6 posts tagged "Hannelore Knuts"
Hannelore Knuts Pals Around With Pallas
Tucked away in the ninth arrondissement, the family-run Pallas atelier, which is known for its hand-finished Petite Couture tailoring, has been a secret weapon for major fashion houses, from Balenciaga to Céline to Thierry Mugler, since it was founded in 1961. Fifty-two years later, Pallas is emerging from behind the scenes with a new capsule collection of seven made-to-order tuxedos done in collaboration with Hannelore Knuts. An iconic Belgian model, Knuts is best known for her androgynous appeal (she recently played David Bowie in the indie film DAVE), as well as setting a record for covering—count ’em—three consecutive issues of Vogue Italia, back in 2001. “As someone who’s always been typecast as a tomboy, I felt somehow related to the aesthetic of the Le Smoking,” Knuts told Style.com.
Despite never having designed a suit before (she has, however, done a handbag with Delvaux and a bike for Marniek Kint), Knuts had plenty of ideas for modernizing the classic tuxedo based on her years on the job. “I was really close with Haider Ackermann and got to work closely with Azzedine Alaïa, who regularly did fittings on me and always welcomed me in his studio,” she said. “I’ve seen the process. I’ve witnessed and experienced it. And now I’m actually doing it for the first time, but it didn’t feel unnatural. I appreciate that details, like adjusting the hemline a few centimeters or changing the button finishing, can make or break the entire look.” Knuts herself wasn’t hunched over a table with a measuring tape around her neck and pins in her mouth, but she did suggest several updated silhouettes, such as a hoodie jacket and a seventies-inspired jumpsuit. She also styled and photographed herself for the lookbook. The images, which Knuts shot in Paris’ Le Petit Trianon Theatre, debut above. “I appreciate Pallas’ old-school approach to craft and am excited to help them creatively,” offered Knuts. “Experiences like this make modeling richer and more fulfilling.”
Pleather Principle
“Vegan. Vegan. Leather. Vegan. Leather. Leather.” That was Victoria Bartlett last night after dinner, playing show-and-tell over a small display of her Spring 2012 VPL shoes set up in the corner at Gemma’s Wine Room. However, it was the animal product-free portion of the collection that served as the reason for this happy and homey little get-together for friends like co-host Julie Gilhart, Hannelore Knuts, and dashing Last Magazine duo Magnus Berger and Tenzin Wild.
The designer has been a fur-free, vegetarian animal lover for almost three decades—despite her very English roots. “Oh, I grew up with my mum serving me liver, cow’s tongue, rabbit. You name it,” she said. (Though high fashion’s other purveyor of vegan accessories Stella McCartney is also English, and Bartlett noted that former McCartney BFF and fellow Brit Phoebe Philo was also vegan back in the day.)
Bartlett had long since made her peace with leather as a by-product but was spurred on by socialite and fashionable free spirit Arden Wohl to toss some non-leather options into the mix, and into an apparent market void. “Arden basically told me there’s not that much fashion stuff out there except for Stella,” said Bartlett. For Spring, Wohl and other conscious shoppers can choose between VPL’s strappy low wedges in faux leather—good solid Italian-made stuff that took Bartlett a year to find—in colors like putty, buff, and forest, and bright neoprene sandals with zips up the back.
This vegan venture is just a first phase. In the offing for VPL are fake leather bags and even coats. But don’t expect Bartlett to be flogging them as a marketing gimmick. The mix of cruelty-free and vero cuoio isn’t strict and neither is she. “It can be a selling point for people who want it,” she said. “But otherwise, it’s just fashion.”
Lanvin ♥ H&M: The Debut
The wait’s over. This morning, the first images and the full video preview of Alber Elbaz’s Lanvin ♥ H&M collection hit the Web. A who’s who of the hottest models—including Natasha Poly, Tati Cotliar, and Hannelore Knuts—square off over love and dresses in the most fabulous hotel we’ve ever seen. How can we check in?
The full video is above, and click below for more campaign shots by David Sims. The collection hits select H&M stores November 20th. Continue Reading “Lanvin ♥ H&M: The Debut” »
Francesco Scognamiglio Tells A Love Story
If Francesco Scognamiglio’s newish association with the classic Italian outerwear maker Allegri had followers like Chloë Sevigny, Alice Dellal, and Madonna worried that he’d lose his edge, the video he gave Style.com a sneak peek at above should dispel any concern. In it, model Hannelore Knuts, sporting a peak-shouldered camel coat, a belted knit dress dipped in gold, and some very heavy-looking necklaces, all from his Fall collection, shares screen time with a trio of buffed-to-perfection naked men. The short film, which was directed by Giampaolo Sgura and styled by Paolo Turina, “is an allegorical yet ironic representation of my idea of femininity,” Scognamiglio told us. “Apparently strong and self-conscious and quasi-androgynous, while in reality extremely fragile, passionate, and romantic.” We’re not exactly sure what that means, but we like the way it looks. You can catch the video in its X-rated entirety on www.francescoscognamiglio.com when the Italians return from their August vacations.
Blasblog: Welcome Back, Ladies
Some of my favorite moments from the fashion week that was were seeing so many old-school supermodels back on the runway: Tasha Tilberg, Hannelore Knuts, Natasa Vojnovic, and Trish Goff at Alexander Wang; Diana Dondoe and Jamie Bochert at Marc Jacobs (Bochert surfaced at Rodarte, too); and Carmen Kass, who opened Michael Kors, followed by Frankie Rayder and, later, Caroline Ribeiro. I asked Douglas Perrett, a New York-based casting agent who chronicles his placements on cult-fave site
Confessions of a Casting Director, if he thought we might be harking back to pre-recession faces for nostalgia’s sake. “Totally,” he said, adding that Ana Claudia Michels is having a Givenchy moment right now, and Jenny Shimizu will be a judge on Bravo’s Make Me a Supermodel. “We are indebted [to] the nineties right now,” noted Perrett. Earlier in the week, I caught up with Tilberg, who said she can’t help but be flattered by the attention. “Alex [Wang] said such nice things to me,” she recounted, “so it was fun to come back to New York and do another show—but one or two is enough. I don’t miss all that chaos.” Perrett doesn’t think the trend will continue in the next few weeks, however. “I think Europe will be all about the new faces,” he predicts. What do you think, Style Filers? Do you want to see more old-school supes in the weeks to come?