2010 Highlights:The good, the sad and the fugly
MANILA, Philippines - It was another momentous year for fashion, with surprising movements squeezing by even in 2010’s last month. Designers and collaborative collections made for newsworthy highs; the death of Alexander McQueen was a tragic low. Power plays, rumors and accusations against some of the most well-known fashion names and faces also made the past 12 months interesting to watch.
YStyle lists 10 of the defining moments that made 2010 the highly charged year it was.
Carine Roitfeld leaves Vogue Paris
Just last Dec. 17, The New York Times’s Cathy Horyn broke the story of Carine Roitfeld leaving the editor post she has held since 2001 at Vogue Paris. It was unexpected news that was heard around the fashion world. Under Roitfeld’s helm, the French glossy has presented some of the most beautiful — and controversial, such as the blackface shoot with Dutch model Lara Stone — editorials and covers in the industry, turning into an even bigger creative powerhouse than it ever was under the direction of its previous editor Joan Juliet Buck.
“I think it’s time to do something different,” Roitfeld has reasoned regarding her departure from Vogue Paris. “I had so much freedom to do everything I wanted. I think I did a good job.” Roitfeld will still be overseeing the magazine’s issues until March of 2011, but as to the question of what her next step would be, she told Horyn, “I have no plan at all.”
Rumors of shaky job tenure have long been no strangers to Roitfeld’s American counterpart, Anna Wintour. With the suddenness of her announcement, however, and her Vogue Paris staff even said to have been caught unaware by it, Roitfeld has become the target of unkind speculations. Alleged pay-for-play deals and accusations of abusing her position at Vogue circulated fast around fashion blogs, and the embarrassment of being banned from the Balenciaga fall 2010 show earlier this year didn’t help. Shopping website Racked.com reports, “Roitfeld allegedly borrowed Balenciaga preview pieces and sent them to her client, Max Mara, to copy — ‘It wasn’t the first time,’ one source tells us. ‘One [Balenciaga] pre-collection ended up, in its entirety, at Max Mara.’”
There are also speculations about Roitfeld doing another collaboration with her longtime friend, Tom Ford; Ford had guest edited Vogue Paris’s December/January issue, which featured 15-year-old model Daphne Groenveld on the cover. However, the designer has denied any plans of the two of them working together: “It is nothing we have even discussed, but of course, I think she is brilliant and we are close friends, so who knows about the future.”
Even while fashion gossips talk of Roitfeld’s supposedly questionable dealings and debate over whether she resigned or Condé Nast actually fired her, and while everyone waits with bated breath for her replacement to be named, all the uncertainty over her future cannot deny the indelible mark she has left on fashion during her 10 years’ stay in Vogue Paris. Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci has said of Roitfeld, “Carine…is one of the most courageous, elegant, avant-garde, and bold women — a true visionary.”
Alexander McQueen dies
“Look after my dogs. Sorry, I love you, Lee. P.S. Bury me at the church.”
Hail McQueen Thus went the note left by fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen, who died on Feb. 11, the eve of his mother’s funeral. News of his suicide hit the crowd attending the New York fashion week, and it hit not just fashion kibitzers but also culture observers hard. Since his appointment as chief designer at Givenchy back in 1996, McQueen had shown how far he was willing to push the envelope, to get people to look at things — most of them uncomfortable to the senses to the point of being grotesque — and see their beauty. But while the shock factor of his work got the then-young designer much-needed press, as well as the title of fashion industry’s enfant terrible, it became clear through the years that McQueen’s creativity and craft went beyond the well-trod territories of fashion. His designs incorporated history, technology, culture, and gender politics, and his runway shows were spectacles that provided enough fodder for discussions that go beyond the trendy looks of the season. To both the fashion follower and the student of culture, McQueen was the guy whose work one may not aesthetically like but could respect for the deliberate thought put into it.
