Adam Selman talks designing for Rihanna, Ke$ha sits front row for his New York Fashion Week show
- 9 years ago
Everyone always asks Adam Selman about "that" dress, and no wonder: The designer's totally sheer, crystal-encrusted gown for Rihanna at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards last June made global headlines.
"It was a game-changer," he said on Friday (13 FEB.) before his runway show in a Chelsea gallery. "It definitely put me on a worldwide scale. It's February, and people are still talking about that dress. I knew it was going to make a big splash but I didn't expect for people to still be talking about it."
Why the huge reaction?
"I think it was just shocking, and it was just interesting to see a woman feel so confident that she didn't need to be all nipped and tucked," Selman said. "She was just so natural, and there was no retouching - that was her."
For his runway show this time, Selman, whose background is in costume design, said he was inspired by the "bad-girl" characters in the 1974 movie "Female Trouble," starring Divine. His runway featured fencing, as in a schoolyard, and the ground was littered with crushed soda cans and wrinkled wrappers. The models hung onto the fences and chatted, or looked in compact mirrors to check their makeup.
As for the clothes, they were a colorful, playful mix of schoolgirl gingham and more body-hugging fabrics. Selman said he also wanted to infuse his fashions with an arts-and-crafts theme, so he covered many of his garments with cute little bows as appliques. Colors were evocative of a schoolyard, too: Bubblegum and bottle green were two of Selman's favorites.
Front-row guests included pop singer Ke$ha and Disney Channel star Zendaya.
"I recently really started appreciating fashion as an art form," said Ke$ha before the show. "Before it was like, I would just throw on a vintage t-shirt and a pair of like underwear and call that an outfit but now I've really started to appreciate fashion as an artistic outlet."
"It was a game-changer," he said on Friday (13 FEB.) before his runway show in a Chelsea gallery. "It definitely put me on a worldwide scale. It's February, and people are still talking about that dress. I knew it was going to make a big splash but I didn't expect for people to still be talking about it."
Why the huge reaction?
"I think it was just shocking, and it was just interesting to see a woman feel so confident that she didn't need to be all nipped and tucked," Selman said. "She was just so natural, and there was no retouching - that was her."
For his runway show this time, Selman, whose background is in costume design, said he was inspired by the "bad-girl" characters in the 1974 movie "Female Trouble," starring Divine. His runway featured fencing, as in a schoolyard, and the ground was littered with crushed soda cans and wrinkled wrappers. The models hung onto the fences and chatted, or looked in compact mirrors to check their makeup.
As for the clothes, they were a colorful, playful mix of schoolgirl gingham and more body-hugging fabrics. Selman said he also wanted to infuse his fashions with an arts-and-crafts theme, so he covered many of his garments with cute little bows as appliques. Colors were evocative of a schoolyard, too: Bubblegum and bottle green were two of Selman's favorites.
Front-row guests included pop singer Ke$ha and Disney Channel star Zendaya.
"I recently really started appreciating fashion as an art form," said Ke$ha before the show. "Before it was like, I would just throw on a vintage t-shirt and a pair of like underwear and call that an outfit but now I've really started to appreciate fashion as an artistic outlet."