Fashion is not just about clothing or shoes, it is also about creativity, art, music and everything relating to life. Colette concept store founders, Sarah Andelman (former art student and Purple magazine intern) & her mother Colette Roussaux, after whom the store is named, understood this and made it happen by opening the now fashion institution in 1997. 

The store quickly became renowned for its revolutionary approach to retail, such as its weekly product updates and in-store restaurant and mineral water-bar.

Colette, located on Rue Saint Honoré, is famed for its well judged fashion edits and quirky mix of lifestyle products that have turned the store into one of Paris’ premiere fashion pit-stops. Probably, the best thing about Colette is that it uses its great marketing force to promote young talents. Creative, young designers and artists, with revolutionary ideas and passionate about their work, who also engage humor in the creation process. It was one of the first to stock collections by Proenza Schouler, Mary Katrantzou, Rodarte, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders, Raf Simons and Thom Browne.

Colette Roussaux & Sarah Andelman

Colette’s creative director Sarah Andelman also pioneered the idea of designer collaborations; she’s persuaded Hermès to create special Colette scarves, Burberry to design a trench-coat with a Swarovski-studded collar, Lanvin X Balmain Batman t-shirts and a selection of candy-floss flavoured macarons by iconic French bakery Ladurée.

The Parisian store has inspired cult concept stores around the world, but has been one step ahead of its competitors.

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Hedi Slimane was not amused

Saint laurent pulled a large amount of merchandise from Colette, ending a 15-year relationship.

The reason? The French fashion house was offended by the boutique’s 300-item stock of parody T-shirts that display the slogan, “Ain’t Laurent Without Yves” (a reference to designer Hedi Simane’s controversial move to rebrand the womenswear line immediately after joining the company, Yves Saint Laurent became Saint Laurent).

Hedi Slimani

In a more symbolic gesture, Saint Laurent rescinded creative director and retail manager Sarah Andelman’s invitation to the label’s Spring 2014 runway show.

Separately, the publisher for Document, an independent magazine, contacted Andelman to cancel a forrthcoming event, informing her that the store could no longer carry the publication because one of its covers was photographed by Slimane.

Considering the Saint Laurent designer’s fascination with youth and subcultures, it’s surprising that Slimane is so hostile to this vein of satirical streetwear — a growing trend which hinges on pop culture’s infatuation with high-end fashion. WWD notes that Colette carries other items which parody prestige brands like Céline, Hermès and Karl Lagerfeld. These parody pieces are displayed on another floor, separate from the designer wares.

YSL would not comment on the story, telling that the company’s dealings with retailers are confidential.  .

INTERVIEW Magazine

interviewed Sarah Andelman, Januari 2013

INTERVIEW: What was the impetus for opening Colette? How did you define the concept of the shop in the beginning? 

SARAH ANDELMAN: It was all about the venue itself. We lived in the same building, and the space was empty for many years. One day we visited it, and we immediately had the vision to create a new place—with the restaurant, the gallery, fashion, beauty, design, music, etc. So we didn’t have the concept and then look for a space—we had the space, and how to fill it was very clear. We deeply feel Parisian, and knew what Paris was missing. There wasn’t one specific shop that influenced us—it was more a frustration about certain products that we couldn’t find in Paris that motivated us. Our vision hasn’t changed since. We’re still excited to discover new products, new brands, and to mix them all together. The shop itself, in its structure and the selection, changes all the time, but the original challenge is the same. From the beginning, the customers were always a mix—neighbors and tourists, fashion victims or hi-tech fanatics . . .

Colette’s Thierry Mugler window

INTERVIEW: How do you go about curating the store? What’s the process? 

ANDELMAN: It’s never about “commerce,” but just coups de foudre. The edit is done very spontaneously, following our instincts. We try to balance the products of the season with timeless pieces, young, new designers and major brands. We’ve carried young designers since our opening, and it has always been natural for us to support and give space to show their talent. We’ve worked since their very first collections with Jeremy Scott, Raf Simons, Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, Mary Katrantzou, Sacai, Simone Rocha, Christopher Kane, Olympia Le Tan . . . Fashion is very important, but we also considered that it was not only about fashion but many other medias around it. We’ve done so many great collaborations on products, from Moon Boots to Nike sneakers, Ladurée macaroons, and Vespa scooters, and in the gallery, had so many fabulous artists, photographers, and illustrators appear on our walls. So I never ask myself what people expect to find at Colette—I just hope to surprise them with something they can’t resist buying.

Adidas & Colette colaboration

INTERVIEW: While some other stores have opened up new outposts in other cities and countries, you’ve stuck to the single storefront on Rue Saint-Honoré. Does that kind of expansion interest you?  

ANDELMAN: We’re not interested in opening Colette in other cities—it’s all about the location, and we prefer to keep it unique and fresh. We’ve loved the pop-up shops that we’ve done with Comme des Garçons in Tokyo, Gap in New York City, or, more recently, Chanel in Paris. We’re also very proud of our collaboration with Hermès. We started to work with some international artists, brands, and generated our own community over the years. We’ll soon be launching a new version of our e-shop with more facilities, and it’s already become a great window for us to reach consumers around the worldl. Now you can find everything online, so I suppose shopping is maybe sometimes just repérage, even if we don’t really feel it at Colette. I think people are more curious and open to something they don’t know yet . . .

Colette’s colaboration with Chanel

INTERVIEW: What do you think is the future of shopping? 

ANDELMAN: I hope they’ll develop a “buy” button on Instagram. I think the act of shopping will be quicker and quicker, like when we buy a song on iTunes. It can be a disaster for your wallet, but so good for ours.

Tommy Hilfigger meets Keith Haring at Colette

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Website:     http://www.colette.fr/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/www.colette.fr

Twitter:       https://twitter.com/coletteparis

Philippe & Sarah Andelman and Colette Roussaux 

info:

http://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/sarah-andelman

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/the-curators-sarah-andelman

Young Lee Alexander McQueen (ph. not in the book)

Alexander Fury  (independent.co.uk)

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John Galliano 

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 Alexander McQueen

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info: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/gods-and-kings-by-dana-thomas-book-review-exposing-the-seams-cruelly-10011203.html

This post is a tribute to my mother, who always inspired me to be myself. I gave her some hard times, dressing fashionably at a very young age, fashion she didn’t understand or like. But even when I walked around with three shoulder pads on top of each other (ultimate power dressing, ahum) and people were staring at me, she proudly walked next to me. Thanks mam for letting me find out who I am!

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Claude Montana is a French fashion designer. His company, The House of Montana, founded in 1979, went bankrupt in 1997.

Born in Paris in 1949 to a Catalonian father and German mother, Montana began his career by designing papier-mâché jewelry covered with rhinestones. Later, he discovered leather and the complex techniques associated with it, eventually becoming a leading force in leather. His first fashion show took place in 1976. He was an avid colorist and favored blue, red, metallic, and neutral tones, in luxurious materials such as cashmere, leather and silk. He started his own company in 1979, and quickly became a darling of 1980s high fashion along with Thierry Mugler, who also favored aggressive shapes and strong colours.

In 1981, Montana designed his first collection for men, called Montana Hommes, in which he focused on the color and material of each garment rather than trivial details. From 1990 to 1992 he designed haute couture collections for the House of Lanvin, for which he received two consecutive Golden Thimble awards. Despite critical acclaim, Montana’s bold designs were financially disastrous for the house, created at a total estimated loss of $50 million, and he was ultimately replaced by Dominique Morlotti. In 1999, he designed an affordable line of clothing for women, Montana BLU. It was inspired by his favorite themes but modified to fit the style of sportswear and citywear.

Claude Montana for Lanvin, ph. Paolo Roversi

Montana’s fashion shows excelled in styling as well as in presentation. Because of their vibrations, modelling for Montana became prestigious and invitations to his shows the hottest tickets in town. With fashion’s return to harder lines in 2007 Montana has become an inspiration for many designers. Alexander McQueen praised and honored Montana many times in his collections. Both designers shared a love for construction and high quality.

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On July 21, 1993, Montana married model Wallis Franken. It was a marriage of convenience and friendship, as Montana was openly homosexual. They were the same age, had been friends for 18 years, and she had served as his muse for many of his fashion innovations. Wallis already had two daughters and a granddaughter by a previous marriage. In June 1996, Wallis died after falling three stories from their Paris apartment. The death was ruled a suicide.

Power Dressing

In October 2010 it was announced that Claude Montana and Marielle Cro have been working on a coffee-table book documenting Montana’s career. The book includes photos and interviews with insiders who witnessed Montana’s career firsthand.

Currently, Montana lives in Spain.

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Death of Wallis Franken

In late April and early May, Wallis spent a wonderful two weeks in New York, tending to her aging mother, seeing old friends, buying gifts for Montana, and visiting a Chinese herbalist, to whom she recited a litany of menopausal symptoms. She told him, for example, that unstoppable tears would sometimes flow from her eyes, but she never mentioned the possibility of depression. She said she was excited that her daughter, Rhea, 26, who had two small daughters, was about to give birth to a grandson. “She left in very high spirits,” says Sanchez. Wallis made a date to meet Sanchez three weeks later at his house in Marrakech. Then she flew home, arriving on Monday morning, May 6.Claude Montana & Wallis Franken fitting for the wedding, 1993

The body was not removed from the courtyard until midafternoon. After an autopsy, which showed no marks or signs of self-defense on her body but which did show that she had ingested alcohol and cocaine, the French authorities have officially ruled Wallis Franken’s death a suicide by defenestration. Her family accepts that verdict. Nevertheless, her older brother Randy, who lives in Germany, and her mother, who lives in New York, both gave statements to the French police. They also engaged a lawyer who, according to Randy Franken, “made clear to authorities that there was a history of abuse.”

Book

Displays and revels in the rich inventiveness of a designer who played a key role in the fashions of the 1980s and 1990s, and who has become an inspiration for many contemporary designers.