According to The Daily Mail, the inquest on his death revealed that McQueen had ingested a lethal amount of prescription drugs and cocaine and slashed his wrists before he hanged himself in his wardrobe. Friends acknowledged his long struggle with substance abuse and depression. “Creativity is a very fragile thing,” milliner Philip Treacy has remarked, “and Lee was very fragile.”
His memorial service at St. Paul’s Cathedral was attended by friends and close collaborators in the fashion industry — Wintour, Kate Moss, Annabel Nielson, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Naomi Campbell, among others — and artist Björk gave a performance of Billie Holiday’s Gloomy Sunday.
Tom Ford and his model muses Tom Ford returns to womenswear
After six years, Tom Ford has come back to designing women’s wear, but the presentation of his spring/summer 2011 collection last September was a very hush-hush affair. Inviting only select guests such as Roitfeld, Wintour, Horyn, Joe Zee, and Nina Garcia and having Terry Richardson as the event’s only sanctioned photographer, Ford turned away from what he decries as the culture of immediacy and overexposure that has characterized the fashion scene for some time. “The way the system works now, you see the clothes within an hour or so; they’re online, the world sees them...they’re overexposed, you’re tired of them, they’ve lost their freshness.”
Of course, the secrecy surrounding Ford’s latest offering served only to whet the public’s appetite for it. A few photos from his presentation can now be seen at Harper’s Bazaar UK’s January 2011 issue: Liya Kebede in a hand-painted floor-length fringed dress, Lauren Hutton in a white tuxedo with matching top hat, Beyonce Knowles in a gold sequined dress.
In an interview with The New York Times, Ford stated that it was a Tilda Swinton film — he wouldn’t say which one — that got him inspired to go back to designing. “I told myself I would not come back to (designing) women’s (clothes) until I felt I had something new to say, and I decided I’m only going to do it if I have fun. If it’s successful, great. If it’s not, I’ll close it. But I think it will be successful.” He sees his spring/summer 2011 collection as “a return to commercially viable clothes” with focus on the often-mentioned (and, as a concept, ridiculously idealized) “real” women. In her notes from Ford’s show, Horyn detailed the looks that were shown on the runway: “sharp pantsuits in black silk or a leopard pattern, gorgeous black evening clothes with sheer blouses, corsets, and maybe a shrug in shredded tulle, impeccable details like hammered gold jewelry, stilettos with ankle ties and seamed black stockings.” Summing it up, she described the collection as “the height of glamour.”
His final fashion show
True to form, McQueen’s last collection, presented at François Pinault’s headquarters in Paris, was filled with multiple references, from 16th- and 17th-century artworks to 18th-century silhouettes and embellishments to religious imagery. There was also his signature color, scarlet.
Paintings by Heironymos Bosch, Botticelli, and Hugo van der Goes were digitized as textile prints that wound around the models’ torsos; part of Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” for example, made for interesting yet terrifying details, such as the Prince of Hell, with his head like that of a bird’s, eating a man’s body. Gold foil- embroidered jacquards add a layer of both visual and tactile texture. V-necked chiffon dresses in soft layers of gray look all the more ethereal with their prints of sculpture angels raising their hands as if in benediction, and ankle boots in crocodile skin feature ornate heels of golden cherubs, broken skulls, and crawling ivy.
It was an exquisite collection, the work and the thought process behind it remarkable, and the fact that it would be the last the world would see from McQueen added an emotive dimension to it. Despite or maybe because of the inner demons that plagued him, McQueen had consistently presented an imagination so full-bodied that spectators cannot help but be pulled in; his last work was no exception.
The exhibit “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” will be on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in May of next year.
Sarah Burton takes over the reins
A former assistant to McQueen, Sarah Burton had clearly claimed in interviews that she cannot even begin to try to put on a spectacle the way her boss did. Yet despite the pressure of being appointed as the new creative director for the Alexander McQueen brand — with designers, journalists, and celebrities collectively declaring McQueen a genius, to boot — Burton staged a well-received spring/summer 2011 collection, her first in her new job position. Reminiscent of the 1970s film The Wicker Man, Burton’s works carry McQueen influences — dramatic and sculptural silhouettes, feathers — but are noticeably lighter, more romantic, feminine. One stand-out piece is a dress made of hand-painted leather butterflies, with a cluster of them around the neckline poised to take flight. Leaves are prominent details, either as abstract prints on off-the-shoulder dresses or on gold belts that cinch in a long white halter dress with a gray shadow print at the hem. Braided raffia and chiffon add to the sense of naturalist lightness in her work.
