25 posts tagged "Zoe Saldana"
What Women Want: Michael Kors
Michael Kors has been having a banner year, and his streak doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. In February, the designer marked his 30th year in business. Next, he opened an expansive, 7,000-square-foot space on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris and then revamped his Madison Avenue flagship. His quest for worldwide retail domination continued last night in Los Angeles with the opening of his latest store, where Zoe Saldana, Kate Mara, and Minka Kelly turned out to the new Robertson Boulevard shop to show their support at a special celebration benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“I’ve been in love with Los Angeles since visiting my grandparents out there when I was a kid—I couldn’t imagine a more glamorous place than L.A. in the seventies,” Kors tells Style.com. “Even now, there’s nowhere else I can get my fix of people-watching on Robertson, great service at the Beverly Hills Hotel, drinks at the Polo Lounge, and a burger from In-N-Out.”
Though Kors wasn’t in town for the event, he turned over hosting duties to stylist Petra Flannery, whose admiration for the designer made her apt for the task. “He’s the ultimate American designer,” Flannery said. “There’s a classicism to his designs that really works for people. They could be 50 years old or 19.” For her part, Kelly—a Flannery client and Kors devotee—lauded Kors’ ability to zero in on exactly what women want. “He just gets femininity and accentuates all the right places so you can be sexy without overdoing it,” said Kelly, who was fittingly wearing a Michael Kors Resort ’12 optic white body-con bouclé sheath dress.
Zoe Saldana Will Help You Find A Stylist
Zoe Saldana might be better known for her day job as a successful actress, but she’s also translated her burgeoning fashion interests into a second job as the founder/partner of My Fashion Database. Two years ago, when Saldana launched the site, along with her fiancé, former model Keith Britton, and the help of their close friend Jordan Glassberg, they were simply trying to provide fast, efficient answers to their own style questions: Who shot that editorial in V magazine from September 2008? Who was the manicurist for the recent Lindsey Wixson spread in i-D? This month, MyFDB, dubbed “fashion’s IMDB,” was relaunched with expanded features, including the ability to view ad campaigns and immediately shop the looks. Tonight, the actress will celebrate the relaunch with, what else, a party in New York as fashion week here comes to a close. Saldana spoke to Style.com about MyFDB, mused over a Prabal collaboration, and the next job title she wants: intern.
What prompted you to create MyFDB?
The initial idea came about in 2006. It came from our desire to cater to the things that were missing for us. As an actress it was hard for me to feel so aloof on what goes on in fashion. Every time you leave your house, you are wearing clothes and you have to create an image. We wanted to give people all the info they need for that.
Are there any issues in particular you were trying provide answers for with MyFDB?
Yes—what am I going to wear? Besides Style.com, which is so informative, no one else out there is really giving you information like this. With MyFDB, you can find out who is this photographer, who are the stylists that work with certain brands, who are the hair and makeup people that I might find interesting. It’s for things like that that are hard to find. There wasn’t that one site to where you could find out Lara Stone’s editorials, who does she have a contract with, etc.
What is the most useful feature of your site?
I love that MyFDB has the largest directory of fashion people and companies out there. That, to me, is one of the best features. It just gives you access without taking away the class and the poise that fashion has. It’s not a social network. I would say it’s classier than that, maybe that’s not the right word, but it’s a useful tool for people.
What features do you hope to add to the site in the near future?
I would like to provide a chance to see vintage magazines from back in the day and see how magazines have evolved according to our cultural and political evolution. That would be pretty cool, right?
I know you have been asked before if you would design your own collection and you sound hesitant. What about a collaboration with a designer, like your good friend Prabal Gurung?
That is something that I would love to do. I would only do it if I could collaborate with someone like Prabal. He’s like a little Meryl Streep when it comes to fashion—he is just stellar. There are many amazing designers that are completely prolific. To sit and be in the same room as them when they are putting their collections together would be really cool. From Tom Ford to Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy, those guys have paved the way. It would be amazing actually to do an internship.
I am guessing any and all of those designers would love to have Zoe Saldana as their intern. Are you serious?
I would get them coffee just so I could listen. I have been to Francisco Costa’s work studio in New York and to see him working, it’s wonderful. They [designers] are true pirates and rock stars. They are kind of like Nascar drivers. There is no such thing as an off-season and they are racing year round. Not many people understand that.
It’s true. So back to Prabal, what would a Prabal x Zoe collection look like?
