M83—Saturdays=Youth When M83 first washed up on our shores a few years ago, their digital soundscapes were the perfect counterpoint to the beautiful washes of guitar noise we loved in bands like My Bloody Valentine. This French group is at it again, but this time the work is solely that of Anthony Gonzalez. There is still the meticulous layering of keyboard sounds that we originally loved, but with an added immediacy and a hint of 80's synth-pop. We love it when something as cold and mechanical as a synthesizer can make us feel such strong and visceral emotions.
The Black Angels—Directions to See a Ghost Yet another great band pops up in Austin, Texas. In all fairness, this band has been around for a few years now but they've just popped up on our radar. Dabbling in the dark psychedelia of the Velvet Underground at its most menacing, the Black Angels create raw rock music that drones instead of strutting. Just listening to this album makes us want to have a change in lifestyle that includes dark sunglasses, leather jackets, and whiskey.]]> And finally, the long-awaited Cut Copy album. The Australian trio again delivers the dancefloor-friendly indie rock that we've been waiting for all this time...
Being called an It girl, or, even moreso, an Internet It Girl, makes 20-year-old Harley Viera-Newton laugh. "I feel like I've made fun of people called It Girls," she says. At first, she dismisses it, she finds the label "a little embarrassing," explaining it tends to connote someone whose goals don't extend beyond being photographed, or partying, which she can't relate to. Sure, she's been photographed out and about, but she's a busy girl. Besides being a budding shutterbug (she's got an internship with Mario Testino under her belt, and cites Henri Lartigue as an all-time fave), she mans the DJ booth at Lit and various parties (notably, the Whitney Biennial), and plays bass in Lissy Trullie's band. She's also a full-time Egyptology major at NYU (she's learning hieroglyphics) and works a retail job on the side.
With her enigmatic style and fey expressions, her look has consistently captured the attention of Cobrasnake's
Mark Hunter, bloggers, and magazines, but it's her eclectic interests and upbringing that add to her intrigue—born in London, Viera-Newton's her father worked in the music biz, her mother in fashion, and her own style comes off as a fusion between the two worlds. "If I don't know what to wear I'll call one of them," she says of her parents. Of course, she's also influenced by effortless people she'll see on the street, denouncing trends in favor of confidence. "If you're not comfortable and you're aware of wearing an outfit, everyone else is going to be aware that you're wearing an 'outfit.' That's not style, that's trying to be stylish."
What are your top five style staples?
Harley in Tom Binns jewelry for an Elle magazine shoot; a piece from Tom Binn's Tough Chic collection; Chloé Doc Martens wedges.
1. "I wear Tom Binns jewelry everyday. He's like my favorite favorite favorite. I'll sleep in this…when you take this off (points under wrist) it's like another color under here."
2. "I usually have one pair of shoes a season that I just wear everyday and every night. These are the Chloé Doc Martens wedges, the low ones. They're pretty wild, but I love Doc Martens and any reappropriation of that I'm into."
Harley in Dior lipstick; her Chanel purse; Harley sporting a Crass tee
3. "I tend to wear a matte red lipstick, rouge Dior in colour 752. I only wear Dior makeup."
4. "I always have a small Chanel purse. I wear it every single day at all times."
5. "When I'm not wearing [one of] a thousand really too-short dresses, I'm just wearing jean leggings and a T-shirt. I collect band shirts, only of bands I really like. I have one Cramps one that I live in and one Crass one."
Any new looks you've been into lately?
"I'm a recent fan of the crop top. I've been trying to bring that back. I found this incredible shredded, Union Jack crop top, it's like sooo kitsch and awful and in the same way amazing."
Who is your top style icon?
"Tom Binns. He influences my style more than anyone. He's so ahead of the game. He worked with Westwood and Maclaren like way back in the day and just has like such an incredible eye. He is the person you want to take to a flea market with you. He will find something either a gem that you're like 'Oh my god how did you find this?' Or something that you're just like 'Huh?' and then he'll put it on you, and you're like 'This is incredible.' He could tell me to wear a cardboard box and I would. I trust him."
Do you have a have a favorite album cover?
My favorite album cover of all time, which applies to this because its also such a style statement is The Slits' Cut album cover because it's just the three of them in (I think they're wearing like bikinis?) and just like covered in mud and they look so incredible. It's like the best cover of all time. Also, there's a good Elastica cover where there's just the four of them wearing all black against a brick wall, and that image has always stuck with me, as well.
Harley out and about
Did you go to your high school prom? What did you wear?
