Faherty Brand swimwear.

Twin brothers Mike and Alex Faherty are not your typical beach bums. Mike Faherty spent seven years as a designer at Ralph Lauren; Alex worked as an investment banker before becoming a vice president at a private equity firm. Yet, having grown up in the coastal town of Manasquan, N.J., their favorite childhood memories were made at the shore: navigating the waves atop a surfboard or paddleboard, and holding summer barbeques at their laid-back family home.

Now, with the creation of Faherty Brand, the duo’s new luxury swimwear line, the boys are going back to their oceanside roots. “To us, life’s great moments happen at the beach,” Mike says. “We want to bring that beach vibe to New York City.” 

In April, Faherty Brand’s showroom opened for business. In an airy loft space in the Flatiron District, brightly patterned swim trunks and bikinis hang from shelves made of reclaimed barn-board, while nautical touches like model boats and glass buoys lie scattered among them. A surfboard is propped against one wall while hand-dyed Indonesian fabrics cascade from another. Entering this space feels a bit like stepping into another, much more laidback world, far from the buzz and bustle of Fifth Avenue.

“We want to be like transporters,” Mike says, “so that when people think about our brand or wear our brand, it takes them away from everyday rigors.”

A Faherty bikini.

Faherty Brand has been a life-long dream for the brothers—albeit one that took some time to get off the ground. “I actually wrote my college essay on starting this company,” Mike says. The self-described “left-brain twin,” Mike honed his fashion sensibilities studying fashion design at Washington University before taking a job as a designer at Ralph Lauren. (Side note: both twins are model-handsome, so much so that once, during an elevator ride with Ralph Lauren, Mike was told by his boss that he should go into modeling. He politely declined.)

Meanwhile, Alex, “the right-brain twin,” went to Yale and worked in investment banking before becoming a V.P. at private equity firm Cerberus Capital. Both decided to quit their jobs last year to focus solely on developing Faherty Brand. For Mike and Alex, corporate and fashion-world glory were only steppingstones to get back to the beach.

“We’re not guys who are driven by money,” Alex adds. “For us, it was more the passion behind this lifestyle.”

Growing up in board shorts, the twins were always frustrated with the lack of men’s swimwear options that were both cool and functional. “There was never a brand out there that we really identified with,” explains Alex.

With Faherty Brand, Mike and Alex were able to envision a line of swimwear that discerning urban fashionistos would want to don at their beach houses or on trips to more far-flung coastal locales, while simultaneously showcasing the comfort and utility that they, as surfers, demanded from their trunks. In the design process, no stitch or button was too small to merit consideration, with Mike perfecting minute details from the depth of the pockets to the length of the drawstrings. “We’re addicted to the details,” he says.

Mike and Alex remain avid surfers, and their  designs take inspiration from places visited during surf trips around the world. One can find the influence of Indonesian batiks, Kakishibu-dyed Japanese textiles and hand-blocked Rajasthani Indian prints.

Alex and Mike Faherty, swimwear designers.

Faherty Brand’s commitment to style is matched by an emphasis on sustainability. In lieu of the cheaper petroleum-based synthetics favored by most designers, the Faherty team designed a unique synthetic fabric made from recycled plastic bottles, which are melted down and re-spun as yarn. There are around seven recycled bottles in each woman’s suit and around 15 in each pair of men’s trunks.  “We want to bring awareness, because the apparel industry is quite destructive when it comes to natural resources,” explains Mike.

Right now, Faherty Brand can be purchased online at www.fahertybrand.com or in their showroom. But as of May, they will be debuting a pop-up store from which to spread their endless-summer lifestyle. With the help of an architect friend, Mike and Alex have designed a “beach shack on wheels,” a trailer made with reclaimed barn-wood that collapses open to form two porches. This summer, Mike and Alex are road-tripping through the United States, trailer in tow, peddling Faherty Brand on the nation’s beaches and boardwalks.

Come summer’s end, they plan to debut a more extensive casual clothing collection, with unisex flannel button-ups and organic cotton tees. But—if you had any doubt about their beach-bum bona fides—don’t expect to see Faherty Brand being promoted at a runway show.

“We’ll do something renegade, something that feels not like what everyone else is doing,” Mike says with a laugh. “Something with lots of sand, probably.”

asilman@observer.com

A tease from the Yale Club's website.

