THL: Is there some kind of dream fashion tech item, that doesn’t exist yet, which you could imagine being unable to live without in the near future?
actually made clothes or not. It’s so important to know how to build something. I was a Lego freak as a kid, so I understand that only too well. The actual making of clothes — we [designers] all still need to experiTG: What I’m waiting for, and you can tell THL: Gary Shteyngart wrote an amazing ence it. Do we have to do it forever? No. But me if it’s already out there or not — I’m piece about Google Glass for The New we need to understand how things are put an ostrich — will be in the form of under- Yorker, sometime in the last month. together. garments rather than apparel we see. I’m He’s one of the Explorers. It’s the most looking for something that is an excellent, comprehensive picture of the experiAlso, I tell my students, I want you to know foolproof sunscreen. ence we’ve seen so far. the rules, so you can break them. Every designer has a responsibility to know, THL: Well, there’s UV protective clothTG: Great, I’ll have to find that one and read intimately, the history of their discipline. ing… it. My New Yorkers are piling up. Students say “it’s so boring.” But what if TG: True, but I don’t want to be choosing you’re a sculptor and you’re working in a shirt or pants. That’s why I say undergar- THL: Mine too. Movin g on, are any isolation on a mountain top and you bring ments are so critical. It could be leggings designers you know doing something your work to a gallery, and the gallery for a woman or long johns for a man. I say you find interesting with 3D printing? says it looks just like Giacometti? Well, you this because with the shift in our enviWe’re huge fans of the technology, so have a responsibility to know who that is. ronment, it’s affecting our skin, and the far. What are your general thoughts on I say to my students, we must collect the changes are going to be more profound. We it as it applies to fashion? information that’s out there and put it in think about putting sunscreen on our faces, the Rolodex, so to speak. I’m always saying but meanwhile, those rays penetrate our TG: I think it’s still in its infancy. But I’m fashion happens in a context. Look at LL clothing. rapt by it, I agree with you. I’m in the Bean. I have the greatest respect for the middle of home visits for season 12 of brand, I wear things from there — and it’s THL: And speaking of wearable tech, we Project Runway, and one of the finalists is the same pair of boat shoes I wore 50 years have to ask: do you think Google Glass using 3D printing. I won’t even give you a ago. will ever look fashionable? gender, but this individual is able to do this because of the support of a research center And it’s not just in your discipline. TG: Let me tell you. Nina Garcia was on the at a university. The individual does not own Its political and economic — you set of Project Runway, and she tweeted the technology, but has been given carte need to know what’s going on that she’s going to wear Google Glass to all blanche to use it. I watched it in action — of the upcoming NYFW shows. I love Nina; fascinating. in the world. Well, back to your she’s a stunning, fashionable individual. question. The designer should She looked like an idiot. If there was some THL: That brings us to our final thought way to embed that camera… I don’t want — as technology pervades all sectors of still experience the making of the to see it. I don’t want it to bludgeon me. I our lives, is there one analog technique garment. asked Nina, “what is this?” And she said she or skill you’d tell fledgling designers was recording me. And I said, “why don’t never to forget? you just hold the camera? Why do you have to wear the glasses?” TG: If you look at Michael Kors, he’s not making clothes. He can’t, he has an empire. And then it becomes an issue, like wire tap- But he can do it. When I meet young people ping…maybe you should have to declare who profess to be designers, I can tell from that you’re observing me and it’s being their 2D drawings whether they’ve ever
recorded. The glasses themselves, aside from the camera attachment, are all right, but the presence of the [camera] is too overwhelming for me.
THEHIGHLOW.COM