That Vision Thing

Watch This Face

Now Trending: Models

Beach is Better

The Transcendentalists

—By Matthew Schneier. Photographs by Olivia Mason

Look of the Year 2013

RTRC

Be Dazzled

Off-White

Smile for the Camera Phone!

SH Animal Prints

Jonny Downtown

Acne Studios lured L.A.'s fashion set all the way downtown last night for the opening of its new flagship in the landmark Eastern Columbia Building. Friends of the brand, including Cameron Silver and China Chow, had their first look at the new 5,000-square-foot store, its expansive floor plan underlining its surprising location. "Well, I think it's nice. Somebody has to start something," said stylist Anya Ziourova , in town for a shoot, of the store's unlikely address. "It's what happened in New York with Meatpacking—I hope that Acne can start the same trend." Street Peeper photog Phil Oh found Acne's timing just right. "People think of L.A. as having a certain style," he said, "but it's gotten so much cooler in the last five years—more fashion tribes, more diverse crowds. [This store is] just a testament to that."



After perusing the shop's deep rows of denim, footwear, and leather jackets, guests made their way down the street to the new Ace Hotel, in the restored 1927 United Artists Theatre on Broadway. Slated for an early 2014 opening, the Ace provided a dramatic backdrop to the sit-down dinner, with guests such as Miranda July , Scott Sternberg , and Lykke Li filing in through the deco lobby and on to the dining room, ornate in Spanish Gothic detail. Acne Studios' creative director, Jonny Johansson , chatted with the sisters of Haim , while across the room Nasty Gal's Sophia Amoruso shared a tête-à-tête with Vena Cava's Sophie Buhai. There alongside her Mad Men costar Christina Hendricks , Kiernan Shipka explained the appeal of Acne quite simply: "It's honestly just what I like to wear and my style and what I'm comfortable in." As the meal came to a close, performances by Boychild and Baby Alpaca brought the old theater back to life.

—Alexis Brunswick

Dior Homme

Ball Drop 2014!

Kiddie Slope

Hypothesis: Fear makes people more generous. The slopes were particularly icy on Saturday, as VIPs and high rollers from all over the globe gathered in Gstaad for the annual A Small World winter weekend festivities. Arizona Muse , Élodie Bouchez , Thomas Bangalter , Anthony Vaccarello , Kyleigh Kuhn , and Chelsea Leyland were among the far-flung guests who convened at Valentino's favorite Gstaad Palace hotel, and after much skiing and spa-ing, not to mention some intensely picturesque mountaintop fondue, the event culminated in a gala dinner to benefit Plan International, a child-focused organization that works in developing nations worldwide. This year's haul more than doubled that of last year, to the tune of $200,000 or so. Coincidence? There's nothing quite like the fear of being flung headfirst down an Alpen ski run to open the old purse strings…



Or, Hypothesis II: Freida Pinto makes people more generous. The Slumdog Millionaire star flew in all the way from Mumbai to help shake down the ASW crew, as part of her role of ambassador for Plan International. Clad in a sari-style gown by Indian designer Anamika Khanna, Pinto had the crowd wrapped around her finger even before she started talking up Plan's "Because I Am a Girl" campaign. "This will be the best drunk donation you ever made," she joked from the stage. "I promise, you will not have any regrets in the morning." Shortly thereafter, Pinto exhorted pretty much everyone at the dinner to donate $100 apiece, by calling on anyone with that money to spare to stand up. "Do you have $100 to give to the education of girls? Stand if you are willing to share just $100…." Peer pressure, applied with a silky touch. Pretty much everyone stood, and the donation was applied to the hotel bills the following morning. Freida Pinto should be president of everything. And while we're at it, indoor/outdoor Jacuzzis for everyone!

—Maya Singer

Snow Angels

"Everyone just knows that tonight is consistently the most fun party of the year!" event cochair Alexandra Lebenthal announced at the New York Botanical Garden's annual Winter Wonderland Ball on Friday. That seemed to be the sentiment shared by most of the guests who traveled to the Bronx for the party; philanthropy-scene fixtures and fashion folk alike were dressed to the nines. Showing off a diamond ear cuff to some admirers, Sally Perrin said, "I don't have much jewelry, but what I do have is really, really good." Perrin Paris 1893 and Bergdorf Goodman were the evening's sponsors, and the event raises funds for the Garden's Children's Education program. Gillian Miniter, a longtime supporter of the Garden, remarked how difficult it can be to keep up with dressing for so many events. "I had to start shopping from the showrooms, because I've had that happen to me, and it's humiliating." She was referring to two women who, for the "Winter White & Black" theme, wore the same Marc Jacobs Spring 2013 checkered dress. It didn't seem to matter, though, as the evening grew late. The lively dance floor was full until well after midnight. In the center of it all: the two women in matching Marc Jacobs.

—Todd Plummer

Chilled Burgundy

Judd Apatow , Steve Carell , Paul Rudd , Kristen Wiig , Tina Fey —the only star who can attract a crowd like that is Will Ferrell . The funnyman (a.k.a. Ron Burgundy, San Diego's top-rated newsman) and his comedic cohorts all turned out last night for the U.S. premiere of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues at the Upper West Side's Beacon Theatre.



"You know, I did a lot of cooking in my trailer this time, lots of chicken pot pies, lasagnas—that's how I relaxed," Ferrell told Style.com of his time on set. Maybe he had a bit too much fun cooking? Ferrell joked, "My New Year's resolution is to lose 100 pounds, but if I lose 80, I guess I will be happy." And how about having Kanye West in the film? "He was only on set for two days, but he is perhaps the most prolific creative person I have ever been around," Ferrell said of West, who has a cameo appearance in the sequel but didn't show up for the screening. "His mind is always turning. He was on his phone, coordinating a photo shoot. Or scribbling lyrics to a song. It was pretty amazing, actually."



Though Ferrell and his team scored Yeezus and an impressive cast of extras, they didn't land everyone they had hoped for. "We really wanted Meryl Streep, but she would not do it," reported director Adam McKay . "The Dalai Lama really wanted to do it, and he showed up, but we said he just wasn't that funny. We had to have security remove him."

