Lady GaGa finally goes a little gaga in Malta

La Toya Jackson can be forgiven for the dramatic face-shading fedora she wore to her brother's memorial. But overnight there has been some discussion of this press conference in Malta, to which Lady GaGa rocked up wearing what has been described by some as a "gimp" mask, a reference to the S&M subculture. Given that this video was published on the blog of the performer's stylist mate Nicola Formichetti, one assumes Formichetti shoulders some responsibility. The mask was authored by Paris-based designer Vilsbol de Arce - who accessorised one entire collection with similar headgear. But while it's not unheard of for a designer to mask models for a runway show (hello, Martin Margiela?) and might work in video vignettes, the practice does not seem terribly conducive to the concept of a press conference, the whole point of which is communication with your audience - as opposed to portraying yourself as Hannibal Lecter. While some ridicule Lady GaGa's idiosyncratic costume choices, frockwriter may have to agree with them for once. There is a fine line between flamboyance and freak show and on this occasion, Lady GaGa appears to have crossed it.

Blond ambition

the blonds/phillipe blond's myspace


Not that frockwriter existed when they first arrived on the New York fashion scene in 2007 - or Feb 2008, when they made their runway debut. But even in our former incarnation as Fully Chic, somehow the blonde-tastic, glitterrific, transgender duo Phillipe (left, above) and David Blond - aka The Blonds – escaped our attention. Moving forward, frockwriter predicts it’s going to be hard to miss them.

The high crystal-and-corset quotient of the duo's womenswear has, not surprisingly, already attracted the attention of a bevy of stage performers, including Madonna, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Shakira, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé (that’s their corset she’s wearing in the Uprade U clip below).


pamela anderson opens the blonds show @ life ball/reuters

Last weekend in Vienna, The Blonds took centre stage at Europe’s biggest, and most spectactular, AIDS fundraiser - the 17th annual Life Ball - with a fashion show that was attended by Bill Clinton, opened by Pamela Anderson and closed by Phillipe Blond. The latter stage moment prompted one reveller to note, “Now THIS is how America shocks!”


the blonds @ life ball/getty images via daylife

Given that Donatella Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Roberto Cavalli, Gianfranco Ferré, Missoni, Moschino and Agent Provocateur have previously staged the event’s opening fashion show, it’s a fairly prestigious spot.


scott ewait

According to this bio, Puerto Rican native Phillipe Blond studied at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, before working as an illustrator.

David Blond, nee Trujillo, hails from Key West, Florida and studied fashion merchandising at Miami’s Institute of Fashion Arts, before spending a decade in visual merchandising working for Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s.

Think Jean Paul Gaultier and Donatella Versace collaborating on the one design team - with a little Thierry Mugler, Bob Mackie, Gloria Estefan and Sarah-Jessica Parker thrown in for good measure.

Frockwriter has six things to say.

Firstly, wow!

Secondly, Mardi Gras here they come.

Côte d'Aszur: Backstage @ Sid's Waltzing Masquerade

The world premier season of the Sydney Dance Company’s new work, Sid’s Waltzing Masquerade, wrapped last night in Sydney. The show, which was choreographed by Canadian Aszure Barton, with costumes by Australian fashion and jewellery designer Michelle Jank, will run next at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre from November 5-15. After that, the SDC hopes the show will tour internationally.

I had a ‘Fashion Scoop’ on the Barton/Jank collaboration in WWD on October 10th, which revealed that not only did Barton choose Jank out of a field of five costume/fashion names suggested to her – including Josh Goot – but that Barton and Jank hit it off so well they are now cooking up future collabs.

Given Barton’s connections, these projects could prove very interesting for Jank.

Barton's other works include a Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera starring Alan Cumming, Jim Dale and Cyndi Lauper and an excerpt of Salome, which starred Al Pacino, Kevin Anderson and Jessica Chastain.

Barton is currently artist-in-residence at New York’s Baryshnikov Performing Arts Center (a venue frockwriter knows well – having once in fact, in a different incarnation, blogged from it).


aszure barton (L) and michelle jank

Sid’s Waltzing Masquerade is short (60 minutes), sharp and very entertaining. It came as no surprise to hear Barton being thanked at the after-show speeches on opening night for having “brought humour back” to the company.

With artistic directors Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon departing the company last year after 30 years at its helm, and their incoming replacement Tania Liedtke tragically killed in a traffic accident just three months into her tenure, the company obviously needed a good laugh.

Among other amusing scenes, dancers occasionally give ‘the finger’, with one male dancer even making the universal, hand-shaking “wanker” gesture.

By all accounts this was quite unfamiliar territory for the SDC dancers, at least in the choreographic sense - Barton told me it took some time persuading them to drop the decorum.

The costumes are quite beautiful and frockwriter can’t help thinking their influence may spread further afield than the dance theatre.

There are over 60 costumes, with the female dancers each having numerous changes throughout the production.

Inspired by Russian folk dolls, Jank created a ‘layered’ look which was based on little sculpted Powernet bodysuits, over which elastic ‘harnesses’ were attached, some with silk georgette ruffles on the shoulders and hips, as well as diaphanous silk gazar skirts. The men wear simple black and white suits.

For the ballroom scene finale, Jank wanted to create a series of full-skirted ballgowns inspired by the great couturiers of the 1950s, notably Christian Dior.

After running out of funds, Sydney cashmere label To Sir With Love came up with $10,000.

Jank used her couture-specialist dressmaker from Perth, who once worked in fact at the Christian Dior haute couture atelier in Paris according to Jank.

The production represents Jank’s first dance collaboration – and in fact Barton’s first collaboration with a fashion designer. At the dress rehearsal Jank did express some surprise that, unlike the sponsor-drenched field of sport, and even fashion – in which it’s relatively easy for even up-and-coming designers to secure sponsorship money to blow on a once-off Australian Fashion Week show - Australia’s leading contemporary dance company doesn’t have much money.

“I like the relationship that you get with the dancers” Jank told me during one of the dress rehearsals. ”You’re working really one on one with them and it’s a beautiful process getting to know someone and then tailor-making it to make them feel nice. It’s like couture I suppose, making something that’s especially for their body. It’s been lovely working with Aszure, who’s uncannily like my sister in a way".

She added, “You can create some sort of a painting on stage which I find really interesting - creating the dynamic of fabric in movement, or fighting against movement. You are working in a palette that is like a painting and creating an extension of a feeling that she’s working on. She’s very inspiring to work with”.

Noted Barton, of Jank:

“Right away it was a connection, it was a sensibility. And I loved her heart. Since 2002 I’ve worked with different people (on costumes). But never with a fashion designer. And I love it. I’ve seen a lot of work with fashion designers that I’m not that fond of, so this is a really amazing connection”.

Here's the official trailer in which you can see the dancers – and costumes – in action (click here for the higher res option):