Fashion observers were in agreement in describing the presentation as a great transitional collection, from McQueen the designer’s signature drama to where Burton would next take McQueen as a label.
Collaborations made left and right
High fashion and high-end labels met a couple of times this year on an affordable yet still stylish middle lane that made a lot of people happy.
One such popular collaboration was the Lanvin hearts H&M, a collection of ruffled frocks in striking jewel tones, chic jackets, and ultra-feminine skirts that were designed by the fashion label’s delightful artistic director Alber Elbaz and head of menswear Lucas Ossendrijver. Even with price points ranging from $9.95 to $349, Elbaz was quick to note in his interviews that the collection, which hit H&M stores worldwide in late November, was not made based on a “dress for less” scheme. “What intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public,” he said of the collaboration in light of his previous statements about never doing a mass-market collection. “This has been an exceptional exercise, where two companies at opposite poles can work together because we share the same philosophy of bringing joy and beauty to men and women around the world.”
Following suit was fashion house Valentino, who traveled across the pond to collaborate with Gap. No two brands could have been more diametrically opposed, but the results of their partnership was a capsule line of cute skirts, cargo pants, and cropped jackets that featured large bows, layered ruffles, and even a three-way-designed parka. Designed by Valentino’s creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, the seven-piece collection was based on iconic Gap pieces, preppy and feminine while also infused with the military/aviation aesthetic by the use of colors such as brown, olive green, khaki, gray, and cream. The collaboration also served as a great PR coup for Gap, as the clothing items became available in time for the late November opening of the Gap flagship store on Milan’s Corso Vittorio Emanuele.
The Japanese casual wear retailer Uniqlo is no newbie when it comes to designer collaborations, having worked already with designers Jil Sander and Philip Lim. Last summer, Uniqlo hooked up with New York-based label Costello Tagliapietra to present 14 draped dresses that come in a range of spring colors, from gray to rose to mustard yellow to cornflower blue. Costello Tagliapietra, a two-time CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Finalist and the label created by partners Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra, has been hailed for their detailed and smartly tailored dresses with bound edges and French seams. Uniqlo, on the other hand, is popular for its fast fashion. Together, the two brands presented a collection marked by clean lines, soft yet kept from becoming cloyingly feminine through asymmetrical necklines and hemlines and slightly skewed proportions.
The beauty industry also put forth interesting partnerships back in 2009, one of which is the collaboration between MAC cosmetics and artist Richard Phillips. Known for the hyperrealism in his paintings of glamorous-looking women, Philips had his works go through a MAC “makeover,” the images digitally photo-retouched by Pascal Dangin using 24 different shades of MAC pigments to reflect the latest maquillage hues of the cosmetics company. One such image is Phillip’s “Der Bodensee” that was transformed into an über-glamorous portrait.
Cry, Uncle Terry Sleazy Uncle Terry
Last summer, when models such as Jamie Peck and Rie Rasmussen started coming forward with their experiences of sexual harassment at the hands of fashion and art photographer Terry Richardson, it came as sort of a non-surprise. Richardson’s editorial work, often characterized by a single source of light, a white wall as background, and the subjects in sexualized positions, has always had creepy undertones. There are also previous quotes like “A lot of it starts with me saying to a girl, ‘Do you want to do nudes?’ And they’re like, ‘I don’t want to be naked.’ So I say, ‘I’ll be naked and you take the pictures. You can have the camera. You can have the phallus,’” and “It’s not who you know, it’s who you blow; I don’t have a hole in my jeans for nothing,” that serve to reinforce the photographer’s proclivity for abusing his position of power within the industry to harass young models.