—Kristin Tice Studeman

Year in Beauty

RTRC

Catwalk to Sidewalk

The fashion set braved a cold snap last night to celebrate a new-and-improved Just Cavalli boutique on West Broadway in Soho. The brand's flagship on Fifth Avenue quietly closed its doors a few years ago, but it was for the best, Mr. Cavalli explained to Style.com: "I'm afraid America needed a little more time to appreciate my line. In my store in Milano—oh my God!—they go crazy." Getting away from the uptown retail scene was also a priority for him. "I wanted a store in Soho because it's more young. Uptown you see Prada, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana—they look all the same. If you pass their windows, it's all the same color, all the same dress. But down here you can actually see something new."



In the crowd were Cavalli fans like Heather Graham , who wore a red leather dress, Marjorie "Mad Marj" Gubelmann on the decks, and Bryan Grey Yambao sporting a weather-appropriate Just Cavalli parka. Just as the store was nearing capacity, security cleared a catwalk for a presentation of the Fall 2013 collection, all clashing prints and the label's signature loud, young aesthetic. Freezing temperatures be damned, the runway extended out the door and onto the street.

—Todd Plummer

Cate the Great

The Holiday Swirl

Bruce Weber and Francisco Costa joined Donna Karan at her Urban Zen Center last night for the 18th annual ACRIA dinner, an event that many New Yorkers count as a highlight of the holiday season. This year's festivities were made even more special by the presence of four-time Grammy winner Jessye Norman , who brought the crowd to their feet with her touching speech for the late socialite and philanthropist Judy Peabody. "Boy, I sure wish Jessye Norman was reading my speech," said Darren Star, creator of Sex and the City and Melrose Place, who was honoring former In Style editor in chief, Martha Nelson.



"Never in my history of going to ACRIA events have I seen the room get as silent as they did when Jessye spoke," reported artist Ross Bleckner . But not to worry, the noise levels went up quickly as dessert and more wine arrived at the tables. While some guests went off to check on the status of their Paddle8 auction bids (works by Bleckner, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Ed Ruscha were just some of the gems up for grabs), Karan remained seated with her tablemates Calvin Klein and daughter Gabby Karan DeFelice. "I'm telling you, art has the answer," she said, referring to ACRIA's impressive fundraising efforts to fight AIDS. "Art, AIDS, and answer. I'm creating a new version of AA!"



Uptown, Estée Lauder group president John Demsey turned his walls into a gallery for a colorful installation of Donald Robertson (a.k.a. @DonaldDrawbertson)'s fashion drawings before heading over to Mr. Chow, where MAC Cosmetics celebrated Zac Posen 's Pre-Fall collection and what the designer called his "short, but maybe a little bit long, time in fashion." The beauty giant has been working Posen's backstage for more than a decade. "I've been so happy to be part of his journey from child star to star. He always had a persona that was bigger than the beginning," said Demsey. Despite presenting Pre-Fall just last week, Posen said he began draping Fall on Tuesday and plans to continue through Christmas. "It's actually my quiet, magical elf time. To drape and be in quiet on those few days, I love it. I have my dress form, my fabric, my music, and my muses that come visit me." Many of those muses—Uma Thurman , Crystal Renn , Pat Cleveland , and Dita Von Teese included—were on hand, and all were wearing his gowns, of course. "Everything is made for curves, everything is made for glamour," said Von Teese of Posen's aesthetic as she puffed on a Swarovski Crystal-covered e-cigarette. After tables were shoved aside, Cleveland and her daughter, Anna, started the dance party—disappearing in a dramatic swirl of ruby- and teal-colored fabric as the designer spun them right round.

—Kristin Tice Studeman and Amber Kallor

SH

Animal Magnetism

Holiday Vacation Guide

True Confessions

Glenn O'Brien 's latest creative endeavor, the "post-Christian" book Penance, was the cause célèbre at The Standard Spa's Alldayeveryday Newsstand in Miami on Friday. "I was raised Catholic and was forced to go to confession when I was completely guiltless," explained O'Brien of the origins of the project, "so it always made a big impression on me." The book represents a transcription of the "all-true confessions [that were] told to me [when I received confessions] at the Chelsea Hotel last year. I figured: If they can do it, I can do it; if they can forgive people, I can forgive people." André Balazs, André Saraiva , and Johan Lindeberg stopped by to get a first read—and to confess themselves. "I have some sins to confess from last night," revealed a partygoer who preferred to remain anonymous. "It's been a very naughty week." Art Basel brings that out in people.



Later, Ryan McGinley and the Art Production Fund's Yvonne Force Villareal and Casey Fremont Crowe helped Francisco Costa toast the arrival of his Resort collection for Calvin Klein at The Webster. "It's fantastic for this city," Costa said of the special pieces he designed for the store. "It's light, it's colorful, it's fun, and it has the spirit of Miami itself—the bright reds and blues." Alessandra Ambrosio , Theophilus London , and Desiree Rogers were in the mix, but there was a distinct sense of the week (finally) winding down. Not, however, for a recently arrived Leandra Medine . "Hit it and quit it," she said. "That's my strategy."

—Ashley Simpson and Nick Remsen

All the Rave

RTRC

Shore Things

The Standard Spa and Hotel in Miami Beach has long been an Art Basel pit stop—actually, more like an oasis. Judging by last night's duo of dinners celebrating André Saraiva and Jean Pigozzi 's Artist of the Day poster series and Spike Jonze 's new movie, Her, it's still the see-and-be-seen spot on the weeklong circuit.



Riffing on his Dream Concerts Art Series, an edition of screens featuring fantasy musical lineups, Saraiva tapped Jean Pigozzi to photograph the artists Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, and Takashi Murakami, turned the images into posters, and plastered "thousands" of them around South Beach. "It's a bit like, you know, every day has a saint," Saraiva told Style.com amid a crowd that included Lily Cole and Scout Willis . "But then also, you see these posters when there's a reward out for someone, when you're looking to put them in jail."



Across the deck, Jonze's dinner drew the likes of Ryan McGinley , Jeffrey Deitch , and Scott Campbell . A comedy about a man who falls in love with artificial intelligence (think of Siri, except a million times more communicative and advanced), Her opens on December 18, but earlier in the evening, Warner Bros. and Annapurna Pictures hosted a special screening down the block, on Lincoln Road. "It's crazy how fast you get emotionally involved with the movie," one guest noted.



