Ornament Magazine

VOL38.1 2015

Ornament is the leading magazine celebrating wearable art. Explore jewelry, fashion, beads; contemporary, ancient and ethnographic.

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19 ORNAMENT 38.1.2015 by The Row at Barneys, but I have been inspired to dust off my sewing machine and make something for myself. Sustainability—using salvaged or recycled materials— seems to be a secondary theme of this exhibition. Was that a deliberate choice? No, but it's a concern of the millennials. A lot of these young designers, like Wes Gordon, got started during the recession. Daniel Silverstein has a zero fabric waste philosophy; he uses scrap pieces as embellishment. For these designers, manufacturing locally is part of being green. How closely does the exhibition mirror James Belzer's documentary film? Some of these designers are in the film, but they're not exactly parallel. I was limited by what I could borrow and he was limited by who he could shoot. He was sending me his cuts over the summer and I suggested that he needed some cultural context. So when I visited him in New York, I ended up on camera! I didn't realize that the late Oscar de la Renta produced his collections in the United States. As big as they are, I didn't even imagine that it would be possible that they would be manufacturing in the U.S. I was at his studio for a different project, and I was told that Oscar has always made in the United States and it's an important part of what he does. It was nice to have a piece of his in the gallery when he passed away, to honor his legacy. When he died, a news crew came into the gallery to film it. What are some of the challenges of making clothes in the United States of America? Just finding the resources, the people who can do it—I heard that from several designers. They didn't want to tell me about their makers, because they were afraid they'd get poached. For four years, Wes Gordon made all his collections in New York. But I went to his last runway show and saw the buyers from Barneys and Bergdorf's sitting in the front row, and all of a sudden his jackets are being made in Italy. It's just really hard. Most designers would rather work intimately with the makers because it gives them more control. But the system will never be what it was. The structures needed to produce clothing today are too large to transport back to Manhattan. The areas for opportunity in the U.S. are at the luxury end, where that contact is essential and the consumer's expectations for fit and style and finish are the highest. I tried to find the highest level of work being done in America to put in this show. Several Los Angeles designers are represented in the show. Is it easier to find manufacturers in California than in New York? One of the challenges for small businesses is to maintain consistent work for their staff. In Los Angeles, manufacturers have the advantage of also serving the movie industry. Over the last decade, denim held together manufacturing in Los Angeles, and now we see how it is providing a foundation for high fashion designers such as Libertine. What's next for the collection? We just acquired an archive of four hundred pieces of avant-garde designer clothing from the 1970s through the 1990s, assembled by the owners of Pittsburgh's Emphatics boutique. The archive is special because of how fashion- forward the designs were and how important these designers became to the direction of fashion. It was such a fertile period. Today designers have to do so many collections and so many appearances that it really takes a toll on creativity. Look what happened to Alexander McQueen. Look what happened to John Galliano. Jean-Paul Gaultier quit ready-to- wear. It's a huge amount of pressure, and it's too much. The owners of Emphatics went to the shows, they talked to the designers, they appreciated their artistry, and then they went back to their store and educated their customers. There was a level of understanding and support. Department stores aren't loyal to designers from season to season. It's a challenge today for designers to be true to their creative vision, and the pressure that they are getting to increase profit margins is what drove production overseas. This is the first of a series of acquisitions and events that will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the collection. Starting in January of 2016, we will be doing a series of programs that highlight important moments and works from the collection and what they have meant to our community over time. ANNA SUI (American, born 1964), dress, Spring 2014, polyester tulle with cotton and nylon embroidery, lent by Anna Sui. CHADO RALPH RUCCI (American, born 1957), "Motherwell" Infanta Gown, Spring 2005, alligator leather on silk tulle, duchess silk satin, gift of Chado Ralph Rucci in honor of the museum's fiftieth anniversary. Photographs by Ken Howie, courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum.

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