月別アーカイブ: 2015年7月

KIDDERMINSTER Town Hall will be ringing the wedding bells for the first gay couple to be married under its roof next month.

Danny Mellor and Richard Coleman are having their fairytale wedding in the landmark building after it became the town’s registrar following the closure of the district’s register office at the Council Offices, Woodfield, Bewdley Road.

But despite the historic occasion for the town hall since the legalising of same-sex marriage in the UK last year, the couple are just ready to be married to each other.

Richard said: “The town hall said it’s the first same-sex wedding for them so we wanted to tell the world to show the normality of life.”

The grooms-to-be first contacted churches to host their wedding after unsuccessful attempts at trying to recreate the famous outdoor wedding from Twilight: Breaking Dawn, but many were still awaiting authorisation to perform same-sex ceremonies so were unable to book them in. Then on the off chance, they took a look at the town hall.

picture: beautiful wedding dresses“The decision to get married wasn’t rushed – we should have saved for years for the picture perfect wedding but we want to get married to each other and a big expensive wedding would have been for everyone else, not for us,” Richard said.

But they have still done everything they wanted and brought the outdoors in.

Both Danny, 31, and Richard, 33, who met when Richard took a job at Danny’s place of work as a care worker in March last year, have picked and dried flowers for the tables, created a centre piece out of wood, crystals, shells, leaves, flowers, and have even incorporated lost family members by adding feathers and ashes.

Danny said: “That’s how we wanted it – handmade and from us. Everything we’ve made is from us.”

When asked about the legalisation of same-sex marriage, both Richard and Danny, who are planning to foster children after they are married, agreed that love is blind.

Richard said: “Love is love – and it’s as simple as that.

“It doesn’t matter where you go in life there will be people who disagree with it, but as long as it;s your life and you’re not hurting anyone or hurting yourself or breaking the law, what does it matter? It’s 2015, not 1954.”

Danny said: “I have always been asking for that person to support me and be a partner for me, and that’s who Rich is to me and I couldn’t ask for anymore.”

In August Danny and Richard will be walking down the aisle in the King Charles room at Kidderminster Town Hall to A Thousand Years by Christina Perri marking a historic occasion in their lives as well as in the history of hall.

Joanne Bowkett, deputy town hall manager, said: “The town hall is delighted to be the new home of the Kidderminster Registration Office and we are very much looking forward to welcoming all the couples sharing their very special day with us.

“We wish Danny and Richard many years of happiness together and thank them for allowing us to celebrate with them the town hall’s first same-sex marriage.

“A new era for the town hall has begun.”

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With more than 25 years of experience in the denim industry, local denim guru Gary Lenett is shaking up the athleisure category with jeans that are fit for a modern lifestyle.

Armed with two proprietary fabrics, Lenett has launched an evolved line of Dish jeans where function meets fashion alongside its men’s performance line, DU-ER.

A North American-wide launch program is in the works, starting locally in Vancouver with a pop-up shop.

We sat down with Lenett to learn more about Dish and DU-ER.

What inspired you to create DU/ER?

I created DU/ER mostly for selfish reasons. I ride my bike to work and wasn’t able to find anything that allowed me to commute to work comfortably and still be appropriate to walk into an important business meeting. I tried different ‘commuter jeans’ on the market, but they just did not hit the mark in terms of fit or fabric.

I wanted jeans that would adapt to the typical Vancouver lifestyle and transition from day to night without requiring a change of clothes. I wanted to create a line of jeanswear that combined function and fashion and could take me from work to play and in everything in between.

How is it different than other denim lines on the market?

picture: pink bridesmaid dresses ukIt is different in almost every way. Most denim brands in North America are primarily trend based and reflect one or more of three common themes – rock & roll, sex and or what I call “americana”. We are fundamentally different in that we start with trying to solve real problems (i.e. providing clothing that you can ride a bike in and still look good). More than just jeans, we are selling a lifestyle. If it doesn’t look great we wouldn’t develop it, but where this is the end of the story with most jean brands, for dish and DU/ER it’s just the beginning.

Talk to us about the fabrics L2X and N2X.

We developed two proprietary fabrics that mix performance wear with denim. L2X (lesiure to extreme) is built to function as a light, breathable fabric – so it feels like a jegging but looks like a traditional, structured jean. The mixture of unique performance fibres (common in coolmax fabrics) helps regulate temperature, moving moisture away from the body so the wearer stays cool and dry.

