ERROR:
subscribe to style file blog via RSSOn The Campaign Trail With LN-CC
April 23, 2012 10:26 am
The London e-commerce and by-appointment boutique LN-CC is moving quickly from an insider’s secret—it’s name-checked as a favorite by the likes of J.W. Anderson, who included it on a list of his London must-visits in Issue 02 of Style.com/Print, and Phillip Lim—to a retail leader. So perhaps it was only a matter of time before the shop tried out a campaign. The five-part series they’ve created for Spring has launched quietly over the past few weeks on LN-CC.com, but the impact, according to brand director Dan Mitchell, has been immediate. “I’m actually very surprised,” he admitted to Style.com. “The response has been fantastic.” The men’s and women’s shots, styled by creative director John Skelton and shot by the in-house LN-CC team, were lensed not in London but worldwide. The store’s reach may be growing, but it remains an inside player in some respects. Fashion obsessives will recognize one of the men’s models from the first campaign as Robbie Snelders, Raf Simons’ muse and righthand man. A follow-up for Fall is soon to be in the works.
tags: Dan Mitchell, J.W. Anderson, John Skelton, LN-CC, Phillip Lim, Raf Simons, Robbie Snelders
We Need To Talk About Tilda
March 23, 2012 5:57 pm
Tilda Swinton has had a longstanding gig as the face for the Italian fine jewelry label Pomellato, and earlier this month, her latest effort for the brand—the Spring ad campaign—was unveiled. For the shoot, the actress decamped to the Greek island of Serifos with lensman Jeff Burton, who has photographed the likes of Gemma Ward and Natalia Vodianova. Here, Style.com has an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse at Swinton (wearing Pomellato’s latest baubles) and Burton at work. An image from the official ad campaign, below.
tags: Gemma Ward, Jeff Burton, Natalia Vodianova, Pomellato, Tilda Swinton
Coming From Behind
March 12, 2012 8:56 am
Last week in Paris, as is typically the case, the season’s trends came into focus and the top newcomers broke away from the pack. Front-runners Nadja Bender and Marie Piovesan finished out the marathon month with about 50 shows apiece, while Vanessa Axente (pictured) and Elza Luijendijk, who both debuted as Prada exclusives, made their respective impacts on the runways that matter. Axente opened Valentino and Celine, and walked Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, and Miu Miu, among others. And naturally, there are already Prada campaign rumors swirling around the 16-year-old Hungarian stunner—but then again, that’s always a given when Miuccia selects you to open her influential Milan show. Luijendijk, who we think is a dead ringer for a young Michelle Pfeiffer, bookended Yves Saint Laurent and scored other highly selective spots in the Balenciaga and Hakaan shows. While these new girls definitely stepped it up, possibly the most inspiring model story this season was the handful of models who unexpectedly came out of the woodwork—girls like Ava Smith and Kel Markey, who had been flying under the radar for quite some time and then started turning up on all the major Fall catwalks. Proof that you don’t necessarily need a white-hot first outing to make it big in this industry—just a little perseverance, a striking personality (and look), and maybe a superstar booker.
tags: Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Celine, Elza Luijendijk, Givenchy, Hakaan, Marie Piovesan, Miu Miu, Nadja Bender, Prada, Valentino, Vanessa Axente
Paris Fashion Week Model Photo Diary: Lara Mullen
March 8, 2012 3:03 pm
It’s been a whirlwind year for Brit model Lara Mullen, who had never walked in a pair of heels before she was discovered by Premier model agency at a music festival in her hometown of Northampton just weeks before her smashing debut at the Spring shows back in September. Flash-forward a few months, and now the 17-year-old has rubbed elbows with Gisele, starred in ad campaigns for Maje and Topshop, covered recent issues of i-D and Dazed & Confused, and has an editorial shot by Josh Olins in the latest British Vogue. Fall proved to be a killer sophomore season for Mullen, who walked the top-tier runways, including Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Prada, and Calvin Klein. With the help of her agents, Mullen kept track of her Paris fashion week experiences for Style.com. Check out her snaps from the week, below.
“I’ve just arrived in Paris, and my lovely chaperone Julie, who showed me all of the sights in the city, took a snap of me waiting for the Métro. I really love the contrast of the black-and-white picture behind me with the colorful seats. Shame she missed the bubble I was about to blow with my gum!”
“In full hair and makeup after Dries Van Noten, en route to the next show. I’m wearing a tweed Marc Jacobs jacket with a scalloped detail that I was given after his show this season.”
“With the girls [Katlin Aas, Marte Mei van Haaster, and Maria Bradley] backstage at Gareth Pugh! I felt fierce walking at that show.”
