Backstage at Peter Som. Images by Cara Stricker.

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Peter Som

Pamela Love

Erickson Beamon

Backstage at Gretchen Jones. Images by Bailey Roberts.

She embodied darkness outside of Milk Studios, as if Hades himself had sent her here to reign black upon us. Her greased wet hair with fingered curls was fresh from Cushine et Ochs. She scampered across 15th Street, as if she were running from a crime scene, headed to her next show. For this week, she is nothing more than a soulless mobile mannequin. -Ryley Tice

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Gretchen Jones

Kaelen

Backstage at Rachel Comey. Images by Cara Stricker.

The listless attention to color is what makes New York Fashion Week a black holiday. Cowering from a winter that never happened, the men stroll past in leather jackets, black knee-length skirts and steel toed boots, while the women flash lacquered black denim, baggy sweaters and platform boots as they nonchalantly mosey. Their eyes wander momentarily from their cellphones and are met with classic looks for the upcoming fall. While some rich tones debut, the dominating hue is, of course, black. -Ryley Tice

The A.F. Vandevorst party

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Rachel Comey

Costello Tagliapietra

The A.F. Vandevorst Party

Tim Coppens. Images by Alex Singh

Backstage at Katie Gallagher.

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Katie Gallagher

Tim Coppens

Tadashi Shoji

Images by Agnes Thor

Michelle Lane’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection evolves the New York-based designer’s signature rope accessories by combining inspirations as disparate as the effortless chic of Slim Kieth, Villa Noailles, the Art Deco pool at The Raleigh Hotel in South Beach (made famous by Esther Williams in the ‘40s), the simple, modern architectures of Charlotte Perriand, Yves Klein’s quest to reach the far side of infinity and more. The result is the Garibaldi Collection, which symbolizes the place where rationalism meets freedom. Meanwhile, the individual names of the pieces—like the Prometheus bangle and Haplodion necklace—were coined by Michelle’s friend, the musician Matt Fishbeck. Exclusively for Dossier, both Michelle and the collection were captured seaside at the Vizcaya Museum in Miami by photographer Agnes Thor.

Some of Michelle’s inspirations.

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Designer Michelle Lane

Sweater, Avelon.

Photography by Dirk Kikstra
Styling by Inge de Lange
Hair and Makeup by Anita Jolles at House of Orange for Bobbi Brown
Model: Shona-Lee at Future Faces

Dress, Dimitry Frenko Krul. Tights, American Apparel.

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Top, Joosje. Bra and hotpants, Pleasurements. Tights, American Apparel. Shoes, Surface to Air.

Jacket, Joosje. Hotpants, Pleasurements. Tights, American Apparel.

Dress, Sage & Ivy.

Top, Dimitry Frenko Krul. Hotpants, Sage & Ivy. Tights, American Apparel.

Bra, Pleasurements. Tights, American Apparel. Skirt, Avelon.

Images by Oskar Gyllenswärd

Nasir Mazhar is not your mother’s milliner. When he launched his line of eccentric cranial accouterments in 2008, the hairstylist turned truly mad hatter presented a unique aesthetic that fused the grungy East London look with dark, seemingly medieval sentiments. His first presentation, which featured everything from a clear, cranium-engulfing bulb to a wire cage that could easily have been mistaken for some beautiful instrument of torture, was co-hosted by Thierry Mugler’s Nicola Formichetti. And quickly after his debut, Naisr went on to create Lady Gaga’s famed gold orb hat, as well as toppers for Madonna, Viktor & Rolf and Gareth Pugh.

The 28-year-old London native who, with his signature box-brim cap, scruffy beard, track pants and hoodie, is the streetwise antithesis of his flamboyant predecessors, including Philip Treacy and Stephen Jones, has recently turned to East London subcultures and religious dress for inspiration. His Spring 2012 collection, which earned him a nomination for the Emerging Talent Award at this year’s British Fashion Awards, boasted Rastafarian dreadlock looks, tropical turbans, quirky boxing helmets and Marabou accents. His presentation featured performances by Shiesty and Lioness, two London-based musicians who fuse grime and rap beats, as well as models perched on speakers and a filthy-cool, laidback vibe.

In addition to creating hats for London fashion fixtures like Meadham Kirchhoff and Louise Gray, the NEWGEN-sponsored designer is in the midst of expanding his range of hats to a full-on accessories line, which this season featured an enticing range of ’90s-chic backpacks. Here, the progressive designer talks to us about his spring collection, the ever-evolving English millinery tradition and his plans for the future.

