Fashion: Wearing architecture

Modernism was on our minds at the Walker After Hours preview party for the Eero Saarinen exhibit.

August 17, 2012 at 9:11PM
Clockwise from top - Ummul Banin Yamani, James Peterson, Dottie Cannon, Beth Hammarlund
Clockwise from top - Ummul Banin Yamani, James Peterson, Dottie Cannon, Beth Hammarlund (Margaret Andrews/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Ummul Banin Yamani

31, nonprofit founder, www.jointhesurge.org

What are you wearing? A Proenza Schouler dress and BCBG Max Azria shoes.

Describe your style: Uncategorizable, I like to think! The dress I'd describe as organic modernist.

How can architecture inspire fashion? In much the same way that fashion inspires style.

What spot in history would your outfit fit in best? A warm evening in 2008, perhaps at a museum retrospective of a midcentury designer.

James Peterson

38, hairstylist/event planner

What are you wearing? A shirt and jacket from Club Monaco, a vintage tie, Converse shoes and Blinde glasses.

Describe your style: Eclectic. I like mixing old and new, and I usually buy items that I like instead of by what brand they are.

How can architecture inspire fashion? Whether modern, classic or contemporary, architecture is about style, just like fashion.

What spot in history would your outfit fit in best? The early '60s.

Dottie Cannon

25, community relations specialist, Target

What are you wearing? A Steve Madden dress, a BCBG clutch and Isaac Mizrahi shoes from Target.

Describe your style: Basics aficionado.

How can architecture inspire fashion? You'd understand if you've seen ["Project Runway" winner] Jay McCarroll's Empire State Building-inspired dress. Same steel color, Art Deco structure and beauty.

What spot in history would your outfit fit in best? The shape is the '60s; the color is the '70s.

Beth Hammarlund

27, finance; editor-in-chief of L'etoile magazine

What are you wearing? A Target Private Collection dress, an Alice Temperley for Target belt, Target tights and gold hoops, and Vera Wang for Kohl's boots and clutch.

Describe your style: I mix low-end, vintage and occasionally designer pieces together.

How can architecture inspire fashion? On the literal end, you have Hussein Chayalan. Incorporating subtler references are Miuccia Prada, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood.

What spot in history would your outfit fit in best? The 1980s.

about the writer

about the writer

Ellen Dahl

More from No Section

See More
FILE -- A rent deposit slot at an apartment complex in Tucker, Ga., on July 21, 2020. As an eviction crisis has seemed increasingly likely this summer, everyone in the housing market has made the same plea to Washington: Send money — lots of it — that would keep renters in their homes and landlords afloat. (Melissa Golden/The New York Times) ORG XMIT: XNYT58
Melissa Golden/The New York Times

It’s too soon to tell how much the immigration crackdown is to blame.