Fashion Styles

Marlon Gobel is a former assistant of Thom Browne’s who shares some of his old boss’ interests: namely, in mid-century American archetypes of masculinity, and the way a generous application of glitter or velvet can upend them. His line is still small—a testament, he said after his show at the Park Avenue Armory Thursday, to “what one guy, his boyfriend, and his intern can do”—and available only at Bergdorf Goodman. But judging from the influential attendees in the audience (a full coterie from Barneys among them), that could change.

If it does, Gobel’s collection, which often veers close to the precious, may need to shift a bit, too. Gobel’s taste for full-tilt luxury (his is the first men’s show for which Christian Louboutin contributed a full assortment of glittered and bell-bedecked shoes) may make sales a challenge. His trouser-cut, wide-wale cords, offered here in a rainbow of colors, were the retail takeaway. For spectacle, there were velvet blazers hand-painted with ocean or forest scenes, cashmere and mohair jackets that sparkled, a Fair Isle featuring unicorns.

Gobel was inspired, he said, by the fraternal orders that flourished in America in the nineteenth century, and he offered his own dandily sartorial members-only club, complete with fezes. His show notes mentioned its centuries-old predecessors: the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was one. That could’ve been the title of this whole collection, frankly. But an Odd Fellow on his own can get to feeling lonesome, and fraternity is a noble goal. Today’s odd and flashy fellows deserve their couturier, too. Here he is, boys.

—Matthew Schneier

Photo: Filippo Flor/GoRunway.com

tags: Marlon Gobel, Thom Browne
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The Future of Fashion
The Future of Fashion, Part Seven: Carine Roitfeld

February 12, 2011

In this ongoing series, Style.com’s editor in chief, Dirk Standen, talks to a number of leading industry figures about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the fashion business.


“This is my new office,” Carine Roitfeld jokes when I meet her in the lobby of the Carlyle on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It is less than a week since she officially vacated her throne as editor in chief of Paris Vogue, and in this darkly lit grand hotel, it’s tempting to see Roitfeld, with her gray fur jacket and Russian roots, as a glamorous aristocrat in sudden exile. It’s an exile that will be short-lived, no doubt. She has already exerted an unmistakable influence on fashion, not once but twice: first with the porno-chic aesthetic she co-authored in the nineties as a stylist for Mario Testino and Tom Ford, then of Gucci; later, with her provocative, photo-driven, decade-long tenure at Vogue. Now everyone is speculating about her next act.


The moment we slide into a booth and Roitfeld removes a pair of Tom Ford sunglasses the size of saucers, a different woman emerges: talkative, immensely charming, unafraid to appear vulnerable, yet also fiercely determined. I barely have a chance to turn on my tape recorder before she is off and running on a variety of subjects: her mysterious departure from Vogue, the need to promote young talent, and dinners à trois with Riccardo Tisci and Karl Lagerfeld.


You were saying?
It’s strange for me to come back here to New York during the fashion show season and not to be the editor in chief of French Vogue. Of course, I’ve done it before when I was just a freelancer, but ten years is a long time. It’s like 20 times I came here for the shows, and suddenly I’m not the editor in chief. That’s a custom, so it’s hard to now be a freelance editor. But it’s exciting, too.


You’re skipping the circus this time?
I’m not going to the shows. Maybe I will see some friends at previews, but mostly I’ve come for the amfAR gala on Wednesday. I’m a big supporter of amfAR. And my son is giving an exhibition on Thursday. And I have to finish my book for Rizzoli. I’m very late, so it’s my last days to finish it. It’s supposed to come out September or maybe October of this year. So I have a lot of appointments. I’m quite busy.


The book is a look back at your career?
It’s a bit like that. I never like to go back, so to go back to a picture you did 20 years ago, it’s almost like going to a shrink. It’s a lot of emotion…Most of the pictures are the ones I did with Mario Testino…It’s mostly dedicated to Mario, that book.


Does one shoot stand out in your memory?
There are different ones, of course. I had a very good period where I was working at French Glamour and I was working for The Face. The “butcher” shoot with Eva Herzigova and those sort of stories. They’re memorable stories, and you say why? Maybe because it’s not just about fashion. It’s because it’s a moment of the time.


You’ve been working on the book with [editor] Olivier Zahm and [art director] Alex Wiederin?
Always I like to have trouble. It’s not easy to have two big personalities like Olivier Zahm and Alex Wiederin working together, with me in the middle. But I know “star wars.” I spent a lot of time between Tom Ford and Mario Testino, so I learned how to deal with it.