with the Snapchat,” he says. “Five days of this girl in products for her Tumblr. Australia sending her pictures of her kitten, and “The next thing you know,” he says, “I I couldn’t really block it and I didn’t want to have every single person on Instagram post- be rude and it went away too fast.” ing bumble bees to me. She’s basically at this “It’s just not suited to me,” he adds. “I’ll wait point Jesus. It’s like Jesus holding up your stuff.” until the next thing.” To Robertson, being called commercial is a complement. He gravitates to what’s popular and relishes comparisons to Andy Warhol, “a freak drawer and commercial illustrator who made a conscious decision to do collaborations and to not be poor,” he says. “Poor bad, right?” He also democratizes art. At Story, his signature red lips will be on a Rolex watch as well as a pair of flip-flops. He and Story founder Rachel Shechtman are putting together an experience rather than a gift shop: “There’s an ‘Express SURFACE
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Fall Fashion Up close and personal with some of the industry’s greatest minds and interrupters.
FALL FASHION
Next Generation
(OPPOSITE) Delphine Arnault at the new Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
With an eye toward the future, LVMH’s Delphine Arnault creates a prize to honor emerging designers poised for greatness. INTERVIEW BY SPENCER BAILEY PORTRAIT BY JEAN-FRANCOIS ROBERT
Since joining her family’s luxury goods conglomerate, LVMH, 15 years ago, Delphine Arnault has become a quiet force within both the company and the fashion industry at large. As the eldest child of Bernard Arnault, it may appear she has been groomed from the start—and that’s certainly true—but she has largely paved her own way, proving to be one of the savviest managers in fashion today. After a stint working for McKinsey & Company, she assumed the position of development director of the John Galliano fashion house in 2000. A year later, she became Dior’s managing director, where for a decade she ushered in strong growth and oversaw the hiring of Raf Simons as creative director. Now 40, she’s currently the executive vice president of Louis Vuitton, a position she has held for the past two years, and she sits on the boards of
three brands under the LVMH umbrella: Céline, Loewe, and Emilio Pucci. Arnault has a keen eye for spotting new talent, not just with Simons, but also when she brought designer Nicolas Ghesquière on board as creative director of Louis Vuitton in 2013 (after his muchdiscussed departure from Balenciaga). The same year, she was also instrumental in the hiring of J.W. Anderson to his post at Loewe and was closely involved with the purchase of British shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood’s brand. It’s not all business for Arnault, though. Last year, she launched the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, creating the opportunity for international talents under 40 to pitch their brands directly to the company’s leaders. The competition, which recently wrapped its second iteration, features a panel that
includes Simons, Ghesquière, Anderson, Riccardo Tisci (Givenchy), Karl Lagerfeld (Fendi), Marc Jacobs, Phoebe Philo (Céline), and Humberto Leon and Carol Lim (Kenzo), plus Arnault and LVMH executives Jean-Paul Claverie and Pierre-Yves Roussel. Each year, the winner receives a prize of 300,000 euros and a one-year mentorship from an internal team at LVMH. Last year’s winner was the brand of Canadian-born, Londonbased designer Thomas Tait; this year’s was another London-based label, Marques Almeida, run by Portugueseborn designers Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida. Surface recently met with Arnault at LVMH’s Paris headquarters to discuss the prize, the new Frank Gehry–designed Fondation Louis Vuitton building, and more. > SURFACE
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I wanted to discuss your current role at Louis Vuitton. I’m sure there’s no average day for you.
No. [Laughs] Without oversimplifying it, how would you describe what you do?
Well, I’m in charge of the products. Not from the design perspective, of course, because Nicolas [Ghesquière] and Kim [Jones] are in charge of that. [My role] includes leather goods, the ready-to-wear, the shoes, and all the accessories. It means, in large part, also making certain that our vision and strategy are very clear and cohesive: where we want to go and what we want to develop. I work a lot with Nicolas and Kim on the products— again, not from a design perspective, but from a business one. I look at what markets need and want. I also work on the pricing and the margins, and on the merchandising until the products arrive in the shops. What’s your relationship with the creative side? How do you work with Nicolas?
Nicolas is extremely talented with what he does—and what he has done—for Vuitton. He has a great vision, he’s very clear. Season after season, show after show, you have a clearer vision of the Louis Vuitton woman, what she looks like, who she is, what life she lives. I think that he’s not only a very gifted designer, but also very hard worker. He has a great team around him, composed of a lot of women. He likes to see different types of women, how they’re dressed and what they think, what bag they carry, what accessories they like. He’s very much inspired by the women he surrounds himself with, like Natasha RamsayLevi or Camille Miceli. He’s working a lot on the different categories: ready-to-wear, of course, but also leather goods, accessories, and shoes. He’s also involved in communication and advertising. He has done an amazing job since he arrived in November 2013. Almost two years! I think it’s really an exciting moment for Vuitton. It seems like you’re this bridge between the creative and business sides of the company. Are there any workplace mantras you follow? How do you balance the sort of rightbrain/left-brain tension?
I don’t hear that it’s exciting to work with an accountant very often.
Unlike a lot of people in positions similar to yours, you tend to shy away from the spotlight. Is this intentional?
I think it’s part of your personality, whether you like it or not. [Laughs] I don’t really like it. Well, thank you for meeting with me, in that case.
I like meeting journalists. But it’s just that I prefer to work rather than to talk about work or myself. Everything’s moving so quickly in fashion these days, but there are still products that are made and developed over longer periods of time that are meant to last. What’s the importance of this “slow design,” in a world where fast-fashion brands like Zara and H&M are producing products to fly off the shelves that won’t likely be wearable within a year?
At Louis Vuitton, there is no compromising quality. We produce our leather goods in our own ateliers. We have our own people who we’ve trained for years. Louis Vuitton is made in France. You’ll never see us do any markdowns. Everything that we sell is at the utmost quality. This has been our philosophy. It’s a mix of innovation, quality, and creativity. You were talking about products that take a long time to manufacture—for example, our trunks. They’re really the history of Vuitton and how we all started. The trunks sometimes take a lot of time to produce. Last year, we did a collaboration called Celebrating Monogram. Cindy Sherman did a trunk in a limited edition of 25 that was sold for 130,000 euros each. In our atelier, artisans who have been working with us for 30, 40 years made them. Some pieces are still being delivered, so it takes a lot of time to produce. The Celebrating Monogram project involved a wide mix of collaborators, including Rei Kawakubo and Frank Gehry. How did that come to be? Frank Gehry is an obvious choice—he designed the new Fondation Louis Vuitton—but…
It was of the first projects I worked on when I arrived at Louis Vuitton, and it was great to work with them: Christian Louboutin, Frank Gehry, Cindy, Karl [Lagerfeld], Marc Newson, and Rei Kawakubo. It was really people who are “iconoclasts” and really in SURFACE
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PHOTO: PATRICK DEMARCHELIER.
I’ve been in this industry since I was quite small. I started going into shops when I was 10. I’m used to going into shops on the weekend. Talking about the luxury environment, it’s been really part of my life for almost 30 years. As for the right brain/left brain, I think it’s really exciting to work at the same time with a creative director and an accountant or the CFO.
[Laughs] I know, but I find it very interesting to work with different personalities and people. To work at the same time with Nicolas, who’s extremely creative but also listens a lot—he wants the product to sell— along with someone from the atelier that has been working on the handbags at Vuitton for 30 years and has an amazing know-how of how you construct the bag, all this complexity really interests me.
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the moment—geniuses who are so relevant today. When you see the bag and the trunk of Karl, or the bag of Frank, or the backpack of Marc Newson, they’re each using our icon, the monogram. It’s had a great interest from our customers who were really interested in the product and also in the story around why we chose those designers and how they interpreted the brand and the monogram. Louis Vuitton also has the ongoing Objets Nomades collection, which this year debuted new collaborations with three design studios—Raw Edges, Gwenaël Nicolas, and Damien Langlois-Meurinne—and has done pieces with the Campana Brothers, Patricia Urquiola, Barber and Osgerby, and others.
PHOTO: PATRICK DEMARCHELIER.
It’s very legitimate for Vuitton to collaborate with artists and to always invite geniuses or personalities who are outstanding to be a part of our brand and work together. Louis Vuitton is a brand that has a very big vocabulary. When you were at Dior, the brand collaborated with the artist Anselm Reyle. How do you view the connection between art and fashion? Some people say fashion is art, which I think is absurd.
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I don’t know if fashion is art, but at Vuitton there’s this history of collaborations with artists. It’s natural to invite personalities who are so relevant for a generation, or even for a century, to come and work on projects with us. Let’s talk about the Fondation Louis Vuitton, which was largely your father’s project. What does it mean to you, both as his daughter and now that you’re in this top-level position at Louis Vuitton, to have a building like that and the art collection it houses?
