LEANNE ITALIE
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A little bit raunchy, a little bit sad and a little bit fashion show, the design house Opening Ceremony spoofed itself and the fashion industry Sunday night in a one-act play directed by Spike Jonze and written by Jonze and Jonah Hill.
During New York Fashion Week in February, the two college buddies who started Opening Ceremony in 2002, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, treated their fashiony guests to a massive white wall that oozed chocolate.
This time, their new collection of clothes — and the models who wore them — were a backdrop to Elle Fanning as a bubbly new model, a foul-mouthed Catherine Keener as Lim and John Cameron Mitchell as a tightly wound, stressed-out Leon dealing with all the little details of putting on a show for a fashion week.
The play, called “100 Percent Lost Cotton,” had been a bit of a mystery for weeks. Details dribbled out on Twitter from a performance earlier Sunday.
“I just was happy to work with Spike on a play,” Hill told The Associated Press after the show.
Opening Ceremony used risers behind the stage of the Metropolitan Opera for its guests. The opera house’s tiers of lush red seating and grand chandeliers served as a beautiful tableau.
The story had Fanning befriending an older, more jaded model at a casting as Leon and stylist Brian, played by Bobby Cannavale, ready the spring collection — the company’s real one — for presentation.
Karlie Kloss makes an appearance as herself and Dree Hemingway manages to be poignant as the struggling 20-something model with unfulfilled aspirations who thought she was in tight with Brian from a drunken night he can’t recall.
Keener is hysterical as the money-conscious Lim who tells it like she sees it.
The clothes themselves came in bright orange, pink and black, featuring perforated neoprene in tops, skirts and trousers and lines in prints.
Opening Ceremony also showed off a smart bracelet collaboration it has with the chip maker Intel.
Called the MICA, for “my intelligent communication accessory,” the cuff bracelet in at least two styles will feature a touchscreen worn on the inside of the wrist. It will be able to take in notifications, including texts, calendar reminders and social media updates, when it goes on sale at the holidays at Opening Ceremony stores and Barney’s.
The estimated cost? Likely $300 or more.
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