NYC Blog: Men's Fashion, Retail and Visual Merchandising | The Bespoken: For Gentlemen

Tommy Nutter: What We Forget To Remember (part two of two)

 

 
 
While not quite two peas in a pod, Nutter was on Elton John's speed-dial."Tommy completely glamorized Savile Row and made it accessible," said Elton John, who often visited the shop to be measured up while drinking a glass of sherry. Nutter designed many of Elton John’s iconic tour outfits, exaggerated and flamboyant. Nutter’s work helped to create the Elton John mystique. John wears Nutter suits off stage too in nearly all of his publicity shots.

 

Nutter himself was most proud of the fact that, for the cover of The Beatles  album Abbey Road in 1969, he dressed three out of the four Beatles: George Harrison elected to be photographed on the road-crossing in denim. Now some forty years later Mr. Harrison still looks out of place. While they were offered millions of dollars, the Beatles had a firm policy not to associate with brands, pitch products or marketing to promote themselves. That did not stop the shy Ringo Starr from modeling for his good friend, Nutter, and was used in the company’s advertising. 

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber was a client and friend. “He made me a lot of things when one was younger and trendier,” Lloyd Webber said. “There was a wonderful maroon coat I remember I wore for Ascot. He was always such fun, very much part of my early life when Jesus Christ Superstar was going on. He made clothes for Tim Rice too! We were all great mates”. 

Famous Nutter creations include the powder blue suit David Bowie was photographed wearing for his Pinups LP. Eric Clapton and Steve Harley whose 1977 world tour suit by Tommy sold recently at Bonham’s for £700. American, songwriter and singer Neil Sedaka was a Nutter enthusiast.

 
Clients from the hipper purlieus of the aristocracy, aspiring teenage dandies from the East End whose ambition, in the early seventies was to own a Nutter suit were drawn to Tommy Nutter, not only because of his ineffable sense of style, but also because of his peculiarly ironic personality. A flirt, Nutter welcomed the young and embraced them as colleagues. A true win-win, in turn, they celebrated his style, provided good word of mouth and delivered his design message to the streets.

In 1971, Nutter was elected to the Best-Dressed Listin the United States, along with the Earl of Snowdon and Hardy Amies. At the time, American Menswear magazine said of Nutter that he was “tradition, spiced with daring”.

 
Nutter had a delicious sense of humor who had a wide and interesting circle of friends who were attracted by his enthusiasm,  his gentle self-mocking personality and his acerbic comments on the vagaries of others, always ending with the expression, “But who am I to talk?”

Nutter was a man of letters. He was a prodigious and witty correspondent. His letters to his many friends are treasured. In addition, he delighted in writing to serious newspapers on topics as far-ranging as the correct buttoning of the suit on a statue of John F. Kennedy, (which was altered) to the scarcity of deckchairs in Green Park. He was always very ready to spring to the defense of his beloved Savile Row if it came under attack, as it so frequently did in the anarchic sixties.

 

“He never got things wrong about clothes,” said the restaurateur and bookshop owner, Stuart Grimshaw, who was a client of Tommy Nutter's from the late sixties. “He really knew what he was talking about. One would go in and say… What do I wear to go on safari in Kenya? and Tommy would make one an absolutely correct safari suit, a proper one with all the pockets in exactly the right place. This knowledge extended to such minutiae as the correct wearing of half or full brogues or co-respondent shoes. “He was an encyclopedia of correct, classical male style.'”

By the mid to late 1970’s the bespoke business overall became less successful. This downward spiral occurred throughout Seville Row with many mainline shops started shuttering their doors. People were purchasing Ready To Wear. The culture was moving towards casual and active wear as the preferred style. The disco look supplanted the discothèque. Thankfully, Nutter opted not to create bespoke-jogging suits, but he did branch out into ready to wear clothing, marketed through Austin Reed. He also successfully expanded into East Asia, establishing the Savile Row brand in Japan.

In 1976, Sexton bought Nutter out of the business. Nutter went to work for Kilgour, French and Stanbury, managing his own workroom. Sexton continued to run Nutter’s of Savile Row until 1983. What goes around comes around. Nutter returned to Savile Row with a ready to wear shop: Tommy Nutter, Savile Row. This new venture, which traded at No. 19 Savile Row until Tommy's death, was backed by J&J Crombie Limited, who continues to own the "Tommy Nutter" trademark. At this time, Sexton set up a successful business in his own name in New York City.

Always busy, Nutter was also a firm believer in the supremacy of the English suit and of English cloth; during the seventies and early eighties he took part in huge international fashion shows put on by Reid & Taylor, the Scottish firm of woolen and worsted manufacturers.

Still prodigious, in the 1980’s Nutter described his suits as a "cross between the big-shouldered Miami Vice look and the authentic Savile Row. Never one to turn down an opportunity Nutter created the stylish clothing of the Joker, worn by Jack Nicholson in the 1989 film, Batman. Thus insuring that this character still remains one of the best dressed super villains of all time.

 

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Galliano’s, a once Nutter apprentice  has borrowed heavily from Nutter’s collections, as has colleague Vivienne Westwood, Gucci's autumn/winter 2011 menswear collection is a homage to Nutter. Tommy Nutter’s work remains a perennial reference on the runway.

 

If Tommy Nutter was alive he’d only be sixty-eight. A Nutter suit is not a thing of the past. He is very much present. Were he alive I imagine him still designing for Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Eric Clapton and Elton John. They too continue to shake it up and retain some of their youthfulness and sexiness. Given their current state of attire, I think they would do well by Nutter’s gifted hand.

Nutter suits periodical come up for sale on internet sites. While prices vary from 500.00 to 5,000.00 dollars I have yet to see one in my size. I’m a standard size 40 with a 32” by 32” pant, but I do keep my eyes and ears open.

  

Now ell over forty years ago Nutter’s of Savile Row remains a successful shop. Their suits sill are influenced by Nutter’s original work, unexpected pin stripes, cut against the grain, shawl collars in crushed velvet, nipped in waists. It’s as if Nutter’s hand extends from heaven. You can visit the collection at www.nosr.co.uk Nutter’s, 12 Seville Row, London, UK W1S 3PQ info@nosr.co.uk tel: +44 (0) 20 7437 7007

 Now, what have I forgotten to remember?

Tommy Nutter: What We Forget To Remember

 

Lately I’ve been thinking about the British designer, Tommy Nutter. He and his work have crossed my mind. I don’t know why, but there does seem to be a resurgence in interest of his work as evidenced in London’s “Tommy Nutter: Rebel On The Row” exhibit at The Fashion and Textile Museum in South London.

I review his pictures on Google Image search. I come to the same conclusion I made in 1974, Tommy Nutter was irrepressibly cute, boyishly attractive, if not at times a strikingly handsome man, a man with dimples. Men and women found him attractive. How could they not? He had an indomitable sense of style, what the French call panache. As an adolescent, I found myself attracted to him and his work. He was British, which I equated with “class”. Nutter dressed the kind of people (mostly rock musicians) that I listened to alone in my bedroom with the sound up too loud. Mick Jagger sang Red Rooster and Elton John sang Crocodile Rock in Nutter suits.

