Dedicated to a young designer
For months I noticed an empty condominium across from my apartment building, between which is an empty lot, a carriage house, and two storage buildings with bamboo doors leaning against real doors. There is also a leafy tree between my building and the floor-to-ceiling windows of the condominium. The owners ran out of money to finish the building, leaving it full of supplies. That is not hard to see. The tree does not always have its leaves.
Last summer, I saw two people leaning back onto the empty and new balcony of the condominium. Inside during the same week a mannequin appeared. After the mannequin, a table, a lamp and a girl in the window. More mannequins in the next weeks and clothing on the mannequins. The single girl and her things became permanent in the window and she slowly dressed the mannequins, one piece on each mannequin, as she made the pieces.
Mayle dress, cream cotton & black satin
Birkett black & beige leather skirt
Her fashion line grew into the exposed hallways behind her room.
Marni cap-sleeved layered front & back v-neck dress
At some point the girl was aware of being seen. She hung a tarp over her window and worked at night, her silhouette and all of the silhouettes of the mannequins behind.
Stella McCartney mint silk, layered panel silk dress
I could see the number of mannequins growing into the next room from their excessive forms outlined behind the tarp.
Grea Zen tie-waist cape; Dries Van Noten cotton wrap skirt; Alexander McQueen charcoal leather vest
That was all in the summer. The mannequins are gone from behind the tarp and the light has never come on again. Looking through the racks of INA Noho this week, I remembered that her designs were very rudimentary, made with raw materials, seams and closures exposed, constructed with grommets and little adornment.
Staff Picks: Krista's Electric Closet
Our Krista, manager of INA Soho, may be found emerging from a rave on an early weekend morning in midtown.
I asked Krista to pretend that she was getting dressed for Electric Zoo, the electronic music festival on Randall's Island, or to choose what in the INA racks have “rave” written all over them.
Krista told me that, “the lights are too bright, the auditory experience too much. At night, the sunglasses are a frame for the lights, for everything.”
It’s easy to lose your friends in the crowd, but who cares, because in the crowd, there is, “only dancing, only fun, only love, and only making new friends.”
Chanel multi-colored vintage hoop earrings, above; Lisa Marie Fernandez turquoise scuba dress, below.
Talking is wasted energy. High-treble, synthetic remixing of pop lyrics are the only object.
So turn up the sound now/
Make it feel louder/
Who is it playing/
Are you still here/
Who's all around now/
Are you still listening/
What are they saying/
Was it clear/
Below, Proenza Schouler multi-colored woven, knee-length coat
A rave is "Willy-Wonka and neon absurdity", said Krista, "even for the most practical items: a pair of Comme Des Garcons for Tretorn sneakers broken-in ahead of time, and a weather-proof Lisa Fernandez body suit, tucked into shorts."
Turn up the sound now/
Lost in the crowd and/
I haven't heard this one before/
Turn up the sound now/
What are you saying/
No, I'm not listening anymore/
Above, Dior fur hat, also available in black
Over-bowing It
My favorite bows are ornamental golden bows, bowties, bows to the side, bows underneath, bows around stems. The outlines of bows. Bows for wreaths. Buildings wrapped in bows. Squashed and not ironed bows.
The hair underneath a bow scarf becoming more and more disheveled. The band of a bow loosened and retied several times a day.
Bows in the shapes of rabbit ears, tightly tied, and loosely tied bows in looped knots.
A flat way of wearing a bow, secured on top of a satin shoe. When a bow is tied around the neck. Headbands knotted in the shapes of bows and hanging among the purses in a store. Bows as fasteners.
Fuzzy knitted bows. Sharp bows, round bows. Detachable bows and attached bows. Bows with ruffles, or cashmere bows.
Out-of-place bows worn by children at crowning moments and alert bows. Velcro bows. Flowers confused for bows. Every kind of bow I can think of. Bows in conjunction, one bow on each shoulder.
Bows that unzip. Bloated, crocheted bowties and also dapper ones. Handmade bows that come on a cardboard card. White leather bows with no purpose.
A man looking after a woman, his bow left untied from his hood in the winter. Bows of wicker. Bows down the back of a shirt.
La Perla (beaded & crocheted sleeveless silk rust) and Marc Jacobs tops, tie-back bows, INA Chelsea
Christian Louboutin satin feathered bow purse, INA Soho
Cashmere sweater with long bowtie, INA Nolita
Fendi sequined front & mesh back top; Wade Blackmon hood with suspenders and tie, INA Chelsea
Vintage cashmere gloves with bow detail, INA Soho
Marni silk dress with drawstring bow collar, INA Nolita
Lanvin dress with zipper-through-bow detail, front & back, INA Nolita
CROP bow tie, cube bow of clear plastic and Tiemension bow tie with Swarovski crystals, INA Men
Description of Tony Before a Night Out, in Saturday Night Fever
The camera pans across a SuperPro hairdryer to Tony, his hair blown. He looks in the mirror, brushes his hair out with a round brush. The camera cuts away to a future dance floor, and back to Tony brushing his hair with a thick-bristled brush. To the right of his mirror, a poster hangs of a shirtless kung-fu fighter, and underneath, a poster of a girl looking into the distance in gold lamé.
Gold-plated Noir ring, Chelsea
To the left of the mirror is a poster of Rocky after a fight. Tony looks at the poster of the fighter and himself, both shirtless at the same time. Tony flexes his arms, bringing them together, meeting at the fists. The camera takes a wide angle of his fists from below lacking the wristbands of the fighter.
Louis Vuitton red buckled cuff clasping a white leather Tiffany tote, Chelsea
The camera zooms in on a poster of Farrah Fawcett by the door, then on Tony’s jewelry box as Tony pulls out, first, a necklace. The camera returns to a wide angle from below as Tony fastens the jewelry, then to the dancers in the club, then to a close-up of the gold cross around Tony’s neck. He grabs a second piece of gold.
