I am sitting in the judge's enclosure of the Myer marquee, one of nine judges of the Womens Classic Racewear category of Fashions on the Field at today's Melbourne Cup. Somewhat awkwardly perhaps, seated right next to Vogue supremo Kirstie Clements, whose Derby Day outfit I slagged off yesterday. Oops.
A lovely group of ladies have just paraded their Cup Day outfits in front of us. And what a varied array of wares.
I had been told that the Disco Divas had been discouraged from competition this year, in a bid to lift dress standards at the track, but two such Divas appear to have escaped Myer's scrutiny.
One is wearing a wisp of a turquoise handkerchief-hemmed cocktail frock whose underslip is located directly beneath her derriere. With today's gusty winds, in other words, said derriere is getting a frequent airing on the podium.
Speaking of gusty winds I meanwhile was foolish enough to wear not one but two cocktail hats, one perched somewhat precariously on top of the other, tied only with a black ribbon.
I was going for a kind of Toulouse Lautrec-meets-Elton John look. One hat is covered with orange feathers and lends a wig-like effect, with the end result that most of my peers don't seem to recognise me. I have just been mistaken for Belinda Seper by one.
Having failed to take the wind factor into consideration however I am at considerable, imminent risk of suffering a millinery emergency. If the upper hat suddenly plops off into the lap of Kirstie Clements, I imagine it would be poetic justice.
Up on the podium Seven's broadcast co-commentator Alex Perry has just invented a new millinery term: the Fat. It is designed to describe a hybrid between a fascinator and a hat.
Off the microphone in between heats a bit earlier on, Perry made another salient observation:
"The Seppelt Salinger is flowing freely" quipped Perry.
Original post and comments.
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Monday, November 6, 2006
Derby Day: RIP the Disco Diva?
The so-called "Disco Divas" may have been given their marching orders by Myer from its Fashions on The Field competition this year, but that didn't stop plenty of the cleavage- and G-flashing, fake tan-slathered, handkerchief hem-sporting Paris Hilton lookalikes from rocking up to Flemington at Saturday's Derby Day [and it's probably a safe bet that plenty of them stocked up on their attire at Myer].
But they did keep their distance from the Birdcage, whose sartorial quotient seemed to have been upped this year, in spite of an apparent plethora of black leggings. A hot street trend, leggings do not however translate well into appropriate track attire.
Bubble and sack dresses were omnipresent, which was handy for all the pregnant women who are normally invisible at the event. They included Jessica Rowe and sass & bide's Heidi Middleton. Rowe - whose baby is due January 22nd - said the biggest sartorial challenge for a pregnant woman at the races is "getting it right".
"You still want to be stylish - and I didn't want to wearing something too short or too tight" noted Rowe, showing enormous restraint from her signature thigh-skimming look in a pretty, knee-length cobalt blue and white Empire line bubble dress by new designer Scarlett Frost.
"I'm ginormous for me - I've got a tummy, I've got boobs for the first time in my life" added Rowe, who completed her look with a matching blue Neil Grigg headpiece and, surprisingly perhaps, Canturi jewel-trimmed platform shoes.
"I've done a heel but this is a shorter heel than I would normally wear" noted Rowe. "It will be wedges for Cup Day and I've put some 'party feet' things in my shoes today to try to give it some extra cushion".
But while Rowe opted for a longer hemline than usual, septuaganarian Lillian Frank flashed more leg than Makybe Diva in a mid calf-length black bubble dress.
"People keep saying, 'I didn't know you had legs'" Frank told the Herald, disclosing that her black straw hat decorated with two white doves was a political statement designed to encourage women to fight for peace. As for the doves, they were real, she noted - but stuffed.
"They've died and gone to heaven already" added Frank. "They're back again".
Going the traditional black and white Derby route seemed to be half Australia's television sorority including Holly Brisley, Shelley Craft, Sonia Kruger and David Jones face/Getaway guest presenter Megan Gale, who could have otherwise been mistaken for a Disco Diva in a thigh-flashing, cleavage-baring black and white sass & bide puffball dress.
Sass & bide's Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke meanwhile - who reported they were almost mugged by the masses when they took a wrong turn onto the general racecourse en route to the Birdcage - opted for a silver and black bustle dress teamed with black men's braces and top hat (Clarke) and black tube dress with silver/black kimono wrap (Middleton).
"We now appreciate just how civilized it is in the Birdcage" sighed Middleton inside the Motorola marquee - standing next to the Derby's biggest international ringin, actor Kate Bosworth, as Bosworth chugged back a longneck straight from the bottle.
The diminutive (and some noted, emaciated, although certainly not in the presence of Bosworth's personal PR flack who was craning her neck throughout interviews to closely vet reporter's questions) Superman Returns co-star otherwise looked demure in her long black satin Collette Dinnigan gown, later changing into a short white lace Twenties-look shift dress, also by Dinnigan - teamed with black patent leather T-bar stilettos and a flapper-like black jet Richard Nylon headpiece.
Noted milliner Richard Neylon, "She's so small, I didn't want anything that would overwhelm her".
Other standouts included Moet tent architect, New York-based Australian interior designer Emma Jane Pilkington, in an oyster grey Duchesse satin Prada shirtdress, Suzanne cocktail hat and black patent Christian Louboutin pumps and glamorous Melbourne stepmother-and-daughter duo, Lisa and Emma Van Handel. The first wore a mustard Scanlan & Theodore cocktail dress teamed with tobacco suede Prada pumps and leopard toque, cape and handbag.
"It's OK if it's vintage isn't it??" asked her nervous husband, John Van Haandel, when I enquired as to the leopard's exact derivation. It was real leopard skin all right - circa 1960s, borrowed from the vintage couture Darnell Collection owned by Charlotte Smith.
Emma Van Haandel picked up the Sixties space age cues from the spring/summer 2007 shows in a boxy grey linen coat and white patent leather flower by Scanlan & Theodore, backless white tulip Willow microdress, Azzedine Alaia nude patent platforms and grey python bag, a vintage white bowler hat and white Dita sunglasses.
As for the men, nice to see a new generation of younger men starting to get into the swing of wearing hats again - I lost count of the trilbies and pork pie hats while en route to Flemington by train, around the Birdcage and out in the field.
Standouts were the always-dapper Neylon, in his quirky interpretation of the morning suit and Melbourne architectural duo Randal Marsh and Roger Wood in matching black and white Christian Dior suits.
Annalies Seubert looked a little bit too much like a sugarplum fairy in an ivory organza Willow minidress - which would have been far more elegant had it covered her knees, a la Pilkington's Prada, or at the very least reached them - teamed with nude strappy shoes and Neil Grigg fascinator.
Katrina Warren's cornflower blue sack dress and ugly white lace-up stilettos looked like they might have been selected by Toby The Wonder Dog.
But the biggest fashion disappointment of the day gong was shared, oddly enough, by two magazine mavens: Vogue supremo Kirstie Clements, in dowdy black cropped trousers and white blazer and Harpers Bazaar fashion director Claudia Navone, who looked like she had just turned up for a country picnic and not Australia's second-most prestigious racing event, in a voluminous cardie, skinny pants and flat boots.
When the glossy girls can't get it right, what hope is there for the Disco Divas?
Original post and comments.
But they did keep their distance from the Birdcage, whose sartorial quotient seemed to have been upped this year, in spite of an apparent plethora of black leggings. A hot street trend, leggings do not however translate well into appropriate track attire.
Bubble and sack dresses were omnipresent, which was handy for all the pregnant women who are normally invisible at the event. They included Jessica Rowe and sass & bide's Heidi Middleton. Rowe - whose baby is due January 22nd - said the biggest sartorial challenge for a pregnant woman at the races is "getting it right".
"You still want to be stylish - and I didn't want to wearing something too short or too tight" noted Rowe, showing enormous restraint from her signature thigh-skimming look in a pretty, knee-length cobalt blue and white Empire line bubble dress by new designer Scarlett Frost.
"I'm ginormous for me - I've got a tummy, I've got boobs for the first time in my life" added Rowe, who completed her look with a matching blue Neil Grigg headpiece and, surprisingly perhaps, Canturi jewel-trimmed platform shoes.
"I've done a heel but this is a shorter heel than I would normally wear" noted Rowe. "It will be wedges for Cup Day and I've put some 'party feet' things in my shoes today to try to give it some extra cushion".
But while Rowe opted for a longer hemline than usual, septuaganarian Lillian Frank flashed more leg than Makybe Diva in a mid calf-length black bubble dress.
"People keep saying, 'I didn't know you had legs'" Frank told the Herald, disclosing that her black straw hat decorated with two white doves was a political statement designed to encourage women to fight for peace. As for the doves, they were real, she noted - but stuffed.
"They've died and gone to heaven already" added Frank. "They're back again".
Going the traditional black and white Derby route seemed to be half Australia's television sorority including Holly Brisley, Shelley Craft, Sonia Kruger and David Jones face/Getaway guest presenter Megan Gale, who could have otherwise been mistaken for a Disco Diva in a thigh-flashing, cleavage-baring black and white sass & bide puffball dress.
Sass & bide's Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke meanwhile - who reported they were almost mugged by the masses when they took a wrong turn onto the general racecourse en route to the Birdcage - opted for a silver and black bustle dress teamed with black men's braces and top hat (Clarke) and black tube dress with silver/black kimono wrap (Middleton).
"We now appreciate just how civilized it is in the Birdcage" sighed Middleton inside the Motorola marquee - standing next to the Derby's biggest international ringin, actor Kate Bosworth, as Bosworth chugged back a longneck straight from the bottle.
The diminutive (and some noted, emaciated, although certainly not in the presence of Bosworth's personal PR flack who was craning her neck throughout interviews to closely vet reporter's questions) Superman Returns co-star otherwise looked demure in her long black satin Collette Dinnigan gown, later changing into a short white lace Twenties-look shift dress, also by Dinnigan - teamed with black patent leather T-bar stilettos and a flapper-like black jet Richard Nylon headpiece.
Noted milliner Richard Neylon, "She's so small, I didn't want anything that would overwhelm her".
Other standouts included Moet tent architect, New York-based Australian interior designer Emma Jane Pilkington, in an oyster grey Duchesse satin Prada shirtdress, Suzanne cocktail hat and black patent Christian Louboutin pumps and glamorous Melbourne stepmother-and-daughter duo, Lisa and Emma Van Handel. The first wore a mustard Scanlan & Theodore cocktail dress teamed with tobacco suede Prada pumps and leopard toque, cape and handbag.
"It's OK if it's vintage isn't it??" asked her nervous husband, John Van Haandel, when I enquired as to the leopard's exact derivation. It was real leopard skin all right - circa 1960s, borrowed from the vintage couture Darnell Collection owned by Charlotte Smith.
Emma Van Haandel picked up the Sixties space age cues from the spring/summer 2007 shows in a boxy grey linen coat and white patent leather flower by Scanlan & Theodore, backless white tulip Willow microdress, Azzedine Alaia nude patent platforms and grey python bag, a vintage white bowler hat and white Dita sunglasses.
As for the men, nice to see a new generation of younger men starting to get into the swing of wearing hats again - I lost count of the trilbies and pork pie hats while en route to Flemington by train, around the Birdcage and out in the field.
Standouts were the always-dapper Neylon, in his quirky interpretation of the morning suit and Melbourne architectural duo Randal Marsh and Roger Wood in matching black and white Christian Dior suits.
