Designer & Fashion Insiders Behavior (PLEASE READ POST #1 BEFORE POSTING)

[StoneSkipper]

It's the pot suing the kettle for being black...

 

[russianelf]

She's been around for a long time. Every once in a while I'll re-read her blog just to have a good chuckle.

lmao same! Anyway, she completely discredited herself claiming that Marc is actually straight and in an abusive relationship with her. girl needs help and meds.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Oh, now that is funny If there is one thing he has been absolutely consistent with ...

 

[fluxxx]

My God, that girl sounds like cray. I meant she seems like claimed that she's the inventor of photoshoot in front of the paintings or the first woman who wear the stripes dresses. I got second hand embarassment by reading her blog lol

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ There's a name for it ... narcissism

 

[Benn98]

New Book Sheds Light on Karl Lagerfeld’s Troubled Companion

French journalist Marie Ottavi paints a nuanced portrait of Jacques de Bascher, who ignited Lagerfeld's feud with Yves Saint Laurent.

By Joelle Diderich on August 10, 2017

PARIS — Jacques de Bascher, the decadent dandy who was Karl Lagerfeld’s partner for close to two decades, is the subject of a revealing new book that sheds light on the man at the center of one of fashion’s most famous feuds in the Seventies.

De Bascher was little-known outside industry circles until 2006, when Alicia Drake published “The Beautiful Fall: Fashion, Genius and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris,” focusing on the rivalry between Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent stoked by de Bascher’s involvement with both men.

Lagerfeld famously took Drake to court over the book, but recently agreed to sit down with Marie Ottavi, a journalist at French daily Libération, to share his most intimate memories to date for her tome, “Jacques de Bascher, dandy de l’ombre” (“Jacques de Bascher, shadow dandy,”) published by Editions Séguier.

“Perhaps it was the right time for him,” Ottavi told WWD. “He wanted to correct some of the things that had been written. He didn’t say what, exactly, but he wanted to set the record straight.”

The first-time author also interviewed Kenzo Takada, Betty Catroux, Diane de Beauvau-Craon, Pat Cleveland and other survivors of the excess-fueled Seventies to flesh out the portrait of the troubled de Bascher, who died of AIDS in 1989 at the age of 38.

Lagerfeld portrayed him as cultivated — he was a voracious reader who could quote from Homer’s “Iliad” — and multilingual, with a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of humor. Both men were fascinated by titles and genealogy, with de Bascher fond of emphasizing his aristocratic roots.

The German designer has explained before that they never had sex, despite being together for 18 years. “I infinitely loved that boy but I had no physical contact with him. Of course, I was seduced by his physical charm,” he said of de Bascher, whose wan elegance was immortalized by the British painter David Hockney.

The book’s real revelation is the fact that Lagerfeld — who has always refused to attend funerals — stayed by his partner’s side until the bitter end, sleeping on a cot bed in his hospital room during his final days. He subsequently organized and attended a funeral mass in his honor.

“It’s still a very emotional topic for him, and he opened up as perhaps he has never done before,” Ottavi said. “He watched this man, whom he once admired for his style, allure, spirit and innate sense of beauty, take his last breath and absolutely wither. That’s a terrible ordeal, and the fact that he talked about it was a beautiful thing.”

Pregnant at the time, Ottavi missed her initially planned interview with Lagerfeld in November because she ended up giving birth the day before. She finally saw him in March, 15 days before handing in her manuscript, for two no-holds-barred conversations.

“Obviously, I didn’t want to be obscene, that was not the point, but Karl Lagerfeld did not flinch from any of my questions,” she said. “It was very emotional, very powerful. I was moved because he was talking about that one person that you miss, and I think this man is the person that Karl Lagerfeld misses in his life.”

Ottavi said she was initially drawn to her subject by the omertà surrounding de Bascher, known for his sophisticated style, promiscuous parties and unbridled use of drugs and alcohol — and little else, since he refused to work and never fulfilled his fantasy of writing a book.

“He was shrouded in mystery and everyone kept saying that nobody would talk to me,” she said. “It became a challenge and stoked my curiosity.”

The first person to share his recollections with Ottavi was Philippe Heurtault, who met de Bascher while serving in the navy and later became his man servant and personal photographer in Paris.

In addition to providing insight into de Bascher’s life before fashion, he supplied several images used in the book, including a shot of the man-about-town with Saint Laurent’s former partner, Pierre Bergé, taken in February 1974.

Around that time, de Bascher embarked on a clandestine affair with Saint Laurent, whom he would lock in a closet as part of their BDSM sex games.

