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MARCH
W S J. M A G A Z I N E
72 CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG
IS NOT A STYLE ICON
Or so she thinks, as she
reflects on fame with
characteristic self-effacement.
BY NATASHA FRASER - CAVASSONI
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HEDI SLIMANE
A single journey can change the course of a life.
Cambodia, May 2011.
Follow Angelina Jolie on louisvuitton.com
76 STRANGE GIRL IN A
STRANGE LAND
Actress Jaime King embodies the
season’s midcentury suburban ennui.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEPHEN SHORE
STYLING BY TIINA LAAKKONEN
I S S U E N O. 2 3
84 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
With a major expansion plan
under way, Oscar de la Renta
means serious business.
BY JULIA REED , PHOTOGRAPHS
BY CHRISTOPHER STURMAN
90 THE ART STAR WITH
EVERYTHING TO LOSE
Approaching 50, bad-girl artist
Tracey Emin is all grown up,
with a new London studio to boot.
BY NATASHA GARNETT , PHOTOGRAPHS
BY JOHNNIE SHAND KYDD
98 REFLECT YOUR
IRIDESCENCE
Shimmery fashion made
casual for daytime.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BENJAMIN
ALEXANDER HUSEBY
STYLING BY JODIE BARNES
104 A HOUSE ON THE RIVIERA
Nicky Haslam on bringing his
signature English style
to the heart of Provence.
BY NICKY HASLAM
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SIMON UPTON
COVER
Charlotte Gainsbourg,
photographed by
Hedi Slimane in Paris
THIS PAGE
Photograph by
Stephen Shore. Prada
earrings and jacket
For details see
Sources, page 114.
March 2012 21
Contents
MARCH
104
98
“You know, what I thought
was love maybe wasn’t. I
understand that now.
Maybe it was something else
and I got it really wrong or
misunderstood it.”
—TRACEY EMIN,
“THE ART STAR WITH EVERYTHING TO LOSE,” P. 90
26 EDI TO R’S L E T T E R
28 BACK STORY
32 M A RKET R E P ORT
The chicest picks for
spring, from lush
tropical prints to underthe-sea radiance.
3 6 TRAV EL R E P ORT
Inside Van Cleef &
Arpels’s elegant new
jewelry academy
for amateurs on the
Place Vendôme.
90
WSJ
SATURDAY
GET
22 March 2012
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4 3 S OA P BOX
With her career at an
all-time high, artist Cindy
Sherman opens up
about criticism,
the power of
transformation and men.
4 6 T R ACK E D
As Fashion Week
approaches, designer
Jason Wu toggles
between pinning his
collection, running
the business and preparing
for the national
spotlight, via Target.
5 0 R E N EG A D E
Introducing Michèle
Montagne, the elusive French
publicist whose influence
on her roster of cuttingedge designers is unusually
far-reaching.
CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM: TRACEY EMIN “KEEP ME SAFE,” 2006 (RED NEON), 32.2CM X 98.5CM, ©TRACEY EMIN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, DACS, LONDON/ARTISTS RIGHTS
SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; TONY FLOYD, BENJAMIN ALEXANDER HUSBEY, SIMON UPTON. DRESS: RALPH LAUREN COLLECTION. FOR DETAILS SEE SOURCES, PAGE 114
66
Contents
MARCH
“Before I came to America,
in every Hollywood film I saw
there was a cocktail party
on a terrace. And then I
arrived in New York and there
were no terraces.”
—OSCAR DE LA RENTA,
“GREAT EXPECTATIONS,” P. 84
59 AC C E S S O R I E S
The finest department
store kept its
doors open late one
night, allowing
us a few secret
moments to enjoy
the sweetest of
spring’s luxuries—
from towering
shoes to delicate
watches.
84
76
50
6 6 MA K I N G I T
Nestled in a surburban
New Jersey outpost,
artisan Vladimir
Kanevsky works in
an esteemed
European tradition to
bring exquisite porcelain
flowers to life.
1 1 6 OPE N S ECR E T
It was a gift that
was fit for a
queen (Mary, that is):
a 5-foot-tall
dollhouse that
featured the
tiniest of works
by her generation’s
greatest writers,
painters and architects.
56
WSJ. Issue 23, March 2012, Copyright 2012, Dow Jones and Company, Inc. All rights reserved. See the magazine online at www.wsjmagazine.com. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. WSJ. magazine is provided as a supplement to The
Wall Street Journal for subscribers who receive delivery of the Saturday Weekend Edition and on newsstands. WSJ. magazine is not available for individual retail sale. For Customer Service, please call 866-WSJ-MAGZ (866-975-6249), send email to mag.feedback@wsj.
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24 March 2012
© CONDÉ NAST ARCHIVE/CORBIS; MARY MCCARTNEY; FRANCOIS COQUEREL; STEPHEN SHORE. BAG BY PRADA. FOR DETAILS SEE SOURCES, PAGE 114
5 6 TH E DES I G N E R
Stella McCartney
has set herself
on a mission to bring
vegetarianism
to the meat-loving
masses, one small
step at a time.
Christian Dior Boutiques: www.dior.com
Editor’s Letter
MARCH
FINE FRONDS
A grove of
palm trees on
the Caribbean
island of
Mustique,
by Leanne
Shapton,
exemplifies
this season’s
dreamy
wanderlust.
THE INDEPENDENTS
EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING FEATURED in our women’s spring fashion issue is unusual—in a good way. These pages are full
of exceptional talents: designers, artists, performers, all of whom have cut their own singular path to success, answering to no
one. Rather, it is we who look to them, changing our perspective because of theirs. Charlotte Gainsbourg redefines what it means
to be celebrity royalty by creating a warm home life that gives her the strength to push boundaries and defy categorization in
her career choices. Iconic photographer Cindy Sherman (page 43), who has spent 35 years upending expectations of beauty,
has created a body of work that reaps among the highest prices ever garnered for photography. Stella McCartney (page 56) has
managed to maintain high ideals while becoming a much-deserved darling of high fashion—and this month she adds vegetarian
cookbook author to her list of accomplishments. This sense of blazing one’s own trail is clear also in the work of a little-known
Fort Lee, NJ–based artist, Ukraine émigré Vladimir Kanevsky (page 66), a self-taught master of crafting delicate porcelain
flowers that pay compliment to nature’s own handiwork. Even this season’s clothes and accessories, which embody a moody
and slightly inscrutable sense, provocatively challenge our idea of what it means to look like a lady. And lastly, fashion titan
Oscar de la Renta (page 84), who could rightfully be kicking back in his beloved Dominican Republic, basking in his own legend,
is instead revving into high gear with exciting expansion plans. Here’s to spring and new beginnings.
Deborah Needleman, Editor in Chief
[email protected]
EDITOR IN CHIEF Deborah Needleman
COPY CHIEF Kate Crane
WEB EDITORS Allison Lichter,
MANAGING EDITOR Brekke Fletcher
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Adrienne Gaffney
EUROPEAN EDITOR Rita Konig
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Patrick Li
PHOTO EDITOR Damian Prado
FASHION FEATURES DIRECTOR
PRODUCTION MANAGER
PHOTO DIRECTOR Nadia Vellam
JUNIOR DESIGNER Alex Konsevick
Whitney Vargas
ART DIRECTOR Pierre Tardif
EXECUTIVE STYLE EDITOR David Farber
MARKET EDITOR Andrew Lutjens
26 March 2012
Leah Phillips
FASHION ASSISTANT Mariana Belo
ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR
Alainna Lexie Beddie
Robin Kawakami
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Doug Brod, Shawn Carney,
Michael Clerizo, Sara Ruffin Costello,
Joshua Levine, Charlotte Moss,
David Netto, Kevin Sintumuang,
Dana Thomas
PUBLISHER Anthony Cenname
GLOBAL ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
Stephanie Arnold
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/EUROPE
Claudio Piovesana
BUSINESS MANAGER
Julie Checketts
SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER
Jillian Maxwell
Backstory
According to
Oscar, “You
rest, you rust.”
GREAT EXPECTATIONS p. 84
When writer Julia Reed first profiled Oscar de la Renta,
it was 1992. “He is so mischievous and funny and
energetic, even at 79,” says Reed. “He looks exactly the
same as when I first met him, and here he is pushing
forward, expanding his business, moving to a new
office. All this, and he just licked cancer a year ago.”
Christopher Sturman, who photographs celebrities
and interiors, found de la Renta to be “a very
charismatic subject” and his apartment to be one of
the “most beautifully curated” he has ever seen.
From left: Reed;
de la Renta
with friends and
family in the
Dominican Republic;
de la Renta’s
new scent “Live in
Love”; Sturman.
“It was wonderfully
nostalgic to write about
the South of France
as I first saw it and fun
describing this recent
commission there.”
A HOUSE ON THE RIVIERA p. 108
Interior designer Nicky Haslam reminisces about
the glory days of the French Riviera and manages
to bring those memories to bear in the design of
a home for clients on the Côte d’Azur. Photographer
Simon Upton, who shot Haslam’s country house
for our April 2011 issue, has known Haslam for a
long time, having photographed a lot of his work.
“He is someone of huge taste and knowledge,” says
Upton, “always interesting to be around and from
whom to glean bits of humor and wisdom.”
From left: Upton, the
garden at Le Mas
de la Vièrge, Haslam.
THE ART STAR WITH
EVERYTHING TO LOSE p. 90
From left:
Garnett; Emin’s cat,
Docket; Kydd.
“She’s a force of
nature, a human
juggernaut, and
God help anyone
foolish enough
to get in her way.”
When author and journalist Natasha Garnett first met artist
Tracey Emin, they were on the dance floor of the Walpole
Bay Hotel on Emin’s 36th birthday. Recently, Garnett visited
Emin’s newly renovated studio to reflect on the 48-year-old’s
“bad girl” years. Yet the conversation kept turning to
Emin’s cat, Docket, “whom she says is the love of her life,”
says Garnett. “She was very proud midinterview when
he delivered her a leaf as a gift.” Of his favorite Emin
memories, photographer Johnnie Shand Kydd says, “All the
best Tracey stories are unprintable and should probably
remain so. Let her art do the talking.”
STRANGE GIRL IN A STRANGE LAND p. 76
Photographer Stephen Shore, renowned for his critical take on
Americana, was instrumental in capturing the suburban quality of our
fashion story featuring actress Jaime King. He insists that the shoot
“was a real collaborative effort” with King, creative director Patrick Li
and stylist Tiina Laakkonen. All of the images were done in four hours
or less. “We worked very, very fast,” Laakkonen says, because of an
unexpectedly hazy morning that cut short their daylight, adding that
she was fascinated to watch Shore work. “I’ve always loved his ability
to see the extraordinary beauty in the ordinary life and landscape.”
28 March 2012
“His images make
you look at
everything in a
different way.”
From left: Shore; Li and King
on set; Prabal Gurung
for Linda Farrow Projects
sunglasses; Laakkonen.
TOP ROW, FROM LEFT: N/C; OSCAR DE LA RENTA ARCHIVES; N/C. SECOND ROW, FROM LEFT: ANNE BECKER; SIMON UPTON (X2). THIRD ROW, FROM LEFT: N/C; COURTESY OF TRACEY EMIN; JOHNNIE SHAND KYDD. BOTTOM ROW, FROM LEFT: CARLOS LOPES; COURTESY PATRICK LI; COURTESY PRABAL GURUNG; N/C.
MARCH
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On the Cover
MARCH
EXHIBITION
THE FRENCH
CONNECTION
For this issue’s cover shoot, Charlotte
Gainsbourg, France’s most-talked-about
multitasker, teams up with a kindred spirit
Friday in December, Charlotte Gainsbourg arrived
at Paris’s Le Studio Rouchon to collaborate with
Hedi Slimane on the pictures you see in this issue.
Gainsbourg is an acclaimed actress and singer whose
low-key charm and carefree style have made her the
most famous of France’s chic bobos, or bourgeoisbohemians. Slimane, one of Europe’s top fashion designers, has become equally celebrated for his stunning
photography. “I like his vision,” says Gainsbourg, who
previously shot with Slimane for “French Vogue,” “and
his sophistication in portraying intimacy.”
Gainsbourg is herself the daughter of multi-hyphenates: Her father, the late Serge Gainsbourg, was a singeractor-writer-director-composer, and mother Jane Birkin
was an actress-singer-model. And is Charlotte ever on a
roll. Having won raves playing Kirsten Dunst’s sister in
“Melancholia”—named best film of 2011 by the National
Society of Film Critics—in February she served on the
jury for the Berlin International Film Festival, alongside
the likes of Mike Leigh and Jake Gyllenhaal. She’ll soon
appear in the period drama “Confession of a Child of
the Century,” opposite notorious British rock star Pete
Doherty. All of which reflects a work philosophy born
of a profound restlessness. “I want to avoid doing the
same thing twice,” Gainsbourg tells Paris-based journalist Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, author of “Sam Spiegel,”
a biography of the legendary Hollywood producer. “I am
not thinking about things in a career way. I cannot plan
what is going to happen, and I like that.”
Her boldness extends to her music. Inspired by a cerebral hemorrhage she suffered in 2007, she recorded an
electro-folk album, “IRM” (French for
“MRI”), with Beck, who also produced
four tracks on her most recent album. By
age 13 she had already duetted with her
father on “Lemon Incest,” perhaps the
most provocative hit single in the history of French pop. Like we said, an iconoclast. And a major talent, to boot.
HeR web Clockwise
from top: gainsbourg
in concert; with
balenciaga’s nicolas
ghesquière; balenciaga
paris, the scent
she inspired; with
partner yvan attal.
FAMILY AFFAIRs
on vacation in
saint-tropez with
her mother,
father and older
stepsister, kate
barry, in 1977 (left);
playing kirsten
dunst’s sibling
in “melancholia.”
30 March 2012
CloCkwise from top: ©brian hineline/retna ltd/Corbis; larry busaCCa/getty images; Courtesy balenCiaga, paris; Christian geisnÆs/zentropa; ©james andanson/sygma/Corbis; tony barson/wireimage
I
t was a meeting of iconoclasts. one cloudy
FROM AVANT-GARDE TO ICON
A JOURNEY THROUGH THE ORIGINS OF AN ICONIC TIMEPIECE
MARCH 22-25 / 2012
NEW YORK CITY / PARK AVENUE ARMORY
PARK AVENUE AT 67TH ST
Audemars Piguet launches an exhibition
celebrating the 40th anniversary of its iconic
Royal Oak – the first ever luxury sports
timepiece, which sparked a complete
paradigm shift in the watch industry.
