Surf season’s up and for fashion aficionados, it not only means matching your board and rash guard but also a really special designer board. In fact, Chanel just took a little cruise to set up a surf shop at Sunset Beach in Long Island over the weekend. With chic surfboards and even chicer swimsuits, who would ever want summer to end? So we took a trip down memory lane to find other luxury labels that have released their own surfboards. Several of these are in fact limited-edition boards more but a few can be picked up right from the brand (including the Chanel option).
While most surfers prefer a colorful board, when it comes to Chanel the surfboard is black and white classy. It’s almost too pretty to ever use and instead makes better wall art.
A true collector’s edition, this board comes in a limited run of 50, each signed and numbered by Sir Paul Smith himself. The owner’s initials may be set into the deck as well.
HERMÈS
$10,170, available per request.
The ultimate prize for a surf lover is this Hermès board that is basically a foulard print aboard. Covered in printed tropical animals and plants, this board also came with a signature scent infused into the wax for the board.
SAINT LAURENT
$8,920, available as a special order at the Rive Droite boutique.
You’re lucky to score a Saint Laurent board as both were part of limited-edition collaborations, but the “Baby” longboard is still available online. These boards from the French house are like Jane Birkin — super sexy and sure to make a statement at the beach.
During the men’s Spring/Summer 2018 show, Louis Vuitton debuted a malibu surfboard. With a touch of Pop art, the board transports one to the beaches of California catching the loveliest long waves.
These might not be available for surfing, but they’re very chic marble print boards created for summer installations in New York and Tokyo in 2019. Each piece is supposed to be accepted as a piece of art, which it is, rather than just a high-end surfboard.
The latest Fendi video campaign for its Fall/Winter 2019 collection experiments with quick cuts, sharply blending futurism with the classic. This theme was emphasized in the collection as a whole since creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi collaborated with the late Karl Lagerfeld on a selection of pieces to honor their lifelong creative relationship.
The garments are focused around classic muted tones such as black, beige and brown; yet add accents of red and electric blue. Keeping with the classic and futuristic motif, the Fendi logo for this collection has been updated to the ‘Karligraphy’ FF logo. Shot in Rome by Giulio Tami, under the direction of Fendi as well as the artistic direction of Nico Vascellari, the accompanying campaign video is a composition of dynamic shapes and formats new ways to show off the pieces and honor the Italian brand’s history. Watch the video below.
Ever since the passing of the seminal designer renowned for his work at Chanel, Fendi, and his own namesake label Karl Lagerfeld, the first event honoring the legend, “Karl For Ever,” will be held at Le Grand Palais during Paris Fashion Week.
The event will host an intimate 2500-strong crowd of invite-only guests who will watch video montages around the venue. The tribute will also include dancers, musicians, and other performers directed by Canadian opera director Robert Carsen. Lagerfeld himself hated the idea of funerals, and so a lively celebration of his life is to be in place. The location at one of Paris’ luxe palaces is also a nod at the seasonal shows that Chanel, with Lagerfeld at the creative helm, hosted and continues to host there every fashion week.
After weeks of teasing the collaboration and following his runway appearance at the label’s Pre-Fall ’19 show in December, Pharrell and Chanel have finally revealed their upcoming capsule collection. Fittingly called “Chanel Pharrell,” the unisex collection features a bright assortment of vividly colored and embellished pieces, including updated iterations of the French house’s eminent logo and other graphic prints. In a video about the collaboration, Pharrell how gender fluidity informed the direction of the collection and the timely balance of streetwear with high fashion.
Chanel Pharrell will be available in select Chanel stores on April 4th. Learn more about how it came to be in the video below.
After weeks of mystery, Glossier introduced its newest product line with Glossier Play. The latest offering from the cult beauty giant is color cosmetics, highlighted by a prismatic campaign shot by Charlotte Wales and starring queer pop singer Troye Sivan. Last year, Sivan (who’s currently on a global tour in support of his latest album, 2018’s widely acclaimed Bloom) was cast in a major Valentino campaign, but this marks the first time the singer has been featured in a beauty campaign. The image series also stars dancer Donté Colley, who’s amassed a large and loyal following for the motivational dances he posts on Instagram. While Glossier has yet to launch an official grooming line (hims is a good alternate and Chanel recently launched its first cosmetics range for men so there are options), this newest campaign continues the conversation for the ever-growing Boy Beauty movement.
Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most notable and influential fashion figures of all time, has died at 85 in Paris.
