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Ayn Rand Power Dressing
With two new biographies, the mother of Objectivism is so in vogue now that even designers such as Ralph Lauren are finding inspiration in her writing. VIEW OUR GALLERY. Plus, the weirdest celebrity auctions, photos from the red carpet, and more on Sexy Beast.
Ayn Rand—author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, mother of Objectivism, and the conservative movement’s most rapacious cougar—leapt back into popular culture this year as the hero of the Obama-hating far-right.
But it’s not just Glenn Beck and his minions who are drawing inspiration from the writer, who died in 1982. This fall, the dowdy Russian émigré is en vogue with a whole different set: the free-wheeling, Obama-loving, arugula-eating fashion world.
“Honestly, it’s a broad inspiration that I get from her,” said Los Angeles designer Kimberly Ovitz. “I don’t design a piece and say, ‘This embodies Ayn Rand.’ She’s influenced me as a person, and that comes out in my designs.” Ovitz, a Brown graduate and the daughter of CAA-cofounder Michael, discovered Rand three years ago, on the recommendation of a friend. Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness is her favorite work. “The Fountainhead is about the story. That’s Rand using fiction to get her ideas across. [Selfishness] just gets right to the point.”
Click Image Below to View Our Gallery of Ayn Rand-Inspired Fashion
That point, which has to do with the ruthless pursuit of artistic integrity (among other things), has been a powerful cri de coeur for fashion designers for decades. Even when Rand wasn’t an explicit inspiration, her ideas have been pervasive—especially in the go-go 1980s, the decade of big shoulders and bigger hair that we are now reliving, recession be damned, thanks to recent trend-setting collections from Marc Jacobs, Balmain, and others.
But Rand seems to be on everyone’s bee-stung lips these days.
Designers Shipley & Halmos drew inspiration from Rand’s philosophy for their fall 2009 collection, which they called The Individual as an homage. They quoted The Fountainhead in their show’s invitation (“Life must be a straight line of motion from goal to further goal.”) and sent models marching down a zigzagged runway to emphasize their unwillingness to be swayed. “For anyone in a creative business to read that book, it can only be an incredible sense of inspiration, a sense of empowerment, a sense of purpose,” says Sam Shipley. “That’s kind of what she’s all about.”
Ralph Lauren declared Rand his favorite writer (along with Ernest Hemingway) in a recent interview with Vanity Fair and a host of Indian designers have avowed their admiration as well. One, Ritu Beri, told an Indian newspaper that as of September, she’d read The Fountainhead “almost 50 times.” Another, Krishnu Mehta, also counts the book as her favorite, saying it was “written brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly.” This summer, a photo assistant for Elle urged readers to pick up a copy of Rand’s Anthem, a dystopian novella written from the perspective of fictional narrator “Equality 7-2521,” a citizen in some future socialist hellscape. “It’s a short read,” she wrote, “perfect for an end-of-summer day at the beach exercising your free will.”
Rand herself was never much of a dresser. She was raised in a bourgeois Russian household and escaped to the United States during the Russian Revolution, eventually making her way to Los Angeles in 1926, where she immediately endeared herself to director Cecile B. DeMille. “When she came to Hollywood, people remarked that she had no style whatsoever,” says Anne C. Heller, the author of the forthcoming biography Ayn Rand and the World She Made. “All her life, when left to her own devices, she tended to wear shapeless garments for days on end. She was between 5’ and 5’2” and stocky and didn’t wear clothes terribly well. She loved her legs, though. She loved to wear high heels.”
For three years, Rand worked in the costume department for the film studio RKO and hated every minute of it, says Heller, who used to be an editor at Esquire, Redbook, and Self, and who helped develop the shopping magazine Lucky during a stint at Conde Nast. On the cover of Heller’s book (and of another forthcoming biography, Jennifer Burns’ Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right), the notoriously antisocial Hollywood anti-socialist is pictured wearing her typical uniform: a black wool shift with a gold dollar-sign brooch.