Providing a demonstration of the brand’s
proven ability to outsmart standard norms,
this not-to-be-missed occasion using design,
photography, sound and film input from three
21st century artists and including 100
exceptional timepieces, will kick off its
worldwide tour on March 22 in New York.
AUDEMARS PIGUET BOUTIQUES
NEW YORK: 65 EAST 57TH STREET, NY. 888.214.6858
BAL HARBOUR: BAL HARBOUR SHOPS, FL. 866.595.9700
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C A E S A R S PA L A C E
CITYCENTER
BELLAGIO
ON THE
HALF SHELL
10
ALA MOANA CENTER
ASPEN
The warming weather calls for oceanic
blues and opalescent airiness, at once
dramatic and pure
T H E PA L A Z Z O
9
3
1
11
7
8
32 March 2012
1 Alexander McQueen
2 Peter Pilotto
3 Ralph Lauren Collection
4 James de Givenchy for
Taffin brooch
5 La Mer cleansing fluid
6 La Prairie tonic
7 Versace bag
8 Tabitha Simmons heels
9 Giorgio Armani
necklace
10 Kimberly
McDonald earrings
11 Florence Welch
performing at
Chanel’s fantastical
spring runway show
For details see
Sources, page 114.
6
NEW YORK
5
ANTONIO DE MORAES BARROS FILHO/WIREIMAGE (FLORENCE); COURTESY OF VENDORS
4
B E V E R LY H I L L S
B E V E R LY C E N T E R
HOUSTON GALLERIA
2
L E N O X S Q U A R E S H O R T H I L L S S O U T H C O A S T P L A Z A R O YA L H A W A I I A N S H O P P I N G C E N T E R 1 8 0 0 . 3 3 6 . 3 4 6 9 F E N D I . C O M
MARCH
BAL HARBOUR AMERICANA MANHASSET
Market Report
Market Report
MARCH
TROPICAL
FORECAST
The famously palm-printed Beverly Hills
Hotel turns 100, and designers are riding
the island wave. Plan for a lush spring
1
2
3
11
4
1 Hermès scarf
2 Charlotte Olympia shoe
3 Tod’s bag
4 Nina Ricci bag
5 The Fountain Coffee
Room at the
Beverly Hills Hotel
6 Gianvito Rossi for
Altuzarra shoe
7 and 11 Dior Fine
Jewelry rings
8 Bottega Veneta
9 Salvatore Ferragamo
10 Sportmax
7
10
34 March 2012
9
8
6
For details see Sources,
page 114.
COURTESY THE BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL (COFFEE ROOM); COURTESY OF VENDORS
5
Travel Report
MARCH
ALL THAT GLITTERS
From far left: A
designer sketches
a ring; a sapphire
Mystery Set bracelet
with diamonds;
an ornate salon
where classes are
taught; students
learn about settings
JEWEL
SCHOOL
Van Cleef & Arpels’s institute
teaches its sparkling artistry
to passionate amateurs
gastronomic landmark, École Ritz Escoffier, on
Paris’s Place Vendôme, Van Cleef & Arpels—
famous for its diamond zipper chains and
Alhambra clovers—is letting the public in on the secrets
of high jewelry with a just-opened school.
No setting is richer for this than Place Vendôme, a
square dating back to the 17th century that hosts many
of the city’s most exclusive boutiques. Previously, the
quiet atelier where craftspeople hunch over tables with
their tiny, precise tools was off-limits to all but the
house’s inner circle. But this isn’t a school for aspiring
professionals; for that, sister brand Cartier (also part of
luxury-goods group Compagnie Financière Richemont)
opened a full-fledged academy. Instead, L’École Van
Cleef & Arpels is for “enlightened amateurs,” says head
of school Marie Vallanet-Delhom, people who want to
better appreciate the jewelry-making process.
The seven classes—each four hours long, taught in
both French and English—are divided into three sections and cost between $750 and $1,200. The first section covers aesthetics and interpreting gemstones. The
second explores jewelry history and craftsmanship.
For the third, students can visit the atelier, talk with
designers and workers, and try on jewelry.
Vallanet-Delhom says the curriculum was inspired by
classes for wine lovers. “Teaching oenology is similar in
many ways,” she explains. “Whereas technical schools
train sommeliers, introductory courses are available to
individuals keen to develop their tastes, to find words to
express their sensations and to satisfy their curiosity.”
With its school, Van Cleef & Arpels is expanding
its ties with Place Vendôme, its hub of craftsmanship
for more than a century. Part of the brand’s mission,
Villanet-Delhom says, is “passing on, sharing and teaching knowledge,” which makes this school sound like a
golden opportunity.
By Christina Passariello
36 March 2012
GEM OF AN IDEA
Clockwise from right:
A white opal and
diamond Archimede
ring; a classroom
in a townhouse on
Place Vendôme;
students learn how
to measure stones.
PHOTOS BY: CELINE CLANET (INTERIOR X2); COURTESY OF VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
©YANNICK LE MERLUS (DRAWING); ©ERIC SANDER (JEWELRY MAKING).
T
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The LaTesT from Luxury’s BesT
aN EvENING aT THE aLdyN
12.13.11
WSJ. Magazine and Extell Development
Company co-hosted an evening at home with
Chef Marcus Samuelsson at the stunning Upper
West Side residential property, The Aldyn.
Guests were treated to artisanal comfort food
and cocktail creations from Samuelsson’s
newest restaurant, Red Rooster, in the building’s
unparalleled amenity space and select model
residences. While taking in breathtaking views
of the Hudson River, all in attendance received
unique holiday entertaining tips from Mr.
Samuelsson.
Rachel Pearline and
Matthew Robinson
Atmosphere
Jennifer Miller, Terry Villani, Lilly Schonwald
Photos by: Alexander Porter/BFAnyc.com
Brendan Gunderson, Holly Fagan, Dan Rauchle, Marcus Samuelsson,
Wes Urick and Brian O’Donnell
Samuelsson’s keynote
Jonathan Kurland with Gavin Apter
Signing copies of New American Table
dEcEmBER ISSuE PREvIEW
11.30.11
Publisher Anthony Cenname and Editor in Chief
Deborah Needleman unveiled the December
issue of WSJ. Magazine and toasted the holiday
season during a lunch for luxury insiders at Les
Salons Bernardin. All enjoyed a 3-course menu
designed by Chef Eric Ripert with wine selections
by Chef Sommelier Aldo Sohm while previewing
photographic imagery from the publication.
Rod Manley
Erika Bearman, Alex Bolen and Josie Natori
Deborah Needleman, Robert Chavez and Melissa Beste
Erica Kasel with Anthony Cenname
Catherine Lacaze and Mounia Mechbal
Photos by: Will Ragozzino/BFAnyc.com
Christine de Saint Andrieu and Billy Daly
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Ideas People
WSJ. MAGAZINE
HARDLY THE WALLFLOWER Cindy Sherman attends a cocktail party to celebrate her friend Stella McCartney’s new SoHo store.
S OA P B OX
Big Bang Tutti Frutti Rose.
18K red gold chronograph, adorned
with pink sapphires baguettes.
Pink rubber and alligator strap.
HANNAH THOMSON/VOGUE.COM; ©CONDÉ NAST
CINDY SHERMAN
S
With a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art and record-shattering prices for her work, the artist is
riding high—save for concerns about public perception, singledom and attending too many parties
INCE 1977, WHEN CINDY SHERMAN FIRST EXHIBITED HER “UNTITLED FILM
Stills” of fictional B-movie starlets, she has surrendered herself to photographic portraits of nearly every female archetype imaginable. So completely does the artist disappear into her subjects—disheveled fashion
victims, art-historical icons, tragic dowagers, manic clowns, Beverly Hills housewives—that it’s hard to believe they are all the same woman.
Today Sherman’s photographs sell at the very top of the art market. Last spring
her ironic 1981 photograph of a supine schoolgirl mimicking a magazine centerfold
sold at auction for a whopping $3.89 million, the most ever paid for a photograph
at the time. It is one of the 180 works in “Cindy Sherman,” the blockbuster survey
of her celebrated career on view at the Museum of Modern Art, through June.
The show should give her reason to feel invincible, yet at 58, Sherman remains the
same person she has always been: a girl from Long Island who likes playing dressup and confounding accepted standards of beauty. With one marriage to video artist Michel Auder, and relationships with Steve Martin, Richard Prince, Robert Longo
and David Byrne behind her, Sherman now lives alone with Frieda, a male parrot, in
a splendid Manhattan duplex overlooking the Hudson River. It also houses her studio, where a full-length mirror that serves as her sole studio assistant communes
with the wigs, costumes and prosthetic body parts that inspire her acutely observed,
sometimes cringe-worthy, even brutal, pictures.
By Linda Yablonsky
March 2012 43
“UNTITLED FILM STILL,” 1980 (BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH), 8“ X 10”, EDITION 4/10; “UNTITLED FILM STILL,” 1980 (BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH), 8” X 10”, EDITION OF 10; “UNTITLED,” 2000 (COLOR PRINT),
30 “X 20” (IMAGE), 39” X 29” X 1” (FRAME), EDITION OF 6; UNTITLED, 1994, (COLOR PHOTOGRAPH), 69 15/16 “ X 45 1/4”, EDITION OF 6; “UNTITLED”, 2010, (PIGMENT PRINT ON PHOTOTEX ADHESIVE FABRIC), DIMENSIONS VARIABLE FOR EXHIBITION C. 130.71” X 209.45”; “UNTITLED,” 1981 (COLOR PHOTOGRAPH), 24 X 48 INCHES, EDITION OF 10. ALL ©CINDY SHERMAN, COURTESY OF CINDY SHERMAN AND METRO PICTURES
Ideas People
SOAPBOX
F
OR ME, A GREAT PORTRAIT IS SOMETHING THAT
combines the familiar with the unfamiliar—
something seductive but also repulsive. I want to
go “Ew,” but then can’t stop looking. So there’s a
push-pull thing to it. I also see the humorous aspect, not
just the horrible. It’s exciting in its gruesomeness.
It’s not that I’m trying to make women gruesome. I
find what we traditionally consider beautiful to be boring. I find it more entertaining and visually stimulating
when things go against those traditional concepts—I’m
actually sympathetic to my characters. When I showed
the ones I call the Hollywood/Hampton ladies in L.A., I
was criticized for being mean-spirited, but I didn’t have
that feeling at all. They’re all so eager in their desire
to sell themselves and be loved and wanted...there’s a
tragedy in there that I respond to.
Early on I felt that some of my work was wrongly
perceived by feminists, who didn’t get the irony. I’m
talking about the “Centerfolds” pictures. Part of it was
their horizontal format. If I’m going to fill the frame
with a figure, it’s going to be a vulnerable position.
They were intentionally not erotic—I wanted to take a
titillating image and turn it on its head so a viewer who
expected to get turned on would find something else.
I usually don’t let others take my portrait. It means
giving up control. It’s terrifying, but I hate to be vain. I
have to try to suppress the vanity that goes along with
being photographed, or I’ll get paranoid about aging, and
I don’t want to take it so seriously that I’ll start worrying
about plastic surgery, which I worry about anyway.
I see myself as a blank canvas, and it changes from
day to day, depending on whom I’m around or my
mood or how well I slept. I’m so aware of other people’s
expectations that I have to be careful to not try to be
who someone wants me to be, instead of myself. In that
sense, I’m still learning who I am. I’m a product of everyone around me, and that goes back to being a blank
canvas. People don’t see me the same way I do, but identity is always as much of a construct as what you want
people to think you are. I absorb things from everyone
else, shake it up in a bottle and throw it out, and that’s
what comes out in my photographs. That comes from
living and watching how people present themselves.
When I was with Michel [Auder], I was self-conscious about playing down who I was, and in other relationships since then I was like that to varying degrees.
It took a long time to feel comfortable with friends who
weren’t as successful, because I could sense competition and resentment in some. But as I’ve gotten older,
I’ve decided I can’t keep pretending I don’t have a nice
life, so I’m going to try and enjoy it.
It’s nice for your ego to have someone recognize
you or to get a nice table in a restaurant. But I’ve been
around others who were so into their fame they couldn’t
see anyone outside their protective cocoon—not as long
as they had fans coming up to them, because then they
knew they still existed. Some people thrive on it, and
others, like me, would rather stay more anonymous. I
think I’ve made a conscious decision not to be really out
there. I don’t take people who get pictures of themselves
plastered all over the place so seriously. Some people
seek out publicity at events, as if it’s going to help them
promote their name. I’m doing press now because of
44 March 2012
WOMEN AT WORK Clockwise from top left: Two images from the
“Untitled Film Stills” series, 1980; “Untitled,” from the Hollywood/
Hampton types series, 2000; “Untitled,” Comme des Garçons, 1994;
“Untitled,” wall mural, 2010; “Untitled,” from the “Centerfolds” series, 1981
the MoMA show, but normally I don’t like to talk about
myself. Being more successful has made certain designers, like Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, approach me
to work with their clothes. I’ve posed for Marc Jacobs
ads by Juergen Teller. The fashion world has become
very enamored of artists; it’s like the new black. But it
hasn’t changed the content of my work.
I grew up with my mother telling me I had to be
nice and be perceived as nice and generous, but we’re
not always. Everyone has imperfections, and you can’t
always be one way. I suspect people think I’m quiet and
shy and keep to myself, and that’s fine. They could also
think that as a result I’m not so interesting and that my
work is where I let loose. That’s probably true. But I think
it’s because I’m trying to suppress the bitchier side. My
friends know my acerbic side, but there are all these layers—how the public sees you and how friends do.
I’m making more of an effort to be social these days—
because I don’t want to be alone, and I want to meet people. If I’m home more than two nights in a row, I feel antsy.
I get reminded that I’m single and don’t want to be.
Edited from Linda Yablonsky’s interview with Cindy Sherman
NEW YORK
ISTANBUL
SEOUL
PARIS
Ideas People
7:30
a.m.
Wakes up
in his one-bedroom in
Midtown East.
10
years in current
apartment
He moved in as a college
freshman. (He hasn’t had time
to look for a new place.)
9 a.m.
Feeds Jinxy
and Peaches
while drinking an espresso.
9:10 a.m.
Takes a cab
to the office
MAN AT WORK Fashion designer Wu oversees all elements of his four annual collections. Here, he leads a fitting for his upcoming runway show.