The Montana woman embodied an extraordinary new image: razor- sharp tailoring and strong silhouettes with dramatic proportions and masculine lines, enlivened by an astonishing mix of detail and bold hues. Materials, colors, and cut were all vehicles for Claude Montana’s effervescent genius, and it was the Lanvin period in the early 1990s that marked the absolute high point of his creativity.

This book looks at the principles and practices that underpin Montana’s work. It records numerous conversations with Montana himself that help us to understand the essential forces that have shaped his work, while scores of catwalk images and reproductions of his sketches reveal the energy and singularity of his vision. It is a journey punctuated with intimate comments and observations by those who have accompanied the designer at different points along the way—among others, the photographers Dominique Issermann, Tyen, and Paolo Roversi; the embroiderer François Lesage; the designer Alain Mikli; and the makeup artist Olivier Echaudemaison. Their moving testimonies are scattered throughout these pages. 124 color and 22 black-and-white illustrations.

ISBN 9780500515396

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Info: Wikipedia, http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/1996/09/montana199609

Thierry Mugler, born 1948 in Strasbourg, France, is more than a fashion designer, he is also a known photographer and had some early training was as a ballet dancer. In 1970 he moved to Paris and worked as a window dresser, and designed clothes on the side. In 1973 he debuted his first collection, Cafe de Paris, and founded his own label for women two years later, and in 1978 he launched a collection for men.

Mugler, over the next two decades created a style that was very much of its time: it was strong, malicent and sometimes almost cruel. Shoulders were wide and padded; waists were wasp like. Prints were banished: Mugler”s clothes came in solid, dominating colors. Collars had exaggerated points, or flame like cutouts. The insect kingdom was a constant influence, as were the ladies and gentlemen of film noir. PVC was often used as his material for his runway pieces, used to create space and robot themes. 1984 marked the 10th anniversary of the creation of the house. The Fall/Winter of 1984 85 collection was presented in a mega show before 6,000 people at the Zenith in Paris. It was the first fashion show in France ever opened to the general public.

Ready to Wear

1997 Mugler developed a partnership with the French cosmetics and skincare company Clarins, the most renowned Thierry Mugler fragrances being Angel, which is also the most popular perfume in France. A Men, his first men”s fragrance was launched in 1997, and has also received much popularity. The Thierry Mugler company is now known best for its perfume division: the couture division was closed in 2003, and all Thierry Mugler ready to wear is now produced under license agreements, as is a line of eyewear. After seven years of fruitful partnership, confirmed in the success of the fragrances, the CLARINS group acquired a larger majority in Thierry Mugler Couture..

In 1978, Thierry Mugler reworked the classic masculine style and came up with a resolutely modern look, as excessive as his talent : functional, slender, anatomical.

In 1992, he created his first haute couture collection upon an invitation by the Haute Couture trade union. Each piece of clothing was conceived as a work of art. His fashion shows were put together to be like real theatrical shows; he was the designer and director. Everything was original, stupefying, phenomenal, never before seen. Models and artists mingled with celebrities and unexpected characters in a multiple universe, each show more extraordinary than the last : Le Zenith (1984 : 6000 spectators came to celebrate the brand”s 10 year anniversary), le Cirque d”Hiver (1995) He became one of those Creators of the 90ties who placed fashion on the same level as visual arts, as show business.

Haute Couture

An extraordinary director, he also produced short films, ads, and video clips. He created costumes for musicals, concerts, operas and the theatre (Macbeth for the Comedie Francaise). He”s worked with artists Robert Altman and George Michael.

1992, begins a new territory of expression with the birth of Angel, Thierry Mugler”s first fragrance. He became the exclusive photographer for Thierry Mugler Perfumes and shot all of the brand”s model visuals. This was the beginning of a series of high quality fragrances and after Angel came A

 2002, Thierry Mugler moves away from fashion for other universes and leaves the creation of his ready to wear collections and accessories to his creative studio where young talented designers work for the Brand.

Mr Pearl’s Metal ‘Biker’ Corsets for Thierry Mugler

More about Mr. Pearl: http://agnautacouture.com/2012/08/05/mr-pearl-ethel-granger-and-stella-tennant-what-a-waist/

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Books

Thierry Mugler: Fashion Fetish Fantasy

For over 20 years, Thierry Mugler has stretched the boundaries of style and imagination. FashionFetishFantasy is a celebration of his extraordinary vision.

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Thierry Mugler: Photographer

Amazing book of Mugler’s saturated and geometric photographs, which contrast classic Mugler with some phenomenal architecture and landscapes. “As the pictures in this album reveal, Thierry Mugler has a vision of dress based on simple yet powerful lines, bold silhouettes, and pure colors. The models she seeks out are majestic in bearing and stature, conveying a sense of strength and vitality. Juxtaposing his free-flowing creations with the angularity of architecture and the cold surfaces of stone and steel, Mugler gives new life to fashion as well as photography.”

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Thierry Mugler: Galaxy Glamour

The designs of the iconic French couturier Thierry Mugler convey a powerful and seductive image of womanhood. His architectural, ultra-stylized silhouettes, his exploration of new materials, his passion for staging and spectacle, and his futuristic fantasies have left an indelible impression on the world of fashion. This lavish anthology is packed with his classic work, from outrageous catwalk shows to extravagant accessories. Celebrities, supermodels and muses shine out from original sketches and photographs by Thierry Mugler himself, alongside images from some of the great names of fashion photography, including Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin and Jean- Paul Goude. As a designer and artist, Mugler is always seeking new outlets for his inexhaustible energy, and brings his unmistakable style to everything he touches.

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Thierry Mugler nowadays goes by the name Manfred

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info: http://fashion.infomat.com/thierry-mugler-designer.html

Yves Saint Laurent

“I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity—all I hope for in my clothes. 

“Fashions fade, style is eternal.” 

“We must never confuse elegance with snobbery.” 

‘Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.’ 

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Coco Chanel

“Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory.” 

“I don’t do fashion. I am fashion.” 

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” 

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” 

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Diana Vreeland

“A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste—it’s hearty, it’s healthy, it’s physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I’m against.” 

“I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.”

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Christian Dior

“You can never take too much care over the choice of your shoes. Too many women think that they are unimportant, but the real proof of an elegant woman is what is on her feet.”

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Elsa Schiaparelli

“In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.” 

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Karl Lagerfeld

“I lost 200lb to wear suits by Hedi Slimane”

“Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants.”

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Alexander McQueen

“Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.”

Oscar de la Renta

“Walk like you have three men walking behind you.” 

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Marc Jacobs

“Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them.”

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Mary Quant

“The fashionable woman wears clothes. The clothes don’t wear her.”.

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Lauren Hutton

“Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose.”

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Manolo Blahnik

“Men tell me that I’ve saved their marriages. It costs them a fortune in shoes, but it’s cheaper than a divorce. So I’m still useful, you see”

“About half my designs are controlled fantasy, 15 percent are total madness and the rest are bread-and-butter designs.”

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Edith Head

“Your dresses should be tight enough to show you’re a woman and loose enough to show you’re a lady.” 

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Alexander Wang

“Anyone can get dressed up and glamorous, but it is how people dress in their days off that are the most intriguing.” 

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Elizabeth Taylor

“Big girls need big diamonds.” .

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Oscar Wilde

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” 

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Iris Apfel

“More is more and less is a bore.” 

Issey Miyake was born on April 22, 1938, in Hiroshima, Japan. In the 1960s, he designed for Givenchy in Paris, after which he designed for Geoffrey Bean in Manhattan. In 1970, Miyake started his own design studio. During the 1970s, he toyed with avant-garde Eastern designs. In the 1980s, he began using technology new East meets West textiles. He started Pleats Please in 1993 and A Piece Of Cloth in 1999. 

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Short Biography

Issey Miyake, original name Miyake Kazumaru, is a Japanese fashion designer best known for combining Eastern and Western elements in his work.

Miyake studied graphic design at Tokyo’s Tama Art University, and after graduation he moved in 1965 to Paris, where he enrolled at the renowned tailoring and dressmaking school École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. He began his career in 1966, working behind the scenes for four years in ateliers operated by a trio of 20th-century fashion legends—French couturiers Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy as well as the meticulous American designer Geoffrey Beene. In 1973, three years after he established a Tokyo studio, Miyake displayed his own independent collection in a Paris group fashion show and developed the layered and wrapped look that became his trademark.

Tokyo Design Studio

1977

1997

Soon the New York department store Bloomingdale’s devoted a section to selling Miyake’s “East meets West” look—mostly T-shirts dyed with Japanese tattoodesigns as well as coats featuring the sashiko technique, a Japanese embroidery that strengthens fabric and was typically incorporated into labourers’ clothing. Miyake became an internationally recognized name in the 1980s together with Japanese designers Rei Kawakuba and Yohji Yamamoto, who presented their avant-garde creations alongside his fresh, boldly coloured work during the Paris ready-to-wear collections.

East Meets West

In the late 1980s, he began to experiment with new methods of pleating that would allow both flexibility of movement for the wearer as well as ease of care and production. In which the garments are cut and sewn first, then sandwiched between layers of paper and fed into a heat press, where they are pleated. The fabric’s ‘memory’ holds the pleats and when the garments are liberated from their paper cocoon, they are ready-to wear.

Pleating

19851990
1991
1992
1994/95

He also developed a friendship with Apple’s Steve Jobs and produced the black turtlenecks which would become a part of Jobs’ signature attire. Jobs said, “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.”

A-POC

In 2005 the Japan Arts Association awarded Miyake a Praemium Imperiale for outstanding achievement in the arts. In 2006 he became the first fashion designer to receive the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for lifetime achievement, awarded by the Inamori Foundation in Japan; the prize included a diploma, a 20-karat-gold prize medal, and 50 million yen (about $446,000). The organization singled out as seminal the clothing line Miyake developed in 1993 called Pleats Please, which “allows unrestricted body movement while enabling the fabric to maintain its form,” and A-POC (“A Piece of Cloth”), which was made from a single thread with the aid of an industrial knitting or weaving machine programmed by a computer. Miyake had begun experimenting on A-POC more than 10 years earlier with textile expert Dai Fujiwara before launching it commercially in 1999. Insisting that A-POC was an ensemble piece, he refused to imprint his name on that collection. He sold it simply as a long tube of jersey, and it was then up to the customer to cut and shape it.

