Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco

Director James Crump (Mapplethorpe)’s documentary about the centrifugal social force and most influential fashion designer of the 1970s, Antonio Lopez as self-described “NewYorican,” who along with his partner Juan Ramos upended the fashion scene with his loud, bright expressions from dance clubs to runways. At the core of his imagination were unique looking models that included Jerry Hall, Grace Jones, Tina Chow and Patti D’Arbanville who would come to embody jetsetter ’70s celebrity. From his studio within Carnegie Hall, Lopez held court at Max’s Kansas City where his rivalry with Andy Warhol nurtured weirdos and hangers on and moved the early gay underground into mainstream sight. Lopez – with Corey Tippin rendering makeup – and two women (Donna Jordan and Jane Forth, responsible for the eyebrowless look) moved to Paris by the early ’70s, where his ongoing sexual affairs fueled and jeopardized his standing alongside Karl Lagerfeld, the head of Chanel and designer of his own fashion label. Once the documentary shifts to Paris, it loses much of its focus on Lopez’s art, presenting him as a magician of unlimited social energies.

[NR]