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INNOVATORS
ISSUE
reese witherspoon, raf simons,
diller scofidio + renfro,
roman and williams, mark bradford,
musical.ly, ryan heffington
Breguet, the innovator.
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w.-
MY C H O I C E
EVENTS
WSJ+ CHEF’S TABLE AT
THE FRENCH LAUNDRY
YOUNTVILLE | 9.16.17
The February 2017 WSJ. Magazine
WYVÄSLVM;OL-YLUJO3H\UKY`
renovation came to life through a
panel, held under the restaurant’s
crepe myrtle tree, featuring chef
and proprietor, Thomas Keller, the
restaurant’s architect, Craig Dykers
of Snøhetta and WSJ. Magazine
contributing editor, Howie Kahn,
Craig Dykers Howie Kahn, Thomas Keller, Craig Dykers below the crepe myrtle tree Capturing the experience
who wrote the February 2017 article.
After the discussion, guests enjoyed
passed canapés while they toured
the kitchen with Chef Keller and Mr.
Dykers. Attendees were then treated
to an 8-course tasting menu with wine
pairings. WSJ+ members departed with
a signed copy of The French Laundry
Cookbook, a wine opener kit courtesy
of Seabourn Cruises, a luggage
[HNMYVT*OYPZ[VÅLHUKZOVY[IYLHK
cookies from the restaurant.
Photos WSJ Thomas Keller An evening at The French Laundry Perfectly paired
@WSJnoted | wsjnoted.com © 2016 DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 6DJ6030
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IN TITANIUM
AND CERAMIC
What’s News.
41 Director Ruben Östlund and actor Claes Bang on
their film, The Square; Jenni Kayne’s Tribeca shop
156
134 96
Clockwise from left: The Shed (center) and 15 Hudson Yards (right), two Diller Scofidio + Renfro
projects under construction in New York City, photographed by Richard Barnes. Poet Lawrence
Ferlinghetti at his home in San Francisco, photographed by Carolyn Drake. Theory11 playing cards,
photographed by Ryan Lowry.
“I’M ALWAYS
TRYING TO
SHOW PEOPLE
BEHAVING IN
WAYS YOU CAN
RELATE TO.”
–RUBEN ÖSTLUND
89
41 70
MAGIC HOUR
ILLUSTRATION BY ALEJANDRO CARDENAS
HANG TIME Anubis levitates Bast (both wear Dolce & Gabbana), inspired by Theory11, a magic company that is a fi xture at Manhattan’s NoMad hotel.
O
UR SEVENTH ANNUAL Innovators issue on the biggest challenge of his career as designer addictive, is this year’s Technology Innovator, while
has arrived, highlighting today’s most and chief creative officer of Calvin Klein: express- in the Performing Arts, Ryan Heffington’s dance-
visionary, foundation-shaking luminaries ing a fragmented American soul through the like-nobody’s-watching choreography has burst from
working across seven fields. As the profiles sprawling $8.4 billion-a-year apparel empire. Avant- L.A.’s underground into the mainstream.
in this issue make clear, these transformative figures garde-minded Architecture Innovator Diller Scofidio Art Innovator Mark Bradford constructs mas-
are crafting a better future from a world in flux. + Renfro is “pushing at the walls from the inside” of sive, immersive works that bridge abstraction, the
Entertainment Innovator Reese Witherspoon has its industry with plans for an expansion of New York’s artist’s personal life and his views on urgent social
captivated audiences in such memorable films as MoMA and for The Shed, a new cultural institution at and racial issues. As Bradford cuts, strips and sands
Legally Blonde and Walk the Line. Today she’s doing Manhattan’s Hudson Yards. Meanwhile, after a career his canvases to completion, he conveys the opti-
some of her most important work behind the scenes of fashioning some of the world’s coolest hangouts, mism underlying all of these Innovators’ efforts:
with her media company Hello Sunshine, produc- Design Innovator Roman and Williams is pivoting to “Tomorrow is going to be better.”
ing Oscar-nominated movies Gone Girl and Wild and retail—including its own store—and a new high-pro-
the hit HBO series Big Little Lies, and in the process file project for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New Kristina O’Neill
reshaping Hollywood’s idea of major female roles. York. Musical.ly, an app that engages millions of teens k.oneill@wsj.com
Raf Simons, WSJ.’s Fashion Innovator, takes through a platform that makes the video selfie fun and @kristina_oneill
Kevin Huynh, Lizzy Wholley EVP & CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Suzi Watford
P RODUC T ION, COP Y & RE SE A RCH EVP PRINT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Frank Filippo
COPY CHIEF Ali Bahrampour VICE PRESIDENTS Robert Welch (B-TO-B), Bill Baldenko
(FINANCIAL), Sara Mascall (TELECOM & TECH),
RESEARCH CHIEF Randy Hartwell
Luke Bahrenburg (REAL ESTATE), Marti Gallardo
COPY EDITOR Clare O’Shea
(MEDIA SALES), Anna Foot (EUROPE), Mark Rogers (ASIA),
RESEARCHERS Colleen Schwartz (CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS),
Laura Casey, Dacus Thompson Paul Cousineau (AD SERVICES)
DIGI TA L AD SERVICES, MAGAZINE MANAGER Don Lisk
DIGITAL EDITOR Lane Florsheim AD SERVICES, BUREAU ASSOCIATE Tom Roggina
CONTRIBUTORS
CASS BIRD, DEREK BLASBERG
& ELISSA SANTISI
REESE WITHERSPOON P. 104
SANTISI; BENJAMIN LOZOVSKY/BFA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; COURTESY OF JOSHUA LEVINE; DAVID X PRUTTING/BFA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; TAYLOR JEWELL
FROM TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT: CASS BIRD, STYLING BY ELISSA SANTISI; COURTESY OF CASS BIRD; COURTESY OF DEREK BLASBERG; COURTESY OF ELISSA
BY THE SEASHORE
Reese Witherspoon plays around during the cover shoot.
Marc Jacobs sweater, vintage swimsuit and Solange
Azagury-Partridge ring. For details see Sources, page 155.
Fashion Innovator Raf Simons’s passion for art has surfaced in clothing he’s designed for
his own menswear label, for Jil Sander and Christian Dior and now for Calvin Klein, where
he’s chief creative officer. To accompany this issue’s profile of Simons, artist George Condo
(far left) created an original portrait of the designer, describing the result as “representa-
tional of Simons out of the abstract.” Writer Joshua Levine (near left) was concerned
that the designer would be guarded but instead found him to be sincere. “He’s invested in
having you get what he’s trying to say,” says Levine. “That impressed and touched me.”
Writer Sarah Medford (far right) finds that identifying innovation requires understanding
its context—and creating within a context, she discovered, is a driving force for Roman
and Williams, the design firm run by Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer, this year’s
Design Innovators. “For them, innovation has to blossom out of what’s been flourishing and
making the world better,” she says. “It’s all evolution.” The portrait of the couple was taken
by another married pair, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (near right), in Sag
Harbor, New York. “We were thrilled to meet and photograph another man and woman who
share their life, love and work together the way we do,” they say.
CONTRIBUTORS
Writer Howie Kahn (near left), who profiled this year’s Art Innovator, Mark Bradford,
was as struck by the artist’s complicated processes as he was by Bradford’s self-possession.
“He doesn’t have to spend time wondering who he is. It seems he’s always known,” says
Kahn. Photographer Sam Contis (far left) sought to capture the tactility of Bradford’s
work in her own images. “I wanted my pictures to reflect that same sculptural quality,”
says Contis. “He’s also just incredibly elegant.” Kahn concurs: “It comes off almost
immediately that Mark is able to articulate love and show it.”
Technology Innovator Musical.ly, the social-media app used by young people to record and
share videos of themselves lip-syncing, reminds writer Mickey Rapkin (near right, bottom)
of his own childhood. “Remember how much fun it was singing into a hairbrush?” he remi-
nisces. “[Musical.ly executives] Alex Zhu and Alex Hofmann have figured out a way to plug
it in.” Photographer Maciek Kobielski (far right) thought of his shoot with notable Musical.ly
KOBIELSKI; EVA COLON; KEILY ANDERSON-STALEY; COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE WALES; COURTESY OF ROB HASKELL; COURTESY OF BRIAN MOLLOY
users, or “Musers,” as a combination of portraiture and documentary. “The idea was
FROM TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT: COURTESY OF SAM CONTIS; KATIE SALISBURY; COURTESY OF HONG JANG HYUN; RYAN HASE; COURTESY OF MACIEK
to show the state of mind of a teen in 2017,” says Kobielski. “They were talented and savvy.”
Photographer Hong Jang Hyun (near right, top), who took the portrait of Zhu and Hofmann
in Shanghai, noted a collaborative vibe between the two that is reflected in their platform.
Writer Ian Volner (far left), who profiled Architecture Innovator Diller Scofidio + Renfro,
attributes the firm’s successes to its polymorphous approach. “In architecture, going
with the flow is usually in one’s best interest,” he says. “To be innovative means not
caring so much, and in a way that nobody’s not cared before.” Photographer Richard
Barnes (near left) recalled another iconic foursome when photographing the architects.
“I was thinking of portraits of the Beatles,” he says. “In fact, I asked Ric [Scofidio]
and Liz [Diller] if they wouldn’t mind removing their sunglasses as they looked a bit too
much like rockers or Beat poets!”
CHARLOTTE WALES,
ROB HASKELL & BRIAN MOLLOY
RYAN HEFFINGTON P. 120
For Performing Arts Innovator Ryan Heffington’s photo shoot, the dancer and choreographer
took to a different sort of stage—the New York City streets. “From Ryan’s work, I get
this sense of someone breaking through the mundane,” says stylist Brian Molloy (far right,
bottom), who worked alongside photographer Charlotte Wales (near right). “We wanted to
communicate that in the pictures with his odd movements and poses, seemingly oblivious to
his environment.” Writer Rob Haskell (far right, top) was inspired by the artist’s commit-
ment. “Ryan seemed to be scheduled within an inch of his life,” says Haskell. “Despite this, he
shows up. He wouldn’t be where he is if it were otherwise.” —Sara Morosi
2018 S 560 Sedan shown in Iridium Silver metallic paint. Optional equipment shown and described. ©2017 Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC For more information, call 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES, or visit MBUSA.com.
SOAPBOX
THE COLUMNISTS
WSJ. asks six luminaries to weigh in on a single topic. This month: Limits.
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T HE WORL D OF CULT URE & S T Y L E
MEN IN BLACK
Ruben Östlund (left), the
writer and director of
The Square (winner of the
Palme d’Or at the Cannes
Film Festival), with the
film’s lead actor, Claes
Bang, outside the Grand
Stockholm cinema.
SCREEN TIME
SCENE CHANGE
GROOMING BY LIS KASPER-BANG
STYLING BY SOFIE KRUNEGÅRD;
As the acclaimed Swedish film The Square arrives in the U.S., writer and director
Ruben Östlund and actor Claes Bang discuss the making of its madness.
BY ANDREW GOLDMAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY SINA GÖRTZ
W
HEN THE BLISTERING art-world satire The in real life; in 2015, before production commenced,
Square took the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Östlund and his producer Kalle Boman created their
Film Festival in May, its writer and direc- first of four installations in Scandinavian cities, inside
tor, Ruben Östlund, a Swede who’d long of which only true human decency and equality were
fantasized about the honor, sprang to the stage, trium- intended to prevail.
phantly pumping his arms and shouting, to the delight Until the age of 25, Östlund lived the footloose life of
of the crowd. However, there was an implausible sulker a ski bum in places like Les Arcs, the French Alps resort
in the audience: the film’s star, Danish actor Claes Bang, that became the setting for Force Majeure. After that
who had expected to win best actor earlier that night film’s release, he found himself a desired commodity in
but instead watched in horror as
Joaquin Phoenix accepted the award,
Hollywood, with various high-budget,
English-language scripts being prof-
COAST TO
for his role in You Were Never Really fered to him; he wanted nothing to do COAST
Here. “I’d read all these predictions with them. “I’ve never been interested
that I was going to win,” Bang says. in being a genre director,” Östlund,
Fashion designer Jenni Kayne,
“I went there dead sure that I was now 43, declares. “I’m only in it for the queen of relaxed California
going to get that one.” While Östlund cultural prestige.” cool, is bringing her West
was bathing in adulation at the Despite the rarefied art-world set- Coast sensibility to Tribeca
winners’ press conference, Bang’s ting and subject matter of the film,
despair turned malignant. “I’d got- a handful of Hollywood household
this season with her first New
ten a little bit drunk, and I tend to do names vied for the part of Christian, York store and showroom.
COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES (THE SQUARE); MAGNOLIA PICTURES/COURTESY OF EVERETT COLLECTION (FORCE MAJEURE); SILJA GOETZ/ILLUSTRATION DIVISION (JENNI KAYNE)
quite stupid stuff when I’m drunk,” the wealthy contemporary art cura- “It’s pared back to exactly
he explains. “And when I saw Ruben tor who finds his privileged life
what I think it should be,”
carrying around the Palme, I just crumbling after he hatches a scheme
wanted to hurt him. I was like, ‘He to recover belongings pilfered by a says Kayne of the shop’s array,
stole my award! I’m gonna f—ing kill pickpocket. But following a stand- sampled below. Her debut
him.’” Instead, Bang went back to out audition, Östlund chose Bang, a home-goods line, released
his hotel to sleep off his inebriation dashing 50-year-old actor virtually
and ignored the calls and texts from unknown outside of Scandinavia.
last month, will feature
Östlund, who was left to wonder why (Östlund didn’t totally turn his prominently. jennikayne.com.
his star had gone AWOL on the best back on Hollywood—as Christian’s —Christine Whitney
night of the director’s life. American journalist lust-interest,
In the lounge of Toronto’s he cast Elisabeth Moss, and Dominic
InterContinental Hotel, where the West portrays a questionably tal-
pair has come to promote the film ented artist of gravel-pile sculptures.)
at the Toronto International Film The press out of Cannes not only
Festival, Östlund smiles widely lis- remarked on the brilliance of Bang’s
tening to Bang’s tale of homicidal performance but also wondered how Basket-weave throw in charcoal
ideation. The director says he’s the an actor who speaks the Queen’s “It’s super nubby, soft and cozy,”
opposite of upset. It’s just the kind of English (and also German) could have says Kayne of this throw, which is
hyperhonest assessment of human remained a Danish secret for so long. made of Peruvian alpaca fleece and
behavior that most interests him, “It’s not something I can explain,” merino wool. $295
a scenario that would be at home in Bang says. “I haven’t tried to hide
one of his films. Force Majeure, the or anything.” One fan noted that
2014 critical darling that put Östlund the actor was a perfect dark horse
on the map as one of the world’s most CINEMA FILE
candidate to replace Daniel Craig
interesting filmmakers, concerns Östlund’s last two films—The Square as James Bond and authored the
the terrible things that befall a man and 2014’s Force Majeure—were both hashtag #bangforbond. (Bang says
who cravenly abandons his family to
chosen as Sweden’s Oscar entries
he recently flew to Los Angeles for a Red-velvet mules
for best foreign film.
save himself during an avalanche. meeting with Bond producer Barbara Kayne reimagined one of her signa-
“I’m always trying to show when Broccoli about another project but ture styles in a holiday spirit. “It’s the
people are maybe not behaving in the way that they want swears that the topic of 007 never came up.) perfect shoe for going to parties or
to behave but are still behaving in ways you can totally Östlund’s famously brutal directorial style relies on a entertaining at home,” she says. $395
relate to,” Östlund explains. “When someone dares to dizzying number of takes for every shot, ensuring that
expose how silly they are, that’s when the most interest- Bang’s showcase role didn’t come easy. “Claes always
ing things always happen.” The Square—Sweden’s 2018 inflates the number of takes,” Östlund insists. Bang
Academy Award entry for best foreign film—is overflow- responds: “OK, now I’ve started to moderate it a little bit.
ing with unflattering human behavior. The bystander I’ve gone from saying 70 or 80 to now saying, on average,
effect, long a pet fascination of Östlund’s, dominates a it was 60.” Östlund shakes his head. “I think the average
showstopping scene starring Planet of the Apes actor would be 40,” he says.
Terry Notary as a gorilla-imitating performance artist Moss is consulted to settle the dispute. “Why don’t Travel pouch in natural linen
unleashed on a swank gala. It’s the most unforgettably we go with 50 takes,” she says. “It was very challeng- “I am a Virgo, and I love being
frightening meal scene since Joe Pesci’s “funny how?” ing and exhausting, but weirdly I would do it again in a organized all the time,” says Kayne,
Goodfellas speech. The film’s titular square is the least heartbeat. And yes, I absolutely think Claes would make describing the raison d’être of this
misanthropic aspect of the project and happens to exist a perfect James Bond.” minimalist basic. $125
ro s e w o o d h o t e l s. c o m
WH AT ’S NE WS
KID STUFF
Clockwise from top:
An anklet, a spoon,
a rattle and a diaper
pin from Sophie
Buhai’s collection of
sterling-silver baby
keepsakes.
OB JEC T OF
DE SIRE
BED COMPANY
HÄSTENS HAS
TEAMED UP
WITH SWEDISH GLOBAL APPEAL
MATERIAL WORLD DESIGN FIRM THIS FALL, ISRAELI CHEF
EYAL SHANI BRINGS HIS
BERNADOTTE
YOUNG LOVE & KYLBERG TO
RENOWNED RESTAURANT
CHAIN, MIZNON, TO NEW
The idea for jewelry designer Sophie Buhai’s collection of baby gifts YORK’S CHELSEA MARKET.
CREATE TWO
E
was born last year when she was pregnant with her daughter.
NEW PATTERNS, YAL SHANI , one of Israel’s
“I was spending a lot of time looking at things for her nursery,” says most acclaimed and eccentric
Buhai, who wanted pieces “that were useful and beautiful, that DEBUTING
chefs, has built an empire
would entertain her.” Not finding anything that fit the bill, she THIS MONTH: on humble ingredients—
APPALOOSA tomatoes sliced like sashimi, bespoke
created a small offering of sterling-silver keepsakes. Handcrafted
pita sandwiches, oven-baked heads
in L.A., the items are made in the same manner as Buhai’s cult- (SHOWN) AND of cauliflower blistered and wrapped
favorite jewelry line. $120–$250; sophiebuhai.com. —Florence Kane MARWARI, BOTH in paper—at his raucous restaurants in
Tel Aviv, Paris, Vienna and Melbourne.
NAMED FOR
DIVISION; ANATOLY MICHAELLO; PATRICK DEMARCHELIER; F. MARTIN RAMIN, STYLING BY ANDREW MADRID
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: F. MARTIN RAMIN, STYLING BY ANDREW MADRID; SILJA GOETZ/ILLUSTRATION
This month he makes his New York
HORSES, A NOD debut, launching a 180-seat outpost of
Miznon, his everything-in-a-pita
TO HÄSTENS’S
HIT REFRESH TRADITIONAL
chain, inside Chelsea Market. The
chef, who taught himself to cook in the
As a teenager, Colby Mugrabi, galley of an Israeli missile ship sailing
now 24, caught the fashion world’s USE OF HORSE- in the Indian Ocean, nearly moved
eye with her blog, Minnie Muse. HAIR IN ITS to New York years ago—but he blew
This fall, she’s relaunching it as
his tryout for Tribeca’s Layla by insist-
a digital digest exploring “the MATTRESSES.
ing on making pigeon stock with Evian
cross-pollination of creative From $41,990; (“water that came from God,” he says).
fields.” An article on exaggerated hastens.com
His Manhattan Miznon highlights
proportions, for example, might
discuss Balenciaga’s spring 2017 more prosaic fare, featuring sandwich
collection, spindly Ruhlmann fi llings that reflect the spirit of the city
cabinets and Joe Bradley’s robot they’re served in, as they do at every
paintings. minniemuse.com. —C.W. branch (coq au vin in Paris, wagyu
in Melbourne). “I want to reinvent the
New York hamburger,” he says.
He expects to move plenty of his
iconic, often-imitated golden
CRE ATIVE BRIEF
roast cauliflower—his restaurants
sell 13,000 a month, he says—a recipe
Anna Dello Russo, a fashion-world fi xture and Vogue Japan editor, has swiped from the mother of his busi-
brought her irreverent personal style to a collaboration with Tod’s. ness partner Shahar Segal. “I get
The Circus collection, debuting this month, features shoes, including the all the credit in the world for the dish,”
clown-face loafers shown here, as well as bags and other accessories. says Shani, “and I didn’t even invent
For details see Sources, page 155. it.” miznon.com. —Jay Cheshes
GOOD SPORT
C A SE:
“ T ECH21 CL E A R
C A SE W I T H
A ROSE- GOL D
BORDER.” From baseball caps to bowling
bags to running shorts, fashion turns
to athletic wear this season.
ALESSANDRA OLANOW/ILLUSTRATION DIVISION (PHONE ILLUSTRATION); ELMIRAL/SHUTTERSTOCK (BACKGROUND); F. MARTIN RAMIN, STYLING BY ANDREW MADRID (CLOTHING & ACCESSORIES); FIRSTVIEW (RUNWAY)
P ERSON YOU
FACE T IME
MOS T OF T EN: P R A DA
“ M Y HUSBA ND
A ND M Y C AT S .”
SIRI USER?
“ NO WAY.
I H AT E HER.”
THE DOWNLOAD
ALISON BRIE
The actress, who stars in the forthcoming film
The Disaster Artist, shows us what’s on her phone.
Number of unread emails Are there times when you stay off
Zero! I open and respond to all emails your phone entirely?
immediately. It drives me crazy to First day of work on any job. I want to get
have numbers floating above my mail icon. a feel for the set and see how appropriate
or distracting phone usage might be.
Favorite restaurant-related app
OpenTable. Gotta get those reservations Favorite Instagram feed
squared away! @everyoutfitonsatc is so good. It high-
lights the many essential fashion moments
Favorite emoji from [Sex and the City], my favorite show
My usual reaction to most things. of all time.
ubs.com /sandwichgeneration
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Special Advertising Feature Special Advertising Feature
“Dinner parties are all about the combination of friends new and
single blueprint.
old, wonderful food and meaningful communication,” says Sally
Shy, a Memphis-based event planner. “But today, people need to
really think about their approach to spurring that communication.”
The old rules no
At the best dinner parties, hosts create an environment that
facilitates the free flow of conversation, through strategic seating
longer apply.”
arrangements, creative place settings and sophisticated tablescapes — JIM SHREVE,
featuring Baccarat that lend even casual gatherings an air of CEO of BACCAR AT, NORTH AMERICA
elegance. Now, hosts are bringing out their finest crystal to elevate
dinners of all kinds.
O
ver the course of history, people have sought to Businesswoman and philanthropist Jamie Tisch is intimately aware
communicate across barriers of all kinds — geographic, of that evolution. For Tisch, the formal affairs of her youth have
cultural, even interplanetary. That’s never been easier gradually developed into something that morphs depending on the
than it is today, but while newer forms of communication have situation, from catered meals of French cuisine to spontaneous get-
made the world smaller, they’ve also undeniably changed the togethers with Moroccan takeout. But no matter what form they
quality of our interactions. take, a great party always begins with the guest list.
That’s only served to underscore the necessity of face-to-face “Whether it’s purpose-driven or just a casual night with friends,
interaction and the social functions that support it — such I like to think about who goes well with each other,” Tisch says.
as the dinner party. It’s a concept nearly as old as civilization “That doesn’t mean they’re all hedge fund managers or all actors —
itself: a group of people gather around a table to enjoy food, it’s a way of stimulating interesting conversations and bri The Wall
drink and each other’s company, forging real connections Street Journal news organization was not involved in the creation
and reveling in a diversity of ideas and perspectives. But like of this content. nging different perspectives together. And of
communication as a whole, the dinner party is in the midst course, it just feels nicer holding that Baccarat tumbler during the
of an evolution of its own. In this new era, every gathering conversation, doesn’t it?”
is an opportunity to make a splash — whether through
an unforgettable table setting resplendent with Baccarat, From there, hosts can enhance their dinner party with creative
adventurous new cuisines or an unexpected guest list. touches such as Baccarat votive candle holders or engraved crystal
that stands in for the typical place card.
