The 101: Vivienne Westwood

Everything you need to know about the ultra-influential punk designer.

The 101 is an ongoing series that provides a concise and informative breakdown of subjects that range from fashion brands to furniture.Of the fashion industry’s many dissidents few have proven as inflexible as the original punk, Vivienne Westwood. Dame Westwood’s contributions to fashion are so vast that several books have been assembled to properly assess her legacy.

However, it’s worth starting with one key point in her history: her provocative store co-founded with Sex Pistols manager and future husband Malcolm McLaren in the mid ‘70s. SEX — eventually renamed Seditionaires, then World’s End — was where Westwood first distributed her intentionally-shoddy handmade garments, ranging from graphic tees emblazoned with breasts, swastikas and religious symbols (since referenced by countless devotees) to bondage trousers (also frequently referenced).

Westwood and McLaren, 1977

The influence of Westwood’s punk-era designs ran in stark contrast to the fashion industry, but their influence still reverberated throughout. For instance, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo made their controversial Parisian debuts shortly after shopping at SEX, at least partially inspired by Westwood’s disintegrating knitwear and anti-establishment ethos. Indeed, Westwood’s Fall/Winter 1994 range showcased comically exaggerated anatomies merely three years before Kawakubo’s iconic Spring/Summer 1997 show, referred to by fans as the “Lumps and Bumps” collection.

Westwood’s same uprooting attitude fueled the subversive Ura-Hara movement, including the designs of Hiroshi Fujiwara and Jun Takahashi. years later, Westwood’s widespread influence was reaffirmed when even Dolce & Gabbana admitted to transparent imitation.

In an industry packed with legacy-hungry designers, few can claim more innovation than Westwood. Her legendary 1981 Pirates runway show predated Jean Paul Gaultier’s nautical dabbling later that decade, while her strappy, upcycled bondage trousers informed creations from the likes of Christopher Nemeth, Helmut Lang and Maison Margiela. Other inimitable creations include Westwood’s armor rings and signature rocking horse shoes — Westwood and McLaren also supported George Cox’s trademark creepers, which have since become a symbol of punk rebellion.

The visual language of punk isn’t Westwood’s alone to claim, but her skill in translating the movement’s attitude to wearables remains a lasting point of strength — what other living designer can say they effectively outfitted a musical revolution? Westwood’s take-no-prisoners attitude has never wavered, and the designer remains an activist and figure of change. Throughout the years, she’s donated to and promoted the UK’s environmentally-focused Green Party, launched Climate Revolution, publicly mocked Margaret Thatcher and and invited activists to perform during a runway show, to name a few notable acts. Westwood puts her money where her mouth is, catering to her deeply-held credo over fashion’s fickle tastes.

Though Westwood’s design acumen is far from negligible, her rebellious, headline-making designs are perhaps her best-known and most forward-looking. Prior to Westwood, designers like Pierre Cardin and Gaultier stirred up plenty controversy within the fashion system, but Westwood constantly battled conventionality and trends from the outside-in. Consider Westwood’s iconic mini-crini dress, revealed in Spring/Summer 1985 as a progressive revision of the stodgy crinoline dress, a symbol of 19th-century conservatism.

Similarly, her forward-thinking usage of tartan and Harris Tweed elevated Scotland’s traditional patterns and textiles from intentionally-unfashionable heritage into striking dresses for Fall/Winter 1987’s “Harris Tweed” collection. Or, examine her aggressive dissection of traditional fabrics for Spring/Summer 1991’s “Cut and Slash.” There, she reimagined violently-slashed fabrics of the 16th and 17th centuries in sleek satin rugged denim, predating the contemporary taste for distressed jeans.

When Pharrell wore a re-edition of Westwood’s enormous Buffalo hat, worn to the 2014 Grammys, was a dual moment of clarity. It both cemented his role as style-conscious statement-maker and affirmed Westwood’s ongoing relevance in the industry. Today, Westwood’s Harris Tweed-inspired Orb logo is nearly as recognizable as its forebear, with a new generation uncovering the British creative’s uncanny foresight and uncompromising garments. Recent collaborations with Vans skate shoes and ASICS runners have brought Westwood’s inimitable style to more approachable silhouettes, much like Westwood’s Anglomania x Lee partnerships did several years prior.

