Style Icon: Debbie Harry

Debbie Harry, the lead singer of the New Wave pop band, Blondie was a defining pioneer reveling in the 1980’s New York scene when fashion, music, art, and bustling downtown culture was fusing together to create a style that ultimately illustrated the decade.

Her friends included voyeuristic artist Andy Warhol and his protege; fashion whiz kid from Halston, Stephen Sprouse. Debbie and Stephen lived in the same apartment building in the Bowery section of NYC and they became great friends. He would construct all of her outfits from items in Debbie’s closet, thrift store finds, vintage gems, and in the end it was an unfiltered Sprouse creation.

At night they would have dinners and go dancing with Andy and Sprouse’s right hand man, now famed fashion photographer, Steven Meisel. Debbie credits Sprouse for tailoring her look and would wear his designs in music videos. He directed the video for Blondie’s ”Heart Of Glass” and the fabulous “scan line” dress that she is wearing, he made that from a photo he took of a television set. Much like Warhol’s Factory, Sprouse’s studio was full of models,  musicians, and art stars who fed off of each other.

In the eighties music videos were catapulting the careers of otherwise faceless bands. After Debbie Harry made it onto the screen with the disco crossover hit, ”Heart Of Glass”, Blondie arrived onto the mainstream music scene. This upset many of Blondie’s New Wave/Post Punk underground contemporaries, but the band responded with the statement that Debbie had always wanted to try different genres of music. Her popularity tended to overshadow the band, and even though she has done solo work as of late, she still credits her band for her success.

Debbie gets the Stephen Sprouse treatment

Debbie’s most identifiable feature is surely that tousled blond bob. I find her wide set angled (usually rimmed with black liner) eyes to be the most intriguing, or perhaps it’s the high cheekbones. In any case her entire look, tough yet physically stunning, is appealing to this day. Her style is completely rock star status; mixing prints and textures, bright red lipstick, and mini skirts. She’s like the fairy godmother of the punk princesses.

Some current Debbie Harry news:

-Barbie created a line of dolls called “Ladies of the 80’s” it includes Debbie Harry, Joan Jett and Cyndi, Lauper.
-Photographer Brian Aris compiled an exhibition of photos of the iconic singer currently on display in London. (BBC video)
-Currently she is on tour with Blondie with new music to come out this year!

Stephen Sprouse Gym Set!

O-M-G.  Last year I posted about the Louis Vuitton Damier Azur gym set that featured a gym towel, wristbands and headband.  I love when luxury brands produce atypical products and I thought the set would be the answer to get me to the gym.  It wasn’t.  I couldn’t bring myself to spend over $300 for a towel and wrist/head bands – just to sweat on them.  Today, I was looking at more sneak peeks of the Stephen Sprouse collection and I stumbled upon this set.  What would be better for dabbing your forehead after bustin’ a move?  Haha.  Yes, it’s still over priced but that doesn’t mean I can’t dream right?

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sneak peak of Louis Vuitton SoHo for Stephen Sprouse by William Yan

NYC’s William Yan provided this sneak peek photo of the graffiti covered Louis Vuitton store in SoHo. As we reported yesterday the entire exterior and interior of the store will be transformed à la Stephen Sprouse. If you’re in NY do yourself a favor and check it out IRL!

Louis Vuitton x Stephen Sprouse Skateboard

Speaking of practicality, how about this LV x Stephen Sprouse Skatedeck? Talk about “kick-pushing” in style! As part of the much anticipated LV x Sprouse collection, this beauty could be yours for a drop-in-the-bucket price of $8, 250. This piece along with the collection in its entirety will be available at the SoHo boutique on Thursday. The complete worldwide launch will follow on Feb. 2, though the Rose pieces will be available at Louis Vuitton stores worldwide starting Friday. This limited edition piece along with a limited edition Rose t-shirt will only be available at the SoHo location for the launch. Here’s what LV has to say:

The company hopes to sell three graffiti skateboards with trunks for $8,250 each, and 70 T-shirts for $250 each. “I don’t expect them to last very long,” Lalonde said. “By Friday, there probably won’t be any more left.”

If you are lucky enough to be in NYC make-sure to stop by the SoHo store to peep it’s transformation into a Stephen Sprouse wonderland! Complete with an interior and exterior bombed in neon spray paint, this is surely to be eye-candy not to miss. Proceeds from the sales of the Sprouse Collection will go to a worthy cause:

Sales will benefit Free Arts NYC, which provides under served children throughout New York City with special arts programs. Vuitton is also making an undisclosed donation to the Sprouse Estate, as well as the Stephen Sprouse Memorial Scholarship Fund at the National Academy for Design here (New York).

I’m hoping that LV teamed up with a reputable skateborad manufacture to produce these decks…although I doubt that those wheels will ever hit the pavement, for authenticity’s sake it would be nice to know. Nobody likes a poser. So, if you have pockets deep like Kanye or Pherrell (which I could see two of the three decks going to the likes of these gentlemen), then by all means, do it!! This deck would look so good next to my Chanel basketball *sigh*

Source

In anticipation of the second coming of the Stephen Sprouse x Louis Vuitton collection, a new site was launched called We Love Sprouse that has everything you would every want to know about the partnership between the luxury goods company and the artist/fashion designer.  From runway show footage of the original collection, look book of the new collection and interviews with Marc Jacobs, you can learn more about the project, the artist and the amazing new products to come.  The site has a lot of personality and does a good job of bringing the project to digital life.  From videos, to a boom box with some of Sprouse’s favorite tunes, you really get a sense of the world that Stephen Sprouse lived in.  I can’t wait for this collection to drop.  The neon glow in the dark treatment is pretty crazy and I’ve never seen anything like that for LV.  My favorite pieces from what I’ve seen are the heels and the jewelry.  I’m not really a leggings girl, but I even like the leggings.  If you want to check out some of the video interviews and see more of the collection, read the rest of the story.

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