fashionologie

Alaia Pulls Dresses From Costume Institute Gala After Exhibit Snub

fashionologie — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:55:21 PDT

>> Anna Wintour received criticism yesterday for co-opting the Met's reputation for her own means, but new Costume Institute Gala-related developments snuff out those complaints in a second. Seven models - including Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, and Linda Evangelista - were to wear Azzedine Alaia creations to the gala tonight, but the designer has asked them not to wear the dresses because his work, though strongly tied to a number of the supermodels' careers, has no place in this year's exhibit, save for one photograph.

As a result, Naomi Campbell - as rumored - plus some of the other (unnamed) models will not be attending tonight in a gesture to the designer. A spokeswoman for Campbell confirmed this afternoon: “As Naomi has been the muse of Azzedine Alaia for 23 years, she feels she doesn’t want to attend unless she can represent his work.” No word on whether Seymour and Evangelista will do the same.

Alaia blames Anna Wintour for the omission »

fashionologie — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:59:53 PST

>> THE MODELIZER -This morning, Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs, and the Costume Institute's Harold Koda held a press conference detailing this year's exhibit, The Model as Muse. Before Marc headed off to the gym, to watch 1909 Victorinox front row, and finally to Paris this afternoon to work on Louis Vuitton, he took a moment to talk about Kate Moss, his co-chair for the event. Her first New York runway appearance ever was for his 1992 grunge collection at Perry Ellis, and apparently Moss was so sick that day, they had to arrange a special dressing room for her. “She didn’t want to let me down. Even in pain, she stuck it out and did the show. It was something that brought us together.” [Papermag, Style File]

Met Gala Red Carpet to Be Live Streamed For the First Time

Justin Fenner — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:26:59 PDT

>> The Metropolitan Museum will broadcast the red-carpet arrivals for its Costume Institute Gala for the first time ever this year, and viewers can choose among three websites to watch it on.

Vogue.com, MetMuseum.org, and Amazon.com - which is sponsoring this year's exhibit, Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations - will all live stream the celebrities and designers walking into the museum from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on May 7. Fashion journalist and longtime Vogue contributor William Norwich and model Elettra Wiedemann will man the red carpet, interviewing notable attendees like Anna Wintour, Miuccia Prada, and Carey Mulligan.

Viewers can submit questions for Norwich and Wiedemann to ask celebrities on Twitter with the hashtag #metquestions. The live stream will also include pretaped segments about the Costume Institute's history and this year's exhibit.

While the live streams won't differ across the three sites, the Met's website will feature additional content and information about the exhibit, including interviews with its curators Andrew Bolton and Harold Koda. Vogue's site, meanwhile, will focus on giving readers an inside look at the gala and a video of this year's unknown musical guest.

See last year's standout red carpet looks.

Photo: Renée Zellweger arrives at the 2011 Costume Institute Gala.

Azzedine Alaia Still Upset with "Dictator" Anna Wintour

fashionologie — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:32:53 PDT

>> Azzedine Alaia is not letting up on his anger over the omission of his work from this year's Costume Insitute exhibit "The Model as Muse," and he continues to blame Anna Wintour.

Yesterday, he told WWD over the phone that she has snubbed his work for 15 years: “She behaves like a dictator and everyone is terrified of her . . . but I’m not scared of her or anyone.” Putting his money where his mouth is, he aims to continue his campaign against her. The seven dresses he created for Monday night's gala - Linda Evangelista's, Stephanie Seymour's, and Naomi Campbell's among them - that went unworn at his request, he plans to loan them out for editorials.

So why wasn't he included in the first place? »

2012 Costume Institute Gala and Exhibit to Focus on Miuccia Prada, Elsa Schiaparelli

fashionologie — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:42:31 PDT

>> As rumored, the 2012 Costume Institute Gala and exhibit will focus on Italian designers Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada.

Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada: On Fashion will run May 10 to Aug. 19, and will be underwritten by Amazon alongside Conde Nast. Serving as honorary chair at the May 7 gala is Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, with Carey Mulligan, Miuccia Prada, and Anna Wintour as co-chairs. Baz Luhrmann will act as creative consultant to the exhibition, helping to oversee its design.

Curators Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton aim to examine the way Schiaparelli and Prada broke fashion convention and played with the ideas of good and bad taste as well as their affinity to the art world. “Once we got Schiaparelli as the core part of what we wanted to do, it became a logical jump to Miuccia,” Koda said. “They are both Italian women, and even though Miuccia might not describe herself as a feminist, what we see is these two very strong women with a very strong aesthetic.”

The exhibit is expected to feature about 80 designs by Schiaparelli from the late '20s through the early '50s and by Prada from the late '80s through present day, drawn primarily from The Costume Institute's collection and the Prada archive.

Models Get Their Due at 2009 Costume Institute Gala

fashionologie — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:18:39 PDT

>> Hints at the 2009 Costume Institute Gala theme have been swirling since May - first, it was thought to be an ode to Marc Jacobs, and then an ode to fashion muses. Now that the official announcement has come out, we learn that both subjects are involved, just not quite in the way that was originally thought: the May 4 gala rings in "The Model as Muse," with Marc Jacobs as honorary chair, and Kate Moss, Anna Wintour, and Justin Timberlake as co-chairs.

The accompanying exhibit, which runs May 6 to Aug. 9, will explore the evolution of models and "their roles in projecting and sometimes inspiring the fashion of their respective eras," with special focus on one of the first publicly known models, Marion Morehouse; the first supermodel, Lisa Fonssagrives; fifties mannequins Suzy Parker, Dovima, Sunny Harnett, and Dorian Leigh; sixties icons Jean Shrimpton, Moffitt, Twiggy, and Veruschka; Seventies faces Jerry Hall, Iman, and Janice Dickinson; the supermodel trinity of Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell; Nineties “It” girls Kate Moss, Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, and Shalom Harlow; and more recently, Gisele Bundchen.

As Harold Koda, curator of the Costume Institute, explained: "We look at the power of clothing, fashion photography and the model to project the look of an era. With a mere gesture, or the line of her body, a truly stellar model can sum up the attitude of her time, creating an alluring synergy between herself and the clothing to communicate a designer’s message to the wider world."

Seventy haute couture and ready-to-wear looks, plus photography, runway images, and video footage of models, rock stars, socialites and actresses who set the tone for each era will emphasize the theme, but most exciting of all - think of all the models who will be representing at the gala.
*image: source