When Bergé found out, he severed ties with Lagerfeld, blaming his camp for precipitating the downfall of Saint Laurent at a time when the couturier’s addictions were spiraling out of control.

While Bergé declined to speak to Ottavi, she credits her journalistic approach with helping her gain the trust of de Bascher’s family and other participants. “I didn’t want to be judgmental. I didn’t want to paint him as the embodiment of evil, as he has been portrayed in films, where he is reduced to a caricature,” she said.

Lagerfeld bankrolled some of the era’s most notorious parties, including the S&M-themed “Moratoire Noir(e)” bash organized by de Bascher and his friend Xavier de Castella, which Ottavi describes in graphic detail.

But he was more voyeur than participant, avoiding alcohol and drugs and maintaining a rigorous work ethic.

“I’m a total puritan, but I found Jacques’ adventures amusing. We couldn’t be further apart. I am a Calvinist toward myself, and totally indulgent toward others,” Lagerfeld said in the book.

“Of course I knew about the affair with Saint Laurent. I had been close friends with Yves for more than 20 years. We used to go out in the early days with Anne-Marie Munoz and Victoire Doutreleau. Pierre smashed that to bits. He said I engineered their liaison to destabilize the house of Saint Laurent,” he added.

Lagerfeld was lucid about his partner’s perverse tendencies and wild adventures, but turned a blind eye to many of his excesses.

“I didn’t hold him accountable. I only wanted to see the bright side of Jacques. I was unaware of what he kept in the shadows. He would tell me about what he did when I wasn’t around, but I didn’t ask questions,” Lagerfeld said.

Although she was wary of empathizing with her subject, Ottavi admitted that she admired people like de Bascher and Catroux for their uncompromising character.

“It’s the biting bon mots, their jaded outlook. It’s being fully aware of who you are, the cliché you represent. I find that quite fascinating, and it was interesting how comfortable he was with his lack of ambition and his homosexuality, which he never hid,” she said. “There was just no survival instinct. Today, there is perhaps too much survival instinct, which makes things a little more dull.”

Though de Bascher was part of a long list of people who fell victim to AIDS in the Eighties — alongside Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Chatwin, Alvin Ailey and Steve Rubell — the author believes he was fated to die young.

“He could not have grown older because he would have turned pathetic, I think. It’s like a big arc, this rise and fall, and here the fall was illness and death, but it could have been falling out of fashion, being irrelevant, no longer belonging to the in-crowd, gently fading away,” she said.

Though she questioned whether he could have existed in the age of reality TV, Ottavi said de Bascher was a precursor of insta-celebrity in some ways.

“He even had T-shirts printed with his name. This was in the early Seventies. Who did that at the time? Nowadays, it would be no big deal, but I thought it was crazy that this guy was doing that at the time. It’s a detail, but it tells you a lot. If he were alive today, maybe he would be an influencer,” she said.

Source: WWD.com

 

[fluxxx]

LOL at Stefano Gabbana's rant on DietPrada's comment section about Dolce & Gabbana's copying Gucci

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Haven't seen it, but the copying is blatant ... it's even prominent in some of the ads. I don't really understand it ... is there some sort of niche market for a screaming D&G/Gucci hybrid?

 

[dior_couture1245]

Well....regardless of how bad D&G's designs are now...I have to admit @diet_prada seems to be getting too big for their britches. What was once a fairly sincere and funny Instagram account now feels very sleazy and mean spirited, in my opinion...and I've felt that way even before they got invited to Prada and Miu Miu and took over Gucci's Instagram on show day.

 

[Deleted member 130879]

Well....regardless of how bad D&G's designs are now...I have to admit @diet_prada seems to be getting too big for their britches. What was once a fairly sincere and funny Instagram account now feels very sleazy and mean spirited, in my opinion...and I've felt that way even before they got invited to Prada and Miu Miu and took over Gucci's Instagram on show day.

I stopped paying attention to them as soon as they became Gucci's pet. They are now nothing more than an hypocrite sell-out insta-joke. Plenty of people are now commenting on them asking if it takes as little as an invite to buy them out. It's sad.

 

[GivenchyAddict]

^lol and now they even use their beef with Stefano Gabbana to sell t shirts... I agree at 100% with your comment. They annoy me a lot now.

 

[Pricciao]

^ Haven't seen it, but the copying is blatant ... it's even prominent in some of the ads. I don't really understand it ... is there some sort of niche market for a screaming D&G/Gucci hybrid?

Hypebeast is mainstream for a long while, try to accept the fact these rich skater hipsters are the cash cow customers these brands suck on to. I don't understand how you seem to be aloof from it. Makes me wonder what change drives us apart, and how we can bridge that gap.

