Weekend Reading: January 19, 2018
- Words Grailed Team
- Date January 19, 2018
"Weekend Reading" is a weekly rundown of our favorite stories from around the web.
Is there a story worth scoping out that we missed? Discuss this past week's headlines, and share your favorite stories from the week that was in our comments section below.
At Helmut Lang, Mark Howard Thomas Presents Debut Collection as New Menswear Head
"The transformation of Helmut Lang continues. Shortly after Alix Browne was named as its new editor in residence, replacing Isabella Burley, designer Mark Howard Thomas presented his first menswear lineup for the storied (and now quite exploratory) label. He joined just over two months ago as creative director of menswear. Prior, in receding order, he worked for Joseph, Givenchy, and Neil Barrett."
via: Vogue
A Final Ovation for Kim Jones at Louis Vuitton
"It’s the day before Louis Vuitton’s men’s Autumn/Winter 2018 show and its Artistic Director of Men’s Collections, Kim Jones, has just announced his departure. Tomorrow’s show will be his last for the house. We’re at Louis Vuitton’s headquarters on Pont Neuf, Paris and the studio is in the flurries of show preparation, while Jones is being inundated with flowers and visitors wishing to congratulate him on his tenure. Understandably, he’s feeling emotional."
via: AnOther Man
Why Raf Simons Loves Designing $30 Underwear
"Raf Simons, a Belgian with no real experience of the American heartland, landed on these shores just over a year ago. His mission could not have been bigger: to take Calvin Klein, a disjointed $8.4 billion-a-year empire of underwear, jeans, ready-to-wear fashion and perfume, and give it backbone, much-needed cohesion and the forward thrust to hit $10 billion in sales. Simons was given complete control over the creative console of this industrial machine—the first time it’s had a single operator since Calvin Klein himself, who sold the company to current owner PVH Corp. in 2003."
Gianni Versace 'Assassination': What is the Truth Behind the Story of the Italian Fashion Designer's Murder?
"On the morning of July 15 1997 the fashion designer Gianni Versace took a short walk from his oceanfront mansion to a nearby News Café. He spent $15 on five magazines and strolled back to his $35 million mansion at 1116 Ocean Drive, South Miami Beach. At about 8.45am, as Versace opened the mansion gates, two shots rang out. The designer fell dying onto the steps leading to his house, shot at close range in the head and neck."
via: The Independent
Are You Ready to (Dress Like You) Rock?
"On a slightly scuzzy strip of Sunset Boulevard, past the faded rock ’n’ roll memorabilia and oddly psychedelic trappings of a kitschy Thai restaurant (Quentin Tarantino’s favorite), out the back and down the stairs, is a one-room studio. 'This is where I started, by myself,' said Mike Amiri. 'One table, one chair.' Mr. Amiri is the founder and designer of Amiri, which is perhaps the most popular men’s luxury brand you’ve never heard of. Mr. Amiri doesn’t give many interviews, and he hasn’t yet been made a cult obsession by most hypebeasts, the street-wear devotees that constellate the men’s wear-discussing corners of the internet."
via: The New York Times
Balenciaga for The Mini-Set
"Balenciaga’s spring 2018 menswear show imagined what the label’s “corporate male,” the muse for the fall 2017 collection, would wear on the weekends while hanging out with his children. And to emphasize his inspiration, artistic director Demna Gvasalia even had some of his models walk the runway with their own kids, who wore equally cool Balenciaga styles made just for the mini set. The pieces—oversize logo hoodies, slogan tees, sweats and shorts in sizes 2 to 10, and the Speed sneaker—marked the debut of the brand’s kids’ line, taking the term “daddy and me” to a whole new level."
Gosha Rubchinskiy on PACCBET’s New Carhartt WIP collab
"Gosha Rubchinskiy and PACCBET co-founder (and pro-skater) Tolia Titaev have hijacked a Carhartt WIP collection, reinterpreting and reimagining 12 of the label’s classic garments. Rubchinskiy is no stranger to the art of collaboration – having worked with the likes of Fila, Kappa, Levi’s and Burberry over the course of the last few years."
via: Dazed Digital
The Story Behind Prada’s Most Iconic Prints
"There are few designers that can reference their own archives deftly and do so without it looking like they’ve run out of ideas. Once Miuccia Prada honed in on her obsession with the practical yet pliable “pocone” nylon, which revolutionized the luxury goods world back in 1984, it became the central anchor to Prada’s latest menswear collection; repurposing, recontextualizing and ultimately, refreshing her well versed design language for a new generation. In particular, a whole host of archive Prada prints were resurrected in new hybrid compositions. We break down the origins of these revived prints that made it into this glorious redux that felt like a soothing tonic for these uncertain times."
via: i-D
Why the Fashion Industry Can’t Stop Making Offensive Mistakes
"By now most of you have probably heard about H&M’s latest scandal. The fallout for H&M seems to have been quick and has resulted in the termination of at least two celebrity partnerships. A commensurate apology and deletion of the offending image by the Swedish retailer followed soon after. The level of outcry or outrage following a moment like this is oftentimes examined more thoroughly than the systems and environments that result in what can very easily and justifiably be seen as a racist image used to sell children’s clothing. How often are moments like these described as 'gaffes' and the subsequent excoriations on various social media platforms of the offenders simply repeated as coverage?"
via: Highsnobiety
Pierre Cardin’s Bizarre Back-Catalogue of Licensing
"Many designers indicate their wish to craft a universe, but few achieve it as truly as Pierre Cardin, the now-nonagenarian pillar of Parisian fashion. Cardin is better known as a name than as a man, and a name largely divorced of links to specific fashion movements, silhouettes or garments. Although he built his reputation in the 1960s pioneering avant-garde styles that cemented the sci-fi look of the Space Race era, the words “Pierre Cardin” are almost an abstract now, known to much of the world not from the labels of clothing, but the packaging and sloganeering of a wild litany of products best grouped under ‘miscellaneous.’"
via: AnOther