Fashion in an Age of Technology

On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the new theme for next year’s Costume institute exhibition: “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.” The upcoming exhibition will focus on the dichotomy between handmade haute couture and machine-made fashion. “Traditionally, the distinction between the haute couture and prêt-à-porter was based on the handmade and the machine-made,” explains Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute. “But recently this distinction has become increasingly blurred as both disciplines have embraced the practices and techniques of the other.”

The show will feature more than 100 pieces of fashion, both haute couture and ready-to-wear. Several handmade couture items, featuring techniques such as embroidery, pleating, and lacework, will be juxtaposed with machine-made designs showcasing new technologies like laser cutting, thermo shaping, and circular knitting. The exhibition will also have several “in process” workshops, including 3-D printing, in which the public will be able to see these designs take shape.


The museum also announced the 2016 Met Gala will take place on Monday, May 2 and will be hosted by cochairs Idris Elba, Jonathan Ive,Taylor Swift, and Anna Wintour.Nicolas Ghesquière, Karl Lagerfeld, and Miuccia Prada will serve as honorary chairs, and the gala and accompanying exhibition will be sponsored by Apple.

Empire’s Cookie to Phase Out Animal Prints for High Fashion in Season 2

When Empire audience members think of Cookie Lyon, the drama's fierce protagonist played by Taraji P. Henson, the image they likely conjure features over-the-top fashion including more furs and animal prints than every Kardashian owns combined. The sartorial association is for good reason: when costume designer Paolo Nieddu outfitted Cookie for the Fox show’s first episode, he says, “I literally put her in animal print almost every single scene. . . . I think she wore snake skin twice. She wore leopard three times.” When the second season of the addictive musical drama premieres tonight, though, viewers will likely notice that Empire’s flashy character has finessed her style.



Unlike costume designers on other series, Nieddu doesn’t restrict each character to certain clothing colors with a wardrobe palette. Instead, he approaches the entertainment industry-set series like a stylist might—dressing his “clients” to face off on the red carpet with other superstars. “In my head, Cookie Lyon and Kim Kardashian both go the Grammys. So I’m not inspired by anyone’s fashion—although I did buy Cookie a pair of Pierre Hardy shoes that I saw Rihanna wearing—as much as I act as though I’m competing with Kim or Rihanna’s stylist. If Hakeem was headed to the V.M.A.s, I would be competing with Justin Bieber’s stylist, probably at the same showroom.”

For scenes in which Cookie acts more maternal, Nieddu adjusts her wardrobe accordingly. “I try to put her in something that’s a little bit more like Cookie’s version of what a mom would dress like. We have this one Derek Lam outfit that I put her in in the second episode [of the new season] that Taraji called her Carol Brady outfit. It is a maroon-and-salmon houndstooth-y plaid sleeveless vest top with an over-size white collar and matching flared pants.”

Like Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw before her, Cookie dresses distinctly for every possible occasion. The character’s liberal attitude toward fashion allows for a particularly whimsical costume design process for both Nieddu and Henson.

What Does This Fashion Even Mean?

Fashion Week is a time when the industry’s most influential designers showcase their latest work at star-studded events during which famous and/or influential people sit silently—often in sunglasses—while watching tall, silent, pretty people walk up and down runways wearing what may or may not be the trends, or inspirations for trends, of the future. The clothes draping their bodies don’t always look like things you’ve seen before, which is at least partly the point, and they’re styled in ways meant to complement the designer’s concept, point of view, artistic vision, or whatever you want to call it.



It’s a very important week for the industry, and—as I’ve been told in movies like The Devil Wears Prada and shows like Project Runway—can make or break entire careers. But, as someone whose livelihood doesn’t revolve around the art of style (I’d be unemployed if it did!), it’s merely a time to look at funny pictures.

And this ensemble is reference to America’s fascination with self-diagnosis. We may think access to medical information on WebMD makes us as smart as doctors, but we’re really a bunch of idiots walking around in lab coats without pants on!

Here we have a mediation on thigh gap. Society tells us it’s crucial for achieving maximum sexiness, but really it’s just—much like the gap in this model’s faux(?) leather pants—a random and meaningless void.

Kendall Jenner Reveals Cool Fashion Superpowers in New Vogue & Estée Lauder Video Series

 It's a bird...it's a plane...nope, it's Kendall Jenner!



Remember when we saw Kendall on set (or on cab, really) for a mysterious Vogue shoot back in July? Well, now we know what she was doing—and it was just a bit of magic (no big deal). The E! star-turned-supermodel is fronting a series of superhero-themed videos for Vogue in collaboration with Estée Lauder, the first of which shows her conjuring chic outerwear and accessories from thin air, with a new vid set to be released by Vogue every day this week.
Other powers teased for the series include Kendall "throwing boulders, controlling time, and moving objects with the snap of her manicured fingertips," according to the fashion tome's site. Kendall has, of course, been the face of Estée Lauder since 2014, appearing in a few film shorts since the start of her ambassadorship.

This latest vid is a work of movie magic (and really shows the power of rewind): Kendall is shown leaping backwards onto a taxi at the very end, which is likely the original footage playing in reverse. She's cool and calm in the clip, as well as quite the vision in red as she summons a crimson jacket and fuzzy scarf for her superhero model duties in New York City. (Yep, we got Birdman vibes too.)
We're pretty psyched to see the rest of Kendall's superpowers this week, especially if they're anywhere near as It Girl-cool as this one. Modern Muse, by the way, is the latest scent reveal from Estée Lauder, featuring an airy perfume and shimmer body lotion as part of the collection.

Retailers should embrace genderless fashion

                   

Gendered fashion is on the way out. Fashion designers are mixing menswear and womenswear on the runway. Parents are pushing for genderless clothing that allows little girls to, say, wear science-themed t-shirts instead of princess dresses. And Quartz fashion writers are asking: “Sex and gender aren’t perfectly binary. Why should clothes be?”

To be sure, retailers like Gap, the North Face, and American Apparel have sold unisex clothing for years, though sizing is still typically cut across gender lines.

But moving toward a less gendered retail experience could also be a “business opportunity for retailers who create a comfort zone for people who don’t want to subscribe to one category,” writes market researcher NPD Group in a new e-book.
Some retailers are already moving in that direction. While Personnel of New York maintains “women” and “men” sections on its website, it also has a tab featuring genderless clothing and accessories called, simply, “Everyone.”

Just this week, Target announced that it was phasing out gender-based signage after customers complained that marketing products by gender was regressive and unnecessary. Target said it would remove signs in the home goods and entertainment aisles that delineate which products were meant for boys or girls, as well as the use of pink, blue, yellow, or green paper on its shelves in the toy aisles.

NPD argues that retailers could benefit from moving past the old-fashioned store layouts once designed to comply with increasingly outdated notions of gender roles (although it falls short of providing conclusive proof that consumers would actually buy more if stores dissolved the gender division).


Still, the argument makes sense. If men and women are going to wear the same pair of Converse or Vans sneakers, why stock them in separate “his” and “hers” sections of the store? If a woman shopping in a department store prefers the clothes in the traditional men’s section, does she have to lug them down to another floor just to try them on? Should a retailer give up on potential sales by alienating a woman who doesn’t want to shop in the men’s department?