In 1994 and 1999, Miyake turned over the design of the men’s and women’s collections respectively, to his associate, Naoki Takizawa, so that he could return to research full-time. In 2007, Naoki Takizawa opened his own brand, supported by the Issey Miyake Group and was replaced, as a Creative Director of the House of Issey Miyake, by Dai Fujiwara.

As of 2012, he is one of the co-Directors of 21 21 DESIGN SIGHT, Japan’s first design museum.

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Books

East Meets West by Issey Miyake

ISSEY MIYAKE East Meets West
[Heibonsha Limited, Publishers, Tokyo]
ISBN 4-582-62001-9

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Pleats Please

PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE

Taschen

ISBN 978-3-8365-2575-6

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Origami

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info: http://www.britannica.com/biography/Issey-Miyake

Yves Saint Laurent & Piet Mondrian

No art and fashion collaboration list would be complete without the classic and iconic Yves Saint Laurent dress inspired by artist Piet Mondrian. Saint Laurent released the 1965 dress for the Autumn season; its simple A-line, and tidy shift silhouette was typical of the mid-sixties. What was perhaps less typical was the clear allusion Saint Laurent was making to Mondrian in his uses of graphic black lines (running both horizontally and vertically) and white and primary color blocks. Its seamlessness is deceiving—the dress is made up of many of individual pieces of wool jersey and was hand-assembled to hide obvious seaming. This dress is not only an icon for Western fashion but also records the importance of Mondrian’s work during the period of the 1960s.

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Yves Saint Laurent & Andy Warhol

Yves Saint Laurent and Andy Warhol (two men who need no introduction) collaborated in 1974, Saint Laurent is the subject, and the product is a silkscreen image of a youthful Yves by Warhol himself. The work is done in a style similar to Warhol’s other works-an even square divided into four equal quadrants. The portraits are paired diagonally, but the paired images are painted in decidedly different and fanciful ways. The painting stands today as a commemorative gesture to the great fashion designer. Although the painting itself is not a garment or accessory per se, the object stands a reflection of the intimate ties between the culture of fashion and art.

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Comme Des Garçons & Cindy Sherman

This 1994 collaboration with internationally acclaimed photographer, Cindy Sherman, and Rei Kawakubo, still holds an edge over a lot of the more recent fashion photography campaigns. Sherman is best known for her self-portrait series Untitled Film Stills that feature a number of typified feminine characters. Sherman, inspired by Kawakubo’s already pointedly unconventional fashion sense is driven to create a campaign equally unique. The coquettish personalities of her Film Stills are replaced by the slumped, unhappy and imperfect female persona. These photographs confront the consumer with a model that isn’t particularly ideal at all; she floats in isolated contemplation, caught forever pensive in the frame of Sherman’s photograph. Cindy Sherman would go on to a number of other fashion-related collaborations moving forward with names like Marc Jacobs and Balenciaga.

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Comme Des Garçons & Merce Cunningham

Rei Kawakubo first started designing under the name Comme des Garçons in 1969, and since then she has been making her name known as one of the foremost avant-garde fashion designers in the world. Merce Cunningham was making himself known under similar terms, but within the dance context. Kawakubo had always “shared similar creative philosophies with Merce Cunningham, including interests in engaging multiple artistic disciplines and aggressively pushing the boundaries of the unknown.” After Cunningham’s initial offer to give her complete freedom in designing the costumes and the set, Kawakubo declined. As myth has it, while working on her notorious spring collection of 1997, titled “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body,” she changed her mind. The collection was an aggressive response to her feelings of boredom with fashion. She padded the dresses in a way to reshape the body under new circumstances—her own circumstances. Similarly to the “Body Meets Dress” collection, the costumes Kawakubo designed for her collaborative work with Cunningham (tilted Scenario) featured the same “irregular bulges on the dancers’ hips, shoulders, chests, and backs.” Wearing these costumes altered the dancers’ proportions, their balance, sense of space, and even their fundamental extent of movement. 

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Marc Jacobs & Juergen Teller

It all began in 1998, and many of us can’t even remember what Marc Jacobs (the brand) looked like before Juergen Teller. Teller’s overexposed and slightly rosy tint make his photographs feel more like adventurous polaroids between friends than esoteric fashion photography. His imagery is playful but always with a little tinge of deflation, grunge or raunchiness—like Jacobs’ clothing. Since the auspicious beginnings of the Teller-Jacobs collaboration in 1998, Marc Jacobs’ ads have become a celebrity fashion yearbook with notable subjects like Winona Ryder, Sofia Coppola, Helen Bonham Carter, Dakota Fanning and photographer Cindy Sherman.

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Alexander McQueen & Björk

This epic relationship began when Icelandic native Björk released her fourth record, Homogenic in 1997 – and the image that held the album cover got nearly as much press as the music. The “elfin chanteuse” her fans had come to love had transformed into a different almost unrecognizable creature; a creature that, today we know was borne from her collaborative conversations with then, 26-year old Alexander McQueen. “When I went to Alexander McQueen, I explained to him the person who wrote these songs—someone who was put into an impossible situation, so impossible that she had to become a warrior…a warrior who had to fight not with weapons but with love.” The respective work of these two creative geniuses seemed to discuss similar themes of man, nature and machine. The two went on to collaborate several times: McQueen directed Björk’s video for “Alarm Call,” and in 2003, the pair reunited for a Fashion Rocks! performance, where she sported a McQueen gown and crystal mask for the finale of her performance. McQueen was also responsible for Björk’s fantastical bell-covered dress worn in the 2004 video “Who Is It?” And in a 2003 conversation between Björk and McQueen with Index magazine, he said of his own designs that sound like it could have come from either virtuoso, “my work is always in some way directed by nature. It needs to connect with the earth. Things that are processed and reprocessed lose their substance.”

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Marni & Rop van Mierlo

Italian-based brand, Marni, continues its playful collaborations with artist and illustrators from around the globe. Perhaps one of the most successful choices has been with Dutch artist, Rop van Mierlo. Mierlo, based out of Amsterdam, is best known for his children’s book Wild Animals, which won the Best Dutch Design Award in 2011. The book features pages of blotchy, watery-diffused animals: a snake, a rabbit, a lion, a pig, and a squirrel to name a few. He describes his process as interested in “creating animals he could not control”—how romantic. Though the entirety of Mierlo’s aqueous menagerie is not featured in Marni’s collection—released in mid-January of 2013—his donkey, parrot, ostrich and tiger don the tops, purses, and scarves of many of the most popular looks. In a recent interview with SSENSE Mierlo was asked, “Your animals seem soft, gentle and sweet. In the world of the wild animals you paint, would a tiger ever eat a pig? Would a dog ever bite an ear?” In response he said, “I sure hope so. Otherwise the pig bites the tiger in the rear.”

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Louis Vuitton & Takashi Murakami

Amidst the millions of anime eyes and smiling flowers of Tokyo-born pop-artist Takashi Murakami’s 2007 exhibition “Superflat,” was the world’s most indulgent museum shop. Monographs, posters, and key chains were reserved for MOCA’sactual in-house store, a Louis Vuitton pop-up establishment with thousand-dollar totes. The monogrammed merchandise featured familiar characters and motifs of Murakami’s and was specially designed for the in-situ boutique. The gesture was an unprecedented one for any American art museum, and in an interview at the opening of the exhibition, supermodel Linda Evangelista was asked by a reporter, “What do you think of this synergy of art and fashion?” Her response, “Well, it certainly makes fashion more interesting.” The collaboration that began in 2003 as multicolored L’s and V’s had evolved into so much more. 

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Louis Vuitton & Yayoi Kusama

2012 was a good year for Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. She is best known for her use of polka dots, and a retrospective exhibition of her artwork was shown at two major international museums over the course of one year. If you don’t recognize her name, you may have seen the dotted flower sculpture of Beverly Hills or theYellow Trees that enveloped the Whitney Museum development in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. Kusama told Women’s Wear Daily, “Marc Jacobs came to see me in Tokyo in 2006, and he asked me if I wanted to come to the States and do fashion. That sort of encouraged me because…Fashion has always attracted me.” From this 2006 encounter, blossomed a series of garments, window fronts and shop designs that—thanks to Jacobs’ collaboration—made Kusama’s artistic visions come alive across the globe. Unfortunately, the clothes paled in comparison to the graphic and hypnotic storefronts. Most notable was London’s Selfridge department store that featured Kusama’s favored giant pumpkins—and subsequently, a completely sold out collection. Printemps in Paris donned mirrored window fronts with polka dotted mannequins and silver baubles reminiscent of Kusama’s 1966 Narcissus Garden work.

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Raf Simons & Sterling Ruby

Belgian fashion designer, Raf Simons, invited German-born, Los Angeles-based artist, Sterling Ruby, in 2008 to use his “Tokyo boutique as a canvas.” Sterling’s intervention transformed the store’s interior from a clinical white space into something that in some ways is hard to describe. The walls were left white by Ruby, and in his typical style, appears to have haphazardly thrown paint everywhere and ended up with something beautiful, simultaneously minimal, and chaotically expressive. The plinths used to display the clothing are black with bleach splashed across them (a technique favored by Ruby in his textile manipulation work), which creates a seductive and unifying tension between the architecture holding the clothes, and the greater structure holding the entirety of the shop. Simons brought on Ruby to create a unique capsule collection following the same aesthetic theme of Tokyo boutique installation the following year. Simons and Ruby have continued their collaborative relationship as recently as 2012, when Simons created fabric with images of four of Ruby’s recent works. The textiles debuted as a part of Simon’s premiere haute couture collection with design house Christian Dior.

