ADR 101
Pop goes fashion as Tommy Ton scores big on our little Anna Dello Russo quiz.
Three little letters on every fashion person’s lips today: ADR. If you don’t know what that stands for—Anna Dello Russo—you probably don’t care. But legions of the fashion faithful do, and none more deeply than their commander, the Jak & Jil photoblogger and walking encyclopedia of Prada, one Tommy Ton.
Ton remembers perfectly the first time he saw ADR, in Paris, March 2007. She wore a gold Dolce and Gabbana dress “with little spikes,” he says, plucking at an imaginary sleeve. The next day she wore a silver fur to Olivier Theyskens’ show for Nina Ricci. He was entranced. Soon, when she emerged as the brightest star in Ton’s quick-to-rise blog, she wanted to know whom to thank.
“She came up and said, ‘You are Tom,’” says Ton, counterfeiting Russo’s lavish Italian accent and getting it on the money. “Then she said, ‘good work.’ She walked away, and I was just like, ‘whoa!’” He re-enacts a jaw dropping.
Russo, a wiry, lively woman, still has that effect. She is editor-at-large of Vogue Nippon, but more famously, a sort of Queen Mother to fashion—wearing head-to-toe runway looks at 10am. She collects clothes the way Saatchi collects art, with one telling difference: she’d never sell any of it. It’s only herself she sells: on her flowery blog, or in bottles of her self-titled scent, available online.
Tonight, The Room at the Bay celebrates what its PRs call Ton’s “most iconic” portraits of fashion’s First Lady. The exhibit is called, in an allusion to both the great romance and the sheer comedy of fashion, “When Tommy Met Anna.”
A beautiful friendship, sure. But how well does Ton really know the woman who is at once his subject and mistress? Today I, too, met Anna—and put Tommy to a pop quiz.
What is Anna’s middle name?
Tommy: Oh my god.
Anna: Name? Like, Anna Maria Francesca? I don’t have a middle name.
Tommy: Oh, so that’s why I don’t know it.
What about her astrological sign?
Tommy: Oh, shoot. I know it’s after Pisces, because it was just her birthday. I’m not an astrological person, so I don’t know the sign, but I know it’s after Pisces.
Anna: Because you’re Pisces, right? I am Aries. I know yours because it is during the fashion weeks! And my birthday is after the fashion weeks.
What did Anna study in school, in university?
Tommy [puts head in hands]
Anna: I have told you many times!
Tommy: Wait! Was it… art history?
Anna: Yes.
This one’s multiple choice. Anna once said she wanted to be the ______ of fashion. Was it Madonna, Lady Gaga, or Kanye West?
Tommy: Lady Gaga.
Anna: Gaga, yes.
Which great photographer once called Anna a—
Tommy: Helmut Newton—“fashion maniac?”
Anna: [laughs] Yes.
Which of the following fruits has Anna not worn on her head: watermelon, cherry or banana?
Tommy: Banana.
Anna: But maybe we change that today!
What is Anna’s favourite dessert?
Tommy: Oh my god. [to Anna] Do you have a favourite dessert? [To me] She doesn’t eat…
Anna: I don’t eat sugar.
Which designer would Anna choose to be buried in?
Tommy: Dolce and Gabbana.
Anna: Yes, Dolce, because they are friends of mine. We grew up together, we spend vacations together.
True or false: Anna always stays at the same hotel room in the Ritz.
Anna: Yes.
Tommy: Well, half and half! Because this season she was in a different room—on the same floor, though—and when I went, I was like, “why are you in this room?”
What does Anna wear to bed?
Tommy: I know she travels in… no, wait, slips! She has her slips set apart for bedtime. I don’t know where they’re from.
Anna: They are from Sabbia Rosa, in Paris. I always go there. They are all made by hand, beautiful, with the laces and silks.
Similar Posts:
- The Other Anna
- Dolce & Gabbana’s Stocking Stuffer
- A Winter Themed Bridal Shower Shoot with Glitter and Sequins
- Vida (Ana de la Reguera) from ‘Eastbound & Down’
- Designer Lyn Devon cheers up fall with dots: Clotheslines
Leave a Reply