10 posts tagged "Nicki Minaj"
Frill-Seeker’s Paradise
Monique Lhuillier’s opulent gowns are enough to make a girl feel like a fairy princess. And now, after 16 years in business, fairyland has an East Coast address. Last month, Lhuillier finally opened her dream New York flagship on the Upper East Side, a milestone she officially celebrated yesterday evening with an appropriately luxe soirée. She and husband Tom Bugbee (the company’s CEO) discovered the 1890s townhouse two years ago and have been renovating it ever since. “We combined what was an existing retail store on the street level with a gallery that was available upstairs, then bought a one-bedroom apartment in the back, and somehow put it all together,” Lhuillier said of the 3,000-square-foot space. “All of the nooks and crannies make the experience private, like you’re discovering something, which is different from my very open store in Los Angeles.” (Not to mention from her unexpected third store in Edina, Minnesota.) Appointed with gray suede walls, jewel-box vitrines, and Lhuillier’s own Waterford crystal chandeliers (comparable models from the Monique Lhuillier Waterford lighting collection for sale, for the curious), the New York location greets guests with accessories and ready-to-wear on the ground floor, while the bridal collection, which makes up about 60 percent of the label’s sales, is stationed upstairs.
“Upon opening the store, we instantly saw just how ready people here were for us, and that’s a great feeling,” explained the designer. Despite setting up shop in the Big Apple, Lhuillier will keep most of her operations based on the West Coast, where the Hollywood set can’t seem to get enough of her red-carpet-ready frocks—or frock. Recently, Nicki Minaj attracted tabloid attention when she arrived at the American Music Awards in a chartreuse gown that Julie Bowen had already worn to collect her Emmy. “I had no idea Nicki Minaj was going to turn up in that Resort look, and I loved how over-the-top she made it—completely different from when Julie Bowen wore the same one at the Emmys.” One had to wonder if somewhere, a publicist’s head had rolled for the double loan. “Nicki and her stylist actually went into the store and bought it,” Lhuillier said. “So, no, everything you see on those girls isn’t always borrowed.”
Monique Lhuillier is now open at 19 E. 71st St., NYC, (212) 683-3332, moniquelhuillier.com
The All-Original Minaj
Since becoming a fashion show front-row regular and style star, Nicki Minaj has had everyone from Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci to Donatella Versace to Oscar de la Renta clamoring to dress her. Despite her designer duds, the Trinidad-born rapper from Queens still has a penchant for a good old pair of kicks. “I remember my first pair of Adidas shoes was pretty basic—they were black and white,” Minaj, a longtime fan of the Adidas brand, tells Style.com. “More recently, I wore the Adidas wedges on the set of Madonna’s video; I could walk in them for hours. After that, I contacted Adidas about it and now they are my favorite thing to wear on tour. You get the height, but the comfort of a sneaker,” she adds. And so began her partnership with the iconic sportswear label.
Today, the pop star makes her debut in the newest chapter of the Adidas Originals “Adidas Is All In” Fall ’12 ad campaign, along with fellow brand ambassadors, her friend and designer Jeremy Scott, singer Sky Ferreira, hip-hop artist Big Sean, Korean pop phenomenon 2NE1, and NBA MVP Derrick Rose. “Adidas asked if I had anything that would work for a commercial and I said let me create something. I was already working on a particular song and I just went in and carved it out for them, and I make references to the Adidas Originals’ shell-toe sneakers,” the pop star says of her song “Masquerade” (off her new album), which she wrote specifically for the brand’s film by Melina Matsoukas, debuting here on Style.com. “As a brand, they represent fun—they are inspirational and they feel like you are running a race, kind of like the Olympics. It’s about the fight to go hard and to win and to be victorious in whatever you do. When I let them hear it, they fell in love with it.” Speaking of the Olympics, Minaj admits to being a gymnastics fan. “Yeah, actually I went home after my show last night and watched the women’s gymnastics. I just like observing like every regular human. It always amazes me what those girls can do. Hats off to them!” Minaj, who is currently on tour, says over the phone from Dallas before heading into the studio.
Of filming the video (below), which was shot in front of New York’s La Esquina restaurant, she explains, “We got to the set late at night and I didn’t really know much about what we were about to do, and they started filming a street shot, kind of like a nightlife scene of me and Jeremy Scott leaving this club and the street becomes like a runway for style. I love Jeremy and his clothes and I just walked in the trailer and put on the first thing I loved—the coat and sneakers—and said, ‘I’m ready to go.’ “
But her Adidas gig is just one of the star’s many projects—”busy” would be a massively understated way to describe Minaj these days. She’s announcing new music in a few weeks (“I know my fans will spazz over that”), shooting videos for her new album, has a fragrance due out in September and her Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded tour, and she’s currently hard at work on her own clothing line. “We already have the designs—the quality is top-notch and I won’t let anything go out that I wouldn’t wear,” she says. “The hurdle is deciding the stores to place the line in—we have gotten interest from huge giants in the industry.” Is she consulting her designer friends for a little advice? “Good question. I haven’t sat with any designers to talk about it just yet, but I am pretty sure I will chat with Jeremy and Donatella [Versace] to get their words of wisdom. I know what my fans love when it comes to dressing. I can gauge what they love based on their tweets from my videos and pictures. I am pretty sure we will do really well with it and go from there. I’m just following my heart, really.”
