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Altuzarra Fall 2012

fashionologie — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:40:02 PST

Our review will be posted shortly. In the meantime, here's a first look at the collection.

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This Week's Best Dressed

fashionologie — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:34:06 PST

>> It's a week of double-timers: two Haider Ackermann looks, two Calvin Klein looks, and one model who appears twice. See who's wearing what - and where - in the slideshow.

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Altuzarra Takes Home the Big Prize at the 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards

fashionologie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 08:17:43 PST

>> Last night at Skylight studios in New York, the 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners were announced. Joseph Altuzarra, a favorite the past two years running, took home this year's prize - $300,000 and a year-long mentorship. But the impact of the award lasts much longer than a year, CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg explained: "Once you are in the Fashion Fund, we will protect you and continue to provide you with opportunities.” Pamela Love and Creature of the Wind's Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters were named runners-up, collecting $100,000 each.

Calvin Klein gave this year's keynote speech, focusing on his own days as a young designer. “I started out with less money than probably all of you nominees tonight,” he told the crowd. Of coming up in the '60s and ’70s, he noted: “I dealt with truck men, unions, and gangsters. I got a call from the Gambinos one day, telling me, ‘We are your truck men.’”

Altuzarra's friend and the 2008 Fashion Fund winner, Alexander Wang, told him to "just zone out" during Klein's speech, and just before Rooney Mara announced Altuzarra as winner, von Furstenberg went over to the designer's table, pinched his cheek, and asked him something in French. “She asked me if I went to pee,” Altuzarra told The New York Times. When the announcement finally came, Altuzarra told the audience, “I’m so grateful and humbled.” Love, while accepting her award, announced: “I didn’t prepare anything because I didn’t expect this - and I’m shaking!” before running backstage to hug her fiancé, Matthew Nelson. And Gabier said to the crowd, “You’ve made us really happy and we hope to make you really proud.”

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Scenes From the 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Fashion Show

fashionologie — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:09:38 PDT

>> The final challenge of this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund competition - a fashion show by all 10 finalists at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles - took place last Thursday. “You’re never really a spectator at your own show, so it’s an amazing experience," said second-time finalist Joseph Altuzarra. "I wasn’t so much looking at the girls as at people’s reactions in the audience.”

Ryan Murphy, Bee Shaffer's current boss - both were in attendance - revealed another project Altuzarra has on his plate: designing some costumes for Murphy’s new movie based on Larry Kramer’s play, The Normal Heart.

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Hijinks and Hot Shots Backstage at Alexander Wang, Prabal Gurung, Altuzarra, and Helmut Lang

fashionologie — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 11:47:12 PDT

>> Yesterday was a big show day, with the likes of Alexander Wang, Prabal Gurung, Altuzarra, and Helmut Lang traipsing out their new Spring 2012 collections. Get a second, behind-the-scenes look at those collections - complete with snaps of Hanne Gaby Odiele, Britt Maren, and Mirte Maas goofing off at Wang; Siri Tollerod playing a little air guitar on the iPad at Altuzarra; and Frida Gustavsson showing off the train on her Gurung finale dress - in the slideshow.

Photo: Greg Kessler

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Altuzarra Spring 2012

fashionologie — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 06:52:44 PDT

>> With a lush wall of greenery as backdrop, Joseph Altuzarra sent out paneled, body-con dresses with flouncy skirts, skinny track pants with tropical Hawaiian print-piping, and chunky, bright knits. Spring 2012 marks the first time he's really broken out of a monochrome palette and experimented with bright colors; the effect he was going for, he said, was "mixing super-techno with super-kitsch."

After the success of his Fall parkas, Altuzarra brought outerwear back in the form of puffy hooded jackets; he also adorned sleeveless dresses with padded armholes or parachute straps across the back.

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The 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Finalists Announced

fashionologie — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:34:07 PDT

>> The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund judging committee - which this year includes Jack McCollough, Lazaro Hernandez, Vogue's Mark Holgate, Jeffrey Kalinsky of Jeffrey and Nordstrom, CFDA executive director Steven Kolb, Reed Krakoff, Andrew Rosen, Diane von Furstenberg, Jenna Lyons, and Anna Wintour - have determined the 2011 finalists. They are:

AA, Antonio Azzuolo
Altuzarra, Joseph Altuzarra
Carlos Campos, Carlos Campos
Creatures of the Wind, Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters
Cushnie Et Ochs, Michelle Ochs and Carly Cushnie
Finn Jewelry, Soraya Silchenstedt
Fenton/Fallon, Dana Lorenz
Ohne Titel, Alexa Adams and Flora Gill
Pamela Love
Suno, Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty

Joseph Altuzarra and Pamela Love are repeat finalists from last year, and Ohne Titel was a finalist in 2009. The winner and two runners-up will be announced Nov. 14.