JASON WU
From faucets to cameras (and bridal gowns and candles), the young designer is constantly
expanding his brand. But a day at the office still means plenty of sketches and stitches
I
N FASHION, THIS GENERATION’S YOUNG TALENTS HAVE
become known for their carefully plotted growth and a hesitation to lend out their names. In their midst, however, is
Jason Wu, who has involved himself in nearly everything
available to him and made embracing unexpected opportunities
part of his identity.
The Taiwan native’s route has always been unorthodox. While
in high school, he designed dolls and was named the creative
director of the Integrity Toys brand, giving him the money to
start his own line after attending Parsons in New York City. At
26 he became a household name overnight after Michelle Obama
selected his crystal-emblazoned gown for the Inaugural Ball.
Three years later, Wu’s line of updated, ladylike classics has
been lauded for its exquisite detailing and embroidery. It may
not be a retail mainstay quite yet, but it is beloved by fashion
46 March 2012
editors and well-heeled starlets. Wu has also demonstrated considerable range, venturing into shoes, handbags and eyewear.
In February a 53-piece Target line hit stores days before Wu
showed at New York Fashion Week. He’s a brand ambassador for
the St. Regis Hotel chain and has done countless collaborations
for everything from wedding gowns to kitchen fixtures.
In a day spent with WSJ., Wu switched gears swiftly. Hours
were spent making meticulous decisions on the pre-fall, fall and
resort collections, each at a different point on the road from
sketch to store rack. An award-acceptance speech was written, appearances to promote the Target line were finalized, and
a process was put in place for sending out gowns to actresses
attending awards shows. All this done on a (nearly) liquid
diet. In Wu’s world, stopping to eat lunch takes up time he just
doesn’t have.
By Adrienne Gaffney
(
$0
cash in wallet
When the cab’s credit card
machine fails, he borrows
a twenty from the reporter.
Amazing Butterfly Symphony
Poetic Complications watch,
white gold, diamonds, onyx
and mother-of-pearl marquetery.
(
T R AC K E D
Haute Joaillerie, place Vendôme since 1906
9:35 a.m.
Arrives at work
His Garment District
headquarters includes his office,
a showroom and a warehouse.
Photographs by Christina Paige
www.vancleef-arpels.com - 877-VAN-CLEEF
HUGO BOSS FASHIONS INC. Phone +1 212 940 0600
Ideas People
TRACKED
5
11
brand
collaborations
in an office bookcase.
Including:
• Brizo • Madame Alexander
• Target • Melissa Shoes
20
sketches reviewed
25
5
84
pieces from the
pre-fall collection
ready to be loaned out for photo
shoots and celebrity clients.
1
during a morning meeting
to discuss resort accessories.
3
bottles of juice
consumed during the day.
Wu cleanses
monthly with BluePrint.
item brought
to the new office
The table on which Michelle
Obama’s inauguration
gown was embroidered.
135
flags on office map
representing stores carrying
the line. Each color denotes
a region, so a quick glance shows
areas for growth.
48 March 2012
150
calls received
calls placed
11
tweets
Wu recently started tweeting
and is “sort of into it.”
It keeps him informed:
“I already know the poll numbers
for the Republican candidates.
I’m not even into it. I just know!”
emails received
3
inches cut off
one sweater
and added to the neck of
another, so he could visualize it
as a mock turtleneck.
1
1
eaten accidentally,
when distracted.
A clip of Golden Globe nominee
Michelle Williams
appearing on “The Tonight
Show” in a Wu dress.
9
months of
travel planned
Destinations include Paris,
for the fall collection; U.S. cities,
for store appearances; and
Italy, to visit factories. His office
wallpaper is made from old
copies of the “New York Observer.”
100
emails sent
8 p.m.
blog post
cookie
BOSS Black
art and
fashion books
Wu shuttles back and forth
between tailoring his upcoming
collection on a runway
model and fitting the recently
shown pre-fall collection for
stores on a production model.
Breaks the cleanse
2,500
at restaurant Hudson
Clearwater with two high
school friends.
yards of fabric
on hand for fall.
Endive salad, cod and vodka
cocktails. Afterward, salted
caramel ice cream at
the cafe Victory Garden.
17,240
Swarovski crystals
ordered for the fall collection.
Wu is known for his intricate
and elaborate beadwork.
11 p.m.
Arrives home
and works on sketches while
catching up on episodes
of “American Horror Story.”
1 a.m.
Heads to bed
COURTESY OF: JASON WU (TARGET); MELISSA SHOES (SHOES); BRIZO (SOAP DISH); MADAME ALEXANDER (DOLL); BLUEPRINT CLEANSE (JUICE). KEVIN WINTER/NBC UNIVERSAL/GETTY IMAGES (WILLIAMS)
348
hours spent
in fittings
shop online hugoboss.com
WWW.COACH.COM 800 262 2411
©2012 COACH®
Ideas People
THE RENEGADE
HI, POWER The notoriously tempestuous Michèle Montagne in her severe, meticulously arranged Paris apartment.
COULD THIS WOMAN LOOK ANY MORE
LIKE THE FACE OF FRENCH FASHION?
From Helmut Lang to Haider Ackermann, some of the most influential designers of the past three decades have heavily
relied on Michèle Montagne to shape their careers. For the first time ever, meet the mysterious visionary BY DANA THOMAS
50 March 2012
Portrait by François Coquerel
Ideas People
THE RENEGADE
BEST IN SHOW
Fashion from a
few of Montagne’s
former clients,
including (from
left) Helmut Lang,
Martine Sitbon
and Rick Owens.
L
EADING PARIS DESIGNER HAIDER ACKERMANN
still recalls his March 2005 show at the
Chapelle des Beaux-Arts with a mix of horror and awe. All of the top editors and retailers had arrived and were growing impatient with the
30-minute wait. Terrifyingly for Ackermann, many
of the models were late due to a previous show and
still weren’t dressed. Suddenly, amid the commotion,
Ackermann’s publicist, a chic French woman named
Michèle Montagne, dropped to her knees and started
shoe-horning lace-up boots onto the girls’ feet. “She
just jumped in to help,” says Ackermann. The average
public relations executive wouldn’t even be backstage,
let alone stooping to that level. “Nothing is beneath
her,” he adds. “Because it’s her company as much as
it is mine.”
For more than 30 years, Montagne has served
as a devoted and almost mystical guru to some of
industry’s most influential designers, including
the indust
Lang, Rick Owens, Ann Demeulemeester and
Helmut La
Ackermann, not only handling their media and retail
Ackermann
but also styling their fashion shows and
relations b
counseling them on everything from design direction
to business philosophy. Traditionally, fashion is a specialized business
with strictly defined
bu
designers design; business execroles: desig
handle business; stylists style;
utives han
publicists do publicity. Montagne
publici
scoffs at such Cartesian thinking.
Her job is “really an exchange—
helping
designers achieve what
help
they
the want to express,” she
says,
say from her headquarters in
an old, drafty workshop in the
far reaches of northeastern Paris. Preferring
to remain anonymously behind the scenes—
this
thi is the first major interview she has ever
granted—and
work with a carefully selected
gran
group of designers, Montagne is, in effect, one of
fashion’s
fashio quietest forces.
Her greatest strengths are her sharp eye and
unyielding
point of view—a point of view that has
unyield
helped her spot extraordinary talent in its infancy
and has earned her a reputation as prickly, or even
difficult.
cult (The French put it more diplomatically,
calling her “special” or “particular.”) Her devotees, however,
don’t see this as a liability. Indeed,
ho
Demeulemeester says with deep sincerity, “I can’t
Demeule
imagine life without her. She is my friend—that’s the
important thing. Her special talent is that she
most imp
always pull the best out of me. She will ask me
can alway
questions, I’m obliged to explain better and formulate
questions
my idea
ideas better, and then she will push me further.
She is a master of getting that message out there for
others tto understand it.”
Montagne, choosing whom she will take on
For M
as a clie
client is the hardest decision of all. Currently,
her roster
roste includes two superstars in French fashion:
Demeulemeester, known for her modern romantic
Demeule
silhouette, and Ackermann, a masterful taigoth si
lor reg
regularly hailed as the new Yves Saint Laurent,
who is rumored to be short-listed for the coveted
Christian Dior design job, and whom Montagne
Christi
affectionately calls her “latest chou chou.”
“In the beginning, there is, of course, talent,”
Montagne says. “And there is seduction—if we will love
each other. It’s a painful moment, that choice. We can
regret not to go, or if we go, we can question if we have
done the right thing.” For a designer, the initial meeting
can be equally as taxing. “What I really like about Michèle
is that she was not seduced immediately,” Ackermann
says. “She had to know more. About my background,
about the music I liked, trying to get as much out of me,
trying to understand and know me, and I was intrigued
by that. Nothing like that had happened to me before—
so much questioning. She said, ‘If you agree, you are
part of the family.’ And it is family. With all the pros and
the cons you can have with a family.”
Though Montagne lives and breathes fashion today,
she never considered it a career path. Born in the early
1950s in a small town in the Marne and educated by
Dominican nuns in Dijon, she dreamed of becoming a
reporter. But France’s premier school for journalism is
in Lille, an industrial town in northern France. “I didn’t
want to go to Lille at 18,” she says.
Montagne moved to Paris to attend the four-year
school for attachés de presse, or publicists. (“It was
really a school for girls waiting to
marry,” she cracks.) When she finished, in 1972, she went to work for a
French Gaullist lobbyist named Jacques
Bloch-Morange. “He had a huge influence in politics and industry,” she
says. “Everything important in France
passed through that office. Yet the average citizen never heard about him. For
me it was evident that the power was
actually in the hands of those in the background, and
that made an impression on me.”
In the early ’80s, Montagne left Bloch-Morange and
went freelance, consulting for small fashion brands. In
1985 she opened a proper office in the 17th arrondissement and soon after signed a young French designer
named Martine Sitbon, a rising star who would go on
to design for Chloé beginning in 1988. With Sitbon,
Montagne learned how to put together a fashion show
and helped her client hone her message, not only in
the press but also in her designs. “There was so much
lightness and no pressure to sell,” Montagne remembers of the pre-megabrand era. “Of course you had to
sell, but it wasn’t our raison d’être.” Though the two
had fun together making pretty clothes and putting on
well-received shows, Montagne wasn’t, as she puts it,
“investing my soul.”
That changed in 1987, when she met an unknown
Austrian designer named Helmut Lang. Shortly after
Montagne read a two-line review of Lang’s show
in a French daily, a model friend of his went to see
Montagne and asked if she’d like to meet the designer.
Montagne was struck by the coincidence and agreed.
She traveled to Vienna, and when she arrived at Lang’s
studio, he opened the door himself. She immediately
loved what she saw. “I was pulled into his GermanAustrian minimalism—the culture and the architecture—and how this really nourished and informed
him,” she says.
ROBERTO
CAVALLI
FIRSTVIEW (X3)
CALL 800.429.0996, VISIT SAKS.COM OR FIND US ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER, iTUNES AND SAKSPOV.COM
“Mr. Lang is like
a dog without
teeth, but he still
wants to bite,”
Montagne says.
saks.com
52 March 2012
paulshark.it
Ideas People
THE RENEGADE
Montagne says she traveled regularly from Paris
to Vienna to help Lang craft his design ethic through
hands-on styling and long philosophical talks. She
went with him to his factories in Italy to check on
production quality, as well as staging the shows,
responding to press requests and hiring the models.
“We did everything together,” she says. “Everything.”
Montagne says she styled Lang’s runway collections
from 1988 to 1993, after Jenny Capitain and before
Melanie Ward.
During their time together, Lang’s aesthetic evolved
into his signature purity. “We became more minimal
than minimal,” Montagne says. “We pushed each other
to go further, like a game. I think he needed to be pushed
to do what he really desired. It was an absolutely magical moment and everything changed. Fashion became
the way to express something; before, it was not like
that. At Helmut there was a lot of coldness—colder
than Armani. His fabrics were less noble, and his lines
were bone dry. There was little or no color. The structure was the same for men and women.” Lang showed
men’s and women’s wear together—something no one
else did at the time—because, as Montagne points out,
“men and women live together, and we felt the sensuality between them.”
She says that their story came to an abrupt end
when Lang moved his company to New York City in
1997. According to Montagne, Lang
asked her to give up her clients and
work solely for him. She refused. “It
was very painful,” she says. “When we
work with our heart, it can be heartbreaking. But when it’s finished, it’s
finished, and one should take one’s
bag and leave.” She adds, “We never
saw each other again. It was like a bad
divorce.” When reached for comment,
Lang’s spokesman said, “Throughout his career, Mr.
Lang always made a point to discuss his collections in
detail and at length with each individual who served
on his team, as they would ultimately be responsible
for representing his work. Regardless, Mr. Lang was
always responsible for all decisions and the very personal aesthetic that is embodied in the fashion he
created.” Furthermore, Lang denies asking Montagne
to move to the U.S. to work only for him. In response,
Montagne says, “Mr. Lang is like a dog without teeth,
but he still wants to bite.” Lang later sold his company
to Prada and now resides on Long Island, where he
lives as an artist.
Happily, Montagne had another “love story,” as
she often calls her client relationships, to fall back
on: Ann Demeulemeester. Montagne first noticed the
Belgian designer at a group presentation in Paris in
1991 and quickly snapped her up. Demeulemeester
still remembers their first meeting: “I wanted to find
a press agent because I wanted to start showing in
Paris. One woman told me about five names, then said,
‘And you have Michèle Montagne, who is something
particular. You’ll love her or you’ll hate her.’ That’s
the one I wanted to see. I made an appointment and
she said, ‘Hello, I was waiting for you. I knew you
would come.’ I was intrigued. She seemed different
from the others.” Says Montagne, “It was obvious we
would work together.”
Never married and with no children at home to raise,
Montagne threw herself wholly behind Demeulemeester. The pair put together Demeulemeester’s first show
in a Paris art gallery in 1992, officially launching the
designer’s career. As with Lang, Montagne styled the
show, and still does for every collection. As Montagne
puts it, styling isn’t as simple as putting the right skirt
together with the right top. “I’m more like a midwife,”
she says. “I help Ann pull together what’s in her head, to
make her story real, like a book, with a beginning, middle and end, using her codes: black, poetry, rock ’n’ roll,
Rimbaud and Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.
I’m sort of the guardian of the codes.”
When California-born designer Rick Owens moved
to Paris in the early 2000s, he too hired Montagne to
help him shape and sell his subversive, avant-garde line.
