Is There a "Z," Pat?

Have you had this experience?

You're watching (god knows why, maybe you're off sick from work and the dog ran away with the remote and you're too feverish to chase after her) Wheel of Fortune. The lovely and talented Vanna White (is she still on that show?) has turned over those brightly-lit letters to reveal the following:

THE WI_ARD OF O_

And the NIMROD who is playing this game and has $12,850, a new car, and an all-expenses paid vacation at the Desert Sands Inn riding on this answer? Is STUMPED. "Is it 'The Wipard of Op? The Wigard of Og? The Wimard of Om? Gosh, Pat, I just don't know!"

So there you lie on the couch, helpless and a little sweaty from your temperature, losing your mind, tearing your hair out, railing at the gods because this IDIOT cannot see what should be as plain as the nose on his face and if you just scream loud enough through your gritted teeth at the television maybe this MORON will hear you and get this right and we can all move on!!!

Yeah. I'm having that feeling right now.

Halston & gals, circa 1977. Notice Shelley Hack & Cheryl Tiegs.

There are all these rumors flying around about who's going to be taking over the design duties at Halston. Most recently the name Olivier Theyskens is coming up. A lot. Evidently Dear Leader Anna Wintour is very into this idea, and folks do listen to Anna.

Now, as you know if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, I adoooooore Olivier Theyskens. I think he may be the most talented designer of his generation. And I think that his tenure at Rochas was an inspired pairing and a golden age, and I'm going to be peeved at Procter & Gamble forever for closing it down. (Backstory: P&G acquired Rochas when they bought Wella, ran it for a few brilliant years with Theyskens making very expensive fashion magic and then decided that they didn't know from fashion, just shampoos & perfumes, and decided to shutter it. Many fashiony tears were shed all over the world, including a few here at Style Spy Central.)

Rochas Fall 06

Now they've apparently entered into a licensing agreement with an Italian company (Gibo) who will once again send the models stomping down the runway with Rochas labels sewn in their garments. Unfortunately, Theyskens is no longer available because he's been designing Nina Ricci since Fall 2007.

Nina Ricci Spring 08

Or is he? See, Theyskens is now leaving Nina Ricci -- Fall 2009 was his last collection there. If I ran the world, the PTB at P&G would crawl over broken glass to Theyskens, cravenly promising him a fabulous new studio, a line of hair care named after him, an adorable Portuguese water dog puppy, or whatever else it took to woo him back.

In the meantime (Lord, this is starting to feel like a re-cap of Gossip Girls, isn't it?) back in 2007 Harvey Weinstein (he of Miramax fame) bought Halston with the idea of re-launching it and turning it into a global style powerhouse. Tamara Mellon, the over-injected president of Jimmy Choo, was a board member and Rachel Zoe, over-hyped no-talent president of her own fan club (Bananas!), was hired as "red carpet consultant." I think it is telling that the person who was hired to design Halston, Marco Zanini, would probably have gotten fewer Google hits than either of those women, considering that he was the person who was putting together the actual clothes.

Halston Fall 08

Jump forward a few seasons and Halston has not made the inroads its investors would have liked it to and Zanini is out of the picture. (And in one more sidenote of incestuous fashion weirdness, Harvey Weinstein is married to Georgina Chapman, one of the designers of the label Marchesa. Marchesa is best-known for its red carpet-wear, but Halston was always better-known for fabulously chic American sportswear, so one can't help wondering exactly who Rachel Zoe was supposed to be supporting here... But no matter. Ms. Zoe is apparently No Longer Associated with Halston, a development I can only see as to the good.)

Now. Here's where it really gets weird. Guess whose name is being bandied about to take over when Rochas re-opens? Yep. Marco Zanini.

Are you still with me? God bless you.

I'm not going to talk about the whole Rochas/Zanini situation right now. That's another topic for another day. The point of this particular post is that while, as stated, I adore Olivier Theyskens and would happily let him design pretty much my whole life, I think he is completely wrong for Halston, and despite the fact that I'm risking the wrath of Anna Wintour, who is no doubt performing powerful magic in front of her Rem Koolhaas-designed voodoo altar, I know who needs to take over designing that house.

These guys:

Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra, of their namesake label. The two cutest designing gay lovebird lumberjacks New York has ever produced. Seriously, I just want to go over to their house with a couple of pints of Ben & Jerry's and watch Drew Barrymore movies -- they could not be more adorable.

I fully expect to hear the thunderclap of thousands of fashionistas slapping their foreheads when they read this. "Of course! That's perfect!" you think. "Why didn't Harvey Weinstein think of that???"

Why, indeed?

Listen, these guys are perfect. They made their bones working in jersey, which was one of Halston's favorite media and an absolute must for the label. They do cool, easy, American-chic sportswear. Their last runway show was sponsored by Ultrasuede, for god's sake!!! Am I seriously the only one who sees this???? Here -- I'll show you:

(All these photos are from their last two runway shows.)

I rest my case.

So, please, Harvey, give a girl a break and do yourself a favor. Hire these guys to bring back the late, lamented, dearly beloved house of Halston. Get some good designers to make some fabulous clothes under this label, make it hip & cool again, and rescue one of my longstanding favorite perfumes from the ignominy of drugstore shelves. You'll thank me, I promise.


Photos: mediabistro.com, style.com

Twist and Sigh

So now we've seen Olivier Theyskens' first full collection for Nina Ricci. To be perfectly honest, it didn't blow me out of the water in the way that some of his best work at Rochas did, but since this is his first outing here I'm perfectly happy to sit back and watch it unfold. Cathy Horyn at the New York Times, a fashion journalist I highly recommend reading and not just because I usually agree with her, found an emotional connection to the presentation based on environment and I understood what she meant. I've been to Paris in February, and the cloudy, gray, smudgy softness of the sky and the river seem perfectly echoed in these clothes.

