The X-Girl catalog, winter of 1996

So few celebrity fashion lines are actually cool and wearable and the list of tacky brands thought up by famous folk (or their money-minded managers) could fill a small phone book. Do we really want to wear Lindsey Lohan designed leggings? Probably not. A high-waisted skirt thought up by Chloë Sevigny? Perhaps. A pre-cursor to these many lines was X-Girl, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth’s casual streetwear line which was launched in 1994 (when Lindsay Lohan was eight). Gordon and her partner Daisy Von Furth were asked by their friends at XLarge to start a sister line and X-Girl was born. It was the summer of 1997 when I first visited the X-Girl store in NYC (later that year the label would be sold and moved to Japan) and one of my first boutique experiences. The store was a small whitewashed room on Lafayette Street across from the old XLarge store. By far the best part of visiting the boutique were the die-cut X-Girl stickers that were doled out for free with the Tron-inspired logo in a heap of shiny colors. I spent my two weeks in New York that summer snapping up every possible color each time I walked by the store.

Surprisingly the designs were very basic and wearable: slim-fitting boatneck tees, crewneck sweaters, cotton minis, all in two or three solid colors every season and most discreetly branded with the X-Girl logo patch. A gray raglan-sleeved mini dress could have been picked up at Uniqlo yesterday. It was the t-shirts though that were the main draw. Mike Mills, the graphic artist and filmmaker (director of Thumbsucker) designed many of the t-shirts and posters for sale every season. Silkscreened with a slew of cool monotone graphics (cameras, the Earth, birds) and always a punchy phrase, the tees were hard to come by and always sold out. A memorable graphic featured a crudely drawn horse smoking a cigar with “Good Luck” imprinted below.

Two of Mike Mills' X-Girl graphics

The aesthetic of X-Girl was influenced by skateboarding, the mod sixties, and downtown New York in the era of Larry Clark’s Kids. The then unknown Chloë Sevigny also served as a model for the first X-Girl catalog. Even the name was brilliant, with ‘girl’ having so many connotations at the time - X-Girl may have had a slight reference towards the Riot Grrrl movement but ultimately referred to a more cleaned up grrrl and with the coolest letter ‘x’ all but summing up the entire feeling of the brand with one letter. Gordon sold her shares to a Japanese company in 1997 and the brand shuttered in the US until a store briefly opened on the same patch of Lafayette Street but with none of its former élan. Fans of X-Girl can see Gordon’s designing talents once again with Mirror/Dash, a line which she has designed exclusively with Urban Outfitters. Elements of X-Girl can be found in a zip front mini-dress and a simple rolled cuff tee, though overall, fans of X-Girl will just have to relish the pieces they already own and watch the fashion show that started it all in 1994.

Tags: celebrity fashion lines, Chloe Sevigny, Daisy Von Furth, Kids, Kim Gordon, Larry Clark, Mike Mills, Mirror/Dash, New York, Sonic Youth, Urban Outfitters, X-Girl, XLarge.

Peter Lindbergh: Naomi, Linda, Tatjana, Christy and Cindy, British Vogue, Jan 1990.

If the 1990’s symbolized the end of the supermodel era, the forty years before that was a steady climb of pretty girls, each decade giving us a set of faces that served to define an era. Then the 2000’s made it abundantly clear that models were simply mannequins again, nameless girls, still beautiful, though none with the stature of a Cindy, a Christy or even an Amber.

The Model as Muse exhibit at the Met is a a beautifully organized history lesson of those names and their Vogue covers (support is provided through Condé Nast), illustrated also with the important fashion designs of each period from the 1950’s until today. The exhibit design feels very similar to a fashion version of It’s a Small World, with each room revealing a reconstructed decade through mannequins in various dress and pose, projections of films and videos starring models and loudly looped music reaffirming the Disney ride atmosphere. However kitschy, it is an immensely guilty pleasure to read about each model’s life (Jean Shrimpton actually graduated from a modeling school) and to watch an enlarged Freedom ‘90, George Michael’s seminal supermodel music video.

