Viktor & Rolf on Show, Reformation’s New Capsule, Helmut Newton’s Latest Exhibit

WIT AND WONDER: Commentary on overconsumption, critique of the fashion industry or arch take on current events, every collection offered up by Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren over the past three decades is “always a statement about something,” said fashion curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot.

Hence “Viktor & Rolf: Fashion Statements,” an upcoming exhibition organized by the Kunsthalle München museum in Munich. Opening on Feb. 23, it is set to run until Oct. 6, 2024, before traveling to other destinations.

“It can be a statement of humor, of irony, of society. All their collections were about their reaction on a particular topic,” continued the curator, noting the “great sense of humor and great sense of irony in [Horsting and Snoeren’s] work,” especially about the industry itself.

Rather than a retrospective, Loriot told WWD the exhibition is intended as an introspection into the designers’ body of work, taking a thematic approach to the passions and obsessions that have been woven into their work of the past three decades.

Take upcycling. “Now it’s trendy, but from their first collection at the Hyères festival [in 1993], they were already upcycling dresses,” said the curator, pointing out the use of vintage fabrics from Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent in Horsting and Snoeren’s first couture lineup.

Transcribing the way Viktor & Rolf “shows are performances and their collections make you smile,” Loriot and the Dutch duo selected some 100 looks to be showcased alongside multimedia elements, sketches, drawings and photographs as well as tapestries, dolls and works by visual artists, including Andreas Gursky and Cindy Sherman.

Other galleries will alight on “key collections that really changed the perception of haute couture and fashion” for Loriot, such as the fall 1999 “Russian Doll” collection that saw model Maggie Rizer dressed in layer after layer.

Also explored here will be their relationship to stage costume, with an exhibit on the designs the duo created for “Der Freischütz,” a 2009 opera production by American theater director and playwright Robert Wilson.

While exhibits will range from the duo’s very first collection and meander all the way through to the most recent collections, such as spring 2023’s “Late Stage Capitalism,” Loriot is adamant the ensemble should not be a “fashion lesson” and appeal to a broad crowd — “anyone who enjoys craftsmanship and unique works,” he said.

The show in Munich will be the third Viktor & Rolf exhibition curated by Loriot, in collaboration with the house and L’Oréal Luxe, after 2016’s  “Viktor & Rolf: Fashion Artists” and the “Viktor & Rolf: Fashion Artists 25 Years” of 2018, which celebrated the brand’s 25^th anniversary.

The Dutch design duo have also been the subject of the 2022 “Viktor & Rolf: MetaFashion!” exhibition, their first Asian retrospective showcased in Shenzhen, China, and a 2000 show at the Groninger Museum in The Netherlands, held only two years after they started their couture line.

The Montreal-based curator is the force behind hit exhibitions including “Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk,” and most recently, the “Thierry Mugler: Couturissime,” which concluded a five-city tour at the Brooklyn Museum last year. — LILY TEMPLETON

CHANNEL CROSSING: After hosting a series of celebratory dinners in London and Paris during the art fair weeks, Reformation has launched its latest collaboration — a capsule collection with Camille Rowe, the French-American model and actress.

Reformation and Rowe created an edited wardrobe of fall and winter clothing, with some of the pieces inspired by the early designs Rowe purchased from the brand after she moved to Los Angeles.

There are slipdresses, menswear-inspired separates, recyclable denim, and T-shirts made with the brand’s signature sustainable fabrics.

Reformation worked with deadstock, Bluesign-certified eco-silk, organically grown cotton and poplin and regenerative Nativa wool.

Some of the knits were made with a recycled cashmere blend that has less carbon impact than conventional cashmere.

Prices range from 48 pounds to 378 pounds. The collection is available online and in some of the Reformation stores.

During her swing through London earlier this month, Reformation’s chief executive officer Hali Borenstein said the British capital is now the brand’s third-largest market worldwide.

Reformation launched at Selfridges in 2021 and has five stand-alone stores in London: on the King’s Road, at Battersea Power Station, and in Shoreditch, Westbourne Grove and Covent Garden.

It also has a new distribution center in the Netherlands, which dispatches to Continental Europe and the U.K., part of a growth push under its private equity owners Permira. The brand recently launched at Matches in London, and is planning to ramp up its activity at the retailer in the spring.

With London up and running, Borenstein said in 2024 the focus will be on France, where it will be launching at Le Bon Marché.  

Borenstein said the aim is for international markets to make up one-third of sales in the next three years.