“What I enjoy most about the shows is seeing the endless hair and makeup possibilities. Here I am backstage at Nina Ricci, embracing my inner screen siren!”
tags: Cacharel, Cara Delevingne, Dries Van Noten, Gareth Pugh, Katlin Aas, Lara Mullen, Louis Vuitton, Maria Bradley, Marte Mei van Haaster, Nina Ricci
For New Models, There’s Room At The Top
February 28, 2012 6:29 pm
It’s been a puzzling season for model spectators. One of the biggest questions among enthusiasts is: Where are all the big-name girls? We let out a cry of relief when Karlie Kloss opened Anthony Vaccarello today after skipping out on New York, London, and Milan. But what about Abbey Lee Kershaw (Alexander Wang and Anna Sui have been her only stints)? Or the incomparable Freja Beha Erichsen (who’s gone totally MIA)? The answer comes down to economics. Walking in shows pays a paltry sum compared to landing an ad campaign, which these supes continue to score in spades. Simply put (and much to our dismay), fashion week isn’t financially worth their time or energy.
So you’d think that Fall’s fresh faces would fill in the void at the top right away, but that hasn’t been the case. Aside from Nadja Bender and Marie Piovesan, there are just a handful of new girls who have proven themselves to be more than just blips on the radar. Spunky Icelandic beauty Kolfinna Kristófersdóttir managed to win (with a whopping 42 percent of readers’ votes) the Style.com Walk-Off in London, beating out veterans like Shalom Harlow and Alana Zimmer. She continued to up the ante even further in Milan, booking shows including Versace, Emilio Pucci, and Marni. The other one who has demonstrated she can compete in the major leagues is Chinese model Lina Zhang, who walked A-list runways like Dolce & Gabbana and Bottega Veneta this week. As Paris gets under way, we expect to see a few more of these uncovered gems, as well as more of the veterans, turn up at the shows. After all, walking in the Chanel show: priceless.
tags: Abbey Lee Kershaw, Alana Zimmer, Freja Beha Erichsen, Karlie Kloss, Lina Zhang, Shalom Harlow
The Verdict On NYFW: Brunettes Have More Fun
February 17, 2012 7:17 pm
If there’s one thing we learned about trends in fresh faces during NYFW, it’s this: Brunettes are the ones having the most fun (and success) right now. Casting directors have lately been favoring a dark and mysterious, intelligent kind of beauty, à la Kati Nescher, the worldly sophomore season breakout who opened nine shows last week and isn’t about to slow down anytime soon. But it looks like Nescher might have some competition across the pond.
Nadja Bender (pictured, below) is the rookie at the top of every model obsessive’s watch list. The 21-year-old Danish stunner has plenty of momentum after scoring the coveted first slot at Alexander Wang and Rodarte, and booking other biggies like Altuzarra and Calvin Klein. Other girls on the rise include Marie Piovesan (left), who’s already caught the eye of Phoebe Philo as the star of the new Celine campaign (those cheekbones!) and will have a hometown advantage in Paris, and the Proenza Schouler “exclusive” (although she did walk Richard Chai Love earlier in the week) Argentinean catwalker Melissa Stasiuk (pictured, below). With her Patti Smith-esque, raven-colored locks and an editorial in the latest issue of Love shot by Mario Testino, Stasiuk has that edgy look-of-the-moment, which should take her far in Europe. But fashion is forever unpredictable, and many of the best newcomers wait to make their debut in Milan or Paris. So you never know. We wouldn’t be surprised to see peroxide blondes stage an uprising these next few weeks.
tags: Alexander Wang, Altuzarra, Calvin Klein, Kati Nescher, Marie Piovesan, Melissa Stasiuk, Nadja Bender, Rodarte
Models We Stand
February 7, 2012 6:18 pm
“For too long, the modeling industry has been like the Wild West,” said Coco Rocha at last night’s launch party for the Model Alliance, a new nonprofit group organized by models, for models. Top models including Doutzen Kroes, Crystal Renn, Missy Rayder, and Ajak Deng stopped by the Standard Hotel to toast the cause. The Alliance started as an idea established by model Sara Ziff (the filmmaker behind the revealing documentary Picture Me), explored in a paper she wrote while studying community organizing at Columbia University. Ziff, who at 29 has now been modeling half her life, understands firsthand how young girls are often mistreated in an industry without real labor regulations. For example, catwalkers often begin working in their mid-teens, and many never get the chance to finish high school. They can go through an entire day of walking back-to-back runway shows without actually making any money, getting paid in “trade” (a.k.a. designer clothes) instead. And, there are still a great deal of complaints about backstage photographers taking unauthorized pictures of the girls changing. Typically, the models don’t speak up about these inequities because they know they’re highly replaceable. “Most models’ clout is as tiny as our size zero frames,” Ziff told Style.com. So she teamed up with former model and current fashion writer Jenna Sauers to give these girls a voice, and developed the Alliance along with the support of the CFDA and the new Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School. “Having experienced the highs and lows of this industry, I am ultra-excited about this,” said Rocha. “But we’ve still got a long way to go.”
