George Condo

When faced with the question, "Who's your favorite living artist?" Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld responded, "So MANY — Tom Sachs and George Condo are a few of my favorites." According to The New York Times, Vladimir even took time out from installing an exhibit by RETNA to accompany the artist to see "George Condo: Mental States" at the New Museum in February 2011. Born in rural New England in 1957, George Condo was drawn to New York City at a young age, gravitating naturally to the East Village circle of artists that included William Burroughs, Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and spending time as a printer in Andy Warhol's Factory. Today Condo is renowned for his fine skill in handling paint like an Old Master with a focus on fantastical portraiture; he is also an accomplished sculptor. 

George Condo talks about his vision: "There was a time when I realized that the central focal point of portraiture did not have to be representational in any way. You don't need to paint the body to show the truth about a character. All you need is the head and the hands." The artist lives in an Upper East Side townhouse with wife, Anna, and daughters, Eleonore and Raphaelle, and travels seven blocks to paint in another UES townhouse which serves as his studio. I love the ways in which Condo's work touches popular culture: his paintings which serve as cover art for Kanye West’s album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and his partnership with Supreme to create a line of skateboard decks, to name just two examples.

"Abstract Conversations," George Condo (2012)
W, January 2013, "Art Meets Fashion" issue
Stylist: Felicia Garcia-Rivera; Model: Jessica Chastain; Photographer: Max Vadukul 

George Condo was one of the four artists chosen by W Magazine to render Jessica Chastain for the covers of their "Art Meets Fashion" issue in January 2013. I love Condo's vision for the work so much that I have copied it here in its entirety: "'I love the idea of two incompatible worlds brought together — opposing forces harmonically melded.' When he met Chastain, his plan was to create two artworks — and cast her not as their subject but as a character in them. 'I wanted Jessica to become part of the painting and then appear to come off it, as if she were breaking free and leaving behind an empty space… I liked that the paintings were 3-D.' To achieve that effect, Condo designed two simple canvas dresses for Chastain, taping them to the canvas and painting over them so that when they were removed, they would leave a blank space but appear to be a fragment of the piece. Standing in front of Condo's Abstract Conversations, 2012, with her red hair teased to eternity, Chastain blended into the cacophony of line and color, a member of the loopy crew. As Condo studied Chastain posing next to the other figures in the work, he began drawing a cluster of noisy characters close to her head to give the impression 'that they were yelling into her ear.' While Chastain was having white makeup applied to half her face, Condo grabbed a scrap of paper and created an eye for her to use as a prop. 'I thought if she just held it in front of her, it would give a real sort of Stanley Kubrick feel to the experience.' The result, of course, is suitably schizoid, just as Condo envisioned. 'With that popped-out eye, there are two different sides to her face: one hysterical and the other soulful… Multiple emotions at the same time.'”

View the creation of the cover by George Condo and Jessica Chastain for W

The exhibit that attracted the attention of Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, RETNA, and many other discerning art lovers was George Condo: Mental States, a survey of the work of the artist from 1982 to 2011. With 125 color photographs of Condo's work plus 16 additional plates exclusive to the exhibit, the catalog makes a fine consolation for anyone that missed the show.

View the exhibit "George Condo: Mental States" at the New Museum

George Condo, "The Manhattan Strip Club" (2010) recently sold at Christie's for $1.3 million.

George Condo photograph © 1989 Marianne Haas."George Condo: Mental States" poster courtesy of newmuseum.org. W cover image by George Condo © 2013 Condé Nast. George Condo work © George Condo and courtesy of Christie's.

Martin Scorsese

“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.”

— Martin Scorsese

Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld has let it be known in interviews that Martin Scorsese is one of his favorite directors. Widely considered one of the greatest American filmmakers of his time, Scorsese grew up in New York City and his parents made their living in the Garment District. When one thinks of NYC and movies, the next thought is Martin Scorsese (well it’s mine at least). Who knows, maybe one of the reasons Vlad currently resides in Manhattan is due to Scorsese’s many NYC-centered films. Vladimir seems to fit right into the Big Apple and with his art exhibits and ties to the fashion world I wouldn’t be surprised if he and Marty attended many of the same parties.

Currently Scorsese is working on yet another film that takes place in New York, The Wolf of Wall Street. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and sounds a bit like an update of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. Here is a photo of Leo looking very dapper on the set of The Wolf of Wall Street (perhaps taking a fashion cue from Vladimir in the double-breasted suit?).

While it is true that many of Scorsese’s best pictures take place in New York — Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Mean Streets — surprisingly the only movie for which he has won the Academy Award for Best Director was filmed in my backyard, The Departed. On a side note, one can’t but wonder if the director Fabien Constant utilized any of Scorsese’s techniques when filming his Carine Roitfeld documentary, Mademoiselle C.; Scorsese did direct the famous The Last Waltz and films in a documentary style. There is no question, Marty assuredly knows what’s in the frame and what’s out...

Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon on location for The Departed (2006)Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro filming Raging Bull (1980)Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro on the set of Taxi Driver (1976)Martin Scorsese and the cast of Mean Streets (1973)

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio photographs courtesy of interviewmagazine.com, reelists.com, and flicksandbits.com.

BLK DNM Blazer 15

Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld has inherited his mother's eye for quality clothing that defies the passing of trends, pictured below wearing Blazer 15 from BLK DNM at their flagship store at 237 Lafayette Street in New York. BLK DNM by Johan Lindeberg rejects the typical tenets of the fashion world, choosing to focus on a few timeless basics rather than doggedly following the changing seasons of fashion. Centered primarily around denim in black, white, grey, or blue, this androgynous line is noted for its minimalism and its anonymity — the emphasis is on the person, not the garment or the label. Prior to launching BLK DNM, Lindeberg worked with Diesel and William Rast in addition to his own label, J. Lindeberg.

Vladimir's choice, Blazer 15, is a six-button double-breasted jacket created in Croatia using two-ply Italian wool in charcoal grey for the outer layer and Bemberg cotton for the inner lining. The meticulous attention to detail can be seen in the cut, the stitching, and the small touches such as the six corozo buttons and the functioning cuffs. Not everyone can work this six-button look but thankfully Vlad has the torso to carry the jacket with ease. Now I would like to see him in one of BLK DNM's custom leather jackets tailored to that torso...

Read the Nowness interview with Johan Lindeberg to learn more about BLK DNM.

Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld and BLK DNM photographs courtesy of blkdnm.com and nytimes.com

Rei Kawakubo

If clothes make the man, then what are the sartorial choices of a handsome, young, New York-based gallerist with one foot in the world of fashion and the other in the world of modern art? Let's consult the opinion of Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld on the matter. Vladimir is a man who smartly recognizes the long love affair that exists between the worlds of art and fashion and he has deftly secured sponsorship from luxury fashion labels for his free-spirited brand of art promotion in which museum-style art exhibitions pop up in industrial spaces around the globe. Most recently sponsorship has come from Giorgio Armani for a global tour of the famed 1980s street artist, Richard Hambleton.

Vladimir wears primarily black, chic, minimalist, fitted, high quality staples. Think Hedi Slimane for Dior black jeans and American Apparel tshirts for day, Armani suits and Martin Margiela coats for night. Like his mother, Carine Roitfeld, whose personal style reflects a brilliant twist of two extremes, the bourgeois and the provocative, Vladimir likes to wear classic clothes with an edgy twist. This would explain his penchant for the designer, Rei Kawakubo. It all makes perfect sense. Rei Kawakubo established the fashion label Comme des Garçons (or “like the boys” in English) in 1973 in Tokyo, starting with womenswear and then adding a menswear line in 1978. Her designs first enjoyed a surge in popularity in the 1980s. With her strong, austere silhouettes, dark color palette, asymmetry, and frayed, unfinished edges, Rei Kawakubo became recognized for challenging established notions of beauty. The Barneys woman had been deconstructed… and she liked it.

The Comme des Garçons success has grown steadily ever since. Much of Rei Kawakubo’s work has been described as avant-garde, and upon viewing many of her collections — most notably her notorious 1997 “Lumps & Bumps,” in which swollen goosedown-filled Quasimodo-like bumps distorted the body shape and shocked even the most jaded fashion mavens — no one would disagree. In fact, we could describe Rei Kawakubo’s work as the bleeding edge of avant-garde, at times, and no one would disagree.

However, Rei Kawakubo also designs more commercial garments, not exactly mainstream, but commercial. And while Vladimir will probably never don a Quasimodo jacket, we can expect to see him in a more subtly edgy Comme des Garçons piece, including many of the garments shown on the runway for Spring 2012. The menswear theme for Spring is “tailoring for punks.” Sharp tailoring, classic houndstooth, and Prince of Wales check is rendered punk with biker zips and slashes. The collection is conceptual and idiosyncratic with subtle, unexpected touches to suit a nonconformist gallerist with a penchant for modern art.

Rei Kawakubo photographs courtesy of Flickr, Tumblr, Comme des Garçons, and Opening Ceremony. All Rights Reserved.

Meryl Streep

In the October 2010 issue of the Italian version of Style, we learned that Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld’s ideal leading lady is none other than American film royalty, Meryl Streep. Hardly surprising, as Vladimir is a man of taste... which of course runs in the family... Carine Roitfeld chose to feature Streep on two of three covers for Vogue Paris in May of 2010. Streep has been widely acclaimed as both a critically and a commercially successful actress for the duration of her career which spans more than three decades. Her greatest distinction is that of the most nominated actress in the history of both the Golden Globe and the Oscar awards.

Mary Louise (Meryl) Streep was a Vassar undergraduate and holds a Masters in Fine Arts from Yale. According to SimplyStreep.com, this German beauty is also fluent in Italian — enough to retort when Dino De Laurentiis complained in Italian about her looks during the auditioning for King Kong. I wish I’d been a fly on that wall...

