Nicola Formichetti, Thierry Mugler Said Nearing Contract —Back in June, Nicola Formichetti’s name came up as the new Thierry Mugler womenswear artistic director replacing Rosemary Rodriguez (Gareth Pugh was also reportedly considered). Now, it sounds like Formichetti and Mugler are nearing a contract, and Rodriguez has already left the company. Formichetti’s close ties to Lady Gaga likely sweetened the deal for the French brand, known for its strong shoulders and in-your-face aesthetic. [WWD]

Despite the fashion world’s stick thin model domination, V Magazine has decided to devote an entire issue to curvier women, reports the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

“The Size Issue” includes a high-fashion photo shoot with women who are proud to flaunt their thicker thighs, fuller tummies, large breasts and even their love handles.

The voluptuous models are clad in very little throughout the spread, wearing items like a pair of Guess jeans without a top, Dolce & Gabbana lingerie, a Gucci swimsuit, or in one shot: nothing but some fire engine red lipstick.

Solve Sundsbo, the Norwegian fashion photographer who shot the spread, told the Daily Mail that he “loved the opportunity to show that you can be beautiful and sexy outside the narrow interpretations that normally define us.”

And while plenty of models will most likely turn up their noses at the issue, 2010 might be the year for the plus-sized model.

In recent months, model Lara Stone has become famous in her own right, despite her size eight figure and trademark gap-toothed smile, while Beth Ditto, lead singer of the Gossip, has found runway success with her plus-sized collection for Evans in the U.K.

V Magazine’s “Size Issue” hits newsstands on January 14.

source: nydailynews.com

Vintage Halston… circa 1977 (New York fabulous!)

The son of devout Mormon parents, Matt Irwin spent his teenage years dividing his time between working in a tractor factory and tying miniature explosives to his bike and riding around like a lunatic. Fast-forward a decade or so, and he is pretty much one of the most sought-after young photographers working in Britain today. Starting out, in his own words, “taking pictures of fucked up, lo-fi punk kids”, Matt Irwin is now pointing his lens at supermodels for Vogue, Self Service and V Magazine among others, and shooting campaigns for leading high street stores. Needless to say, he dispensed with the Mormon sensibilities some time ago.

Mentored in the beginning by Dazed & Confused’s Creative Director, Nicola Formichetti, Matt’s breed of bright, candid, fashion and portrait photography was an instant hit with London’s disaffected generation. Rather than trying to emulate anything big and glossy, Matt was – and still is – interested in capturing stills from his subject’s own personal films. It was, and always will be, about the subject. Matt’s photography is instantaneous, unaffected – a diametric opposition to the over-saturated stuff we’ve become used to over the years – and fashion editors across the world simply can’t get enough of it.

So what can we expect from PUNK. PERFECT. AWFUL, Matt’s third solo exhibition in London? And more importantly, what is that name about? “It’s stolen from ‘Awful’, that Hole song,” he explains. “I feel like I’ve gone through a complete cycle. You start out being viewed as a punk and super-cool, then you go on to being ‘perfect’, in a sense, when you’re at a place where you’re consistently happy with what you’re producing. But then everything becomes super-commercial and everyone (including myself) thinks you’re awful.” So what’s the answer? “You just have to go back to the beginning. Fuck what everyone else is doing. Start again. Just like that song says, Just build a new one/Make it beautiful.”

“[The exhibition] acts as a connecting thread between my very first pictures to the stuff I’m doing now,” says Matt. “They’re all moments of novelty.” Featuring Natasha Poly, Natalia Vodinova, Lovefoxx, Alice Dellal, Georgie Jagger, Coco Sumner, Gareth Pugh and, most importantly, Matt’s personal icon, Bjork (“the highlight of my life”), among a whole host of other recognisable faces, PUNK.PERFECT.AWFUL is like stepping into a mini time capsule – capturing the very essence of what it means to be young, sexy and creative in 2009. As Vodinova says herself, “he has this kind of energy that comes from him… it makes it hard to stop”.

“I still approach everything in exactly the same way,” says Matt. “And I haven’t grown up at all. Maybe only in the sense that I take what I do a little more seriously. Before it was all a big joke.”

Exhibition opens to the public from the 21st February – 11th March at Cordy House, 87-96 Curtain Rd