Meanwhile, at the Soho Beach House, artists, their supporters, and more than a few Valentino Resort 2014-sporting party girls (Harley Viera-Newton and Atlanta de Cadenet Taylor included) gathered to celebrate Artsy's initiative with the CalArts Foundation. "The event was started primarily for our gallery partners, for believing in the long-term potential of Artsy," said founding partner Sebastian Cwilich, as revelers sipped champagne, feet in the sand. "But personally," added cofounder Carter Cleveland, "I'm very excited about the idea of raising money for students to have more resources in college." Even as Artsy grows, Cleveland pointed out, "we're still a start-up; it's seven of us staying in one hotel room—and it's so fun. College is where I started Artsy, so our new initiative with CalArts really brings me back to that."

—Nick Remsen and Ashley Simpson

Hello, London

"London is so full of energy and ideas," Isabel Marant said yesterday at her new Mayfair shop. "I honestly feel, when I go back to Paris, it's like walking into an old country—almost a museum, comparatively. This city is alive, and to get our shop here, well, it's a long, complicated story, but it was three years in the making."



Marant hit London yesterday for a belated opening party—her boutique on Bruton Street (taking pride of place next to Stella McCartney and Matthew Williamson) actually opened in September, but she has been a little busy since, what with that little collaboration at H&M, never mind her own collections. The celebratory dinner, held at the West End's architecturally spectacular Welsh Presbyterian Chapel (formerly the Limelight club and set to rise again soon as a performing-arts venue), was attended by Marant flag bearers such as Natalie Massenet , Jade Jagger , Jacquetta Wheeler , Arizona Muse , Lady Mary Charteris , and Nicholas Kirkwood . Invariably, as guests sat down, conversation turned to everyone's personal sob story of how they couldn't get past the H&M home page last month to buy any of Marant's items, or how much they were willing to pay for the items on eBay. (By the way, the answer is: quite a lot.)



Would Marant consider another partnership? "I have the whole planet calling me for collaboration, but it is not something I am willing to do every day. I am focused now on our new shop, which is opening up in Thailand, and being a bit lazy—but only in my fantasy world, because I never have time to relax."

—Afsun Qureshi

Merrymaking in Miami Beach

Stop one on last night's Art Basel Miami Beach tour: Eddie Borgo 's get-together at The Webster, celebrating the launch of his capsule collection with Laure Heriard Dubreuil. "We were here earlier to set up, and we were selling the pieces as we put them out," said Borgo (modestly, mind you).



A few blocks north, at the Raleigh Hotel, Louis Vuitton's Michael Burke and Craig Robins —the man behind Miami's Design District revitalization—hosted a cocktail party and dinner to fete the late architect and designer Charlotte Perriand's "La maison au bord de l'eau." A little background here: Perriand was a prodigious (though perhaps underrated) tour de force in her field, working closely alongside the famed Le Corbusier and becoming an early champion of modular living. In 1934, she entered a contest to conceptualize an economically feasible and easily maintained beach bungalow, in which she took second place. The result? Prefab-fab, an airy and considered space that some speculated might "go well in Amagansett." Perriand's original rendering for "La maison" had never before been executed. Until now. "I was drawn to her pieces before I became familiar with Charlotte herself," said Michelle Williams . "She approached design from the inside out. When I heard that, I thought it sounded just like acting—living from the inside out."



Earlier, amid the warm glow of The Standard Spa's pool, Spike Jonze and Diana Widmaier Picasso gathered artist and curator pals to toast MoMa PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach . "I'm doing an Instagram movie with Korakrit Arunanondchai , who is a great young artist," said Biesenbach of his Basel plans.



Across town, at the Soho Beach House, Nadja Swarovski celebrated Swarovski's design initiative with Guilherme Torres . "This is now the sixth Crystal Palace installation that we have here with Design Miami," she said. "But this time, we really tried to take it one step forward and connect with our efforts with the environment, with our efforts with water in South America—and we thought it would be fantastic to work with a South American talent."



The night ended at Silencio, a pop-up club in a very well-hidden industrial space in the Design District. Pharrell Williams showed up just before 1 a.m., for a performance with Takashi Murakami . The two danced around the jam-packed, neon-lit space, running though Williams' summer hits with a conga line of furry Murakami giants and dancing party guests (Damien Hirst, Shepard Fairey , and Kenny Scharf included) in tow. "You know we gotta do one more lap!" Williams exclaimed after "Happy," moving into "Blurred Lines" to a now-roaring crowd. If that's not a Basel moment, we don't know what is.

—Nick Remsen and Ashley Simpson

SH

Sartorially Inclined

"Visionaire's done a million parties, but we've actually never done a party where it's quiet!" said Visionaire cofounder James Kaliardos from outside the stained-glass cube where the pub hosted its first Art Basel Miami Beach bash with the National YoungArts Foundation. Last night's event marked the premiere of Matthu Placek 's all-immersive, five-minute, 3-D film, A Portrait of Marina Abramovic. Guests—including Rafael de Cárdenas, Jeremy Kost , and, for a brief moment, Abramovic herself—sipped rum cocktails before entering the massive, completely empty structure lit from the outside in ("So it will look like the sun is coming into it at night," said Cecilia Dean ). Once inside, they watched a clip in which Abramovic emerges from within her new estate in upstate New York, nude and staring directly at the audience. "Marina had this vision, and we pulled it all together," said Kaliardos. "And I did the makeup for the film; she told me, 'You made Botticelli!' "



Down the road a bit, Interview and Porsche Design got together to celebrate a new capsule collection from the French pop artist Thierry Noir . "Thirty years ago, I started to paint the Berlin Wall in Kreuzberg," Noir recalled. "Those characters have become the symbol of freedom: You can see them all over the world—in New York, in Los Angeles, in Yokohama. And now, in Miami." Noir was talking about the now-ubiquitous hearts he scrawled on the Wall so many years ago—and, for Porsche last night, painted on two hundred limited-edition handbags that were strung into a large-scale heart installation. The party also featured a special performance by Zoë Kravitz 's new band, Lolawolf, not to mention quite a few vodka cocktails.