A Conversation Piece
“The difference now is that you can use your quality tableware
In many ways, a dinner party is an ideal vehicle for connecting whether you’re indoors or outdoors, whether you’re on a ranch or in
with others and fostering an exchange of ideas. Just look at a ballroom — or even in your own dining room. It feels elevated,
some of history’s most famous social affairs: Mary Shelley’s with a certain elegance and class,” Shreve says. “Every day should
Frankenstein was conceived after Lord Byron challenged his be special. And when you have gatherings with friends and family
guests to come up with the scariest ghost story they could and great conversation, that’s even more special.”
WH AT ’S NE WS
NE X T IN TECH
PARIS COMMUNE
The French capital has won over a star of
Silicon Valley—iPod and Nest creator
Tony Fadell, who is launching a start-up there.
I
N 2001 , Apple debuted its agriculture, food, fashion,
iPod, setting the bar for the pharmaceuticals and biological
game-changing personal sciences among them. “Thanks to
tech that has dominated the the democratization of technol-
early 21st century. The main man ogy, the world has opened up for
behind it, the engineer who came small businesses,” says Fadell.
to be known as the Podfather, was Future Shape is based out of
Tony Fadell, a problem solver who entrepreneur Xavier Niel’s Station
seemed to epitomize the Silicon F, the 13th-arrondissement cam-
Valley ethos. But by 2009, after pus inaugurated this year as the
both Fadell and his wife, Danielle world’s largest technology hub.
Lambert, had worked at Apple “Paris benefits from a great politi-
for nearly a decade, they were cal environment right now,” says
ready for a change of scene. They Niel, who also runs a tuition-free
decided to take a trip around the coding school. “We have a young
world with their three children. president who is start-up friendly.
Along the way, the family stopped France has capital, tax-incentive
in Paris and ended up staying measures for entrepreneurs and a
eight months. During that stint, great disruptive mind-set.”
Fadell wrote the plan for his next What’s struck Fadell most
big idea: the smart thermostat about his time in the French
Nest, which came to define another capital is the sense of community.
tech trend, the Internet of Things. “Here it’s not as crazy-competitive
Fadell sold Nest to Google [as it is in California],” he says.
LOOKING in 2014. He left the company “Everyone is helping each other.”
FORWARD last year, and he and his family But ultimately, he says, it’s “not
Tony Fadell (left)
and Xavier Niel moved to Paris full time. Next about France versus Silicon Valley;
at Station F, the month marks the official launch it’s about working with investors,
Paris tech campus of Future Shape, a firm Fadell finding great ideas—in Asia, India,
Niel founded.
Photograph by founded to advise on and invest in the Middle East—and helping
Robbie Lawrence. technological innovation in what them survive on the world stage.”
he calls nontraditional industries: —Katherine Stirling
M
A staple of M O A R
D
O K R E
O
H L R H
E
T
R A E
the ’80s returns D
IO
IC
H
R
E
F
M O
T
as a sophisti- LV
A
A
cated accessory, S
updated in refined
materials and
subdued colors.
For details see Sources,
page 155.
PAINTED
DESERT
Slouchy masculine attire
in muted earth tones
illustrates the fine art of
Southwestern dressing.
SOFT PALETTE
Top, from left:
Balenciaga jacket, pants
and shoes; Hermès
jacket and scarf (worn as
belt), Max Mara shirt,
Charlotte Chesnais
necklace and Albertus
Swanepoel hat. Middle,
from left: Céline dress
(worn underneath),
Joseph skirt, Derek Lam
belt, Hermès bandanna
and Martiniano shoes;
Givenchy jacket,
Gabriela Hearst dress,
Eric Javits hat and
Sophie Buhai necklace.
DRY SEASON
Left: Dolce & Gabbana
coat, Nehera shirt,
Ralph Lauren Collection
skirt, Artemas Quibble
belt and Dior hat. Right:
Dior coat, Carolina
Herrera dress, Brock
Collection shoes, Sophie
Buhai bracelets and Eric
Javits hat. Model, Cate
Underwood at The Lions;
hair, Thomas Dunkin;
makeup, Deanna Hagan.
For details see Sources,
page 155.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
THOMAS COOKSEY
FASHION EDITOR
ALEXANDER FISHER
dresses To dress the Mah Jong sofa, he drew inspiration from traditional kimonos of the Nô theater. He reinterpreted the
motifs and colors, creating delicate and sophisticated harmonies that symbolize the three times of the day:
the Mah Jong Asa (morning), Hiru (noon), and Yoru (evening).
Photo: Michel Gibert, image for advertising purposes only. Special thanks: Stone Sculpture museum of the Kubach-Wilmsen Foundation.
www.roche-bobois.com
WH AT ’S NE WS
CRUISE CONTROL
RACING AHEAD
As Ferrari turns 70, a new show explores the legendary Italian
carmaker’s history from a design perspective.
PAST AND
PRESENT
A LaFerrari model
in production at the
company’s factory
DOUBLE TIME in Maranello, Italy.
From top: William Kentridge’s Below: Ferrari
book Tummelplatz and wins its fi rst
its accompanying vintage Formula One World
stereoscope; the cover; two Championship
of the book’s stereoscopic Grand Prix in 1951.
spreads, which create three-
dimensional images.
F
OR COLLECTORS and ZOOMING IN
coveters alike, a Ferrari Below: Driver Kimi
Räikkönen at the Russian
is more artwork than Grand Prix. Bottom
mere automobile, as an left: Enzo Ferrari in 1920.
exhibition opening November 15
at London’s Design Museum dem-
onstrates. Marking the Italian
carmaker’s 70th anniversary,
Ferrari: Under the Skin charts the
company’s early road and racing
history, examines its cars’ design
and engineering processes
and considers the high-profi le
COLLEC T IT
clientele, such as Clint Eastwood
PAGE TURNER
ON BE AUT Y
THIS MONTH
DRINK UP SEES THE U.S. STOREFRONT
R
EFASHIONED by bartenders
HAIRSTYLIST the doors to its latest collaboration—a Miami boutique fusing
across the country as a styl- DAVID classic with contemporary, conceived and executed by designers
ish, almost feminine drink, Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci of the Milan-based firm Dimore
MALLETT’S
the classic scotch and soda
NEWEST Studio. “I always admire the way they are able to look at the past
has come sparkling to life with bright
floral and fruit notes. At Chumley’s, with a modern eye,” says Oliver Peoples creative director Giampiero
CREATION:
the recently reopened New York Tagliaferri of the duo’s evocative work. The partnership will
GOLD DUST,
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: MATT MARTIN; F. MARTIN RAMIN, STYLING BY JILL TELESNICKI; COURTESY OF DIMORE
speakeasy, bar manager Jessica Duré also yield Dimore versions of two classic Oliver Peoples frames: the
STUDIO; F. MARTIN RAMIN; ARTHUR HOFFNER, FOUNTAIN, MARBLE, PVC TUBE, STAINLESS STEEL, PLASTIC FUNNEL
took inspiration from Japan’s ethe- A TWIST ON
real whisky highballs in creating her
Rockmore and the Scheyer. oliverpeoples.com. —Scott Christian
six scotch and soda variations. “We HIS BELOVED
wanted to bring it back to the lighter VOLUME
side of things and fi nd flavor nuances
that aren’t so much right in your
POWDER
face,” says Duré. The Basement of THAT IMBUES BIG SPLASH
Thieves, shown, gives Cutty Sark
Prohibition a frothy complexion with
LOCKS At just 27 years old, French
designer Arthur Hoffner has
egg white, blackberry, lemon and WITH A GOLD already been commissioned by
crème de violette while the Hand Me
SHIMMER. Ligne Roset, Hermès and Sèvres.
Harvard uses pineapple to underline During Operæ, the Turin, Italy,
the exotic notes of the sweet and dry $90; davidpirrotta.com
design fair (November 3–5), he’s
vermouths added to Famous Grouse. showing new versions of his
At another New York cocktail reimagined fountains, made with
den, Up & Up, the serious single-malt PVC pipe and other industrial
Bruichladdich Islay Barley finds materials. arthurhoffner.fr
its playful citrus side with the help of
orange bitters and seltzer. The trend
has also taken hold out West at bars
like L.A.’s Honeycut, which offers a tall,
fizzy elixir of Laphroaig Lore, Japanese TIME MACHINES
whisky and amontillado sherry. At
San Francisco’s Pacific Cocktail Haven, Created in the 1920s, Vacheron Constantin’s American 1921 watch had a diago-
the Toki Hi-Ball, a delicate trio of nal dial designed to simplify telling time while driving—then an exciting new
Suntory Toki whisky, soda and lemon activity. This month, as part of its Historiques collection, the Swiss watchmaker
oil, is the most popular order at happy releases a smaller version of the distinctive piece. —Isaiah Freeman-Schub
hour. —Christopher Ross For details see Sources, page 155.
56
Harmony Maker Puglia, Italy
NATUZZI.COM
Special Advertising Feature
THE MARK OF
C R AF T
A different approach to hospitality sparks
a movement in transformational travel The Press Hotel in Portland, Maine
In many hotel lobbies, it’s fairly common to find a bank of computers One of those destinations is The Envoy Hotel, an Autograph
where guests can work, send emails and browse the internet. That’s not the Collection hotel in the heart of Boston’s Innovation District. Once a
case at The Press Hotel in Portland, Maine. Instead, you’ll fi nd a single desolate landscape of abandoned wharves and empty lots, the Seaport
antique typewriter. neighborhood is now home to dozens of startups, biotech firms and
Fortune 500 companies — an East Coast analogue to Silicon Valley.
Here, guests peck out letters to friends and family with the same Opened in 2015, The Envoy Hotel encapsulates the surrounding area’s
satisfying clickety-clack that fi lled the space in the 1920s, when the cutting edge vibe. The mark of innovation can be witnessed in every room,
building housed the staff and printing facilities of the city’s daily newspaper. elevator and corridor.
Its rich history of wordsmithing still resonates today, in everything from
letterpress-inspired artwork on the hotel’s walls to events with local poets. A tech-forward approach emerges in unexpected features, like a pool
table retrofitted with touch screens that helps guests digitally perfect their
“The idea was to create an experience for guests that tells the story of trick shots. And in the winter, The Envoy Hotel’s rooftop bar becomes
the building they’re in,” says Jim Brady, owner of The Press Hotel. “We home to six heated, LED-lit igloos, giving guests and local innovators a
wanted to encapsulate the unique history of the space, and evoke what warm place to bask in the skyline’s glow.
once took place here in an artistic fashion.”
Another Autograph Collection hotel, Tampa’s Epicurean, approaches
For Autograph Collection hotels like The Press, it’s this mark of the craft of food with similar creativity. An on-site culinary classroom,
craft — here, the craft of writing — that defi nes the hotel’s identity. It’s replete with regular demonstrations from celebrity chefs, gives guests
the governing logic that touches every aspect of the hotel, adding depth the opportunity to inspire their inner foodie, while an in-room pantry
and authenticity to each guest’s experience. reinvents the minibar with a curated selection of gourmet treats.
“People crave that secret passkey into local culture, neighborhoods, Ultimately, these features do more than simply make someone’s
cities and places,” says Denise Korn, principal of Korn Designs, which stay more memorable — they have the power to shift perceptions and
helped defi ne the vision of multiple Autograph Collection hotels. “With leave a real, lasting impression. Back in the lobby of The Press Hotel,
the mark of craft, these hotels create a space where people come to not a typewritten letter from two young children to their grandparents
only hang their hat, but also to get the inside pulse of their destination or inspires them all to become regular pen pals; the grandparents even buy
discover new and surprising experiences.” a typewriter for their grandchildren to continue the correspondence in
vintage style.
Epicurean Hotel in Tampa, Florida The Wall Street Journal news organization was
not involved in the creation of this content.
H O T E L N O.
E X AC T LY
LIKE
NOTHING T H E PRES S H OTEL
P ORT L A N D, M A I N E
ELSE
With vintage typewriters hanging from
the ceilings and quotes lining the walls,
The Press Hotel draws inspiration from its
past as the Portland Press Herald. In a story
of rebirth, journalist Ani Tzenkova explores
a one of a kind Old Port experience you
can only find in the Autograph Collection.
A N I T Z E N K O VA E DI TOR-I N- C H I E F, T R E N DL A N D
WH AT ’S NE WS
ART TALK
SHARP FOCUS
A retrospective at MoMA celebrates the prolific,
varied career of American photographer
Stephen Shore, known for his trailblazing work in
color and astute observations of daily life.
BY MARK YARM
T
O SAY THAT the photographer Stephen only a small part of Shore’s career—by design.
Shore has had a long relationship with “I could have gone on producing Uncommon
New York’s Museum of Modern Art Places pictures for decades afterwards. That
would be a bit of an understatement. would have been easy,” Shore says. “What was
After all, Shore was a mere 14 years old when not easy was to recognize that the questions
he met with Edward Steichen, then MoMA’s I had that led to that work were essentially
director of photography, and sold three of his answered, and that I needed to take the more
photographs to the museum. In 1976, at the age of challenging path of pushing myself to some-
29, Shore had a one-man show at MoMA, curated thing else.”
by Steichen’s successor, John Szarkowski, whom Indeed, Shore is “someone who has always
Shore considered a friend and a mentor. And been reinventing himself,” says Quentin Bajac,
now the museum is mounting Stephen Shore, the MoMA’s chief photography curator, who orga-
first U.S. survey of his six-decade career. nized the show. “I would say Stephen doesn’t
“Having a retrospective at MoMA—for a have a style,” he adds. “It’s not that his photo-
contemporary artist, it’s really a dream come graphs have nothing in common, but visually
true,” Shore says. The show is arguably the they’re very diverse.” As examples of the pho-
most significant exhibition of the artist’s work tographer’s eclecticism, Bajac points to the
since 1971, when, at only 23, he became the sec- black-and-white portraits Shore shot at Andy
ond living photographer (after Alfred Stieglitz) Warhol’s Factory in the 1960s, Shore’s lesser-
to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan known landscape photography from the ’80s
Museum of Art in New York. and his series of 83 print-on-demand photo
Now 70 and the director of the photography books, each recording Shore’s activities over
department at Bard College, Shore is perhaps the course of a single day, from the ’00s.
best known for his series American Surfaces The retrospective features all of these works,
and Uncommon Places, photos of everyday plus a number of rare and previously unseen
Americana—a drifter in the Oklahoma City pictures, including images from American
bus station; a pancake breakfast in Kanab, Surfaces and Uncommon Places and black-and-
Utah—that he took on cross-country road trips white snapshots of Los Angeles, taken on a
in the 1970s. Those series are credited with single day in February 1969, which Shore cites
lending legitimacy to the medium of color pho- as atypical for their “jazzy, off-kilter framing.”
tography and influencing In recent years, Shore has reinvented him-
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Graff’s new
Statement Earring
collection features
a pair of dramatic
scalene triangles
formed from dozens
of diamonds. Seventy
carats of stones in a
range of cuts—round,
emerald, pear—are
scattered across the
two pieces, each
of which measures
around 4 inches
long, dangling just
low enough to
graze the shoulder.
For details see
Sources, page 155.
—Sara Morosi
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
PHILIPPE LACOMBE
PROP STYLING BY
DAVID DE QUEVEDO
JE WELRY BOX
ALL THE
ANGLES
Graff’s diamond drop earrings get edgy
with striking geometric silhouettes.
NEW AT SAKS
FROM INDUSTRY
VE TS TO E M E RG I N G
S U P E R S TA R S ,
MEET EIGHT
DE SIG N ERS TO K EEP
TOP OF MIND.
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
BARRANCO
Lima’s most cosmopolitan
offerings can be found in
OLD MEETS NEW
Above: The reflecting pool at the
this beachside district
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo
de Lima. Right: Casa Republica’s
steeped in Peruvian history.
restored 1920s facade.
Casa Republica
Set in a renovated 1920s building, this hotel,
which opened last month, retains plenty
of period details, and its airy rooftop bar
has stellar ocean views. casarepublica.com
Hotel B
This 17-room property in a Belle Époque
mansion has its own collection of contem-
porary art as well as a gallery, Lucía de la
Puente, next door. hotelb.pe
MATE
Mario Testino’s museum displays his own
photography but also organizes shows with
artists from Peru and beyond. mate.pe
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JUAN PABLO MURRUGARRA/COURTESY OF MAC; COURTESY OF CASA REPUBLICA; JACQUES FERRAND; SANTIAGO
BARCO; JACQUES FERRAND; COURTESY OF COOPERATIVE LA ZAPATERÍA HANDMADE; CHRISTIAN DECLERCQ; COURTESY OF DÉDALO ARTE
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima
Opened in 2013, the MAC occupies a light-
fi lled space by Peruvian architect Frederick
Cooper Llosa. maclima.pe
Isolina
This tavern serves homey dishes like crispy
pork ribs and sweetbread stews, along with
pisco cocktails and local IPAs. isolina.pe
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Locals come to this tiny bar for its array
of sophisticated cocktails made with gins
from around the world. 51-9-8663-4193
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From leather bags to alpaca-felt necklaces,
goods by Peruvian designers take prece-
dence at this warren of shops; the open-air
courtyard has a popular cafe. 51-1-652-5400
L
SHELF LIFE EAFING THROUGH the catalog of Gagosian’s that includes the top three floors accessed by their
GAGOSIAN’S
2011 exhibition Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: own dedicated elevators. The gallery’s retail store-
L’amour fou, the reader comes upon a small front, currently on the ground floor, opened in 2009.
paper pocket glued onto one of the pages. It is not only the primary outlet for Gagosian’s books;
one of the most important art dealers in the world. (Cy Twombly, Ed Ruscha), monographs, a quarterly
His empire is global: five galleries in New York, three magazine and newspapers for art fairs such as Frieze.
in London, two in Paris, one each in Beverly Hills, San This month the gallery brings out its 500th pub-
BY MOIRA HODGSON Francisco, Rome, Athens, Geneva and Hong Kong. He lication, Streetlamps, on a series of works by Chris
PHOTOGRAPHY has a space in New York at 980 Madison Avenue, the Burden, the conceptual artist who died in 2015 at
BY JEREMY LIEBMAN old Sotheby’s building across from the Carlyle Hotel, the age of 69. Burden—whose first Gagosian show >
B R O U G H T TO YO U BY HE RM A N MIL L E R ® A ND T HE E A ME S O F F I C E ® .
FROM TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT: JEREMY LIEBMAN (2); F. MARTIN RAMIN (3); RICHARD PRINCE, BETTIE KLINE, 2009, 18 1/8 X 2 1/8 INCHES
1986 New York show The White and Black Paintings: 1949–1952. “I alone. Coming up soon: a monograph on Giuseppe Penone of the COVER TO COVER
(46 X 38.1 X 5.4 CM), EDITION OF 8, © RICHARD PRINCE. PHOTO BY ROB MCKEEVER. COURTESY OF GAGOSIAN; F. MARTIN RAMIN
wanted to distinguish myself in some way, and putting together the arte povera movement and a catalog for Brice Marden’s current Top left: The November
issue of the gallery’s
best catalog I could afford was a way of bringing useful attention to show of paintings in London. quarterly magazine
the gallery,” Gagosian says. “I started out with limited means, but Gagosian says that his publications stand out because he doesn’t features an interview
for some reason I never really thought in terms of a budget or asked, do cookie-cutter books: “We let the show and input from the art- with Gagosian and
Woody Allen, who
Is this cost-effective? I’m not saying that’s necessarily the best way ist influence what the book looks like, rather than imposing a strict were photographed
to run a business, but right from the beginning what I tried to do structure. I want each catalog to feel special and appropriate for together by Theo
was make the best book I could.” that particular artist and the work.” Wenner. Above: A wall
of the Gagosian Shop
The text in art catalogs is generally dense prose by academics. But “Each relationship is different, and each book is different,” says showcases a selection
the authors who have written for Gagosian are drawn from a diverse McDonald. “In what we do, the artist and the art lead.” of books featuring
group, among them Dave Eggers on John Currin, Adam Gopnik on At the end of the day, do impressive books and catalogs have the gallery’s artists.
Edmund de Waal, Salman Rushdie on Francesco Clemente, Geoff any impact on the value of an artist’s work? “This sounds face-
Dyer on Thomas Ruff and John Waters on Andy Warhol. Karl Ove tious,” says Gagosian, “but a crummy catalog can hurt it. If you do
Knausgaard wrote the essay for the catalog of Anselm Kiefer’s 2017 a crummy, cheap catalog, I don’t think it makes people want to run
New York exhibition Transition From Cool to Warm. to see the show.”
TITLE
CREDITS
Gagosian publishes
catalogues raisonnés,
books, exhibition
catalogs, a newspaper
and a quarterly
magazine with a Oldest Longest Best-Selling Most Expensive 500th
distribution of 50,000. Gagosian’s first publica- Ellen Gallagher’s 2004 The $100, 210-page Jean- The $85,000 volume Chris Burden:
Here, a look at tion was a free handout book eXelento boasts Michel Basquiat served Bettie Kline was pro- Streetlamps, out this
some of the most for Rauschenberg: The 1,188 pages and eight as the catalog for duced by Richard Prince month, focuses on
memorable books in White and Black Paintings limited-edition covers the gallery’s 2013 show in 2009 in an edition of the late artist’s sculp-
the gallery’s history. 1949–1952 in 1986. done in silcone. of the same name. eight copies. tural installations.
BR V2-94 BLACK STEEL · Bell & Ross Inc. +1.888.307.7887 · e-boutique: www.bellross.com
WH AT ’S NE WS
STUDY IN DE SIGN
INNER CIRCLE
Venetian-born
Massimo Micheluzzi
evokes the watery
currents around
the Murano lagoon
in his blown-glass
vase, deftly carved
using the traditional
battuto technique
and then polished.
COLOR FIELD
Painterly hues
emanate from Venetian
glass artist Laura de
Santillana’s Tokyo-ga,
a sculptural tablet
of opalescent glass
created with the
incalmo method: first
blown, then slowly
collapsed on itself.
FINE FORM
London-based artist
Jochen Holz used
a process called flame
working to create his
small-scale borosilicate
glass vessels, done
in watercolor tints
and folded over at the
top like paper bags.
For details see Sources,
page 155.
www.sonnemanawayoflight.com
Multiple U.S. and foreign patents granted and pending.
fashion & design forecast
Beachy Keen
Leave behind fall’s chill for a dreamy
day in wistful whites from the resort collections.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAURA JANE COULSON
STYLING BY KAREN KAISER
WADING GAME
A feathered refresh
of the classic
shirtdress. Prada
dress and After
Shave Club rings.
BOOT CAMP
Happiness is
hanging around in
off-duty staples.
Hermès sweater,
Dior briefs, Calvin
Klein 205W39NYC
boots and After
Shave Club rings.
78
NEW WAVE
A crop makes cargo
pants charming.
Michael Kors
Collection jacket
and pants, Ralph
Lauren Collection
belt, J.W. Anderson
shoes and After
Shave Club bracelet
and rings.
BLANK CANVAS
A simple belted
dress exudes natural
elegance. Ralph Lauren
Collection dress,
Maximum Henry
belt and Calvin Klein
205W39NYC boots.
80
BLOWN AWAY
Long layers make for
relaxed style. Above:
Max Mara shirt, Jil
Sander skirt and belt
and Calvin Klein
205W39NYC boots.
Below, at left: Nehera
dress and Sophie
Buhai necklace.
