MODASpring 2013

MODA
Spring 2013
MODA
CO-EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Rachel Reid & Caroline Wang
MODA Staff 2013
EDITORIAL BOARD
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Charlotte Smith
LAYOUT EDITOR Rachel Scheinfeld
FEATURES EDITORS Sara Hupp &
Alexandra McInnis
STYLE EDITOR Tara Anantharam
BUSINESS MANAGER Grace Lin
PR MANAGER Swara Saraiya
WRITERS RJ Gitter, Sindhu Gnanasambandan, Kathryn
Mitchell, Lena Sparks
PHOTOGRAPHERS Cathryn Jijon, Vivian Wan, Ivy Zhang
STYLISTS Nina Coomes, Maura Connors, Lyn Han
MAKEUP ARTIST Lucie Fama
MODELS Amanda Block, Aixin Chen, Alexa Daugherty,
Trisha Gupta, Erik Landry, Alexandra Katarina Lee, Renata
Horowitz, Mesmer Rivers, Darrian Robinson, Emma Mahdieh
Tehrani, Caroline Wegner
LAYOUT TEAM Annina Christensen, Lauren Dietzel,
Zelda Mayer, Cathay Zhao
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
You are
never too young to start
developing your individual style. Take
a look at the photos above if you’re unconvinced.
Our spring issue celebrates individuality and the people
who are brave enough to embrace it. Bill Murray graced us with
his quirk in an interview about the importance of perfecting your own
style in Hollywood (pg.18). His admiration of one-of-a-kind director Wes Anderson inspired us to write our own ode to The Whimsical World of Wes (p.20).
Terry Richardson has changed the way we see fashion with his harsh dismissal
of all that is subtle; photographer Cathryn Jijon captured his hit-and-run style in A
Tribute to Terry (pg. 39). Besides paying tribute to our favorite, daring icons, we interviewed one of our own: First-year Renata Horowitz surprised us with some serious life
perspective when we interviewed her about her job at Vogue magazine (pg. 25). Working
as Co-Editors of Moda has given us both the opportunity to express our individual styles
throughout our college years—years that see us change and evolve the most. As we pass
the magazine on to new editors, we feel confident that the magazine will continue to
grow and thrive as an outlet for you to do what comes most naturally—being yourself.
— Rachel & Caroline
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MODA Spring 2013
MODA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
04
MODA LOVES:
Rachel and Caroline share their top
picks of the season
06
Classic Mexican comfort foods with a
twist from A Toda Madre in Geneva, IL
06
MUNCH WITH MODA:
The top 5 up-and-coming restaurants in Chicago this year
08
10
FASHION @ UOFC:
Exploring individual style at the
University of Chicago
THE DECLARATION OF FASHION:
How clothing symbolizes more than just beauty
12
CHRISTIAN SIRIANO:
An inside scoop at the life and work
of the Project Runway winner
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18
STUDENT DESIGNER
PROFILES: Meet three
designers from this year’s MODA
Fashion Show
BILL MURRAY: The King of
Deadpan talks about working with
Wes Anderson
20
22
WES ANDERSON: A profile
of Wes Anderson’s winning style
Spotlight: Renata Horowitz
22
VOGUE GONE ROGUE:
First-year Renata Horowitz wears
Madewell’s Spring Collection
28
32
UBallet Company at U of C
32
36
BARE NECESSITIES:
A vision of black and white
DANCE AWAY: UBallet
models clothing from Chicago
boutiques
A TRIBUTE TO TERRY:
Inspired by the work of acclaimed
photographer Terry Richardson.
CORRECTION: In our Summer 2012 issue, we mis-credited a sketch on page 10 as a design by Francisca Sondjaja.
The design should have been credited to Wendy Wei.
MODA Spring 2013
3
MODAloves
In the Moment with Moda
Co-Editors-in-Chief, Rachel Reid and Caroline Wang, share their
current style favorites
Rachel Loves...
HELLO GIGGLES: Queen of crafts and cupcakes, Zooey
Deschanel, teamed up with two up-and-coming bloggers to
create this girl-centric, contributor-friendly blog. The site’s
topics include everything from advice posts to frappuccino
recipes, but my personal favorite section is the one entirely
devoted to livecams of baby animals.
SEE BY CHLOE AT MADEWELL: Chloe chose the perfect
brand to team up with and market this new collection,
which puts a classic finish on bold spring prints. This
roll-top clutch will be my first splurge of the season.
CATBIRD: This Brooklyn-based company has all
the charm of Williamsburg and almost none of the
pretension. Catbird features local designers and sells
everything from engagement rings to soap on their
adorable, interactive Web site.
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MODA Spring 2013
MODAloves
Caroline Loves...
SWASH: This London-based brand
combines digital prints with handdrawn and painted images to create my
very favorite iPhone cases. These cases
are not only fun to look at, but their
unique texture also provides comfort
and a good grip.
