奥尔森姐妹：追求极致的时尚精灵

WATCHING MARY-KATE AND ASHLEY OLSEN pose for a photo shoot is like watching a hypnotic piece of performance art. Former child stars, extraordinarily savvy brand nurturers, founders and owners of an estimated $1.5 billion business empire and, now, designers of the critically acclaimed high-end fashion line The Row, the Olsens have spent the great majority of their 26 years either in front of a camera or otherwise hard at work. Veterans of fields in which 'consummate professional' is a vastly overused term, these two women know exactly what they are supposed to do. And they do it perfectly.

看玛丽-凯特·奥尔森(Mary-Kate Olsen)和阿什利·奥尔森(Ashley Olsen)在镜头前摆拍，就像是在观看一场令人沉醉的表演。这两个昔日童星深谙品牌打造之道，她们创立并拥有一个价值约15亿美元的商业帝国。如今，她们又成为广受赞誉的高端时尚品牌The Row的设计师。奥尔森姐妹26年来的大部分时间不是在镜头前，就是在努力工作。在她们精通的众多领域中，人们常常用“专业到极致这个词来形容她们，这两名女子准确无误地知道自己该做什么。她们也做得臻于完美。

In this case, it's changing into pieces from The Row's resort collection, taking seats behind a simple table and creating an instant tableau. As the camera clicks away, it's as though they're responding to a photographer's usual commands: 'Turn this way, now a little more to the left... Mary-Kate, can we do a couple with your hair up? Okay, Ashley, you look up while Mary-Kate looks down... That's it, tilt your head back岸can we have a hand under your chin? Look straight into the camera...Great, now let's have you turn toward each other.'

这次的完美之作则是换上The Row度假系列服装，在一张简简单单的桌子后坐下，立即就营造出了一个生动的画面。随着相机快门口嚓作响，就好像是她们在依照摄影师常见的指令做动作：转向这边，再往左边一点……玛丽-凯特，你能把头发束起来拍几张吗？好的，阿什利，玛丽-凯特向下看时，你向上看……就是这样，把头向后倾一点──一手托腮……直视相机……很好，现在你们俩朝向对方。

In fact, the photographer hasn't uttered a single word. She doesn't need to. The whole thing happens organically, seamlessly, without a wasted moment or modicum of tension岸it may well be the fastest and least stressful photo shoot on record. When it's over, the Olsens ditch their well-worn Manolo Blahnik alligator Carolyne spikes for flats (Balenciaga loafers for Mary- Kate, suede Manolo sandals for Ashley), thank everyone politely and light up cigarettes. It's the Thursday evening before Labor Day weekend but theirs will be a truncated holiday. On Sunday morning, they'll be back at work, tweaking their spring/summer collection that's little more than a week away from presentation.

而实际上，摄影师一言未发。她不需要发号施令。整个过程进行得自然而流畅，没有一刻浪费，也没有一丁点紧张──这可能是有记录以来最快、最轻松的拍照。拍照结束后，奥尔森姐妹脱掉穿了很久的Manolo Blahnik Carolyne尖头高跟鞋，换上了平底鞋（玛丽-凯特穿的是巴黎世家(Balenciaga)乐福鞋，阿什利穿的是Manolo绒面凉鞋），礼貌地感谢每个人，然后点上香烟。这是劳动节周末前的周四晚上，但她们的假期要缩短了。周日上午，她们将回去工作，为一周多后即将展示的春夏系列做最后的调整。

In the flesh, Mary-Kate and Ashley are beautiful young women, with luminous pale-green eyes and famously petite statures (roughly five feet). Given the fact that they became stars on the hit TV show Full House at 9 months old (taking turns playing the single role of Michelle Tanner), as well as their more recent status as regular tabloid targets, the most striking thing about them is how weirdly not weird they are. Likewise, their unfussy, elegant collections are so relentlessly not about trend or fashion or red-carpet moments that they've already achieved near-cult status. In June, when the label was barely five years old, they beat out far more established competitors Marc Jacobs and Proenza Schouler to win one of the industry's highest accolades: the Council of Fashion Designers of America's Womenswear Designer of the Year award.

