The Swelle Life

Karl Lagerfeld Delivers His Fashion Manifesto

Karl Lagerfeld delivered an astute dissection of the fashion industry on Thursday as he introduced Harold Koda - a renowned fashion scholar and the head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute - at the Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars. WWD provided excerpts from Lagerfeld's handwritten manifesto:

• “There is a strange and invisible borderline when fashion is not only fashion, but becomes the most evident and most easily visible expression of an area.”

• “Fashion as history is beyond fashion, and it is not only limited to clothes.”

• “It is difficult to imagine today that people who shaped the fashion of the first 50 years of the 20th century never had an exhibition in a great museum during their lifetime….Designers (called “couturieres”) were happy to dress people (mostly women of society). They designed with the icons of their times in mind — before that word was used as we use it today. They had muses then….For Chanel, it was simpler. She was only her own inspiration (what I admire).

• “The face of fashion is now in the hands of a small group of big companies and they often own several important and influential fashion brands. They also help to make it possible for museums to stage important shows.”

• “Fashion is today also about big shows like Hollywood productions. In the past, designers made fashion history by dressing people who had a real life in those clothes. We should learn a lot from that. Red carpet (another invention of our times) helps to distort fashion by giving it a fake and too glamorous face.”

• “The great designers of the past were certainly not humble people, but they worked in the days before media buzz. What helps most of us a lot in a way, promotion (and self-promotion), did not exist before. It’s also something that makes our approach to fashion different (too different?). But what will survive from all that?”

• “Fashion is about the harmony between utility and beauty. But the sense of beauty in fashion changes quickly — nearly as quickly as fashion itself. Some people tell us that utility is itself the essence of beauty. That may be OK for sportswear (such an important part of fashion today and not always the best). I think there has to be another dimension to it, and Harold is our visionaire in that area. You don’t design a dress only because it’s easy to wear. It should be — but that reason alone could make fashion a bore.

• “A new fashion can appear having the same origins in inspiration and admiration in the past of fashion. The danger is for us designers to be too exposed to the seduction of the past.”

• “It is difficult to work out your own vision of fashion without being haunted by the beauty of the work of the people before us — even if they were also not immune to all kind of influences and inspirations to achieve a strong vision and a unique style.”

Photo: Kristen Somody Whalen

Fashion Fringe Presents Britain's Next Top Designers?

Fashion Fringe is an annual project, launched to find and nurture undiscovered British designers. This past May, 10 semi-finalists were invited to London to have their abilities tested in a technical day at the London College of Fashion before being interviewed by a panel of fashion industry heavy-weights and business experts (the advisory panel includes Anna Wintour, Miuccia Prada, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and John Galliano, among others). Erdem, Basso & Brooke and Sinha-Stanic are all Fringe alumni; so far the five year-old project is achieving what it intended.

Four finalists were chosen, and they spent the next 3 months working on their collections, with the support of Fashion Fringe, to create 12 looks for their Fashion Fringe capsule collection to show in London as part of the official September Fashion Week.

Here are selected looks from the winning designers at the Fashion Fringe show, beginning with Eun Jeong Hong, of the label Go By A Secret Path (and above):

Print designer Sarah Easom:





Elizabethan costume-inspired LF Markey:





and, William Tempest:





Will we see them again? Watch this space!

Photos: Style.com

D'oh! I Missed The Simpsons at Colette

Let me clarify - I missed The Simpsons at Colette by about a year. So I'm not breaking any news here (unless you're easy on "currentness" being the criteria for news). I stumbled upon these photos of Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs and Alber Elbaz posing with Simpsons illustrations and immediately panicked, asking the world in general "How? How? How did I miss this episode of the Simpsons?" I was going to blame it on UK TV being a bit behind Fox's scheduling as very few U.S. shows run simultaneously in Brit-land (hmm... although I would have been in Canada then, as I am here now, as we are for the good part of every summer). 

Anyway, I was relieved to find out this was from from an exhibit at Paris' Colette (you must look at their website, it's so French in the way that Daft Punk is French - I guarantee you haven't seen anything quite like it). The illustrations were from a Harper's Bazaar feature from August 07 called The Simpsons Go to Paris with Linda Evangelista (illustrations by Matt Groening and artwork by Julius Priete). Incredible model she was, don't you think? One of the best ever? (And she's nabbed a most-coveted Prada campaign at 43!) She went to my high school in St. Catharines. I didn't know her, though - she left grade 13 when I was coming into grade 9. In the yearbook she had massive, frizzy hair. Look who's laughing now.

So then I was left feeling dumb and out of the loop for missing that issue. I really must pay more attention to Harpers Bazaar - though I have to say I'm really tired of US magazines putting over-exposed, American actresses on their covers, photoshopped to a level of flawless smoothness my almost three year-old daughter can't rival, and trying to look all modelly. (Like, their current cover is Jessica Biel. I'm not buying that!)

