This past Saturday afternoon, I went uptown to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum to hear Laura Mulleavy speak. Laura, along with her sister, Kate, are the founders and head designers of Rodarte, and currently have a exhibit at the museum. The talk lasted over an hour. There was no PowerPoint presentation of Rodarte's clothing or videos of their runway shows. And from where I was sitting, I could only see a sliver of Laura’s face, because the stage was so low. Still, it was an absolutely fascinating talk.
What I didn't expect was to hear a fashion designer list their biggest influences as Natural Wonders and ocean creatures. When asked about her inspirations, Laura said, "Kate and I have always been obsessed with the redwoods" and later spoke of how she loved the Monterey aquarium "because you'd see all these beautiful colors and delicate, delicate little animals, and they'd be like hot pink and white and they look like, I don't know, material that you couldn't describe to someone, I still can't . . ." I also was surprised to find out that they didn't always want to be fashion designers. Laura started college wanting to be a doctor and Kate studied Art History.
The way Laura talks about her childhood (“My dad was obsessed with lakes”), and even her life now, makes you want to coax her out for a cup of tea and a chat, and hope that she’ll invite you to one of her parties. (“We have a gingerbread competition every year”). She seems, like the best artists out there, to be interested in everything from sea creatures to literature.
And I have to admit, after hearing the talk, I walked away with the impression that Rodarte’s initial 10-piece collection just appeared one day after the sisters graduated from college, and THEN appeared on the cover of Women’s Wear Daily shortly thereafter. There was lots of talk of inspiration, but very little of actual process or how it all really started. Of course, I'm sure it took millions of hours of work and education, but I prefer to think of it as a fairy tale, where two sisters from California suddenly realize they have the magical power to spin straw into gold.
5 comments:
you know I am going when I come up again.
Little House of Style, I really enjoy your appreciation of style and fashion.
I have heard of Rodarte, but I was not aware of the philosophies of its creators. I am an artist myself and you can see how nature is an endless source of new and fresh inspiration if we will look at it with a sense of wonder.
As humanity, having our clothes and surroundings echoing nature serves to ground, us in a world that increasingly alienates us from each other and creation. Well done Rodarte!
So I'm guessing you can shoot at the exhibit. I'm not a big fan of Rodarte in all honesty but this exhibit looks interesting and I think I would go insane if I couldn't take photos of another fashion exhibit. Might have to check it out in 2 weekends.
Modelizer: Not sure if they would let you in there with a professional camera, but people were definitely snapping away with their iPhones, etc. I used my little Nikon point and shoot digital with no flash, so probably didn't draw enough attention to get yelled at— although there weren't any "no photography" signs . . .
Thanks for this post. I will definitely try to go this week!
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