At right: Chloé dress,
J.W. Anderson top
with necklace and
shoes, After Shave
Club ring (left) and
Jane D’Arensbourg
ring (right).
SHORE UP
Oversize shapes
look modern. Céline
T-shirt and skirt,
Joseph pants,
Acne Studios shoes
and Repossi rings.
82
SUNNY SIDE
Take a break in
pale colors. Above:
Joseph jacket, Saint
Laurent by Anthony
Vaccarello shirt
and pants, Maximum
Henry belt, J.W.
Anderson shoes and
After Shave Club
rings. Right: Stella
McCartney jacket,
Céline shirt, Joseph
pants and After
Shave Club rings.
Far right: Loewe top
and Carolina
Herrera pants.
SHEER LUCK
There’s a lightness to
long hemlines. On both:
Calvin Klein 205W39NYC
dresses, undergarments
and boots.
84
PALETTE CLEANSE
Elongated cuffs
make this fitted dress
stand out. Louis
Vuitton shirtdress.
GONE FISHING
Anchor single-tone
styles with a sturdy
boot for kicks. Bottega
Veneta jacket and
skirt, MM6 Maison
Margiela T-shirt,
Louis Vuitton boots,
Jane D’Arensbourg
ring (left) and After
Shave Club ring (right).
Models, Sveta Black
at Muse Management;
Adela Stenberg at IMG
Models; hair, Tamas
Tuzes; makeup, Susie
Sobol; set design, Mila
Taylor-Young. For
details see Sources,
page 155.
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le ading the conversation
T
HE MODERN-DAY American dream is found
within a yogurt cup. Or so says Hamdi
Ulukaya, the 45-year-old immigrant from
Turkey who turned a modest food start-up
into yogurt powerhouse Chobani. With Chobani—a
name derived from the Turkish word for “shepherd,”
çoban—Ulukaya anticipated changing American
tastes before the big food conglomerates did, cham-
pioning the yogurt of his boyhood and helping set
off the craze for Greek yogurt. Chobani is now the
second-best-selling yogurt in America. Over the
years, the company has also made headlines for its
work with refugees and commitment to philanthropy,
notably donating a portion of its profits to charities
since its products landed on store shelves in 2007.
“Magic happens at Chobani,” Ulukaya says. “It’s never
been about money.”
Born into a Kurdish dairy-farming family, Ulukaya
immigrated to New York in 1994 to learn English
and study business. He started out taking classes on
Long Island but quickly burned through his meager
savings and eventually wound up at SUNY Albany,
drawn by the picturesque environs of upstate New
York. Later, in Johnstown, New York, he opened a
small factory manufacturing feta cheese, but when
he saw a listing for a decommissioned yogurt factory,
he jumped at the opportunity to do something big-
ger. Chobani was born, and it was there that his work
with refugees began. As Chobani’s production grew,
Ulukaya needed more help. He learned of a resettle-
ment center for refugees nearby and offered them
jobs. Now some 30 percent of workers across the
company are immigrants. And just last year he gave
employees shares worth up to 10 percent of the com-
pany. Ulukaya doesn’t separate philanthropy from
business: Instead, he says it should be embedded from
day one. “I’m a true believer that you change things in
the practice of business.”
As much as he emphasizes people over profits,
DAIRY KING Ulukaya remains, at heart, a competitive corporate
Hamdi Ulukaya at
the QV Melbourne warrior. “Businesses are powerful, and this I love,” he
shopping mall. says. Having overtaken sales of General Mills’ Yoplait,
Ulukaya is aiming for the top spot, currently held by
Dannon, the U.S. arm of French company Danone,
while keeping an eye on rival upstarts such as Noosa.
TR ACKED
He is focusing on expanding the brand, most recently
HAMDI ULUKAYA
building a presence on the other side of the world. He
bought a struggling yogurt plant in Melbourne six
years ago, and Chobani is looking to take the lead in
Australia’s yogurt market. He has also launched an
Chobani’s CEO is rewriting the rulebook on corporate incubator for food start-ups in Melbourne, which is
leadership and philanthropy. geared toward nurturing companies committed to
making natural and affordable food. As he toured the
incubator recently, his zest for start-ups was obvious.
BY RACHEL PANNETT
“There is no finish line,” he says. “Chobani is going to
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK ROPER
be one of the major modern food companies.” >
8:45 a.m.
Ulukaya visits a primary school in Melbourne
5
employees
where Chobani provides breakfast daily.
The number of people Ulukaya hired when
he bought a disused factory in 2005.
2,200
employees
The current tally of full-time Chobani staff,
around 300 of whom are refugees.
2015
The year Ulukaya joined the Giving Pledge,
vowing to give away the majority
11:20 a.m.
of his wealth to philanthropic causes.
10:04 a.m.
1,000,000
He participates in a tasting of
He takes a tour of the com- Chobani’s new Flip line.
pany’s Melbourne factory,
which opened five years ago.
square feet
The size of Chobani’s factory in
Twin Falls, Idaho, the world’s largest
yogurt-making facility.
9
12:31 p.m.
Ulukaya sits down
lab coats
The number of garments embroidered with
Ulukaya’s name. “I was a factory worker
to a factory-wide for five years,” he says. “For me it’s an emo-
lunch before a town tional connection.”
hall meeting.
7:03 p.m. 5
2:59 p.m. Ulukaya and his fiancée, minutes
Louise Vongerichten, on The time Chobani factory workers spend
He visits Monash their way to dinner with stretching before each shift.
University to announce the Chobani Australia’s
the launch of the senior leadership team.
Chobani food incuba-
tor in collaboration
with the school’s
4,000,000
innovation center. pounds
The amount of fresh milk received daily
from local farms in New York and Idaho.
6
yogurt cups
The number of Chobani yogurts Ulukaya
eats each day. On a tasting day at a plant, he
typically consumes five pounds of yogurt.
3:46 p.m.
Ulukaya inspects Chobani products
$3,000
The amount of money that Ulukaya had
at a retailer in Melbourne. when he first arrived in New York in 1994.
DANISH
COMFORT
After years of generating
original family recipes,
Nadine Redzepi has
put her favorites in a new
book, Downtime.
BY GABE ULLA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DITTE ISAGER
T
HE AUTHOR OF the cookbook Downtime
first embarked on the project when she
actually had precious little of it. Nadine
Levy Redzepi was in charge of the res-
ervations department of her chef husband René’s
restaurant Noma, in Copenhagen, during the years it
held the top spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants
list, a time when the team had to get used to saying no
to the majority of people from around the globe who
wanted to dine there. In 2010, the first year Noma
ranked No. 1, the couple had a 2-year-old daughter,
Arwen, and another child on the way. Nadine had
been dreaming of putting together a family cook-
book but couldn’t carve out the time. “We started
having kids when I was quite young,” she says. “I
wanted to finally do this.” Now her efforts have at last
come to light in a rich, laid-back volume of recipes,
released simultaneously in five countries, including
the United States, Australia and Denmark.
Redzepi, 32, has been cooking for almost her
entire life. Born in Portugal to free-spirited parents
who busked from city to city, she gravitated toward
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T HE E XCH A NGE
saw without consulting a recipe. She toyed with the Ducasse’s Le Louis XV, in Monaco; a homespun take
idea of becoming a chef herself, until a seventh- on the Yucatán stew the Redzepis like to eat while
grade internship at a local eatery made her realize vacationing in Mexico; Portuguese pork chops and
it wouldn’t be an ideal fit. rice; dishes with a clear Scandinavian bent, like cold
That disappointing trial was only the beginning shrimp in horseradish cream; and a fried chicken
of her relationship with the restaurant world. One that is credited to the author’s American godfather.
day in 2005, Redzepi got a call from a friend about a “When you’re at home, who’s to say you can’t mix an
waitressing shift at an ambitious and understaffed Italian idea with a Spanish one?” Redzepi asks. “You
restaurant on Copenhagen’s harbor. It took one ser- can do anything you want.”
vice at Noma for Nadine to become fascinated by the Although the word downtime evokes leisurely
meticulous choreography of fine dining. She asked meals requiring hours of labor—and there’s quite a bit
one of the managers for more work and, eventually, of that in the collection—the majority of the entries
began a relationship with the restaurant’s chef (as are designed to give parents or anyone who cooks
Redzepi recounts in the book, the first time she spoke at home the tools to whip up something a cut above
with René, she asked him how long he’d been work- the usual with relative ease. “I try to make time for
ing there). Even during the height of the restaurant’s this daily ritual no matter what else is going on in our
popularity, she would cook at lives—and whoever might be join-
home every morning and evening, ing us at the table,” Redzepi writes.
almost without fail. René recalls a recent meal of steak
In 2014, while on maternity in a butter and garlic sauce, served
leave with the couple’s third daugh- over rice and sprinkled with cilan-
ter, Ro, Redzepi fell into the habit of tro; Nadine served it less than half
posting photos to Instagram of the an hour after returning home from
meals she prepared for her grow- picking up one of their daughters.
ing family, which by then included “Just enough time before your kids
a middle daughter, Genta, and her start screaming for food,” he says.
mother, who moved in with them. (I “My cousin isn’t the greatest
got to know Nadine that year when cook,” Nadine says, “and I wrote
I began a two-year stint working these with her in mind, anticipat-
in Noma’s office and was lucky to ing what might go wrong, what
try much of her cooking during not to worry about, trying to make
my time there.) In a matter of months, she amassed it all foolproof.” With every step, there are often
a sizable following, earning the attention of a small, additional tips and explanations, including a few that
local publishing house. She relinquished duties at the seasoned cooks may find obvious. Redzepi is keen to
restaurant with the idea of holding out for a publisher point out that she was on hand to observe as each
with a wider reach. recipe was tested by a professional.
Anyone suspecting that Downtime might include Though the remedial chef is often her imagined
recipes calling for ingredients foraged along the audience, readers will also notice how knowledge
seashore, specialized ferments or any of the other gathered from titans of the culinary world is used to
innovations Noma has become famous for will enhance the basics. The godfather of New Basque cui-
discover a more accessible approach, a collec- sine, Juan Mari Arzak, taught Nadine to poach eggs
tion designed for the kitchen counter. In the book, in a way “that preserves all of the white and guaran-
WON’T PAY
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Y
OU CAN’T FINISH dinner without seeing he’s now weighing in on the
a trick,” says Jonathan Bayme, pulling script for installment No. 3) and
out a deck of cards in the restaurant of Kim Kardashian West, Kanye
Manhattan’s NoMad hotel. Bayme is the West and their daughter, North
CRE ATIVE BRIEF
30-year-old CEO and founder of Theory11, a 10-year- (White, a friend of Kim’s, was a “WHAT KEEPS ME UP AT NIGHT IS THE
I
N 1979, a nuclear reactor failure at Pennsylvania’s lance journalist Hagan to write his biography in 2013, early versions of The Right Stuff and The
Three Mile Island plant sent the East Coast into after two previous attempts with other authors had Bonfire of the Vanities, the vindictive but
a panic. Jann Wenner—the founder, editor and gone south. He made his archives available; helped still shocking reporting on the Rolling
CAREER RE TROSPEC TIVE
publisher of Rolling Stone—was vacationing in convince such superstar friends and associates as Stones’ disastrous Altamont concert in
WENNER’S
Aspen with Michael Douglas when the news broke. Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen 1969, the legacy-defining issues follow-
He immediately helped his wife of 20 years, Jane, to go on the record with interviews; and did not read ing the deaths of Elvis Presley and John
catch the next flight out of New York and had his the manuscript prior to publication. It was a bold Lennon (to this day, Rolling Stone is never
business manager draw up a plan in case Manhattan move from any media titan, much less from a figure better than when it leaps into action fol-
CIRCLE
was irradiated, which involved moving the maga- with a wildly mixed reputation who’d left plenty of lowing a rock star’s death). Sticky Fingers
zine’s operations to St. Louis, near the printing bodies in his wake. (I was on staff at Rolling Stone is also the story of a magazine that could
press. But Wenner also sent word to his staff that if during the late ’80s and early ’90s and continue to rise to brilliance. Wenner says—auda-
they left the offices before the latest issue was com- occasionally contribute to the magazine and work ciously but accurately—that his success
pleted, they wouldn’t get paid, and that the editors with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.) has been matched by only two other edi-
should continue to fax him the text of the cover story, Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone, is As Hagan writes, Wenner was aiming high from tors, Hugh Hefner and Henry Luce. (During
a profile of Douglas, so that the actor could make his his youngest days, unable to please his bohemian my own tenure, I recall Wenner’s yanking
own changes.
the subject of a revealing new book about writer mother, struggling with his homosexuality a Public Enemy story I’d written from the
This is the Jann Wenner that we often encounter his mercurial life and his soon-to-end tenure since adolescence. He was late to rock ’n’ roll—in cover in favor of a baffling Thompson rant
in Joe Hagan’s Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of high school, he was a fan of Paul Anka and Johnny at the last minute, but also deftly editing
Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine—ambi-
at the magazine that defined a generation. Mathis—but early to journalism, putting out a mim- an op-ed I wrote about the 2 Live Crew
tious and heartless, obsessed with celebrity, the eographed newspaper at age 11. When his sister, obscenity trial, showing me in a single
polar opposite of the peace-and-love ethos that theo- BY ALAN LIGHT Kate, threatened to start a rival paper, he immedi- stroke where the piece should start.)
retically guided the revolutionary publication from ately asked what she was going to call it. “He knew What we’re left with is a sense of
its founding in San Francisco in 1967. He spars end- that without a name you had no concept and without Wenner’s contrasting sides—what Hagan
lessly with Mick Jagger over the magazine’s name; a concept you had nothing,” Kate later said. calls “Jann No. 1, the seducer; and Jann
destroys his friendship with Inspired and guided by his mentor, pioneering No. 2, the betrayer.” As his power and his
John Lennon by publishing music journalist Ralph J. Gleason, Wenner identified drug use escalate and his empire grows
the landmark 1971 “Lennon the opportunity for a magazine speaking to and for to include other magazines (notably
Remembers” interviews as the youth culture coalescing around the Summer of Us Weekly), he lashes out at those close
a book, against the singer’s Love and the Monterey Pop Festival. Hagan docu- to him, turning on friends and casting
wishes; wrests control of the ments the extent to which Rolling Stone was cobbled aside employees. “Today they’d probably GANG’S ALL HERE From left: Bono, Jann Wenner, Mick Jagger
and Bruce Springsteen in 2009, at the 25th anniversary of the Rock &
name and concept of the Rock together out of existing ingredients, including the call him bipolar,” says Rolling Stone’s
Roll Hall of Fame.
& Roll Hall of Fame from the layout of a local magazine and a promoter’s mailing first marquee writer, Jon Landau, who
television producer who came list. “The whole thing had been begged, borrowed, went on to become Springsteen’s man-
up with it. (Wenner declined recycled, and stolen,” he writes. “But the seams ager. “There was volatility and unpredictability.” be without his magazine? “My life is wrapped up in
to comment for this article.) of Wenner’s Frankenstein’s monster were fused No one bears the brunt of this more than Wenner’s Rolling Stone, my career, what I do day to day,” he
What also comes through, together by his obsessive mania and the newspaper’s wife, who haunts the book’s pages. In the maga- tells Hagan, “and I didn’t want to jeopardize that.”
though less often, is Wenner’s bold statement of purpose.” zine’s early days, the mysterious and glamorous In September, though, he announced that, having
curious magic, the antennae What stood out about Rolling Stone wasn’t the Jane Schindelheim helped define the aesthetic and sold off his other titles, he was putting the magazine
that pick up on talent, trends hippie philosophy but its old-school profession- charmed investors, advertisers and sources who on the block.
and shifts in the culture just alism—Wenner’s ambitions went far beyond the could be useful to Rolling Stone. Over time, Jane The sale follows a period during which Rolling
before they’re fully percepti- street-level underground press of the time. He was recedes into the background, as both she and Jann Stone has stumbled on its countdown to this year’s
ble. “At its base,” Hagan writes never above using its pages to settle personal scores pursue affairs (including, Hagan suggests, an ongo- 50th anniversary, including an ill-advised assignment
of the magazine’s formative (the ongoing needling of Paul Simon, the book con- ing, shadowy love triangle with photographer Annie for Sean Penn to interview El Chapo and the debacle of
days, “Rolling Stone was an tends, dates back to Wenner’s Leibovitz) yet remain linked the University of Virginia rape story (Hagan’s partial
expression of Wenner’s pur- college days, when he and the through a peculiar co-depen- explanation of that journalistic catastrophe: Financial
suit of fame and power…his singer were rivals for the same STICKY FINGERS dency as well as her major stake cutbacks led to the dismissal of the magazine’s long-
own curiosities and desires a woman), but it was its “radical FEELS LIKE in the company’s ownership. time libel lawyers, leaving the story in the hands of
perfect editorial template.” conventionality,” Hagan argues, Wenner finally came out in the in-house counsel with minimal editorial experience).
PART OF A
Simple ruthlessness can get that allowed the magazine to ’90s, eventually marrying former Along with a 50th-anniversary coffee-table book and
you a long way, but it can’t survive the accusations of selling VALEDICTORY Calvin Klein muse Matt Nye, but an upcoming HBO documentary—and now, against
sustain a five-decade career, out that dogged it since its earli- LAP BEFORE the family found peace only when the backdrop of the sale—Sticky Fingers feels like part
and while Hagan’s exhaustive est days. Within 10 years, Wenner WHATEVER Yoko Ono bestowed an award on of a valedictory lap before whatever comes next.
reporting and gossip-stuffed would be saying, “I think Rolling Wenner in 2014 and, at the cer- I remember going into Wenner’s office in 1993
COMES NEXT.
Cartier
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF TANK
17 nrn
SWISS MADE
REESE
WITHERSPOON 2017
With projects ranging from the acclaimed HBO series Big Little Lies
to her production franchise to her growing lifestyle brand, the actress,
producer and entrepreneur has become a force in female storytelling.
BY DEREK BLASBERG
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CASS BIRD STYLING BY ELISSA SANTISI
HELLO SUNSHINE
With the success of
Wild, Gone Girl and Big
Little Lies, Witherspoon,
who produced all three
projects, has been on
a winning streak. “I
wasn’t being offered
opportunities to grow
my company until I
got that third hit,” she
says. Burberry sweater
and Solange Azagury-
Partridge ring. 105
T
HIS PAST MAY, Reese Witherspoon film star Mary Pickford, known as the first America’s come up to me and say, ‘I went to law school because grandmother, Dorothea, a former first-grade teacher, despicable things, and we’re fascinated by them. Witherspoon, Kidman, Dern, Shailene Woodley and
experienced the closest thing she’ll Sweetheart, who co-founded United Artists in 1919, at of Legally Blonde,’” she says. “It’s incredible.” Not that for seeding her love of literature. “When I was around Women are human beings too: They do good stuff and Zoë Kravitz and explores themes of feminism, com-
get to a college homecoming when she the age of 27, so she could distribute her own films, or she’s surprised by Woods’s allure: “You can be unapol- 3, she started reading me big books without pictures, they do bad stuff. What a surprise!” munication and domestic violence. “I remember
returned to Stanford University, where Lucille Ball, the I Love Lucy star who became the first ogetically feminine but also smart and driven.” and she’d do all the voices,” Witherspoon recalls. “I Witherspoon snapped up the rights for Gone Girl— when we went in and pitched it. It felt powerful, which
she studied English literature for a few female head of a major studio when she bought out Throughout the early 2000s, with blockbusters would look up at her and be like, Where did she think “She’s a little sassafras who gets shit done!” says is uncommon as a woman in that position,” says
semesters in the mid-1990s but never ex-husband Desi Arnaz from their Desilu Productions like Sweet Home Alabama and critical hits like Walk of that voice? That started me reading.” Shelves in Flynn—and asked David Fincher to direct. Hollywood Kidman. “Actually, it was fun!”
graduated. Students invited her to be the featured in 1962. However, whereas those pioneering women the Line, which won her an Academy Award for best her Los Angeles home are stacked two and three rows insiders’ interest piqued when it was announced that Richard Plepler, the CEO of HBO, remembers the ini-
guest at the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s were looking for a seat at the table, Witherspoon is actress in 2006, Witherspoon joined a small club of deep with books. She runs her own book club through Witherspoon would not star in the movie. Fincher tial meetings with Witherspoon and Kidman. “A good
View From the Top speaker series and asked her about seeking a larger piece of the pie. actresses who commandeered multimillion-dollar Instagram. “Writers are my rock stars!” declares “had a great idea that it should be a woman we don’t pitch is when you can see that someone is breathing
her multifaceted career as an Academy Award–win- “All we’re asking for is 50-50,” says Nicole Kidman, paychecks per project, including Julia Roberts, Witherspoon, who has more than 11 million followers. know very well,” Flynn recalls. The lead went to what they are presenting, as opposed to saying it,” he
ning actress, producer and entrepreneur. Afterward, Witherspoon’s co-star and co-producer of Big Little Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bullock. But, according Toth told her: “You define the opportunity if you can Rosamund Pike, who was nominated for an Academy says. “They breathed this story. They understood the
she popped over to the dorms with her 18-year-old Lies, citing a 2016 study for the Center for the Study to Witherspoon, that Hollywood game changed in remove the frustration.” Being a doer, Witherspoon Award for best actress. material. They had organic intuition. And they were
daughter, Ava, to surprise whomever lived in her old of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State 2008: “As our friends in the music business under- launched the film production company Pacific “She’s no dummy,” Toth says of his wife. “You get right.” He watched rough cuts of early episodes and
room. “I knocked on the door, and a girl was in there,” University that reported that only seven percent of stand, everything went digital.” She cites the loss of Standard with veteran producer Bruna Papandrea Fincher to direct a movie, and he says the role is right thought, “Holy shit, this is good! It was clear we had
Witherspoon recalls. “She opens it and screams, ‘Oh, filmmakers in 2016 were women. The Motion Picture DVD sales in particular. “We lost about a third of our and the mission to focus on female-centered content. for someone else—so the movie is better, and another something special.” (Neither HBO nor Witherspoon
my God! My mom is going to freak out; revenue, and studios had to recalibrate Around this time, Cheryl Strayed has confirmed a second season of the
she just loves you!’” their development. The first thing to was about to publish her second book, hit show, but it’s a poorly kept secret
The trip down memory lane prompts go was the $30 to $40 million [budget] Wild, a memoir about a 1,100-mile, one- in Hollywood that a follow-up story is
Witherspoon, 41, to ponder what might movie,” she says. “Those are the movies woman hike of self-discovery along the being discussed with Moriarty.)
have happened if she hadn’t left the women star in. Women like me coming Pacific Crest Trail. “I was just wait- Director Jean-Marc Vallée collabo-
university for Hollywood after fresh- up through the business didn’t star in ing,” Strayed recalls, “and wondering rated with Witherspoon on both Big
man year. (She took a leave of absence $100 million movies.” if anyone in Hollywood would make it Little Lies and Wild. Witherspoon first
in 1996 to star in Pleasantville and In 2011, Witherspoon was sent a a movie.” She’d heard Witherspoon was met him when she was looking for a
Election.) After a critically acclaimed script that was so disappointing she on the hunt for content, particularly director for the adaptation of Strayed’s
debut at age 14 in 1991’s The Man in called her agent at the time to com- for women, for her new production memoir. “We started to talk about the
the Moon, why would an aspiring plain. “He told me every actress in company, so she sent her an advance book, and we had tears in our eyes,” he
actress enroll at Stanford and move to Hollywood wants one of these parts,” galley, making her one of the first to says. “Two crybabies in a restaurant at
Northern California in the first place? she says. “There were [roles for] two receive the book before publication. noon. Reese wanted to serve and honor
“I was never going to be an actor who women, and they were both deplorable, Witherspoon devoured the whole thing these words and this woman.” Vallée’s
lives in their car because their dream disgusting, horrible.” (She refuses to on a flight from New York to L.A. (“I was challenge to Witherspoon in Big Little
was so big. [If acting didn’t work] I identify the film but says it was the- a sobbing mess,” she says) and quickly Lies was to be less comedic: “Her
would have gone from Stanford to atrically released.) Witherspoon was got on the phone with Strayed’s agent. instinct is to be funny, but when she
medical school and become a surgeon. smack-dab in her mid-30s, a time when Within days, she and Strayed were needs to be dramatic she can get there
Right now, I’d probably be the premier talent and even ambition aren’t always having long conversations about love, right away. It looks so easy for her to do
surgeon and pediatric cardiologist at enough in the movie industry for loss and motherhood—not the typical her magic in front of the camera. She
Vanderbilt University,” she says, paus- women. “I thought, This is my line in celebrity chitchat Strayed expected. arrives on set and five minutes later—
ing. “What? I’m just being honest. I’m the sand. We women are too talented to Unbeknownst to Witherspoon, Strayed bang! It takes some actors time to get to
ambitious, and I’m over hiding that.” be fighting over roles like this.” kept notes during their calls and still these places, but Reese? Five minutes.”