Annalies Seubert looked a little bit too much like a sugarplum fairy in an ivory organza Willow minidress - which would have been far more elegant had it covered her knees, a la Pilkington's Prada, or at the very least reached them - teamed with nude strappy shoes and Neil Grigg fascinator.
Katrina Warren's cornflower blue sack dress and ugly white lace-up stilettos looked like they might have been selected by Toby The Wonder Dog.
But the biggest fashion disappointment of the day gong was shared, oddly enough, by two magazine mavens: Vogue supremo Kirstie Clements, in dowdy black cropped trousers and white blazer and Harpers Bazaar fashion director Claudia Navone, who looked like she had just turned up for a country picnic and not Australia's second-most prestigious racing event, in a voluminous cardie, skinny pants and flat boots.
When the glossy girls can't get it right, what hope is there for the Disco Divas?
Original post and comments.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
2007: A space odyssey
Space, at least according to Star Trek, is supposed to be the final frontier.
For the fashion pack however, clearly it's just another style milieu ripe for the plundering, with designers taking space age cues for the second time in four decades at the spring/summer 2007 shows.
Fashion's bout of '60s futurism was inspired by the romance of space travel, at a time before man had set foot on the moon. It was pioneered by the last wave of haute couture designers to emerge before handmade haute couture went on a 20-year hiatus as fashion's ideas engine room and took a back seat to machine-made ready-to-wear: Pierre Cardin, Andre Courreges and Paco Rabanne, with more than a little help from London's Mary Quant and co.
Their '60s futurist fantasy vision haunted the spring/summer 2007 collections. This was reflected in the omniprescence of silver, wet-look PVC and fashion's continuing must-wear silhouette – the dress – but specifically in this season's case, the '60s look, waistless shift dress and its more voluminous sisters, the sack and tent dresses.
Film references such as the Paco Rabanne-outfitted Barbarella as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey – both released in 1968, the year that influential couturier Cristobal Balenciaga closed his doors – littered show reviews.
But Nicolas Ghesquiere, Balenciaga's new creative director, said he was inspired by the androids in Tron (1982) and The Terminator (1984). Others deemed the collection reminiscent of Star Wars (1977).
"I don't think girls are going to run out to buy C-3P0 pants – space age won't fly," a nervous New York retailer told WWD of Ghesquiere's spectacular gold leggings, which were handmade from metal and, sources told the Herald, are valued at $US100,000 ($131,700).
That retailer obviously had not clocked the metal-look gold Lycra leggings sported on the last day of the Paris shows by one early adopter. Or the silver, gold and bronze versions already in store at American Apparel.
Spring/summer 2007 also featured a dalliance with the '80s, as well as an injection of the '20s, courtesy the plethora of fringed, waistless, flapper styles at collections such as Prada, Roberto Cavalli, Julien Macdonald, Basso & Brooke, Veronique Branquinho and Viktor & Rolf. The '60s shared with the '20s an obsession with youth – and the boyish waistless dress.
"I think that it was in a way the last careless decades, the '60s" Karl Lagerfeld told the Herald after the Fendi show.
"That's why people think it was magic. In fact it was not that magic. What you don't know from the '60s is that the materials were very poor. The dresses were heavy and ugly. We forget all that. It was the image that looked great, it was the first time things were different, it was less bourgeois, it was the explosion of freedom."
By contrast to the '60s, modern materials are not poor, but technology-rich and designers en masse opted to take full advantage of textile innovations this season.
High-tech, often performance-focused fabrics gave garments a "future sport" edge, as did a plethora of athletic-look racerbacks on everything from downtown singlets to uptown evening dresses.
In New York, Calvin Klein's Francisco Costa used super-technical stretch mesh, scuba fabric and perforated latex to create sculpted, athleisure-look body dresses and tunics.
Narciso Rodriguez showed carbon fibre shift dresses and wet-look black nylon sateen car coats and sleek, futuristic silk evening wear that featured glossy, armour-like fibreglass details. Rodriguez's armour-like, articulated seam work would later pop up in collections from Balenciaga to Dior.
The Australian Josh Goot dovetailed in with the future sport mood with his space age silver leggings, silver racerback singlets and Star Trek uniform-look contoured body dresses as did Karen Walker's fluoro nylon parkas.
Marc Jacobs said he had been inspired by "the '70s doing the '20s doing the '30s doing bathing beauties of the turn of the century".
But when his models emerged in their silver bomber jackets and trench coats, sequinned flapper tops and dresses layered over sarouel and tulip trousers, they looked like post-apocalyptic desert nomads.
In London, baggy trousers got another look-in courtesy the Australian Richard Nicoll. At Preen, volume took on a futuristic slant in a series of sensational, fluorescent chartreuse bubble micro-dresses.
Paco Rabanne's 1966 debut collection in Paris was called 'Twelve Unwearable Dresses'. Forty years later, London "club kid" Gareth Pugh looked to take cues from Rabanne – or the late, London-based, Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery – with a capsule "collection" of freakish-but-fabulous black/white and silver sci-fi-look coats and dresses.
Commercial Milan reinforced the "moon girl" mood.
Almost every collection groaned with silver shift dresses, with Lagerfeld deploying even black silicone at Fendi.
Although patchy, Matthew Williamson's second Pucci collection provided some of the season's sexiest sci-fi-look accessories: mirrored-and-clear PVC wedges and moulded enamel body jewellery, the latter a collaboration with jewellery designer Zenia.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's '80s rock tart D&G look with wet-look stirrup pants and black lace catsuits paled in comparison with the duo's Blade Runner-meets-Barbarella signature line show, whose android-look models were kitted out in sharply tailored pencil skirts and corsets using a maximum of PVC. In an extreme nod to fashion's current volume obsession, one moulded satin corset with exaggerated hips looked like it had been fashioned from stainless steel.
With Prada's supra-pubis skirts – which the designer later said were merely tops and tunics shown without the bottoms – micro became the major Milanese theme. Prada also showed modest, high-necked, long-sleeved tops that echoed one of her principal themes – uniforms.
Joining in Prada's "militaristic" mood this season were, in London, John Rocha, with his baggy, sarouel-like combats; Sinha-Stanic and their lab-look zippered separates and Jean-Pierre Braganza, with his metallised skinny pants. Even fellow Italian brand Missoni went combat with some of its spring/summer 2007 prints.
Raf Simons's signature skinny trousers and long-line jackets have long had a sleek uniform vibe. But this collection was peppered with electric shocks of eye-popping, almost fluorescent colour and a surprisingly high volume of cocktail dresses, including one knockout shift dress and draped gown, both in mother-of-pearl-effect clear sequins.
A "pretty punk" mood was seen in the hardware detailing of Burberry's silver stud-edged evening wear; silver grommetted black bikers' jackets at Gucci; grommetted gladiatrix dresses at Temperley; Aquascutum's heavily embellished trench coats; Balmain's grommetted cocktail dresses in the very uncocktail-like shade of fatigue green and Christian Dior's silver and copper chain-festooned cocktail dresses.
The athleisure mood prevailed at Marni, with wet-look trapeze jackets layered over sportif leggings. Lagerfeld also used a fluorescent pink athletic mesh-look perforated leather at Fendi. Jean Paul Gaultier's sport-nosed 30th anniversary collection boasted hooded silk leggings, tunics and bubble dresses; and Martin Grant's sporty collection featured one standout grey marle smock dress and a maxi grey marle tent dress.
But Paris well and truly nailed fashion's futurist mood via three key collections.
Balenciaga sent out a resolutely modern collection of skin-tight gunmetal grey and copper trousers and armour-like gold leggings topped with boxy, articulated jackets and moulded cocktail dresses in wet-look PVC.
Hussein Chalayan spent six months developing five mechanical dresses which self-transformed on the runway – providing the season's most ambitious piece of theatre. Chalayan's tulle-overlaid, colour-blocked cocktail dresses seemed moreover reminiscent of 1920s Italian Futurist artist Giacomo Balla.
At Lanvin, Alber Elbaz used high-tech/high performance fabrics such as parachute silk, metallised satin, wool mixed with silicone and cotton mixed with paper to create a graphic silhouette that included micropleated baby-doll dresses, lab technician-look, short-sleeved shift dresses and draped, metallised satin bubble dresses – many bearing hard-edged exposed zipper detailing.
"There is a huge feeling of freedom of women in the world and we all feel it, but it's not about the '60s – because then it was about the body, now it's the mind," Elbaz told the Herald afterwards.
"I am not about the powerful design, but about women that are strong, women that are independent, they are free. These are my women, these are my girlfriends, these are the women that I work for and I work with, and I think that when they are free they can dream about tomorrow. When you are blocked you go backward to romantic and I think that romantic is past."
However some designers did in fact feel very, very romantic.
Romantic, heavily embellished and detailed "demi couture" evening wear abounded in many collections, with several finale garments (for example, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen) literally festooned with hand-finished applique flowers.
Australia's Toni Maticevski slotted in here with his heavily embellished, romantic evening wear, as did New York's Rodarte and Zac Posen, whose fuschia satin puffball micro-dress with rosette-festooned hem was swiftly snapped up by the Parisian vintage retailer Didier Ludot.
Anna Molinari designer Rossella Tarabini told the Herald her collection of embellished rag dresses had been inspired by the late 1990s, when today's younger generation of women in fact first started raiding vintage stores.
McQueen's ashen-faced models in magnificent Edwardian evening gowns, some boasting trompe l'oeil tulle overlay and exaggerated padded hips – that approached the girth of Gaultier's plus-sized model Velvet d'Amour – seemed like the ghosts of couture seasons long past.
Two collections somehow managed to bridge the sci-fi and demi-couture genres.
The first, from London's new star Christopher Kane, was a single-note collection of banded, fluorescent micro-dresses that were heavily embellished with lace, lacing and applique.
The second, was Marc Jacobs signature collection, which segued into a finale of heavily embellished froufrou evening wear.
Jacobs followed through the romantic mood with an entire collection of voluminous, layered, pannier skirts and corsets for Louis Vuitton.
Inspired by Tinkerbell and co, Jacob's ethereal Vuitton muses seemed as much a part of the season's fantasy genre as Barbarella.
"Our inspiration was fairies and things that were other-worldly and magical and beautiful and fresh and full of good feelings and energy" said Marc Jacobs backstage.
He added, "I don't know, maybe something in the imagination a little bit, not something that's so real".
Original post and comments.
For the fashion pack however, clearly it's just another style milieu ripe for the plundering, with designers taking space age cues for the second time in four decades at the spring/summer 2007 shows.
Fashion's bout of '60s futurism was inspired by the romance of space travel, at a time before man had set foot on the moon. It was pioneered by the last wave of haute couture designers to emerge before handmade haute couture went on a 20-year hiatus as fashion's ideas engine room and took a back seat to machine-made ready-to-wear: Pierre Cardin, Andre Courreges and Paco Rabanne, with more than a little help from London's Mary Quant and co.
Their '60s futurist fantasy vision haunted the spring/summer 2007 collections. This was reflected in the omniprescence of silver, wet-look PVC and fashion's continuing must-wear silhouette – the dress – but specifically in this season's case, the '60s look, waistless shift dress and its more voluminous sisters, the sack and tent dresses.
Film references such as the Paco Rabanne-outfitted Barbarella as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey – both released in 1968, the year that influential couturier Cristobal Balenciaga closed his doors – littered show reviews.
