"Weekend Reading" is a weekly rundown of our favorite stories from around the web.

STYLIST TO MIDDLE EAST ROYAL FAMILIES REVEALS HOW TO SPEND MILLIONS AT PARIS FASHION WEEK
"Nicole Pollard's clients don't do the red carpet. And fashion shows? 'They find them boring,' says the Los Angeles-based personal stylist from the backseat of a Mercedes gliding through Paris after the March 3 Dior show at Musee Rodin. The fashion shows are 'worth every second — but honestly, they're a total shit show, and my clients are used to elegant lifestyles.' Pollard's discreet client roster of billionaires and multimillionaires includes more than 100 'heads of state, royal families, studio heads and business people' on every continent, with a large contingent from the Middle East — but no Hollywood stars. These are fashion consumers who buy (not borrow), think nothing of dropping $1 million on clothing per season or purchasing every single runway look from a designer show."

via: The Hollywood Reporter

This Artist Is Calvin Klein’s Latest Muse
"Blue-chip art adorns many suave Manhattan addresses these days: Jeff Koons’s 'Balloon Rabbit (Red)' at 51 Astor Place, James Turrell’s glowing 'Light Box' at 505 Fifth Avenue, Yayoi Kusama’s giant bronze pumpkin at the Sky building on West 42nd Street. But few have taken it to the extreme that Sterling Ruby, one of the most dazzling contemporary artists to emerge out of Los Angeles in recent years, has done at the Calvin Klein headquarters at 205 West 39th Street."

via: The New York Times

Fake It 'Til You Make It: Meet Gucci Ghost
"Multi-disciplinary artist Trevor 'Trouble' Andrew, also known as Gucci Ghost, is chatting to i-D on FaceTime, resplendent in a red Chanel sweater. We point out that he's not quite on brand, and he laughs, 'Oh shit, I didn't even think!' He swivels his laptop cam around the studio to reveal the energetic chaos surrounding him; it's a mountain of canvases, clothing, and ephemera. Everything you'd expect from an artist who seems to be perpetually embedded in a purple patch of creativity. Joking about the artwork encroaching around him, Trevor explains, 'A lot of stuff has piled up because I'm a hoarder, there are televisions and records and artwork. My wife came over this week with our three-year-old son, and they hadn't been here for a while, and it was a sensory overload for him. He was like woah!'"

via: i-D

How United Arrows Became Huge in Japan (And Ready for Global Expansion)
"Last year, United Arrows, the Japanese conglomerate of rarefied fashion boutiques, opened its 256th store, in Roppongi Hills. The new flagship occupies two sprawling floors of a massive development in one of Tokyo's most upscale districts. The 54-story tower and surrounding mega-complex are home to an art museum, a nine-screen cinema, a five-star hotel, and apartments that can be rented for about $23,000 a month. It is United Arrows' largest store ever, and while it's a fraction of the size of a Barneys or a Bloomingdale's, it rivals any retailer in the world, big or small, at stimulating the fashion and design zones of your cerebral cortex."

via: GQ Style

Inside the Cult of Nike, the Reigning Champion of March Madness
"Lots of surreal flower arrangements are dotted around the Blue Ribbon Studio in the heart of Nike’s global headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. They were made by the Nike designers who had attended an ikebana class there a few days before."

via: W Magazine

Little impact, lots of prestige: A look at the role of fashion critics today
"Cathy Horyn panned Maria Grazia Chiuri’s fall 2017 show for Dior, noting that her 'designs didn’t pull weight' and that she effectively 'took the air out of' the house’s famous Bar jacket. She wrote that she had a 'beef with Chiuri' — though it had vague foundations, having something to do with a lack of surprise in Chiuri’s designs."

via: Digiday

Raf Simons on Calvin Klein, His Latest Textiles Collection, and the Difference Between Fashion and Design
"Today, textile company Kvadrat unveils its latest collection with Raf Simons. This is the first such line Simons has created for the brand since his debut at Calvin Klein, but it is far from the pair’s first collaboration. Simons, whose background is in industrial design, started working with the Danish manufacturer in 2014, after being approached by the company’s CEO, Anders Byriel."

via: Vogue

Riccardo Tisci on life as party-crashing club kid
"Riccardo Tisci was just 17 when he left his native Italy for London, arriving in the capital at the start of the riotous decade that was to be the 1990s. The designer – who recently exited Givenchy after 12 years transforming the French house with his gothic, street, and sportswear sensibility – soon fell in with a crowd who took him under their wing, introducing him to the city’s dancefloors and the rebellious communities who spent all night on them. It was in the clubs that the young Tisci forged his style, thriving off the freedom the city afforded to express himself through clothing. He created outfits with clothes found in charity shops, mixing fur or 50s tuxedo shirts with sportswear – wearing everything with trainers."

via: Dazed Digital

THE WORLD OF NICOLAS
"The city was a painting in oils the day I visited Nicolas Ghesquière. It was cold outside, but the blue sky was made for Paris, the perfect ground for those iconic buildings, all that history and all that romance. Paris is the sublime essence of a dream we want to believe in, that living is a beautiful art, and all the way to the horizon the rooftops and spires convey a hunger for something wonderful. On the right bank, steps from the Pont Neuf, on the second floor of a grand building by Rue de Rivoli, scented candles were burning in the many-roomed ateliers of Louis Vuitton. When I arrived people were hard at work on a dress Michelle Williams might be wearing to the Oscars. Set on a mannequin, the full classical gown, surrounded by drawings, pins, and samples of velour and tulle, appeared to embody the ideal marriage of hope and promise. Another Oscars dress, intended for Alicia Vikander, was going all the way to South Africa for the fitting (the actress was there filming the new Tomb Raider). In every room, the candles burned, the threads looped—a golden moment takes many hours."

via: Harper's Bazaar

Gucci Gone Meme: The Luxury House Throws us a Curveball
"It's kind of a well-known fact that the fashion world, particularly the luxury goods industry, has been slow to adopt technology. And then it moved at a snail's pace to get on social media. It's been a challenging process for these prestigious maisons to finally understand that embracing these nouveau channels was to their benefit."

via: Dash Hudson

Tags: weekend-reading