Epic Fashion Life – Daphne Guinness

It didn’t start with the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the Met. Nor did it start with the recent Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Nan Kemper, or even Princess Diana exhibits that have toured wholesale wedding dresses the world. But the public’s recent fascination and thirst for big museum-scale fashion exhibitions seems to be at a fever pitch, especially given the monstrous success of the McQueen exhibit.

So it is not particularly surprising that one of, if not the most, talked about women in fashion, Daphne Guinness, is about to launch an exclusive look into her epic collection with an exhibit at F.I.T. in New York. While the exhibit has been in the works for quite some time, the frenzy of the McQueen exhibit coupled with her own personal McQueen connection and recent fashion endeavors could propel her into a fashion superstar stratosphere the likes of which have never been seen before.  Could Ms. Guinness become the dropship wedding dresses most iconic and important figure in fashion to have ever walked in gothic stiletto’s? Is she already?

But what I find intriguing about this story, more so than her collection of incredible haute-couture, is the relationships Ms. Guinness has developed and lost, and the isolation that must accompany this sort of fame and iconic status. Its no secret that with Alexander McQueen’s still relatively recent suicide, Ms. Guinness has now lost two of those with whom she closely shared her world. The first of course being Isabella Blow, the famed British stylist and muse, who took her own life just a few years ago. Ms. Guinness quite famously “rescued” Isabella’s collection prior to its dismantling and auction at Chrisitie’s last year. (Daphne wrote an incredibly moving piece in the Financial Times about her decision to buy Isabella Blow’s complete collection; which is a must read.)

Ms. Guinness seems to be in unique position to tell a story and educate on the toll of the success and fame, the stress and frustration, and the often times clear pain of those living and creating in the fashion and art worlds. What could she shed on the light, notoriety, sell wedding dresses and scrutiny that the public and press inflict on a select few, while others struggle to gain that same light, notoriety, and scrutiny? What would she say she’s learned from, and what would she want to teach, as a result of her journey and fame?

While I’m as excited as the next lover of art and fashion to see the F.I.T. exhibit, I’m more intrigued to learn her thoughts and lessons on a life that’s been lived such as hers.

There’s A Fashion Camp In New York For Teens

In case you were curious about what people with a lot of extra money are doing with their kids over the summer, a recent article in the New York Times profiled Fashion Camp NYC. It’s exactly what it sell wedding dresses sounds like — an expensive “camp” for young girls who want to go into the fashion industry. The campers design their own brands, go to Barneys and Saks to conduct “market research,” and listen to lectures from editors and stylists.

The article portrays the girls as young women who love clothes and shopping, have been blessed with parents who have the money to indulge those kinds of interests, and have been led to believe that all you have to do is want something badly enough and it will materialize.

In other words, it’s “The Hills.”

Anyway, far be it for me to begrudge teenagers the opportunity to do what they love. But the idea that this camp seems to foster is that fashion is about finding a picture of a celebrity and being able to identify the feeling of liking what she’s wearing…

    “Do you think that we need to come up with a cohesive, like, color palette?” asked Sara Mullally, 16, dropship wedding dresses trying to sound diplomatic. She was seated with nine other girls at a rectangular lunchroom table, all rapaciously searching fashion magazines — Vogue, InStyle, Elle, Lucky — for images to represent the line of evening wear they were dreaming up…

    Consensus of any kind seemed elusive, wholesale wedding dresses until one girl held up a print ad featuring a glammed-out Dakota Fanning.

    “Oh, my gosh, totally,” Sara said.

    “Go ahead,” another camper said. “She’s our girl.”

…and I think a career in fashion might depend on more than that.