Artist George Condo is having a pretty major moment: A retrospective of his work is on view at the New Museum, he’s worked with Adam Kimmel to create masks for his menswear shows (not to mention lent some of his signature gargoyle-ish motifs to Kimmel’s collections), and was tapped by Kanye West to design not only the cover for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but also a series of limited-edition scarves. But when Style.com caught up with Condo at last night’s Party in the Garden at MoMA (special guest performer: Kanye West), we learned that he’s not ready to give up fashion just yet.—Kristin Studeman

You’ve just finished working on a series of scarves with Kanye West. What’s next?I want to do clothes. You know those crazy, sparkly outfits they have at the Victoria’s Secret runway show? I want to do something like that, but a full outfit.Who would you like to design one for?I wouldn’t mind designing one for Rihanna or…who is my favorite one? [He turns to ask his wife.] Beyoncé! I would love to do Mel Gibson and dress him as Jesus all over again. Oh, and I would love to do a suit for Kanye.What would Kanye’s look like?It would be something really tough. Sort of like an old-fashioned tux but made out of a different material. Maybe entirely black silk?Tell me about your first meeting with him.He came to the studio to look at the paintings and was very alive. I was excited to hear what he was doing and he was excited by what I was doing and then he blasted out “Power.” It was so loud and so mind-blowing.

Photo: Owen Hoffmann / Patrick McMullan

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Fan Bingbing looked beautiful as always on the red carpet at the 2010 amfAR’s Cinema Against AIDS Gala in Cannes this evening.

She opted for a taupe Louis Vuitton Fall 2010 gown.

I love this gown, especially with that beautiful embroidered detail on the hip, but I think the luscious pink version on the runway was far more breath-taking.

Fan really would’ve glowed in the pink, so I’m surprised she opted for this neutral colour considering she’s already worn a similar colour twice before during Cannes.

Nice, but nothing to get excited about on this occasion.

Credit: Style.com & Getty

Someone once told me that John Fairchild would famously tell his WWD-ers the following when it would come to confirming fashion directions: “Twice is a coincidence, three times is a trend.” Well, last night at an intimate dinner for Giambattista Valli at Kaviar Kaspia, I had all three in one go: Margherita Missoni, Tatiana Santo Domingo, and Eugenie Niarchos all showed up wearing various incarnations of the exact same Valli leopard print. Turns out the three recently became sartorially bonded following a wild couple of days playing dress-up at the insane hippie art fest in the Nevada desert that is the Burning Man festival a few weeks ago. (I’m sure that was a sight to see.) They claimed it’s the same reason they showed up earlier on Tuesday at the Valentino show in matching goofy glasses. “It was the most amazing time of my entire life, and I really mean that,” Missoni told me, more than once. Niarchos added: “I still have dreams about it.”

Backstage at Tommy Hilfiger, the young and famous (your Gossip boys, your Ting Tings) were carousing in their dimly lit lounge before heading to the flashbulbs of the front row. But seated on a leather couch in the corner was a serene Ashley Olsen, who with her sister Mary-Kate put out one of the best shows of the week for The Row.Olsen wasn’t there for the free Champagne but to cheer on Hilfiger, whom she met when she first moved to New York. “Tommy’s always been extremely supportive,” said Olsen. “Also, I love brand building and I love the process. I always look to Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Diane von Furstenberg, Tommy, and Ralph. They really always maintain their dignity.”But more importantly, what was she wearing? “Tommy,” Olsen said, right on message. The rest took some prodding, but along with Hilfiger’s heather gray sweater and beige trousers, she’d chosen a little Marni fur jacket, perfect pointy ultra-matte black Manolo pumps, and vintage rhinestone earrings.

Last night The Rodnik Band—with help from the White Club, a Milanese association championing emerging talent—treated guests to a multimedia onslaught. Phil Colbert, Rodnik’s main man, pulled off an installation, a cartoon video, a concert—and, oh, yes, a catwalk collection. Colbert’s background is in philosophy, not fashion, so branding, surrealism, and de-contextualization all had supporting roles, too. On the catwalk things were much more straightforward: Bold graphics, borrowed from Warhol, Mondrian, and Duchamp, were applied to a series of fun and wearable silhouettes. The White Club has been busy on the business side of things, too. The Rodnik Band’s next gig is collaborating with Miss Sixty on their menswear line.

Actress Michelle Monaghan attended the amfAR New York Gala which was held to kick off Fall 2009 Fashion Week in New York City back in February last year.

She wore a head-to-toe Louis Vuitton Spring 2010 look which included those Spicy heels which celebrities fell in love with.

Natalia Vodianova wore the same dress when she arrived at the Louis Vuitton Bond Street Maison launch in London this week.

Both look great in this fashion forward look.

Michelle made this look more edgy wearing the Spicy heels, but I love Natalia’s choice of gold glitter heels.