Our second fabric, N2X (nature to extreme) combines denim with a fibre made from Tencel. Composed of eucalyptus wood pulp, Tencel has natural moisture absorbing and anti-bacterial qualities that provide a luxurious, lightweight feel to denim. Naturally odour resistant, N2X fabrics absorb moisture so you don’t feel it on your skin and helps stop the growth of bacteria so your clothing stays fresh longer.

Why are you launching in Vancouver?

I was born and raised in Vancouver and the concept behind the brand (jeans as lifestyle) was really inspired by the West Coast / Vancouver lifestyle, because of that it was a natural decision to launch the brand here.

What is athleisure and who do you think is your target buyer?

Athleisure is clothing that is designed both for athletic & leisure activities. Our target is the on-the-go, urban man or woman who lives a healthy, active lifestyle. Someone who wants both performance and style in their clothing and does not want the hassle of having to change their clothes as they move through all the transitions of a typical day.

You’re taking DU-ER on the road. What locations do you plan on going and when?

We will be doing another pop up store in Vancouver in the Fall and then planning to do pop up stores right across the U.S.A. beginning in the Spring of next year, starting with Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, L.A. and San Diego.

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos once famously said that in order to be a $200 billion company, Amazon had to learn how to sell clothes and food. And while the company has been steadily growing the latter business with initiatives like Amazon Fresh, today it took a step down the catwalk to build up the former.

Amazon has opened up a new photography studio in Shoreditch, London — a 46,000 square-foot venue with 22 photography bays that Amazon says is one of the largest of its kind in Europe and will help it create and add more than 500,000 images of clothes to its sites every year.

The studio is a brick structure that dates to 1850 and was built under the arches of the Hoxton railway line and is leased from Transport for London, the city’s transportation authority.

picture: green bridesmaid dresses ukThe site was derelict before Amazon got a hold of it. It has been home to a glass factory and a steam train workshop, both of which seem kind of apt when you consider the fragile and fickle nature of the fashion industry, as well as the machine-like force of Amazon’s growth and ambitions.

The move comes as Amazon is hoping to ramp up significantly in fashion sales both on Amazon.com and other properties that it owns in the UK, France, Italy and Spain. The company says it has added 100 new fashion brands to its platform in 2014, with brands including Hugo Boss, Gucci watches, Emporio Armani, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, 7ForAllMankind, American Retro, Petite Bateau, Levi’s and Lacoste.

Online fashion is very big business in Europe already, with companies like Rocket Internet making large investments alongside the likes of luxury conglomerates like LVMH. Startups like Net a Porter and ASOS have been big breakthroughs, and others like Farfetch now also coming up steadily as rivals. In other words, Amazon is moving into a very busy market.

Opening a studio to shoot items would help Amazon boost its inventory in two ways: by selling more items itself and also helping third parties sell more on its marketplace. The company says between April and June it sold over 30 million fashion products in Europe — although, as is often the case with Amazon, it does not say how that translates into dollars.

“Our aim is to make Amazon the best place to buy fashion online,” said Sergio Bucher, VP of Amazon Fashion EU, in a statement. “The opening of our new fashion studio, in the heart of one of the leading fashion capitals of the world, illustrates our ambitions.”

In addition to photography, the studios will have an editorial suite that will also include video editing and a library, as well as offices for Amazon’s fashion staff charged with bringing more merchants and advertisers to the platform.

Amazon has been a significant force in driving the growth of the tech scene in London, with one big development being a move of its UK offices from the outskirts of London — in Slough, the dreary suburb that was the setting of the original Office series — to a 15-story building on the outskirts of London’s financial centre currently being built to house 5,000 employees.

This new photo studio will add 35 jobs plus another 75 at seasonal peaks. It’s also been trying to position itself as a brand in the fashion world. In February, the Council of Fashion Designers of America announced that Amazon would be a major sponsor of the first-ever menswear Fashion Week in New York this year.

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en in vests. Guilty pleasure? Reserved for the holiday wardrobe? A garment to showcase all those hours spent beavering away at the gym? The thing Justin Bieber seems to live in 24/7 (see previous point neatly brought to life with additional baseball cap and chain necklace styling)? Something, along with Ready brek, that your mum forced you to wear to school during the winter months under your shirt as a child of the 1980s? An off-duty stripper vibe, as seen on Channing Tatum? Heck, wearing a vest is a complicated business. Let’s divide and conquer: here are five ways to tackle them. Deep breaths.