The latest blow stuck by Hurricane Sandy? Say goodbye to decorum, to civility, to gentility. We're not even a full 24 hours into the crisis and the Yale Club of New York City has suspended its dress code.

Quelle horreur!

The Yale Daily News reports that earlier today, VP Linda Lorimer emailed the Eli community and announced that any students stranded at Grand Central are now welcome in the main lounge and grill room, and they've also got rooms for rent. (Though that's not gonna be free, kiddos.) For anyone concerned that his Williamsburg-friendly hipster weekend-wear might result in his being turned away at the door, fear not:

Lorimer added that the “dress code is not in effect at this time.”

Until this summer, the Yale Club did not even allow denim inside its hallowed premises (though it's typically limited to the more casual rooms and still must be “neat, clean, and in good repair”).

The rest of you lot--Harvard snobs, UPenn riffraff, Princeton unfortunates--are on your own.

Dr. Levin, 65, said in an interview that he simply felt it was time to move on, that he planned to take a yearlong sabbatical to write a book and that he did not know what he would do after that.

The report is fascinating in the well-developed picture it delivers of a university president who was mostly—mostly—untainted by scandal. Even more fascinating is the fixation its readers have had with it.

The story, which went up earlier this afternoon, is a hit with readers. It's the most emailed (read: passed around) and the second-most viewed story right now in the NY/Region section:

Surely the stories readers "should" be more interested in is a subjective matter, but: It does say something about Times readers, mainly that one of the most stunning political corruption stories in recent New York City history is equally if not less compelling than an education bureaucratic of an elite institution stepping down to write a book.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Madison Moore

“I do a talk on Tina Turner,” Yale doctoral candidate Madison Moore told The Observer recently, “and I wear a fringed skirt and bust out some Tina moves.”

Mr. Moore is in the American studies department at Yale, and, if you must ask, he is preparing a dissertation on “fierceness.”
“We know about her biography,” he elaborated, “but yet every night she got onstage and she let the audience have it.”

Mr. Moore is himself in possession of a certain charisma. When we met with him, he wore a plaid flannel button-down undone to reveal a sheer tank top; his braids, some black and some blonde, were swept to the side to reveal a single dangling earring. He speaks softly; you must lean in to hear him.

“True scholars are unorthodox, and Madison is a true scholar,” wrote Mr. Moore’s dissertation advisor, Prof. Joseph Roach, in an email. “He just dresses better than most of us.”

That unorthodox brand of scholarship has included teaching a course in the history of nightlife, last fall, that brought students on a field trip to the Boom Boom Room and Le Bain bars at the Standard Hotel, which the New York Post was less than charitable about. “Some parents might have mixed feelings about the Yale syllabus,” sniffed the paper. (“Yale had no problem with it,” wrote Prof. Roach, “though News Corp. did.”)

“There are many ways to study American history,” said Mr. Moore, “and you can study the changes in cultural mores by studying the history of nightlife. It was really cool, actually! We talked about really good music and did a field trip.”

The field trip was hardly the all-night bash the Post made it out to be: “We studied the architecture and the way it makes you flow through it, spending hours and hours and lots of money. When you go to a bar, you never get to see it, because it’s nice. But to go at 3 p.m. on a Saturday, you see all the small details.”

Simonez Wolf, former Beatrice Inn doorman and Madame Wong’s founder, spoke in front of the class. Speaking of Mr. Moore, Mr. Wolf said, “He went in depth as to why we party—why do we like certain music? At Yale, this prestigious university, you would not expect this class.”

Mr. Moore has brought a bit of Gotham to the hallowed halls of Yale—not that he’s in New Haven all that often.

A New York habitué, he abandoned New Haven as a full-time residence after two years. “I don’t like to be bored,” he told us, “not that my work is boring—but everyone’s work has its moments. But to me, to be in the library all the time: I don’t think I could do it. It’s an hour and a half away. It’s not like I’m going to Japan.” Even when he was living in New Haven, Mr. Moore interned at Jeffrey Deitch’s gallery in New York, just to, as he said, “be part of this world.”

The scholar began his Ivy career after four years in Ann Arbor, as a student of French. “My undergraduate thesis was on this genre of French gay pornography. And I was like, ‘Look! I write about cock! If you’re gonna admit me ...’ And, anyway, it worked out really well.” Once ensconced in American studies, he commenced to write about “luxury.”