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Info: http://www.complex.com/style/2013/04/the-50-best-artist-collaborations-in-fashion/

Martin Margiela first got the fashion world thinking in 1989 with a collection that challenged what luxury could be. Applying ‘grunge’ techniques such as deconstruction, recycling and raw finishes, in an intelligent and sleek manner, his ideas provoked shock and intrigue. In a rejection of mass media culture, Margiela became an anonymous design hand and has hardly ever been photographed or interviewed. Working under the collective ‘Maison Martin Margiela’ for over 20 years, Margiela left the label in 2009.

.Maison Martin Margiela studio photo on invitation show a/w '96'97 
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Short Biography

Martin Margiela was born on April 9 1957 in Genk, Belgium.

In a rare interview with Sphere in 1983, Margiela talked about his first fashion experience. “I was watching the TV news and there was an item about (Paco) Rabanne and (André) Courrèges. As soon as I saw their designs I thought, ‘how wonderful, people are doing the sort of thing I want to do’.”

Margiela graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1979. Today he is considered an honorary member of the ‘Antwerp Six’, the ground-breaking group of designers that emerged from the academy in 1980, including Ann Demeulemeester and Dries Van Noten. This wave of talent is credited with pushing the fashion industry beyond Paris, New York, London and Milan, kick-starting today’s global marketplace.

Martin Margiela & Jean Paul Gaultier
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In 1984 Martin moved to Paris to work as a design assistant to Jean Paul Gaultier. “I already knew he was good, but I didn’t realise to what extent,” Gaultier later said.

Margiela founded his eponymous label in 1988, provoking instant reaction with his first collection. “It was really a shock for everybody to see Margiela’s first silhouettes… you realised that he was much more advanced than everybody else,” designer Bob Verhelst, told Icon in 2009.

Martin Margiela won the very first ANDAM fellowship in 1989, a now prestigious prize that has since been awarded to Viktor and Rolf, Richard Nicoll, Gareth Pugh and Giles Deacon.

Martin Margiela F/W 1992

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In an unexpected move, iconoclast Margiela became womenswear director of classic design house Hermes in 1997. “When (Jean-Louis Dumas, chairman of Hermes, and I) first met, he asked me anxiously if I was going to cut the Kelly in half because, at the time, the press used the words grunge and destroy to describe my work,” the designer told Grazia in a rare statement.

Martin Margiela for Hermes
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Margiela launched his first menswear collection in 1998, known as line 10. Every new product range is given a number from 0 to 23, acting as a referencing code rather than a chronological order. The original tags were blank white labels, hand tacked with four white stitches that could be seen from the outside of the garment – a symbol of cool for those in-the-know. The ranges have expanded to include fine jewellery (12), footwear (22), eyewear (8), objects (13) and fragrance (3).

Maison Martin Margiela  Menswear

Maison Martin Margiela Footwear 

Maison Martin Margiela Fragrance

Maison martin Margiela Fine Jewellery

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In 2002 Maison Martin Margiela became a public company with the majority share acquired by Diesel Group owner Renzo Russo.

Margiela stepped down from his role at Hermes in 2003, and was ironically succeeded by his former mentor, Jean Paul Gaultier.

In March 2006, Margiela presented a critically acclaimed collection where perfectly tailored trouser suits were made from seventies upholstery fabrics and car seatbelts were used to draw in silhouettes. His work with unconventional materials is renowned and other hits have included tops patch-worked from vintage leather gloves, cleft-toe boots and jewellery made of coloured ice, dyeing the clothes as it melted. The designer’s presentation methods have been equally brilliant, as one show challenged editors and buyers to seat themselves according to their perceived importance, while another saw models wheeled out on trolleys.

The Chambre Syndicale invited Maison Martin Margiela to show their first haute couture collection on the official Paris schedule in May 2006, an acknowledgement of true excellence and craftsmanship.

In 2008, 20 a retrospective of the Maison’s work opened at the Fashion Museum Province of Antwerp.

In October 2009 it was announced that Margiela had resigned from his position as creative director at the Maison, although insiders suggested that he had been ‘absent’ for a while. Rumours circulated that he had disagreed with the commercial drive of the new Diesel ownership and felt that the Maison was sacrificing its authenticity and exclusivity in favour of becoming a globally recognised brand.

In the months that followed the question of who could replace Margiela became a hot topic, with Raf Simons and Haider Ackermann reportedly turning down offers to become the successor.

The 20 retrospective moved to London’s Somerset House in June 2010 with a party attended by many of the designer’s more recognisable peers and acolytes. The big question of the evening was whether the ‘invisible’ designer himself was present. ‘Moving freely among (the celebrity-filled crowd) was that balding, grey-haired gent. Was it Margiela? Well, that assumes all Martin had to do was remove his signature cap to pass as One of Us,’ Style.Com’s Tim Blanks reported.

The 20 Retrospective Exhibition

Margiela’s radical concepts have influenced everybody from Azzedine Alaïa to Alexander McQueen.”Anybody who’s aware of what life is in a contemporary world is influenced by Margiela“ Marc Jacobs told Women’s Wear Daily in 2008.

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Short Film on Martin Margiela: The Artist Absent

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Books

Maison Martin Margiela

Graduating from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s, Martin Margiela (and his contemporaries in the Antwerp Six) transformed global fashion with his aggressive restatement of traditional fashion design and a polemical approach to luxury trends. Working first with the house of Gaultier, Margiela absorbed the radical design of Japanese deconstruction, making it wholly his own with the founding of his own label in 1988. Margiela propounds a singular, enigmatic look, moving beyond the recognizable tropes of deconstruction—a monochromatic palette, outsized garments, non-traditional fabrics, exposed seams, or roughly appliquéd details—to develop a fully considered worldview, one with elegance, mystery, and menace in equal measure. This book provides an inside look at the design process from a craftsman who creates pieces prized for their originality, delicacy, and daring. In the spirit of Margiela’s garments, the book is a work of art in itself, designed exclusively by Margiela and complete with silver inks, ribbon markers, a variety of lush paper types, twelve booklets, and an embroidered white-linen cover. This book provides a window onto the intimate, handmade world of a unique designer.

ISBN-13: 978-0847831883 ISBN-10: 0847831884

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Maison Martin Margiela: 20 Years The Exhibition

Twenty years of Maison Martin Margiela is examined in this unique retrospective exhibition catalogue. Departing from the traditional idea of presenting a comprehensive overview, the catalogue explores the different themes and concepts that have been present in the Maison’s production. This extends to their collections, events, the interior designs of their boutiques and offices, and the unmistakeable approach to their graphics and communication.

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Martin Margiela: Street Special 1 & 2

In 1995, Tokyo-based Street magazine approached the Paris fashion house of Martin Margiela with an invitation to publish a special edition dedicated to its work. Maison Martin Margiela guest-edited the magazine, and was solely responsible for the selection of images and presentation, which includes many previously unpublished photographs from its archives. The success of the first volume led to the publication of a second instalment in 1999, and together the two special issues cover every Martin Margiela collection from Spring/Summer 1989 through to Spring/Summer 1999. Now both popular volumes have been made available once more in this combined reprint.

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Martin Margiela, Belgium newspaper, dated March 3, 19838
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info:http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/biographies/martin-margiela

Big eyes, big hair and an even bigger voice, Dusty Springfield rocked a blonde wig and a column dress like no other. 

Dusty Springfield, the singer widely acknowledged as responsible for introducing rhythm and blues to British pop music, whose distinctive image made her a definitive figure of the Sixties, and whose personal struggles made her an icon to her legions of fans.

Once dubbed ‘the white negress‘ by Cliff Richard, because of her soulful vocal style, Springfield was described by Sir Elton John as ‘the best white British female singer‘ of her time.

Her first success in 1963 with I Only Want to Be With You was followed by a string of hit singles, including Stay Awhile, I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself, and Little by Little. In 1966 she had her first number one, the ballad You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.

Her image was a striking as her music. The heavily mascaraed ‘panda eyes‘ which became her trademark, coupled with her blond beehive hairstyle, earned her the nickname Queen of the Mods.

From Natural to Panda Eyes & Blond Wigs

Her perfectionism earned her a reputation for being difficult in the studio, which was matched by her status as a wild party-goer with a taste for throwing food.

She refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa in 1964, incurring the ire of some on the British music scene, but her popularity was unaffected, and in the same year she was voted Best Female Vocalist in the prestigious NME Awards, an acknowledgement she was to be awarded again in 1965, 1966 1967 and 1969.

But commercial success confused her, while constant rumours about her sexuality left her craving privacy. Alcohol and tranquilizers abuse followed, and the Seventies saw her depressed and losing focus on her music.

Column Dresses

True to her survivor’s reputation, she stormed back into the British charts in 1987 with What Have I Done to Deserve This? a duet recorded with the Eighties pop duo The Pet Shop Boys. The song was a worldwide hit, and was followed by a second collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys, Nothing Has Been Proved, the theme to the film Scandal.

Matt Snow, editor of Mojo, said in bringing rhythm and blues into British pop music, Springfield had proved herself as significant as Lennon and McCartney.

‘She was an unconscious stylistic revolutionary, but a revolutionary none the less. Her emergence symbolised the beginning of a new era, with white singers adopting the emotional range of black artists.

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‘Since the Pet Shop Boys rediscovered and re-presented her, she has been established in the pantheon of significant pop stylists and nothing can remove her from that.

‘The unusual thing about her as big star was that she appeased her hunger for stardom quite quickly, and was not desperate to keep plugging away. She went into semi-retirement with barely a backward glance. Her legacy is the style in which every British singer sings.’

Adam Mattera, editor of the gay men’s magazine Attitude, said Springfield’s personal story had a huge resonance with gay men at the time.

‘When the rumours began about her sexuality, and she actually said that she was attracted to men and women, it was very significant. Her lyrics were all about secret loves, but instead of going into the corner and weeping she stood daring.

