Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld Kicks Off Fashion Week, With a Little Help from Mom

It’s not quite Fashion Week, but that didn’t stop a bevy of fashion’s bold-faced names from gathering last night for the opening of the latest curation of Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld. Set in a massive, raw West Side space, the pop-up exhibition, Ouattara Watts: Vertigo, features new works by the Ivory Coast-born, New York-based artist—oversized canvases with thick expressionistic brushstrokes, graffiti-style scribbles and mixed-media collages.

Among the first guests to set off flashbulbs was the author Salman Rushdie, followed by the slightly more congruous Diane von Furstenberg. Next up, Carine Roitfeld, who wowed the crowd in spring Prada hot-rod pumps and a fluttering flapper-style Marc Jacobs skirt. Also from the gallerist’s home team were his glowingly expecting sister Julia Restoin-Roitfeld with boyfriend Robert Konjic, as well as his girlfriend Giovanna Battaglia, in a Christopher Kane Resort dress.

Throughout the night, the space surged with familiar faces—Waris Ahluwalia, Johan Lindeberg, Rachel Roy—and It-girls—Shala Monroque, Jen Brill—plus, straight outta the early aughts, Nicky Hilton and Stavros Niarchos. By 8:30, the scenesters and hangers-on (art? there was art?) appeared, making it past the army of iPad-wielding doorgirls and spilling the packed party into the streets. Another success for the youngest member of the Roitfeld clan.

• Posted Feb 08, 2012
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Madonna Wore...

Wardrobe malfunctions weren't even the remotest possibility when Madonna took the half-time stage last night at the Super Bowl. Not when she was dressed by Riccardo Tisci in head-to-toe Givenchy Haute Couture, starting with a cape hand-embroidered with gold metal pieces, studs, crystals, sequins and paillettes, followed by a black gladiator-style mini-dress with a leopard print short cape, and ending with a black silk coat embroidered with black sequins and micro pearls. (The over-the-knee boots, with heels personalized with the letter "M" framed by two gold metal crowns, are custom Miu Miu.)

Says Tisci: “Following my collaboration with Madonna on her last tour three years ago, it is a great honor for me to be a part of yet another historical and iconic moment. People say everything has a limit, but limits do not exist with Madonna.” Check out his exclusive sketches...

• Posted Feb 07, 2012
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Hint Tip: Cindy Sherman at MoMA

You'd think, given her obsessive self-involvement and makeovers, that Cindy Sherman would be more into fashion. But no, she sticks to her artistic roots, while the rest of us label her a muse and icon. On the rare occasion that she enters into a collaboration with the fashion world—Balenciaga, MAC, Marc Jacobs, Comme des Garçons—she'll usually make a farce of it. 

An upcoming retrospective at MoMA (opening February 26) will hopefully shed light on this and other paradoxical relationships. Bringing together more than 170 self-portraits, the exhibit traces Sherman's career from the mid-1970s to the present. Key works include her early film series that took aim at the portrayal of women in cinema; her old-master series, in which she poses as aristocrats, clergymen, and milkmaids a la Vermeer; and her more recent society portraits that poke fun at how the wealthy handle aging (hint: not well).

• Posted Feb 02, 2012
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Hint Tip: Juergen Teller at Lehmann Maupin

Lincoln Center and Milk Studios aren't the only places fashion's finest will be popping up this Fashion Week. A few illustrious faces are taking up residence on the Lower East Side with the opening of Juergen Teller's exhibit at Lehmann Maupin Gallery on February 10.

Teller—the impish photographer perhaps best-known for his quirky, blown-out portraits of models and celebs for Marc Jacobs' ad campaigns—will take over the gallery’s LES branch (201 Chrystie Street) with an exhibition divided into three parts. The first features photographs of model Kristen McMenamy from the duo’s controversial photo shoot for 032C magazine, in which the ghostly blonde vamps around an Italian villa in S&M gear and various found props. Some have called it pornographic. We wouldn't go that far, but we will tell you this: there will be nip.

