Fashion Scoops
Home Visit
L.A.’s fashion son is coming home for the first time in 16 years.
Rick Owens, who got his start in Los Angeles in 1994, is returning Nov. 18. He will be at his store from 7 to 10 p.m. signing copies of his two new Rizzoli books, “Legaspi by Rick Owens” (about the Seventies-era New York designer who created costumes for Grace Jones, Funkadelic and most notably Kiss, and had a formative influence on young Rick) and “Rick Owens Photographed by Danielle Levitt” (featuring 150 photographs of his grunge-glam work).
The by-invitation-only event will be held in the 5,200-square-foot boutique he opened in 2015 at 819 North La Brea, just down the street from the Plaza, a drag bar where he spent many a late night, including one when he met “a shriveled little man” on the dance floor who turned out to be his hero Iggy Pop.
“My goal was to create something Cecil B. DeMille-worthy,” said Owens at the time of the store opening. “Epic, biblical movies were the first idea of exoticism I could cling to when I was growing up and have influenced everything I do — doomed heroic purity in black and gray-draped robes in huge, dusty, marble temples. This store is as close as I might ever get to re-creating that.”
Owens grew up in Porterville, Calif., just north of Bakersfield, and studied art and design in
L.A. In the Nineties, his design studio sat across the street from
Hollywood hot spot Les Deux Cafes, which was run by Michele Lamy, now Owens’ wife. He moved the business to Paris in 2003 to be closer to his Italian manufacturers, but has continued to draw on
L.A. as inspiration, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mayan Revival Hollyhock House, grungy Hollywood Boulevard and Gloria Swanson in “Sunset Boulevard.”
Of his spring women’s collection, inspired by his Mixtec heritage, Owens told WWD: “I do think East L.A. lowrider [guys] have been a big thing with me forever — those low-crotched baggy things, for example.… I mean, I worked at Taco Bell and I used to get rides home from them. There was a crispness in the way they ironed everything and an economy of doing the best with what you’ve got, elevating a T-shirt with ironing.… I’ve always had that kind of pageantry with my clothes, the stiffness, volume and dragging,” he mused.
Owens has been on a roll this year, picking up the CFDA’s Menswear Designer of the Year Award in June, and Fashion Group International’s Superstar Award, the event’s top honor, in October. — BOOTH MOORE
Selling Up
Barneys New York isn’t the only asset billionaire hedge funder Richard Perry is off-loading.
Amid all the chaos surrounding the sale of the iconic department store chain to Authentic Brands
Group, Perry and his fashion designer wife Lisa Perry have been working on their side gig: Florida real estate.
Over the years the duo has quietly built up a mini-property empire in the exclusive Palm Beach area and are now hoping to make a few million dollars on one of those investments, listing a large manse for $10.9 million with broker Burt Minkoff of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
That price represents a steep markup from the $6.5 million they paid for the six-bedroom, 5,700-square-foot Palm Beach Island abode only last year. The reason for that appears to be a massive renovation, overseen by Lisa’s new home design firm, Lisa Perry Homes.
The home is her first project since “Lisa Perry: Fashion, Homes, Design,” her $85 coffeetable book focusing on fashion, homes and interior design, was published by Assouline.
“My new business involves finding, buying and renovating homes,” she said in a release. “I then fill them with everything I love — from new and vintage furniture and lighting to artwork and M&Ms — all with the idea that the buyer can move right in with as little as a suitcase.”
The redesign on this particular home included opening it up by removing walls between rooms and adding large swathes of glass in order to merge interior and exterior living spaces. A big art collector herself, Lisa then decked out the walls in all white so they could act as a blank canvas for her bright furnishings and art, sourced from travels between the U.S. and France.
The Perrys already own a 6,000-square-foot house in Palm Beach they bought in 2011, as well as several condominiums in the area. When they’re in Manhattan, they reside in a Pop Art-filled penthouse overlooking the Queensboro Bridge, complete with a huge Jeff Koons-designed metallic-green diamond holding center stage on the terrace. — KATHRYN HOPKINS
My Own Avatar
Yoox hopes to take its Yoox-Mirror AI-powered virtual styling functionality, the first in the sector, to the next level.
