daphne guinness

>> Pieces from Daphne Guinness's wardrobe are on display at New York's FIT Museum through Jan. 7, 2012. Valerie Steele, who along with Guinness curated the exhibit, reveals that Guinness owns 2,500 dresses and 500 shoes, all of which are indexed in a personal database. "She's very well-organized," Steele explains. [@UnBeige]

>> Daphne Guinness, a longtime champion of Alexander McQueen, reveals that originally she was afraid to meet the designer: “I admired him and didn’t want to meet him because I am quite shy, but Isabella [Blow] said I must. But I didn’t want to be a groupie. It had to happen organically. You don’t have to know someone to love their work. One day he saw me walking across the street in his kimono and he ran up to me and said, 'I’m the person you don’t want to meet!' We went to a pub and hit it off. Of course after that I was so irritated not to have known him before!” [W]

>> One of sure to be many fashion figures wearing Alexander McQueen to Monday's Costume Institute Gala? Daphne Guinness, who plans to dress herself for the event — in a feathery McQueen gown — in one of the windows of Barneys' Manhattan flagship, starting at 5 p.m. on May 2. The stunt — which was Guinness's idea — is not in any way a peep show, she says: “I am not doing a burlesque — no way. I’m going to be getting dressed behind something. I’m not Dita Von Teese, nor shall I be.” Instead, she likes the idea because “there’s been this discussion for longer than I’ve been alive that fashion is not art,” Guinness explains. “My feeling is that this is another piece of evidence that, yes, there is a commercial side to fashion that is needed, but there are these crossover moments that do become art. I hope it works, and I don’t faint.” [NY Times]

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>> Victoria Beckham, who just announced that she's having her first girl in July, has had an uphill climb to prove herself as a fashion designer. Although it seemed lately that she'd made it over the hump, during her Fall 2011 presentation last month — which Beckham narrated to an intimate crowd of top editors — Robin Givhan reports: "There were muffled giggles, knowing glances, and plenty of eye-rolling over the non-stop narration . . . It called to mind the manner in which Tom Ford presented his women’s collection for spring. His rolling monologue drew gushing praise from the industry. Of course, Ford’s presentation dripped in irony. And Ford is the reigning prince of charm. Beckham’s great crime, it seems, was her earnestness. She was not being ironic. She was not being self-consciously hip. And the cool girls turned on her. It wasn’t pretty."

Then, yesterday, an article in the Times UK came out, with fashion insider and heiress Daphne Guinness quoted calling Beckham "an ugly pig ... downbeat miserable and awful. Of course she's going to make money — she's backed by Simon Fuller. I don't have anyone! She annoys the sh*t out of me."

But Guinness now denies that she made such remarks. "I would never make a comment like that about my worst enemy, let alone someone I like," she told Vogue UK. "I think Victoria is brave and fantastic for building up her business like she has. I did not make those comments. They were b*tchy and horrible and just not me."

Guinness says the subject of Beckham arose from a discussion with the Times about financial backing: "I like to make my own things — they're probably not of any commercial worth and it's not always easy to get funding for them. I used Victoria as a reference as someone that had managed to do that. I do things a little differently. I remortgage my house and do it that way [Guinness reportedly paid $15 million in 2008 for her New York apartment]. I really admire the way she has achieved what she has. She makes beautiful clothes — they're really very beautiful."

Guinness also took to Twitter to dispel the firestorm, explaining that she did the interview as a favor: "I am so sad stitched up by the sunday times. I thought [the writer] c. long was a friend. I would never call anyone an ugly cow, not my words . . . the journalist I knew from Issie [Blow], so i thought she would understand things, we had been friends, she has put words in my mouth." She added as further explanation: "And for the record I not only admire Victoria Beckham but know her and like her. My point was that I do most things alone without a backer."

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