外表上看，玛丽-凯特和阿什利是漂亮的年轻女子，有着闪亮的灰绿色眼睛和娇小的身材（约1.5米高）。她们九个月大的时候就因出演热播电视剧《青春满屋》(Full House)而成了明星（两人轮流饰演米歇尔·坦纳(Michelle Tanner)这一个角色），近来则是小报经常报道的对象，有鉴于此，让人感到最奇怪的一点是，两人一点也不奇怪。同样，她们推出平实、优雅的服装系列绝对不是为了潮流、时尚或红毯时刻，在这些方面粉丝们对她们都已经到了接近狂热崇拜的地步。今年6月，当她们的时尚品牌创立才只有五年时，就击败老牌竞争对手马克·雅可布(Marc Jacobs)和普罗恩萨·施罗(Proenza Schouler)，赢得了业界最高荣誉之一：美国时装设计师协会(Council of Fashion Designers of America)颁发的年度最佳女装设计师奖(Womenswear Designer of the Year award)。

THE TRANSITION FROM celebrity to fashion designer is often a phony one, and in the beginning, the Olsens were met with no small amount of skepticism. What the doubters failed to take into account is that their longtime TV and video career also served as a nonstop, hands-on fashion school. For 18 consecutive years, Mary-Kate and Ashley spent countless hours in wardrobe, changing clothes as often as 12 times a day. They learned about fit and proportion and tailoring, as jackets from Marc Jacobs and Chanel were resized for their frames when they were still preteens; they loved rummaging through Full House costar Lori Loughlin's Donna Karan filled closets. At 12, the sisters and their company, Dualstar, which they'd launched six years earlier with their then-managers, debuted a line for WalMart aimed at the mostly untapped tween market. Described by Mary-Kate as 'fashion forward... jeans, a bit of bohemian or with a little blazer,' the brand sported a tagline: 'Real Fashion for Real Girls.' By changing just the last word, it would make an apt description for their current venture.

名人转型做时装设计师常常是名不副实。开始时，奥尔森姐妹遭遇了强烈的质疑。怀疑者没有考虑到的问题是，她们长期从事电视和影像方面的工作，而这是一所不间断的、让人亲身实践的时尚学校。有连续18年，玛丽-凯特和阿什利在衣柜中花费了大量时间，每天最多要换装12次。在她们还不到10岁的时候，马克·雅可布和香奈儿(Chanel)的外套需要为她们修改尺寸，于是她们就懂得了什么是合身，什么是分寸，什么是好的剪裁。她们喜欢在一同出演《青春满屋》的洛丽·洛克林(Lori Loughlin)满是唐娜·凯伦(Donna Karan)服装的衣柜中翻箱倒柜。12岁时，两姐妹和她们的公司Dualstar为沃尔玛(WalMart)推出了一个服装系列，目标是基本未开发的儿童市常在那之前六年，她们和当时的经纪人成立了这家公司。玛丽-卡特称其为“时尚向前冲……牛仔，一点波西米亚或加点法兰绒运动上衣元素，该品牌的口号是“真女孩真时尚(Real Fashion for Real Girls)。如果把“女孩这个词改一下，这句口号也可以恰如其分地描述她们眼下的这个时装系列。

When they turned 18, Mary-Kate and Ashley took sole ownership of Dualstar and moved from the West Coast to enroll in New York University, where inspiration for The Row took hold during a semester off. 'We had never not worked before,' says Ashley, 'so it was a little bit of a trip.' They were well-versed in the art of creating brands around themselves, she says, but 'this was more of a test to see how we might create something on our own, without any outside influence岸not as a business, but as a passion project to see where it could go.' They began with a simple draped T-shirt and spent a year and a half learning about pattern-making, production and sampling. The first collection, presented in 2006, consisted of only seven pieces, including that first shirt, a pair of cotton sateen leggings and a cashmere tank dress.

