Stephen Jones

Went to the fabulous Stephen Jones party last night, hosted by Bumble and Bumble (pics below). For those who don't know Stephen is the great London hat designer, the greatest milliner of the late 20th century and going very strong in the early 21st. I've known Stephen since 1985 (!) when we were introduced by Roberta Wagner. A Stephen Jones gold lame fez that I purchased from Susanne Bartsch in 1983 when she had her shop on Thompson Street is currently on view at the Museum at FIT in the Exoticism theme permanent collection installation. I donated the hat along with several other Stephen Jones hats including a rare group that he designed for Commes des Garcons. Will try to get a photo of the fez tommorow night when I am at FIT for the opening of the Madame Gres exhibition. Visit Stephen's website:
http://www.stephenjonesmillinery.com/

Scene:

Scene:

Lynne Yeager interviewing Tziporah Salamon (http://www.tziporahsalamon.com):

Stephen Jones:

Tableau Vivante:

Erica and Annie of Au Revoir Simone (http://aurevoirsimone.com):

Tableau Vivante:

Tableau vivante:

Robert Warner

More art-design synergy in the exhibition of assemblage works by Robert Warner at Pavel Zoubok (link below). Warner combines late 19th century gilt-embossed book covers, typographical fragments and glass lenses in works that are nostalgiac and futuristic (in a Jules Verne science fiction sense) at the same time. Max Ernst and Joseph Cornell are in the air here too. One hopes that Warner is not breaking up old books in order to re-use their covers. Warner's day job is Master Printer at Bowne and Co. at the South Street Seaport Museum, the still-operating 19th century letterpress printshop (link below) so one assumes that he has a decent respect for the book arts. The gilt embossed book cover was indeed a real artform in the late 19th century and is the subject of a MUST-SEE upcoming exhibition at the Grolier Club, of the work of Alice C. Morse (1863-1961), a prolific designer of such book covers (link below)

http://www.pavelzoubok.com/

http://www.southstseaport.org/index1.aspx?BD=9147

http://www.grolierclub.org/ExMorse.htm

Alice Morse and her work:

http://www.grolierclub.org/ExMorse.htm

Michael Salter at Jeff Bailey

Saw some good contemporary art last week. Michael Salter's exhibition at Jeff Bailey looked like a group show, a trend that seems to be in the air in the past year or so. Each piece or group of pieces (pictures and sculptures) was good and the strange/charming blobject porcelain figures (that each come in their own canister) capture the very current art/design zeitgeist. More at: http://www.baileygallery.com/
http://www.copyrightsalter.com/

James Lee Byars

I was doing some research at the New York Public Library today and came across this image (below--sorry for the lousy scan-of-a-photocopy) of a "silk 'plural' dress for use by several people simultaneously" by James Lee Byars, in a 1968 issue of Craft Horizons. Byars was one of the great artists of the second half of the 20th century but is oddly underappreciated. That may be just as well because his works is really best appreciated by true cognoscenti. It may be too theatrical or decorative for much of the contemporary art crowd. Interesting stuff about Byars here:

http://www.jointadventures.org/byars/jameslee.htm

In the same article ("Clothing: Theater of the Self") was this image from William Klein's film Qui Etes Vous Polly Maggoo, of the aluminum dresses by Francois and Bernard Baschet. See their VERY interesting site:

http://francois.baschet.free.fr/