Rowley’s Latest Collection, William Klein’s New Show – WWD

FIND A CHAIR: On Thursday night, designer Cynthia Rowley showcased her latest collection with an interactive presentation of musical chairs at Lotte New York Palace’s Villiard Ballroom. While the designer opted out of presenting her fall collection during New York Fashion Week, she still wanted to host a fun event to reveal a collection of new styles, which are set to release this summer.

“Eighty girls and guys — 80 original looks. It’s almost an all-new collection; the guys are wearing our cardigans and pajamas,” Rowley said of each attendees’ outfit, all of whom the designer dressed for the event. Approximately 60 of the evening’s looks — ranging from voluminous and playful, girly dresses of varying lengths to tunics over pants and more — were noted to be from her latest collection.

“When everyone’s walking around, it’s like a runway show,” Rowley said of the fashionable game, which was followed by a dinner party set with floral blooms from McQueens Flowers and faux colorful tiered cakes. — EMILY MERCER

WORTH THE WAIT: At 93, the multidimensional artist William Klein is about to get his professional day in the sun this summer with a major retrospective at the International Center of Photography.

The New York City cultural destination will showcase Klein’s fashion, street and other photography, as well as some of his paintings and films starting on June 3 and running through Sept. 12. “William Klein: YES; Photographs Paintings, Films, 1948-2013” will occupy the downtown museum’s entire space.

The New York City-born Klein got his start as a studio assistant for Fernand Léger in Paris in 1948. Trained as a painter, Klein became more widely recognized for his fashion and street photography in the mid-’50s and returned to it in the late ’80s. His fashion shots were featured prominently in Vogue and in a few books including “Life Is Good and Good for You in New York.” The retrospective will feature black-and-white images of Harlem’s street scene in the ’50s and a shot from “Nina and Simone, Piazza di Spagna, Rome, 1958.” There will also be a 2005 convivial group image that Klein shot of Marc Jacobs and friends.

Klein once told WWD, “I find it satisfying that what I’ve done in photography has had so much influence on how people take photographs and what they look at and how they look at things. Fashion photography I couldn’t care less. I did it for money and for all the possibilities of developing my skills technically.”

Klein has resided in Paris for most of his life. Some of his early work will be among the 200-plus pieces on view, as well as more recent images from a 2013 Brooklyn shoot.

Klein has said, “I came from the outside, the rules of photography didn’t interest me. There were things you could do with a camera that you couldn’t do with any other medium — grain, contrast, blur, cock-eyed framing, eliminating or exaggerating gray tones and so on. I thought it would be good to show what’s possible, to say that this is as valid of a way of using the camera as conventional approaches.”

The artist also created documentary films about the former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, the musician “Little Richard” and the Pan-African Festival of Algiers. Klein also created fiction films about the beauty industry, imperialism and consumer culture.

Seemingly always in on the joke that he wryly relayed with his work, Klein once told WWD, “You do things for yourself and you do things for other people, and you hope these things coincide.” — ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

GIRL FROM IPANEMA: Brazilian-born, Milan-based designer Raquel Diniz has Ipanema Beach on her mind.

With good reason, she has just spent the past few months working on the first flagship for her namesake brand, slated to open in Milan’s Via Santo Spirito next July, where the floor will pay homage to her homeland. “Instead of putting patterns on the walls, which get tiring, I went for a motif on the floor with different stones that nods to Ipanema but not in an obvious way,” she said at the Paris presentation of her fall 2022 collection at the Hôtel de Crillon.

Diniz, who is married to fashion investor and Formula 1 mogul Lawrence Stroll, came to Milan to study at Istituto Marangoni, before going to work for public relations maven Noona Smith-Petersen. To ensure she had an appropriate wardrobe to work events for clients such as Valentino — “where I wanted to eventually work,” the designer said — she put her design skills to use making outfits for herself.

“People started asking me where I had bought these dresses. I sold one, two, three, then I had to give up the day job and work in my living room,” she remembered.

Made-to-order turned into a ready-to-wear business in 2016. Presented twice a year during Milan Fashion Week, the range was soon picked up by the likes of Matchesfashion, Net-a-porter, Harrods, Antonioli and the now-defunct Montaigne Market.

Poised for further expansion, Diniz’s foray into America was curtailed when Barney’s folded. And then the pandemic hit, and the demand for the kind of feminine and flirty numbers that is her specialty plummeted.

The opening of this 750-square-foot space feels like a corner has finally been turned, she said. It will carry a high summer collection, featuring her exuberant floral designs and knack for color — including her favorite, the sunny yellow of the ipe amarelo flower native to Brazil. Her pre-fall and fall lines, inspired by the graphic lines and contours of the Oscar Niemeyer-designed Palazzo Mondadori.

A new category for the brand is knitwear, which she feels fit the “woman always on the go — working, traveling, interested in new cultures and new places,” she designs for. There will also be upcycled leather jewelry, created in collaboration with Italian designer Maria Sole Ferragamo.

Working on this first flagship also whetted her appetite for interiors. “It’s opening a whole other avenue for me. I’m in love with building things — maybe a homewear line,” she mused. In the meantime, there’s one immediate benefit she is looking forward to. “My living room will be a bit more quiet,” she laughed. — LILY TEMPLETON

POWER COUPLE: Tailoring Italian brand Hebe Studio is branching out with a men’s line, unveiling new designs that blur the lines between gender for its fall 2022 collection.

Hebe Studio has garnered a dose of additional attention by dressing Damiano David, the Italian lead vocalist of the Maneskïn band who won the Eurovision song contest last year. The artist contributed to a spike in demand for men’s Hebe Studio styles.

“With Hebe Studio, we want to empower women,” read a statement issued by the company, “but we also liked the idea of how women and men can become accomplices in the way they dress, thanks to the suit which has no gender.”

In addition, “Hebe Studio’s suit enhances female strength and it is a statement piece that also brings out the androgynous side of every woman. It is definitely an evergreen, perfect for every season and every occasion.”

The designers of the Italian label presented a collection of tailored suits for men in a color palette that included pink, turquoise, red, burgundy, orange, beige and green, and shirts in equally pop shades. The suits are made with wool, viscose and satin. The brand also introduced a selection of sheer and long-sleeved T-shirts.

Each suit is 100 percent Made in Italy at Hebe Studio’s atelier, with prizes ranging from 900 euros to 2,000 euros. — ALICE MONORCHIO