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subscribe to style file blog via RSSYea, Nay, Or Eh: Vanessa Traina In Look One From Givenchy Spring ‘09
July 9, 2009
We wondered if Spring’s S&M trend would have legs off the runway. The answer: Yes, if you have legs like Vanessa Traina’s. What do you think of her peekaboo Givenchy?
tags: Vanessa Traina
Katherine Fleming Carries The Future
July 9, 2009
If you spend enough time with designers, you quickly realize that many of them can’t resist test-driving the wares on which they’re currently working. In terms of fashion’s time-space continuum, that means they’re wearing today what they’ll be selling to you a year from now. At her first official trunk show last night at Tribeca’s Renwick Gallery—a double billing with her friend Megan Marrin’s jewelry line M. Graves—the talented young bag lady Katherine Fleming had such a piece tucked under her arm: a slightly oversized envelope in navy snake streaked with gray stripes. Season: Spring 2010. Fleming happily spilled that it will be priced very reasonably for an exotic skin—around $500. (I would definitely put that trip to Barneys or Opening Ceremony on your calendar!) In fact, Fleming’s upcoming spring range will feature quite a few pieces hovering around that sweet spot price, and without forsaking quality, either. “I’m still making everything in Italy,” Fleming explained. “I think it’s still possible to do that. I don’t want to move to China like everyone else.” Into the more distant future for Fleming is footwear. “I’m dying to do shoes,” she said. “But we want to wait until we’re in the right place and have the right partner.” Though that hasn’t stopped the shoe obsessive from sketching her interlocking-K logo into teetering sandals. But who designed the bondage-y black pair she wore last night with her ultrachic navy Marc Jacobs dress? “They’re from Zara,” she confessed, having bought them while in Florence for her Parsons’ schoolmates Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s show at Pitti W. “I’ve never gotten so many compliments on a pair of shoes,” Fleming added. “Even Lazaro asked me about them.”
tags: Barneys, Jack McCollough, Lazaro Hernandez, Marc Jacobs, Megan Marrin, Opening Ceremony, Renwick Gallery, Zara
Victoire De Castellane’s Court Of Appeal
July 9, 2009
“I made up an imaginary kingdom about kings and queens of lost civilizations,” said Victoire de Castellane, explaining the thinking behind her incredible collection of diamond pendants and rings for Dior. Each piece—kings for pendants, queens for rings—wears its own crown, tiara, necklace, lace collar, or ruff, and even earrings of their own, in some instances. “I didn’t want to use color, so it’s all diamonds, antique beads, and briolettes I found and set so it looks like embroidery.” The twist is the macabre fact that all the miniature royals are sculpted as skulls. “The story,” said de Castellane, “is that man dies, but jewelry remains.”
Analyzing Aggy, Sayonara Celebrity Lines, And More…
July 9, 2009
Is Agyness Deyn “slightly dim…filled primarily with airy, whipped pink goo”? Or is she a calculating controller of her own public persona? The Times investigates. [NYT]
The death knell for celebrity clothing lines has been ringing for some time, but it seems like now we really will be seeing the last of the contemporary vanity projects. And, yes, that means you, Heidi Montag. [WWD]
But wait! It seems that Avril Lavigne didn’t get the memo. Her new children’s line is coming out in two weeks, and it includes “a really cute zebra hoodie with ears.” Line up now. [People]
Marc Jacobs is set to open another store on Bleecker Street, making this his sixth West Village retail location. As all other retail concepts have been taken, the direction for this store is unclear. Suggestions, anyone? [WWD]
tags: Agyness Deyn, Avril Lavigne, Heidi Montag
Blasblog From Paris: Backstage Bubbles
July 8, 2009
I know a few women who say they prefer couture to ready-to-wear because of the lack of frenzy and excitement. But really, it’s all about the alcohol and free food. Back on Monday, Dior invited guests downstairs into John Galliano’s mirrored studio under the salon where he had just debuted his collection. Marion Cotillard hovered by the food and wondered if it was too early in the day to hit the bubbly. Of course it wasn’t. Yesterday, Riccardo Tisci welcomed a whole slew of well-wishers and Champagne sippers to a little tent backstage after Givenchy. His muse, Mariacarla Boscono, held court with Luigi Murenu, while Natasha Poly and Lara Stone asked for creams and bleach to get the black out of their hair. But the most decadent post-show affair was provided by Karl Lagerfeld. There’s always a major crush to see the designer, and the pushy guards have a lot of crowd control on their hands. This time he served drinks and food so that patient types like Fabiola Beracasa and Tallulah Harlech were able to watch the post-show mania with a cocktail while Isabel Lucas, Mario Testino, and Élodie Bouchez made their way through the crush to congratulate the Kaiser. “I think all the designers should do this after every show,” Poppy Delevingne declared. I don’t think she’d find many who would argue with her.
tags: Elodie Bouchez, Fabiola Bercasa, Givenchy, Isabel Lucas, John Galliano, Lara Stone, Luigi Murenu, Mariacarla Boscono, Mario Testino, Marion Cotillard, Natasha Poly, Poppy Delevingne, Riccardo Tisci, Tallulah Harlech
Boucheron Fêtes Its Marc Newson-Designed Necklace
July 8, 2009
It’s been reported recently that shoppers are now more interested in investment purchases—things like jewelry—than the throwaway clothes that seemed so indispensible in flusher economic times. So the challenge for a luxury jeweler these days is to remind customers that it exists. Boucheron did a good job of that in Paris last night at a party celebrating the brand’s collaboration with Marc Newson on a giant diamond necklace. Doormen and waiters were handsome male models wearing only tuxedo jackets and bowties, the first floor of the Place Vendôme’s store had been converted into a giant pink disco with a light-up floor, and upstairs, the necklace in question was perched next to a giant roulette table filled with Boucheron poker chips. But there was no distracting Lady Amanda Harlech from the bling. “It’s a work of art, something completely elaborate and impressive,” Karl Lagerfeld’s muse enthused about Newson’s fancy neckwear, continuing, “It’s like the Big Bang in diamonds, something that channels the algorithms of the human heart.” Newson himself wasn’t there for the accolades since he showed up a few hours into the fête, but he was excited about the night’s entertainment: “I think we got the Uzbekistan version of the Pussycat Dolls to perform, which will be amazing.” Not far behind him, engrossed in conversation with YSL’s Stefano Pilati, was Newson’s wife, the stylist Charlotte Stockdale. “I don’t get to keep it,” she said of the necklace. “I think I get the case, though.” As for those of you who’d like more than the empty box, Boucheron chose not to divulge the necklace’s price, but one publicist admitted it was an “ambitious” number.
