Weekend Reading: June 16, 2017
- Words Grailed Team
- Date June 16, 2017
"Weekend Reading" is a weekly rundown of our favorite stories from around the web.
The LVMH Prize: Why It Matters
"When the inevitable Karl Lagerfeld biopic is made, its narrative will peak first in 1954 — the year his extraordinary life in fashion really began. Lagerfeld, then only 21, was awarded a prize by the International Wool Secretariat for his extraordinary coat designs. The same year, a teenager by the name of Yves Saint Laurent took home the dresses category. Lagerfeld was hired as an assistant to Pierre Balmain — who sat on the prize’s jury — while Saint Laurent found work at the House of Dior. The rest is history."
via: Vogue
Why Burberry’s Gosha Rubchinskiy Collab is Totally Hypocritical
"It’s been a good couple of years for Gosha Rubchinskiy. Recent seasons have seen him embed himself in the mainstream, where his profile seems to grow exponentially with every passing six-month cycle. I’m sure Gosha’s success can be bluntly measured in the ever-so banal terms of sales and revenue, but the clearest indicator of his upward trajectory came last Friday with the unveiling of his latest collab, which just happens to be with a certain British fashion house called Burberry."
via: Highsnobiety
Energy Crisis: Behind-The-Scenes with Stefano Pilati
"For 032c’s Issue 32, Stefano Pilati, former head of design at Yves Saint Laurent and Zegna, teamed up with photographer Lukas Wassmann for the 18-page editorial “Energy Crisis.” Together, they created the most personal of stories. The models were cast from Pilati’s inner circle, looks were selected from his personal wardrobe, and Michael Sailstorfer’s “Hitzfrei” at König Galerie — located in the same St. Agnes church compound as 032c Workshop — assumed the role of the set’s backdrop. A true family affair."
via: 032c
Should Fashion Legacies Be Controlled?
"Pierre Bergé, speaking from a wheelchair in Paris this week, explained every last detail of his project to keep the Yves Saint Laurent legacy alive. Two museums, in Marrakesh and Paris, will open in October 2017, with Bergé, 86, controlling the heritage of his late business partner – the designer who changed the face of fashion in the second half of the 20th century. In his familiar pugnacious style, Bergé laid out the plans to display what he believes the YSL history stands for – his mission since Saint Laurent withdrew from ready-to-wear fashion in the new millennium and died in 2008, aged 71."
via: Vogue Arabia
Bring Back the Burberry Check
"If menswear’s man of the moment is enthralled with Burberry check, maybe it’s time for the company to head back to the future. Gosha Rubchinskiy, a designer who also works with Adidas AG, recently sent models clad head-to-toe in the pattern down the catwalk for a one-off collaboration"
via: Bloomberg
Menswear Star Grace Wales Bonner: 'I had some pressure to prove my blackness'
"There are not many designers who I interview and leave with a reading list. But Grace Wales Bonner’s company is unapologetically highbrow. Thanks to her, I have now read James Baldwin’s 1956 novella Giovanni’s Room and want to read Gary Fisher’s notebooks, published after he died of Aids in 1994 at the age of 32. That’s the book propped up on her bedside table. Rest assured, Fisher isn’t there for any opportune shelfie purposes. Fashion is a world in which a veneer of cleverness – wearing glasses with non-prescription lenses, for example – is often mistaken for actual intelligence. But 26-year-old Wales Bonner is the real thing: book-smart, almost academic, in her thinking."
via: The Guardian
Virgil Abloh Projects Politics Into His Florence Fashion Show
"Nicolas Bourriaud said it first. Or maybe not first, but his argument on contemporary cultural practice, in the 2002 essay “Postproduction,” was definitive. As part of it, the French critic and curator argued that the dominant cultural figure of our era was the D.J. This was two years before Danger Mouse mashed up the Beatles and Jay Z to create “The Grey Album,” released the same year a young graduate student from Chicago was germinating ideas of his own about mixing up all kinds of cultural stuff."
via: The New York Times
From Louis Vuitton to Rag & Bone, Fashion Brands Are Finding More Analogue Ways to Stand out from the Digital Crowd
"For Michael Burke, the charismatic chairman and chief executive of Louis Vuitton, the super-digitalised world lacks two vital ingredients: smell and touch. Speaking at the Seoul preview of Louis Vuitton’s “Volez, Voguez, Voyagez” exhibition, which highlights the house’s heritage in travel and trunk-making, Burke explains how these senses play an important role in connecting with consumers who may have become jaded by a constant digital assault."
If Trump Won’t Fight Climate Change, Clothing Brands Will
"When President Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate agreement last week and sent us careening toward a global environmental calamity—or as we called it, “a climate change-induced hellfire”—a historic collection of parties came together in response. Officially named We Are Still In (potentially stepping on the toes of whatever committee is keeping bomber jackets cool for the millionth straight year), the pledge has been signed by 1,370 businesses and investors (along with 9 states, 275 colleges and universities, and 178 cities and counties), and the list is still growing. The states represent a Trump-sized-double-scoop $6.2 trillion of the GDP while the businesses’ collective revenue totals $1.7 trillion. Warby Parker’s co-founder and co-CEO Neil Blumenthal tells me that he pledged to We Are Still In to show that no matter what the current administration does, he wants to show the U.S. is committed to fighting climate change. It’s a promise Blumenthal hopes will assuage other nations who might consider joining the U.S. in ditching the agreement."
via: GQ
Anita Pallenberg Changed How We All Dress, Not Just Keith Richards
"In the days since the news that Anita Pallenberg, the German-Italian actress and quintessential rock chick, had died at 75, much has been written about her contribution to music history — most notably her effect on the Rolling Stones. For three band members, she was something of a lifestyle catalyst (also, at least for two, a lover)."
via: The New York Times