Actually, it was very moving when it opened, because we had been hearing my father talk about it for 10 years. In France, things can take a lot of time. [Laughs] I think it’s something exceptional and spectacular. When I was there on the day of the inauguration, I was thinking of how important this building is, a beautiful gift for Paris because in 50 years it’s going to belong to the city. I find the layout fascinating: You lose yourself in it. In a way, I think it’s a sort of metaphor for Louis Vuitton. The brand is so big, with so many facets and surprising collaborations around each corner. Both are also about fantasy. You’re losing yourself through the experience of exploring the museum or
The LVMH Prize jury and actress Natalie Portman (middle) at the Fondation Louis Vuitton this summer. From left, Pierre-Yves Roussel, Jonathan Anderson, Delphine Arnault, Riccardo Tisci, Bernard Arnault, Raf Simons, Portman, Nicolas Ghesquière, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Phoebe Philo, Carol Lim, Jean-Paul Claverie, and Humberto Leon.
PHOTOS: COURTESY LOUIS VUITTON.
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wearing something from the brand. These are obviously very separate worlds, but the idea of this dreamlike experience or mental escape could be where fashion and art connect. Do you agree?
Everyone looks at what Phoebe does. She is so directional and influential.
What’s interesting about the Fondation is that each time you go, you discover something new, be it with art or even with the spaces. Each time I go there, I see something that I hadn’t noticed before. Frank Gehry said, I can’t wait for the Fondation to live, to have all these nationalities here, just filling the place up, and coming and visiting and having their own experiences. I could spend a lot of time there. The Fondation is a magical place.
We had been thinking about doing it for a long time. We think that as the leader of our industry it’s our responsibility to find young talents and to help them grow. That’s the spirit of the prize. When I was first thinking of it, I was working at Dior—this was in 2013— and I spoke a lot to Raf [Simons] about it. He helped me with finding the talents. For example, he had the idea to ask all the designers of the group to be part of the jury, and to have the best jury in the world. It’s something only LVMH can do, to have all these amazing designers who work for LVMH give their opinion and their point of view on the future designers. During the deliberation, each finalist presents for 10 minutes in front of the jury. They each have two or three models wearing their clothes. We see the clothes on the models, and then they explain what their vision is, how they started, how they’re structured, and things they want to see for their brand. The jury then asks questions. After that, we have lunch with my father, and vote for the winner. For the votes, we discuss each candidate. We have little cards that we put in an envelope, so it’s kind of a secret vote. The lunch is a great moment because we’re all together and we can discuss and express our different points of view. The one who has the most votes wins.
In addition to being on the LVMH board, you serve on the boards of Emilio Pucci, Céline, and Loewe. You seem to have an affinity for the designs of Jonathan Anderson, Loewe’s creative director. When did you discover him?
Actually, it was Nicolas Ghesquière who discovered J.W. He said, “There’s someone you have to check out!” Nicolas was the first one who mentioned him, and then a lot of other people did. Loewe’s been in the company’s portfolio since 1996, but under Jonathan Anderson it has changed drastically. Were you involved with that change? Where do you see Loewe going in terms of its business?
Well, Loewe is an extraordinary brand with a formidable heritage, especially as a leather goods company. The brand was founded in 1846, and it has been really important in the culture of the Spanish people. I think that Loewe needed a bit of modernity. Jonathan Anderson is really fascinated by this idea of heritage and modernity. He’s putting a lot of excitement into the brand. He’s been working really, really hard. He has both Loewe and his own [eponymous] brand to develop. Loewe has a great retail network with a lot of stores and great locations in Asia. A little bit less in the U.S., but it’s in process. I think there’s a lot of potential for the brand.
PHOTOS: COURTESY LOUIS VUITTON.
What about Céline and Pucci?
At Pucci, there’s a new designer [Massimo Giorgetti], who just arrived. At Céline, Phoebe [Philo, its creative director] is fantastic. I’m a big fan of Phoebe. She really has a vision. When she took Céline in 2008, she completely transformed the brand. The vision for the brand is extremely clear. It’s really for a contemporary woman, for a young woman. Her work is anchored in a real and true vision of what a woman’s life is today. It’s perfect. I love the brand. The use of Joan Didion in the ad campaign earlier this year was really smart—so unexpected but spot-on.
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Last year, you established the LVMH Prize. What was the impetus for starting it?
And how do you choose the special runnerup honorees?
Also in the vote. So whoever gets slightly fewer votes is a runner-up?
Yeah, exactly. So Marques Almeida won this year, and the special prize was given to [Simon Porte] Jacquemus. Is there a dialogue between the judges and the presenting designer?
After their presentation, there are questions asked about the vision of their brand, or it can be about what department store they’re stocked at or anything about production. It’s really random questions. For part of the selection process, LVMH works with a huge committee of editors and stylists from around the world. How did you put together that group of people, and what’s their role?
The prize is quite open, because each designer applies through the Internet. Anyone can have access to it, regardless of nationality. You have to be under 40 years old to apply, and your brand has to have at least two collections. This year we got more than 1,000 applicants. >
(OPPOSITE) The Concertina chair, designed by Raw Edges and part of Louis Vuitton’s Objets Nomades furniture and accessories collection.
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How long does it take from beginning to end?
We started the applications in January and closed them in late February. From there, we reduced the list to 26, and then in March
everyone voted following the showroom viewing. A week later, we knew who the seven finalists were. In late May, we did the quick presentations to the judges, voted, and then announced the winner. This year, the winner was Marques Almeida. What drew the jury to them over the rest? Why did they stand out?
I think that their work is full of energy and very creative. They have a very interesting and unconventional use of colors and materials; their work with denim, for example, is outstanding. They also have a very good selling track with retailers who carry their collection. So these contestants need to be designers who can also create things that make sense in the marketplace.
Yes, it’s not only creativity; it’s also being able to have a consumer buy your clothes. There needs to be a commercial response to the creative process. That is, of course, taken into consideration in the process. What made the 2014 winner, Thomas Tait, take the prize?
He’s extremely creative and draws very well. He had prepared a little book for the jury with a lot of drawings. At the time, he really needed the prize. When you’re the winner, you get SURFACE
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PHOTOS: BENOIT PEVERELLI.
There’s an internal committee of people from LVMH and outside who look at all the applicants and reduce the list to around 25—this year, to 26. Next, we ask the opinions of a panel of around 40 what we call “experts,” such as Carine Roitfeld, Marie-Amelie Sauvé, Franca Sozzani, Patrick Demarchelier. This panel consists of editors, journalists, stylists, photographers, models, makeup artists, department stores’ executives, and buyers. For the designers, even if they don’t win the prize, they get to meet all these people at once. During March Fashion Week, we organize an event where we invite all the experts, plus a lot of people from the industry, and each designer has a booth to show their clothes. The personalities come and look at what they do. It takes place at the LVMH headquarters on Avenue Montaigne. For two days, from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., the 40 experts can come, take a moment in between the shows to look at the clothes and meet the designers. At the end of the two days, they have to vote for the eight designers they prefer out of the 25. This year we had seven finalists who went in front of the jury. Even if you’re not the finalist or don’t win the prize, you get a lot of exposure.
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300,000 euros, and on top of that—a one-year coaching by LVMH professionals, which is, I think, the most important thing. They help the designers with decisions that they have to make for their business. You always have a ton of decisions to make when you’re a young designer: How should you price your clothes? Should you do leather goods and shoes, and if so, where should you produce them? Should you produce in Asia or somewhere in Italy? Where should you be stocked? There’s all the press they get, too. The value of the press, just from winning the prize, is enormous.
Yes, in just one year, Thomas Tait multiplied his sales by two. We helped him find a good factory to produce his clothes and also on legal matters, like owning his trademark in different countries.
PHOTOS: BENOIT PEVERELLI.
One of last year’s special prize honorees, Hood by Air, has become a rather large presence in fashion. Do you think the prize played a role in this?
Yes, but when [Shayne Oliver of Hood by Air] won the prize, he was already a very promising success. The prize helps you a lot, but you need to have the talent and the willingness to grow. Actually, after winning the prize, Hood by Air said they would come to Paris more often, and they did. > 117
(THIS SPREAD, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) LVMH Prize winners and special honorees with models wearing their designs: 2014 special prize mention Shayne Oliver of Hood by Air, 2014 special mention honorees Tina and Nikita Sutradhar of Miniuku, 2015 winners Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida of Marques Almeida, and 2014 winner Thomas Tait.
PHOTOS: BENOIT PEVERELLI.