(The Pont de la Tournelle and Notre Dame, taken from the Pont de Sully)

While I'm a little disappointed in the color palette (I almost never wear gray -- it makes me look as though I've been dead for about three days), it was certainly right for the shapes. (And let's face it, it's unlikely I'll be running out to snap up a bunch of these clothes anyway, Economic Reality being what it is.) There's a softness, almost a schlumpiness about these things that I found really appealing, even though I usually go for pretty tightly tailored shapes. But Theyskens being who he is, he manages to make softness without sloppiness.


I'm a little mesmerized by the fabulous twisty seaming that's running through this whole show (although the less said about the feather tarantula on her head, the better, non?). It gives the clothes movement and keeps them from looking too bulky.


As someone who sews, I'd really like to get my hands on a few of these pieces and see just how they did that. (I'd also like to get my hands on a few of these models and force-feed them croissants and macarons, but that's neither here nor there.) Is it bias-cut? I can't tell. It sure is pretty, though. It extends even down to some of the accessories:

Those are some good-looking boots.

A lot of looseness


and ease



and somehow even the most tailored of the clothes still manage to look like you could wear them comfortably all day long


I also find it all very "French" in a way that's hard for me to articulate except to say that I can easily imagine seeing these clothes on women in Paris, and also that if I put them on myself I would instantly feel trés parisienne. It's something about that slouchiness, the lack of focus on the waist, the way the folds of fabric echo the ubiquitous scarves of Parisian women. (That isn't just a myth, you know. They ALL wear scarves. Marvelously.)

The wonderful little details:


Also some gorgeous accessories:


Look at that! A lucite heel that in no way conjures up g-strings and lap dances! A hearty round of applause is called for just for creating that shoe!

This was another thing I just adored about the show:


Tiny feathers worked through all the models' hair. It gave such a soft, floating, ethereal look. I usually don't give a flip about the hair & makeup at the shows, but I found this completely beguiling and won't be happy until I, too, have tiny feathers floating through my hair! (Although with my dopey hair the feathers would just be swallowed up, not to be seen again until I began moulting.)

So I liked this show a lot. I didn't looooooove this show, but as I said, it's Theyskens' first time out for Nina Ricci and we have a lot to look forward to from him. He's not a shouter, Olivier Theyskens, he's not one for grand theatrical gestures or great walloping statements. He gently eases you into his world, and before you know it you're completely in love. Ricci as a house doesn't have a very strongly defined aesthetic in the way that Dior or YSL or Chanel does, so it will be Theyskens' job to create one. Lars Nilsson's work was usually beautiful, but not what I'd call defining, so Theyskens has a fairly blank slate on which to draw. I'm very, very hopeful.

Photos: Style Spy, Style.com

Wherein I Squeal with Fashionista Glee

Today Olivier Theyskens previewed his first collection for Nina Ricci in New York City. It's only a handful of looks, but it's enough to get me very excited.

So beautiful. The softness of it is... kind of heartbreaking, it's so lovely.

And would you look at that suit. That's a suit for a sophisticated, grown-up woman. If I were wearing that I would never, ever be able to be anywhere other than rue Faubourg St. Honoré.

Don't miss this interview with Theyskens on Style.com, and there's also this wonderful article in the New York Times that chronicles the period right after the announcement that Procter & Gamble was closing Rochas. The Nina Ricci collection is mostly in black, gray, and the wonderful yellow of the iconic L'Air du Temps perfume. As usual, Olivier has very well-thought-out reasons why this is so.

I'm a huge fan of Theyskens. I think he's one of the most seriously talented designers to come down the pike in a long time and I'm thrilled that he's barely 30 and we have years of his work to look forward to. There is a purity and a rigor to Theyskens' work that I find truly poetic.



It's romantic in the deepest, truest sense of the word. Not frilly, Valentine's Day romantic, but the romance of a starless sky.

Theyskens' clothes are often deceptively simple, some might consider them almost plain. But there's a deeper elegance to his work, stripped down like a haiku in which every syllable matters. Beginning with his first season at Rochas, he's played with volume and structure in incredibly sophisticated ways.


His clothes are truly French, also, maybe more than any other designer's out there (even though Theyskens is actually from Belgium). "Elegance is refusal," said Coco Chanel. Simplicity is the path to chic.




This is not to say that Olivier does not know how to have fun, or design a dress a gal wants to wear to a party


but even in his most playful mood he seems to float above the fray. His clothes are not for chihuahua-toting party girls or television starlets who know their most valuable commodity is best displayed in a bikini. They're not always easy to "get;" many people have complained that Rochas has been too "editorial," and obviously P&G felt that the line wasn't commercial enough to justify them sinking any more money into it. (Philistines!)



But imagine how graceful you would feel walking in the suit above. Imagine that jacket nipping you in at the waist and how delicate your wrists feel emerging from the sleeves and the rustling taffeta froth kicked up by the skirt with every step you take. Oh, it's just too swoony.

Theyskens has had an admirable ability to work within the historic tradition of the House of Rochas, and seems to be determined to do the same with Ricci. I'll be fascinated to see how that translates into his own, quite unique vision. The last few seasons at Rochas have seen Theyskens pare more and more away until he has reached an almost monastic simplicity that is at the same time so womanly and graceful it it seems like the only logical way to dress.




Scroll back up through those photos and notice how almost none of them features a single piece of jewelry (two exceptions have one small bangle bracelet each) and you don't even miss it. And whyever would you need jewelry, with a small flock of swallows fluttering in your wake?

As I am left fluttering in Olivier Theyskens' wake, waiting anxiously for next season's collections. Mark my words, he's going to be one of the great ones. How thrilling to watch it all unfold.