Luxury Fashion

Jack Vartanian hadn’t been thinking of snakes, per se, when he began working on his Spring ‘11 jewelry collection, the designer explained last night at an unveiling dinner at Le Charlot on the Upper East Side. But when he happened on a Brazilian rock, striated with epidote, which he turned into a chunky, faceted cocktail ring (above left), the combination of colors got him thinking. The stone resembled nothing so much as an abstracted python skin, and from it, the 25-piece Python collection was born. (Only part of it was on display last night, due to a customs snafu—snakes on a plane, indeed.) The pieces pick up on the theme of serpents—they’re prevalent in his native Brazil, Vartanian explained, where they symbolize the cycle of nature, birth and rebirth—in sapphire, black quartz, and that epidote stone. Snake heads became rings twining around fingers (above right), cuffs, earrings, and pendants, and the faceted cocktail ring found expression as a pair of dangling earrings, too. They were met with a hiss of approval by dinner guests like Zani Gugelmann, Bettina Prentice, and co-hostess Kate Young. But Vartanian’s best spokesperson has always been his wife, the gorgeous Brazilian model Cassia Avila. She sparkled in the new collection, looking every bit the serpentine beauty herself.

Should any of you ladies out there find yourself lacing up a pair of menswear-style oxfords today, spare a thought for Robert Clergerie. The venerable French footwear brand, which turns 30 this year, was the first to create a classic men’s-style oxford for women (on a man’s last, no less), and the ones Clergerie turns out today are, arguably, still the best. You can pay homage to Mr. Clergerie himself (pictured, bottom right), in fact, if your oxford-o-philia is intense enough: The shoemaker has made a rare trip to New York City and is celebrating his brand’s birthday this afternoon with a fête at Bergdorf Goodman. A trip to the BG shoe department will confirm that Clergerie’s footwear mastery is not confined to the lace-up alone. Some highlights from the Fall ‘10 collection include a curvilinear wedge with crisscross straps and a pair of hiking boots with a clear lug sole. (Not to mention the ace Robert Clergerie par Opening Ceremony range, available at O.C.) Clergerie still makes all his shoes by hand at his factory in Romans, France, and he’s still a stickler for comfort—as fans including Lauren Hutton and Blake Lively would undoubtedly attest. Here, as a birthday tribute, a few images from the Clergerie archives.

The gentlemen of hip hop have a famous taste for finery—and not just Kanye, either. (Take it from Cam’ron: “We Gucci, Louis, and Pucci men.”) For Spring ‘11, designer Adam Kimmel returned the love, offering a sartorial collection inspired by “one of the most original artists of the last 30 years”—that is, Snoop (né Doggy) Dogg. Since the Dogg wouldn’t be caught dead without his kicks, Kimmel is debuting his first-ever sneaker with the Spring line.

“I’m making sneakers now because I finally found a great factory to produce them,” Kimmel told Style.com. “But more to the point, the sneakers are coming out in tandem with my spring Snoop collection, which was inspired by Snoop Dogg and his West Coast style. Certainly the sneaker was a big part of that aesthetic. For my purposes, I aimed for something more streamlined and simple than the usual tricked-out basketball shoe. I went for something a little more user-friendly and luxurious while still keeping the urban feel.” Four styles are available in perforated leather with a matching or contrasting ankle wrap, all made in Kimmel’s European factories. (He’s serious about those factories—this is a guy who used to make combat boots in workshops that were also turning out Hermès.) And because scuffing up your shoes is a serious O.G. no-no, the collection nods, too, at fine rides, with a car-wheel rim motif embroidered on polos and printed on ties and cravats.

The inspiration sounds as strangely mystic as it does succinct: “Sea findings” is what Acne creative director Jonny Johansson told his longtime collaborator, the London-based jeweler Husam El Odeh, for the label’s first bags. (In the past, El Odeh has contributed jewelry and metal-plated jeans to the Acne collections; he did the jewelry, as well as the bags, for Sprin ‘11.) What El Odeh came back with has the craggy organic shapes of deep-sea rocks and the glitter Acne’s nightclubbing fan base demands. The structured purses for Fall ‘10 are gussied up with golden closures that echo the shapes of El Odeh’s bangles and ear cuffs. They’re available for now in black, with a few larger bags also coming in an electric mustard-y yellow. There’s little doubt that the collection will grow in coming seasons. Until then, here’s a toe in the water—so to speak.