She made the look more individual so Natalia wins for me.

Credit: Style.com & Getty

The Museum of Modern Art is quietly making a case for being the best music venue in town. Of late, the museum has hosted performances by the likes of Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Kanye West, and Jay-Z, and was preparing to host Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, in a companion piece to his 2008 MoMA show. Then things got ambitious.“At some point, we actually thought we would build a pool in the MoMA Atrium that you could walk over, and then it became a rotating laser lights, a 60-piece orchestra, hanging light sculptures,” MoMA’s chief curator at large, Klaus Biesenbach, said by phone from the Sundance Film Festival. “Then last year we realized we couldn’t fit it into the Atrium.” The new show, Swanlights, will be performed instead at Radio City Musical Hall. Swanlights, a one-night-only engagement, is a continuation of Hegarty’s 2008 performance at MoMA. “We did that one at the clock tower, it was much more intimate,” says Biesenbach. “That one was about carrying sound through the space, video productions and him singing.” From there, the show developed into the Antony and the Johnsons album The Crying Light, which was included in the exhibition 100 Years (version #2, ps1, nov 2009) at MoMA’s PS1. Hegarty and Biesenbach then spent two more years developing Swanlights, which includes songs from all four of Antony and the Johnsons’ albums set to symphonic arrangements by Nico Muhly, Rob Moose, and Maxim Moston, set to rotating light displays by artist Chris Levine.Given Hegarty’s rabid following—especially among the fashion set—the decision to stage only a single performance is bound to ruffle a few feathers. But Biesenbach insists that the uniqueness is part of the point. “All the focus, energy, and artistic presence goes into the one night, which makes it an unrepeatable moment,” he says. “It’s a fleeting moment, it’s not meant to be repeated.” And what does he have planned for MoMA’s next show? His lips are sealed. “I’m German—it’s called superstition.”

“As a model, I used to go to the most exotic locations—in the depths of Kenya, Brazil, and India,” model-turned-photographer Astrid Muñoz told Style.com last night. “When the shoots were finished and everyone went back to their hotels, I stayed behind with my camera and took pictures. Then I built a dark room in my flat and since then, I have been totally taken over by photography.”At London’s Jaeger-LeCoultre Bond Street boutique last night, a crowd of friends and family, including Clive Owen, Natalia Vodianova, Charlotte and Andrea Dellal, Anouck Lepère, and Poppy Delevingne, came by to take a look at her first London exhibition. The sepia-toned photographs depicted gauchos and horses in the Argentinean outback. That was no coincidence. Munoz’s current partner is Eduardo Novillo Astrada, an Argentinean polo player and ambassador of Jaeger-LeCoultre.Guests crammed into the tiny shop to celebrate the work, featured in the latest Jaeger Le-Coultre publication, Yearbook Five. “The photographs are absolutely riveting; they capture the vibe of that region so well—she genuinely has an eye,” said Vodianova. But for Muñoz, whose work on the gauchos will be released in a forthcoming book, it is not just Argentina that inspires her: “For me, the more remote a location, the more difficult to get to, the better,” she said, freshly back from the Amazon jungle, where lunch was bugs and crocodiles and where the hotel room was a hammock strung on to a tree. “The most incredible subjects to photograph are in the most inaccessible places. And trust me, I will get to as many as those places as I can.”—Afsun Qureshi

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Actress and singer Emmy Rossum first wore this Carolina Herrera grey fishtail gown to the “Costume Institute Gala” in New York during May of last year.

I really want to like this dress but I just find it a bit bland and I can’t really put my finger on it. Maybe I would just expect something a bit more at this event.

I love the earrings though and am glad she left it at this in terms of accessories.

Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova then wore this dress to the “Telva Magazine Fashion Awards” in Madrid back in October.

I’m stilled not wowed by it but I do like the way that Genoveva’s hair falls over one shoulder.

I wish she’d worn a brighter clutch to give the look a pop of colour.

For me, Genoveva Casanova wins this because I think the gown is more event appropriate.

What do you think?

Credit: Style.com & Wireimage

Rihanna was spotted partying on a yacht in her native Barbados this weekend.

She showed off her sexy figure wearing a custom made ‘We Are Handsome’ one piece suit.

Rihanna approached ‘We Are Handsome’s’ designers Jeremy Somers and Indhra Chagoury with her eyes on a custom piece featuring her idol, Bob Marley.

You may remember that she was spotted wearing a We Are Handsome panther print swimsuit last year.

‘We Are Handsome’ creates bold and beautiful swimwear designed to grab attention, as Rihanna’s swimsuit most definitely does.

The luxe classic cuts combined with colourful retro imagery have won the label a fast-growing following of celebrity fans including Jessica Biel and model Catherine McNeil.

You can buy ‘We Are Handsome’ swimsuits and bikinis at Net-A-Porter.com and Singer22.com.

Credit: Fame Pictures