EVERY weekend, a plague of tattoo-print T-shirts and rhinestone-embellished-denim butts descend like locusts upon bars and clubs in Manhattan. What evil genius dreamed up this sartorially offensive pandemic? And how has he tapped into the psyche of Hollywood, spreading this gospel of gauche like wildfire in Malibu?
The evil genius would be Christian Audigier (left) the designer behind both Von Dutch and Ed Hardy and current BFF of octodad Jon Gosselin, who lords over his empire from palazzo-style headquarters in Beverly Hills.
And just how he’s wielded his power is the subject of “Emperor du Fromage,” in the October GQ (above, right) on stands tomorrow.
Writer Devin Friedman visits Audigier at his offices, decorated so as to make “you feel like drinking champagne with a beautiful prostitute.” A high school dropout who started his career working retail at a store called Jean Machine, Audigier has since built an $80-million-a-year empire on the backs of customers who choose to swathe themselves in “layered images of bulldogs and jaguars and skulls and roses and cryptic phrases — especially love kills slowly — not to mention bright colors, metallic overlays, sequins and rhinestones.”
The more time Friedman spends with Audigier, the more unintentional hilarity ensues. At the Christian Audigier trade show in Las Vegas entitled “When I Move You Move,” models parade around during the fashion shows dressed as cowboys and Indians.
“A man might walk onstage in, and this is a real example, a tattooed hoodie, a dead wolf and a bathrobe,” Friedman writes.
“My T-shirt is $65 to $185. So is not just a T-shirt. Is a piece of, of, of garment,” Audigier said. He claims Ed Hardy was the first label to clothe celebrities as a marketing strategy. “Louis Vuitton is an old house of 150 years and is the same thing I’m selling. Is not one better than the other.”
Consider the GQ feature a mere appetizer — Friedman reveals that over the past five years, Audigier has employed a crew to follow and film him wherever he goes. He also has a makeup artist on hand wherever he goes. No, he doesn’t have a reality TV show; he just wants to capture his life on film for posterity. Someday, he says, he’ll make an autobiopic. This man knows a blockbuster when he sees one.
* More newsstand tidbits: The October Allure (left) features its 2009 “Best of Beauty” award winners — products hand-selected and extensively tested by beauty experts and the magazine’s top editors.
Our favorite (affordable) products include (1) best gradual self-tanner Jergens Natural Glow Foaming Daily Moisturizer ($8.99 at drugstores); (2) Biore Blemish Fighting Ice Cleanser ($5.99 at drugstores), which won for best cleanser for oily skin; (3) Avon’s Anew Clinical Advanced Dermabrasion System ($28 at avon.com), winner of best scrub and an easy-to-use customizable at-home system; and (4) Sally Hansen Insta-Dri nail color ($4.95 at drugstores), a “cheap thrills” winner for good value-for-money.
* Tote-ally your style: Charity suits you. Tote around your excess baggage in
Lauren Bush’s Feed/Read 3 bag, exclusively at Barnes & Noble. The sale of each $25 organic cotton canvas tote provides three meals and three local-language books to kids in Nepal plus a donation to the UN World Food Program and Room to Read charities.
* Barely Legal: To celebrate its 15th birthday, 55DSL — that’s Diesel’s younger, cheaper, more urban brother — gets its first pop-up shop at Diesel’s Union Square store. Look for the brand’s first sneaker collaboration with Adidas Originals ($150) this week only.
n Direct deposit: Reasons we love Sue Devitt’s E-Z Eye roller ball eye shadow: It goes on evenly, like a shimmering dream, it stays put with no creasing, we don’t have to stick our fingers in the pot (hygiene!) and it won’t spill in our handbags. E-Z Eye roller ball eye shadow, $18 at suedevittbeauty.com and Barneys.
* O boy! In the
most exciting worlds-colliding event ever, Oprah, Kelly Ripa and Mariah Carey tape “The Oprah Winfrey Show” at 10 a.m. tomorrow in Central Park at SummerStage at the Rumsey Playfield. Log on to oprah.com/audience for reservations.