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

An Oral History of Susan Cianciolo’s Run Collections—And of a Long Lost 1990s New York
"Susan Cianciolo, a soft-spoken but subversive figure on New York City’s 1990s creative scene, designed 11 Run collections between 1995 and 2001. Her practice, which involved sewing circles, was unique and collaborative. 'Susan’s work,' says Stella Ishii, who represented her then, 'was important because it didn’t necessarily follow any garment-making norms. She marched to her own beat, which was somewhere between garment making and fine art and performance art.'"

via: Vogue

Inside the Factory Producing Silk for Fashion Royalty
"Sudbury-based Gainsborough Silks was founded in 1903 by Reginald Warner, 60 miles outside of the English county of Suffolk, where the factory remains to this day. Named after the Romantic-era painter Thomas Gainsborough, Warner hailed from a design background and his father Metford Warner established Jeffrey and Co., the first major manufacturers of wallpaper for the arts and crafts movement, who hand-blocked the intricate botanical designs adorning the houses of William Morris aficionados until 1926."

via: AnOther

48 Hours With Donatella Versace
"Outside Versace’s headquarters on Via Gesu in Milan on a Thursday in June, two days before the label’s spring/summer 2018 men’s wear show, a beefy handler walks Donatella Versace’s Jack Russell Terrier, Audrey, out the door. Through the entrance, the other side of a plate-glass door, a sunny courtyard is littered with a clutch of green wrought-iron tables and chairs — a bit like Versace is throwing a summer barbecue in her backyard. It’s actually the set-up for that forthcoming runway show."

via: The New York Times

VETEMEMES founder creates new label, Boolenciaga
"Remember tongue-in-cheek copycat brand VETEMEMES? Well its founder, 23-year-old Brooklynite Davil Tran, is launching a new label: Boolenciaga. The Architecture & Planning graduate and self-proclaimed Grailed 'God' found viral fame with VETEMEMES, a play on Demna Gvasalia’s Vetements, by releasing a raincoat similar to one sold by the high fashion house at a fraction of the cost. 'I wanted to start Boolenciaga because Vetements decided to do less oversized meme clothing, so it was only a matter of time,' Tran says via email. 'I will continue (VETEMEMES) as long as I can. I absolutely love Demna and everything he does."

via: DazedDigital

Justin O’Shea Talks SSS World Corp, Metal Minimalism & Twisting Streetwear with Tailoring
"After parting ways with luxury brand Brioni after just one season last year, Justin O’Shea announced he will launch his own menswear brand, and now the time has come for SSS World Corp to debut its first collection in Paris to a tightly-edited circle of industry insiders and friends. In a Highnsnobiety exclusive, we tapped 032c’s Thom Bettridge to sit down with O’Shea to talk about the process and production behind his first feat, his new-found aesthetic direction, blending the codes of streetwear with tailoring as well as his carefully honed vision for the future."

via: Highsnobiety

How do NBA shoe deals work?
"Sneakers matter in the NBA. Sporting apparel companies have their fingerprints all over the league fans know and love, and virtually every player has some type of allegiance to one of these companies. Sneakers are part of the dream for these players. They grew up idolizing the previous stars that had their own symbols. Think Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant — all athletes with signature brands, logos, and sneakers to go with their extraordinary talent."

via: SBNation

Exclusive: Inside Shanghai's Hermès Club
"Thirty hours to go until the Hermès Club opens in Shanghai, and Bali Barret is padding through the chaos of the construction site. A diminutive woman with a leonine walk, she is dressed in the unofficial Hermès employee uniform: khaki shirt, cropped white jeans, thong sandals, multiple Collier de Chien studded bracelets, (polka dot) silk scarf. She appears remarkably calm, though insists: “Inside I am not relaxed.” She has reason to fret: tomorrow night, 1,000 members of the Chinese elite are due downtown, and the Club is nowhere near complete."

via: Vogue

Inside The Costly Fashion Faux Pas That Was Ill-Fated Style.com
"Anna Wintour’s reputation at Vogue is as much built on her immaculately coiffed helmet of hair as it is for rarely taking a wrong step in her long career editing the fashion bible’s lucrative US edition. But last week that carefully polished reputation was ruffled when one of the most ambitious projects she had overseen fell flat."

via: Telegraph

In Defense of Fashion as a True Art Form
"Alexander McQueen’s 2011 Savage Beauty show galvanized and highlighted the often forgotten conception of fashion as legitimate art. McQueen was an artist and an icon in every sense of the word. His works touched parts of the human soul only previously reached by master painters. He integrated spirit and energy in his creations in such a way that the persons wearing his pieces became living expressions of art."

via: Observer

Heron Preston Talks the Meaning of Streetwear, Dapper Dan and his Been Trill Days
"Fashion’s new favorite polymath, Heron Preston, has enjoyed an unlikely rise. He’s managed to merge, twist and swipe between distinct creative practices with the track-pad conviction that only comes with being a multi-hyphenate millennial. Preston has worked at Nike, assisted Kanye, co-founded Been Trill with Virgil Abloh and Matthew Williams, become a firm nightlife fixture in downtown NYC, exhibited work at galleries around the world, dropped his own bootleg NASCAR T-shirts and perhaps most notably, he was a artist-in-residence at NYC’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY)."

via: Highsnobiety

Tags: weekend-reading