Wednesday 30 November 2011

VOGUE'S Secret Book


Secret V Address Book

VOGUE's Secret Address Book, available for only one more week with the December issue, contains the trusted, go-to specialists loved and depended upon by the Vogue team - but getting the information wasn't always straightforward.

"Extracting secrets was never going to be easy as editor of Vogue's Secret Address Book," Jo Craven told us. "Fashion land is a place where one's skills at being insouciant, effortlessly chic and well-presented are paramount regardless of the effort every single one of us takes. So asking where exactly a senior editor gets their tailoring done, or the ulitimate late night takeaway starts sounding impertinent. Be reassured no phones were hacked in the creation of this latest Vogue supplement, yet still we found the secret addresses of boutiques and bakeries, lash bars and lingerie stores and my personal favourite, the ultimate moth-zapping system."

From life's necessities: food, drink, and fashion; to its little luxuries, like swimming pools and master bakers, the supplement has it all - yet it was the simply-constructed, cardboard moth-killing device that impressed Craven most.

"Few of us in our wardrobes escape the wrath of moths, but finally it is time to chuck out the useless cedar balls, and bring in the serious sounding 'Kill Germ Moth Traps' which have a Claridges-style black and white stripe on them, and do for the British Museum's antique clothing, so will do perfectly for mortals too," she explained.

So is there anything missing from the book?

"There were only a few casualties; a failure on my part to track down the sawmill where one Vogue editor had wooden shingle tiles cut for her garden shed, apologies," she confessed. "Every single entry - and there are more than 400 - comes from a trusted source, so hold your copy tight; now you too can know just about everything."

The December issue - complete with Secret Address Book - is available now from newsagents.



Source: VOGUE - LAUREN MILLIGAN 30 November 2011

Calvin Klein Wedding?


A Calvin Wedding?

SOME of fashion's biggest names attended the Americans for Marriage Equality at the Calvin Klein Collection flagship in New York this week - and the label's creative director revealed he might consider taking the plunge himself.

 "Yeah, I would. It would be fun. A huge ceremony," Francisco Costa said about the prospect of marrying his partner of 21 years John DeStefano. Meanwhile, DeStefano had more practical preoccupations: "We have to figure out who's going to propose to whom first," he said.
Anna Wintour, Julianne Moore, Karen Elson, Robert De Niro, Courtney Love, and artist Jeff Koons also attended the event, which launched the Human Rights Campaign's efforts to launch a nationwide drive for a gay marriage bill, following the introduction of a similar law in New York earlier this year.

"I think it's a very basic human rights issue," Vogue cover girl Moore told WWD. "Everybody has the right to marry the person they love and be represented as a couple and family.…It's something that people will look back on in years to come and say, 'I can't believe it took so long for us to recognise this.' It'll be like segregation and giving women the right to vote."




Source: VOGUE - LAUREN MILLIGAN 30 November 2011

Tuesday 29 November 2011

The British Fashion Awards Winners


The BFA Winners

SARAH BURTON of Alexander McQueen won the prestigious Designer of the Year accolade at the2011 British Fashion Awards, which took place at London's Savoy Hotel this evening.


Victoria Beckham took home the Best Designer Brand prize, beating off competition from Tom Ford, Stella McCartney and Burberry, but that's not to say McCartney herself was left empty handed - her label received the Red Carpet Award.Stella Tennant was named Britain's Model of the Year.

In terms of new designer names, Mary Katrantzou was given the Emerging Talent Womenswear Ready-To-Wear honour, with Christopher Raeburn winning the category's menswear equivalent. Christopher Kane was announced as the winner of the Awards' debut New Establishment prize.

The full list of winners:

Designer of the Year: Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen

Designer Brand: Victoria Beckham

New Establishment Award: Christopher Kane

Menswear Designer: Kim Jones

Accessory Designer: Charlotte Olympia

Red Carpet Award: Stella McCartney

Emerging Talent Award - Ready-To-Wear: Mary Katrantzou

Emerging Talent Award - Menswear: Christopher Raeburn

Emerging Talent Award - Accessories: Tabitha Simmons


BFC Outstanding Achievement: Paul Smith

Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator: Sam Gainsbury

British Style Award: Alexa Chung


Source: VOGUE - ELLA ALEXANDER 28 November 2011

Monday 28 November 2011

British Fashion Awards - New Establishment


New Establishment..

