Hello, Open Thread. Happy spring. I hope everyone had a good vernal equinox. The fashion world got quite a shock this week when Dries Van Noten announced he was retiring. He did it in his usual gracious way, not with a generic press announcement but with an emailed letter he personalized for recipients with a handwritten salutation. His attention to detail has always been striking — he styled his own shows, for example, rather than handing the reins to someone else — as is his desire to go out on his own terms. I wish more designers would take a page from his book and start thinking harder about managing succession. At the same time, I wish he were staying, because I loved looking at his clothes. And wearing them. I have a pair of silver jacquard pants with matching boots that make me feel like a rock star every time I wear them. Two jackets from years ago are still in regular rotation, one of which, made from sari silk, inspires random people to stop me on the New York streets to discuss it. Do you know how often that happens? Never. Will I be shopping for old Dries on the RealReal? You betcha. This is an investment worth making. I also wish we had known that his last women's show was really his last. (His last women's show, that is; there's one more men's collection to go.) It was typical of Dries, though, that he didn't want anyone to know because he didn't want what would have been a lot of overwrought attention. The two words that most spring to mind whenever I think of Dries as a person and as a designer are generosity and grace. He brought those qualities to everything he did. He even ties his scarves gracefully. As to what he will do next, he's going to stay involved in the company, perhaps as its moral compass, but I wonder if he will get into gardening (he has an enormous garden at his home in Antwerp, Belgium) or home wares. He has terrific taste, and not just when it comes to clothes. Every time I went into one of his stores, which he filled with old finds from Antwerp, I thought: Please come decorate my house. We will have to wait and see, just as we will wait and see who has the unenviable job of taking his place. As you may have guessed, the rumors have already begun.
As you also may have guessed, the designer exclusive I teased in my last newsletter was an interview with Phoebe Philo. That one was years in the making, and what really struck me from our conversation was how much her brand is a work in progress. She's such a giant figure in fashion that there was no way she was going to build a new brand under the radar, but I think we forget that she is essentially figuring it out in public. And though she has a minority investment from LVMH, she sees the luxury group as effectively a silent partner. (She's not leaning on its back-office structures.) For example — and this didn't make it into the story, but I thought it was worth highlighting — when we were talking, I asked why she offered so little new content on her website or her Instagram between deliveries, given that conventional wisdom says that in order to keep people's attention, you need to feed them constantly. Her response: "I personally don't like being so bothered by people trying to get me to buy something from them." It reminds me of when Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons designed a collection she said was about "not making clothes."
They're pretty different designers, but neither one is afraid of kicking the system. It's refreshing. Also worth noting: Hermès is being sued in California for violating antitrust laws by requiring clients to have a history of buying Hermès products before they were allowed to purchase a Birkin bag. Depending on the outcome, it could have enormous implications for the luxury world in general, so you can bet every brand is watching. Tell me what you think, and then consider the case of Kristi Noem's new teeth and what they tell us about her ambitions; check out the hottest cowboy hat in the land; and remember Martin Greenfield, tailor to presidents. And have a good, safe weekend.
Make someone's day and forward this email. Share your feedback on Open Thread by email. Check out our full assortment of free newsletters.
Your Style Questions, AnsweredEvery 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.
Why do women still clutch tiny purses at fancy parties? Don't they want to drink, dance and wave hello without having to keep a grip on a container that's often fragile and handle-free? What about shoulder or cross-body bags, reticules pinned to the waist, or a gown or a tux with practical pockets? There must be a better solution. — Maryrica, Charlotte, N.C.There's an essential contradiction at the heart of the small-evening-purse question that speaks to our long and fraught history with the accessory. On the one hand, the evening purse is in many ways a vestigial tail of fashion: an anachronistic relic from another age when women themselves were seen as decorative objects who needed to carry only decorative objects. (The big, strong man held the money, the keys and the reins.) Hence the recent popularity of micro-purses, which embrace the essential silliness of the accessory — that a woman needs only a bag big enough to hold a lipstick and a credit card — and put it on display for all to see. On the other hand, the bigger the power player, the smaller the purse, suggesting that you have someone else around to carry your stuff. As Jessica Harpley, an assistant curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London who worked on the "Bags: Inside Out" exhibition, told me in an email, "Status plays a huge role in the perceived fashionability of tiny, impractical bags, conveying that one is privileged enough to carry around only the bare necessities, that one can afford to spend maximum sums for the most minimum of material." Yet, in today's connected world, evening purses, which have been around since the Regency Era, when pockets — sacks that were often tied over or under skirts — evolved into what were known as "reticules," still solve a problem more efficiently than any other option. To wit: where to put your phone. Women's evening gowns are rarely conceived with the sort of pockets that are secure enough to hold one's valuables, given that such pockets risk creating weird bulges as well as distortions in fragile materials (not to mention that phones seem to be getting larger and larger, and thus ruin the lines of even a well-cut tux). In that context, carrying an evening purse is like buying a glass coffee table if you have a patterned rug. It just makes sense. Acknowledging the need for a bag does not mean, however, that you have to give up the use of a hand. There are plenty of choices for evening accessories beyond the clutch. Look for a style that can be worn around the wrist, like a bracelet, or that comes with a chain shoulder strap that can be unleashed at will and is practical, pretty and relatively unobtrusive. Also, evening bags can be fun! There's a reason Van Cleef & Arpels invented the "minaudière," a small metal rectangle meant to resemble a very glamorous vanity case, in 1933. An evening bag can be a shorthand for glamour, like a great bracelet or pair of earrings, or can even be a souvenir of a special occasion. Anya Hindmarch, the British handbag doyenne, told me that on the morning of her eldest son's wedding, she gave her new daughter-in-law "a silk satin clutch bag with her new married initials embroidered on it and with a handwritten message embossed inside saying 'Welcome to the family.'" "I hope my great-grandchildren will continue to use this bag," Ms. Hindmarch said. Finally, evening bags come with some unexpected benefits. Ms. Hindmarch noted that she used to make bags for Diana, Princess of Wales, that matched her dresses and that had an embroidered "D" on them. She said the princess called these her "cleavage bags," because she used them to "protect her modesty as she got out of a car in a low-cut dress."
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friday, March 22, 2024
Open Thread: Dries Van Noten, Phoebe Philo, Hermès
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment