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subscribe to style file blog via RSSBlasblog From Paris: Backstage Bubbles
July 8, 2009 6:08 pm
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 5:03 pm
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
Blasblog From Paris: Armani’s Full Front-Row Spectrum
July 8, 2009 4:13 pm
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
Blasblog From Paris: Cool Book From Cold Country
July 7, 2009 10:59 am
Assouline hosted a party for its latest coffee-table tome, Russian Style, at its Saint-Germain store in Paris last night, which drew the likes of Dasha Zhukova, Tatiana Santo Domingo, and Olympia Scarry. Beyond pics of a few military jackets and posses of girls in head-to-toe Balmain, which are two dominant influences over there (trust me!), the book is a more complete look at the many ways the country has inspired fashion. Think Fabergé, Erté, et al. “It’s more a full panorama of styles and techniques, and how Russian style has evolved from the ages,” explained its author, Russian L’Officiel’s editor in chief, Evelina Khromchenko. Fun fact: The editrix is the voice of Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly in the Russian version of The Devil Wears Prada.
tags: Assouline, Balmain, Dasha Zhukova, Evelina Khromtchenko, Faberge, Meryl Streep, Olympia Scarry, Tatiana Santo Domingo
Blasblog From Germany: Veruschka Represents At Berlin Fashion Week
July 6, 2009 1:34 pm
Since my ancestors hail from Germany (well, some of them; I’m a complete American mutt), I experienced a sense of pride coming to Mercedes-Benz Berlin Fashion Week, where designers were showing their Spring/Summer 2010 collections a full two months before the same season starts in New York. Yes, we are an organized, responsible people. The re-launch of Boss Orange on Thursday night was my first show, and while the venue was miles away, the provided transportation was meager, and the publicists at the door were very far from friendly, the collection had some peppy elements, like his-and-her denim and cute T-shirts with sequined ball skirts, not to mention a front row that included VIPs Sienna Miller and Adrien Brody, the latter of whom was working a tight cardigan with nothing underneath but a bandanna. On Friday afternoon, Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf’s Designer for Tomorrow presentation—Germany’s answer to Project Runway—showcased eight finalists from a pool of more than 150 applicants and proved that Berlin is a city to keep an eye on. Later that night, you couldn’t help but keep an eye on the Michalsky show. What the clothes lacked in originality, the theatricality of the production more than made up for: Designer Michael Michalsky set up a Broadway-worthy stage complete with upside-down cars and a runway with a moat. I put on my tourist hat to see Knut the famous baby polar bear at the Berlin Zoo. Sadly, Knut ain’t a baby anymore, nor is he as cute, but a young elephant called Ko Raya, who has taken up residence at the zoo, fits that description. The highlight of the week, though, was seeing the legendary Veruschka at Kai Kühne. She looked severely chic (or chicly severe) in a full-body jersey thing, which had a turtleneck that rolled up rather fittingly into a dramatic hood.
tags: Adrian Brody, Hugo Boss Orange, Kai Kuhne, Sienna Miller
God Smiles On The New Museum’s Cocktail Party
July 1, 2009 5:54 pm
Ruffian’s Brian Wolk and Claude Morais, Thakoon Panichgul, the Threeasfour trio, and Marc Jacobs’ betrothed, Lorenzo Martone, were among the hosts at last night’s New Museum Next Generation cocktail party. And true to the event’s name it was a fresh crowd, although not necessarily Younger Than Jesus, the show that’s closing there this Sunday. In keeping with the theme, OMG cocktails were being served on the museum’s glass-walled seventh floor. The vodka, agave nectar, and sparkling water concoctions were named after the, ahem, hottest piece in the exhibit, Daniel Keller and Nik Kosmas’ OMG Obelisk, a black column exclaiming OMG on top in blue lights, with steel pipe torches emitting flames on either side. Not that most of the guests would’ve known. The clouds had parted after a rush-hour storm, which meant that the galleries were mostly empty. The MisShapes’ Geordon Nicol and Greg Krelenstein, et al. preferred the terrace’s sunset rays.
