Cintra Wilson is a shopping correspondent for the New York Times. She got excited over the boutique opening of New York collector Lisa Perry and gives it a detailed review:
Just below 77th Street, there is a new Lisa Perry boutique. Ms. Perry, whose family ran a textile business, came to public attention primarily as the wife of the hedge fund bazillionaire Richard Perry. They seem to have a fun life: he makes money; she spends it on her design obsessions. Their 17-room penthouse on Sutton Place was featured in a 10-page spread in Vogue a few years ago.
Obsessive art collectors, the Perrys are notorious for having an gigantic Jeff Koons sculpture shaped like an emerald pendant on their terrace, which they had to adjust when fellow penthouse dwellers complained that sunlight refracting through the enormous gem was “burning like lasers” into their homes. (I like to picture the small pile of smoking hair on the couch where Tickles napped too long.)
Ms. Perry had a Come to Fashion moment at the Courrèges boutique in Paris in 1997 and has since been an avid collector of 1960s fashion. Apparently limitless resources have enabled her to explore the most whacked-out refinements of her own sense of style, which, in a nutshell, is that of André Courrèges.
As a designer, Ms. Perry’s Courrèges influence is derivative unto that hazy vanishing point wherein tribute is nearly indistinguishable from straight up copycatting, but this is so blatant that it isn’t really an issue. She doesn’t seem to be promoting herself as designer as much as super-fan, spreading the joy and making the look more available, that the world might become a more modular place to frug.
[…] Courrèges himself was a victim of predatory capitalism. In 1985, the designer was forced to sell a controlling interest in his brand to a Japanese conglomerate, with the understanding that the artistic soul of his operation, the money-losing couture, would be maintained with revenue from the ready-to-wear collection. Once the ink was dry, the Japanese company promptly reneged and the couture line was shut down. A heartbroken Courrèges went on strike. France was horrified in sympathy, but nothing could be done: Courrèges had lost control. Ms. Perry is at least keeping the design spirit of Courrèges alive, albeit under her own name.
Lisa Perry Boutique Is Committed to Its Futuristic Mission (New York Times)