President Obama is famed for wearing a vest under his trademark white shirt. This is a subtle power move, bulking up the body and preventing shirt transparency in front of the world’s media. It’s also a darn practical approach that brings comfort to many a weather situation. If its roasting, a well placed under-garment is going to soak up the perspiration, making you feel much less rumpled than rocking up to your breakfast meeting in a pool of your own liquid. Ew. Personally, during the summer months I stock up on under layers from the likes of Uniqlo (their Airism range is particularly good for keeping things dry in the heat), The White Briefs (a newish Swedish underwear-come-lifestyle brand) andSunspel, whose cotton vests maybe one of the best wearing items of clothing I’ve ever had. The bottom line is, they protect shirt armpits from stains – and no-one wants to think about stains when they’re thinking about fashion now do they?

2. Silver Screen Vest Idols

Picture: QueenieBridal chiffon wedding dressAll time greatest silver screen vest idol? Brad Pitt in Fightclub, obvs. This vest is not just jazzy (and it really is jazzy) but shows Mr Pitt in his physical prime with muscles oozing all over the place. One thing to take from this is if you’re wearing a vest as a top layer it’s often considered something of a statement, so you might as well go for it. Naturally the high street will serve you well on this front – seeASOS (shown on models tattooed up to the eyeballs) or Topman. Otherwise, more commonly, Hollywood would have you in something simpler and probably white. Think Matt Dillon in The Outsiders – white vest, jeans, neck chain, possibly a bandana. Or Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. These are classic vests designed to ripple with old-school masculinity. Note: as is often the case, if all of the above leaves you cold, you can always channel vintage Ryan Gosling whose been known to wear a simple striped vest (stripes are as fail safe as anything), with no fuss, possibly a simple necklace and sunglasses. The Gosling that keeps on giving etc.

3. 2016 Vest Styling Now

Forget summer 2015, we might still be very much in it, but in fashion terms we’re so over it. The sales are on – particularly good for designer-vest buying btw – ergo any trends related to that season are officially done. No matter, we’ve already seen what designers want us to wear next summer thanks to the recent menswear shows in London, Paris, Milan and New York. Picking up on that Gosling stripe tip is very next season AMI. Their vest is cut higher on the chest – just tuck into a fluid grey slack and add a skinny belt. You can get something pretty similar at Sunspel right now. Givenchy and Lanvin both showed suiting with vests for next summer, which when you consider the way the suit has been relaxed over the past few years, seems kind of par for the course. Whether this translates from a runway model to bit-squiffy-in-a-wedding-marquee civilian reality is another matter. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for an upscale designer vest, Haider Ackermann is your man: they feel beautiful on with the absolute perfect slouch factor. You might still snag one in the sale, just don’t tell anyone it’s spring/summer 2015, naturally.

4. Tanking It

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Topman’s vest T-shirt Photograph: PR

The tank vest is basically a lot less chesty. It’s like a crew T-shirt with the sleeves shaved off. It’s quite Public School – the hip New York based menswear duo who’ve won a billion fashion awards of late for their minimal sports aesthetic and were recently appointed head designers at DKNY. It’s the kind of look that works well on a slightly broader frame and, almost more than any other vest, seems to demand extremely good arm definition. Not sure why. Discuss. Designer Astrid Andersen, who shows in London and is popular with the hip-hop fraternity, is a great advocate of this style. Hers are bold, yes, but cut loose to sit slightly away from the body, which is far more attractive than spray-on. American Apparel also have this shape in spades. Topman have it fashioned with surfer motifs. God, even Nick Jonas wore one earlier this year in black. Plus, they can work quite well layered under a short-sleeved shirt – with the shirt worn open, your armpits fully ventilated. Meanwhile, if you don’t want to fully commit then just follow Brooklyn Beckham’s lead. At Coachella he neatly shoved his T-shirt sleeves up to give the effect of a tank, the thrifty devil.

5. Slashed

Yes, those vests that are cut lower at the arm holes, so they gape around your torso, showing off rib and possibly nipple, are, without question, thoroughly questionable. This is truly the vest of the show-off. It is nothing more than gratuitous. See Channing Tatum leaving the gym during training for the Magic Mike sequel. Frankly, so much of that last sentence sums up what is wrong with the slashed-sided vest. And, if it doesn’t, then theheadline that accompanied Guardian film editor Peter Bradshaw’s review might: “Like watching pained strippers dryhump.” And while we’re on tricky terrain, let’s close proceedings with mesh. Yes, that’s right, mesh. Totally fine worn as an under garment or in a sports context for breathability. Totally fine if you’re in a photo shoot and you’re Robert Pattinson at the height of your hair’s prowess and you’re rebelliously smoking. Really not fine as a top layer worn on it’s own. That’s just tits on toast. And menfolk, really, no one needs your tits laid out for them. They just don’t.