AROMA WORKSHOP: While studying abroad in India, I
discovered the benefits of using fragrance oil over alcoholbased perfume. The oils have a purer scent, while also
providing a longer-lasting smell. Not to mention, alcohol can
be irritating for some people’s skin. Given my new obsession
with finding the perfect fragrance, I was happy to find Aroma
Workshop in Chicago, where you can mix different oils to
create your own, unique scent.
CHANEL SKY LINE: This limited edition color first appeared
on the Spring-Summer 2012 Haute Couture runway. The
color is a beautiful periwinkle, with a pearl-like frosty finish.
I have never seen a nail polish with a comparable shine. It
always scares me when cosmetics are “limited edition”; better
stock up before you never ever see it again.
MODA Spring 2013
5
MODAreviews
1
Munch with Moda
Spring is the time to venture out of Hyde Park and visit the shops
and cafés around Chicago. When you get hungry, be sure to get a
table at one of these recently-opened restaurants for fantastic food
and a perfect ending to your day out.
text by kathryn mitchell
photography courtesy of restaurants
6
1. Bar Toma
2. Perennial Virant
Right across from Water Tower Place, Bar
Toma grabbed the perfect spot to lure hungry shoppers. It has the vibe of an authentic
Italian restaurant, with a bar, a case displaying gelato and the smell of pizza wafting out
from the kitchen. Sitting in the front section,
near the windows, offers you the perfect spot
to people-watch. The menu is filled with
Italian specialties, including cold and hot antipasti, salads and pizzas. The arancini was
perfect to share as a starter, and the pizza is
about as close to real Italian pizza as you will
find in the Windy City (the Power Pizza is my
favorite). And while I have never been here
for brunch, I will definitely be coming back.
Expect to Spend: ~$20 per person (opened
Nov 2011) 110 East Pearson Street, Mag Mile
This one is more expensive, but if you need
a dressy dinner spot, or a future Restaurant
Week idea, then this one is for you. The space
is chic and trendy, and the dishes are a modern and fresh take on American standards.
The wine and cocktail menu is fairly extensive
while meat dishes comprise a major portion
of the food menu. This is great for some, but
evidently limiting for other diners. The whitefish is a particularly good alternative, but vegetarians might have trouble finding appealing
entrées. I was disappointed with the desserts,
but if you’re already in Lincoln Park, you may
as well go out afterwards and forgo the dessert for after-dinner drinks. Expect to spend:
~$30 per person (opened May 2011)
1800 North Lincoln Avenue, Lincoln Park
MODA Spring 2013
2
MODAreviews
3
4
5
1. The Mozzarella Tasting at Bar Toma is a delicious Italian starter. Photo courtesy of Galdones Photography 2. Perennial Virant’s
chic interior provides a beautiful setting for a special night out. Photo courtesy of Perennial Virant 3. RPM has a classic black
and white interior. Photo courtesy of RPM 4. A must-try at Nellcôte: any pizza with a fried egg on top. Photo courtesy of Nellcôte 5. For food and drinks outside of the city, visit A Toda Madre in Geneva. Photo courtesy of A Toda Madre
3. RPM Italian Restaurant
RPM opened with some lackluster reviews,
but appears to have listened to critics, and has
morphed into a perfect mix of contemporary
and comfort Italian dining. The sleek décor
makes it hard to determine if you’ve just entered a nightclub or a restaurant, but the lines
are clean, and the restaurant has a classic elegance through the all black and white theme.
Located just a block over from Hubbard
Street, RPM has a great location that can be
easily reached by public transportation. The
dishes are perfect to share. Ordering a few
smaller dishes and a pasta or main, and then
passing them around, make the price very
reasonable. If you still have room for dessert,
try the Tartufo. Expect to spend: ~$25 per
person (opened February 2012)
52 West Illinois Street, River North
4. Nellcôte
This hidden spot in the West Loop opened
just a few doors down from the renowned
Girl and the Goat. However, the two restaurants could not be more different. The outdoor patio, right on Randolph, is nice when
the weather warms up. The interior is minimalist with high seating, low lighting and
an abundance of hanging chandeliers. Their
specialties are the small plates, perfect for
sharing around the table. The eclectic pizzas
are Nellcôte’s standout items—who would
have thought that an egg on a pizza could
work so well? They also have various unique
cocktails for the 21 and over crowd. Expect
to spend: ~$25 per person (opened March
2012) 833 West Randolph, West Loop
5. A Toda Madre
Feeling adventurous? Want to get out of the
city? Look no further than out in the western
’burbs. You can either drive (about an hour
outside the city by car) or take the Metra
(from Ogilvie it takes you out there in about
45 minutes). A Toda Madre is rather small,
so reservations are a must, but the restaurant
has a vibrant and homey feel, trendy but not
over the top, and food that tastes straight out
of a home kitchen. This is Mexican comfort
food made modern and slightly more upscale.