Slightly later, in the Design District, Berluti threw a party of its own. "The brand is about knowing the rules but also changing the rules," said head designer Alessandro Sartori from his seat at the opulent dinner. And bend the rules they did, serving fresh stone crab (bibs included) and some very rich spiced lamb to a crowd that included Kris Van Assche , Daria Strokous , Delfina Delettrez Fendi , and her mother, Silvia Venturini Fendi. The guest of honor? Dutch design wunderkind Maarten Baas , who created four pieces for Berluti's Miami outpost. "They have a more traditional way of working, whereas I have a more avant-garde way," explained Baas of the collaboration. "And I like exactly how those two meet with each other—how I can emphasize the refreshing spark that Berluti has within itself. That's, for me, the challenge."

—Ashley Simpson

Christmas Baubles

Calvin Klein Menswear

Isa Genzken

Dior Encore

A cocktail event at the new Kirna Zabete store in Soho kicked off a busy Monday night of parties. Well, not quite new: Kirna Zabete cofounders Beth Buccini and Sarah Easley had a soft opening with friends and family in July, but they opted to wait for party season to throw a big bash. Said Easley, the arrival of Dior's 2014 Cruise collection was an occasion worth celebrating. Her first job in New York was at the label, translating wholesale documents from English to French. "Even today, Dior is a favorite."



The evening's second stop was DVF 's Meatpacking District boutique, where von Furstenberg toasted her collaboration with Harley Viera-Newton : a bag and headphones inspired by Marmite, the deejay's black-cat-turned-Instagram-style-icon. A bevy of Viera-Newton's friends turned out, but the guest of honor was nowhere in sight. "Marmite couldn't make it. She was being such a diva," Viera-Newton told Style.com. "Believe me, I tried!"



After the DVF get-together, many revelers hopped a block down Washington Street to the Warby Parker store, where the eyewear brand celebrated its own collaboration with stylist Leith Clark .



The capsule collection is Clark's first major project since departing niche title Lula this fall, and the stylist said, "I just started to feel comfortable, and I prefer to feel a little crazy. I like to be challenged, so this sounded great to me." A portion of all sales from the partnership go to Girl Up, a UN campaign building awareness and funds to foster leadership in young women around the world.

—Todd Plummer

True Brits

Kate Moss . She's a woman of many pictures but few words. After her good friend Marc Jacobs gave her an extravagant and heartfelt introduction before she was honored with a special recognition award at the British Fashion Council's ceremony last night, Moss kept it short and sweet: "Thanks to all the people who have booked me over the years. I am really grateful," she said, and then she was off.



That was just one gong throughout a night in which the presenters nearly outshone the presentees with their star power. Gwyneth Paltrow , Donatella Versace , Sienna Miller , Clémence Poésy , Samantha Cameron, and Suki Waterhouse all handed out trophies. On the receiving end were the likes of Christopher Kane , Erdem Moralioglu , Christopher Bailey , J.W. Anderson , Simone Rocha , and Sophia Webster . But perhaps the most poignant moment came when Jefferson Hack introduced special recognition award winner Suzy Menkes with a little-known story of how her career began when she crashed a Karl Lagerfeld for Chloé show and got in the only way she knew how: dressed up as a cleaning lady. When the first model hit the catwalk, Menkes jettisoned her mop and bucket to take a seat, and the rest is fashion history. A humble and articulate Menkes mesmerized the crowd with her tales, then gently scolded the industry for the freebie culture before acknowledging "these are tough times for fashion."



Maybe so, but it certainly didn't seem that way at the bacchanalian party over at the Playboy Club for the mag's 60th-anniversary cover girl, Ms. Moss. Rita Ora , Bob Geldof, Yasmin Le Bon , Harry Styles , and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley , not to mention virtually all of London's designers, turned up to raise a glass to Moss, whose anniversary cover wallpapered the room. Jacobs, who played host, told Style.com: "She is a genuine icon, and I don't throw that word around a lot—believe me. It's not just fashion history where she will be remembered, but history, full stop."

—Afsun Qureshi

Clashing Personalities

Don't Miss the Boat

Mane Man

SH

Christmas Comes to London

Gwyneth Paltrow hosted a dinner party for the Kids Company charity with Matthew Williamson at London's Aqua Shard last night. Gliding among the six tables for a little close-up natter, she told Style.com, "I've been involved in the Kids Company for a while now. It's an incredibly worthy charity—I mean, it's kids after all!"



Founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh , the Kids Company benefits vulnerable inner-city children, and there was a lot of support for the cause in the thirty-first-floor restaurant overlooking all of London. Arizona Muse , Joan Burstein , Caroline Issa , and Williamson's new design director, Danielle Scutt, tucked into a three-course meal and admired the soaring Williamson-curated Christmas tree laden with baubles created by the likes of Sienna Miller, Mary J. Blige, Zaha Hadid, and Paltrow herself. The ornaments will be auctioned off on eBay, beginning December 2, with the proceeds going directly to the charity. "Thanks, all of you, for coming out and supporting us," Batmanghelidjh said during her speech. "And when you leave, please take a bit of our kids' hearts with you."

—Afsun Qureshi

The Long Walk to Oscar

"Three weeks after Nelson Mandela got out [of prison in South Africa], Robert De Niro and I brought him to the Tribeca Film Festival, and we thought he would talk about politics, but instead he said that on Thursday nights at Robben Island, the one thing he did was watch movies," Harvey Weinstein said last night before the Cinema Society's screening of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. "He talked about Eddie Murphy's films, Bob De Niro's films, Oliver Stone's movies, some of my movies—it was the most incredible thing for those of us in the industry, and I have never forgotten the story about Thursday nights."



Weinstein was joined at the Ziegfeld Theater by his cohosts for the Burberry-sponsored evening, U2 (who unveiled their first new material in three years, a song called "Ordinary Love," for the film) and Anna Wintour; the film's stars, Idris Elba and Naomie Harris ; as well as Mandela's daughter, ambassador Zenani Mandela-Dlamini .



"This man, also known as Dad, really turned our life upside down, or right-side-up rather," said Bono . "We have been working for him since we were teenagers, so we just didn't want to blow it. Our song is a complicated love song about a very complicated story." Elba, who plays Mandela, didn't have the good fortune of meeting the world leader. "I watched his body language and how people reacted to him, and that's how I learned about his essence," said the actor, who was in Burberry. "Also, I learned he was very choosy about the types of suits he wore—they made almost five hundred different suits for me for the film."