It was only in the 1940s and 1950s, especially during Rand’s expansive testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee during Hollywood’s communist purges, that she allowed herself the luxury of couture. Rand arrived to testify each day in elaborate suits designed by famous costumer Adrian, who dressed Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, and other stars in the MGM galaxy, and designed the costumes for many hit films, including The Wizard of Oz. (His ruby slippers are now in the Smithsonian.) Rand had a habit of appearing in Adrian clothes at odd times, once wearing a silk and velvet dress embossed with astrological signs, with a 12-inch fan-shaped train, to dinner with another couple. “She was extreme,” Heller says. “On the one hand, her husband was always upbraiding her for her stockings that had runs and her hair that was never washed or combed. On the other hand, she loved to dress up.”
Rand kept her distance from the fashion and design community, although Heller does see some of her spirit in the bold shoulders and extravagant clothing in the 1940s, when Rand was at the peak of her fame. There are also undeniable hints of Objectivism in fashions that celebrated the profligacy of the 1980s and of the pre-bust 2000s. This fall, Ralph Lauren showed a collection that looked like the wardrobe trailer for the long-awaited film adaptation of Atlas Shrugged, which is scheduled for filming next year. There were windswept ball gowns and broad-brimmed hats perfect for railroad executive Dagny Taggart—and some elaborate menswear for women, the sort of thing Gordon Gekko would have admired. (Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts, and Anne Hathaway have all been mentioned for the Taggart role, although the project is still in an early stage of development.)
In the meantime, Rand fans have taken to the Internet, imagining outfits for their leader and her characters on sites like Polyvore, a social network for the fashion set. In one outfit, designed for Fountainhead heroine Dominique Francon, creator “princess70xox” pairs $404 Christian Louboutin satin ballet flats with a silky ivory-colored $207 Gareth Pugh dress. She cites as her inspiration a passage in the book: “She wore a white silk dress with long sleeves... a nun's garment that acquired the startling effect of an evening gown only by being so flagrantly unsuited to that purpose. She wore no jewelry.” Commenters voiced enthusiastic approval. Wrote one: “So earnest. I love the sincerity. I used to have those Louboutins, but that was quite a few seasons ago. This set is divine.”
For their part, the fashion set isn’t paying too close attention to Rand’s other fans—the ones talking about “going Galt” and hoisting copies of Atlas Shrugged at anti-Obama tea parties.
“People can interpret something any way they want, and they certainly do in the land of politics,” says Shipley, who plans to re-read Atlas Shrugged during a vacation to Mexico over Christmas. “The message of [Rand’s] writings is a message that can be shared by both political parties. And I wish they would share it maybe because it would bring people together.”
Rebecca Dana is a culture correspondent for The Daily Beast. A former editor and reporter for the Wall Street Journal, she has also written for the New York Times, the New York Observer, Rolling Stone and Slate, among other publications.
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RADICALS FOR CAPITALISM UNITE!
That's right, Capitalism is pretty radical. So was this country at its inception.
Thank you so much for pointing out that it is...free will, it is capitalism, and it is "right" to exist for one's self, and wear what we want. If I hear one more word about the "poor"...for whom nothing is asked but they stand in line and get their welfare checks, I'm going to have a screaming fit.
The poor in the United States are the best taken care of nonworking population in the entire world...but, the at the point where socialism demands that we "all be poor" as the new form of "social justice" and fairness ...is just outrageous, self-defeating, Stalinist claptrap delusionalism.
Of all the people who have the most to lose in a socialist society it is those in the Fashion Industry. Why? Because just as The Government now populated by Chicago Thugs are attempting to control every other aspect of our lives, they will in time, control "Fashion." It will become against the law for someone to be better dressed than the "poor." More draconian taxes from the Obama Thugs will ensure that we all look dowdy and a part of the noble "poor." All except the First Family of course.
Worse...if the Chicago Thugs have their way, and there is no more money to spend on Fashion, then the Fashion Industry will go out of business. Yes, it can happen here.
Promote Ayn Rand, and if you can't...Promote Freedom from Government Thugs and Socialist Oppression. How well you look and dress depends on it.
You are already a "screaming fit." Few people comprehend Rand. You assuredly among them. It's a "status
symbol" to be talking about her views. Here in an age of right-wing intellectual abstinence. Comical really.
Life is funny, no geting around it. It is my opinion from reading this and many other similar, plus my own knowledge of some Rand followers; that most are so-called Christians. This is funny because Rand's philsophy of selfishness is diametrically opposed to Jesus' teachings of selflessness. nd there are many other dismetrics as well -- the attitude toward the love of money is one most paramount.
