The fashion industry has always been one rich in real characters. An abundance of flamboyance, ambition, and visual flair have proved it fertile ground for producing personalities always ready with eye-catching outfits and eyebrow raising bon mots.
Vogue Japan Fashion Director Anna Dello Russo produces both of these with the sheer abundance of someone who doesn’t even have to try. That’s probably why the past few months have seen her blow up as everyone’s sartorial crush du jour. Joining an elite group of editors and journalists that have become fashion legacies in their own right, (Anna Wintour, Carine Roitfeld, Diana Vreeland, Anna Piaggi), such is Russo’s style icon status at present, that a huge batch of t-shirts emblazoned with her image and name sold out within hours of hitting the internet last month.



‘I am a fashion scientist’ Russo has declared, and whilst exactly what a fashion scientist is has yet to be clarified, she has been intrinsical in pushing fashion media forward,  bridging the gap between the traditional medium of print with the newer method of blogging.
She has her own webpage of course, a portal where she uploads photos of gorgeous clothes, jewels and other aesthetically pleasing things that she falls in love with, each set in an elaborate gilt frame on the screen. But more importantly, she’s become the poster girl for ‘street style’, a method of fashion reporting that has become particularly dominant over the past couple of years. As a friend and favourite of Scott Schuman, the man behind The Sartorialist, she appears on the blog frequently, modelling her amazing array of high-fashion pieces for everyone to admire.
And though her public presence has snowballed of late, she is hardly a newcomer to the scene. Growing up in the small Italian town of Bari, as a 12 year old she was so infatuated with the label Fendi that on a trip to Rome, she convinced her father to rent a hotel room directly above the store. A self-confessed, logo obsessed Eighties fashion victim, it was in that decade that she met the designers that would define her style, Dolce & Gabbana. They hit it off immediately, and she adopted the feminine, sultry look that embodied their clothes, all figure-hugging curves, lace, and rich colours, every inch the Southern Italian Dolce & Gabbana woman.
    ‘I like clothes not for price, or other such aspects, but for their evocative power, how much “dream” they carry with them’ she has said, a principle which she has translated into her professional life, in her current job as Fashion Director and Creative Consultant at Vogue Japan and in her previous roles at Vogue Italia, and L’Uomo Vogue, of which she was editor. It’s also something she has taken care to apply to her personal collection of clothes, amassing over 4,000 pairs of shoes, and investing in serious fashion pieces, ‘no daywear’ it has been stated.



What she wears, more than what she does, has propelled her to cult icon status. During Paris Fashion Week she kept the photographers happy by changing outfits two or three times a day, and she never repeats. Her willingness to stroll around in see-through Dolce dresses and top to toe catwalk looks makes her entertaining to watch, whilst also previewing to avid fashion fans what next season’s trends look like in real life (she was rocking the camel capes we’ll all be wearing in Winter as far back as last April).
With appearances on television show Fashion Academy (Andre Leon Talley’s role as judge on America’s Next Top Model seems to have made reality TV appearances quite acceptable these days), and her own perfume coming out at Christmas (named Beyond, with a campaign shot by fashion photographer Giampaolo Sguri) it looks like we will be seeing a lot more of the woman that Helmut Newton once described as ‘a fashion maniac’. We can’t wait.


Right, with Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld.

Category : News

The 40th Anniversary celebrations for Range Rover, that stalwart of British motors, was a surprisingly fashionable affair. Held at a ritzy London location (The Orangery), attended by a start-studded guest-list, and hosted by Vogue magazine no less, it was an event slightly too chic to warrant simply the birthday of a conservative, though much loved, car brand. So perhaps it was less a surprise than it should have been when Range Rover dramatically unveiled their latest design partner….Victoria Beckham. The Spice Girl turned fashion designer will be in charge of creating the interior aesthetic of the brand’s new ‘Epoque’ range. Resplendent in a nude silk crepe dress of her own design, Beckham described her new role as ‘an incredible opportunity I’ve been given’, and deemed the cars ‘absolutely stunning’. In an even weirder twist, it turns out the collaboration was initiated by none other than British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, a fan of Beckham’s sartorial creations, who put her name forward to Range Rover. The question is, why would Beckham, whose self-named fashion line has won critically acclaimed reviews and celebrity fans, bother taking on more work with a completely unrelated brand?

