Anna Wintour Anoints A New Prince: New Wave Nerd to Fashionista

Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief of Vogue, shines some attention on Scott Sternberg at Milk Studios

(**All text and photos by Susan M. Kirschbaum)

Scott Sternberg ranks as one of those intellectuals who might discuss the set up of a scene in a Truffaut film with someone like director Wes Anderson, whom I interviewed  for the New York Times a few years after Bottlerocket had become a cult hit.  Then Anderson and his pal Hampton Fancher (producer, Bladerunner) discussed  film scenes in that (wink!) I trump you on the detail of how the lamp was placed before the madame threw it at her  louche lover in scene three. Such detail for visual is probably what earned Sternberg– a former CAA intern with no fashion training —  his success. He notably scored  a CFDA Award for Menswear last year.

But that same eye probably accounts for why his designs for Band of Outsiders (and Boy, his womenswear label) look scandalously close to what Libertine did last year at this time. Like Libertine, Sternberg started out six years ago by refashioning vintage. Also like Libertine, he’s trying to give prep an edge, albeit less punk rock than the former label. Also, current Libertine designer Johnson Hartig, lives in Los Angeles. Ditto for Sternberg, who  dresses Jason Schwartzman, who incidentally starred in Bottlerocket.

One main distinction between Sternberg’s latest presentation, debuting at Milk Studios last night and Libertine’s similar collection — held in former co-creator Cindy Greene’s  Soho showroom last February — rests with the arrival of the Queen. No, not Elizabeth, but Anna Wintour, who deigned to walk around with Sternberg as hip kids tried to snap her photo on IPhones.

Yes, Sternberg may have named his line Band of Outsiders after a Godard film because he felt sidelined as a nouvelle vague geek growing up in Ohio then transplanted to Hollywood. But with Anna’s presence, he’s hit the inside commercial fast track.

Libertine Fall 2009 collection, styled by Maryam Malakpour

Band of Outsiders/Boy, Fall 2010, styled by Tina Chai

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