"I did. I had two outfits, of course. I wore this Balenciaga blue knee-length dress. It was silk and buttoned down. And then to the after-thing I wore this really slutty, houndstooth, vintage Alaia dress with six-inch Alexander McQueen heels. I was like, 'I look good tonight,' and looking back, I'm like, 'You look like a whore!' I had my hair in a slick-back pony or something really embarrassing."
A photo of Harley's mother
Your Myspace says you and your mother have matching tattoos. What's the story?
"When my mom was 16 in Rio—she's Brazilian—she got this tattoo from some shitty parlor, and it was a big deal because she went home and her mom was furious and she like ran away for a few days and it was like a whole thing. And then one day I was visiting family in Rio, and we were just walking through the streets, and I think we'd been like drinking earlier, and it was the first time my mother and I had ever gotten drunk together, so it was like this real bonding, like compandre moment, like me and my mom in Brazil, and it's like boiling. And then she goes, 'Oh my God, that's where I got my tattoo.' And I'm like, 'No way.' and she's like, 'Go see if like like Joe Bang, or like whatever the fuck his name was is still there.' And the same dude that gave her her tattoo is still there and she was just like, 'You have to get it' and I was like, 'I have to get it' so he gave it to me. So its really tiny, just a tiny bird (pulls back hair to show what looks like a small, elegantly stretched "M"on her neck) but it's just so funny, I mean me and my mom have the same tattoo!"
What designers do you prefer vintage from?
"Definitely Westwood. I dont really wear any new Westwood, but I collect vintage Westwood. And old Alaia. I think that the new Alaia collections are beautiful but I think they're harder to wear and insanely overpriced. And vintage Hervé Léger, but mainly Alaia. They, actually, make some good crop tops!"]]>
The DJ/musician muses on her style in the making.
Not one to go with the grain, designer Rogan Gregory has just opened the doors to his latest store located in a Manhattan landmark, downtown's Bouwerie Lane Theatre. Built in 1874, the theater is recognized by the City of New York, and is now a landmark for Rogan, too. Although Gregory recounts greeting the Bowery's notorious urchins on the stairs some mornings during construction, the location has its definite appeal. "This new space is a lot more people-friendly," he says.
Up the stairs in the high-ceilinged venue, the designer places his casual modernist garments on a larger, more public platform, more so than what can be achieved in his somewhat clandestine showroom-retail location in TriBeCa. Here on the Bowery, designs are suspended on white racks—a sharp contrast to the jet-black walls—reiterating the designer's analysis of contrasting stripes and patterns in his collection. A mirrored mezzanine has been constructed, which compliments the 32 foot long reflective surface "puzzle bench" lining the southern wall. Each puzzle piece is moveable and some serve for clothing storage. A ring of stage lighting crowns the ceiling, its long black cords descend in loops like a post-apocalyptic chandelier.
The project was particularly rewarding for Gregory, not only because of the legacy of the real estate but also because it provided an opportunity to flourish in a variety of design facets, something Gregory thrives on. The entire 4-month gutting and renovation was documented using strategically placed time-lapse cameras. "This was one of the first times I've worked with a group, envisioned something, and completed it with very few setbacks," he says. Given the designers previous collections and recent CFDA success, we'd say Gregory's got his own mission for the Bowery, too.
Rogan, 330 Bowery (corner of Bond Street), 646-827-7567.
Photography by Piera Gelardi
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The designer brings a new kind of theater to an old downtown landmark.
Fulfilling the tasks of everyday life requires that every woman have a downright fabulous carryall. Anything from a pair of ballet flats to wet wipes (in lieu of the kitchen sink) must be readily retrievable from all the necessary clutter concealed within the season's most coveted tote. Though there are several run-of-the-mill options available, Brooklyn-based designer Angie Wright's Shopper is giving the competitors a run for their money. "I was planning to just test it out in a store first season, but I've had so many requests, I had to hurry up and produce it." she says.
With little formal training, Wright cultivated her design skills over the last ten years as a photographer and model to create Mer, her capsule collection of "what I know my friends and I would love to find." As for the influence, the designer drew from some dreamy coastal climes. "I was really influenced by Antonioni's L'Avventura…life at the beach in the Mediterranean," Wright says. And her affinity for the sea is readily apparent with pieces featuring names like Aquinna, Zuma, Horseneck, references to her favorite beaches.
For the Shopper, Wright meticulously measured out the items that her friends carried throughout the day to create the perfect size. She chose a subtle green-tan raffia and canvas, "fabrics that come to mind when I think of summer," she says, and added subtle hardware for a distinctive anti-logo look. The end result is a comfortable and functional summer must that's sure to make room for anything, at the beach and beyond.
Mer Shopper, $495, available by special order through Mer and Stuart & Wright
, 85 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-797-0011.
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Mer creates a shopper tote for all seasons.