A few seasons in, the young New York accessories label Reece Hudson is expanding its offerings. The numerically named bags that have been a mainstay at boutiques like Castor & Pollux and Kirna Zabête will be joined for Spring ‘11 by a selection of belts, inspired in part by the satchels’ straps. Two versions will hit Kirna and San Francisco’s Grocery Store next season: the simpler Lafayette ($320) and our favorite, the more ornately threaded Bowery ($520). (True to their names, they’re made in New York.) Reece Hudson hasn’t lost its darker-is-better approach to accessories, but it is lightening up a bit for the warmer months: The Bowery will be available in black and saddle brown, but the Lafayette will come, too, in a grassy green that RH’s Reece Solomon and Max Stein are calling Jungle.

Thanks to a seventies revival that started in past seasons’ front rows, Spring’s runways were super groovy and—compared to the recently-put-to-bed square-shouldered bedazzlement trend, at least—beautifully pared down. Of course, all those spare silhouettes call for some statement jewels. Starting today, All For The Mountain’s new collection of free-love stunners—like the tasseled bronze Sun Ra pendant (above center)—launches on designer Carly Margolis’ newly-revamped and appropriately trippy art-project-cum-website, allforthemountain.com. Margolis, whose first foray into design was as half of the team behind the wallpaper company Cavern, traded paper for oxidized metal when her double sided triangle stack necklace (incidentally, the first piece she ever made) was snapped up by Erin Wasson last year and worn on repeat. This season’s Mothership collection swaps pyramids for orbs, but Margolis still cuts and casts the pieces in her Williamsburg studio. Downstairs neighbor Mara Hoffman makes a guest appearance in the line’s newest lookbook (Margolis was the designer’s intern during college) and fellow model Maryam Nassir Zadeh, of the eponymous Lower East Side boutique, is one of the new moms Margolis had in mind when designing (hence those orbs). Also mined for inspiration: UFO sightings in Joshua Tree. Margolis is pretty sure she saw a few while she was there over the summer.

There are high/low collaborations that get more press and that inspire longer, round-the-block lines, and then there are those that soldier away, season after season, delivering quality stuff. Put Pierre Hardy’s affordable footwear for the Gap in the latter category. His latest creation, a peep-toe black suede wedge accented with leather trim, debuts at Gap stores nationwide (and at Gap.com) next Tuesday for a cool $195.

When Barneys New York founded its Co-Op levels and stores in 1985, they were, as Style.com editor in chief Dirk Standen put it to the store’s Julie Gilhart, “in the vanguard of the mix-and-match approach.” “We never thought of Co-Op as a place where you find secondary collections,” Gilhart demurred. “It’s a place where you find something different.” Different as in not seen before (but almost always seen after) in other stores—and different, according to many designers whose careers Co-Op has nurtured, as in making all the difference to the fledgling businesses. “We are so happy the Co-Op exists to expose small brands,” Vena Cava’s Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai said recently. They’re not so small anymore. Phillip Lim agrees. Co-Op, he enthuses, “is like the A&R people of the fashion industry: They are the first to discover and support young talent.” That young talent is giving back for its 25th anniversary, offering exclusive products in stores and online. They include (left to right) a soft cowl-neck dress from Wayne, a cloud-print shirt dress from Vena Cava, and a fur-hood anorak from Theory that’s perfect for the cold weather soon to come.

Graphic color-blocking has emerged as one of the key trends of Spring ‘11, and the runways at Jil Sander, Marc Jacobs, and Louis Vuitton were a riot of mashed-together hues. So are the latest shirts from Wong Wong’s Stephen Wong—though the spectator sport they take their cues from is soccer, not fashion. Long inspired by football—he’s coming off a World Cup collaboration with Happy Socks—Wong looked to the clubs of Europe to create his new graphics. He chose the top three teams of England’s EPL (Arsenal, Chelsea FC, and Man U) and of Spain’s La Liga (FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Valencia CF); their team colors gave him his shades, and aerial views of their stadiums, his shapes. (England’s on the left, above, and Spain on the right.) Not that you need to know any of this to appreciate them. They’ll look just as good off the pitch—even, say, tucked into one of Raf Simons’ giant skirts.

$35, available at www.wongwong.com.