—Kristin Studeman

Meet Us by the Pool

The Grunge: An Updated Tale of Holiday Thievery

Jennifer Lawrence, Elizabeth Banks, Kiernan Shipka, and More of This Week's Red-Carpet Highlights

Two Museums, Two Parties

Zadig & Voltaire's Cecilia Bonstrom and Thierry Gillier invited a few friends to the Guggenheim last night for the rare privilege of a private viewing of the new Christopher Wool exhibition, followed by dinner. The opportunity for a leisurely stroll through the rotunda sans crowds was enough to draw the likes of Olivier Zahm , Vito Schnabel , and a late-arriving Lindsay Lohan way uptown. Even better, the museum's strict no-cameras rule was suspended for the evening, a situation Dannijo's Danielle and Jodie Snyder made the most of. "This one will make a great Instagram," said Danielle before ushering her sister over to a stenciled floral work. Smile for the camera-phone!



Across the park, the photographers were in overdrive, with Tina Fey and Lorne Michaels chairing the American Museum of Natural History's annual gala. There was a lot of star power in the room—Seth Meyers , Baz Luhrmann , Karlie Kloss , and Mayor Bloomberg included. Florence and the Machine performed. But the evening's biggest get was Josh Hutcherson , aka Peeta Mellark, taking a break from Catching Fire.

—Todd Plummer

Royal Family

Sculpture Club

The Past Is Prologue

"I love the name César. It's so grand, non?" proclaimed Alber Elbaz during last night's party at New York's Luxembourg & Dayan gallery. He was referring to the late Nouveau Realist artist César Baldaccini (known simply as César, à la Madonna), whom Lanvin has honored with a trio of projects: an installation of his work in the windows of its Paris flagship, a "chic picnic" earlier this year, and yesterday evening's intimate gathering that saw friends of the house gather to admire three floors of the artist's compressions and sculptures. Equally "grand" was César's giant, phallic thumb piece, which greeted guests outside the gallery's entrance upon their arrival.



Elbaz explained that he first encountered César's work at Le Crillon, in Paris. "The bar there was designed by César," he offered. "I ate there for ten years, and that's where I gained all my weight, so I thought we'd better do something about it, and here we are," he said. Gallerist Daniella Luxembourg , however, saw a different link between César and the designer. "They are both great artists. They are both unique, and they're not afraid of attacking their materials," she said, adding that César was "very much in favor" of working with fashion houses and had collaborated with Nina Ricci, Hermès, and Chanel during his career. Lanvin's menswear designer, Lucas Ossendrijver , too, weighed in on the connection between the house and the sculptor. "There's an element of fantasy in both our work," he said. "What we do at Lanvin is not art. It's applied art. It's clothes, and they're meant to be worn. There are a lot of constraints, but we try to bring a fantasy to make people dream about better things." His favorite piece in the show? "The big finger outside. It's so direct!"



Down on the Bowery, the New Museum threw its annual Next Generation Party in honor of the artists Cyprien Gaillard and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye . After a private dinner in the seventh-floor Sky Room, cochairs Maria Baibakova , Fabiola Beracasa , Massimiliano Gioni, Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld , and Vanessa Traina Snow led guests into the building's signature neon-green elevators, down to the first floor, for an after-party. Whereas other museum fetes draw a more uptown kind of crowd, the New Museum attracts downtown's cool kids. Deejay May Kwok and musician Twin Shadow kept the likes of Alexander Wang , Sofia Sanchez Barrenechea , and Lily Donaldson dancing until well after all the grown-ups had left.

—Katharine K. Zarrella and Todd Plummer

O Come All ’Ye Faithful

Chez Alex

Balenciaga's new creative director first carved a name for himself in downtown Manhattan, so, in a way, it makes sense that the house's first retail opening with Alexander Wang at the helm would be in Soho—Mercer Street, to be exact, a section of which was blocked to traffic last night so that the likes of Steven Klein, Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele , and Garance Doré could swing through for a first look.



Arms of greenery, studded with white roses and peonies, creep throughout the split-level store; truckloads of veined green marble, installed by Italian specialists, frame the space; and a milk-glass conservatory ceiling creates the illusion of perpetual natural light. Wang explained that he and his talented decorator, Ryan Korban , wanted to channel the leisurely vibe of Cristóbal Balenciaga's salons—"This idea of indulging in the shopping experience," he explained. "What's more luxury than being able to spend all day going through the collection?"



At the new men's store, across the street, the prominent feature of this night was a dinner table, where Wang took a seat next to Julianne Moore . Meanwhile, back in the women's store, Julia Restoin Roitfeld was trying to get her bearings. "I feel like I'm in Paris here—Avenue Montaigne, I think," she declared. She'd be back soon to do some fittings, Restoin Roitfeld added, and would not be bringing friends. "The only people I shop with are my mom or my dad, because they have a true opinion of whether it really suits me or not. Otherwise, I shop alone."

—Darrell Hartman

Brace Yourselves

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Isabella Galore!

Worldwide Weber

—By Matthew Schneier. Photographs by Bruce Weber

Family Affair

A major profile of Dior and Raf Simons, a feature on the fast-ascending Hood by Air line starring Joan Smalls, a spread of photos shot in L.A. by Hedi Slimane, a rare interview with Stefano Pilati—there's more than enough in the latest edition of Style.com/Print to justify a little celebrating. And so editor in chief Dirk Standen gathered the troops and headed down to Tribeca last night, where he hosted a swinging little party at Paul's Baby Grand. (The swinging part owed more than a little something to the very generous support of Absolut Elyx.) "I wish I could say we've been planning this for months, but we pretty much made a spur-of-the-moment decision to do something to thank the people who've supported us, who worked on or appeared in the issue. It's very much friends and family," said Standen. "The whole issue, in a way, is about these self-created families. The Raf story was shot by Willy Vanderperre and Olivier Rizzo, who have been his closest collaborators forever. Shayne [Oliver] and Hood by Air are all about family. And Phillip [Lim] too has surrounded himself with a core of people he trusts. It's very important in fashion, this notion of family."



Issue 05 was the latest raison de fête at Paul Sevigny's raffishly elegant new spot—the tropical-themed lounge was the site of Alexa Chung's 30th birthday bash a week ago. Phillip Lim was at that one, and he was in the house last night as well, straight from a trim. "Actually, I get a haircut every five days," he confessed.