Nutter rises on the fashion spectrum in the late 1960’s at a time when men wore boxy suits, narrow lapels, white shirts and skinny ties. A Mad Men like uniform, but not as slim, shiny or sexy. In reality, men dressed more like Mr. Mooney (The Lucy Show) and less like Don Draper.

 
Savile Row was a predictable double-breasted navy blue pin stripe world of three-piece suits custom made for bankers, banisters and the gentry. Nutter was however, an avant-garde Savile Row tailor, who single-handedly reconciled the traditions of Savile Row, laid down in the late 19th century, with the modern look of the new bohemians. Nutter emerges just as the “Peacock Revolution” is about to take place.

 
Nutter’s work with its nipped in waists, handmade rolled wide lapels, contrast piping, shoulder pads, slacks styled in a nineteen thirties cut, pleated/cuffed pants that invoked John Held illustrations appealed to the youthful exuberance of the young “hippie chic”. That is hippies who appreciated fine tailoring and had deep pockets. A Nutter suit cost as much, if not more than the best bespoke tailors on the Row.  Nutter was a gifted tailor and a talented designer, who understood textiles and scale, and could artfully mix plaids, tartans, windowpane check, stripes, herringbones, and ginghams to create a kind of quilted suit.  Nutter’s designs may have been rooted in the nineteen-thirties design aesthetic, but spoke to the new hip generation.

If you do not know who this talented gentleman and designer of Savile Row was, let’s start at the end and then look at the beginning.

Tommy Nutter was among the many men who died of AIDS related illnesses earlier in the epidemic. He passed away in Cornwall Hospital in August of 1992 after several prolonged opportunistic infections. He was only forty-nine years old, just barely middle-aged. With rare exceptions his obituaries are scant and do not lament his loss. Perhaps because Mr. Nutter passes away in close proximity to Robert Mapplethorpe, Patrick Robinson, Tina Chow, Keith Haring, Way Bandy, Kevin Aucoin, Gia Carangi, Perry Ellis, Halston, Willi Smith, Colin Birch, and Robert Benzio. Weary from grief, in a relatively brief period, the fashion community was robbed of a litany of great talents. Dying of AIDS was now deemed neither shocking nor tragic; it was commonplace, just another accepted everyday kind of thing. For the most part Nutter fell under the radar in America, as not many Americans were, or are aware of British designers. The New York Times and WWD give him only a brief paragraph, and do not include a head-shot or fashion photograph in his obituary. This for a man who is among one of the most important tailors, designers and arbiters of style and taste for several decades.

Why the dis? Too often seen as a lovable fop, a witty homosexual, vacuous, the news failed to recognize Nutter's insouciant manner masked a serious and continuing purpose, to make sure that the techniques and traditions of Seville Row tailoring were preserved, and valued by his generation.

  

 

Mr. Nutter was born in 1943, during the height of World War Two, an auspicious time to bring a child into the world as Europe was falling apart from the ravages of war. There were frequent air raids, bombings, food shortages, rationing, and viral epidemics to contend with. Nutter was born in Barmouth, Merioneth, Wales, but raised in Edgware,  Middlesex, North London, where his father owned the successful High Street Cafe which catered to a clientele composed mostly of ordinary “blokes”, truck drivers, gas-fitters and builders, burly men, laborers who were not interested in the fine art of fashion. The Nutter's were a typical post-war middle class family with aspirations of upward mobility. Nutter’s childhood was relatively suburban and middle-class. Father Nutter moved the family to the more respectable Kilburn, as soon as finances would allow it. Nutter attended Willesden Technical College, where he was an average student. Like all great designers, Nutter initially studied plumbing,  apprenticed, and then decided to pursue architecture, but he abandoned both by age nineteen to study tailoring at the Tailor and Cutter Academy.

Despite humble beginnings, out of the post war malaise rises Tommy Nutter, the quintessential British tailor, famous for reinventing the classic Savile Row suit in the 1960’s and 70’s.

What’s in a name? The family name “Nutter” is defined as British slang for a mad or eccentric person, as per the Collins English Dictionary Complete and Unabridged© Harper Collins Publishers 1991, through 2003, which may be an apt description of Tommy Nutter and his collections.

In the early 1960's, Nutter joined the tailoring firm of, Donaldson, Williamson & Ward, one of Savile Rows most proper (read: orthodox) Bespoke Shops in the toney Burlington Arcade. Starting as an apprentice, this is where Nutter learned his craft. He absorbed the lore and the rules of the English gentleman's classical wardrobe, and developed a lifelong respect for its rules from world class tailors.

 

After toiling for seven years, in 1968-9, he joined up with Edward Sexton, a master cutter, to open Nutter’s of Savile Rowat No 35a Savile Row on Valentine’s Day. A day that the meticulous Sexton and gregarious Nutter felt would provide them with good luck, personally and professionally. Sexton and Nutter had an off again on again relationship for many years. Their relationship and business was tried by the new mores, recreational drugs and recreational sex of the period.

 
Location is often a determinate of success.  The Savile Row location had the House Of Nutter at one end, and the headquarters of The Beatles company Apple Corps at the other. It was a well tread street by wealthy tourists and nearly everyone in the music industry. Having such close proximity to the music industry, Nutter and Sexton were soon financially backed by Cilla Black and her husband, music producer, Bobby Willis. Ms. Black is the well-known singer who scored huge hits with “Anyone Who Had A Heart”, “Alfie” and “Fool Am I.”Rounding out the trio of backers was the Managing Director of the Beatles' Apple Corps, Peter Brown, and their lawyer James Vallance-White. Nutter learned early on that pop stars and rock icons generated free press, and as setting style was concerned where it’s at… fashion wise.

Intrue democratic fashion on a street of hierarchical iconoclasts, Nutter was the first tailor to open up his Savile Row premises to anyone, including passers-by; introductions and business cards were not necessary to enter the store. Nutter’s shop had windows at a time when bespoke tailoring was usually situated behind austere closed doors, and dense velvet drapes conveying the message “stay out unless you belong”. Nutter’s shop soon attracted rock stars and aristocrats who wanted the mix of innovative styling and traditional made-to-measure tailoring.

 
To demonstrate how pioneering his approach to brand image was at the time, Nutter's shop windows were also innovative featuring displays of patchouli-soaked stuffed rats wearing diamond chokers. On Savile Row, the bastion of the old world, staid sobriety was the order of the day. Nutter was seen as an upstart and know it all whose shop was on the wrong side of the street. The elegantly carved doors with the engraved “N” did not relieve the tension in the sartorial neighborhood. Nutter was considered a “bad boy”, part of the neauveaux riche, practically a fashion anarchist. Nutter didn’t thumb his nose but did push the envelope visually. His window presentations were the talk of the town, To be certain; the huge purple candles in the shape of phallus's can't exactly have endeared him to his neighbors. Simon Doonan, the British Creative Director of Barney’s department store in New York, started out his career producing some of the outlandish windows displays for Nutter back in the day, and helped recreate the feel of the shop.