The launch of the Camille Rowe collection (and European tour) comes in the wake of Reformation’s collaboration with the New York City Ballet earlier this month.

The 19-piece wardrobe was inspired by off-duty dancers and includes dresses, knitwear and footwear that take their cues from George Balanchine’s abstract ballet “Jewels,” which opened the dance company’s fall 2023 season.

Reformation marked the launch with a party at Lincoln Center during which guests were able to watch a working rehearsal with the NYCB. — SAMANTHA CONTI

NEWTON’S THEORY: Marta Ortega Pérez, the non-executive chair of Zara parent company Inditex, is presenting an exhibition celebrating the life and work of photographer Helmut Newton.

Titled “Helmut Newton – Fact & Fiction,” the exhibit is curated by Philippe Garner, Matthias Harder and Tim Jefferies in collaboration with the Helmut Newton Foundation, which was established by the artist in 2003.

It will open in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, about 20 minutes away by car from the fast fashion epicenter of Arteixo, where Inditex is headquartered. This marks the third exhibit backed by Ortega Pérez, who has worked to make the town a new cultural center, following presentations devoted to photographers Peter Lindberg and Steven Meisel.

“To be able to work with photographers whose picture making I have long admired is a great privilege. I do so not simply with the ambition to enrich the cultural life of A Coruña, but also in the hope that future generations of image makers will find their own inspiration in the work of these remarkable photographers,” said Ortega Pérez.

“Helmut Newton is one of that celestial band of photographers whose images are instantly recognizable as their own. Newton’s own great revolutionary act was to utterly change the ways in which women were portrayed in the pages of glossy magazines. Here were women who enjoyed style and fashion, who enjoyed the power and splendor of their bodies, women who were elegantly seductive and untouchable. His photographs were not only of his time but far ahead of his time — he spectacularly set the scene for those photographers who followed him,” she added.

Born in Berlin in 1920 to a Jewish family, in 1938 at the age of 18 Newton fled his hometown and traveled to Asia and later to Australia. He began his career in London before he hit early success in the ’70s, primarily thanks to his work being published in French Vogue.

His work — some of it iconic, some of it controversial — was oftentimes divisive during his lifetime.

The exhibition will tell the story of the man behind the work with a series of videos showing Newton at work and in conversation; personal images providing insights into his childhood, career and partnership with his wife June, and further documents, posters, cameras and equipment, props, intriguing artifacts, and memorabilia.

Some of his “Big Nudes” portrait series will be on display, including Andy Warhol, David Bowie, Margaret Thatcher, Charlotte Rampling, Elsa Peretti, Daryl Hannah, Jerry Hall, Naomi Campbell, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld.

His lesser-known works from his outdoor photography will also be shown, including photos from locations as varied as Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The MOP Foundation’s Peter Lindbergh exhibit in 2021 attracted more than 100,000 visitors, while the Steven Meisel in 2022 drew more than 130,000 visitors to A Coruña.

The exhibitions act as a fundraiser for the Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation’s programs, which it devotes to educational programs across the region centered on each photographer’s work which have so far reached 9,000 students.

Following the Lindberg exhibit, Zara launched a five-piece collection featuring some of his most famous black-and-white snaps, including Kate Moss, Amber Valletta and Linda Evangelista, in 2021.

Earlier this year Meisel launched a 26-piece capsule collection, which was presented in New York, and were available at a pop-up during fashion week there, as well as Dover Street Market in London. He also shot the campaign for the brand with famous faces including Gigi Hadid, Kaia Gerber, and Irina Shayk, as well as Evangelista and Valletta.

If the pattern holds, perhaps we should expect a Helmut Newton collab with the high street brand soon.

The exhibit will run from Nov. 18 to May 1, 2024. — L.T.

IN THE CARDS: “In my opinion, jewelry isn’t just about looking pretty, it has a sentimental or emotional meaning tied to it,” said Lynette Ong, founder of the sustainable jewelry brand Edge of Ember, about her new tarot collection.

“I’ve always loved pieces that have a deeper meaning, be it wearing initials of my children, my birthstone (emerald) but also the evil eye which is a protection symbol. I started looking into tarot symbols as I love using talisman symbols,” she added.

The tarot collection includes more than 30 pieces with prices ranging from 45 pounds to 325 pounds, including a serpent ear cuff, a diamond evil eye necklace, a solar charm necklace and a hope star opal necklace.

Ong looked to tarot to seek meaning in life to manage her “mundane regular stresses,” she said. Her first tarot reading left her really emotional and almost enlightened.

