Daily Front Row

2011 June 14

The Comeback Kid

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Kris Van Assche
Photo: Paolo Roversi View Gallery

Rick Owens sits down with Kris Van Assche for the June/July issue of Interview magazine and chats about his early dreams of becoming a designer, his family and how things went down at Dior. 

Owens: So, now that I have you: Did you always want to be a designer? 

Van Assche: Ever since I realized that clothes just don’t drop out of the closet and that somebody was deciding what I would actually wear. I must have been around 10 or 12 when I started questioning things like, Why should somebody else decide what I’m going to wear? And I’m an only child, and I was born in this small town.

Van Assche: My parents are really nice, but they’re very conservative. They’re like the most normal people in the world. And they had one big definition for life, which was: “Don’t get noticed. Be normal, that’s weird enough.” And that just didn’t work for me.

Owens: Do you see your parents often now?

Van Assche: They're very proud, obviously. They always think it's too much every time they come to Paris. They're like, "Are you joking?

Owens:  When I think of a job like yours, I sense so much pressure. 

Van Assche: Yeah, well, I first worked here as an assistant for six years before I started doing my own label. And then after three years, they called me to come back to Dior, so I knew what I was getting into.

Owens:  Was that a hard decision to make? 

Van Assche: Of course it was. There were thousands of reasons not to do it. All my friends were just telling me don’t do it because it’s gonna be so tough. Usually when people take over an old house, or a line, it’s because it’s almost dead. But that was not the case at Dior. I was taking over a success story, which is really tough to do, because nobody wants you to do the same thing and nobody wants you to change. But it’s still one of those propositions you can’t really refuse, because it was the possibility to do everything that was impossible at my old label.

Owens: Do you live alone? 

Van Assche: I live with my boyfriend, but he has his own place as well, because we kind of both like our independence.

Owens: You must have gone through an uncomfortable period, because nothing you were going to do was going to work. People were out to get you a little bit. That was a crazy position you put yourself in, Kris. 

Van Assche: I didn’t put myself in that position. It was just part of the sh*ty job that somebody had to do. I really hang on to this idea that Dior Homme, as a collection, had reached its high point, and this skinny, rock ’n’ roll look had become such a cliché in the streets that any designer would have had to take this collection in a new direction. So I knew that somebody would have had to go through that difficult timing. It would have been really nasty for anyone. It just happened to be me. [laughs]

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2011 June 14

Stella's Garden Party

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Stella and Bono
Patrick McMullan View Gallery

Stella McCartney presented her Spring 2012 collection yesterday at the Garden of Saint Luke in the West Village. Her pop Paul McCartney wasn't there, but it's not a Stella presentation without a little rock and roll royalty in da house. Bono, who is in town to celebrate the long-awaited opening of Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark tonight, came out to support his pal. Liv Tyler, Naomi Watts, Glenda Bailey, Anna Wintour, Hamish Bowles, Estelle and Stella's future stepmother, Nancy Shevell, also came out to see the resort collection. Check out more pics and some looks from the collection in our Gallery. 

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2011 June 14

The Fashion Mentor Is...

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Fashion mentor
Patrick McMullan View Gallery

It's the news we've all been waiting for! Jessica Simpson is returning to reality television. What does this have to do with us? The former Newlyweds star is going to be a celebrity mentor on NBC's upcoming reality competition Fashion Star,  which debuts next spring. The show, hosted by Elle Macpherson, will encourage 14 unknown designers compete each week to land a multimillion dollar contract to launch a fashion line sold at three retailers. Last year, Simpson's line took in $750 million in sales, an amount that's expected to increase past the $1 billion mark this year. Ka-ching!  

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2011 June 13

Wanted: A "Lucky" Bergdorf's-Worthy Face

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5F
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Calling all chicettes with model aspirations! Is your idea of staying looped into the campaign trail more couture than congressional? Do Angelina's latest LV shots have you green with envy? Then scurry over to the Bergdorf Goodman 'Faces of 5F" contest on Facebook for your chance to rep BG's hippest floor in their fall campaign and grace the pages of Lucky's October issue. Submit your most stylish shots, plus a few bon mots about your taste in music, style muses and more by June 24. The semi-finalists will flaunt their faces to a haute half-dozen judges from Lucky (the mag's EIC Brandon Holley, booking director Bridget Buckley, and social media wizard John Jannuzzi), and Bergdorf's (VP and creative director Aiden Kemp avec 5th/58th's fab social media maven, Cannon Hodge), plus 5F campaign shutterbug Matt Irwin shortly after the casting, which will take place--of course--on 5F. Good luck, glamazons-to-be!

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2011 June 13

Look Ma! No Pants!

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Jennifer Aniston covers Marie Claire.
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Since we gave a little press to Angelina earlier today, it's only fair to give Team Jen some love. Ms. Aniston covers the July issue of Marie Claire to promote her upcoming flick Horrible Bosses with Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis, and she's looking so happy. We're also dying to read the article on adventures in lipo.  

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2011 June 13

Guess What Today Is!

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The Olsen twins and their TV dad Bob Saget
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Get outta town! The Row's Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen turn 25 today, everybody. That's a quarter of a century of Olsen fun! Bon anniversaire to our favorite zillionaires!

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