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One of the main problems for young designers is the cash flow, because they need to pay for the fabrics and the production way before they’re paid, way before department stores receive their collections. They have a moment when the cash flow is negative, so they need the financial help. It’s really useful for them. A lot of the time, their company is a bit financially unstable because of that.
identifying areas where they need the most help and support. They work within the companies, in order to help either the CEO or the designer when they have questions. In the case of Thomas Tait and Marques Almeida, they don’t have CEOs. It’s the designer who does everything. One of the important elements of the prize is the coaching part.
On rare occasions, LVMH has acquired a young brand. Nicholas Kirkwood and J.W. Anderson are two examples of that. Both were promising designers given an opportunity.
From your perspective, what responsibility does LVMH have, if any, to support emerging talent and help build the world of fashion outside of the brands it owns?
We’ve always done that, even with Marc Jacobs at a time. We’ve always been supporting talents. Is there an in-house team constantly looking for new talent?
Well, we’ve always been extremely supportive of young talents and giving a chance to young people. So it’s really in the culture and in the philosophy of the group. It’s our responsibility to help young designers.
PHOTOS: BENOIT PEVERELLI.
No, we have many teams looking for new talents. How does that work internally?
Well, we have a dedicated team who is, for example, very involved with Nicholas Kirkwood and J.W. Anderson, and who is also coaching Marques Almeida and coached Thomas Tait and Hood by Air. This team is used to seeing smaller businesses and 119
Delphine Arnault at the 2015 LVMH Prize presentation. (OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM) Karl Lagerfeld and Arnault behind the LVMH Prize jury table for the 2015 edition. Special prize honoree Simon Porte Jacquemus (right) shares a laugh with Arnault and Marc Jacobs.
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Kindred Spirits
As his brand turns 10, Phillip Lim collaborates on a runway show with like-minded designer Maya Lin.
(OPPOSITE) Phillip Lim in his New York studio. (NEXT SPREAD) The 3.1 Phillip Lim fall/winter 2015 collection in the designer’s showroom.
BY HEIDI MITCHELL PORTRAIT BY NATHAN PERKEL
Back when Phillip Lim launched his first collection in fall 2005, there was no market for his affordable cool and easy fashion. He and his business partner, Wen Zhou, had to create it. “Designer clothing for an approachable price point didn’t exist then,” he says, bathed in the midday sunlight of his Soho studio. “People would wait for expensive pieces to go on sale. Even big fashion brands are doing it now, which is great—it’s a shame not to be able to harness the moment.” Ten years on, Lim is having a moment of his own. Sought after by red carpet stylists and Hollywood elite—as well as professionals who like their clothing to work as hard as they do—his classic-with-a-touch-of-madness 3.1 Phillip Lim brand is one of the few independent fashion houses around. He is drowning in awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. His sell-through rate is the envy of designers the world over: His company did $60 million in sales last year. Still, this So-Cal native senses he remains at the beginning of his journey. “We’ve been around for 10 years, so I feel like I’m only 10 years old, just a kid,” he says. “We put too much emphasis on speed and proficiency, but we don’t allow ourselves the time to become proficient.” It is for this reasons that, rather than putting up the retrospective that has become the industry standard, Lim, in his signature anti-establishment style, is instead doing an “introspective” to celebrate his brand’s anniversary, with the leitmotif of stopping to smell the flowers. “The idea is such a cliché, I know, 121
but I felt like we needed a theme that was universal, a reason to appreciate and reflect.” He found just the partner to help him hit the pause button: the elusive artist, architect, and sculptor Maya Lin. “I think Phillip contacted me because of a kindred aesthetic,” says Lin, who first met Lim at a Chinese New Year’s party of a mutual friend. “And I think the theme of his show connects to a major focus of my work,” which includes rare, varied, and rather austere kinetic sculptures, like the undulating, grassy “Wave Field” (2008) at Storm King Art Center in New York’s Hudson Valley and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) in Washington, D.C. She’s keeping her final concept close to the vest until Fall Fashion Week this month, but says that when they started talking about his idea of thanking his “tribe” for a decade of success, “the show-set idea just popped into my head. The collaboration has allowed me to create something as a sculptor as well as focus attention on a basic element that is heavily degraded: the earth.” “I mean, this is Maya Lin!” gushes Lim, who cuts a rather dapper figure in vintage YSL loafers, old 3.1 Phillip Lim white slacks he’s trimmed to capris, and a dress shirt that reveals most of his five tattoos. His hair is swept into a shiny pompadour, the sides shaved down to a No. 1. “If you see her body of work, it’s large-scale, environmental, and thoughtful,” Lim says of Lin. “She’s so aware. She invited me to her studio and I was telling her that I wanted to do a more simplified show, and she was like, ‘Normally I don’t work
on this scale, but I would love to be a part of this.’” Lim’s subtle charm has that effect on people. He wooed art-photographer Viviane Sassen to shoot his advertising campaigns, which are done full-on guerilla style. For fall 2015, the pair flew to Bhutan, a place Lim had always wanted to visit, and scouted a couple of schoolgirls at a bus stop. “To me, they embodied not only Bhutanese beauty, but also universal beauty,” he says. Lim and Sassen styled the collection on the girls to give it a local authenticity, which allowed Lim to see his work in a different light. “You think you’re sharing something with them, but they’re actually informing you,” he says. His approach to marketing is rather unconventional in the fashion world. “Call it rebellious, call it gonzo, call it whatever, but it’s pretty simple. I think that somewhere along the way, fashion got all twisted. It became about selling an idea. I’d rather sell reality and romance” With no investors pouring over his spreadsheets, Lim is free to go wherever his muse takes him. “People are always like, what do you want? And honestly I have no idea,” he says. “But I know what makes me happy. And that is the freedom to choose, to challenge for a reason. It all comes back down to this idea of independence.” The vultures have swarmed this rebel, to be sure, but Lim is resolute. “When I was 31, I had a point to prove. Now I’m 41, and I’m not into proving anything.”
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(THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM) Lim with his team at the label’s New York studio. A moodboard for Lim’s fall/ winter 2015 collection. (OPPOSITE) A closeup of Lim’s jewelry.
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Charisma Vérité
With an acute eye for detail, the celebrated fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu creates visually arresting marvels.
(OPPOSITE) Erdem Moralioglu at his London home. (NEXT SPREAD) An embroidered organza gown from the designer’s fall/winter 2015 collection.
INTERVIEW BY SPENCER BAILEY PORTRAIT BY RITA PLATTS
Like a film director maintaining focus and calm while on a busy set full of actors, London-based designer Erdem Moralioglu has developed a strong cinematic approach to fashion. His dresses carry a sense of romance and even high drama. It’s no surprise that his fall/winter 2015 collection was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock and Luchino Visconti heroines. After a decade at the helm of his eponymous line, Moralioglu, 37, has proven himself to be one of fashion’s most adept contemporary visual storytellers. His lively textiles mesmerize. A timeless energy exists in each collection; his work references everything 127
from botany to photography. Whether they’re frayed, fadedlooking, textural, jewel-like, or metallic, his pieces suggest there’s something deeper at play. Since growing up in Canada and studying fashion at the Royal College of Art in London, Moralioglu has rightfully earned the attention of the upper echelons of the industry. Last year, he was awarded the British Fashion Council’s award for womenswear designer of the year, and in 2010 he received the inaugural Vogue/British Fashion Council Designer Fashion Fund Award. His label has seen rapid growth in
a preternaturally short period of time. Its products are sold in more than 170 stores, including Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, and Dover Street Market, and last year saw the launch of Erdem’s own e-commerce store. This month, the brand’s first flagship will open in London’s Mayfair neighborhood. Surface recently met with Moralioglu at the Maritime Hotel in New York to discuss his path to success, his burgeoning photography collection, and why taking things slow, both in life and work, is typically the best way forward. >
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You were born in Montreal to a Turkish father and British mother. How did all these cultures impact you?
My upbringing was sort of odd. When you’re the child of two people who are from two very different cultures—you grow up with this sense of ruthlessness, because you’re the first generation. My parents became Canadian, but my twin sister and I were the ones who grew up sounding Canadian and were in the school systems there. It must have been really strange for my parents to have these two twins who were this product of where neither of them were from. I always felt like both of them were slightly homesick and wanted to go back home, but I guess the trouble is that from the beginning my mother probably never wanted to live in Turkey and my father never wanted to live in England. They decided on neutral territory. I was a product of that neutral territory. It’s been reported widely that your first foray into fashion was dressing your sister’s Barbie dolls. Tell me more about this.
I had a twin sister, so I had very easy access to dolls. I definitely took advantage of it. One side of my brain was focused on the feminine things and the other side was focused on Legos and Playmobils. It was an interesting childhood. I traveled a lot. Whenever I would go see my family in England that would be so alien to where I was growing up, in the suburbs of Montreal. Suddenly I would find myself in Istanbul, and then traveling to eastern Turkey—that was equally alien. Remembering my grandmother in Turkey and remembering my grandmother in England, you couldn’t get two more different women. Were either of your grandmothers or your mother stylish?