Speaking with a bachelors in philosophy, admirer of Ayn Rand, and Christian, I sympathize with your point of view. I do believe however that many jewels from Ayn Rand can be reconciled with Christianity, but obviously not her entire philosophy.
For example, I think Ayn Rand's suggested "love of money" is more symbolic with achievement. Furthermore, the Bible doesn't condemn money, it is a tool and is neutral. It did condemn the "love of money"
stretch armstrong couldn't connect the dots between Ayn Rand and Jesus. I'm not talking the Jesus of those sorry megachurches that worship money openly. I'm talking about the Jesus that's difficult for any of us to really follow. (If Christ's path is easy, ur doing it rong.)
I understand why Ayn felt the way she did. Her family went through a tragic experience. But to understand her philosophy as anything more than the logical result of a shock-stunted psyche is to give her much too much credit.
There's nothing wrong with admiring achievement, but in her case it is hard to not throw the baby out with the bathwater, because the bathwater is so, so tainted.
(I'm sorry to bring it hard, I just know people who came to the point of deciding between Christ and Rand, and they ended up going with the latter.)
It's funny...most people I know were over Rand by the end of high school or at most college. The book is so not relevant to real life or real people. It's a crazy world out there.
I think it's relevant in a different way. It refuels the spirit and reminds us how important our freedom is.
I agree. When I was a narcissistic teenager I thought she was brilliant.
By the time I left home, I was over her. She does best with smart people who have poor social skills and no empathy for others.
GinaRN hit the nail on the head. Nobody can provide all the answers in a tidy little world view. We long for a package that explains it all; but that's an illusion. Embrace the chaos. Search for patterns; but don't expect them to be related. And eschew empathy-free zones.
As for what the fashion world has to do with all this....well, maybe it's just one of those things that Tina tosses into this raucous little sandbox of hers for our amusement - but not necessarily our edification.
I.e. GinaRN sociopaths the type Reagan made feel good about themselves.
Absolutely right. Rand elevated greed and selfishness to sacrament.
Ralph Lauren reveals that his taste is confined to his professional pursuits when he says Ayn Rand is his favorite writer.
Have you seen the new Polo knit shirts? These popular three-button shirts used to have a rather small, about half-inch, polo player swinging a mallet on a horse on the left breast Now Lauren's Objectivism has led him to increase in size and make the logo about 6 inches in size. It leaves no room to the imagination as to what brand shirt one is sporting.
Alan Greenspan was a member of the Ayn Rand Cult. And look what it has brought us. Capitalism needs to be regulated. Objectivism as promulgated by Rand is the antithisis of Christianity. George Patton
This is a bit overgeneralized and oversimplified.
A BIT overgeneralized and oversimplified?
I hate to disabuse you of your ignorance, but here's a factoid:
Some words he wrote in 1966
(commenting on the Great Depression):
"The excess credit the Fed pumped into the economy spilled over into the stock market -- triggering a fantastic speculative boom. Belatedly, Federal Reserve officials attempted to sop up the excess reserves and finally succeeded in braking the boom. But it was too little too late: by 1929 the speculative imbalances had become so overwhelming that the attempt precipitated a sharp retrenching and a consequent demoralizing of business confidence. As a result, the American economy collapsed."
Now, if he understood that then, you think he forgot it when it was his turn?
So you blame Objectivism ... curious.
Dana dear, get your facts straight. Ayn Rand was an existentialist, hardly objective. And like RL, she is tired.
neroves dear, get Your facts straight. Objectivism is a term of art that refers to her school of thought.
Rdschenkel dear, the facts stand, she was a self centered radical, in her time. Also, there is no such art or WORD called "objectivism".
nervoes
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/objectivism
I think your head is up your own ass.
Really weird article for me, but I really enjoyed it.
Thanks :)
AR belonged in the odd person category. She stated it was the Republican party that would lead to American downfall. A little study and you find her beliefs inconsistent.
Interesting to see she can still be used as an effective tool of marketing campaigns.