The guacamole rivals any in the city. They do
not serve very many vegetarian options, so
be sure to go with carnivores for the optimum experience. The dessert menu pales in
comparison to the dinner menu, but all in all,
the dinner will be more than enough to satisfy you. Expect to spend: ~$20 per person
(opened March 2012) 416 West State Street,
Geneva, IL
MODA Spring 2013
7
MODAfeatures
Fashion @ UChicago
Sara Hupp sets out to discover the ins and outs of the fashion culture at the
University of Chicago
text by sara hupp
photography courtesy of MODA Chicago
D
ue purely to the fact that MODA
exists on the University of Chicago campus, one might argue
that there is a demonstrated interest in fashion on the part of the student
body. In an atmosphere chock-full of academic pressures, surely students can take
respite in the sphere of the sartorial, right?
Upon closer examination, however, it’s not
quite that simple.
To truly understand fashion’s place at
UChicago, we need not step into the closet
of the average student but rather approach
the topic as if in the classroom. Prior to engaging in meaningful discussion as to the
role of clothing in the life of the student, we
must have some idea of what exactly is meant
by “fashion.” Is it that which is considered
“trendy” by those in the professional field?
Is it simply the pieces of fabric that we use
to clothe ourselves? Or is it some way of expressing to the outside world who we each
are individually?
Fashion at the University of Chicago—in
truth, it means many things to many people,
8
MODA Spring 2013
MODAfeatures
PERSONAL STYLE UChicago students add accessories to their outfits in the Chicago winter, as
featured on the MODA Chicago blog
and to some, it means nothing at all. But perhaps that’s the beauty of sartorial self-expression here at UChicago: not knowing what the
term means to the person standing next to
you, you’re free to engage (or not engage)
with “fashion” as you personally see fit.
In one way, choices of clothing and accessories can—in the somewhat “cliché”
sense—be used to express to others who we
are or what we’re feeling on any given day.
They are means of implicitly telling people,“I
don’t submit myself to the mainstream” or
“I’ve been in the Reg all night, so please don’t
bother me.”
In a different sense, engaging with the sartorial is a way of maintaining a connection
with the world beyond that which is bounded
by South Ellis Avenue and University Avenue. Just as you’re leafing through MODA
right now, burying yourself in the glossy
pages of a fashion magazine can offer an escape from Durkheim reading and never-ending problem sets. Beyond this simple respite
from the tangible pressures of the daily
grind, though, taking time to lose yourself in
fashion provides a much-needed opportunity
to think about none other than you—what
you wish to convey to others (if anything at
all) through your style choices.
And what about those who look at clothing simply for its utilitarian value, devoid of
any stylistic merits it could potentially possess? There is certainly nothing wrong with
that, and in a place like UChicago, no one
will look down upon you for choosing to not
engage with fashion.
That may just be the crux of what exactly
fashion is at the University of Chicago: It’s
personal. Opinions about style and its possible value are as diverse as the students (not
to mention their choices of clothing) that
comprise the campus community. Even after
much thought, making a broad, all-encompassing statement about the role of fashion
at UChicago is impossible, simply because
no two students are exactly alike. What is
common among all students, though, is an
unparalleled desire to make use of their intellect and sense of creativity—whether or not
fashion has place in that is up to the you.
MODA Spring 2013
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MODAfeatures
The Declaration of Fashion
Through an exploration of what our clothing truly means and how that
meaning came to be, RJ Gitter pushes us to see our fashion in a new light.
text by rj gitter
photography courtesy of sofeminine.co.uk
C
10
onsider, for a moment, language.
When we say that prose is beautiful,
we’re saying that it looks good on
a page, that it sounds good to say
aloud, to read in your head—but that’s not
all we’re saying. The prose, poetry, comment
in class or any spoken word: in order to be
beautiful, they’ve all got to mean something,
too, because ultimately, beauty is derived
from tracing the paths of association, from
the phonic contour of a word to the thing it
represents, from the ebb and flow of a sentence to the scene it carves into the sand and
washes away—because any poet out there
stringing together words in the order that
looks and sounds the most beautiful without
regard to meaning, is not making poetry.
The same goes for fashion. It’s a language
that is generally understood by everyone,
spoken by those who care—but there are
no words; the base units of representation
are shredded jeans, gossamers of bleached
hair and metallic green eye shadow. But the
terms of use remain unchanged: an article
of clothing isn’t cool or beautiful because it
looks good, though it probably does. Rather,
the clothing has meaning that can be traced
back from the loose hanging strands of intertwined fibers to the loom that wove the
first of its kind, its original purpose followed
by the context surrounding the garment up
to the present. In the same way that a writer
MODA Spring 2013
should be preoccupied with the denotations
and connotations of the individual words or
turns of phrases he uses, so should a student
of fashion with the meanings and contexts
of articles of clothing or styles—otherwise
how does he hope to formulate sentences
of articles and accessories, paragraphs of
outfits, to transmit through his work a need,
desire, feeling, or any kind of information?