 
Tommy Nutter’s Seville Row emporium was a haven for London’s gay fashionistas and for some people, the Nutter suit became a symbol of something more than just stylistic élan. Drawing inspiration from the self-styled flamboyant Oscar Wilde, Dorian Grey and the Edwardian period Nutter found his bailiwick. Nutter was also successful navigating the complex social revolutions of the sixties and the often extravagant and idiosyncratic demands of his clients, the leading dandies of swinging London. 

The business was an immediate success, as Nutter combined traditional tailoring skills with his innovative designs. By no means an also ran, Sexton too proved out to be a highly skilled designer. Together they were a talented duo and their collaborations were flawless.

  

  
 
 

Beloved by the upper echelon of the fashion community, Nutter designed for the Hardy Amies range, and then for Mr. Amies himself. Nutter was the darling of the fashion hoi-polloi.

 

         Hardie Amies                           David Hochney

Nutter also dressed the eccentric and flamboyant octogenarian photographer, Norman Parkinson. Nutter’s early clients included his investors, plus Sir Roy Strong, then Director of the National Portrait Gallery and modern art master, David Hockney.

 
 
Twiggy, who was at the apex of her popularity adored Nutter, and wore his classic red velvet pant suit often, so much so  it was copied (albeit poorly) by every other fashion manufacturer, in the UK and US. Ms. Hornsby looked to Nutter for fashion advice and counsel as the Mary Quant Carnaby Street “Mod Look” now seemed tired. Twiggy wore Nutter in front of the camera and off. Not since Audrey Hepburn collaborated with Givenchy has a celebrity and designer has such a successful artistic partnership.

 
 

 

 
Other frequent clients included Mick Jagger, and wife, Bianca Jagger. In fact, Mick and Bianca chose to wear Nutter’s designs on their wedding day. In the early 1970's Nutter created many suits for Bianca Jagger. Bianca, already a fashion icon wanted a man's suit, and not a suit cut for a woman. She asked Nutter for the darts to be taken out of her first pistachio green suit to make it sexier. Bianca Jagger is an altogether differently shaped women from the waifish Twiggy, but in a Nutter fitted suit they both looked like the powerful and intelligent women they are. Their posture and presence convey confidence and intelligence.

Return in a few days for the second and final installment of Tommy Nutter: What We Forget to Remember

 

 

But Who Gets Custody Of All The Hangers?

Forget about the twins, (one each)  the homes, the cars and all the celebrity accoutrement. The real question in the Lopez-Anthony household is who’s getting custody of the hangers?

ET, TMZ and Access neglected to see the real issue that may make this divorce a true “free-for-all. Concert tours, hosting American Idol, launching mediocre CDs and performing at Ukrainian weddings is “small potatoes”. The big question is what will the fashion world do without Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony? That’s right,  the announcement that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were getting a divorce shook the world of fashion, well now that I think about it, maybe more of a shudder , than a shake. WWD didn’t put it quite this way, but fashion insiders are saying forget staying together for the kids, stay together for fashion’s sake!

Lest we forget Anthony and Lopez looking all lovely dovey had just announced a line of clothes they are designing together that is about to launch at monolithic Kohl's. Lopez has long been in the fashion business, (Remember “Sweetface” and “JLo”) selling Jennifer Lopez branded items for over a decade. Her fragrance business alone has generated over $1billion dollars. Her signature fragrances include… Glow, Blue Glow by 
JLO, Glow after Dark, L.A. Glow, Miami Glow, My Glow, Sunkissed Glow, Deseo, Deseo for Men, Deseo Forever, Live, Live Luxe, Live Platinum, Love & Glamour, Love and Light, Love at First Glow and Still.. The fragrances are as distinctive as their names; can anyone tell the difference between LA Glow and Miami Glow?

Women's Wear Daily is reporting that the launch of two clothing and accessories lines by the couple will go on as planned. Well, almost as planned. The duo will no longer be promoted as "the first celebrity couple to simultaneously design collections for one retailer," and the lines are now being advertised as two separate collections.

In 1975, super celebrity couple Sonny and Cher spit up. The divorce was acrimonious. They each launched separate shows, The Sonny Comedy Revue and The Cher Show, reception was mild, the magic was gone.

The family that designs together resides together!

The Bigger They Are

The house of Halston is like Humpty Dumpty, and one wonders if all the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men can put poor Halston together again. Halston has fallen… hard… again.

A fashion house is not a soufflé…it is a brick.

It seemed an odd choice when the ever so fashionably inclined Sex and The City II chose a classic white Halston for its movie poster featuring Ms. Parker. The Sex and The City franchise is all about fashion, but Halston hit the skids way back in the early 1980’s when Roy Halston sold his name and company to a series of licensees that made everything from .99 cent cigarette lighters to automobile tires. Granted, Sarah Jessica Parker looked fabulous in the white gathered sheath with requisite diva fan, but the last time anyone wore Halston, Roy was guesting on ABC’s The Love Boat.

Just in time for the Sex and The City II film junket it was announced that Ms. Parker was taped as the new President and Chief Creative Officer for Halston. It was a publicists dream comes true. SJP would redevelop the “Halston Heritage Collection”, Halston’s discount line. Before Halston; Sarah had designed the line “Bitten”. launched exclusively with discount clothing chain Steve & Barry’s. The company only sold items under $20.00. They have since gone out of business.

It is not without coincidence that film producer; Harvey Weinstein would purchase a good portion of Halston. Weinstein’s wife Georgina Chapman runs fashion line Marchesa. Weinstein and Parker co-produced Sex and The City II and worked on several film projects together. Ahh, now the parts of the puzzle start to fall in place.

Halston and SJP could have been a “natural”. After All SJP is Carrie Bradshaw. Mr. Parker gets press coverage every times she sneezes; one might think she’d apply that to her work at Halston. Well, one might think that…but…

From the get go, the writing was on the wall. Ms. Parker and Mr. Weinstein were really figure heads and seldom showed up at the office. Not a great way to make friends and influence people. Not an ideal way to manage a struggling company. FYI Halston had eight company presidents before Parker and Weinstein. Weinstein presents like a lovely man when interviewed by Piers Morgan, but then so does Ryan O’Neal and Charlie Sheen. Weinstein and the staff of Halston did not see eye to eye. The fights were legendary and gossiped about by industry insiders. Long distance fights to the coast do not a designer make.

