Visionaries

We Heart Altuzarra Spring 2013

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Joseph Altuzarra makes me weak in the knees. He makes seriously beautiful clothing that’s polished, sumptuous, free-spirited, grounded. His clothing takes me places, and his Spring 2013 Ready To Wear Collection is no exception. It takes me to East Africa (a place that lives large in my heart), and to India (a place that looms large in my imagination) and to any business or social event I could ever need to go to, save, perchance, The Academy Awards and, okay, any other black tie event.

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Illesteva Is
The Illest Shade Maker
Of All Time

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Stop the madness. 2012 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund nominees Illesteva (the name is a take on the hip-hop expression “Illest evuh”) has brought so much modern, eco-tech, cutting edge cred to the project of making a pair of shades that I can hardly breathe. It’s sunglass as statement piece, and they lends their wearer an instant “creative tribe “kind of street cred that has me worshipping once again at the house that creativity built.

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And The Crown Goes To:
The Elder Statesman

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Last night, the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund crown went to Greg Chait’s The Elder Statesman. A wonderful article about the brand appeared in Vogue last November. Read the don’t miss article (and see the don’t miss pictures) here. What I love about The Elder Statesman is how it seems to have evolved organically (and continues to evolve organically) out of who Greg is and what interests him. It’s a lifestyle brand rather than “merely” a clothing brand. To give you a sense of what I mean, I leave you with this quote from the November 2011 Vogue piece, which I think says it all:

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You Should Know About:
Street Etiquette

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I may be late to the dance. But better late than never, as the people do say. Yesterday, just yesterday, I discovered Street Etiquette, the glorious feast of a style/lifestyle blog, founded by Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs in 2008, when they were both just 20 years old. Drawing from a robust and varied array of sartorial influences — everything from afro-dandyism to punk to urban to mod to prep and beyond — Kissi and Gumbs are publishing what their website aptly calls “a truly unique vision of fashionable menswear,” and are well on their way to building a lifestyle brand about the places where style, travel, music and more meet.

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Matthew Williamson’s Magic Kaleidoscope Life

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British fashion designer Matthew Williamson is the king of color, and sultan of an exuberant, bohemian-inflected glamour of his own invention, that is now such an essential part of the modern style lexicon that we imagine it was always thus.

I’ve long been a fan of Williamson’s designs and enamored of his Indian swami looks — which must have rubbed off whilst the Englishman was traveling through. They suit him in every way for the magic kaleidoscope life he leads. It is a singular life, and a Technicolor example of what it looks like when all the pieces of you line up.

Williamson, who once said, “My design philosophy is to make women feel like peacocks,” found his visual native tongue in his travels to India and Bali. Those influences are still evident in his work, which drips with vibrant color, pattern and embellishment. Williamson knows how to work a frock. Slip one on and you are transported, back to the dress-up box, and the fairytale magic that found you there.

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