Until last week, Cheap Monday denim designer Carl Malmgren had never set foot in New York City. “Yeah, it’s my first time here,” he admitted as Cheap Monday colleagues went about hanging pairs of jeans from the ceiling of the new Inven.tory store on Lafayette Street. “Just one of those things, I guess.” Inven.tory marks the fifth stop on an international denim tour for the brand, and the jeans Malmgren et al. were hanging are numbered, limited-edition, hand-patched, and distressed pairs that go on sale tonight for the standard Cheap Monday price of $70. “The other times we’ve done this, the lines have been down the block,” Malmgren recalled. “Stockholm, Copenhagen, London, Berlin, it’s always been crazy. All together, we’re only making about 350 pairs. I think people have a hard time believing that we’d sell them for the regular price.” In addition to the sale, Inven.tory, which opens officially tomorrow, is hosting an extensive Cheap Monday pop-up, the first time all the Cheap Monday ranges will be under one roof—at least in the United States. “It did take us a while to get over here,” noted Malmgren. “We thought it ought to have been worth the wait.”
Moncler Gamme Rouge will go down as the most wonderfully wacky show of Spring 2011. Creative director Giambattista Valli usually stages an installation; this was performance art, complete with strobe lights, modern dancers in scuba masks, and not only a smoke machine, but also a wind machine and a parachute, too. Adding to the madcap mood were the models’ towering turbans and Day-Glo lipstick. As for the clothes themselves? Given that this is Moncler, the outerwear brand, that we’re talking about, they were coat-dresses, mostly, and recognizably Valli in their slightly sixties shapes, with cocooning egglike volumes. But that’s only part of the story. Not unlike at his signature collection, the designer seemed interested in color-blocking and patchworks. In contrast with his own show, the colors in question were neons and the fabrics multicolor lamés that looked like candy foil wrappers. At least they did under the black light.
My, oh my, how Charity: Water has grown. I can remember the first event I went to four years ago: It was a subtle affair, with a few posters and a tiny, overcrowded bar. But with the support of a few key kids about town (among them, Jessica Stam, who first introduced me to the cause, and Adrian Grenier, who hosted the evening), it’s no surprise the fledgling nonprofit, which raises money to build wells and clean-water systems in the third world, has grown. Just look at it now: At Monday night’s fundraiser at the Metropolitan Pavilion, every inch of wall space was filled with moving images of those helped by the charity and videos of food drops, and pumps similar to those the charity builds in rural areas were scattered throughout. Where there was once some dinky electrical tape marking a path guests could lug Water’s jugs—a testament to how difficult a basic necessity is to find in some parts of the world—there was now an elevated, lit-up runway.“I remember those early days, too, when it was just me and an idea,” explained Charity: Water founder Scott Harrison. “But it’s a testament that we’re doing something right.” Grenier put these improvements in perspective: “Three years, more than 1,500 water projects in 16 countries, and nearly 1 million people served. Not bad, is it?” Not bad, indeed.
The September issue of V? Might as well call it C. The mag confirmed today that it’s snagged Carine Roitfeld to style its big fall cover and a spread inside. Roitfeld has worked with the oversized glossy in the past; she joins new columnist Lady Gaga at the title. [Page Six]Agyness Deyn’s latest role: erotic dancer. The British model was recently cast as a stripper for Luis Prieto’s upcoming remake of the 1996 crime flick Pusher. But according to Prieto, when he cast Aggy, he didn’t even know who she was. [Vogue U.K.]Alistair Carr (left), Pringle of Scotland’s much-tattooed new design director, has a lot of change in store for the Tilda Swinton-fronted brand. Carr plans to launch an accessories collection of shoes, bags, and small leather goods for the label as soon as he begins his knitwear makeover of the ready-to-wear line. He respects tradition, he says, but “[doesn’t] want to ‘do’ a heritage line.” In case that wasn’t clear enough, he posed for the paper shirtless and with a lampshade on his head. [WWD]An official welcome to the worldwide spotlight, Sarah Burton. The creative director of Alexander McQueen has tried to remain in the background since taking the reins, but as the Times points out, three billion royal wedding watchers and a McQueen-themed Met ball makes that pretty tough to do. [NYT]
London Gets A Whole New Style
—Katharine K. Zarrella
Photo: Courtesy of GQ Style
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