Watch Behind-the-Scenes at Altuzarra's Resort 2012 Lookbook Shoot

fashionologie — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:05:00 PDT

>> Joseph Altuzarra launched his first cruise collection for the Resort 2012 season, and to mark the occasion, he says he wanted to present his pieces in a way that "broke the format of a conventional lookbook format." Hence, he and photographer Steven Pan decided to shoot the Brigitte Bardot and Saint-Tropez-inspired collection "more as an editorial."

Altuzarra cites his ever-present reference point - the '90s - as the shoot's starting point: "The inspiration was really those '90s ads and editorials, which were more natural, less self-conscious, and had more personality." His models of choice, too, stayed true to the '90s reference - the decade marked the beginning of their careers. "I wanted to work with models who were not 'girls,' but instead really women, which I think is really the essence of the brand," Altuzarra explained. "Aurelie [Claudel] and Danielle [Zinaich] are both married, and have kids, and are in their 30's, and have the most incredible personalities. They felt really right for our brand." As for the overall looks, he says: "We kept the makeup very simple and natural, because they are so beautiful as they are." And the proclivities of house muse and frequest collaborator Vanessa Traina, who was on styling duties for the shoot, also showed up in the final product: "The hair is inspired by how Vanessa [Traina] wears her hair, which I always think is very chic."

A behind-the-scenes video of the shoot, below.

Joseph Altuzarra On the Similarities Between His and Alexander Wang's Fall 2011 Collections and Having His Mom for a Boss

fashionologie — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:04:29 PDT

>> Fresh off the announcement of his CFDA nomination for the second year running in the Swarovski Award for Womenswear category - this time he's up against Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's The Row and Prabal Gurung - Joseph Altuzarra hit up Barneys to host a trunk show for his parka and slinky silk-dress-filled Fall 2011 collection. We grabbed him for a few minutes to chat about how competitive it is among young designers in New York, the fact that he and close friend Alexander Wang turned out Fall 2011 collections with a number of similarities, and who he'd like to collaborate with next.

Congratulations on your CFDA Award nomination! Did you do anything to celebrate?

I didn't, actually. I'm drawing pre-collection, so I drew [afterwards]. I went to the [announcement cocktails] thing, and it was great to be there. I actually didn't go last season - I was in Paris, so I wasn't able to make it. But it was really fun to go [this year], it was a nice atmosphere. And what's fun about the nomination that I got is that it's usually very similar generations. So it doesn't feel as competitive, it feels way friendlier. I mean, obviously, Prabal I know, and we're very friendly. Mary-Kate and Ashley, as well.

It feels like there's this whole group of young burgeoning designers rising up together in New York right now - for the most part, the big classic American designers were shut out from the nominations this year.

No it's true, there is I think this kind of mass effect of young designers. And I think we genuinely don't feel all that competitive. Of course you have the, "Why was he featured and I wasn't?" type of things, but overall, I think we're all really friendly - like we talk to each other about business and about what we're doing. It's very open - which is nice, I think it's how it should be.

Speaking of, do you and Alexander Wang ever talk about your collections together? Because for Fall 2011, you had a lot of similarities - you guys both played the same Prodigy song during your shows, and you had a similar quilted poncho cape that Cathy Horyn pointed out.

We hadn't, actually. And this is really the truth - when I saw his show [which happened a few hours before Altuzarra's], I was like, "Oh my God, we're going to get panned." But I think also what people discount is that we're the same age, and we hang out a lot, and even if we don't talk about our collections, we see similar things. I mean, we also have very similar reference points in time, because we're the same age. So, honestly, I think it's more funny than anything. But it's true, there were similarities - the fur shoes . . . I mean, it's kind of crazy when you think about how much - the Prodigy, and that cape thing, and it was kind of '90s, also . . . It was really, really eerie. But funny. And I hope people see it as more funny than anything.

Did you guys talk about it afterwards?

Yeah, I think he sent me a text. He came to my show and he sent me a text like, "That is ridiculous," or something. Or I think he said like, "I think we need to stop hanging out so much." I was like, "Yeah."

But you guys are still obviously hanging out.

Yeah, yeah, it's not like . . . I think we think it's more funny.

Last year you turned a profit for the first time. What do you credit with being able to achieve that?

I think starting during a recession has made a really big difference in the way we run the company - we thought we were going to grow the structure a lot faster than we decided to. And we've really kept it bare bones. I think most people would be shocked to know how small it still is. Our overhead costs and cost of running the company are fairly low because we're just not a lot of people and still in a fairly small space. Also, the great thing about being in New York is that you have so many of these amazing sponsorship programs - MAC at Milk, also the Tents with Maybelline - which really doesn't exist anywhere else at this level. So I do credit it in part to that. And also, I am the designer, but I'm also very aware of the business. I know how much things cost, so I know I'm shooting myself in the foot if I use a lot of crocodile or very expensive embroidery. And I know it's just not the time to do it.