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While she’s better known for her chic style (as showcased on her style blog Miss Jones, for which her husband moonlights as photographer), Kim Jones’ beauty game is totally on-point.

While her signature look is red lipstick and winged eyes, she has many tips to dish out, such as how to really hide dark circles, the drugstore find that masks fly-aways, which makeup product really covers a zit, etc.

Here are a few of her favorite products:

Skincare

“Honestly, I just really love the versatility of Lucas Papaw—it’s actually an ointment for wounds, so it’s a one-stop kind of product for me. I’ll use it on reef cuts or scrapes or I’ll use it under my lipstick. It’s the only lip balm that completely eliminates my dry lips under lipstick. I hoard tubes of it when I visit abroad.

“Aesop is a great brand for hand cream, it’s something I carry around in my handbag daily and the scents are so luxurious. I also use Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm.”

Hair

picture: chiffon bridesmaid dress“Absolutely, the entire Vitress line is full of great products. I am a brand ambassador, but I just genuinely love the product. The travel-size Hair Repair Cuticle Coat is my favorite–I tend to get those annoying frizzy fly-aways, but a couple of drops before I go into a meeting works wonders and it’s just so affordable. Their fragrances are amazing, too.”

Makeup

“I love a good contouring and highlighting, so I’ll use a darker shade of MAC Studio Fix Powder around my hairline, on my temples and under my cheeks. It blends in well and liquid foundation is so easy to use.

“MAC lipsticks are the best for me. They’re honestly my favorite beauty product. MAC’s Matte and Satin collections are my favorites. Strong, vibrant colors work best for me, my favorites being Rebel, Diva, Cyber and Lady Danger. I’ve been using those shades for years and love them so much I’ll plan my outfit around my shade for that day.”

Nails

“Orly Kiss the Bride is the ultimate nude pink for daily wear. Other than that, my nail polish box looked like a pastel rainbow exploded in it. I have so many pastel shades in blues, mints, lavenders and pinks.”

Scents

“I’m loyal to my perfume scents. Once I find one, I tend to stick to it. I rotate between Miss Dior Cherie and Bulgari Rose Essentielle, which, unfortunately, has been discontinued and has led to my scouring airports for one of the last few remaining bottles.

“Candles are everywhere in our house, and we switch them around to breathe life into our spaces. I alternate between Diptyque Baies, Astier De Villatte Broadway and Voluspa Crane Flower.”

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Whether you were there for the music or the dancing, to make new friends or meet old neighbors, or to sample some of the fabulous ethnic cuisine, the International Festival in downtown Worthington was the place to be on Friday night and Saturday.

In its 22nd year, the festival lured the young, and the young at heart, from a spectrum of nationalities to celebrate all heritage and cultures.

Back for the second time in three years was the International Festival Fashion Show, which featured dozens of individuals modeling traditional clothing from Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Vilai Khanya, youth development coordinator for the Nobles County Integration Collaborative, organized the show, which featured traditional outfits from 17 different countries.

“Clothing from different countries is a big thing,” she said. “It’s a part of culture because it helps (people) express themselves through colors, through fabric, who they are, what they believe in and what type of person they are.”

Khanya was surprised to learn that so many people of European descent don’t have traditional clothing items from their home country. That made the search difficult to find items for modeling.

picture: QueenieBridal lace wedding dresses“Only Germany and Austria (nationalities) had clothing,” she said. “I wish there was more. I assumed everyone had clothing from their country like I did.”

In some cases, models had articles of clothing shipped from their home country.

Ngoc Nguyen, 17, of Worthington, modeled a pale pink ao dai dress that came direct from Vietnam.

“My parents asked my cousin to send a dress,” Nguyen shared, adding that she looked at styles online before choosing an ao dai dress. “They sent it to Omaha and my parents picked it up.”

The dress is something Nguyen said she will wear to the temple, but it is also something she could wear for dances.

Austere Apolo may be a native of Burma, but for Friday night’s fashion show, she was adorned in a traditional Eritrean outfit owned by Aida Simon. As Simon explained, the dress would typically be worn to a wedding or to various ceremonies. The pale peach gown was adorned in special shells from Masawa — the Red Sea.

