Friday, January 27, 2012
Haute Couture 2012: Elie Saab
Elie Saab is a name you hear on the red carpet more and more these days. What makes the Lebanese designer so popular with the Hollywood crowd? An influential celebrity stylist told us, "His dresses are shiny, uncomplicated, and easy to digest." That sums up Saab's new Couture offering quite well. He showed full-skirted party frocks and slim evening gowns in a rainbow of pastel shades, nearly all of them sparkly. What separated one from the next was the vertiginousness of a neckline, the presence or absence of sleeves, the length of a train, and the occasional cape. He included one print, an oversize botanical, but it looked like an afterthought amid all that pink, peach, yellow, mint green, and baby blue.
Haute Couture 2012: Valentino
A conversation with Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri before the presentation of their new couture collection for Valentino quickly took a turn for the metaphysical. "If you don't think about fashion, you just do clothes," said Piccioli. "Fashion needs culture or it becomes empty." The duo found their cultural spine in the finest flowering of French thought, keying in on the eighteenth century's Age of Enlightenment and particularly the return to "real" values that Rousseau endorsed in his State of Nature philosophy. "Couture is a real value," Piccioli added. "It's not superficial."
But it was Marie Antoinette role-playing in her little farm on the grounds of Versailles who provided the collection's ambience. The first model seemed to arrive in the salons of the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild on a breath of cool country air. Sprigged flower prints covered almost everything. An antique fabric alchemy transformed taffeta into equally antique-looking blurred floral chaîne. The sense of precious old artisanship was also evident in the swirling bouilloné decoration. The volumes were diaphanous, bucolic, like the cloud of point d'esprit scattered with organza lace cutouts. The designers sought a "deep lightness." It was beautifully exemplified in dresses with up to five layers of lace and organza.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Karl Lagerfeld Plays DJ with Supermodels
From designing dozens (yes, dozens) of collections every year, to photographing his own campaigns, to creating a cool new beauty line, and raising one of the most adorable kittens we’ve ever seen, there really doesn’t seem to be much Karl Largefeld can’t do. Except, maybe, sleep.
The latest in the never-ending series of Karl exploits is this video lookbook for his new, lower priced line Karl by Karl Lagerfeld, where the designer tries his hand at working the turntables.Obviously, Karl does a pretty great job, and the visual effects are pretty cool, too. “It’s a new mix,” the designer intones at the end. Indeed.
Could this be the beginning of a second, third, fourth, fifth career as a DJ for the 78-year-old designer? Honestly, we wouldn’t rule it out.
{fashionista}
Beth Ditto Gets Her Own MAC Makeup Collection
The ink is dry and can now confirm that Beth Ditto has signed on to do a collaboration with MAC cosmetics. The line will be a limited edition run planned to hit stores in June. Above, you'll see a first look at the campaign for Beth Ditto for MAC. Quite a stunning visual.
This is not the first collaboration for Beth Ditto. The singer has previously worked with Evans in the UK to create a plus size clothing line. {via WWD}
Thierry Mugler On Nicola Formichetti
From what little I’ve seen, today’s collections seem to me a bit backward-looking, though I don’t wish to be overly critical.
I have the distinct impression that what I consider a minimum service of our profession — knowing how to make a woman beautiful and allowing her to look her best through my clothes — is less of a consideration by designers today.
Evedant in what Nicola has done with Gaga, turning her into a monster. I'm not being critical here, but just an observation.
[WWD]
Versace Jeans SS 2012 campaign
Versace Jeans SS 2012 campaign. Gisele Bundchen & Ryan Barrett by Mert & Marcus.
On the Newsstand...
- Dansk Spring Summer 2012 Freja Beha Erichsen by Christian Brylle
- GQ Spain February 2012 Blake Lively
- Amica February 2012 Poppy Delevingne by Driu & Tiago
- Marie Claire Turkey January 2012 Naz Elmas by Serhat Hayri
Stephane Rolland's110 pound couture dress!
Yesterday, Yasmine Le Bon walked the runway in a 110 pound Stephane Rolland dress for couture week in Paris. Here's how we imagine the conversation pre-catwalk went:
Stephane: Yasmine, I need to know...how are the workouts going these days?
Yasmine: Didn't you see me in the latest Duran Duran video? I am hot these days and yes, it's hard work but I'm ready for the catwalk.
