It’s one thing to watch a fashion documentary that peeks inside a designer’s studio - Unzipped, Lagerfeld Confidential - and a very different thing to stand over a designer while he or she builds something from scratch.
Gareth Pugh’s moving into the studio space within ShowStudio’s Bruton Street shop in London on Friday. He’ll be there through the weekend crafting a totally exclusive, one of a kind look, “a unique interpretation of his SS10 collection.”
Of course, since this is ShowStudio, the whole thing will be broadcast live at www.showstudio.com/project/livestudio once he gets started and afterward, Nick Knight will shoot the look in the shop before it’s sold.
If you were waiting for the perfect excuse to invest in some Pugh, this is it. Otherwise, have fun dreaming.
Have you ever wondered just how hard it is to get a ticket to a show like Rick Owens?
Adrien Grenier was seated third row—and there were only three rows. So if I was squished into a doorway, peeking my way through someone’s arm or above their shoulder, I’d still be more than thrilled. What I’m trying to say is, excuse my pictures, the place was packed.
On top of all the seating drama, Owens’ show ran a whopping 50 minutes late at which point a staffer loudly articulated everyone’s thoughts, “If the show doesn’t start in two seconds, people are going to start screaming out there!” And by the time the models were ready, the venue was packed - like going on a family road trip cross-country sort of packed - there wasn’t a single spot to take a decent shot. Which means I was backstage with actual paparazzi pushing and shoving and elbowing me. Me! The little girl in silk Marc by Marc and ankle socks. Finally, I crouched down low enough to shoot through their legs.
Got her: Sitting pretty at Gareth Pugh. It’s the first big Paris show, so everyone’s happy.
Stalked her: Her stripes, boyfriend blazer and tortoiseshell glasses were effortless prep, but that red lip gave her a much needed edge.
Shot her: Because amongst all the Rihanna and Daphne Guinness and crazy London cool kid mayhem at Gareth, she stood out as being very relaxed about it all.
She said: “I just arrived in Paris today, so this is my traveling outfit, it’s comfy, it’s jersey. This is not a look for a show.”
We said: If that isn’t a look, then we are doing something seriously wrong.
“I have considered it. The offers have come in, and every time we get an offer, I mull it over. I’d like more people to have access to my clothes, but the timing hasn’t been right, or the project hasn’t been right, or some combination of both those things. The first time I was approached, I wasn’t even producing the garments I was showing on the runway. I didn’t have a factory. Everything I was making, I was making by hand. Doing a fast-fashion collection seemed a little premature.” —Gareth Pugh on maybe, possibly doing a high street collaboration to Style.com.
What came down the runway at the Palais de Tokyo was undoubtedly him - tight tailoring and construction mixed with extremity and androgyny - but this time it was softer, gauzier.
Cool slate tones took the place of his usual black and white palette and sheer lightweight fabrics draped his models where weighty materials once ruled. His collection was still beautiful, still out there, but more approachable, even if veiled in typical Pugh drama. The show started with copious amounts of smoke, dramatic lighting, loud music and featured massive feathered headdresses throughout.
A handful of bloggers in the audience were less than thrilled; one declared it “too commercial.” But those bloggers are off their rocker. Adrian Grenier and Rihanna might have sat front row, but Rick Owens and Michelle Lamy were still there countering their pop celebrity and the collection was one of Gareth’s best.
Of course, sitting across the aisle from Anna Dello Russo was a slight distraction, but no complaints from me.
Makes My Heart Sing: It’s taking every ounce of self control not to run down Crosby Street and buy this skirt from Opening Ceremony and wear it everyday. I want it. I need it. But if I do buy it, I will hang my head in shame next year and wonder what came over me. {OpeningCeremony}
Pepe La Pugh: Remember Gareth’s cube? Well just in case it meant more to you than to me and you’re still trying to recapture that moment in the garage, you can buy the “double-Mohican” head piece created by Pugh and Ruth Hogben at ShowStudio’s shop. {ShowStudio}
WWJoanDo: Shirley Manson and Elijah Wood star in Oliver Peoples’ Spring lookbook. The totally random pair channel the stars of Mad Men - probably Joan and Don - and look pretty fantastic doing so. {Blackbook}
Nothing bad will ever come of a collaboration between Gareth Pugh, Colette and AnOther Magazine.
Especially not when it’s something we can use all the time. The likely trio’s teamed up with InCase to make a 13” MacBook Pro foam sleeve and an iPhone 3G slider case imprinted with an optical star pattern designed by Pugh.
This way you can keep your beloved Apple products safe, and still pretty. You can buy them starting this week at shop.anothermag.com and obviously at Colette in Paris. If you’re not going to make it to Paris Fashion Week this time around, check out Opening Ceremony in New York and LA.
Because you’ll be hard pressed to find another occasion for which Gareth’s Pugh’s appropriate for the everyday.
