Valerie Steele Fashion

Freud of Fashion

steve — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:27:14 +0000

Follow this link for an article about me by Suzy Menkes in the International Herald Tribune: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/fashion/11iht-rsteele18.html?_r=2&ref=fashion

Kiev Fashion Week

steve — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 02:11:15 +0000

In October, I had the pleasure of attending Mercedes Benz Kiev Fashion Week – or, as I like to think of it, Kiev Fashion Weekend (October 21-23). My sincere thanks to Miss Daria (Dasha) Shapovalova for inviting me to come and speak. Kiev is an extraordinarily beautiful city in the Ukraine with amazing churches and monasteries, good-looking young people, and a small but vibrant fashion scene. There were ten fashion shows by mostly young designers such as Anna October, Sasha Kanevsky, and Anton Belinsky. But my favorite thing was a display of amazing, hand-crafted leather handbags – half kawaii and half steampunk – by the Ukrainian artist/designer Bob Bassett (bobbassett@gmail.com) . If I’d had an extra $1,000 I would have bought the over-the-shoulder bag shaped like a dragon.

Daphne Guinness

steve — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:46:51 +0000

My apologies for such a long silence. My mother died last spring, and I fell behind.

It has been a tough year for me, but a wonderful year for fashion exhibitions. Savage Beauty, the Alexander McQueen exhibition curated by Andrew Bolton at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was one of the most beautiful and powerful designer exhibitions that I have ever seen. I was lucky enough to see it three times. But seeing it was a bitter-sweet experience, since it reminded us how much we lost with McQueen’s tragic suicide. Truly, he was one of the greatest designers of all time.

Also terrific is the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk. I flew up lfor the opening at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and was amazed by the “living” mannequins used to display 140 of the designer’s irreverent, sexy styles – the flesh dress (before Gaga), the sailor suits, the bustiers,…. I was also thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with Jean Paul Gaultier about our forthcoming exhibition, Queer Style, which will open in September 2013 at The Museum at FIT. Amazingly, this will be the first major fashion exhibition to explore the significance of the gay influence on fashion!

This summer, I was in France where I saw Madame Grès: La Couture à l’Oeuvre, organized by the Musée Galliera and presented at the Musée Bourdelle. Then when I returned to New York, it was all hands on deck to finish the Daphne Guinness exhibition here at FIT. It has been a great pleasure collaborating with Daphne on this exhibition, which will run from September 16, 2011 through January 7, 2012.

Sincerely,

Valerie Steele

January 23, 2011

steve — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 06:24:37 +0000

I’m busy working on lots of terrific projects – including the Daphne Guinness exhibition and book, and also the museum’s Masterpiece book. Yesterday we threw a “birthday party” for Christian Dior at the Museum; Fred Dennis and I showed five of our beautiful Dior dresses to eight members of the Couture Council.

I saw an interesting show at the Museum of Art and Design on the Global Africa Project, with one of Nick Cave’s art costumes, clothing by Black Coffee, photographs by Daniele Tamagni, and Sheila Bridges’ very-cool Harlem Toile de Jouy.

2011

tom — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:13:02 +0000

Best wishes for a happy and fashionable New Year!

Much as I admired Carine Roitfeld, I am super-excited that Emmanuelle Alt will be the new editor in chief of Vogue Paris. I love her cool, boyish, rock-and-roll style.

Charles LeDray’s retrospective at the Whitney is totally inspiring. I remember the first time I saw his tiny hand-made clothing sculptures displayed on the floor of the Guggenheim Soho for the Art/Fashion exhibition in 1997. I told him, “Mr. LeDray, I love your work,” and he said, “Thanks very much – we’ll search your bag on the way out.” There is something so poetic and mysterious about constructions like Overcoat (2004), a miniature coat lined with even tinier garments. You’d think that designers would be inspired by his disintegrating jacket, shirt, and toe ensemble. Of course, the straitjacket is incredible.