The answer? Well, given brand Beckham’s enormous wealth it’s unlikely to be money. It could be publicity. Or maybe Posh just really, really likes Range Rovers. More likely, however, is the lure of the side-project. Fashion people tend to be creative, impatient types. They get bored quickly and they want to make the world a more visually appealing place. In any way possible. So they take a little break from their day job to collaborate with other companies and industries on projects that will surprise and delight us.  Sometimes it’s as simple as a designer swapping their sewing machine for some decks and moonlighting as a DJ, whereas others border on the crazily, eccentrically genius and insane (ahem, Karl Lagerfeld, see below). So, on this long Summer day, we thought we’d share a few of our favourite recent fashion sidelines with you…


Victoria Beckham out and about in one of her own designs, and the new Range Rover 'Evoque'


American Vogue joins Gossip Girl

Maybe not such a surprise in terms of the mutually adoring relationship the fashion bible maintains with the stylish New York set drama, with the cast of the latter frequently gracing the pages of the former, but for the sheer scale of it, this collaboration is pretty impressive. What allegedly started as a bonding experience between Gossip Girl’s blonde bombshell Blake Lively and Vogue’s respected European editor Hamish Bowles on a cover-shoot interview, has somehow snowballed into the magazine forming the basis of a two-episode plotline. Focusing on Vogue’s annual ‘Big Night Out’ on 10th September, Bowles has already been snapped taking time out of his office job to film scenes for the show with actress Kelly Rutherford, outside Diane Von Furstenberg’s New York offices, and contributing editor Lauren Santo Domingo is also believed to have a cameo role. Unfortunately there is nothing to suggest Anna Wintour will be making her acting debut, but maybe with last year’s The September Issue under its belt, this is merely the latest step in the magazine’s route to screen superstardom.


Hamish Bowles with Kelly Rutherford, and Vogue's Lauren Santo Domingo


Stella McCartney for the Olympics

Ok, the pay off for this one is still far in the future, but this week Stella McCartney was announced as the designer behind the Olympic and Paralympic performance wear for Great Britain at the upcoming 2012 games in London. She will also be the creative force behind the (Olympic) village wear, and a retail range, which basically means that in two years or so, Stratford is going to be making a serious run for the UK capital’s chicest borough. The collaboration is in association with Adidas, for whom McCartney already designs a sports range (that shows at London Fashion Week no less), and recently kitted out tennis player Caroline Wozniaki in an athletic yet stylish wardrobe for her appearances at Wimbledon. As side-projects go this one ranks on the mammoth scale, but as a working mother, successful label head, and vegetarian activist, Stella has proven herself more than capable of multi-tasking, and to be honest, sounds fairly ecstactic about the whole thing, "As a British fashion designer it is an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be creative director of Team GB as the hosting nation of the London 2012 Olympic Games," she has been quoted as saying.


Stella McCartney, and one of her athletic designs for Adidas



Stephen Jones – Milliner to Movie Star?

As a hat maker, Stephen Jones it has to be acknowledged, is among the best ever. The man who made the gloriously wacky tulip bulb hats and cellophane head-pieces at this year’s floral heaven Dior couture show, was also the man behind the chic and restrained straw boaters and pretty bonnets that Audrey Tatou’s Gabrielle Chanel crafted in the 2009 biopic Coco Avant Chanel. Hardly surprising then, that Madonna herself asked him to design all of the hats in her upcoming film (her debut as a director) W.E, a drama based on the relationship between England’s King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. So far so fashion. But in a left-field twist, it appears the milliner will now also be acting in the movie alongside established stars like Laurence Fox and Abbey Cornish, “Madonna is directing it and she asked me to do the hats for it," he told Vogue magazine. "And somehow I've ended up starring in it, too. It's too early for me to really tell you anything in detail, but really I think I'm more alarmed than anything." The style web has been ignited with excitement about Jones’ reinvention as a screen star, but the real question, is who will he be playing? Our best guess would be Simpson’s dapper English friend and society photographer Cecil Beaton, or one of her favourite designers, maybe Christian Dior or Captain Mainbocher.


Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, and miliner Stephen Jones



Karl Lagerfeld – One Man Brand

The King of all side-projects is Chanel helmer Karl Lagerfeld. And in the tradition of great fashion eccentrics like Diana Vreeland and Andre Leon Talley, the German designer chooses ventures that no one would have ever expected. Yes he may enjoy the odd foray into photography, but his decision in 2008 to become the face of Road Safety in France was something completely unpredictable. The fact that as the creative director of two of the world’s most luxurious brands, Chanel and Fendi, Lagerfeld envelopes a world of unapologetic wealth and priviledge, makes it all the more bizarre yet amazing that he would choose to endorse low price French catalogue brand The 3 Suisses, modelling washing machines, of all things. Which we applaud him for, if only to hear his musings on the modest household appliance, “It is so chic and pretty,” he is quoted as saying. “I would like to have one — not to wash clothes but to put in my dressing room to hold my dirty laundry.” Which is missing the point somewhat, but as we mentioned earlier, the genius thing about fashion side-projects in non-fashion areas is the creative, if strange insights they give us to the most mundane areas of our lives.


Karl Lagerfeld - the face of road safety


Karl Lagerfeld models a washing machine

Category : News

Last week saw the staging of Paris Couture week, that Grande dame of the fashion world, and with it came some exquisite clothes and some ugly truths. More on the former later, but of the latter, the hugely influential New York Times journalist Cathy Horyn was the most blunt in her assertion that the couture industry is most definitely on its way to the fashion graveyard, writing ‘Like the perpetually dieting designers, haute couture is shrinking before our eyes.’ Sad but true, the number of designers participating in an art that was started by creative forces like Charles Worth and Cristobal Balenciaga is rapidly dwindling each year. Still, all the more reason to appreciate them while we can, and as the best opportunity designers have to indulge in the weird and the wonderful, it is always, at least, a sight to behold. So on to the clothes!

Dior

A designer noted particularly for his flamboyance, it comes as no surprise that John Galliano’s take on florals amounted to so much more  than a mere flower print. His models, resplendent in the most vivid and saturated colours of the rainbow, walked down the catwalk literally dressed as flowers, complete with raffia belts and bulbous head-pieces provided by milliner Stephen Jones. With their huge, flouncing skirts and acres of ruffles, the pieces could hardly have been more joyful or theatrical. And whilst Galliano’s figure hugging cuts and palate of primary colours moved to the rhythm of a far more upbeat drum than the others shows of the week, he did have one thing in common with his more sombre peers, an enthusiastic use of ostrich feathers, as a decadent trim for sweeping skirts, which added a touch more luxury to a show that seemed to rejoice in its own frivolous fun.




Givenchy

Never one to do things by halves, Riccardo Tisci’s show for Givenchy was couture that really looked like couture, all breathtakingly intricate detailing and structure to rival that of the costumes at the Ballets Russes. Tisci shunned staging an actual runway show, instead showing his ten looks to the press on dress form (shots on models were later released by the label’s PR). Was it so that journalists could take time to admire the minute attention to detail, and sheer complexity of construction of the dramatic dresses, rather than watching them sweep briefly by? Who knows, Tisci wasn’t disclosing anything, except that his inspiration for the designs was the artist Frieda Kahlo and her three obsessions, religion, sensuality, and the human body. The last of those was a hugely obvious presence, in everything from bone replica zip pullers, to the way Chantilly lace was moulded to the bodice of a dress in imitation of a skeleton. Strangely, the hot, earthy Latin colours so visible in the Mexican artist’s work were resolutely absent, in their place, a celestial palette of whites and creams, that paired with the delicate fabrics (the silk, lace and like Dior, the baby fine ostrich feathers swishing about delicately) gave the collection a gothic, ethereal mood, and fittingly for couture’s role of providing trends that will have to be hugely watered down before hitting the mainstream, pieces of total preternatural beauty.




