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Arts
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 — 5
Stunning, jarring, intriguing,
scary — all apt descriptors for
hullaballoo that has been the lat-
est iteration of New York Fashion
Week. To provide some nuanced
imagery about the past week, your
Daily Style writers have compiled
a few of their favorite collections
that graced this season’s runway.
Kithland
Kith, for the most part, is a stark
contrast from Fashion Week’s tra-
ditional mainstays. Largely for
that very reason, their New York
debut was met with a flurry of
surprise and intrigue. In embrac-
ing and celebrating the label’s
newfound stage (and audiences),
founder Ronnie Fieg took the
opportunity to craft an experi-
ence, stylized “KITHLAND,” that
deviated far from the conventions
of a typical runway show, stream-
ing his new digs to the masses
online and allowing fans of his
to relive the experience through
virtual reality at one of his many
flagship Manhattan stores.
With an audience that boasted
the likes of Iman Shumpert and Ja
Rule, Fieg had much of the mod-
ern hype machine intently watch-
ing for what Fieg had in store. He
split his show into three different
offerings, “City,” “Mountain” and
“Beach” (for his upcoming Miami
flagship store), respectively, with
the show conveying much of
Fieg and Kith’s bread and but-
ter, showcasing a cohesive mix of
flashy sneakers and ’90s throw-
back couture.
Kith
has
been
experienc-
ing a gradual rise in clout and
popularity
among
Manhattan
and streetwear’s more cultured
patrons, but in Kithland, Fieg
cemented his label’s newfound
status as fashion’s “nouvelle élite,”
adding patrons of high fashion to
his ever-growing list of fans.
— Anay Katyal
Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger was the talk
of day three of New York Fashion
Week as he debuted the brand’s
first ever “see-now-buy-now” col-
lection, called #TOMMYNOW.
The designer, well known for
going above and beyond with
runway design, featured a car-
nival theme to set the stage for
Hilfiger’s
collaboration
with
supermodel Gigi Hadid. The
21-year-old Vogue regular sport-
ed a slew of looks that embodied
the usual themes of Hilfiger’s
design:
all-American,
nautical
and classic.
Combining
Hadid’s
image
with the brand allowed Hilfiger
to appeal to a younger market.
Hadid, a Victoria’s Secret Angel,
gives the classic brand a youthful
twist, especially since the Hilfiger
brand has existed since 1985, and
was in serious need of a revamp.
Through the Fall 2016 collection,
Hilfiger and Hadid provided sev-
eral new personalities — for start-
ers, the collection can be bought
in stores right now and not in six
months, as is usual with Fashion
Week collections. Additionally,
the clothes took Hilfiger’s classic
look and made it attractive, com-
fortable and stylish.
— Isobel Futter
Jason Wu
“Florals — for spring? Ground-
breaking.”
Jason Wu’s spring 2017 collec-
tion is heavy on florals, but still
breaks boundaries.
Wu’s spring collection is full of
dichotomies, yet feels effortless
and fluid. The collection begins
with heavy navys paired with iri-
descent blues and shifts towards
nudes and neons. Wu uses dark
colors traditionally more suited
for fall with lightweight fabrics —
though this isn’t a new tactic for
the designer, who relied heavily
on stiff, dark shades in his spring
2016 collection.
Perhaps the pops of color and
nudes seen near the end of his
show were a concession to the
more traditional spring fare. His
collection was focused on both
the creation of flow through the
use of draping and pairing with
other pieces which use rigid neon
lines to create structure. But
despite the collection’s variety, it
still feels cohesive, and new: flo-
rals are fresh.
— Emma Kinery
Vera Wang
Vera Wang showcased a mono-
chromatic style at Fashion Week
this year. The designer, who’s
been moving towards collections
solely in black and white in the
past few years, definitely stuck to
that theme.
The looks were not intricate —
simple skirts, shorts and cropped
tops, paired with oversize jackets
and blazers — but were chic and
fitting to the brand’s minimalist
theme. The designer also opted
for a natural hair and makeup
for the models, and all the mod-
els sported the same black socks
and black boots. Overall, the
designer chose for her entire
show, collection and appeal all to
adhere to “less is always more.”