The story is a familiar one to any Ivy Leaguer—though not a story that usually begins an academic pursuit. “My friend would take me to high-end stores on Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue. He was a trust-fund kid and had all this money, and I didn’t understand the difference between a $500 button-up and one that you could get at H&M.

“I noticed how, when I went inside of these boutiques, there was this sense of anxiety. It made me nervous. I was interested in how that was produced architecturally, how they make you feel this sense of nervousness.” Mr. Moore’s investigation of his own emotions led him to the concept of “glamour.”

“I didn’t just want to talk about rich people,” he told us.

Mr. Moore referred us to the 2009 academic text Makeover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity, by Brenda R. Weber, which, he stated, argues that “makeovers are about normative standards of gender. Normative race. Normative class. And glamour is about normativity. And now I’ve arrived at fierceness. Fierceness is actually the thing that people who have been disenfranchised do to make a place for themselves.”

The concept of fierceness, pre-Tyra Banks’s advice to fledgling models, was first brought to mainstream attention by the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning. There it was the concept of reappropriating the trappings of confidence and luxuriousness of the upper-class by society’s most disenfranchised: to be “fierce,” one had to walk the walk of the executive (“executive realness” is the term for dressing in corporate drag) or of the society matron. Beyoncé’s later references to her onstage self as “Sasha Fierce” are instructive: placid in real life, the singer must aggressively perform not merely her music but the role of a pop star.

Mr. Moore’s chosen avatars of fierceness include the singer Ms. Turner, Daphne Guinness, Lady Gaga and recent RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sharon Needles: “These people are sartorially fascinating, but might have a shy interior. I find that contrast fascinating.”

Mr. Moore fits this description as well, though he demurs when asked if he is, himself, fierce: “I can’t really be objective about myself, even though I’m writing about these things.” He expresses himself through clothes. We asked him if, once he enters academia, he would adopt the tweed mufti preferred among the professorial class. “I wouldn’t, unless it was a fabulous Balmain jacket with pointed shoulders,” he said. “I think I seem relatable to students. Who knows how I’ll be when I’m 50, but like, at this point, I think students relate to me. The way that I lead a class and the way that I encourage discussion shows that, yes, I might have on sequined pants, but this is a very serious two hours.”

And Mr. Moore will be entering academia, despite the fact that he’s in only lightly charted territory; he noted to us that in the absence of historical documentation of fierceness, “you have to go and find the archive and make it yourself.” This fall, he’s joining the faculty of the University of Richmond in Virginia, where he’ll be a postdoctoral fellow teaching a class called “Lady Gaga.”

“Students emerge from the course with sharpened critical thinking skills and the ability to analyze and theorize pop culture,” promises the fall 2012 Rhetoric & Communication Studies prospectus.

“Course concludes with a creative final project.”

“In theoretical terms, he is renovating Veblen and Warhol,” said Prof. Roach. “As an intellectual innovator in a breaking field who is also a gifted teacher, Madison will have multiple job offers from which to choose.”

Not that Mr. Moore feels as though he has to make a choice. He’s already pondering his first book, which he says he wants to be an elaboration on the theme of fierceness and to be available from a major publisher. “I used to go to some of the big publishing houses Uptown and stand there and emote,” he said. He’s already gotten started with a vibrant freelancing career, including interviews with the likes of model Sasha Pivovarova and Downtown fixture Amanda Lepore for Interview’s website and an apparent memoir of sex addiction at Yale for emotive-youth-oriented site Thought Catalog. (“Who needs to read Judith Butler? I’m about to act gender out right now, for the next 25 minutes.”)

His freelance editor at the website Splice Today, Russ Smith, listed Mr. Moore’s interests: “Pop culture, the perils and pleasures of academic life, fashion, music, divas, gay culture, New York City, racism ... lots of stuff.”

Beyond publishing, Mr. Moore sees fame as a canvas through which to convey, well, ideas about fame: “The great thing about academia is that it’s the one field where you pretty much make your own schedule. You always have summers off, so that’s great. I wouldn’t trade that for anything! And your currency is your ideas. For me, I’d love to be able to be legible in academia and also be legible in popular culture. I want to go on Chelsea Handler and tell her what I’m doing, and be like, ‘Hey, Chuy [Ms. Handler’s little-person sidekick].’”