“We spent four beautiful years together,” she says. “The
man and his work are both unique and bewitching. He
has a sense of modern elegance.” Sadly for Montagne,
when Owens moved his company into its current Place
du Palais-Bourbon headquarters, he decided to hire an
in-house publicist. “I could understand,” Montagne says
mournfully, adding, “I still love him.”
Seven years ago Montagne met and signed
Ackermann, whom she describes as the “complete
opposite” of Demeulemeester designwise. He had launched his line in
2002 and was already a favorite of
talent spotters like Isabella Blow
but remained very much under the
radar commercially
ially and editorially.
Wishing to amp up his image and sales,
Ackermann went
nt to see Montagne.
When he showed her his work, she says
she was “completely
etely intrigued. There
were things that I couldn’t quite
te understand, and
that’s what makes him so interesting
esting to me.” She
describes his designs as “extremely
mely elegant and
refined and mixed with very bizarre
zarre things, like
a mille-feuille, with so many levels,
els, and little by
little they come out, without order.”
rder.” Montagne
currently styles runway showss for him, too.
Ackermann has become so respected—and
hot—in fashion that Karl Lagerfeld
eld has publicly
declared him the one designer worthy of succeeding him at Chanel.
Today Montagne has reached
d a comfortable
place in her career: Her company is well settled in
its atelier, not far from her little
le house in the
charming Buttes-Chaumont neighborhood.
ghborhood. She
has a collection of varied clients,
s, from veterans
like Demeulemeester, with whom
om she has now
worked on more than 60 shows, to just-out-of-college
kids who need a healthy dose of the
he Montagne magic. If
Montagne and her brood are one big family, she is the
mother hen looking out for them
m all and nudging
them when they need it. “When you work in a creative field and you are creating, it is difficult
difficult to reveal
something of yourself; it’s scary,” Demeulemeester says.
“It’s nice to have someone next to
o you saying, ‘Don’t be
afraid—go.’ With Michèle, I neverr feel alone.”
ALL-STAR ROSTER
Spring runway looks
by two of Montagne’s
current clients:
Ann Demeulemeester
(bottom left) and
Haider Ackermann.
54 March 2012
FIRSTVIEW (X3)
“I’m more like
a midwife,
helping to make
a designer’s
story real.”
Ideas People
THE DESIGNER
BETTING THE FARM
With a vegetarian cookbook inspired by her family’s stewardship of natural resources,
Stella McCartney gives her stylish fans food for thought BY WHITNEY VARGAS
COUNTRY GIRL Designer Stella McCartney on her Wiltshire estate with her dog, Red.
56 March 2012
MARY MCCARTNEY
S
TELLA MCCARTNEY HAS ALWAYS HAD A DEEP
connection to hearth and home. Spending some
of her childhood in the English countryside with
her three siblings, she recalls the family kitchen
as the place where her fabulously famous father, Paul
McCartney, was just a dad and her beloved late mother
and devoted chef, Linda, experimented with vegetarian
shepherd’s pies and cheese soufflés. “The kitchen was
where we always were, chopping, chatting and chomping,” she says. Now a 40-year-old longtime vegetarian,
with four small children and a remarkably successful
career as a fashion designer, McCartney is returning
to her roots and following in her mother’s footsteps
with “The Meat Free Monday Cookbook.” The idea is to
show people how easy it would be to not eat meat one
day a week by offering seasonal recipes, from a spring
ragout of artichoke hearts, broad beans, peas and turnips to a leek and ricotta tart. More an environmental
conversation than a vegetarian one, the book draws
its inspiration from the Meat Free Monday campaign
that McCartney, her father and sister Mary launched in
London in 2009 in an attempt to bring light to the detrimental effects of the agricultural industry. According
to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, the livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger
share than even transportation. One time when Paul
was taking a road trip from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to
El Paso, Texas, “going past 20 miles of cattle, billions
of them, the idea really hit home,” says Stella. “The
importance of Meat Free Monday is about educating
oneself and realizing that the way we ate 100 years
ago doesn’t apply today. Most people don’t eat meat
every day anyway, so it’s a simple idea!” For her small
part, McCartney maintains an organic vegetable and
fruit patch at her country house in Wiltshire, much like
the one she had growing up. “I had a weirdly modern
upbringing. It was less about thinking about yourself and more about thinking about the world around
you,” says the designer, who also quietly refuses to use
leather and fur in her fashion collections. In the words
of the Beatles song, “We all want to change the world.”
Some of us just mean it more than others.
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THESE
ARE A FEW
OF MY
FAVORITE
THINGS
FROM TOP: Balenciaga by Nicolas
Ghesquière bag, Proenza
Schouler bag, Fendi bag, Chloé
wedges, Yossi Harari bracelets,
Burberry Prorsum shirt and skirt
Photographs by Jennifer Livingston Styling by Haidee Findlay-Levin
March 2012 59
Places
Costero Residence, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Things
ACCESSORIES
BE THE
From bird-of-paradise
cuffs to cameos
featuring long-haired
girls, there’s a natural
vitality to fine jewelry.
ENVY
OF YOUR WELL-TRAVELED FRIENDS
FROM TOP: Wilfredo Rosado cameo
earrings and necklace, Lorraine Schwartz
cuffs, Luz Camino brooch, Loree Rodkin
ring, pendant and chain, Gucci dress
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60 March 2012
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Places
Things
ACCESSORIES
The latest lipstick
shades in crimsons
and tangerines
make a strong impact.
TOP: Bobbi Brown lipstick
BOTTOM, FROM LEFT:
Shiseido lipstick, Tom Ford lipstick,
Chanel lipstick, Chanel lipstick,
Tom Ford nail polish, Shiseido lipstick,
Chanel nail polish, Tom Ford blouse
Gold watches with
slender bracelet
bands are today’s
feminine delicacy.
FROM LEFT: Chanel watch,
Verdura watch, Chanel
watch, Franck Muller watch
62 March 2012
March 2012 63
Places
Things
ACCESSORIES
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:
Yves Saint Laurent espadrilles,
Miu Miu platforms, Yves
Saint Laurent platforms, Yves
Saint Laurent wedges, Lanvin
espadrilles, Chanel wedges,
Christian Louboutin wedges,
Miu Miu espadrilles, Lanvin
platforms, Manolo Blahnik
wedges, Balenciaga by Nicolas
Ghesquière blouse, Givenchy skirt
For details see Sources, page 114.
64 March 2012
GROOMING: ALEXARODULFO.COM, MODEL: RACHEL/FORD, MANICURIST: DAPHNE ALLENDE FOR CHANEL AT RONA REPRESENTS, PHOTO ASSISTANT: MATT LABARBIERA, STYLIST ASSISTANT: ALPHA VOLMERO
This season, high-rise
platforms sensibly
outnumber spindly heels.
Places
Things
There’s wealth in
providing you a greater perspective on the world.
At RBC Wealth Management,® our approach is to provide clients with global expertise to help them realize the
life they’ve envisioned. With the integrity, strength and stability of Royal Bank of Canada, we are committed
to putting your needs first. This approach has made us one of the world’s top 10 wealth managers.* To learn
more, visit www.rbcwealthmanagement.com.
There’s Wealth in Our Approach.
PURE WHITE
A few of
Vladimir Kanevsky’s
specimens in
bisque porcelain.
Investments I Trust Services
I Credit & Banking Solutions I Asset Management
MAKING IT
A ROSE IS NOT A ROSE
W
The story of how one man wondrously transforms porcelain into
vividly blossoming flowers to last a lifetime BY DAVID NETTO
HAT BRINGS THE LIKES OF OSCAR DE LA
Renta, Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis,
Deeda Blair and Charlotte Moss to Fort Lee,
New Jersey? The porcelain flowers made by
Vladimir Kanevsky, a local artist. Over the past 20 years,
the Ukraine-born, suburbs-based Kanevsky has developed quite a following among the highest levels of the
style cognoscenti for his handcrafted botanicals: double
black hollyhocks, lush white hydrangeas, delicate lilies
66 March 2012
of the valley and the simplest wild daisies in weathered
terra cotta pots. “I could tell his work from anywhere,”
says longtime collector and fashion designer turned lifestyle author Carolyne Roehm. “He’s one of the few people
I know who can almost compete with Mother Nature.”
At first glance Kanevsky’s one-of-a-kind creations
would appear to be a revival of 18th-century porcelain flowers (which were sometimes scented to reference the real), made famous by fabled European
manufacturers such as Meissen and Longton Hall for
members of an aesthetically preoccupied nobility. But
on closer inspection, his pieces have great original
authorship. The character of the blossoms in, say, a
1760s French or German chandelier gives pleasure. But
for all its virtuosity, the effect is inevitably pretty and
sweet. Kanevsky is after something earthier and more
vivid. He adds a dimension of mystery and imperfection—a bent stem, a caterpillar crawling along a
Photographs by Tony Floyd
The value of investments may fall as well as rise. You may not get back the full amount that you originally invested.
*Scorpio Partnership Global Private Banking KPI Benchmark 2011. ® / ™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under licence. Above mentioned services are offered through
Royal Bank of Canada or its affiliates. In the U.S. RBC Wealth Management is a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC. Member NYSE/FINRA/SIPC.
Places
Things
MAKING IT
NATURAL
SELECTION From
left: A porcelain
chrysanthemum;
paper cutouts,
which Kanevsky
uses to mock
up leaves; the
artist in his New
Jersey studio.
CREATION
THEORY
Clockwise from
left: Kanevsky
paints a peony
blossom; various
brushes and
paints, with a
bisque anemone
plant; a flower’s
tole stem.
68 March 2012
branch, nascent buds, insect bites—to an art that traditionally prioritized loveliness above all else.
To assemble the flowers, Kanevsky consults an
existing stock of hundreds of different blossoms he has
sculpted from European clay and fired in advance. “I have
a pretty extensive catalog, and most people ask me for
something from that,” he says. (Custom orders, which
range from $3,000 for a hollyhock to up to $20,000 for
a large cluster of lilacs, take roughly a month to complete. The Dior boutique in Paris also sells his work.) He
designs by sketching on a computer, which he finds easier to manipulate than pen and paper. The blossoms can
either be matte white (known as bisque in the pottery
world) or glazed. Kanevsky then paints each flower by
hand. “I am not trying to make fake flowers, but rather
sculpture about flowers,” he says. “One needs to keep
a balance between the real color of real materials and
the fiction of painting. I recently discontinued a newly
designed line of more heavily painted flowers because
it looked too naturalistic, like a theater prop.”
An obvious source of inspiration lies in 17th- and
18th-century European botanical prints, which are
often bizarre and stylized but always highly colored.
Kanevsky’s other references are more personal and
obscure. He cites Harvard University’s glass-flower
collection at its Museum of Natural History as an
inexhaustible cache of ideas, for form, content and
sheer brazen originality. Carl Fabergé’s flowers set in
rock-crystal vases (less well known than the eggs) are
another. “They are very poetic, just simple flowers,
almost weeds,” Kanevsky says. “I try to create this
kind of effect in my work too, with something humble
like a dandelion.”
The green bits, the stems and leaves, began as porcelain too but were so prone to breaking that the artist
COURTESY THE VLADIMIR COLLECTION (HOLLYHOCK); © VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
START TO FINISH
Clockwise from
above: Kanevsky
sketching on
the computer;
a porcelain lilac
branch and
caterpillar; a sugar
bowl, circa 1755,
by Longton Hall,
whose designs
inspire Kanevsky.
STILL LIFE
A double black
hollyhock in a
terra cotta pot.
now constructs them of painted metal, or tole. The
tole is embossed, hammered and formed, and then
attached to stems fashioned of copper wire. “What I
like most is the engineering part of it,” says Kanevsky.
A single branch of hollyhock can weigh 7 pounds,
including the pot, which is weighted to add stability.
(Most pots are terra cotta, which Kanevsky paints to
look deliberately patinated. Clients can supply their
own container, which may range from an antique porcelain cachepot to a wooden inkpot, and request a
flower that suits it.)
With the metal elements complete, he
mounts the porcelain flowers on the
stem. Kanevsky notes that in the 18th
century, craftsmen would pierce
the flowers with the stem, folding the end over and flattening
it to form a rivet, because they
didn’t have good glues. “Now we
do,” he says. “So we glue.”
For Kanevsky, who was born in Kharkov, Ukraine,
the path from obscure expat to sought-after artist
has been a winding one. Soviet Russia was known
for training generations of impeccable artisans in
otherwise lost techniques to repair the devastation
wreaked upon her monuments during World War
II—Kanevsky is not among them. Instead he was an
architecture student during the late 1960s, studying
Modernism right at the end, as the movement gave
way to Brutalism. After graduation he later lived in
Leningrad for about 10 years, during which time he
endured a sobering arrest by Soviet authorities for
attending a private lecture on the history of Jews in
Spain. Shortly thereafter, in 1989, he emigrated to
the United States.
His arrival required courage and a willingness to face
change. “I quit architecture because I knew it was too
late for me to start a career here in the U.S.,” he says.
Instead, he started doing sculpture. One day while visiting a ceramics supply store, he saw an ad by Howard
Slatkin, the decorator known for opulent and highly
crafted period interiors. Kanevsky answered it, and,
despite having no experience or credentials, persuaded
Slatkin to let him create a melon-shape porcelain tureen
on spec. It took him almost two months to fabricate
the object successfully. Slatkin purchased the
tureen—Kanevsky’s first commission.
His talent for porcelain flowers was
soon put on full display at Slatkin’s shop
on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. There
his work was discovered by Deeda
Blair, a woman of legendarily
refined taste, who would become
one of his earliest and most loyal
champions. Today she owns roughly
half a dozen pieces of his work, including hyacinths
spilling out of an 18th-century basket, a white rose plant
in a clay pot, and a bouquet of clematis. One reason clients and designers enjoy collaborating with Kanevsky is
his willingness to try something new. In that spirit, his
artistry has grown to encompass tableware in the form
of leaves, melons and blooms. Presently, he’s at work on
a 200-plus-piece dinner service for a private client in
the Crimea. (He previously made a similar-size service
for decorator Alberto Pinto.)
Still, flowers remain his true passion, much to the
pleasure of his collectors. “I would rather have flowers
than jewels,” says Blair, explaining her weakness for
Kanevsky’s pieces with minimal irony. In collecting his
work, perhaps she has found a way to have both.