In doing so, spectators can focus
on the clothes, what they bring
to the wearer’s body and how
the simplistic designs differ ever
so slightly from one another.
No surprises from Wang, as the
brand played to its strengths and
provided Fashion Week with an
artistically modest, yet elegant
and nuanced, collection.
— Isobel Futter
Carolina Herrera
The show began with perhaps
the strongest look in the collec-
tion: a structured denim dress
a la Britney Spears at the 2001
VMAs, except it was channeling
elegance rather than gaudiness.
That being said, not all of the
pieces in the collection strode the
same path. Herrera’s collection
is mainly black and white, with
some striped pieces feeling more
circus than chic.
The focus was on making the
everyday picnic style feel evening
and in that it succeeded, even if on
the individual level it felt tired: at
times the ties on several sleeves
of the looks were a bit much. She
made fabrics and patterns from
the everyday — white blousey
cotton, denim, gingham — into
the spectacular. Herrera’s use of
structure compensates for the
areas which feel less refined and
makes pieces like this black coat-
dress shine.
— Emma Kinery
KITH NYC
How did Derek Jeter get up there?
TV REVIEW
DAILY STYLE WRITERS
All you need to know from the stylish
craziness of NY Fashion Week SS17
Daily Style Writers recap the biggest showcases of the week
Within the first 20 minutes
or so of “Snowden,” Nicolas
Cage
(“National
Treasure”),
playing a teacher
at a CIA train-
ing
facility,
engages Edward
Snowden (Joseph
Gordon-Levitt,
“Inception”)
in a conversa-
tion about vice.
The
back-and-
forth goes a bit
something like this: Cage asks
Gordon-Levitt what his vice is.
Gordon-Levitt says he doesn’t
drink or do drugs. Cage retorts
that he must have a vice. Gor-
don-Levitt replies, “Comput-
ers, I guess.” Cage says, “Well,
this sure is a whorehouse of
computers…”
From there on, it’s just more
of the same. A not-so-small
percentage of time, the dia-
logue is unbearable. Quips like
these are consistent through-
out film. They left me and
those around me in the theater
laughing at the sheer absur-
dity of the things being said in
supposedly serious, emotional
scenes. Another highlight in
absolute trash dialogue occurs
after Snowden makes it onto
the news after talking with
The Guardian. We see Cage’s
character sitting in a La-Z-Boy,
smoking a cigarette in front of
his television set in a ’70s-style
home. He exclaims from his
recliner, “He did it!” and the
scene cuts away.
But if bad dia-
logue was the only
problem the movie
had, it could have
still been a decent
production.
Unfortunately, the
rest of the movie
follows suit — at
least stylistically,
the quality doesn’t improve. At
one point, Snowden has a sei-
zure and Gordon-Levitt falls to
the ground to do his best reen-
actment of this medical emer-
gency. What makes it awful is
the way director Oliver Stone
(“Platoon”) chooses to portray
the experience of a seizure.
Snowden is cooking up some
spaghetti, and his glasses start
to fog from the steam. The cam-
era and his body begin to wob-
ble back and forth. The screen
becomes stained with the same
fog that was on his glasses.
Randomly, the movie switches
to a point-of-view shot as Gor-
don-Levitt falls to the ground,
and in blurred vision, his girl-
friend rushes over. The whole
scene turns a serious medical
scenario into a hokey plot-point
action scene.
The movie mostly revolves
around Snowden finding out
new and creepier information
about what the NSA is doing.
He finds something out. He is
disturbed by it. He doesn’t do
anything about it. This cycle
continues until the end, when
Snowden
(surprise!)
finally
does something about it. The
story jumps back and forth in
time between the interview
with The Guardian in his hotel
room in Hong Kong and the
events that have taken place in
the last few years. Much of the
movie is told with one of the
interviewers asking Snowden
a question and him narrating
the scene that takes place on
screen. The storytelling feels
cheap, like a shortcut to certain
events in Edward Snowden’s
life.
The movie ends with an
interview in an auditorium
where Snowden appears on
a computer monitor from his
current residence in Russia. At
the very end of the interview,
the movie cuts back to Edward
Snowden — the real Edward
Snowden, not Joseph Gordon-
Levitt. Dramatically, this cut
to the real person adds nothing.
