GIF: Edun, Diane von Furstenberg, Opening Ceremony, s/s 2015 - IMAXTREE
Last night, Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, the designers behind the label Opening Ceremony, showed their collection as a one-act play at the Metropolitan Opera. It was called 100% Lost Cotton, featured a stellar cast (that included Elle Fanning, Dree Hemingway, Christine Keener, Rashida Jones, Bobby Cannavale and John Cameron Mitchell – even Karlie Kloss made a star turn) and was directed by Spike Jonze, who wrote the script with Jonah Hill. It said as much about the designers’ connections as it did about the industry and their love-hate relationship with it.
While the fashion audience laughed along in the beginning – and there were some very funny scenes – it took a rather unexpected turn as the self-mocking became more acute: the badly treated model, the designer having a hysterical meltdown the night before his show, the alcoholic stylist falling in love with the designer’s husband… It felt less like a satirical comedy about the fashion industry and more like a telling off, given the audience to which it played, who, after all, had only come to see their clothes. (And Spike Jonze.) We were invited onto the stage at the end to inspect the designers’ collection up close. And very nice it was too, but hardly the point of the whole experience.
Image: DVF, Edun, DKNY, s/s 2015 - IMAXTREE
Before all that came Edun, the fashion label that promotes trade in Africa, founded by Ali Hewson and Bono and part-owned by the LVMH group. Last year, Danielle Sherman took the creative reins and has since reconfigured the label’s aesthetic and vastly improved it. Sherman, who previously worked at The Row (which she co-founded with her childhood mates Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) and then as head of design for T by Alexander Wang, is developing the brand in a way that will sit happily on a shop rail alongside the aforementioned labels. With a mostly monochrome palette and a long, slim silhouette, sliced into lean lightweight layers, she conveyed a sense of graceful ease.
It was certainly a palette cleanser after ’s show – predictably, a joyful celebration of colour, lively print and women in general, not least the designer herself. She took us to the Côte d’Azur, opening with Lily Donaldson in a black and white – you guessed it – wrap dress! Only this time, in coquettish sheer gingham, revealing cheeky knickers beneath. Meanwhile, Naomi Campbell closed the show in a splashy print chiffon babydoll dress. Everything in between was on-brand – that’s sexy, glamorous and fun for the uninitiated. Somewhere in the middle of the show, a pair of jeans appeared that were so right for now – deep indigo, pulling in the waist and with just the right amount of 1970s attitude and flare, it made you wish there had been more. They were branded on the butt with DVF, in gold, naturally.
It was also the day that Donna Karan – the other First Lady of New York fashion – showed her line. As ever, it was New York evangelism on steroids, with a film featuring New Yorkers telling us why it was the best city in the world, followed by a street casting that mixed models with ‘real’ beautiful girls. It was great, actually. A dynamic mix of street and chic: Ragga girl meets sports-tech, hiphop meets bold ethnic pattern, via big, easy shapes with a bold attitude. As Karan put it: ‘Multicolored, multicultural, multitasking.’