Fashion people are notoriously anal retentive and hard working. When your bosses are making millions and unable to make it to the office, resentments do build. Research suggests that Ms. Parker and Mr. Weinstein never took the opportunity to travel overseas to visit their factories where Halston designs are manufactured. Ms. Parker, who is frequently spotted on the red carpet, fashion event, charity functions, talk shows and press events seldom, was spotted wearing Halston product. Can one even imagine Coco Chanel or Yves Saint Laurent showing up for the press wearing their competitor’s duds?  

Too often I have had the opportunity to debate the merits of what happens when celebrities design, with the possible exception of Victoria Beckham and The Olson Twins, celebrity designers have been a death knoll, think Lindsey Lohan for Ungaro, the Kardashians, Paris Hilton. Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus for Wal-Mart, or Mike (the situation) Sorrentino Couture Tee Shirt line. Fashion is a train wreck.

Ms. Parker is one of the entertainment industries highest paying performers. Just prior to joining Halston, Ms. Parker became the mother of twin’s girls through surrogacy. That in itself is a full time job, even if you have and nanny (The Broderick’s do not have “live-in” help) and a stay at home dad like Matthew Broderick. While Ms. Parker did not have a great attendance record at Halston, she’s not a slouch, Ms. Parker did manage to make several films “Did You Hear About the Morgan’s?“ “New Years Eve”, “Smart People”. “I Don’t Know How She Does It”. The last two titles are perhaps the most aptly titled.

In a time when millions of Americans wrestle with living hand to month, Ms. Parker and Mr. Weinstein will walk away with payout packages estimated in the millions.

LORIS DIRAN: Clothing Thoughts (part three of three)

 
In researching Mr. Diran, I read over 160 articles and online posts. I have to confide with rare exception the identical adjectives are used to describe his work, “elegant. modern, clean, stylish and classic“. All perfectly suitable, but those same adjectives could be used to describe the Empire State Building, an Ipod or a cheeseburger. (Okay, a cheeseburger may not be elegant, but you get my drift).

Is Fashion Art?

There is a difference between what clothing is, and what constitutes fashion. Fashion is an art, although some bigots will claim otherwise. To evaluate the merits of “fine art” we look at certain rigid criteria like harmony, balance, proportion, perspective, scale, and emphasis. If a painting has successful mastered these elements it likely qualifies as a piece of fine art, if not a masterwork? Loris Diran’s collections easily meet all this criteria and I might add motion, shape, depth, and shadow.

Most successful designers rest their laurels on one single idea, and derivations of it year in and year out. The silhouette seldom changes. Oh yes, little tweaks here and there, but even the palate seldom changes. Does a D & G or H & M collection change that much from 2009 to 2010? Can the average consumer distinguish between Ralph Lauren Polo and Tommy Hilfiger year in and year out, let alone season-to-season? It’s too risky a venture for a mainline designer to jeopardize the brand by introducing a broader fashion vocabulary. It is then for the mavericks (of which there are few) or for emerging designers to really lead us. To challenge us. They therefore take inspiration from pop culture, architecture, artists, and historical periods. They move fashion forward. They are seen as “outsiders”, too creative, too intellectual, and ergo, too difficult to decipher. The consequence being that they remain on the lower end of the hierarchy. There simply isn’t room at the top.

With multiple shows and events before him, every review extols his work. Either he has a great publicist or knows where all the bodies are buried at WWD. One review is better than the next. Yet all the praise and recognition has not translated into breaking through the polyester ceiling. He is not yet a household name. I make no pretence to be a sooth sayer or clairvoyant, but I predict that it is only a matter of time before Vogue calls this the year of Loris Diran.

 

  
Diran has an elevated level of taste. Diran has ventured in several ways of late; his women’s wear is mixing up types fabrics, in different weights on the same garment. Thus creating different drapes and types of movement as the wearer moves. Diran’s dresses are fluid. Dresses coming down the runway may be as gossamer as Titania’s wedding gown or as dense as Lady Guinevere’s chain mail doublet. In some garments a woven basket weave technique addresses assembly more that sewn/seamed garments. There are asymmetrical cuts and slits with bias cuts that run on sharp angles across the apex of the bosoms. The drape of the garment flutters and grabs the body at the waist or hip. Each collection comes with some little surprise; maybe it’s a nod to Edwardian gothic, a kimono, the silent movie era or masculine tailoring. The truly great designers were also great crafts people. The understood the properties of fabric, how to cut it, and like a sculptor how to pare it away to revel the statue beneath. Diran understands the complexities of pattern making, and how the weight of the thread affects the way a hemline hangs.

 
Regardless of the idiosyncratic looks presented, Loris Diran’s clothing is first and foremost feminine. It is an investment piece, and will remain fashionable far longer then the trend conscience garments sold in department stores.

 

 

  
The menswear collection is astute, idiomatic and altogether cut for a younger hipper American male, but pays just attention to a European cum continental sensibility. Diran knows menswear is his bailiwick. If he doesn’t, he should. The shrunken suit popularized by Mad Men and Tom Browne may be de rigueur, not it just feigns fashion. Diran opts for a compact shoulder pad that is sharp, and cuts the armhole high to add length to a man’s arm. The waist is tapered, creating a “V” that even someone without a Chelsea aesthetic build can look like he spends a pejorative amount of time at the gym in. Diran’s menswear speaks to details. It’s found in contrast piping, kissing bone buttons, the clever color of the lining, a shawl collar, the way a placard pocket is like a design accessory, or a fabric that has a shimmery luminance. Then there is the way he accessorizes a suit with black driving gloves, or a loose ascot replacing a tight tie. Albeit subtle, the jacket is ever so slightly abbreviated, which creates a longer looking leg, ergo a taller looking man.

 
The collection works for straight men looking to attract other women, and the collection works for gay men looking to attract other men. It is neither plebian nor peacock. The collection is hyper-masculine and alternately sensitive. The collection is not obvious. It personifies what Chanel said, “Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.” Indeed, Diran’s menswear is about restraint, you see the man, not the suit.

If I have engendered any interest in you, please go to Loris Diran’s website www.lorisdiran.com and go to www.youtube.com where you can keyword him and there are almost 100 videos of him and his shows. It’s a great way to see fashion and participate vicariously.

If you are like me, you might be saying, yes, its beautiful clothing created by a talented man, but I cannot afford it, so why bother. Well, I cannot afford a Van Gogh or Renoir, but that does not mean I cannot appreciate it. No harm will come from visiting his shop anymore than going to the MoMA. It is our responsibility as people passionate about fashion to self-educate ourselves.

LORIS DIRAN: Do Nice Guys Always Finish Last? (part two of three)

An example of Diran’s generosity walked through his front door just on cue. We were discussing “diversity” in the fashion industry when emerging model, Grace Bol, the Sudanese born beauty just happened to stop by.

