Chado Ralph Rucci: Renaissance Man
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Image courtesy of Chado Ralph Rucci. Photographer: Dan Lecca.
Last night St. Louis, MO was graced with an unusual occurrence: a famed fashion designer, Ralph Rucci, gave a lecture at (admittedly a top ten school) Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. To say I was blown away would be an understatement.
On a side note, this is the second post in about two weeks that talks about fashion being on campuses (see post on L.L. Bean’s Signature Line), so there’s a movement to take note of.
But really my reaction came more from the individual himself than of a fashion icon making his way to St. Louis, the center of at least as far as typical New Yorker’s are concerned, the middle of nowhere. That in and of itself shows Ralph Rucci knows more than just how to cut a fine cloth.
The lecture at times ran intense because he covered more than just how he designed clothing which is probably even to students of fashion a sometimes too complicated topic to fully cover in just a few hours but he managed to give us a pretty good run through of what all was involved. Besides now having a new appreciation for his particular form of art, he being the only American to show in Paris as Haute Couture, he is a man who has bucked the system of the fashion industry, at least in the United States, and made it anyway.
Rucci has his own production facilities in the United States, for one. Secondly he has found other means of embellishing his garments besides Lesage who has grown too expensive for most to be able to afford, even at couture levels, and now he has a groundswell of support for his particular form of design, who he loves and caters to as lovingly as his couture clientele, one of whom is rocker & trendsetter, Patti Smith.
Rucci makes Vogue patterns with a whole online audience that clamors for them and has gone so far as to help them figure out how to make some of his more complicated pieces and now in order to further support that groundswell he will be introducing a line of goods he plans to sell through HSN, not in a limited edition but in a few collections a year. This too takes my breath away not because he has created an alliance with HSN, but because (while less expensive than his regular line of clothing, these will not be H&M or Target goods, they’ll still be much higher priced than the designer duds you find at these outlets now) he’s managed to get around the establishment once again by going straight to his customer and who loves, loves, loves him for it. What else really counts?
There was a woman who brought a full page print-out of a dress from his last collection, telling him how that dress moved her so much that it brought her to tears and she wanted to know if ever he was going to make things that the average woman who had a working life could afford (which launched into the discussion of HSN).
He went on to discuss how the fashion industry itself has all but disappeared from the United States and the dilemmas that presents for anyone who has an interest in a future in the fashion industry. Should the schools train students for occupations such as patternmakers for an industry that is not there anymore (at least in the U.S.)? He didn’t answer that himself. My own opinion is that they should, that if he can run a production facility and manage it, then it is possible. And wanted, plus needed. When he said he’d be making the clothing for HSN at his own facility he received a hearty round of applause.
Cy Twombly Untitled 1970 (I see the connection from this to his feathered dress on the right above, perhaps?)
He named several artists he was inspired by to create his works, notably Cy Twombly. I could see some of that inspiraton in his work too but it was not a literal translation, which speaks to his abilities once again. And apparently he himself is creating not just clothing but also works of art, paintings, that he is actually selling while looking to a life beyond fashion.
There wasn’t much that wasn’t covered while the lecture was only a little over an hour….he discussed the publishing industry and the banality of design, models on the runway, bloggers, the red carpet….all the things that are driving most of us with a passion for design in any industry, not just fashion, crazy right now. Again, I was bowled over by how much he had taken in himself throughout his career, still accomplished and was yet still so humble about it all.
Renaissance man, indeed. He even gave a shout out to Cathy Horyn at the New York Times as well as former fashion designer turned blogger, Fluff Chance, editor of fashion blog The Emperor’s Old Clothes indicating how Fluff (although he didn’t refer to him by that name but by the cat that inspired the name) was writing from a voice with a designers frame of reference unlike the new sensation round of bloggers. Hmmm, he speaks my language too.
His book, Ralph Rucci: The Art of Weightlessness is available for sale (think ahead for Christmas coffee table books, this is a good one).
My sentiment on the Paris Runway Shows. Now over, it’s all such a blur.
No sooner said (my last blog post So Nu? referencing menswear for Fall 09, then here comes Karl Lagerfield with his Paris Haute Couture Spring 09 collection. (see 
Then an Honorable Mention goes to 
Then Voila! there’s December’s British Vogue titled Fantastic Fashion Fantasy with all kinds of my favorite things all wrapped up in one issue. “Through the generations there are visionaries who conjure fabulous creations that go beyond the boundaries of the imagination.” And this is an understatement. It was, in my estimation, British Vogue’s Christmas present to me. All for a mere $10.99. 
And if per chance you didn’t catch the issue, call them to get a copy (I know for my British friends, this is last year’s news and more than a few of you didn’t care for Kate Moss on the cover, again, but my love of this issue has to do with the typography as well as pulling some of the decade’s most creative fashions together in a crazy wonderful photo montage among other things). Besides creating these incredibly creative, and imaginative pages ( Unbelieveable Fashion, photographed by Nick Knight, above, Where the Wild Things Are photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, below), you can catch Nick Knight’s video of his shoot, Fantasia, at 
There’s more in there, much more….it was all just so delish I couldn’t help but give the issue some space on my blog. For someone like me who craves visual creativity, this has been my double chocolate mousse cheesecake with chocolate cookie crust and white chocolate and whipped creme on top (in case you are wondering, I had that too during my holidays….my holidays were great by the way, how were yours?).
As a final note, as if all of the above weren’t enough, Karl Lagerfield chimed in with Karl Lagerfield’s Secret Ball (above). I did not have to be at a glam mystery ball to get the best of what this might be about, Lagerfield’s paintings were enough for me!
The story is, they brought the pieces in originally for decoration in the store but had so many people asking about them they started selling them directly to people.
Found them on the internet and wanted to share. Their shapes, their colors, and their techniques all very unique and available (pricing is affordable….some of the four foot tall vases were only $400.00).
Patterns In Design, Art, and Architecture by Petra Schmidt (Editor), Annette Tietenberg (Editor), Ralf Wollheim (Editor).
Using examples of contemporary work by internationally renowned designers such as Tord Boontje, Michael Lin, Olaf Nicolai and Sauerbruch & Hutton, the diversity of colours, shapes and applications are laid out before the reader, illustrating the impact and influence of technical innovations such as laser engraving and digital milling on patterns and our perception of them.
Often humorous, very colorful, and rarely plain the movement may be showing signs of maturity but I think it’s always important to see where we’ve been to also know where we are going. Not to mention that the technology factor they bring out has been a tremendous feature to this movement and is probably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we will be able to accomplish as a consequenc of new technologies.
I don’t usually read InStyle any more, but the August issue held some unique tipping points, such as Rhianna’s tatoos which are some of the most alluring and well done I’ve seen to date. 