Katharine K. Zarrella: Why is it an exciting time to be a young designer in London?

Nasir Mazhar: We’ve got so much support here. The great thing about London is that we’ve got loads and loads of support. From press, from buyers, from all the magazines, from the British Fashion Council, especially, and places like Topshop. People embrace new design here. People want to see new design; they want to see craziness and people experimenting and trying new things. Much more, I think, than other cities where they hold fashion weeks.

Katharine: Why do you think that is?

Nasir: I hear people say that it’s just English heritage. It’s just the way that the English work, which is amazing.

Katharine: You used to be a hairstylist. How did you go from doing that to making hats?

Nasir: I suppose I was getting bored of beauty and editorial work. I started assisting Samantha Hillerby. I did a season of Milan Fashion Week and we did all the high-end magazines, but it was just quite boring for me. I wanted to create all these shapes that I had never seen before so I started building these wired constructions for the hair to sit on, then they slowly became headpieces. I realized all of a sudden that there was a whole new world of construction.

Katharine: Do you have a background in sculpture?

Nasir: No I didn’t ever study art or anything like that.

Katharine: What did you study?

Nasir: I didn’t do any creative subjects in school. I did P.E. and Home Ec. I was really into sports and eating, obviously. Then I left that and went straight into hairdressing, straight into Vidal Sassoon.

Katharine: How old were you when you went to Vidal Sassoon?

Nasir: I had just turned 16.

Katharine: How long were you doing hair before you went into hats?

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Nasir: Five years. I was 21 when I started to play with hats.

Katharine: How does East London culture inspires your aesthetic and your outlook?

Nasir: I was born in East London, so I suppose you could say it’s just there. It’s always been my surroundings and I’ve seen this mix of cultures—from religious to madness to goths. I can’t pinpoint it…it’s just there. If you’re surrounded by something every day, if you see something every day for the majority of your life, it’s bound to have some sort of effect. It’s bound to be embedded in you somewhere.

Katharine: Do you remember your first hat?

Nasir: I think it was my brother’s baseball cap.

Katharine: What’s the essence of your aesthetic?

Nasir: It’s mainly sportswear or streetwear. But you can’t really say sportswear because when you’ve got headbands with Marabou pompoms on them, it’s far from sportswear. It’s really mixed, I suppose.

Katharine: Your cap is your signature, yes?

Nasir: Yeah. It’s got a boxed short peak at the front with side panels. I just wanted to change the cap. I got bored of everyone having the same shaped cap as me. And I thought the peak was way too long anyway. It wasn’t flattering on me. That was one of the first things I wanted to do: reinvent the baseball cap because it hadn’t changed since the 1600s, apart from the peak used to be even longer.

Katharine: There were baseball caps in the 1600s?

Nasir: Yeah, well, they were six-paneled riding caps, but the peaks were double the length of a normal baseball cap peak. So all that happened was that the peak got shortened.

Katharine: What was the inspiration behind your Spring 2012 collection?

Nasir: I think it was the same that it’s been for the past few collections. It’s not direct inspiration, but I’m always listening to or looking at dance hall music or grime music or hip hop, R&B, and also the styles that surround it—like how people dress, where they live, how they live, what they’re into, what they’re influenced by and what they’re up to.

Katharine: What is your process like?

Nasir: I don’t really know. A hat’s so specific. It really defines an outfit. So it’s not really taking something specific from the research and then putting it into the hat; it’s more just a general feeling. A lot of it’s just the styling—for example, having the two MCs at my presentation, having all those speakers, that helps tell the story or give off the influences more than just a hat by itself, because a hat’s quite small. At the same time, you could look at a hat and do 100 different things with it.

Katharine: What materials did you work with this season?

Nasir: There’s lots of printed chiffon, a lot of animal print and leopard print and zebra print.

Katharine: Why did you choose to work with those?

Nasir: Because they look really good together! I found these vintage fabrics from the ’80s or ’90s, and they’re all these really tropical Miami, jazzy kind of jungle prints. In the last few seasons, I’ve used the leopard print or the zebra print so it helps to tell the story. They were jazzy and jungle-y, and they felt fresh, really fresh.

Katharine: Why did you decide to combine these seemingly contrasting prints?

Nasir: It just looked good to me. It looked right. It’s a bit “hippie,” really. A lot of the time it’s like, let’s just see what happens.

Katharine: The boxing helmet and the blue turban are especially intriguing. Can you tell me a little about those?