First of all, Ayn Rand did not have "beliefs." Beliefs are counter to Objectivist "thought." Objectivism is like a science, it demands data, proof, realism, human beings who "think," and rational, adult consciousness and conclusions that exist. Objectivism is counter to the socialist "collectivism" based on a utopian dream world...that states anything concept or government program that uses the term "social justice," regardless of the consequences, or whose rights and property is appropriated by the government...is right. No it is not. Socialism is just "theft"...and is driven by guilt, revenge, class warfare and out right thievery.
You may wallow around in a philosophical fog, and its obvious you have never studied Ayn Rand other than to look at some book covers. Before any criticizes Randian Objectivism, they need "read" first...and whine later.
Start with the Anthem...because if the Chicago Thugs have their way...that is how we will end up...all "equal" and all "poor." No thank you.
It's interesting to read comments about what various people think about Ayn Rand. It reminds me of that game of Telephone where everybody stands around in circle. The first person whispers to the guy on his left,
"Tell Jeremy that his mom locked her keys in the car, so he should get a ride home with Hector."
By the time it makes it's way all the way around the circle, it becomes,
"Give Hector a ride home. Your mom locked her cheese in a jar."
From 1966 to 1972 I read everything Ayn Rand wrote. Every novel and non-fiction, and many of them more than once. I was a charter memeber of "The Ayn Rand Letter", and also had copies of every "Objectivist Newsletter" that I got from someone who was a charter member of that.
From 1972 to 2002, I thought no more about that stufff than I did about the Agatha Christie Mysteries I read over the years. I guess I used to think of Rand's stuff as a part of one's college years, sort of like Siddhartha, or Franny and Zooey, or 1984, or This Perfect Day (Christ, Marx, Woods and Wei, led us to this perfect day; Marx, Woods, Wei and Christ, all but one were sacrificed; Woods, Wei, Christ and Marx, gave us lovely schools and parks; Wei, Christ, Marx and Woods, made us humble, made us good.)
If someone asked me about it, I would have said it was not very practical. One has to live their lives. So I would have said exactly the same thing Maggie22 said.
Until recently. In recent years, it's as if a switch was turned on, and all the world around me is taken directly out of an Ayn Rand novel, mostly Atlas Shrugged. It is playing itself out in real time. All the players are there. It's uncanny. What brilliance, for her to have seen this so clearly. One can't help but wonder where it will all end.
Great comment.
Nice post, reardon. Although I think you're mentally ill, I appreciate your sincerity and honesty here. I was going to say that that "switch being turned on," and all the world around you seeming as if it were taken directly out of a Rand novel, marks the precise moment of your psychotic break, and "where it will all end" is dementia...but I won't say it. As Richard Nixon used to say, and I quote, "That would be wrong."
I like your sense of humor cvillekid.
"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music." Angela Monet
reardongalt is wise enough to like your sense of humour. A good post. Right on the money.
Like the lady
Said above Reardong-
Ayn Rand does best with smart people
Who have poor social skills
And no empathy for others.
At least she thinks
You're smart.
in revolution? people won't be crapped upon forever...
The cunt had one idea -- self-promotion. If she's a philosopher then Paris Hilton's an actress.
Well paid elitists falling for a philosophy justifying self-centeredness? Now I've heard it all!
My favorite Rand quote:
"Beware of those who smuggle a false premise into the mind of a careless listener."
Rand predicted Fox News? Not even Nostradamus did that!
Very smart designers. In a recession where the majority of Americans feel like the rich and wall street have taken a dump on them, you decide to create a clothing line around a woman who could give a rat's behind about the
Don't keep me
In suspense......
One of the most self-involved, condescending, talent-challenged ideologues to come down the pipe in the last two centuries. No wonder she's a darling of the fashion industry.
While I do find a lot to admire in "We the Living" and "The Fountainhead," I found "Atlas Shrugged" to be a tedious screed.
Rand seemed to suffer from:
a) An abject lack of a sense of humor
b) An odd sexual submissiveness in her female characters
c) A total disregard for those whom, while they may not be society's "Atlases," are crucial for the orderly function of our civilization, i.e. plumbers, garbagemen, etc.
Oh for the days of architectural controversies.
Totally agreed, Atlas Shrugged was this close to torture. However, Anthem was an interesting (and pretty concise) read.
