Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood for once doesn’t end eaten by the wolf, but right back in the middle of the fashion scene.
The 80s in New York, Studio 54 at its best, drugs, drugs and disco music, Elio Fiorucci opens his store which become the day version of the Studio 54, Andy Wharol’s Factory, the first Afro American artist becomes globally famous, and his name is Jean Michel Basquiat. A young star called Madonna hits the scene dressed like a super fashionable gothic girl, with tons of rubber bracelets, wearing crosses and lace, and tons of golden chains. Grace Jones is an adroginism icon. Debbie Harry rocks the world as Blondie and breaks millions of hearts of glass.
Believe it or not, there’s one only person that can be linked to all of these places and people: Maripol. The girl with a Polaroid was maybe the first stylist ever: she created the gothic look for Madonna, that influenced all the teenagers of the time, and also the signature looks of Grace Jones and Debbie Harry. She collaborated with Fiorucci and soon became the art director of the shop, launching her first ultra pop rubber jewellery line for Fiorucci in 1978 and soon going on with her own line, Maripolitan, brought to failure at the end of the eighties for the billions of bad quality copycats. She shot iconic polaroids of the most influential artists of the time, including Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat – of which she became muse and close friend.
Ok, ok, and now? I hear you say the 80s are over and we should look forward. But we know that looking at a great past is a very effective way to look at the future: that’s why the IT designer of nowadays NY, who else if not Marc Jacobs, asked Maripol to draw a line of rubber jewellery, this time to be sold at Marc Jacobs stores. The result is a fab re-edition of her most famous pieces, for a price range that goes from 4 to 25 $. A very honest deal: everybody can buy a little piece of history of costume of Manhattan.
If you want to know more about her, Maripol’s work has now been embodied into a 240-page book entitled “Little Red Riding Hood” – because her first acknowledgement as a stylist was a prize for the best costume as the famous fairy tale protagonist, at high school.
Maripol: Little Red Riding Hood
Damiani Editore
45,00 Eur
Ariko