The other two sections offer something a little tamer, and a personal counterpoint to the artist’s fashion photography. Keys to the House is the very essence of domesticity, images of Teller’s friends and family from around his British country home, while Men and Women offers a study in the ages of man. These range from the youthful vigor of the artist’s cherubic son, Ed, to the 72-year-old photographic pioneer William Eggleston, plus portraits of Dame Vivienne Westwood as a contrasting icon of feminine power.

• Posted Jan 31, 2012
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Cate Blanchett Wore...

a spring 2012 gold metallic pleated silk dress by Alexander McQueen to the AACTA Awards in Sydney, Australia.

• Posted Jan 31, 2012
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Zoe Saldana Wore...

a spring 2012 Givenchy couture silk organza dress embroidered with crystals and paillettes, creating a three-dimensional flower at the low waistline, and a silk jersey tank top to the SAG Awards tonight.

• Posted Jan 29, 2012
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Just the Pics, Please: Prada's 24h Museum

Those who stayed in Paris through the men's shows, then stuck around through the couture collections, deserved a treat. And a treat they got with 24h Museum, a Prada-sponsored pop-up exhibit conceived by artist Francesco Vezzoli.

As promised in the title, the exhibit at the iconic Palais d’Iéna lasted exactly one day, beginning with light sculptures of pop divas in renaissance poses, followed by a private dinner, and ending—as everything good eventually does—with a disco. This was, however, no ordinary disco. And the DJ was no ordinary DJ, but—surprise!—Kate Moss, who cheerfully spun Madonna, Donna Summer, Grace Jones and other, well, pop divas.

• Posted Jan 26, 2012
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No One Parties Like Riccardo Tisci

After the Givenchy men's show, word on the street was, literally: "Where's the party?" The answer, ironically: Silencio. Which made for a door scene so chaotic that David Lynch himself had to come out and hold court, handpicking those worthy of entering his opulent nightclub-cum-Garden-of-Eden.

Inside was chaos, too, but of the good kind. Making sure of it were hosts Ladyfag, Catherine Baba, Seva Granik, Josh Wood, Jerome Puch, while making sure heels were perpetually in the air were DJs Honey Dijon and Marcelo Burlon. But the highlight of the evening had to be Riccardo Tisci dancing the night away by the DJ booth and beaming like he'd staged a triumphant fashion show or something.

• Posted Jan 24, 2012
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Just the Pics, Please: Madonna's W.E. Premiere

In case you were wondering what Madonna would wear to the US premiere of W.E., wonder no more. She went big—as with her directorial debut—in a lacy, ruffled black Marchesa gown (it's a Weinstein film, remember). With shoulders out to here and a train back to there, it's a lot of dress—but then, she's not the Material Girl for nothing. She also wore it to the after-party at the Standard's Boom Boom Room, where Courtney Love's nipple made a surprise—not really—appearance. (Photos by Patrick McMullan)

• Posted Jan 24, 2012
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Hint Tip: Prada's 24 h Museum

Few labels have cultivated as artsy an edge as Prada. The Italian brand, forever restless, continues its tradition of backing unconventional art projects with 24 h Museum, conceived by Francesco Vezzoli. The Milan-based artist is, of course, better-known for his pornographic remake of I, Caligula for the 2005 Venice Biennale, and for orchestrating a LACMA gala where Lady Gaga performed on a Damien Hirst-embellished piano.

Starting January 24, and for exactly 24 hours, Vezzoli will transform Paris’s iconic Palais d’Iéna into a surreal installation based on three types of museums: historic, contemporary and forgotten. Part art museum, part red-carpet event, the living exhibition celebrates—in cohoots with Rem Koolhaas’s think tank AMO—the "eternal allure of femininity" through Vezzoli’s interpretation of classical sculpture as contemporary divas. Think Beyoncé meets Bernini, or Madonna meets Michelangelo. If it sounds kitschy, it is, in the artistic sense of the word.

Just before midnight, the space will transform into a disco, where real-life goddesses will mingle with Vezzoli’s creations. And if you can’t make it to the Palais d’Iéna, don’t worry. You can still be a part of the online exhibition by submitting your own Vezzoli-fied photo via Facebook. Or peek in when the invite-only nightclub is live-streamed on the site.

• Posted Jan 22, 2012
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