Westwood driving a tank to protest fracking

In recent years, household names have paid tribute to the world’s foremost British designer. Notably, Riccardo Tisci brought Westwood on board for a Burberry collaboration, upending traditional British staples with Westwood’s dramatic silhouettes. Ironically, with Westwood always a step ahead of the fashion industry, collectors are now looking backwards, with the Seditionaries and Anglomania designer finding new life on the secondhand market. Newfound interest from archivists has inspired the Westwood brand to reissue Orb jewelry and continue dabbling in doodled graphics — don’t be surprised when Dame Viv inevitably collaborates with a major streetwear brand, à la Gaultier x Supreme.

Andreas Kronthaler, who Westwood married in 1993, has aided the designer in bringing her namesake label into brave new frontiers since he began aiding her creative process in the ’90s; since 2016, his name has led her runway shows as a sign of his importance to the enduring Vivienne Westwood brand. However, Westwood’s legacy is hers alone, due to years of unwavering activism that cap her decades of boundary-pushing design. Climate concerns, struggles for equality and discordant fashion design all remain hot topics in the current fashion cycle, trails long-since blazed by Westwood, a patron saint for all conscious, idiosyncratic designers.

Source: Hypebeast

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Virgil Abloh Shares Pics of His LV² Collaboration With Nigo

When Virgil Abloh announced his Louis Vuitton collaboration with Nigo in December, he gave props to the Japanese streetwear pioneer. “Me being at Louis Vuitton is directly attributable to work Nigo’s done in the past,” Abloh said. “A collab project with him—it puts his work in the right context.”

The French luxury goods house famously partnered with Supreme in 2017, when Kim Jones was still LV’s menswear designer, but this hookup is different. There are no logos for Nigo’s brand, Human Made, on these clothes and accessories. In fact, there’s not much streetwear in the collection at all. “Let’s not do the expected,” is how Abloh characterized the interaction between himself and his mentor and friend.

That rings true with a statement Abloh made in an interview Dazed published shortly after the Louis Vuitton and Nigo project was announced. “I would definitely say it’s gonna die, you know? Like, its time will be up,” was how Abloh summed up streetwear’s fate at the time. As offhand as the comment was (see below), it stirred up quite a lot of internet talk in the industry and beyond. Three months later, Abloh has some new thoughts on the topic. He shared them, along with photos of his collaboration with Nigo, exclusively with Vogue.

Tell me about your friendship with Nigo.

He’s among the first real mentors I had in fashion. Since my trajectory was different, had I been a quote, unquote traditional designer, I might’ve gone to New York and apprenticed under Donna Karan. But since streetwear is a new genre of fashion design, those earliest mentors, the Yves Saint Laurent or Balenciaga of streetwear, it’s Nigo, it’s James Jebbia, who founded Supreme. They took what was organically happening within culture—skate and street brands—and they made hard-core brands from that.

Nigo, I was fortunate over 15 years ago to have met him in Japan. He took us under his wing and showed us the ropes of how he was building the brand A Bathing Ape at the time.

What was the process of working with him like?

We met in his studio [in Tokyo]. He has a completely vertical fashion brand with Human Made. In one building, he designs, does the photo shoot, does the manufacturing. I was impressed by that. We had subsequent meetings in my studio in Paris. They were really hands-on. Our strongpoint is the art direction of the concept. What people might be most surprised by is that for two guys known for streetwear history and ability, the collection is completely the opposite. That was our starting point: Let’s not do the expected. Let’s not put streetwear in a box. That’s the epiphany within the collaboration.

You’re doing a lot of tailoring together.

Yeah. If you were to say our names and that we’re doing something at Louis Vuitton, you would almost be able to predict it. But to me fashion with a capital F, it’s supposed to take you on a journey, to lead. Last fall I did an interview where a quote was taken out of context; my sentiment was that streetwear will die.

Virgil Abloh says streetwear is dead. It was the quote heard around the fashion world…

I’m such a novice; I don’t realize that things can even go that far. I’m a little bit naive in that way. It was literally me in my kitchen just riffing on what I’d been thinking. I didn’t say it to be polarizing. I think that in the context of this conversation with Nigo—if you speak to anyone that’s been in streetwear for the last 15 years, it’s always had this sort of nine lives, dying and coming back, and dying and coming back. There’s so many first-generation streetwear brands, stores, and retailers. The market wasn’t as vibrant as it is now, so they went out of business and people don’t remember those. Nigo has had projects before; he’s had many a brand, many identities within streetwear. Partially what I meant that “it will die” is that new things like tailoring from guys like Nigo and me will be born from the regeneration of it.

Back to the collaboration. You’ve put the LV Damier check to good use. It’s not something you’ve touched on yet, right?

