Return to Eden was the theme of Erickson Beamon’s Spring 2012 show during New York Fashion Week last night.  For the Milk Studios presentation we created a Miss Havisham meets Great Expectations meets Cicciolina vignette that showcased the collection on busts growing out of planters, live models on industrial scaffolding, and a brilliant and beautiful troupe of feather-clad dancers from the Stephen Petronio Company.  Over 200 live trees, cacti, shrubs, moss, orchids and apples created a backdrop for Erickson Beamon’s baubles and magnificent encrusted mannequins…

This season I had the pleasure of working with the ultra-talented team at W Hotels to edit the first issue of their Fashion Broadsheet – a seasonal newspaper that highlights the brand’s Fashion Next program.  Fashion Next is an international project that gives a platform to emerging fashion talent from cities all around the world, helping them reach new audiences.

This season’s Fashion Next cities were New York, Moscow, Bangkok, and London.  Designers from these fashion hotspots included Juan Carlos Obando, Michael Angel, Bibhu Mohapatra, Electric Feathers, Rochambeau, Tess Giberson, Mandy Coon, Mara Hoffman, Nomia, EK Thongprasert, Marios Schwab, Jordan Askill, Fleet Ilya, Craig Lawrence, Ulyana Sergeenko, and Vika Gazinskaya.

From overall content direction to developing fun, personal Q&A’s with the featured designers, to image direction and selection, I worked with W Hotels’ crack design team to create a beautiful visual showcase of this amazing fashion initiative.

The covers are recreated in a playful  felt trompe l’oeil which from a distance are pretty indistinguishable from the real thing – save for the sweet golden clasp!  Titles include For Whom the Bell Tolls, Moby Dick, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, and Winner Take Nothing.

Le-Tan also made a little suite of tiny leather “boîtes” with her own cover designs. The latest collection “Ce N’est Pas La Fin du Monde” (“It’s Not the End of the World”) features Alduos Huxley’s Brave New World. Apparently she is also looking into making bags from vintage globes and old maps.

Word is the purses have inspired a Spike Jonze film collaboration…

Available at Bookmarc in NYC.

Rarely do I gasp at a new clothing line. The resurrection of the French firm Carven by Guillaume Henry  has done it.   This is what my fall will look like.  For sure.

16W21 in Vogue Japan.  Domo arigato Tayu!

Click image to read full story.  Grazie Peter!

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