Wednesday, 11 January 2012

Design Of The Year


Design Of The Year

THE Duchess of Cambridge's Sarah Burton-designed royal wedding dress is up against the Olympic torch for the Design of the Year, awarded by the Design Museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition is also nominated.

Other contenders in the fashion category include Mary Katrantzou's and Céline'sautumn/winter 2011-12 collections;Vivienne Westwood's Ethical Fashion Africa Collection; and shoe company Melissa's collaboration with Gaetano Pesce

SEE CELINE AND KATRANTZOU HERE

A winner will be chosen in the Fashion category - as well as in the six other categories: Architecture, Digital, Furniture, Graphics, Product and Transport - by a panel of experts, before an overall Design of the Year is chosen. The winners will be announced at an Awards Night held at the Design Museum on April 24.

For more information visit designmuseum.org.



Source: VOGUE - LAUREN MILLIGAN 11 January  2012

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Vogue 2012


Vogue 2012

FOR those of us still battling the January blues - thanks to the dismal weather or too many mince pies - February's Vogue is here to shake us awake with the first colourful splash of spring. Set to be one of the faces of 2012,  Arizona Muse graces the first cover to hit newsstands this year - and also her debut cover - in that most springy of spring collections:  Prada.


Aside from the places to go, people to know and things to see in the coming year, February's issue also brings a supplement of spring/summer's coolest trends. Get ready to start your summer shopping whilst the sales are still on: you'll need mules, lace and something pastel as soon as the weather heats up - do your homework on the style rules before you start.




Source: VOGUE  - LAUREN MILLIGAN 09 January 2012

Marc Jacobs on DIOR


Marc On Dior

Marc Jacobs has spoken about how flattered he felt to have been considered by Bernard Arnault to succeed John Galliano at Christian Dior, but has again reaffirmed that he will not be the one to step into the British designer's shoes.

"It's a great honour to be considered, and Mr Arnault is a super intelligent man and a very smart man and it was certainly a very great honour for him to know that I was capable - and not only capable but that I am someone that he would have wanted for the job," Jacobs told the Telegraph. "But I am very happy to be here. There is so much more left to do and building Louis Vuitton into a fashion company is something nobody else can say they really started."


It was rumoured that contract negotiations broke down when Jacobs' request to bring his entire Vuitton team with him to Dior was rejected by Arnault. So was the job his to refuse in the end?
"Well… it's a little bit more complicated than that…but we agreed that it was probably best for everyone," he said.

Updated Monday December 19, 9.20am: Marc Jacobs has ruled himself out of the running for the Dior job once and for all.

"I am at Vuitton, and I am very happy there," said Jacobs. "I've been saying that for a long time. There have been on-and-off conversations about Dior. I don't know; maybe someday in the future, maybe years from now, I may end up going someplace else, maybe Dior. But right now I am at Vuitton, and all that matters to me is that that's where I am and I'm going to keep doing my thing.

"The irony in all of this is that I don't dream of doing anything else, or I didn't. My greatest challenge is to do something better than we've done the season before. The idea of couture doesn't hold that thing for me. It's archaic - in my opinion. I mean, I am really interested in the craftsmanship behind couture. But I can explore all that in ready-to-wear. With couture, one dress each season is photographed by a couple of magazines; there's no advertising; it reaches 20 customers. I don't feel there is anything lacking in what we do. I get to work with these amazing craftsmen. Maybe not the same ateliers that would make a couture dress, but, again, we are not in a deficit for working with people who create beautiful things. I am not sure I ever looked at couture as this great opportunity."


And at Christmas time, when most people are celebrating with families, Jacobs has expressed his own views on togetherness. The designer has not seen his mother, brother or sister for 20 years.
"I hate this idea that you have to love somebody because they are your family," he told US Vogue. "Nobody can tell me what I'm supposed to feel and who I am supposed to feel it for. I don't blame them, I don't hate them, I just know that I don't feel love for them. That's all. And I am not going to make the call or try to stay in touch because society says, But it's your mother. Oedipus, Schmoedipus."

Source: VOGUE - LAUREN MILLIGAN 09 January 2012

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Inside Marc's World


Inside Marc's World

Louis Vuitton's hotly-anticipated  Marc Jacobs exhibition will open at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris on March 9 until September 16. A celebration of the designer's 15-year-long reign at the luxury label, the exhibition will be curated by leading fashion author and lecturer Pamela Golbin.


The showcase will look at both Jacobs' and Vuitton's contributions to the fashion world, seperately as well as together once Jacobs joined the 158-year-old label in 1997. The space will cover two floors, with each dedicated to one of the two exhibition subjects. Visitors can expect to see Jacobs' most famous designs for the French fashion house, alongside a selection of Vuitton's iconic trunks.