“Of all the nasty words I’ve heard Witherspoon confessed her frus- has the notebooks. “I can look at them During filming in and around
that are used to describe women, tration to her husband, Jim Toth, an and say she made a lot of promises on Monterey, California (an artis-
the one that has the ugliest connota- agent at Creative Artists Agency who those phone calls—and she honored all tic license from the original story,
tions is ambition,” says Laura Dern, represents 15 of Hollywood’s big- of them,” Strayed says. which was set in suburban Australia),
Witherspoon’s friend and co-star in the gest movie stars, including Matthew Wild was published in 2012. The Witherspoon was sometimes in dis-
2014 film Wild and this year’s seven- McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson and film, the rights to which Witherspoon belief that so many top actresses were
part HBO series Big Little Lies. “I don’t Robert Downey Jr. (With Toth, whom acquired “with my own money,” came in a single project. “Laura, Nicole and
know why that’s declared conniving she married in 2011, Witherspoon has out two years later and hauled in I kept looking around saying, ‘We
for women, because I’m constantly a son, Tennessee, 5. With her first hus- $52.5 million worldwide at the box would never be on set together!’” she
inspired by Reese’s ambition. You have band, actor Ryan Phillippe, whom she office. “She gave me a big gift as a new says. “My part is equitable to her part,
a dream? She makes it happen.” Association of America found that women accounted was married to from 1999 to 2007, she has Ava and a producer,” Witherspoon says of Strayed. The film, woman gets a great role too: That’s a win-win.” which is equitable to Laura’s part, which is equitable
In the past decade, Witherspoon, mother of three, for 52 percent of moviegoers in the same year. “A lot son, Deacon, 14.) “She was saying to me, ‘Everything I adapted by Nick Hornby (thanks to Witherspoon, Furthermore, shooting schedules for Wild and Gone to Shailene’s and Zoë’s.” (It was the first time that
top-earning actress, powerful producer and, most of women procrastinate or say, ‘I’ll do something,’” get offered is crap,’” Toth says. “I told her, ‘Even though who approached him to be a part of the project), Girl clashed, so without Witherspoon in the latter, Witherspoon and Kidman worked together, and tab-
recently, fashion designer, has become a new face of says Kidman. “But Reese is a doer.” She finds it I’m your husband, I’m still an agent, and I know the earned her and Dern Academy Award nominations both filmed simultaneously. The result: For 11 weeks loids reported infighting between them, which both
feminist filmmaking. Last year, the New Orleans– thrilling to watch Witherspoon bounce between her group that gets the first offers on all the good parts— for best actress and best actress in a supporting role, Witherspoon’s production company had two of the women find ridiculous. In conversation, Kidman
born, Nashville-raised entrepreneur founded Hello duties as an actress, producer, designer and mother. and it’s you. There’s just nothing good out there.’” respectively. “It was a fairy tale,” Strayed says. “If I year’s top women-focused films at the box office at refers to Witherspoon as “my baby sister.”)
Sunshine, dedicated to realizing stories about women. “I always say to her, ‘You don’t understand how rare Then Toth helped Witherspoon identify an asset she weren’t me I would want to smother me.” the same time. Witherspoon is especially proud of Big Little Lies
She had created her own production companies in the this is!’ To her, it’s like, ‘Yeah, now what?’She can do had that some of his own clients didn’t: “Reese is a Around the same time, Witherspoon was option- She’s bringing women’s stories to the small screen because it was her “hat trick,” referring to her third
past, including Type A Films, founded in 2003 and it all standing on her head.” reader—a voracious one.” ing another female writer’s book: Gillian Flynn’s as well. Big Little Lies was one of 2017’s biggest TV win as a producer. “I wasn’t being offered opportuni-
later dissolved, and then Pacific Standard in 2012. But On-screen, Witherspoon is best known for play- Witherspoon starts and ends her days with her Gone Girl, a thriller about a jaded wife who fakes her sensations. Based on Liane Moriarty’s darkly come- ties to grow my company until I got that third hit,” she
Hello Sunshine (which absorbed Pacific Standard) is ing women who get things done, from Tracy Flick nose in a book, nonfiction in the morning (“something own murder to incriminate her cheating husband. dic novel about a group of mothers with grade-school says, noting that’s not always the case with first-time
poised to become a Hollywood juggernaut, spanning in Election to June Carter Cash in Walk the Line that gives me food for thought,” she says) and fiction Flynn had doubts about the book’s Hollywood poten- children and a murder at a school fundraiser, it stars male filmmakers. “A guy has one hit at Sundance, and
feature films, TV series and digital content. The Oscar- to Madeline Martha Mackenzie in Big Little Lies. in the evening (“escapism!”). “I read every night in tial. “I got a lot of feedback that it was complicated he gets Jurassic World.”
nominated movies Wild and Gone Girl, as well as Big Her most iconic role is Elle Woods, a pink-loving, the bath, and if it’s good I keep reading in bed,” says and hard to unravel, which I think was code for, ‘Oh, it Last year, Witherspoon announced the forma-
Little Lies, which won eight Emmy Awards (including Chihuahua-toting sorority girl whose ditziness belies Witherspoon, who regularly finishes a book in a single stars a woman? Pass!’” she says, adding she couldn’t BLONDE AMBITION tion of Hello Sunshine, a production franchise with
one for outstanding limited series), were all projects her intelligence and who trades California frat parties sitting or has three going at once. In June, she did a understand why a morally complex female was such a “She’s a little sassafras who gets shit done,” says Otter Media, the joint venture between the Chernin
Gillian Flynn, whose bestseller Gone Girl Witherspoon
produced by Witherspoon from books she discovered for Harvard Law School in 2001’s Legally Blonde and deep dive into Joan Didion. In August, she decided to foreign concept. “Don Draper. Tony Soprano. Walter optioned for the Oscar-nominated 2014 film. This page Group and AT&T. Witherspoon has a team of 15
and optioned. She’s the 21st-century version of silent its 2003 sequel. “At least once a week I have a woman read all of Ann Patchett’s books. She cites her paternal White. We have all these male antiheroes that do and opposite: Gucci sweater. employees, and they have a full slate ahead: four
106
BOOKWORM
“Writers are my rock stars!”
says Witherspoon, who starts
and ends her days reading
and runs her own book club
via Instagram. Gucci shirt,
Chanel swimsuit, Solange
Azagury-Partridge ring (left)
and her own ring (right).
CAMERA READY
“Her instinct is to be
funny, but when she
needs to be dramatic
she can get there right
away,” says Jean-Marc
Vallée, who directed
Witherspoon in Wild
and Big Little Lies.
Narciso Rodriguez
shirt, vintage swimsuit
and towel and Jennifer
Fisher necklace.
HAPPY DAYS feature films and six television shows in various
“I remember when we forms of development. This summer, news broke
went in and pitched it,”
says Nicole Kidman of that actress and producer Jennifer Aniston would
Big Little Lies, which return to television with Witherspoon in a show co-
she co-produced and produced by Hello Sunshine. (It will be the second
co-starred in with
Witherspoon. “It felt time they’ve appeared on the small screen together:
powerful—it was fun!” Witherspoon played Aniston’s younger sister on
Marc Jacobs sweater and Friends in 2000.) In March, director Ava DuVernay’s
vintage swimsuit. Hair,
Tamara McNaughton;
A Wrinkle in Time, co-starring Witherspoon, Oprah
makeup, Romy Winfrey and Mindy Kaling, hits theaters. The film
Soleimani; manicure, is based on Madeleine L’Engle’s acclaimed novel of
Lolly Koon. For details
see Sources, page 155.
the same name and marks the first time an African-
American female directs a movie with a budget
over $100 million. Witherspoon also acquired the
rights to several books, including Eleanor Oliphant
Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman, and Luckiest
Girl Alive, by Jessica Knoll.
Witherspoon’s desire to tell stories centered
around females has spilled into areas beyond
Hollywood, too. In 2015, she launched Draper James,
a lifestyle brand with three stand-alone stores (with
another opening by the end of 2017) and business at
Net-a-Porter and Nordstrom. The collections include
ready-to-wear, accessories and home goods. A best-
seller is a tote bag that says totes y’all.
“Well, I was being approached by other brands
that were based in the Northeast, and I thought, I
don’t really know anything about that, but what I
do know is how beautiful the South is, and I had this
incredible upbringing there,” says Witherspoon, who
owns a house in Nashville, where her parents live, and
named the company after her paternal grandparents,
Dorothea Draper and William James Witherspoon.
Southerners “are proud about their culture and their
values—and they should be.” Sales for Draper James
have doubled for the past two years.
“Reese is like every other founder I work with, and
I mean that as a compliment,” says Kirsten Green, the
founder of Forerunner Ventures, a venture capital
fund that has invested in high-performing start-ups,
including Draper James, Birchbox, Glossier and
Warby Parker. “She doesn’t keep business hours. She is
always available, always interested, always weighing
her options. This is not just another celebrity brand.”
Elizabeth Arden also announced this year that
Witherspoon is the “storyteller in chief” of the brand,
which is a new sort of spokesperson that transcends
print and commercial modeling. It’s a job Witherspoon
didn’t wait to come to her: She personally called Ron
Perelman, the head of Revlon, Arden’s parent com-
pany, and asked him to lunch to discuss a potential
collaboration. At the restaurant, “I brought one of my
people with me, and she came alone,” Perelman says.
“That to me is very impressive. When an individual,
whoever it is, is strong enough and powerful enough
that they show up and say, ‘Boom, here I am.’ ”
Though Witherspoon realized in her 30s that acting
wasn’t her only skill, she still treats all meetings—
whether about financing or pitching a TV show—like
an audition. “I know I’m good at things,” she says. “And
I’m over being bashful about it. Do basketball players
have to sit there and act coy? Tell me something: Does
LeBron James twiddle his thumbs and say, ‘Jeez, I’m
kind of great at shooting, and I guess I’m OK at drib-
bling and passing’? No, he’s like, ‘I’m amazing! I rock!’
I wish more actresses had that kind of bravado.”
111
DESIGN INNOVATOR
ROMAN AND
WILLIAMS 2017
BY SARAH MEDFORD
PORTRAIT BY INEZ & VINOODH
T
HEIR BEST-KNOWN work may be syn- her Montauk garden surveying the bolted artichokes Paltrow and sexed up the youth hostel for millenni-
onymous with an epic weekend on and chest-high stands of mint. Behind her was an als with Freehand, a chain of light-filled hangouts in
the town, but Robin Standefer and oak table riven almost clean through by a widening Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and, soon, New York.
Stephen Alesch of design power- crack. “We call these timber experiments,” she said, Bucking the perception of themselves as nostalgists
house Roman and Williams rarely running her hand over the scar. The ’70s-era piece from the “Benjamin Button school of design,” as one
sample such wild revelry themselves. has lived outdoors for a few years and is advancing critic put it, or prestidigitators in the mold of master
They’ve created interiors for some of New York’s hot- from research project to victim of Long Island meteo- decorator Renzo Mongiardino, Standefer and Alesch
test draws—including multistar French restaurant rology. “It’s what they call fine furniture—or it was,” regard themselves simply as storytellers.
Le Coucou and the Dionysian, amber-dipped lounge her husband added with a shrug. An indifference to “There’s a fusion—Robin and Stephen are always
atop the Standard Hotel colloquially known as the such prescribed labels is one reason Standefer, 53, looking for it—of a space, the people who will inhabit
Boom Boom Room. Yet when they’re off duty, the and Alesch, 51, are at the forefront of design today, it and the food,” says chef Daniel Rose of his col-
two head straight from their loft in lower Manhattan says hotelier Ian Schrager, who’s followed their laborators on Le Coucou, where he and restaurateur
to Montauk, on Long Island’s ragged southern tip, work for over a decade and has signed them to do an Stephen Starr have re-envisioned classic French
where they share a spruced-up ’50s bungalow on Edition hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland. (“I give them all cuisine amid Roman and Williams’s whitewashed
two overgrown acres. Alesch surfs and plays in his the hard ones,” he says, laughing.) brick walls and mullioned windows. “A harmony that
woodshop; Standefer throws pots and tends to a ram- “I was impressed that Robin and Stephen had they’re able to create between the inanimate archi-
bling garden. Their homemade universe is artfully come from the movie industry, without the burden of tecture and the living, breathing activity. You end up
composed, but the real pleasure for them lies less in any rules,” Schrager says, referring to their start in infusing the whole experience with an energy that’s
what the place looks like than in what unfolds there. art direction and production design for film. “They cyclical. They’re artists.” What the contemporary art
In this sense, their most personal creation shares approach everything in a kind of novel, original way. I world has labeled relational aesthetics—the act of
its DNA with their most emphatically public ones— work with a number of very talented people, and they cooking, serving and eating, for instance—resonates
a set of high-profile projects due to multiply, as the each have a ‘look.’ And then I work with people like with the designers. It’s not that they’d call what they
world of Roman and Williams takes on dimensions Roman and Williams and Herzog & de Meuron, and practice fine art, but they do think of the people who
its husband-and-wife partners couldn’t have fore- they don’t have a signature look. Every time they step move in and out of their settings as protagonists, set-
seen just a few years ago. Underway is a reimagining up they’re doing something else. Robin and Stephen ting any number of new stories in motion and lending
of the British Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum are some of the best, if not the best, in their generation.” essential spontaneity to their work.
of Art; the restaurant at downtown Manhattan’s Alesch and Standefer and their 35-person studio, “The idea of order and disorder is huge for us,”
Perelman Center, a cultural hub tucked inside a glass which has been based in New York City since 2004, Standefer says. “Organization, then freedom. The volt-
cube by architect Joshua Prince-Ramus of REX; a new have restaked the boundaries of traditional interior age comes from the two things not being resolved.”
hotel in London; and a signature collection of furni- design to encompass architecture, product design
ture, lighting and accessories. And the end of this and brand development. They have dreamt up a post-
year sees the launch of their first retail store, Roman collegiate mess hall for Facebook, improvised on the TWO’S COMPANY Robin Standefer and Stephen
and Williams Guild NY, an ode to the material world teak interiors of a classic motor yacht for The Stage Alesch are partners in life and work. “New York rigor meets
California dreamin’ ” is how hotelier Sean MacPherson,
in all its seductive, mercurial beauty. restaurant in Milan, conjured a lavender-tinged an old friend, describes them. Hair, Jimmy Paul; makeup,
One afternoon this past July, Standefer stood in cloud from a Tribeca, New York, loft for Gwyneth Fulvia Farolfi.
113
Before he interviewed the designers for the job at more alike than they seem. They each had bohemian to their credit: a house in the Hollywood Hills for needle on settings like summer camp and the army stoneware to spriggy soft-paste porcelain, will be Paris—would mean a stylistic sand trap. “Robin and
the Met, Luke Syson, the museum’s Iris and B. Gerald mothers who encouraged them creatively: Standefer actor/director Ben Stiller and his then-wife Christine canteen, with knotty-pine refectory tables and rafts unearthed from storage and exhibited together in Stephen are great escape artists,” says MacPherson.
Cantor chairman of the department of European studied painting at Vassar and New York’s Art Taylor, whom they’d worked with on Zoolander and of mismatched chairs lined up like sentinels under the round—by shape and ornamentation, not date— As research for the Met project, the couple have
FROM LEFT: STEPHEN ALESCH; MIKKEL VANG; ERIC LAIGNEL; ADRIAN GAUT; KATHARINA; DITTE ISAGER; JESSICA SAMPLE FOR GOOP; STEPHEN ALESCH
sculpture and decorative arts, took a few colleagues Students League and did a brief stint as a gallery girl Duplex. A Pacific Palisades remodel quickly fol- vintage-style factory lights. Reinforcing the ad hoc inciting what Standefer hopes will be major “object been reading Christopher Dresser, the late-19th-
on a “pub crawl,” as he puts it, to see Roman and for art dealer Leo Castelli, while Alesch nurtured a lowed for Kate Hudson and her then-husband, Chris vibe, the sprawling space was stripped down to the lust.” More of that should arrive via the Cassiobury century British designer and polymath who was also
Williams’s bars and restaurants. The curators prodigious talent for drawing and design in the offices Robinson, frontman for the Black Crowes. equivalent of its underwear, exposing concrete floors Stair, a wonder of English Baroque woodcarving an accomplished botanist. Dresser’s book Unity in
knew they needed to address shifting perceptions of several L.A. architects. They came to film indepen- “The first design drawing I received from Stephen and wood-framed ceilings where sprinkler heads and that’s been on view, but off limits, since 1932. In a Variety makes the case that a single set of evolutionary
of museums as social hubs that also display art; a dently and met in 1992 on the production of writer/ was something I could have framed and hung on my speakers now reside. Standefer says the end result, challenge to museum orthodoxies, it will soon be rules extends to all members of the plant kingdom, and
design team that understood “how to make you feel director Michael Tolkin’s romantic satire The New wall,” Hudson says, adding that she and Standefer more subtraction than addition, is “all about work in climbable—the first time in the Met’s history that an his own protean career has inspired them as Roman
happy in a space” was essential, Syson says. So was Age. A live-in relationship and sets for over a dozen “really connected as friends.” The renovation was progress. You’re always reaching.” object from the British collection gets daily use. and Williams enters a more mature phase, folding in
one that would be turned on by the evolutionary arc more titles (among them Addicted to Love, Practical a headlong plunge into Islamic artisanship crossed The conception of any interior as fundamentally Nearly a hundred blocks south, in a cavernous retail, large-scale international projects and cultural
of the decorative arts. “We’re trying to create gal- Magic and Zoolander) followed, until collaborating with ’60s rock-star escapism. To realize it, the unfinished is a Roman and Williams tenet, and it’s former bank between Howard and Canal streets that commissions. If anything, understanding their cre-
leries that feel as though they’ve always been here on places that looked achingly real became a daily designers followed a working approach that they still played a role in the creation of Goop Lab, a new flag- once housed New York City’s earliest department ativity as part of a continuum has freed the duo to
and, at the same time, will look like nothing anyone reminder that their work would be trapped forever adhere to: After conceptualizing a project together, ship store for Goop, the lifestyle brand founded by store, Standefer and Alesch’s personal recipe for liv- aim ever higher. Dresser himself might admire their
has ever seen,” Syson explains. “You’re not coming on celluloid. It wasn’t enough that at the end of each Alesch leaves the social intricacies of client rela- Paltrow. Just opened in L.A.’s Brentwood neighbor- scope, from the Fitzroy condo building rising on New
in and thinking, ‘What the eff have they done?’ but, gig, according to their friend and two-time director tionships to his wife, while she cedes the visual hood, the “atelier,” as Standefer calls it, includes York’s High Line to a crystal chandelier for Lalique to a
‘Oh, wow. I’ve never seen that before.’ That’s what I Griffin Dunne, the cast would fight over pieces they’d presentation of their aesthetic to him. a kitchen, an apothecary area, a wall for compos- sleek NoMad hotel in London and a series of food halls
think Robin and Stephen do.” Roman and Williams designed before the set was summarily trashed. On rare occasions, the lines get erased. One of ing outfits, a greenhouse and a rolling bar cart. It’s “YOU’RE NOT THINKING, for chef Anthony Bourdain, nearing realization after
was an underdog pick, beating out over a half-dozen Despite their frustrations with film, says Alesch, these arose in 2006, when Alex Calderwood, the late just the newest entry in the actress-turned–well- ‘WHAT THE EFF HAVE three years. “I said to them, ‘I kind of want it to look
international architecture firms for the prestigious “We loved the idea that you devote yourself to a nar- co-founder of the Ace Hotel brand, saw photos of a ness mogul’s ongoing dialogue with the designers, THEY DONE?’ BUT, ‘OH, like a postapocalyptic Grand Central Station—if it was
$20 million project, which will open in late 2019 on rative. If you were stronger than the film, they’d fire house they’d designed and hired the pair (and their who have worked with her on multiple personal and occupied by Asian street vendors. Or Blade Runner.’”
the cusp of the Met’s 150th anniversary. you. Big time.” Even within that sometimes-banal growing studio) to join him in a radical unwinding professional projects. “We wanted to leverage the
WOW. I’VE NEVER SEEN says Bourdain. “They jumped right in.”
I
reality, they found they could invent a new visual of the city hotel model in New York. The lobby-as- incredible sense of texture and uniqueness that Robin THAT BEFORE.’ ” Alesch compares the project to a platter of per-
N ALL THE obvious ways, Standefer and Alesch language. “The humble, the mundane, and also the Scottish-keg-party that resulted still seems made and Stephen bring to residential work for a retail –LUKE SYSON fectly charred octopus he’s just put on the table for
are complete opposites. She is a petite, quick- extraordinary,” Standefer says. “That tension exists for millennial carousing a decade later—all squashy space,” Paltrow says. “The execution on their side is lunch in Montauk. “It’s been slow roasting, like the
witted and socially attuned New Yorker in almost everyone I’ve ever met. We loved finding our chairs, wall-mounted box speakers and a corner bar always exceptional, not to mention otherworldly.” most incredible piece of barbecue,” he says, taking a
who dresses like a glamorous blackbird, her rhythm through those stories.” Along the way, they with glass jars glowing against oak-paneled walls. If Goop Lab has been a friends-and-family outing ing will soon be on display for the first time. Conceived seat at the picnic table, “120 degrees for 400 hours.
center-parted hair pulled into a tight chignon; discovered a shared taste for vernacular objects, the The Ace sealed their reputation, and almost for Roman and Williams, the Met marks its big-league around the idea of a nurturing domestic space not Or longer.” Bourdain’s pace doesn’t bother them, he
he is the quintessential Southern California no-name finds that became workhorses on their sets, instantly, Facebook commissioned a cafeteria for debut. Syson says that the firm has taken the Met’s unlike their own, The Guild will include a shop/cafe/ says. After 25 years of partnership, he and Standefer
surfer dude, a laconic wit with a Van Dyke beard and a joint dislike of “peacocky” ones—Alesch’s term its Menlo Park, California, campus. Roman and objects to heart and kept them at the center of its flower market stocking a furnishings collection with have grown skeptical of the flimsy way success is
and a Bunyonesque build who favors flannels and for egocentric designs that put showing off before Williams’s practice is nothing if not analog, rooted in thinking: “Many, many architects and designers, over 65 pieces (burnished-leather sling chairs, neo- framed in the design world.
the rubber boots of a scallop farmer. Their friend basic functionality. hand-drawing and an obsessional devotion to craft. let me be honest, have an umbrella view into which industrial wall lights, paints and textiles) as well as “So often it’s just a cleverness race,” he says, div-
Sean MacPherson, the impresario behind New York’s By the time the couple finally quit film work, in But early talk between the two firms revealed shared you are expected to fit whatever it is you are doing.” objects they’ve sourced from a cadre of global arti- vying up the dish as he talks. “A lot of innovation is
Bowery Hotel and the Waverly Inn and a West Coast 2002, they’d opened an office in L.A. and gone looking interests in simplicity, reliability and common sense, Following two years of intense research, Roman and sans. Chef Marie-Aude Rose, Daniel Rose’s wife, will trying to get away from doing work. Imagine you
transplant himself, dubs the pair “New York rigor for a name with an establishment ring to it, one that values overlooked in the rush to invent new technolo- Williams has engaged with nearly every aspect of run the French-themed cafe; Standefer plans to school need to dig a hole in the garden. Some people will just
meets California dreamin’.” “I joke about that, but I wouldn’t highlight their lack of credentials (neither gies. (Alesch has cursed the iPhone for its tendency the 11,000-square-foot space, collaborating on a new the waiters in the furniture on display and the sales- dig. Others will look for a better way to do it. They’ll
think it’s very much what Robin and Stephen do,” he is a licensed architect). Roman and Williams are their “to slip out of your hand like a wet Popsicle. It doesn’t layout, the reprogramming of three period rooms people in the fine points of pulling a smooth espresso. be gone all day, fooling around with a rope, a pulley, a
says. “They’ve melded those stereotypes of either maternal grandfathers. They added the catchphrase follow any function—it’s just a form.” Peacocky, in and the recontextualizing of the museum’s holdings. The enterprise has been equal parts agony and lever, trying to build this dumb machine that doesn’t
coast together and created this one-two punch.” “Buildings and Interiors” as a bit of manifest des- other words.) Roman and Williams’s design avoids To tell the story of trade in the 18th and 19th centu- wish-fulfillment as the two debate whether suc- work, when you could just dig a meticulous hole—
In less obvious ways, the designers are much tiny, having a total of one brick-and-mortar project quoting any particular era, instead dropping the ries, some 200 teapots, from raucous camel-shaped cess—they are considering iterations for Tokyo and that’s what we like. To us, that’s real quality work.”