Nasir: Well, the turban is basically like Erykah Badu. I actually called it “Erykah Bablue.” I like doing a big head wrap or a big Rasta dreadlock. The boxing helmet is a white version of last season’s pink robo teddy, but it’s much sportier. It had all the padding inside and it had headphones.

Katharine: So it’s functional?

Nasir: Yeah it works! The wires can plug into your iPod or something—it completely works.

Katharine: Where would you see someone wearing a piece like this?

Nasir: Well it’s kind of pushed a bit. It’s pushed to an extreme because it’s a bit OTT. You see girls in Jamaica or even in Dalston or in Seven Sisters wearing these big head wraps. It’s kind of real life, but it’s just certain real life elements are pushed to the limit. I mean, you see women with big head wraps or having dreadlocks—or wearing a hijab. We did a hijab as well with one of the printed fabrics. It’s meant to be for everyday people. It’s introducing headwear to our everyday life. Everyone around us wears headwear. It doesn’t have to be something that you just buy to look good. Loads of people wear religious headwear.

Katharine: Can you talk to me a bit about your religious influences and what role different religions play in your designs?

Nasir: As a hat designer, I like the idea of being able to have something for everyone and one of the focuses of my hats is to reintroduce them into people’s lives. No one has really worn hats for years, but 100 years ago everybody wore a hat—from the cleaner to the king. Now, hats aren’t used as a social [classifier]. You can’t tell if someone wears this hat they’re from there, or from here, etc. But for religious purposes, people do wear headwear, like a hijab or Jewish men have the yarmulke and the huge wide brimmed hats. So why not design something that they could wear in keeping with their religion? Just because they have to wear a certain type of headwear doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have a designed one.

Katharine: Is it your intention for people to wear your hats with their religious garb or are your hats more of a commentary on religion?

Nasir: That isn’t my main aim. I’m not trying to make that happen specifically, but I think you just slowly have to introduce the idea of it. With hats in general, no one’s worn them for so long, it’s just showing people different ways to wear them out; it’s not just a wedding hat or an Ascot hat or just a super crazy hat or something you put on your head if you want to be funny. It’s trying to get away from that and open up people’s views on it.

Katharine: How do you think that your creative street-cool approach to millinery has changed the traditional view of the English hat?

Nasir: I couldn’t say, really. Hopefully it’s done what I just said, or started to at least. I think it has. There are more and more hat people, you know? There’s Stephen (Jones) and Philip (Treacy) who are flying the flag and there’s been a new wave of people, and now there are even more new people coming up.

Katharine: You designed leather jackets and a tracksuit for your spring collection. Are you making a foray into ready-to-wear?

Nasir: Yeah, maybe. We’ve always done certain pieces. We’ve always done a pair of shorts or some trousers, but the menswear isn’t sold.

Katharine: Do you have plans next season to do more ready-to-wear?

Nasir: Yes, menswear. I think next season we’ll maybe do a few more looks and then maybe do a full collection. But my main concentration at the moment is working on accessories.

Katharine: You’ve started to do backpacks.

Nasir: Yeah. We have three styles of backpacks. This season we did three sizes with pony hair, faux fur and leopard print. And we combined sportswear buckles with fur and Marabou straps.

Katharine: Why did you decide to go into accessories beyond hats?

Nasir: I just think it’s interesting—and I don’t think I’d be able to work on hats for the rest of my life, to be honest.

Katharine: Why not?

Nasir: I just think I’d get bored—of anything I did for years and years and years. I always need to make something new. I need to see new things constantly, and the idea of doing bags is really challenging, not that I’ve explored hats enough. I’ve only been doing it for a few years but I just wanted to start exploring bags.

Katharine: What do you think is the most important element of your designs?

Nasir: Is saying new really stupid? I always think it’s something that has to be new. It has to look new—and it doesn’t necessarily have to be fun but I like it when it starts getting fun.

Katharine: Do you have a design ethos?

Nasir: I think that’s because so many things don’t change or they don’t seem considered enough or fresh enough. Everything’s always got to be fresh, like music. We want new sounds. We don’t want to listen to the same music over and over. We want new music to emerge. We want new styles of clothing and new styles of music to emerge so I think it’s just constantly trying to develop ideas; to develop what we already have.

Katharine: How do you think the support of NEWGEN has helped you to move forward as a designer?