Designers often talk about their mothers and their influence on them. My mom wasn’t particularly stylish. She was very pragmatic in the way that she dressed. She never wore any makeup, except for her bright red lipstick. My grandmother on my English side was a very typical grandmother from the Midlands, from Birmingham, and my other grandmother was from eastern Turkey, a place called Antakya. To answer your question simply: No. How did you go from dressing Barbies to actually realizing a collection?
Did growing up around a twin sister have something to do with it?
I’m sure that affected me. Also, in Montreal, we had access to all of the French channels, like Channel 5, which would broadcast the couture shows. Or we had Tim Blanks and Jeanne Beker on CBC. Or Fashion File. At the age of 7, watching it on TV, I was fixated with the idea of what fashion was. What led you to pursue fashion studies at Ryerson University in Toronto?
I was trying to figure out how I would do fashion. The only place I knew that you could go to study it in Canada was Ryerson. I ended up going there, and then during my third year, I went to England, where I did an internship at Vivienne Westwood. All of the other students interning there were talking about whether or not they got an interview at Central Saint Martins or the Royal College. That’s where it kind of clicked that I would have to do postgrad, to do an M.A., and that if I was going to do it, I would have to go to London. I really felt like my B.A. hadn’t given me enough preparation. I wasn’t ready yet. I applied only to the Royal College, was accepted, and that was it. I went right away after Ryerson. Was attending Royal College formative for you?
What was so special about the Royal College was you’d have Wolfgang Tillmans giving a lecture for photography students, or you’d have Hussein Chalayan giving a lecture—but in the architecture department. It was all about crosspollination. I spent so much time exploring textiles and embroidery, talking to product design and photography students. Every floor was a different department, and you met people who were doing an M.A. in weaving or construction embroidery or millinery.
It was an amazing group of people. I remember, even on our first day of the M.A.—there were around eight people in the class—everyone had to talk about what they did in the summer prior to going to the Royal College. Everyone spent the summer doing internships at places like [Christian] Lacroix. I remember it came to me, and I had been working on a decoration television show priming walls. Going there opened my eyes. It was what I’d been waiting for. You came straight to New York—not Paris— right after the Royal College. Why?
I was offered a job [at Diane von Furstenberg]. I felt like I wasn’t quite ready to start my own thing, so I felt like I should try it. They say when you’re a student that you should work in the industry. I realized quite quickly that it wasn’t necessarily for me, so I moved back to England and that’s where it started—I had my first show. So that was in 2005?
Yeah, 10 years ago. I started when I was 27. Since launching your label, you’ve won so many top prizes. It can take most designers 15, 20, 30 years to win the kinds of honors you’ve gotten in 10.
It’s extraordinary. Last year, it was a huge honor to win the British Fashion Awards prize. I was so shocked that that happened. It was kind of odd. You never really think about it, though. You’re dealing with the cycle of seasons. There’s never really a moment when you reflect on the things that have happened. How do you view the evolution of your designs from 2005 to present?
I’m continually learning, and like anything in life, you hope to look at the ideas you’re exploring, distill them, and become clearer about what you’re trying to explore. Are you ever creating fashion to inform the woman, or is the woman always informing the fashion?
It’s always been about her. I’ve always been really interested in who she is as a character. Narrative has always been a part of my work that helps me get around the idea of a collection. Even working on the London store—when I’m talking to Philip [Joseph, my long-time partner, who designed the interiors]—it’s always about her and what her flat in Mayfair would be like: How would she live? What would she surround herself with? What would color would her walls be? What art would she look at? It’s the same with a collection: How does she walk? What does she do when she wakes up? I’m fascinated by her. It seems like you’re telling a series of stories. Speaking of, you have a photography SURFACE
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PHOTO: COURTESY ERDEM.
I want to pull back on the Barbies. There was a moment when I did make a dress for my sister’s Barbie, but my childhood wasn’t Barbie-focused. I was obsessed with fashion from a very young age. I was obsessed with how women looked and how women carried themselves and the codes of femininity. I never tried to dress up in women’s clothes or anything like that. I was always just fascinated by women
and liked how they were depicted in paintings or photographs. One of the biggest influences that my mom had on me was that she enjoyed art and visual things. She never separated us from the things that she enjoyed in life. If she wanted to go see an exhibit, she would take us; if she was reading a book about Manet, she would show it to us. She was very much open about and shared the things that gave her pleasure in life. That had a huge influence on me. In her homesickness, she looked for anything English that was on television, and that tended to be things like Masterpiece Theatre, A Room With a View, and Merchant Ivory Productions—these romanticized views of what England was, which were very different to what her background was. She was from a working-class family in Birmingham. I certainly loved all of those shows. I saw the romantic Merchant Ivory world when I was a kid, and I’m sure it did something inside my head. But going back to the idea of women: I was always, even as a little boy, fascinated by the feminine.
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PHOTO: COURTESY ERDEM.
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Years ago, I just saw something that I liked, I bought it, and that was it. It was a Nan Goldin photo called “Yogo in the Mirror, Bangkok” [1992]. It’s of this Bangkok showgirl backstage; she’s doing her makeup. I also have another photo by Nan Goldin that I love. It’s from The Ballad of Sexual Dependency [a book published in 1986]. It’s a little girl jumping up and down in front of this amazing wallpaper with a skinhead asleep in a chair. It’s a pretty strange image. How does photography or the cinema— apart from the narrative aspect—inform your work?
For fall/winter I was really inspired after seeing this Helly Nahmad Gallery installation [of a fictional 1968 Paris apartment] at Frieze Masters called “The Collector.” The gallery worked with the production designer Robin Brown to create it. The space was about how environment can dictate a character. I’ve always been fascinated with how clothing and wearing things in a certain way can dictate who the character is. This idea of space that can give you clues as to who a person is I found fascinating. We collaborated with Robin for the fall/ winter show. He created an apartment for this fictional girl, the daughter of a European oligarch who had fallen on really hard times. It was almost like each outfit represented a different night she would come home. Let’s talk about your new London flagship. What was your approach to the overall concept and design?
My partner Philip started his own firm, P. Joseph, after working as the design director for Ilse Crawford’s studio for about 10
years. We found this beautiful corner space in Mayfair that had been store selling antique carpets since the 1940s. They were moving. It really started there, with this space. The moldings were crumbling. Part of the approach to the store was restorative, respecting what was there. Another part was opening it up. There was a room that had been boarded up since the 1940s because it was leaking. We spent a lot of time in Antwerp sourcing materials, and we collaborated with designer Michael Anastassiades on lighting. I think Philip was really interested in the idea of femininity in the lines and a sinuousness in the arches. The idea of a garden and planting was important, as well. We’re also doing a collaboration with the furniture shop Sigmar. It will be a mixture of found furniture—anything as early as the 1920s to midcentury to modern. So it will feel as if someone lives there?
I think so. It’s really important that there’s that feeling. There’s a softness to it. I want people to feel comfortable. Do Philip and you both feed off of each other creatively?
I think so. I mean, when you think of the idea of the store, who could design it better than the person who knows every single collection and every aspect of me? That familiarity allows you to naturally play off of each other. Which stores, spaces, or buildings do you find inspiring?
The Vigeland Museum in Oslo [designed by Lorentz Harboe Ree]. The American Bar in Vienna [by Adolf Loos]. Earlier today I was trying to get my head around the new Whitney Museum [by Renzo Piano].
It’s interesting you’re an admirer of architecture—the process is so slow compared to fashion. Do you ever think about the relationship between time and design?
I’ve always tried to take things slightly slowly. I’m as impatient as I am slow. With big decisions, I really like to know that I’m making the right step. For example, it took 10 years to make the decision to open up the store. How did you know now is the right time?
I don’t know if you ever truly know. I’m 100 percent independent. The exercise of opening up a retail store independently is daunting and certainly not without its challenges. It just felt like the right time, and the space just felt so right. There was an odd familiarity to it when I walked in. I felt as if I’d been there before. What role do you see brick-and-mortar retail playing for a fashion brand in 2015?
It’s hugely important. It’s like you’re creating an extension of your language. To have someone understand when they walk into a space that something is yours is an amazing thing. That’s really powerful. If you see a section of my clothes at Barneys, you understand they’re mine without even seeing a label. I’ve created a language, and it’s a very special thing. Which fashion pioneers before you do you admire most?
Yves Saint Laurent. Talk about a visual a language. He created ready-to-wear and the idea of the fascination with the woman. For him, it was always about the woman. You can take a piece of his from 1967, 1977, or 1987, and someone could wear it today. It could slip into a wardrobe—depending on what it is, obviously. He created the idea of “forever.”