 
It was not by accident. Diran would disagree, but it was divine intervention. I’m sure of it. The purpose of her visit, Ms. Bol came to pay homage to Mr. Diran, show him some of her recent work, and to thank him for his encouragement early in her career. Mr. Diran has used Ms. Bol in his fashion shoots and runway shows with great frequency. Despite being breathtakingly beautiful, the life of a model is a difficult one, factor in being a woman of color, with non-traditional measurements, taller and more long legged that the extreme Russian beauties currently favored. and the prognosis for employment is especially bleak. When the rent is due and you are hungry, it is difficult to keep hope alive. Therefore, when hopes come from a dear friend, like the eminent Loris Diran, it is more appreciated than paying the Con Ed bill or groceries at Gristides. Mr. Diran had beseeched Ms. Bol to “stick with it” and reminded her “that nothing good comes ever comes easily“. He encouraged her to persevere, and Ms. Bol took his sage advice to heart. She is today one of the most sought after models at the Major Model Agency. She came by to simple say, “thank you” and to show her respects. When was the last time anyone ever did something that for you?

Nevertheless, I digress…Diran started out as a Public Relations Assistant for Versace, at a time where the legendary Gianni Versace was a kind of ex-officio mentor. Diran later became a Merchandiser for Chanel and Claude Montana These three companies share a keen understanding of the luxury marketplace; developing life styling, protecting brand equity and maintaining artistic standards during an era when how much you produce, has become more important that what you produce.

Diran was the Design Director for Jacquelyne Love, and worked with Norma Kamali. In that auspices, he rounded out his apprenticeships designing for both men and women. But please note this is very rare. One must be like a musical prodigy that can play the classic piano and virtuoso violin in order to design for both men and women. It seldom happens, but Diran seems to crossover to both markets, and is adept at both. Granted, he favors women’s, but alas, I favor his menswear.

While Mr. Diran was well served with fashion role models in his professional life, he credits people like Costume National’s Creative Director, Ennio Capasa as being inspirational. This is an interesting choice because it too speaks to the unexpected.

 
 

While working within a global brand can be a heady experience, creativity is a commodity not always embraced, and in 2003, Mr. Diran took the leap out of the corporate design sector and started his own line, LORIS DIRAN COUTURE, a collection of luxury knits. His craftsmanship and fashion forward designs made them an instant hit with many socialites and celebrities. Who doesn’t love a good knit?

In 2005, Mr. Diran went to work on his own signature women’s ready-to-wear label, immediately followed by a men’s collection, both featuring demi-couture craftsmanship and have since developed a loyal clientele of fashion savvy customers, as well as celebrities from the world of music, television and film. He created new division of Loris Diran in 2008, which evolved into Loris Diran Trading, LLC and just recently created the Loris Diran Boutique shortly thereafter.

His boutique at 3 East 1st Street (right off Bowery) is located in the Avalon Bowery Place Building, which is cited as a part of the gentrification of the neighborhood. Indeed, Loris Diran is more Savillle Row than Skid Row. However, the economic realities dictate that the community may be falsely nostalgic, and grieve only that which they once reviled.

Loris Diran’s clothing is currently offered in soft palates, like pale peach, weathered lavender, gunmetal grey and aged sand. They hang from chrome plate ballet bars that look like knarled tree branches, There is an oversized vintage 60’s Murano chandelier and Italian designed sofas. The front windows are generous in size, and you can see directly into the store, suggesting that the store is transparent and apart of the street culture. The stores physical attribute are merely extensions the merchandise its houses.

Are you known by the company you keep…?

 

Speaking to diversity, his designs have been worn by Beyonce Knowles, Ne-yo, Ricky Martin, Jonathan Rhys Meyer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicolette Sheridan, Sofia Milos, Lynda Carter, Britney Spears, Liv Schreiber, Andrew McCarthy and his clothing was featured in The Devil Wear Prada. 

This prestigious assembly of notable names and associations combined with Diran’s growing presence in the design community earned him an invitation to debut his collection on the runways of Milan as a guest of Vogue Italia and Milano Unica in September 2010. And here is where the story gets good…

Visit the Loris Diran website at www.lorisdiran.com

Return in two days for the continuing story…

LORIS DIRAN: The Crown of Sorrows (part one of three)

 
Loris Diran is the winner of this year’s FGI (Fashion Group International) Rising Star Award 2011 for Excellence in Menswear. If you have been living under a rock, or remanded to the Space Station taking photographs of the planets, allow me to introduce him to you.

Sometimes You Have To Expect The Unexpected

I met with Mr. Diran in his shop the other day. His shop is downtown. Way downtown. Manhattan’s Bowery may not be the kind of neighborhood one first associates with fashion. Historically, the Bowery has been a dark place, bereft of the frivolity of couture. The Bowery has long been the refuge of the disenfranchised. More accessible associations might be skid row bums or new wave bohemians. It may seem counter intuitive (in fact, it may actually be) for the sophisticated and comely Loris Diran to take up residence in the Bowery, but business seems to be brisk. Mr. Diran is in fact, in good company with neighbors like John Varvatos, Derek Lam, Charlotte Ronson and Rogan.

If one were to stop by Mr. Diran’s shop on East First Street, the first signifier that you are in the correct neighborhood would be his corporate icon, emblazoned on a flag, snapping in the May wind, is consists of a black crown of thorns set against a white field, which seems to speak to a deeply ingrained Christian mysticism. That may all be well and true, but on further revelation, like the clothing he designs, all is not as simple as first expected. Loris derives from the old English, meaning sorrow, something elegiac. Diran is Armenian, meaning crown as in aristocratic. Ergo, sorrowful crown, as in a crown of thorns, therefore his icon is as well crafted as his famed collections.

I place great stock in how other people treat each other. Mr. Diran was just saying good-bye to some customers visiting the US from Columbia, customers who placed his boutique on their prioritized list of things to do. While only entering in on the tail end of their conversation Mr. Diran very ably assisted them with great aplomb, diplomacy and even a little bit of panache. He gently guided them through the process of selecting the most flattering style, and superior colors based on what the garment was meant to accomplish, I.e., mother of the bride dress, it needed to be attractive, age appropriate, stylish, but not be distractive. In another incarnation, he might make for a very charming ambassador.

The Trajectory Of A Designer…

I doubt that Mr. Diran ever wanted to be anything as mundane as a fireman, astronaut or cowboy (well, maybe a cowboy). So how does one become a fashion designer? Mr. Diran comes to fashion with a life story that demands attention. Mr. Diran is of French and Armenian descent, and grew up in Lake Como, Italy, France and the Upper West Side. Something sounds awry here! Regardless, this exposed him to multiple cultures, and expanded his worldview significantly. The mélange of disparate cultures informed him of the infinitely differing levels of what constitutes taste. His family life may sound quite gentrified, but he assures me he grew up in a family of “modest means“. TBD.

Loris Diran is an apple that has not fallen far from its tree. I do know this; his parents were a very handsome and stylish couple as evidenced on his periodic face book postings. So, it is no wonder then, with superior DNA already set in place, Mr. Diran is as they say remarkably attractive and stylish. Mr. Diran is a square jawed, bedroom-eyed gentleman with lips prettier than Angelina Jolie. There was no question as a youth that he would he start his career as a model, perform on Broadway and appeared on Capital Records as a recording artist. Fame and fortune seemed to be his destiny. Destiny, a philosophy his father ascribed to, and he, Loris, all together rejects as being self-defeating. Something he, Loris, is not.

