W Magazine

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HO

VENUS DE

COCO COCO ROCHA, THE UKRANIAN BORN STAR OF “BLACK SWAN” TALKS ABOUT COMING TO AMERICA--AND WHY SHE’LL NEVER DANCE AGAIN.

BY LYNN HIRSCHBERG PHOTOGRAPHS BY CRAIG McDEAN STYLED BY ALEX WHITE.

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IN

Versace, portraying the Kane siblings as mirroring her own history with her brother, said: “Tammy gives him a reality check, because she’s totally honest and loves her brother and wants to see him succeed.”

The approach from Kering, a two-year courtship, brought a bittersweet ending to the work with Ms. Versace, yet she sat in the front row of the Christopher Kane winter 2013 show with Mr. Pinault and his wife, Salma Hayek.

It is tough to draw out from the Kanes the reason behind an undercurrent of darkness that might appear as a visual inspiration from the monster Frankenstein or the black masking tape in lines like gashes on a girly dress. (Although Ms. Wilson says: “I know how that collection originated and it wasn’t from a dark place. He was using tape to hold things in place and the idea came from that.”)

There is a hint of life’s bleak side in Mr. Kane’s admission that many of his Scottish schoolmates have had tough lives.

“We were so lucky to have the family we had, because other people weren’t so lucky,” he said. “It’s very sad to think of people we went to school with who have declined into drugs and consuming alcohol.”

“It is interesting to mention this ‘darkness/light’ because it is true that it is an essential point coming back in all Christopher’s collections,” said Sarah Lerfel, the artistic force behind the Paris concept store Colette.

“I like his innovations like the ‘tape’ or the ‘screw”’ said Ms. Lerfel, who created Colette windows for the “tape” collection and displayed the intricacy of bright embroidery. She admires “how he focuses on an idea and explores all possible versions; and that he is not afraid to try new things and to go for the unexpected.”

Designers cannot live on praise alone, and the essence of the Christopher Kane collections is that they sell. Shows have offered soft leather, dense embroideries, long frilled skirts and denim, fastened with the gaudy, glittering buttons, set in plastic resin, that the designer has brought back from 2010 to his current Resort line.

The remarkable quantity of ideas is noted by Linda Fargo, fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman, who calls the “Brain Scan” collection ‘’six shows in one.”

“His aesthetic is such an appealing hybrid of fearlessness and innovation — there is something buoyant and optimistic, yet cool, in his message,” said the powerful New York tastemaker.

Carla Sozzani was one of the first to buy Christopher Kane, for her Milan concept store 10 Corso Como. “I always had sympathy in him, from the beginning, because I thought he had an individual eye and kept himself independent,” Ms. Sozzani said. “Every season he is looking for a new story, but he is very consistent with his colors and his research. His sister is a big influence and she is everything — she tries the clothes on herself and gives the image.”

“I have always thought they are very nice people,” Ms. Sozzani said. She added that with a baby in their midst, they “are very removed from the fashion world.” Ms. Sozzani was referring to Bonnie, Ms. Kane’s baby daughter, whose doting uncle claims is already fascinated by colors.

What is next for the Kanes and their brand? Mr. Pinault says that the company is looking for a London flagship and ultimately hopes to roll out stores in the fashion capitals of the world. But Mr. Kane has an even more pressing aim: to buy himself a house — in Dalston. True to his origins, he prefers to stick to the rough and tumble of his neighborhood and to create his own soft nest of family and friends.

The remarkable quantity of ideas is noted by Linda Fargo, fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman.

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FALL’S

FASH

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HION

BLE A SEASON FILLED WITH MONOCROMATIC SPLASHED BY NEON FABRICS AND ASYMETRIC SHAPES.

BY MARC DANIELS.

A

fashion blend of sweet innocence and a hint of a dark side is the leitmotif of Mr. Kane who, with his sister Tammy, has built up a small, but profitable fashion house in London’s gritty East End. The company now has the backing of the Parisbased Kering luxury group, giving a big future to the designer, whose 30th-birthday cards are on his office wall.

“We were looking for young talent and at names that could be interesting,” said François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive of Kering (formerly PPR), “so we met Christopher and saw him in Paris and London. There was something so touching about him and his sister,” Mr. Pinault said, explaining how he came to buy a controlling stake in Mr. Kane’s company.

The supersiblings do not read as a dynamic duo as they sit in their studio in Dalston, a hip hang-out for the start-up generation, but mostly a low-income neighborhood that could be a poster for London’s multicultural population. Only a roll of fabric in DayGlo shocking pink, a few framed drawings and the Barbies light up the gray and grungy industrial building, where the ancient elevator bears a sign: “Please wait for the ‘bang’ before opening the gate.”

“Christopher is very creative in fashion — he’s full of ideas, really exceptional — and I’ll tell you why,” Ms. Versace said last week. “He is very special in putting weird fabrics together from different materials — ones that don’t even make sense.”

She added: “The difference between him and other designers is that they’re more concerned about looking cool than making contemporary clothes.”

“As a child, Donatella and Gianni were the pinups — meeting Donatella the first time literally set my heart pounding through my T-shirt,” said Mr. Kane, who ultimately was chosen by Ms. Versace to resuscitate the hip Versus collection that she had created when her brother was alive.

“He’s one of the few people recently who reflects his time, representing his generation,” said Ms. Wilson, whose firm, enthusiastic and sometimes scathing teaching nurtured a generation of bright British fashion designers through Saint Martins. “It is not a fantasy world, it is his world, but it does not feel revisited, it is fresh.”

The Kane vision of this domestic bliss might account for little dresses, with intense decoration and detail, and for their shared passion for the Versace look in the raunchier body-con dresses.

At age 12, Mr. Kane saved his pocket money to buy 17- year-old Tammy a Versace wet-look minidress.

“We were looking for young talent and at names that could be interesting,” said François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive of Kering (formerly PPR), “so we met Christopher and saw him in Paris and London. There was something so touching about him and his sister,” Mr. Pinault said, explaining how he came to buy a controlling stake in Mr. Kane’s company.

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“I love science and I am very intrigued how the brain works — for me it’s a miracle and it’s so graphic and looks so modern — and we all have one!”

“EVIL!” SAYS THE DESIGNER IN HIS SOFT SCOTTISH ACCENT. “THEY LOOK LIKE THEY COULD COME ALIVE AT NIGHT.” MR. KANE REMINISCES ABOUT THE FIRST MEMORABLE DRESS HE MADE, OUT OF LACE HOSIERY FABRIC WHICH IS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE “PUNK: CHAOS TO COUTURE” EXHIBITION AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM IN NEW YORK.

“We were looking for young talent and at names that could be interesting,” said François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive of Kering (formerly PPR), “so we met Christopher and saw him in Paris and London.

There was something so touching about him and his sister,” Mr. Pinault said, explaining how he came to buy a controlling stake in Mr. Kane’s company.

Christopher Kane has a word for the Barbie dolls grouped in his studio wearing miniature versions of his perky, girlish fashion creations.

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Christopher Kane has a word for the Barbie dolls grouped in his studio wearing miniature versions of his perky, girlish fashion creations.

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