The vast majority of the clothing we wear
today were originally valued exclusively for
their utility—as insulation against the elements, or to meet the social requirement of
clothing—but over time, in its association
with its utility, the article of clothing is linked
to new meaning, the set of values or feelings
surrounding the utility. The article comes to
be not simply associated with that new meaning, but to represent it, becoming a symbol
for it. The way in which an article of clothing
can come to mean something other than its
physical shape or color, to have meaning apart
from its utility, is what I like to call the process
of abstraction. A given article of clothing can
undergo abstraction multiple times, assuming
new utilities and relinquishing them in favor
of new abstracted meanings. Fashion, then,
is to make a statement using a vocabulary of
abstracted meanings—to construct a style
using articles of clothing, or articles of clothing out of stylistic elements—and to relate it
back to oneself.
MODAfeatures
Take, for example, the trench coat. Designed at the turn of the 19th century by
Thomas Burberry, it was submitted to the
United Kingdom War Office as a raincoat
for army officers. The design was concerned
exclusively with utility—cut from a tightly
woven material patented by Burberry as
gabardine, featuring d-rings for storage and
gun and storm flaps to keep the water out;
all this while preserving enough mobility for
the wearer to clamber up out of the muddy
trenches and make a wild dash across no
man’s land. In fact, Burberry’s designs were
so durable and so insulating that the coats
meaning is abstracted. The social pressure
to participate in the war effort, even on the
home front, caused the coats to be admired,
not for their ability to insulate a human body
while allowing for better mobility, but because they represented active involvement in
the war effort. In an alternative and more enduring abstraction, the coats became symbols
of the disciplined masculinity of the trained
British soldier, and, in their great utility, symbols of utility itself, especially as manifest
in the male body. Either way, the utility was
washed away, and replaced with a new, abstracted meaning.
TRENCH TRANSFORMATION The changing form of the Burberry coat overtime.
became widespread throughout the entire
military hierarchy, and soldiers developed
emotional attachments to the coats, weaving
modern folklore around the seemingly indestructible garments.
And here’s where the process of abstraction occurs. Over the course of World War
I, images of British soldiers in long, belted,
what had come to be called “trench coats”
were disseminated throughout the UK, and
young veterans returned home, unwilling to
part with the coat that had delivered them
from the inclement battle conditions. The
British civilian population, in their removed
exposure to the coats, began to understand
them less as a standard issue military jacket,
and more as a symbol of laying down one’s
life in the trenches, for England; thus the
Unfortunately, there has always been,
though I think now more than ever, an inclination to wear clothing in a way that is so
abstracted that the garment does not mean
anything at all—for the meaning of a military
jacket to be so far removed from its original
utility that to wear it doesn’t make any statement other than that you like how it looks.
And I’d posit that, just as the aforementioned
poet isn’t making poetry by sticking together
words that are no more than nice sounds,
you’re not dressing yourself fashionably just
by putting on things that you think look good
together. So, I’ll ask you, next time you put on
your low-profile vans or riding boots before
tramping off to your Bio lab, to think about
where they came from, and what it means for
you to be wearing them.
MODA Spring 2013
11
MODAinterviews
Christian Siriano
From Project Runway to Fashion Highway
text by sindu gnanasambandan
photography by vivian wan
A
lthough up-and-coming fashion designer, Christian Siriano, has largely retired his catch phrase “fierce,” popularized while he competed on Bravo’s hit series, Project Runway, it serves as the perfect word to describe his persona.
He is 27 years old and hitting the fashion front hard; Siriano works
tirelessly to put his name, face and one-of-a-kind personality out there
for the public to soak up and love. At his trunk show in Lincoln Park,
hosted by eDrop-off, he expressed his personable and quirky personality to the many guests who came to see Siriano and his designs.
The room was swimming with women (and men) excited
about his edgy yet wearable designs. Racks of clothing lined the
space and the centerpiece was overflowing with chunky, elegant
pumps. He offered advice on how to go about making purchases.
“I think the best thing is you have to get your statement pieces,”
he says. “It is easy to build a wardrobe around things that are ex-
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MODA Spring 2013
MODAinterviews
“Every season you have to push yourself
and try to develop things that you like
and take risks.”—Christian Siriano
>>TRUNK SHOW Siriano mingles with Corri-McFadden at a Siriano trunk show in Chicago, hosted by eDrop-Off in
November 2012.
citing, whether that is a statement pair of
shoes or a really cool, interesting jacket.”
When asked about his inspirations for his
designs, Siriano claims that they are “anything and everything” that do the job. For
next season, he is planning to travel to Russia, to create a “military Russian” collection.