tags: Ajak Deng, CFDA, Coco Rocha, Crystal Renn, Doutzen Kroes, Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School, Jenna Sauers, Missy Rayder, Model Alliance, Sara Ziff, Standard Hotel
Gisele Does Givenchy
February 7, 2012 9:44 am
Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci cited surfers and mermaids as the inspiration for his Spring ‘12 collection. So, it came as no surprise that when the label debuted its Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott-lensed campaign, it was set on the beach (shot near Barcelona) with surfboards in the background. The ads feature Gisele Bündchen (along with models Chris Moore, Mariacarla Boscono, and Simone Nobili) wearing Tisci’s sexy suits trimmed with eel and stingray and of course, those shark tooth pendants. Style.com has exclusive behind-the-scenes images and video of the shoot in action, here.
tags: Gisele Bundchen, Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci
The Fresh Crop
February 6, 2012 12:30 pm
It was all about the Super Bowl for most people this weekend, but not for the models walking in New York fashion week, who were busy shuttling to and from back-to-back castings. Andrew Weir (who casts for Thakoon, Jen Kao, and Rebecca Taylor) can spot a potential star from across a room, and there were plenty of them at his ACW casting call on Saturday at the Hudson Hotel. “Do they even know they have these crazy bodies?” he said, referring to Lithuanian stunner Aiste Regina. But it was Roberta Narciso, an Elite agency contest winner with mile-long legs, who really caught Weir’s eye. “She’s from Angola, so she’ll walk like royalty,” he said. After she took a few strides, Weir enthused, “Oh my God, that is crazy. This does not happen in America.”
Meanwhile, over at the BCBG Max Azria showroom, casting duo Barbara Nicoli and Leila Ananna (who also select girls for top clients including Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry, Gucci, Marchesa, and Versace) were on the lookout for models with a straightforward kind of beauty, which Ananna described as an “eighties glamour—not the fragile, quirky look anymore.” It was girls like South African newcomer Katryn Kruger—one of Prada’s Spring ‘12 campaign stars—who they were especially taken with, along with Nadine Ponce, Josefine Nielsen, and Appoline R. We also spotted Kelly Mittendorf (pictured, below), who was unknown until she was cast in Prada’s Fall ad campaign, in the mix.
Though Nicoli and Ananna say straightforward looks are what they want right now, that’s not the case with all casting agents. Jennifer Venditti, who casts for the likes of Rodarte, Tory Burch, and Helmut Lang, told Style.com over the phone this weekend, “Agents will often wait to break in a girl in Europe because New York designers often don’t take risks on a more unique look.” She cited current Balenciaga campaign star Laura Kampman (an aspiring Dutch photographer who was discovered on Facebook) as an example of redefining beauty. “You can see the character in her walk,” Vendetti said. “These days, models are expected to be more than just a hanger. They have to be ‘the whole girl’ and brand themselves in a way that makes them memorable in an industry where you’re competing against celebrities and thousands of other models for editorials and campaigns.” Let the contest begin.
tags: Aiste Regina, Andrew Weir, Appoline R, Barbara Nicoli, BCBG Max Azria, Burberry, Gucci, Josefine Nielsen, Katryn Kruger, Laura Kampman, Leila Ananna, Marchesa, Nadine Ponce, Roberta Narciso, Yves Saint Laurent
Carine’s Calendar Girls
February 3, 2012 10:00 am
Carine Roitfeld stuck to using “real people” (as opposed to models) for her guest-edited issue of Vman, due out February 14. The exception: the bonus pinup girl calendar, shot by Willy Vandeperre, featuring “supermodels and Victoria’s Secret Angels, 12 of the planet’s most celebrated creatures.” Roitfeld dressed the girls, including Joan Smalls, Miranda Kerr, Adriana Lima, and Karolina Kurkova, in an assortment of Victoria’s Secret lingerie and customized pink American Apparel jackets. Style.com has the exclusive first look at the full calendar. Here, a few of our favorite months.
tags: Adriana Lima, Carine Roitfeld, Doutzen Kroes, Joan Smalls, Karolina Kurkova, Miranda Kerr, VMan, Willy Vandeperre