到了18岁的时候，玛丽-凯特和阿什利取得了Dualstar的全部所有权，离开西海岸到纽约大学(New York University)就读，正是在纽约大学，创造The Row的想法在一个学期的时间内正式生根。阿什利说，我们从来没有工作过，所以有点磕磕绊绊。她说，她们都精通围绕自己创造品牌的艺术，但这次更像是一个考验，考验我们在不受外界的影响下，如何独立创造某些东西──不是为了生意，而是充满激情地实践一个项目，只是想看看结果如何。她们从一个简单的打摺T恤开始，花了一年半的时间学习版型制作、生产和取样。2006年诞生的第一个系列仅有七件单品，包括最初的那件T恤、一双棉缎紧身裤和一件羊绒背心裙。

Slowly, they added a blazer here, a stretch leather legging there岸minimal silhouettes occasionally punctuated by spot-on adornments, like the perfect button or a textured stripe on a tuxedo pant. 'We're constantly doing research on insanely small details,' says Mary-Kate. The goal was to create an ever-expanding group of trendless, often seasonless pieces that women could incorporate into their existing wardrobes and have them remain relevant. 'We like the mentality of the way men dress,' says Ashley, who is wearing black-washed silk pants from four years ago and a top from their spring/summer 2013 collection. 'It's that thing about having a few very special investment pieces that you can wear all the time and build upon.'

她们不时地为该系列添加一件上装或是一条皮裤，这些服饰都是极简风格的，偶尔会有一些精准的装饰，比如完美位置上的一粒纽扣或是晚礼服裤子上的纹理条纹。玛丽-凯特说，我们像是着了魔似的不断地对一些微小的细节进行研究。她们的目标是增加适合女性的不分潮流不分季节的单品，让它们永不过时。阿什利说，我们喜欢男士着装的思维方式。阿什利正穿着一件四年前的黑色水洗丝裤，以及一件2013年春夏款的上装。她说，重要的是有几件非常特别的单品，你可以随时穿，然后在此基础上进行搭配。

In their earliest days, the designers were also the fit models, 'basically selling all the clothes off our backs,' Ashley says, laughing. 'We started one client, one boutique at a time.' One of those 'boutiques' was Barneys New York, which bought the entire first collection and, later, helped launch The Row's handbag line in 2011. 'We viewed them as designers from the get-go,' says Tomoko Ogura, the store's senior fashion director. 'All you have to do is look at the integrity of the design, the quality of the materials. When we touch and feel the product, we're not thinking of Mary-Kate and Ashley as celebrities; we view them as on par with some of the best designers in the world. As young as they are, they have a very sophisticated sense of style.'

在创业之初的那些日子里，这两位设计师同时也是展示自己作品的模特。阿什利大笑着说，当时基本上什么衣服一上我们的身就卖出去了。她说，我们每次只瞄准一个客户，一家时装精品店。巴尼斯纽约精品店(Barneys New York)就是这样一家客户，姐妹俩设计的首季时装全都被这家店买下了，它后来还帮助她们在2011年推出了The Row系列手袋。这家时装精品店的高级时装总监小仓智子(Tomoko Ogura)说，我们把她们看作是即将从业的设计师，只要看看她们设计的完整性和用料的质量就明白了；当我们触摸和感受她们设计出来的作品时，我们没把玛丽-凯特和阿什利当作普通的名人，我们将她们看作是与世界上一些最佳设计师比肩的人，她们虽然很年轻，但对风格的把握却非常老练。

Part of that sophistication comes not just from their childhood 'training,' but also from their long history as consumers. Both Olsens are major collectors of vintage fashion (friend and client Carey Mulligan won the role of Daisy in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby wearing one of Ashley's 1930s dresses), and are equally well-acquainted with the non- vintage luxury market. 'We knew what was available,' Ashley says, 'and no one was doing really great wardrobe basics as a full collection.' Concentrating on basics, even岸or, perhaps, especially岸 very expensive basics, turned out to be a prescient business decision. 'When the recession hit, The Row was still growing, people were still buying it,' Ashley says. 'They knew they'd have something forever. And I think people were attracted to more modest things that weren't so splashy.'