But Nicolas Ghesquiere, Balenciaga's new creative director, said he was inspired by the androids in Tron (1982) and The Terminator (1984). Others deemed the collection reminiscent of Star Wars (1977).
"I don't think girls are going to run out to buy C-3P0 pants – space age won't fly," a nervous New York retailer told WWD of Ghesquiere's spectacular gold leggings, which were handmade from metal and, sources told the Herald, are valued at $US100,000 ($131,700).
That retailer obviously had not clocked the metal-look gold Lycra leggings sported on the last day of the Paris shows by one early adopter. Or the silver, gold and bronze versions already in store at American Apparel.
Spring/summer 2007 also featured a dalliance with the '80s, as well as an injection of the '20s, courtesy the plethora of fringed, waistless, flapper styles at collections such as Prada, Roberto Cavalli, Julien Macdonald, Basso & Brooke, Veronique Branquinho and Viktor & Rolf. The '60s shared with the '20s an obsession with youth – and the boyish waistless dress.
"I think that it was in a way the last careless decades, the '60s" Karl Lagerfeld told the Herald after the Fendi show.
"That's why people think it was magic. In fact it was not that magic. What you don't know from the '60s is that the materials were very poor. The dresses were heavy and ugly. We forget all that. It was the image that looked great, it was the first time things were different, it was less bourgeois, it was the explosion of freedom."
By contrast to the '60s, modern materials are not poor, but technology-rich and designers en masse opted to take full advantage of textile innovations this season.
High-tech, often performance-focused fabrics gave garments a "future sport" edge, as did a plethora of athletic-look racerbacks on everything from downtown singlets to uptown evening dresses.
In New York, Calvin Klein's Francisco Costa used super-technical stretch mesh, scuba fabric and perforated latex to create sculpted, athleisure-look body dresses and tunics.
Narciso Rodriguez showed carbon fibre shift dresses and wet-look black nylon sateen car coats and sleek, futuristic silk evening wear that featured glossy, armour-like fibreglass details. Rodriguez's armour-like, articulated seam work would later pop up in collections from Balenciaga to Dior.
The Australian Josh Goot dovetailed in with the future sport mood with his space age silver leggings, silver racerback singlets and Star Trek uniform-look contoured body dresses as did Karen Walker's fluoro nylon parkas.
Marc Jacobs said he had been inspired by "the '70s doing the '20s doing the '30s doing bathing beauties of the turn of the century".
But when his models emerged in their silver bomber jackets and trench coats, sequinned flapper tops and dresses layered over sarouel and tulip trousers, they looked like post-apocalyptic desert nomads.
In London, baggy trousers got another look-in courtesy the Australian Richard Nicoll. At Preen, volume took on a futuristic slant in a series of sensational, fluorescent chartreuse bubble micro-dresses.
Paco Rabanne's 1966 debut collection in Paris was called 'Twelve Unwearable Dresses'. Forty years later, London "club kid" Gareth Pugh looked to take cues from Rabanne – or the late, London-based, Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery – with a capsule "collection" of freakish-but-fabulous black/white and silver sci-fi-look coats and dresses.
Commercial Milan reinforced the "moon girl" mood.
Almost every collection groaned with silver shift dresses, with Lagerfeld deploying even black silicone at Fendi.
Although patchy, Matthew Williamson's second Pucci collection provided some of the season's sexiest sci-fi-look accessories: mirrored-and-clear PVC wedges and moulded enamel body jewellery, the latter a collaboration with jewellery designer Zenia.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's '80s rock tart D&G look with wet-look stirrup pants and black lace catsuits paled in comparison with the duo's Blade Runner-meets-Barbarella signature line show, whose android-look models were kitted out in sharply tailored pencil skirts and corsets using a maximum of PVC. In an extreme nod to fashion's current volume obsession, one moulded satin corset with exaggerated hips looked like it had been fashioned from stainless steel.
With Prada's supra-pubis skirts – which the designer later said were merely tops and tunics shown without the bottoms – micro became the major Milanese theme. Prada also showed modest, high-necked, long-sleeved tops that echoed one of her principal themes – uniforms.
Joining in Prada's "militaristic" mood this season were, in London, John Rocha, with his baggy, sarouel-like combats; Sinha-Stanic and their lab-look zippered separates and Jean-Pierre Braganza, with his metallised skinny pants. Even fellow Italian brand Missoni went combat with some of its spring/summer 2007 prints.
Raf Simons's signature skinny trousers and long-line jackets have long had a sleek uniform vibe. But this collection was peppered with electric shocks of eye-popping, almost fluorescent colour and a surprisingly high volume of cocktail dresses, including one knockout shift dress and draped gown, both in mother-of-pearl-effect clear sequins.
A "pretty punk" mood was seen in the hardware detailing of Burberry's silver stud-edged evening wear; silver grommetted black bikers' jackets at Gucci; grommetted gladiatrix dresses at Temperley; Aquascutum's heavily embellished trench coats; Balmain's grommetted cocktail dresses in the very uncocktail-like shade of fatigue green and Christian Dior's silver and copper chain-festooned cocktail dresses.
The athleisure mood prevailed at Marni, with wet-look trapeze jackets layered over sportif leggings. Lagerfeld also used a fluorescent pink athletic mesh-look perforated leather at Fendi. Jean Paul Gaultier's sport-nosed 30th anniversary collection boasted hooded silk leggings, tunics and bubble dresses; and Martin Grant's sporty collection featured one standout grey marle smock dress and a maxi grey marle tent dress.
But Paris well and truly nailed fashion's futurist mood via three key collections.
Balenciaga sent out a resolutely modern collection of skin-tight gunmetal grey and copper trousers and armour-like gold leggings topped with boxy, articulated jackets and moulded cocktail dresses in wet-look PVC.
Hussein Chalayan spent six months developing five mechanical dresses which self-transformed on the runway – providing the season's most ambitious piece of theatre. Chalayan's tulle-overlaid, colour-blocked cocktail dresses seemed moreover reminiscent of 1920s Italian Futurist artist Giacomo Balla.
At Lanvin, Alber Elbaz used high-tech/high performance fabrics such as parachute silk, metallised satin, wool mixed with silicone and cotton mixed with paper to create a graphic silhouette that included micropleated baby-doll dresses, lab technician-look, short-sleeved shift dresses and draped, metallised satin bubble dresses – many bearing hard-edged exposed zipper detailing.
"There is a huge feeling of freedom of women in the world and we all feel it, but it's not about the '60s – because then it was about the body, now it's the mind," Elbaz told the Herald afterwards.
"I am not about the powerful design, but about women that are strong, women that are independent, they are free. These are my women, these are my girlfriends, these are the women that I work for and I work with, and I think that when they are free they can dream about tomorrow. When you are blocked you go backward to romantic and I think that romantic is past."
However some designers did in fact feel very, very romantic.
Romantic, heavily embellished and detailed "demi couture" evening wear abounded in many collections, with several finale garments (for example, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen) literally festooned with hand-finished applique flowers.
Australia's Toni Maticevski slotted in here with his heavily embellished, romantic evening wear, as did New York's Rodarte and Zac Posen, whose fuschia satin puffball micro-dress with rosette-festooned hem was swiftly snapped up by the Parisian vintage retailer Didier Ludot.
Anna Molinari designer Rossella Tarabini told the Herald her collection of embellished rag dresses had been inspired by the late 1990s, when today's younger generation of women in fact first started raiding vintage stores.
McQueen's ashen-faced models in magnificent Edwardian evening gowns, some boasting trompe l'oeil tulle overlay and exaggerated padded hips – that approached the girth of Gaultier's plus-sized model Velvet d'Amour – seemed like the ghosts of couture seasons long past.
Two collections somehow managed to bridge the sci-fi and demi-couture genres.
The first, from London's new star Christopher Kane, was a single-note collection of banded, fluorescent micro-dresses that were heavily embellished with lace, lacing and applique.
The second, was Marc Jacobs signature collection, which segued into a finale of heavily embellished froufrou evening wear.
Jacobs followed through the romantic mood with an entire collection of voluminous, layered, pannier skirts and corsets for Louis Vuitton.
Inspired by Tinkerbell and co, Jacob's ethereal Vuitton muses seemed as much a part of the season's fantasy genre as Barbarella.
"Our inspiration was fairies and things that were other-worldly and magical and beautiful and fresh and full of good feelings and energy" said Marc Jacobs backstage.
He added, "I don't know, maybe something in the imagination a little bit, not something that's so real".
Original post and comments.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
To the Manor bought: The engineering of an 'It' bag
Screen grab from The Times Online fashion blog.
Now we all know that luxury companies "gift" their new release handbags to the fashion posse. Don't we? "We" in the fashion press certainly understand it goes on, irrespective of whether we accept them or not. Truth be told however, Jo Public probably doesn't have a clue.
Truth also be told, fashion is not the only business that engages in duchessing. But latterly, it would appear, and certainly since the luxury boom of the late 1990s when handbags started getting equal billing to the clothes on the runways, the "gifting" of luxury handbags to major fashion editors appears to have gone on with greater gusto.
Coincidentally, over the same period, the sales of handbags and leathergoods have well eclipsed those of ready-to-wear at most luxury and fashion companies.
I have not personally witnessed the denouement of an it bag, until now that is.
It may well have something to do with the fact that this was the first time I had been dispatched to cover an entire fashion season, from go to woah. Although I'm sure the bag in question was out and about in New York, I didn't notice it. I did however notice "it" in London, indeed on day one of London Fashion Week. The bag, it seemed, was all over the event.
Which bag am I talking about? The quilted "Manor" bag launched by Burberry for the northern fall, as clutched by the ubermodel Kate Moss in the current Burberry ad campaign and as touted by Burberry since the fall shows in Milan in February as the "it" bag of the season.
Now quite obviously Burberry has the right to call its products whatever it likes, even if said products have not yet appeared on the market. Burberry spends quite a lot of money advertising. And to Jo Public presumably, these are quite clearly paid advertisements.
What is not quite so clear however is when a product such as the Manor bag starts getting spotted on the "right" people.
It was a handsome bag, I recall thinking to myself when I first saw it waft past in the February show in Milan. But had the Brit fash pack suddenly become so enamoured of the same it rushed en masse into Burberry boutiques to buy it? There seemed to be far too many Manor bags on the London Fashion Week market for that to be plausible.
When a member of the pack casually mentioned that, "Oh London fashion editors are paid shit money", my suspicions escalated.
It was at this point that I started asking myself, and others, the following questions: are there any it bags that have been granted it status purely on cool design, and, accordingly, via cool hunters seeking them out? Or do the companies in question have to actually offload bags to so-called fashion opinion leaders before anyone deigns to anoint them?
And if that's all that is required to catapult a new handbag into the "It" stratosphere moreover, isn't there a glaring differential between the must-have bag for which Jo Public has to fork out over $3000 (in Sydney) because she thinks it's a hot item, and the so-called must-have bag with which the poorly paid, freebie-loving fashion editor swans around shows? For the latter, surely, it's not a must-have bag at all – but rather, a must-take bag?
Then came the rather shocking answer from one luxury company source:"It's the only way we can get any publicity".
One senior fashion editor did however provide an interesting theory that purported some discretion might occasionally be involved in "It" bag selection.
