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Making His Mark
When the going gets tough, the tough launch iPhone applications and sneaker collaborations. That, at least, is the approach creative director Frida Giannini is taking at Gucci. Last week, the Italian company took over New York to unveil both a new app and a shoe designed with input from Mark Ronson, the music producer and all-around trendsetter. Ronson’s limited-edition creation—a tricolor Top-Sider/high-top hybrid—received the MVP treatment Friday night at the brand’s new Soho pop-up shop, a minimalist space devoted to some of the fanciest athletic footwear you’ll never see on ESPN. The company will unveil more Ronson designs at temporary sneaker stores in Miami, London, and Tokyo in months to come.
Despite appearances, Ronson insisted that he didn’t necessarily have preppy or patriotic associations in mind. “I think red, white, and blue always works—classic vintage, like Vuarnet, and things like that,” he explained. “After wearing boots for the past few years and just killing my feet, it feels really nice to wear these. They feel good. They feel expensive.” Giannini, for her part, said she prefers to wear sneakers on the sly. “On the weekend, yes. And only when there are no journalists or photographers around.” In other words, absolutely not on a night like this.
Ronson’s kicks were hardly the only options on display in the store. A pair of gold women’s running shoes sparked Evan Rachel Wood‘s imagination. “If you ran really fast, it’d probably look like a giant gold sparkly circle,” she mused. It’s a notion that ought to appeal to a few of the event’s attendees. Before the crowd moved on to the after-party at the Bowery Hotel—where Ronson performed with his pop-up band, Chauffeur—Mischa Barton, Mary J. Blige, and Claire Danes had all come by the Crosby Street boutique to size up the footwear.
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
Group Hug
Cipriani Wall Street was packed with some of the industry’s biggest talents for the Fashion Group International’s 26th annual Night of Stars yesterday. Host Simon Doonan embraced the evening’s “Storytellers” theme, opening the program with a rundown of the evening’s honorees by means of a comic tale that involved all of them helping Oscar de la Renta open a fictional Parisian strip club called Le Sexy J’Adore.
A bit less fancifully, de la Renta later accepted the Super Star Award from Grace Coddington and Hamish Bowles. As it turns out, the Vogue editors have had a bit of practice on stage together. “Years ago we did a magic act for Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris,” Bowles recalled. “I made Grace disappear and turn into Lily Cole.” There was to be no repeat performance here, though. “Oscar’s already done the magic,” the spotlight-averse Coddington joked. “Because he got me here.”
Stage fright was a theme. Referring to her nerves—not the food, thank goodness—Gwen Stefani whipped through her introduction of Beauty Award winner Catherine Walsh, “because I’m going to throw up right now,” she informed the audience. And before presenting the Humanitarian Award to Kenneth Cole, Jon Bon Jovi admitted he wasn’t in the habit of wearing black tie: “Unless it’s a wedding or a funeral. But I don’t play a lot of weddings.”
Neither, presumably, does Dita Von Teese, who came in crowned with a spidery Stephen Jones creation that looked as though it could poke out six sets of eyes at once. Honoree Victoire de Castellane, another headwear enthusiast, opted for a set of Louis Vuitton bunny ears and told us she’ll be incorporating more animals into her brief New York visit. “I’m going to the Bronx Zoo,” she said. “I love monkeys.”
—Darrell Hartman Continue reading
Walk of Fame
—Tommy Ton Continue reading