tags: Brian Wolk, Claude MOrais, Geordon Nichol, Greg Krelenstein, Lorenzo Martone, Marc Jacobs, Ruffian, Thakoon Panichgul, Threeasfour
Unleashing Keira Knightley’s Inner Pixie
June 30, 2009 10:47 am
It was clear and 85 degrees in London last night, not a typical kind of evening to talk about, and celebrate, suicide. But that’s exactly what Keira Knightley, Rupert Friend, and a gathering of their pals did at an intimate screening of The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers at the Soho Hotel. Decked out in a flowy Erdem maxi dress (chosen by her friend, the stylist and Lula magazine editor Leith Clark), Knightley said she was happy to star in the film her long-term boyfriend, Friend, co-wrote: “He cast me because he was trying to get me into bed,” she joked. Friend himself was in an equally playful mood: “I actually felt quite comfortable in lederhosen and a unibrow; I felt it quite suited me.” Academy Award-winning costume designer Michael O’Connor dreamt up the movie’s fantastical looks, including the tattered dress, wings, and powdered wig worn by Knightley’s decidedly spooky Fairy. “I was hand-sewing Swarovski crystals into the outfit at the last minute,” said O’Connor, who nabbed his Oscar for Knightley’s The Duchess earlier this year. “I would do anything with her in it.” As for Friend’s lederhosen, he said, “they’re actually more difficult to wear than you would think. Good thing he has the figure for it.”
tags: Erdem, Keira Knightley, Leith Clark, Michael O'Connor, Rupert Friend
Blasblog From Glastonbury: Mud, Music, And (Yes) Sunshine
June 29, 2009 1:27 pm
The moments leading to Glastonbury were hardly feel-good ones: There was the news, of course, about Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, and to make matters worse, the weather report was among the bleakest I’ve ever seen. According to the trusted meteorologists at Weather.com, the English countryside would be stormy and wet all weekend. Happily, they got it wrong. It was mucky at Lady Gaga (which was why the pop princess paired her red patent-leather bustier with Wellington boots, presumably); but that was about as wet as it got. No showers at Neil Young (just Olympia Scarry on a friend’s shoulders) and no mudslides at Kasabian (the band that Lily Donaldson introduced me to after she met them on a Burberry campaign shoot). The stars even came out at Bruce Springsteen’s headlining gig on Saturday night—the weekend was a dream. That’s Kaya Scodelario, from hit Brit drama Skins, in the middle, soaking up her own rays outside the hospitality tent, where she was a guest of Lacoste. Jacquetta Wheeler showed up on Saturday in a tizzy: She’d come straight from a job in the Catskills and was recovering from a layover that she said was one of the most annoying delays of her life. Alice Temperley’s double-decker bus was our home base. It’s where my first—but hopefully not my last—Glastonbury ended just as it began: with a glass of hot cider and a touch of rum in my hand. For more pictures from the festival, click here.
tags: Alice Temperley, Bruce Springsteen, Farrah Fawcett, Jacquetta Wheeler, Lady Gaga, Lily Donaldson, Michael Jackson, Neil Young
Speaker In The House
June 26, 2009 1:36 pm
We hear that Nancy Pelosi was at Diane von Furstenberg’s Meatpacking District headquarters last night, where the designer hosted a private fundraiser for the Speaker of the House. The congresswoman admired the nearby High Line from DVF’s studio, but didn’t have time to take a stroll. She was headed straight back to D.C., where she said that the House energy vote was at the top of her agenda.
Blasblog: Chanel Fêtes Its Beauty Ambassadors
June 25, 2009 4:35 pm
Chanel should’ve put out an announcement on the Upper East Side: “Please steer clear of La Goulue on Tuesday evening.” The Madison Avenue restaurant, which was reportedly going to shutter this week, was taken over by the French fashion house to announce its new beauty ambassador program, and the resulting crush caused some dismay among the stroller-pushing locals. The It girls-cum-ambassadors in question? Jen Brill, Poppy Delevingne, Vanessa Traina, Leigh Lezark, and Caroline Sieber—a total of five, which lest we forget was Mademoiselle’s favorite number. And their rabble-rousing friends? Chloë Sevigny, Sean Avery, Josephine de la Baume, and Amanda Brooks, among others, most of whom spilled out onto the sidewalk gossiping, smoking, and quaffing Champagne. “I’d just like to point out that before we came here this place was supposed to shut down,” Lezark said, noting that La Goulue received a reprieve from its landlord that will leave it open throughout the summer. “But then, that’s the power of Coco.” Indeed, nearly all of the partygoers were decked out in the double Cs. Well, except one: Alexa Chung. After a long day of working on her MTV show, she didn’t have time to put on her borrowed goods and opted for an H&M shift dress. “But with Chanel shoes, and they’re real!” she pointed out. “Oh no, did I mess up on my first Chanel party in this town?” Safe to say the new Williamsburg resident didn’t ruffle any feathers. La Goulue’s days may be numbered, but there are no doubt many more Chanel fêtes in Chung’s future.
tags: Amanda Brooks, Chanel, Chloe Sevigny, Jen Brill, Josephine de la Baume, Leigh Lezark, Poppy Delevingne, Sean Avery, Vanessa Traina