ERDEM, Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders have been nominated for the British Fashion Awards' inaugural New Establishment accolade - which recognises designers who have created a new movement in British fashion and a "sustained" impact on the way the country's women dress.

These three designers were chosen for their impressive London Fashion Week shows, their business growth, their prevalence on the red carpet and the international headlines driven by their collections.

Another fashion name honoured for its industry weight is Liberty, which has been awarded Time Out's Best Shop honour for the third time.

"The jumble of wood-panelled rooms, creaky floors and odd carved animals make shopping at Liberty feel wonderfully intimate - and just a little bit whimsical," said Time Out shopping and style editor Dan Jones. "Wandering through its different departments, you feel as though you're exploring a stately home - with the best gift shop ever. The edit of stock is perfect, from contemporary fashion to the haberdashery (Florence Welch Liberty print fabric anyone?), and the service is great."

The full list of BFA winners will be revealed tonight.



Source: VOGuE - ELLA ALEXANDER 28 November 2011

Sunday 27 November 2011

Rihanna's Collaboration with Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans


Rihanna Designs

VOGUE cover girl Rihanna has teamed up with Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans to create her first fashion line, comprising denim and lingerie.


Already the face of both brands, the singer's debut offering features T-shirts bearing her R logo and Armani's signature eagle, classic biker jackets, a canvas rucksack, jeans in two different styles and sets of lace underwear that come in navy blue and pearl grey.

The collection will be available nationwide from mid-November.



Source: VOGUE - ELLA ALEXANDER 22 November 2011


Thursday 24 November 2011

Arcadia Closures


Arcadia Closures

SIR PHILIP GREEN has confirmed that he expects to close more than 250 Arcadia stores in the next three years as the company reports a profits drop of almost 40 per cent against last year.

"We have got - from my memory - 450 or 460 stores where leases expire in the next three years," Green said. "And I think on our latest summary we will close more than half of those on lease expiry. So I would say, I would expect us to close 250, 260. Now, there may be other opportunities that turn up that we might want to open. But certainly, in terms of our existing portfolio, currently that's our thinking."

Green did not reveal whether the company's high-performing Topshop or Topman stores would be affected, but revealed shoppers could expect heavy discounts this Christmas across the portfolio thanks to the mildest winter in years.

"It's been the hottest October and November in history," Green told the BBC. "Nobody can deal with that. Winter goods are tough. Trading conditions remain extremely challenging, with style, quality and value at the top of our agenda and more important than ever. I do believe everybody today is more financially aware than they've ever been in their life."




Source : VOGUE - LAUREN MILLIGAN 24 November 2011

Legend Of Louboutin...


Legend Of Louboutin

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN may never have been a footwear designer if it hadn't been for - perhaps strangely - a lamp.

"When I was 27, I was in this shop in Paris and I really wanted to buy this lamp," he said. "It was really beautiful, but the shopkeeper - who I knew - wouldn't let me. I'd been drawing shoes since I was 12 years old, but had given it up two years before to become a landscaper, and the shopkeeper said to be 'Christian, I'm not giving you this lamp, but why don't you go back to designing shoes? Do you not have regrets?' I said 'well yes a little, I'm not patient enough to be a landscaper.' So, he gave me the idea to buy a shop and return to doing what I loved - making shoes. Eventually, I got that lamp in the end."

Speaking at a V&A talk, hosted by his good friend NET-A-PORTER.COM founder and executive chairman Natalie Massenet, the designer went onto describe his liberal and somewhat wild childhood. He was expelled from school three times and ran away from home at the age of 12 - although he cites his late mother as one his biggest life influences.

"She was so kind and she gave me so much freedom," he said. "When I was 12 or 13 I started going to clubs in Paris. When I bought people home - which I often did - she would give up her bed for me because it was bigger."

Of all the shoes he has created in his lengthy career, he says it is his classic pumps that he loves the most.
"A good pump is a silhouette, like the bone structure of the face," he explained. "It's like a beautiful face with no make-up. You can cover a not-so-beautiful face with make-up, but it is just a mask - it is the same with shoes."

Louboutin, who is this year celebrating his 20th anniversary in fashion, also explained the importance and appeal of one his signature design elements - toe cleavage.

"It makes the leg look longer," he said. "It was something I discovered when I worked with showgirls at the start of my career - they always had shoes cut in that way. They wanted to be able to dance and to look like they had really long legs. If you have a low décolleté it opens the leg window."



