Eccentrics

START
body

In our latest sneak preview from Issue 7, we reveal four of ten very special subjects to be photographed in a story titled “Eccentrics.” Celebrating the change-makers and trail blazers who embody the power of uncovention, you’ll find designer Vivienne Westwood and her partner in love and work, Andreas Kronthaler, experimental musician, Grimes, and seminal writer, Fran Lebowitz—all photographed by Michael Avedon. Take a browse and stay tuned for more reveals from our new issue which hits newsstands today.

Here’s a few words from our fellow favorite eccentric, Fran Lebowitz:

“There are classic eccentrics. More commonly, someone who is really eccentric is also likely to be, in some way, classic. “Eccentric” is a word that we generally apply to rich people. People who aren’t rich—we call them crazy. You wouldn’t call a homeless person on the streets wearing horns on his head an eccentric—except he is. If an aristocrat greets you at his door wearing horns on his head you’d say, “He’s so eccentric.”

Everyone would be individual if they were allowed to be. Usually, it’s given in opposition to convention. Of course, no one knows what that means because there are no real conventions anymore. That doesn’t mean that people don’t seem alike in many ways—that is, a lack of originality in the average person. I don’t believe that the average person is highly original or creative. Actual talent is one of the truly random things on the planet Earth. It’s really not a thing that can be discouraged if it’s real—or made to exist if it doesn’t. It can look like it does, hence art school or writing school. It’s not something that you can inherit, although it often looks like it is. Nepotism. That’s a burning issue of the day.

I suppose you could describe Vivienne Westwood as an eccentric. She is someone who actually is creative. There are some people who just want to look that way. She invented that world for herself. Most people don’t invent things—especially now—because everyone has the opportunity to see everything on the Internet.

When Vivienne Westwood was young, only certain people saw what she was able to see. Only certain people understood it. Now there is tremendous access to every single thing out there, but there is not any greater understanding of it. More and more people are interested in fashion. I’ve never thought—and I still do not think—that lots of attention on something is good for it. When there is a lot of attention, things fall to the mean. It’s a law of nature.

Clothes were better. There were great designers like Saint Laurent—a great designer who everyone agreed was a great designer. But “everyone” was not the “everyone” that it is now. A talent like Saint Laurent is extremely rare. It’s hard to take someone out of their time, but it’s hard to imagine someone like that existing now.

The word that is most overused is “icon.” So overused, that I doubt one out of a zillion people even know what an icon is or what the word “icon” really means. An iconoclast usually means “a breaker of icons.” It has a religious meaning. In this context, I think it means people who go against fashion.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a person who ever thought about myself as going for or against fashion. I am interested in clothes, but I’ve worn the same things my whole life. Not this level of things. For instance, if you take my jacket—which is an Anderson & Sheppard jacket—what’s more conventional than a Savile Row tailor? Except that they didn’t make jackets for women. It’s very conventional—unless you’re a girl. A man wearing this would look incredibly conventional. I think it depends not on what you wear, but who you are.

Overused words fit into our current era, which is excessive in its language. The language of the last 20 years is basically the language of show business. People express these very extreme emotions about things that they themselves know are not extreme. People in show business used to talk like this. No one else did. Calling someone an idol used to be reserved for very few people who were, in fact, idolized, but now it’s everybody.

They all want the same thing. It’s always a mistake for people, in their youth, to identify first with their youth because it leaves you. Whatever idiot my age ever said “never trust anyone over 30,” well, he’s an old man now. Youth—from a point of view of the way you look—is most rewarding to very few people. Now, of course, there’s so much artificiality even in young people’s looks. Young people who are having plastic surgery are shocking to me. You’re never going to look better than you do now.

When I moved, I found contact sheets from an old shoot with Vogue. I had written to Anna Wintour on them: “Anna, these pictures are horrible. You can’t use these!” I looked at the pictures and I thought, If I woke up tomorrow and I looked like that I’d fall to my knees. I look at these pictures now and I think I was beautiful! Of course, if you compare yourself 30 years later you’re going to look better. When I was 25 I didn’t compare my looks to a woman of my age. I compared myself to Iman, who was also my age. Iman looked much better than me then and she does now.”

END


prev link: https://www.crfashionbook.com/fashion/a10208943/eccentrics/
createdAt:Thu, 22 Jun 2017 19:15:15 +0000
displayType:Long Form Article
section:Fashion