If your interest begins and ends at the red carpet, the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Gala doesn't change all that much from year to year. As the CFDA's Steven Kolb put it last night: "Sometimes you walk in straight, sometimes you come in from the left, sometimes you come in from the right."
On the other hand, there's more to this particular fashion party than a glamorous entrance, and each edition informs the next. Last year's opener for the Alexander McQueen exhibition—a potent mix of spectacle, timeliness, and emotional punch—would seem to have raised the bar. Rather than try to come up with another single-designer blockbuster, this year the museum has boldly (you might even say provocatively) put two designers head-to-head, in Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.
One has long belonged to the history books and the other is still going strong, but Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada are a couple of the most fearless nonconformists the fashion world has ever celebrated, and some guests couldn't but wonder what it might have been like had they literally shared a room.
"It would be very fiery—these are two powerful Italian women, and I think in their ways both quite complicated," offered Lady Amanda Harlech. "But I think they'd end up loving each other, and I think that would be a really exciting film."
As it happened, so did Baz Luhrmann. The director's short videos of Prada and "Schiap" conversing (featuring the Australian actress Judy Davis as the latter, reading from the designer's memoirs) play alongside the clothing exhibits, helping to drive home the idea of continuity and creative back-and-forth.
Prada didn't exactly bask in the attention. She barely broke her stride on the way in, pausing only to do a perfunctory live-stream interview with Elettra Wiedemann. "She's not comfortable with it at all," explained Luhrmann, who's close to the designer. "But it's part of being a creative force. You have to front."
Or, perhaps, let the kids and A-listers take the spotlight for you. More than a few of them employed Schiaparelli's trademark pink, the bright one the French still call "le shocking." That was the color of Poppy Delevingne's lips, of Lena Dunham's Stella McCartney pumps, and of the top that Coco Rocha paired with her vintage jumpsuit, a Givenchy number that once belonged to Elizabeth Taylor.
For all the praise lavished upon Schiap's sense of whimsy and her work with Salvador Dalí, there was little resembling one of the designer's famous bug necklaces or shoe hats in sight. Linda Fargo and Cameron Silver were exceptions to the rule, the latter arriving with a blowfish skewered on his walking stick.
Among the dozen or so dressed in Prada, Gwyneth Paltrow and Carey Mulligan, who served as co-chair, brought extra dazzle. Alexander Wang accompanied Azealia Banks, who performed after dinner. Pucci's Peter Dundas dressed Renée Zellweger. "No tape," he reported. "She's got very good posture."
Despite scoring a pile of pre-event headlines for dressing Kate Upton, Michael Kors arrived with Hilary Swank on his arm. "He is suave and wonderful and funny and charming. He picked me up at my apartment, like a gentleman," she cooed.
That's one kind of conversation that was going on at the Met. The more serious one proposed by the Met's curators awaited inside, and Joseph Altuzarra wondered what it would be like to be a third party in it. "I'd be totally intimidated," he confessed. "Although, I am in rooms with fiery Italian women during fittings for weeks on end, and it's usually OK."
Moments later, Giambattista Valli thought over the same proposition. "More scary to do this," he decided, scanning the canopied, raucous, celebrity-packed corridor leading up to the museum's doors, "than to sit and talk with amazing people."
—Darrell Hartman read more..
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
The Metropolitan Museum-Costume Institute Gala-Elsa Schiaparelli-Alexander Mcqueen
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Traditional Museum-Francesco Vezzoli-Central Gallery-Collaborators-Miuccia Prada
After the success of the Double Club in London, Paris was an obvious target for another of Prada's cultural interventions. The 24 h Museum was exactly that, an imposing exhibition space constructed inside the Palais d'Iéna for all of one day. Prada's collaborators this time were the art provocateur Francesco Vezzoli and Rem Koolhaas's design team AMO, who mimicked the traditional museum setup with a central gallery of classical "sculptures" (photographic images of ancient statues mounted on Perspex, with contemporary features superimposed). There was even a monumental techno-goddess in the grand stairway of the Palais, à la the Winged Victory at the Louvre. The 24 h Museum opened last night with a party that was a work of art in itself. First, there was a dinner for 120 or so, in the central gallery. As party guests began to arrive and the gallery's metal grill doors were briefly closed, it became clear that we were actually in a huge cage. That fit right in with the conceptual mind games Vezzoli and his patron Miuccia Prada play so well. Super-chef Alain Passard, who specializes in extraordinary vegetariana, did the menu. I tasted a hibiscus reduction for the first time in my life. Entertaining (on a grand scale) footnote: All the tableware, glasses, and cutlery apparently came from Miuccia's home. After dinner, there was a disco in the Salon des Refusés, the room where museums would traditionally store things that were rejected from exhibitions. Kate Moss directed the music—Dexys Midnight Runners, David Bowie, George Michael, the hits of your (or at least her) life. It's easy to imagine the Herculean effort that went into making the 24 h Museum happen. That's power. But it looks like power is Prada's theme this season. The shadow cast by Miuccia's star-injected men's show last week is a long one. She got another celebrity turnout last night, from Polanski and Deneuve to Salma Hayek and Diane Kruger, with a smattering of art world stars. Still, the ever-contrary Vezzoli said, "This is a night when romanticism trumps power." Mind you, it was romance with a twist. The artist also claimed inspiration from the Oedipus complex. It was his mother's eyes that were superimposed on every statue.—Tim Blanks read more..
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Angelina Jolie And Brad Pitt-Salvatore Ferragamo-Julianna Margulies-Foreign Language
There were movie stars on the runway at Miuccia Prada’s menswear show in Milan tonight, but with apologies to Mrs. P, she had nothing on the red carpet at the 69th annual Golden Globes in Hollywood. And for sheer star power, no one came close to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, the former in Atelier Versace and the latter in Salvatore Ferragamo. Angie went home empty-handed (her directoral debut, In The Land of Blood and Honey, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and lost), but she won the evening's best-dressed competiton, no contest. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of knockout looks. We loved Best Actress winner Michelle Williams in her covered-up Jason Wu gown (long sleeves are a percolating trend: see Julianna Margulies in Naeem Khan and newly engaged Jessica Biel in Elie Saab). Tilda Swinton remained loyal to Paris designer Haider Ackermann and it paid off. And Claire Danes and Kate Winslet (who also accepted prizes) both looked great—not to mention occasion-appropriate—in their black and white columns; Danes' was J. Mendel and Winslet's was Jenny Packham. Some actresses, on the other hand, let their enthusiasm get the better of them. Mermaid dresses are better suited to the Oscars; and ball gowns are better left for prom night. And there were a few too many down-to-the-navel plunging numbers for comfort. We must have the legacy of Elizabeth Taylor, as well as plenty of double-sided tape, to thank for that.—Nicole Phelps read more..