35 posts tagged "Nicola Formichetti"
Nicola Formichetti: Asia And Fantasia
It is 4 a.m. and Nicola Formichetti is having a jet-lagged morning run around the Shinjuku district of Tokyo—at the same time as being interviewed on the phone. “It is very Blade Runner here and I’m running,” he confirms, when asked why he is mysteriously panting. This is the normal sort of schedule the stylist faces these days. The day before, Formichetti had been filmed alongside the Japanese actress Kiko Mizuhara, the face of Uniqlo’s womenswear, for the brand’s latest TV commercial. It appears that Formichetti is now the face of the menswear in Japan, as well as being Uniqlo’s creative fashion director. “It will really mean a lot to my mum and my grandma,” he explains of this particular string to his bow. “In Japan everybody wears Uniqlo, from tiny babies to the elderly. It is really like nothing else and has a response like nothing else.”
Such is the place that Nicola Formichetti now occupies in the fashion industry. The half Italian, half Japanese stylist—although that is a very limiting description of what he does—could have almost been grown in a lab to be the first test-tube baby of “global fashion now.” He helms a major brand (Mugler), directs the fashion choices of a major star (Lady Gaga), and is the founder, alongside his brother, of his own brand, Nicopanda (left), whose e-commerce Web site is set to launch November 19. Yet now he is going back to his roots, by being the guest editor of a special issue of Dazed and Confused—the U.K. magazine where he made his name—called “Fantasia.” It is an issue to celebrate all things Asian—including Nicola himself. Continue Reading “Nicola Formichetti: Asia And Fantasia” »
Can’t Sit Still
Fact: GIFs have been around for 25 years. Only recently, however, has the world caught on to this moving picture format. (We admit, we have spent our fair share of time at Style.com toying around with them.) Needless to say, when we caught wind of a new digital GIF exhibition, we were intrigued. Starting today, Paddle8 and Tumblr are accepting GIF submissions via Tumblr (through November 17), to be judged by a panel of fashion and art experts like Johnny Misheff, Michael Stipe, the Rodarte sisters, Nicola Formichetti, Richard Phillips, James Frey, and Vinoodh Matadin & Inez van Lamsweerde. The chosen GIFs will be displayed at a physical exhibition, entitled Moving the Still, at Art Basel Miami in December. In the meantime, feast your eyes on original GIFS created by leading artists including Nick Knight, Casey Spooner, and Stipe, on view at MovingTheStill.tumblr.com. Here, an exclusive first look at the GIF created by Kate and Laura Mulleavy for the project.
Booty Call: Gaga’s Backside Inspires Mugler Bags
Few know how to create buzz around their runway shows via social media better than Mugler designer Nicola Formichetti. Just this morning, he tweeted, “This is ‘Monster X’ inspired by gaga’s great ass. For tonight’s @ Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine.” Handbags inspired by Gaga’s derriere? Absolutely. (The pop star, however, reportedly didn’t know her backside was the launching pad for the new leather goods.) Tonight at his Paris show, Formichetti will debut his first collection of bags for Mugler, which is series of 30 styles ranging from “structured, ladylike day bags” to “weaponlike evening clutches,” according to WWD. The bags, $900 to $1,550, come in materials like metallic lizard and stamped calf leather. Here, an early look at one of the designs.
Taking Fashion At Face Value
Animal prints have become so popular that department store racks are starting to resemble petting zoos. Lately, though, we’ve been noticing a new novelty trend: faces. Some designers have taken visages in cartoony directions. Sophia Kokosalaki put a pop art depiction of a girl in tears on the Diesel Black Gold runway back in February, while Mugler‘s Nicola Formichetti and Sébastien Peigné collaborated with illustrator Mel Odom on the kissing image in their new Resort collection. Others spotlighted more familiar faces. Marc Jacobs commissioned his pal Elizabeth Peyton to immortalize him on a collector’s item sweatshirt for his Marc by Marc line. Rihanna paid tribute to Elizabeth Taylor by wearing a Topshop Unique look, and model Sean O’Pry, perhaps looking for a job, wore a T-shirt with the photographer David Sims on it while off-duty at the menswear collections.
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Hugo Boss Goes Big In Beijing
In a week when Alexander Wang and Nicola Formichetti were both jostling for attention in Beijing, Hugo Boss needed to step things up. The capital’s not shy of multimedia extravaganzas—Burberry recently upped the catwalk ante with its holographic spectacular—but Hugo Boss literally added another dimension on Friday with its first-ever China runway show and after-party. ”To do something of this magnitude is a milestone for the brand and we wanted to give the Asian market this wonderful boost because it’s already so successful,” said BOSS Black womenswear designer Eyan Allen. (It’s a savvy move on their part—the brand plans to open 60 new stores in the mainland over the next three years.)
After six months of planning, the label presented the BOSS Black Fall 2012 collection for men and women (almost 90 percent of the looks were custom-made specifically for the event), live-streaming it in 3-D across the globe. More than a few big names, however, turned out to see the spectacle at the National Agricultural Exhibition Center in person, including Asian A-listers like Hong Kong actor royalty Chow Yun-Fat, Miss World Zhang Zilin, and Korean actor Jang Hyuk, along with international celebrities like Tilda Swinton, Georgia May Jagger, and China Chow.
On the 1,170-square-foot runway, models (Arizona Muse, Carmen Kass, Jessica Stam, and Fei Fei Sun among them) paraded through glittering angular arches that turned the catwalk into a surreal psychedelic tunnel. Of the sleek, old movie-inspired looks, Allen explained, “I’ve added leather corsetry to add some attitude.” As for the menswear, an unusual nicotine shade livened the tasteful mineral menswear palette and man bags came in as chunky businesslike valises.
The second part of the show featured 16 exclusive looks from the BOSS Selection brand. When Chow Yun-Fat did the final turn in a claret velvet tuxedo to the tune of the Beatles’ “Birthday,” the Chinese crowd offered a standing ovation, to the bemusement of the international jet set. It was then announced not only that it was the actor’s 57th birthday, but he will be the face of BOSS Selection for the Asia market. Afterward, the party continued into the early hours to tunes by the Capital Dance Orchestra from Berlin and eighties classics from fashion go-to DJ Michel Gaubert.