“It didn’t tell me what I didn’t know, but it just made things a little clearer, and almost gave me shivers when some things were quite spot on,” she said.

Jewelry is as sentimental as superstitious to Ong.

“I think it’s my Asian side. I’m very into feng shui, how the placements of things in our space affects the balance of energy. I have my little quirky things I always do when I move into a new house, or avoid unlucky numbers (the number 4 in Chinese is unlucky),” she explained.

The symbol of the star is used to indicate hope, inspiration and contentment for the future; the serpent symbolizes renewal, resurrection, initiation, healing and environmental sensitivity, and the hands represent creation or initiation throughout the collection.

Ong celebrated the launch of the collection with an intimate breakfast at the Brasserie of Light at Selfridges with clairvoyant Isabella Greenwood, otherwise known as @mother.of.spells on Instagram.

The brand is working on a collection made exclusively from recycled ocean plastics coming out in the near future.

Edge of Ember came to international fame after Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wore a piece from the brand on her final days in the U.K. before relocating abroad with her husband, Prince Harry, in 2020. — HIKMAT MOHAMMED

ILLUSTRATIONS ON THE BLOCK: Twenty-two illustrations produced by the Russian-born French artist and designer Erté will be going for auction at Dreweatts on Wednesday.

In 1910, he moved to Paris to follow his dreams of becoming an artist — he started his career with the Parisian couturier Paul Poiret, which led to a collaborative working relationship with Harper’s Bazaar that spanned over two decades. He illustrated 240 covers for the magazine.

The success of Erté’s illustrations with the fashion magazine took his career to the next level, working with Hollywood producers on silent films such as “Paris,” “Ben-Hur” and “The Mystic.”

The private collector has instructed the auction house to donate the proceeds from the sale equally to three charities: Southbank Sinfonia, Grange Park Opera and Little Angel Theatre in Islington.

Erté was also celebrated for his work with the Parisian theaters the Folies Bergère, Bal Tabarin and Le Lido.

The Dreweatts collection features vibrant and flamboyant illustrations of characters in patterned costumes.

Earlier this month, the antique textiles, furniture, paintings and objects which for decades adorned interior designer Robert Kime’s homes in London and Provençe raised 9.6 million pounds at Dreweatts.

The pre-sale estimate for “Robert Kime: The Personal Collection,” was 1.2 million pounds. More than 900 lots went under the hammer during the three-day auction from Oct. 4 to 6.

Kime had amassed his eclectic collection over 30 years during his travels through the U.K., Europe and the Middle East. The pieces on sale ranged from an ancient Athenian kylix to a silk embellished glove that had belonged to King Charles I and a large, rare bezoar stone dating from the 16th or 17th century. — H.M.

ON THE GREEN: Ben Sherman is getting into the activewear space and is starting with golf.

The U.K.-based men’s brand has signed a licensing deal with The Levy Group for a line of golf apparel that will launch next year. The collection will include polos, T-shirts, windbreakers, quarter-zip performance fleeces, vests, pants and shorts that blend Ben Sherman’s vibrant prints and colors with performance features such as quick drying and cooling fabrics. Prices will range from $79 to $169.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with The Levy Group for our upcoming sport vertical for Ben Sherman and to expand our extensive product offerings,” said Tim Reid, executive vice president of fashion and lifestyle at Marquee Brands, which owns Ben Sherman. “Their exceptional reputation and unwavering dedication to quality perfectly aligns with the brand’s growing vision. We are excited to explore more technical and functional styles, delivering apparel that embodies the essence of Ben Sherman while meeting the demands of active individuals. Together, we will create innovative collections that elevate performance and style in the world of sports apparel.”

At the same time, Marquee also inked a deal with The Levy Group for its Dakine American outdoor apparel line. The company will produce apparel for Dakine in a variety of lifestyle categories including performance, ski and snowboard lifestyle, active and outdoor apparel as well as base layers and swimwear.

These pieces will also feature moisture-wicking fabrics and durable construction to withstand the rigors of outdoor adventures. Product pricing will range from $65 to $575.

“Levy’s design, sourcing and distribution capabilities span seven decades and will allow Dakine to continue building innovative apparel products around the world,” said Pater Maule, executive vice president and general manager of active/outdoor brands for Marquee. “Their investment in performance materials combined with industry leading creative talent will ensure the brand maintains its quality and sustainability reputation. We are collaborating to launch in spring 2024 with an extensive range of lifestyle and performance products.” — JEAN E. PALMIERI

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