March 2012 69
MARCH
I S S U E N O. 2 3
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN SHORE. LOUIS VUITTON SWEATER, SKIRT AND HEELS. NECKLACE BY PRADA. FOR DETAILS SEE SOURCES, PAGE 114
W S J. M A G A Z I N E
HERITAGE COLLECTION
AVIATION BR 03-92 42 mm
VINTAGE BR 126 41 mm
EVOLUTION OF THE BR MILITARY WATCH
Bell & Ross Inc. +1.888.307.7887 . in�orm�tion�bellrossus�.com . e-Boutique: www.bellross.com
ELEMENTS OF STYLE
72 CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG TRANSCENDS LABELS
76 ALL DRESSED UP, NO PLACE TO GO
84 OSCAR DE LA RENTA’S NEXT BIG ACT
90 TRACEY EMIN, ALL GROWN UP
98 THE IRIDESCENT LOOK OF SPRING
104 ENGLISH CHARM ON THE CÔTE D’AZUR
CHARLOTTE
GAINSBOURG
IS NOT
A STYLE
ICON
And if you ask
her, nor is she an
actress or
an artist.
But judging from her
provocative body of
work, she’s all
that and more
And if you ask
her, nor is she an
actress or an artist. But judging from her
provocative body of work, she’s all that and more
DRESSING DOWN “I don’t
follow fashion. I don’t
like fashion shows,” says
Gainsbourg, who wears
her own clothes throughout
this story. “I would love
to watch fashion shows
without being seen.”
BY N ATA S H A F R A S E R - C A VA S S O N I
72
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HEDI SLIMANE
in the living room of her sprawling yet cozy
Left Bank penthouse. In the kitchen, her partner of 18 years, actor and filmmaker Yvan Attal,
is conducting a lively script meeting. A stroller belonging to Joe Attal, their six-month-old daughter, rests on
the salon’s parquet floor, surrounded by framed watercolors by Gainsbourg’s older children, Ben and Alice; a
portrait of poet Jean Cocteau; and the cover shot for her
latest record, “Stage Whisper.”
Gainsbourg is European celebrity royalty, the daughter of maverick French singer-composer Serge Gainsbourg and British model-actress Jane Birkin (for whom
Hermès famously named a bag). She’s an accomplished
actress who has appeared in 40 films and won the
French equivalent of an Oscar at age 14. She is a singer
74
who, as an adult, has recorded three acclaimed solo
albums with such alt-rock luminaries as Beck, Air and
Jarvis Cocker. At 40 she’s an unconventional beauty
who has become the muse of Nicolas Ghesquière, one of
the world’s top designers.
And yet she is also none of these things.
“I feel embarrassed to say I am an actress,” she
admits. “Just as I am embarrassed to say that I am a
singer. I prefer not to have a label. I don’t feel professional—never learned technique at school. I lack the
formation—nothing was ever planned.”
Gainsbourg’s disarming honesty and vulnerability
are unusual in France, where an obsession with discipline and appearance rules. She’s still breast-feeding
in a country that frowns upon it—the result, she says,
is “never feeling in the right spot and always a bit off.”
HAIR STYLIST: ERIC METENIER, MAKEUP ARTIST: TOM PECHEUX, PRODUCER: KIM POLLOCK, TALENT: CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG/MARILYN CELEBRITIES PARIS/NY
C
HARLOTTE GAINSBOURG SITS, SIPPING TEA,
But such frankness—delivered in a sweet, soft voice—
neatly reveals how Gainsbourg has turned knockkneed, Bambi-like gawkiness into an art.
The stability of her home life has allowed her to
make what she calls “brave” movie choices, such as
working with button-pushing director Lars von Trier
on last year’s end-of-the-world saga “Melancholia,”
as well as on his 2009 horror film, “Antichrist,” which
features scenes of graphic sex and self-mutilation.
“All those actresses complaining that he’s a soulstealer?” she says, referring to Björk, the star of his
“Dancer in the Dark.” “I am ready to be stolen as long
as there is no violence against me. If I trust someone,
I am always willing to go further.” And she may go further still: Her next film with von Trier is reportedly
titled “The Nymphomaniac.”
Despite all of her achievements, Gainsbourg says
she doesn’t consider herself an artist: “I feel much simpler, though I love watching real artists.” And it’s this
insecurity about her career that charges her: Despite
making well-received records, she was terrified about
singing in public but willed herself to do it. “Something about the spontaneity appealed,” she says. “It
became exciting and new.” This need for a creative
edge stems from her childhood, when she found it difficult to like herself. “I felt ugly,” she says. “All my life
I considered myself brave because of the emotional
pain I dealt with.” She drew on her awkwardness to,
if not conquer, at least confront her feelings. “I always
had my own personality. Early on, I didn’t make compromises. My father loved talking about himself and
loved to show off in a funny way. He was really shocked
that I didn’t care about that.”
Growing older has led Gainsbourg to consider
compromising—but just a little bit. She’d like to make
one Hollywood movie “for the experience” but insists,
“Hollywood says nothing to me. It is so square and calculated and does not leave a lot of space.” Aging has
also made her only slightly more comfortable in her
skin, though at the same time, the process appalls her.
“I wish I could go back and start again with a different
sense of ease,” she says. “I love the beauty of youth, the
innocence and lack of awareness.” She recognizes that
there is a charm to aging, but she’s also sad to see pictures of actresses she loves looking older. Still, Gainsbourg plans to stick with her wrinkles unless she finds
“a new technique that is well done and doesn’t show,”
she says. “My mother is a great example of someone
who has done nothing, although she was born very
beautiful.” It was Birkin who encouraged Gainsbourg
to go au naturel. “She said that during the 1960s, due
to all the makeup, all the girls looked the same. She
said you should stay as authentic as possible.”
That raw authenticity drew Balenciaga’s Ghesquière
to her, and he has since become a close friend. But
despite being the inspiration for a revered fashion
house, Gainsbourg bristles at being called a style icon.
“I don’t know what that means,” she protests. “Style
for me is a casual way of putting something on. It’s not
thought out but needs to suit your way of life. Now I
like wearing the same sweater over and over again,
then taking it off when it’s smelly.”
Which makes her everything she denies she is—a
style icon, a rock star, an artist—and is precisely why
she is so appealing.
THE MOVIE LIFE
“There is an element of
myself in all my parts,”
Gainsbourg says. “Already,
acting is faking it. I have
to believe a bit in a grain
of authenticity.”
Her disarming honesty
and vulnerability are
unusual in France, where
an obsession with discipline
and appearance rules.
STRANGE
GIRL IN
A STRANGE
LAND
A disquieting restlessness underlies the spring
collections, with pleated skirts, cinched
waists and saccharine midcentury prints that aren’t
quite as ladylike as they first appear
PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEPHEN SHORE
76
STYLING BY TIINA LAAKKONEN
Opening page: Jil
Sander dress, skirt and
shoes, Prabal Gurung
for Linda Farrow
Projects sunglasses.
Opposite: Balenciaga
by Nicolas Ghesquière
jacket, top, shorts, shoes
and bag. This page:
Céline top, skirt, belt and
shoes, Prada bracelets
79
Proenza Schouler
top, trousers and
belt, Prada earrings,
Prabal Gurung
for Linda Farrow
Projects sunglasses
80
MODEL Jaime King
HAIR David von
Cannon at Streeters
MAKEUP Fulvia
Farolfi for Chanel
PRODUCTION
Stardust Visions
For details see
Sources, page 114.
82
PHOTO ASSISTANT: KEITH KLEINER, STYLIST ASSISTANT: BRITT MARIE KITTELSEN, MAKEUP ASSISTANT: ROBERT REYES, NAILS: NETTIE DAVIS
This page: Yves Saint
Laurent top, trousers
and jacket, Christian
Louboutin shoes.
Opposite: Prada
jacket, skirt,
bandeau top, shoes
and earrings
For nearly 50 years,
Oscar de la Renta
has dressed uptown
swans in fairy-tale
gowns and white lace.
Instead of retiring to his
beloved Dominican
Republic, the 79-year-old
designer is embarking
on an expansion plan
that would make
men half his age balk.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
The business
of building
a fashion dynasty
BY JULIA REED
PORTRAITS BY CHRISTOPHER STURMAN
84
STANDING TALL
Oscar de la Renta
in his apartment on
Park Avenue.
86
I
© CONDÉ NAST ARCHIVE/CORBIS; OSCAR DE LA RENTA ARCHIVE; © BETTMANN/CORBIS; FIRSTVIEW (X4)
GLORY DAYS Clockwise
from top left: de la Renta’s
garden at his Connecticut
home; the designer with
models in 1981; water skiing;
de la Renta (center) with
Giovanni Agnelli, Pier Agnelli
and his future wife, Annette,
in 1989; relaxing in the
living room of his Casa
de Campo home for a 1988
“House & Garden” story.
hattan, Oscar de la Renta is lunching in his
Seventh Avenue office, the same space he’s
occupied since 1965, the year he launched
his first collection under his own name. Seated around
the mahogany table that he designs for Century Furniture—modeled after the original Jupe dining table
in his Park Avenue apartment—are his stepdaughter, Eliza Bolen, the creative director for licensing at
Oscar de la Renta, Ltd., and her husband, Alex Bolen,
the company’s CEO. Lunch consists, as it often does, of
delicious takeout Indian from the designer’s favorite
neighborhood spot; the conversation runs from de la
Renta’s dislike of Queen Isabella (“All the troubles in
the world started when she expelled the Jews and the
Arabs”) to the “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (he
preferred the Swedish version). Finally, talk shifts to
how de la Renta hit upon the name of his latest fragrance, Live in Love. “I didn’t want it to be about a
person,” he says. “It’s loving the life you live, what you
give, what you have received.”
If anyone defines the ethos of the scent, it is de
la Renta himself. He loves his wife of 22 years, the
extremely private and wickedly funny
Annette, and their menagerie of eight
rescue dogs, who, he says, “rule our
lives.” He loves their house in Kent,
Connecticut, where he’s created gardens that supply “the most spiritual
and purest of joys,” and the house
in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic,
where he has built an orphanage and
day care center that serves more than
1,200 children. He works side-by-side
with his stepdaughter, he dotes on
his adopted son Moises, and he has
an enormously wide range of close
friends, all of whom say pretty much
the same thing that Nancy Kissinger
did years ago: “Oscar and Annette
are the two most thoughtful people
I’ve ever known.” That thoughtfulness is in evidence not just through
their patronage of the arts (he is
chairman of the Queen Sofia Spanish
Institute and serves on the board
at the Metropolitan Opera and at
Carnegie Hall, and she is a trustee at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art),
but also in their generosity with their
friends. Over Christmas the Kissingers were among
the close group who gathered in Punta Cana, including
Barbara Walters, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Charlie
Rose. “We have two house rules,” says Oscar, laughing.
“There can be no conversation of any substance and
nothing nice about anyone.”
As de la Renta edges up to the eureka moment of
the perfume’s name, it’s easy to imagine the designer
experiencing a heartwarming epiphany while dancing a merengue after a typically raucous dinner on the
wide balcony of his coral stone house, say, or maybe
during a weekend in Connecticut, while pruning roses
with his latest dog, Albert (“He’s supposed to be a
Golden Retriever,” he says), by his side. Instead, Bolen
excuses himself and returns with a man he introduces
FROM TOP LEFT: FRANCOIS HALARD/TRUNKARCHIVE.COM; OSCAR DE LA RENTA ARCHIVES (X3); RON GALELLA/WIREIMAGE
O
as Raffaele Ilardo. Ilardo worked for a decade at Chanel
in Paris and then at Dior; since 2009 he’s headed up de
la Renta’s pattern room. One day last year, just as the
designer was despairing over ever finding something
to call the new scent—“Every single name we came up
with was already taken,” he says—Ilardo rolled up his
sleeve during a fitting, and there it was on his forearm: a tattoo that read “Live in Love.”
Despite all of de la Renta’s gentlemanly, old-world
fabulousness, he’s also very much a modern man of
the world, who would just as soon take a title from a
tattoo as an engraved bracelet—which is where Ilardo
first saw the line. One of his own most repeated lines
is “You rest, you rust,” a mantra that goes a long way
toward explaining not only the remarkable relevance—
and extraordinary popularity—of his label almost a
half century into his career, but also the fact that at
79 he is embarking on yet another chapter. Currently,
the brand is pursuing an ambitious expansion plan,
venturing into new categories, including cosmetics
and childrenswear, and dusting off older ones, such as
fragrance, all of which will be produced in-house. It’s
a push that is less about himself and more about his
name and all that it has come to represent. In Bolen he
has found his successor.
N AN ALMOST BALMY JANUARY DAY IN MAN-
N 2008 THE COMPANY ENTERED INTO A COMPLEX
legal dispute against L’Oréal, the biggest cosmetics company in the world, to regain control of the
brand’s beauty trademark. De la Renta launched his
signature fragrance in 1977, becoming one of the first
American designers to do so. Other de la Renta scents,
including Pour Lui and Volupté, followed, and at its peak
in 1990, the entire franchise did an estimated $300 million in global retail sales. But over the years, the fragrance
license was sold and resold (from Avon to El Sanofi to
YSL Beauté to L’Oréal), so that by the time Bolen began
his crusade to terminate the license, the original Oscar
fragrance could best be found, in drastically dumbeddown packaging, at Walmart, Target and Kohl’s. As one
department-store buyer put it to Bolen, “Why should I
stock a scent that’s in every drugstore in Texas?”
“When Alex first came to me, I was hesitant,” de la
Renta says. “When you take on the biggest cosmetics
company in the world, you have to think twice. But
they put us in a position where we couldn’t not do
it.” Bolen was eager to capitalize on the fragrances’
potential, but he also felt that their increasingly tawdry image was beginning to have a negative impact
on the fashion business. (Between 2005 and 2010, de
la Renta fragrance sales fell 39 percent, to $15 million, while at the same time, the fashion house saw a
17.7 percent growth in sales.) It took 18 months in the
courts and what Bolen can describe because of confidentiality agreements only as “a big pile of money.”
Entertaining snippets from the arbitration include
the designer quoting, in French, the Baudelaire poem
that gave his Volupté fragrance its name. But there
was nothing funny about their intent. In the end, de
la Renta secured the rights. “It’s indicative of what
we are doing in the company across the board,” Bolen
says. The settlement was quickly followed by a cash
infusion from GF Capital Management and Advisors,
who in 2010 quietly bought an approximately 20 percent stake in the company for an undisclosed sum.
