Baby-Doll Dresses Rise to the Occasion
Hedi Slimane sent out dresses that called to mind the “kinderwhore” fashion pioneered by Courtney Love and company during grunge’s nascent years. But the Saint Laurent designer wasn’t the only one who embraced baby dolls for Fall. At Valentino, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli updated the youthful silhouette with couture-level craftsmanship, while Emilio Pucci’s Peter Dundas and Undercover’s Jun Takahashi showed wispy lingerie-inspired takes on the trend. For proof that the abbreviated shape has legs off the catwalk, look no further than Alexa Chung, who can rock a mini like no other—those pins! Sky Ferreira, meanwhile, could’ve passed for Love’s sophisticated little sis in the sparkly Saint Laurent number she wore to the Met Gala.
Here, a collection of our favorite baby dolls.
Fashion Features on Forbes‘ Most Powerful Women List
Forbes released its 2013 list of the world’s most powerful women earlier today, and on it were social and political movers and shakers: Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Oprah Winfrey; megawatt stars: Beyoncé, Angelina Jolie, and Gisele Bündchen; and one or two surprises (Shakira at number 52, for example). But fashion’s power players held their own against heads of state (Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel came in at number one), businesswomen, and celebrities alike. Miuccia Prada (58), Diane von Furstenberg (74), newly crowned billionaire Tory Burch (69), Anna Wintour (41), and Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts (52) all earned much-deserved spots on the list. Hats off to the industry’s—and the world’s—leading ladies.
Stella McCartney Makes Her Mark in Asia
An English pub isn’t the first thing one might expect to see in the middle of a luxury mall in Beijing. But leave it to Stella McCartney to bring a taste of the UK to the Chinese megalopolis. Tuesday night, the designer opened her first Beijing store and invited guests to toast the milestone with pints of Guinness and Pimm’s Cups. Partygoers noshed on chips and tapped their toes to nineties Brit pop while perusing the airy two-story boutique. Fittingly, the eco-conscious McCartney chose a green location for the new space. Replete with sustainable oak parquet floors and recyclable aluminum tiles, the shop is set inside the recently opened Parkview Green mall—the first LEED-certified commercial development in China.
McCartney wasn’t long for Beijing, though, as the opening was just one leg of a whirlwind Asian tour. Earlier in the week, McCartney traveled to Tokyo to open her second store in the city, and Wednesday night she hosted a black-tie dinner at the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai. In true McCartney style, the event, which drew local celebrities, as well as catwalkers such as Du Juan and Emma Pei, boasted everything from contortionist acts to live jazz to a presentation of evening looks from the designer’s Fall ’13 collection.
See and Be Scene: Jeannette Montgomery Barron on Her New Book
From Warhol’s Factory to Basquiat’s studio, throughout the eighties, downtown Manhattan was the place for young creative types to be. Photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron was there, and her new tome, Scene, is a sort of yearbook of the time, documenting the likes of Cindy Sherman, Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente, Willem Dafoe, and more early in their careers. “I was just a fly on the wall,” recalls Montgomery Barron, speaking at Indochine, one of her old haunts. (“It looks almost exactly the same, but there were a lot of drugs happening in the bathrooms back then.”) This afternoon, she’ll sign copies of Scene—which, in addition to the snaps, features personal anecdotes about each artist—at Bookmarc, and starting tomorrow, a select group of her black-and-white photographs will be on display in an exhibition at ClampArt. Here, Montgomery Barron discusses her book, and reminisces about shooting Warhol, working out with Bianca Jagger, and spending time with Basquiat.
How did you find yourself in the center of the eighties New York art scene?
I was just lucky. It’s not that I went out and said, “I want to record every artist from A to Z.” It was more like I’d photograph Francesco Clemente, and he’d say, “You should really go photograph my friend Kenny Scharf.” It was very organic in that way. And, I mean, I knew I could drop a name. I’m sure I said, “Hey, I’m a friend of Andy Warhol. Can I shoot you?” I guess I’d get an adrenaline surge.
In the book, you mention that you could just call up Andy Warhol and ask to take his picture. What were those sittings like?
The first time I photographed him was at the Factory in Union Square, and he wouldn’t even let me out of the outer lobby. When I met Bianca Jagger and we became friends, he warmed up. He never really talked much, but he always made you feel like you were the most brilliant person who said the most profound things. Continue Reading “See and Be Scene: Jeannette Montgomery Barron on Her New Book” »
From the Catwalk to the Carpet: Models Take Over at Cannes
Every year, the crème de la crème of the film industry get glammed up to hobnob and vamp for the paparazzi at the Cannes Film Festival. While A-listers such as Jessica Chastain, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Carey Mulligan, and Zoe Saldana have made an impressive showing thus far, they’ve arguably been eclipsed by the contingent of top-tier catwalkers who have flocked to the red carpets en masse. Yesterday, in particular, was a model-watcher’s paradise, with the likes of Joan Smalls, Petra Nemcova, Barbara Palvin, Chanel Iman, Jessica Hart, and Erin Heatherton posing for the cameras like the pros that they are. Milla Jovovich, Liya Kebede, and Doutzen Kroes were snapped multiple times earlier in the week, and Yasmin Warsame and Irina Lazareanu made some memorable cameos, too. Presumably, even more runway regulars will turn up at the amfAR blowout on Thursday—we’ve got it on authority that Liu Wen and Karolina Kurkova are already in town. Sorry, starlets. When it comes to posing and strutting in borrowed gowns, models simply do it best.