Siriano studied design at American InterContinental University in London and
interned with Vivienne Westwood as well as
Alexander McQueen. Through his studies
and internship experiences, he began cultivating his own personal style. “When I was
in college in fashion, I dressed crazy,” he
says. “I would wear all kinds of really interesting things and just kind of went for it.”
His public identity as a fashion designer debuted season four of Project Runway. As the series’ youngest winner to
date, Siriano was only 21 when he starred
on the show and entered the industry.
Since then, not only has he sold his designs at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, but he has also teamed up with brands
such as LG Electronics, Starbucks and Victoria’s Secret to create Siriano-designed products for a wide range of consumers. He even
designed a line of pumps, flats and handbags
for Payless ShoeSource, allowing women
with a smaller budget to access his designs.
Siriano also continues to sell himself
through the first medium that put him on
the map: television and pop culture. Since
Project Runway, he has made appearances
on Bravo’s Make Me a Supermodel, ABC’s
Ugly Betty, and even appeared in Estelle’s
music video for “No Substitute Love”.
Siriano says his success stems from enthusiasm for whatever he is working on.
“You just have to kind of know that the
most important thing is to not let anyone
else get in your way,” he says. “You are your
own worst enemy when you are young and
my thing was that I was always really excited
about what I was doing and if somebody
didn’t like it, I always tried to just move forward.” Siriano’s motto and motivations can
be summarized by the title of his 2009 book,
Fierce Style: How to be your most Fabulous Self.
All that being said, the flashing lights have
not gotten to him yet. “He is very level, down
to earth, and relatable,” says Cori McFadden,
owner of eDrop-off and friend of Sirano.
For instance, Siriano’s “Major Moments of
2012” Tumblr post included the opening of
his first retail store in New York City and
dressing three nominees at the Emmys, but
also that he adopted a new puppy named
Bear. This sentiment is a perfect example
of Siriano’s character—a brand of personality that has met his fans halfway and has
ultimately made him a fashion trail blazer.
MODA Spring 2013
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MODAreviews
Born to Runway
The annual MODA spring fashion show is one of the biggest
fashion events for UChicago
students. Three of this year’s designers share their inspirations
and processes behind what they
plan to showcase on the runway.
14
text by lena sparks
photography by vivian wan & ivy zhang
MODA Spring 2013
MODAreviews
I
Lily Lai
f anyone is thinking about how to make
you look better in a dress, it’s Lily Lai. She
designs to flatter the shape of the body
effortlessly using the movement of fabric.
Materials like chiffon, georgette and other
fabrics similar in ‘flowiness’ are key to the
success of her big, down-to-the-floor gowns,
which are made to make girls look naturally
taller and slimmer. “I want them all to be
princesses!” she gushes with an easy likability.
Indeed, her effortless dresses and bright personality make it easy to forget the intensity of
the work behind a collection. “Bending over
the table for hours is tiring and frustrating,”
she says, “but I have to keep going. The end
is the inspiration.” Knowing that her efforts
have a meaningful outcome – that they will
be a reflection of her own artistic vision – is
a major motivation for the designer. Up until her recent purchase of a body form, she
was her own mannequin, and she constantly
pushes the envelope on what she believes to
be the biggest obstacle – her own skill set.
Through all the hard work, she is simply happiest when she is sewing.
MODA Spring 2013
15
MODAreviews
A
veteran of the 2012 MODA Spring
Show, Mary Ella Simmons returns to
the catwalk with a collection in full
bloom. The Florida native is all about color
but strikes a balance with her streamlined
designs. This year, her crop of silky dresses
echoes the structural and artistic beauty of
flowers, with iris, tulip, calla lily, orchid, and
peony-inspired designs. Like her collection,
the designer herself is a tour-de-force of
personality and warmth—but also a keen observer of the subtleties of nature that inspire
her.
“The tulip is a bright but not offensive
red; the orchid white with purple,” she says.
“I like simpler things.” Vibrant but clean, her
designs indeed keep to an incredibly wear-
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MODA Spring 2013
Mary Ella
Simmons
able and down-to-earth aesthetic philosophy.
What less to expect from a designer who has
gained experience over the years by making
her own clothes? Since early days of spurning
store-bought clothing and curling cardboard
into a crayon costume one year for Halloween, Simmons has always taken charge of
how she dressed. The pleasure of designing
is, for her, the ability to make exactly what
she wants to wear, to control exactly how it
will turn out down to the last detail. She likes
to work freely without a pattern, often beginning to make a garment from the point of
inspiration. It’s a break from academic life, allowing her to use a completely different part
of her brain. “It’s just problem solving,” she
explains. “Designing is happy stress.”