Since the fragrance arm has been brought
ought in-house,
the plan is to shrink the brand’s exposure,
sure, canceling
lower-end outlets, followed by a revitalization
zation of existing products. The original Oscar and its attendant bath
products have received updated and farr finer packaging, and last spring, just in time for Mother’s Day, a
fresher, less powdery spin-off called Esprit
rit d’Oscar was
introduced. Industry sources estimate that
hat the latter has already reached more than $7 million in
sales, while Live in Love has a first-year target of
$15 million in retail sales worldwide.
De la Renta’s timing is all the more
e impressive
given that last year, the designer had a cancer
ancer scare that
prompted those who clearly didn’t know
ow him well to
assume he would slow down. Now cancer-free,
er-free, he says,
“The most abused word in the world is ‘retirement.’
Every single day for me is a learning process. Why
should I stop doing something that brings
gs me so much
pleasure?” Having watched the brand off his late friend
Bill Blass languish due to a revolving door
or of designers,
de la Renta wants to make sure his company
mpa
any lives on
long after he does. “My silent worry wass always,
allways, What
will happen to my business when I am gone?
one
e? And now I
don’t have to worry about that,” he says.
In 2004 he convinced Bolen, who was an
n investment
banker at Bear Stearns, to take the reins
ns at the company where Eliza, who signed on in 1995,
was already
95, w
well ensconced. The threesome takes
es inspiration
from multigenerational family firms like
ke Hermès
H
and
Salvatore Ferragamo, who have so far held
d on to their
independence despite encroachment from
rom
m corporate
conglomerates. In the past year and a hal
half,
lf, a number
of key players have joined the mix. Jean
n Zimmerman,
Z
a longtime Chanel executive, now consults
nsu
ults at de la
Renta as executive
fragrance
division,
ve at large in the fragr
ran
nce division
and Manolo Blahnik
hnik veteran Annelie
e
Hofstrom oversees
ees footwear, which
Bolen hopes to turn
urn into a $50 million
entity within the
e next three years. In
addition, Catherine
ine Monteiro de
Barros, founder and designer of
the now defunctt Papo D’Anjo,
will helm the children’s line
(which will include
de clothing for
boys and girls, infants
nfants to age
14), and Miles Redd, a well-
CLASSIC MOMENTS
IN TIME Some of
de la Renta’s
signature looks over
the years, from top:
Vanessa Redgrave,
1967; Iman, 1988;
a faux-fur floorlength chubby, 1971;
Gisele Bündchen,
2000; Angie
Schmidt, 2004;
Isabeli Fontana,
2006. The marigold
silk taffeta gown
with a black tulle
embroidered caraco
(center) is from
the designer’s
spring collection.
87
known interior decorator who is already the creative
director for Oscar de la Renta Home, will be in charge
of the extensive new home-accessories line that is set
to launch in late spring.
B
NEXT GENERATION
Alex and Eliza
Bolen in de la Renta’s
living room.
OLEN ESTIMATES LAST YEAR’S SALES AT THE
company—including everything from “the
stuff we shipped to fragrance distributors to
customers in our retail stores,” at about $130
million, an estimated $600 million in global retail
sales. He thinks that “with the human and capital
resources we have today,” the company can double or
triple its business in the next three to five years.
In order to meet the goal, Bolen says, “We have to
keep renewing the franchise Oscar has created. What
motivates all of us is wanting to make Oscar proud.”
Bolen is clearly enjoying his current role as brand
builder, but when he accepted the CEO position in 2004,
it was with some reluctance. “Can you imagine the hornet’s nest, coming to work with my wife, and with my
wife’s family?” But he sensed enormous potential in
the brand and decided to come on board. “I was asking
questions like, ‘Why don’t you have freestanding retail
stores?’ and Oscar would say something along the lines
that he was under the impression that it was difficult.
So I’d say, ‘Why don’t we try?’�”
De la Renta is gratified and amused by how much
Bolen took to the creative aspects of the job. “It’s hard
to find someone on the business side that has an eye,”
he says seriously, before joking that “Alex is head
designer, by the way. I tell him that Parsons [the New
School for Design] is across the street and they have
night classes.”
Later this month, the family love-in will move to new
quarters overlooking Bryant Park, in a 35,000-squarefoot space that is twice the size of their former offices.
After Bolen found the spot, he and Eliza were terrified
to approach the designer about relocating. After all,
de la Renta had worked at the same address for almost
his entire career. He was delighted. “If you don’t move,
you get stale,” he says. There is the added bonus of
the narrow terrace running across the front of the
building, where Bolen plans to keep beehives on one
end and tomato plants on the other. “Before I came to
America, in every Hollywood film I saw there was a
cocktail party on a terrace,” says de la Renta. “And then
I arrived in New York and there were no terraces.”
One of the bigger sections of the new space will be
occupied by the new beauty team, whose job has been
made easier thanks to de la Renta’s hard-won personal
connections at beauty counters the world over. When
Volupté was launched in 1990, the designer gave a cocktail party or a breakfast for the “counter ladies” at each
of the 22 cities where he made appearances. “They are
so important to selling the fragrance,” he said at the
time. “The girl must feel she has a relationship, that she
is working for someone she knows.”
On recent promotional forays for Live in Love, de la
Renta and the Bolens were happily surprised to meet a
lot of the same, slightly older “girls.” “In a world where
there’s a fragrance launch every day, that kind of goodwill goes a long way,” says Bolen.
Next up on the fragrance front is a bridal scent called
Something Blue, which came about after Aerin Lauder,
a close friend of the Bolens’, called to borrow a wedding
gown to use in an ad campaign for Estée Lauder’s
Beautiful. (Lauder was the senior vice president and
creative director of her grandmother’s beauty company
until last year, when she left to launch her own lifestyle
brand.) “A lightbulb went off,” Bolen says, and the
result, to be released in June, is a scent with top notes
of stephanotis, a bridal-bouquet staple that also infuses
the breakfast area at Punta Cana, beautifully packaged
in a white silk “ring box” lined in pale-blue suede.
The fact that so many aspects of de la Renta’s business are being moved in-house facilitates such lightbulb moments. Bolen realizes they have lots of fabric
left over from collections and a children’s line is born.
He overhears de la Renta telling the makeup artist for a
recent runway show that he wants a “real Picasso red”
for the nail polish, and a color cosmetics collection follows. Limited to a single bronzer, nails and lips, the first
collection, which will debut this fall, will feature six
nail and lip colors, with two new
shades added each season.
For now the makeup will be
sold only in de la Renta’s 12 freestanding boutiques. In addition
to new stores opening this spring
in Saudi Arabia and on London’s
Mount Street, the New York City
flagship on Madison Avenue will
double in size after expanding
into the building next door. Bolen
is also currently negotiating a
lease on a townhouse off of Fifth Avenue that will become
the luxurious home to all things bridal, from gowns and
accessories and party dresses to the new tabletop items
that will constitute a registry. He envisions it as a “jewel
box of environment with no distractions” where brides
can spend the day in comfort. “And if the property I’m
working on this week doesn’t work out, then I’ll go on to
the next one,” he says.
Bolen identifies the let’s-put-on-a-show approach, in
which the Oscar team seems willing to try pretty much
anything, as the company’s strength. “We don’t have
the advantages that a Gucci Group or an LVMH has; we
don’t have the public stock or the muscle to apply to
some mall owner,” he says. “But we can move quickly.
If things we identify as market opportunities work, we
can put more resources into them. If they don’t, we can
cut our losses and move on.”
Another strength is, of course, de la Renta himself. In
many ways the current expansion is a well-thought-out
plan to showcase and profit from almost every aspect
of the designer’s life. Redd says that the home line
that launches this spring will be divided into categories called City, Island and Country, “the places where
Oscar has his houses,” and everything will be done with
“an ODLR sensibility.” De la Renta, who never misses
the staff domino game in his Punta Cana kitchen, has
insisted on a set of dominoes, for example.
The new home line will be available in Oscar boutiques and select department stores, as well as at a
more laid-back shop at Tortuga Bay in the Punta Cana
Resort & Club that de la Renta developed with friend
Julio Iglesias and three other partners. (De la Renta
is the chairman of Grupo Punta Cana.) Part of yet
another “test,” the shop, which opened in November,
features island-y clothes and accessories and might
well become a prototype for similar, more casual
resort-based stores around the globe.
“I do worry sometimes that we’re getting into too
much stuff,” Bolen says, but he adds that the whole
point of the current shift—which he likes to refer
to as “an evolution, not a revolution”—is the lack of
disconnect between “what we’re doing and where we
make our money.” Beginning around the early ’70s,
designers began licensing their names to producers of everything from fragrance and sheets to jeans
and menswear. At one point, there was even a Bill
Blass Mercury sedan. The collections—usually the
only “product” made by the designer himself—were
increasingly used to drive the sales of the more lucrative licensed products. But it’s a road fraught with
peril. At worst a designer can end up losing control
of his own name. At best there can be a creeping gap
between the sensibility of the designer and the sunglasses—or whatever else—that
might earn him a check.
“The thing about Oscar is that
we know about his life,” Bolen
says. “He’s as well known for his
dresses as for the way he conducts
himself every day.” Yet every
day, at the office at least, it is the
dresses that remain de la Renta’s
focus. He still personally fits every
single piece of clothing that goes
down the runway and is engaged
in every aspect of their development. Most mornings
begin with iPad consultations with his factory in Italy.
Recent missives in response to emailed photos of his
upcoming fall collection include: “The dresses look
okay but they are not edgy enough…The pink on top
of that dress has no relation to the bottom…We need
some long sleeves. Keep me posted.” In the showroom,
which is where he spends all his time—“I am never in
my office,” he says. “All I need is a chair”—de la Renta
multitasks, one minute okaying a gorgeous tie-dyed
crepe de chine with over-embroidery and sequins that
will end up as a dress and a suit, choosing the pelts for a
sable poncho the next. An old sweater of Annette’s has
been reworked and approved; he rejects a piece of fabric, over Bolen’s objection, as not being blue enough.
Indeed, if his business is on a roll, so is de la Renta’s
relevance as a designer. His most recent collection,
for spring 2012, was met with rave reviews. Critics
praised his “exuberance” and cited the “insouciant
luxe” that he does “like no one else,” as well as a new
“edginess” that reinvigorated his typical “glamour
and elegance.” At the show, Justin Timberlake and
Ashley Olsen took front-row seats with such longtime
clients as Barbara Walters. The mix of age and sensibility reflects his clientele. (Walters might go for the
embroidered day dresses, and Olsen could easily carry
off the crush pleated silk tulle strapless gown.) His
multigenerational appeal may well lie in the fact that
the designer himself is forever looking forward. He
says—in an “Oscar-ism” inscribed on resin bangles
sold only on the brand’s Facebook page: “I have the
memory of a mosquito.” Astonishingly, he has never
kept a single archive. “Why should I?” he asks. “I love
now and tomorrow. What I did in the past doesn’t
interest me.”
“Can you imagine
the hornet’s nest,
coming to work
with my wife, and
with my wife’s
family?” Bolen says.
89
THE ART STAR
Tracey Emin built a blockbuster career on broken relationships
and public outrage. Now, approaching 50 with a
candid outlook on her life and work and a new $7.6 million studio,
London’s enfant terrible is all grown up. For the moment
With Everything to Lose
BY NATA S H A GA R N E T T
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHNNIE SHAND KYDD
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
The main floor of Emin’s
new studio, where
she produces her
drawings, sculptures
and installations.
T
FIGURE, DRAWING
Emin at work in her
East London studio.
90
HERE WAS A TIME WHEN IT WAS ALMOST
impossible to read an article about Tracey
Emin without some small derogatory qualifier attached to the contemporary artist’s
name. Invariably, throughout the end of the ’90s
and for the best part of the next decade, she would
be described as the “loud,” “brash,” “bad girl” of the
British art scene. Within the art world, she would
often be dismissed for being both self-promoting
and self-obsessed, partly due to the autobiographical
nature of her work.
Emin brought a lot of the bias on herself. When
she first rose to notoriety, as part of a group of artists
including Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Jake and
Dinos Chapman, who would come to be known as the
YBAs (Young British Artists), Emin certainly lived up
to her reputation. She was the artist who embroidered
the names of everyone she had ever slept with on the
inside of a tent. Her monoprints and drawings told of
broken relationships and rape in her teenage years, and
catalogued her abortions; she offered up her unmade
bed and told viewers to consider it a work of art. Then,
in 1997, live on national television, she appeared to be
drunk and incoherent, eventually storming off the show
muttering, “I want to be with my mum.” From that
moment on, in the United Kingdom at least, and even to
those who had never paid much attention to contemporary art, Emin became a celebrity. Known, perhaps, for
all the wrong reasons.
Now, at 48, Emin finally seems to have sidelined
her own personal distractions. Lately, not only has she
established herself as a leading figure in the art world,
but she’s also become part of the establishment. The
same steely fortitude that helped propel her from a
humble childhood in the seaside town of Margate to
the Maidstone College of Art, and later to London’s
prestigious Royal College of Art, has emboldened her
work with a disarming honesty and made her one of the
most prominent artists of her generation. In 2007 she
91
There is a large dark-wood
Victorian table here, around
which Emin likes to serve
afternoon tea in bone china
cups and play dominoes with
friends on winter afternoons.
LIGHTNESS OF BEING
Emin’s “I Never Stopped
Loving You” neon, 2010.
PERSONAL EFFECTS Emin’s
private space on the studio’s
second floor, with original
floorboards and access to the
bedroom at the rear; the
mirror in her private bathroom
(left) comes from an antiquedealer friend whose
shop is across the road.
represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. Two years
later, one of Emin’s idols, Louise Bourgeois, asked
her to collaborate on a series of drawings titled “Do
Not Abandon Me,” exploring themes of sexuality and
female identity. Recently, Emin was appointed professor of drawing at the Royal Academy of Art. She was
even invited to greet the queen when Her Majesty
visited the Turner Contemporary gallery late last
year, which Emin admits was a proud moment. And,
at the request of David Cameron, her neon “More
Passion” now hangs in 10 Downing Street. In addition
to a number of international exhibitions this year, and
on the heels of a retrospective of her work to date at
92
London’s prestigious Hayward Gallery, come early
2013, Emin will have her first solo show in the U.S. at
Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Could it be
that the enfant terrible of the British art scene has
finally grown up?
“I’m not sure about that,” says Emin, as she takes a
seat at the kitchen table in her East London home. It’s a
cold winter afternoon, and instead of making the tea she
had suggested, she decides to open a bottle of red wine.
“I’m certainly older, and that all seems a long time ago.