She rose immediately from stage and television to a part in Julia in 1977. It was said everyone thought she was a great actress from the beginning, but her emotional range is hardly any wonder given what the young Meryl went through. Her fiancé, John Cazale, was dying from bone cancer during their filming of The Deer Hunter. They took their parts in the film to be close to each other in his last days. They filmed all his scenes first, and he would not live to see the finished film.

Streep won Oscars for Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie's Choice, of course, as well as a slew of other awards. Her other well-regarded titles include Silkwood, The House of the Spirits, The Bridges of Madison County, Music of the Heart, and the musical hit, Mamma Mia! And who can forget A Cry in the Dark? (You may want to. Let‘s try.)

Then there’s Julie & Julia, which I could watch again and again. In fact, I do. A friend of mine was recently in Paris and she found herself standing in front of the same peeling blue shutters she had seen in the movie — a famous book store in which Meryl’s Julia Child goes rummaging for a French cookbook in English, only to find one does not yet exist. Meryl is spot on as Julia, no question, but it is Amy Adams’ adorable Julie that makes me want to throw dinner parties and tackle an aspic (ewww). You will be hard pressed to come away from Julie & Julia without wanting to pick a passion and blog about it in hopes of getting a book deal.

Most recently I wanted to be Meryl’s affair-having, weed-smoking, pastry-chefing character in It's Complicated. She’s the best woman-with-her-act-together to aspire to since Diane Keaton’s character in Something’s Gotta Give. After viewing It’s Complicated, I immediately made my own croque monsieur dripping with Gruyere and went on a late night quest for lavender ice cream. Unlike many of her early films, my quest ended well.

Speaking of which, sadly I feel the ending to Adaptation was a travesty. In fact, the only salvageable part of the film in my opinion was Chris Cooper’s character and Meryl’s partial narration. Her voice so beautifully depicts the verbally sensuous book that the movie was loosely based on, The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession. I’m not going to recommend the movie, but rather the non-fiction book that inspired it.

Other than that, Meryl Streep is usually very selective about her scripts. I’ll admit to guilty pleasure in The Devil Wears Prada, and the largely forgotten Postcards from the Edge, based on Carrie Fisher’s book, but my personal favorites from the past are her exceptional romantic period dramas, Out of Africa and The French Lieutenant's Woman.

Out of Africa is based on the 1937 autobiography of classic authoress and coffee planter, Isak Dineson (a nomme de plume), starring 1970s alpha male Robert Redford and featuring an appearance by model Iman. The tale relates an old woman’s memories of an illicit love affair. She was a young wealthy woman married to a total slacker. Naturally, she falls for a real hero and adventurer (and big game hunter, but we'll ignore that because he's dashing and handsome). Incidentally, if you’re anything like me, you put on majestic film scores before settling on the couch for a nap, and the soundtrack to Out Of Africa is ranked 15th in the American Film Institute's top twenty-five. Out of Africa won seven Oscars and was nominated for four more! Wins included writing, art direction, and cinematography. This makes me want to see it again and soon.

The French Lieutenant’s Woman was close behind with five Oscar wins. Meryl herself received a nod for Best Actress but who could compete with an ancient Kate Hepburn in On Golden Pond? The film is based on the eponymous novel by John Fowles. Set in the Victorian era, the novel only relates the story of one couple, but because of certain narration challenges, the screenwriter introduces a second, parallel story — that of actors staging the aforementioned Victorian romance, a device that was not original but worked to great effect. In this story, the actors’ lives do not imitate their art, however. The dual story is a chance to use alternate endings written by the original author. Meryl’s mysterious fallen woman creates an iconic image, standing on the wave-swept quay of the gloomy English seaside town that has ostracized her. This film makes me want to trot down to the dock wearing a hooded cloak... I’d give passing strangers my best haunting, heartbroken stare, only to magically disappear into thin air (if I could) and leave them wanting (and not a little freaked out).

That brings us to Meryl’s latest project... Everybody knows you can tell the quality of an actress by how ugly she’s willing to get. Let’s not miss the legendary Meryl Streep as none other than Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, to be released later this year. If you’d like to read more about the life of this talented star, check out The Kindle Book of Meryl Streep by Celebrity Books, or The Meryl Streep Handbook by Donna Beech. For a more in depth look at her early years, try The Meryl Streep Story by Nick Smurthwaite.

Meryl Streep photographs © 2010 Condé Nast and courtesy of suicideblonde.tumblr.com, thecomedyoferas.tumblr.com, kingtartous.com, tarotquest.wordpress.com, instyle.com, imstars.aufeminin.com, littlegoldenguy.com, dailymail.co.uk, listal.com, examiner.com, purepeople.com, nummynims.wordpress.com, fanpop.com, last.fm, julianstark-moviesandotherthings.blogspot.com, and smh.com.au