In Memoriam: Vidal Sassoon

If style is the process of liberating women from the constraints of codes—dress, beauty, and otherwise—then Vidal Sassoon is the Marianne of hair, his scissors the guillotine. Today, the English-born hairstylist, perhaps the greatest who ever lived, died from leukemia in his Los Angeles home. He was 84.

Sassoon's unorthodox ideas freed women from their stiff helmets of lacquered hair and mountains of rollers. With his geometric Bob, among hundreds of innovative cuts, he transformed hairdressing into an art. His cutting-edge vision accompanied Mary Quant's mini-skirts, Rudi Gernreich's topless swimsuits, and many other icons of contemporary fashion. His wash-and-wear hairstyles paralleled the rise of ready-to-wear, releasing women from piled-high bouffants and weekly salon appointments, while the short boy-cut he gave Mia Farrow in 1967—an instant hit when she wore onscreen in Rosemary's Baby—caused an outright scandal.

Sassoon was scheduled to attend the Met Gala earlier this week, but canceled due to fatigue. He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Ronnie, and his children from previous marriages.

• Posted May 10, 2012
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Mood Board: Baron Magazine

Inspiring us right now: Baron magazine, a new erotic paperback that can fit into one's back pocket and "be read with one hand." The debut issue features contributions from artists, photographers and filmmakers with a unique perspective on the topic of art and/or sex: Bruce LaBruce, Qui Yang, Blommers/Schumm, Pinar Yolacan, Adrian Wilson, and Aaron McElroy, among many others. Consider it porn on the go. Now, there's just one problem with men ogling porn in public.

• Posted May 10, 2012
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Something Different: 52Aces

Here's a novel way of getting your hands on artwork. 52Aces is a limited-edition deck of cards in which the 52 tiny canvases (plus two jokers) were created by artists and illustrators from all over the world in their distinctive style. Some look like a regular playing card, others look tarot-y, while still others look like they belong in a gallery. 

• Posted May 10, 2012
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Tom Ford Gets Personal

The capacity crowd at the 92nd Street Y last night filled the balconies and even spilled into a simulcast viewing area as Fern Mallis took the stage and dubbed the room the “hottest place in town.” Only Woody Allen had ever commanded such a crowd in the organization’s 138-year history. The occasion? A chat between industry powerhouse Mallis and designer Tom Ford.

Those who were able to score tickets—which sold out almost four months before the event—got a candid look at the enigmatic designer, who recently made his return to women’s wear after stepping away from the industry he helped globalize at the turn of the last century. Ford, looking as youthful as he did when he took his last bow on a Gucci runway, took it all the way back to Texas, reminiscing about his stylish—and six-times married—grandmother and not exactly fitting in as a child. As a 5-year-old, Ford recalled, he wanted to be 50, and now that he’s there, he’s the most “confident and happy that I’ve ever been in my life. I feel very much myself.”

Laughing about his failed attempt at being a movie star (the highlight of his TV career was a Prell commercial), gushing about meeting the “love of his life” (Richard Buckley), opening up about the midlife crisis that clouded his departure from Gucci, and revealing that the first Tom Ford women’s show was a secretive affair because he was afraid of failure, the famously flirty Ford thoroughly seduced the crowd. But not without revealing the exacting side of his personality by stopping mid-sentence to demand a camera move from his sight line.

Above all, Ford was surprisingly modest about his myriad accomplishments, even when talking about this time at Gucci. “You never make it, especially in an industry where you have to constantly churn, constantly making stuff,” he told the crowd. “In the last year I’ve had a comeback, I was finished, and I came back again.”

He proved, too, that he’s got a sense of humor, teasing Mallis thoughout the night, like when she asked him about getting older. “It's like a roast to her. I'm gay and I'm aging. I'm freaking out. Have I gained weight, too?”

The talk lasted well over its allotted time, but the audience seemed willing to stay all night. We asked Mallis why. “Tom is just...he’s hot. He’s skilled as a seducer and people just have this thing about Tom Ford. Donna and Tommy and Norma, they all were big full houses, but the energy for Tom was quite extraordinary,” she said of other popular installments of the Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis series. “I mean, he’s accomplished a great deal and he’s not that accessible. He’s not here, he doesn’t live in New York. We don’t see him in the papers every day at parties and events. You don’t see him being interviewed all the time.”

• Posted May 09, 2012
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Something Different: Marni Foulard

Marni designer Consuelo Castiglioni has enlisted the L.A.-based illustrator Brian Rea (formerly the art director of the New York Times' Op-Ed section) to contribute his naif-style vision to her new Foulard collection. Incorporated in Marni's men's and women's collections for fall, his simple yet scribbled, clean yet child-like, innocuous yet ironic drawings adorn cotton tops and tees, leather pieces accessories, and PVC tote bags. Because who isn't a kid at heart? (Pre-order here)

• Posted May 08, 2012
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Pete Doherty Peddles Amy Winehouse's Blood

How much would you pay for this painting? What if we told you it was made from fairy dust, unicorn tears, and Amy Winehouse's blood? Only one of those is true, obvs, if you believe the artist, Pete Doherty. The mercurial musician says he created the work, a portrait of his band The Libertines, with the help of his young son and the late singer, who contributed the small self-portrait on the lower right corner where it says Ladylike (also the title) out of her own blood. Again, according to Doherty.

The piece is expected to command £80,000 when it's auctioned off later this week at Cob Gallery in London, along with stage outfits, acoustic guitars, diaries, a writing desk, and other items from Doherty's dubious adventures. Wait, no mixed-media collage of various Kate Moss byproducts?

• Posted May 08, 2012
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Sponsored: UNIQLO WAKE UP

It's important to start your day right, since those first few moments set the tone for everything that follows. The UNIQLO WAKE UP app matches an alarm clock with cute music and the current weather, spoken to you in friendly English or Mandarin. For example, you might hear “Good morning. It's 6:10 AM on Sunday. Today is a sunny day” to one of seven original tunes by Japanese composers Cornelius or Yoko Kanno. Plus, if you're not too groggy, you can share your wake-up details with friends through Facebook, Twitter, RenRen or Weibo. Snooze button not included, so don't even think about it.

Visit UNIQLO WAKE UP

• Posted May 07, 2012
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Andre J Is Still Smiling

Andre J, the bearded, beaming androgyne who appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris with Carolyn Murphy in 2007 (courtesy of Carine Roitfeld), has something new to smile about. Launching May 10, What's In Your Bag?! is a series of webisodes in which the genderless glamazon approaches random people on the streets of New York, asks (demands?) to see what's in their bag, then makes light of and offers advice about the contents. As Andre J is known for a positive vibe and merry wit, chances are you'll also be grinning from earring to earring.

• Posted May 07, 2012
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Something Different: Bliss Lau for Dream the End

Owning an haute piece of jewelry, like this silver body-chain by the New York designer Bliss Lau, comes with the responsibility of finding an equally sterling place to wear it. With an art-deco starburst motif and black onyx pyramid detail, the wearable work of art is made in a numbered edition of eight for the online magazine Dream the End. And even if you never wear it out, you'll have a velvet-lined mirrored box to keep it safe—occasionally pulling it out to shimmy around the house in.

$1700 at Dream The End, beginning May 14

• Posted May 07, 2012
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Frieze New York, Cool and Collected

It's all about art fairs these days (you can thank Art Basel for that). So it was only a matter of time before the most pioneering of them, Frieze in London, made its way to New York, where the art market—and its collective price tag—continues to scale new heights. We strolled the booths of Frieze New York (May 4-7) and captured on Instagram the works that grabbed our attention...

• Posted May 07, 2012
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