tags: Amanda Harlech, Boucheron, Charlotte Stockdale, Karl Lagerfeld, Stefano Pilati
“V” As In Victory
July 8, 2009
Six thousand applications later, Ford Models and V Magazine’s V A Model Search contest has yielded a winner: one Lea Groesland from Norway. Finally, Siri Tollerød will have someone to speak to in her own tongue! If past winner Amanda Laine’s success is anything to go by (she booked Prada, Marni, and Balenciaga her first season out), Lea will be a household name by October 2009.
tags: Amanda Laine, and Balenciaga, Lea Groesland, Marni, Prada, Siri Tollerod
Isaac Mizrahi, Curator
July 8, 2009
Does Isaac Mizrahi sleep? It hardly seems likely. Not only is Mizrahi prepping Spring ‘10 collections for both his own label and Liz Claiborne, where he came on board as creative director last year, but he plays a starring part in Bravo’s new series The Fashion Show, he blogs, and he hosts his own weekly fashion klatch on his Web site, and frankly, God knows what else he’s up to, but certainly something. Nevertheless, Mizrahi has managed to carve out some spare time over the past six months to jump into a new role as curator: His first exhibition, Summer Pictures, opens at the Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea this Thursday night and features work by artists such as Maira Kalman, Adrianne Lobel, Lisa Sanditz, Julia Sherman, and Wayne Thiebaud. Here, Mizrahi talks to Style.com about color, cupcakes, and more color.
What made you decide that you wanted to curate an art show?
Oh, gosh. Let’s see…Well, my friend Julie Saul has a gallery, and not too long ago she became the gallerist for my very dear friend Maira Kalman, and then we started talking. She—Julie—was telling me that the gallery is usually pretty slow in the summertime, and I mentioned that I’d love to put together a small show of work by artists that I really love, and then, you know, it was just one of those things.
Continue reading ›
tags: Adrianne Lobel, Andre Leon Talley, Isaac Mizrahi, Julia Sherman, Lisa Sanditz, Liz Claiborne, Maira Kalman, Wayne Thiebaud
Blasblog From Paris: Armani’s Full Front-Row Spectrum
July 8, 2009
I’ll be the first person to admit that when it comes to a fashion show, I’m just as intrigued by what happens in the front row as I am by what’s coming down the runway. So thank goodness for the Armani Privé show, which stuffed its front row with a smorgasbord of photogenic women: the ultra-reserved and ultra-chic Cate Blanchett, the quintessentially French and forever coquettish Emmanuelle Béart, and the classically beautiful but unconventionally behaving Megan Fox. It was like the Sexy Three Stooges of Couture. There was Blanchett, playing the part of the Actress at a Fashion Show, sensibly digesting each look with a pensive, impressed look on her face. Next to her was Béart, who looked like she wouldn’t mind wearing one of the dresses that passed by, but would prefer a cigarette and glass of wine. And then there was Fox, a couture newbie, who must have just forgotten that people could actually see her as she sat in the front row. Slouching there with her mouth open, she could have been at a baseball game, which, for the record, only made me like her more. In fact, Fox turned out to be my favorite spotting of the entire day. After the show, at the big debut of Armani’s new fragrance Idole (a commercial was screened, then Mr. Armani himself opened a stairway to a film set that was re-creating the ad we had just seen), she seemed amused by the fashion mayhem. When one frenzied publicist ran up to her, announcing, “Mr. Armani can see you now,” she did something few other girls would dare. Fox stood there, arms crossed, and suggested she stay right where she was: “No, it’s OK,” she said. “He seems really busy, and I’ve been in his face all morning. I’ll stay here.” Crazy like a fox, indeed.
tags: Armani Prive, Cate Blanchett, Megan Fox
Postcard From Cape Town: A One-On-One With The One And Only Pat Cavendish O’Neil
July 8, 2009
I had a feast in Africa. No ordinary feast, mind you—I was the luncheon guest of Pat Cavendish O’Neil, heiress and author of A Lion in the Bedroom, a charmingly written and juicy chronicle of the lavish life she led as daughter of one of Britain’s most famous beauties, Enid Lindeman. Pat’s half brother was equally famous—Roderick (Rory) Cameron authored a number of books and designed the iconic mansion of the Côte d’Azur, La Fiorentina (later owned by Harding and Mary Wells Lawrence). So artistic was Rory that the interior walls of La Fiorentina had to perfectly match the color of the back side of the olive leaf. Pat called him “the most wonderful brother”—she clearly adored him. Other guests included Geoff Calmeyer, co-owner of the prestigious bespoke tour company Roar Africa, as well as former neighbors of Pat and three young volunteers working at an AIDS orphanage. Some 15 dogs trotted up the long, tree-lined drive to greet us.
tags: David Collins, Enid Lindeman, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Geoff Calmeyer, Grace Kelly, Laurence Graff, Pat Cavendish O'Neil, Roderick Cameron