MODAreviews
Harrison
Yu
H
arrison Yu isn’t afraid of a little collaboration. Last year for his MODA
collection, he spread production out,
over a long table in the middle of his residence
hall, inevitably attracting the interest – and the
help – of many fellow students. This interactive
style is in fact part of his larger design process,
one that is dynamic and intentionally unpredictable. Claiming to be “not much of a drawer,”
Yu rarely sticks to an original sketch and takes a
sculptural approach to making clothes. “I start
with a very loose concept in mind and change it
as I go,” he explains. Because of the limitations
of the fabric, a design will change radically from
its inception as a sketch to its completion as a
garment. Working from the quality of the material itself, Yu tries to capture something that is
common and transform it into something elegant and wearable. This year, his collection uses
airy fabrics such as tulle to channel the color
and movement of smoke. Yu further strives
to meet this artistic innovation with a leveling
pragmatism. Whereas he finds that “too many
designers these days focus too much on being
avant-garde,” he always tries to keep the wearer
in mind, to make clothes that are easy to live in.
Inspired by the beauty of daily life, Yu makes
clothes for the everyday.
MODA Spring 2013
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MODAinterviews
MODAInterviews
BILL MURRAY
on being...Bill Murray
Murray discusses his acting style, Wes Anderson, and his
role on the Anderson team
text by charlotte smith
B
ill Murray is the king of deadpanexpression comedy, and more specifically, one of the recurring stars
of the films of celebrated American director/screenwriter, Wes Anderson.
In a conversation about his relationship with
Anderson’s work, Murray shared his personal
philosophy on acting, as well as what he believes makes Anderson an original.
Anderson is known for his consistency in
working with the same actors and crew. Murray joined the Anderson team for Rushmore in
1998, having not seen Anderson’s first film,
Bottle Rocket. “It turned out that [Anderson]
tried to get me to be in Bottle Rocket, but my
agent didn’t want to send me to the screen
of a first-time producer,” Murray says. “Back
then, [Anderson] was a college graduate with
a first-time script!”
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MODA Spring 2013
Ironically, Murray says he now “has the
largest collection of Bottle Rocket cassettes in
the world because people just keep sending
them. “ I probably [have] 5 or 6 of them!”
he says.
As to how he ended up finally getting
involved in Anderson’s work with Rushmore,
Murray admitted that he was initially unenthusiastic when the script was recommended
to him. However, he changed his mind after looking at the meticulous script. “Most
people can’t write the kinds of descriptive
instructions that are in Wes’ screenplays,” he
says. “Everything he wanted to do was there.”
From a viewer’s perspective, Anderson’s
quirky writing seems to fit perfectly with
Murray’s comedic style of acting. Murray
feels a particular connection with Anderson’s scripts when bringing the words to life.
MODAinterviews
“When a screenplay is no longer a piece of
paper with words, it enters the physical dimension,” he says. “The thing that an improviser like myself can do is make an impact
unaccounted for in the script.” How that impact is achieved, Murray explains, is through
timing. “An actor feels, creates and ends a
scene either with his voice, or with his body.”
For certain acting, Murray believes that
focusing on the movements of the body is a
crucial starting point. “It may not appear so,
but my acting style is very physical,” he says.
“I start from the body out. Mind and body
are one…your emotions can’t work unless
you’re present in your body. And because I’m
available in my body, the same way [Anderson’s] stuff is different and quirky, it works.”
Indeed, aside from his scripts, Wes Anderson’s film-making has been noted as method-
ical and full of cinematographic details. According to Murray, timing is as essential for
Anderson’s camera as it is for the acting in
his scenes. “The camera moves as the silent
eye—and [Anderson] does a lot of cutting
with the camera,” Murray explains. Usually
most of the cutting is done on a sound cut
such as a spoken word or a door slam in conjunction with the visual cuts, which Murray
believes bring a truly unique quality to the
films. Thus it’s through Anderson’s witty
scripts and deliberate filming, combined with
Murray’s personal style as an actor, that the
Anderson-Murray talent works as one.
Bill Murray’s latest role as Franklin Delano
Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) has
received phenomenal reviews. As for Murray
and Anderson, their next project is Grand Budapest Hotel, set for release in 2014.
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THE WHIMSICAL
WORLD OF WES
Wes Anderson has gone from oddball indie film
producer to one of the most talked about names in
contemporary cinema. Alexandra McInnis looks
into the unique visual style that defines his current
popularity.
text and illustration by alexandra mcinnis
I
s the world finally starting to “get” Wes
Anderson? In terms of widespread
critical acclaim, the past seventeen years
of the Texas filmmaker’s career have
yielded hits (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums)
and misses (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,
The Darjeeling Limited). His distinctive and
offbeat film-making style has been hailed as
unique and groundbreaking as well as derided
as self-conscious and contrived, depending
on the film. However, Moonrise Kingdom,
Anderson’s touching 2012 film about young
love on a small New England island, is his
highest-grossing and best-received movie
to date. In wake of this recent success,
Anderson is currently working on The Grand
Budapest Hotel, set for release in 2014.