11 5
GEORGE CONDO, MULTI-COLORED PORTRAIT OF RAF SIMONS, 2017, OIL AND PIGMENT STICK ON LINEN, 70 X 70 INCHES © GEORGE CONDO, 2017, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND SKARSTEDT GALLERY, NEW YORK
R
AF SIMONS, A BELGIAN with no real experience of the The two collections were splashy and fun but normal, too,
American heartland, landed on these shores just avoiding the kind of American clownishness that Europeans occa-
over a year ago. His mission could not have been sionally fetishize. These were terrific, wearable clothes, and they
bigger: to take Calvin Klein, a disjointed $8.4 billion- reassured everyone that, while Simons’s American idyll is only
a-year empire of underwear, jeans, ready-to-wear starting, the high hopes were not misplaced.
fashion and perfume, and give it backbone, much- There were also dark clouds over the prairie. Simons’s designs
needed cohesion and the forward thrust to hit $10 billion in sales. evoked some of Hollywood’s more sinister icons—Sissy Spacek
Simons was given complete control over the creative console of in Carrie, Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider—and they cast menacing
this industrial machine—the first time it’s had a single operator shadows. Critics promptly unpacked their decoding machines. The
since Calvin Klein himself, who sold the company to current owner word dystopia was frequently mentioned. The specter of Trump
PVH Corp. in 2003. glowered offstage. And it was true as far as it went. Simons came
From the beginning, expectations were high, and Simons was straight to the point in his program notes: “It’s about American
treated as something of a conquering hero before he had con- horror and American beauty.”
quered anything. He was already adored for his streetwise Raf “Fashion sometimes tries to hide the things that are maybe not
Simons menswear label, which projects considerable cred far so good,” says Simons. “It should not be so naive to deny our real-
beyond its modest sales. At the other end of the fashion spectrum, ity day in, day out. This house has a big voice and a responsibility.”
Simons’s stint at dainty-waisted Christian Dior from 2012 to 2015, That said, Raf Simons is not ideally the designer you go to for
while brief, was both a critical and a financial success (beginning abstract theory and social commentary. He is not like Miuccia
in 2011, sales rose 60 percent at Dior, the brand’s president, Sidney Prada, for one, who adheres to a rigorous dialectic as she con-
Toledano, told an interviewer in 2015). Together they showed structs her collections (Prada also happens to be one of only a
Simons could do pretty much whatever he set his mind to. This handful of designers Simons follows and respects).
past June, Simons, 49, won top honors for both womenswear and Underneath Simons’s smooth shell he’s prey to romantic upheav-
menswear from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (the als. “Raf is an extremely emotive person,” says the artist Sterling
only other person to win both awards in the same year was Calvin Ruby, who has collaborated closely with Simons for years and
Klein in 1993). So there was good reason to believe this solid citi- whose handiwork is seen all over Calvin Klein. “He can be soft, but
zen of Europe could reanimate an emblem of American muscle and then that can turn into a disastrous, almost corrective emotion.”
cheekiness, now grown flabby. One version of Simons’s origin myth has him bursting into tears
In early September, Simons showed his second collection for at the first fashion show he had occasion to see. This was in 1989,
Calvin Klein at 205 West 39th Street, its headquarters on a gritty and a designer friend had taken him to see Martin Margiela show
street. (In a gesture of garmento swagger, Simons renamed his col- his collection in a Parisian playground where neighborhood chil-
lection Calvin Klein 205W39NYC; in your face, Avenue Montaigne!) dren frolicked with the models. At the time, Simons was studying
Critics responded to his new clothes with the same delight that industrial and furniture design in the little Belgian town of Genk.
greeted Simons’s first show last February. In both, Simons mined He was so moved by the Margiela show, goes the story, that he ended
the deep veins of Americana: cowboys and cheerleaders, patch- up changing his whole career. Another version has him chucking
work and star-spangling, denim and polyester. industrial design because he didn’t feel like moving to Italy.
117
Simons works by soaking up unfamiliar impressions and fi l- manages to feel spare and light. There is a large Cindy Sherman The Chinatown show was another rousing success for Simons,
tering them through his capacious and readily accessed memory photograph on the wall and a painting and a hanging sculpture although there was some mild grumbling from the overdressed
bank. His early years in rural Belgium are in there, as are the musi- by Sterling Ruby, who also designed the Calvin Klein showroom invitees about standing around in puddles. The Chinese lanterns
cians he’s worshiped for ages, like New Order, Joy Division and on the 12th floor and painted the building’s lower facade black. strung along the runway, the hats, the shiny unisex rain slickers,
David Bowie. There’s a whole wing for artists he admires, perhaps But neither Simons nor Ruby could disguise the building’s salty the LED signs scrolling the word replicants—it all guaranteed that
Simons’s single most active source of inspiration. How many art- Damon Runyon soul. “Hey, my name is Frankie,” said a roly-poly no one missed Simons’s reference to the movie Blade Runner.
ists are in there? “Millions,” says Simons. “I naturally connect security guard when I entered, not overly interested in who I might The word dystopia was hauled out again.
more to art than anything. I don’t really connect to fashion so be. “Go right up, and tell Raf how Frankie treated you.” Simons doesn’t exactly disagree, but he finds that people some-
much besides my own. I fi nd art way more interesting—to look at, This is clearly not where Simons is coming from. At fi rst glance, times get so tangled up in his iconography that they tend to miss
to experience, to have a dialogue about.” he comes off like Horatius at the bridge, with his noble Roman how much of his work comes directly from what he notices around
What comes out of this creative churn is a record of how Simons fringe of hair and implacable, thou-shalt-not-pass demeanor. This him. Simons is a sponge. The unisex outfits on his male and female
is feeling at the moment. The America of his fi rst Calvin collections melts away when he starts to speak, and it becomes clear that, models weren’t meant to comment on “gender blur,” he says. “We
is less a social manifesto than a series of passionate postcards above all, he earnestly wants to make himself understood. Simons went to Asia recently, and that’s how people over there dress! I
from a landscape where everything is still wondrous and strange. speaks a little cautiously, suspecting, not unreasonably given how was very inspired by the beauty and normality of it,” says Simons.
He moved full time to New York in August 2016 (he has an he’s being scrutinized, that there are plenty of people ready to “People see only Blade Runner, but a lot of the looks in the show
apartment on Manhattan’s West Side), though he’s really much pounce on any careless word. But what ultimately counts most for came from how people there are actually dressing, linked to my
more interested in exploring flyover country in a Stanley-meets- Simons—in his fashion work, with the artists he mind-melds with, world. The show was very much about how I grew up with my par-
Livingstone kind of way. This past summer, Simons traveled to in an interview—is to forge a bond, the stronger the better. Once he ents, who were working people.”
S
Alaska for 10 days with his boyfriend, Jean-Georges d’Orazio, manages that with an artist or a musician, he says, it no longer even
now a brand experience director at Calvin Klein. “Everybody was matters whether what they produce is any good. The bond holds. IMONS SPENT his childhood in Neerpelt, Belgium (pop-
like, ‘If you take a break, go to Hawaii.’ I’m like, no. We want to see Indeed, E.M. Forster’s famous dictum from Howards End, “Only ulation: 17,000), a few miles from the Dutch border,
another landscape. We want to go to Alaska. How are the people connect,” could serve as Simons’s motto. Here’s how he puts it: “Of where he was born in 1968. Simons’s father, Jacques, the collections started hinting at bolder GREAT
there? I think basically what I’m interested in now at Calvin is course you have other responsibilities, but I am a strong believer stood watch at a nearby army base, and his mother, ambitions. “It became a ping-pong game EXPECTATIONS
“I cannot take
exploring what I don’t know yet and linking it to things that I know that what you’re really asking of me, as a creative animal, is to con- Alda Beckers, cleaned houses. Simons was very close between Raf and the customer—how far can clothing outside
very well,” says Simons. “What I don’t know yet is what appears to nect your own mind-set to the mind-set of other people.” to both of them, and he still is (his parents came to all he push it?” the context of
Americans as very normal—a milk bottle, a landscape, a word peo- On a hot night last July, Simons took over an outdoor market his shows in Paris when he was at Dior). But Neerpelt was a cultural Jil Sander had established her atelier everything else
that I’m thinking,”
ple here use. Stupid things—a barn, a canoe, a river. [In Europe], under the Manhattan Bridge in New York’s Chinatown. This was desert, and Simons’s adolescence was marked by oppressive ennui, in Hamburg, and it was here, among its says Simons, whose
we don’t have a barn. We don’t have a canoe the way you have a where he chose to show his own Raf Simons menswear line, which relieved only by the brooding ’80s pop groups that came through 35 seamstresses, that Simons learned the reference points
canoe. Don’t ask me why I fi nd it inspiring. he started designing in 1995, long before even Belgians knew the soggy air from England. Those bands have played a sacralized art of luxury tailoring, says Mulier. When are wide-ranging.
“We traveled to the family of my man in Florida,” he contin- who he was. He has produced it ever since, all through his higher- role in his work ever since. a Japanese apparel group purchased the
ues, referring to d’Orazio’s American cousins. It turned into one profi le, bigger-budget stints at Jil Sander, Christian Dior and now Industrial design school in Genk pulled him out of the quicksand company and in 2012 brought Jil Sander back as creative direc-
of those we’re-not-in-Belgium-anymore moments that really get Calvin Klein. It’s where you see Simons at his least constrained, of Neerpelt. From there he drifted into the orbit of the Antwerp tor, Simons took his ouster in stride. So it goes. What had really
Simons juiced. “That whole area is so different. I say to the daugh- free to engage directly with the themes that have always fasci- Six—including Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Walter Van irked him was the decision by Sander’s management to disband
ters, ‘Show me your university. Show me where you have your, nated him—the awkward bravura of youth, the music and movies Beirendonck (who hired Simons as an intern) and other young the Hamburg atelier.
you know, the [marching] bands where you do the parades and all that nurtured him as a teenager. They were all on display in July’s alumni of Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts who were mak- In 2012, Simons was hired as Christian Dior’s creative direc-
that.’ I embraced that really strongly in the fi rst collection because show. “Here’s where I say this is what it’s going to be, and nobody’s ing Belgium a beacon of fashion in the 1980s. This was also where tor by the then–deputy general manager, Delphine Arnault, the
I want to experience it. What is that? We have that in Europe also going to question that,” says Simons. “When you’re a creative Simons met many of the buddies who helped guide him early on, daughter of Bernard Arnault, whose LVMH conglomerate owns
but it’s not like here at all.” From this encounter came a series of director and you have partners, it’s another story.” and who still cluster around him like a protective second family. the company. The job had previously been held by John Galliano,
trousers in heavy wool twill with wide, bold-colored stripes down Over the years, Simons’s work for his own label has turned him “Raf was a little timid back then. It was all so new to him. But a designer as flamboyant as Simons is austere (Galliano exited
the side. They’re meant to conjure a Florida into an official hip-hop hero, which counts for a lot even if it’s not a you could see how hungry he was to understand the language of abruptly after a hateful, drunken rant in a cafe was caught on
BRANDED Gators halftime show, but there’s nothing culture Simons plugs into automatically. The rapper A$AP Rocky, fashion,” says photographer Willy Vanderperre, with whom Raf video). It was a sharp turn for a house that embodies the glory of
CONTENT literal about Simons; no one will think you’re who co-wrote an ode to Simons (“Please don’t touch my Raf— has collaborated for the past 20 years, including on the recent French couture. Once again, Simons was heading into uncharted
A selection of cutting marching-band practice if you wear what”), popped up in Chinatown to show Simons some love. “His Calvin Klein ad campaigns. Vanderperre’s partner, Olivier Rizzo, waters. “Couture is new for me,” he admitted a little sheepishly on
women’s and men’s
styles from the them on the street. Sterling Ruby beige coat from 2014, with the patchwork, the col- a stylist who has frequently worked with Simons, was another. first meeting the petites mains of Dior—the magical needleworkers
fall 2017 (left) and Our conversation took place in Simons’s ors, the stripes—perfect, man! I run that all the time,” Rocky says. Both of them have been at Simons’s shoulder at each stop along who operate what is essentially Dior’s engine room.
spring 2018 office at 205 West 39th Street. The furni- “He’s always been about graphics and rebellion, being a teenage his path. The moment is captured in the 2014 documentary Dior and I,
(right) collections
by Simons for ture is distinguished—a Jean Royère sofa, boy, and I relate to that even now. One of the kids in my crew even Simons’s impressive history of getting and succeeding at jobs which tracks Simons’s baptism by fire as he works toward his first
Calvin Klein. a Gio Ponti coffee table—but the room still has a big Raf Simons tat all across his stomach.” he has never done before begins here. He thought about apply- Dior show. We see Simons getting snappish as a primaire, a con-
ing to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Instead, Linda Loppa, who certmaster of Dior’s sewing ensemble, flies off to coddle a rich
ran the school’s fashion department, pushed him directly into client in New York, delaying a critical fitting for the show. He is
his own business. Simons had his bumpy moments early on, but basically told, C’est la vie. We see Mulier, who emerges as the
some of his collections—Summa Cum Laude from 1999, Riot, Riot, film’s charmer, smoothing the atelier’s ruffled feathers. “It was a
Riot from 2001, Virginia Creeper from 2002—helped make him a little bit bad cop, good cop—that was my job at Dior, and I loved
minor street deity. His greatest hits from those years keep show- it,” says Mulier.
ing up on the backs of people like Rihanna and Kanye West, who The film ends as Dior’s models float through the rooms of a grand
have broadcast his “mind-set” far beyond what the line’s limited hôtel particulier in Paris, its walls carpeted with thousands of
sales could manage. flowers “like the negative of Jeff Koons’s flower-puppy sculpture,”
In 2005, Simons was hired to replace Jil Sander at the com- as Simons saw it in his mind. The show was a triumph, and during
pany she founded and left, which was owned at the time by Prada. the next three years Simons went on to prove again that there are
and quickly became the key member of his inner circle (he is now in the end, he was unable to make a crucial emotional connection
creative director of Calvin Klein). “Out of respect, Raf decided with an audience he was never entirely in tune with.
to go very minimal, but after three years, the customers got sick “I can never just fill somebody’s wardrobe. I cannot take cloth-
of double-faced cashmere coats.” Sudden fluorescent flashes in ing outside the context of everything (Continued on page 154)
119
PERFORMING ARTS INNOVATOR
RYAN
HEFFINGTON 2017
What unites the Netflix series The OA, the crime thriller
Baby Driver and the world-conquering video for Sia’s “Chandelier”?
A choreographer who fearlessly taps into his inner weirdo.
BY ROB HASKELL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLOTTE WALES STYLING BY BRIAN MOLLOY
I
N MAY OF 2013, on a silent-era soundstage in to stay relevant in a disposable world. When it came cheap workout. (His Sweaty Sundays class is an
Silver Lake, Los Angeles, the choreographer time to make the video for ‘Chandelier,’ I thought it Eastside institution, even if lately its composition has
Ryan Heffington mounted a hybrid dance would be interesting to put a highly commercial dance expanded to include attorneys and chiropractors and
party, fashion show, drag performance and art competition dancer with incredible star quality with rock stars.) “They call it church,” he says, with obvi-
exhibit. Called KTCHN, it was inspired by the a more contemporary, weirdo choreographer. Once ous pride. “Or therapy, or sex. Other dance classes can
paintings of Nolan Hendrickson, a New York– Ryan realized that I was open to going to the less typi- be overly focused on technique. This class is about
based artist whose work he had discovered online. “I cal places with my visual work, I think he probably got indulging.” Heffington is no Chorus Line dictator. (This
felt like he was depicting my life,” Heffington recalls, excited. Most commercial art needs and wants to be is a man who brought midnight dance classes to Los
“all these middle-aged, hairy men lounging around in typical, to a degree, but I didn’t want that. I wanted Angeles nine years ago with a monthly party called
jockstraps and high heels.” something new for the little boys and girls out there Fingered.) While he does not correct his students,
The show played four sold-out weekends, and watching music videos. I wanted no sexy moves and all he barks at them ceaselessly, mainly for the purpose
one fateful evening toward the end of the run, Sia kind of elegant-toddler-gorilla, and Ryan knows how of getting them out of their own heads, silencing any
Furler, the Australian pop singer, dropped in. She had to give me that. There’s enough slut dancing to fill the self-censorship that might inhibit their movement.
recently moved to Silver Lake and had seen images malleable minds of our tweens.” Indulgence as a mode of performance is one of
of the performance on Instagram: the harlequin Three years later, it seems that everyone wants a the hallmarks of “Chandelier.” In it, Ziegler, Sia’s
face paint, acid-colored wigs, printed housecoats, a bit of the strange magic Heffington conjures: fashion bewigged young avatar, has the run of a bombed-out
backdrop that somehow evoked Matisse and Tom of designers and film directors, big brands and touring apartment where she is able to fulfill a nearly universal
Finland. After the show, Sia offered to pay to bring pop stars. He has said yes often enough that by the wish: to be the star of one’s own bedroom blockbuster.
it to New York City. Heffington didn’t think she was time we meet—with Edgar Wright’s caper Baby Driver “What would happen if a kid lived in a space like that?”
serious. But several months later, when singer and in theaters; the Netflix series The OA coming off its Heffington recalls asking himself. “It would mean
dancer sat down at the Intelligentsia Coffee at Sunset first season; a closely guarded feature project with she’d make friends with cockroaches, that the table
Junction to discuss a video for Sia’s “Chandelier,” Sia in the middle of shooting; and a performance piece would be her fort. She’d jump on the beds. Kids have
they laid the groundwork for one of the most exciting by Spike Jonze on the New York Fashion Week docket, an ability to make the best of everything, so it came
and significant collaborations in present-day perfor- to name just a few recent projects—Heffington, 44, is down to this beautiful experience of isolation.”
mance. Choreographed for an 11-year-old reality-show only half-joking when he says that if things don’t let It was Sia’s idea to recruit Ziegler’s face: the rolling
prodigy named Maddie Ziegler, “Chandelier” quickly up soon, something seriously bad is going to happen. of her eyes, the flashing of her teeth. “I’ve always used
became Heffington’s most famous dance. (To date, it We’ve staked out territory on the eastern bank of the face a lot, but Sia really pushed me to develop a
has almost 1.7 billion views on YouTube.) Echo Park Lake, a few blocks from where Heffington
“However I could help him, I wanted to,” Sia says lives in Los Angeles. The neighborhood has gotten a
now. “Anyone in the creative arts knows that this isn’t bit fancier lately, and while Heffington admits to hav- BLIND FAITH “Ryan’s choreography is about feeling free
with the movements,” says Maddie Ziegler, the featured
always pure altruism—that aligning yourself with ing grown up along with it, his eight-year-old dance performer in Sia’s “Chandelier.” “It takes you out of your
the most interesting upcoming art or artists is a way studio, the Sweat Spot, still provides a relatively comfort zone.” Gucci coat, Hermès shirt and Steven Alan tie.
