Now that the New York Fashion Week dust has settled, we've had time to fully digest a week's worth of parties, shows, favorite designer encounters, and every heart-stopping highlight. Some of our favorite moments are outrageous, others truly iconic — but each could only happen on the streets of NYC during one of the biggest, craziest, and best times of the year. In short, these are a few of our favorite Fashion Week things. Watch on for the top 10 reasons our editors love NYFW.
>> Long before Bill Cunningham became a legendary street-style photographer, he designed hats for a living — and some of his millinery is going on sale this week.
Vintage fashion dealer Katy Kane will be selling the hats on 1stdibs.com starting Wednesday, April 18. Kane purchased the '40s- and '50s-era toppers, sold under the label William J, from Cunningham's friend Alison Schacter.
The documentary Bill Cunningham New York focuses briefly on Cunningham's history as a hatmaker, but Cunningham himself talks about the hats in great detail in a video for The New York Times. Some of his work was practical, but much of it was outlandish — and Cunningham explained that's because he approached millinery like art.
"The hat thing was really, as I say, it was like sculpture," he said. "It's the most wonderful, freeing, relaxing experience. I had a lot of fun, even if I didn't make money. But I did pay my bills."
Cunningham will be the honoree at the Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence Gala this year, which takes place on the 23rd. Take a look at some examples of his feathery, artful work — as photographed by Cunningham himself — in the gallery.
Update: An unnamed buyer purchased the entirety of Cunningham's hat collection for $20,000, according to WWD. A spokeswoman for 1stdibs said the buyer is a friend of Cunningham's who wants to donate the hats to New York City Art Museum.
Photo Courtesy Zeitgeist Films
Bill Cunningham is a fashion fixture — and the cutest photographer we know. With his documentary, aptly titled Bill Cunningham New York, released earlier this year, Bill and his signature blue jacket are high on the pop culture radar, and for good reason. He's been capturing street style for the New York Times since the '70s. We think this would make for a totally unique, ultracomfortable, and ultimately functional costume (everyone will want you to take their pic!). Want to be Bill? Click the links to shop.
Shop the look: Old Navy Khakis ($25), Lomography Camera ($48), Need Supply Blazer ($32)
>> The trailer for Bill Cunningham New York, the 88-minute documentary on streetstyle pioneer and 81-year-old New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham, just became available. Richard Press, who directed the film, says he first approached Cunningham about the project in 2000: "He just pooh-poohed the idea. He couldn’t entertain it. He said, ‘Why me? There’s no subject here.’” Filming didn't begin until New York Fashion Week in 2008. Anna Wintour, who makes a cameo, says that just seeing Cunningham not raise his camera is enough to strike dread into the heart of a fashion editor: "We all get dressed for Bill." The film premieres at New York City's Film Forum on March 16; for more theater availability, check here.
>> Documentary in the Works on Stylist and Fashion Editor Polly Mellen —The wealth of recent fashion documentaries continues to grow — Bill Cunningham New York, a project ten years in the making on the original street style photographer just premiered recently in New York, and at the end of this month Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston, a documentary look at Halston (and whose director looked to Andre Leon Talley for guidance on who to interview and what to research) will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. And it doesn't stop there: last night at the WFIT Elle panel, in talking about his first job assisting Polly Mellen (who worked for 28 years as a fashion editor at Vogue and eight years as creative director at Allure) Joe Zee revealed that he was interviewed this week for a forthcoming documentary on Mellen.
»September 2008 Harper's Bazaar features designers dressed up and photographed in their fantasies — and Karl Lagerfeld picked to be a rapper [FWD]
»Ralph Lauren likely had to pay to design the US Olympic opening ceremony uniforms, but at least he's making money off of it now [The Cut]
»A first look at Samantha Pleet's "goth-and-lollipops" Rapscallion collection for Urban Outfitters [The Pipeline]
»Bergdorf Goodman is hosting a Bill Cunningham retrospective during New York Fashion Week [Fashionista]
»Behati Prinsloo and model boyfriend Jamie Strachan: still going strong [Chic Report]
»Hearst is launching a competitor to Conde Nast's Fashion Rocks in September called 30 Days of Fashion [WWD]