Whatever it is that accounts for the
favorable or unfavorable responses to
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Anderson’s work is elusive. It’s never the
acting; his films are consistently filled with
brilliant actors, ranging from Gene Hackman
to Cate Blanchett to Tilda Swinton, and of
course there’s always the token Bill Murray
role. But Anderson’s commitment to creating
a unique and strong visual statement is
infallible, and unarguably distinguishes
him as one of the most visually innovative
filmmakers since Jean-Luc Godard.
To understand Wes Anderson’s visual
style is not just a matter of discussing color
palettes and set design. One must first
envision a world where children are wiser
than their parents, and where characters
respond to compelling news in a deadpan
manner. Convention has been thrown
upside down, but it is there that the logic to
Anderson’s style begins to arise. We see his
MODAfeatures
deliberate, fetishistic approach to objects
where each mug or pair of scissors is shown
to have its own nail on the wall to hang on, or
a glove receives a special alteration diagram
after its owner ends up with a severed finger.
Every frame is meticulously shot, with an
unprecedented attention to detail. Indeed it
seems borderline obsessive compulsive when
two actors’ shirts in The Life Aquatic with Steve
Zissou color coordinate with a random van
in the corner of the frame. Surely producing
the animated film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s
The Fantastic Mr. Fox must have been a dream
come true for Anderson, since the digital
animation enabled total control over every
visual aspect of each frame.
Regardless, the penchant for objects and
details provides a sense of order in movies
centered on the strange and chaotic lives of
unfulfilled people. Divorces wreck families,
children and parents run away from home,
and disappointed characters embark on
tumultuous journeys of redemption, all
softened by muted tones and a fuzzy lens.
Despite the gentleness, the element of
surprise comes into play through primary
colors or even cultural juxtapositions. It’s
scenes where Margot Tenenbaum wears
a Lacoste polo dress while sitting in her
bedroom adorned with zebra wallpaper and
African maks, or the sleekly-attired Whitman
brothers in The Darjeeling Limited ride a dingy
yet ornate train through India that constantly
lend complexity and interest to Anderson’s
films.
For all that is deliberate, Anderson
chooses to leave his work undefined by any
specific time period. Moonrise Kingdom is set
in the 1960s, but in general the settings and
props of his films transcend any particular
era in modern history. Margot wears a fur
coat and Hermès handbag, and Rushmore’s
Max Fischer sports a prep-school jacket,
but all these clothes could equally be from
last season or 30 years ago. The timelessness
creates a sense of continuity, and the notion
that all these tales could arise at any given
year.
The leading ladies in Anderson’s films
incite wild passions and love triangles with
the men they share the screen with, but for
films that are so focused on the image it is
interesting how unremarkable the female
characters appear. Think of Gwenyth
Paltrow with her droopy kohl-rimmed
eyes and somber expression in The Royal
Tenenbaums, or Angelica Huston, who is
majestic but graying. Similarly Olivia Williams
played a pleasant-looking but unglamorous
kindergarten teacher in Rushmore, yet she
inspired an all-out war between Bill Murray’s
and Jason Schwartzmen’s characters. The Life
Aquatic featured a barefaced Cate Blanchett
wearing frumpy safari clothes that looked
like they were just pulled out of an Army
Surplus store, but she appealed—pregnant
nonetheless—to characters played by Bill
Murray and Owen Wilson. Despite the layers
of artifice, the romantic interests may reveal
the core of Anderson’s films to be hinged
on the interior of his characters, rendering
his otherwise elusive films relatable to their
viewers.
It seems unlikely that Anderson’s
current success is due to pandering to more
mainstream cinema or capitalizing on the
current pervasiveness of indie culture. Rather,
moviegoers are realizing that Anderson’s
films contain a visual experience you can’t
get anywhere else. The irresistible charm of
his work has the power to transport us to
imaginary worlds yet grounds us in everyday
human conflicts and relationships. We think
it’s a winning formula.
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MODAfeatures
VOGUE
gone
ROGUE
First-year Renata Horowitz gives us an insider’s perspective
on just how many things are more important than working
at Vogue. Horowitz models clothing from Madewell, in honor
of Madewell’s new Chicago downtown location.
text by rachel reid
photography by rachel reid
makeup by rachel scheinfeld
R
enata
Horowitz
stumbled upon a job at Vogue magazine the
way that any other teenage girl might stumble upon
a decent prom dress or an especially great hair day. As a
sophomore in high school, Horowitz was taking pictures of
her friends in Central Park for a class assignment when she was
approached by a complete stranger and offered a career in fashion.
“While I was taking the pictures for class, a shoot
that involved my leotard-clad dance friends at Central
Park in the snow, a woman came up and asked about
the shoot and then asked me to work for her,” she says.
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The first job she was offered was with a
major, New York-based photo production
company that has collaborated with household names, from Annie Leibovitz to Ryan
McGinley. “I had never thought about production, but was overwhelmed by the opportunity,” she says. “I then began working
for her close to four to five days a week and
then spent my summer living with her in
Montauk, back and forth between shoots. It
was on a shoot affiliated with [the production
company] that I first met my current boss at
Vogue, who worked in international fashion
accessories and wanted to introduce me to a
different side of the fashion world.”
