Oscar Sunday

'

I don't much care for awards shows, which is funny, because as a child I adored them and idolized those attending.  I remember being particularly taken, at age 13 or so, with Helen Hunt's ice blue Gucci gown the year she won Best Actress for As Good As It Gets (a favorite movie of mine).  This year, I'm rooting for Viola Davis, rumored to be wearing Vera Wang, and will be perfectly content to confirm her victory via Twitter and then waste some time at work tomorrow checking the red carpet looks.  

Anyway, today I took the 4 train up to the Guggenheim Museum, one of my favorite buildings in the world, to see the brand new sculpture show John Chamberlain: Choices.  It was magnificent, and though the pieces often feel a bit gut-wrenching, many put an irrepressible smile on my face - for the fanciful nature, the color, the shine, the unintelligible, creative jumble of it all.  Above are some blurry views of a few pieces, taken with my BlackBerry.  I highly recommend, however, that you see them in person instead.

Nude

A painting by the late Jack Meanwell and an old V Man photograph of gorgeous Doutzen Kroes.

It-Shot

I find the whole thing of Ryan McGinley to be a little annoying sometimes: the Levi's ads plastered all over New York City, the aloof interviews, the ubiquity.  But he does create some magical pieces of photography, and I was quite enamored of this recent work, Purple Beacon, now on view at his current London show Wandering Comma.

Nothing to prove

Sarah Burton, fresh off her global smash success as the Duchess's Designer, created a spring collection for Alexander McQueen that defies description and inspires fantasy - a frothy whirlwind of genius.  I'm speechless!

Friendship

John Galliano and Kate Moss

It may not be all that popular to write anything in much support of John Galliano, the sadly disgraced former Creative Director of Christian Dior.  Mr. Galliano was dismissed from the role at Dior after a videotape surfaced last February of him making drunken, nonsensical comments in support of Hitler while drinking alone at a Paris bar.  But I have friends who face similar demons, tortured pasts and substance abuse addictions, and I don't cut them out of my life - least of all when the demons show their faces on the faces of my friends.

Kate Moss, a longtime friend and collaborator of Galliano's, asked him to design her wedding dress, and I think it turned out beautifully, as garments made by Galliano usually do.  Kate has made no comment on the Galliano scandal that I know of, but we know that actions speak louder than words, and the above photo warms my heart at a moment when hope for my own troubled friend is a difficult thing to hold onto.

photo Mario Testino for Vogue

Woman on the verge

V Spain's latest issue is dedicated to genius filmmaker and Spanish national treasure Pedro Almodovar, with superstar Naomi Campbell on the cover shot by Sebastian Faena in a nod to Almodovar's film "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!"

Culture Kings & Queens

Watch The Throne album cover, in molded cardboard, by Riccardo Tisci

I was paging through Gwyneth Paltrow's delightful new cookbook, My Father's Daughter, at my mother's recently, and couldn't help but laugh at the dedication, in which she thanks her closest friends for being the reason for a good dinner party.  Among the not-so-subtly dropped names are Bulgarian royalty, Stella McCartney, and "the Carters" - aka Beyoncé Knowles Carter and her husband Shawn.

These are the kings and queens of high mass culture, a notion made ever the more clear by the release of Jay-Z's much-anticipated joint album with Kanye West, Watch The Throne, and the various promotion of Beyoncé's 4.  Watch The Throne's physical album is a piece of commercial fashion, a gold nugget, created by Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci, who designed all the album's artwork and is listed as its Creative Director.

Riccardo is the king of the cool kids these days, as well as a hugely influential arbiter and salesman of popular high culture himself.  Beyoncé wore a brand new Givenchy Haute Couture gown while yanking the chains of attack dogs in her very fashion video for "Run the World (Girls)," and rocked the hell out of some fall'11 feline Givenchy in the pages of W's Music + Style Issue. Kanye has been attending Riccardo's shows and wearing his menswear for a few years now.  Givenchy's last two men's collections permeate the various artwork for Watch The Throne, from the Rottweiler bandana motif (fall'11) on the "H.A.M." single to the bird of paradise print (spring'12) in the full album's insert.

Kanye and Jay-Z celebrated the release of their album amidst a tornado of ultra-cool marketing, from the chic listening party at NYC's American Museum of Natural History to the hip-hop hipster NoLIta "pop-up shop" selling the CD, complete with the tricked out Maybach from the Spike Jonze-helmed "Otis" video (now on auction to benefit the East African famine) and a Friday night party attended by Jay, 'Ye, and Beyoncé.  For her part, Beyoncé's 4 debuted at #1, and she's currently in the middle of a 4-night run at New York's Roseland Ballroom that sold out in 22 seconds online.

The Watch The Throne pop-up at 201 Mulberry Street in New York City

Givenchy Haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci in "Run the World (Girls)" video 

Album insert artwork by Riccardo Tisci

Watch The Throne album artwork

"H.A.M." single cover by Riccardo Tisci

Kanye West in a Rottweiler T from Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci, with the designer

Beyoncé Knowles Carter in Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci in W Magazine

Beyoncé in Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci in W

Is your head spinning?  Welcome to New York.

Rest

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping by Lucian Freud

Lucian Freud, 1922 - 20 July 2011

A start

Lindsay Lohan by Richard Phillips, courtesy Gagosian Gallery

Graceland

Karlie Kloss and a gorgeous bouqet of tulips

The confusingly attractive Lazaro Hernandez & Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler

Marc Jacbos & party girl Grace Coddington

Pat McGrath, Karen Elson, Anna Wintour, Edward Enninful & Naomi Campbell

Karen Elson, Stefano Pilati & Isabeli Fontana

Grace Coddington & Karen Elson

Grace & André

It just so happens that I'm listening to Paul Simon's Graceland at the moment.  It just so happens that I also celebrated my birthday at Indochine (in late March), in somewhat less regal fashion, with candle-lit Momofuku birthday cake truffles.  It doesn't just so happen, however, that I've never come across party pictures more fabulous or more inspiring.  This is no "let's try to get in, I know the DJ" sort of party.  You work tirelessly for years, and maybe you're lucky enough to score an invitation to a dinner in honor of a true fashion legend.  Grace Coddington, 70 years young, always in Vogue.  We aspire.

Alotta Vuitton

Always a pleasure, Marc!