Those power editors, she noted, who receive such a vast swag of luxury booty must by necessity make selections – and that in culling the must-haves from the must-have-nots, therefore their choices might genuinely carry some weight.
This begged the question of course, just what do "the editors who know" do with the rest of the booty? Auction it for charity? Give it away to minions? Sell it on eBay?
More than one magazine/beauty staffer has in fact been fired for selling promotional booty via same. Whatever the answer however, presumably if the luxury companies knew that those sporting cast-offs from the magazines were not must-have bags at all but rather, must-have-not bags, they wouldn't be talking them up quite so perkily in their press releases.
Just on press releases, I should include a special category here of editor who somewhat reluctantly finds herself suckered into the duchessing. Let's call her the "little bit pregnant" editor. I chanced upon one of these in London.
One day she had passionately slagged off the British fashion press for "regurgitating press releases". The next day she revealed that she herself had recently accepted a luxury handbag. She also revealed that a little note had been attached to the bag by the relevant company, with [words to the effect] "We hope you enjoy being an ambassador for X".
Would she show me the note? Fat chance of that.
"I don't want to bite the hand that feeds" she replied curtly, before insisting that the bag was strictly a thank you and under no circumstances a bribe aimed at influencing future content. No number of gift bags would corrupt the unfettered editorial integrity of her [independent] publication, she added.
There are few ethics in fashion glossies. Not only are staff members regularly asked to write about advertisers, even freelance copy can get "adjusted".
I came to the latter conclusion after a story I had written on luxury power players for one Australian glossy was tweaked in favour of one profiled company that was not a major player, but which in the published version had suddenly graduated to the ranks of LVMH, Richemont, etc. The company in question had taken out six pages of advertising in the same issue.
When we read, on a website such as www.edirectory.co.uk that the "Fabulous Burberry Manor bag in quilted beige leather" has been "tipped by top magazines to be autumn/winter 2006 'it' bag brand" we take it with a grain of salt, don't we? The website would say that because it is trying to flog Manor bags. And the magazines would say that, presumably, because Burberry is advertising in their pages and they want their ad reps to continue flogging ads to Burberry.
Newspapers are however a different kettle of fish. Or so I thought. And at this point, in the interests of full disclosure, I should add that ethics policies or not, every single fashion journalist who writes for a mainstream newspaper may well be a tiny bit pregnant.
Many of us – myself included – are bound by strict ethics policies that dictate that gifts must be returned. In some cases, journalists may also be bound by personal ethics policies. Suzy Menkes is renowned for her no gifts dictum.
But did Menkes drink Jean Paul Gaultier's champagne at his 30th birthday bash at Olympia on Saturday night? Since I wasn't at the party, I can't comment.
All I do know is that, while there is apparently no such thing as even a free lunch for Wall Street Journal journalists (or so one told me a couple of years ago), many of us who are bound by strict ethics policies regularly attend hosted lunches, dinners and parties. Perhaps all of our publications in future should pack us bento boxes and champagne hipflasks, so we can avoid quaffing LVMH and co canapes and piccolos at their events – and thereby avoid being accused of rigging the companies' respective stock prices.
But canapes and piccolos notwithstanding, I'm just not quite sure how far gone The Times of London might be in the duchessing gestation period. A little bit pregnant? Or completely up the duff? According to The Times' customer charter, which appears on its website:
"The Times in online format adheres to those principles which have guided the printed newspaper for more than 200 years: the integrity of editorial content and its complete separation and independence from the raising of revenue.
Advertisers and sponsors, essential as they are to our business, have never been able to exert any influence or in any way to compromise the editorial content. That remains the case online. In terms of sponsorship there will be complete transparency in any partnerships, the sponsors committing themselves to the understanding that they have no connection to, influence upon, or any power to shape, the editorial material or the judgments in it.
The Times Online, like the newspaper itself, abides by the codes of both the Advertising Standards Authority and the Press Complaints Commission".
But what appears on the blog section of The Times' London Fashion Week coverage [see top of post^] for spring/summer 2007? You bet, Burberry's Manor bag. Talked up, no less, as "the must-have bag at the shows".
We know for a fact that the bag was gifted to the paper. And although there is a – vague – disclaimer that free gifts abound at the shows, it is not clear that The Times team either accepts gifts – or indeed that the four-figure Manor bag was one of them.
In any event, the concept of "free gifts" would appear to be at loggerheads with The Times' "no gravy train" customer charter.
When it comes to the paper's opinion pieces on the spring/summer 2007 fashion season, we trust that they got off at Redfern.
Original post and comments.
Friday, October 6, 2006
Gaultier’s biggest winner: Runway star Velvet d’Amour
Day three of Paris Fashion Week and the skinny model debate had been raging for a fortnight. Ever since in fact the publicity-challenged Madrid Fashion Week decided to tap into one of the mainstream media's fave fashion subjects - underweight models - by banning anyone with a BMI below X. Conveniently of course, the Top Ten runway stars always seem to skip Madrid.
What a delight then to meet Velvet d'Amour, Jean Paul Gaultier's US-born, Paris-based, larger-than-life runway star (who made one exit).
And while she's not going to be putting Daria, Gemma, Snejana, Irina and co out of business any time soon, the Gaultier show was nevertheless d'Amour's second major Paris runway appearance in twelve months. Upon fleeing the backstage media scrum, I encountered d'Amour near the front door exit and couldn't resist stopping to have a chat.
ARE YOU A MODEL OR ACTRESS?
I push size acceptance along and kind of help the diversity of beauty. That's my main goal in life.
DO YOU LIVE IN PARIS?
I do. I just did a film called Avida, that was produced by Mathieu Kassovitz and it was Benoit Delepine and Gustave de Kervern [directing] and Claude Chabrol was in it. It's quite a surreal kind of Bunuel-type film, black and white, very profound.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN PARIS?
Eleven years now.
AND YOU MODEL?
You know, I do everything basically. I've modelled in two shows, I've been acting... It was actually contemporary dance that initially took me in.
MAY I ASK WHAT SIZE YOU ARE?
Sure you can definitely ask what size I am. I'm damned proud of my size. I'm a 3X/4X in American. Which is probably, I mean I weigh probably 290 pounds, I'm 5'8".
IN USING A LARGER MODEL SUCH AS YOURSELF DO YOU FEEL THAT GAULTIER IS GENUINELY ADDRESSING THE SIZE ISSUE OR DO YOU THINK IT COULD BE JUST A TOKEN THING?
Well no, what's important to me is the fact that in Spain they had this thing about the models being too thin. If you tell me somebody's too thin, if you tell me somebody's too fat, you're still being prejudiced. The point is, is diversity. Realistically there is much more thin women than fat women in the modelling industry.
LAST WEEK DOLCE E GABBANA SENT OUT MODELS WITH PADDED CORSETS TO GIVE THEM "J-LO" ASSES. BY THE SAME TOKEN THEY COULD SIMPLY HAVE USED LARGER-SIZED MODELS, NOT JUST PADDED SKINNY ONES. DO YOU WORRY THAT YOU'RE BEING USED AS A PUBLICITY GIMMICK BY FASHION DESIGNERS?
No not at all. The reason that I don't feel that is because regardless of even if they were to be using me as a gimmick factor, there are women who will be touched by what I did and I mean, the film [Avida) actually went to Cannes. So I had a dress and I was on the red carpet at Cannes and there were blogs for BBWS [Big Beautiful Women] that were saying, "Oh my gosh, Velvet was on the red carpet and she was showing her arms". Which is something I don't ever think about but it takes you back to the time when there are a lot of women who won't show their arms. So the fact that something as simple as that can be so meaningful to people who... if you're genuinely obese, like genuinely obese people, and there are more and more obese people in the world, some of them are afraid to go outside because they are so harrassed.
THE REST OF GAULTIER'S SHOW SEEMED TO BE ABOUT SPORT. IT OPENED WITH A TABLEAU OF FITNESS EQUIPMENT AND A SOUNDTRACK TALKING ABOUT AEROBICS AND WORKING OUT. IT DOESN'T QUITE GEL WITH THE CONCEPT OF OBESITY.
Yes but I think the reality is that if you're big, you're not sporty. I happen to swim 120 laps three times a week.
THE AVERAGE DOCTOR WOULD HOWEVER SAY THAT OBESITY IS NOT HEALTHY PERIOD, FOR YOUR HEART, BLOOD PRESSURE ETC..
Certainly and the average doctor would be the average doctor in doing that. Because I have no high blood pressure, I have no high cholesterol. And the reality is there's going to be fat people... like there always have been fat people, there always will be fat people.
THERE JUST SEEM TO BE A LOT MORE OF THEM NOWADAYS.
Certainly and you do see more of them these days and that's probably a part of the reason that they're maybe incorporating me, I don't know. I mean I think he's probably incorporating me because I have an amazing personality and I'm very fun and I'm a diva at heart. I think it is actually more about that than my size.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT TV PROGRAMS SUCH AS THE BIGGEST LOSER? DO YOU THINK THAT THEY'RE A GOOD IDEA IN ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO LOSE WEIGHT?
If you track the people who lose weight on those programs, they all gain it back. And so I think statistically the amount of people who actually genuinely lose weight and don't gain it back, is very rare. And I think what you should be working towards in my personal opinion, is not necessarily being fat or being thin but being healthy. And if someone feels badly enough, if you say, "You're so fat"... Have you ever been a fat person going to a gym? It's ridiculous. You go in and you are totally scoffed at. And humiliated. Because the people who are in the gyms, if you live in the city, Manhattan or wherever, they're very look conscious so it takes a very strong person to be able to go and to exercise. Most people my size primarily should be swimming because it's too much weight for your bones and that. So when you go swimming... I mean a fat person in a swimsuit... come with me swimming some time and you'll see that people will obviously laugh out loud when you walk right by. I can take it because I am very happy in my own body but there are so many women who can't which, if you add that to the fact that they're not going to feel comfortable exercising, then they're not going to be healthy.
BUT DO YOU THINK THAT LARGER PEOPLE... AND THERE ARE OF COURSE MUCH LARGER PEOPLE THAN YOU...
You can say fat people, that's OK.
...WHO CAN'T WALK BECAUSE THEY ARE SO LARGE, WHO CAN'T GET ON A PLANE BECAUSE THE SEAT ISN'T BIG ENOUGH TO TAKE THEM... DO YOU THINK THEY SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED TO CELEBRATE WHATEVER SIZE THEY ARE - OR BE ENCOURAGED TO LOOK AFTER THEIR HEALTH BY LOSING WEIGHT?
I think that they shouldn't be judged that's what I think. I think that's there's always going to be people who for whatever reason are going to be very different and that certainly is one of those, you know, extreme situations. I think what makes me very upset is seeing the programs that are based on these people where they have them naked and they're photographing them with video cameras. And we're made to be... made fun of. That makes me very upset.
BUT OBESITY IS IN FACT KILLING A LOT OF PEOPLE.