(Mr. Moore is able to write compellingly about the matters that stymie some academics. When The Observer first met him, in our moment of post-college anomie, to discuss the Yale American studies department—Mr. Moore was the doctoral program liaison. He advised us to find an edgy topic. “You should make it something sexy—become the world’s greatest expert on porn!” he suggested.)

We asked him to explain his big idea about fierceness, the argument he promulgates in his dissertation. He demurred, but gave us an example: a recent flash mob by Lady Gaga fans in Indonesia after her concert there was canceled for security concerns. “They take over the space. They’re performing Gaga. To me, this is relevant, because they’re saying ‘Fuck you.’ Fierceness is about claiming space—the mall—and just owning it.”

While Mr. Moore may not be able to determine whether or not he, himself, is fierce, he has little monsters of his own. A Yale undergraduate—“a little baby”—turned to Mr. Moore for advice recently.

“He said ‘I wish I could be fierce like you,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t think I’m that fierce, I’m doing what I like.’ And he said, ‘No, you’re an inspiration. I used to wear my mom’s high heels around the house, but everyone here is so conservative.’ So now he’s studying abroad in Paris and he texted me ‘Girl, I’m wearing a leather jacket with no shirt,’ this fierce outfit that’s fierce for him. ‘So thank you for that.’”

Mr. Moore paused. “And he was able to respond to that inner sense of restraint. People who are fierce are reacting to some restrictive thing.”

Amid the crumpets and collectors gathered in the London Hotel's second-floor tea room, Director Amy Meyers welcomed all to the "wonderful summer fete" and kicked off the lineup.

The big blockbuster appears to be some months away.  Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance, which opens Feb. 24, centers on the enigmatic portrait master's collection of works that chronicled the shifting of class boundaries and gender roles within 18th century London

On Sept. 16, the show opening the fall season is The Independent Eye: Contemporary British Art from the Collection of Samuel and Gabrielle Lurie. Artists featured include by postwar British artists Patrick Caulfield, Howard Hodgkin, John Walker, Ian Stephenson and most notably, John Hoyland.

In perhaps the most inventive and personal show, the Center will spotlight the career and works of lesser-known architect and former Yale professor with Notes from the Archive: James Frazer Stirling, Architect and Teacher. The exhibit, running Oct. 14, 2010- Jan. 2, 2011, encompasses more than 300 of Stirling's drawings, sketches and models from the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

Stirling "was one of the leading architects of his generation," said Robert Stern, Dean and J.M. Hoppin Professor of Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture. "[But] he got left behind in terms of people's consciousness."

The exhibit will run in tandem with An Architect's Legacy: James Stirling's Students at Yale, 1959-1983, which explores Stirling's legacy through the eyes of his students. It will be at the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven.

Altogether, it was a very proper event, the only snafu being when one onlooker unexpectedly fell out of her chair and onto the patterned carpet during the slightly long slideshow. 

 Perhaps she was simply holding her breath in anticipation.

"When Franco mentioned to me, via e-mail, that he was leaning toward going to Yale for his Ph.D., the faculty member he singled out was Michael Warner," Anderson writes. Warner was one of the founders of queer theory and wrote such books as The Trouble with Normal and Fear of a Queer Planet, in which he coined the term "heteronormativity."

Warner is currently "off the grid" in Vermont, but we caught up with him by email.

Franco was "very direct about his interest in queer theory," Warner told us. He said that the actor/director/writer/artist/student had taken an NYU course on film and queer theory and "wanted to continue thinking in that direction."

"While I haven't seen his NYU film," Warner wrote, "I've certainly noticed Franco's courage in taking not just one gay role, but a slew of them—most recently in Howl (in which he's terrific, by the way)." But Warner agreed with Anderson's assessment that Franco's interest seemed to go beyond just playing gay roles. "There is a broader queer interest at work," he said.

Warner said that he'd only met Franco once, so he couldn't say more about his academic plans. But he was interested to see what Franco would bring to campus. "I'm very much looking forward to having him at Yale," Warner said. "He's coming in with a lot of energy, and has already organized an undergraduate theater/film project (a musical!) for this year."

Well, if Gary Shteyngart is to be trusted, Franco's future professors can anticipate a positive teaching experience, or at least some excellent excuses when he misses class:

1. Ukranian Billionaire Selects Art-Prize Nominees
Victor Punchuk's PinchukArtCentre announced the nominees for his $100,000 Generation Art Prize. He funds the award, which goes to an emerging artist up to age 35. Whitney Biennial exhibitor (2008) Ruben Ochoa is the only American on the short list.