‘After the lost years, with her Eighties comeback, there was a clever, knowing sense of camp. She was in on the joke, which separated her from traditional gay icons. She understood what made her popular in the gay community and played up to it.’

Springfield bridged the gap between old-school divas like Judy Garland and more modern artists. ‘She paved the way for people like Gloria Gaynor and Donna Summer, through to Debbie Harry and Madonna, who took the defiance further.

‘She broke the mould with her music, her sexuality, by refusing to fit comfortably into the music industry’s expectations. She was subversive.’

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Documentary

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Book

Dusty Springfield: Looking Good Isn’t Always Easy – A Celebration of an Icon

Written and complied by Paul Howes, “Looking good isn’t always easy” is the luxurious, coffee table-sized photo book fans have been waiting for.

Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen (born June 13, 1986), also known as the Olsen twins collectively, are American actresses and fashion designers. The twins made their acting debut as infants playing Michelle Tanner on the television series Full House. At the age of six, they began starring together in TV, film, and video projects, which continued to their teenage years. Through their company Dualstar, the Olsens joined the ranks of the wealthiest women in the entertainment industry at a young age.

The Olsens had a clothing line for girls ages 4–14 in Wal-Mart stores across North America, as well as a beauty line called “Mary-Kate and Ashley: Real fashion for real girls“. In 2004, they made news by signing a pledge to allow full maternity leave to all the workers that sew their line of clothing in Bangladesh. The National Labor Committee, which organized the pledge, praised the twins for their commitment to worker rights.

Mary-Kate & Ashley Boho style

As the sisters matured, they expressed greater interest in their fashion choices, with The New York Times declaring Mary-Kate a fashion icon for pioneering her signature (and now popular among celebrities and fans alike) “homeless” look. The style, sometimes referred to by fashion journalists as “ashcan” or “bohemian-bourgeois“, is similar to the boho-chic style popularized in Britain by Kate Moss. The look consists of oversized sunglasses, boots, loose sweaters, and flowing skirts, with an aesthetic of mixing high-end and low-end pieces. The twins were tapped as the faces of upscale fashion line Badgley Mischka in 2006.

In 2006 the Olsens launched their own fashion label, “The Row“, named after Savile Row in London.In 2007, they launched Elizabeth & James, a contemporary collection inspired by many of their unique vintage finds and pieces in their personal wardrobes. They have also released a women’s clothing line for J.C. Penney, called Olsenboye, and a T-shirt line called “StyleMint”. In 2008, the sisters published the book Influence, a compilation of interviews with many of the most prominent people in the field of fashion. In 2012, Mary Kate and Ashley were named Womenswear Designers of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) for their brand The Row.

The Row speaks fashion’s language. It’s luxurious, understated and minimalist, without being boring. Now nearly 10 years in the business, they have nailed a sort of loungy minimalism as their aesthetic – a tiny nod to Mary-Kate’s style, but without a floppy fedora in sight. Rather than wanting to look like the founders, fashion insiders just want to wear the clothes. It helps that they’re reassuringly expensive. A backpack this season retails at nearly £2,700, while a white cotton shirt is £690. A previous bag design, an alligator backpack, was famously priced at £22,950. That puts it up there with the priciest of luxury brands, Saint Laurent and Céline and, without shouting about it, that’s a statement of intent. This is the territory that The Row want to enter, going from celebrity brand to the upper positions of the fashion industry.

The Row collections

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Book

Influence

Influence is about the Olsen twins’ influences in fashion and style, the book includes interviews with: Karl Lagerfeld Diane Von Furstenberg John Galliano Lauren Hutton Christian Louboutin amongst many others.

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Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast, costumes by Pierre Cardin

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Short Biography

A Pierre Cardin Bubble Dress

Soon, though, Cardin was looking outside France for inspiration. He visited Japan in 1957, becoming one of the first Western designers to seek out Eastern influences. In Japan, he scoped out business opportunities while studying the country’s fashions for new ideas. The Japanese fashion school Bunka Fukusoi made him an honorary professor, and he taught a one-month class there on three-dimensional cuts. Also in 1957, Cardin opened his first boutique for men in Paris, called Adam.

During the 1960s, Cardin began a practise that is now commonplace by creating the system of licenses that he was to apply to fashion. A clothing collection launched around this period surprised all by displaying the designer’s logo on the garments for the first time.

Uniforms for Paskistan International Airlines 
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 Books

Pierre Cardin: Fifty Years of Fashion and design

This is the first authorized monograph on Pierre Cardin (b. 1922). Visionary fashion designer and licensing pioneer, Cardin began his career apprenticed to Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior. He quickly launched his own haute couture line, in 1954, followed rapidly by the first women’s and men’s prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) collections from a couture designer. Since the 1960s, Cardin’s cutting-edge, futuristic designs have continually broken new ground and established exciting new trends. And he invented the business of fashion as we know it today, with international brand licensing across a variety of products and media. Pierre Cardin himself made his ambition clear: “I wanted my name to become a brand and not just a label.”

Cardin brought high fashion to the street; he invented the bubble dress and launched the use of cartridge pleating, bright clear colors, as well as vinyl, plastics, metal rings, and oversize buttons. Pierre Cardin has also designed accessories, furniture, and cosmetics. There are now more than 900 licenses in over 140 countries, employing more than 200,000 people under the Pierre Cardin trademark.

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Pierre Cardin: 60 Years of Innovation

The Cardin fashion house celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2010, an occasion that called for a retrospective of the work of its founder, designer Pierre Cardin. Born in 1922 in Sant’Andrea de Barbarana, Venice province, Pierre Cardin immigrated to Paris in 1924 with his parents, who were thrown into poverty by World War I. After working briefly with Elsa Schiaparelli, Cardin joined Dior in 1946 and opened his own couture house in 1950.

He was a pioneer from the start, creating a design-based, architectural fash ion with a futurist sensibility. Cardin also had a pioneer’s understanding of fashion’s relationship to new audiences, presenting his collections to large crowds. He was the first to demonstrate that fashion can be both a creative process and a business – and that one man can excel as both a business man and an artist.

This volume is a tribute to an iconoclastic – and now iconic – designer, entrepreneur, and visionary.

info: http://www.whatgoesaroundnyc.com/blog/12540 & Wikipedia

Miuccia’s Wayward Designs for Prada

Spring ’96

Spring ’99

Fall ’99

Fall 2007

Spring 2008

Fall 2009

Fall 2010

Fall 2011

Spring 2012

Spring 2013

Fall 2013

Spring 2014

In 1992, she introduced a new, more affordable label called Miu Miu. Three years later, the company unveiled a line of men’s clothing..

Her knowledge of fashion comes from her own closet and her personal style. Growing up in a wealthy Milanese family, Miuccia was wearing Courrèges and Yves Saint Laurent by the time she was a teenager. Her ability to marry the functional with the radical has inspired such influential trends as clothing made of techno fabric, 1950s housewife dresses cut from nylon and, of course, the nylon backpack.

Miu-Miu

Fall 2008

Fall 2009

Spring 2011

Fall 2011

Spring 2012

Fall 2012

Spring 2014

Fall 2015

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info: http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1647860_1647834_1644300,00.html

During the 1960s women’s clothing fashions assumed a more significant role in American society than ever before. Reflecting the shifting political culture of the time, the styles were more rebellious than the rigid designs of the 1950s.

“Hippies,” college-aged youth bent on making a political statement, favored relaxed, comfortable and natural clothing such as blue jeans and tie-dyed T-shirts. More acceptable, were “modern” fashions characterized by bright colored bellbottoms, revealing mini-skirts, and hyper tailored designs.

Models who advertised the new fashions were young and appealed to a youth-driven Baby Boom generation. Among them was Colleen Corby, who became a cultural icon among the teen girl crowd.

One of the first young models to capitalize on the sensual look while retaining an innocent sweetness, Corby graced the cover of “Seventeen Magazine” an unprecedented 15 times during the decade. She also appeared on the covers of “American Girl,” “Teen Magazine,” “Ingenue,” “Co-Ed,” “Glamour” and “Mademoiselle” and modeled for “Simplicity,” “McCalls,” and “Butterick” sewing patterns.

Short Biography

Born on Aug. 3, 1947, in Wilkes-Barre, Colleen Corby was the eldest daughter of Peggy and Robert Corby, a public relations executive. She was raised nearby in Luzerne, where she led a “nice, normal childhood.“

“There was really nothing extraordinary about my childhood,” Corby recalled in an interview. “Just like all the other kids, I walked to school, came home for lunch and played outside after school.”

The only exception to the “normalcy” was modeling. As a child, Corby began posing for the Boston Store in Wilkes-Barre, usually doing back-to-school advertisements. Her career took off when the family moved to New York City in 1958. Two weeks after walking into Eileen Ford’s modeling agency (supposedly to look for a summer job), Corby was sent on her first modeling assignment, a cover shoot for “Girl Scout Equipment” magazine.

By the end of the summer the assignments were coming so steadily that her parents enrolled her in Manhattan’s Professional Children’s School, which allowed for the irregular schedules of actors and models.

With her dark brown hair, glowing skin and piercing, green eyes, Colleen attracted the attention of several teen magazine editors and posed for the covers of the “Girl Scout Magazine,” “American Girl,” “Teen,” and “Co-ed.” She was already an experienced model by age 16 when she first appeared on the cover of “Seventeen” in April 1963.

“Seventeen” was a magazine that helped to shape teenage life in America by running music and movie reviews, identifying social issues and celebrating icons of popular culture.

During the 1960s, the magazine was also becoming a major influence in defining notions of beauty and style among adolescent females. Girls combed its pages, choosing their favorite brunette and blond models – Terry Reno, Joan Delaney, Rinske Hali, Wendy Hill, Jennifer O’Neil, and, of course, Colleen Corby – usually depending on their own coloring. 

