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Trail Blazers
—Candy Pratts Price Continue reading
Trail Blazers
—Candy Pratts Price Continue reading
Life Under the Big Top
It was hello, goodbye at the CFDA’s pre-fashion week cocktail party last night at Diane von Furstenberg‘s headquarters in the Meatpacking District. A laundry list of New York’s top designers turned out to celebrate next September’s migration of runway central to Lincoln Center and to bid adieu, as many of them prepare to show there for the last time, to Bryant Park.
According to von Furstenberg, the city forced the change of venue. “They didn’t want us anymore, so we found a better place,” she shrugged. “The only way to deal with rejection is by shining.” Key to that process will be Lincoln Center’s new fashion director, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who got an official welcome midway through the evening. Most of the room seemed happy to have her bringing New York’s high-culture center into the fashion fold, and vice versa. “I think it’s going to elevate fashion week by having it there,” posited Vena Cava’s Lisa Mayock. (“What she said,” echoed her partner, Sophie Buhai.) Speaking of artistic synergy, Tory Burch revealed that her new, Picasso-inspired collection is “a lot about painting—the artistry of it, the colors.”
Despite all the giddy talk about world-class opera and ballet stages, the tents are actually moving to Damrosch Park, which—news flash—is known as Lincoln Center’s circus venue. “Totally appropriate,” von Furstenberg quipped. According to the CFDA’s Steven Kolb, a multicolored pavilion with sawdust floors isn’t necessarily out of the question. “Anything’s possible,” he said.
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
The Howl-ing
James Franco has been many things lately: NYU student, artist, soap opera star. So it’s not entirely surprising that the hunky actor managed to transform himself, with a pair of black-frame glasses and an adopted haute-Jersey accent, into outspoken twentieth-century poet Allen Ginsberg. Franco’s latest film, Howl, draws on actual interviews and smoky back-room readings and partly reenacts Ginsberg’s 1957 obscenity court case to paint a portrait of the Beat-era bard.
Last night at the Crosby Street Hotel, a Cinema Society audience got an early look at the new movie and at Franco, who stood in the packed theater throughout the whole thing. Clearly, he’s got a thing for poets on screen: Among his recent projects is a short film based on the work of Anthony Hecht, and, in a few days, one inspired by Frank Bidart’s uncompromising poetry will (like Howl) play at Utah’s Sundance Film Festival.
“I think poems work very well as films,” Franco insisted, adding that he’d had Ginsberg’s voice (and Howl, Ginsberg’s best-known work) in his head since he was about 16. “I’ve listened to dozens and dozens of recordings of him, over the years, reading that poem,” he said. “I’d listen to them in my headphones walking around New York.” Franco wasn’t the only one feeling the Beat. Björk and Matthew Barney lingered well into the after-party, and Alicia Silverstone revealed that free verse also plays a regular role in her life: “My husband has me read Charles Bukowski poems to him,” she said. “It amuses him.”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
Singing in the Rain
It was golf-umbrella gridlock on the Beverly Hilton red carpet at the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards tonight. The rain provided plenty of fodder for white-dress jokes—Kate Hudson wore strapless Marchesa, Kristen Bell chose cocktail-length Jasmine Di Milo. But Chloë Sevigny, in pale rose ruffled Valentino dappled with drops, said what more than a few actresses were probably thinking: “Somebody should’ve put up a tarp.” (The Big Love star, who won for Best Supporting Actress in Television, suffered another fashion injustice onstage when someone stepped on her train.) Still, if the weather put a damper on the pre-show step and repeat, the ceremony itself was crackling, thanks in no small part to the biting wit of host Ricky Gervais. No one was spared: not Kiefer Sutherland, not Angelina Jolie, not Paul McCartney, and, of course, not NBC.
But we’re here to talk about the dresses. Pale nudes were almost as popular as the rainbow-colored ribbons that were worn for the Haiti earthquake. Nicole Kidman kicked off the ceremony in silk Nina Ricci, Emily Blunt looked regal in Dolce & Gabbana, and Drew Barrymore took the stage in Atelier Versace—with one very dramatic shoulder. Black dresses made a strong showing as well. Courteney Cox Arquette selected a Victoria Beckham, Penélope Cruz poured herself into vintage Armani Privé, January Jones accessorized her satin Lanvin with a matching headband—it worked—and Sophia Loren was as movie-star glamorous as ever in her hourglass black frock.
But, with the exception of Meryl Streep, the night’s other big winners wore color: Mo’Nique was in golden Reem Acra, Julianna Margulies in Narciso Rodriguez’s garnet sequins, and Sandra Bullock, who nabbed the Best Actress in a Drama award, in orchid Bottega Veneta. Maggie Gyllenhaal wasn’t up for an award for her excellent work in Crazy Heart; however, we’d like to nominate her orange RM by Roland Mouret as one of the night’s most excellent dresses.
See a list of the Golden Globe winners >
—Nicole Phelps Continue reading