Power Dressing

Power Dressing. The New York Times. By Cathy Horyn. 05.09.08.
excerpted text:

"To an extent all superheroes, like some of the most flamboyant creatures in fashion, are playing a role inadvertently thrust on them by circumstance, their true identities and physical shortcomings concealed. What separates the nerdish Bruce Banner, who morphs into the Incredible Hulk, from the mousy Luisa Annan, who as the outlandish Marchesa Casati aspired to look like a wild animal and for one Belle Époque-era ball wore a necklace of live, writhing snakes? The answer is nothing. They each make their claim on the world by becoming Another. The ideas that dominate fashion — identity, performance, gender, body shapes, sexuality, logos and the quest for state-of-the-art materials — pretty well describe the world of the superhero." (Cathy Horyn)


Super Heroes - Fashion and Fantasy

Cathy Horyn

Photographs by fashionartedit

Cathy Horyn. By Ezra Petronio. Self Service. S/S 08.

excerpted quotes:

"It's a story about Rei Kawakubo, and I'm trying to write about why she's still relevant today, whether she is still influential or not. She's been very influential in the past, but it;s extremely hard for people to be influential in fashion now. Times change, people move on and try different things, but she's still - obviously important, and relevant, but what makes her influential? Why do we go to her shows? I'm asking that question." (Cathy Horyn)

"I worry about that all the time. Sometimes it completely bores me. But I love thinking about a collection in intellectual, or emotional or artistic terms when the designer has made that extra effort." (Cathy Horyn)

"It's unfair. Life is unfair, and it will be difficult for Hussein Chalayan, because he is extremely talented and he is driven as an artist. He is also at that place where some of the new stuff that he does for the second line is so good, but I don't think he really wants to believe that it's as good as it is. He wants to go with the technological-progressive pursuit, which is great too! But you may have to decide to fish or cut bait, as we say in America. Or look at Raf Simons. I mean, there's a guy who went for a long time with very little attention. He didn't seek the attention, but he also really didn't get the attention, bot in a big sense". (Cathy Horyn)

"Yes, and it was such a small world that he was talking to, and he created a very small business from that. But when he went to Jil Sander and the majority of the women's editors are now seeing him for the very first time. The reason I brought him up in the context of Hussein is that he's probably, for a variety of reasons, in abetter position to influence what's going on now, and to have stuff seen by people, than Hussein is. And it;s not to say anything against Hussein, because I think that the guy is brilliant. But its partly what the times allow, and it's partly what the values are. The values are so different today. We're in a celebrity moment." (Cathy Horyn)

Hussein Chalayan S/S 2007. 

Raf Simons S/S 2006. 

When is Fashion Ad Not a Fashion Ad? / Cathy Horyn

"When is a Fashion Ad Not a Fashion Ad?". Cathy Horyn. The New York Times. 04.10.08. 

excerpted quotes and text:

"I told her (Victoria Beckham) 'you're the most photographed woman in the world,'" Mr. Teller recalled. "And fashion nowadays is all about product - bags and shoes - and you're kind of a product yourself aren't you" (Juergen Teller)

"People are always going to talk about what Marc does" (Victoria Beckham)

"If fashion shows are a way for a designer to think out loud, collaborations with a photographer can help spin those disparate ideas into a story. Both Ralp Lauren and Calvin Klein owe a debt to the visionary eye of Bruce Weber, who is really a storyteller. Gianni Versace frequently paid homage to Richard Avedon, whose pictures lent imaginative energy to Versace's designs. And it seems doubtful that women would have felt quite the same about Yves Saint Laurent's pantsuit if helmut Newton had not made them the object of sex and mystery." (Cathy Horyn)

"An astonoshing array of people have appeared in the ads (Marc Jacocs), generally doing nothing in the Seinfeldian sense - lying in the grass, kicking up their heels, teasing a squirrel. The group has included Sofia Coppola, Dakota Fanning, the photographer William Eggleston and Winona Ryder who pitched herself for an ad shortly after her shoplifting trial. Even Mr. Teller has put in an appearance, in make-up and wigs with Cindy Sherman and boldly naked with Charlotte Rampling." (Cathy Horyn)

"I tried to make sense of what the hell she was going to do with a handbag, right? It had to come out of a real story". (Juergen Teller)

"Juergen is very funny as a provocateur, but I think he's dead serious as an artist" (Jefferson Hack)

"That is what they have attempted to do with Ms. Beckham, whose 

participation forces a different question than the banality 'Is she beautiful'". (Dennis Freedman)