just thought you guys needed to see this
FICKLE FASHION: If Tara Subkoff is so bitter about the fashion industry, why is she still working in it? That's what audience members were wondering at The New Yorker Festival's "Generation X Fashion" panel on Saturday, when Subkoff took swipes at nearly every aspect of the fashion business, including her fellow panelists, the designers Behnaz Sarafpour and Alice Roi. The first words out of her mouth were to correct the panel's moderator, Judith Thurman, a staff writer for The New Yorker, for her pronunciation of Subkoff's surname. The Imitation of Christ designer went on to chide:
— Sara James
FICKLE FASHION: If Tara Subkoff is so bitter about the fashion industry, why is she still working in it? That's what audience members were wondering at The New Yorker Festival's "Generation X Fashion" panel on Saturday, when Subkoff took swipes at nearly every aspect of the fashion business, including her fellow panelists, the designers Behnaz Sarafpour and Alice Roi. The first words out of her mouth were to correct the panel's moderator, Judith Thurman, a staff writer for The New Yorker, for her pronunciation of Subkoff's surname. The Imitation of Christ designer went on to chide:
- "American Vogue dominates. It's politics. [Success depends] on how much you advertise in publications."
- "[Vogue editor in chief] Anna Wintour only supports young, gay men." In response, Thurman said to Sarafpour, "[Wintour] supported you, didn't she?" Sarafpour: "Yes." Subkoff: "Maybe Behnaz's approach is more masculine."
- After an audience member asked if the designers would advise their own children to go into the fashion industry, Subkoff said: "I'm not having children. Ever."
- When a model walked out wearing one of Subkoff's creations, a red suede minidress with a hood, Thurman asked her why she chose to show that look for the panel. Subkoff: "I didn't choose this. I think someone from my press office did. This is one of the reasons I fired my press person." Subkoff then said of the outfit: "I think it's really good for a modern-day Muslim." Sarafpour, who emigrated from Iran to the U.S. with her family as a child, didn't respond.
- Subkoff also said she wouldn't have chosen to show that look because it was too racy for the size 16-plus average American woman. The zaftig Roi, who sells plus-size clothes on the home shopping channel QVC, then quipped, "I think this could work in a 22."
- Subkoff said of her early training, "In the Nineties, I was a ragpicker for Isaac Mizrahi ... Donna Karan." Thurman: "What's a ragpicker?" Subkoff: "A ragpicker basically designs their collections by going and finding vintage pieces and sending them to the patternmakers so they end up on the runway with nothing changed." Sarafpour: "I don't employ any ragpickers." Subkoff: "Behnaz, out of all the designs here today, yours is definitely the most retro. It's Fifties Audrey Hepburn." (Sarafpour had shown a cocktail dress made from cotton canvas printed with a lace pattern.)
- Subkoff to Thurman: "Women are very unsupportive of each other in the fashion world ... This is a gay man's profession. It's very bizarre of you to choose three women [for a fashion panel]. There should be a few proper gay men. Where are all the queens?"
— Sara James
And I always love how the women who talk about women not supporting each other are always the very worst offenders. I thought a piece of Behnaz's S/S collection looked very Audrey too, but that doesn't necessarily mean she copied it from vintage ...
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