NYFW Fall '12: Imitation of Christ

Fashion Black HIstory: Whitney Houston

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all time. Her awards include two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards as of 2010. Houston was also one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. Inspired by prominent soul singers in her family, including her mother Cissy Houston, cousins Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, and her godmother Aretha Franklin, Houston began singing with her New Jersey church's junior gospel choir at age 11. After she began performing alongside her mother in night clubs in the New York City area, she was discovered by Arista Records label head Clive Davis. Houston released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification.

Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits ("Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know", "Greatest Love of All", "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"). She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboardmagazine year-end charts. Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African-American female artists to follow in her footsteps.

Houston's first acting role was as the star of the feature film The Bodyguard (1992). The film's original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Its lead single "I Will Always Love You", became the best-selling single by a female artist in music history. With the album, Houston became the first act (solo or group, male or female) to sell more than a million copies of an album within a single week period.The album makes her the only female act in the top 10 list of the best-selling albums of all time, at number four. Houston continued to star in movies and contribute to their soundtracks, including the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996). The Preacher's Wife soundtrack became the best-selling gospel album in history. Three years after the release of her fourth studio album My Love Is Your Love (1998), she renewed her recording contract with Arista Records. She released her fifth studio album Just Whitney in 2002, and the Christmas-themed One Wish: The Holiday Album in 2003. In 2009, Houston released her seventh studio album, I Look to You.

On February 11, 2012, Houston died of currently unknown causes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

Dior Fashion Show | 1960s Fashions

The Fashion Designer and His Muse - Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy

Kate Moss In A Religious Theme

Moss has aged and continues to age—not gracefully, for she’s a suburban hellion from the outer limits of Cockneydom, but beguilingly. The images seen here delight in the platinum and pearliness of her slightly skew-whiff teeth. I lose myself in the cold reactor shutdown of her brown-to-black eyes. As for that ever feted bone structure? Well, what to do but wax poetic about that perfect geometry: Moss’s mouth no rosebud but a crushed carnation, her cheekbones somehow performing the alien accomplishment of curving down to below its petals. Read Here

How to… survive your first season at Fashion Week

The Fashion Week circus is fast approaching and many bloggers will be attending, possibly for their first time. It now seems like a right of passage to go and see the shows in person. This time last year I was preparing for my first ever visit to London Fashion Week!

Now, I do not profess to be any sort of an expert on Fashion Week, or how to get tickets, or anything like that. But I can share with you my experiences of being a first-timer at LFW and what I learned. 

• Don’t expect to get to everything. Some venues are not close together and some shows do clash. And almost all shows start and run late. Don’t kill yourself trying to get across London. I would suggest making sure you know what you have been invited to in advance and where the venues are and making a decision on what is important to make it to. 

• Just because you don’t have a ticket, doesn’t mean you can’t necessarily go. If you have BFC accreditation you might be able to get into the back of some shows at the BFC space, if there is room. It really is at the discretion of those on the door – and whether or not there is any space. But it is always worth hanging around and asking! 

• Pack flats! It seems silly to say it but you will be on your feet for most of the day and if you’re like me you’ll be wanting to show off your favourite shoes which will likely be new and heeled and therefore the most uncomfortable shoes you could choose for days on end on your feet. So make sure you pack some comfortable flats for at least the journey between home and Somerset House! 

• Pack snacks and water. Yes, there is Vitamin Water on tap around the venue but if you’re running late for shows etc, you’ll be hard pressed to get your hands on a bottle but will be dehydrated. So keep fed and watered. 

• Have business cards to hand. You’ll meet so many people at Fashion Week and everyone will be exchanging business cards. Make sure you have some ready so that you can hand them out too – this is your chance to get your blog out there. 

• Speak to people. Most people are at Fashion Week to network and many come alone so will be happy to have someone speak to them – so go on, say hi. 

• Take your charger for your phone. You’ll likely spend most of your day tweeting and taking photos on your phone, so it’ll quickly run down. Make sure you’re not caught without battery charge and carry your charger with you – there are electric points all over the venue. 

• Don’t stress about missing a show or a shot. There’ll be plenty of opportunity for blog content from Fashion Week, so just make sure you enjoy it and absorb it too.

• Carry a notebook and pen with you at all times. The computers are nearly always all in use straight after the shows, so make sure to make a few notes by hand on what you thought etc – before you forget!

• Unless you’re being paid to be at all of the shows (in which case, lucky you!) don’t feel you have to completely exhaust yourself and get to everything. I have to admit that I have enjoyed my less busy days at LFW much more than those where I have been running around like a headless chicken. In September I spent an hour sitting in the late summer sun on the steps in the courtyard of Somerset House and just soaking up the atmosphere – it was utter bliss!

