Words and Verbs

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Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life. I don’t think you could do away with it.
It would be like doing away with civilization.

--Bill Cunningham

The Best Fashion Show is On the Street

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Bill Cunningham New York trailer. More info here and check out Cunningham's "On the Street" column in the Sunday New York Times (with weekly audio slideshows online at nytimes.com). More stuff I've posted about Bill Cunningham here.

Photo Finish

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In his On The Street audio slideshow at nytimes.com (as well as in the print edition of today's paper), Bill Cunningham says goodbye to the Carnegie Hall apartment he's lived in for sixty years.

For over a century, the apartments in Carnegie Hall have been home to a vast assortment of writers, designers, photographers, dancers, actors, circus performers, floral artists, and creative people of all stripes; Cunningham occupied one of five remaining rent-controlled units which are being closed down so that the building can be fully converted into a music school. When he first moved to New York, Cunningham became a milliner and assisted the fashion photographer Ray Solowinski (above right); Solowinski's wife (above left) modeled Cunningham's hats. Click here to watch the slideshow.

For people as fascinated with Cunningham as I am (he's basically a national treasure at this point, in my opinion) it's great news that he is the subject of a new documentary, directed by Richard Press and produced by the venerable Philip Gefter, entitled Bill Cunningham New York – I can't find any clips online but you can read an article Gefter wrote about it at The Daily Beast and get a little more info at the film's website.

Puffy

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This weekend Bill Cunningham's street fashion photos in the New York Times focused on the evolution of the puffy down coat. Apparently the first one ever was designed by Charles James in the 1930s, shown above as worn in the '60s by Juan Ramos (left) and Antonio Lopez (right), who I posted about here. [I'm mainly posting about this because it's relevant to a project Emily and I are working on right now... more about that when it's done.]

Watch Bill Cunningham's latest "On the Street" slideshow (and archived editions) at nytimes.com.

There's Something in a Sunday

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Following are the things that most interested me early this morning at the kitchen table, all hungover and cold, peering over a lukewarm cup of coffee at The New York Times.

This piece about photographer Robert Frank on the fiftieth anniversary his highly influential book The Americans. A coherent review of Annie Liebovitz's At Work. The Magazine's annual year in ideas issue.

Amtrak's Trainsetters program, a deal on rail travel between Seattle and Portland, combined with reduced rates at the Ace Hotel (in the old Hotel Clyde building, where Matt Dillon and William S. Burroughs live at the end of Drugstore Cowboy).

Bill Cunningham. A piece in the business section advocating a goal of full employment: "If the new president had a target of full employment and if Americans believed that he could reach it, the confidence problem could quickly be solved." A preview of today's Seahawks/Rams game: "Someone may care about this game in April, when the loser has a better draft pick. In an act of mercy, the game will be blacked out locally." And, finally, an article on what may turn out to be an Iraq version of the Pentagon Papers, with revelations such as:

The history records how Mr. Garner presented Mr. Rumsfeld with several rebuilding plans, including one that would include projects across Iraq.

“What do you think that’ll cost?” Mr. Rumsfeld asked of the more expansive plan.

“I think it’s going to cost billions of dollars,” Mr. Garner said.

“My friend,” Mr. Rumsfeld replied, “if you think we’re going to spend a billion dollars of our money over there, you are sadly mistaken."

When I was done reading the paper I had an english muffin, two eggs, and some ibuprofen, and met the day.

Street Spirit

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With all the attention given to The Sartorialist, Face Hunter, et al, it's easy to forget the granddaddy of all street fashion photographers, Bill Cunningham, of The New York Times. Every Sunday in the style section he features a bunch of photographs that illustrate a particular theme or trend, and on nytimes.com he has a bunch of On The Street audio slideshows, like this one from when it was really hot out a couple weeks ago, or this one about the arrival of Spring in the city, or this weekend's entry on sagging and belts. There's also this audio slideshow about Bill Cunningham by the Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn.

Cunningham has a more spontaneous approach than his younger counterparts, which puts fashion in more of a real-life context—it reminds you that these people are walking around looking great and/or interesting while doing the everyday stuff they do.

I remember my old boss Stephen Gan saying that Bill Cunningham's apartment is completely filled to the brim with photographs, and that he actually sleeps on top of his filing cabinets because there's not enough room for a bed. I don't know if that's true but I like to think so.