Updated Monday May 16, 9.16am: Marc Jacobs is set to become the subject of a new exhibition at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, which will look at the designer's work for Louis Vuitton since he took over the creative reigns in 1997.

The display will also pay tribute to the iconic fashion house's eponymous designer, who started out his career as a trunkmaker in 1854. The museum's curator plans to showcase two different periods in the label's history - the industrial revolution of the 19th Century and the globalisation of contemporary fashion.

According to WWD, specific dates have not yet been announced although the exhibition is thought to take place next year.






Source: VOGUE  - ELLA ALEXANDER 04 January 2012



Sunday, 25 December 2011

A Year In Vogue


A Year In Vogue

THIS year saw musicians, including Rihanna and Adele, grace their first Vogue cover - whilst the world's most beautiful models - from Gisele Bundchen to Rosie Huntington-Whiteley - also had their moment. Here's the year in Vogue:

JANUARY: Cover girl Keira Knightley talked about her shyness, as Mario Testino captured her in Miu MiuSonia Rykiel, Prada and Marni.

FEBRUARY: Victoria Beckham graced her eighthVogue cover;  Sarah Burton talked life after McQueen; and Alexa Chung grilled Christopher Kane on his kind of woman.
MARCH: A delighted Rosie Huntington-Whiteley secured her first solo Vogue cover, cleavage and tumbling hair included, whilst inside Miuccia Prada's  fashion-transformation skills were explored in The Alchemist.

APRIL: Kate Winslet appeared on the cover for the third time, sporting a pale blonde crop, and talked for the first time about her split from husband Sam Mendes and her future plans. Inside, Lindsey Wixson was the girl of the month, starring in two - very different - fashion shoots.

MAY: Vogue's royal wedding issue dressed Lara Stone, Natalia Vodianova and Freja Beha-Erichsen as brides for Mario Testino - in what was the first multi-cover issue in the magazine's almost-100-year history.

JUNE: A very colourful Alexa Chung cover bounced us in to spring, but the tone inside the pages was more sombre. The turbulent "Arab spring" was examined by writer Rana Kabbani in Road To Revolution, whilst Paolo Roversi's Neo Geisha shoot took inspiration from the then-recently troubled nation of Japan: both its heritage and its cutting-edge modernity.
JULY: Vogue's Ageless Style issue delved in to the secrets of those women who always look impeccable, no matter their age, including cover girl Vanessa Paradis - who also deigned to show her engagement ring from Johnny Depp for the first time.

AUGUST: Fresh from her July wedding to Jamie Hince, supermodel Kate Moss added another Vogue cover to her impressive tally - and sported the season's classic, Forties-inspired looks for Mario Testino inside.

SEPTEMBER: The biggest issue of the year saw one of the year's biggest models, Freja Beha-Erichsen, wear the season's most coveted dress - Dolce & Gabbana green sequins - on the cover, as the magazine unveiled the trends to know in the coming months.

OCTOBER: Multi-award-winning British songstress Adele became one of the magazine's most popular issues of the year in October, and explained in an interview inside why if she was to become the face of any brand it would be "full-fat Coke!".

NOVEMBER: In a blonde Marilyn Monroe-wig and trademark pout, Rihanna made her Vogue cover debut - whilst inside, the year's most sought-after model, Karlie Kloss, channelled Studio 54 for Terry Richardson.

DECEMBER: Clad in vibrant, metallic Pam Hogg leggings, the world's first billionaire supermodel, Gisele Bundchen, graced her 13th Vogue cover, surrounded by balloons.

Source: VOGUE - LAUREN MILLIGAN 22 December 2011

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

The next chapter of Lee McQ


After Lee

SARAH BURTON has revealed that, almost two years since the death of the "genius" Lee Alexander McQueen, she is glad she agreed to take over as his former label's creative director.

"He was such a genius; inspiring and funny and an incredible man," she said. "I could never pretend to be him but when I look back now, I'm glad that I took the job - because it kept the studio alive in his spirit, and it kept the team together. Because what did he work so hard for all those years if it was all just going to disappear?"


Burton spoke as McQueen launched its first store in Beijing in October, in a just-released film created in collaboration with Hong Kong store Joyce. The designer, who also made the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress this year, spoke about the creation of this season's most intricate dresses: the "broken plate" gowns - giving an idea of just what goes in to the famously couture-esque collection.

