Hasta La Ideas

Our interview with the creative mastermind behind Paris’s most fantastic holiday installation

When Printemps invited us to Paris to interview Karl Lagerfeld about his designs for their holiday windows, we jumped on the opportunity. During our brief time with the cultural icon we talked about holidays, process and his abundance of creative resources. Just in time for the season, we present our latest video featuring the man who doesn’t care about holidays at all.

The quirky creative’s first store opens in NYC bringing a clever take on classic garments

A year after French designer Ramdane Touhami moved his family and introduced Cire Trudon to New York with a whimsical boutique, he has since sold the company and moved on to his next venture—the eponymous store and house label Ramdane, characterized by classic garments for men and women updated with the designer’s signature sartorial twists. Using the finest fabrics sourced from well-known names in the industry, Touhami brings together high-quality and fashion at an accessible price point.

As a nod to his collection‘s playful aesthetic and attention to textures and colors, the exterior facade of the Nolita boutique has been draped in woven wool surrounding the neon orange doors; the interior space is furnished with large, custom-made stone slab counters carved from single pieces of rock in upstate New York. Inside there’s an anything-goes atmosphere—after all, the creative maestro Touhani is not only a designer, but also a DJ, director, artist and journalist—with garments hanging freely from the ceiling or folded on counters, each accented with their own unique patterns and colors—a style central to the Ramdane aesthetic.

The store will eventually carry a range of products—furniture, accessories, clothing and more. Current offerings include coats made with Mackintosh fabrics, accented with a dozen or more buttons wrapped in patterned fabric sourced from Scotland, and a motorcycle jacket constructed of the same waxed cotton used by Barbour. The women’s green bouclé jacket and contrasting-neon trenches are at once youthful and sophisticated in slim contemporary fits.

For a more subtle creative touch, Ramdane’s light-pastel sweaters feature multiple collars, while the thick angora cable knit cardigans remain true to classic form. The colorful corduroys are also well proportioned and have a fine hand. We found a favorite in the “Crisis Suit,” an ingenious design that has to be seen—or, ideally, tried on—for the full effect (Touhani put it on for us, but we couldn’t contain his exuberance long enough to get a proper shot of the suit). The three-in-one combination of jacket and vest has a base layer with suit-jacket sleeves and three different vest styles—tuxedo, double-breasted and countryside—to change-up the lapels.

In an effort to bring superior fashion to a more inclusive audience, Ramdane sells his limited-run pieces in a relatively moderate range—sweaters go for around $200, coats for between $350 and $500 and pants for $200. Also of note, Ramdane is offering an extremely unique staggered payment system for customers under the age of 25, allowing for payment to be made in three installments over time. For now Ramdane is exclusively sold through the New York flagship.

To see the collection in motion watch “The Forrest,” a horror movie directed by Ramdane and produced for $500.

Ramdane
64 Kenmare Street
New York, NY 10012
Map

Three exhibitions of photographs, films and fashion from Annie Lenox’s union jack pant-suit to Daphne Guiness’ personal McQueen collection

With the Spring/Summer 2012 Fashion Week in full swing in Europe right now, groundbreaking style is taking center stage on more than just the runways. While “Fashion in Italy: 150 Years of Elegance,” celebrates the country’s long-term evolution in styles and trends, and the birth of Italian prêt-a-porter, here are three more fashion-focused exhibits going on at museums around the globe.

The House of Annie Lennox at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Like many musical artists before and after her, Annie Lenox seamlessly integrated a unique personal style with her work as a musician to create an iconic pop star persona. This one-room installation, created in collaboration with Lenox herself, features photographs, costumes, and various mementos and ephemera chronicling the Scottish-born songstress’ four-decade career, including her years as one-half of the Eurythmics before continuing on as a solo artist. The collection presents Lennox’s personal style as one that dances between both genders. Though glam rockers Elton John and David Bowie most often cited for their Brit-inspired ensembles, visitors will be pleased to see the vivid union jack menswear-style suit, which she donned in 1999, alongside dazzling sequined dresses. Open through 26 February 2012.

Irving Penn and Issey Miyake: Visual Dialogue at 21 21 Design Sight, Tokyo

Encompassing 13 years and more than 250 photographs, the artistic partnership between Irving Penn and Issey Miyake, two creative giants in their respective fields, was an unlikely and curious one. After seeing Penn’s photographs of his garments in an American Vogue editorial, the Japanese designer asked Penn to shoot his entire collections, which he did from 1987 through 1999, resulting in an incredibly comprehensive compendium of images. What’s even more impressive is that during their 13-year collaboration, Miyake and Penn chose not to interfere with each other’s process. Miyake shipped his collections to New York, giving Penn complete artistic license during his photo sessions, while Penn never attended any of Miyake’s runway presentations. In addition to photographs from this period, the exhibition also includes an animated film short by cartoonist Michael Crawford.
Open through 8 April 2012.

Daphne Guinness at the Museum at FIT, New York

Thanks in part to the recent, record-breaking Alexander McQueen show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daphne Guinness, a friend and steadfast patron of the late designer, has become a popularly-known figure for her boundary-pushing taste. A champion of emerging designers, specifically those who embody a dark, avant-garde aesthetic (such as McQueen and Gareth Pugh), the brewery heiress’ has contributed 100 pieces from her own closet, including haute couture ensembles from Chanel, Givenchy, Lacroix and Valentino, as well as two dozen Alexander McQueen garments that have never been on display before. Accessories aren’t any less dramatic: consider her signature soaring heel-less platform shoes, or her dazzling “body armor” jewelry for a lesson in how not to be a wallflower. Several films by Guinness are also on display, including “The Phenomenology of the Body,” an examination of the politics of clothing.
Open through 7 January 2012.

Images in order from top courtesy of Image © V&A/La Lennoxa, The Irving Penn Foundation and The Museum at FIT.