PHOTOS: COURTESY ERDEM.
collection. How did you start building that?
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I think that’s really interesting: the idea of something completely seasonless and trendless. His obsessions with the feminine, color, graphics—I remember that from when I was a 5-year-old looking at the bottom of my mother’s lipstick. Chanel is another one. Chanel is such a tangible, authoritative language. Also, Balenciaga and Lacroix. What language defines your woman?
I’ve always been interested in the tension where there’s something feminine and something masculine, where there’s something dark and an odd brightness. Contradiction inspires me. I also like the idea that when someone wears something of mine they feel there’s a sense that they are the only person who owns it. That sense of specialness is really important. Would you ever do menswear?
At the moment, no. In my head, that’s where my universe stops. I feel like I’m such a boring dresser myself. Whatever I would design for men would be a series of white T-shirts and spectacles and chinos. That would be it. In addition to the store, what sort of growth areas do you see for the label?
Eventually, accessories. A scent would be amazing. What do you think your woman would smell like?
PHOTOS: COURTESY ERDEM.
I know exactly what she would smell like, but I’m going to keep it to myself.
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THIS SPREAD (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) Embroidered organza top. Coupé fil floral dress. Printed duchesse skirt. Jacquard chine dress.
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Roman Empire
Fendi’s monumental new home base solidifies its stronghold as one of Italy’s most powerful fashion brands.
(OPPOSITE) Fendi CEO Pietro Beccari at the fashion house’s new Rome headquarters. (FOLLOWING SPREAD) The exterior of the restored building, the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana.
INTERVIEW BY SPENCER BAILEY PHOTOS BY STEVE BISGROVE
“What’s important for me is that everything we do is our own expression of taste and beauty,” says Fendi CEO Pietro Beccari, who met with Surface in Milan during this year’s Salone del Mobile design and furniture fair. “It’s important that every single one of these expressions makes us proud of what we did and the way we did it.” When it comes to Fendi’s new home base in Rome, set to open in October, Beccari can safely say that the company has met this objective—and then some. The original structure, known as the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, was constructed between 1938 and 1943 as part of a business-center complex initiated by Benito Mussolini for the planned 1942 World’s Fair (which was canceled due to Italy’s involvement in World War II). Now, after more than 70 years of sitting empty, architect Marco Costanzi has subtly renovated the building, which will house Fendi for at least the next 15 years. Says Costanzi: “One of the most important things, for me, was to keep as much of the original idea of the building as possible. My job was to not overdesign it.” In the context of Rome, he adds, the move of a major brand like Fendi to this previously empty site—an exemplar of Fascist architecture—will be transformative. “For 500 people to move from the center of Rome, this part of the town is going to be completely different.” Here, Beccari tells us how the new headquarters came about and what it means for the company and Rome.
years, Fendi has been divided by two buildings in two locations. In fact, if you count some temporary offices and warehouse space, it’s three or four locations. I didn’t want to have that for the long-term, so I immediately started the search for a new office. It wasn’t easy because we have to accommodate 500 people as well as our fur atelier. We started the search for a building in the middle of Rome. It was very difficult. We visited around 19 to 20 buildings. But we were deceived. We didn’t find anything until a friend of a colleague of mine working for the company that owns and manages all the buildings in this quarter, called EUR—which means “Esposizione Universale Roma,” or “Universal Exhibition Rome”—told us about one. He told us they wanted to build a museum on the site, but why don’t we dare to go there and ask them if they want to rent it out? I said, “Are you crazy? This is a monument, they would never do that.” As a matter of fact, after a couple of exploratory meetings, we found ourselves in Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism discussing with the ministers the fact that they already have five museums in the area. They were spending 7 million euros annually for these museums, which are basically empty. I asked, “Do you want to spend another 10 million a year or accept my offer of 2.8 million for rent and we make this area alive by bringing fashion to this fantastic building?” Surprisingly, the answer was yes. I started at the company about three years That’s how it happened: We dared to ask, and ago. My vision from the beginning has been to they didn’t dare to say no, facing a crisis situafinally reunite the company under one roof. For tion in Italy, and facing that fact that they had
to give life to a building that had been empty for 72 years. Tourists were coming to the building and were not even able to approach it because there was a protection barrier around it. We said going in that we would open the area around the palazzo and allow tourists to enter the ground floor. There will be badges required to enter our offices, but people will have free access to the ground floor. They’ll be able to come in, take pictures, and explore exhibitions. We’ll do exhibitions there about Italian excellence. The building’s name itself—Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana—means the palazzo is dedicated to Italian excellence. Because Fendi is 100 percent made in Italy, we wanted to promote “Made in Italy.” This exhibition on the ground floor will be dedicated that. It could be related to Fendi or unrelated. I promised the state I’d give this place to whomever has a good idea, which I’m very happy to do. Choosing the architect for the building was really simple. Marco Costanzi had already worked with us in Milan, where we restored a beautiful space and turned it into our showroom. The project went well, so for Rome we said, “You know our tastes, you know what we like. Let’s do something.” I often say the building is without time. It could’ve been built yesterday; it could’ve been built 1,000 years ago. We told him we needed it to be something that would feel very modern and very functional at the same time. The biggest difficulty was the tall ceiling: It’s nine meters high. The space also has a lot of light coming in—it’s the highest point in Rome. Marco optically lowered the perspective with a structure in black steel, and SURFACE
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to avoid echoes, he covered the ceiling in a white sound-dampening material. Marco’s design is clean and sharp. The brief was absolute transparency. I want a company that’s transparent, fast, fresh, and with open communication. When you enter this office, you see that. You’d imagine a company that’s more than just “transparent.” That’s what I want. You’ll be able to see everything that’s happening. Continuing this idea of transparency, my office is behind glass. I have nothing to hide. That’s the way I am, and that’s the way I want my company to be. For my desk, Marco took a piece of marble that was left in the basement from the original 1938 construction. He said, “This marble is very rare. It would now cost a fortune, and you’ll never find it. I’ll build a table out of it for you.” We have 500 people occupying all 19,000 square meters across seven floors. Below the stairs is level zero, which is occupied by offices. We’ll have visual merchandising there. I asked the visual merchandising team to build its own
offices. They invited a spray artist to paint the walls. It’s very adapted to their spirits. The fur atelier will be there as well, with light coming from the skylight of the stairs. We’ll concentrate all of our efforts in this one place, which is where Fendi will hopefully be for the next three to four generations. Karl Lagerfeld says we’re not an Italian brand—we’re a Roman brand. Fendi has a Roman attitude in the sense that we have an incredible taste for beauty. Rome is full of color and very outspoken, and I think Fendi is, too. Both Rome and Fendi have an assertive elegance. Rome is also giving us something marketing-wise. Millions of people dream to go to Rome, and with our name linked to the city, it’s a good thing for positioning. This building isn’t only about philanthropy; it’s also a way to promote our company’s link to the city.
Desks inside the new Fendi headquarters—the highest point in Rome. (OPPOSITE) Statues on the property.
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Hard Core
(OPPOSITE) Rick Owens in Paris.
The provocative American designer Rick Owens eschews convention and lives in a world of no shame. INTERVIEW BY STEPHEN HEYMAN PORTRAIT BY DANIELLE LEVITT
There’s no dearth of adjectives or portmanteaus that have been used to describe American fashion designer Rick Owens’s now-iconic aesthetic: “gothic,” “brooding,” “raw-edged,” “crypt chic” (or is it “brutal chic”?), a practitioner of “perfect imperfection,” whose palette is “the color of a dying bird.” The best, perhaps coined by the man himself: “glunge”—a hybrid of glamor and grunge. The ineffability of his work has not prevented others from trying to copy it. The New York Times once called Owens “fashion’s most imitated designer.” His clothes—especially his asymmetrical T-shirts and angular leather jackets distressed to the point that they feel like an expensively lived-in second skin—are echoed in every rung of fashion, from haute couture to High Street. But Owens has managed always to stay a step ahead of his copyists. Today his privately held business—an outré empire trading in everything from jeans to mink stoles to furniture made of 500,000-year-old fossilized bark—is reputed to be worth 139
upwards of $100 million. Owens began his fashion career in the 1990s, hand-stitching jackets and selling them himself to store buyers in their offices. Courtney Love and a few other celebrities were photographed wearing his designs, starting a buzz that quickly turned into a sensation. In 2002, Vogue invited him to do a runway show in New York, launching his career. He moved to Paris in 2003, and ever since he has cultivated an exceedingly eccentric existence with his wife, Michèle Lamy, a wizened, gold-toothed Frenchwoman with sorceress airs, whom he calls his muse and who leads the furniture, fine jewelry, and fur sides of his business. Despite his hard-edged appearance, Owens, 52, is exceedingly kind in person and disarmingly eloquent for a fashion designer. He avoids eye contact when speaking, as if reading aloud from invisible teleprompter. This could be a kind of vestigial shyness. He grew up in a conservative yet bookish family in a suburb of Los Angeles. “I had a very bullied childhood. I was called
‘faggot’ and ‘weird.’ I was passive, mild, very quiet, effeminate, delicate,” he says. “So I had to toughen up.” Surface sat down with Owens in the garden patio of his five-story mansion in Place du Palais Bourbon, a building in one of the snootier parts of the Rive Gauche that was once the headquarters of French Socialist Party leaders like François Mitterand. It has been completely renovated into a kind of evil-genius lair, complete with a fur atelier containing the pelts of a vast array of exotic mammals. Owens had recently held his spring men’s show, and we began our conversation discussing a minor scandal that surrounded it. A German model known as Jera pulled a stunt, unfurling a banner that read “Please Kill Angela Merkel—Not.” Owens is known for his runway provocations, but this one he didn’t sanction and was furious about, apparently punching the model when he walked backstage, and then emphasizing the point in an interview with WWD: “Please say that I punched him.” >
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Why did you react so intensely to the guerilla protest at your last men’s show?