At 5 feet 7 inches and just 107 pounds, Colleen was more petite than some of the other regular “Seventeen” models, but her alluring combination of unmistakable innocence and tempered boldness made her an ideal cover girl for the magazine. During the 1960s, Corby’s image appeared on the cover an unprecedented 15 times (five times in 1964 alone), and seemed to be on every other page. As a result, she became a hero for a whole generation of 13- to 18-year old girls.

In a profession filled with sensitive egos, Corby was somehow able to bond with a fairly small group of models who appeared together in the ads and editorial pages for “Seventeen.” They played off one another so smoothly that Corby was comfortable taking center stage or complimenting the lead of another model.

Model Sisters Colleen & Molly Corby

Unlike today’s supermodels, Corby lived quietly in a Manhattan apartment with her businessman father, stay-at-home mother and little sister, Molly, who was also a model. Between modeling assignments, she spent time doing homework, listening to Andy Williams records and answering her considerable fan mail.

“To be honest, modelling was just a job like any other job,” said Corby. “I didn’t get carried away with it because my family kept me grounded. Though we lived in New York City, my parents’ value system was shaped by the Wyoming Valley. They stressed hard work, doing one’s best and maintaining a sense of humility.”

Mid-1960s

During the mid-1960s, Corby’s popularity was at its peak. She had blossomed into a wholesome young woman whose 32-23-33 measurements attracted a new, adolescent male audience. Her image seemed to be everywhere: TV commercials, magazines and catalogs.

Naturally comfortable before a camera, Corby signed a multi-year movie contract with Universal Pictures. “Acting wasn’t really something I wanted to do,” she admitted. “As a model I had to take acting lessons and I was offered the contract. But I never actively pursued it”

By the 1970s, Corby’s teen market had vanished, but she continued to appear in magazines like “Glamour” and “Mademoiselle.” She was also a fixture in the catalogs of major retailers like Sears and JCPenney.

1970s

Corby retired from modeling in 1979 after her marriage only to return briefly to the profession in the early 1980s. After giving birth to two sons – Alexander and Christopher – she left New York and the fashion world for good and turned her full attention to raising a family.

“I had no regrets about walking away,” said Corby. “I wanted to get married and to have children, and you can’t really raise a family and be a full-time professional model. Besides, I was always very busy doing a lot of volunteer work at my sons’ schools.” Corby’s last public appearance came in 2000 on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” though she had some initial reservations. “I had put the modeling career in the past, and I really didn’t want to do the show,” said Corby. “But Oprah’s producers kept calling me, and many of my friends encouraged me to do it.

“As it turned out, the appearance was a very pleasant experience. I enjoyed meeting Oprah and was flattered to find out that I was her favorite model as a child. Apparently, she even papered her bedroom walls with some of the covers I did for ‘Seventeen.’

Corby, now age 68, believes she was fortunate to have been a fashion model in the 1960s. “It was a very different industry than it is today,” she said. “You didn’t have the same pressures (i.e., short deadlines, intense competition, anorexia, designer drugs) that now exist. We were very protected, especially working for ‘Seventeen Magazine.’ The Ford agency was also very careful with young models. It was just a more innocent time.” That innocence can still be found in the smiling face of an 11-year-old Corby who appeared on the cover of “Girl Scout Magazine” 50 years ago.

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Written by William Kashatus 

Info: http://citizensvoice.com/arts-living/colleen-corby-teen-fashion-icon-of-the-1960s-1.215293

Veronique Branquinho is a diverse Belgian designer who creates ladieswear, menswear, shoes, boots, sunglasses and lingerie. She has worked on several projects collaboratively with other designers and fashion manufacturers. Her designs fall into the luxury brand category, are well-tailored, and use the finest fabrics to create striking, yet lovely garments. She is in tune with the female body and believes that clothing should be made to fit perfectly, thus, making them more comfortable and more appealing. Her attention to detail through the use of quality fabrics is her signature feature.

After graduation, Veronique worked hard and released her first collection in 1997, a ready-to-wear womens line. Her label was called Veronique Branquinho. She was not afraid to show her work and was confident enough to present the collection on the Paris runway. All of the garments were clearly top quality, as she wanted everything to be perfect, right down to the finishing touches and magnificent detailing of each item. She was immediately known for her long pleated skirts which resembled kilts in a maxi styling length. Her womenswear collections would continue until Fall 2009.

Not long after Veronique’s first showing, she established an actual company in Antwerp, as she was growing from the orders from luxury companies like Barneys New York and Iris in Montreal. Boutiques in Moscow, Tokyo, London and Paris also wanted to stock her now famous label. By Fall 2003, she launched her menswear line which also continued successfully until 2009. One her most unique collections was the 2006 “his and hers” line. It was basically the same garments, but made for both men and women. The women’s line also had a skirt which was made from the same fabric as the men’s pants. When interviewed, she said that this was probably her favorite collection to date.

‘His and Hers’ Collection

Through the years, collaboration was important to Veronique and she has worked with numerous companies to create unique pieces. Examples include luxury eyewear with Linda Farrow, a British sunglass designer; leather goods with Raf Simmons for Ruffo Research, an Italian company; an exclusive sixteen-piece collection for 3 Suisses, a French catalog company selling upper end fashions; and jazz shoes for Repetto, the French company that specializes in ballet and dance footwear.

Veronique returned to fashion under her own name, three years after filing for bankruptcy. The designer set to return to the ready-to-wear (S/S 2013) schedule in Paris, with a slightly lower-priced offering than her former eponymous brand.

Created along with Italian clothing manufacturer Gibò, who has reportedly also invested in her company, the collection will be a “bit more adult” than her former designs, she says.

“I’ve always been a no-nonsense girl, I think,” the designer said. “My approach is also like that and I think this is something people are looking for – honest things… Before, I had an independent company. I was responsible for everything. In this new situation, it feels so comfortable, because I’m only busy with the creative part.”

A Magazine curated by Veronique Branquinho ( No.6)

Watch A Magazine curated by Veronique Branquinho by clicking on the link below

http://www.amagazinecuratedby.com/issues/veronique-branquinho/

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Veronique Branquinho  ®MARK SEGAL

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info:

http://www.belgian-fashion.com/veronique-branquinho-a-bio.php

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2012/06/25/veronique-branquinho-returns—catwalk-comeback

What Tom Ford did for Gucci in the 90ties was revolutionary and some of the designs are still iconic. Lately I wondered what happened during those days with Tom Ford and Gucci.

I am clearly not the only one, browsing the internet I found a recent article ‘Tom Ford Gets Candid About His Years at Gucci’ ( at the NY Magazine website), which I like to share. And to refresh the memories of the epic designs I included some video’s and photographs….. 

Gucci '96/'97 ad by Mario Testino, styling Carine Roitfeld
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In October 1994, the publicist for Gucci nearly begged journalists to attend Tom Ford’s first women’s show in Milan. Within a year, Ford would behailed as “the most directional designer in Milan” for his sleek tailoring and retro ’70s glamour. And Madonna dressed in a teal-blue satin shirt and hip-huggers at the MTV Music Video Awards, would invite even more attention when she chimed about her outfit, “Gucci, Gucci, Gucci.”

FW 1996 Tom Ford for Gucci KeyHole Gown  .

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/04/tom-ford-gets-candid-about-his-years-at-gucci.html

Paul Weller (born 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Starting out with the band The Jam (1976–82), Weller branched out to a more soulful style with The Style Council (1983–89), before establishing himself as a successful solo artist in 1991. He is also revered as one of the coolest men on the planet.

While Weller has been described as a punk, a soul boy, a pin-up for dad-rock and laddism, throughout it all he has been, first and foremost, a Mod (nicknamed the Modfather). Looking sharp is all important to Mods – it’s almost a religion to devotees – and for almost four decades Weller has been a style icon.

Paul Weller about style

I come from a time when every kid dressed up. Everybody. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to hang out. It was very tribal. There’s nice things in that. It’s culture, it’s roots for me. Maybe I just never grew up, mate.

When I was a kid in Woking, every week you went to the football dance, and every week the top kids would be wearing something different. You were constantly trying to catch up with them – which you could never do because, by the time you’d saved up enough to buy the item, they’d moved on to something else. That’s the whole Mod thing I suppose.

This was the late Sixties, early Seventies and we were all post-skinheads – suedeheads. We were little peanuts, too young to be proper skinheads. But those styles permeated down to the kids anyway. The main strand that forged it together was that American-college look, the Brooks Brothers look: the cardigans and sleeveless jumpers and the buttoned-down shirts and the Sta-Prest trousers. That was the common ground. It was a way for people who haven’t got much to make a show.

I can remember original Ben Sherman shirts being around till the early Seventies. I had to really save for my first Ben Sherman. We used to buy Brutus shirts, which were much cheaper – second best. But Ben Shermans were the sought-after item. The first one I ever got was a lemon-yellow one. I must have been 12, 13, and it was a bit too big for me. But being a kid I didn’t realise you could take it back to the shop. I wore it till it fitted me.

It’s the aesthetic that sticks in my mind. The colours and the look of things have stayed with me. It meant everything to me. It was a statement of intent. And I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have a Ben Sherman as they used to make ’em 40 years ago, or whatever it was. So I spoke to Ben Sherman about doing my own design, based on how they used to be, as near as dammit anyway. With a few little modern touches. I just did a little sketch, put all the details in: the bigger collar, bit more like a contemporary Italian collar, a few little touches here and there. It’s not rocket science.

Fashion Collaborations

Paul Weller for Ben Sherman shirt

Paul Weller for Hudson, a basket-weave shoe

Paul Weller for Fred Perry

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info:

http://www.mrporter.com/journal/journal_issue56/1#1

http://www.gigwise.com/features/100395/paul-weller-interview—fashion-&-style-noel-gallagher-pretty-green

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-448356/Paul-Wellers-rock-star-style.html

Former magazine cover girl Paulene Stone may not be as well-known as other models from the era but Paulene’s style was certainly what everyone wanted. The statuesque beauty embodied Swinging London more than any other, and her work with David Bailey is what the photographer has attributed to kicking off his career in 1960.