Peck was 19 years old when she worked with Richardson twice for a shoot. For their first meeting, he asked to be called Uncle Terry. For the second one, he asked for her used tampon to make “tampon tea” with. “’I love tampons!’ he said, in that psychotically upbeat way that temporarily convinces so many girls that what’s fun for Uncle Terry is fun for them,” Peck wrote in an essay about her experience with Richardson that was published in TheGloss.com. “Either the man’s totally delusional, or he gets off on the fact that many of these things are not, in fact, very much fun for the girls.” She also detailed how Richardson stripped off his clothes and somehow maneuvered her to give him a hand job, all the while keeping up a chirpily happy and friendly demeanor. Peck added, “His assistants were so stoked on it as well, that I didn’t want to be the killjoy in the room. My new fake friends would’ve been bummed if I’d said no.”
Rasmussen, already an established model who worked with Richardson on a Gucci campaign, also spoke out about the photographer’s sexual misconduct, recounting her confrontation with him during a fashion party in Paris to New York Post. “I told him, ‘What you do is completely degrading to women. I hope you know you only fuck girls because you have a camera, lots of fashion contacts, and get your pictures in Vogue.’”
Newspapers and fashion blogs covered the issue with much interest, but through it all, Richardson has kept mostly quiet. He did post an official statement on his blog, which weakly or even barely denies any wrongdoing on his part, and then goes on to describe his work as “a real collaboration between myself and the people in front of the camera.” Richardson continues to work with high-profile brands H&M and Aldo, and with glossy titles like Vogue Paris, American Vogue, GQ (that controversial Glee cover shoot), and Harper’s Bazaar. We can only hope that sooner rather than later, the other shoe finally drops on this sleazebag and he gets the karma he is badly asking for.
Louis Vuitton takes a page from Mad Men
It was a star-studded line-up: Christy Turlington, Natalia Vodianova, and Karen Elson, dressed in frocks with nipped waists and full skirts, lounging around like movie stars in a dressing room as they wait for their take. Louis Vuitton’s campaign for autumn/winter, shot by Steven Meisel, invoked the glamour of Old Hollywood to match the sophisticated femininity of its collection, which would have been right at home at a Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce fête. While not very original or even exciting, the campaign’s pretty images pack power through their superstar subjects, their plumped-up décolletages and coquettish curls showing reed-thin yet no-name models how iconic fashion photos really get made.
Chanel gives the chills
Snow bunnies Chanel’s fall/winter 2010 show at the Grand Palais in Paris was a wintry — no, make that a freezing wonderland, as the temperature inside the globe-domed building was kept at four degrees below Celsius to keep a 265-ton and 28-feet-high iceberg from melting. Imported from Sweden especially for the show under the condition that it would be returned intact to its original spot, the iceberg very nearly stole the spotlight from Karl Lagerfeld’s faux fur-lined, -trimmed, and -coated Shackleton Chic winter collection. Made of both snow and ice, or “snice” in Chanel parlance, it required the work 35 ice sculptors to be carved within six days.
The iceberg was the perfect backdrop, however, for the models dressed in shaggy fur jackets, trousers, and boots, though the Yeti look was relieved by sculpted knit pieces and crystal-edged chiffon cocktail dresses that evoked the glitter of ice. For all the fake fur used, it was an expensive — and expensive-looking — presentation, and Kaiser Karl was diabolically smart to create an environment where people would long for a shaggy fur suit to keep themselves warm.
Will and Kate sitting on a tree On the royalty watch
Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton is still a ways off — April 29, 2011 — but since the couple announced their engagement last November 16, speculations and bets on who will design Middleton’s wedding dress have come fast and quick. Vogue UK named on its website four different designers they think might be given the job, with British designer Amanda Wakely coming out as the favorite with a 4 to 1 odds; it doesn’t hurt that Wakely has dressed Princess Diana before. Regardless of who the couple will choose, that wedding dress is set to be the most talked-about one of the coming year.
