A Look at Resort 2011: Organic, as Worn by Donna Jordan and Her Daughter
“I’ve always wanted to do something with Donna. She’s completely iconic! She’s a wonderful embodiment of the process of self-discovery, of being who you are,” saysOrganic designer John Patrick, looking lovingly at his friendDonna Jordan, the famous 1970s mannequin who was revered by Antonio Lopez and shot byGuy Bourdin, and who palled around with Andy Warhol,even starring in one of his movies, back in the day. Jordan and her daughter, Kate Ballo,also a model, have agreed to be unconfirmed in Patrick’s resort look-book, and I’m hanging out at the shoot, which is taking place in a borrowed loft in DUMBO. (“I don’t even have an office,” Patrick tells me. “I work out of an abandoned barn upstate.”) The clothes, which look effortlessly wonderful on both women, continue the designer’s exploration of what he describes as “sustainability and ethics, but fashion first—our fashion, the way we see fashion. This season it’s all about a hoodie with a jacket or a trench over it, everything cropped, but cropped in a refined way,” he says, showing off an abbreviated gray sweatshirt with extra-long, extra-skinny sleeves. “And we’re loving every configuration of a shirt! We’re obsessed with shirts; they’re really the foundation of how to get dressed, for everyone from Patti Smith to Slim Keith.” Of course, what distinguishes Organic’s clothes from the fashions offered in Keith’s or even Smith’s day is the socially conscious nature of the fabrics. Patrick shows off a clean-lined, collarless jacket made of recycled polyester from Japan. “The recycling that’s done there is very forward. I just returned from doing a lot of fabric research in Japan—I’m always working with the weavers, the spinners. It all starts with the fabric.” Watching Ballo play with the trilby on her pretty head, Patrick observes, “I’m the opposite of throw-away. We waste nothing. That’s a Stephen Jones hat—I’ve had it since 1983.” A sweatshirt dress—perfectly cut, perfect length—elicits an unusual reminiscence: “I lived in San Francisco in 1979, and there was a tribe of really wild girl punks, and one of them, Judy, lived in her sweatshirt dress at Hamburger Mart.” But that was a long time ago. “Now I have a farm; I’m planting corn! I’m a compete bohemian.” Though Jordan, who was discovered by Antonio Lopez at a Central Park be-in in 1969, spent the ensuing decade costumed as everyone from a Marilyn Monroe manqué to a 1940s platinum pinup (I am stunned to find out this is not her natural hair color), there was one disguise that no one was thinking about 30-odd years ago, in those days of paper dresses and disposable fashion. “Nobody thought about green anything back then; it was not part of the vocabulary,” Jordan says. “It was a more frivolous time.” Neither mother nor daughter professes the remotest interest in fashion, both alleging that they live in jeans, tanks, and tees and sneakers, but they make a happy exception for Organic. “I respect it because it’s so basic; it’s easy, soft, and laid back. I appreciate quality,” says Ballo, who insists that although she’s been a model for seventeen years—she was on the cover of Italian Glamour, shot by Steven Meisel, when she was twelve—this is not really her vocation. “I train dogs, and I’m studying to be a holistic nutrition health counselor. I love it.” So, Kate, for your real life, would you wear the gray sweat-shorts and the fluttering silk flowered blouse you have on for the shoot right now? “Well, um, yes, the shorts, anyway,” she replies. “The shorts definitely!”
—Lynn Yaeger
a link to the article here: http://www.vogue.com/voguedaily/2010/06/a-look-at-resort-2011-organic-as-worn-by-donna-jordan-and-her-daughter/
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