12 posts tagged "Florence Welch"
Noticed: The Less-Is-More Album Cover
That music and fashion are locked in an endless embrace is not news. Fashion week wouldn’t be fashion week without a spate of performances, and every season brings with it a few musicians who seem to clear their schedules for a solid month to do the rounds. (Beth Ditto, lately of the Versus runway performance, has graduated to mainstay status; ditto Florence Welch, who belted from a giant clam a year ago at Chanel.) But where record sales are concerned, sex sells, even for fashion’s most dedicated fans. There are enough naked album covers to fill a side gallery of your local museum, from the famous (John and Yoko’s Two Virgins, 1968) to the infamous (Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking, 1988) to the new-establishment (the original cover for the Strokes’ 2001 debut, Is This It—but of course, that’s the one you have, right?). Now the moment seems to have returned. A pair of dueling popettes have just released clothes-free preview art for their new albums: Rihanna’s Unapologetic on one hand; Christina Aguilera’s Lotus on the other. They’ve set the celebrity blogosphere a-thrumming. The fashion one, not so much. But today sees the release of yet another less-is-more cover for an album likelier to be spinning in studios and shops around town: Bat for Lashes’ The Haunted Man (left). Three’s a trend (again).
Jenny At The Met?
This year’s Costume Institute Gala performer is rumored to be Jennifer Lopez, WWD reports. Lopez (who is a frequent guest at the annual benefit) follows last year’s main act, Florence Welch, and other recent Met ball performers like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Kanye West. A spokeswoman from Vogue, however, denies that the magazine’s April cover girl and American Idol judge will be taking the stage at the May 7 event.
Keeping Up With Jones
“I first met Florence when I was hitchhiking to the very first Secret Garden Party festival,” jewelry designer Dominic Jones remembered. “She was 17 and she and her friend stopped and gave me a lift. We hit it off straight away and have stayed close friends ever since—we have been through a lot together.”
That would be Florence Welch. Since their chance meeting, the pop star has become a muse to the Brit designer, and for his new short film by Ben Toms and Rafael D’Alo, Jones enlisted her, along with eight other of his current muses (including Tallulah Harlech), to show off his Spring 2012 collection.
“The finished product of carefully decided angles and surface gives the collection a refined modernity from the ornate origin of inspiration,” Jones says of his inspiration. “The combination of the Old World cathedrals against the almost futuristic-looking sculptures was something that I wanted to be reflected in the film—we shot the film in an amazing 16-room dilapidated Georgian house in East London. The aging walls against the highly polished surfaces of the jewelry really captured this.”
Above, Jones debuts his collection video exclusively with Style.com.
Florence, Frost, And More Star In Markus Lupfer’s New Video
Markus Lupfer is on a quest to decipher “The Puzzle of the Mysterious Mind.” Helping to solve it? Florence Welch, Sadie Frost, London It girl Mary Charteris, and set designer Gary Card. They all star in the designer’s new video to spotlight his Resort ’12 collection, directed by DJ and filmmaker Tabitha Denholm, who has also created music videos for Florence + the Machine. “Tabitha told me about this BBC documentary she saw from the sixties that was all about manipulation of the body and the mind, the ability to change peoples’ perceptions,” Lupfer said. “It really stems from that.” The casting was meant to evoke the wide range of women who can wear the label, and according to Denholm, each brought her own special something. “All of the girls’ personalities seemed to match their characters so well—no one needed to act for this one,” she said. (Good news, that; you can change perceptions, but it’s harder to make actresses of out It girls and rock stars.)
As for the collection itself, Lupfer brought his customer exactly what he does best, notably his kitschy knits. “It’s the essence of Markus Lupfer, with a Resort spin,” he explained. T-shirt sweaters and dresses are adorned with faux cross-body purses and sunglasses that, from a distance, appear to be functional. And nodding at current trends, there are plenty of stripes, including a few quirky takes on Breton stripe in sequins.
Looking Cool (And Feeling Hot) In Bonnaroo
Bonnaroo took Tennessee this past weekend, and forecasts of rompers, bandeaux, maxi dresses, and crop tops (as well as of 90-degree temperatures) were all amply fulfilled. On stage, Florence Welch looked chic in flowing, sheer black, as did Karen Elson in a peach-colored frock. On the dusty fields, the festivalgoers kept cool in bright tanks and boyfriend jeans, oversized striped sunhats, shades of all shapes, and cowboy boots (it was Tennessee, after all). Style.com rounded up the best of the fest; check out the full lineup here.