Current and Upcoming Exhibitions: The Museum at FIT

tom — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:56:03 +0000

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Sorry! I’ve been AWOL for months! But I’ve been super busy….
The Museum at FIT is now featuring two great exhibitions: 1) Eco-Fashion: Going Green (curated by Colleen Hill and Jennifer Farley) and 2) Japan Fashion Now, the exhibition that I’ve been working on for the past two years. Eco-Fashion closes in November, to be replaced by Colleen and Jennifer’s new show, His & Hers, but Japan Fashion Now is being extended through mid-April, 2011.
Long long ago (in July) I had two weeks vacation in France – the Loire Valley, northern Burgundy, and Normandy with a half a day in Paris to see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition and the History of fashion show at the Musée de la Mode. After all the chateaux on the Loire, I saw a really cute little fashion museum in Avalon (Burgundy). At a friend’s Louis XIII chateau in Normandy, I met a really fascinating older man who had known Coco Chanel. He said that she talked a lot about the famous men she had known, but never mentioned another woman…
Later in the summer, I had the opportunity to attend Copenhagen Fashion Week. In addition to seeing the world’s longest runway, I also saw a lot of fashion shows – of which my favorite was by NOIR, a really cool (and ecological) line.
Back in New York City, we held the Couture Council summer party at the French Consulate, which was very chic, and attracted publicity for our (sold-out) Awards Luncheon, which took place at Lincoln Center on September 10. This year the Couture Council honored Karl Lagerfeld with a special Fashion Visionary Award. It was an amazing event with hundreds of ladies, almost all wearing Chanel.
At New York Fashion Week, my favorite shows were Rodarte and Altuzarra.
The opening reception for Japan Fashion Now (September 22) was a lot of fun. We’ve also been having a lot of great public programs about Japan, including a Lolita Tea Party, featuring Gashicon, creator of Hangry and Angry, and the owners of the store Tokyo Rebel. Now that Japan is up-and-running, we’re working on next September’s big show, Daphne Guinness.

Japan Fashion Now on the Sunday Morning Show

tom — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:29:10 +0000

Dana Tyler covers Japan Fashion Now on the Sunday morning show with Valerie Steele.

WCBS coverage of Japan Fashion Now

Vogue Italia video: Valerie Steele

tom — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:14:19 +0000

Vogue Italia Valerie Steele Video

Valerie Steele in Moscow

tom — Sat, 15 May 2010 05:07:03 +0000

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Almost as soon as I returned from Tokyo, I set off again for Moscow, where my book The Corset was just published in Russian. I arrived the day after the terrible bombing in the Moscow subway, so I anticipated lockdown conditions, but everyday life continued. My hosts were really terrific and I had a wonderful trip. Moscow is an amazing city. I am a huge fan of Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita so I went to see Patriarch’s Pond, where the novel opens. I also saw Bulgakov’s apartment with all the graffiti drawn on the stairwell by his fans.

In addition to giving several talks (including one at the new art center, The Garage), I was able to see an exhibition of couture dresses from the collection of Tatiana Sorokko (lots of beautiful Ralph Rucci, a lovely evening dress by Madame Grès, Westwood, Gaultier, etc.) at the decorative arts museum. I also saw an amazing private collection of shoes. It turns out that some of the most fabulous objects at the Shoe Museum in Romans (France) are single LEFT shoes – and the collector in Russia has the matching RIGHT shoes.

The Museum at FIT has had a really active series of public programs this spring. Caroline Weber spoke about her book Queen of Fashion (April 19), and as part of our fashion culture series, I was in conversation with Prabal Gurung (April 12), Kate and Laura Mullheavy of Rodarte (May 4) and André Leon Talley (May 6). Work on Japan Fashion Now continues full speed ahead, along with all our other exhibition and publication projects, not to mention next September’s Couture Council awards luncheon, our application for accreditation by the American Association of Museums, etc., etc.

I also zoomed over to Berlin for two days to give a lecture on “Museum Quality: The Rise of the Fashion Exhibition.” At the Kunstbibliothek, I saw Heidi Rasche’s latest exhibition on fashion photographs and illustrations from the 1960s. May Day was celebrated with demonstrations in Berlin and all the stores closed (rats!), but, to compensate, there were a lot of great art events. Back in New York, I went to the opening of the Brooklyn Museum’s costume exhibition – filled with masterpieces by Charles James, Worth, and Schiaparelli – and curated by Jan Reeder, who also wrote the catalogue.

PS. To the person who asked about my eyeglasses: They are hand-made in France for Selima Optique.

Valerie Steele in Tokyo

tom — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:19:21 +0000

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I went to Tokyo recently to continue my research for the book and exhibition, Japan Fashion Now. It was a really productive – and fun –trip, and I discovered some terrific menswear designers, such as Factotum, White Mountaineering, and Phenomenon. I also saw how much Chitose Abe of sacai has developed over the past year; she’s always been a good designer, but her clothes are becoming increasingly beautiful and sophisticated. My Tokyo-based friends, especially Tiffany Godoy, helped me track down examples of the new street style – mori girls (translation: “forest girls”) took me to visit shops like Grimoire and Conocoto, which specialize in the look. I also scoped out the latest Gothic & Lolita fashions. One definite highlight of the trip was attending a gothic–punk fashion show by h.NAOTO. I also had the opportunity to interview one of Japan’s most important designers, Jun Takahashi of Undercover, about how his style has been developing .

I’m especially excited that Idol singers Hangry & Angry will not only be featured on the cover of the book and the exhibition graphics for Japan Fashion Now, but they’ll also be lending clothes to the exhibition from their personal wardrobes. It is a fascinating story how h.NAOTO developed the idea of comic grotesque characters, the punk and gothic cats Hangry & Angry, which then also inspired a singing duo. We plan to feature a video of one of their concerts next to the section of the exhibition featuring h.NAOTO clothes. But I better not give away too much about the exhibition before it opens on September 17th.