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kind of old article...
about stylists. interesting nonetheless
about stylists. interesting nonetheless
Oct. 8, 2001 The Independent
by Oliver Bennett
This season my collection will be mostly inspired by...
Independent, The (London), Oct 28, 2001 by Oliver Bennett
What is the essential accessory for a top fashion designer? A chihuahua? A handbag? A vintage Gucci condom holder? No, it is a person who will be your friend, hand-holder and who, crucially, will inspire your frocks. In short, every designer needs a muse.
So key is it to have a fabulous inspirational individual that, these days, the post has been professionalised. No longer does the artiste need to chew pencils waiting for the muse to call - he/she can simply get on the phone or dive into the office next door and upload ideas over Volvic and Marlboro Lights.
Lucinda Chambers, fashion director of Vogue, has seen a steep rise in designers claiming a muse. "Over the last five years, the label `muse' seems to have become very important," she says.
It may sound like dilettante-ish foolery to you and me, but Chambers reckons there is real purpose behind the muse boom. "Designers work in a bubble. Muses bring something fresh to the collection. They can be stylists, fashion editors, good friends. The point is to provide ideas." As for the paid muse: no problem. "In the commercial world we live in, everything has a price," adds Chambers. "If you're offering inspiration, you need to be rewarded. Take Amanda Harlech. She is being paid by Karl [Lagerfeld]." The modern muse is not content lolling around on drugs like trash-muse Edie Sedgwick at Andy Warhol's Factory - she wants remuneration.
At Chanel, it seems, the word "muse" is already an undesirable cliche. "Amanda's not a muse," pouts a spokeswoman. "Karl prefers to call her his collaboratrice." Despite being Britain's number one in this department, Lady Harlech despises the M-word, possibly because of its implication of decorative indolence.
We may think of muses as languid femme fatales, fond of reclining in front of randy artists. In reality, muse-dom is like a frenetic version of La Ronde. Toff model Stella Tennant has also been Lagerfeld's muse, while Galliano has been through muses like Kleenex. The latest is the Franco-American beauty Vanessa Bellanger, who used to answer the phones at the office. Galliano noticed that she was young and had style and boom: she became a waged muse-ette.
Perhaps the phones are a good place for the aspiring muse to start. Kelly Rector was a receptionist before she became muse and then wife to Calvin Klein. According to Obsession, a Klein biography, she was ordered to lose weight and wear her hair just so. "She's like the good family china - expensive, beautiful and only out on special occasions," said a US observer. More empowered was Kate Moss, also dubbed as Klein's muse.
In the old days, a muse need do little more than look fabulous - like Jean Shrimpton, who inspired David Bailey in te Sixties. But today's muse not only needs attitude; she should be as accomplished as the designer. R&B star Kelis - best international newcomer at the Brits - is said to be "muse" to hotshot designer Matthew Williamson, who has already been through mega-muse Jade Jagger, now a jewellery designer in her own right, of course. And actresses can also become muses. The pallid superstar Gwyneth Paltrow has been described as a muse to both Calvin Klein and Armani, and has also taken the Dior shilling - which probably makes her a muse for them as well.
It is more common, however, for the artist to set up the muse, who is often a pal to begin with. Phoebe Philo, inspiration to Stella McCartney, has taken over from mini-Macca (now at Gucci) as creative director at Chloe. The New York label Imitation of Christ, which committed the taste crime of holding its first show in a funeral parlour, employed the film star and cult crumpet Chloe Sevigny as its "creative director", the reason being that Sevigny is "a close friend and wonderful person". Which also shows that a good muse needs to be in demand: NY designer Michael Kors also declared Sevigny his muse. Confusing, non?
Perhaps the original new muse, however, is Isabella Blow, the stylist known for her bizarre millinery, who at various times has lent succour to Alexander McQueen and Philip Treacy. Her looks - kind of Diane Vreeland meets Edith Sitwell at a mad country house party - are inspirational in themselves.
Mrs Blow has also been a Conde Nast "contributing editor", a title that is a muse magnet. Nicola Formby, muse to AA Gill as "The Blonde", is up there in Tatler's masthead (where she is called Editor at Large), as is Ines de la Fressange, the French model-turned- designer who was dropped by Karl Lagerfeld after five years hard museing at Chanel (he objected to her modelling for the bust of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic).
OK, OK. But what does a muse do? Well, they tend to be females who somehow encapsulate the designers' ideas - particularly useful to those male designers who do not share beds with females. Occasionally, they can be men, or the same sex. Vivienne Westwood has been inspired by Jibby Beane, Tracey Emin and Sarah Stockbridge, while taking intellectual muse-dom from a friend called "Gary" and the second Mr Westwood, Andreas Kronthaler.
Lucinda Chambers adds that muses come in several varieties. "There are ones that float in once a week looking great then disappear. Others - like Lady Harlech - help provide real direction for the collections: more like a consultant."
If you wish to push it further, a muse doesn't have to be a person. It could be tobacco. It could be alcohol. But mostly it's a woman. The original muses of Greek mythology were goddesses, patrons of specific arts, up to nine of them including Erato (muse of love poetry) and Thalia (muse of comedy). At times, we all need a muse. "So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse/And found such fair assistance in my verse" wrote Shakespeare, finding the sonnet muse.
Those who wish to investigate the deep muse should go to Tate Modern's Surrealist Show. "The Surrealists were very taken with the notion of the beautiful, mysterious female muse," says Simon Wilson, the Tate's director of communication. "Gala was Salvador Dali's muse to the point where he said he wanted to eat her after she died. Lee Miller, now considered a fine photographer in her own right, was a muse to Man Ray, while artist Dorothea Tanning was a muse to Max Ernst." It is often, he adds, the mystical art movements that favour the use of muses: the Pre-Raphaelites, for example, and the Belgian Symbolists took inspiration from ethereal, flame-haired muse-sirens.
It is salutary that the Tate show has done much for the Surrealist women, as if to rehabilitate them from muse to major artist. For the point must be to empower the muse, so that her contribution is properly recognised. And fashion's tough new muses are (mostly) proving that to be the case.