Users of the Yoox App, which was introduced last year, were able to play with the e-tailer’s product offering by creating unique styles that were sported by an avatar called Daisy. But starting today they will be able to create their own digital avatar by taking a selfie or uploading an image.
The functionality, called YooxMirror Reloaded, mixes
AI and Augmented Reality technologies, and was developed in-house by the company’s research and development team.
“Before Yoox, in 1999 you could only try on items in the changing room of a boutique, then with
Yoox, your home became the new changing room. And now, with the YooxMirror, you can try on the clothes virtually,” said Yoox Net-a-porter Group chairman Federico Marchetti. “I’m proud of the pioneering innovations our talented R&D team continues to make to give our customers a truly memorable and interactive experience.”
Every week, YooxMirror Reloaded will give access to 250 products organized in nine fashion themes presented on the app with a “stories” format. The technology behind the app actually brings together merchandising insights with algorithms that can detect visual elements such as pattern or color on a product image and Deep Learning Networks, which can pick up product attributes and then select matching items. — ALESSANDRA TURRA
Berlin Bound
Hussein Chalayan is to start teaching at Berlin’s University of Applied Sciences this semester.
For the past five years, Chalayan has been working with the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, but he told WWD that the new “foundation of design and process” classes he’s teaching in Berlin will be very different. Chalayan is to deliver his first lecture to students on Nov. 11.
The Berlin institute is more of a technical one, Chalayan explained, “more science-based, with a bigger emphasis on technology and sustainability.”
Because of that, Chalayan said he was looking forward to being able to work with different departments there in new ways. “A lot depends on which departments are interested in collaborating. It’s not something you can force. But anything to do with AI [artificial intelligence], anything to do with VR [virtual reality] and just anything to do with technology that can enhance fashion,” he enthused.
“Mr. Chalayan was enticed by the broad choice of interdisciplinary research and project work that’s facilitated by the 70 different courses of study at our school,” Katrin Hinz, dean of the department of design and culture at the Berlin university, told WWD. “These range from aeronautics to physics to cultural studies. And that convinced him that this is the right place for experimental creativity.”
There are eight lecturers and around 300 students in the department Chalayan will be part of this semester. There is also a broader focus on how to make the fashion industry sustainable.
Hinz was enthusiastic about what Chalayan, who’s known for his experimental and esoteric work, would bring to the department. “Fashion designers always think ahead. The odd of today will be the mainstream of tomorrow,” she noted. “And before accepting the position, Mr. Chalayan gave a trial lecture. The students were fascinated and enthused by his highly focused way of teaching, which gets the very best out of everyone.” — CATHRIN SCHAER
New Chairman
Ending its months-long search for new board leadership, Pandora has named Peter A. Ruzicka as chair of its board, replacing Peder Tuborgh.
“Now, the time is right for me and for Pandora to bring in a new chair to realize the longterm potential of our company,” said Tuborgh in a statement.
The Copenhagen-based charms jeweler, which is undergoing a broad restructuring program under the leadership of chief executive officer Alexander Lacik, announced in March that it would seek a new chair.
Ruzicka hails from Orkla ASA, a Norwegian conglomerate straddling consumer goods, aluminum and financial sectors, where he was president and ceo and steered the company toward branded consumer goods, increasing its proportion of sales from abroad.
In its statement, Pandora cited Ruzicka’s experience in strategy, transformation execution, brand- building and retail optimization as well as his understanding of capital markets.
The company also announced an extraordinary shareholder meeting on
Dec. 4 to vote on Ruzicka’s appointment, who will take up the position on Dec. 31.
Struggling from declining foot traffic in malls, Pandora is undergoing a brand reboot led by Lacik, a Swedish executive who joined the company in the second quarter this year, following an extended interim period following the departure of Anders Colding Friis last August. — MIMOSA SPENCER