Hint Fashion Magazine -- Shop Tart

Great minds think pink alike. Citing "rose-colored glasses" as the inspiration for her high-camp, Pink Panther-themed Homme Plus men's collection for Comme des Garçons, Rei Kawakubo teamed up with Graham Cutler and Tony Gross—the eccentric London duo who launched their now fanatically-followed Cutler and Gross eyeglass label thirty years ago—to create sunglasses in the bubblegum color that's blowing up this spring. The three options of cheery, blush-hued lenses framed by clear PVC plastic, which mark Kawakubo's first foray into shades-making, bear an intentional resemblance to the big-rimmed, corrective nerd glasses that put Cutler & Gross on the map, but avoid saucer-sized Elton John territory. Even the reticent Kawakubo goes giddy when asked about the collaboration, saying "Cutler and Gross are the greatest designers of glasses. Tony Gross invented sunglasses as a fashion item! He is the best at what he does." Available at CDG stores worldwide, London's Dover Street Market and in New York at IF, 94 Grand St., 212-334-4964.

Speaking of Comme des Garçons, when we first reported on the eccentric L.A. artist-designer Brett Westfall almost two years ago, his dark sensibility had just come to light in an outdoor installation show at the Mameg shop in which models' faces were covered with eerie, burlap-like fabric. It wasn't long before a call came from CDG and, within two weeks, a collaboration was formed. Westfall has been selling his handcrafted joint venture with Rei Kawakubo ever since, in only two Tokyo stores: Comme's 10 Corso Como and Isetan. Today, his own men's and women's line, Unholy Matrimony, relies just as much on painstakingly hand-dyed and -painted pieces (yes, with a paintbrush) that he calls "functioning fine art." With no formal training in fashion design, and apparently little interest in it, Westfall says, "I believe art and science barely have a line that separates them. For example, out of a love of plants and the earth, I bury artwork under my garden to show that the earth is, in fact, very much alive." Available at Mameg, 11925 Montana Avenue, Los Angeles, 310-826-4142.

Since participating in the Hyeres festival years ago, Charles Anastase has seen his mind-scrambling drawings hit the fashion world like a tab of acid, adding color and shape to alterna-titles and a Calvin Klein campaign alike. Naturally, this lead to the creation of a eponymous fashion line in 2002, which he's been presenting during the couture shows and, as of his spring 05 collection, ready-to-wear. His style is outrageous and often dark, a cross between the outsized proportions of Alice in Wonderland—a reference articulated with actual teacups sewn into sleeves—and the cautionary gore of Grimm's Fairy Tales. But his time-traveling hopscotch through eras Edwardian to Elizabethan also touches down in more modern times with silk cargo pockets, off-the-shoulder tops and hippie colors. In Paris at Maria Luisa, +33 (0) 1 47 03 96 15.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Study fashion at Parsons The New School for Design in NYC

The possibility of an Ambien-recovering traveler dozing through Baggage Claim and schlepping off with your suitcase—you know, the black one that looks like every other bag on the conveyor belt—is now banished. The husband-and-wife designers behind the cultish London label Eley Kishimoto have retrieved the "flash" print from their archives and applied it to the elite fare from Globe-Trotter, the luxury luggage maker carried by the likes of Winston Churchill and Princess Di. Each traditionally handmade piece, with its vulcanized fiber board and leather hardware, ensures durability so that a ding or two is all the damage you'll ever see—maybe not, given the insanely chaotic print. Available in all sizes, from small vanity cases (who're you calling small?) to hunky trunks, the bespoke bags range in price from $525 to $1900. In London at the Eley Kishimoto store, +44 (0) 20 7357 0037, and Selfridges.

page 1 2

Read previous store news in Shoptart Archives

Register for Hint's weekly email newsletter ("a little Hint"), including Shoptart updates

<< Home