 | | Adele onstage at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in November.Kevin Mazur/Getty Images |
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Hello, Open Thread. Happy February — and the start of Black History Month. |
This Sunday is also the Grammy Awards, and I can tell you now that signs are it's going to be a major fashion moment. |
After all, just last week Doja Cat (nominated for record of the year and best pop solo performance) was making the rounds of the Paris couture shows, presumably scouting for looks, and practically broke the internet not once but twice, covering herself in 30,000 ruby red body crystals at Schiaparelli, and donning false eyelashes as a mustache and goatee at Viktor & Rolf. If she was doing that before the red carpet, just imagine what could come next. The mind boggles. |
And that came after Beyoncé (nominated for nine — count 'em — gongs) held her first live show in more than four years at the opening of a luxury hotel in Dubai, wearing not one but three fantastical goddess creations involving acres of feathers, diamanté and trains. Can she top that? HOW will she top that? |
Then there is Adele (record of the year, song of the year, etc.), whose wardrobe for her Las Vegas residency is essentially one extended argument for the power of the L.B.D., a.k.a. the long black dress. |
Almost every week she models a different L.B.D. from a different designer. Thus far, she has worn a black Stella McCartney with a sweetheart neckline and tracings of lead-free crystals; a black velvet Nina Ricci with big, circular tulle sleeves speckled with sequin polka dots; and a black one-shoulder taffeta Carolina Herrera, to name a few. All of them exuded classic femme fatale vibes (the Veronica Lake/Rita Hayworth hair helps, too). You see them and images of the Stork Club and throaty sirens draped over grand pianos emerge reflexively from the backstage of the mind. |
Anyway, if the trend holds, we will get yet another spectacular L.B.D. come Grammys time. |
I'll also be keeping watch for Bad Bunny, who is busy pushing boundaries when it comes to clothing, not to mention Lizzo, whose red tulle Giambattista Valli gown at the Emmy Awards was one of my favorite looks of the night. |
Then there are Harry Styles and Maneskin, both of whom model what could be termed "joyously subversive glam rock smashup" style. This was in part thanks to their work with Alessandro Michele at Gucci, of course, but now Mr. Michele has left the brand (Gucci just announced its new designer), which is supposedly changing gears to focus on timeless luxury rather than kooky fashion. What does this mean for Mr. Styles and Co.? We'll have to watch and see. |
I'll be live-blogging the red carpet with Guy Trebay on Sunday night, so join us to see who really hits the style high notes (and the lows). |
Until then, catch up on a fashion show that took place in a designer's bedroom; take a deep dive into Alan Cumming's wardrobe on "The Traitors"; say farewell to Paco Rabanne, couturier of the space age; and take a moment to consider the fashion impact of Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's former prime minister, who may have been more influential when it comes to leadership style than you know. |
And have a good, safe weekend. |
| WHERE CLOTHES MEET CULTURE | | | | | |
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Your Style Questions, Answered |
Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader's fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed. |
 | | The Princess of Wales wore a rented gown at an Earthshot Prize event in Boston in December.Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Charity galas and balls seem to be back, and I'm excited to dress up. But is it possible to find formal wear that is also sustainable? Most of what I see about responsible fashion focuses on basics rather than black tie. — Johanna, New York City |
I have two words for you when it comes to sustainability and fancy dress: rent and rewear. |
Together they are the simplest answer to the issue of how to get gussied up in a responsible way. The longer a garment stays in circulation, the lower its environmental footprint. That means vintage or the sharing economy. |
And while those options may seem antithetical to the mind-set often served up by the fashion-celebrity-influencer circus, which thrives on the idea that every special occasion needs a new dress, even that world is increasingly coming around to the concept. With great attention, after all, comes great responsibility, to paraphrase Spider-Man. |
I remember being thrilled when Cate Blanchett decided to wear only outfits she had in her closet during her much-photographed stint as president of the Venice Film Festival grand jury in 2020. I got even more excited when Louis Vuitton dressed its gaggle of Met Gala guests in vintage pieces last May. |
(LV's designer, Nicolas Ghesquière, spoke on a panel I chaired back in 2021, and to everyone's great delight, he introduced a new term for these clothes: "living archives." Sometimes it's all in the framing.) |
And it was all topped off by the appearance late last year of Catherine, Princess of Wales, in Boston at the Earthshot Prize event in a bright green rented gown by Solace London that she found on HURR, a British platform that also allows you to buy after you try. (By the way, Kate's dress is still available to rent for £74.40, or $91.10.) |
HURR is but one of a number of digital and physical sites making rental and resale easy. And yes, there are environmental impacts involved in the cleaning and transport of rented garments, but it is net less than buying a garment new. Especially one you may wear only a few times. |
For other options, Brynn Heminway, the founder of Display Copy, a magazine devoted to the joys of circular fashion, offered up her favorite secret resource. |
"If you're in N.Y.C. or L.A.," she said, go to "Albright Fashion Library. Each 'luxury for hire' location boasts 7,000 square feet of vintage archival and upcoming season designer pieces." |
For those who want to shop from the privacy of their desk, she also suggested resale sites like The RealReal and ReSee, which offer a wide variety of styles and prices. And there's always Rent the Runway and, for plus sizes, NuulyRent. |
As to how to approach your search, Abrima Erwiah, a founder of Studio 189, a social enterprise that promotes African design and in 2018 won the CFDA Lexus Fashion Initiative for Sustainability, advised starting with keywords like "vintage couture" or the name of a high-end designer or creative director who makes black-tie-worthy fashion — Tomas Maier or Tom Ford or Yves Saint Laurent. |
She also recommends checking out younger designers like Christopher John Rogers, Aliétte and LaQuan Smith. And for more general inspiration, consult Red Carpet Green Dress, founded back in 2009 by Suzy Amis Cameron, the actor, model and wife of James Cameron, specifically to reconcile the idea of sustainability and high fashion. |
And finally, Ms. Erwiah said, think creatively. "You can purchase accessories from secondhand shops to make the item feel different," she said. "I recently wore a Chanel belt as a head piece." The point being to impact eyeballs, not the earth. |
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