Things change, you change, your thoughts do, your life
moves on and my work has changed because of that too.
I’m asking questions that I wasn’t addressing before and
doing things that I wasn’t doing before. I know people
have a view of me that can be quite one-dimensional,
even within the art world. But they don’t know me, so
that’s OK, and they are entitled to their opinion.”
In terms of Emin’s art, her various mediums—ink and
pencil drawings, monoprints, neons and embroidery
foremost among them—haven’t changed, but the content
has evolved. For last year’s Frieze Art Fair in London, she
created “The Vanishing Lake,” a site-specific exhibition
of her drawings and tapestries shown within a Georgian
house on Fitzroy Square. “I called it that because I saw
part of myself as drying and not there anymore and I
wanted to question the whole idea of love and passion,
whether love exists anymore,” Emin says. “Why? Because
I’m nearly 50, I’m single, because I don’t have children.”
To demonstrate what she means, Emin makes the short
walk over to her new studio, a former 17th-century weaving works that she purchased and restored last year for
$7.6 million. As Emin stands before the impressive fourstory building and searches for her keys, it’s impossible
©TRACEY EMIN, “I NEVER STOPPED LOVING YOU” (PINK NEON), 2010, PHOTO BY TODD WHITE, COURTESY WHITE CUBE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, DACS, LONDON / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK
SMALL GESTURES
A detail of Emin’s
desk (far left)
with two favorite
pictures: a William
Henry Fox Talbot
photo of two men
taking tea and a
copy of Picasso’s
“Marie-Thérèse.”
“Every time I have
a mental block or
feel depressed,
I will sit down
and draw them,
and that inspires
me,” she says.
Emin’s “When I
Was Last in Love,”
work in progress
for her Margate
show at the Turner
Contemporary.
not to notice how far the artist has come. Twenty years
ago, she was renting a dreary bedsit in Waterloo, making
art on her bedroom floor and struggling to find enough
money to keep the electricity on. Today, in addition to
her rambling home and studio, she owns a house on 35
acres in the South of France, near Saint-Tropez, where
she retreats for most of the summer to work.
It’s late in the day, and the 15 people that she employs
are long gone. As Emin walks through the building, she
turns on lights. It’s clear why the studio took two and
a half years to complete. There is an installation and
sculpture room, as well as individual spaces for sewing,
embroidery and drawing. On the top floor, Emin has her
own private studio, with a kitchen, a well-stocked wine
rack, a bedroom and bathroom. “I put the bedroom in
because sometimes I don’t sleep very well at night and
sometimes I like to rest in the afternoon,” she says. “But
I’ve been thinking that when I’m really old and the stairs
get too much for me at home, then I could just put an
elevator in here and move in.”
DOWNTIME EMIN
relaxes in her studio
with a cup of tea.
“I can only work
on something for a
couple of hours at
most, if it’s going to
be good,” she says.
“Throughout the day,
I’ll move from room
to room, project
to project—do a bit
of embroidery,
then some drawing,
take a break before
I start again.”
93
IN DEPTH Emin
working on a
drawing for her
show at the Turner
Contemporary this
spring, entitled
“She Lay Down Deep
Beneath the Sea.”
94
Emin’s own touches are everywhere, from porcelain
ornaments of cats, which she collects, to well-worn
sofas that add a more personal feel to the space and on
which she likes to think, draw and sew. But the pièce
de résistance of the building has to be the 52-foot
single-lap pool that she installed in the basement.
The pool area is designed in the style of Victorian
swimming baths, with porcelain tiles and a high ceiling. There are changing rooms and shower facilities,
even a steam room. Swimming has always been one
of Emin’s great passions, along with “drinking, dancing, sleeping, making art and reading, though not in
that order,” she says. “The pool is a luxury, I know,
but it gives me time to think.”
L
ATELY EMIN HAS BEEN SPENDING A LOT OF
time exploring notions of love and the limits of
desire. On one of the studio’s floors, the walls
are lined with recent preliminary drawings
intended for her solo show at the Turner Contemporary
PAGE 94: LOUISE BOURGEOIS AND TRACEY EMIN, “DO NOT ABANDON ME,” 2009–2010 (ARCHIVAL DYES PRINTED ON CLOTH), SIX PRINTS: 24” X 30”; TEN PRINTS: 30” X 24”; COURTESY CAROLINA NITSCH, NEW YORK PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER BURKE © 2012 TRACEY EMIN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, DACS, LONDON / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK.
FRIENDS IN HIGH
PLACES Wooden
slats on the ceiling
(top), where Emin
hangs her drawings,
were a gift from
artist Gary Hume;
“When My Cunt
Stopped Living,”
(left) from a 2009
series that Emin did
in collaboration with
Louise Bourgeois;
wooden structures
that will form
future installations.
OPEN AIR The
studio’s rooftop,
with silk-screened
chairs that
Emin designed in
2008 with
Deckchair Dreams
to raise money
for the Royal
Parks of London.
The rooftop is
surrounded by
lavender and
rosemary. “In
the summer it
smells like
heaven,” she says.
“When I make art, the
title is always there
first,” Emin says. “I can’t
begin until I have that
in place, that discourse
within my head.”
in Margate this spring.
She’s already named the
exhibition “She Lay Down
Deep Beneath the Sea.”
“When I make art, when
I’m thinking of a show, the
title is always there first,”
Emin says. “I can’t begin to work until I have that in
place because I have to have the dialogue about what I
am doing, that discourse within my head.”
Although love has always been an overriding theme
in her work, it is something that seems to have eluded
her in life. Of course, she has had significant relationships, most recently with the photographer Scott
Douglas, with whom she split last year, and before
that with fellow YBA Mat Collishaw. Despite the
breakups, Emin remains friends with both—especially
Collishaw, whom she still deeply cares about, if for no
other reason than that he gave her Docket, her beloved
cat, when they were together 10 years ago.
“You know, what I
thought was love maybe
wasn’t,” Emin says. “I
understand that now.
Maybe it was something
else and I got it really
wrong or misunderstood
it. This is the kind of stuff I’m drawing, this is what I am
thinking about when I am making art. What is love?
I judged love against how I received it, and what I
should have done is judged it on what I gave. Because
that’s what I truly know. I’ve never been that successful with relationships. I have with friendships. So that
means I have to put a big question mark over myself.
“I said to my mother the other day, ‘You know what,
Mum, I could never have kids,’�” Emin continues. “And
she asked why, and I said because I could never have done
that. Can you imagine—I’d be working all day, would be
really tired, and then I wouldn’t be able to cook. And then
you’ve got this husband sitting there with three children,
and they’re all waiting to be fed, and I’d be like, ‘Do it
yourself. Let the kids drive themselves to school.’
“I just wasn’t born or built for that. Don’t get me
wrong—there are lots of people who manage to be
creative and have families. But you know what they
are called? Men!” she says, laughing.
Studio visit complete, we head back to Emin’s
house. Hers is not some massive minimalist loft conversion filled with contemporary art and little else.
Instead, home is a Georgian townhouse in the heart of
Spitalfields that she has owned for 10 years. The residences that line her street, where fellow artists Gilbert
and George also live, were built in 1729 for the Huguenot
silk weavers who had settled in London and as such are
Grade II listed and protected. “It’s a historic house,
built and labored by hand, and the stairs are lethal,”
says Emin, who painstakingly restored everything
from the floorboards to the Arts and Crafts kitchen.
“It’s a bit like being on a ship, really, because everything is crooked and creaky. But it has character.”
95
COLLABORATIVE
PROCESS Emin designed
this mixed-media piece
with fellow YBA Sarah
Lucas in 1993. The two
friends owned The Shop
in the early 90s, where
they would sell homemade
objets d’art, such as this
work, titled “Tippi Hedren
Suit” in homage to Alfred
Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”
“I judged love against how I
received it, and what
I should have done is judged it
on what I gave. Because
that’s what I truly know.”
CLOSE-UP
Emin’s embroidery
room: The two
framed pictures in
the background
are for the
2012 Olympics.
L
OOKING AROUND THE ROOMS, MOST OF WHICH
have original paneling and are painted in neutral hues sympathetic to the era of the house,
I see none of the signs of Emin’s bad-girl days.
There’s none of the bottles of vodka and condoms that surrounded her seminal 1998 “My Bed,” which she showed
as part of her entry for the Turner Prize (an award that
eluded her). In fact, Emin’s bed couldn’t be tidier. She
loves fine linens and recently traded the Connaught Hotel
in London a drawing in return for a box of its sheets. On
the first floor, an old-fashioned drawing room is lined
with sagging shelves holding her extensive collection of
books—novels, biographies, poetry—and a roaring fire
beckons. There is a large dark-wood Victorian table here,
around which Emin likes to serve afternoon tea in bone
china cups and play dominoes with her friends on winter afternoons. On the bench where she sits to play the
game is a pile of toys—most of which appear to be mice
that belong to Docket. Everywhere you look there are
porcelain ornaments: of more cats, of mice, even a couple
of rabbits on the kitchen hearth, which she has adorned
with a string of colored fairy lights.
“I know it’s probably not really what people expect
of me, but I like it,” she says with a smile. “The thing
that’s important to me about this place is the fact that
I live alone. It’s a house that’s big enough to live in with
someone else but also small enough to live in alone,
and there are very few places that have that feeling.”
In person, Emin is slighter and prettier than photographs suggest. She has a gentle manner that at times
borders on vulnerability, and she is incredibly softspoken, despite her Estuary accent. When I arrived
at her house this afternoon, her first priority was to
introduce me to her mother, who was sitting by the
fire in an upstairs drawing room. As I leave and make
my way out into the cold, I struggle to connect Emin’s
past with the woman she is now. I can’t help but think
that the kind of girl who makes a point of introducing
you to her mother is exactly the kind you would want
to introduce to your own.
OPPOSITE PAGE: “MY BED,” 1998 (MIXED MEDIA), ©TRACEY EMIN, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,
DACS, LONDON / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK
WORKS IN PROGRESS
The drawings on the
walls are intended for her
Margate show. As for the
soft clay models, Emin says,
“I like to do that when I’ve
got someone at my side to
chat to.” The motorbike
belongs to one of her staff.
SWIM FAN The pool
in Emin’s studio. The
artist, who as a child
swam in the sea and
the Lido in Margate no
matter the weather,
considers it her greatest
extravagance. “I’m
not a flashy person,
but having a pool has
always been a dream
of mine,” she says.
BIG PICTURE Emin kept the
original facade of her 17th-century
Flemish studio intact. She restored
the interior with architecture firm
MRJ Rundell and Associates. Emin’s
“My Bed,” which she submitted
for the 1999 Turner Prize (left).
Today her bed is decidedly neater.
97
REFLECT
YOUR
IRIDESCENCE
The coolest way to wear this season’s
pearlescent dresses and shimmering tailored
pants is with dressed-down classics
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BENJAMIN ALEXANDER HUSEBY
and an
air of
casual
confidence
STYLING BY JODIE BARNES
99
Opening page, left:
Balenciaga by Nicolas
Ghesquière top,
trousers and belt,
Manolo Blahnik shoes,
Dita sunglasses. Opening
page, right: Givenchy
by Riccardo Tisci
dress, Dita sunglasses.
Opposite: American
Apparel T-shirt,
Alexander McQueen
trousers, Manolo
Blahnik shoes. This
page: Calvin Klein
Collection dress, Acne
jacket, Dita sunglasses
100
This page: Lanvin
top, Theyskens’
Theory trousers.
Opposite: Chanel
swimsuit, Giorgio
Armani trousers,
Céline jacket, Manolo
Blahnik shoes,
Dita sunglasses,
stylist’s own belt
MODEL Liisa
Winkler/One Model
Management HAIR Holli
Smith at community
.nyc MAKEUP Yadim
PHOTO ASSISTANTS
Jenny Hueston, Hector
De Jesus DIGI TECH
Karen Lenz STYLIST
ASSISTANTS Dorothea
Lucaci, Lisa Gonzalez
For details see
Sources, page 114
A HOUSE ON
THE RIVIERA
Recalling the glory days of the Côte d’Azur, renowned
interior designer and bon vivant Nicky Haslam brings his
heavenly British style to a grand Provence estate
green and gold
An olive grove
gleams in sunlight;
a baroque mirror
hangs above a gilded
iron console near
an 18th-century
fountain (opposite).
BY NICKY HASLAM
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SIMON UPTON
105
SEASONS IN THE
SUN The pool
house features
panels of gilvered
faux leather and
a vast sofa; a
sitting room in the
attic (opposite).
N
OT SO MANY YEARS AGO, THE ONLY HIGHWAY FROM TOULON
to Monaco meandered around every bay and rocky outcrop of
the French coastline, curving inland only to skirt the Massif
des Maures, the mountain range encircling the luscious SaintTropez peninsula. To drive to what was considered the old, grand part
of the Côte d’Azur took the best part of a day. Sometimes unable to
resist invitations, or the lure of casinos, my friends and I would leave
Ramatuelle at dawn, the Citroën open to the delicious chill of morning.
Winding downhill though pines, hearing the last lazy sighs of the cicadas, we joined the road along a coast defined by ever fainter clusters of
lights, as faraway towns melded into the sunrise.
Between villages like Sainte-Maxime and Saint-Raphaël, where
we’d stop to drink coffee or eat breakfast, the road still had only one
lane, but on the straighter stretches it was bordered by the plane trees
that Napoleon planted to shade his conquering armies. Thirty miles
farther, the dappled coolness gave way to heat-stroked canyons of red
rock. And later, with the sea sparkling like quicksilver beside us, we
ate lobsters at smart restaurants in La Napoule.
106
The houses
suggested
pale color
palettes,
f lowered
chintzes,
calm cafe au
lait leathers
and bold
ironwork
From there the mansions of Edwardian beauties and the dachas
of displaced Russians came thick and fast. We’d see the great villas
designed by American architect Barry Dierks—Le Trident for himself, Les Aspres for the de Ganays, La Garoupe for Lord Norman,
among many others—all basking between the two Caps: Antibes,
made a magnet by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Eden Roc, and Ferrat, where
Somerset Maugham’s lizard eyes flickered in his Villa Mauresque and
Jean Cocteau smoked opium in nearby Villefranche.
Above these seashore palaces, up in hilltop ramparts and in shaded
gardens, lived a whole host of equally unconventional characters:
couturier Edward Molyneux at Biot, painter Graham Sutherland and
author Lesley Blanch above Menton, deposed royals at Mougins, Suzy
Solidor singing to a sapphic clientele in her boîte in Cagnes-sur-Mer,
Picasso painting pottery in Vallauris. And in every lush valley, on
each wooded hillside, stood a mas—or farmhouse—of varying size.