Nasir: Oh hugely, but you wonder if it would ever be possible without them. They do so much. Financially it helps in terms of creating a platform that’s visible for hundreds of thousands of people around the world and introducing us to editors and buyers. Doing things like the London Show Rooms, making sure that all the key buyers and all the key editors come. It’s endless what NEWGEN does for us and what the BFC and Topshop do for us.

Katharine: What are you obsessed with outside of fashion?

Nasir: I feel dead at the moment, dead to the world. Music, I suppose. I’m really obsessed with grime at the moment. It’s not respected and there are so many talents. I’ve just been listening to Wiley on repeat and it’s like how could this guy not be signed and how could he be not producing the biggest hits. It’s been around for a good few years now but still it’s new in my eyes because I don’t hear it on the radio. I don’t hear it anywhere. And girls like Shiesty and Lioness. They’re so talented. Put them up against any female rapper or MC, they’re just as good lyrically, the way they flow. It’s just as good. But I guess maybe it’s just a sound that isn’t meant for commercial success, which is really really cool but really sad at the same time because I don’t feel like these people getting as much respect as they deserve.

Katharine: What’s next for you?

Nasir: I think to keep expanding the range like I did with bags and backpacks this season—increase the accessories, keep doing the menswear and I think that’s the main thing…just work on that, work on the range and get that up to scratch.

Johnson Hartig

Libertine burst onto the fashion scene back in 2001, with a collection of quirky-cool reworked vintage duds designed by quirky-cool duo Johnson Hartig and Cindy Greene. Supported by the likes of Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano, Libertine won the Ecco Domani Fashion Award in 2003, was nominated for a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2004 and did limited-edition collaborations with Converse, Target, Goyard, Muji Be@rbrick and Damian Hirst.

Johnson and Cindy parted ways in 2009 and Johnson continued Libertine on his own, with a newfound focus on modernized prints and patterns that made for a more sophisticated, cohesive collection. Today, the line is carried at Bergdorf Goodman, Maxfield, Linda Dresner, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s, along with dozens of stores in Asia and Europe, including Joyce, Isetan, Colette and Harvey Nichols. Additionally, Johnson won the CFDA Lexus Eco Fashion Challenge in 2011 for his sustainable silkscreened collection, the results of which will debut on the New York catwalk during Fashion Week.

Lauren David Peden: Is this year Libertine’s tenth anniversary?

Johnson Hartig: It was ten years in September, yeah. Amazing.

Lauren: Well congratulations—that’s quite a feat.

Johnson: That is quite a feat. I didn’t appreciate it fully until someone said the other day, ‘You know, you just don’t give yourself enough credit. To run a successful, profitable business for ten years is really something.’ Cindy and I both suffered from fear of commitment, so we always took it very slowly and only took on as much as we really knew we could handle, so it never seemed very overwhelming. I guess there were moments but it’s been, for the most part, such an enjoyable process and just kind of level. Cindy and I, of course, had our little bit [of drama] when we separated, but now it seems like we’re better friends than we ever were.

Lauren: And how is the line different now than when you started?

Johnson: When we started, very few people had seen silkscreening on vintage clothing. I’ve always loved American folk art and the darker side of American history, so we incorporated a lot of that into the ideas for graphics. I remember when we first printed an American eagle on a shirt… Wow, this is kind of punk rock—that we’re taking something so iconic and turning it on its head. But quickly the whole aesthetic was adopted by so many other people that I learned by the third or fourth year that if we’re gonna stay ahead of this, we gotta really keep on our toes. The last two and a half years since, I’ve been doing it on my own, I decided I want to take it in a whole new direction, so I was doing graphics that weren’t representational. The first [solo] season I did these dots, I didn’t do any kind of a presentation or show but I did do a video that’s on the website. I’ve continued with that. It just seems newer, it seems fresher, it seems more modern. The line is less historical and more contemporary feeling—just modern and cleaner. I was fearful a little bit, but the Libertine audience been so responsive and we’ve garnered a ton of new devotees.

Lauren: And as a whole, the line is still based on vintage clothes?

Johnson: Yes.

Lauren: Do you deconstruct them always?

Johnson: No, sometimes we don’t. I have decided recently that next season I’m gonna start deconstructing the blazers, which we’ve always deconstructed less. So we’ll see how that plays out.

Lauren: Why?

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Johnson: I don’t know, it’s just a feeling I had within the last couple weeks that I’d like to see something with a cleaner back. So we’ll see. I’m not sure it’s gonna work and that our customers will approve. It does alter the fit of the jacket. It kind of tightens and shrinks it up a little bit, so it might not work. And then we do produce our own button-down shirts, which we could never find enough of, and we did some sequin jackets.