A hundred percent. I thought this was a perfect project to do things like that. The mood of the collection started off with our appreciation for the U.K. dandy and the mod era, Savile Row tailoring. That gave us the silhouette; but when it came to adding our own texture within the silhouette, that was very much using the codes of the house.

When I think of Japan, I think of denim. You’ve done some amazing things with the material here.

What the Japanese are known for is great archiving and reinterpretations of Americana. Nigo has one of the most formidable collections; he has some of the very early Lee and Levi’s pieces that were ever found. His personal style, he’s a true connoisseur. He buys his suits on Savile Row. He goes for the experience, the custom bespoke nature of it. Also, his personal collection of denim! When it was a matter of developing these pieces, I thought that was the most authentic [thing], using him as a muse.

So, his influence is in the bags?

He had this brand called Ice cream with this drippy signature. I thought, What if we made that playfulness a little more serious and merged it with the Louis Vuitton signature?

And I see you’ve done a hooded bomber with Mount Fuji on the back.

We would do those pieces in our sleep. But we didn’t want the collection to be 100% that. My program at Louis Vuitton, the overarching vision is father to son. So, having a portion of more mature pieces with youthful pieces.

Let’s talk about the LV² label. Is it only applicable to you and Nigo, or is it a new logo for you plus somebody else going forward?

It’s something for Nigo and me specifically. It’s like a new rap group. Nigo came up with the name of LV². We were from outside having an opinion and just styling it. Now we’re inside designing it and styling it.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from Nigo?

It’s a sense of detail, a Japanese precision. But also generosity. He’s extremely heartfelt. I’m American and I work a lot in Europe. In Paris fashion can be cutthroat. It can have this manic feeling. In America it’s very workhorse. Working with him and having him in the studio, seeing his disposition and how he was thinking of the challenge of making tailoring, of how to refine all these ideas, he did it in a very respectful, calm, polite, but very precise way.

So is it really just a one-off?

Yeah, but as we’ve finally finished, there’s already been talks that this could be an ongoing logic. I think both sides are open to it, so I wouldn’t rule out that other things could come. I can say the future will involve a way of activating this collection, when it comes time to release, that will be more immersive than just simply putting it out into stores. We both have a passion for eventizing these moments. It’s not just the clothes, it’s the context.

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO

Fashion Veteran Octavius Terry and Top Atlanta Fashion Designers Guide Students of The Art Institute of Atlanta To Runway Success

Seventeen up-and-coming fashion designers to showcase their work

alongside Terry’s at a Japanese Street Racing themed show.

Fashion designer, Octavius Terry

On March 14, 2020, seventeen designers from The Art Institute of Atlanta will showcase the talent, determination, and creativity they’ve transformed into their Fall/Winter 20/21 and Spring ‘21 collections. The show will take place at The Art Institute of Atlanta located at 6600 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd, Atlanta, GA 30328. The evening begins with a VIP reception at 4 p.m. and followed by the runway show at 6 p.m.

The show is the brainchild of Octavius Terry, fashion designer and fashion design program director at The Art Institute of Atlanta. Current fashion students at the school vied for the opportunity to show their collections at the event. Designers were vetted and selected by the school’s fashion faculty and seventeen were chosen to proceed in designing a mini-collection of three to six looks based on the theme of “Tokyo Drift.” Each designer was mentored along the way by elite Atlanta fashion professionals Brandin Vaughn, Ismael Pacheco, Jasmine Elder, Kudzanai Karidza, and Reco Chapple. The seventeen student designers’ work will be shown alongside Terry’s Fall/Winter 20/21 collection titled “OCTAVIUS MARISON” at the event and promises to be a night to remember in Atlanta fashion.

“These designers understand that fashion is more than buzz worthy garments. It’s a process that involves inspiration, sketching, fabric selection, garment construction, and endless revisions before a creation can be shown,” said Terry. “They’ve overcome challenges and pushed their creative limits. Along the way, they’ve proven that they have what it takes to design and present a collection on the runway.”

The show is giving more than these seventeen students a glimpse into the life of fashion. “Current students in The Art Institute’s programs have helped to create an event that will wow the Atlanta fashion community and make the show an annual staple on the city’s fashion calendar,” said Campus President Elden Monday. “The filming, graphic design, catering, and audio for the event are all being handled by our students. Culinary students will cater the event, film and photography students will capture the evening’s excitement by camera, industrial design and graphic students have helped to design sets and materials as well. Across the campus, this event gives students the opportunity to work on a real-life project and make an impact in the arts.”

Carlton Lee Studios is assisting with set design and famed choreographer Jamal Sims is directing and co- producing for the event. Tickets for the VIP party and event can be purchased HERE.