120
vocabulary of facial expressions that I use all the time possibilities of a life outside Yuba City. As a teenager,
now,” Heffington explains. “As a kid I never expressed Heffington got his first taste of the city at dance con-
my emotions. That didn’t exist in my family: We never ventions in Los Angeles. “L.A. was where music videos
talked about anything heartfelt—pain, suffering, were choreographed,” he remembers, “the hub of com-
happiness. When I started dancing, I started feeling mercial dance. I didn’t know musicals or Broadway, “A NN A ,” WIL L BU T L ER
things in a way I hadn’t felt before. It was super-over- and I wasn’t interested in them, because they seemed
whelming, and I’d cry a lot. Dance has traditionally insincere. In the ’80s, when we’d come to L.A. to take
ignored the face, but it can portray emotions so inti- dance classes, Sunset Boulevard was hooker central:
mately. I’d like to think that I’ve sort of cracked that.” red patent-leather thigh-high boots and negligees, like
Heffington’s choreography suggests the dancing a Vanity 6 video. I was very drawn to that aesthetic, to
that someone might do when nobody is watching. It the idea that sex could be so overt.”
tends to convey joy and abandon, but it sometimes Heffington moved to Los Angeles at 17 and enrolled
does so through movements that are odd or ugly. in community college, which lasted only until he
Often the dance looks spontaneous, as if improvised. learned there was a math requirement. He went on
It can be campy or raucous or awkward, and it scoffs at auditions and took jobs at art house movie theaters,
“CH A NDEL IER,” SIA
traditional notions of line and elegance. “Ryan mixes salons and vintage clothing shops. He slept on peo-
the balletic and the childlike in a schizophrenic way,” ple’s couches and occasionally in his car. He came out.
says Jacob Sutton, the British fashion photographer “A lot of my education happened in nightclubs,” he
with whom Heffington has collaborated on several explains. “I sort of relearned how to dance that way.
occasions. “I think that’s what made ‘Chandelier’ I befriended this DJ who also dealt ecstasy, and that
huge. It felt emotionally honest. Before him there was changed my life. I think the shift in my style wasn’t
contemporary dance on one end, dry, intellectual and so much aesthetic as it was about the feeling of being
inaccessible, and pop music videos on the other. Ryan free, of just doing what feels good. I always encourage
has carved out a space in the middle.” kids to go out to clubs: Figure out how your own body
Y
moves and works, what feels good, what feels strange
UBA CITY, where Heffington grew up, to you. You don’t get to experience that at a typical KENZO FR AGR A NCE A D
lies some 40 miles north of Sacramento, dance class, which has a limited vocabulary dictated
California. On the outskirts of town, at by the instructor. At the club you’re free to explore. I’m
FROM TOP: BRANTLEY GUTIERREZ; DANIEL ASKILL AND SIA; SPIKE JONZE; NABIL © YOUNG TURKS; JOJO WHILDEN/NETFLIX; TRISTAR/EVERETT COLLECTION
the end of a long road lined with peach always referring back to those experiences.”
and almond orchards, a woman named Ziegler, rigorously trained and too young for the
Colleen Holt ran a tiny dance studio clubs, was terrified when she first met Heffington.
in front of the house she shared with her husband “There was this guy with long hair and a beard, and he
and mother and near the stables where she bred and looked serious and different,” she remembers. “Coming
trained horses. Holt taught every class herself, all day, from a competition dance background, I learned you
six days a week: tap, jazz, ballet, baton. Heffington did always have to look perfect, to point your feet. Ryan
not come from a family that knew about dance. His said the imperfections are more beautiful and interest-
“ V IDEO GIRL ,” FK A T WIGS
father ran a wrought-iron business. His mother was ing. That’s what I love most—his choreography is about
a nurse. His older brother played football and soc- feeling free with the movements: Stick your tongue out
cer. But Ryan was always twirling around the house, and cross your eyes, hold your leg up and keep whack-
and he had a cousin who took tap lessons from Holt, ing it with your arm. It takes you out of your comfort
so his parents took a chance. He studied there from zone and lets you be your inner weird self. Our whole
age 6 to 17, learning all styles and becoming what he group, the Sia group, we’re all a bunch of weirdos.
calls a “parade whore,” trotted out when the troupe Ryan’s my dance dad. He gave me permission.”
was asked to perform at public celebrations. He made In 1996, Heffington and his friend Bubba Carr
a point to study ballet with a group of older girls so his launched a roving late-night dance burlesque called
contemporaries wouldn’t spread the word at school. Psycho Dance Sho, a messy affair that might involve
“I had my fair share of unpleasant interactions,” he throwing meat at audience members or spraying them THE OA
recalls. “One thing I had in my corner was that I didn’t with Super Soakers. The performances were raunchy,
really care what people thought of me. I just loved it so gleefully tasteless, and became hugely popular with
much. Outside of dance I was a huge loner. I remember other dancers. “You couldn’t dismiss us as these crazy
being in my matching pale pink pleated shorts and top art-punk kids, because we were some of the most tech-
and my white huaraches, hanging out in high school nical dancers in L.A.,” Heffington says.
on the smoking corner a block away, and everyone else At around the same time, he joined Kitty
was in black. I didn’t give a f—.” And yet in the dance McNamee’s Hysterica Dance Co. and started to teach
studio, he was often reminded to keep any effeminacy classes on the side. He got work as a dancer for hire at
at bay, to avoid certain flicks of the hand or tilts of the the Grammys and the Academy Awards and in Disney
neck, to dance like a dude. His fearlessness drew a spectacles. He danced in Japan for a bit. Meanwhile,
BABY DRIVER
sharp line at overt sexuality. “I denied my orientation. he started throwing parties at nightclubs and choreo-
I didn’t want to get my ass kicked.” graphing the live shows of local bands. “My circle of
Television served as a refuge and a source of inspi- friends was the fashion kids, people in bands, painters.
ration. MTV introduced him to Cyndi Lauper and Boy I was tapped into the underground, and if any of those
George and to the bewitching dances of the Thriller people needed a choreographer, they’d come to me.” HIDDEN PERSUADER “Aligning yourself with the
and Rhythm Nation albums. Solid Gold, the ’80s vari- Los Angeles dance culture is a world apart from most interesting upcoming art or artists is a way to stay
ety show, offered him Darcel Wynne, with her infinite that of New York City, whose myriad companies mount relevant in a disposable world,” notes Sia of her work
with Heffington, who had a hand in the projects above.
hair and high-cut leotards. A new wave mixtape, the concert pieces for a dance-literate audience. Out west, Opposite: Louis Vuitton coat, Prada shirt, Raf Simons
gift of an older friend, seemed to hold in it all the commercial dance reigns, and while Heffington has pants, Polo Ralph Lauren tie and Hugo shoes.
12 3
firsthand in the classes I teach. If flash mobs want to
use my choreography to bring about social change,
then I say yes yes yes yes yes.”
Though Heffington’s dances are often narrative,
they rarely hew to lyrics. Instead he tends to be guided
by a single word, or by the abilities of the dancers
(and, often, nondancers) he works with. Early injunc-
tions—against imperfection, against queeniness—are
repeatedly and giddily flouted. His work with Spike
Jonze for Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, designers
of Opening Ceremony as well as Kenzo, conveys this
eloquently. In 2016, they collaborated on a Kenzo fra-
grance commercial that went viral; in it the actress
Margaret Qualley leaves a gala to treat herself to a
dance in which what first looks like the violent exor-
cism of a demon becomes a hilarious celebration of
freedom from social obligations. In Changers, a play-
as-fashion-show that Opening Ceremony staged this
September in New York, that theme returned in the
form of a delightfully cheeky pas de deux between a
stout fellow and a thickly bearded daddy.
“I’m a big fan of Pina Bausch, Bill T. Jones, Merce
Cunningham and all the freaks in between,” says Leon.
“But Ryan truly has his own vision. He celebrates the
beauty of the awkward moment, or the mundane
moment. He’s inspired by the way a person picks
garbage up off the floor. That attention to detail is a
signature for him—the small moves in the face or the
fingertips. But he loves the big gestures too for what
they can convey. It’s about honoring the real, and twist-
ing the real into a form.” That his choreography wishes
to depict real human experience, sometimes ungainly,
sometimes sublime, explains why Heffington’s work
has connected so far and so wide. Leon remembers
thinking about the ridiculous self-seriousness of the
perfume commercials he saw growing up and want-
ing to fly in the face of it. Wright never wished for Baby
Driver to be a musical (a dreaded genre for Heffington);
so instead of serious dance numbers, it’s as if dance
is just an inevitable fact of life. As for Sia? “Sia’s like,
‘I want kids to feel capable and supported and free
to be strange and be kids, rather than being sexy or
bitchy,’” Heffington says. “Let’s celebrate all the kids
who are loners and freaks and experimental and art-
won much of his bread choreographing TV spots for thought of him immediately for her series. It tells the ists instead of shoving them into boxes.”
brands such as Acura, Pizza Hut and Stella Artois, story of a group of people enclosed in underground The next kid Heffington plans to celebrate is him-
music videos remain his calling card. He has made glass cases who attain their freedom only by learning self. He and Jacob Sutton have just completed a proof
dances for Sigur Rós, Chromeo, Lykke Li, Arcade Fire a sequence of choreographed movements. “Ryan was of concept for a full-length dance feature film loosely
and Florence and the Machine, among others. “He always doing things that were so different from what based on the choreographer’s life. There are always
is almost shamanic in his process,” Florence Welch other people were doing,” says Marling, who has also commercials in the pipeline, and certain potential col-
says. “The simple movements he gave me became like attended her share of Sweaty Sundays. “He’s working laborations will be impossible to refuse (Björk, are you
healing rituals.” on some visceral level that makes you want to move reading this?), but now that the zeitgeist has grabbed
Lately he has expanded into choreographing for differently in your own life. The OA is a metaphor: him so tightly, Heffington’s last remaining goal for the
movies. Baby Driver, about a getaway driver with a We’re trapped, boxed in, confined by our jobs or by year is learning to say no. He would like to be in Los
love of music, allowed Heffington to think of chore- our genders. Ryan’s interested in liberation. He wants Angeles doing very little of anything. He rarely sees
ography as a way to sync up the activities of daily life people to feel like they can bust out of that captivity, dance. He is not culture-hungry generally. In any case,
to a beat: the slamming of a car door, the riffling of a and that their liberation is internal and can only come fewer commercial jobs means more Sweaty Sundays.
wad of cash. “What Ryan did was more movement out of them.” “You get caught in a cycle of work,” he says, “but
than traditional dance,” says Edgar Wright, Baby Recently a group of dancers gathered near no—adults owe it to themselves to find time to be
Driver’s director. “But the fact that his choreography New York’s Columbus Circle, outside the Trump happy. I had a woman, a mother of two, who recently
is unconventional, more naturalistic than we expect International Hotel & Tower, and performed took the class and said to me afterwards, ‘I haven’t
choreography to be, made it right.” Heffington’s choreography from The OA—the so- been this happy for years,’ and she started bawling. I
As his video work flourished, Heffington continued called five movements that allow the show’s captives said, ‘Well, thank yourself for showing up, and I’ll see
to throw parties and stage off-the-wall performances to escape—in the hope that it might act like a balm you again soon.’ She said, ‘I’m not sure, I’m so busy.’ I
in Los Angeles. Brit Marling, the co-writer and star on an inflamed political landscape. “Dance heals,” was like, ‘Did you hear what you just said? Get your f—
of The OA, came to know his work at these events and Heffington says. “That’s absolutely real, and I see it ing ass back to class. No excuses.’”
12 4
A GESTURE LIFE
“Ryan celebrates the
beauty of the awkward
moment, or the mundane
moment,” says fashion
designer Humberto Leon.
Balenciaga coat and
shirt and Thom Browne
tie. Opposite: Calvin
Klein 205W39NYC coat,
Dries Van Noten shirt
and Ralph Lauren tie.
Makeup, Kanako Takase;
set design by Julia
Wagner. For details see
Sources, page 155.
ART INNOVATOR
MARK
BRADFORD 2017
M
ARK BRADFORD’S studio is housed They debut this month in the form of a cyclorama, a
in a 50,000-square-foot former continuous, 360-degree art-viewing experience that
metal-manufacturing facility on will wrap completely around one of the museum’s cir-
an industrial street in South Los cular Inner Ring galleries. This style of monumental
Angeles. It neighbors a recycling art was popularly employed in the late 19th century
plant, a big-rig trucking school as a type of immersive entertainment, often focused
and a fabric mill specializing in webbing. Fitting com- on the acts and outcomes of recent wars.
pany, since Bradford’s own art production depends Bradford, who is 6-foot-8, is known for his
on industrial materials and tools. His supply room large-scale works, but Pickett’s Charge, with a cir-
features a wall of Makita power grinders, floor-to- cumference of 400 feet, is his largest to date. He
ceiling boxes packed with tubes of acrylic latex caulk undertakes big projects not only for the sake of
and stacks of printing paper in colors like Blast-Off expressing big ideas, but also for the sake of his own
Blue, Eclipse Black and Pulsar Pink. Above his studio’s experience as an artist. “I like to fall into a paint-
front door hangs a sign left by a previous tenant. In all ing,” he says. “Little ones get finished too fast.”
caps, facing the street, it reads mega m, as if signaling Bradford calls pieces like Pickett’s Charge, which he’s
the immensity of what’s happening inside. Bradford’s been working on for more than two years, paintings
latest work, made up of eight canvases, each 40 to because he manipulates colors on a canvas to a paint-
50 feet long and 12 feet high, hangs on various walls erly effect—from a distance, viewers might think
throughout the studio. Nearly completed, the panels they see brush strokes: some urgent and tight, others
exude their own gravity; they waste no time pulling sweeping and lush. But there’s no paint present.
a viewer close. Bradford, 55, calls the piece Pickett’s Getting up close betrays Bradford’s signature
Charge, named for a watershed moment during the technique, which begins with gluing multiple lay-
Battle of Gettysburg, marking the Confederacy’s ers of wet paper in different hues and configurations
deepest penetration into the North and a failed to a canvas. Some pieces of paper are first wrapped
offense, led by Major General George E. Pickett, that around rope and bleached for varying lengths of time.
historians cite as a turning point in the Civil War. “If Bradford then hoses the paper off when the desired
they had broken the Union during that charge, they color is reached and hangs it to dry before ultimately
might have won,” Bradford says. fixing it to the composition. He has also embed-
Recently Bradford installed the canvases at the ded a halftone reproduction of French artist Paul STROKE OF GENIUS
Scenes from abstract artist
Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., on the Philippoteaux’s cyclorama, The Battle of Gettysburg, Mark Bradford’s studio in
National Mall, a mile and a half from the White House. completed in 1883 and praised for its realism, into his South Los Angeles.
126
massive work of abstraction—parts of soldiers and the early 1980s, a time Bradford associates with Bradford’s banner year. Along with art historian and
munitions peek through Bradford’s collage. the rise of AIDS. Stewart eventually died of AIDS- curator Katy Siegel, he approached the artist in 2015
After applying 10 or more layers, Bradford goes related causes. At one point, Bradford remembers a with the idea of nominating him to represent the U.S.
at them with his Makita, sanding and grinding them doctor telling him he would inevitably contract the at this year’s Venice Biennale. Bradford recalls feel-
away. He rips at the surface with his bare hands. He disease. “I had to figure out a strategy for surviving ing like a long shot. “I thought there was no way,” he
ignites a blowtorch and scorches select areas. this plague,” Bradford says. What he came up with says. In May, his exhibition Tomorrow Is Another Day
Through his laborious process, Bradford has was saving enough money from his mother’s salon to opened in Italy (the show runs through November
created, in his words, “a cyclorama of political and decamp to Europe because “it felt way safer.” 26). It plumbs ideas and news surrounding some-
historical palimpsest.” The surfaces of Pickett’s He stayed in Europe, traveling aimlessly, first in thing Bradford has a lifetime of experience with:
Charge resemble wounds and scars. Much of the Amsterdam and then Spain and Greece, until the being black in America. “I was responding to all of
painting looks like it’s been on fire or still is. Clusters money ran out; later he came home, earned more at the police killings, acquittals and Black Lives Matter
of warmer colors (reds, oranges) signal warning the salon and repeated the process. Bradford lived protests,” says Bradford. “Racially, I thought we were
while fields of cooler ones (blues, greens) proffer a itinerantly for about a decade before he felt safe going into serious collapse.”
dreamlike possibility of calm and recovery. It all calling California home for good. Once the traveling The U.S. Pavilion in Venice opened in 1930 and
references the current political climate in America stopped, he spent a large part of the ’90s working in was made to look like Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s
and the deepening ideological divide between liber- the salon and studying as an under- estate in Virginia. Bradford didn’t
als and conservatives that plays out like an ongoing grad and then as a graduate student want to merely hang work in it; he
battle. “We are obsessed with our differences, but at CalArts. After completing his “I LIKE TO wanted to respond to the archi-
we have to find the commonalities,” says Bradford. master’s, he went back to the salon tecture and intervene with what
“That’s a painful word people don’t want to talk but also got a studio in nearby
FALL INTO A motivated its design. “It’s a slave
about in America right now, but our commonality Inglewood, where he created his PAINTING. owner’s building,” Bradford says.
can’t be that we hate. That’s not good enough for me. early abstractions. LITTLE ONES To prepare for the exhibition,
I’ve never had it easy. But I have always had hope.” For Bradford, oil paints were GET FINISHED he built a full-scale model of the
R
too expensive, so he began work- 4,090-square-foot pavilion in a
AISED IN THE West Adams section ing with the materials around him
TOO FAST.” warehouse in L.A., about three
of Los Angeles during a period of instead. He took the endpapers –MARK BRADFORD miles from his studio. The work
decline, Bradford was a fixture in he’d typically use to wrap hair he conceived there, and ultimately
his mother’s hair salon for as long during chemical treatments and installed in Venice, includes sev-
as he can remember. He also recalls applied them to bedsheets he used as canvases. “I eral paintings over 12 feet in length and an imposing
DOWN TO A
being targeted by neighborhood found myself getting lost in the material,” he says. free-standing sculpture of gnarled, painted-paper FINE ART
homophobes who labeled him a “sissy” as early as 6. “Five dollars for a box of a thousand. I could afford husks called Medusa. Bradford covered the build- Two panels (left
“Being called a sissy never bothered me,” Bradford to mess up.” Bradford made money off his work for ing’s stately, soaring rotunda with a merchant and bottom) from
Bradford’s 400-
says. “I never felt like a sissy. I never felt unmanly. I the first time in 2001, selling his earliest endpaper poster–inspired work; the words Receive Calls on foot painting suite,
actually felt strong. The problem was being beaten pieces to the Watts-born collector and philanthro- Your Cellphone From Jail arc overhead. Entering the Pickett’s Charge,
up; the problem was that I could lose my life.” When pist Eileen Harris Norton. “I remember telling my pavilion requires an encounter with Spoiled Foot, and panels from his
unfinished work The
Bradford was 11, his mother, Janice, moved their mother I sold one of these paintings for $5,000,” a three-dimensional metastatic bulge descending Constitution (right),
family to Santa Monica, where it was safer but Bradford says. “And she said, ‘You sold a painting from the ceiling and filling nearly an entire room. commissioned for the
predominantly white. “I was always aware of my dif- for $5,000?’ I said, ‘Yeah, girl. I think we found a way Viewers have to squeeze by its contours, avoiding its new United States
Embassy in London.
ferences,” Bradford says. After high school, he went out of the beauty shop.’” Since then, Bradford has papery stubble. It’s meant to be uncomfortable.
to work styling hair in his mother’s salon full time. won a MacArthur “genius grant” and a Medal of Arts While there’s a severity to the work and an
He stopped working there for good in his early 40s from the U.S. Department of State. His 2013 mixed- urgency to respond to the injustices that inform it,
but will still cut hair for close friends. “They’ll just media work, Constitution IV, sold at auction for over Bradford brings a sense of geniality and inclusion abstraction and his ability to create enduring and literature,” Bradford says. “That’s part of it, but not yet been confirmed). Collectively, the work, titled
drop by the studio,” he says. “I have clippers here. $5 million, and he was a favorite artist of the Obama wherever he goes. “What added to the opening of the social commentary with found materials. Bedford, not all.” The Constitution, bears a portion of the text from its
You might hear somebody knocking on the door White House. pavilion in Venice,” says Melissa Chiu, director of the however, says Bradford has disrupted art history Ari Emanuel, co-CEO of Hollywood mega agency preamble in block letters. “I wanted to go back to the
today. People come by and I’m like, Really, girl?” Bradford’s work has carried social themes Hirshhorn Museum, “was that Mark was right out completely. “He has forced curators, museums and WME/IMG, sits on the board of Art + Practice and important documents—they’re the root of every-
Still, Bradford has a way of treating the people throughout his career. Advertisements collected front greeting people. It’s highly unusual for an artist scholars to reconsider the canon of abstraction to owns several Bradford works. He sees Bradford not thing we’re debating,” Bradford says, before taking
he meets as if they’ve booked an appointment in around South Los Angeles (Bradford calls them to do that in Venice. Most are exhausted or on the shy account for his existence,” Bedford says. “We as only as a gifted artist, but as a crusader for social jus- one more pass along the length of Pickett’s Charge.
his erstwhile chair. He’ll tell stories and draw them “merchant posters”) have been employed in his side, but there was Mark...somehow creating a very institutions are now exploring a history of African- tice. “Mark doesn’t sit back idly,” he says. “He puts his “I don’t think it’s done,” he says, shaking his
out. He’ll tell you his first artistic role model was his mixed-media pieces to illuminate what constitutes welcoming environment.” American abstraction that was never really part of money where his mouth is. Whether it be foster kids head, standing in front of a section of multicolor
mother. He’ll tell you he lost nothing by never know- business in low-income areas. “Is This Child Yours? When Bedford first visited Bradford’s studio the art historical canon before.” or society as a whole, he cares about the issues.” waves. He rips off a foot-long swath of yellow-pink
ing his father. (“I believe your family is the people DNA Testing,” reads one poster-based painting from in 2006—it was much smaller than the behemoth But Bradford’s art will be only part of his legacy. And earlier this year, in Venice, Bradford coupled material revealing darker matter beneath and slaps
who love you.”) He will hypothesize about Game of 2006. In 2008, Bradford installed Mithra, a 70-foot- space Bradford occupies today—he recalls similarly In 2014 he opened the nonprofit Art + Practice along the opening of his show at the U.S. Pavilion with the at the canvas approvingly. “That’s what it needs,”
Thrones. (“The Night King? He has an ice dragon. He long ark in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, a largely being struck by the artist’s “radiating warmth.” with DiCastro and Harris Norton. It’s located in the establishment of Process Collettivo, an initiative to he says. “Some air.” Bradford quickly spots another
might win.”) He’ll tell you that he and his partner of black and poor section of the city that was ravaged Even more surprising was the way Bradford imme- South Central Los Angeles community of Leimert help Italian inmates find meaningful work after they area to address and rushes over. He’s moving fast
20 years, Allan DiCastro, live in a Victorian house on by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and still recovering diately changed Bedford’s mind about an entire Park, near where Bradford grew up and still lives. are released. For Bradford, expanding his outreach now, widening his gait, letting his arms swing as he
the same street as the boarding house where he grew three years later. Other large-scale paintings made artistic genre. “I walked into Mark’s studio and saw The organization has grown into a 20,000-square- is as important as expanding the scope of his art. walks. He swaggers as he tears more away from the
up and made his first artworks, staging plays and by Bradford have used abstraction, color and a style these truly astonishing floor-to-ceiling paintings, foot campus spread across two blocks, including the Bedford, who will bring Tomorrow Is Another Day work, peeling back 10, 15, 20 feet of sinewy yellow
operas on the house’s landing. He will sing the lyrics of imaginary mapping to revisit race riots and com- the likes of which I’d never seen before,” Bedford building that was once Bradford’s mother’s salon. to Baltimore in the fall of 2018, is looking forward and black. He’s rough with it. Art, the way he sees it,
to a song over and over until he finally remembers the memorate AIDS victims. “He somehow, over his says. “That was that moment where I realized I Art + Practice offers public exhibitions from promi- to having Bradford’s social engagement there as is never precious.
name of the person who performed it. “We don’t have career, has assumed a position that feels like he’s in had miscalculated the possibility of painting com- nent and emerging artists and conversations with much as his work. “Now people anticipate both sides “Better,” says Bradford, “better,” wagging his fin-
to take our clothes off,” he’ll repeat until recalling: space looking down on us while also burrowing into pletely. I sensed at that point that Mark would be one artists, curators and writers. It also provides coun- of Mark Bradford,” he says. “This is a man who can ger at the canvas. He takes in the undulating shapes
“Jermaine Stewart!” our bodies,” says Christopher Bedford, the director of of the greatest artists of his generation, which has seling and job training services for foster youth. effect meaningful and lasting change.” and colors, the layers, his last two years of work. “I’ve
The mention of Stewart, an R&B singer and a the Baltimore Museum of Art, who first met Bradford actually happened.” Bradford sees it all as part of his social contract Out on the floor of the studio, Bradford shows me always thought that the next whatever could be bet-
Soul Train dancer, begins to explain why Bradford’s over a decade ago while working as an assistant cura- Bradford is often mentioned in the same art with his community and the world. “You cannot go another new work made up of 32 10-foot-by-10-foot ter. I’ve always had that. The next painting. The next
career as an artist started later than most. The two tor at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. historical breath as Jackson Pollock and Robert to communities that have urgency and need and tell panels. He says he’ll install them in the new United haircut. The next city I visit. I’m very future-oriented,”
men knew each other from the L.A. club scene in Bedford is in part responsible for 2017 being Rauschenberg for the emotionality he brings to them that the best thing in the world for them is art States Embassy in London when it opens (the date has he says. “Tomorrow is going to be better.”