Some had silvery olive groves or vines undulating on stony slopes;
others were tumble-down ruins, the very essence of Fragonard’s pastoral backgrounds. I wanted to own every ravishing roseate facade,
dovecote tower and fountained courtyard. I imagined their rooms:
the restrained colors, simple linen, cool white plaster and terra-cotta,
gnarled logs by tiled fireplaces, blue-and-white glazed chintzes, baskets of violet figs or rough-skinned lemons, the gold gleam of oil, and
wine as dark as pigeon’s blood.
O
VER THE YEARS I WOULD BE LUCKY ENOUGH TO REDESIGN
and decorate a handful of these sleeping beauties, whose
dreamy exteriors belied the nightmares within. Invariably,
shuttered windows let minimal daylight into pokey chambers, shiny brown woodwork fought with garish wallpapers and sty-
These
sleeping
beauties
belie the
nightmares
within
gian moquettes, spindly furniture surrounded tinny stoves, starved
red geraniums shriveled on sills, and misshapen cats arched angry
backs in moldy kitchens. But the underlying structure of these buildings remained sound, and thus the canvases blank, suggesting not just
pale color palettes, but the fun of flowered chintzes and linens, stripes
à la Lady Mendl, oversize sofas, calm tobacco and cafe au lait leathers,
and bold ironwork. Le Mas de la Vièrge, which I remade in 2001, is a
synthesis of all these elements.
The three-story house, its facade washed a pale Naples yellow,
stands proud on the crest of an uncannily perfect knoll. Ancient trees
surround it; vineyards and pastures in the valley roll away to a silky
ANTIQUE ELEGANCE
Clockwise from
right: The octagonal
table under the new
staircase is a 19thcentury dog kennel,
and mocha leather
covers a Louis XVI
seat; the vanity was
formerly a Belgian Art
Nouveau table; a
view of the terrace.
BEAUTY, REST
Tobacco-brown
glazed linen
curtains and an
exaggerated
headboard accent
a bedroom.
108
109
SIMPLE AND
SOPHISTICATED
Shards of Roman
pottery are
embedded in the
bedroom’s Swedish
table (left); a
watercolor by Lady
Diana Beauclerk
hangs above a
porcelain tub;
plaster niches hold
linen-shaded electric
candles (opposite).
sliver of sea glimpsed in the saddle of two hills. Le Mas de la Vièrge
may have been, as its name suggests, the site of a chapel or shrine, but
when my friends bought the property a couple of decades ago, they
heard rumors that a former lady of the house was of a less chaste calling, and, clearly needing the many small dark rooms, had bizarrely
added a vast and leaky pond, ringed by a rockery, bang in front of the
house, which put paid to any outdoor seating, let alone planting.
O
NCE THIS SOMEWHAT OVERPOWERING FEATURE WAS GONE,
we set about transforming the spaces. We enlarged the
entrance hall, replacing the original solid-wood front door
with one made of ironwork and glass, thus allowing light to
flood into the ground floor. We extended windows to create shuttered
doors leading onto a wide stone terrace. The kitchen was rehoused in
a faux dovecote. We transformed the staircase from a haphazard dogleg to a smooth spiral, its iron balustrade, which I had sketchily drawn,
built by a genius metal worker named Aiello I had come across near
Saint-Rémy. When the stone foundation of the staircase was ready,
Aiello, accompanied by his wife and a son, hammered and heated and
wrought, creating three flights of balusters in a couple of days.
We gave the bathrooms large, curtainless oeil-de-boeuf windows
and positioned a magical 18th-century marble and gilded-lead wall
fountain in the inner hall, one of the few overtly luxurious touches in
110
Le Mas de la
Vièrge may
have been
the site of
a chapel, but
rumor has
it that a
former lady
of the house
was of a
less chaste
calling
MAKING ROOM
A ‘30s chinoiserie
table, trompe
l’oeil wood-grain
silk rug, and a
gilded tin coat of
arms adorn the
main salon.
TREES OF LIFE The
grounds, landscaped
by Claus Scheinert,
have been planted in
styles befitting varying
levels of terracing.
the house. Most important, we pushed out the salon’s external wall
by several feet, allowing me to install a carved, pale-stone 17th-century fireplace surround I had found in London and have a chimney
flue built up the outer wall. This led to the only problem of the entire
reconstruction: The fire smoked relentlessly. The architect scratched
his chin. The builder scratched his neck. We raised the hearth, to no
avail. The flue was relined, but the fire still smoked. We added to the
chimney pots and then put conical tile hats on them, yet the smoke
still billowed. Suddenly, somebody said there was a lad living up in
the hills who could solve anything. We sent for him immediately.
When Gordon arrived, he put his head into the fireplace and said, “I
need a bucket of water, some plaster and some rags.” After dipping
In lush
valleys, some
farmhouses
had silvery
olive groves
undulating
on stony
slopes
the rags first in the water, then in the plaster, he pushed them up the
flue. “Let them dry out.” By morning, not a smidgen of smoke.
T
HERE’S AN UNLIKELY AND REWARDING EPILOGUE TO THIS
story. While working, Gordon had heard us mention Gore
Vidal; later he told us, “I’m Gore’s godson!” Hardly believing,
I rang Gore in Italy. “Good heavens,” he replied. “I believe he
is. Send him here.” Gordon went to La Rondinaia, Gore’s aerie above
Ravello, and became his right hand for several years. Which goes to
prove that there are still rare, unconventional characters living in
the hills and valleys above the fabled French Riviera, even though the
road along it is now a six-lane motorway.
113
Advertisement
Sources
THE MERCHANT
MARCH
Page 77
Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière
jacket $3,950, shorts $2,150,
shoes $1,225 and bag
$1,995, 212-206-0872; top $1,295,
Bergdorfgoodman.com
Page 78
Céline top with belt $6,400 and skirt
$6,300, 212-535-3703; shoes
$850, A’Marees, 949-642-4423; Prada
bracelets $595/each, Prada.com
Pages 80–81
Projects sunglasses $426, Lindafarrow
.co.uk; Prada earrings $540 Prada.com
Pages 82–83
Yves Saint Laurent top $775, trousers
$1,575, and jacket $2,490,
212-980-2970; Christian Louboutin
shoes $795, Christianlouboutin.com;
Prada jacket, price upon request,
skirt $1,320, bandeau top, price upon
request, shoes $1,300, and earrings
$540, Prada.com
Reflect Your Iridescence
Pages 98–103
Page 98
INTERIOR MIND Tracey Emin’s
“Everyone I Have Ever Slept
With: 1963–1995,” appliquéd
tent, mattress and light, 1995.
Table of Contents
Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière top
$985 and trousers $2,950,
212-206-0872, belt $295, Balenciaga
.com; Manolo Blahnik shoes $595,
$2,075, 888-721-7219; Tabitha Simmons
$1,595; Proenza Schouler bag $995;
Laurent platforms (on model) $1,395
212-582-3007; Dita sunglasses $600,
Pages 21–24
heels $1,595 Tabithasimmons.com; Giorgio
Fendi bag $10,080; Chloe wedges
and wedges (in box) $895; Lanvin
Ditalegends.com
Page 21
Armani necklace $3,395, 212-988-9191;
$945; Yossi Harari bracelets (from top)
espadrilles $795; Chanel wedges
Page 99
Prada earrings $540 and jacket, price
Kimberly McDonald earrings $35,200
$9,420, $14,505 and $5,495; Burberry
$1,050; Christian Louboutin
Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci dress
$11,610 Bergdorfgoodman.com; Dita
upon request, Prada.com
Bergdorfgoodman.com
Prorsum shirt $1,595 and skirt $795
wedges $595; Miu Miu espadrilles
Page 22
Page 34
Page 60
$690; Lanvin platforms $855;
sunglasses $425 Ditalegends.com
Ralph Lauren Collection dress $2,198
Hermès scarf $385 Hermes.com; Charlotte
Wilfredo Rosado cameo earrings
Manolo Blahnik wedges $745;
Page 100
Ralphlaurencollection.com
Olympia shoes $1,125 Charlotteolympia
$12,000, pendant $22,000
Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière
Alexander McQueen trousers
Page 24
.com; Tod’s bag $3,525 Tods.com; Nina
and chain $2,000; Lorraine Schwartz
blouse $1,235; Givenchy skirt $915
$825, 212-645-1797; Manolo
Prada bag $3,990 Prada.com
Ricci bag $1,190 Neimanmarcus.com;
cuffs $95,750 each; Luz
Blahnik shoes $675, 212-582-3007;
Gianvito Rossi for Altuzarra shoes $795
Camino broach $3,925; Loree
American Apparel T-shirt
Elements of Style
Americanapparel.net
Barneys.com; Dior Fine Jewelry rings
Rodkin ring $27,750, beetle
$90,000 (#7) and $56,000 (#11)
pendant $20,250 and chain $11,325;
Page 71
Page 101
Pages 32–34
212-931-2950; Bottega Veneta dress
Gucci dress $2,150
Louis Vuitton skirt $1,042, dress,
Calvin Klein Collection dress
Market Report
Page 32
$3,950, cardigan $1,850, bag $8,500 and
Pages 62–63
$35,274 and shoes, $1,520
$5,995, 212-292-9000; Acne jacket
Alexander McQueen skirt, top and shoes,
shoes $760 Bottegaveneta.com; Salvatore
Chanel watch (black) $30,800; Verdura
louisvuitton.com; Prada necklace
$440 Acnestudios.com; Dita sunglasses
price upon request, Alexandermcqueen
Ferragamo dress $2,340, bag $2,200 and
watch $23,500; Chanel watch
$1,950 Prada.com
$425 Ditalegends.com
.com; Peter Pilotto dress $4,420 Susan
shoes $825, 800-628-8916; Sportmax
(white) $13,300; Franck Muller watch
Pages 102–103
of Burlingame 650-347-0452; Nicholas
blouse $745, shorts $550 and shoes, price
$12,200; Bobbi Brown lipstick
Lanvin top, price upon request,
Kirkwood for Peter Pilotto shoes $1,200
upon request, 212-674-1817
$23; Shiseido lipstick $25; Tom Ford
Jeffrey New York 212-206-1271; Ralph
lipstick $48; Chanel lipstick $25;
Lauren Collection dress $8,000, feather
Chanel lipstick $32; Tom Ford nail
Accessories
Strange Girl in a
Strange Land
646-439-0380; Theyskens’ Theory
trousers, price upon request,
Pages 76–83
Theory.com; Chanel swimsuit $680,
800-550-0005; Giorgio Armani
polish $30; Shiseido lipstick $25;
Page 76
request, Ralphlaurencollection.com; James
Pages 59-64
Chanel nail polish $25; Tom Ford blouse,
Jil Sander dress $1,570 and skirt
trousers $805 Armani.com;
de Givenchy for Taffin brooch, price upon
All available at Bergdorf Goodman,
price upon request
$1,780, Bergdorfgoodman.com;
Céline jacket $7,600, 212-535-3703;
request, 212-421-6222; La Mer cleansing
Bergdorfgoodman.com
Page 64
shoes $495, Shopbop.com; Prabal
Manolo Blahnik shoes
fluid $65 Neimanmarcus.com; La Prairie
Page 59
Yves Saint Laurent espadrilles $580;
Gurung for Linda Farrow Projects
$755 Saksfifthavenue.com; Dita
tonic $95 Shoplaprairie.com; Versace bag
Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière bag
Miu Miu platforms $710; Yves Saint
sunglasses $426, Lindafarrow.co.uk
sunglasses $425 Ditalegends.com
bolero $2,498, and shoes, price upon
114 March 2012
© 2012 Dow Jones & Company, InC. all RIghts ReseRveD. 6a01238
trousers $1,425, Proenzaschouler.com;
Prabal Gurung for Linda Farrow
“EVERYONE I HAVE EVER SLEPT WITH 1963-1995”, 1995, (APPLIQUED TENT, MATTRESS AND LIGHT) 122 X 245 X 215 CM, ©TRACEY EMIN, COURTESY WHITE CUBE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, DACS, LONDON / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK.
Proenza Schouler top $1,850 and
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Open Secret
A DOLLHOUSE FIT
FOR A QUEEN
Now Open
www.akris.ch
Miniature oil paintings, petite silver serving trays and an English garden that fits in a drawer
are a small part of the tiny treasures within a 20th-century gift to Imperial Britain
PLAYING HOUSE The minuscule dining room (above); the completed dollhouse (right) being
packed up for delivery to Windsor Castle.
116 March 2012
and yet there was a side to her that rejoiced
over small and precious objects. Her taste
for tiny things, perhaps rooted in her Victorian childhood, was the inspiration for one
of the most extraordinary gifts ever bestowed upon a
sovereign: the world’s most elaborately crafted dollhouse, containing contributions from more than 1,500
of the early 20th century’s leading British artists, writers, manufacturers and tradesmen.
This Lilliputian folly, presented at the British Empire
Exhibition in 1924, remaining on view at Windsor
Castle, was designed over a three-year period by Sir
Edwin Lutyens, the esteemed architect of viceregal New
Delhi. It was conceived not as a toy, but as a showcase
for national craft and an emblem of Imperial Britain
post–World War I. Vaguely baroque in style and standing 5 feet tall, the miniature palace has all the intricacy
and strangeness of an England with one foot in the
Edwardian era and the other in the Jazz Age. A garden
designed by Gertrude Jekyll opens out of a drawer.
Ironically, there are no dolls in this dollhouse—
Lutyens preferred the environment to be the star. Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling wrote original works for the library, Rolls-Royce and Daimler built
limousines for the garage, and
Alfred Dunhill rolled cigarettes
containing the king’s blend of
tobacco. Some might dismiss
the dollhouse as a curiosity
rather than serious art, but the
charm and resonance of this
object are not so easy to forget.
Go to Windsor Castle, home
now to Mary’s granddaughter
Queen Elizabeth, and see for
yourself. For all the da Vincis,
Rembrandts and Rubenses on
display, when you get home
that night, you just might
find yourself thinking about
that grandfather clock, and
whether it works or not. The
lawn mower does. By David Netto
THE ROYAL COLLECTION © 2012 HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II. PHOTO BY DAVID CRIPPS (DINING ROOM); TOPICAL PRESS AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES).
Q
UEEN MARY WAS A FORMIDABLE CHARACTER,