Can Fashion Forgive His Past? By ERIC WILSON
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Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times]
A YEAR ago, Kai Kühne could not have interested a serious fashion editor in hearing about his umpteenth comeback even if he walked up and slapped her in the face, attempted to set her on fire or pounded down a door.
Those stories, you see, had already been told.
A FRESH START Kai Kühne, Gabi Asfour, Ange and Adi of As Four, in 2002. [
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times]
Mr. Kühne, after numerous bizarre incidents at fashion parties and erratic behavior at his office, had become a black sheep of fashion. His eruptions were sometimes so spectacular that it seemed as if he might have better luck as a nightclub promoter than a designer, because every time he went out his antics made the gossip columns. In one episode outside a bar in Chelsea in 2004, he got into a drunken fight with his partners in As Four, a critically acclaimed design collective.
The other three ejected him from the group.
In a garment district studio last week, Mr. Kühne, 35, went over some of this history, sounding confused, even hurt, that the fashion world had not granted him more than a cursory glance since he struck out on his own three years ago, except to gossip about further reports of unruly behavior.
“Not too many very interesting or smart people have seen my work,” he said, gesturing with an unlit cigarette held upside down between his fingers, his shirt unbuttoned to reveal a hairy paunch. “I think they are scared.”
But in fashion, even black sheep have a way of returning to the fold. Mr. Kühne has formed a partnership with Markus Hoefels, a German entrepreneur who was the original backer of Proenza Schouler, the label created by two fashion-school students that has exploded into a brand with an estimated $25 million of sales in ready-to-wear, shoes and other licensed products, and is considered a must-see of the New York collections.
Mr. Hoefels said he plans to invest more than $1 million in Mr. Kühne’s label, a commitment that will likely grow in time. It is not the amount of financing — tiny in industry terms — that is providing Mr. Kühne a new lease on life, but the track record of his backer, whose support could win back the attention of editors and retailers when the collection is shown Wednesday during New York Fashion Week.
Mr. Hoefels said that he is not worried about Mr. Kühne’s record of erratic personal behavior, which one season included listing a personal cellphone number on his show’s invitation, then berating the guests who called to R.S.V.P.
“I’m not dealing with history,” Mr. Hoefels said. “I’m dealing with the future.”
Mr. Kühne’s solo collections have been mostly critical misfires, in no small part because they began late and were disorganized. But his minimalist designs, when they could be seen, were sometimes wonderful, resembling origami with ornate folds and seams that appeared to sprout like branches around a torso. It was as if he was reacting against everything that As Four, which was famous for cutting clothes and bags in the shape of a circle, was known for.
“No more curves,” Mr. Kühne said. “No more circles. It’s straight. I was trying to straighten myself out.”
His collection for spring 2009 seems at first glance to consist of relatively simple tube or sack dresses, but once you look at the details, the garments are highly constructed. (Most of the work is done by assistants.)
“Right now, I think I have found a certain artistic integrity to my work and also something that I can proudly offer my customers to wear,” Mr. Kühne said.
He insists that he is trying to reform his behavior. Corinna Springer, his publicist, who introduced him to Mr. Hoefels, said she did so on the condition that there would be no more reports of fights or other antics finding their way into the tabloids.
“I’m very serious about my work, actually,” Mr. Kühne said.
It was hard for a reporter to assess his sincerity: Mr. Kühne confessed that during his first meeting with Mr. Hoefels in Berlin, he had been hung over.
Mr. Kühne moved to New York nearly 15 years ago from Hamburg, Germany, where he had studied textile management for less than a year. Around the same time, two other founders of As Four, who use the single names Ange and Adi, arrived from Munich.
Mr. Kühne was good-looking enough to work for several years as a model. “I almost ended up to be the poster boy for Calvin Klein, and then they decided to use actors,” he said.
His parents, wealthy from oil and storage businesses, he said, helped finance Mr. Kühne’s adventures, including much of the startup investment in As Four, named for the collective’s fourth partner (and Ange’s boyfriend), Gabi Asfour.
The group’s bohemian lives were as convention-defying as their clothes. As described in many articles, all four designers shared a single large bed in a Chinatown loft painted silver like Andy Warhol’s factory. Interns, assistants, volunteers and a dog crashed in the bed, too, in unpredictable rotations. The collective’s sporadic shows, beginning around 1998, were like performance art, held in overcrowded, overheated spaces filled with cigarette smoke and the smell of stale beer; the fashion world was enthralled. But then the story turned nasty. Tensions among the partners erupted in a fight outside a bar, pitting Mr. Kühne against Adi and Ange. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Kühne was locked out of the communal loft. As Four became ThreeAsFour.
This all seems like ancient history now. Mr. Asfour, reached at his studio, seemed surprised anyone would ask about it and expressed no animosity toward Mr. Kühne.
“We are like family,” he said. “We always wish him the best. We have both evolved in the way we wanted to, so there’s no hard feelings.”
Those who have worked with the group said it was often the case that fights were quickly forgotten, even the time when Mr. Kühne attempted to set Gabi on fire with a cigarette lighter and hairspray.
BUT Mr. Kühne seems to have had a harder time moving on.
“When he left, it was incredibly devastating for him,” said Kelly Cutrone, a publicist who represented As Four and then Mr. Kühne in his solo career. She dropped him as a client last year, she said, when he began to lash out again.
“When he started to process his grief and devastation, that came through in some ways that I wasn’t comfortable with as far as continuing to put my business behind his,” Ms. Cutrone said.
Mr. Kühne said: “You know, I’m not an angel sitting at home knitting. I like to go out and have a good time. But it was crazy. It got to the point that I would show up somewhere, and somebody would push me down the stairs to get press.”
In February 2007, Page Six of The New York Post reported that Mr. Kühne had broken down a bathroom door at one bar, then assaulted a doorman at another when his credit card was refused.
Mr. Kühne remembers the details differently, but he acknowledged he had been drinking, used cocaine and was arrested after the second incident — a result of a misunderstanding — and charged with criminal mischief. He said the charges were later dropped.
“I was very annoyed because when I saw the mug shot I did not look as good as Frank Sinatra,” Mr. Kühne said.
In June, after presenting his collection at Berlin Fashion Week, Mr. Kühne met Mr. Hoefels and secured his backing.
“He’s coming to us now and he’s really focusing on his collection,” said Mr. Hoefels, who has been eager to re-establish his business connections in New York after ending his partnership with Proenza Schouler. (Valentino acquired a 45-percent stake in that business last year.) “If he can concentrate on design and see the company is growing with a good structure, I think he will be calm.”
Mr. Kühne readily acknowledges that his personal reputation has made it difficult for people to pay attention to his work.
Then again, some people will always think it is more chic to wear black.
“I’m still not an angel, but who is?” he said. “Who wants to be? I can’t be Mother Teresa. She’s dead.”
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