Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 39 - Art/Fall 2023 i L'OFFICIEL USA

Since Grace Wales Bonner founded her eponymous fashion brand in 2014, the London native has taken ample opportunity to pay homage to the Black experience and advance ideas centered around the Afro-Atlantic spirit. The designer’s collections from seasons past have been shaped by her British and Jamaican heritage, featuring styles, prints, and colors that encourage cross-cultural conversations. Now, Wales Bonner is shifting her lens to the art world. She is the latest chosen curator for the Museum of Modern Art’s Artist’s Choice exhibition—a series that began in 1989, in which a contemporary artist draws from the museum’s collection to organize a special installation. Spirit Movers is a selection of approximately 50 works featuring Black cultural practices inspired by forms, experiences, and sounds from the African Diaspora. Wales Bonner continues the…

In a follow-up to his first monograph, More Rick Owens (Rizzoli) chronicles the designer’s more recent evolutions, beginning with his 1970s-inspired Fall/Winter 2019 collection, which paid tribute to fashion designer Larry Legaspi, who spearheaded the glam-rock style of the decade. From there, Owens’s success has only continued to grow, as he has found new ways to provoke the fashion world while also tapping into today’s youth culture. Interspersed with imagery from photographer Danielle Levitt, this physical looking glass into Owens’s mind explores his perspective on visual media. Ahead of the book’s launch, Owens spoke with L’OFFICIEL from the comfort of his Parisian apartment about his creative process and the legacy he’s created over nearly three decades. L’OFFICIEL: While you are working on the book, did you notice any changes in your…

Sofia Richie Grainge, celebrity offspring–turned-influencer, must have some magic in her. The preternaturally self-possessed 25-year-old has manifested the one thing in this world that seems almost impossible these days: a truly positive experience on social media. In 2023, going viral is something most people would like to avoid. But when Richie Grainge launched a TikTok account just days before her fairytale wedding to music executive Elliot Grainge in April, her videos blew up overnight, gaining her thousands upon thousands of new followers obsessed with her “quiet luxury” approach to style. “I’ve never expected to get any positive feedback from social media; my happiness doesn’t depend on social media feedback, and I feel like I protected my mental health in that way throughout the years of being in the spotlight,” she…

Maison Gainsbourg, the first cultural institution dedicated to Serge Gainsbourg, includes his legendary house at 5 bis rue de Verneuil in Paris, and nearby, at number 14, a museum, bookshop, and café-slash-piano bar. Serge Gainsbourg (born Lucien Ginsburg) lived in the house beginning in 1969. First with Jane Birkin for nearly 10 years, whom he met on the set of the film Slogan, and then with his partner Bambou. One might have seen some glimpses of the home in the pages of magazines, so we know the interior walls—black—the Steinway grand piano in the living room, the black and white floors, and the standout art pieces. To enter this home is like entering a sacred place. A visit to 5 bis rue de Verneuil is not accompanied by a guide,…

During its first decade as a publication, L’OFFICIEL transformed from a trade paper into the official voice of Parisian couture, largely thanks to the art directors who shaped the design of the print magazine. Of these early art directors, textile designer–turned–graphic artist Pierre-Armand Covillot was the most notable throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, creating iconic covers for each issue from 1928 onwards. Covillot’s style was distinctly Art Deco, and he frequently designed frames to surround the key visuals for the covers, tying fashion to the artistic movements that defined the era, and bringing a modern perspective to the magazine. In a 1929 L’OFFICIEL article, resident culture writer Roger Nalys linked the young age of Covillot with his “hopeful” and “progressive” work, which was echoed in this new age in design.…

After six years of focusing on his own Berlin-based ready-to-wear brand, Random Identities, celebrated designer Stefano Pilati is crossing party lines. In June, Pilati hinted at a return to luxury fashion by walking in Pharrell’s debut menswear collection for Louis Vuitton. As the latest “Friend of Fendi,” a series started by Fendi Artistic Director Kim Jones and Creative Director Silvia Venturini Fendi to break through brand barriers and collaborate with other notable designers, the Milan native reconnects with his Italian roots. Pilati’s collection for Fendi is redolent of youth and rebellion, and blurs gender and generational constructs. Hard textures meet softer silhouettes, while 1920s flapper–inspired, drop-waist dresses are reimagined for the contemporary woman. Created in tandem with Jones, the collection plays with Milano versus Roma styles, creating a fascinating dichotomy…

Since launching the collaborative Artycapucines project in 2019, Louis Vuitton has annually curated a handful of global artists to bring their unique creative inspiration to a reimagining of the House’s signature Capucines bags. This year’s visionaries include Malawian and South African textile artist Billie Zangewa, known for her tapestry collages, who brought a relaxed, aquatic scene to her Artycapucines landscape. Polish painter Ewa Juszkiewicz took a deconstructionist lens to her back-facing view on traditional portraiture. French artist duo Ida Tursic and Wilfried Mille—professionally known as Tursic & Mille—used reflections on painting and contemporary life to create an open-ended, emotive scene for their project. American artist Liza Lou, best known for her large-scale glass beaded sculptures, devised a pastel, color-washed effect for her hand-beaded accessory. Finally, Chinese artist Ziping Wang incorporated…