The German designer became Chanel‘s creative director in 1983 and helped reinvent the French fashion house by reinterpreting its classic silhouettes for the modern woman. He continued to establish the label as an industry juggernaut by designing 6 collections a year and orchestrating elaborate runway shows, including having models walk around an iceberg for Fall/Winter ’10 and transforming Paris’ Grand Palais into a Chanel-branded supermarket for Fall/Winter ’14. Additionally, he oversaw creative direction at Fendi and his own namesake label which launched in 2012. Beyond his creative output at two of the biggest fashion entities, Lagerfeld was also a beloved cult mascot of the industry, almost always seen with his signature oversized black sunglasses, white ponytail, and black suit.
Lagerfeld remains a true innovator and his legacy will continue to infiltrate the world of design for generations to come. The industry mourns the loss of a tremendous talent.
Shot by Cyrill Matter and styled by Philipp Junker for our Summer 2018 issue.
On December 2nd, Versace will be host its first Pre-Fall show as part of New York’s inaugural December fashion week. This is a first-of-its-kind for the label (which was recently bought by Michael Kors), but the show also holds special significance because it will fall on what would have been the 71st birthday of the late Gianni Versace. Further details of the collection and show have yet to be disclosed but we can expect to hear and see more coming soon.
The roster for the December event is stacking up quite well so far, with powerhouses like Chanel reportedly scheduled to show on Decembert 4th at Métiers d’Art collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Other designers traveling to show include Valentino and Dior, which is also debuting its first pre-fall show, who will stage shows in Tokyo in November.
PARS UNUM debuted its FW18 lookbook with New York style icon Luka Sabbat. The accessory collection features five minimal genderless bags in white and black. Handcrafted in Italy, each bag is made with premium grade lambskin.The co-founders, Jimmy Rau and Fabiola Pedrazzini, come from extensive backgrounds in graphic and experiential design as well as accessories design and production for Chanel and Louis Vuitton, respectively.
This collection uses inspiration from retro Prada sportswear and Helmut Lang‘s original collections to reference that unavoidably on-trend 90’s minimalism. For PARS UNUM, they strive to pay homage to the foundation that came before them while still pushing the classic forward.
The bags range from $650-850 and are avaliable online.
Orlebar Brown, British swimwear label known for its sophisticated thematic collections, has been acquired by Chanel. It’s another somewhat unexpected move (see also Michael Kors buying Versace earlier this week) since Brown is an e-commerce heavy brand while Chanel remains committed to retail offline, but one that will likely benefit both parties. Orlebar Brown launched in 2007 and quickly expanded into a full ready-to-wear line by 2010 — while popular in the UK, this new partnership will aid the label’s plan to expand internationally. Let’s see how it goes.
The most shocking thing about Prince’s 1991 VMA performance wasn’t the gyrating half-naked dancers or the sexually explicit lyrics of his single “Gett Off.” Two minutes into the six minute long performance, Prince turned around, and every household tuned to MTV got a view of Prince’s ass. His skin tight yellow jumpsuit stopped short just above his waist, covering Prince’s assets in nothing but nude-colored lace. It remains one of his most remembered and cheekiest ensembles. The journey from the scantily clad street-punk, immortalized on the record sleeve of Dirty Mind, to the violet-hued regalia of the King-cum-Rockstar of Purple Rain, to the gender-ambiguous sexual preacher of the early 90s tracked Prince’s evolution from prodigious funkmaster to innovative pop alchemist.
“Style is an accurate account of what’s inside every heart,” Prince sang on his 1996 album Emancipation. Like Little Richard and James Brown before him, Prince’s creativity extended to his wardrobe, but his style truly had no precedent: his fearless embrace of femininity revealed an artist unafraid to make his body a temple to the androgynous. In his world, clothing was the outer expression of the heart, mind and soul— places where sexuality and spirituality fused together. And although he’s most remembered for the Renaissance-punk looks of his tour de force Purple Rain, Prince continued to push the limits of “men’s” wear throughout the 80s, as he transformed his unique blend of R&B into a mingling of funk, jazz, and psychedelia. Prince’s clothes said a lot about the man behind the music, and the looks from his albums Parade, Sign o’ The Times, and Lovesexy, and the ones seen in the accompanying music videos, show us an artist constantly pushing the boundaries of gender, genre and style.
The soundtrack to the forgotten star-vehicle Under The Cherry Moon, 1986’s Parade is Prince’s final record with his former band The Revolution and the first to find him becoming truly experimental in form and ambition. Shedding the Baroque looks of Purple Rain and Around the World In A Day, Prince strutted out in tightly fitted lycra pants and crop tops, adorned with large buttons, making his lean torso the center of attention. His color palette incorporated new shades of bold primary colors other than purple, such as indigo, lemon and tangerine. Crop tops were contrasted with an original twist on a classic suit design: a tightly hemmed waist, broad shouldered blazers and swathes of bright colors. Paisley, polka dots and metal studs make appearances on his jackets, vests and blouses, although solid colors are Prince’s primary way to accentuate his petite frame.