Paulene talks about her life

Paulene Stone has led an extraordinary life. A fashion model and three-time Vogue cover girl, she rose to fame during the 1960s, rubbing shoulders with many glittering names of the day and creating some of the decade’s most enduring images.

Stone was born in Hove in 1941. Her mother was a talented dressmaker with Katharine Hepburn looks, while her father was a commercial artist. She fell in love with fashion at a young age and quit school aged 16 with aspirations to become a model.

Ph. by David Bailey, 1964

She took a holiday job at a knotweed wholesale business in the local town, on a vague promise that it might involve some modelling work. “Well, I soon realised there was none and I ended up stacking shelves,” says Stone, who with her large eyes, enviable cheekbones and delicate features, still looks every inch the model.

One day, the owner’s daughter spotted an article in Woman’s Own, which invited readers to enter a modelling competition. “She said, ‘You’ve got to send a photograph of yourself,’” recalls Stone. “So I trotted down to the high street photographer and had an absolutely terrible picture taken. I sent it off and I won.”

The prize was a three-week modelling course with the prestigious Cherry Marshall Model Agency on Jermyn Street. Marshall, a former model herself with a 22-inch waist, became famous in the 1950s under the moniker Miss Susan Small. “Cherry was wonderful, she really pushed me.”

Ph. by John French

Soon tiring of the daily commute to London, an 18-year-old Stone packed her bags and moved to the big smoke, taking a room in a boarding house on Cranley Place in South Kensington. Armed with an A to Z and a Tube map, she quickly settled into London life. 

“I actually remember the last pea souper we had. I was driving to my boyfriend’s house and the fog was so thick. I drove down Buckingham Gate to turn left into Petty France and accidentally turned into Buckingham Palace, because in those days they just left the gates open. A policeman came up with a big hand through the fog and said, ‘’Ere, where do you think you’re going?’”

Stone’s modelling career began to take off in a big way. In 1960, aged 19, she was snapped posing with a squirrel by David Bailey for the Daily Express, in an iconic image that is credited with launching the photographer’s career. She landed her first Vogue cover three years later and went on to grace the front page twice more.

The King’s Road was the epicentre of the Swinging Sixties and the atmosphere was “fabulous”, declares Stone. “There were so many individual shops – Granny Takes a Trip, Top Gear, Countdown. By the time I was really hitting the King’s Road, I was dating Laurence Harvey (an Academy Award nominated actor). We would go down in a chauffeur-driven car, and people would stop to catch a glimpse of him. It always seemed to be sunny, and I’d be wearing my shortest hot pants or a miniskirt.”

Stone met Harvey – whom she affectionately calls Larry – through her journalist friend Peter Evans. “He said, ‘I’m having drinks with Laurence Harvey at The Connaught tonight, why don’t you come with me?’ Well, I’d seen him in Darling, and his character was so sleazy and horrible. But Peter persuaded me, so I went along. Larry opened the door of his suite and I just thought, ‘Wow.’ He was very tall, very handsome and great fun.”

Ph. by Brian Duffy, 1964
Ph. Helmut Newton, August 1964

Harvey “had one foot in old Hollywood, and one foot in new Hollywood”, says Stone. He made two films with Elizabeth Taylor and the couple socialized with her and her husband Richard Burton. “Richard was hypnotic. He had amazing green eyes and when he talked to you, he would just lock onto you.”

Then there was Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, Leslie Bricusse and his wife Evie, Michael Caine, Terence Stamp, former model Sandra Paul (now married to the politician Michael Howard) and Joan Collins, who Stone says is “wonderful”. “She’s so much fun.”

The couple married on New Year’s Eve, 1972, but tragically Harvey died of cancer just 11 months later. “He was only 45 and we didn’t know he had it,” told Stone. “It was very sad.” They had one daughter, the bounty hunter Domino Harvey, who died in 2005. A film based on her life, starring Keira Knightley and directed by Tony Scott, was released the same year.

Stone has another daughter, Sophie, from her first marriage to Take 6 fashion-chain founder Tony Norris, and a son, Harry, by her third husband Peter Morton, who co-founded the Hard Rock Café. Her fourth husband, the actor Mark Burns, passed away in 2007 after a struggle with cancer. Stone herself has battled the illness three times. “I feel lucky that I’m alive.” 

Despite being a model, Stone doesn’t wear many fancy clothes. “I like to wear separates. I never wear a dress. I’ll put on a sweater and jeans, or a T-shirt in the summer, with a nice jacket. I’ve always spent a lot of money on accessories, but I’ve never really gone in for fancy outfits, probably because when I was modelling, I was wearing them all day.”

Paulene Stone & her mother Mrs Sylvia Stone

Her first Vogue cover was a thrilling moment, she says. “I was quite chuffed, but I took it all in my stride. My mother was very proud – she kept all the cuttings.” Modelling was very different in the 1960s, she adds. “In those days you didn’t have a make-up artist or hairdresser. You even had to provide your own shoes – a neutral pair and a black pair.”

“You had to do it all yourself and you had to be pretty perfect too, because they didn’t retouch. There was none of this Photoshop stuff, thank you very much. Everything is so smoothed out now, I can’t believe it. We didn’t have any of that – we were the way we were.”

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Info://www.pubbiz.com/page/content/000082

Though perhaps lesser known than some of her disco-era colleagues, Donna Jordan ranks among the most influential models of all time. Before Lara Stone was even born, Donna was the bleach browed, gap-toothed beauty who set the trend. Whether she was being shot by photographers like Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin and Oliviero Toscani, or appearing in Andy Warhol films Donna demanded the attention of the fashion crowd.

Donna Jordan, Antonio Lopez & Pat Cleveland Donna with photographer Oliviero Toscani Donna Jordan, Andy Warhol & Jane Forth promoting the 1971 film, L'Amour

Once dubbed ‘Disco Marilyn’, Donna Jordan wasn’t very interested in becoming a model. But illustrator Antonio Lopez saw something special in her. Together with his life partner Juan Ramos, Antonio bleached Donna’s hair and eyebrows and a new model was ‘born’. “Antonio was magical,” says model Donna Jordan. “When I first met him in 1967, he was coming down the steps to Bethesda Fountain, in Central Park, dressed in a red suit. He was quite a vision.”

Jane Forth & Donna Jordan

Donna Jordan & Pat Cleveland
Vogue Italia, July 2015, ph. by Steven Meisel

Donna was part of YSL’s clique in Paris and a muse to Karl Lagerfeld. She was a firm believer in 40’s inspired shoulder pads, red lipstick and glamour! Like any Andy Warhol Superstar…she was also an “actress”! She starred in Andy Warhol’s L’Amour as an American gold digger in Paris (a role in which she had a steamy kissing scene with Karl Lagerfeld!!!).

Donna Jordan cover Vogue Paris, November 1971
Donna Jordan cover Vogue Italia, 1971
 

Donna Jordan tells:

In New York, late 1960’s, there used to be Be-Ins at Bethesda Fountain in central Park. Everybody would just go and hang out… real hippie stuff.  I was there one day with Jane Forth, when out of nowhere appeared Antonio Lopez in head-to-toe red: red suit, red top hat, red cane. All of that coming down the Bethesda stairs was such an amazing vision and for some reason there was a real connection. Antonio looked at Jane and me and we became immediately his muses. It was an instantaneous karmic kind of thing. We were just little kids, 17 years old – we’re talking 1967 – and suddenly are lives were transformed.

Antonio Lopez, Corey Tippin & Donna Jordan, st. Tropez 1970
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Every other night it was Carnegie Hall or Max’s Kansas City. Max’s was my living room and we would dance all night.  I was the only of my friends who had a job at – Paraphernalia, one of the first boutiques in New York City –  so I’d work all day and go out all night.

In 1969, after I’d had enough of New York and the whole Warhol scene, I went to London and kind of floated. Antonio found me again, I went to Paris and the rest is history.

Those were wild, crazy, fun, ridiculous times. I was living in the moment so much, I never thought about tomorrow and it all happened so fast, like a huge rush.

Aesthetically I think the Europeans were attracted to me, because I have such an open, American face. I booked the cover of French Vogue-their “pop” issue- which led me into an exiting time because Antonio’s influence was growing in Paris and we were like family. It was the midpoint of a transformation that changed my life.

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Info: CR Fashion Book, September 2013

Jane Forth by Jack Mitchell

In July 1970 Jane Forth, teenage supermodel appears on the cover of Life magazine. The four page colour spread with photos by Jack Mitchell was titled “Just Plain Jane” and described Forth as “a new now face in the awesome tradition of Twiggy and Penelope Tree.” It also noted that she had just turned seventeen and “claims no special talents.”

She was featured not only in several of Andy Warhol’s movies, but in the pages of American Vogue,Harper’s Bazaar, and many more magazines of the time. She modeled early wrap dresses for Diana Von Furstenberg and apprenticed with Halston. Known for her original style, and creative hair and makeup – she inspired many with her look then and now – including the creators of Dallas Buyers Club, who referenced her photos as inspiration for Jared Leto’s character in his Oscar winning role.

Jane Forth & Antonio Lopez

Forth became a sensation, Warhol Superstar and the downtown New york It Girl. Discovered working as a receptionist at the infamous Factory, she appeared in Warhol’s films ‘Women in Revolt’, ‘Trash’ and ‘L’Armour’. She also became the creative inspiration to fashion’s editorial elite.

In een interview in 2014, Forth (born 1953) recalls the inspiration behind her own famous use of make-up. She was being pulled toward older movies, particularly black-and-white films “due to their contrast,” she says. Forth’s favorites included Clara Bow, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Hedy Lamarr, Dorothy Lamour, Vivian Leigh, and Myrna Loy. To develop her own style, she says, “I experimented with many different looks as a young adolescent. I was not consciously looking to create something new as an image. I took my inspirations one step further and mixed it with my own creativity and artistic eye and my look appeared. It felt right and it felt very comfortable to me when I finally found it.”

