Perry Farrell drinks to forget he’s wearing no shirt.Photo: WireImage
Designer John Whitledge, showing his second solo outing since he and his three CFDA-winning Trovata co-founders split ways, celebrated at Tunnel’s former location not with bitchy put-downs, but a groovy party straight out of sixties-era Brazil. Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction fame played a three-song set while Capoeira dancers busted athletic moves in crisp white Trovata pants (not a split pair among them). Meanwhile, white-clad lady models wearing head scarves mingled in the crowd.
Clad in a Trovata vest, Tom’s shoes (an event sponsor), his own skinny jeans, and a mess of beaded necklaces, Farrell was the embodiment of the label’s jet-setting hippie aesthetic. He closed the show with an ultrachill version of “Jane Says” that had Julie Gilhart, Selita Ebanks and FEED Bag pusher Lauren Davis all dancing. (Brazilian Girls played post-show.) The vibe was almost weirdly positive. When asked about former labelmates Jeff Halmos and Sam Shipley’s debut of their new line, the surfer-dude-esque Whitledge simply said it was “nice to see them go out there and do something on their own.” When things veered into talk of the breakup, a publicist intervened, steering Whitledge into another interview and leaving the big, burning question to be answered by Genevieve Jones. Who got custody of the CFDA? “Maybe they, like, cut it up and split it.” —Sarah Conly