Chanel

Designer Karl Lagerfeld might have risked upstaging himself and his designs by treating guests to the sight of an enormous gold gilt lion in the show’s Grand Palais location (label founder Coco Chanel was a Leo), had the show not lived up to the design house’s immaculate reputation. But the German is not one for self-doubt, and with good reason, the collection was predictably gorgeous. Cropped tops layered over long skirts, not usually the most flattering of sartorial combinations, shimmered and glittered their way to looking positively alluring, encrusted by thousands of sequins and beads. The classic Chanel two piece suit was given a Russian style make-over, neat pencil skirts and little fitted jackets trimmed with regal buttons and fur. Their sombre palette of muted browns, maroons and navy given a flirtatious edge with Lolita-esque styling in the beauty department, all wide eyes, red lips and long, tousled hair. The overall impression was that these are outfits that would make you look beautiful, which, if not the total purpose of fashion, is surely one of its most appealing qualities.




Valentino

Designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli dubbed this collection ‘The Dark Side Of First Love’, which goes some way to explaining the collection’s juxtaposition of playful, youthful, baby-doll shapes with a colour scheme that would have looked very at home in a gothic novel. Whether or not there was any allusions to today’s vampire obsessed young population we couldn’t say, but models in sumptuous little black dresses sporting bows on the front, were pale and serious looking. Social zeitgeists aside, there was plenty to admire for a fashion purist, with a return to well structured, traditional couture shapes, especially noticeable in the trapeze line coats, only enhanced by the rich, deep palette. Valentino also wins the award for most absurd piece of the week (there’s always one), sending a model down the runway in a flesh coloured dress that featured an actual cage enclosing her body from neck to hips, arty and interesting yes, but possibly taking the notion that tortured teens feel trapped and suffocated a little bit too literally. 





Jean Paul Gaultier

Also opting to go down the goth-light, brooding route was the usually playful Jean Paul Gaultier, bookending his collection with that staple of all film noir, the trench coat. Of course this was the trench coat given the couture treatment, so sleeves were given a dramatic, batwing shape, with the lower part of the coat so tight it resembled a pencil skirt and teamed with glamorous turban hats that were pure old Hollywood. A little further into the twentieth century, the Parisian designer revisited the famous cone bra he created for Madonna, adding strategically placed patches of fur to tight black sweaters. On first sight, it might appear that the enfant terrible of fashion had mellowed somewhat, even ambitious fabrics like rubber seemed less risqué when used on a floor sweeping, beautifully cut dress. But of course, Gaultier still had his best hand to play. Cue the entrance of burlesque star Dita Von Teese showcasing the designer’s new underwear collection for La Perla, resplendent in a black boned corset that mimicked her rib-cage, and a suspender belt that looked more like an inky skeleton. Perhaps couture’s presence on the surface of fashion may be fading rapidly, but, like the bone and skeletons that featured so prominently in this week’s shows, at the core, it remains as important as ever.

Category : News

1.    Charming nostalgia from D&G. Now in their 20th year of menswear design, the Italian duo went for an aesthetic that was wearable and romantically retro, all quirky prints and muted colours. With rolled up chinos, a sweet little polo-shirt, and a shopper full of groceries, this is a look that screams ‘sensitive and handsome boy-next-door’.




2.    The dashing ‘fencer’ outfit at Ann Demeulemeester. The Belgian usually favours a grungy, black-heavy look, but this season models strolled down the catwalk in dazzling white ensembles, with this clinical looking get-up giving off an air of ‘thinking man’s action hero', someone who knows their way around a sword fight whilst still showing off some immaculate tailoring.





3.    In a season that saw many labels go for sombre atmospheres and moody palettes, Miuccia Prada’s Prada collection was like a breath of fresh Spring air, with sporty elements  being an unexpected, if welcome addition to the usual subtle shapes and clean lines. Splashes of bright, saturated colour sat amongst neutrals, with primary shaded stripes on collared t-shirts acting almost like a classy take on a football strip.




4.    Men aren’t often given the opportunity to have fun with layers like women are. Riccardo Tisci set this to rights with a Givenchy collection that mixed things right up. With a liberal use of his favoured black fabrics, shorts were layered over sheer leggings and short sleeved tops piled over long ones, for a look that was bike messenger meets vampire. Plus extra points for featuring this thrillingly sinister looking clown print.




5.    As one of the world’s premier luxury labels, and indeed, one renowned for its skins and furs, it’s hardly surprising that the Hermès collection offered a master-class in texturing. Still, that didn’t mean there wasn’t innovation on display, Véronique Nichanian offered up some show-stopping designs, with the real statement-making piece being an emerald green t-shirt made from particularly tactile looking suede.

Category : News