
Rose Cumming at Hines and Co.
D & D Building
979 Third AvenueSuite
1010New York, NY 10022
T 212.754.5880
Friday 9AM - 5PM
So what say you? Love or loathe?
(I know some of you will think I'm being lazy - but another naked shower hangs in the balance.)
If Pierre Bergé is trying to recast YSL as an artist first, a fashion designer second, artist Amanda Church is going one better. Instead of borrowing a painting - say a Piet Mondrian - and putting it on the silhouette of the day, Church takes her own psychedelic and free-flowing work and applies it to her favorite garb....
to make "Mandy Pants!"
One of the first things you may notice about this very stylish lady is her sassy short hemline which has earned her the nickname "Mandy Pants." From this apt moniker sprang the inspiration behind her new line of shorts.
"Last summer I was really into board shorts but never found a pair with a really cool design. So somehow I came up with using my own paintings as the design, and when I lost my job in January, I decided to start the Mandy Pants business."Amanda's first foray into the fashion fray was customizing the Fendi Chef bag for the New Museum a few years ago.
"I really like the art-meets-fashion idea -- it was interesting to morph my own work to mesh with something else, since art generally stands on its own.""I wear my Mandy Pants lounging around the house, out and about in the neighborhood, to the gym, biking, and at the beach -- they are super-comfortable! Mandy Pants are made of a kind of polyester that feels like a faux-suede. They are very durable and can be worn in the ocean or pool and also put in the washer and dryer.
"These shorts use the painting as their design, and future products (men's board shorts, bikinis, beach towels) will use different paintings, but I won't be making work specifically for Mandy Pants products. I want everything I make to have the same groovy, trippy, happy, sexy vibe as my paintings!"
A lavish 18 silkscreens are used to reproduce the pattern. As befits a work of art, they are a limited edition of 200. Available in xs, s, m, and large, with a generous fit, they retail for $80. Mandy Pants are currently available exclusively through A Little of What You Fancy, East Hampton's oldest boutique and one of the only non-chain stores to remain on Newtown Lane.
Owner (and friend) Kelly Smith has the most incredible style radar, from Kerry Cassill linens to Carthusia perfumes from Capri to my mother's special Hamptons line (if I do say so myself).Don't be surprised to see other famous style setters and shop owners sniffing around to see her latest finds.
To reserve your pair:
A Little of What You Fancy
19 Newtown Lane
East Hampton, NY
tel: 631.324.3113
This is for those of you who have been following along with my Adrian posts. Surely I wasn't the only who was tantalized by that monkey house roof and left wanting to see more of the Adrian-Janet Gaynor residence? Well, no more sleepless nights....The Adrians' Bel Air house was remodeled in 1951 with the help of architect Burton A. Schutt (pronounced Skutt), who is best known for designing the Bel-Air Hotel in 1945. In a town where all the secrets of greasepaint and stagecraft were intimate knowledge, it was very common to give an existing structure a cosmetic face-lift, instead of building from scratch.
Adrian was very involved with the project, and the interior was gutted and reimagined with a more contemporary open floorplan and floods of light.
The living room layers traditional furnishings, paintings of Africa by Adrian himself, and tribal artifacts collected on the couple's extensive travels.
Besides bearing testament to Adrian's penchant for animal skins, the sunroom also features Robsjohn-Gibbings sofa and armchairs, a slamming mirrored cocktail table, and a pair of African drums used as end tables (which would have been very at home at this summer's Hampton Designer Showhouse where all things African seem to be the trend du jour.)
All photos by Fred Lyon, from the April 1992 issue of Architectural Digest