Shhhhh. Listen closely to the sweet-meets-serious Guy Baxter fall collection. It might be a little tough to make out at first, but listen closely and you can pick up on the din of old Moscow, the wives of wartime, and designer Turya Nations's infatuation with the eensy details that always make the hugest difference (nice football buttons).
There was a lot to see on our stroll downtown with Geren Ford designer Geren Lockhart, the man in head-to-toe red and black down to his choice of forty, the strangely enticing dollar Zenchiladas (editor's note: no part of that description is a typo). But by far the most fascinating was Lockart's take on fall: a mix of strong lines, ethereal silks, and colors to make heads turn in a good way.
DC: Tell the story of your latest collection in six words.
GL: Long day. Long night. One dress.
DC: How'd you approach the season?
GL: While spring is really whimsical and less serious, fall turned out to really be about bringing back the craft with texture, embroidery, or screening on silk. It's still chic, easy, luxurious, and totally wearable, just a little more special.
DC: What's the new silhouette?
GL: Volume. It's not the babydoll anymore, and it's not truly tailored, either. The dresses are cut with the seams closer together in the front to create volume in the back like that amazing high fashion rounded shape -- but good for day-to-day life.
DC: What's the key to Geren Ford dressing?
GL: You don't need to wear much more than one accessory. There are details like scarves, sheer panels, or grosgrain ribbon suspenders and exaggerated fold-over, pleated, or ruffley collars. You can just throw it on and go.
DC: Photos? Movies? Music? Books?
GL: Old Edward Weston photos. Ruth Asawa scupltures. Sotheby's art catalogues. Famous jewels from Christie's auction books. Architecture everywhere -- especially buildings Henry J. Hardenbergh, Marcel Breuer, and Jean Nouvel.
With his head in the ancient mills of the Scottish Highlands, and his feet in the strange forests of Los Angeles, Boy Band of Outsider's Scott Sternberg showed New York a menswear-inspired women's fall collection that moved away from the '70s suburban childhood buttondowns he's known for and into the nostalgic beauty of pre-war romance.
DC: Tell the story of your fall collecgtion in six words.
SS: Scotland breeds fine tartans, bad food.
DC: Where do you take in the nature of Los Angeles?
SS: My favorite hikes will remain a secret, but I've been enjoying Franklin Canyon and Malibu State Park lately.
DC: If the collection had a theme song, what would it be?
SS: The Gulag Orkestar, by Beirut.
DC: What should we watch right now?
SS: Godard's Masculin Feminin, Lord of the Rings, and 9 to 5, which has shown up on my TiVo somehow and I've been watching it on an obsessive loop.
Off we pedal. Designer Jesse Kamm leads the tour in a shorts-and-top outfit of her own design, on a freshly painted white cruiser, trailed by one platform-wedge-wearing writer on a tiny BMX.
She stops to point out a fry oil barrel in a restaurant alleyway. ("This is a good one!") She's already siphoned it for her biodiesel Benz.
She immediately rattles of the benefits of her ecoautomobile. Ease and thriftiness are at the top (hipness not mentioned). Lovecraft Biofuels converted her car in one day (for $750). She hasn't paid for gas in eighteen months. Label it socially conscious living, but it's just how she rolls: cognizant, thrifty, aware, and enthusiastic about spreading the news.
The easy-breezy Kamm is willing to let her creative impulses take her anywhere -- from sculpture to safari dresses to Bocas del Toro, the Caribbean of Panama, where she and her husband and a bunch of friends are building solar homes with composting toilets and surf breaks in the front yard (feel envious here) -- and is comfortable with the idea of her clothing design days being finite.
But are we?
Five things Jesse Kamm digs these days:
We've been head over high heels for LD Tuttle since the summer of 2005. Keeping up with designer Tiffany Tuttle is no easy "feet," but we managed to chat it up and snag a few snaps of her new spring collection and what's in store for fall.
DC: Tell the story of your new collection in six words.
TT: Always better when dirty. (Only four!)
DC: What parts of the foot do you try to like to draw attention to?
TT: I really do think feet are beautiful (years of dancing, I guess), and although I think the most beautiful part of the foot is the very top of the arch, I think that sometimes what is not visible is sexy and intriguing, too. My shoes are very much about what is covered up and what is exposed, and it is those small glimpses of skin that are stimulating and beautiful. For fall, I did a sandal bootie called the Titania, where the soft, unlined leather can be pulled up to cover the foot or scrunched down and opened up to expose the arch depending on how the wearer feels at the time.
DC: Seems like everyone is covering up their arches. What's the deal? Can this style make your leg look stumpy?
TT: I think this is really part of a general movement toward heavier shoes. The arch is frequently covered up to give the shoes a tougher and more utilitarian feel. I think that it really depends on each individual shoe as to whether it makes your leg look stumpy. I look at all of my shoes on someone's foot a lot so that I know that it is not hitting in some awkward spot.
DC: Who do you wish you could make shoes for?
TT: I would love to make shoes for Sylvie Guillem and Wendy Whelan, two of my favorite ballerinas.
DC: Where do you look for inspiration?
TT: Fall/winter '08 is inspired by Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, a series of photographs that she did in the late 1970s of herself that are about metamorphosis and have an uncanny stillness that is breathtaking. I also frequently look to fiction for concepts and moods. Proust is a continuing inspiration -- I love the mood evoked by his obsessions, fetishes, and melancholy beauty.
DC: What shoes would you never be caught dead in?
TT: Crocs. I really just don't get them, although my husband/partner loves them!
We e-mailed with designer Michelle Nguyen of adorable label Quail to get some fashionable predictions from the girl behind the serger.
DC: Describe the personality of your newest collection, Hemingway style (in six words).
MN: Charming, refined, clever, affordable, robust, nostalgic.
DC: What piece of clothing best describes Quail's style?
MN: The Quail Minnie skirt was named after Minnie Mouse. It has a thick waistband to accentuate the waist, a volumous skirt to make legs look lean and long even when you're 5'4, and pockets for an unexpected casualness. I wear mine all the time with chunky heels or delicate little flats.
DC: Favorites?
MN: The Blossom dress is just so effortlessly fantastic!
DC: What will girls be wearing this summer?
MN: Hopefully our High Bow shorts that we did for spring, over a really awesomely bright colored one-piece swimsuit and nude-colored fringed leather sandals. With an afternoon margarita in hand. In Mexico.
DC: What will we see in shopping bags this fall?
MN: Prim and proper frocks that show off more of a natural waistline; our tweed Warehouse pant and Eat Cake tee. Blouses and skirts with intricate prints on top of rich, saturated colors; beaded tops and dresses -- very late-'80s inspired. Oh, and our Frenchie dress in violet and tweed!
DC: Fashion Week pit stop?
MN: Find a couple of really amazing estate sales -- the classier version of Goodwill adventures.
L.A. designer Katy Rodriguez sent models in her fall '08 dresses prowling down the catwalk at photographer Mark Seliger's New York studio back on February 1, but we caught up with her at her studio above her vintage boutique Resurrection on Melrose.
DC: Describe your new collection, Hemingway style (in six words or less):
KR: Bird for sale -- heard of paradise.
DC: Word on the street is you're a YouTube fanatic, so what should we tune in to?
KR: Thierry Mugler.
DC: If there were any songs that captured the attitude of the new clothes, what might they be?
KR: We used the Amanda Lear version of "I Am a Photograph" for the runway show. There's a fantastic video for the song with Amanda on YouTube. Check it out!