两姐妹身上的这种老练既来源于她们童年时期所受的“训练，也由于她们是资深服装消费者。两姐妹都收藏有许多古董服装（她们的朋友──也是她们的客户──穆里根(Carey Mulligan)曾穿着阿什利所藏上世纪30年代的时装赢得了在巴兹?雷曼(Baz Luhrmann)执导的《大亨小传》(The Great Gatsby)一片中扮演黛西(Daisy)一角的机会），她们对古董服装以外的奢侈品市场也很了解。阿什利说，我们知道市面上都有什么，很少有人像我们那样把基本的服装服饰收集得那么齐。把注意力集中到基本的服装服饰上，尤其是那些非常昂贵的基本服装服饰上，最终证明是一个很有先见之明的商业决定。阿什利说，当经济衰退袭来时，The Row的业务仍在成长， 人们依然在买这个牌子的服装，他们知道这个牌子的产品有某种永恒的东西；我认为人们被更平实的东西吸引了，那些东西不是那么炫目。

Refined is the word that comes up most often in descriptions of The Row's clothes, in addition to 'minimal,' 'airy,' 'luxe' and 'serene.' More than one fashion editor has compared The Row to early Armani, with its emphasis on fabric and cut as well as its 'uniform' nature. Interestingly, one of the words the designers themselves use is 'anonymous.'

人们在形容The Row品牌的服装时，经常用到的一个词是“精良，用到的其他词还有“极简、“轻盈、“奢华和“宁静等。因为The Row品牌的服装强调面料和剪裁，以及其“制服特色，不止一位时装杂志编辑将The Row品牌的服装与早期的阿玛尼(Armani)作比较。有意思的是，玛丽-凯特和阿什利用来形容自己作品的一个词是“平淡无奇。

'There's an anonymity to the clothes,' says Mary-Kate, but the word also applies to every other aspect of the line: The labels are minuscule metal bars (silver for resort; gold for every other season); their collections aren't presented on a star-studded runway, but in a series of intimate gatherings for the fashion press and buyers. At their recent spring/summer show at the Carlyle hotel, silver baskets filled with pastries graced the tables while a lone guitarist was the only soundtrack. There are no backstage interviews or glitzy after-parties 角 la Marc Jacobs or Diane von Furstenberg, nor do they reveal the names of their clients岸though Jessica Biel, Julianne Moore and Michelle Obama have all been spotted wearing The Row, and Lauren Hutton, who was among their first look-book models, professes to be a huge fan.

玛丽-凯特说，这些衣服看上去给人一种平淡无奇的感觉，但这一特点也适用于这一系列的其它每一个方面：标签是看上去微不足道的金属牌（银色用于休闲度假系列，金色用于其它每一季的服装）；她们的系列服装不是在明星云集的T台上展示，而是在一系列为时尚媒体和买手准备的私密聚会上展出。两人最近在Carlyle酒店举行的春夏时装秀上，装满精致糕点的银色篮子令那些桌子看上去非常优雅，现场唯一的背景音乐来自一名独自演奏的吉他手。没有后台采访，没有马克·雅可布或冯芙丝汀宝(Diane von Furstenberg)时装秀那样的眩目庆祝派对，甚至连顾客的名单也不会对外透露－－不过洁西卡·比尔(Jessica Biel)、茱莉安·摩尔(Julianne Moore)和米歇尔·奥巴马(Michelle Obama)都曾被发现穿着The Row的服饰，而该品牌宣传册最先选用的模特之一劳伦·赫顿(Lauren Hutton)也承认，她是该品牌的超级粉丝。

'Our true customers, the ones who understand the brand, always come to us when they have events,' says Mary-Kate. At the CFDA awards, each wore evening looks from the resort collection (Mary-Kate in long-sleeved black and Ashley in cap-sleeved fuchsia) that were dramatic in their simplicity. During the photo shoot Ashley chose a tailored black shirt adorned with gorgeous (but not remotely flashy) beaded palm trees. She called it 'the perfect evening shirt'岸but not necessarily for anyone who wants to shout, 'Look at me!'

玛丽-凯特说，我们真正的顾客是那些了解这一品牌的人，他们在有活动时总是来找我们。在美国时装设计师协会的颁奖典礼上，姐妹二人均穿着休闲度假系列的晚装（玛丽-凯特穿着长袖黑色晚装，阿什利穿着高肩袖紫红色晚装），两套服装都异常简洁。拍照时，阿什利选择了一件定制的黑衬衫，衬衫上装饰有带珠子的绚丽（但一点也不浮华）棕榈树。她称这件衬衫是“完美的晚装衬衫──但对那些想要吸引眼球的人来说可能并不适用。