When Saving The Earth, Every Last Dollar Counts
“I have never bought anything at an auction before,” Glenn Close admitted to Style.com last night at Christie’s third annual Green Auction: BID to Save the Earth. She had, however, been auctioned off. “I was a part of one once. I’m supposed to go with Bobby Kennedy and a bunch of people to Mongolia and hunt with eagles, on horseback, but we haven’t done it yet. Hunting with eagles, on horseback, in Mongolia. I would say that’s pretty exotic.”
Though the actress was not on offer as part of last night’s auction (co-hosted by Susan and David Rockefeller, Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault, Anna and Graydon Carter, and James R. Hedges IV), there were several exotic experiences and celebrity names on the bill. “All of the trips are amazing, but I’m honestly a scuba diver, so that trip sounds the coolest to me,” said Christie’s master auctioneer Lydia Fenet (pictured, right). “Although, I don’t think I’m nearly as adventurous as the ladies leading the trip who dive with kidney warmers.” When Fenet finally took her place at the podium, she was quick to announce to the crowd, “Last year, I was standing up here with Seth Meyers from SNL, who made all these promises to save the world, and he didn’t, so we didn’t invite him back. Tonight, I’m going to take every last dollar you have.”
And she did a pretty good job at that—during the live auction of a seven-day chartered voyage on the largest catamaran in the world (which went for $150,000) and various other once-in-a-lifetime experiences, she helped rake in $600,000 for various charities, including Oceana, Conservation International, the National Defense Council, and the Central Park Conservancy. After that, Grace Potter (pictured, left) of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals closed out the night with a very different performance from last year’s surprise guest, Nicki Minaj. “Creatively, I think the difference in performers shows the diversity of what this auction is all about,” Potter said before the show. “But no, I’m not going to be rapping tonight.” On that note, she stayed true to her word.
Choppers A La Kaiser, PETA Vs. Kanye, A Newly Neutral Nicki, And More…
Karl Lagerfeld’s newest addition to his ever growing résumé? VIP helicopter designer. The Anglo-Italian company AgustaWestland has asked the designer to focus on its AW139 twin-turbine helicopter and to create a “new, limited-edition, customized solution” for its expanding group of customers. Do these helicopters include quilted leather seats? [WWD]
PETA is not pleased with Kanye West and the new single (“Theraflu”) he released this week. In it, West brags, “Someone tell PETA my mink is draggin’ on the floor.” “What’s draggin’ on the floor is Kanye’s reputation as a man with no empathy for animals or human beings,” responded the organization’s senior vice president, Dan Matthews, in a statement. [Spin]
Nicki Minaj—thinking pink no more? The outrageously attired pop star and rapper told Matt Lauer on the Today show that’s she’s taking a new tack and has issued her stylist an unexpected order: “Just get me black.” [Huff Po]
Chloe Green, daughter of billionaire Sir Philip Green, is set to launch a new capsule collection of shoes for Topshop next month. Her green-soled shoes are soon to be unveiled to press at Dover Street Arts Club in central London. [Telegraph]
Fausto Puglisi’s Cheerleading Squad Expands
When Style.com’s editors walked into Milanese designer Fausto Puglisi’s showroom this morning, they arrived to a room full of buyers, editors, and stylists (very different compared to our visit last season, when it was just us). Let’s call it the Super Bowl effect. Puglisi, if you recall, is the man behind M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj’s Super Bowl halftime wardrobes, and based on today’s turnout, it looks like he scored some big points with the fashion set in the process. Luckily for him, his turn as designer to the pop divas was also the starting point for his new collection, which he describes as “Helmut Newton, New Pagan emperor” with “neoclassical influences.”
“The development of this collection was born with B. Akerlund while working on Madonna, Nicki Minaj, and M.I.A’s Super Bowl show,” the designer tells Style.com. That would explain the fetish leather pieces, embellished with crystal starbursts, gold thread, and metals—it was a look quite similar to the Super Bowl outfits. “I pushed to play not only with black plonge leather; there is a gladiator Hellenic American College print and peroxide blond leopard print. It’s unusual to see these prints on leather.” He did more of his now signature Grecian-Roman cheerleader dresses (and did them well), but there’s also structured menswear-inspired jackets, “rock star” biker pants, cashmere twinsets, and eveningwear in the mix. Overall, it was another strong outing for the designer. As for what’s on the horizon, he tells us, “the goal, for sure, is a first shop in the U.S.”