The designer flies to Singapore next week, to speak at the annual Luxury conference hosted by Suzy Menkes, then onward to Beijing, to cut the ribbon at his new shop there. Things are moving along nicely for Lim these days, which is one reason he's profiled in the magazine. Writer Chris Wallace shadowed him last fashion week, pretty much right up to the moment the designer sent the models down the catwalk. "He even came for a drink after, too," Lim noted. A true embedment, then.



Meanwhile, the likes of Dree Hemingway , Joseph Altuzarra , Saskia de Brauw , and Shayne Oliver , along with his HBA crew, filtered in. Liveried waitstaff installed a disco ball just before the clock struck 9:30, and Public School's Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne claimed a dance area in the corner. It was their first night out since the duo's big CFDA win on Monday night. In the intervening days, they'd been working on Pre-Fall and Fall, slowly returning congratulatory e-mails, and "trying to figure out where to put the flowers," Osborne reported. Will their elevated profile mean more going out, or less? "Probably a little less," Osborne concluded, "because now there's a lot harder work ahead." Take it from us, gents: You seize the disco-ball moments when you can.

—Darrell Hartman

RTRC

When in Shanghai

And here we thought six collections a year was a lot. Valentino's Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli jetted to Shanghai this week to celebrate a new David Chipperfield-designed store for the brand (the second largest, after Milan), but not before they designed a special collection of ready-to-wear and couture confections for the opening. And seventh collection or not, they didn't skimp. The show that followed yesterday's ribbon-cutting and traditional lion-dance ceremony had no less than eighty-two looks, and it was followed by an opera performance by Italian soprano Elisa Balbo . Phoning in from the International Cruise Terminal venue, Piccioli called it a manifesto. "We focused on red, because it is like a logo for Valentino and because it is so integral to Chinese culture." Chiuri continued, "There's not just glam Valentino red; there's also fragile red, romantic red, rock, regal, and monastic." They capped off their trip with a signing event at Lane Crawford for Valentino: Objects of Couture. The book gathers together specially commissioned images—by photographers such as David Bailey, Nobuyoshi Araki, and Philip-Lorca diCorca—of Chiuri and Piccioli's accessories for Valentino. Then it was back to Rome, where their Pre-Fall, menswear, and Haute Couture collections remain to be finished.

—Nicole Phelps

The Good Fight

Talk about uptown institutions: Carolina Herrera partnered with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for the hospital's annual fall party last night. The very swish proceedings went down at the Four Seasons Restaurant, where the designer added some extra decorative touches (striped seat cushions, bouquets of red roses) to the place's storied Pool Room. Herrera outfitted more than a few guests, too, including the swan-necked likes of Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler and Indre Rockefeller.



The evening's swirl of "young beauties," as Herrera called them, also included her daughter, Patricia Lansing , who glided up the stairs in a backless, sable-collared dress. "Business in the front, party in the back," Lansing joked.



The evening's fund-raising focused on the center's pediatrics department—specifically, the battle it is waging against sarcoma. When the floor opened up for $25,000 donations, five hands shot up in a matter of about thirty seconds.



Designer Misha Nonoo was mixing it up for the third evening in a row—she'd been up for a CFDA award on Monday, then out with her visiting mother on Tuesday. "We had lots of wine," she said. And yet Nonoo has been taking 8 a.m. meetings with Theory's head of manufacturing, who's been lending her label a helping hand. Her trick? "I wake up and have a cup of tea immediately—English breakfast," she explained.



Holiday plans were a conversation topic. Herrera will be vacationing in the Dominican Republic, where she's neighbors with Oscar de la Renta. He's been known to play a mean game of dominoes, but Herrera described herself as more of a sunning-and-swimming type. "I don't like dominoes," she said.

—Darrell Hartman

Don't Go for Second Best

Elizabeth von Guttman and Alexia Niedzielski may be based in Europe, but New York is one of their many stomping grounds. Last night, they feted the second issue of their magazine, System, over champagne and canapés at the sprawling Soho loft of David Perry. Launched last spring by von Guttman and Niedzielski, along with former Numéro editor Jonathan Wingfield and Paradis art director Thomas Lenthal, the biannual was under some pretty intense pressure to outdo itself. "The second issue is always more difficult, because the expectations are higher," said von Guttman during the soiree, which drew contributors and fans such as Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele , Julia Restoin Roitfeld , Gaia Repossi , Francisco Costa , and Olivier Theyskens . "We started with a scoop," added Niedzielski, referring to the first issue's post-Balenciaga interview with Nicolas Ghesquière. "So to keep that level of excitement up is always a bit tricky." Considering the team's sophomore offering features not only a Q&A with but also an unsolicited manifesto from Comme des Garçons' Rei Kawakubo, we'd say they didn't do too shabby of a job.



While flipping through System's freshly printed pages, guests were treated to some classical French tunes—sung by the magazine's managing editor, Blake Abbie . And later, between deejay sets, catwalker-cum-crooner Jamie Bochert performed. "I'm going to do four quiet, kind-of-sad songs," the model told us. "Hopefully, I won't put everybody in a bad mood." Quite the contrary. Swathed in a vintage Ossie Clark top and a vampy Marc Jacobs skirt, Bochert enchanted the likes of Anja Rubik (who cuddled on the couch with hubby Sasha Knezevic ) and stylist Melanie Ward (who's featured in the latest issue) with her rich, somber voice. "Only two more sad songs," she announced before breaking in to Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You." "Then we'll go dance." And sure enough, after the applause ended, dance they did.

—Katharine K. Zarrella

Angels in the Wings

The Spring 2014 Trend Reports

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Spheres of Influence

With its vivid palette and painterly prints, Phoebe Philo 's Spring ’14 lineup would have fit right in with the installations in Isa Genzken's retrospective, which, underwritten by Céline, opened with a private viewing at the MoMA last night. "She's radical, and she's hard-core," said Philo of Genzken, who, at 65, is still producing provocative work. "I think more people should know about her." If the fashion set weren't familiar with Genzken before, they certainly are now, as the likes of Sofia Coppola , Gaia Repossi , and Rachel Chandler Guinness all turned out to see the multimedia artist's exhibition. "This is the kind of show that I personally relate to, and find very inspiring," offered Yigal Azrouël. The designer agreed that an unexpected gaggle of mannequins—which were wildly clad in plaids, masks, and cowboy hats, and posed at the exhibit's entrance—deserved their own runway show. "I loved the colors, and I think the beauty of the show is that she doesn't take it too seriously," he added.