Stephane: Yes,dahhhling, looking good. However, I'm going to need you to start lifting and I mean really "lifting".
Yasmine: Are you looking for muscles this season?
Stephane: No, I need someone to carry 50 kil down the catwalk this season.
Yasmine: Ummm....what?
Stephane: Show you when you get to Paris and don't worry, you'll have two smoking male models to help you down the catwalk....
Cut to runway... Yasmine Le Bon walking down the runway in a 110 pound stunning red dress and moving very slowly...check it out below (skip to clip 12:45)
Agyness Deyn stars in 15 minute hotel commercial
Model Agyness Deyn has today shown the world that she is so much more than just a model! This girl can seriously act. As we're all waiting to see her on the big screen in her forthcoming role as a stripper, we have this little ditty to keep us busy. The Luxury Collection have produced this short film titled "Here" showing off their luxury resorts in Vermont, Arizona and Hawaii. It's all done with the help of Agyness Deyn, who looks as if she's a Fifth avenue princess travelling the world as she is given little clues that are left, presumably, by the man in her life. The film is also produced by two familiar faces to fashion: Tilda Swinton and Waris Ahluwalia
I most definitely wouldn't turn this lifestyle or wardrobe away if push came to shove. It's worth a 15 minute watch for the beautiful filming, scenery and killer style.
Teaser: Liv Tyler sings for Parfums Givenchy
Here's one trailer that has us very much looking forward to the real deal... Liv Tyler for Parfums Givenchy! As if having the super starlet as a face of the brand wasn't enough, Tyler's actually singing in the full production. Anyone else thinking of Aerosmith's Crazy video? Take a look at the trailer and I think you'll see what I mean...
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Revealed: Next Must-Have Chanel Nail Color
Photos: Imaxtree
While much has been made of the fact that Karl Lagerfeld showed his Chanel haute couture show in an “airplane,” it was also a notable show in that the collection was rendered completely in multiple shades of blue–154 different shades, according to an AFP article. “Blue is a palette all in itself. The colour of air, of the sky, or the eyes of a little cat,” Lagerfeld told the AFP. The blue theme continued into the beauty looks, including the nails, which is where our eyes usually travel when we’re looking at pictures of Chanel collections.
A light pearly sky blue, it doesn’t look like a color that’s in their current offerings right now. We’ve reached out to Chanel, but are waiting for more details to come out of Paris. Sometimes the nail colors that end up on a Chanel runway never get produced, like that pearly white that was on some of the models during the label’s spring RTW show. But this blue is so perfect (and commercially viable) that my fingers are crossed.
Haute Couture: Givenchy 2012
Riccardo Tisci is in a reflective mood. Pre-fall, men's, and now his Couture collection have found him looking back over his first seven years at Givenchy and reworking familiar pieces with what he described as a new maturity. "To me, the mark of a successful designer is having an identity," he said, citing Miuccia Prada, Donatella Versace, and Lagerfeld's Chanel. We'd say that Tisci more than qualifies.
His ten-piece Couture lineup was divided into three rooms. The first was devoted to crocodile, and what the Givenchy atelier has done to the precious skin is positively jaw-dropping. For a long, clingy dress, the scales on the hide were individually cut and numbered, then bleached, dyed, and resewn one by one in order onto a tulle body stocking. It took 350 hours to make. The artisans who worked on a cropped and fitted jacket (with the same star motif as the designer used in his menswear show) perhaps didn't log as many hours, but the payoff was just as impressive.
On the Newsstand...
- D la Repubblica No. 775 Tellulah Morton by Taghi Naderzad
- Marie Claire Greece February 2012
- Prestage #1 Winter 2011 Renee Germaine van Seggern by Jeroen W. Mantel
- Vogue México February 2012 Constance Jablonski
- Madison February 2012 Sam Harris by Carlotta Moye
- b Magazine AW 11.12 Fernando Cabral by Willem Jaspert
- Yen #53 Kirsten Dunst
- Glamour Italia February 2012 Leighton Meester
- Cover February 2012 Caroline Corinth by Rasmus Skousen
Long Day, Short Night
Harper's Bazaar Brazil December 2011
Shot by: Zee Nunes
Model: Thairine Garcia
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