Lauren: The coats were amazing—the black coats from fall and the women’s skirts with the graphic patterns.

Johnson: Yes, I’d been to Turkey for the first time, Istanbul, six months prior to that show so I was very inspired by it.

Lauren: The mosques?

Johnson: The mosques and tiles and all that, so it was kind of a modification of an Islamic tile.

Lauren: Did that sell?

Johnson: Yeah, the crazy thing is after I show the buyers all want the first appointment and I think the whole show sold within a couple hours.

Lauren: What percentage of the collection is one-of-a-kind?

Johnson: I’d say about 90 to 95 percent.

Lauren: You’ve built a thriving business on one-of-a-kind pieces.

Johnson: It’s kind of amazing, and sometimes I think I don’t give myself enough credit.

Lauren: It’s hard when you’re in it. You just put your head down and you do it and it takes somebody else to remind you. So tell me, what’s your background, do you have formal training in design?

Johnson: No. Well, in painting and drawing. I studied fine art at Long Beach State in California, but I always wore vintage clothing and I always messed around taking things apart, trying to figure out how they were put together. I remember as a teenager never wanting to wear new shoes. I would always look for Florsheim Wingtips and I loved the idea that they were already messed up and worn in—and the same thing with clothes, really. I still do love that. There’s something about the familiarity or maybe spirits of people past. I just love it. I love antique furnishings, too.

Lauren: Well, you worked with interior designers, right?

Johnson: I worked with Randy Hatch in Whittier. He had exquisite taste and was a real Anglophile, and he was responsible for me getting involved with The Attingham Trust study week, which I did in Yorkshire for ten days. And he taught me an enormous amount about antiques and decorating. I remember as a kid rearranging my parent’s living room when I was seven years old, bringing in roses from the garden. I was always very concerned with the way things looked.

Lauren: And how has that affected or influenced your aesthetic as a clothing designer?

Johnson: Well, I’ve never really thought of myself as a designer because I don’t know anything about constructing clothing. I’m someone with a good eye that puts things together and adds things to other things and the combination just happens magically. But it’s hard to compartmentalize. It’s just all in me and it prevails over my world, my vision, my eye and training.

Lauren: Speaking of your eye, yours was my favorite presentation last Fashion Week. The clothes, the way you presented it…the models had energy and they were having fun and they weren’t robotic automatons walking down the runway looking glum cause they’re making $10,000 a day. I sometimes feel like, ‘Come on, really? Fashion is fun!’ Yes we’re in tough times but fashion still could be a little bit fun, and you did that and made a statement, too. It wasn’t like you were ignoring the realities of the world.

Johnson: Thank you, because from what I saw I thought it was the funnest presentation I’d seen in New York in the last five years. It was really a super fun happening.

Lauren: That is exactly what it felt like. I was so excited about the clothes and just to be there having that experience. It was like being at a rock concert where you’re just with those people in that room at that moment. It felt special.

Johnson: Yeah, it felt super special. Honestly, one of the best things that happened out of that was my assistant and I were packing everything into the truck to take back to the hotel and this guy came backstage and said, “Can I help you guys?” I said, “Yeah, sure.” And he said, “You know, I’ve never been to a fashion show in my life; I don’t know anything about fashion. I only came tonight because one of my friends is the co-owners of Exit Art.” But he said, “I have to tell you,” and this was, like, a totally straight construction guy, “your show blew me away, and I know that probably means nothing coming from a guy like me, but I haven’t been that excited about something.” I thought, ‘No, it means everything coming from you. That’s fucking awesome.’ It just felt so empowering. It was funny because I had this idea that I wanted the show to look like that. I remember [my publicist] saying this might not go off as well, but I thought, ‘I just want to try it.’

[The waiter comes and Johnson chats with him about his upcoming trip to India.]

Johnson: I think India is gonna change my life. I hope it does—that’s the idea. I’m going this kind of awesome way that my business manager suggested. I hired this firm out of Boulder, Colorado called Asia Transpacific. They organize every detail from someone meeting me at the airport to the hotels, tours and a driver for the whole ten days. So it’s a pretty lovely way to travel.

Lauren: Are you going by yourself?

Johnson: By myself.

Lauren: Nice. I want to talk about how politics and current events influence your work, like the whole “Tax the Rich More” t-shirt, and you’ve done the World War II dazzle boat prints.

Johnson: Uh huh. Well, I guess it inspires me, in that it’s an integral part of me. I care about these things.