It feels like a trick, like Stone is
saying “Hey! Look! This movie
is based on a real person.” Yes,
we know.
OPEN ROAD FILMS
(500) Days of Russian Winter
JOE WAGNER
Daily Arts Writer
Not even Nicolas Cage can steal a good movie out of this mess
D-
“Snowden”
Open Road Films
Rave & Quality 16
Oliver Stone’s ‘Snowden’
a weak, laughable biopic
FILM REVIEW
Frank Zappa once said in an
interview, “I don’t think any-
body has ever seen the real Frank
Zappa,
because
being interviewed
is one of the most
abnormal
things
that you can do
to
somebody.”
Zappa’s words are
a warning label,
a way to tell the
audience
that
the person in the
documentary
is
not the person it’s portraying.
For the next 90 minutes, audi-
ences see interviews in which
this abnormality is explored,
diving into the idiosyncrasies
of Zappa. Can anything he says
be taken seriously, or is every-
thing just another act? Regard-
less of his warning, “Eat That
Question: Frank Zappa in His
Own Words” is the closest thing
fans will get to knowing the real
musical mastermind.
Thorsten Schütte (“Namib-
ia Generation X”), a director
known for TV documentaries,
retells Zappa’s diverse career
from his bicycle orchestra on
“The Steve Allen Show” to
his battle with cancer. Rather
than rely on narration, Schüt-
te exclusively uses footage of
interviews and live perfor-
mances. Zappa is such a dis-
tinct personality that he is the
only qualified source to recount
his work. Any other efforts to
illustrate his career are futile.
Watching a random music his-
torian try to talk about him
would feel phony, something
Zappa would find hilarious.
Zappa was no stranger to
slander
in
the
press,
and
the
media
was
just
another
instru-
ment for Zappa
to
manipulate.
“Eat That Ques-
tion”
addresses
false claims, like
the
idea
that
Zappa frequently
used
psyche-
delic drugs, with vengeance.
His disapproval toward drugs
may not shock devoted fans,
but those influenced by these
media reports will be surprised
to hear Zappa never took LSD
and disliked marijuana, because
his workaholic tendencies and
endless discography would have
been dampened. If there needed
to be an anti-drug role model in
the 20th Century, it should have
been Zappa.
The documentary juxtaposes
the interviews and Zappa’s zany
performances to discover the
motives behind his acts. Every
lyric and every charade had a
purpose, and there was never
fluff in any of his material. The
documentary,
unfortunately,
fails to live up to such high stan-
dards at all moments. Though
predominantly
engaging,
it
overstays its welcome when
introducing his brief tenure as a
pseudo-ambassador for Czecho-
slovakia. Although this displays
Zappa’s eclectic life, it feels like
a digression from what impact-
ed fans the most: his music.
“Eat That Question” does not
attempt to summarize Zappa’s
entire life; basic facts like his
date of birth or miscellaneous
trivia can be found easily and
don’t require a documentary.
Rather, it uses Zappa’s own
words to give the viewer insight
into the meaning behind his off-
beat melodies and mockery.
Zappa satirized everything
from the hippie subculture to
new wave music; every trend
was prone to his wrath. If he
found something depressing or
uninspiring, he didn’t shy away
from saying it. For him, the
obsequious nature of Ameri-
cans was despicable. “Eat That
Question” features an extended
look at “Bobby Brown,” a song
that scrutinizes the American
Dream. “Bobby Brown” shows
Zappa’s eccentricity and skepti-
cal outlook most efficiently, and
the retelling of this song feels
funnier than ever.
In an age when fitting in is
optimal and individuality is
thrown out thanks to social
media, everyone can learn a
lot from Zappa. He proved that
distinguishing oneself from the
crowd is what makes us whole.
The documentary highlights his
authenticity and inspires view-
ers to not live blindly. Although
it lags at times, “Eat That Ques-
tion”
successfully
resurrects
Zappa’s legacy for a new genera-
tion of music lovers.
WILL STEWART
For the Daily
Frank Zappa documentary shows
viewers the legend in his own words
“Eat That Question” will please both novices and hardcore fans.
B+
“Eat That Question:
Frank Zappa in His
Own Words”
Sony Pictures
Classics
FILM REVIEW
FASHION ROUND-UP