Wednesday night, British heritage brand Belstaff celebrated its first stateside pop-up store at 63 Greene Street with a cocktail party, just in time for New York Fashion Week. Brand Ambassador and Creative Contributor Liv Tyler was the guest of honor, chatting with friends like Dazed publisher Jefferson Hack and The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti (the evening’s DJ) in between friendly conversations with eager reporters.
“I walked in tonight and I was like, whoa, I always forget — even though I’ve been doing this for forever — how I’m quite shy,” Liv Tyler told Fashionista, as we sat in the somewhat quieter VIP area of the bash. “So whenever I come into the publicity side of things, I realize, ‘oh right, that’s why they pay you the big bucks,’ because it’s actually really hard.”
The party also celebrated the premiere of Belstaff’s latest short film, “Falling Up,” executive produced by and starring Tyler. In the dreamy movie, she plays Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to fly over the Atlantic Ocean and one of the first women Belstaff dressed, highlighting the brief period before the aviator said goodbye to her husband to take her final fated flight in 1937. “[Director Niall O’Brien] was trying to focus on the turmoil between these two lovers and this is her obsession and her passion, with needing to complete this mission, which ultimately killed her,” Tyler explained. “It’s kind of an amazing story.”
The subject matter includes an empowering — and maybe feminist — theme with a tragic ending. So how do those topics translate into fashion for the film? “I have no fucking clue,” the actress-producer said. “She looked great while she was doing it!”
Tyler’s Creative Contributor title also involved designing a 12-piece capsule collection in collaboration with VP of Women’s Design, Delphine Ninous. The fall 2016 line will debut to press and buyers at London Fashion Week later this month.
The model-actress-producer-designer isn’t the only multi-hyphenate in her genetically blessed family — her legendary Aerosmith front-man father Steven has dabbled in design with a Macy’s scarf collab, plus her half-sisters Mia and Chelsea both modeled. Sounds familiar as fashion dynasties seem to be taking over the industry (and our Instagram feeds) right now: Hadids, Jenners, Baldwins and Smiths, ya’ know. But as a member of one of the O.G. famous families, Tyler refrained from passing on any guidance on how the new generations should navigate the industry.
“On my god, I have no advice for anyone, ever. I don’t like to give advice,” she said. “It’s so fun that we live in a world where we have so many opportunities and we have so much freedom and I just feel so blessed that I think I can do anything, you know? And to be given the opportunity to do the things that you want to try doing is incredible. You might fail, you might do a great job at it, but just being given the chance to try it is so exciting.”
[“source-fashionista”]