All the juicy goodness of the New Yorker was brought to life this weekend at the New Yorker Festival. Think Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco and Tim Robbins registering people to vote and Mary Louise Parker using the word c--t and calling the Times reporter who interviewed her an asshole. Plus Clint Eastwood, Matt Groening, Jhumpa Lahiri, Joyce Carol Oates and so many other jaw-dropping talents and minds of our time. And much to my own happiness, the New Yorker values fashion and showed it via the panel titled, "The Next Generation of Fashion." Judith Thurman, the fashion and features writer for the magazine -- who by the way is so brilliantly and beautifully knowledgeable and arrogant that I fell head over heels in love with her -- organized a panel of up-and-coming designers. Each panelist was nominated by their respective alma maters to represent the best of the best of their schools. So here's the rundown, and while it may be the first time you hear these names, it certainly won't be the last.
WHO: Louise Markey
ALMA MATER: Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London (Thurman: "The Harvard of fashion.")
INSPIRATION: Elizabethan looks, active wear, '80s party dresses, and folk toys (for their color).
OUR THOUGHTS: Minimalist, architectural and modern, her clothes were made for women by a woman. So these dresses are for the fashion-forward to throw on, go to the store in, cook dinner in, and then end up at a Cinema Society screening in, and still be perfectly comfortable, stylish and fabulous. Dressed up or down, layered with a blazer or T-shirt, fashionable women would dream to have these pieces in her wardrobe. And the construction is utterly drool-worthy.
WHERE TO BUY: She started her own label called LF Markey which is sold throughout Europe and her two boutiques in Australia.
WHO: Joeri Van Yper
ALMA MATER: The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp (Thurman: "The cauldron of the avant garde.")
INSPIRATION: A folk tale in which a couple climbs a treacherous and snowy peak only to die at the end.
OUR THOUGHTS: Courageous and sumptuous knits combined with a definite flair for the modern and unusual while completely wearable. Great workmanship and detail (little round disks in the sweater dress were branches Van Yper sliced and smoothed into wood pailletes of different sizes by hand). And he does a great job of balancing hard-line avant garde (i.e. snowboard binding shoes that were just plain wild) with wearable feminine pieces.
WHERE TO BUY: Van Yper is a fresh graduate who has yet to start his own label.
WHO: Makato Takada
ALMA MATER: The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
INSPIRATION: The film Atonement (only the colors and mood) and Charlie Chaplin.
OUR THOUGHTS: Love it. Want it. Would love to rock it. Unlike Markey's work, this is a man designing for the woman idealized. While beautiful, his clothes are less flexible and for occasions where not much is expected physically. His pieces were sharp and sexy, modern and elegant, with obvious cues and homage to Proenza Schouler. Incredible use of materials, like the rain coat with lace detail between its layers of vinyl. The gown pictured was worn on the red carpet at this year's Emmy Awards by Carrie Preston of HBO's True Blood.
WHERE TO BUY: Takada is currently freelancing.