"We took a cast of a body and poured the porcelain so it fitted that body," Burton explained. "Then we hand-painted ten different plates, dissected them as if they were broken and then we engineered the image on to a bodice. Then we hand-cut all the pieces out from the mould we had and then we made each of those pieces again individually and numbered them. It was like a jigsaw puzzle!"



Source: VOGUE - LAUREN MILLIGAN 21 December 2011

Diana's Dresses


Diana's Dresses

KENSINGTON PALACE will play host to five of the most recognisable dresses belonging to Diana, Princess of Wales next year, some of which have never been displayed in the UK. The exhibition, Diana, will also feature illustrations and photographs detailing the history of the dresses, some of which were worn at poignant times in Diana's public life.

The exhibit will showcase dresses from some of the late Princess' favourite designers; an ivory silk crepe dinner dress and a purple silk chiffon sari style dress both by Catherine Walker will together with a Versace black ribbed silk shift evening dress and a black and white cocktail dress by Bellville Sassoon Lorcan Mullany. These will be displayed alongside the black silk taffeta gown by Emanuel that Diana wore at her first official engagement with Prince Charles in 1981.

Diana opens at Kensington Palace on 26 March 2012.



Source: VOGUE - HATTIE WEST 21 December 2011

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

Couture New Boy


Couture New Boy

GIAMBATTISTA VALLI has been awarded the couture appellation by Paris 'Fédération Française de la Couture.

The Italian-born designer, who showed his debut couture collection in July this year, was previously only a guest member of the calendar. Designers are typically only given the official appellation after they have showed couture for five years, but the Federation decided that the standard of Valli's work made him eligible early for the prestigious honour.



Source: VOGUE - ELLA ALEXANDER 20 December 2011

Burberry’s Good Will


Burberry’s Good Will

BURBERRY chief executive officer Angela Ahrendts raised £574,000 for charity after donating 50,000 of her shares in the luxury label to the Ahrendts-Couch Foundation - a non-profit charitable company, which Ahrendts is director but not a beneficiary.

The trust sold the each share for 11.48 last Thursday, the results of which were then released in a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Friday.

Burberry isn't the only label getting into the Christmas spirit of giving - Gucci has donated $1.15 million (£735,907) to the UNICEF Schools for Africa initiative, which aims to improve the level of education in Africa.

"Ever since we first worked with UNICEF in 2005, it has been inspiring to lead this partnership and ensure its growth over the years," said Gucci creative director Frida Giannini. "Now, we are proud to extend Gucci's commitment to UNICEF by making a further $1.15 million contribution to the many children they serve.

"When I visited Malawi in November 2009, I saw the difficult situation children face in sub-Saharan Africa where every third child doesn't get the chance to go to school. I saw that UNICEF's Schools for Africa initiative is successfully giving more children access to a good education, providing a start in life that so many of us take for granted. Through our commitment, we hope to help these children who may otherwise not have the chance to go to school."



Source: VOGUE - ELLA ALEXANDER 20 December 2011

Monday, 19 December 2011

Duchess of Cambridge "pregnant" doll


Baby Catherines

Chelsea-based toy company Arklu is considering creating a pregnant version of its best-selling Duchess of Cambridge doll, due to popular demand. The Palace has to date denied rumours the 29-year-old is expecting her first child.

"We've had a lot of requests for a pregnant Kate doll from the US,' Arklu's Lucie Follett told theDaily Mail. "We've also had many requests for a Pippa doll."


Updated Thursday November 17, 10.11am:A spokesperson for the Duchess of Cambridge had no comment to make this morning in the wake of a new wave of US tabloid rumours that the newlywed may be expecting.

America's In Touch magazine claims that a "royal source" has revealed that Catherine is "around six weeks pregnant" - and went on to further embellish the rumours with the addition of possible names ("Edward, Philip and Michael are likely choices for a boy, or Alice or Rose for a girl"); the building of three nurseries for each of their homes; and the information that the couple are hoping for a daughter.

Unsurprisingly the Palace refused to be drawn on any discussion about the alleged pregnancy.


Updated Monday November 7, 9.17am: Speculation thatCatherine, Duchess of Cambridge, might be pregnant grew to fever pitch over the weekend, after the newlywed declined to taste peanut paste whilst on an official visit to Denmark with her husband - but the Palace will not be drawn on such claims.

"This is just speculation," a spokesperson for the Duchess told us this morning. "This is not something we would confirm or deny."

Despite Department of Health assertions that peanuts are safe for pregnant women, some women - particularly those with a family history of allergies - are reluctant to eat them amid claims that they increase the risk of the baby developing a nut allergy.





Sourse: VOGUE - LAUREN MILLIGAN 19 December 2011