Left/ Irving Penn: Jean Patchett, B&W Vogue Cover, 1950. Right/ Carmen Dell'Orefice, Vogue Cover

The grand hallway leading into the exhibit recreates the famous 1955 Richard Avedon photograph of the model Dovima posing with elephants at a Paris circus; the actual photograph follows later down the hall. To have been a model in the ’50s, one had to have carriage, posture that was as physical as it was mental, an air of elegance and refinement. Hallmarked by Irving Penn’s luminous black and white photograph of model Jean Patchett and Avedon’s 1949 image of model Dorian Leigh, the 1950’s monochromatic-ness was soon to change.

Richard Avedon: Dorian Leigh, evening dress by Piguet, 1949. Gelatin silver print.

Leaving carriage far behind in the ’60s, modeling changed drastically. We are treated to a snippet of William Klein’s art house film about fashion, Qui êtes vous, Polly Maggoo? (Who are You, Polly Magoo?) where a heavily eyelashed Dorothy McGowan is fussed and hairsprayed in a stationary metal dress (an early rendering of fashion as immobility). The aluminum alloy dresses in the movie are center stage here in the 1960’s room, on rotating mannequins, along with Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian dress and Rudi Gernreich’s topless swimsuit. Subsequently, the ’70s-’90s explode with name brands and inflated modeling contracts, the dawn of Sports Illustrated and then grunge. Brooke Shields’ iconic Calvin Klein pose, photographer Peter Lindbergh’s supermodels in Chanel ballgowns and leather jackets. Then a strange thing happens at the end of the exhibition: the model disappears. Instead a glowing cabine of minimalist designs from Prada and Helmut Lang cap off the forty plus years that we have just seen.

The name of the show, Model as Muse hints at this complex relationship, whether it is between model and designer or model and photographer, however, never quite examines either working marriage completely. Fashion has always been regarded as that hollow medium, and this exhibit does little to discredit this notion. In showing movies about models or the fashion world, what is notably missing is Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966), which highlighted the elongated limbs of model Veruschka and explicitly detailed the notorious relationship between photographer and model. These relationships are only hinted at here and never entirely dissected. What is fully illustrated though is that models are the paradigm of the values and movements of each time period; their faces, body types, pedigrees, and attitudes adjusting accordingly. The age old question of whether a model is merely a clothes hanger or a cultural icon was best addressed by model Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn in 1949. Quoted in a Time magazine article she stated, “It is always the dress, it is never, never the girl.” Though Naomi Campbell may heartily disagree, it seems nowadays the sentiment rings true again.

Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion through August 9, 2009 at the Met

Tags: Blow-Up, Chanel, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Dorian Leigh, Dorothy McGowan, fashion photography, George Michael, Irving Penn, Jean Patchett, Jean Shrimpton, Met, models, Naomi Campbell, Peter Lindbergh, Polly Magoo, Richard Avedon, supermodels, Veruschka, Vogue, William Klein.

Jane Birkin with Serge Gainsbourg / Image courtesy of Vanity Fair

Knitwear label Lutz & Patmos‘ guest designers have included such luminaries as actress Kirsten Dunst, director Sofia Coppola and French Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld. For the spring, they’ve enlisted Jane Birkin, chanteuse and she of the Birkin bag and mother to Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon. The natural collaboration of Birkin’s bohemian style and Lutz & Patmos’ sumptuous knits is a foolproof match. “She has this really relaxed, nonchalant style without being overtly sexy, which is very sexy,” commented Tina Lutz, one half of the knitwear duo. Birkin has put her touch on two pieces, both made of 100% cashmere: a knit tank and a v-neck sweater which both have a gloriously slouchy feel and come in heathered neutrals and black.

Jane Birkin, guest designer for Lutz & Patmos / Image courtesy of Lutz & Patmos

Jane Birkin V-Neck and Tank available on Lutz & Patmos’ newly opened online shop.

Tags: Carine Roitfeld, cashmere, Charlotte Gainsbourg, collaboration, designers, guest designer, Jane Birkin, Kirsten Dunst, knitwear, Lou Doillon, Lutz & Patmos, Sofia Coppola.