 
This doesn’t just happen in Hollywood! Having attended LaGuardia, The School for Fashion, Art, Music and Entertainment aka FAME.  Timed almost too perfectly, he was going to FAME just about the time the film came out in 1980, and was cast in the production.

Back then, the hip social scene for young people coming of age was certainly not found on the Upper West Side, or Broadway. The emerging social scene was “downtown”. Anything below 14^th Street was considered downtown, a place where night creatures trolled CBGB’s Trude Hellers, Rothko, the Unique Clothing Warehouse, The Mercury Lounge, Canal Jeans, Click, The Paradise Garage, LaMama, and perhaps the Catholic Worker. It was a time when novelist Sarah Shulman was writing People In Trouble, which later became Rent. Films like Alphabet City, Liquid Sky and The Warriors warned us about the unruly and reckless youth of “Downtown”. The period was about glam-punk and pop culture. Downtown was a amalgam of music and fashion, where Willy Smith, The Velvet Underground, Madonna, Cindi Lauper, Patricia Fields, Dead Kennedy’s, Patrick Robinson, Devine, Cherry Bomb, Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith, Henry Rollins, Stephen Sprouce, and Jeff Acquilion were likely to cross paths on Broadway /Lafayette or the N train. The creative community was turned on to the counter-culture. Danger or the fear of it can be quite exciting. Mr. Diran was a frequent habitué of those worlds, so Mr. Diran has in many respects, some twenty years later, come home, as he is now ensconced in the Bowery once again. The Bowery of today is an altogether different place. How imperiled can you feel in a world of Duane Reade, Starbucks the Gap?

 
Mr. Diran is wearing a white pocketed tee shirt and black stretch jeans with skinny leg (no belt) black trainers, and two narrow bracelets, nothing more or less. Nothing more or less is needed. He is casual and comfortable. There is no pretense or falsehood. However every picture online (and there are thousands) Mr. Diran is dressed in one of his signature suits. Therefore, I am taken aback. I have dressed for the occasion, in a vintage-pilled herringbone, gradient ombre ribbed crew with a Pierre Cardin ascot, grey slacks and black quilted slippers on what is a rainy day. Wearing velvet slippers when it is raining tells you only one thing, I am an optimist or completely impractical.

While we talk about many things tangentially Mr. Diran speaks with affection for the retailer Century 21, which at first seems an odd choice to have an affinity for. Mr. Diran opens up and credits them for a good deal of his fashion education and acumen. He credits Century 21 with introducing him to designers like Gaultier, Martin Margiela, and Yamamoto. Designers now well know, but who were relatively unknown in the US in the early 1980’s. Mr. Diran an excellent point, that Century 21 was, and may still be a place to expand our horizons beyond Banana Republic or Club Monaco.

Ah… to be young, gifted and beautiful, lest you delude yourself and think Mr. Diran slipped into success because of his good looks please know he was twice blessed with both an alarming amount of talent and intelligence. Temper that with a reputation for being one of the nicest and most affirming gentlemen in the industry and you have what the French call “je ne sais quoi” meaning, “I don’t know what,” that indiscernible thing that defies explanation, but is desirable.

You might think that Mr. Diran went to “the school of hard knocks”, granted, a solid work ethic. diligence and tenacity did not open up all the doors you might surmise. Life has not been a piece of cake. The world has not beaten a path to his door. Graced with a facility for design and an unerring eye for detail, Mr. Diran didn’t spend every waking hour downtown, he graduated with a Fine Arts degree from NYU, but where does someone known as being one of the nicest and most affirming gentlemen in the industry go with a bachelor’s degree in fine art?

Visit the Loris Diran website at www.lorisdiran.com

Return in two days for the continuing story…

A Profile: Denise Foley

 

“Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress“.  Coco Chanel

I have known Denise Foley for the better part of a decade. We are not really friends, certainly, we do not “hang out” together, but we are genuinely fond of one another. I guess that the best way to describe our relationship is collegial. We have worked with one another as client and manufacturer and as mentor and supervisor. We do tend to know many of the same people and run into each other at industry events. When we do, we always have lots to catch up on.

So today, if you are not familiar with her, I would like to introduce you to one of New York’s most chic women, Denise Foley. We had a late lunch at Le Pain Quotidien on the Upper East Side. Our purpose… commiseration and the need to find affirmation, an attribute Ms. Foley has in abundance. Regrettably, Le Pain Quotidien had already run out of their classic almond pear Danish, so I had a mediocre chocolate croissant. We did not talk about religion, sex or politics; we talked about three more fascinating topics, fashion, fashion and fashion. It was a perfect afternoon except for the fact that Coco Chanel was not able to join us. It is spring technically, but the air is still brisk. Outside the cozy patisserie the hyacinths and daffodils seem to shiver.

Ms. Foley is a true New Yorker. Denise is a true petite. Ms. Foley is dressed in a sleeveless black leather A-line dress. It designer escapes me. Under her dress is jet-black knit top, which is as sheer as her noir colored stockings and three-inch tuxedo black heels. The ensemble is finished with a chalkboard black belted black wool coat with a deep portrait collar, and gathered about her neck is an ash black cashmere fringed scarf coiled like a Slinky. I detect six different shades that perfectly harmonize and is accessorized by one indelible item, Denise’s flaming red hair. Chanel, were she alive would rave, “Mon petite… c'est magnifique!” and then probably bollocks up the works with unnecessary strands of pearls and chains. Ms. Foley personifies Chanel’s classic quote, Denise wears the dress, and the dress does not wear her.

Where did Denise get her fashion acumen? Ms. Foley was the Visual Director of Interiors for RTW for America’s most discriminating retailer, Bergdorf Goodman.

  

Lest this escape you, Bergdorf Goodman’s has eight floors, and one is only more beautiful then the next. This did not just happen. There were no genies in brass lamps, or magicians with magic wands to conjure up the Ready To Wear program, abracadabra style, there was a talented Visual Merchandiser (Denise Foley) who worked her way up the corporate ladder. A ladder traditionally dominated by hierarchical employees clinging to every rung. Ms. Foley may only stand about five foot five, but her talent towers over her diminutive size. Algebra is not my bailiwick, but Denise could be described as having talent squared (in an equation: talent 2).