“They are very popular and very unique, and very rare in Eritrea,” Simon said.

Sisters Xiomara Mendoza and Leidy Lazano wore the colors of their homeland of El Salvador — white and blue — as they modeled dresses that would traditionally be worn by El Salvadoran women and girls to attend church or parties.

While Jessica Velasco’s heritage is Mexican, she and her children, daughter Jocelyn, 4, and son, Cristian Kai, 7, modeled clothing brought for the International Festival by Jaidy Kolander’s sister, who is visiting from Colombia. Velasco wore an all-white dress typically worn by Colombian women while dancing to Cumbia, a type of music. Her daughter wore a traditional Colombian little girl’s outfit, while her son was dressed in traditional gaucho attire, complete with a cowboy hat.

“This was just some of the attire from Colombia,” Velasco said. “There are different regions from Colombia, so hopefully next year we can bring in many more of the pieces from each country.”

Sporting Aztec Indian headdresses and brightly colored outfits to show the pride in their Mexican culture were Alondra Leon and Elo Pacas. The outfits were custom-made in Mexico, and were often worn for Aztec Indian weddings, explained Pacas.

Now, he is among a group of about 20 individuals who wear the traditional Aztec outfits — complete with ayoyotes on each ankle — to perform Aztec dances. The ayoyotes are made from hard shells of the ayoyote tree and create a jingling sound while dancing.

Providing the music during the fashion show was 14-year-old Ammanuel Ojha, a native of Ethiopia who moved to Worthington two years ago to live with his father, Omar Ojulu.

Ojha learned to play the drums in the traditional Anuak culture using a stick in one hand and his fingers on the other to create a beat.

Today, Ojha plays the drums during church services and celebrations. In his home country, Ojulu said drums are played for weddings, church services, to celebrate and to send people off to war.

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Do you stuff your wallet with cash or prefer a card instead? Most of us prefer plastic money because it is convenient to carry and can be swiped almost everywhere these days. But if not used diligently, you can get into a mess. Read on to know more.

Missing repayment dates or making a default and the consequent negative effects on the CIBIL report, is not the only concern that has to be taken care of while dealing with credit cards. Other possible causes of credit card trouble include incorrect charges, fraudulent transactions, error in the bill, upgrading the card without consent, etc. Often it is only after we receive the bill that the issue is highlighted. Lengthy discussions and arguments with the lender follow and the issue is often unresolved for a long time.

Pay the erroneous bill or resolve the issue?

Unresolved issues are like problems swept under the carpet. They are still there and it slowly turns into a bigger problem, as time passes. The due amount on the bill keeps increasing every day. The lenders insist that the due amount must be cleared first while the client wants the error to be rectified.

The quick “solution”

As an alternative to paying the entire due amount, clients often start negotiating with the lender. Both the parties agree on a certain amount. The lender is fine with this arrangement because recovery involves cost and time and a settlement works well for them. A “settled status” is marked against the account and clients continue with their life thinking this issue is now resolved. However, that’s not the case.

What does a “settled” status mean?

picture: lace wedding dresses ukBefore we get to answer that question, it is important to know that it is different from a “closed” status. Closed essentially means that the entire loan amount has been paid off. This includes dues and other charges, if any. Whereas, settled means that a negotiate amount has been paid off and the lender has chosen to settle accounts for that amount.

Settled status is a remark on your CIBIL report.

How do future lenders read the “settled status”?

Lenders read into the “settled” status as a negative remark. And this remark is one that sticks around for a minimum period of 7 years. While lenders read CIBIL scores differently, negative remarks have the same impact. It is a reflection of the credit behavior and is taken rather seriously. Perhaps, even a sufficient reason to be denied a loan. Generally, a CIBIL score of 750 works with lenders in the absence of a negative remark. CIBIL score is calculated basis 24 months of credit history but the remark on the report reveals long term behavior. Lenders read remarks such as “settled” status of accounts as red flags which makes them rather reluctant to lend. So basically, a settled status is not going to help your case when you are looking for a loan.

Erase “settled” and “close” the loan. But how?

The “settled” status will continue to reflect as long as the dispute continues. A change in this status can only be bought about by the lender. While a dispute resolution request can be taken up with the credit bureau, one must begin parallel work on erasing the settled status. This essentially means clearing pending charges even when you are not in agreement with the lender over the due amount. Usually, lenders accept these payments and update their records accordingly. After the dues are cleared, one must ensure that the settled status has been changed from “settled” to “closed”. It takes 30-45 days from the date of payment for the changed status to reflect on your records.