 

[t-rex]

It will be interesting to see what happens with Marchesa's Georgina Chapman (she is married to Harvey Weinstein.) Right now she is standing by him. Their relationship seems like a business one, so I suspect she may bail at some point - stars probably don't want to wear her designs anymore lest they be asked about Weinstein.

Chapman, 41, has certainly benefited from her 65-year-old husband’s power.

Since the two met at a Manhattan party in 2004, the mogul, famed for aggressively promoting his films, has done for Chapman what he does best: He used his influence to get what he wanted.

“Georgina always had a hard time pushing herself. For Harvey, promotion’s in his blood,” a fashion insider said. “[He] wasn’t exactly subtle about asking Miramax’s female stars to wear Marchesa on the red carpet. And if the studio chief of your movie, and potential movies, asked you to wear a certain designer, wouldn’t you want to accommodate him?”

Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lopez, Halle Berry, Emma Watson, Renee Zellweger, Blake Lively and Kate Hudson all starred in projects produced by one of Weinstein’s companies, and all wore Marchesa on the red carpet

.

http://pagesix.com/2017/10/07/harassment-allegations-could-hurt-harvey-weinsteins-wife-too/

 

[Benn98]

I completely forgot about Georgina amidst this mess. She must've known about the first lot of allegations, wonder what her reaction was like.

 

[dodencebt]

Maybe this is going to sound awful of me but Georgina deserves the demise that is inevitably going to happen to Marchesa now that her husband has been fired from the Weinstein company. She kept her mouth shut all these years while Harvey Weinstein was out there sexually harassing women (and there is no way she didn't know about it because even The New York Times has been sleeping on this story since 2004; it was an open secret in Hollywood) so that her brand would flourish. We all know that Marchesa made a name for itself because of big celebrities wearing its clothes to high profile events. So yeah, not feeling sorry for neither Georgina or Keren.

 

[dodencebt]

I'd also like to add how (weirdly) disappointed I am in Vogue for not covering the Weinstein scandal because they have been vocal about everything else, including past allegations against public figures. I mean I guess it was expected of Anna to keep mum about it, she and Vogue have also benefited from Weinstein's connections. I wonder if getting certain cover stars is going to as easy as it was now that he's out of his influential position.

 

[Benn98]

I recall once seeing an elated Lana Del Rey at PFW with Harvey, all pouty and flirty. He was already married to Georgina then. I recall it looking very cringey and inappropriate because he was a married man. Press reports mentioned they had quite a few meetings. Not sure whether it materialised into anything, but years later she did had this song called 'Fcked my way to the top' which made me wonder, so.....

This scandal will cast some very unflattering focus on many of Harvey's proteges. Blake Lively also immediately comes to mind.

 

[Nymphaea]

I think there is a lot of dirt behind many famous doors. Would love to give them a potion so they only could speak the truth.

 

[fashionista-ta]

Hypebeast is mainstream for a long while, try to accept the fact these rich skater hipsters are the cash cow customers these brands suck on to. I don't understand how you seem to be aloof from it. Makes me wonder what change drives us apart, and how we can bridge that gap.

I think you may have missed my point ...

Both Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana are sold at a designer price point. D&G has had a distinctive look for many years.

If a customer wants the Gucci look, why not simply buy Gucci? What's the payoff in buying a piece that's Dolce with blatant Gucci "inspiration" layered on top? Perhaps I am 'aloof' from the appeal of a hybrid hot mess. Of course, I never understood the point of a Goldendoodle either.

 

[LostInNJ]

Maybe this is going to sound awful of me but Georgina deserves the demise that is inevitably going to happen to Marchesa now that her husband has been fired from the Weinstein company. She kept her mouth shut all these years while Harvey Weinstein was out there sexually harassing women (and there is no way she didn't know about it because even The New York Times has been sleeping on this story since 2004; it was an open secret in Hollywood) so that her brand would flourish. We all know that Marchesa made a name for itself because of big celebrities wearing its clothes to high profile events. So yeah, not feeling sorry for neither Georgina or Keren.

I think the brand stands a chance if she "plays" this correctly. It's already an established label which has become a go to for a lot of starlets. She needs to distance herself from him, the same way his company has. Wouldn't be surprised if an announcement comes very, very soon. I'm not so sure she can keep her company and her marriage, at this point.

The whole thing is sad, really. The lies, the length of time this has been going on, the coercion to wear these clothes. I also find it hard to believe that she would have had zero knowledge as to her husbands actions.