Horowitz continues to work mainly on
editorial shoots, but now has her own Condé
Nast credit card, and every advantage that
goes along with working for Vogue. “Vogue is
so incredibly fast-paced, and they have an excessive budget which affords much room for
creativity,” she says. “They have the money
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they Spring
want2013
to and
hire as many hands necessary to make their
visions exist.”
With these small (even if seemingly big)
facts about Renata, one might imagine her
dressed in designer clothes, with apathetic
eyes and Anna Wintour-sized sunglasses balanced on her nose. In reality, the New Yorkbred first-year is a petite 18-year-old (she
hardly fit into the sample sizes Madewell sent
us for her shoot), with hazel eyes, a stud in
her nose and a small shaved spot hidden under her wild brown hair. She dresses herself
in thrift store-finds and handmade accessories.
She cites a thrifted, oversize fur coat as
her favorite thing that she owns, and regularly wears earrings that she made, herself,
out of bullets, while working at a homeless
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man’s jewelry stand. “I was walking in Union
Square this past summer when I saw a man
on the street making bullet jewelry,” she says.
“He told me it was $18 a pair, and I told him
I was a student and didn’t have $18 to spend
on earrings, so he told me to pop a squat and
that he would give them to me for two hours
of work.” Horowitz then began to work for
the man semi-regularly. “My pay is more of
an exchange; I get to keep some of what I
make,” she says. “Bullet jewelry is not a statement of violence; it is creating beauty from
ugly objects. Something like, wear bullets,
don’t shoot ‘em.”
This sometime, part-time job is more than
making jewelry for her, though. It’s another
experience that keeps her grounded, and
helps her maintain a sense of balance. For
over a decade, Renata danced with the Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater, an experience that she describes as “incredibly rich.”
“Theresa Howard, my mentor and instructor,
taught me intense discipline, gave me ability
to emote and showed me the beauty in recreating classical steps as one’s own,” she says.
Horowitz’s life story paints a picture of
a free spirit with a down-to-earth sensibility that is generally considered to be sorely
lacking from the fashion industry, making her
presence there a sort of fascinating anomaly. She spent last summer in Oregon, where
her time revolved around storytelling, skinny
dipping and farming. “What has always been
strange about my life are the dichotomies,”
she says. “This past summer I worked on a
farm in Deadwood, Oregon for July and
worked at Vogue in August. I wore one outfit for the month of July and changed about
three times a day in August. A few summers
ago, I spent a month on a Blackfoot reservation in Montana and another working at a
Whiskey Distillery in New York. I love being
able to transition between these two modes
of being.” She says that she is able to transition through these beings by keeping certain
rituals consistent. “Yoga and photography
are two prime examples of this,” she says.
“Meditation is more vital to me than sleep.”
So what brings a New York dancer with a
Condé Nast career to UChicago? “I want to
be editor of The New Yorker—that requires a
degree. Everyone I spoke to who came here
liked a different aspect of the school—so I
figured it was a pretty diverse place.”
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Bare Necessities
Basic black and white is timeless
photography by charlotte smith
styled by nina coomes
modeled by trisha gupta & caroline wegner
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ON CAROLINE dress, Topshop
ON TRISHA both tops, G.U.
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en pointe
The University Ballet of Chicago expresses classic
beauty with an edge
photography by vivian wan
styled by maura conners
modeled by amanda block, aixin chen, erik landry, alexandra katarina
lee, mesmer rivers & emma mahdieh tehrani
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PREVIOUS PAGE ON MESMER skirt, Angelique’s
Boutique THIS PAGE ON EMMA blouse and pants,
Angelique’s Boutique; skull bracelet, Akira
NEXT PAGE ON AMANDA dress, Akira
NEXT PAGE ON ALEXANDRA
jumpsuit, bracelet and
necklace, Akira
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THIS PAGE ON AIXIN blouse and skirt,
Angelique’s Boutique; earrings, Akira
PREVIOUS PAGE (left to right) ON AIXIN
dress, Angelique’s Boutique; ON EMMA dress,
Angelique’s Boutique; ON ERIK model’s own;
ON ALEXANDRA jumpsuit and necklace, Akira
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a TRIBUTE
TERRY RICHARDSON’S STRIPPED DOWN YET
SENSATIONALIST STYLE REMINDS US OF THE
VALUE OF BEING BOLD FOR SPRING.
photography by cathryn jijon
styled by lyn han
makeup by lucie fama
modeled by alexa daugherty & darrian robinson
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to terry
Credits: (left) (right)
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PREVIOUS PAGE ON ALEXA
sweater, Scotch & Soda;
shorts, American Apparel
THIS PAGE ON DARRIAN
sweater, vintage
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