128 129
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR
MUSICAL.LY 2017
BY MICKEY RAPKIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MACIEK KOBIELSKI
L
ISA AND LENA Mantler, twins from a vil- Korea,” Lisa says, by way of apology. They’d been
lage near Stuttgart, Germany, are the flown to Asia, she explained, by a WhatsApp competi-
most famous 15-year-old girls you’ve tor called LINE, whose executives had hired them to
likely never heard of, and they rose to promote the app. “We’re helping to get it to Germany
fame on a social-media platform you’ve and Europe!” says Lena.
probably never used. But every day on Alex Hofmann, Musical.ly’s North American presi-
Musical.ly, millions of teenagers post videos of them- dent and its face in Southern California, where he is
selves lip-syncing or dancing to popular music or charged with brand extensions and industry out-
generally goofing off. Videos are shared with friends reach, helped put the Mantlers’ social-media reach
or posted publicly, and users award their favorites into context. At the risk of offending the Beyhive,
with likes (or “hearts” as they’re known on the app). he says: “I remember this Beyoncé picture went
The most popular videos in a given 24-hour period live—with her being pregnant—and [quickly] got 6.4
rise to the top of the leaderboard. million likes on Instagram. Lisa and Lena are getting
In December 2015, the Mantler twins uploaded 5.2 million likes on Musical.ly, which is significantly
their first video together—a six-second, black-and- smaller than Instagram.”
white clip that showed them lip-syncing to Gnash’s The Musical.ly offices in Santa Monica look like
“i hate u, i love u (feat. Olivia O’Brien).” The video a set piece from HBO’s Silicon Valley. The open-con-
wasn’t meant to start a revolution; it was just some- cept main hall has exposed beams, concrete floors
thing to show their friends after school. The girls, and a Wall of Fame, where the company displays
who have long blond hair and proudly smile through headshots from its top users—or Musers, as they’re
metal braces, usually wear matching outfits and are known—an army of social-media influencers, some
known for their synchronized dances, which some- with two million or more followers. The company
times devolve into the two laughing or pushing each has been valued at $500 million. The app has more
other out of the frame. After Musical.ly prominently than 200 million registered users and, accord-
featured the twins on the app, their following started ing to Musical.ly co-founder and co-CEO Alex Zhu,
to grow—and then exploded. Lisa and Lena now have 60 million active monthly users, which is impressive
about 24 million fans on Musical.ly and are the third- considering it didn’t exist four years ago.
most-followed people on Instagram in Germany. They In teen parlance, Musical.ly’s great innovation
FACE TIME
Some of Musical.ly’s popular signed with the Hollywood talent agency WME/IMG was making the video selfie a thing. Content is easy
users—or Musers, as they last year, modeled for Hugo Boss and in March went to create and manipulate on the app; the suite’s edit-
are known—in Los Angeles,
backstage at an Ed Sheeran concert because he wanted ing tools and filters allow users to speed up a song,
including (clockwise from left)
Karisma Collins, 17; Carson to shoot a Musical.ly video with them. Sometimes, the slow it down and—most important—share it with
Lueders, 16; Kirsten Collins, girls admit, they come home to Stuttgart and find friends. (Last year, Musical.ly launched another app,
23; Crawford Collins, 20; and
strangers camped outside their childhood home. called Live.ly, which allows users to broadcast what-
Daniella Perkins, 17. Sittings
editor, Andrew T. Vottero; Lena and Lisa—or LeLi, as their fans sometimes ever it is they are doing in that moment; more than
grooming, Kat Thompson, refer to them—call early one morning to talk about 500,000 live streams are started every day.) Now
Beth Follert, Nicola Hamilton. Musical.ly is considered a cultural phenomenon; Katy
their unlikely career as social-media influencers,
but the connection is bad. “We’re in Seoul, South Perry and Bruno Mars joined earlier this year, and the
130 131
Teen Choice Awards added a new category for Choice Bay Area (where he’d worked for the software giant In 2015, with Musical.ly on its feet, Zhu joined Yang in Shanghai at watching. Musical.ly’s core demographic is aged 13 to 20 (the terms
Muser. It’s also been embraced by the music SAP) when he had the idea for an app called Cicada, the company’s headquarters, where most of their engineers sit. (Zhu, of service state that the app is for users over the age of 12), which is
industry, thanks to its ability to translate an educational tool that would allow users to stream like Yang, was born in China.) Zhu convinced his friend Alex Hofmann— younger than Snapchat’s (18 to 34). That’s particularly appealing to
15-second clips into revenue-producing 24 MILLION short, instructional videos on their phones. On a morn- who’d worked in marketing at SAP—to oversee Musical.ly’s growth brands that have struggled to connect with and retain younger view-
streams and sales for artists as varied as Number of fans ing commute, he reasoned, someone might take three globally, first out of a WeWork space in San Francisco and then in Santa ers. John Najarian, the executive vice president and general manager
Rihanna, Fetty Wap and the indie-pop that Lisa and Lena, minutes to learn how to bake a pie or to watch a Nobel Monica. For the first year, Hofmann spent much of his time setting up of E! News, found success on Snapchat with original programming
the most popular
band Echosmith. Musers, have on
Prize–winning physicist explain cold fusion. Cicada an interactive feedback loop between the company and its users, see- like E!’s The Rundown, which takes a humorous look at the pop-culture
John Janick, the CEO and chairman of the app. put out a call for entries. “I watched pretty much all the ing what they could learn from their experiences on the app. Some of moments of the day. He and his team identified Musical.ly as the next
Interscope Records, cites a 2016 Musical.ly videos generated at that time,” says Zhu. His verdict: Musical.ly’s most popular features, Hofmann says, have grown out of logical partner. This summer, E! launched a show on the app called
promotion for Selena Gomez’s track “Kill “Not interesting.” Even his own attempt at making those conversations, including “duets” (where Musers make videos Crush, where top Musers talk about celebrities they’re crushing on
Em with Kindness,” which—like simi- content was a bust. “I actually created a video on the with friends remotely). that week. E!’s typical cable viewer is a little older than 40. But with
lar campaigns on the app—called for history of coffee,” he recalls. “I myself don’t want to According to Variety, by this past summer, Musical.ly had raised Musical.ly, Najarian says, he sees a chance for E! to “reach an audience
users to create their own videos using watch that content.” $147 million from VCs including GGV Capital, GX Capital, Qiming that’s hard for us to get to watch linear television.”
the song. (The one that received the most Zhu (who has called himself a “designtrepre- Venture Partners and Musical.ly hasn’t yet pro-
hearts would be crowned the winner.) The neur”), 38, and his longtime friend, co-founder Susquehanna International duced a breakout star like Justin
#KillEmWithKindness campaign led to the
creation of 6.5 million videos and more
than 34 million hearts. “The campaign was
1M
samples from
and co-CEO, Luyu Yang, 36, had reportedly
raised $250,000 from venture capitalists,
but they soured on their own idea. As Zhu
Group. Hofmann and his wife,
Inga Bereza, had planned on
taking an epic road trip to
Bieber, who was discovered on
YouTube, or Shawn Mendes,
who blew up on Vine. There’s
massive,” says Janick, who later partnered once said in a speech at the #ProductSF 2016 Patagonia before he took this hope that Jacob Sartorius, a
with Musical.ly on similar promotions with
songs are available conference, “I want to be a sexy man.” And gig, but their travels would 15-year-old internet personal-
Lady Gaga and Maroon 5. That explains on Musical.ly. Cicada wasn’t sexy. The company was down have to wait. “I joined [the ity, might cross over more into
why Vice dubbed Musical.ly “the music to its last funds, and Zhu and Yang needed to company] when we had 20,000 the mainstream. He cracked
industry’s new secret weapon.” Now that make a move. In the summer of 2014, Zhu had users,” says Hofmann. “It was the Billboard Hot 100 last year
Musical.ly has figured out how to engage an epiphany on a commuter train in Mountain four people on the team.” He with his first original single,
an otherwise-distracted Generation Z, View, California, seated near a bunch of teenag- looks out the window and “Sweatshirt”; the video has a
everyone wants in on the action. Hofmann, ers. “I would say 50 percent of those students points at the RV parked out- dizzying 46 million views on
36, reports that Mariah Carey was recently in were listening to music,” he says, “and the side Musical.ly’s Santa Monica YouTube. But Musical.ly’s real
his office (“We had an almost four-hour meet- other 50 percent were taking selfies and offices: “It’s been sitting there strength, it seems, appears to
ing with her,” he recalls). Will.i.am, Flo Rida putting [digital] stickers on top to create some- for two and a half years cov- be as a promotional tool. The
and Liam Payne from One Direction—they’ve thing hilarious and share it around.” Why not ered in dust.” app has birthed social-media
all stopped by too. create a social-media site where you could do Hofmann has been getting stars with massive followings
Though growth at Musical.ly has been both at once? his hands dirty in other ways. who are being paid by brands to
sharp since the company’s inception, 2017 Zhu and Yang (who is based in Shanghai) If Napster wounded the music promote new artists and apps.
will be remembered as the year Musical.ly directed a skeleton crew of developers to put industry by convincing young For some creators, Musical.ly is
transitioned from an app primarily for post- together a prototype for Musical.ly, which went people that stealing music was now a full-time job, with popu-
ing music videos to a broader social-media live in July 2014. The launch was modest: Five cool, Musical.ly was intent on lar users posting around 10
and entertainment platform. In April, hundred people were signing up every day, playing nice. Hofmann had a times a day. According to her
Musical.ly announced a deal that allows Apple but it was unclear whether the found- hypothesis that, in industry mother, Lauren Godwin, a
Music subscribers to stream full songs on ers should invest further or cut bait. terms, secondary consumption 17-year-old comedian from
the app. This year MTV, NBCUniversal and 15 MINUTES Zhu described the company’s finan- (or lip-syncing to a short clip) Texas, earns about $25,000
Hearst all launched original program-
ming on Musical.ly, including MTV’s
animated series Greatest Party Story
45M
Approximate
Estimated time
Musers spend on
the app each
cial situation as “desperate.” In April
2015, Musical.ly pushed through a
redesign in the hopes of moving the
would lead to primary con-
sumption (or iTunes sales and
Spotify streams). And his gam-
a month from brand partner-
ships and “virtual gifting” on
Musical.ly and Live.ly, a func-
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AMANDA WEBSTER (IPHONES); MACIEK KOBIELSKI (LOREN & CARSON)
day.
Ever. As Mark Cuban, the Shark Tank needle. A curated list of Musical.ly’s ble seems to have proven true. IN TUNE From left: Alex Zhu, Musical.ly’s co-founder and co-CEO, and Alex tion that Musers use to tip
star and co-founder of Broadcast.com,
number of best videos would now appear when a user According to numbers from Hofmann, its North American president. Portrait by Hong Jang Hyun. their favorite talent directly.
explains via email: To reach these cov- downloads in the opened the app, and the company’s distinct red Nielsen Music, there was an (Musical.ly takes a cut of that
eted young eyeballs, “you have to go fi rst half of logo was repositioned so that if a user posted a almost 50 percent spike in digital track sales and on-demand stream- revenue.) When Derulo launched the #Swalla challenge earlier this year
where they are. And Musical.ly and Live.ly 2017. Musical.ly video to Instagram or Facebook, the ing during a March 2016 campaign for Lukas Graham’s “7 Years.” A to promote his new song, he did so in a video with one of Musical.ly’s
have definitely gotten a strong following.” logo would be front and center. “Three months February 2016 contest for Rihanna’s “Work” led to the creation of biggest homegrown stars, Baby Ariel, a 16-year-old from southern
Live video in and of itself isn’t innovative, later we were No. 1 in the app store,” Zhu says. 830,000 videos, which helped #Work to start trending on Instagram. Florida named Ariel Martin, who has 22 million followers (and her own
Cuban points out, saying: “I did my first live “We didn’t spend money to do marketing or Musical.ly has now signed deals with major music labels, including lipstick line). In the first week, over 300,000 Musical.lys were created
video stream 20 years ago.” (Broadcast.com user acquisition. It was purely organic, word Warner, Universal and Sony, and samples from more than a million featuring “Swalla,” garnering 50 million views and 17 million hearts.
memorably live-streamed the Victoria’s Secret of mouth.” songs are available on the app. As Derulo explains: “You gotta say, influencers have influence.”
Fashion Show in 1999.) But what Musical.ly has Musical.ly topped the app store charts in Still, getting artists to embrace Musical.ly was tricky. “Initially Earlier this year, Baby Ariel signed with Creative Artists Agency.
done so well is “build an audience that was 20 countries, including Germany, Japan and you’re always skeptical about a new social platform,” says “Wiggle” She also was named Choice Muser at the Teen Choice Awards in
constantly looking for something to grab their Brazil. Musical.ly’s short videos proved to be singer Jason Derulo. “There’s always something that’s the biggest thing August but reluctantly had to skip the televised event. She needed to
132 13 3
ARCHITECTURE INNOVATOR
DILLER
SCOFIDIO+RENFRO 2017
With four major works under construction in New York alone, and more across the globe,
the firm led by Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Charles Renfro and
Benjamin Gilmartin has gone from downtown phenomenon to international powerhouse.
T
HERE’S A PHOTOGRAPH of architects
Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio and
Charles Renfro that, for design watch-
ers at least, represents a certain beau
ideal of their practice, distilling their
essence at a time of transition both
for the architects and, arguably, the field as a whole.
It dates to 2006, just as their firm, Diller Scofidio +
Renfro, was wrapping up work on the Institute of
Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston and moving into
new offices in the landmark Starrett-Lehigh Building
on Manhattan’s West Side. Lining the trio up side by
side in the still-unfinished studio space, photogra-
pher Abelardo Morell captured them in three very
different attitudes of cool: On the left, Renfro, hiply
nonchalant in tasseled kaffiyeh and tinted shades; in
the middle, Scofidio, holding his glasses, professorial
but “with it”; and on the right, Diller, with her arms
folded across her chest, frankly confrontational yet
seemingly bored in advance with the prospect of any-
one confronting her. All stare directly into the camera.
Sure, we’re architects, they seem to say. So what?
As Diller recalls, “Up until that point, we very
much considered ourselves outsiders, throwing
grenades at things.” Today the 38-year-old firm is
widely celebrated for its work on projects like New
York’s High Line park, The Broad museum in Los
FAB FOUR Angeles and—before it’s even completed—The Shed
The firm’s partners,
from left: Ricardo at Manhattan’s Hudson Yards. But in fact it was little
Scofidio, Elizabeth known outside New York until the debut of the ICA,
Diller, Benjamin a boxy enigma jutting boldly over Boston Harbor,
Gilmartin and
Charles Renfro, in which was the architects’ first completed building in
front of The Shed. the U.S. The late start is typical of architecture as a
profession, but also symptomatic of the periods from
PROGRESS REPORT
Diller Scofidio +
Renfro is leaving its
mark on Manhattan’s
West Side with
the High Line and
two new projects, still
under construction:
The Shed (center) and,
rising behind it,
15 Hudson Yards.
135
INSIDE TRACK
Pedestrians on the
High Line pass
the side of The Shed,
which will be used
as a multidisciplinary
arts center when it
opens in 2019.
136
PUBLIC TRUST
Right: DS+R’s 2010
update of New
York’s Lincoln Center.
Below: The rebuilt
Bauhaus stairs at
New York’s Museum
of Modern Art, one
element of the firm’s
MoMA renovation
and expansion.
EARLY EDITIONS
Above: Opened in
2006, the Institute
of Contemporary Art,
Boston was DS+R’s CLASS ACT
first completed build- Above: Intersecting stairways in the
ing in the U.S. Right: lobby of DS+R’s Roy and Diana Vagelos
Diller + Scofidio’s Education Center, which opened in 2016
Blur Building for the as part of Columbia University Medical
2002 Swiss Expo. Center’s northern Manhattan campus.
which they emerged—in particular the 1970s, when Rather than storming the ramparts, “we’re pushing critique of the everyday: The plans for a Hamptons
Diller and Scofidio met and founded the practice, against the walls from the inside,” says Diller. DS+R getaway, ultimately never built, focused on its mil-
and the ’90s, when Renfro joined the fold. In both is the firm for anyone who holds fast to the idea of lion-dollar views, except that the prospect would
decades, the New York design scene was dominated design as coessential with art, especially avant- have been partially blocked by a TV monitor show-
by “paper architects,” intellectuals and oddballs for garde performance and installation art. It’s the ing the vista itself. “The whole project was devoted
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: IWAN BAAN (4); BEAT WIDMER. OPPOSITE: RICHARD BARNES (VIEW FROM OHM BY DOUGLASTON DEVELOPMENT)
whom built work mattered less than bold thinking. hometown team, carrying the flag for an architec- to these questions of artifice and authenticity, hard-
But in the last decade or so, taste and technology ture of nerve and sophistication into new and ever ware and software,” explains Diller. In this way, they
have caught up with the speculative notions Diller more challenging terrain. brought to architecture many of the tactics deployed
and Scofidio had long floated. Morell captured them “I wasn’t approaching projects from either an aes- by downtown luminaries like performance artist
just when they were finally starting to build, an thetic or a theoretical point of view,” says Scofidio, Laurie Anderson, video artist Nam June Paik and art-
unlikely band on the brink of something new. now 82. The New York native had a small studio before rock favorites Talking Heads.
They were loft-dwellers, gallery-goers, cafe- founding his collaborative firm in 1979 with his future At the turn of the millennium, as the practice
loiterers. “I had a tremendous feeling of dissent wife. But his oppositional outlook had never been began to take on more complex commissions, it
with the profession,” says Scofidio. A creature of filtered through any particular ideological lens. “I became necessary to have someone on board who
the academy for much of his career, he was a pro- prefer to look at 20 different things,” he says, “see- could ground the partners’ freewheeling artistry
fessor at Cooper Union when he met Diller, who was ing how they influence a situation at different levels.” with some architectural common sense. Enter
his student at the time. Well before Renfro signed What Scofidio found in Diller, besides a life partner, Charles Renfro, then a 30-something with a small
on, Diller + Scofidio amassed a heap of high-culture was a searching intellect that could train their shared office of his own. Renfro was originally hired in 1997
cred, garnering awards—in 1999 the couple were critique of architecture on specific targets, even while to consult on Brasserie and quickly found that he was
the first architects ever to receive a MacArthur— remaining apart from any one philosophical camp. a strong foil to Diller and Scofidio. “In basic terms,
doing installations and making the rounds of the Born in Poland, Diller moved to the United States I knew how to make copies, put them in a binder, all
downtown scene. But then, in 2000, the firm’s as a child, in the late ’50s, and even now, at 63, she these practical things,” he says. More than that, the
redone Brasserie restaurant opened in the Mies van seems to have the restless sense of unbelonging of three found they were able to “meet at some weird
der Rohe–designed Seagram Building in New York, the perpetual émigré, an attitude that puts her some- place in the ether,” as Renfro, now 53, puts it, with his
replacing Philip Johnson’s 1958 interiors with a what at odds with her profession. “Architecture, by own thinking not just interpreting but interrogating
hypermediated wonderland of flickering screens and definition, is always standing still,” she says; the his partners’ abstractions, adding another level of
industrial finishes. Soon after that, D+S created the inherent immobility of buildings is reflected back in critique. He became a name partner in 2004. “We’re
innovative Blur Building for the 2002 Swiss Expo— the discipline’s often-sluggish pace of progress. In really kindred spirits in our brand of weirdness,” he
all mist and catwalks, not quite architecture and not the 1980s, in their first projects together—primarily says. “I complete Liz’s sentences and vice versa.”
quite art. Before anyone knew it, the practice had small-scale works for theaters and art galleries—the Whatever the collaborative alchemy behind it, the
swelled to a staff of over a hundred, working on proj- architects started to kick against that prevailing sta- trajectory of the retitled firm has been impressive.
ects from Moscow (the newly opened Zaryadye Park) sis, marking out a thematic territory that’s come to In 2006, DS+R also saw construction get underway
to Rio de Janeiro (the Museum of Image and Sound, seem endemically Diller-Scofidian. at the High Line; when the first section opened three
set to be completed next year). “We never had a desire As critic K. Michael Hays wrote of their early years later, the elevated park on Manhattan’s West
to grow or become corporate,” says Renfro. “That’s work, the partners used their “architectural appara- Side (designed in conjunction with landscape archi-
been sort of a dirty word.” Yet here they are. tus...as a tool of social cartography,” turning design tect James Corner’s Field Operations and the garden
Having made the challenging transition from into an instrument to map out and comment upon our designer Piet Oudolf) was a sensation. The 1.5-mile-
consummate outsiders to ultimate insiders, DS+R homes, our museums and our cities, revealing the long former freight railway now sees almost eight
has managed to preserve much of the punk-cerebral hidden forces at work in each. Diller + Scofidio’s Slow million annual visitors. In 2010, the firm completed its
energy that sustained the firm at the beginning. House design from 1991 exemplifies this discomfiting renovations at Lincoln Center, New York’s modernist
137
FREE FORM
Left: A rendering
of DS+R’s Dunes
Residence, a
private home in the
Hamptons. Below:
A rendering of the
firm’s Museum of
Image & Sound in
Rio de Janeiro, slated
to open next year.
SIGHT LINES
Above: An aerial
view of the High Line.
Left: The DS+R-
designed Perry and
Marty Granoff Center
for the Creative
Arts (2011) at Brown
SCREEN SHOT Above: The Los Angeles art University, in Provi-
museum The Broad, by DS+R, which opened in 2015. dence, Rhode Island.
cultural acropolis. Here the architects were able to architects have been charged with renovating the deck. The performance artist Ryan McNamara was on
work in new amenities and greater accessibility while nearly block-long campus, as well as creating a suite the front porch readying a new piece to be performed
leaving the midcentury character essentially intact. of new exhibition spaces, some occupying a new tower that evening. Art critics and editors drifted by to watch
Benjamin Gilmartin, 47, who joined the firm in from architect Jean Nouvel and some in an extension the rehearsal. “It’s a pretty typical day,” said Renfro.
2004, has witnessed the change that’s swept the of DS+R’s own design, set to open in 2019. (The sec- On a somewhat less typical day, the whole firm
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: IWAN BAAN; DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO; IWAN BAAN (2); DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO. OPPOSITE: RICHARD BARNES
office; he’s also one of its primary agents, having been ond structure has attracted controversy, since its gathered on the office rooftop, donning protective
made DS+R’s fourth partner two years ago. “In 2009 construction entailed the demolition of the American glasses to watch the rare solar eclipse. If one both-
we were getting nervous about what we were going to Folk Art Museum, the work of esteemed architects ered to look down and around, the evidence of DS+R’s
do next,” he says. “And right when the economy was Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.) success was everywhere. Hundreds of people stood
collapsing and the housing bubble was bursting, we The scheme’s just-finished first phase, a reworking on the High Line to take in the show, while a bit far-
won about five or six competitions in a row.” As those of the core 1939 building, is a sort of romantic hom- ther uptown, the edge of 15 Hudson Yards, the firm’s
commissions have started to come on line, they’ve age to MoMA 1.0. “As an institution, we’ve always first true skyscraper, was just visible. When topped
proved just how potent the firm’s approach is. sought to unify our architecture,” says Lowry, but out, the 88-story high-rise, designed with Rockwell
One of these projects, The Broad, serves as a case in DS+R “thought it would be more beneficial to us to Group, will be an unmissable fixture of the skyline.
point. Opened in 2015, the museum, built to display the reveal our history.” Taking cues from the Bauhaus, Of even greater import to the firm is the smaller,
art collection of Eli and Edythe Broad, occupies a hill- the space features new lounges faced in dark mar- but no less impressive structure adjoining the tower.
top site in downtown L.A. right next to Frank Gehry’s ble. The bottom flight of the original staircase, long The Shed, which is also a collaboration with Rockwell
Walt Disney Concert Hall. What the DS+R team gave demolished, has been rebuilt, reconnecting it to the Group, promises to be an unconventional perfor-
its patrons is a restrained riposte to Gehry’s extrava- ground floor and the entry foyer, creating a more mance and exhibition venue—its most remarkable
gant urban statement, but also a statement of its own: intimate complement to the enlarged main entrance feature is a mobile enclosure, sheathed in a ribbed
a latticed surface sheathing a tripartite block with an DS+R has planned for down the street. exoskeleton and hoisted on track-bound wheels so it
open entry at the base, a concrete “vault” of offices and Making the building more layered, vexing its nar- can be rolled out for indoor-outdoor events. “It’s one
storage in the middle and, atop it all, a 35,000-square- rative—it’s all an extension of the firm’s exploratory of the most extraordinary pieces of architecture I’ve
foot exhibition floor, unencumbered by columns and mission. “We’ve always talked about doing one of ever seen,” says Diane von Furstenberg. The fashion
suffused with light. Eli Broad, who describes him- every kind of project,” says Renfro, and it’s an objective designer, who was a major booster of the High Line,
self as “no pushover,” was adamant that the museum they’re closing in on fast. With the 2011 opening of the now serves on The Shed’s board; she’s convinced it’s
should draw “a more diverse audience” than its peers; Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts destined to make a similar splash.