No I think if you look at what kills you as an obese person, it's really yoyo dieting that kills you. Because it changes your electrolytes and that's the factor that comes into play where you have heart attacks. If you stay relatively fat and you work out and you're healthy, then there's less chance of you having a heart attack. What gives you a heart attack is constant yoyo dieting, losing massive amounts of weight, gaining massive amounts of weight. For me, I went on Fen-Phen at one point in my life. They told me, "It's just going to be like you have a blood pressure drug, everyone has high blood pressure, you happen to have obesity, you're going to take it for the rest of your life, that's going to be that". And I went on it, and it was only after I lost 80 pounds in a matter of months, that thereafter everyone was like, "Well you know... it's causing holes in people's hearts". So the fact that it was the fastest-approved drug in American history only because they wanted to you know, address, quote unquote, obesity, they didn't make any research in it. So they're killing obese people because of that? That's ridiculous. And for me, what it is, it's the judgment. Because you can look at me and say "OK, you're fat, you're obese, therefore you're unhealthy". How many people here [at the Gaultier show] snort cocaine? How many people here drink? How many people here smoke? I mean it's ridiculous. So it's this health judgment based on initial appearance that I find so condescending. Because noone really has any idea what my health is versus anyone else's health.
HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU ARE IN FASHION SHOWS AND YOU'RE SURROUNDED BY SKINNY MODELS?
Oh it's great, I love it.
THEY MIGHT NOT NECESSARILY BE ANOREXIC - BUT MOST ARE NEVERTHELESS SKIN AND BONE.
You know, I think that a lot of them are just naturally thin. And I've got no problem with that.
SOME AVERAGE-SIZED WOMEN WHO ARE A LITTLE BIT LARGER THAN THE NORM FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE AROUND THIN WOMEN.
Oh I don't, I love it. Well see I started out photographing models and that's actually where my size acceptance came into play. Because I was shooting models and I was not feeling good about my body and I was shooting women who were the ideal of beauty. And I was thinking, "They're not happy with themselves". And that's what was amazing to me, that was a huge revelation in fact. That here I was with these ideals of feminine beauty and they hated their bodies. Now if these women who are the ideals of feminine beauty of our society hate their bodies, then what exactly is going on?
THEY ARE IN FACT UNDER PRESSURE TO SAY THIN. MODELS ARE OFTEN TOLD BY THEIR AGENTS TO LOSE WEIGHT, SOME ARE EVEN TOLD TO HAVE LIPOSUCTION.
Oh yeah. I know of some models who are supermodels who have had liposuction, for a fact. And it's sad really because for me, it's a question of the more women you know, [who] don't like their body, the less energy they're going to spend on really using their genuine creativity and not wasting it on their looks at all times. Certainly looks are important but there are so many women who obsess, who speak constantly of dieting, constantly of losing weight, and their perception is, if they are a certain size, they will be happy. Much in the same way, that in some societies, if you're rich you will be happy. But that's not the essence of happiness.
PRESUMABLY GAULTIER HAD TO MAKE SOMETHING SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU. DO YOU GET TO KEEP IT?
Yes he did have to make something special for me. I'm sure I probably will. Initially I wasn't meant to keep [John] Galliano's because the historian wanted to keep it and my corset was underneath it, however John being who he is ended up giving it to me which is very kind of him.
DO YOU FEEL THAT DESIGNERS CATER ENOUGH TO LARGER SIZES?
I feel that the sexuality of bigger women is what is sort of sad. Because I feel that sexuality is power in some sense in women, whether we like to agree with that or not, I think it's true. And I think that either women who are fat.... If you put "fat" in the website you'll see porn, porn, porn, porn... So either total porn or they're totally asexual in muumuu's. And if they're on a television show they tend to be the third wheel, they tend to be not really addressed as sexual beings. So I think for me that's kind of the fine line that I'm trying to get in. And that's what I think he [Gaultier] saw in my portfolio because I'm an artist at heart. What I've done is... basically why I'm even here... I mean I'm 39. So in my book I've done like a swimsuit shoot with me and sort of taking the piss. Like trying to do Sports Illustrated with my body. Because I'm blessed with a quote, unquote, pretty face where people would accept it, it's an easy way for me too...
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE RECENT SKINNY MODEL DEBATE?
I think what's interesting about it is you can't say anyone's too skinny or too fat. I think you saw when I came out, the reaction [applause] and I think that people just want diversity, you know.
SURE, HOWEVER VOGUE PROBABLY ISN'T RUSHING TO USE LARGE WOMEN ON ITS COVER.
I think American Vogue probably wouldn't but French Vogue... I was in the February issue. Based on the Galliano show, [fashion photographer] Nick Knight took some of us and we actually wrote our dreams. So if you go to www.showstudio.com, go into the archives and there is a piece called Editing Fashion and you can listen to my dream.
YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU HAVE SOME AUSTRALIAN FRIENDS.
Well... I just want to say that Australian men are fucking hot. And I'm very sorry actually because I loved Steve Irwin, as a typical American, and I thought he was an amazing person. And actually it's funny, you're going to think this is very silly but I was talking to [fellow Gaultier catwalker] Gemma Ward and I said that I dedicated my runway to Steve Irwin.
THERE WAS SOME INDUSTRY GOSSIP THAT SHE HAD SKIPPED THE MILAN SHOWS BECAUSE SHE HAD PUT ON WEIGHT.
Oh no way. Gemma is not a fatty let me tell you right now.
HOW DID YOU DEDICATE YOUR SHOW TO STEVE IRWIN?
Well no, I was just talking to some people and I said that he was just such an amazing person and I felt like he lived his life so fully. And I felt like that's how I live too and so I just thought I'm going to dedicate this show to Steve Irwin. In my heart, when I go out there I'm going to have his spirit and I did damn it.
JUST WATCH OUT FOR THE STINGRAYS.
That was tragic and I'd never even considered stingrays are anything to be scared of. It wasn't his fault. We can't blame him. He's teetered over fucking Great Whites and nothing's happened to him. I think you can't blame somebody for their death. What was meant to be was meant to be. He thought he was going to die young, he lived a great life...
Did you see Dita [Von Teese, in the audience]? Dita does great porn, I have one of her videos.
DO YOU DO PORN?
No I don't do porn. Why, do you want to do one with me?
I THINK YOU MIGHT SQUASH ME.
I think you might like it.
Original post and comments.
What a delight then to meet Velvet d'Amour, Jean Paul Gaultier's US-born, Paris-based, larger-than-life runway star (who made one exit).
And while she's not going to be putting Daria, Gemma, Snejana, Irina and co out of business any time soon, the Gaultier show was nevertheless d'Amour's second major Paris runway appearance in twelve months. Upon fleeing the backstage media scrum, I encountered d'Amour near the front door exit and couldn't resist stopping to have a chat.
ARE YOU A MODEL OR ACTRESS?
I push size acceptance along and kind of help the diversity of beauty. That's my main goal in life.
DO YOU LIVE IN PARIS?
I do. I just did a film called Avida, that was produced by Mathieu Kassovitz and it was Benoit Delepine and Gustave de Kervern [directing] and Claude Chabrol was in it. It's quite a surreal kind of Bunuel-type film, black and white, very profound.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN PARIS?
Eleven years now.
AND YOU MODEL?
You know, I do everything basically. I've modelled in two shows, I've been acting... It was actually contemporary dance that initially took me in.
MAY I ASK WHAT SIZE YOU ARE?
Sure you can definitely ask what size I am. I'm damned proud of my size. I'm a 3X/4X in American. Which is probably, I mean I weigh probably 290 pounds, I'm 5'8".
IN USING A LARGER MODEL SUCH AS YOURSELF DO YOU FEEL THAT GAULTIER IS GENUINELY ADDRESSING THE SIZE ISSUE OR DO YOU THINK IT COULD BE JUST A TOKEN THING?
Well no, what's important to me is the fact that in Spain they had this thing about the models being too thin. If you tell me somebody's too thin, if you tell me somebody's too fat, you're still being prejudiced. The point is, is diversity. Realistically there is much more thin women than fat women in the modelling industry.
LAST WEEK DOLCE E GABBANA SENT OUT MODELS WITH PADDED CORSETS TO GIVE THEM "J-LO" ASSES. BY THE SAME TOKEN THEY COULD SIMPLY HAVE USED LARGER-SIZED MODELS, NOT JUST PADDED SKINNY ONES. DO YOU WORRY THAT YOU'RE BEING USED AS A PUBLICITY GIMMICK BY FASHION DESIGNERS?
No not at all. The reason that I don't feel that is because regardless of even if they were to be using me as a gimmick factor, there are women who will be touched by what I did and I mean, the film [Avida) actually went to Cannes. So I had a dress and I was on the red carpet at Cannes and there were blogs for BBWS [Big Beautiful Women] that were saying, "Oh my gosh, Velvet was on the red carpet and she was showing her arms". Which is something I don't ever think about but it takes you back to the time when there are a lot of women who won't show their arms. So the fact that something as simple as that can be so meaningful to people who... if you're genuinely obese, like genuinely obese people, and there are more and more obese people in the world, some of them are afraid to go outside because they are so harrassed.
THE REST OF GAULTIER'S SHOW SEEMED TO BE ABOUT SPORT. IT OPENED WITH A TABLEAU OF FITNESS EQUIPMENT AND A SOUNDTRACK TALKING ABOUT AEROBICS AND WORKING OUT. IT DOESN'T QUITE GEL WITH THE CONCEPT OF OBESITY.
Yes but I think the reality is that if you're big, you're not sporty. I happen to swim 120 laps three times a week.
THE AVERAGE DOCTOR WOULD HOWEVER SAY THAT OBESITY IS NOT HEALTHY PERIOD, FOR YOUR HEART, BLOOD PRESSURE ETC..
Certainly and the average doctor would be the average doctor in doing that. Because I have no high blood pressure, I have no high cholesterol. And the reality is there's going to be fat people... like there always have been fat people, there always will be fat people.
THERE JUST SEEM TO BE A LOT MORE OF THEM NOWADAYS.
Certainly and you do see more of them these days and that's probably a part of the reason that they're maybe incorporating me, I don't know. I mean I think he's probably incorporating me because I have an amazing personality and I'm very fun and I'm a diva at heart. I think it is actually more about that than my size.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT TV PROGRAMS SUCH AS THE BIGGEST LOSER? DO YOU THINK THAT THEY'RE A GOOD IDEA IN ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO LOSE WEIGHT?
If you track the people who lose weight on those programs, they all gain it back. And so I think statistically the amount of people who actually genuinely lose weight and don't gain it back, is very rare. And I think what you should be working towards in my personal opinion, is not necessarily being fat or being thin but being healthy. And if someone feels badly enough, if you say, "You're so fat"... Have you ever been a fat person going to a gym? It's ridiculous. You go in and you are totally scoffed at. And humiliated. Because the people who are in the gyms, if you live in the city, Manhattan or wherever, they're very look conscious so it takes a very strong person to be able to go and to exercise. Most people my size primarily should be swimming because it's too much weight for your bones and that. So when you go swimming... I mean a fat person in a swimsuit... come with me swimming some time and you'll see that people will obviously laugh out loud when you walk right by. I can take it because I am very happy in my own body but there are so many women who can't which, if you add that to the fact that they're not going to feel comfortable exercising, then they're not going to be healthy.
BUT DO YOU THINK THAT LARGER PEOPLE... AND THERE ARE OF COURSE MUCH LARGER PEOPLE THAN YOU...
You can say fat people, that's OK.
...WHO CAN'T WALK BECAUSE THEY ARE SO LARGE, WHO CAN'T GET ON A PLANE BECAUSE THE SEAT ISN'T BIG ENOUGH TO TAKE THEM... DO YOU THINK THEY SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED TO CELEBRATE WHATEVER SIZE THEY ARE - OR BE ENCOURAGED TO LOOK AFTER THEIR HEALTH BY LOSING WEIGHT?