AS bothered the crap out of me because subjugation of your workers will just lead to revolution. Hence, we have unions.
You have to watch that submissiveness. All too often it's seductive; domination by another means.
Just what we a need, a "philosophy," er, actually self help diatribe about how to be MORE selfish. In these times, self preservation requires more community, not a way to screw your fellow citizens through greed.
This is the strangest article on the Daily Beast yet. To give even an ounce of credence to the tragically stunted Ms. Rand, even under the bizarro auspices of the onanistic fashion world, comes across as a misguided editorial decision. Why does Rand interest you, Beast? This sort of article makes me question the value of your website.
If only someone had given Ayn a hug as a child.
Bizarre. Wasn't she attracted to domineering men? This is taking "post-feminism" way too far.
Her husband was apparently just a "himbo."
Wow, I feel like I'm on the set of "Mean Girls." Here is a quote for those who are interested in philosophical ideas:
"Today, we live in the Age of Envy.
"Envy" is not the emotion I have in mind, but it is the clearest manifestation of an emotion that has remained nameless; it is the only element of a complex emotional sum that men have permitted themselves to identify.
Envy is regarded by most people as a petty, superficial emotion and, therefore, it serves as a semihuman cover for so inhuman an emotion that those who feel it seldom dare admit it even to themselves . . . . That emotion is: hatred of the good for being the good.
This hatred is not resentment against some prescribed view of the good with which one does not agree . . . . Hatred of the good for being the good means hatred of that which one regards as good by one's own (conscious or subconscious) judgment. It means hatred of a person for possessing a value or virtue one regards as desirable.
If a child wants to get good grades in school, but is unable or unwilling to achieve them and begins to hate the children who do, that is hatred of the good. If a man regards intelligence as a value, but is troubled by self-doubt and begins to hate the men he judges to be intelligent, that is hatred of the good.
The nature of the particular values a man chooses to hold is not the primary factor in this issue (although irrational values may contribute a great deal to the formation of that emotion). The primary factor and distinguishing characteristic is an emotional mechanism set in reverse: a response of hatred, not toward human vices, but toward human virtues.
To be exact, the emotional mechanism is not set in reverse, but is set one way: its exponents do not experience love for evil men; their emotional range is limited to hatred or indifference. It is impossible to experience love, which is a response to values, when one's automatized response to values is hatred." -- from "The Age of Envy" by Ayn Rand
By the way, Ayn Rand's favorite designer was Adrian, whose clothing she wore frequently.
Since the subject is fashion, my favorite quote from Atlas Shrugged talks about an off-the-shoulder dress worn by Dagny Taggert with a diamond cuff. The quote was something like this "she had that most feminine of aspects...the look of being chained..." Man there must have been some pretty weird stuff going on the Rand household...;)
Ayn Rand was NOT a Conservative... She even speaks with hatred a sort of hatred of them in this audio interview...
http://mankabros.com/onmedea/2009/10/ayn-rand-was-not-a-conservativ.html
Objectivism is a different way of using your mind, a historical shift in consciousness. Imagine the differences between paganism in ancient history and modern religion. The difference between Objectivism and "modern" thought is even greater than that. I don't expect Objectivism, or some offshoot of Objectivism, to take hold for another 1500 years.
Thank you all for a bunch of great laughs today. The article only had me chuckling at its vapidity, but you folks turned it into a gut-busting guffaw-fest. 'Objectivism' is rarely what it claims to be, unfortunately distorted by the people who pretend to follow it, much like Christians who push for war or allow themselves to become rich via un-Christian behavior. 'Objectivism' was already around, but we just called it 'logic and reason;' it didn't need a new name or a new set of commandments, although it did need folks to use it in a more direct and frequent fashion. All of this hullaballoo over it is supremely ironic, given Rand's proclivities towards a sort of intellectual hucksterism, where she used marketing principles to sell you a bill of goods for something you already had at your disposal for free. She was merely another snake-oil salesman, and it appears that she was quite successful selling you her new and improved cure for the common cold.
Really, thanks again for the laughs and have a great weekend.
ayan rand - love the style and i am sure so do milton freidman, walter williams and thomas sowell...these are the best promoters of true freedom! Capitalism Rules!!
Thank you.
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