So you do think about what sells when you're designing.

Oh yeah, for sure. I'm lucky to have a team around me that keeps me grounded. The bulk of my work is very creative, but there's also a side to it that's just making sure I'm doing something that can actually sell and translate to a retail floor.

What do you find sells well for you, in general, season over season?

Definitely tailoring always does very well, whether it's the Spring's more peak-shouldered jackets or the Fall's parkas. And we're also starting to see a more popular category in pants. And dresses have always sold very, very well for us.

It felt like for Fall 2011 you went more wearable than you have in the past - was that a conscious decision?

It was a conscious decision but it actually wasn't a commercial decision - it was a stylistic decision. I was feeling something that was a lot more day, just in the proportion and in the ease of things. And that kind of stylistic decision helped make the whole thing look a lot easier and more wearable.

And you're still working with both Melanie Huynh and Vanessa Traina?

Yeah, I mean they come in from different perspectives. Calling Vanessa a muse is so cliche and I wish there was another word for it, but I see Vanessa almost every day, so there is this side to our relationship that is very inspiring, just because of the way she is and how she dresses. And she obviously does a lot of consulting as well. And then Melanie definitely does a lot of consulting, but she comes in more towards the show, in terms of the styling.

Vanessa usually walks in your shows, but she didn't for Fall 2011.

She was actually not in town - I would have loved for her to walk, because this collection was very Vanessa, and it really came from how she was dressing at the time that I was drawing. I was really, really inspired by her.

Your mom is the CEO of your company - how does that work?

Yeah, she's my boss. You know, in a way, it's an ideal situation, because she lives in Paris, and it helps to have this kind of two-legged foundation, because everything is produced in Italy. In terms of time difference, it's just easier to have someone who's on that side of the Atlantic. But I obviously trust her implicitly, and we're able to have very honest conversations about business. I think we're both very good at divorcing our personal relationship from the business.

You have a strong history of collaborations - Gianvito Rossi for shoes, Gaia Repossi for jewelry, Current/Elliott for denim - is there anyone else you'd really like to work with?

No, not really. I'm trying to think . . . No, but I really do want to start developing more things under my name, so it might be enough collaborations for a little bit.

So you're trying to go in-house with accessories?

Yeah, I think maybe by next year we'll start developing accessories. I think it's important for us and for the development of the brand. We'll be at four years, which I think is a good time to start introducing more in-house things.

After everything that's happened with John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, and Christophe Decarnin, there's been a lot of talk that the current pace of the industry is driving designers to unhealthy places. Do you feel that at all?

I think you need a really, really, really good support system, both within your company but also just outside. I'm really lucky that I have the family and friends that I have - a lot of them don't necessarily work in fashion, and that's really helpful for me professionally, and just for my own sanity. I definitely feel it very bodily - like stomachaches. Yes, everything goes really fast, and now it feels like it's going faster even, mainly because of the Internet. And there's this immediacy and access to information and products, which makes everything you do feel old much sooner than it would have before. So you're constantly trying to bring something different and new to the table as fast as you can.

Is there any particular way you're trying to address that need for the new?

Adding collections for sure is the more classic way of doing it, but I think you also have to be very careful about the press that you do, and not be overexposed. The reality today is that there is a customer who will buy a $4,000 jacket because it's in Vogue, but there's also a customer who will not buy it because it's been in Vogue for six months. So you have to find that balance where you're enticing the customer but you're not revealing everything and you're not overselling it.

Final question: Now that the whirlwind of Fashion Month is over and things are calming down a little bit, do you have any plans to relax or vacation? Or are you just going straight into pre-collection?

No, [I'm going] straight into pre-collection . . . we actually started before the [Fall 2011] show. I am going on a long weekend soon, though, which will be nice.

Vanessa Traina Designs 14-Piece Spring 2011 Capsule Collection for Maje

fashionologie — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:28:19 PDT

>> Vanessa Traina has been the face of cult favorite French contemporary brand Maje for a couple of seasons now (see the new Spring 2011 campaign images in the gallery), but now she's taking her relationship with the brand further. Traina, who currently acts as a consultant to Altuzarra and is a contributing fashion editor at T, has designed a capsule collection for the brand, based on '90s fashion (as was, coincidentally, Altuzarra's Fall 2011 collection). The 14 "silk and delicate looks [with] a precise, minimalist edge," as WWD describes them, will launch exclusively at Barneys New York, Beverly Hills, and San Francisco on March 23, followed by a worldwide launch in Maje stores on March 28.

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