Michael Kors gold men's wristwatch, Chelsea
Donald Donahue cufflinks and shirt studs, mother of pearl, INA Men, Nolita
Tony walks to his closet, pulls the chain to turn on the light. He throws a shirt on, zips up his pink trousers over it. The camera takes the point of view of the clothes rack in a closet full of shirts.
Vivienne Westwood pants with red and black cotton straps, Moschino red velvet pants, both INA Men, Nolita
Junya Watanabe men's sequined blouse, Chelsea
The camera pans back to the mirror as Tony dances, fastening his ring tighter onto his finger, and brushing his hair until his father walks in on him. The camera zooms to a close up of Tony’s father looking down on Farrah’s gold chain.
Berluti leather briefcase, INA Men, Nolita
"It's time for dinner," the father says.
"I have my shirt on. I don't want to get anything on it."
"What are you worried about?" the father says. "Your mother's spaghetti sauce don't drip. It don't drip and it don't taste." Tony dances in the mirror, brushes his hair. His father leaves.
YSL lightweight men's trench, Chelsea
Alessandro Del'Aqua white silk tie loosely tied over YSL trench, Chelsea
Schiaparelli and Prada Come to INA
I visited the MET to see the Schiaparelli and Prada “Impossible Conversations” exhibition and was curious to find which, if any, of these exhibited pieces had turned up at INA since the exhibition’s opening. A re-enacted video conversation between Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli structures the categories of the exhibition, as if Schiaparelli was alive and could speak to Miuccia in a private dining room, and that the conversation was a casual one eavesdropped upon by us.
Schiap designed decorative pieces for women during “café society,” as she called it, when women sat at cafes, their top-halves visible, their bottom-halves under the table.
Above: Crustacean Schiaparelli clip-on earrings, INA Soho
In the spirit of things, I wandered around, listening to off-handed conversations held in the museum amidst the displays, room to room. Schiaparelli’s emphasis on decoration led her to embroider the cuffs and collars of jackets with as much detail as her hats of red celluloid grapes and metal leaf chokers.
Above: Silk fuchsia dress embroidered with a sequin croquet set, by Chloe under the direction of Karl Lagerfeld during the 1980s, who most likely found inspiration in Schiaparelli's thematic embroidery. Refer to Schiap's pink blazer woven with circus horses in metallic threads and closed by acrobat buttons, in "Naif Chic".
In front of me on display in the “Naif Chic” section of the exhibition, Prada’s gray and black striped cotton canvas skirts with Baroque scrolls and pineapples are paired with banana-printed button-down shirts.
A woman exclaims, “This is just awful! What was Prada thinking? I mean, bananas?”
She looks around noticing that others have heard her. “Sorry,” she says.
Her friend objects, “I would love to wear bananas, if only I could!”
A young girl stares at Prada’s grey silk duchesse satin shorts printed with palm trees, and then in her own world, but aloud, says, “I am strangely drawn to these shorts.”
This Venetian printed canvas tote also has a mind for tourism, from Prada’s 2004 Spring/ Summer collection, INA Soho
Further down, in the “Surrealist Body” corridor, I encounter a black silk satin dress embroidered with pressed metal bottle tops. The lady beside me says, to her friend, "Well, I don't think they're bottle caps."
“It says here on the label, that, the material was inspired by recycled materials used in Africa.”
“I’m on the fence about the material’s origins.”
“And are you on the fence about the dress?”
“I'd say we're on the fence.”
“It's pretty interesting anyway. Different. Let’s say different.”
A man and a woman look intently at trompe l'oeil pleats. “The fabric is flat, I say flat,” the lady repeats to her elderly husband.
“I see pleats all round,” says the man.
“No! There are no pleats in this skirt. Pleats have been printed onto the fabric of the skirt. This skirt, I tell you, has the appearance of having pleats.”
In “Waist Up/ Waist Down”, one man talks to another, “The color of the velvet jacket, is it forest green?”
“Hard to tell.”
The men compliment the collars of Schiaparelli’s many jackets, and the women can’t stop looking at the chandelier mules.
Above: Prada chandelier mule, clear crystal with acrylic heel, INA Nolita
Summer Reading
Almost without warning, warmer weather approaches, and with the warmer weather, time to spare. For all of the literature we discarded during busier seasons, the time has come to compose a reading list of best-sellers.
“The most beautiful books are the most invisible ones, just as a pink chemise with embroidered flowers by Marc Jacobs would be almost meaningless without a label and just as a Prada shoe should carry a red stripe down its sole or a bag by Louis Vuitton should have its initials prominently scrambled all over its surface in order to be read. And by read I mean not read in any meaningful way. After all, who has really read a bag by Louis Vuitton or a sweater with a deliberately unraveled collar by Martin Margiela although I have read these things for many hours of the afternoon?”
Tan Lin, Seven Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004. The Joy of Cooking, Page 66
Throughout the stores this week, accessories have been in abundance, namely bags, belts and jewelry that close by heavy metal clasps, proudly displaying their names, or more discretely leaving their signature behind.
Below are some of my favorite reads, and can be found at your local INA Soho, Chelsea, and Nolita stores:
1. Margiela unisex black leather and blue silk Obi belts, Chelsea
2. Marni paper chain necklace, bronze, Soho
3. Alexander Wang Tai Doop Kit briefcase, belt closure, Soho
4. Tanner Krolle pressed leather purse, gold hook hardware, Soho
5. YSL bracelet, black disc and gold stake clasp, Chelsea
6. Louis Vuitton black Pulsion Lockit purse, shearling, Nolita
7. Balenciaga straw bag, black leather motorcycle detail, Nolita