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Posts Tagged ‘Met Gala’

Fashionable Quote of the Week by Anna Wintour

Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Karl Lagerfeld and his creations for Chanel. Photo: Getty images.

Speaking of her good friend Karl Lagerfeld’s fashions Anna Wintour says:

… uniform, a kind of armor and a way of holding certain moods and memories close. His fashion does for me what fashion should. It makes me feel more confident in being myself.

Anna Wintour – British born editor-in-chief of American Vogue.

This quote is from the New York Times article Anna and Karl, a Love Story in Clothes by Vanessa Friedman, April 27, 2023.

Tonight, May 1st, is the fashion event of the year – The Met Gala, where over 400 invited guests will gather at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and strut their couture fashions up the red carpet. In control of the gala since 1995 is Anna Wintour, who chooses the theme, the food, the décor, and most importantly who gets invited. (Project Runway’s Tim Gunn has been banned for insulting Anna and the entire Kardashian clan wasn’t invited this year perhaps because of sister Kim’s controversial dress stunt in 2022.)

A fundraiser for the Costume Institute housed at the museum, tickets cost $35,000 each and tables start at $300,000, but don’t think that that kind of cash says you can invite who you want to your table. Ah, no! Anna decides who dines with whom.

The Costume Institute fundraiser dates back to 1948 when fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert organized a midnight supper, which soon became the party of the year but strictly for socialites. When in 1973 former fashion editor Diana Vreeland took over, the event began to expand. But it’s really Anna who has created the celebrity circus that it is today; and with the circus come the big bucks. Last year’s gala raised over 17 million dollars.

Each gala theme reflects the current fashion exhibition. This year’s theme is a tribute to late German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (1933-2019) and the exhibition, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty runs from May 5 – July 16, 2023.

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Lena Dunham Sells Clothes With The Real Real, Donates to Planned Parenthood

Posted in Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on July 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

"Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art Of The In-Between" Costume Institute Gala - Arrivals

Not an easy gown to wear.  No wonder she’s selling it.

WWD reported last week that actress Lena Dunham teamed up with online luxury consignment platform The Real Real to pass along some of her wardrobe goodies.

Included in the sale were several of the pieces she wore on her television show, Girls as well as shoes, graphic t-shirts, and the Elizabeth Kennedy gown (priced at $4000) that Dunham sported to this year’s Met Gala. So far the sales total over $26,000, which will be donated to Planned Parenthood. 

The Real Real often works with celebrity clients, who donate their commissions to charities.

Great idea!

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Fashionable Quote of the Week by Andrew Bolton

Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcons spring/summer 1997

What’s so inspiring about Rei is that for her the body has no bounds, and fashion itself has no limits. That to me is what her legacy is — the body and the dress body in fashion is limitless … When you think about what’s been achieved in the last 40 years and the types of things we take for granted now — the unfinished, asymmetry, black as a fashionable color were pioneered by Rei. But beyond the formal aspects of that, she has always rebuffed the status quo … I feel if Rei didn’t exist we would have to invent her to explain the last 40 years because her impact in fashion is that big.

– Andrew Bolton, curator of the current Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC exhibit, Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between. 
This quote is from an interview with Mr. Bolton for Women’s Wear Daily.

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Paired with ballerina flats. Look at the tight shoulders. Kind of like she’s wrapped up.

I was just reading about Rei Kawakubo in a book about avant-garde fashion (Fashion Game Changers: Reinventing the 20th Century Silhouette, Bloomsbury). She says there is no meaning to her designs and yet people seem compelled to find something behind (between?) the unexpected bumps, pads, layers and outrageous silhouettes.

I find her fascinatingly inaccessible. I don’t know what to make of her designs except that they are:

1. Completely noncommercial.

2. They look like they’re challenging to wear.

3. They remind me of Leigh Bowery, the British club kid of the 1980s who also came up with some wild unflattering silhouettes.

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Leigh Bowery original design, 1980s.

There is one very big difference between the two – Mr. Bowery played in a dark and freaky arena, by making everything larger than life. Not to mention his makeup and masks. Ms. Kawakubo stays within the non-freak zone by using (sometimes) feminine prints and colors and showing her clothing on lovely mainstream models. She certainly bumps up against freak (pun intended!) but with a light, quiet hand.

I would say that perhaps Ms. Kawakubo uses the body as a canvas, so to speak, for her sculptures. And in doing so she has, as Mr. Bolton points out, impacted fashion.
Fashion model Anna Cleveland, an attendee of the recent Met Gala calls Ms. Kawakubo’s designs, “Walking art.”
Click here for more information on Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between on now at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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