 

This display isn't creepy at all:

Source

Costume Institute Gala: Superheroes and Super Duds

The theme for Monday night's Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala was one for indulging in childhood reverie. However, Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy saw fashion and Hollywood's top figures mixing on the red carpet, displaying both extremes of the style spectrum and varying participation in the theme. Some had fun and played along but most simply appeared dressed in fabulous gowns, not all that different from any other prestigious red carpet event. (Why be so timid of costume, it's right there in the name!)

Then there were The Others. Whatever is the opposite of fabulous, they were it. Shockingly, many of the offenders were the designers themselves. And there were some who deserved their own category for their erm, interesting looks.

So, starting with some of the best frocks of the night we have a super-svelt Christina Ricci (top left) doing superhero to perfection, courtesy of Givenchy Haute Couture's fresh and lovely take on Wonder Woman's evil-fighting gear. Now on to the rest, up, up and away:

Anna Wintour in Chanel Haute Couture (what else?) channeling the X-Men's character Storm, brilliantly capturing the spirit of the event. (Her hair is always as smooth as glass. She's not human and her hair stylist can't be either.)

Anna's Wintour's daughter Bee Schaffer in Nina Ricci

Daphne Guinness and L'Wren Scott, in L'Wren Scott (I just love L'Wren's skin-tight black sequins on her 6'3" frame, she's today's Wonder Woman.)

Raquel Zimmerman in Thakoon Panichgul, with the designer

Now for the worst (assuming, I think correctly, that these are not just unflattering angles). We have Donna Karan in her own design (left). Her face says it all. And Vera Wang also in her own design. With that sagging saddlebag of fabric this dress truly does wang.

 

We know what the real crime here is but Melania Trump's Vera Wang flouro-magenta nightmare would even be too much for Barbie, it's total WAG territory. Karen Elson had to get Jack White (in Marc Jacobs) home before the sun came up:

And lastly, the solo categories:

Dress mostly likely to do it for Axl Rose: Stephanie Seymour (no designer credit given, hmmm...)

Most literal interpretation of the Superhero theme: Max Azria (bless)

Coolest: Lou Doillon in Marni (because she just is)

Real-life Superhero (if TV is considered 'real life'): Lynda Carter/Wonder Woman in Carolina Herrera, deflecting imaginary bullets with her golden cuffs of fury (I bet her hair would have done an equally good job):

The No one should be allowed to look like this in a dress category: Tom Brady (in Leonardo Dicaprio's hair) with Gisele Bunchen in Atelier Versace (like it matters who did the dress)

And finally, Most Karl Lagerfeld: Karl Lagerfeld

Highlights of Hyères

The Festival International de Mode et de Photographie à Hyères has now wrapped up its public program (including fashion shows and awards ceremony) after what appears to have been a mind-blowing event. If you're not familiar, it was established in Hyères (in the south of France) 22 years ago to unveil 10 young fashion designers and 10 young photographers from all over the world, under the patronage of an international jury. I'm going to look into the new talent when I get the time to give it my full attention and hopefully I'll see a more varied approach than the draped black fabric and stark (though beautiful) images caught in a few quick glances.

One of the best parts of the festival is the exhibition which showcases a selection of the world's most fascinating photographers and their works. The Sartorialist was one, who as you may know is the man behind the #1 most influential fashion blog of the same name, snapping street fashion as he finds it. The results are often times stunning portraits of his random subjects.  I've just checked his blog and naturally it features some shots taken within the last few days in Hyères (see below). Simply gorgeous, gives you even more reason to wish you'd been. No need to fret, however! The exhibition runs until June 1, so if you're going to be in France between now and then you'd be mad not to go, and it's free.

 

For me, the exhibition draw would be the works of Melvin Sokolsky, photographer for Harper's Bazaar in the 1960s who created fashion classics with his Bubble and Flying series. One look and you can see why he's known for his portrayal of a light and playful world of enchantment, as illustrated in the first photo shown above, from the Chairs series, 1963. I don't mean to ruin what was almost a proper post, but I can't help but be reminded of Lily Tomlin's Sesame Street guest character Edith Anne who sat in that enormous rocking chair, fiddling with her feet while describing in that snot-nosed kid voice a disgusting sandwich made of peanut butter, salami, raisins, pickles, mustard, tuna... you get the point. Oh, what a beautiful post this could have been.

To the rescue, more of the astounding Melvin Sokolsky (photos from Style Bubble, photographed on exhibit in Hyères):

Cover of Donna magazine, 1964 (What do we have now? Airbrushed and Photoshopped actresses. Sigh.)

Bubble series. On The Seine, Paris with Simone d'Aillencourt, 1963

Simone d'Aillencourt on a labryinth, 1961