“There were no hair products in those days. There was like Aquanet hairspray and shampoo. There were very little choices for products. I started to like the idea of very shiny hair– shiny hair pulled back, very flat and put in a bun. So that’s how I started to use Wesson oil. I would use cooking oil and I’d slick my hair and make it almost like patent leather!

To the question how she met Andy Warhol, Forth answers: “I had a boyfriend by the name of Jay Johnson. He was my first boyfriend and he had a twin brother. His twin brother was Jed Johnson, who was Andy’s boyfriend for many, many years. Jed lived with Andy for many years. I was seeing Jay, who is still alive and kicking. We had to go meet his twin brother Jed and that was in Andy’s home on Madison Avenue in his brownstone, where he lived with his mother. It’s odd because very rarely did anyone ever get to enter that brownstone, and that was my first meeting, which was actually in his home in his bedroom. It was a very unusual situation, because so many people (except for maybe Paul Morrissey and Jane Jett) were ever in that brownstone—and Fred Hughes. So, Jay had picked something up, and I was sitting in Andy’s bedroom. I remember there was a beautiful powder blue satin quilt on the bed. I was sitting there not even knowing whose home I was in, and just sort of rubbing my hand on this quilt, and I heard a voice go, ‘And who are you?’ I turned around and I said, ‘Oh, hi. I’m Jane. And I’m Jay’s girlfriend’ and that was it.”

Jane Forth & Andy Warhol

Forth traveled with Warhol and attended events with him. Yet her recollections are marked by more private moments Forth recalls, “My most vivid memory of Andy was receiving phone calls in the middle of the night from him to see if I was watching the same classic movie that he was watching.” And she usually was, she remembers. Forth also recalls spending summer weekends in Southampton with Warhol, Jed Johnson, Peter Brant, and Fred Hughes. On Sunday mornings, Warhol would sit under a giant tree and read the newspaper. Hughes would play Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and the group would at times venture into town to buy rhubarb pies, lobster salad, and fresh berries. She adds, “I would always buy my Yoo-hoos [chocolate milk]. I loved Yoo-hoo. […] It would be so quiet, relaxed, beautiful, so normal and peaceful and tranquil.”

About Andy Warhol:

“There were many faces of Warhol and it depended on your relationship with him and where you came into play with him. I can only speak to my relationship with Andy, in which he was very warm; he was very talkative with me. He was also flirtatious! He could be very flirtatious, absolutely.”

Jane Forth & Corey Tippen

Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club

Forth decided to give up her unique spot among the Factory Superstars. Warhol and her had a fight about it. “I found myself pregnant and did give up my career. I went into a whole different mode. In those days there weren’t a lot of single moms having babies on their own. I raised my child, my son, until I met my husband at that time, Oliver Wood, who I stayed married to for 22 years. He was a director of photography from England and he actually ended up doing  a lot of big movies in Hollywood. That’s who I ended up having two other children—my daughters—with. Later I went into makeup. After I had my son Emerson–when he was about six years old–I decided to start doing makeup for film work and special effects. I went to school at night, I self-taught myself and I got into the union. For many, many years I worked in the film business with makeup and special effects.”

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Trash

Jane Forth, then 17 years old, is best known for appearing in Paul Morrissey’s ‘Trash” (1970), alongside Joe Dallesandro. About her part in the movie, she says: “I played an upscale, richer woman who was a very bored, stay-at-home housewife. Well, I created this myself. This was the most exciting thing in the world– to have this junkie break into my apartment. It’s like, I was so bored day in and day out that this was like ‘Wow, this is fun!’”

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Jane Forth in 2012, ph. by Veronica Ibarra

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Info:

http://untitled-magazine.com/andy-warhol-superstar-jane-forth-on-the-factory-days-exclusive-interview/#.VfrILBHtmkp

http://www.refinery29.com/trend-watch

http://www.examiner.com/article/july-4th-1970-jane-forth-i-use-the-cheapest-make-up-on-the-market

Ph. by Richard Avedon, 1973
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Lauren Hutton was advised to correct the slight gap in her teeth and tried using morticians’ wax to cover the gap, cutting a line in the middle of it; this was followed by the use of a cap, which she would often swallow, laugh out or misplace. She eventually retained this “imperfection”…..

Hutton, who is now 71, was the Kate Moss of her time – almost as famous for her partying as for her incredible and enduring fashion career – and the outspoken beauty explained that there were millions of dollars to be made from modelling, even in the Seventies.

She was illiterate until age 11. After her mother remarried (Hutton never knew her father), the family of three moved from Charleston to the swamplands of Tampa, which she calls “a magical place.” Hutton spent her days as a carefree tomboy, and learned how to interact with wildlife from her stepfather.

She first came to NYC for a few-month stint, earning her rent as a “Lunchtime Bunny” at the Playboy Club. (She explained that the position of “Lunchtime Bunny” was reserved for 18-20 year-olds). She was there around the same time that Gloria Steinem and Debbie Harry were also working at the Club, although they never interacted, since the ladies who would later be known as the godmother of feminism and Blondie, respectively, had the distinction of being Nighttime Bunnies.

Lauren Hutton as a Lunchtime [Playboy] Bunny
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She was born as Mary Laurence Hutton, but blame it on Playboy for the switcheroo: There were apparently too many cocktail waitresses named Mary, so she decided to riff on her middle name and go with Lauren, inspired by none other than Lauren Bacall.

Hutton got into moddeling after she saw a want ad in the New York Times for a Christian Dior model, “experience required.” Her friend’s boyfriend told her she needed to go to the audition anyway. “I said, ‘I don’t have experience,‘ and he said, ‘Of course you do.’ I had my first great New York lesson: Lie.” She did get the job—though the fact that she offered to do it for less than minimum wage ($50 a week) was probably also a factor.

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Hutton about her first meeting with Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. “‘You have quite a presence,’ Vreeland told me. I did not know what presence meant.  I figured it was good. I said, ‘Yes ma’am, so do you.’ She said, ‘You stay after.’ I opened my book and she said, ‘I think I’ll call Dick [Avedon.]'” 

It was her first big shoot with famed photographer Richard Avedon, and things were not going well. “I was trying to be Veruschka, and that was terrible,” she says. When, in the hopes of finding something that would inspire her, Avedon asked her questions about her childhood, she revealed that she used to love jumping over snakes. He told her to leap and jump in the photo, and the rest was history. “That started the run-and-jump pictures…because I couldn’t model.”

Run-and-Jump Pictures by Richard Avedon

She was the very first model to nab a beauty contract—and it was all her idea. Up until then, modeling was an occupation that was paid by the hour. But Hutton knew that she was a hot commodity. “Twiggy had quit, Veruschka was doing something else, Shrimpton was off doing something else—everyone had quit. I was the only one left!” But when she caught a glimpse of a New York Times article about a man who had received a $1 million contract for his own job, she said, “How can I do that?” She mentioned her idea to Avedon, who told her to up the ante and make it exclusive. She pitched it to Revlon, and in 1973, at age 31, she signed the first-ever modeling contract with Revlon for a sum of $400,000. She was the face of the mega-brand until they let her go about 10 years later.

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Lauren Hutton appeared on the front cover of Vogue magazine a record 41 times!

Lauren Hutton & Christy Turlington

Veruschka, Isabella Rossellini Lauren Hutton, Steven Meisel 1988

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In October 2000, Hutton joined a motorbike group, which included actors Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishburne and Jeremy Irons, to celebrate “The Art of the Motorcycle” exhibit at the Hermitage-Guggenheim museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. Prior to the journey, Hutton informed the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “I love the feeling of being a naked egg atop that throbbing steel. You feel vulnerable — but so alive.” En route, Hutton crashed near Hoover Dam, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada, going over 100 miles (160 km) per hour, and suffered multiple leg fractures, a fractured arm, broken ribs and sternum, and a punctured lung. Hopper later recalled from before the start of the ride: “She had on a little helmet, sort of tied under her chin. It was cute. And Jeremy [Irons] came up to her and said, ‘You got to be kidding.’ He took it off her and gave her a proper helmet.”

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About American Gigolo:

“Everyone knew it was great, that it was ahead of its time. Paul [Schrader] had been trying to get it made for ten years. He’s a genius idea man, and a genius producer. He was one of the first people to use popular music the way he did in that film, with Blondie. Originally, John Travolta had the lead role. He was fresh off of Saturday Night Feverand Grease, which together had made a quarter of a billion dollars. There were entire rooms in Paramount stuffed with his fan mail. What happened was, two weeks before we were to start, John’s mother died. He was just a 24 year-old kid. He was in real agony. Then his dad had a heart attack. So John asked for a two week extension so he could pull himself together emotionally, and also lose some of the weight he’d put on during this time. And they wouldn’t give him an extension. Everyone was going to sue him. It was just a mess. So what John had to do to get out of it, was give Paramount a deal where they chose his movies, and he had no say. And prior to that, John had what no other actor in town had, which was final cut. Plus, John was very romantic. If John had played the role, it would have been much more romantic and you would have seen the gigolo kiss. With Richard [Gere], you never really see the gigolo kissing. You see everything leading up to it. You see his expertise in dressing, more than his expertise at romance.”

“The character of Julian Kaye was a bit removed and completely narcissistic. It was his narcissism that blinded him to the conspiracy around him, but you would have had a populist hit if there had been more romance in the film. As it was, it wasn’t a hit when it came out, but became a classic in retrospect on cable and home video. So we ended up being lucky, because Richard is such a wonderful actor, and he became a star because of that role, deservedly.”

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“We have to be able to grow up. Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life. They are what we have been through and who we want to be. I don’t think I will ever cut my face, because once I cut it, I’ll never know where I’ve been.” 

Lauren Hutton

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info:

Wikipedia

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2014/05/16/lauren-hutton-interview—model-on-fashion-and-dating

http://www.wma.com/lauren_hutton/bio/LAUREN_HUTTON.pdf