A change in the CIBIL report remark from “settled” to “closed” indicates that the issue has been resolved. Now that there is no negative remark on the report, you must focus on maintaining an optimum CIBIL score. Being diligent and disciplined and taking care of these basics will ensure smooth processing of your loan application. Lenders are happy to do their job and lend when they see a clear track record, a good CIBIL score and financial discipline.

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Consider the Fashion Project a welcome addition to Miami’s cultural whirl. Touted as an “experimental space” for exploring the rich milieu of craft, innovation, and meaning surrounding fashion, it certainly seems like a natural fit for a city that hardly needs an excuse to flock to a bold catwalk strut or a fresh unveiling. Moreover, funded by the Whitman family and housed within their Bal Harbour Shops—which already acts as a veritable shrine to both the high-fashion industry and a certain well-turned-out slice of the international beau monde—the Fashion Project appears to have found a more than appropriate home.

Conceived by Cathy Leff, former director of The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, and with rotating shows curated by the London-based Judith Clark, known for her academically minded fashion exhibitions everywhere from England’s Victoria and Albert Museum to France’s Palais de Tokyo, the Fashion Project aims to get locals talking. Part of that discussion is intended to be primed by Clark’s exhibits, which have already drawn on eye-raisingly rare items, from a 1930s Elsa Schiaparelli cape to Hussein Chalayan’s notorious motorized dress from 1999. And part will no doubt arise from the string of fashion notables making their way to the space for lectures and panel discussions. Ocean Drive sat down with Clark to discuss.

Do you recall the initial thinking behind the Fashion Project?

It very much grew out of a conversation with Cathy Leff, who came and spoke with me in London and explained that she wanted to do a project that added a cultural dimension to the Bal Harbour Shops. I haven’t worked exclusively within museums—I’ve done projects for Selfridges [a United Kingdom-based department store]—and I love the crossovers that exist within this field more and more. So Cathy was pushing on an open door.

In hindsight, it seems odd that Miami’s established art museums haven’t already delved deeply into fashion. After all, it’s hard to talk about Miami without also talking about Miamians and their dedication to fashion.

Fashion is often like that! You can’t believe it hasn’t been already said. It’s as though “fashion” is a dirty word, intellectually; it’s really dragging behind in terms of curatorial debate. Which is what I love about staging Fashion Project in Miami, where it has this reputation for being fashion-obsessed… You have a swapping of aesthetics, but there’s still a resistance on the part of the museums at being described as too close to retail. There’s a phobia about it. I don’t happen to share that phobia. I think anything that’s evocative and true to the narrative you want to tell is fine.

picture: princess style wedding dresses“These exhibitions are an invitation to have conversations about fashion beyond ‘how much is it?’”—Judith Clark

It’s a bit of a cliché to talk about the globalization of fashion, but is there a difference in launching Fashion Project Miami compared to, say, a Fashion Project Chicago?

Obviously, within the Bal Harbour Shops, there’s a tradition of exquisite high-end fashion. But when you have so many pieces that are already museumworthy downstairs, what else can be said about it? We can discover what kind of debate there might be around the subject in Miami. Fashion Project is an excuse to open this conversation in a city that is now so much the center of attention.

Some fashion curators have held up designers as gifted artists in their own right, akin to film scholars pushing auteur theory in the 1960s as a way to combat skeptics who refused to look at movies as art. But you’ve dismissed this kind of fashion talk as “the cult of the genius.” Why?

For a moment, that was all people could say, as though there was this scramble to legitimize fashion: Oh, these designers are just as artistic as Warhol! Some may be—and some are, as far as I’m concerned. But it’s as though that distracted from the ability to talk about the dress. Fashion isn’t necessarily art. It exists within different criteria of creation. But the problem there is that within our culture, that diminishes it. It does have another commercial reality. It’s like asking, “Is a car art?” It’s within the realm of applied arts, and it has its own distinct logic.

So when we talk about fashion, sometimes we’re speaking about art, sometimes we’re speaking about business, and sometimes we’re talking about the sweet spot between those overlapping worlds?

There’s room for all those conversations—that’s part of the Fashion Project. The point is not that, at the end of a year’s exhibitions, everyone goes home happy because we’ve cracked it: Right, here’s the definition of fashion. Quite the opposite. All the problems around fashion are going to be raised, not necessarily answered. These exhibitions are an invitation to have conversations about fashion beyond “How much is it?” and “Does it make me look fat?”

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