Lauren Santo Domingo on doing your own thing
-- Lauren Santo Domingo, in a good Q&A with blogger Mark D. Sikes.
LSD is someone with whom I intrinsically have very little in common (she was born wealthy in New England and has the Bergdorf blonde hair and style and savvy and je ne sais quoi that goes along with all of that, in addition to being a founder of a successful company.) I just dig that she is so unabashedly who she is.
"A complete Gump moment"
Backstage, Rei Kawakubo awaits the people who will come to congratulate her, and to seek an explanation. The founder of Comme des Garçons hardly ever goes out on the runway. She is a tiny woman, a force of will.
An editor asks in earnest about shape, silhouette.
Ms. Kawakubo mumbles something in Japanese, which her husband, Adrian Joffe, next to her, translates:
'She says she couldn’t think of anything new, so she decided not to make any clothes.'
It was a complete Gump moment, as when the Tom Hanks character decided to stop running and return home to Alabama, leaving his followers stranded in the middle of nowhere. What did it mean? It meant absolutely nothing."
Once again, Cathy Horyn's writing in the New York Times Style section is by far the best reason to pay attention to fashion news. I wish she'd do more of her individual profiles.
Also, between Comme des Garçons bascially punking everyone and Rick Owens' decision to showcase his Spring 2014 designs on several gorgeous step teams (instead of on a fleet of emaciated teenaged models, which is unfortunately the norm), it sounds like this might have been the best Paris Fashion Week of all time.
Lilly Pulitzer on parties
"That's what life is all about. Let's have a party. Let's have it tonight."
-- from Essentially Lilly: A Guide To Colorful Entertaining, via AP's Lilly Pulitzer obituary
I have never been a big fan of Lilly Pulitzer's dresses (though many stylish women have sworn by them through the years. I think you may have to have gone to prep school or been in a sorority to really pull them off?) But after reading up about her since her passing this past weekend at the age of 81, I am definitely a fan of her snappy bon mots and laid-back approach to entertaining (and shoes, and underwear, and life in general.)
Recommended reading: Vanity Fair's July 2003 profile "Palm Beach's Barefoot Princess" and W Magazine's December 2008 profile "Lilly Land."
Recommended reading: Vanity Fair's July 2003 profile "Palm Beach's Barefoot Princess" and W Magazine's December 2008 profile "Lilly Land."
The freedom of a jaded world
"Maybe it’s not a good moment to shock people, because they won’t be shocked anyway. Maybe it’s not a good moment to please people, because they won’t be pleased all the way."
-- Raf Simons, who recently assumed the role of creative director at famed fashion house Dior, on his latest collection, which has been praised by critics for "clothes with exceptional beauty and calm, especially for today"
This specifically was said about fashion, but I think it can apply to a lot of different areas these days in our media-saturated and always-on society. Viewed from a pessimist's perspective it could seem like this would spur a "who cares" kind of apathy -- but with a glass half full approach, this kind of world can actually start to sound really freeing.