On Sunday night (a bit delayed, sorry), I headed to MILK to watch Gareth Pugh’s Ruth Hogben produced film. I’d expected a preview of the collection, but instead I watched a giant cube in the middle of MILK’s loading dock. Each side represented an element and the top of the cube, which was essentially the ceiling, represented the fifth element, the ethereal.
It was pretty to watch, but I was too tired and too sober (and maybe not cool enough) to absorb it on any sort of philosophical level, so instead Faran and Blue and I made up Hollywood names for fashion couples - not necessarily make out couples, but we-go-to-everything-together couples. Yes, we know we’re getting increasingly delirious as the week goes on:
1. Cecilia Dean & Steven Gan: STEVELIA
2. Lauren Santo Domingo & Derek Blasberg: DELAUREN
3. Becka Diamond & Byrdie Bell: BYRKA
4. Fabiola Beracasa & Tallulah Harlech: FALLULAH
5. Keegan Singh, Kate Lanphear & Mark Holgate: KEEKARK
When everyone in fashion gathers in one place, people talk. Here’s what they said today.
1. Becka Diamond for Nylon TV? The latest New York it girl’s been sitting front row at all the best (and by best I mean most fun) shows - Wang, Altuzzara, Ronson - and now we hear she’ll start hosting segments for Nylon TV. Phillip Lim, up first.
2. The Daily’s not-so-blind items. On day one they published an entire page of awful things done by fashion people and most of them couldn’t have been less subtle.
3. White girls and skinny girls. After a summer of talking about race and weight, the girls on this season’s runways couldn’t possibly be any skinnier. And aside from a couple of Chanel Iman and Sessilee Lopez sightings, we can honestly say they’ve never looked whiter.
4. Tonight’s Gareth Pugh ‘experience’ is sensorial. Apparently, it’ll be really hot inside, but you only have to stay for five minutes.
5. Sex and the City’s filming all over West Broadway tomorrow. So if the tents aren’t packed enough for you, head below Houston for increased fashion mayhem.
Sneak A Peek: Here’s a sneak preview of the Natasha Poly-centric Muse, hitting New York’s news stands on September 10th. It features Craig McDean, Riccardo Tisci, Jeff Koons and Terry Richardson. If ever there was a time to try to replicate those lips, it’s tonight’s Paper party. {Models}
Jeepers Creepers: Yes, all fashion girls swoon for Yigal Azrouel. He’s gorgeous, makes brilliant clothes and is the only straight man for miles. But this woman, who told the Post she likes to try on clothes in his store just to be naked in the same room as him, is far too enthusiastic about the whole thing. {NYPost}
PughHoo!: Gareth’s coming to New York. The Brit will show his full collection in Paris - no word yet on whether he’s reverting back to runways or sticking to last season’s video format - but before that he’ll swing by Milk Studios and offer a peek of his SS10 collection this Saturday night. {Style}
I’m sure you guys have already heard and formed opinions about Perez Hilton’s new fashion blog, CocoPerez.com.
I’m offended that he even thinks he can legitimately comment on fashion - especially when he spells Gaultier Gautier and thinks someone in London makes clothes under the name Garth Pugh. I’m just wondering if you guys plan to comment on it or not? I understand that commenting on it would only reinforce his perceived legitimacy, but I simply cannot stand that he’s doing this. I mean the stories so far are ripped straight from your headlines! He’s clearly stealing content from Jezebel and WWD, too without crediting anyone and more importantly without bringing anything new to the discussion. It sucks. Especially after fashion bloggers have been working hard for so long to be taken seriously.
We’d gotten so used to waking up every morning to the news that yet another designer would be returning home to London for Spring 09 that we don’t know what to do with the news that Giles will be showing in Paris.
First, we should congratulate him for winning the ANDAM award, the same €160,000 endowment that sent Gareth Pugh to Paris one year ago. The prize, given by France’s National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts has been previously bestowed upon designers like Margiela and Viktor & Rolf putting Giles in even higher company.
But really we’re kind of devastated. His clothes and spirit are so thoroughly British that the grand celebrations of the BFC’s 25th Anniversary will be lacking without his presence, not to mention that despite the crazy fun that is British Fashion Week there really are just a handful of internationally known designers in town - Luella, Westwood’s Red Label, Chris Kane and now probably Marios Schwab which makes Giles’ show one of LFW’s stars.
Meanwhile, we are excited to see how or if his designs change for such a different atmosphere and probably audience. Can we expect Anna’s presence?
So this weekend Karl Lagerfeld took a “dig” at Heidi Klum, his second of the year.
In February he said, “Heidi is no runway model. She is simply too heavy and has too big a bust. And she always grins so stupidly. That is not avant-garde - that is commercial!” and now he claims not to know who she is, “I don’t know Heidi Klum. She was never known in France. Claudia Schiffer also doesn’t know who she is.”
