By: Sarah Hartshorne
On February 3rd the French Institute in New York City hosted the opening reception for Greg Laurens’s installation Counter Couture. Lauren’s piece consists of beautifully constructed men’s clothing, all made of paper. There are elaborately constructed suit jackets, onto which classic Hitchcock films are projected to create a feeling of surreal luxury. According to the press release, Greg Lauren is exploring “the role fashion plays in the development of identity and the obsessive nature of detail, from collars to cuffs”. I was unable to track him down last night but I hope he explored the fashion identities of those present.
The men’s hair was shaggy, the women’s perfect. There was fur, but never too much. The perfume came, naturally, from Paris. The people, for the most part, did not. I heard smatterings of French throughout the exhibit but most of the attendees studied France and maybe summered in France. Greg Lauren is a nephew of Ralph Lauren, and the fashion world duly sent representatives. They looked a little out-of-place in the gallery, clutching their cheap wine and eating the only appetizers available; cheese swirls. “Is someone walking around with trays of food?” asked a tall, thin woman who looked like she’d been eating exclusively off waiter’s trays since her teens. An impeccably styled elderly gentleman ordered a scotch on the rocks at the bar and walked away with a red wine, looking like a little boy who’d been told there was no ice cream.