Lauren: Do you consider yourself politically active?

Johnson: Yeah. And I’ve always been one to fight for the underdog. I think probably because growing up gay I was an underdog.

Lauren: Did you see that Jonah Mowry video that was making the rounds? He’s an eighth grader now and he’s talking about how he’s been bullied every day.

Johnson: Yeah, it’s fucking hard growing up gay and I don’t think anyone that’s not gay knows that. I mean, every day, every day waking up thinking, ‘Am I gonna get teased? Am I gonna get beaten up today?’ It was rough. But watch that video that’s called Two Lesbians Raised a Baby and This is What They Got from Iowa.

Lauren: Yes, I did.

Johnson: Breathtaking. And I think that we have one of the most articulate, smart, caring presidents in office now that we’ve had since Clinton, maybe. But he just doesn’t stand a chance. I feel like right after the inauguration, he was led into this room and the old boys said, ‘That was a lot of fun, but let us tell you what it’s gonna really be like.’ It’s just awful because I feel like in a way—and I don’t want to get too political, because I’m sure a lot of the Libertine clients are Republican, but I’ve got to say it—everyone responded to that “Tax the Rich More.” I think it was a couple weeks later that Warren Buffett came out with that New York Times article saying, “I’m not taxed enough. I’m taxed less than the average American.” It just makes sense. I’m just tired of big business running our county. Libertine started during Bush and I’ve got to say I was in a very low-grade depression for those full eight years, every day thinking, ‘Why aren’t we waking up and having revolution on the streets?’ I felt, this is my way of saying, “Fuck you.” It was kind of awesome, like Libertine was a powerful little movement. So “Tax the Rich More” was kind of tongue-in-cheek but I thought, ‘It’s a simple way for me to make a little statement on these t-shirts and this skirt.’

Lauren: And you’ve been doing statement t-shirts since the inception.

Johnson: Yeah, but they weren’t political. They were just kind of more fun messages. I don’t know, I just feel so discouraged by the state our country is in. We do have this man in office that really, really cares and he can’t get anything done. We were educated in these institutions that were funded by public money and are transported on public roads, so we all have this obligation to give back. I make a very nice living. I wouldn’t call myself rich, but I think I would be in the top one percent and I’m more than happy to pay my fair share of taxes if everybody did. I’m not gonna feel good about doing it if billionaires are paying eight percent tax and I’m paying 40. It just doesn’t add up. I’m feeling super hopeless. I felt very excited about the Occupy Wall Street movement, but then I didn’t feel like they were organized enough and I felt like half the people there didn’t really know why they were there. This is just a feeling, but I felt like it should have been more focused.

Lauren: Well, I don’t think that’s realistic. Everyone keeps comparing OWS to the radical movement of the ’60s, but we’re looking at that in hindsight, 40 years later. Occupy Wall Street’s only a few months old, and there are so many different aspects to it. It’s going to take time for it to coalesce. People expect them to come out fully formed and it’s not realistic.

Johnson: It’s not realistic, but when you’re dealing with these companies who’s livelihood and continuance depends on it, I think action does need to happen really fast. Obviously we’re a nation that has a very short attention span. And after a couple weeks, people are onto the next thing. I do feel like nothing will ever be the same after this movement, because this movement hasn’t died; they’re morphing and populating, so it still seems very exciting. It’s the first time that something that I thought should have happened during the Bush administration every day is happening.

Lauren David Peden is editor of The Fashion Informer and contributing editor at Rue La La. The former copy director of Vogue, she writes for numerous publications.

Left: Dress, Chanel. Right: Shorts, Eres. Jacket, Louis Vuitton.

Photography by Adrian Crispin
Styling by Ann-Kathrin Obermeyer
Model: Elensio at IMG Paris

Bra, Princesse Tam Tam. Pants, Armani. Belt, Prada. Bracelet, Delfina Delettrez.

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Left: Top and pants, Sonia Rykiel.
Right: Jacket, Dries van Noten. Pants, Armani. Belt, Prada. Shoes, Louis Vuitton. Bracelet, Delfina Delettrez.

Sweater, Hermès. Belt, Dries Van Noten. Shoes, Prada.

Left: Top, Jil Sander. Pants, Dries van Noten. Shoes, Miu Miu. Right: Short, Eres. Jacket, Louis Vuitton.

Top, Prada. Skirt, Miu Miu. Shoes, Chanel.

Image by Paolo Simi

Image by Paola Foresti

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Below images by Paolo Simi.

Below images by Paola Foresti