Category Archives for Uncategorized
Divos Live
El Museo del Barrio’s spring gala had a slightly different tenor this year, and his name was Plácido Domingo. The Spanish superstar singer flew in from the West Coast, where he’s in dress rehearsals for the Los Angeles Opera’s production of Wagner’s Die Walküre, to be honored by the Upper East Side museum.
“Silence is the most precious thing,” Domingo mused amid a noisy swirl of fans and photographers inside Cipriani 42nd Street. There wasn’t much of it for him this night, of course, between all the obligatory chitchat and the acceptance speech he made later. The evening’s golden-voiced headliner (along with his co-honoree, artist Tony Bechara) helped the museum raise more than a million dollars. Supporters shelled out for Judith Ripka jewelry and luxury vacations in Acapulco and Puerto Rico, with the room pausing noticeably to appreciate the elder-statesmen moment that occurred when Oscar de la Renta introduced Domingo at the dais.
“It’s nice to be among my people, no question about it,” de la Renta told us down at ground level. He couldn’t be tempted to stay for dessert, though. No matter: Don Oscar’s handlers tapped Christian Cota to fill his seat before the legendary designer’s half-eaten scallops had even been cleared. Joked Cota: “I was tempted to take a bite, for inspiration.”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
From Sea to Shining Sea
The Metropolitan Museum, that quintessential New York institution, received a little West Coast love last night: Cameron Silver and Susan Casden hosted a dinner in honor of Andrew Bolton, curator of the Met’s American Woman exhibition, at L.A.’s José Andrés restaurant The Bazaar. “I love the Met so much that I flew in from New York today before going back in 24 hours,” said Silver. “I’m going to eat carbs tonight.” There certainly was plenty of food on offer—Andrés, of course, is famous for his molecular gastronomy—but Rodarte’s Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Eva Chow, Peggy Moffitt, and the legendary designer James Galanos, among others, were more interested in talking fashion than deconstructing “organized” Caesar salad and boneless chicken wings.
Artist Kimberly Brooks, who recently painted a group of stylists, costume designers, and other style makers (Silver included) for her show The Stylist Project, recalled her private tour of American Woman in New York. “I was so moved by Andrew’s exhibition. It was an emotional experience,” she said. “The evolution of women’s independence [it depicts] is profound.” After dinner, guests had a chance to meet with the man of the hour, who had a few observations on the crowd. “When I’m in L.A., I notice that women are much more avant-garde and conceptual in the way they dress,” said Bolton. “The fashion is much more extreme than in New York.” Don’t tell Katy Perry and her LED lights that.
—Victoria Namkung Continue reading
Maison d’Être
Louis Vuitton doesn’t do things on a small scale. And Tuesday night’s opening of its Maison store on New Bond Street in London was a truly epic affair: Entire streets were shut down so the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst, and Anjelica Huston could pile into the gilded retail mecca. “They were dealing with a pre-recession budget,” Peter Marino, who designed the space, explained. “As if it wasn’t obvious!”
The French brand’s monograms have been on this side of the English Channel for more than a century. In fact, when the label’s first U.K. outpost opened, Queen Victoria was still on the throne. “London is a fabulous city because it’s where so many things smash together: art, fashion, street culture, clubs,” said Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs. “You can only find that in two cities: New York and here.”
But back to the nineteenth century: Following cocktails, 300 friends of the brand ventured over to a warehouse on New Oxford Street for what stylist and editor Katie Grand described as a Victorian banquet. Bacchanal is more like it. Five separate doors opened onto dark, winding paths, each leading to a different experience: One was a gentlemen’s club room chock-full of taxidermy; another, a loading dock with modern dancers performing on trunks; and then there was the carriage car full of Vuitton bags, with two ballerinas performing a choreographed lovers’ routine. The big hit, though, was the smoky expanse that had been transformed into a pine forest—yes, a real pine forest, complete with tents of palm readers.
After a seated dinner, Donna Summer took the stage to perform “On the Radio” with—wait for it—Jacobs singing backup. “My God, what have I gotten myself into?” the designer asked. Then it was back into the twisting halls. “This is amazing,” Pixie Geldof shouted to Alice Dellal. “No really, it’s A. Maze. Ing! Get it?”
—Derek Blasberg Continue reading
European Union
England’s Glastonbury Festival celebrates its 40th birthday this year, and as per usual, thousands of people will be making the pilgrimage to the muddy fields of Somerset in southern England to take in its incomparably freewheeling music scene. Venetia Dearden, however, will not be among them. For the past six years, the Somerset-born photog has been shooting Glasto-goers at her studio on-site, and now that she’s compiled the images in her new book Glastonbury—Another Stage, Dearden figures it’s time to move on. “I’ve been going to Glasto off and on since I was eight,” she explained at last night’s party celebrating the new tome at the Milk Studios penthouse. “I worked there, I had mad times with friends there, I shot inside a waterlogged tepee. I think I’ve done it.”
Dearden wasn’t the only native at the bash. Party host Mulberry, which sponsored the publication of Glastonbury, was also born in Somerset, just a year after the festival kicked off. And at Milk, the brand had imported the Glasto experience to the Meatpacking District—minus the famous mud, that is. Mano de Dios, Chairlift, and Kelis put on mini-concerts for the likes of Agyness Deyn, Leigh Lezark, and Chanel Iman. “You have to go to Glastonbury at least once,” admonished Mulberry creative director Emma Hill, who’s been three times. “Get those wellies out. You’ll have the time of your life.”
Meanwhile, uptown at Good Units, the Hudson Hotel’s double-decker underground party space, VMan celebrated the launch of its Scandinavia issue with a party and runway show for some 20 Scandinavian labels—including Soulland, Stærk, and Cheap Monday. “It’s almost like a fashion happening,” explained the magazine’s editor, Stephen Gan. The catwalk-in-a-nightclub’s throwback vibe went nicely with some of the early-nineties-inspired looks, and this particular défilé came with a twist: a runway setup with a screen in the middle that allowed a second model in an identical outfit to step in for the first one mid-lap. Right before the eyes of Kelly Rowland, Phillip Lim, and many others, a skinny boy got buff, a light-skinned catwalker transformed into a darker-skinned one, and Pat Cleveland‘s daughter, Anna van Ravenstein, became her mother. It may be a girl’s worst nightmare, but it also made for a pretty ingenious—and, given Pat’s trademark runway theatrics, fabulous—finale.
Click for the runway slideshow.
—Maya Singer (Mulberry) and Darrell Hartman (VMan) Continue reading