The Concert Pianist Wearing Comme des Garçons at Carnegie Hall
Plus Sophie Buhai’s calf-hair Nikes and Hay’s clip-on lamps.
Pianist and composer Conrad Tao, who will be performing as a member of the Junction Trio at the Morgan Library in a couple of weeks, might take the stage wearing a Walter Van Beirendonck blazer with armpit cutouts. More on his nontraditional concert dress below. We've also got fancy Nikes, Zara sunglasses that won't slide down your (low-bridge) nose, and whale whistles. —Simone Kitchens, Winnie Yang, Lauren Ro, Erin Schwartz, and Michael Zhao
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* eBay’s throwing a stoop sale with Anna Sui this Saturday, May 9 (16 W. 10th St., NYC, 1 to 5 p.m.). Sift through items from her own closet, like a 1970s Lanvin button-up top, infinity denim patchwork appliqué dress, and a vintage Robert Lewis Idea glazed lambskin coat — plus vintage Anna Sui merch and runway looks.
* Michael tried on almost everything at Banana Republic, and these reissued ’90s double-pleated shorts were a highlight.
* We noticed Sophie Buhai wearing these calf-hair Nikes and found a whole bunch of other dressy Nikes, like these croc-effect soccer shoes, a variation on the Bode Astrograbbers, streamlined Shokz, convertible rubber mesh two-in-ones, and shiny Air Rifts.
* Good price on a clip-on lamp from Hay that reminds us of the sconces by Alvaro Ucha Rodriguez. Here’s the table version.
* The acetate tortoise-shell sunglasses (also in black) from Aaron Levine’s Zara capsule comfortably fit on Michael’s low-bridge nose.
* We’ve written before about Paola Biancalana’s tiny ceramic animal whistles — which are sold in person at the Noguchi Museum’s shop. Last week we learned that she also makes a variety of whale whistles. “Like with an ocarina, covering different holes (including the whale’s eyes) will produce different tones,” the shop told us. “The whale sounds are at a much lower pitch and it takes less power to blow them, because unlike the other whistles, the entire form is a whistle chamber. The smaller sizes sound more like a hoot, and the bigger they go, the more whalelike.”
When pianist and composer Conrad Tao performs with the New York Philharmonic or at Carnegie Hall, he’s skipping the tuxedo for a Comme des Garçons shirt with CdG drop-crotch dress shorts or a modified Vivienne Westwood suit. “Unconventional tailoring can be more comfortable or practical for performing in,” he said — and especially better ventilated. He told us about searching for concert attire on the RealReal and at Tokio7, how hard it is to find sock garters these days, and the jewelry he wears onstage.
“This has always kind of been my taste. When I remember thinking about fashion at all for the first time, I want to say it was spring/summer ’08 or ’09, Calvin Klein back when Costa was creative director — such an interesting collection, one of the first times I was thinking of silhouette in a way outside of the norm. It left a big impression on me. I was a Tumblr kid, on my dashboard, just putting lookbooks together like everyone else.
“My go-to shopping in NYC is Dover Street Market and Tokio7, and then whatever vintage store shows up in my path. I also am often trawling SSENSE, Farfetch, and the RealReal. In Milan, 10 Corso Como.”
* The last couple years, I’ve been wearing two or three main concert looks. Márion Talán de la Rosa, a stylist and costumer I’ve worked with, and who I was introduced to by Caleb Teicher, found this Maurizio Amadei ensemble at If in Soho.
* Last summer, I went to Dover Street Market and went upstairs to see some Walter Van Beirendonck pieces, and they had one last blazer that fit me and was 70 percent off. I’ve been wearing it a lot. I love that thing. It has these armpit cutouts, which are kind of practical. The thing with wearing slightly experimental pieces, like an oversized fit or a piece with ventilation built in, is that they can be more useful than traditional tailoring. I’ve been pairing that blazer with Walter Van Beirendonck trousers I got from Ssense and a mesh tank from Bike.
* The other occasional concert look is a Comme des Garçons shirt with CdG drop-crotch dress shorts. The thought with all of these is ultimately still to be wearing variations on the uniform. I like wearing the Comme shirt because it feels like I’m in the 18th century: It has multiple sleeves bursting out of it — a variation of what we’d wear back when we were explicitly servants of the elite. I also often wear the shirt with a pair of Rick’s Pods.
* For the shorts, I had to search for sock garters, which was not an easy thing to find. I ran into this when I went to look for cufflinks, too. It’s hard to find some really traditional formalwear. I was running around Nordstrom and everyone was like, “Sorry, things have really changed.”
* The shoes are John Lobb double monk straps. I had a vision of a monk-strap shoe for a little while, so I went for it last year.
* When I’m wearing jewelry onstage, it’s usually by a friend of mine in San Francisco who makes stuff under the name Built Anew. It’s primarily intended for men, but really for everybody. He does a mix of good metal chain action and some beautiful stones. I have a piece of beautiful metal and glass detail alongside rhyolite stones, and another one I’ve been wearing a lot is a chain of pearls with a small chain woven inside of it.
* My friend Roberi Parra recently launched his new collection, and I’ve been wearing his work lately.
* Most recently I received some amazing hand-me-downs from a stylish friend, and for a matinee, I wore a beautiful burgundy-wine Vivienne Westwood suit they had modified. One of the blazer arms was a short sleeve, and they added a drop crotch in. The looks will continue evolving.
Tell Conrad Tao that if he's into vintage, there are TONS of vintage cufflinks at any vintage jewelry shop or dealer, like on Ruby Lane, Etsy, or 1st Dibs for high end. Both costume & fine jewelry.
Those Hay lamps! What a find!!