After Estelle, Actress Naomi Watts is the new face of the Thierry Mugler Angel fragrance, it was announced ahead of her début at the Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On May 5, Watts, dressed in vintage Thierry Mugler, makes her début at the gala, representing ‘a selection of the unique works of art created by Mugler himself.’
Archive for June, 2008
Linda is currently busy being a mother for her son, Augustin, and can be seen working as the new face of PRADA, photographed by the mighty Meisel. Linda is also the face of GERMAINE DE CAPUCCINI and L’OREAL PARIS ad campaigns.
MoutonCollet first man collection, sale presentation in paris during the man fashion week. More on moutoncollet.com
Karl Lagerfeld is appearing as the poster boy for the latest campaign of La Securite Routiere, the French Road Safety organization. Words of wisdom by Karl: “It’s yellow, it’s ugly, it doesn’t go with anything, but it can save your life”, referring to the reflective jacket he wears on the picture. Hilarious but true! Maybe Karl will rethink the jacket and make it look to his taste, then for the masses?
Pitti Immagine Uomo is back again for the Summer, running from June 18 to 21, with two special guests for its 74th edition. The Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck which on Thursday evening, June 19, will present the absolute première of his 2009 S/S menswear collection for the very first time in Italy
Walter Van Beirendonck, who was trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, is the most eccentric of the Antwerp Six – the six designers who, starting in the 1990s have made the city into a world fashion capital. On Thursday evening, 19 June in Florence, he will present the absolute première of his 2009 S/S menswear collection during a performance-event where his unmistakable style will play the starring role. It is the very first time that the Belgian designer brings his collection on a catwalk in Italy.
Linda Loppa, Dean of Polimoda Firenze and former director of the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, has said:
“Walter says: stop terrorizing our world and wear a nice sweater!
An ideal fashion student, an ideal rebel, an ideal teacher, an ideal (fashion) designer, a professional ‘tout court’! Designing objects, exhibitions, shows, accessories, books, dolls, clothes for stars, children, adults, avatars, and friends… Walter gives us a lot of energy, he let us dream of a better world, opens our eyes and gives us nice clothes…”
During the twenty years of his career marked by rigor and loyalty to his own poetics, Van Beirendonck has established himself as one of the most courageous innovators in contemporary fashion. His voice and style are above the choir, and are often defined as always modern and always unusual. Ever since the beginning he has been trying new mediums and new creative networks mixing photography and visual arts, graphics and web design, music and futuristic styling.
Far from mainstream logics and the lure of momentary fads, he is a transformer who is devoted to his own way of doing things. Van Beirendonck can be considered a true “healthy bearer of ideas” for the development of fashion.
His style is highly theatrical and his messages extreme, always open to several levels of interpretation: he transforms his fashion shows into spectacular events and also moments for thought. With just the right amounts of humor and charisma, political and social themes find a place in his collections, tying in with elements such as violence, sex, nature and the cyber world.
Walter Van Beirendonck (Brecht, 1957) lives and works in Antwerp. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts where he is currently the director of the Fashion Department. He created his first collection in 1983 and made his official debut on the London runways in 1987 as one of the “Antwerp Six”.
That’s it, the Italian Vogue Black Issue is hitting the stands this week. This July 2008 edition was one of the most anticipated fashion magazine issue this year… The cover features Liya Kebede, Sessilee Lopez, Jourdan Dunn and Naomi Campbell. All shot by Steven Meisel of course.
A very interesting article by Cathy Horyn from New York Times here about the whole topic around “Black” and fashion.
Not until Rebecca Perry Magniant moved to Paris did she discover the concept of “les bonnes addresses,” the personal list of favorite shops meticulously compiled and jealously guarded by every stylish Frenchwoman. When Magniant assembled her own, and some of her finds impressed the impossibly chic belle mère (mother-in-law), she knew she was on to something. She went on to found the premier Parisian shopping service and now, in Chic Shopping Paris, shares the crème de la crème—those places that every discerning shopper should know—including many boutiques that offer goods or services only available in Paris. She’s also included websites to give a sneak peek and to help you plan an itinerary.
Publisher: The Little Bookroom • Paperback, 208pp. • ISBN 978-1-89214-557-4 • Retail price: $16.95
Available in the US at Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Anthropologie
Available in Paris at WH Smith, Bretanos, Galigliani, Shakespear & Co, and The Red Wheelbarrow
And on Amazon.com
About the Author:
In 2003, American-in-Paris Rebecca Perry Magniant founded Chic Shopping Paris (www.chicshoppingparis.com), a service that offers personal tours of the city’s best shops, conducted by bilingual guides. She has written for The Guardian and France Today and has appeared on the Travel Channel, ESPN, and Rai Uno. Her blog, chicshoppingparis.blogspot.com, has an international following as well.
About the Shopping Tours:
Chic Shopping Paris’ insider shopping tours are designed to provide travelers with a behind-the-scenes shopping experience. Chic Shopping Paris offers special addresses & tips, bilingual guides, insider Parisian shopping secrets, & much more. Featured in House & Garden, Travel & Leisure, Vogue Entertaining & Travel, The Washington Post, and on the Travel Channel. For more information, please visit www.chicshoppingparis.com.
A stunning new exhibition showcasing the work of Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf opens on June 18. This is the first time in the United Kingdom that an exhibition has been devoted to this highly influential duo. Over the past 15 years Viktor & Rolf have taken the fashion world by storm with their particular blend of cool irony and surreal beauty.
The House of Viktor & Rolf presents each of the designer’s signature pieces from 1992 to now, shown in a specially commissioned and characteristically theatrical installation that dominates the entire Gallery. Highlights include pieces from Atomic Bomb, 1998–99, featuring dramatic mushroom cloud-like cushioned necklines and Russian Doll, 1999–2000, in which a single model was painstakingly dressed by Viktor & Rolf until she was gasping under 70 kilogrammes of exquisite haute couture. For the collection Bells, 2000-2001, models emerged from a smoke-filled space in clothes embroidered with hundreds of brass bells, so they were heard before they could be seen.
Drawing on the Dutch tradition of silver plating a baby’s first shoe as a keepsake, the climax of Viktor & Rolf’s Autumn/Winter collection of 2006–07, was a strapless wedding dress with a wide petticoated knee length skirt, silver plated, including even the bride’s bouquet.
Publication
A 256 page hardback book, the most comprehensive on the work of Viktor & Rolf to date, including 400 fashion photographers, catwalk images and exclusive illustrations and polaroids
A first preview of the upcoming Balenciaga campaign shot by David Sims and featuring Charlotte Gainsbourg, muse to Nicolas Ghesquiere.
This Summer is starting with and exhibition of Karl Lagerfeld’s pictures of France’s most-visited landmark : the chateau de Versailles and its famous gardens.
Entitled “Versailles, à l’ombre du soleil” (Versailles in the shadow of the sun) the show consists in a selection of 40 photographs which depict the palace and gardens of Versailles as a “panopticum” of light and darkness.
The opening took place on June 9 with guests such as Caroline de Monaco in Haute Couture Vintage Chanel, Elsa Zylberstein, Marie-Josée Croze, Elodie Navarre, Joana Preiss, Audrey Marnay and Gaia Repossi.