More was more at last night’s launch of Mao’s Mag celebrating those who march to a different drummer fashion-wise: The large glossy semi-annual, its cover a signature psychedelic dreamscape by Peter Max gorgeously printed, begs the question: where have all the Originals gone? Brothers Roger and Mauricio Padilha noted a paradox: while we live in an era where individuality is encouraged, everyone looks pretty much the same. Bored of being bombarded by images of gaunt movie stars donning the same designer gowns picked out by stylists, they want to bring attention to those who have created their own style by being brave enough to be themselves. And so their spotlight shined on counter-culture celebrities in the “History of Cool:” Deborah Harry, Brigid Berlin, Michael Musto, Marisa Berenson, Jane Forth, Ann Magnuson, Norma Kamali, Kenneth Jay Lane, Kenny Scharf, Julie Newmar (“who will forever remain the original and best Catwoman to us”), and others, in photo spreads and interviews.
The Broad Street Ballroom was abuzz: dancing in between its early 20th century mosaic columns were a chandelier headed man in baroque, women in outsized wigs in bubble gum pink and tutti frutti, Jayne Mansfield blonds, the usual dandies in tweed waistcoats over leopard ballet flats and small brimmed befeathered fedoras, someone tall in a suit elegantly coiffed with bull horns—these looks suggest that massive amounts of mascara and sequins do not alone make the man. A hybrid gender now marks the official start of fashion week, neither fish nor fowl, even though some were distinctly wearing stuffed birds. Hard to say how “Original” this remix really is, in its borrowing from a vaguely defined past of camp meets colossal, sort of John Waters dressing Divine. Or an evocation of the Metropolitan Museum’s “Glitter and Gloom” exhibit of German portraits of the 1920’s redubbed “Glitter and Glee.” A dapper gent asked me the question of the night, are you Old School? I countered, are you? Oh yes, I’m ‘80’s and ‘90’s, he said. Amazing what is nostalgia for NOW! Meantime projections of the original Originals flickered overhead. Onstage, defying the anorexic aesthetic of runway models, large women in scanty retro bustiers and gartered nylons draped their round rippled rears over a couch. Odalisque, anyone? Proudly they mugged for the crowd who mostly had eyes for one another, snapping shots during sets of naked painted performers in blues and grays with cat’s eyes in the image of Karen Black.
Fashion, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, Fall 2007 Collections, Mao Mag, Fashion Designers
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