Fashion Weak
Marc Jacobs' 1990s nostalgia trip, Helen Frankenthaler's descendants, bagelmania, and deep thoughts on Chloe Malle's new Vogue and Ryan Murphy's CBK "Love Story"
Memory Lane
Images of the Marc Jacobs fall show made me really miss fashion in the 1990s and specifically being backstage at the shows. The pastel pencil skirts and V-neck cashmere sweaters and twinsets were a uniform of that decade. And the long straight donegal tweed coat a hallmark of every wardrobe of young fashion magazine employees. In his program notes Marc wrote about all the memories that inspired this collection, including some of his own shows from the 1990s, as well as those of Helmut Lang and Miuccia Prada, many of which were generation defining in fashion. Confession: I’m currently up in the attic of my Sag Harbor home searching for my circa 1997 Marc Jacobs military coats, pencil skirts, and tweed suits. Of course they probably won’t fit me now (maybe an extra jab of Ozempic will help). I miss that time in fashion where shows like Marc’s kicked off the season, set the tone for what was to come, and got the front row denizens amped up. We would wait hours for Marc’s shows to start and it was always worth it. I miss that sense of anticipation in fashion and the fun and frivolity of the runway. Maybe it’s nostalgia for better, calmer times. Maybe it’s nostalgia for fashion that seems more accessible and personal.
I don’t go to the shows anymore — 20 years is more than enough! — but I follow them online and my friend James Scully writes excellent reviews on Instagram. His recent rave is for Marina Moscone who, along with her sister Francesca, designs under her own name and has a light hand with draping and tailoring and an easy, slightly 90s look. Their pinstriped jackets and slouchy pants will appeal to fans like Hailey Bieber and Rihanna, but old ladies like me can still wear them, too. It’s key to appeal to both demographics if you want to survive in fashion today. KB
Longevity-maxxing
In LA longevity is the new wellness. In Italy, it’s different. Longevity in Milan means the number of fashion seasons you’ve been sitting at the table in the kitchen at Bice, where only those in the know sit. The famous family-run Tuscan restaurant celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. That’s quite a run for a restaurant. And with this news, and the images of the via Borgospesso establishment’s main dining room—very old-school with its white table cloths and wood paneled walls—I’m nostalgic for those expense account lunches of carciofi with grana, pappardelle al telefono, and tagliata di manzo (hungry just writing this). I disliked covering the Milan collections for many reasons, but the warm ambiance and the fashion clubbiness of Bice always made the city more inviting. On any given day you could see Donatella Versace, Vogue editor Franca Sozzani, Versace PR Emanuela Schmeidler, and Armani honcho Robert Triefus, just to name a few. Back in 2007 I accompanied Time Inc. editorial director Norm Pearlstine to Milan to meet designers and we had a drinks meeting with Tom Ford at Il Baretto, another old-school favorite. When we sat down, Tom confided that he had asked his assistant to take polaroids at several different places, including Bice, but he had nixed it because he didn’t like the plaid carpet. Kal Ruttenstein, fashion director of Bloomingdale’s for decades, liked the corner table at Bice, and at his memorial service at Carnegie Hall in 2006, the owners sent a special message to be read aloud: “We will miss you, especially in the season of the truffle.” KB
Corporate High Style
You don’t expect to find a scholarly exhibition on architectural design in a high-fashion store, but this was Fashion Week, and that is exactly what the Nolita flagship of Florence-based LuisaViaRoma delivered. David Rossenwasser, co-founder of Rarify, an on-line dealer in vintage and new design pieces, filled the two levels of the store with the spare yet luxe furniture that Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill crafted to fill the hundreds of corporate offices it designed from the 1950s through the ’70s. (The firm itself is still going strong). If SOM’s furniture of the period is less recognized than that of Herman Miller or Knoll, it’s only because many of the designs became so ubiquitous as to be overlooked. Original tables, chairs, desks, and credenzas by Gordon Bunshaft, Charles Pfister and others are supplemented with period photos, furniture drawings, and artifacts. (The exhibition is on view through April 30th). If there is something slightly disconcerting about seeing these classic pieces surrounded by clothing and accessories by Margiela, Celine and the Row, the young opening-night crowd didn’t seem to mind. Perhaps if more workplaces today were designed with the kind of refinement, rich materials, and innovative thinking that SOM brought to the task, it wouldn’t be so hard to get people back to the office. MB
The Bagel Boom
Who knew the new cronut would be a bagel? That New York culinary institution is attracting a young generation of creators and adaptors, and hordes of fans. Tribeca alone is experiencing a flood of new offerings. Pop-Up Bagels, which was founded during Covid, just opened its ninth New York shop (not to mention outlets in seven other states) in the neighborhood. Apollo Bagels, which also began as a pop-up in 2022, has taken the lease on a large Tribeca space for its seventh shop, after its West Village branch attracted so many fans that the police had to be brought in for crowd control. Nala’s Bagels opened two years ago in the East Village and is about to launch its second Tribeca branch. And the brand-new Modern Bread and Bagel offers gluten-free versions. All these join stalwarts of the nabe Black Seed Bagels, Zucker’s, and Pick a Bagel. There will undoubtedly be loyal fans for each, and many arguments about which bagel is best. Is Apollo’s crusty sour-dough version better than Pop-Up’s warm and soft ones? Are any of these artisan versions really better than the classics from H&H, Ess-a-Bagel, or Zabar’s? There can be no argument that the fad for everything gluten-free all the time is fading and carb loading is back big time. MB
Go With the Flow
We are having a Helen Frankenthaler moment. Recently the Museum of Modern Art installed five of her lush and majestic abstractions in its huge atrium, and even in that overweening space, MoMA’s Frankenthalers more than held their own. Her radical innovation of pouring paint directly on the canvas would have a major influence on Morris Louis and Jules Olitski, among many others, yet she has still not received her art-historical due (mostly sexism, of course, since the art world in the 1950s and ’60s, especially, was a macho environment, though she was also famously difficult). But this spring, Gagosian Gallery will present a four-decade survey of her work with more than 20 paintings, The Moment and the Distance (April 30-July 2).
Even more telling than the Gagosian imprimatur is the late painter’s influence on a younger generation, evident in several recent gallery shows. At Canada, Dona Nelson showed her more clotted and controlled poured paintings, several of them free-standing so you can see how the paint seeps in and stains the back. And at Bienvenu Steinberg, Francine Tint’s painting in a group show could be the love child of Frankenthaler and Morris Louis. MB
Nouvelle Vogue
Vogue’s new editor in chief Chloe Malle launched her first issue on the first day of
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