Just back from a two-month tour, musician Kim Gordon , too, sang the retrospective's praises—however, she has a more personal connection to the artist. "I met Isa in 1980, when I first moved to New York," recalled Gordon, who recently had a show of her own artwork at White Columns gallery. "She actually took a picture of my ear for a photo series. I think a lot of artists in New York have been influenced by her work." But Genzken isn't the only one doing the influencing around here. Having launched her cult streetwear line, X-Girl, in the nineties, Gordon was surprised to hear that the urban staples were back in style. "It's funny, because it was so basic," she mused. "I was looking at an old X-Girl film we did when it was in my show at White Columns, and it was interesting to see how it still held up, in a way."



Across the river, at Williamsburg's Output nightclub, Creative Time's Anne Pasternak threw a Fall Ball with Ruffian's Brian Wolk and Claude Morais . "We feel like this is Williamsburg's debutante ball, and she has finally come out into society," Wolk said, surveying the packed room. In the crowd were Scott Campbell , Suno's Max Osterweis , and surprise performers Mia Moretti and Caitlin Moe. The last guests to leave trickled out at 1:30. Despite yesterday's cold snap, the line out the door was so long that the party, which raised funds for the public art nonprofit, was extended more than an hour past its official end time. Not bad for a Tuesday night.

—Katharine K. Zarrella and Nicole Phelps

Grand Gestures

Before there was Christian Dior the couturier, there was Dior the gallerist. And while the gallery lasted only six years, before shuttering in 1934, it confirmed Dior's unerring eye. That an unknown artist named Salvador Dali—plus rising stars such as Giacometti, Man Ray, Picasso, Max Ernst, and Cocteau—came to wider public attention was to Dior's credit.



In that spirit, the house of Dior tapped fifteen female artists from all over to interpret Miss Dior, his first fragrance. Natalie Portman , the face of Miss Dior, was on hand last night to tour the exhibition at the Grand Palais, accompanied by Benjamin Millepied , LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, French first lady Valérie Trierweiler, Karl Lagerfeld , Dior president Sidney Toledano , and the U.S. Ambassador Charles Rivkin . "These pieces are incredible," noted Portman. "I loved meeting the artists and hearing about how Dior dedicated his first perfume to his sister, who fought in the Resistance. That all this memory and history is intertwined with the perfume was really moving. It's like creating light after a dark period." Tomoko Shioyasu, Ionna Vautrin, Joana Vasconcelos , and Lara Baladi were among the other artists represented.



As the party heated up, Dior perfumer-creator François Demachy remarked, "I spend my life composing perfumes, so I know how hard it is to speak of them properly. To see artists express the idea of perfume, and Miss Dior in particular, gives me new paths to explore. It's very touching."

—Tina Isaac-Goizé

Black and White and Red All Over

Women and Girls Rule the World

The twenty-third annual Glamour Women of the Year Awards last night honored a range of women and their accomplishments—from athlete Carissa Moore, for leading the way for women in the world of surfing, to entertainer-turned-activist-turned-everything Barbra Streisand , who received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Iman presented awards to Liya Kebede and Christy Turlington Burns for their work promoting maternal health around the world, and Karlie Kloss introduced Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet .



The awards have always been a feel-good night, but this year included some particularly poignant moments, one of which was a surprise performance by the Staten Island PS22 Chorus. They sang a Lady Gaga medley as the pop star took the stage to receive her award. "I was thinking, I'm going to be fine, I'm not going to cry," said Gaga, who is on the cover of the Women of the Year issue. "But then the kids started singing!" She continued: "As fabulous as this evening can feel, true glamour is in the ability to see the grotesque, the sad, and to ask what is really important…. If I could forfeit my cover, I would give it to Malala."



Honoree Malala Yousafzai was the victim of an assassination attempt last year, after standing up to Taliban rule and advocating education for girls. Surviving a gunshot wound to the head has transformed the 16-year-old into a global symbol for the power of peaceful protest. And with Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis , the Sandy Hook Elementary teacher who hid with her students in a bathroom during the shooting last year, also receiving awards, the evening had a strong anti-gun message.



"I believe that a gun has no power at all, because a gun can only kill, but a pen can give life," Yousafzai said with a charisma beyond her years. "Through our struggles, we can bring change."

—Todd Plummer

A Ten for Ten

"Someone's gotta keep starting things in this country, or else where are we gonna be?" pronounced Mike Feldman, the entrepreneur behind Parabellum, at last night's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards. He and Jason Jones , the designer and cofounder of Parabellum, one of the evening's finalists, qualify as outliers on a lineup noteworthy for its relative lack of familiar names, but not even Diane von Furstenberg , the president of the CFDA herself, could've better summed up the guiding principle behind the Fund.



This year's runners-up awards went to jewelry designer Marc Alary and the eveningwear maker Juan Carlos Obando , who was also a finalist back in 2008. The big prize, all $300,000 of it, was picked up by Public School's Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne , the winners of the Swarovski Award for Menswear back in June. Prabal Gurung , for one, was thrilled. "I've known them since the Incubator," he said of his onetime neighbors in the CFDA-subsidized studio space. "They have a unique voice, and they're their own customers. But more important, they're such nice guys. I always feel nice people win."



Chow and Osborne were one of four pairs among the finalists. "It was all about the twos this year," selection committee member Ken Downing , of Neiman Marcus, said earlier. In the end, though, the event was about the power of ten. "This year's Fashion Fund is perhaps even more special than any other, because this is our ten-year anniversary," declared Vogue's Anna Wintour . "The Fashion Fund was born out of a moment of great adversity for young American designers struggling post-9/11. Our intention was both to help them and to establish the next generation of American fashion." Now, $3.8 million and thirty winners and runners-up later, the next generation is thriving. Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez , Derek Lam , and Phillip Lim —Funders all of them—can count themselves as part of the American establishment. But who among them couldn't learn something from Tom Ford ?