DS+R helped make that vision a reality with a build- at Brown University, DS+R added its first academic As Shed CEO Alex Poots notes, the building “is
ing that’s simple in form and function, yet enigmatic building to its roster, and now the firm has a medical- adaptable to whatever artists need and want.” It is
and dynamic enough to match the art inside. “I feel school facility, the Roy and Diana Vagelos Education also an artistic act unto itself—a high-minded inquiry,
we reinvented the museum experience in the United Center at Columbia University Medical Center, which in steel and plastic polymer, into what constitutes
States,” says Broad. opened this year. Another Columbia commission, a an art space today, presented in eye-popping form
DS+R’s decades-old affiliation with contemporary new campus for its business school, is now under con- and then tossed into the middle of the city as a kind
art practices makes the firm suited to the problems struction. Projects as complex as these have required of dare. For all that separates the four architects on
of 21st-century exhibition spaces. “They’re keenly the architects to temper their experimentalism, yet the rooftop from the three who gathered downstairs
and acutely aware of the way artists think and feel,” what Gilmartin terms the “collaborative culture,” fos- a decade ago, there’s no mistaking the basic impulse.
says Glenn Lowry, the director of MoMA. Lowry has tered by the founders, remains unchanged. As it approaches its 40th anniversary, DS+R is still
known Diller and Scofidio for years, and he and the So does the feeling that they’re part of a broader reinventing itself. In a way, says Diller, even an eclipse
museum’s other trustees decided to tap them for the creative community. One day this past summer, Renfro is nothing out of the ordinary. “It’s like this every day
expansion of MoMA’s sprawling Midtown plant. The was at his house on Fire Island, having cocktails on the here,” she says. “There’s always some kind of drama.”
138
SLIDE SHOW
The Shed’s distinctive
steel exoskeleton
sits on track wheels
that allow it to roll
out from the main
structure and bring
shelter to the
adjacent plaza.
139
BLUE
PERIOD
The vivid hues and dramatic
shapes of this season’s couture
pieces take on a dreamlike
quality against the painted walls
of Chefchaouen, Morocco.
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
Step into an adventurous
evening ensemble.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY VIVIANE SASSEN Armani Privé cape, top,
STYLING BY ANASTASIA BARBIERI sleeves, hat and skirt.
ICE AGE
Long layers of color
or a decorative
décolletage make for
a bold statement.
Schiaparelli Haute
Couture dress,
Stazia Loren
necklace and Efva
Attling bracelets.
Opposite: Alexandre
Vauthier dress.
14 2
SWING OUT
Get a kick out of
bright stripes.
Dior Haute
Couture dress.
AZURE THING
Intricate draping
amps up classic
gowns. Gaultier Paris
dress. Opposite:
Giambattista Valli
Haute Couture dress.
147
CITY OF ANGLES
Gold and silver
accents add high-
profile glamour.
Atelier Versace dress.
Opposite: Chanel
Haute Couture dress.
14 8
AS HUE LIKE IT
A single, strong color
is unforgettable.
Valentino Haute
Couture dress.
BRIGHT SIDE
Sunny yellow
or appliquéd flowers
add stylish power.
RVDK/Ronald
van der Kemp dress.
Opposite: Fendi
Haute Fourrure
dress. Model, Grace
Bol at The Lions;
makeup, Karim
Rahman. For
details see Sources,
page 155.
15 3
metal scaffolding. Ruby repainted the white walls a
vivid construction-site yellow (the current store is a
RAF SIMONS work in progress; a permanent version is planned in
the next several years).
MUSICAL.LY
Continued from page 119 Continued from page 133
Ruby and Simons have developed a seamless
working relationship since they first met in 2005.
else that I’m thinking,” says Simons. They get one another. Ruby comes from a small town as a cross between Julia Michaels and Noah Cyrus.
“When I went to Dior, it was the biggest possible in Pennsylvania. His mother is Dutch and his aunt “It could take some time for people to get used to it,”
challenge—this is something that may be so in con- recently moved to Simons’s hometown of Neerpelt. she says. “It has a certain edginess to it.” She’s suc-
trast to everything I stood for and was interested in. “We both grew up with low culture and then, over cessfully built a cultlike following of millions—from
I asked myself, Can you do the ladylike thing or not? time, with high culture. If you weren’t conditioned her living room, for no money.
But pretty soon I started to ask myself, Is this really that way, it’s very difficult to understand,” says Musical.ly now has 200 employees in Shanghai and
going to make me happy in the long run?” In October Ruby. Occasionally, they do butt heads. The shade about 20 more in Santa Monica. But the company is once
2015, Simons told Dior he would be leaving. of yellow in the Madison Avenue store, for instance. again at an inflection point. Snapchat has gone public.
For somebody like Simons, moving to Calvin Klein Simons and Ruby went back and forth over that one Zhu does not consider it a direct competitor, saying
might seem as quixotic as a European film auteur for three weeks and never did see eye to eye. Upshot: “Snapchat, to us, is more like a private social network;
looking for creative freedom in Hollywood. The “It’s Raf’s yellow,” says Ruby. you interact with your friends and watch their lives.”
Calvin Klein brand is a sprawling industrial com- The price for this far-reaching clout is a thick After a splashy IPO in March, Snapchat (which is much
bine, most of whose $8.4 billion in sales comes from blanket of American corporate bureaucracy. Simons larger than Musical.ly, with 173 million daily active
popular-price underwear, jeans and perfume. Its pri- knows he has to pay, but he’s not thrilled about it. users) has seen its stock price drop more than 50 percent
mary business is tonnage. Ready-to-wear accounts “It’s a huge difference in mentality,” says Simons. due to slower-than-expected user growth and mount-
for a fraction of annual sales. In 2003, the apparel “We don’t have so many meetings in Europe. This ing losses.
conglomerate Phillips–Van Heusen (which later one reports to that one. That one reports to this Musical.ly is still growing. According to the analyt-
bought Tommy Hilfiger and is now known as PVH one. I sometimes meet 150 people a week, and then ics firm Sensor Tower, an estimated 45 million people
Corp.) bought Calvin Klein from the designer and his I think, What did I...? How did I...? Did I move on this installed Musical.ly for the first time in the first half
business partner Barry Schwartz for $430 million in week? The show I just did for my Raf Simons line of 2017—about a 25 percent increase over that same
cash and stock. took three meetings in one week with a very small period in 2016. What’s more impressive is its user
Even afterward, much of the brand’s destiny group of people. It’s very efficient.” engagement. Though Musical.ly does not share its
remained in the hands of its licensees. Calvin Klein— Throughout his career, Simons has often stopped user engagement figures, Sensor Tower’s data sug-
the person, not the brand—will enter the fashion hall to ponder whether it’s all worth it. He’s wired that gest that on average people spend more than three
of fame as master of image. His impertinent ad cam- way. The higher he climbs, the more the question minutes in Musical.ly every time they open the app
paigns featuring Kate Moss, Brooke Shields, Marky nags at him. The business has changed dramati- (compared with roughly two minutes on Instagram
Mark and a bunch of pouty adolescents will long be cally since Martin Margiela’s show in a playground and 85 seconds on Snapchat) and that users are
remembered for making teen sex safe for the shop- revealed to Simons that fashion could pop its own spending more than 15 minutes on Musical.ly each
ping mall. But until 2012, when PVH bought it out for bubble from the inside. As Simons sees it, it hasn’t day (compared to more than 22 minutes on Facebook).
$2.9 billion, Warnaco still controlled Calvin Klein’s changed for the better. That may be why, in a 2016 earnings call, Mark
underwear and jeans production and operated “Fashion has become extremely systematic now,” Zuckerberg noted Musical.ly’s and Live.ly’s grip on a
around 1,760 Calvin Klein retail stores worldwide. he says. “It has become surrounded by a technical young audience, fueling talk of a potential acquisition
Simons says he never had to insist on absolute structure of finance and production that makes it (though it appears to be just that).
creative autonomy before taking a job that had previ- very complex. I lose interest. Ten times a day I ask Musical.ly isn’t making big money yet, but
ously been split among three designers— Francisco myself the question, What the hell is this fashion Hofmann insists that will come. Partnership oppor-
Costa (womenswear), Italo Zucchelli (menswear) thing? It wasn’t like that 10 or 15 years ago. People tunities with major brands offer a potential source
and Kevin Carrigan (Calvin Klein Jeans, among just did their own thing.” of revenue. There have already been branded cam-
other things). PVH offered it willingly as part of its When Simons feels trapped in the machine, he paigns like Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke and Nike’s
efforts to get Calvin Klein speaking in one clear voice sometimes calls Ruby and the two of them dream #KissMyAirs challenge, which asked Musers to dance
again. Just how clear is apparent when you walk of dropping out. “Two years ago, we talked about in their favorite Nike Airs. In August, ABC’s American
into Calvin Klein’s Madison Avenue store and see buying a big farmhouse in Belgium and just saying Idol teamed with Musical.ly on a casting call, asking
$30 men’s briefs hanging near $850 marching-band screw it!” says Ruby. “We’re still talking about it.” Musers to submit audition videos using the hashtag
pants, both with Simons’s new 205W39NYC label. But there’s a strong counterweight to those rumi- #TheNextIdol, which drew almost 300,000 submis-
It didn’t take Simons long to start pulling levers nations. It is Simons’s image of a kid in a small town in, sions. “At the end of the day,” says Hofmann, “we
that had been beyond his reach before. He tweaked say, Florida. He’s bored and shiftless, and he doesn’t have to generate revenue, of course. Right now, our
Calvin Klein’s clean, sans serif logo with help from have much money in his pocket. A kid, in other words, main goal is to significantly grow our user base.”
graphic designer Peter Saville, whose album cov- very much like Simons himself once was. In tech, there is always the concern that other
ers for Joy Division and posters for Manchester’s “When I was young, I would look at an ad from apps may try to copy Musical.ly’s features. Facebook
Haçienda club in the 1970s and ’80s put him in the Helmut Lang. I could not spend a cent on a blazer— now has Stories, for example, which is basically the
pantheon of Simons’s culture heroes. Together they not even a plastic blazer. A T-shirt and, after that, same as Instagram Stories, which is what Snapchat
gave the letters a gentle squeeze and made them all jeans. Then I would be a Helmut Lang kid. I was a always did. Mark Cuban raised a similar point: Now
capitals. A minor alteration, perhaps, but the logo Helmut Lang kid. People said, ‘Oh, my God, you’re that Facebook and Instagram have also added live
somehow feels fresher now. completely in Helmut Lang!’ No. Just one piece streams, “it will be a battle for [Musical.ly], but I
Simons turned his friend Sterling Ruby loose on maybe. The rest flea market. But I liked it. think they can perform with younger audiences.”
Calvin Klein’s only flagship store on Madison Avenue “I know I’m a high-fashion brand with high-fash- Musical.ly’s innovation may be something more
and 60th Street. The minimalist guru John Pawson ion prices, but what I like about Calvin is that my intangible—and it comes back to the excitement one
had made the original store a bare temple for Calvin mind-set can connect to some kid in Florida. He can feels watching twin girls from Germany giggle their
Klein’s stripped-down style. Ruby went maximal- only spend $30 on underwear but he still connects way through a 15-second dance to Usher’s “OMG.”
ist, festooning the store with giant soft sculptures to what he or she sees in that world. I am able to cre- Says Hofmann: “There are people who say, ‘You can
and patchwork quilts. Cracked mannequins perch on ate that.” copy features.’ But you can’t copy a community.”
154
SOURCE S
COVER Lam belt, similar styles Calvin Klein 205W39NYC McCartney, 929 Madison
Burberry sweater, $2,795, available at dereklam.com, boots, $1,995, Calvin Avenue, New York,
burberry.com, Solange Hermès bandanna, $185, Klein, 654 Madison Céline shirt, $820, shop
Azagury-Partridge ring, Hermès stores nationwide, Avenue, New York, After .nordstrom.com, Joseph
$2,100, Solange Azagury- Martiniano shoes, $437, Shave Club rings, left, pants, $445, joseph-fashion IN THE NE X T
Partridge, 32 East 68th Maryam Nassir Zadeh, 123 $240, and right, $180, .com, After Shave Club WS J. MAGA ZINE
Street, New York Norfolk Street, New York; aftershaveclubnyc.com rings, left, $100, and right,
LUXURY
Givenchy jacket, $2,935, $120, aftershaveclubnyc
Bergdorf Goodman, 754 PAGE 79 .com; Loewe top, price
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Fifth Avenue, New York, Michael Kors Collection upon request, similar
PAGE 28
HOLIDAY
Gabriela Hearst dress, jacket, $1,150, and pants, styles available at ikram
Glass Vase, by FOS, about
$2,395, Bergdorf Goodman, $775, select Michael Kors .com, Carolina Herrera
15" tall, $7,300, Etage
754 Fifth Avenue, New stores, Ralph Lauren pants, $1,090, Carolina
Projects, etageprojects.com Collection belt, $495, select
York, Eric Javits hat, $580, Herrera, 954 Madison
ericjavits.com, Sophie Ralph Lauren stores, J.W. Avenue, New York ON SALE
CONTRIBUTORS Buhai necklace, $1,650, Anderson shoes, $835, shop
DECEMBER 9, 2017
PAGE 34 sophiebuhai.com; Dolce .nordstrom.com, After PAGE 84
Marc Jacobs sweater, & Gabbana coat, $2,595, Shave Club bracelet, Calvin Klein 205W39NYC
$895, Marc Jacobs stores, select Dolce & Gabbana $300, and rings, left, dresses from left, $2,500
vintage swimsuit, similar boutiques, Nehera shirt, $260, and right, $240, and $3,100, bra seen at left,
styles available at Early $400, nehera.com, Ralph aftershaveclubnyc.com $500, brief seen at left,
Halloween NYC, 130 West Lauren Collection skirt, $500, and boots, $1,995
25th Street, New York, $2,490, select Ralph Lauren PAGE 80 each, Calvin Klein, 654
Ralph Lauren Collection 25th Street, New York, PAGE 142
Solange Azagury-Partridge stores, Artemas Quibble Madison Avenue, New York
ring, $2,100, Solange dress, $1,912, select Jennifer Fisher chain, $420, Schiaparelli Haute Couture
belt, $805, artemas-quibble
Azagury-Partridge, 32 Ralph Lauren stores, and letter charm, $400, dress, price and availability
.com, Dior hat, $1,250, PAGE 85
East 68th Street, New York Maximum Henry belt, jenniferfisherjewelry.com upon request, Stazia Loren
Dior boutiques nationwide; Louis Vuitton shirtdress,
Dior coat, $5,000, Dior $115, maximumhenry.com, price upon request, select necklace, $1,250, Barneys
Calvin Klein 205W39NYC PAGE 110 New York, Efva Attling
WHAT’S NEWS boutiques nationwide, Louis Vuitton stores
Carolina Herrera dress, boots, $1,995, Calvin Marc Jacobs sweater, bracelets, left, $930, and
PAGE 44 Klein, 654 Madison $895, Marc Jacobs stores, right, $710, efvaattling.com
Anna Dello Russo/Tod’s, $2,490, Carolina Herrera, PAGE 86
954 Madison Avenue, New Avenue, New York Bottega Veneta jacket, vintage swimsuit, similar
from left, $1,195, $1,125 and styles available at Early PAGE 143
$995, Tod’s, 650 Madison York, Brock Collection $1,610, and skirt, $810, 800-
shoes, price upon request, PAGE 81 845-6790, MM6 Maison Halloween NYC, 130 West Alexandre Vauthier dress,
Avenue, New York Max Mara shirt, $565, Max 25th Street, New York
Barneys New York, Sophie Margiela T-shirt, $275, price upon request, Just
Buhai bracelets, large Mara, 813 Madison Avenue, MM6 boutiques nationwide, One Eye, 7000 Romaine
PAGE 46 New York, Jil Sander
Valentino dress, $3,690, $1,310, and medium, Louis Vuitton boots, RYAN HEFFINGTON Street, Los Angeles
$860, sophiebuhai .com, skirt, $1,010, Dover Street price upon request, select
Valentino boutiques, PAGE 121
Eric Javits hat, $425, Market, 160 Lexington
Versace hat, $550, select Louis Vuitton stores, Jane Gucci coat, $4,600, select PAGE 145
ericjavits .com Avenue, New York, and D’Arensbourg ring, $460,
Versace boutiques, Oliver Gucci stores nationwide, Dior Haute Couture dress,
belt, $340, needsupply.com, janedarensbourg.com, After
Peoples sunglasses, $415, Calvin Klein 205W39NYC Hermès shirt, $560, price upon request by
oliverpeoples.com, Fendi PAGE 56 Shave Club ring, $240, Hermès stores nationwide, special order, 1-800-929-
Vacheron Constantin boots, $1,995, Calvin Klein,
tank, $550, and shorts, aftershaveclubnyc.com Steven Alan tie, $88, DIOR
watch, $29,200, Vacheron 654 Madison Avenue, New
$400, fendi.com, Céline York; Nehera dress, $750, stevenalan.com
sneakers, $590, Céline, 870 Constantin, 729 Madison PAGE 146
nehera.com, Sophie Buhai BRIGHT IDEAS
Madison Avenue, New York, Avenue, New York PAGE 122 Giambattista Valli Haute
necklace, $750, sophiebuhai PAGE 103
Balenciaga bag, $1,985, .com; Chloé dress, $2,370, Burberry coat, $6,250, Louis Vuitton coat, Couture dress, price and
similar styles available at PAGE 62 $3,200, select Louis
Chloé retail boutiques, burberry.com, Jean Yu availability upon request,
Balenciaga New York Soho, Graff earrings, price upon Vuitton stores, Prada
J.W. Anderson top with swimsuit, $615, jeanyu.com +33-01-40-17-05-88
148 Mercer Street, New request, Graff New York, shirt, $510, select Prada
necklace, $690, j-w-
York, Derek Lam shoes, 710 Madison Avenue anderson.com, and shoes, boutiques, Raf Simons PAGE 147
$850, dereklam.com $835, shop.nordstrom.com, REESE WITHERSPOON pants, $583, rafsimons
PAGE 104
Gaultier Paris dress, price
FREE AND CLEAR After Shave Club ring, $180, .com, Polo Ralph Lauren and availability upon
PAGE 50 aftershaveclubnyc.com, Burberry sweater, $2,795, tie, $125, Polo Ralph
PAGE 70 request, +33-1-72-75-83-46
Dior Homme, $1,800, Dior Jane D’Arensbourg ring, burberry.com, Solange Lauren stores, Hugo shoes,
Vase, by Massimo
Homme stores, Michael $460, janedarensbourg.com Azagury-Partridge ring, $395, Hugo Boss stores
Micheluzzi, about 9" tall, PAGE 148
Kors, similar styles $2,100, Solange Azagury-
$2,900, Barry Friedman Atelier Versace dress,
available at michaelkors PAGE 82 Partridge, 32 East 68th PAGE 124
Ltd., barryfriedmanltd.com price and availability upon
.com, Salvatore Ferragamo, Céline T-shirt, $580, and Street, New York Calvin Klein 205W39NYC
$1,200, Salvatore skirt, $2,100, Céline, 870 coat, $4,290, Calvin Klein, request, 212-317-0224
PAGE 72
Ferragamo boutiques PAGES 106 & 107
Tokyo-ga, by Laura de Madison Avenue, New York, 654 Madison Avenue, New
nationwide, Tod’s, price Joseph pants, $445, joseph- Gucci sweater, $2,900, York, Dries Van Noten PAGE 149
Santillana, about 11" tall,
upon request, tods.com, fashion.com, Acne Studios select Gucci stores shirt, $325, Bergdorf Chanel Haute Couture
$20,000, Ippodo Gallery,
Hermès, $3,925, Hermès shoes, $560, acnestudios nationwide Goodman, 754 Fifth dress, price upon request,
ippodogallery.com
stores nationwide .com, Repossi rings, left, Avenue, New York, Ralph 800-550-0005
$4,500, and right, $6,400, PAGE 108 Lauren tie, $185, Ralph
PAGE 74
PAGE 52 net-a-porter.com Gucci shirt, $360, select Lauren stores PAGE 151
Folded vases, by Jochen
Balenciaga jacket, $2,150, Gucci stores nationwide, Valentino Haute Couture
Holz, about 6" and 7" tall,
pants, $950, and shoes, PAGE 83 Chanel swim top, $350, and PAGE 125 dress, price and availability
$200 each, Flow Gallery,
$850, Balenciaga New York Joseph jacket, $945, bottom, $350, select Chanel Balenciaga coat, $2,950, upon request, 212-355-5811
flowgallery.co.uk
Soho, 148 Mercer Street; joseph-fashion.com, boutiques nationwide, and shirt, $495, Balenciaga
Hermès jacket, $7,100, Saint Laurent by Anthony Solange Azagury-Partridge Soho Men, 149 Mercer PAGE 152
and scarf, $650, Hermès BEACHY KEEN Vaccarello shirt, $1,350, ring, $2,100, Solange Street, New York, Thom Fendi Haute Fourrure
stores nationwide, Max PAGE 77 and pants, $690, Saint Azagury-Partridge, 32 East Browne tie, $210, Thom dress, price and availability
Mara shirt, $635, Max Prada dress, $1,560, select Laurent, 3 East 57th Street, 68th Street, New York Browne Store, 100 Hudson
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LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
The groundbreaking poet shares a few of his favorite things.
“THE OLDEST OBJECT here is the Navy cap, on the were being bohemian. I had lived in France as a small the right is my book A Coney Island of the Mind, pub-
right, which I wore as commanding officer of the boy so I had acquired the accent, but I didn’t know any lished by New Directions in 1958—it’s been in print
USS SC-1308—a 110-foot wooden ship with a crew of grammar. During the defense of my thesis I was more ever since. It was one of the first paperbacks that New
30 men and three officers. We were in the Normandy afraid of making a mistake in French than of factual Directions published, and it took a number of years
Invasion the first morning, although during actual errors. In Paris, one of the great books I bought was for it to really sell. At the time, paperbacks were not
battle stations we were wearing hard hats. The other a British edition of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the considered real books. Up until then they were just
item from the ship is the bosun pipe to the left, which I Artist as a Young Man. My literary generation was murder mysteries and thrillers. New Directions is
swiped. It’s used by the bosun to pipe up or pipe down totally dominated by Joyce, as well as by T.S. Eliot and still my publisher after all these years. [It’s releas-
the crew. After the Second World War, I got a mas- Ezra Pound. The portrait is of my late ex-wife, Selden ing a new volume, Ferlinghetti’s Greatest Poems, this
ter’s degree at Columbia University and then went to Kirby-Smith, by the French-Moroccan painter Claude month.] The final item is a Statue of Liberty mask,
Paris on the GI Bill. I was there three and a half years Ponsot; he painted it in 1948. Claude had a studio on which I’ve worn at readings of my political poetry. I
working on a doctorate at the Sorbonne and wore the outskirts of Paris in a town called Chatou. He was got it at a costume shop around 1980. I also bought
the beret hanging on the painting during that time. completely unknown. The oil painting was done on a plastic Statue of Liberty torch, but I never used it.”
In those days, Americans wore berets thinking they Masonite because he was too poor to buy canvas. To —As told to Thomas Gebremedhin