Eddie Bauer: Now for Downtown Dads
By
April 21, 2011
NATE LOWMAN AND CHIARA CLEMENTE. COURTESY BILLY FARRELL AGENCY
It’s time to take a second look at the Eddie Bauer labels stashed in your dad’s closet. Last night, The Smile teamed up with Eddie Bauer for Slanted and Enchanted, a film featuring the fall 2011 Eddie Bauer collection and collaboration with British designer Nigel Cabourn. The short film, directed by Phil Pinto (the director of Sleigh Bells’ “Infinity Guitars” video) and produced by Mariko Munro and Rachelyn Remz-Porter of Twin Bike Pictures, is a spooky and ethereal short set in the woods in upstate New York. The film features a cast of downtown fixtures (Clara Balzary, Hannah Bronfman, Marc Razo, Shelly Zander and Todd Jordan) giving Eddie Bauer a whole new edge to the outdoors.
“I didn’t want to do dialogue; I wanted to keep it simple,” explained Pinto at the event. “When I travel and when I go camping, it’s always very quiet and serene, and I feel like it doesn’t get used a lot.” The director said he wanted to reference the fims of Antonioni.
Asked if he had any Eddie Bauer memories, he recalled one particularly woodsy uncle. “Eddie Bauer was always very much the really nice stuff,” he said. “I always say it’s like the Chanel of hunting.” Balzary, a photographer and member of the band Grand Rapids, said the heritage brand “always reminds me of Dawson’s Creek, and Pacey Witter being really cute.”
Guests won’t get to buy the stock until it hits Barneys and Opening Ceremony in the fall—but the Stanley flasks and badminton sets in the gift bags were an instant hit.