On Prabal—I don’t know. I like to take things day by day. If I did it, it would not be for the sake of designing or being pop-y. If I do decide to design, I would treat it the same way I have taken my career. It’s about strategy, but it’s really all heart at the end of the day.
What is your mood, style-wise these days?
Right now I am wearing this little Alexander Wang tight gray skirt—I bought like two of them. It’s been so hot here in California so I am really into tight little dresses. I’m not a floral-print person; it’s too prissy for me.
Action movies are your thing right now. Is this a genre you want to stay in for a while, or what roles are you eager to play next?
That’s like asking, “What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” Oh, that sounds so good right now. You should go get yourself some gelato!
What else are you up to these days?
Besides observing what Colombiana does at the box office, I have been editing a short I did for Glamour magazine, which has been pretty cool.
What’s Your Favorite Dress Of Summer 2011?
Hurricane Irene is barreling our way, which means we’ll be hunkered down in our apartments this weekend like the rest of New York City, our crazy surfer friends excluded. What better way to remember the summer that was than look back at some of its finer red-carpet moments? Our favorite shot of the season has got to be co-stars Emma Stone and Mila Kunis redefining the term Friends With Benefits in punch-colored Giambattista Valli and Lanvin, but we won’t soon forget the image of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in a see-through Gucci finale dress or Zoe Saldana giving her lamé Lanvin number a twirl, either.
CLICK FOR A SLIDESHOW, and tell us how you rate our summer picks.
Deadly Chic—Now In Theaters And On The Runways
“Revenge is beautiful.” It’s more than the tagline for the new Zoe Saldana film Colombiana. It’s the operating principle behind the female badass movie. Recall Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft in short shorts and a low-cut tank that revealed décolletage and deltoids in equal measure. As Colombiana‘s costume designer Olivier Bériot put it, the wardrobe in these movies is “a little bit unreal, but that’s as much for the men in the audience (‘she’s sexy!’ [they're thinking]) as it is for the women (‘she’s powerful’).”
Saldana’s dangerous woman fits the accustomed mold, but there are others these days who are breaking it. In David Fincher’s upcoming The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Rooney Mara sports bleached eyebrows, piercings, and an asymmetrical, dyed-black haircut that is, to quote Stieg Larsson, as “short as a fuse.” (And if you ask us, she bears an uncanny resemblance to model of the moment Saskia de Brauw.) The wintery white Inuit-inspired clothes that costume designer Lucie Bates created for Saoirse Ronan in Hanna, meanwhile, flouted genre convention; still, her character, a 16-year-old trained assassin, was no less efficient at her tasks.
Black, of course, is the wardrobe color of choice for screen killers—and for their deadly chic counterparts on the runways. In his review of Ann Demeulemeester’s Fall collection, Tim Blanks likened her models to “a lost tribe of Amazonian warrior women,” their bodies slung with bandoliers stuffed with feathers instead of bullets. Ohne Titel’s Alexa Adams and Flora Gill similarly amplified the human form, cutting a shearling leather and knit jacket with exaggerated, full sleeves. “It’s about the embrace of the female body,” Adams said, “but not being afraid of its powerful side.”
CLICK FOR A SLIDESHOW, and let us know if you’re ready to embrace your inner badass.
Sir Peter Blake Designs For Fred Perry, Z Spoke Takes On Meatpacking, And More…
Sir Peter Blake, the man who created the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album sleeve, has designed a collection for Fred Perry. The legend talks about Blank Canvas on Hint.com. [Hint]
Zac Posen will open a Z Spoke boutique in New York’s Meatpacking District. This will be Posen’s first store for Z Spoke, the designer’s second line at a more contemporary price point. WWD reports the boutique will be on Washington Street (between 13th and 14th Streets) and is expected to open August 25. [WWD]
Editors, stylists, and photographers have been buzzing about the new IMDB of fashion, MyFDB.com. What many people didn’t know is that Zoe Saldana and her fiancé, model Keith Britton, are the duo behind it. MyFDB.com will catalog every magazine shoot, cover, and campaign a model, photographer, makeup artist, or celebrity is involved in. Coming soon: MyFDB Vintage. [Vogue U.K.]
The Gilt isn’t gone, yet. After reports the Gilt City Hamptons House could be shut down due to noise complaints, Gilt reps say the party will go on this summer at a new venue. [Page Six]