Carbro and I were talking a couple nights ago about the various characteristics of certain fashion designers, and we started thinking...what if Giorgio Armani had a ballet company? It would probably be tasteful and restrained, but very sophisticated, glorifying such technical feats as the single perfect pirouette that finishes on (demi)pointe, &c. What's your favorite fashion designer (or fashion house) and what would his/her/its ballet company be like?

My favourite fashion designer is "Spacetribe", and if they had a ballet company they would let Yuri Grigorovich and Flemming Flindt together create a ballet of "Startrek".
It will be a very dramatic ballet with lots of battles and laser guns, all to loud rave music.

I believe that Captain Picard and his crew already are used to wear tights .
In a interview Patrick Stewart said that his doctor forbid him to wear tights, it was a hazard to his health, in what way i can't remember.

Actually, considering the number of Trekkies out there, I'm surprised no one's done a Star Trek ballet yet.

I'm probably going to ballet hell for that.

Maybe you are, Hans, but I could think of worse ones...

Lacroix has done the designs for several ballets (POB Jewels, ABT Gaite Parisienne), and from what I've seen, Parisienne looks very gaudy and flamboyant. Can't comment on Jewels right now, but with the DVD coming out in the future, it'll be interesting. Anyways, his "regular" couture, when he first arrived, was similarly "out there." If he was a choreographer, perhaps he'd be Bejart? Or Eifman, perhaps. Not that Lacroix is my favorite designer, of course, but that's what his company might look like.

I suggested to Hans that the Frederick's of Hollywood Ballet company might have a few Forsythes and Martinses. I expect a some protests from a few of you out there.

I'd like to see Wendy Whelen dressed in one of those Yves San Laurent smoking jackets from the 70's. With her hair slicked back and in pointe shoes, she would look divine.

Then there's the Gianni Versace ballet. Nobody does anything. Just lies there.

Versace did the costumes for a Bejart ballet called Ballet for Life. It was set to the music of Queen and Mozart and, from what I can remember, was done very well.

I remember that ballet--one of my friends was in it!

I imagine that if Yeohlee Teng had a dance company, it would be a very beautiful, austere, practical one. All the ballets would be designed to suit multiple occasions--the idea of "openers" and "closers" would be uknown there--and the movement would be stripped down to only what was necessary to communicate a particular idea...and of course, it would all be as beautiful and moving as a work by Maya Lin.

If Coco Chanel (and Karl Lagerfeld) had a ballet company, a common theme and look would run through pieces created over the years, and yet each piece would seem fresh, original and of its moment. Every step would drip with elegance and glamour, but never cross over the lines of taste.

I'm trying to think of how a Chanel ballet would work, but to be honest-- all I'm coming up with is Gemma Ward in a little black dress and sun glasses. Let's add in Karl Lagerfeld's influence--perhaps she would not be wearing a little black dress, but merely an unending array of quilted handbags to cover every need.

She could have handbag earrings! A handbag hat! A doll-sized shoulder bag! A quilted hip bag! A quilted Alice band! An outsize baguette bag!

(I am having difficulty believing that this would be placed on the internet, but alas -- http://www.vogue.co.uk/whos_who/Karl_Lagerfeld/ )

Perhaps there would be a series of divertissements based upon the importance of each quilted accessory?

"Look! Here comes the Box-Jacket-Denim-Mini-Skirt-and-Quilted-Shoulder-Bag Fairy!"

"I can't wait to see this one--I heard she hits her partner in the face with it during the final pas de deux!"




(... I am actually very fond of clothes from Chanel. I happen to find the handbag thing a bit mysterious, even though I own one, and wish I wasn't too poor to afford more! )

Ooh, they could use a handbag as a partnering accessory, kind of like the bow in the Diana and Actaeon pas de deux!