Source: VOGUE - ELLA ALEXANDER 24 November 2011

Miu Miu Ad Banned


Miu Miu Ad Banned

MIU MIU's controversial Hailee Steinfeld advertisement has been banned by the Advertising Standards Agency. The ad, which shows 14-year-old Steinfeld sitting on a railway track, was found to be "irresponsible" for "showing a child in a hazardous or dangerous situation".


Prada Retail Ltd, which owns Miu Miu, explained that the ad was "based on the set of an imaginary film" starring Steinfeld - who was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar in 2011 for her role in True Grit - and did not have the "intent of depicting a child in an unsafe location". The label said that the ad "was photographed on an abandoned railway track in a foreign country. Hailee Steinfeld was sitting on the edge of the train track as if she was resting between takes of the movie on a hot day". They also said that "the viewpoint of the ad extended along the railway track and it was clear that there was no train in sight," thereby negating any suggestion of peril.

The brand added that the ad was "part of a serious, high-fashion campaign aimed at adult women and "was placed only in adult, high-fashion magazines".

Despite upholding the complaint that the images showed Steinfeld in an unsafe location, the ASA rejected another complaint that the images were suggestive of youth suicide and that Steinfeld appeared to be crying whilst sitting on the railway track - concluding that "the ad was prepared with a due sense of responsibility and would not be suggestive of youth suicide to impressionable young people".



Source: VOGUE -LAUREN MILLIGAN 24 November 2011

D&G trial over the label's alleged tax evasion.


Dolce Trial

Updated Thursday November 24, 11.00am: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana will appear in court over the label's alleged tax evasion. In April this year, judge Simone Luerti decided that the pair would not have to stand trial over the allegations - but the ruling has now been overturned, after Milan-based prosecutor Laura Pedio made an appeal to the Italian high court. There will be now been a preliminary hearing in front of a new judge. No date has yet been announced.


Updated Friday November 1, 12.55pm: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana will not stand trial for alleged tax evasion.

Judge Simone Luerti decided this afternoon, after four and a half hours of deliberating, that there is no case to answer for the designers.

"I am very pleased with this decision," Giuseppe Bana, lawyer of Dolce and Gabbana's accountant, Luciano Patelli, said. "The judge prevented this from going too far, it's an investigation that should never have been initiated in the first place."



Source: VOGUE - ELLA ALEXANDER 24 November 2011

Kar's edit at the Metro Newspaper


Karl's Edit

KARL LAGERFELD is set to guest edit the Metro newspaper on February 7, following in the footsteps of fellow fashion innovator Lady Gaga, who oversaw an issue in May this year. The Chanel creative director will spend a day in the Paris newsroom, supplying illustrations and commentary for its The World According to Karl edition.

"I love daily papers and it's fun to be part of one of them just for the day," Lagerfeld toldWWD.  "Metro is on a worldwide scale and it's even more fun."

The special issue will kick off Metro'scoverage for Fashion Week and will run in 100 cities in 22 countries. The newspaper has a daily readership of more than 17 million people globally.

Lagerfeld is not the only fashion name to announce plans to turn his hand to journalism this week; Naomi Campbell has taken up a new role as editor-at-large for both the Russian and German versions of Interview magazine. 



Source: VOGUE - LAUREN MILLIGAN 24 November 2011

McQ at London Fashion Week


The McQ Show

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN'S diffusion line McQ will show during London Fashion Week for the first time in February 2012.

The autumn/winter 2012-13 collection will act as a preview to the label's debut store opening - which will be unveiled next spring. The shop will be housed in a Georgian townhouse on Dover Street in London's 

Mayfair and will carry womenswear, menswear and accessories.



Source: VOGUE - ELLA ALEXANDER 23 November 2011

McQ at London Fashion Week

BREAKING NEWS: For the first time since the brand was launched, McQ will present the autumn/winter 2012/2013 collection with a catwalk show at London Fashion Week in February 2012.

The show will form a preview to the the opening of a McQ store in London in Spring 2012: A Georgian townhouse located at 14 Dover Street, London W1S 4LW with 4 storeys and 273 square metres of retail space, McQ’s first flagship store will be designed by Pod and will offer womenswear, menswear as well as accessories from the collection.

The main line Alexander McQueen collection will continue to show at Paris Fashion Week.