In the shadow of the growing political divide, turmoil in the US and Europe, and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the spring 2023 runway collections were surprisingly apolitical, aside from Ye’s controversial White Lives Matter T-shirts. , which turned out to be just the tip. of the iceberg of his hate speech that continues to reverberate, as the marks separate from him.
But in Los Angeles, California, designer Lizzie Grover Rad doesn’t shy away from tough subjects; in fact, she’s running towards them, building her brand on issues like reproductive rights (season one) and the multibillion-dollar space race that’s the next frontier for capitalism (season two).
“You can look at it from a lot of different angles, but it’s interesting that the people with the most money have the same search,” Rad said during a preview of her second collection. “I wonder if there’s something else we don’t know… Deep state stuff,” she smiled, adding that she loves to “dig into the patriarchy.”
“There’s also an obvious environmental angle, so it’s a part of the collection,” she said, pointing to a corset and trousers ensemble in a print developed from a 16th-century apocalyptic oil painting, depicting demons, hounds and beheadings, among other heartbreaking. scenes “This is from a fragment of a tapestry from ‘Mars God of War’ that refers to the violence of man and the lengths to which we will go in all pursuits throughout history,” he said of another print.
Grover Rad Collection 2
Aaron Feaver
After viewing it online, Rad licensed the artwork, another common thread of his approach. For its first season, in April, it commissioned feminist artists Aline Kominsky-Crumb and her daughter Sophie Crumb to create an original comic strip titled “4 Shades of Abortion” about their own abortions over a span of 53 years, showing the difference between Aline’s abortions before the abortion in Roe v. Wade in the US and Sophie’s abortion in the early 2000s in France, a much more pleasant experience.
Grover Rad season one
Rad also drew on references to “The Scarlet Letter” in a beautiful midnight blue silk boxy blazer with Nathanial Hawthorne’s quote, “She hadn’t known weight until she felt freedom,” on the back. Mesh pieces with graphic representations of an idealized female body also speak to issues of liberation and objectification. Twenty-five percent of the proceeds from the first collection went to the Yellow Hammer fund, a reproductive justice organization in the Deep South.
His collections, with pieces priced from $150 to $10,000, are made in Los Angeles and sold direct-to-consumer for now. But Rad hopes to find a retail partner.
Grover Rad Collection 2
Aaron Feaver
“Business is good, abortion is clearly a difficult topic to use and launch, but I felt very strongly about it,” said Rad, who started out in interior design, co-founded the app Hutch and raised venture capital funds from the Tinder co-founder Sean Rad. , among others.
The two entrepreneurs ended up marrying, and last year Architectural Digest called their Jane Hallworth-designed and stunningly beautiful Hollywood Hills home “the hottest entryway in town” with its double-height living room and idiosyncratic offices on home.
Clearly, if they’re not billionaires, they have millionaire tastes. In Lizzie Grover Rad’s office, there’s a massive disco ball, which she hand-arranged herself, along with furniture by Osvaldo Borsani, Gio Ponti, Gabriella Crespi, and an orgiastic painting by George Condo.
Grover Rad Collection 2
Aaron Feaver
There’s certainly a mischievous side to Rad, whose latest collection features a jean jacket depicting a 1970s male porn star holding a fired rocket like a phallus, and a draped dress with a subtle scene from flagrant crime. On the activist front, a T-shirt reading “Make Mars a Matriarchy” can be worn with white jeans emblazoned with Galileo’s drawings of the moon’s surface.
There are more understatedly elegant pieces, too, including a stunning bronze-fringed beaded column gown “Andromeda,” a black velvet jacket with silver thread embroidery that references conspiracy theories surrounding crop circles, and a scattered combination of ivory bias cut “stardust” that looks out to the cosmos. .
The piece de resistance is a wearable, draped brown silk ballgown with a 3D-printed chimpanzee on the shoulder, held in place by magnet, as a glimpse of an alternate history, perhaps, for Ham and the other monkeys and apes launched into space. against his will during the space race.
Grover Rad Collection 2
Aaron Feaver
“What we’re going to step on to get to the next chapter is represented by Ham in a few different places in the collection,” she said, adding that she could wear the dress at the LACMA Art + Film gala. She’s already worn what she calls the “cunnilingus” dress to a gallery dinner.
What if you saw Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk dressing their billionaires in space pieces? “They can appreciate it, how can you not laugh? You could make a friend.
And definitely start a conversation.
Grover Rad Collection 2
Aaron Feaver
Source: news.google.com