I think that they shouldn't be judged that's what I think. I think that's there's always going to be people who for whatever reason are going to be very different and that certainly is one of those, you know, extreme situations. I think what makes me very upset is seeing the programs that are based on these people where they have them naked and they're photographing them with video cameras. And we're made to be... made fun of. That makes me very upset.
BUT OBESITY IS IN FACT KILLING A LOT OF PEOPLE.
No I think if you look at what kills you as an obese person, it's really yoyo dieting that kills you. Because it changes your electrolytes and that's the factor that comes into play where you have heart attacks. If you stay relatively fat and you work out and you're healthy, then there's less chance of you having a heart attack. What gives you a heart attack is constant yoyo dieting, losing massive amounts of weight, gaining massive amounts of weight. For me, I went on Fen-Phen at one point in my life. They told me, "It's just going to be like you have a blood pressure drug, everyone has high blood pressure, you happen to have obesity, you're going to take it for the rest of your life, that's going to be that". And I went on it, and it was only after I lost 80 pounds in a matter of months, that thereafter everyone was like, "Well you know... it's causing holes in people's hearts". So the fact that it was the fastest-approved drug in American history only because they wanted to you know, address, quote unquote, obesity, they didn't make any research in it. So they're killing obese people because of that? That's ridiculous. And for me, what it is, it's the judgment. Because you can look at me and say "OK, you're fat, you're obese, therefore you're unhealthy". How many people here [at the Gaultier show] snort cocaine? How many people here drink? How many people here smoke? I mean it's ridiculous. So it's this health judgment based on initial appearance that I find so condescending. Because noone really has any idea what my health is versus anyone else's health.
HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU ARE IN FASHION SHOWS AND YOU'RE SURROUNDED BY SKINNY MODELS?
Oh it's great, I love it.
THEY MIGHT NOT NECESSARILY BE ANOREXIC - BUT MOST ARE NEVERTHELESS SKIN AND BONE.
You know, I think that a lot of them are just naturally thin. And I've got no problem with that.
SOME AVERAGE-SIZED WOMEN WHO ARE A LITTLE BIT LARGER THAN THE NORM FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE AROUND THIN WOMEN.
Oh I don't, I love it. Well see I started out photographing models and that's actually where my size acceptance came into play. Because I was shooting models and I was not feeling good about my body and I was shooting women who were the ideal of beauty. And I was thinking, "They're not happy with themselves". And that's what was amazing to me, that was a huge revelation in fact. That here I was with these ideals of feminine beauty and they hated their bodies. Now if these women who are the ideals of feminine beauty of our society hate their bodies, then what exactly is going on?
THEY ARE IN FACT UNDER PRESSURE TO SAY THIN. MODELS ARE OFTEN TOLD BY THEIR AGENTS TO LOSE WEIGHT, SOME ARE EVEN TOLD TO HAVE LIPOSUCTION.
Oh yeah. I know of some models who are supermodels who have had liposuction, for a fact. And it's sad really because for me, it's a question of the more women you know, [who] don't like their body, the less energy they're going to spend on really using their genuine creativity and not wasting it on their looks at all times. Certainly looks are important but there are so many women who obsess, who speak constantly of dieting, constantly of losing weight, and their perception is, if they are a certain size, they will be happy. Much in the same way, that in some societies, if you're rich you will be happy. But that's not the essence of happiness.
PRESUMABLY GAULTIER HAD TO MAKE SOMETHING SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU. DO YOU GET TO KEEP IT?
Yes he did have to make something special for me. I'm sure I probably will. Initially I wasn't meant to keep [John] Galliano's because the historian wanted to keep it and my corset was underneath it, however John being who he is ended up giving it to me which is very kind of him.
DO YOU FEEL THAT DESIGNERS CATER ENOUGH TO LARGER SIZES?
I feel that the sexuality of bigger women is what is sort of sad. Because I feel that sexuality is power in some sense in women, whether we like to agree with that or not, I think it's true. And I think that either women who are fat.... If you put "fat" in the website you'll see porn, porn, porn, porn... So either total porn or they're totally asexual in muumuu's. And if they're on a television show they tend to be the third wheel, they tend to be not really addressed as sexual beings. So I think for me that's kind of the fine line that I'm trying to get in. And that's what I think he [Gaultier] saw in my portfolio because I'm an artist at heart. What I've done is... basically why I'm even here... I mean I'm 39. So in my book I've done like a swimsuit shoot with me and sort of taking the piss. Like trying to do Sports Illustrated with my body. Because I'm blessed with a quote, unquote, pretty face where people would accept it, it's an easy way for me too...
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE RECENT SKINNY MODEL DEBATE?
I think what's interesting about it is you can't say anyone's too skinny or too fat. I think you saw when I came out, the reaction [applause] and I think that people just want diversity, you know.
SURE, HOWEVER VOGUE PROBABLY ISN'T RUSHING TO USE LARGE WOMEN ON ITS COVER.
I think American Vogue probably wouldn't but French Vogue... I was in the February issue. Based on the Galliano show, [fashion photographer] Nick Knight took some of us and we actually wrote our dreams. So if you go to www.showstudio.com, go into the archives and there is a piece called Editing Fashion and you can listen to my dream.
YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU HAVE SOME AUSTRALIAN FRIENDS.
Well... I just want to say that Australian men are fucking hot. And I'm very sorry actually because I loved Steve Irwin, as a typical American, and I thought he was an amazing person. And actually it's funny, you're going to think this is very silly but I was talking to [fellow Gaultier catwalker] Gemma Ward and I said that I dedicated my runway to Steve Irwin.
THERE WAS SOME INDUSTRY GOSSIP THAT SHE HAD SKIPPED THE MILAN SHOWS BECAUSE SHE HAD PUT ON WEIGHT.
Oh no way. Gemma is not a fatty let me tell you right now.
HOW DID YOU DEDICATE YOUR SHOW TO STEVE IRWIN?
Well no, I was just talking to some people and I said that he was just such an amazing person and I felt like he lived his life so fully. And I felt like that's how I live too and so I just thought I'm going to dedicate this show to Steve Irwin. In my heart, when I go out there I'm going to have his spirit and I did damn it.
JUST WATCH OUT FOR THE STINGRAYS.
That was tragic and I'd never even considered stingrays are anything to be scared of. It wasn't his fault. We can't blame him. He's teetered over fucking Great Whites and nothing's happened to him. I think you can't blame somebody for their death. What was meant to be was meant to be. He thought he was going to die young, he lived a great life...
Did you see Dita [Von Teese, in the audience]? Dita does great porn, I have one of her videos.
DO YOU DO PORN?
No I don't do porn. Why, do you want to do one with me?
I THINK YOU MIGHT SQUASH ME.
I think you might like it.
Original post and comments.
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Richmond's stunning decade creams Gucci's 85th
Now don't get me wrong. It's not that the Gucci party wasn't nice. It was very nice. A series of elegant, ivy and bay leaf-lined black/transparent marquees had been erected on some vacant block or park in Milan's Via Melegari last Wednesday night to create a mini Gucci world. The R&B artist John Legend performed. The service was impeccable. People "got down" nicely – but not naughtily.
The music was nice – but not good, although it was definitely better than the music at Armani's One Night Only bash on the previous Thursday in London, after Beyonce, Bryan Ferry and 50 Cent left the stage.
Some flicked through the nice new tome that has been produced to mark the company's 85th birthday – a book which, in spite of its distinctive post-1996 advertising imagery, seemed somewhat bereft of Tom Ford. That seemed strange given that Ford was the creative who put the brand back on the map after it had ventured off-road. Perhaps what the Gucci party really needed was Ford.
The following night's John Richmond party, by contrast, wasn't nice at all. It was packed. It was sweaty. It was rude, It was loud.
Not to put too fine a point on it, it rocked.
But let me just backtrack a little. I had been invited to the party by Adil, a London-based DJ who I had originally met on the previous Friday at the afterparty for Boy George's B-Rude label at London's Met Bar.
The Met Bar is located inside the swank Metropolitan Hotel, which is owned by the chic, and terribly cashed-up, Singaporean Christina Ong. Adil is the Met Bar's music director, who books the venue's music talent. He was also going to be DJ-ing at Richmond's show and after-party.
After chatting, it emerged that Adil already knew one Australian, funnily enough, Sydney jeweller Sarina Suriano.
Adil had also been able to partially placate me after I had been led by another Met Bar acquaintance – a London editor for Tatler Asia, Michelle Roberts – into the Boy George "sweet factory" that was tucked inside the hotel's lobby shop.
Apparently a Boy George party signature, the sweet factory was essentially one entire shop wall that had been converted into a lolly showcase: shelf upon shelf containing baskets of jelly babies, marshmallows and other confections.
After scoffing a half dozen cola jelly babies, I was suddenly gripped by a terrible realisation. What if Boy George had slipped some acid into the sweets as a special party favour for guests?
Having been the victim of a similar spiking at the Melbourne Cup marquee of a far bigger brand than B-Rude, I wasn't keen for a repeat performance – not with a plane to Milan to catch in the early AM at any rate.
Adil assured me that Mrs Ong would never be a party to anything like that inside her hotel.
I canvassed a second opinion via SMS with someone who isn't on Ong's payroll – but who knows a party favour when he sees one.
"Very unlikely unless it's a private party for a select few," came the immediate response. I calmed down.
Adil helped moreover ID something that had been bugging me for the past fortnight, ever since I first heard it at seemingly every second show in New York and then again in London. It seemed to be, at one point, the theme tune of the SS07 season. But noone had been able to tell me exactly what it was. Not Adil. Not even Matthew Stone – one of London's hottest DJs – who I had met at a party on the Monday night and to whom I found myself, somewhat awkwardly, whistling and singing the song. But to no avail.
As I was coming up the stairs from the Met Bar bathroom however, I heard whistling. It was THE song. I rushed out, grabbed Adil and demanded he grill the DJ as to its origins. As it emerged, the song is called Young Folks, from Swedish outfit Peter, Bjorn and John.
So, there I was, almost one week later in Milan, standing outside the Rotunda della Besana, a 17th century former church and cemetery.
I had already been inside the venue that afternoon for the John Richmond show and the afterparty was in the same place. Richmond was of course part of London's 1980s new generation fashion boom and one half of a stellar hybrid label called Richmond Cornejo. I still have a black Lycra, cyclist-inspired Richmond Cornejo microdress. For some reason I've never been able to throw it out.
Cornejo took off to New York where she runs a label called Zero Maria Cornejo. Ten years ago Richmond hooked up with Italian manufacturer and distributor Saverio Moschillo, hence the decade birthday bash.
Some six hours after the fashion show, the gates were shut and a large number of people had gathered outside waiting to get in. At one point it seemed there were several hundred people standing there. And they were becoming increasingly agitated.
Understandably, they were pissed off that they had been invited to arrive at a party at 11.30pm only to find themselves still locked outside one hour later. At one point some people near the gate started shouting loudly and it threatened to turn ugly.
I should note that these were not fashion people. They might have been going to a fashion party but unlike the internationals who had been populating the Milan shows all week – there were no black platforms, opaque black tights or early adopter sack dresses. There didn't even appear to be any skinny jeans. Instead "good" jeans, "good" shirts, "good" suits and some fairly non-descript women's clothing.