First, you can’t break down someone’s body and then say you don’t know they exist. Second, which high fashion designer is more commercial than Karl Lagerfeld? Third, you don’t make money when Claudia Schiffer knows who you are, you make it when Middle America knows your name (though we don’t believe for a second that Schiffer’s never heard of Klum). Fourth, Lagerfeld makes gorgeous, brilliant clothes, but avant-garde at this stage? Non.
Most frustrating of all is the unfortunate truth that models don’t make major money walking Balenciaga or doing editorials for Purple, but from major beauty contracts, from Victoria’s Secret or J.Crew catalogs and eventually, from becoming a brand.
It’s kind of like how designers don’t make money by designing the most extreme avant-garde clothes, like say Gareth Pugh or Olivier Theyskens, but by hooking themselves up to a major brand, like say Fendi or Chanel and putting their name on overpriced teddy bears.
In October, Nick Knight and SHOWstudioannounced they’d be launching an epic exhibition at Somerset House to coincide with London Fashion Week SS09 and the BFC’s 25th Anniversary (the celebrations for which we’re already SO excited).
Well, now we know that the exhibit will showcase the site’s collaborations with designers, artists and models including Alexander McQueen, Liberty Ross, Gareth Pugh and Julie Verhoeven, as well as new collaborative films made specifically for the celebration and it’ll run from September through December.
One room will function as a photo studio, housing Nick Knight and his team preparing for on-site shoots. So you can watch his preparation live, instead of edited into a slick video. And while they’ll be shooting one hundred portraits of London’s hippest models, actors, musicians and artists, he’ll also be working with a major model.
And considering his taste in girls- Kate, Natalia, Irina, Daria, Lily - we’re kind of dying to know who it is. Guesses?
Magical Machines: Gareth Pugh constructed outrageous plastic masks to accompany Thierry Mugler’s cyborg outfits for Dazed & Confused’s man machine issue. {DazedDigital}
Paris Je T’aime: It’s the second annual A Shaded View on Fashion Film festival curated by Diane Pernet and hosted by Jeu de Paume and Standard Magazine. You can submit your films here. {ShadedViewOnFashion}
So Clutch: Karla Martinez sees snake and we see chains, either way, this is both chic, inexpensive and not a copy. Hurray! {TheMoment}
Just in Case: Todd Selby put it up last week, but just in case you missed the peek inside Sally Singer’s Chelsea Hotel apartment, here you go. We got stuck on the shoe picture - where’d the Nicholas Kirkwood Rodarte’s go? {TheSelby}
The latest edition of WWWWD has arrived, just in time for the weekend. We have yet to figure out who exactly is behind the pub, but that certainly does not lessen our enjoyment while reading.
Here are just a few of our favorite mock moments from “The Body Issue”
—Gisele’s transformation into supermodel. It involves Sarah Jessica Parker and a sheep.
He’ll also be opening two more stores and working on a furniture collection with the Belgian firm that previously collaborated with Ann Demeulemeester. Simons pretty much answers our earlier ad question saying that, “It’s another way to communicate with your audience. Fashion shows can only do so much.”
In other ad news - remember that epic OP for Wal-mart campaign from last year? Well they’ve done it again with a cast of 90210 meets reality stars at a Good Charlotte concert and added Solange Knowles to the bunch.
After sitting front row at shows from Gareth Pugh to Tracy Reese this past year, we kind of expected more.
If you remember when we mentioned that Gareth Pugh would be designing his own doll during Fashion Week, here’s the rest of the details about Barbie’s debut:
On April 8th, Dover Street Market in London will open up a space curated by Henry Holland to display the goods ready for sale in honor of Barbie’s big 5-0. And while reports first named Gareth Pugh as her stylist, it looks like he’ll be sticking exclusively to Barbie’s boy-toy, who’ll escort Barbie to the event.
While Henry Holland will be handling most of the Barbie-themed space, designers Danielle Scutt and Roksanda Illincic will team up to design her attire. So for those of you who were looking forward to your decked out Pugh doll, looks like you might have to settle for Ken instead. Or if you’re a real fanatic, you could always get one each of the happy couple and play fantasy wedding.
Everyone was pretty impressed with Gareth’s video for Fall 09 - It was creepy, it was cool, even if you couldn’t really see the clothes.
But Dazed Digital has something arguably better - a behind-the-scenes video of Natasa Vojnovic trying on the clothes, and trying out her freak moves for the camera.
Enjoy it, but most pressing: Would you wear the trash bag cocoon now that you can actually see it? (Our answer: It’s actually a lot cooler than we thought…)
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It’s one thing to watch a fashion documentary that peeks inside a designer’s studio - Unzipped, Lagerfeld Confidential - and a very different thing to stand over a designer while he or she builds something from scratch.