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PLANET FASHION TV BRINGS SUSTAINABLE NEW YORK FASHION WEEK

New York City was hopping during New York Fashion Week 2020! From February 6 - 12, the streets of Manhattan were bustling with fashion designers and executives, media, models, fashionistas and the fashion curious -- all running between NYFW events held throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn to see the latest cutting-edge fashions for the new year. Among the events was Sustainable New York Fashion Week, held at Chelsea Piers - Pier 59. A boutique luxury exhibition, Sustainable NYFW highlighted eight sustainable designers from various corners of the world whose fashions were made with earth-preserving processes and/or recycled materials.

Over 800 attendees packed the gorgeous Current Room overlooking the Hudson River, watching the designer shows and panel talks, browsing the pop-up shops and sampling the various food and drinks provided by the event sponsors. The 7-hour event was produced and emceed by Celia Evans of the Miami-based media production company Planet Fashion TV.

The Designers

The exhibition featured eight trailblazing fashion designers whose missions are to conserve the earth’s resources by using sustainable, eco-friendly materials and/or use sustainable processes in creating their fashion wear and accessories. Each designer spoke about their fashions and how they were made in engaging panel discussions moderated by Evans, held before each show. The designers who presented were:

New Zealand-born designer Debra Lee Cheyne of Butterscotch Castle who deconstructs and redesigns vintage and discarded apparel and fabrics to create chic women’s fashion wear;

Australian jewelry designer Angela Clarke of Angela Clarke Jewelry who creates sustainable and ethical jewelry pieces made of beads, stones, and Swarovski crystals;

Australian brand Bamboozld who manufacture socks and undergarments out of sustainable bamboo material,

Pennsylvanian designer Nick Unis of UnisBrands developed a machine to make plastic bottles into fabric that he then crafts in to hip sneakers;

German shoe brand Wildling Shoes that protect healthy feet from injury or the environment but also help protect the environment by using environmentally-friendly materials and resource-saving production techniques;

New Yorker sustainable designer and teacher Bridgett Artise of Born Again Vintage gives vintage garments that have lost their luster another chance at being fashionable, recycling fabrics and textiles into timeless pieces;

KINDOM is a sustainable and ethical apparel and accessories brand based in Los Angeles.

Brazilian designer Silvia Vassão of Leafy Natural Couture was not present at the event, but 10 of her designs were shown as the grand finale for the event. Silvia creates luxury women’s couture hand-woven with hand-spun silk from Brazilian silkworms.

The evening included a keynote speech by the United Nations Sustainable Development Specialist Francesca Zoppi. In her talk, Zoppi discussed the United Nations' sustainability goals, including reducing global emissions, ocean cleanup and ethical wages.

Planet Fashion TV is a half hour syndicated series in HD and 4K produced by Sea Star Films production company based out of Miami Florida. Coverage includes fast segmented stories on art, architecture, luxury products, automotive, cutting edge eco products, interior design, music fashion and cultural trends in different cities around the world. This is a travel meets style show. planetfashiontv.com

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Philipp Plein Fall 2020 READY-TO-WEAR

Philipp Plein felt bad about the two gold helicopters. Along with the two gold fighter jets and the gold sort-of Sunseeker and the gold supercars that decorated this stadium show space, they were props that had been commissioned late last year. “If I would have known what happened, after the accident, I would not have put helicopters there…. It was terrible what happened, but I couldn’t cancel the helicopters anymore. So I just wanted to say this.” Not only did Plein get that said preshow backstage, but postshow on the podium with Tyga—following a finale featuring Plein-logo, almost Lakers purple, Swarovski-encrusted, number 24 basketball shirts—he added that he was making a donation to the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation in memory of Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

Say what you want about Plein—and we always do—his presentations are impressive. This one featured not only Tyga but also Jada Pinkett Smith opening the show, Missy Elliott in the audience (due to perform alongside Timbaland at the closing party), and a cast that was sprinkled with faces including Maye Musk (because PP had been in touch to try to cast Elon’s new truck but ended up casting his mom), Cameron Dallas, Bambi, and Gigi Gorgeous. Most impressive of all was that there were 3,000 people in the audience (totally immune to the coronavirus outbreak barely 20 miles away) holding up their phones and streaming it all to social.