If this was a snapshot of Milanese youth, it struck me how terribly conservative it was. Some wonder why there's no revolution on Milan's runways.
Breaking through the sartorial monotony however came a troika of – non Italian – supermodels. The Lilies Cole and Donaldson and Irina Lazareanu.
Cole was channelling Lady Macbeth in a loose, full-length, strapless black dress and both she and Lazareanu were sporting black headbands – but not Prada-style Alice bands, rather in the er, Jimmy Hendrix vein. I had to assume the supes were there to see Stunners International. But more on the Stunners later.
I contemplated leaving. After spending three weeks in three cities hanging around for shows, it was the last thing I felt like doing. Then the gates suddenly opened, the crowd surged forward, I found myself at the gate and eventually, inside the venue.
Yet more people were inside on the lawns. I later heard that some 2000 invitations had been sent out. The Richmond/Moschilla camp must have spent a motza on the party, which included a dinner for 300 after the show.
I ventured inside the main room. You could hardly move there were so many people. It was unbelievably loud. Under the central cupola structure a swagged canopy of lights had been suspended over a central black stage.
At this point I should just briefly backtrack again, to something that happened in the middle of the dancefloor at the One Night Only do in London exactly one week beforehand. Just as I was blogging, I received an SMS from a Sydney publicist who I have never met:
"I like yr burlesque dita coverage. Bq fever has hit Sydney".
I was blogging and trying to concentrate. Von Teese is the world's most famous burlesque artiste – and the wife of Marilyn Manson – and I had profiled her on two recent occasions.
"Que?" was all I could think to text back, before asking for the publicist's email address.
Funnily enough, one week to the day after that cryptic SMS, guess who turned out to be Richmond's VIP entertainment? Dita Von Teese.
By far the most amusing aspect of Von Teese's energetic "Girl in a glass" performance however, was not Von Teese but rather, the looks on the faces of Cole, Donaldson and Lazareanu as they watched gobsmacked. They were directly facing me on the other side of the dancefloor and as Von Teese performed, they stared wide-eyed at the spectacle, with the kind of embarrassed smiles that you see at hen's nights. It was as if they had never seen a near-naked woman in a G-string before. This struck me as odd given the volume of same with which the backstage area of any fashion show is usually littered.
I followed Adil to the DJ's booth which was located at the back wall of the main room. Elevated to about three metres via four very steep stairs – which were difficult to negotiate in a pencil skirt and espadrille wedges let me tell you – the booth resembled a three-storey eagle's nest overlooking the entire room and dancefloor.
We arrived in the booth to discover Stunners International in action.
Yes that's actually their name. A London-based collective of professional – male – models who DJ and nightclub-promote on the side, apparently there are five Stunners all up. Only two had been booked that night: the tall blond, androgynous – and seemingly very sensitive – Christoffer Fagerli (whose campaign credits include Dior Homme) and the equally tall, brunette, hyperactive exhibitionist Wade Crescent.
They are both, apparently, Swedish. They were wearing a "uniform" of matching skinny tuxedo trousers, braces and no shirts. And they looked like they were having fun, hooting it up as they spun the decks. Considering that modelling is about the only profession in the world where women outearn men, I say good luck to them.
At one point Cole entered the booth and for a moment I thought she was about to make some Von Teese moves on Crescent. No such luck – they just enjoyed a bit of brief fullbody frottage, like two stick insects brittily greeting each other.
Cole and her model mates then disappeared, presumably to get some beauty sleep in before the Friday shows.
The night kicked on. Richmond popped in and out of the booth with a microphone in hand. Next thing he was down on the stage asking people to clear the area. At one point he reverted to his punk adolescence and pushed someone straight off the stage.
Dita Von Teese emerged to commence another striptease. As she began however, something distracted me: Stunners International started taking off their own clothes directly in front of me.
They were changing out of their uniforms and into their regular jeans and T-shirts. The Stunners had clocked off. But they didn't go downstairs and join the party. Instead they hung around the DJ booth. As became increasingly obvious to all concerned, that was where the real party was that night.
Adil played Young Folks – apparently now his fave new track. We all got down. It was getting funkier and hotter by the minute. I wondered precisely how I was going to file a news story at 7am the following morning.
At this point a black man with dreadlocks and a small entourage arrived in the booth.
Someone handed Adil a CD and the black dude, a microphone. I was told his name was Julio. I'd never heard of him and figured, he was some crap Italian rapper. Although Richmond must have invited him to the party apparently it was news to Adil that anyone would be performing like that.
The black dude sang to a couple of tracks from the steps of the DJ booth. Then a terribly familiar track came on, the room went off and I suddenly came to my senses.
It wasn't Julio, it was Coolio.
And he was mouthing off to Gangsta's Paradise in Milan.
"Mate, you're definitely in a gangster's paradise," I felt like telling him.
A cameraman who had been following Richmond around for most of the evening came up into the booth and started filming Coolio, filming Richmond and filming both of them singing to the crowd.
Julio quit singing and yes, you guessed it, stayed put in the DJ booth. The booth's population now consisted of a delinquent-turned-rap star, two models-turned-DJs, a DJ-turned DJ-wrangler, a journalist-turned-blogger, Richmond, the cameraman and a few sundry hangers on.
A diminutive woman in a nude-coloured satin bustier and unattractive black bootleg flares climbed into the booth and started boogying with Coolio, thrusting her ample – and quite unsolicited – bottom against him right in front of me.
Coolio copped a quick feel of the merchandise.
I said to Coolio, [pointing to an attractive black woman in a long dress sitting on the upper stairs] "Isn't that your woman over there?"
He shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I don't want it – I just like to know that it's there."
But I couldn't help Coolio with his booty predicament because I was about to have my own proposition to deal with.
Crescent suddenly started furiously gesticulating towards me, then back to himself and Fagerli. He did it a few times and mouthed a few words. I was pretty sure I had gotten the gist of it but just for the purposes of clarity I asked him to confirm, and from memory no less than two times.
The proposal was exactly what I had suspected: a Stunners International menage a trois.
My head reeled back in laughter.
"That's a little bit too Gonzo," I replied.
In politely declining of course, I'll never know whether Fagerli had any inkling that he was being included in Crescent's deal. Or whether in fact, "Would you like to bonk two musically-endowed male Swedish supermodels?" was merely a rhetorical question in no need of a sensible answer.
The music bopped on. The temperature rose. The DJ booth continued to go off. I looked at Adil and he looked at me. We both seemed to be thinking, "What the hell is going on?"
At that point, I discovered the long-haired cameraman who had been filming Richmond all night, madly dancing on the booth's middle podium, to my immediate left. Still with camera in hand, he turned it around so that the lens faced his head and started filming himself head-banging to the music, with hair swooshing up and down.
"Yes, this is definitely Spinal Tap," I thought to myself.
Then suddenly the lights came up. The music stopped. The magic evaporated. It wasn't Last Drinks, but Outta There pronto folks.
The Stunners, Adil and I walked outside into a melee of taxis and removal trucks that were dismantling the venue and went our separate ways in the cool, autumn Milanese morning.
I'll never look at that Richmond Cornejo microdress in the same light again.
Original post and comments.
The music was nice – but not good, although it was definitely better than the music at Armani's One Night Only bash on the previous Thursday in London, after Beyonce, Bryan Ferry and 50 Cent left the stage.
Some flicked through the nice new tome that has been produced to mark the company's 85th birthday – a book which, in spite of its distinctive post-1996 advertising imagery, seemed somewhat bereft of Tom Ford. That seemed strange given that Ford was the creative who put the brand back on the map after it had ventured off-road. Perhaps what the Gucci party really needed was Ford.
The following night's John Richmond party, by contrast, wasn't nice at all. It was packed. It was sweaty. It was rude, It was loud.
Not to put too fine a point on it, it rocked.
But let me just backtrack a little. I had been invited to the party by Adil, a London-based DJ who I had originally met on the previous Friday at the afterparty for Boy George's B-Rude label at London's Met Bar.
The Met Bar is located inside the swank Metropolitan Hotel, which is owned by the chic, and terribly cashed-up, Singaporean Christina Ong. Adil is the Met Bar's music director, who books the venue's music talent. He was also going to be DJ-ing at Richmond's show and after-party.
After chatting, it emerged that Adil already knew one Australian, funnily enough, Sydney jeweller Sarina Suriano.
Adil had also been able to partially placate me after I had been led by another Met Bar acquaintance – a London editor for Tatler Asia, Michelle Roberts – into the Boy George "sweet factory" that was tucked inside the hotel's lobby shop.
Apparently a Boy George party signature, the sweet factory was essentially one entire shop wall that had been converted into a lolly showcase: shelf upon shelf containing baskets of jelly babies, marshmallows and other confections.
After scoffing a half dozen cola jelly babies, I was suddenly gripped by a terrible realisation. What if Boy George had slipped some acid into the sweets as a special party favour for guests?
Having been the victim of a similar spiking at the Melbourne Cup marquee of a far bigger brand than B-Rude, I wasn't keen for a repeat performance – not with a plane to Milan to catch in the early AM at any rate.
Adil assured me that Mrs Ong would never be a party to anything like that inside her hotel.
I canvassed a second opinion via SMS with someone who isn't on Ong's payroll – but who knows a party favour when he sees one.
"Very unlikely unless it's a private party for a select few," came the immediate response. I calmed down.
Adil helped moreover ID something that had been bugging me for the past fortnight, ever since I first heard it at seemingly every second show in New York and then again in London. It seemed to be, at one point, the theme tune of the SS07 season. But noone had been able to tell me exactly what it was. Not Adil. Not even Matthew Stone – one of London's hottest DJs – who I had met at a party on the Monday night and to whom I found myself, somewhat awkwardly, whistling and singing the song. But to no avail.
As I was coming up the stairs from the Met Bar bathroom however, I heard whistling. It was THE song. I rushed out, grabbed Adil and demanded he grill the DJ as to its origins. As it emerged, the song is called Young Folks, from Swedish outfit Peter, Bjorn and John.
So, there I was, almost one week later in Milan, standing outside the Rotunda della Besana, a 17th century former church and cemetery.
I had already been inside the venue that afternoon for the John Richmond show and the afterparty was in the same place. Richmond was of course part of London's 1980s new generation fashion boom and one half of a stellar hybrid label called Richmond Cornejo. I still have a black Lycra, cyclist-inspired Richmond Cornejo microdress. For some reason I've never been able to throw it out.
Cornejo took off to New York where she runs a label called Zero Maria Cornejo. Ten years ago Richmond hooked up with Italian manufacturer and distributor Saverio Moschillo, hence the decade birthday bash.
Some six hours after the fashion show, the gates were shut and a large number of people had gathered outside waiting to get in. At one point it seemed there were several hundred people standing there. And they were becoming increasingly agitated.
Understandably, they were pissed off that they had been invited to arrive at a party at 11.30pm only to find themselves still locked outside one hour later. At one point some people near the gate started shouting loudly and it threatened to turn ugly.
I should note that these were not fashion people. They might have been going to a fashion party but unlike the internationals who had been populating the Milan shows all week – there were no black platforms, opaque black tights or early adopter sack dresses. There didn't even appear to be any skinny jeans. Instead "good" jeans, "good" shirts, "good" suits and some fairly non-descript women's clothing.
If this was a snapshot of Milanese youth, it struck me how terribly conservative it was. Some wonder why there's no revolution on Milan's runways.