In response to criticism that he’d abandoned his black audiences, Prince crafted the expansive Sign O’ The Times, an “urban” funk record stacked side to side with sensual slow jams and political-spiritual sermons. Prince channeled Jimi Hendrix and the aesthetics of the late ‘60s for this era: shaggy fur coats, denim jackets with ironed-on peace sign patches, and fringe-lined bell bottoms. High-necked blouses with pussycat bows were paired with leather jackets, mod-esque suits and an array of chunky, gaudy necklaces. The pussy bow, though originally a staple of 60s runway looks from Saint Laurent and Chanel, had become closely associated with conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher during the 80s. One has to imagine the First Lady was paying homage to the Iron Lady and not to Prince when she donned one earlier this year, although there’s no contest as to who wore it with more flair.
A fusion of the looks from his previous eras, Lovesexy is Prince at his most flamboyant, with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Waistlines got higher, jumpsuits got tighter, and jackets got larger. Most of Prince’s clothing was custom made, and the accompanying tour was a showcase for his constant creative impulse. He had costume designer Helen Hiatt emblazon his clothes with various letters and phrases. The album itself was an exercise in impulsive indulgence in which Prince funkily expressed a non interest in the confines of the gender binary. He was naked and posed like one of Botticelli’s angels on the cover, and Prince extended this ambiguity towards the era’s flashy suits and suggestively tailored rompers. Polka dots became the prominent motif of these looks, appearing on just about every article of clothing. Between his clothes, pillowy long hair and copious use of mascara and blush, Prince was embodying his own gospel as sung on the album: “It’s time for new education/former rules don’t apply.”
Prince’s mainstream success hit a snag after the less-than-stellar sales of Lovesexy, and he wouldn’t return to the pop charts until Diamonds & Pearls three years later. But, by the time he’d appeared on stage at the 1991 VMAs, Prince had challenged the structures of fashion in pop with a kind of forward-looking vision matched only, perhaps, by David Bowie. Over the course of the 90s, even as his music became increasingly less pop and his image decreasingly palatable, his status as a style icon had been firmly cemented. The kind of gender-defying aesthetics we take for granted in contemporary pop, from Young Thug’s dresses to Harry Styles’s glam-rock jumpsuits, were all made possible by Prince’s revolutionary norm-defying style. Prince asked us to look inside our heart, and dress the part. As far as men’s style in pop goes, his rules are the ones to break.
Be sure to check out the limited-edition Prince merch, available online now until December 3rd.
This week’s complete social snapshot, distilled for your pleasure.
From the hottest celebrity parties to the regretful morning-after shots, ESSENTIAL HOMME‘s Weekly Instagram Roundup brings all of the hottest designer, model, and trendsetting pics from the week directly to you. After all, no one has time to scroll through anything but the best.
Chanel
Karl Lagerfeld continued Chanel‘s tradition of honoring the house’s partners with its 13th Metiers d’Art in Paris. Pharrell Williams, the new co-owner G-Star RAW, himself sat in attendance, outfitted in Chanel’s signature tweed jacket and pearls and acting as a surprise celebrity guest model alongside Lily-Rose Depp, who opened the show.
Art Basel Miami Beach
The art world elite flocked to Miami this week for a look at some of the most groundbreaking and envelope-pushing exhibits that marble, acrylic, and everything but the kitchen sink could cook up. Art Basel Miami Beach defied the conventional and, once again, proved why visual art forms are so important, now more than ever.
Baja East
Baja East jumped across the pond for this year’s Fashion Awards (dropping the “British” moniker for a sleeker, all-inclusive rebranding), bringing a relaxed New York vibe to grace Royal Albert Hall. Of course, the army of Baja East Baes arrived in droves, everyone from Joan Smalls to Winnie Harlow wrapped head to toe in the brand’s designs.
Tommy Hilfiger
American-made designer Tommy Hilfiger highlighted his contribution to this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show—outfitting performer Bruno Mars in a custom-tailored suit to walk the Parisian runway alongside the brand’s glamazon models, including Bella Hadid and Alessandra Ambrosio.
Moncler
Fresh off Moncler‘s recent collaboration with Virgil Abloh, the iconic jacket brand is descending upon New York with its new Madison Avenue location. To celebrate, various stars, including Travis Scott and Giovanna Battaglia, have visualized their love for the Big Apple by shooting images wearing the brand’s limited edition, Thom Browne-designed jacket.