The true motive behind all this hoo-ha was the launch of a fragrance that Plein has named No Limits. He hard-selled it from the podium at the beginning of the show and had said earlier that the set was an imagined landscape if you had a no-limits credit line. He expanded thus: “Women have a lot of ideas. They would probably go shopping. And guys would probably do what I would do. I mean, I think I’m a good example for being a little bit crazy, and what I would do is make a big party like tonight.”

The clothes that reflected this party were perfectly Plein-ian. They featured more tiny wannabe studs than a PUA convention. The emphasis was on gold—although PP says he’s a silver man—as a line in the sand to this challenge to Paco Rabanne’s domination of the balls-out, all-subtlety-barred fragrance consumer. There was some pretty good suiting for men and some half-decent (but still more-than-risqué) sequined dresses for women, and cool emoji embroideries on a fishtail parka featuring graffiti dollar signs.

By the end of this seemingly endless but endlessly entertaining show, you had to hand it to PP: He’s a democratic designer. What that says about democracy is another issue entirely.

Source: VOGUE

FASHIONADO

Bottega Veneta Fall 2020 Menswear

In between his last show and this one, Bottega Veneta’s Daniel Lee swept London’s Fashion Awards, scooping up four statuettes, more than any designer has ever managed to win in a single year before. Among the prizes were the designer of the year and the brand of the year. Lee has the industry’s attention, that’s clear. Fashion loves a new guy, and collectively we’ve determined he’s “it.” There was not one, but two major profiles of Lee published in the days before this Milan show. Tonight’s collection, his third on the runway, suggests he has the goods to back that up.

He definitely has the guts. After scoring his first hit with the Pouch bag, a clutch that shrugged off the house patrimony woven intrecciato leather, he did the contrarian thing this season: He embraced the intrecciato. Only his intrecciato pouches come with a difference: They’re double-faced, meaning they’re unlined and the leather strips are double-sided, so the same exceptional workmanship visible on the exterior of the bag is exposed on the interior. It’s the kind of modernizing touch—apparently instinctual, but in the end quite thoughtful—that Lee is making his own. Consider another: a high-heeled sandal that curled ergonomically around the ankle and was made on a 3D printer, BV’s first stab at the process and quite a sexy one.

Previewing the accessories at a showroom appointment, Lee extemporized about Bottega Veneta. “When you look at the brand’s beginnings, everything it made was so soft. I find that super inspiring.” That thinking informed the ready-to-wear he put on tonight’s runway. But equally, so did the fact that at 34 Lee is part of the street wear generation, a cohort that came up wearing Nike trainers and clothes that put an emphasis on cool and comfort. Explaining his approach to fall at BV he asked, “How do we put ourselves together in a considered, elegant way but still feel comfortable?”

His answer was stretch. Even the men’s tailoring was built with stretch in it, he said, so it moves with the wearer. This was the big change from his debut to today. Last February he seemed mostly concerned with the profile cut by a man or a woman in Bottega Veneta. A year later he’s come to understand that the way his clothes feel to the bodies inside them is just as important a selling point. That’s why you’ll see a big emphasis on both knit dressing and jersey, for both day and evening. The other major talking point here was all the fringing. For one reason or another fringe been a popular motif in Milan—see also Prada and Jil Sander—but no one has been as audacious on the subject as Lee. His fringed shearlings will be instantly identifiable on the streets a year from now, although truth be told, they would’ve been more powerful if fringe wasn’t already such a collective movement.

This was a confident outing, one that leaned into controlled repetition to drive its points home. Lee has quite handily established his Bottega Veneta as the coolest brand in town. He said he’s been spending a lot of time at La Scala watching dance performances; he likes all kinds, from ballet to modern. With the wind at his back at BV, going forward he should give himself freer rein to explore—to let go.

Source: VOGUE

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Valentino's Mytheresa-Exclusive Menswear Capsule

Valentino Fall/Winter 2020 boasted the label’s largest collaboration to date, as the Italian brand joined with UNDERCOVER for a host of co-branded wearables. Spring/Summer 2020 focuses on in-house designs but that doesn’t mean the brand is forgoing collaborations entirely; the Pierpaolo Piccioli-helmed label has now introduced a special selection of menswear exclusive to Mytheresa.

The Neiman Marcus-owned German retailer has introduced a new push for the menswear market, headed for the season by its special Valentino range. Encompassing a host of layering pieces and statement items alike, the collection keeps in line with Valentino’s luxury ethos by way of premium gabardines and lavish satin textiles. A bold “city” print lends visual appeal to a wide array of goods — including a technical car coat, jacket and silk shirt — that complements the immediate interest garnered by a special pair of heavyweight Garavani VLTN WOD sneakers.

Source:Hypebeast

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