Striking a red-carpet pose has never been high on either Olsen's agenda. You don't see them endorsing a vodka, say, or opening a club, and for all their tabloid visibility, the paparazzi shots generally feature little more than one or both of them on the street with a cell phone and a latte. Mary-Kate has been under the microscope regarding everything from the layered grunge look she sported during her NYU days (she's joked that she was a California girl unprepared for Manhattan winters, so she put on everything she owned) to who she's dating, currently that happens to be Olivier Sarkozy, head and managing director of the Carlyle Group's global financial services division and half-brother of the former president of France. Their 16-year age difference is a current tabloid topic. 'Everyone has an opinion,' Mary-Kate says. 'I find it's better to focus on what's in front of you and to keep putting one foot in front of the other.'

在红毯上摆拍从来都不是奥尔森姐妹俩看重的。比如，你看不到她们为伏特加酒代言，或开一家俱乐部，尽管她们是小报报道中的常客，狗仔队拍的照片通常都无非是两人或其中的一个在街上打手机、喝拿铁。玛丽-凯特生活的方方面面都被放到了显微镜下，从她在纽约大学求学期间里三层外三层的邋遢装束（她开玩笑地说，她是加州女孩，对曼哈顿的冬季毫无准备，所以就把自己所有的衣服都穿身上了）到她约会的对象。她现在的约会对象正好是奥利弗·萨科奇(Olivier Sarkozy)，他是凯雷集团(Carlyle Group)全球金融服务部门的负责人兼董事总经理，也是法国前总统同父异母的弟弟。两人之间年龄相差16岁，这成了眼下小报的热门话题。玛丽-凯特说，每个人都有自己的观点，我发现最好是关注于眼前的东西，一步一步地不断朝前走。

Focus is what they've always done best. In addition to The Row, their fashion labels include Olsenboye, a mass-market juniors' line in partnership with J.C. Penney, and Elizabeth and James, an enormously successful mid-market contemporary brand that shares the names of their siblings. In addition to the handbags, The Row has expanded to include sunglasses岸shoes, watches and freestanding boutiques are next. The latter will likely feature the vintage jewelry Ashley loves and the personal experience they already give their longtime clients, including tailoring and monogramming.

一直以来，她们做得最好的一件事就是专注。除The Row外，她们的时装品牌还包括Olsenboye和Elizabeth and James。前者是她们与J.C. Penney合作推出的大众市场青少年服装系列。后者是一个获得了巨大成功的中档市场当代品牌，该品牌是以她们兄妹的名字命名的。除手袋外，The Row还延伸至太阳镜，接下来还将推出鞋子、手表和独立时装店。时装店可能将销售阿什利喜欢的老式珠宝，店内还将提供她们已经向长期客户提供的个人体验，包括服装定制和在衣服上缝制人名。

The boutiques are at least a year off, and for now, leaving the photo shoot, Mary-Kate plans to head out to Long Island for a night or two in Sagaponack, where Ashley will join her with a girlfriend who's in law school. 'I can't stand to be away from her,' Ashley says, in a send-up of their inseparable twin image, and they both burst into peals of laughter. The only thing on the agenda is a stop at Mary-Kate's favorite farm stand, The Milk Pail, and both are looking forward to feasts of late-season corn. Theirs has never, despite their celebrity, been an especially flashy existence岸which means they already have the perfect clothes for it.

时装店至少还需一年才能推出。而眼下，离开拍照现场后，玛丽-凯特计划前往长岛，在Sagaponack住上一两晚，而随后阿什利将和一位法学院的女友一起加入玛丽-凯特。阿什利一边滑稽地模仿两人不可分离的双胞胎画面，一边说，我无法忍受不在她身边。两人都大笑出声。这次出行唯一一项计划中的活动是在玛丽-凯特最喜欢的农场The Milk Pail稍作停留，两人都盼望着享用大餐或快过季的玉米。尽管两人是名人，她们出现在那里却从不让人感到特别乍眼──这意味着她们已经有了去农场的完美衣服。

（WSJ. Magazine 2012年创新人物奖获奖者包括设计师、建筑师、艺术家和科技奇才──他们都对合作以及与广大观众互动满怀热情。本文介绍的是WSJ. Magazine 2012年创新人物奖时尚类获奖人：玛丽-凯特?奥尔森和阿什利?奥尔森姐妹。）