LD Tuttle

The designer with her F/W10 collection

There’s an understated jolie-laide to the shoes created by Tiffany Tuttle for her Los Angeles-based label LD Tuttle. They are intricate yet simple, involved yet easy-to-wear. Their functionable/fashionable duality is perhaps a result of her comprehensive design background. After studying fashion design at FIT and working in apparel design, Tuttle decided to pave her own path, entering the highly technical world of footwear via the Ars Sutoria school in Milan. Here she learned skills such as shoe patternmaking and construction. In 2005 the designer brought it all together, launching LD Tuttle with her husband, Richard Lidinsky. “The LD in the name stands for his initials, whereas Tuttle is my last name,” she reveals. Tuttle now splits her time jetting between Los Angeles and two factories in Northern Italy just outside of Milan, where her signature distressed boots and strappy sandals are produced.

For F/W10, Tuttle designed tough platform boots, wedges, low-heeled booties and a handful of unisex styles in her usual moody palette of black and grey with splashes of yellow, green and navy, paired with unusual artisanal details such as handknit leather and parchment. The inspiration for the collection came from a variety of sources, including pictures of old fossils, gemstone shows, Baroque paintings and a 1200-page biography of Rembrandt, which Tuttle says fascinated her. “I was thinking about this idea of protection and preserving things,” she notes. “The collection is usually about that: a feeling of heaviness but also, through use of unlined leathers, a lightness and suppleness.” In a first for her label, the designer developed a process of knitting long strips of leather by hand, which she says “is nice because it has this protective cocoony effect but an openness where you see skin, so there’s a certain sexiness.”

While Tuttle often begins designing each shoe with a preliminary sketch, she mostly works by draping on a last. “A lot of my shoes are about the leather and how it moves,” she elaborates. “So when I have an idea, I’ll take leather, starting cutting it and draping. To me, it’s important to see how it drapes on the foot and where straps will go.” The same hands-on approach applies to her work building heels: “I work with a heel maker that sculpts by hand at first, so it’s all very organic.”

In addition to her signature collection, Tuttle collaborates with labels like VPL and Louise Gray, but she maintains a strict code that shoe design should enhance, not overwhelm the wearer. “Certain people are inspirations for me,” Tuttle clarifies. “My sister is one. She works at an art gallery and has this easy style, which I think is really cool. She looks amazing, but it’s never really thought out. Everything is a bit messy, but her personality always shines through. I want our customers to feel the same way: yes, the shoes are special, but it’s not all about the shoe. It should be about the person, too.”

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Dossier in Conversation with Alex Dunstan

Elisa Lusso: 18 years old, one year modeling and you’ve already worked with Hedi Slimane for AnOther Man, Vogue Hommes Japan, Dazed & Confused and you’re a Topman face. That’s quite a beginning! How’s it been?

Alex Dunstan
: I grew up a rather quiet boy and even when I started, I always doubted it would go anywhere. So it definitely came as a big shock. I’ll always remember the day I first saw my face in a magazine…

Elisa: Don’t you feel weird going around London and seeing your face? Tell me about the first time you saw yourself in a campaign?

Alex: The first time I saw the Topman campaign was definitely key. I had no idea it was out yet. I was catching a tube up to Oxford Circus and noticed my face all along the walls… Haha, a very surreal moment.

Elisa: How did you start modeling?

Alex: I was out drinking with some friends in London Bridge. I was walking past a crowd and a woman by the name of Jane Duval stopped me in the street and asked me if I’d ever consider modeling. We exchanged numbers. She got back to me and took me into Select [Model Management]. Me and Jane are still good friends. Select seemed to like me, and I’ve been happy with them ever since.

Elisa: What is the strangest job you’ve done?

Alex: Perhaps the most extraordinary one—for lack of a better word—was the shoot I did for Contributing Editor with Kim Jones styling and Thomas Lohr as the photographer. Most of the shots involved the models hanging off of sea cliffs and walking into the sea. Suffice to say, it was very different to the studio environment I’d gotten used to.

Elisa: And which was the most difficult? Read More »

I’ll Take You to the Candy Shop

Top, 3.1 Phillip Lim. Necklace, Alexis Bittar.

Photography by Andrew Kuykendall
Styling by Brett Bailey at Atelier Management
Hair by Damian Monzillo at Kate Ryan NYC
Makeup by Alejandro Calvani
Model: Melo @ Marilyn NYC
Styling and Production Assistant: Alex Chapman

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A Final Look at Paris Fashion Week F/W10

Image by Randy Harris

Chanel at Paris Fashion Week F/W10

Oh Karl, you’re such a cheeky devil! As environmentalists and PETA activists are up in arms about global warming (or “global cooling” as a skeptical Lagerfeld calls it) and the fashion industry’s indulgence in cozy yet cruel fur pelts, Karl Lagerfeld says ‘pish posh’. Lowering the Grand Palais to sub-zero temperatures, the designer garnished his runway with a 28-foot tall, 265-ton iceberg, which he had imported in bits and pieces from Sweden. Clearly a pillar of the environmentally conscious community, Karl countered this display of frozen excess by showing a polar bear-esque array of faux-fur ensembles. Faux fur! At Chanel!

It all began with Freja Beha Erichsen who—placed amongst three models dressed in full-on Chewbacca suits—wore white faux-fur pants. What followed were faux fur-infused tweed suits, coats, dresses and leather jackets, all of which were accompanied by ice-block heeled, knee-high faux-fur boots. Lagerfeld’s new textile covered purses, was woven into peplums and even appeared on a few pairs of hot pants. But somehow, these ridiculous satirical looks were oddly elegant, even—dare I say—wearable.

There were, of course, options for the more traditional Chanel woman, like a series of white knit dresses that were delicately brushed with powder blue accents, and a classically over-the-top black-and-white tux look. Clear double-C clutches and jewelry that dripped down the body like icicles were understated interpretations of the arctic theme, and a series of snowy ladylike embellished dresses embraced the house’s heritage.

Will Chanel’s clientele go faux? Questionable. Will outraged activists be crucifying Lagerfeld until his next runway stunt? Definitely. But come on, everyone; this is fashion. Sure the show was absurd and borderline offensive, but a little snarky fun here and there is allowed, even essential, especially when there are incredible garments to back it up.