Lou Doillon has the sort of coveted look that girls always want to emulate: sexy without being agressive, an enviable wardrobe of designer and vintage finds, along with a striking face that is a cross between intellectual and unabashedly beautiful. Which is also how we would also describe Vanessa Bruno’s clothes, a tactile combination of the above sentiments. Enter a perfect marriage: Lou stars in the new Vanessa Bruno Spring/Summer 2009 campaign shot by photographer Mark Borthwick. In dreamy glowing sunlight, wearing Bruno’s floaty wares, Lou peers at the lens only now and again, perfecting her reluctant sex symbol status.

Tags: ad campaign, fashion photography, Lou Doillon, Mark Borthwick, sex symbol, Spring, Vanessa Bruno, vintage.

Women in film circa 1930-1959 may have looked incredible, but so few were able to hold down a day job. Role after role elaborated on the lives of princesses (Roman Holiday), socialites (The Philadelphia Story, To Catch a Thief), or if a job was held: actresses (All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard). Although well dressed and coiffed, the lives of these characters soon proved dull. When Hollywood was no longer content to let women remain idle, the female response was to get dressed and go to work.

When Melanie Griffith’s Working Girl made her secretarial entrance in a shoulder-padded suit, pantyhose, and Aqua-netted hair, a watershed moment had been reached on film. The outfits may not have stood the test of time, but we did see two females (Sigourney Weaver and Griffith) in the power seats, labeling the film as the quintessential female day job flick.

Other notable working girl fashion highlights:

Janet Leigh in Psycho

Real estate clerk Marion Crane’s short lived appearance in Hitchcock’s Psycho called for crisp white shirts at the office and a lace brassiere and slip on her lunch hour trysts.

Faye Dunaway in The Eyes of Laura Mars

Faye Dunaway’s 1970s fashion photographer in The Eyes of Laura Mars is on set in fluttery blouses, short skirts, and heels. This is unfortunately unrealistic as any photographer who has watched this movie will attest that photographers do not wear heels when shooting. Short skirts, maybe..

Nicole Kidman in To Die For

Sherbet-colored suits with dotted chiffon scarves and perfectly coiffed news reporter hair are de rigeur for Nicole Kidman’s ladder climbing weather girl in Gus Van Sant’s To Die For.

Kim Basinger in 9 1/2 Weeks

Kim Basinger’s Soho art gallery employee in Adrian Lyne’s 9 1/2 Weeks could be the poster girl for 1980s Calvin Klein: slouchy white tees, oversized khaki pants, voluminous trench coats and perfect smoky eye makeup.

Ziyi Zhang in 2046

Many people thought she was a call girl in Wong Kar Wai’s 2046, but no, Ziyi Zhang’s profession was that of a cabaret girl. Working the other 9-5 in glittering high-necked cheongsam dresses, opera gloves, and fur trimmed coats, Zhang’s wardrobe staples are as gorgeous today as they were in 1960s Hong Kong. The cabaret girl may not technically be a “day job,” but we certainly wouldn’t hesitate to trade our cubicles in for a little Hollywood glamour.

Tags: 2046, Calvin Klein, cheongsam, day job, fashion photographer, Faye Dunaway, Janet Leigh, Kim Basinger, Melanie Griffith, Nicole Kidman, Psycho, The Eyes of Laura Mars, To Die For, Working Girl, Ziyi Zhang.

Francoise Hardy, the French songstress who is best known for her breathy ballads and bohemian style turns 65 on Saturday (Jan. 17). With the sort of good looks (strong jaw, big eyes, side-swept bangs) that have paved the way for girls like Charlotte Gainsbourg and Feist, Hardy was the original girl with a guitar and a definitive icon of the 1960s.

It is her style though that is still copied and oh-so perfectly French. A.P.C.’s entire look seems to be built on the Francoise staples - the striped tees, cable-knit sweaters and trench coats that exemplified Hardy’s school-girl chic. Celebrate her anniversaire with these pieces:

Striped Shirttail Tee available at Urban Outfitters

10th Arrondissement Trench Coat available at Anthropologie

Cashmere cable knit sweater available at  J.Crew’s boy’s department

Tags: 1960s, A.P.C., Charlotte Gainsbourg, Feist, Francoise Hardy, school-girl.