A Movie Reveals a Lot by Eliminating the Fashion

By GUY TREBAY

Published: September 14, 2009

Circus nerves, double-dealing, lies, roiling emotions, risible politics and backstage murder are all in a fashion day’s work. (Well, maybe not the murder part.) And part of the appeal of “Rage,” a new film by the British director Sally Potter, best known for the 1992 film “Orlando,” is the way it manages to convey the tense minimalist theater of a fashion show without ever depicting one.

Made on a shoestring budget and starring an array of above-the-title actors, “Rage” (the title truncates “all the rage,” a phrase no one in fashion is likely to have uttered since the 1920s) may ultimately be less interesting for its cast than for its formal conceits and its distribution plan.

Ms. Potter shot “Rage” herself, as if on a cellphone, framing the actors against a green screen in a series of monologues featuring Jude Law (in drag as a female model named Minx); Judi Dench (as a fashion critic who smokes a spliff: as if!); Eddie Izzard; John Leguizamo; Steve Buscemi; and the real-life catwalk star Lily Cole (in a turn as a fictitious model called, of all things, Lettuce Leaf).

The movie’s release comes just after the close of New York Fashion Week, as the fashion carnival moves on to London, Milan and Paris. It will be released first on mobile applications, via the Web video service Babelgum, beginning on Sept. 21, before arriving in theaters soon after.

“I don’t believe Sally conceived of this film as something that would be seen on a mobile phone or online,” said Karol Martesko-Fenster, who oversees film content for Babelgum (which has a business agreement with The New York Times Company to run Times video content on Babelgum’s site). It just happened, he added, that she made a film adapted perfectly to the changing ways that “people are consuming narrative.”

Shot as if backstage at a fashion show, over a week of interviews, “Rage” centers on the death of two models under mysterious circumstances and renders a critique of fashion neatly synopsized in the Variety review: “The point seems to be that fashion wrecks lives, if not by actually killing anyone, then by inducing body dysmorphia, exploiting textile workers and turning everyone else in the biz into twisted, shallow idiots.”

The most curious thing about “Rage” and, for that matter, most movies with fashion as their subject, is its reflexive distaste for the industry. Plenty of filmmakers have taken a whack at parodying fashion. Some have scored humorous points off its silliness. (The more often one watches the comedy “Zoolander,” the more it seems like documentary.)

Fashion has no corner on the market in twisted, shallow idiots, as the banking crisis made clear. But with the possible exception of Matt Tyrnauer’s fine documentary, “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” few films have managed to penetrate its surface, preferring to “expose” the superficiality of fashion with a superior sneer.

The article continues at nytimes.com

Marc Jacob Trades 80's Glamazon for Frilly Geishas

Sophie Theallet’s Un-Trendy Fashion

By Christina Binkley for Heard on the Runway, wsj.com

If you haven’t heard of Sophie Theallet, don’t blame yourself. She produces a finely sewn line of clothes – all in New York, although she is French. Her samples are created in her New York apartment, with the help of her husband and one seamstress. That’s leaner than Jason Wu’s team.

Yet Ms. Theallet is worth watching because her designs go their own flattering, feminine way, rather than the way of the latest modes. “It’s not trend. My fashion is not trendy, I’m sorry,” Ms. Theallet said shyly before her show on Monday afternoon.

Hers was a collection of summery dresses inspired by Moroccan mosaics and kilims. There was a stunning off-shoulder blouse with silk chiffon over one shoulder and a burnt-orange ink blot, which I believe was actually a baobab tree, in the center.

Two simply chic shirt dresses, one in cream, the other in mauve, were office ready and would travel well.

Ms. Theallet has worked to bring her prices down by about 30% this season (one store owner I spoke with said she had dropped the designer in the past because of high prices, and is now considering placing orders) by choosing fabrics carefully. One black dress was made with the silk that is often used as lining.

Backstage at Sophie Theallet

Preen

A Varied Skyline Enlivens the View

By Cathy Horyn
Published: September 13, 2009 in The New York Times

The soaring tensile designs of architecture increasingly find an expression in fashion, especially by young designers. There are the street aesthetes like Alexander Wang, whose game is to manipulate classics. But others see grids and transparent openings, as if trying to match the form of a new skyscraper.
Alexander Wang S/S'10 (Marcio Madeira)

Designers like Alexa Adams and Flora Gill of the label Ohne Titel may be limited to silk, leather and knitted wool, yet their modernist collages suggested they weren’t constrained and that they wanted to create a feeling of suspension and void. They did this very well, with multicolor knit dresses, textured leggings and leather sandals that seemed to have tension wires for lacing. The curving lines continued in the tailoring and in evening dresses with overlapping pieces and hems barnacled with silk knots and feathers. At the moment, round, rather than sharp-cut, looks right — perhaps because it follows the body.

At Preen, a British label designed by Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, ribs of fabric randomly intersected French lace or frilly patches inspired by Victorian trim. The same densely packed frills (imagine topiary) also gave a different dimension to the shoulders of chiffon tops. Grainy black prints were based on vintage tulle.

Preen S/S'10 (IMAXTREE)

You may be wondering how the designers managed to use so many historical references (punk, too) without producing a doughy lump. And the answer is a modern-looking structure. To stand out today, fashion “needs to have craft,” Mr. Thornton said.

“But it needs to work in a clean way,” Ms. Bregazzi added.

Mr. Wang’s reworking of classics, like the polo shirt and anorak, often recalls the cutting techniques of Rei Kawakubo and Vivienne Westwood, without their magical lightness. There was much to like in the attitude of Mr. Wang’s collection, especially metallic Fair Isle sweaters and the funny references to football padding. His new trousers are worn low on the hips and show off a top of underwear.

But too many of the styles, notably army-green cape jackets and asymmetrical skirts, seem cadged from other designers. It is Mr. Wang’s unpadded view of dressing that people want to see.

Joseph Altuzarra’s collection seemed to jolt those who expected the young designer to stick with the course he established over the last two seasons: delicately ruched dresses and smart tailoring. Yet, jolt or not, it was a fascinating show, with slim-fitting bib-front dresses done in a seemingly random mixture of brown suede and girlish white or pink Swiss dot. The collection, which included ivory capes, had a fresh feeling of nostalgia and a do-it-yourself quality that has been lurking at fashion’s edges. It also seems a concerted effort to move away from the rigidity of branded looks.

“When you start a collection,” Mr. Altuzarra said, “you have to push yourself to limits that may make you uncomfortable but that are also challenging.” He added that the new clothes use all the same techniques as before.

Richard Chai calls his new moderate-priced line Love, perhaps so people can say the look of Love. Well, fussy consumers need something. Mr. Chai nicely balanced urban hipness with feel-good merchandising, offering breezy cropped jackets in ivory windowpane-check cotton or leather, pleated bucket shorts and berry-colored prints.

“Carnal and a little bit tawdry” is how Derek Lam described the mood of his collection. That sounds like a teaser for a romance novel. The high-waist skirts, draped blouses and saucy crepe de Chine prints definitely had a boardwalk glow about them. Round-edge wrap skirts in double crepe looked modern, though. The prints were luscious and different, and a halter dress done in a patchwork of black and white poplin and sashed with a black leather belt shouldn’t be served to minors.

Alexander Wang