If you have any questions about Fashion Week in London or anywhere else, please just ask – I can’t promise I’ll be able to answer them, but I will try!

Matador Chic

Tangent #9 

Shot by: Emmanuel Giraud
Styling by: Heather Cairns
Model: Egle Jezepcikaite

On the Newsstand...

- i-D Pre-Spring 2012 Lara Mullen & Matt Ardell by Jeff Bark

- Vogue China March 2012 Isabeli and Natasha by Inez & Vinoodh
- Garage #2 Spring Summer 2012
- Woman Spain February 2012 Eugenia Silva by Richard Ramos
- SN° February 2012 Raquel Zimmermann

- Elle UK March 2012 Alexa Chung by Thomas Schenk
- D La Repubblica #777 Awa Ceesay by Laura Villa Baroncell & Manuele Gerominii
- US Marie Claire March 2012 Eva Mendes
- Elle China March 2012 Shu Pei by Mark Pillai

Pretty In the Air

 Feel the Chill? Can't wait until the birds start chirping and blossoms appear in the trees- If winter is getting you down, a peek at Louis Vuitton Shows offers ample inspiration, from the tiaras and pastel colors to the whimsical carousel. for more of a book lat that these pretty ideas jump start your spring awakening



 Patin your eyes with pastel colours from this darling Chantecaille Les Macarons Palette. Filled with the delightful hues of French Macaroons, these sahdows make me swoon!



Add some color to your lips with Lime Crime's new Carosousel Lip Gloss. The sparkly hues and cute packaging will lift your spirits on a dreary day!

Vidéo exclusive d'Emmanuelle Alt

To celebrate the relaunch of Vogue.fr, Vogue Paris’ website (it looks a lot cleaner and more like a Tumblr site now), EIC Emmanuelle Alt, French TV personality Mademoiselle Agnès, and models Anja Rubik, Karmen Pedaru, Jasmine Tookes and Kendra Spears got together to perform Wham! “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” a song Alt has previously revealed to be one of her favorite songs. [Fashionista]

Beyoncé Makes FIRST POST-BABY APPEARANCE At Jay-Z's Carnegie Hall Show

 

Under The Sea

One trend spring 2012 was a clear favourite 'Under the Sea', in latest Numero #130 February 2012 take on the trend with model Toni Garrn glistening as a mermaid rising to surface as the sun set/rises on the story, “Splash” wearing looks from Giorgio Armani, Prada, Gucci, Dior and Elie Saab styled together by Franck Benhamou and shot by photographer Camilla Akrans.

Edward Norton and Daria Werbowy for Prada LG phones

Katie Grand’s Short Film for Louis Vuitton

Marc Jacobs may have given his namesake show a cabaret theme, but that inspiration clearly carried over to Paris for his jaw-dropping Louis Vuitton collection. So, for a new short film to showcase Vuitton’s spring ’12 accessories, Katie Grand took that inspiration and ran with it. The result, which debuted today on Love, features models in swimcaps, leotards and Louis Vuitton shoes performing authentic thirties-style synchronized dance moves with big feathers.

Anna Wintour on 60 Minutes

Here is the full show below, and while the other two interviews are definitely worth watching, fast forward to 14:44 for Wintour’s segment. It starts with Safer’s not-so flattering introduction–saying Wintour turns some people into “obsequious toadies” (he also seems to relish calling her a “bitch”). After running through her various nicknames (“Nuclear Wintour”), they jump to a scene of Voguettes running around like gerbils through the office and the requisite The Devil Wears Pradaclip. Note that this interview was recycled from a 2009 interview that 60 Minutes did with Anna Wintour. 

Karl Lagerfeld guest-edits Metro newspaper for a day

Karl Lagerfeld sketched himself for the cover of today's Metro International. Seems Uncle Karl is seeing "global". So now that he's checked off Newspaper Editor, is there anything else Karl has left to do in this world that he hasn't already done? He's a one stop shop powerhouse.  So here's what else we all willlearn about Karl from his interview with the paper..more quotable quotes from the grande formage...

• I don’t say cheap because people are cheap, but clothes are not supposed to be cheap—they are supposed to be well designed and not expensive. 
• When I did H&M, everyone said don’t do it. And it worked. When I took over Chanel, everyone said to me, don’t do it, it’s dead, it doesn’t work. It worked beyond. So I better not listen to people and follow only my instincts.
• I like to be on TV but I don’t watch TV. I have no time for that. 
• What I hate about children is that they put you in a generation mode. I don’t want to be anyone’s father generation, grandfather generation, I’m of no generation. I’m from every generation.

And don't forget to pick up your Metro this morning so as not to miss out on some exclusive and fabulous content from the Kaiser himself...

The Last Magazine SS 2012 Malgosia Bela by Josh Olins