What do two Visual Merchandisers and Fashionistas talk about when they get together? Here are just some of the topics we cram into an hour and a half. We discuss how we have both decided (that without even seeing it yet); we are going to love the Alexander McQueen “Savage Beauty” retrospective at the Met (it doesn’t open until May 4^th). Tom Fords film “A Single Man” (sheer perfection). We elaborate on the most minute details, like the correctness of the swizzle sticks on the bar in Julianne Moore’s home. Then we move on to Tom Fords shop on Madison Avenue, which I joke “that there is so much ultra suede I half expect Halston to descend the stair case with his lorgnette“. We scrutinize every retailer in SoHo, the Flatiron District, Madison and Fifth Avenue. We lament the changes at Barneys, and wonder what our dear Simon Doonan thinks of it all. Rest assured, some day the fur shall fly! We talk about the shows at the Met, Cooper Hewitt, MoMA and the German Expressionist exhibit at the Neue Galerie. We debate the “Japan Now” exhibit at FIT’s Fashion Museum. We dissect the new J. Crew Store, Gucci, Urban Outfitters, Uniqulo, H & M, Zara and run through our lists of what we hated and loved, despise and adore. We both were awe struck with the Bill Cunningham documentary “New York”. And as well as we thought we knew him our admiration has only deepened. We talk at length about the new generation gap, between them and us. Now, as a gentleman I would never divulge a woman age, but I can tell you I’m fifty-four and Denise is a good deal younger than I. (For emphasis…a good deal!) Still, we operate in a world increasing managed by people that think that Roberto Cavalli is couture. The mind reels. We talk about art and costume direction in films, like Red Riding Hood, which is beautiful to look at, but appallingly scripted. Other tangential topic include Tim Burton, Richard Serra, The Berg Fashion Library, GANT, Felisimo, our favorite shows on HBO, Fendi, WWD, technology and infuriating office politics. Mind you I have not had my second cup of English breakfast tea yet.

 

Like so many of us, the economy has not been kind. We have dedicated ourselves to our craft and devoted ourselves to our employers. We have institutional knowledge and understand the shorthand of our superiors. Still, we are not immune. Talent carries us far, but not always far enough. The sword of Damocles still falls as corporate environments reduce staffs. We have seen businesses “restructure”, and we are called in to the Directors office and apologized to as we are escorted to the door. Such has been Ms. Foley recent series of events. I had mine a few years ago. The Bible says that “to everything there is a season”. If jobs are like seasons, then Denise’s spring is soon turning to summer. Ms. Foley is looking forward to life’s great journey. What is on the next page of the book of her life is not yet written. Perhaps you will fill it in.

 

I can elaborate what is on the prior pages of the book of her life. Ms Foley held three of the most prestigious positions in Visual Merchandising in New York City. She was Director of Interiors, RTW, Bergdorf Goodman. She was the Senior Visual Manager at Bloomingdale's, and the Fashion Manager/Window Display Lord & Taylor. This is the Triple Crown of our industry. If Ms. Foley did nothing else, you would be well served. That being said, Denise has an expertise in curatorial skills; sourcing and exhibiting art in collaboration with galleries and artists, she has a formidable talent for mannequin presentation; which is tempered with an extensive knowledge of fashion history and trends, and bonus, she has an intrinsic understanding of merchandise presentation with a focus on branding and identity. If you are a museum developing your fashion collection, an art gallery in need of someone with a flawless eye, a luxury brand in need of a mercurial person to ensure corporate branding or a mainstream retailer eager to strengthen your team and develop your business visually, the hand of God as directed you to this site to give you the message, “Listen to me. Here is the answer to your prayers”.

If you have had the pleasure to step into Bergdorf Goodman’s you have seen Denise Foley’s work. Like gossamer, her work is here and there, rising like the aroma of the fine fragrances that magically waft up from the lower lever of the store. It is a well chosen chair, a lithograph that makes you smile, hugging the wall beside the elevator bay, an unexpected grouping of mannequins waiting for you like a surprise, or a teal colored Murano glass vase on a niche above a designers hang bar. It is so perfectly balanced, and harmonizes so flawlessly that you couldn’t possible imagine anything else being there. Ms. Foley like all gifted Visual Merchandisers is a storyteller. She knows how to pull together props, decoratives, fixtures and furniture to compliment the designers collection, to articulate the clothing like it were a fairy tale with a happy ending.

 

Ms. Foley is a graduate of Fashion Institute of Technology AS, Display & Exhibit Design and graduated Magna Cum Laude, She studied at the Paris Fashion Institute receiving her Certificate, in Fashion Merchandising, and studied at Fisher College AS, Business Administration graduating Cum Laude; minor in Fashion Merchandising.

Is it just me extolling her virtues, gracious no….

“Denise is one of the most passionate and creative people I know. Her knowledge of fashion both current and past, attention to detail and follow through ensure that she always does a fabulous job with every task, large or small, sent her way. As a director and manager, she is firm but fair and always gets the best results possible from her staff. I would not hesitate to include Denise in any creative endeavor.” Michael Dominick, Assistant Building Manager, the Metropolitan Museum of Art

“I have worked directly for Denise at two different companies (Bergdorf Goodman and Bloomingdale's). She is a strong leader and always inspired me to do better. Denise helped me achieve my recent career goals and build my creative talents. Denise has a spectacular eye for perfection that would bring any stores standards to a higher level. She would be an asset to any organization.” Sarah Martinez, Visual Manager 5F, Bergdorf Goodman

“Denise Foley is a highly motivated professional with enormous creative talent who possesses an in depth knowledge of retail. Denise's high standards would elevate any company she works for“. Douglas Yuen, Vice President of Sales, Adel Rootstein Display Mannequins USA

Recognition from our industry does not easily fall, Denise is the recipient of the 2005 Support Award for Outstanding Achievement, Bloomingdale's, the 2004 Quarterly Recognition Award, Bloomingdale’s, and the very hard to come by 2002 Red Rose Achievement Award, Lord & Taylor which she was also twice blessed  with in 1996.

You can contact her directly at…

E-mail: dcf_fly@yahoo.com
Website: www.denise-foley.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/denise-foley/14/1ba/3a
Twitter: displayartist 

Denise, like me aspired as a young person to come to New York City, to take part of the fashion, art and design world. Goethe once said, “At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you“. Denise is committed to her craft, so undoubtedly the universe will assist her.

Retail Is Spinach

In 1938, Elizabeth Hawes wrote Fashion Is Spinach which was one of the first, if not the first books taking a critical look at American fashion and what is wrong with it. Her thesis was that America was emerging as a fashion capitol rivaling France and Italy, but that fashion was in general dismissed by Americans because it was associated with women (a marginalized group) the Garment District with its immigrant trades people, (a marginalized group) and that fashion was mass-produced like cars and canned spinach. Ms. Hawes was a genius.

Guess how far we’ve come in the past seventy three years? Not very far. Fashion is still spinach. Let’s play little game, name ten great American designers, not brands, actual people who design. If there is a celebrity on your list cross them off. Not so easy, is it?

Well it’s not just fashion, retail is spinach too. Sameness is killing the American retailer; it’s becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between brands. Does Macy's look that much different from JC Penny, does JC Penny look that much different from Target? Does Target look than much different from Wal-Mart. It’s a red and white world, with large oversize graphics, headless white mannequins, and fixturing straight out of Retail 101. Visually, it’s just one big can of soupy spinach. Granted, spinach is good for you, but a little does go a long way.