The evening's keynote speaker, Ford did not disappoint. After buttering up the crowd with a story about meeting the Vogue editor in chief on a nude beach and leaning in to kiss her good-bye, only to realize, "Oh, my god, I am absolutely naked," he launched into a nearly thirty-minute speech that was short on autobiography and long on designer advice. "You have to love what you do to the point that you can't imagine doing anything else with your life. Otherwise, you need to get out now, and that's not a joke," he began. "Fashion is tougher than all the other arts. We have to design and produce on a relentless, rigorous schedule. We have to have genius creative thoughts precisely four times a year, and on exact dates." Among Ford's tips: "Never sell a controlling interest in your name"; "Know your ideal client, and know your real client—they aren't necessarily the same"; "It's all about the entourage—surround yourself with the right people"; "Have a five-year plan, a ten-year plan…and possibly an exit strategy"; "Believe in what you do"; and, "this is absolutely key—Find a great business partner." To finish, he offered a final piece of advice from his father: "He once told me his secret to staying calm was to remember that we all have it in our power to say, 'Fuck it,' and go to bed. Somehow, the next morning, everything will seem much better."



"I want the transcript," Gurung said later. There's a reason they call Ford "Mr. Hollywood."

—Nicole Phelps

The Quiet American

—By Chris Wallace. Photographs by Isa Wipfli.

All the Rave

Lady Gaga 's Little Monsters will do anything for her. As evidenced by last night's ArtRave launch party for her new album, ARTPOP, they will form a mile-long line down FDR Drive for a ferry to her party at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They will dress in every conceivable iteration of Gaga costume. And they will know all the lyrics to each new song—before the album even comes out.



A massive Navy Yard warehouse was transformed for the Sunday-night rave with five Jeff Koons statues of Gaga, giant screens playing videos of her performance-art training with Marina Abramovic , and several side rooms filled with images shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin . "Working with Gaga has been the most incredible experience," van Lamsweerde told Style.com. "She is very creative, very generous, and very, very inspiring."



Inez and Vinoodh aren't the only ones to find Gaga stimulating. The happening brought out a range of designers—from Alexander Wang to Gareth Pugh to Hood by Air's Shayne Oliver. Christian Siriano reminisced about how he outfitted Gaga for her first Good Morning America appearance—"before anyone else wanted to dress her!"



Gaga's mother, Cynthia Germanotta, kept spirits high by passing out glow sticks from her purse, but when the artist finally took the stage, at 12:45 a.m., to perform her new album, wearing a face mask reminiscent of Leigh Bowery, she had the room's undivided attention. "It feels so good to be back in New York City!" she said. "Tonight, we're going on a journey…from art to pop and back again."

—Todd Plummer

Words and Pictures

A busy Saturday night on the Upper East Side kicked off with a toast for the artist Clare Rojas at Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld 's eponymous project space. Roitfeld's town house is a pretty hot spot at the moment—the last exhibit was a rare stateside showing of Peter Lindbergh's photographs—so Rojas created several works for the occasion. The artist told Style.com, "I loved honoring a space, letting it dictate the flow and placement of the works. Even though Vladimir seemed relaxed, he was paying attention to every minute detail."



Keeping cool has been Giancarlo Giammetti 's M.O. for decades. At Sotheby's, over on York Avenue, Valentino Garavani and Tobias Meyer hosted a dinner for Private, Giammetti's retrospective photo book. It was the final stop in a long week of signings and parties for Giammetti, and he admitted he was glad it was over: "Very busy, very exciting, but I am very tired!"



As guests sat for dinner, Meyer said, "Tonight is not about the book, it's not about the book at all. It's about a great relationship, a great life, and a great community of friends." Among those who turned up: Marc Jacobs , Riccardo Tisci , Tamara Mellon , and Michael Ovitz.



Humbled by the turnout, Giammetti said, "It was so spectacular to see how New York still welcomes anything that is new. It's a friendly city, a city with curiosity." So will he do another book? "After all this, not anytime soon! And not that kind of book, anyway—perhaps next time, more words than pictures."

—Todd Plummer

RTRC

Upward Spiral

If the Spring ’14 collections are any indication, fashion loves art—but does art love fashion? "I think the two worlds can't quite resist each other!" offered Stella Tennant at the Guggenheim last night, where the creative spheres intersected during the museum's Dior-underwritten annual gala. Hosted by honorary chairs Raf Simons and Dior CEO Sidney Toledano in the Guggenheim's spiraling Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda, the dinner was held in honor of artists James Turrell , whose blockbuster exhibition of light installations attracted over 500,000 visitors earlier this year, and Christopher Wool , whose retrospective is currently on view. "I don't actually know a lot about it," offered Wool of the fashion-art crossover. Turrell, likewise, was genuinely surprised to learn that his work served as the inspiration for Calvin Klein Collection's latest menswear range. "How did that work out?" he chuckled ("Pretty damn well!" we told him).



As the evening progressed and the likes of Natalie Portman , Jessica Biel , Cindy Sherman , and Leelee Sobieski happily mingled between courses of mushroom salad and filet mignon, it seemed that the two worlds (with a dash of Hollywood as a buffer) were getting on famously. Jeff Koons drew parallels between the practices. "Fashion is a curiosity about our internal life and our external world. So are the fine arts—and that's wonderful," he said. Willy Vanderperre, too, felt they were on the same plane. "Fashion and art are both a reflection of the times," he proposed. But it still seems that the fashion types owe the art world quite a debt. "Art is the ultimate inspiration," proclaimed Olivier Rizzo. "It's where designers find their creativity!" concurred Gaia Repossi—who, in addition to crafting jewelry, is a painter herself.



Perhaps the most profound statement, though, came from Raf Simons, who, as Toledano explained, was the driving force behind the Dior-Guggenheim partnership. "It all started with art for me when I was 15 or 16," said the designer. "Jan Hoet, a famous Belgian curator from a city close to where I lived, curated Documenta when I was a kid, and that left a massive mark. It awakened my interest very strongly," he recalled. "But it's not just that art plays a role in my creative process. Art is the ultimate. I couldn't really live without it." That may be true, but after watching last night's gaggle of Dior-clad women float across the floor in their often embellished, sculptural gowns, we'd have to argue that Mr. Simons is at least a bit of an artist himself.

—Katharine K. Zarrella