You can all breathe a sigh of relief. Chloë Sevigny just released her first book, titled Chloë Sevigny (Now available for purchase here). Filled with behind-the-scenes photographs from her childhood to today, the 224-page book also takes a look back at the icon’s early model and partying days. We caught up with Bernadette Corporation co- founder Bernadette Van-Huy, one of the women who helped style some of Chloë’s most iconic moments.
Since its creation in 1993, the Bernadette Corporation has been churning out conceptual, anti-corporate statements in virtually every medium imaginable. The collective formed at Club USA, an adult amusement park-cum-nightclub situated in Times Square, and soon after, its constantly evolving members began to sneakily influence the art world with their various videos, books, and of course, fashion projects.
At the core of the collective is Thuy Pham, Antek Walczak, John Kelsey, and Bernadette Van-Huy—a provocative bunch who never had any problems sticking it to the mainstream art and “corporate” fashion worlds. They met after Van-Huy returned to New York City after college. “My cousin, Seth Shapiro, moved up to the city from Virginia. I latched myself onto him and his friends, like Thuy. Something about them—their wry humor—spoke to me, and slowly, my coma cracked,” says Bernadette Van-Huy. “They were pop. Into fashion. I used to spend hours at the magazine stands, like Tower Records, studying fashion magazine after magazine, learning the designers so I could tell them apart.”
The magazine study sessions would later prove to be successful as the collective soon found their work in the likes of Purple and Visionaire, as well as their own editorial creation, Made in USA. It only seemed fitting that the same environment where the Bernadette Corp. first took root would also cultivate a similar party setting where they would discover future collaborator—and future icon—the then-unknown Chloë Sevigny.
“Thuy and I were at a club with some friends and he noticed Chloë at the other end of the room,” recalls Van-Huy. “He thought we should use her as a model, so I went up to her and asked her. I remember her reaction pretty well: it was sweet—she was so enthusiastic!”
The pair would go on to dissect their similar fashion tastes, all the while collaborating on numerous DIY shoots. “The first few times [I styled Chloë] was just for test shoots,” says Van-Huy. “I would have these grimy clothes from the Salvation Army and she would put them on and then look at me. Encouragingly.”
Spur-of-the-moment photo sessions in New Jersey eventually led to more established shoots, with Van-Huy styling Chloë for early editions of i-D magazine, as well as that iconic Self Service cover photographed by Mark Borthwick. “I loved seeing Chloë in the tabloids! She had shot to that level of fame just at that time, where even the German tabloids had photos of her,” says Van-Huy. “I loved seeing her pictures. She practiced a lot of range at that time and she wore so many different kinds of looks. She was maybe the most exciting person to look at in magazines at that time.”
The relationship b
Since its creation in 1993, the Bernadette Corporation has been churning out conceptual, anti-corporate statements in virtually every medium imaginable. The collective formed at Club USA, an adult amusement park-cum-nightclub situated in Times Square, and soon after, its constantly evolving members began to sneakily influence the art world with their various videos, books, and of course, fashion projects.
At the core of the collective is Thuy Pham, Antek Walczak, John Kelsey, and Bernadette Van-Huy—a provocative bunch who never had any problems sticking it to the mainstream art and “corporate” fashion worlds. They met after Van-Huy returned to New York City after college. “My cousin, Seth Shapiro, moved up to the city from Virginia. I latched myself onto him and his friends, like Thuy. Something about them—their wry humor—spoke to me, and slowly, my coma cracked,” says Bernadette Van-Huy. “They were pop. Into fashion. I used to spend hours at the magazine stands, like Tower Records, studying fashion magazine after magazine, learning the designers so I could tell them apart.”
The magazine study sessions would later prove to be successful as the collective soon found their work in the likes of Purple and Visionaire, as well as their own editorial creation, Made in USA. It only seemed fitting that the same environment where the Bernadette Corp. first took root would also cultivate a similar party setting where they would discover future collaborator—and future icon—the then-unknown Chloë Sevigny.
“Thuy and I were at a club with some friends and he noticed Chloë at the other end of the room,” recalls Van-Huy. “He thought we should use her as a model, so I went up to her and asked her. I remember her reaction pretty well: it was sweet—she was so enthusiastic!”
The pair would go on to dissect their similar fashion tastes, all the while collaborating on numerous DIY shoots. “The first few times [I styled Chloë] was just for test shoots,” says Van-Huy. “I would have these grimy clothes from the Salvation Army and she would put them on and then look at me. Encouragingly.”
Spur-of-the-moment photo sessions in New Jersey eventually led to more established shoots, with Van-Huy styling Chloë for early editions of i-D magazine, as well as that iconic Self Service cover photographed by Mark Borthwick. “I loved seeing Chloë in the tabloids! She had shot to that level of fame just at that time, where even the German tabloids had photos of her,” says Van-Huy. “I loved seeing her pictures. She practiced a lot of range at that time and she wore so many different kinds of looks. She was maybe the most exciting person to look at in magazines at that time.”
The relationship b