I was pissed at that moment. I thought, “Hey, this is my spotlight, and you fucked it up.” The whole reason I hit the guy was I knew if I didn’t react very strongly it might get out that this was some stunt that I had planned. Everybody had to know how strongly I disagreed with this. I don’t mind drama, but I don’t like death threats. Have you spoken to the model who held the sign?
No, and I won’t. I wonder if he has dementia or something. He’s always been a heavy drinker, and a little erratic, which was adorable. But what he did was just so illogical. He was very accepted here and embraced by a community of people who were very affectionate toward him—a group that now feels more hostility toward him than I do because they feel protective of me. It was really a selfdestructive gesture. This protest was obviously different from some of the other provocations at your runway shows because it had nothing to do with your vision.
That was my biggest problem—that it was a negative gesture. Whenever I do provocation, I’m always doing something that I feel is based on warmth and kindness and love. Even when you send out models wearing tunics exposing their penises?
Planning for the spring/summer 2016 collection. (OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM) Owens making silhouette adjustments for the collection. Spring/ summer 2016 collection fabrics.
Even when I do the penises. That was really about: Let’s consider a world where there’s no shame. Why did your parents teach you that your penis is ugly? All the most conservative or vehement reactions were: “How disgusting! Why would anyone want to show a shriveled up nutsack like that?” And: “Why was it so small?” It was amazing that the second thing was why was it so small? Like, Who taught you as a child that it was supposed to be bigger? And that it was ugly? You’ve also challenged the fashion status quo in terms of race and body size, replacing runway models in one of your recent women’s collections with mostly black, plus-size members of a step-dance team.
I’m afraid I do too much. I’m horrified that I might seem like someone who loves the sound of his own voice. And the other thing I hate is I always sound opinionated, like I know everything. I always want people to know that I can be completely hypocritical. I can say something that will contradict something I said a year ago. How do you design your collections?
The collections are a rolling process that begins with notes that I write for myself at the gym every day. I don’t do sketches, really. The notes will just be a few words, like “exploding pyramid.” And I know what that means and what silhouette that looks like. So there’s just an accumulation of lists and lists and lists. And when it comes time to get to the factory, I look at the lists and pick out the stuff that sounds right and just make my composition there. Whom do you design for?
Me. The only way this thing stays pure is if I isolate what I really like and what is a personal expression. As soon as I start considering other people and what they might like, I kind of get lost. I’m proud of this, and I’m ashamed of it at the same time. What do you say to men who would not be interested in an asymmetrical collar or a drop-crotch pant?
I’d say wear something else. Maybe fashion isn’t your thing—who cares? I realize it’s a niche. Not everybody’s interested in it, not everybody has to be. And I’m not saying that like I’m dismissing people. I’m saying, “Stuff that fits into my world might not make sense in your world. But the stuff that I make works perfectly for my world.” What makes you want to go on designing?
I wonder sometimes. Sometimes I think it’s just vanity. Why do I insist on being listened to? But I think it’s that everybody wants to be listened to. I think it’s one of our main universal motivations. And having a conversation—that’s what connects you to the world. I say some things, people respond, I listen, and then respond again. This conversation is kind of addictive. I love feeling like I’ve thrown myself into this mosh pit and I’m engaged and I’m rubbing sweaty shoulders with all these different people and I’m connecting. I know that that’s a little bit disingenuous. I do all the talking and people respond by buying things. But it’s still a conversation. Why did you move to Paris from L.A.?
I work in Europe. That’s where the factories are, that’s where fashion is. I tried to do it from L.A. But I was going back and forth constantly, and I need to live where I work. > SURFACE
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That was just glorious! It touched that need for unity that we all feel deep inside. And also showed that we don’t accept a rigid idea of beauty. When those women were on the runway doing what they did, they were absolutely convincing. They belonged there. And there was something important in the fact that they didn’t look ridiculous. Maybe seeing that, other women would say to themselves, “If I had confidence, if I fixed myself up a little bit, and if I wore a Rick Owens outfit, I would be beautiful, too…” [Laughs] I don’t mean that last part about my outfit.
Do you like talking about your work?
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I hear you still struggle with French?
No, I don’t. I just gave up. I just decided that it was exotic not to speak French. It keeps it romantic, a little bit hazy. I’m a little wary of Paris. I’m judged in Paris. I have to perform in Paris. I might love it more than it loves me. It’s not as warm and cozy as other places in the world. I like a little bit of chill, of formality. But when I go to London, I practically kiss taxi drivers because they’re so sweet. You’re about to open a store in Los Angeles, where you began your career. How does it feel?
It’s no accident that you’re opening up in La Brea.
I have affection for that area. It’s close to Hollywood, where I lived. But I have to admit that I had reservations about going back. I haven’t been there for 14 years. I was very
Still, you’ve taken great care in terms of the design of the store. In your notes about it, you mentioned how it’s an homage to Cecile B. Demille, complete with a special glass wall that releases an “ejaculation of fog” every five minutes.
Ah yes, my giddy little notes. I write all my own press releases. Sometimes I forget how unusual that probably is. Nobody does that. I realize that’s one of our assets: The fact that it’s a real personal expression. We don’t do committee things and we don’t have PR people that are kind of creating this false illusion. Everything is really authentically true. I just spout off anything that comes into my head. I forget sometimes how uptight the world can be. Your store is located down the street from the Plaza Salon, a Mexican drag bar where you apparently spent some interesting evenings. What was it like?
Oh, it was just a Mexican drag bar. It’s in the middle of La Brea, but it seems like it should be in Tijuana. It was just raucous fun. Michèle had a restaurant up the street. Sometimes, after it closed, we’d go have a last drink and a dance. One weeknight, the place was empty, we’re on the dance floor, and there was this shriveled up little guy, and it was Iggy Pop. And that’s the only time I ever met Iggy Pop. He was dancing with some Asian girl, and I was dancing with Michèle. I said something to him like, “Hey, nice to see you.” And that was it. An understated reaction to one of your personal heroes. You were too cool to play fanboy?
No, I was too drunk. I didn’t want to say something too stupid. What role does your Michèle play creatively for you?
She has a very strong personality. We butt heads when we work too closely together. And it becomes personal. Her emotions are more on the surface than mine are, and I take SURFACE
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I think maybe I’m suppressing emotions because I don’t have many feelings about it. I’m not there, and I’m not going to go. I’ll probably go in a year after it’s settled in, but I would feel kind of obnoxious going like this is some kind of Cleopatra’s Barge.
messy in Los Angeles—falling apart everywhere. I have unpleasant memories of being a drunken slob. There’s something about it that makes me cringe a little bit.
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by that. I get kind of sensitive, and I get a little tense and that makes her tense. We both totally recognize it. We can objectively see what’s happening but somehow keep repeating it. So you don’t work together too closely?
We’ve learned how to compartmentalize. We found how to define our areas. It has taken a long time, and we haven’t perfected it. There’s a world I call “Lamyland” that I’m not allowed into, or that I don’t try to trespass on. I don’t understand her completely. She’s mercurial and unpredictable. But that’s her creativity. Your company is already worth upward of $100 million. Do you feel pressure to keep performing and growing financially?
We got so far beyond where I ever thought we would be. If this falls apart tomorrow, I still won. I’m not really nervous about that. And you know I’ve invested enough so that if everything falls apart I’m going to be okay. But I’m very conscious when I see designers who had a moment where they were so relevant and they made sense for the moment and then they just stay there and they don’t move on. It just freaks me the fuck out. The idea that it could happen to you?
