softgrey
flaunt the imperfection
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2004
- Messages
- 52,910
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excerpt from wwd...
Gray Matter
designer Chris Benz “I’m from Seattle,” he offers when you inquire , a response this 22-year-old graduate of Parsons often invokes to explain his likes and dislikes, personal quirks and design bent. “It’s gray all the time,” Benz says of his hometown.
that accounts for much of his design aesthetic: his emphasis on layers, sheerness and a muted color palette of grays and other soft hues. “It gave me an appreciation for all the different shades of what one color can be,” he says. As for the clothes themselves, a mix of frothy cotton and organza dresses and men’s wear-inspired jodhpurs and vests, there’s a touch of the influence of a great Seattle export from the early Nineties. “They’re always a little bit grunge,” Benz says, adding, “but also a little bit sweet.” To that end, his designs, which wholesale from $90 to $200, have, yes, a fairy-tale romance about them — a modern midsummer night’s dream — but with the edges frayed and tattered “to keep things from being too precious.” (It also doesn’t hurt that Benz spent two years interning for the guru of grunge, Marc Jacobs.)
“Seattle made my attitude,” he says, “but New York filled the cracks.” So, while he may have painted his downtown apartment walls a monotone gray, he accents them with his collection of gilt mirrors and frames, which he has been collecting for a decade. It’s a design dialectic of the simple and the ornate that finds its way into his clothes.
“My designs now, they’re kind of grown-up doll clothes, in a way.” Ultimately, though, it all comes back to the logic behind the gold frames now stacked neatly on one side of his slate gray walls. “I have this obsession with old things,” he says, “but then I try to organize them into this new way.” — Venessa Lau
Gray Matter
designer Chris Benz “I’m from Seattle,” he offers when you inquire , a response this 22-year-old graduate of Parsons often invokes to explain his likes and dislikes, personal quirks and design bent. “It’s gray all the time,” Benz says of his hometown.
that accounts for much of his design aesthetic: his emphasis on layers, sheerness and a muted color palette of grays and other soft hues. “It gave me an appreciation for all the different shades of what one color can be,” he says. As for the clothes themselves, a mix of frothy cotton and organza dresses and men’s wear-inspired jodhpurs and vests, there’s a touch of the influence of a great Seattle export from the early Nineties. “They’re always a little bit grunge,” Benz says, adding, “but also a little bit sweet.” To that end, his designs, which wholesale from $90 to $200, have, yes, a fairy-tale romance about them — a modern midsummer night’s dream — but with the edges frayed and tattered “to keep things from being too precious.” (It also doesn’t hurt that Benz spent two years interning for the guru of grunge, Marc Jacobs.)
“Seattle made my attitude,” he says, “but New York filled the cracks.” So, while he may have painted his downtown apartment walls a monotone gray, he accents them with his collection of gilt mirrors and frames, which he has been collecting for a decade. It’s a design dialectic of the simple and the ornate that finds its way into his clothes.
“My designs now, they’re kind of grown-up doll clothes, in a way.” Ultimately, though, it all comes back to the logic behind the gold frames now stacked neatly on one side of his slate gray walls. “I have this obsession with old things,” he says, “but then I try to organize them into this new way.” — Venessa Lau
I love tattered chiffon
