Norma Kamali Makes a Move, Jefferson Hack Gets an Honor, Dua Lipa Dances for Puma
MOVING DOWNTOWN: After 40 years, Norma Kamali has moved out of her headquarters at 11 West 56th Street in New York and has relocated to new downtown offices at 609 Greenwich Street.
Kamali told WWD the new 16,000-square-foot space will be used for installations, exhibitions “and all types of things interactive and immersive.” She said it will also serve as the brand’s headquarters, and where the company will do photo shoots and podcasts. It won’t serve as a retail space.
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“We are still unpacking and setting up and we no longer need to be in the center of the city,” Kamali said. “I am thrilled to be in a neighborhood area, friendly and with a very community feel. Google and Disney are opening nearby so this is and will be even moreso an energized part of the city.”
Kamali had purchased the building at 11 West 56th Street in 1982, which is currently on the market. That space had three floors and had won numerous awards for architecture and interiors.
“Yes, 11 West is on the selling block and time for some other company to create a vision for their brand,” Kamali said.
Last May, Kamali, a native New Yorker, who built her more than 50-year-old company in the city, was honored with the City of Design Award from the Museum of the City of New York.
The designer, who is also the author of the book, “I Am Invincible,” is known for such items as the sleeping bag coat, her iconic swimwear and her sweat collection, and more recently, she has been experiencing very strong sales in her one-shouldered dress with shirred sides and an asymmetrical hem called the Diana, which was worn by Carrie Bradshaw in “And Just Like That.” — LISA LOCKWOOD
HONORING HACK: Jefferson Hack, cofounder of Dazed Media, will receive a Special Recognition Award for Cultural Curation at The Fashion Awards 2022, which will take place at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Dec. 5.
The British Fashion Council, which organizes the glitzy gala, said Hack is being awarded “for empowering youth through creativity, and for creating countless opportunities for next generation creatives working across fashion, design, art, music and more, providing a platform and supporting emerging talent.”
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Ser
Caroline Rush, chief executive officer of the BFC, added that “over the past three decades, his commitment to empowering youth through creativity has defined the zeitgeist and shaped the future, making him one of the most exciting creative voices of a generation.”
Hack’s Dazed Media, which publishes AnOther Magazine, Dazed, Dazed Beauty and Nowness, has in the past taken home awards from the event.
At last year’s Fashion Awards, Ibrahim Kamara, editor in chief at Dazed, was honored with the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator.
Last year’s gala was the industry’s first major live event since lockdown lifted in the U.K. It was a memorable night, with fulsome tributes to Virgil Abloh who had died a few days before the event; accolades for Tommy Hilfiger, who won the Outstanding Achievement award, and a focus on diversity, inclusion and the people driving change.
Idris Elba‘s farewell to Abloh, during which he read aloud Maya Angelou’s poem “When Great Trees Fall,” was part of a series of tributes that the BFC pulled together in less than 24 hours.
There were multiple Hilfiger moments, too, with Law Roach admitting that he loved the brand’s clothes so much as a teenager that he used to steal them from Marshall Fields in Chicago. “Yes, I was willing to risk it all for Tommy Jeans” overalls, he said.
Tommy’s mini fashion show at the end of the night, featured music through the decades and culminated with Naomi Campbell swaggering down the catwalk. “We go back a long way,” Hilfiger said of the model.— TIANWEI ZHANG
DUA’S DANCE: Pop cultural sensation Dua Lipa last Friday threw a dinner party with Puma at East London’s Bistrotheque, with bouillabaisse on the menu and Lipa and her tour dancers having a good time on the dance floor while ice cream sandwiches and affogato were being served as bite-size desserts.
Making most of London’s breezy summer before a record-breaking heatwave was due to hit the U.K. on Monday, guests including drag performer Bimini Bon Boulash, who donned a giant faux fur hat on top of her extravagant Dolly Parton-style wigs; Salvatore Ferragamo’s new creative director Maximilian Davis; last year’s ANDAM prize winner Bianca Saunders; Gareth Pugh; Chet Lo; Charles Jeffrey; Mowalola Ogunlesi, and Saul Nash dressed up for the night, with some of them mixing items from the Dua Lipa x Puma Flutur Drop 2, which hit the market on July 14.
After an hourlong catch-up by guests at Bistrotheque’s Loading Bay, they were eventually seated upstairs, where the whole space was decorated in details like reservation signs with a butterfly motif, to reflect the collaboration between the British Albanian singer and the German sportswear giant.
Dave Benett/Getty Images for PUMA
Lipa and her tour dancers went directly to the dance floor shortly after presenter Miss Jason said guests should make their way downstairs for dessert.
The singer, who sported a cropped black tracksuit from the old-school raves-inspired capsule, let her hair down as the rave lights beamed on the dance floor and moved her body as if she was “levitating” to DJ sets from Hasani, before heading to Chiltern Firehouse for an exclusive after party with the crew. — T.Z.
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