I mean, I feel like it’s almost inevitable. I do
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see some designers that last and maintain their vision. But when I see stuff out on the street that looks like what I’m doing, I think there’s got to be a backlash coming. I don’t know when it’s coming, or if it’s happening right this minute. But I think I’m such a prime target for that. Is that a creative concern or a business concern? These days, do you feel more like a merchant or an artist?
I kind of feel like both. I hesitate to say “artist.” The art world doesn’t have the same mystique it did when I wanted to be an artist when I was younger. When I was learning about art, going to art school, it seemed really complicated and intellectually rigorous. There was abstract theory and all of this stuff I just couldn’t follow. When I got older, I realized that’s not the only way to make art or express yourself. Now I wonder if fashion has kind of met art or surpassed art. It can push a lot of the same buttons. The other thing is, I’m able to make a more profound difference than having something beautiful that’s hanging on a wall. I’m touching people every day. The idea that I’ve done my tiny bit to exoticize that, or make it more theatrical, and it spread—that’s hardcore.
(THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM) Eliel Saarinen chair, part of Owens’s furniture collection. Construction outside Owens’s soon-to-open Los Angeles store. (OPPOSITE) The entranceway to the L.A. store while under construction.
Gallery Vacheron Constantin’s Christian Selmoni shows us around the watchmaker’s newly extended Geneva headquarters.
Photos by Alex Stephen Teuscher
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Vacheron Constantin artistic director Christian little, I gained more interest about product Selmoni—now in his 25th year as an employee development. Next, from mid- to late ’90s, of the Swiss fine-watchmaking company— I was head of manufacturing and planning. The can’t wait to welcome the fall opening of an company gave me the chance to create and extension to the company’s Geneva head- develop the entire product collection. At the quarters. Since the first building, designed beginning, there were three of us. We started by architect Bernard Tschumi, was com- to do in-house creation, because for many pleted in 2004, Vacheron Constantin has seen years during and after the quartz-watch crisis strong growth, resulting in the continued need many design aspects were subcontracted. We for more space. Tschumi has returned eventually created a team of specialist designto create an addition to the original structure ers and technicians to develop our watches. that seamlessly melds the site and helps fur- The most important project we had to carry ther the intricate watchmaking processes out was the 260th anniversary Harmony line. happening inside. Here, Selmoni discusses The development of it took eight years. the connection between watchmaking and In 2005, our CEO, Juan Carlos Torres, asked architecture, why high-quality craftsman- me to become more involved with the marketship endures in today’s tech-crazy world, and ing of the products. I became both production the importance of having spaces that promote and marketing director and hired a marketing creativity and innovation. staff. I did this until 2010, and since then, I’ve been concentrating mostly on the creative I’m from a family of watchmakers. When I fin- aspects of my duties, meaning that I have the ished college in the ’70s, quartz watches came creative department under my responsibility to market, and there were huge losses in terms in addition to administration and design and of traditional Swiss watchmaking—around development of made-to-order pieces. This 60,000 jobs. I became a specialist in purchas- team of around 25 people is really the heart, if ing and procurement. I was working in Geneva I may say so, of the company. This job, for me, in the late ’80s when Swiss fine-watchmaking was an interesting move. I don’t consider it a began to come back. A friend of mine who was job; it’s more something I have the pleasure working in watchmaking asked me if I was to come in and do each day. interested in it since there was a kind of rebirth. The company has grown a lot since the ’90s. I said to myself, Why not doing something like Vacheron Constantin has had nonstop develthat? In Switzerland, in the end of the ’80s, you opment for 15 years or more. For many people could really easily leave your job in the evening working at the company, this headquarters has and find a new job the next morning, so the been a great source of pride. Before 2004, we change was not a big deal for me. were renting space in an office building that When I joined Vacheron Constantin in was not specially built for watchmaking activi1990, there were around 80 people in the ties. It has been a major change for us to enter company, worldwide. It was a much more dif- into such beautiful working conditions. In fine ficult time then, just recovering from a tough watchmaking, many employees feel very close era for the industry. My first duties were to the product—it motivates them to do better. about managing production versus sales. This building has has had a very positive effect Pretty soon I became head of purchasing. I on our employees, and I think for visitors as learned quite a lot about how watches are well. It gives us an idea of where we want to made, who the suppliers are. I was more stand and who we are. Since entering the space in 2004, we have and more involved in product development from the procurement point of view. Little by been in a boom. Very early on it was evident SURFACE
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that we would not have enough space. This is why we built this extension. We don’t have a lot of machines. We have many operations that are hand-driven. Obviously, this takes space, and this is why we’re growing—it’s a necessity. Craftsmanship is a very important value in watchmaking, and for this reason I think it’s essential for people who are working in the manufacture to feel comfortable. That’s why we have facilities like the beautiful restaurant on the top floor. Our richness relies on the men and women who are doing the products—the watchmakers, the technicians, and the specialists. There’s strong competition in watchmaking. Many watchmakers come to work around 7 a.m., take a short break for lunch, and leave at 4:30 p.m. Having a nice place to work can be additional motivation for them to join and stay at the company. Watchmaking is very demanding work. They’re working with magnifying glasses and loops. You get very tired when you have artificial light, just like staring at P.C. or Mac screens for eight hours, so natural light is very important. It allows you to see minute details. When we do mock-ups or prototypes, very often we go close to the window to see the natural light on the watch or its face. I think what watchmakers have in common with architects is that we have to deal very much with technical constraints. Our technical constraints are basically the mechanics and movement. What the designers of watches do is create a case shape that encapsulates the movement. We have to give every watch its own character and personality. For architects, it’s different, but they still have all sorts of constraints. Our methodologies are also sometimes similar to architects’, like starting with lines, creating a basic shape, then working with 2-D tools, like Photoshop, and 3-D tools. It’s really working around shapes and with lines and curves, combining them, creating volumes, doing mock-ups, correcting volumes, trying to find balance, refinement. Architecture is a very important tool to facilitate innovation and ideas. If you talk about the new building and how Bernard Tschumi’s team has implemented the areas in it, I think it reflects the processes we have in the development and production of our watches. The departments working together are grouped basically in the same areas. This is a way to have more efficiency in our daily activities. For example, the people who design bespoke timepieces and made-to-measure watches, the technical department, and the development team—we’re located in the same area because we have a necessity to have discussions together every day. When people are in our area, it stimulates their creativity. Some years ago, I had the chance to be invited by a good friend of mine from Google to come back to that company’s headquarters in California. You can imagine me—a guy coming from Switzerland—arriving in Mountain View and Silicon Valley. I was quite fascinated by the impact of the organization of Google, and the techniques used to stimulate creativity. Google SURFACE
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has a lot of facilities there, and everything is easy to get—if you need that or that or that, you find it easily. This is made in order to make you more efficient in terms of creativity and of doing your duties. I would say this kind of modernity is certainly something that helps Vacheron Constantin bring our company into the future. Our building is a bit like a collision between these old crafts coming from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries and the modern world. We still have guilloché machines operating the same way they were 100 years ago, and they’re in very modern locations. I think the tension between tradition and modernity is really a plus for us. Because we have 260 years of experience and history, we’re still able to maintain our traditional crafts and machines, but we’re in a very contemporary setting, both from the product point of view and the manufacturing point of view. Modern manufacturing anchors us as watchmakers and designers. It helps us to create traditional watches; it helps drive us into modernity. In terms of image, I think it’s a good thing. You may have a perception of Vacheron Constantin being a very classic, traditional brand. But that’s really not the case. Even after so many years—in comparison to some other brands, and also in comparison with the evolution of technology in other fields—I’m still impressed by the number of hand-driven operations in our company’s watchmaking. These days, we’re all talking about technology, but we’re still doing most things by hand. Of course, we don’t want to ignore technology or innovation, but one of our core values is really about tradition and craftsmanship. We really see the comeback of what we could call “the intelligence of the hand.” Now more and more people are looking for artisans, authenticity, and craftsmanship. To talk about luxury, it has to incorporate the added value of the hand of the specialist. That’s really at the heart of our manufacture. —As told to Spencer Bailey
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Culture Club A photo portfolio of recent events in the Surface universe, including Art Crush at the Aspen Art Museum and a Watermill Center benefit.
