Russell Sage (Q7320)
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Russell Sage is a fashion house from BOF.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Russell Sage |
Russell Sage is a fashion house from BOF. |
Statements
Russell Sage opened London fashion week for spring 2003 by invoking the name of fellow Brit Charles Frederick Worth, the Victorian gentleman who set up the very first haute couture house in Paris. Seeking to restore pride in the grand, almost-lost tradition of English craftsmanship, Sage enlisted the help of centuries-old U.K. businesses, from tailors Davies & Son and shirtmakers Turnbull & Asser to Lobb & Co. (shoes) and the Gainsborough Silk Weaving Company (brocades).Though there’s no doubting Sage’s wish to support his country’s heritage, he seemed to be at a loss in terms of how to harness all that history. Reverting to his own background as a dealer in antique furnishing fabrics, he added fragments of precious Chinese silks, taffetas and velvets—all intrinsically beautiful in dusty, time-faded colors—to the mix. But he struggled to find a silhouette on which to pin all these marvelous materials. His conceptual thread wandered from vaguely 1960s black dresses to obis fastened with vast padded bows in back to 1950s swimsuit shapes made in brocade.The designer’s best moment was a series of high-waisted dresses, in a rainbow of coral, pistachio, sky blue and violet, detailed with inserts of reclaimed crushed velvet. For some in the audience, though, the only place to look was forward—to his next project, the interior design of a château belonging to the cognac house Hine (a commission from LVMH). Dressing walls, windows and furniture instead of girls just might be the best use of Sage’s talents.
11 September 2002
When Russell Sage put a heap of gleaming coins center-stage at his show as payback to his mortgage-lender sponsors, Britannic Money, the audience had an opportunity to contemplate the deeper symbolism: Can UK fashion stay solvent?If money was in the spotlight, though, talent—and lots of it—was also on display. As his first model appeared in a waisted, full-skirted dress made from eighteenth-century golden silk curtain fabric, complete with tassels fringing the hemline, Sage instantly proved the value of British designers' gloom-busting resourcefulness. He followed up with equally spirit-lifting, richly romantic one-of-a-kind pieces fashioned, Scarlett O'Hara-wise, from antique drapes. Sage's silhouettes might be vaguely outlined on 1950s couture volumes, but his crafting of materials, raw edges, arty embroideries and jigsaw-puzzle piecing are strictly 2002. And after mastering the new feeling for gilded fabric, he effortlessly nailed another major trend: brilliant chunky knits. Working with Bidyut Das, a knitwear graduate from the Royal College of Art, Sage sent out a spectacular high-waisted gray wool dress, knitted in graduated stitch to fall to the floor in sculptural waves. Wound along one arm was a huge spiral glass armlet with a $25,000 diamond embedded in it.Cash-poor but imagination-rich, London designers like Sage still have the optimism (not to mention sponsors like the Diamond Information Centre and Swarovski) to help them face the challenge of staying afloat. "It's really tough," he says. "But I don't think I could show anywhere else. And remember: McQueen and Chalayan came out of London's last downtime."
16 February 2002
Russell Sage puts his collections together by reworking antique pieces to incorporate symbolic commentaries. This one started with a tableau of four models in short-sleeve cotton dresses with animal skins draped over them. (The show notes pointed out that the zebras and tigers on display had been shot in the 1880s and '90s.) These were followed by more dresses onto which oil paintings of John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Julien Macdonald had been sewn. Today's big-game trophies are fashion labels—geddit?Sage's quip didn't exactly rock the aisles, but his show had plenty of other treasures worth looking at—all made from a haul of Victorian patchwork, hunting jackets, embroidered Chinese silk and vintage nightshirts. Underneath the asymmetrical complexities, the color and shape of the dresses—often done with intricate pleating and a romantic full-skirted silhouette—was beautiful. Standouts were the designer's neat, short evening jackets, especially one in antique damask with a black organza ruffle bursting from a lapel. It's a compliment to Sage that, despite the heritage fabrics, this looks like a believable modern collection rather than a costume show.
20 September 2001
"I need money!" said Russell Sage to his sponsor, the bank Britannic Money, who generously obliged with 10,000 pounds. The designer promptly stitched the bills into stunning rosettes on a skirt, jacket and dress. "It's a way to comment on the economic struggles that many designers face, and also make a statement about the value of fashion," said Sage. "One of my dresses is made out of 6,000 pounds. But is it worth more than that?"We certainly think so. Sage's collection played out brilliantly, turning not only bank notes but recovered antique fabrics and even a common blanket into modern, off-kilter wonders. Linen jackets came with hand-painted details, lace insets peeked out of shirts, and a damask tablecloth became a skirt; think of it as Portobello Market chic. Sage believes that each and every one of his pieces has an important history behind it, which the buyer can make his own. As if to prove his point, he closed the show with a striking, delicately beaded white dress made out of his own mother's wedding gown, which Sage brought back to life after it had been stored for over 40 years.
17 February 2001
Russell Sage's clothes always have a personal touch to them. Last season, the designer scoured musty flea markets and off-the-beaten-path antique shops for fabrics. This time around, Sage went skydiving in the name of fashion, using his old parachute to create many looks in his collection.Voluminous, '50s-inspired skirts, translucent jackets with flag inlays and antique-looking prints all conveyed a feeling of dejected chic. A deconstructed upside-down jacket and a sharp, orange-piped pantsuit looked surprisingly wearable, as did a beautiful oriental-print top and several asymmetric skirts. The one truly puzzling—and questionable—look in the collection was a bare-back sheath with the logo forFacemagazine spray-painted on the front.The relationship between clothing and personal history is certainly an intriguing one, and it will be interesting to see how Sage continues to explore this idea.
25 September 2000
Young designer Russell Sage called his show, "So Sue Me." His inspiration was the logo mania of the moment, and he took some famous fashion references—like the Burberry trench—and reconfigured them for the avant-garde. The Burberry check was worn as a vest with a cobalt blue, sequined, puffed-sleeve top underneath; Tommy Hilfiger's rock 'n' roll collection of last season was satirized in a rough hessian corset that read TOMMY ROCKS in red beads across the front.Among the craziness there were some good ideas—like the faded blue mac with frayed hem and a lining that resembled gold leaf, the amazing take on Elizabethan sleeves and the way that chiffon was used as an outer layer over solids rather than as an inner layer. There was even an old Union Jack flag that had been burnt, appliquéd with gold paillettes and turned into an outrageous skirt. It's recycling for the chic set—very street, very UK.
15 February 2000