The economy has altered our needs and expectations more than retails might suspect. Why should I go into my local department store for a pair of shoes when I can get one at Payless. Why should I shop at Bloomingdale's for this year’s Lanvin or Jimmy Choo when I can get a knock off at H & M or Forever 21. The store experience is virtually the same. Low-end discounters are looking just about as good as the moderate priced monoliths.

Even luxury is a huge yawn. In a recent experiment I cut out advertising from Chanel, D & G, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Gucci, and several other luxury retailers. I cut out all their logo’s and asked students to identify the different brands, with rare exception the ads looked almost identical. It’s a dark slick campaign, men with greased back hair, women with pale skin and ruby red lips, all in a state of undress, and just preparing for some sort of sexual conquest. Yikes! When Chanel looks like MAC Cosmetics, I’m outta here!

Fashion and retail is static, and has been static for years. Good gracious. What we’re wearing today is practically what we were wearing ten years ago, maybe fifteen. Remember when designers and retailers did something different every season? Why do we all get so excited about technology, and having the latest phone, latest ap or latest IPad, because it’s changing. If two thousand people will line up outside Apple's door for forty-eight hours to get the newest IPad, maybe Apple should start designing what we wear. And maybe their designers and architects should be heading over to the local strip mall to create more magical spaces!

Courtesy of www.retaildesigndiva.com where it appeared on April 7, 2011

Fashion By The Numbers

 

Back in the 1950’s there was a kind of craze for a new leisure activity called “Paint By Numbers”. Paint By Numbers was the hula hoop of the upwardly mobile. Its appeal was that it was cleverly marketed that every suburbanite could be a Rembrandt. One needn’t be an artist to indulge in artistic expression. Anyone could acquire taste, because it could be purchased as cheaply as jigsaw puzzle, or frozen TV dinner. Although many critics saw Paint By Numbers as a symbol of the mindless conformity gripping 1950’s America. Paint By Numbers had a peculiarly American virtue, it was democratic, and it invited people who had never before held a paintbrush to enter a world of art and creativity.

 Fine art at a fraction of the price…

 

 

Paint By Numbers was a simple process where great works of art were reduced to outlines (including shadows) and each outline would be given a number that corresponded to a small container of paint. It was a simplistic view of art. You could paint a replica of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, bucolic deer’s at a salt lick in the snow, or Washington Crossing the Delaware. You could paint the Last Supper with as few as twelve small jars of paint. If your taste ran less highbrow, you could whip out a sad clown by Emmett Kelly, ballerina’s on Pointe or a basset hound. There was something for everyone, something for every kind of décor. It didn’t matter if your home was early American or post-modern. President Eisenhower loved paint by numbers, and hung his masterpieces in the White House. Regardless of your level of taste, paint by numbers fall’s under the moniker of “kitch”. Kitch meaning something so mundane and trivial it could be found on a kitchen shelf, like novelty salt & pepper shakers.

I had several paint by number kits. I had a colonial drum and American bald eagle on plywood that came with stain to “antique” it, and I had Picasso’s The Card Players on black velveteen. (Note to readers, Picasso never painted on velveteen). I loved paint by numbers, because as a rebellious youth, I covertly painted with the wrong colors.

 Contrary to what was happening at the time, where contemporary art was mad splashes of color, whether your name was Pollock or Lichtenstein, Paint By Numbers was safe, modest and exemplified restraint.

While once beloved, Paint By numbers soon was dismissed as pedestrian, middle class, and juvenile. Paint By Numbers were viewed akin to outsider or found art, a kind of curiosity. What once hung over the mantle, buffet and bed stands with pride, now found their way to Good Will, garage sales, flea markets and the Salvation Army. An era of ridicule followed the lionized paint by numbers phenomenon. Then about thirty years later, like phoenix, Paint By Numbers rose again in prominence. The Smithsonian held a paint by number exhibit. Collectors like painter, Andy Warhol and designer, Todd Oldham collected them. Paint By Numbers reemerged as a desirable form of art.

 “When I am served tripe, I shall call it tripe!” Walter Kerr

Today’s fashion industry is altogether, and too often a fashion by numbers world. It too is reductive, simplistic and mass marketed to the public. 

Today’s color palate is as broad a spectrum as the colors in a Rembrandt Paint By Number set. Its uniformly sedate , dark and neutral. 

Fashion refuses to evolve, change, or respond to the culture. It is as out of place as a Paint By Numbers Whistlers Mother over your mantelpiece. Look at what you are wearing. Could you have worn it a year ago, five years? Ten years? Fifteen years? Probably, and you wouldn’t have looked out of place. Contrast this to any other period in history. Can you imagine how out of place someone in 1930 would have looked in 1945. How out of place someone in 1945 would have looked in 1960 or someone in 1960 would have looked in 1975. You get the jist. 

On the internet are scores of wonderful sites where you can create fashion by the numbers. It’s as cleverly marketed as paint by numbers. It’s a world where everyone can be a designer simply by clicking and dragging. Just pick this style sleeve from the drop down box, this waist line, this neckline, that skirt length and build your own look. One might be knived into thinking that’s how designers do it. Once the look is created there is a drop down box of materials and colors to choose from. Again the color palate is  limited to about twelve relatively safe choices, just enough so that you can paint the Sistine Chapel in Paint By Numbers.

Couture at discount…

Lest you think that designers are immune, the Red Carpet , the showrooms, salon shows and trunk and tent shows are also fashion by the numbers (granted, there are notable exceptions) If I were to lay out images from almost any designers recent shows say there 2010, 2005, 2000, 1999 and 1990 collections it might be a daunting task to identify each collection correctly, let alone place them in chronological order. Hair styles have changed with greater frequency.

That would not be true if I showed you Pierre Cardin’s, Yves Saint Laurent or Givenchy’s 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975 and 1980 collections. In fact, I’m quite certain that you would ace that exam.

A digit by any other number would add up as well…

 

Access to the global market has not created diversity. It has created a dumbed down culture of sameness. A stamped out template where uniforms pretending to be fashion is cobbled together, where fashion is marketed and packaged so that the consumer can digest it like fast food, quick, satisfying, and cheap.

No longer are collections known as The New Look or the Bohemian look. A product code has replaced a collection name. It is sold in small, medium and, God forbid large. It is vanity sized or standard only, standard meaning up to size 12 then it disappears like the horizon did when Columbus sailed the seas. Designers refuse to cut anything larger as it requires too much fabric and reduces their profit margin. Designers refuse to live in the world which we inhabit where the average female starts at a size 14. Clothing is sold in lots and grosses. It is shipped in container ships from overseas in twelve containers per freighter like barrels of oil. It’s a numbers game from beginning to end.

Gone are romance, style, passion and inspiration. They have been replaced by new values, cost, quantity and value. Its fashion by the numbers.