Our take: We're so glad the oligarchs are back. And points for a diverse group—the 21 finalists hail from 18 different countries and include 13 men and 8 women.

2. BP Corporate Art Sponsorship Backlash
In the UK, debate rages over BP's sponsorship of British cultural institutions. Vigilante groups have staged protests at partner museums-one group filled the Tate's grand hall with dead fish hanging from black balloons. Bloggers take their corners: Culturegrrl argues that museums shouldn't reject the money, while Edward Winkelman feels the BP backlash is too little, too late.

Our take: Why get angry at cultural institutions supported by BP when you could get angry at BP itself?
[The Guardian, Artnet, Culturegrrl, Edward Winkelman]

3. Louis Vuitton Demands Removal of Copycat Sculptures
Louis Vuitton demanded the removal of nine sculptures of locusts made out of fake designer purses that were on view at the Kobe Fashion Museum in Japan. The fashion house argued that the sculptures endorsed the illegal trade of counterfeit goods.

Our take: Murakami can install an entire LV boutique in the Brooklyn Museum, but artist Mitsuhiro Okamoto can't even use the designer's logo. Who's really getting ripped off here?
[Pinktentakle]

4. Yale Finds Velazquez Painting in Basement
In what may be Yale's most exciting basement cleaning session ever, University art gallery employees happened upon a painting of the Virgin Mary that they have officially attributed to Velazquez after years of research.

Our take: We were cynical, but it looks like the real deal. All we find when we clean out our basements are yellowed family photos and old boxes of Pringles.
[Bloomberg]

5. Charles Saatchi to Donate Collection and Gallery to Britain
Gallery impresario Charles Saatchi announced over the weekend that he would donate his collection, valued (very conservatively) at more than $37.5 million, and his London gallery to the nation of Britain upon his retirement. The Guardian isn't too impressed.

Our take: Looks like the Tate didn't schmooze over its contentious relationship with Saatchi in time to cash in.
[The Guardian]

6. Marilyn Manson and David Lynch Exhibition Opens
What do you get when you combine Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, watercolors, and a short film titled "The Amputee"? The Manson/Lynch exhibition "Geneaologies of Pain," which opened in Vienna on June 30. According to a press release, "Marilyn Manson's career as an artist started in 1999 when he produced conceptual five-minute watercolors which he sold to drug dealers."

Our take: "Pain" gives a new and unwelcome meaning to "cutting-edge art."

7. Guggenheim Expansion Provokes Protest
The Guggenheim Foundation announced interest in building a museum in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, 25 miles from Frank Gehry's iconic Guggenheim Bilbao. The regional Basque government and many local people fiercely oppose the expansion, arguing it will irreparably damage the nature reserve.  

Our take: If authorities in the Basque regional government were given more of a voice in the proceedings, the two parties might be able to make this happen.
[The Guardian]

8. Artist Gao Yu to Design Bottle for Absolut Vodka  
This week in corporate artist partnerships: Absolut Vodka has commissioned Chinese Pop artist Gao Yu to design a limited-edition bottle in honor of this year's Shanghai Expo.

Our take: Andy Warhol designed a bottle for Absolut 25 years ago. Is there any corporate collaboration that man didn't do first?

9. Sarah Palin is Rendered in Porn
British artist Jonathan Yeo's latest exhibition includes a portrait of Sarah Palin made entirely from clippings from pornography magazines. (All the better, the image has been placed in a furry moose head frame.) Other celebrities given Yeo's pornographic treatment include Tiger Woods, Sigmund Freud, and Paris Hilton, whose portrait-in-porn was bought by Damien Hirst.

Our take: When a politician headlines a controversy dubbed "Boobgate," isn't it only a matter of time until Playboy gets involved?
[Artinfo]
 
10. Art Market Heats Up for Summer
Artnet rounds up results from the summer's hottest sales, which include the highly anticipated Impressionist and modern auctions as well as contemporary art sales at Sotheby's and Christie's. In June, about 230 artists achieved record sale prices above $100,000 (up from 120 for the same price bracket in May).

Our take: We'll take any signs of recovery we can get, but we know deep down it's not all coming up records and roses.
[Artnet, Transom, ArtObserved]

Thus James Franco teaches his most important lesson: one must love learning for its own sake, as James Franco himself does, and not for the prospect of a celebrity T.A.