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Culture Club Oliver Peoples and Public School Collaboration Launch On July 14, Oliver Peoples and Public School fêted the launch of their sunglass collaboration on the roof of Sixty Soho in New York. The new line combines Public School’s celebration of urban culture and Oliver Peoples’s West Coast style. Guests included Public School founders Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne (pictured here, left and right, with Angela Simmons), Brendan Fallis, Jessica Joffe, Nick Wooster, Caroline Brown, Gary Wassner, and Sofia Sizzi. (Photo: Ryan Kobane/bfa.com) 163
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CULTURE CLUB Aspen Art Museum Art Crush On July 31, the Aspen Art Museum held its annual Art Crush summer benefit event on the former museum grounds. The fundraiser brings together noteworthy art collectors, artists, and museum and gallery professionals to celebrate art and raise money for the museum. The event included a live auction presented by Sotheby’s, which sold works by artists like Jessica Stockholder and Dan Flavin, and raised more than $2.5 million for the museum’s curatorial and educational programming. Artist Lorna Simpson (pictured, right, with museum director Heidi Zuckerman) was honored with the Aspen Award for Art. Other prominent attendees were Richard Phillips, Hannah Hoffman, Adam Weinberg, and Lance Armstrong. (Photo: David X Prutting/bfa.com)
Launch of Byredo Westbrook Eau De Parfum Barneys New York celebrated its new Byredo Russell Westbrook Eau De Parfum fragrance on July 14 by hosting a dinner with Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook (pictured, right, with Charlotte Blechman) and Byredo founder Ben Gorham (to read about Gorham’s new store, see page 68). Westbrook and Barneys have previously collaborated, on a line of men’s clothing, and are now adding the scent. Attendees including Greg Chait, Justin Kern, Shiva Rose, and Nina Clemente gathered for an intimate evening at the Sunset Tower Terrace in West Hollywood. (Photo: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images) 165
CULTURE CLUB Long House Reserve Summer Benefit On July 18, the nonprofit organization Long House Reserve held its summer benefit at its sprawling 16-acre estate in East Hampton, New York. Artist Kiki Smith was honored with the Long House Award at the event, which raised more than $500,000 for the foundation. Partygoers entered the gala through a bamboo passageway into a setting complete with costumed synchronized swimmers and ethereal music. Among the guests were Cindy Sherman, Ralph Pucci, Nicole Miller, Agnes Gund, Richard Meier, and Ike Ude and Phyllis Hollis (pictured, left to right). (Photo: Patrick McMullan/patrickmcmullan.com)
Wine ’n Dine Presents Jack Rabbit Slim’s On July 16, the new app Wine ’n Dine, a social-media venture for sharing photos of restaurant dishes, hosted a dinner in honor of New York Men’s Fashion Week at Game in New York’s Chelsea. The Pulp Fiction–themed bash channeled Jack Rabbit Slim’s, a diner from the Quentin Tarantino film, and served classic greasy-spoon dishes like milkshakes and fries with mayo (from Joe Isidori’s Black Tap). Gigi Hadid (pictured, opposite left, with Devon Windsor) won a twist dance contest—another nod to Pulp Fiction—and received an award of Cronuts from Dominique Ansel. The party continued next door at Up & Down, where guest Joe Jonas deejayed. Tyson Beckford, Hannah Bronfman, Natalie Joos, and Chloe Wise were among the attendees. (Photo: Matteo Prandoni/bfa.com)
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CULTURE CLUB “DELQA” Launches at the New Museum On Aug. 5, New York’s New Museum ushered in the interactive installation “DELQA: Inside the Music of Matthew Dear” with an opening event. The new exhibition is a sound and light experience that responds to its audience’s motion using Microsoft Kinect technology. The launch included performances by Dear and Heathered Pearls, the latter represented by Dear’s Ghostly International record label. Among those who enjoyed the reception were actress Rose McGowan, Gordon von Steiner, Cary Leitzes, Keino Benjamin, Adam Rich, Chelsea Leyland, and Alex and Christine Czetwertynski (pictured, left to right). (Photo: Drew Reynolds)
Pool Party at Hotel Americano On July 27, 100 guests gathered at Hotel Americano in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood to join Friends of + Pool, a new nonprofit funding a water-filtering floating pool for the New York City harbor. The event—the nonprofit’s first annual summer pool party—also celebrated the launch of a limited-edition line of swimsuits designed by Mike Perry, who’s behind the sequence images in the television show Broad City. Guests included Marc Kushner (pictured, left, with Christopher Barley), Garrett Fuselier, Penny Pilkington, and Oana Stanescu. (Photo: Diana Zapata/ bfa.com) 169
CULTURE CLUB A Hotel Life Second Anniversary Celebration Ben Pundole, the founder of the website A Hotel Life and a contributing editor to Surface, recently celebrated his travel publication’s two-year anniversary at the New York Edition hotel. (Pundole is also the vice president of brand experience for the Edition group of hotels.) Presented by headphones company Master & Dynamic and deejayed by Alexandra Richards, the party’s guests included Ben Watts, Kyle Hotchkiss Carone, Bill Powers, Atlanta de Cadenet Taylor, Waris Ahluwalia (pictured, left), and Jean-Marc Houmard (pictured, right). (Photo: Madison McGaw/bfa.com)
Steve McQueen and Kanye West at LACMA On July 24, LACMA hosted a talk between Kanye West and Steve McQueen, moderated by museum director Michael Govan. The talk served to preview and discuss “All Day/I Feel Like That,” a nine-minute video installation collaboration between McQueen and West (pictured here, right and center, with Kim Kardashian West) that was displayed for a weekend at LACMA. Among the 120 guests were Liz Goldwyn, Theophilus London, Darren Romanelli, Franklin Sirmans, Scott Sternberg, and Thao Nguyen. (Photo: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for LACMA)
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CULTURE CLUB The Armory Show Party in the Hamptons The Armory Show held a cocktail party at the home of Chiswell Langhorne in Sag Harbor on July 26. Guests were served cocktails on the lawn of the house, designed by Annabelle Selldorf and Jamie Gregor, and had the opportunity to view Langhorne’s contemporary art collection. Attendees included Prabal Gurung, Laurence Chandler, Tripoli Patterson, Rameet Chawla (pictured here), Emie Diamond, Blair Clarke, Deborah Pagani, Wendy Dubbeld, Laura de Gunzburg, and Shaune Arp. (Photo: Sam Deitch/bfa.com)
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Annual Watermill Center Summer Benefit & Auction On July 25, the Watermill Center held its 22nd Annual Summer Benefit & Auction. The event, which raised more than $1.9 million to support the center’s residency programs and educational initiatives, hosted around 1,200 guests at a night that included a performance by Sierra Casady of the band CocoRosie and art installations from current residents. Simon de Pury hosted a silent live auction that included lots from artists like Marina Abramovic ć and Annie Leibovitz. Guests included Daniel Arsham, Bob Colacello, Christophe de Menil, Fern Mallis, Brooke Shields, and Rufus Wainwright. Bill Cunningham (pictured) was at the event shooting interesting looks sported by the attendees. (Photo: Sean Zanni/patrickmcmullan.com)
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CULTURE CLUB Woolmark Prize at Milk Studios The winners of the Woolmark Prize USA Regional Awards were announced on July 21 at Milk Studios in New York City’s Meatpacking District. The award honors innovation and creative vision in emerging designers, with a panel of judges that includes InStyle’s Ariel Foxman, CFDA’s Steven Kolb, and John Varvatos. Siki Im won the prize for menswear, while Tanya Taylor took home the womenswear award. Both designers will be creating capsule collections made of Merino wool to compete for the International Woolmark Prize. Pictured here are Amy Sacco and Francisco Costa. (Photo: Neil Rasmus/bfa.com)
Coach & Friends of the High Line Summer Party On June 23, Coach joined Friends of the High Line to host its annual summer soiree to raise funds for the park. The bash treated guests to a New York–style backyard picnic with vintage-inspired games and passed hors-d’oeuvres from The Dairy. Attendees filled a photo booth and received handmade flower headbands and D.J. Sam French provided the soundtrack. Guests included Kate Bosworth, Chloë Grace Moretz, Diane Von Furstenberg (pictured), Walter Savage, and Coach CEO Victor Luis. (Photo: Billy Farrell/bfa.com)
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FRENDS AND DOLCE & GABBANA HEADPHONES BY THE NUMBERS:
10 206 5 3 102 300 6,995 7 5,463 287 8 4,149 4 30
Models who wore a pair down the runway Gems on the headphones Different types of jewels used Craftspeople involved Maximum volume (in decibels) Pairs for sale worldwide Price per pair, in U.S. dollars Styles in the partnership Distance in miles between the Frends headquarters in Encinitas, California, and the Dolce & Gabbana headquarters in Milan Dolce & Gabbana brand stores worldwide Employees at Frends Employees at Dolce & Gabbana Years since Frends was founded Years since Dolce & Gabbana was founded
PHOTO: COURTESY FRENDS.
A partnership between California-based headphone brand Frends and Italian label Dolce & Gabbana was revealed at the fashion house’s fall runway show in Milan.
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