Breaking through the sartorial monotony however came a troika of – non Italian – supermodels. The Lilies Cole and Donaldson and Irina Lazareanu.
Cole was channelling Lady Macbeth in a loose, full-length, strapless black dress and both she and Lazareanu were sporting black headbands – but not Prada-style Alice bands, rather in the er, Jimmy Hendrix vein. I had to assume the supes were there to see Stunners International. But more on the Stunners later.
I contemplated leaving. After spending three weeks in three cities hanging around for shows, it was the last thing I felt like doing. Then the gates suddenly opened, the crowd surged forward, I found myself at the gate and eventually, inside the venue.
Yet more people were inside on the lawns. I later heard that some 2000 invitations had been sent out. The Richmond/Moschilla camp must have spent a motza on the party, which included a dinner for 300 after the show.
I ventured inside the main room. You could hardly move there were so many people. It was unbelievably loud. Under the central cupola structure a swagged canopy of lights had been suspended over a central black stage.
At this point I should just briefly backtrack again, to something that happened in the middle of the dancefloor at the One Night Only do in London exactly one week beforehand. Just as I was blogging, I received an SMS from a Sydney publicist who I have never met:
"I like yr burlesque dita coverage. Bq fever has hit Sydney".
I was blogging and trying to concentrate. Von Teese is the world's most famous burlesque artiste – and the wife of Marilyn Manson – and I had profiled her on two recent occasions.
"Que?" was all I could think to text back, before asking for the publicist's email address.
Funnily enough, one week to the day after that cryptic SMS, guess who turned out to be Richmond's VIP entertainment? Dita Von Teese.
By far the most amusing aspect of Von Teese's energetic "Girl in a glass" performance however, was not Von Teese but rather, the looks on the faces of Cole, Donaldson and Lazareanu as they watched gobsmacked. They were directly facing me on the other side of the dancefloor and as Von Teese performed, they stared wide-eyed at the spectacle, with the kind of embarrassed smiles that you see at hen's nights. It was as if they had never seen a near-naked woman in a G-string before. This struck me as odd given the volume of same with which the backstage area of any fashion show is usually littered.
I followed Adil to the DJ's booth which was located at the back wall of the main room. Elevated to about three metres via four very steep stairs – which were difficult to negotiate in a pencil skirt and espadrille wedges let me tell you – the booth resembled a three-storey eagle's nest overlooking the entire room and dancefloor.
We arrived in the booth to discover Stunners International in action.
Yes that's actually their name. A London-based collective of professional – male – models who DJ and nightclub-promote on the side, apparently there are five Stunners all up. Only two had been booked that night: the tall blond, androgynous – and seemingly very sensitive – Christoffer Fagerli (whose campaign credits include Dior Homme) and the equally tall, brunette, hyperactive exhibitionist Wade Crescent.
They are both, apparently, Swedish. They were wearing a "uniform" of matching skinny tuxedo trousers, braces and no shirts. And they looked like they were having fun, hooting it up as they spun the decks. Considering that modelling is about the only profession in the world where women outearn men, I say good luck to them.
At one point Cole entered the booth and for a moment I thought she was about to make some Von Teese moves on Crescent. No such luck – they just enjoyed a bit of brief fullbody frottage, like two stick insects brittily greeting each other.
Cole and her model mates then disappeared, presumably to get some beauty sleep in before the Friday shows.
The night kicked on. Richmond popped in and out of the booth with a microphone in hand. Next thing he was down on the stage asking people to clear the area. At one point he reverted to his punk adolescence and pushed someone straight off the stage.
Dita Von Teese emerged to commence another striptease. As she began however, something distracted me: Stunners International started taking off their own clothes directly in front of me.
They were changing out of their uniforms and into their regular jeans and T-shirts. The Stunners had clocked off. But they didn't go downstairs and join the party. Instead they hung around the DJ booth. As became increasingly obvious to all concerned, that was where the real party was that night.
Adil played Young Folks – apparently now his fave new track. We all got down. It was getting funkier and hotter by the minute. I wondered precisely how I was going to file a news story at 7am the following morning.
At this point a black man with dreadlocks and a small entourage arrived in the booth.
Someone handed Adil a CD and the black dude, a microphone. I was told his name was Julio. I'd never heard of him and figured, he was some crap Italian rapper. Although Richmond must have invited him to the party apparently it was news to Adil that anyone would be performing like that.
The black dude sang to a couple of tracks from the steps of the DJ booth. Then a terribly familiar track came on, the room went off and I suddenly came to my senses.
It wasn't Julio, it was Coolio.
And he was mouthing off to Gangsta's Paradise in Milan.
"Mate, you're definitely in a gangster's paradise," I felt like telling him.
A cameraman who had been following Richmond around for most of the evening came up into the booth and started filming Coolio, filming Richmond and filming both of them singing to the crowd.
Julio quit singing and yes, you guessed it, stayed put in the DJ booth. The booth's population now consisted of a delinquent-turned-rap star, two models-turned-DJs, a DJ-turned DJ-wrangler, a journalist-turned-blogger, Richmond, the cameraman and a few sundry hangers on.
A diminutive woman in a nude-coloured satin bustier and unattractive black bootleg flares climbed into the booth and started boogying with Coolio, thrusting her ample – and quite unsolicited – bottom against him right in front of me.
Coolio copped a quick feel of the merchandise.
I said to Coolio, [pointing to an attractive black woman in a long dress sitting on the upper stairs] "Isn't that your woman over there?"
He shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I don't want it – I just like to know that it's there."
But I couldn't help Coolio with his booty predicament because I was about to have my own proposition to deal with.
Crescent suddenly started furiously gesticulating towards me, then back to himself and Fagerli. He did it a few times and mouthed a few words. I was pretty sure I had gotten the gist of it but just for the purposes of clarity I asked him to confirm, and from memory no less than two times.
The proposal was exactly what I had suspected: a Stunners International menage a trois.
My head reeled back in laughter.
"That's a little bit too Gonzo," I replied.
In politely declining of course, I'll never know whether Fagerli had any inkling that he was being included in Crescent's deal. Or whether in fact, "Would you like to bonk two musically-endowed male Swedish supermodels?" was merely a rhetorical question in no need of a sensible answer.
The music bopped on. The temperature rose. The DJ booth continued to go off. I looked at Adil and he looked at me. We both seemed to be thinking, "What the hell is going on?"
At that point, I discovered the long-haired cameraman who had been filming Richmond all night, madly dancing on the booth's middle podium, to my immediate left. Still with camera in hand, he turned it around so that the lens faced his head and started filming himself head-banging to the music, with hair swooshing up and down.
"Yes, this is definitely Spinal Tap," I thought to myself.
Then suddenly the lights came up. The music stopped. The magic evaporated. It wasn't Last Drinks, but Outta There pronto folks.
The Stunners, Adil and I walked outside into a melee of taxis and removal trucks that were dismantling the venue and went our separate ways in the cool, autumn Milanese morning.
I'll never look at that Richmond Cornejo microdress in the same light again.
Original post and comments.
Sunday, October 1, 2006
Elvis has left the runway: An audience with Kylie and D&G
Backstage after Thursday's scintillating Dolce e Gabbana show. And I do mean scintillating, with a finale of one-armed, Lesage-sequinned catsuits and jumpsuits. I should note that the most amusing aspect of this finale was not the outfits themselves, which seemed more than a little Elvis-meets-Coogi but rather, the performances of the models who had all apparently been briefed to wave one arm up and down in a kind of interpretative dance movement - designed, presumably, to best highlight the unisleeves. Twyla Tharp, it wasn't.
After the show wrapped, a posse of journalists was ushered downstairs at the Metropol Theatre. That's the space that has been purchased by designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana as a show venue. Several other big Italian names such as Prada, Armani and latterly Versace, have purchased similar. According to the Dolce e Gabbana publicist the Metropol was built in the 1940s and Maria Callas used to rehearse there.
We were taken into a black anteroom, replete with black Louis XIV-style chairs, a behemoth black and white Murano glass chandelier that took up most of the space between the central table and the ceiling, mirrored cabinetry and two large vases of perfect cream roses.
Behind the black velvet curtains was another blackened room where Kylie, Dolce and Gabbana were sitting. I went in first to speak to the trio alone briefly, but after a few minutes - without a sound - some other journalists crept in behind me. Apologies for the confusion, but this is an amalgam of questions, just over half of them mine:
[to Kylie] SO THIS IS YOUR FIRST FASHION SHOW FOR QUITE SOME TIME... HOW DOES IT FEEL BEING BACK IN THE BOSOM OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY?
[Laughs] Mmmmmm, good. Yeah it's good, it's exciting. I love a show where I don't have any pressure. We were waiting here before the show and I was thinking, 'What is happening with the boys right now?' Final minute fussing and all of that. But Dolce e Gabbana never fail to deliver.
[to Dolce and Gabbana] WAS THERE A BIT OF KYLIE MINOGUE IN THAT SHOW? THERE WAS A BIT OF KYLIE, I THOUGHT, AND IN FACT A BIT OF ELVIS. I THOUGHT THERE WAS MORE THAN A BIT OF ELVIS PRESLEY.
Dolce: [Alarmed] No there is more Kylie, not Elvis.
I'M SORRY, YOU HAVE TO ADMIT THERE WAS A BIT OF ELVIS.
Dolce: No there was not. It's too sexy and too glamorous for... I don't know, Elvis was a... cowboy.
Kylie: In the 70s when he was doing that, he was probably sexy. Like me.
Gabbana: The inspiration is we think about a new shape of woman. So for a long time we see the woman and the girl really skinny and really tall and we say, 'OK this is the new shape of body because it's not anorexic'. So the girl is like that... But why don't we give this woman the possibility for play with the shape, so you wear something to have the breasts bigger, the hips bigger, why not?
Dolce: This is the life, you know. This is real life.
Gabbana: The real woman's shape is this one.
Kylie: [to Dolce e Gabbana] Can we preorder the shape that we want? You have your office shape, and your evening shape...
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BE ORDERING FROM THAT COLLECTION FOR YOUR SHOW AND FOR YOURSELF?
Well for the show... these kind gentlemen are designing three outfits especially for me, as it were. And I'd love to share the details but we can't.
SO, SIMILAR TO WHAT WE'VE SEEN BEFORE?
Gabbana: It's Dolce e Gabbana for Kylie.
Kylie: No it's different. But I'm very inspired by the dazzling garments wafting their way down the catwalk.
WHAT ABOUT THE ONE-ARMED GARMENT?
I can see the one-armed.... [gestures like one of the models, waving arm up and down]. See, I can't even control it.
I THOUGHT IT WAS A BIT GREEN FAIRY [character played by Minogue in Moulin Rouge], THAT OUTFIT.
There was a moment, yeah.
SO WHY DO YOU GUYS LIKE WORKING TOGETHER?
Well not subtlety, is it? We've done lots of things together for red carpet, for events and things like that. But for stage it's something totally different. Aside from the pure mechanics of it, you have to get in and out really quickly, it has to survive 50 shows, make in different sizes...
Gabbana: You need to dance, to move, to move your ass.
THOSE MOULDED PLASTIC CORSETS AND BUSTIERS REMINDED ME OF THAT KYLIE BOT THAT YOU HAD IN THE FEVER SHOW - WHAT WAS IT CALLED?
Kylie: The Ky-borg.
[to Gabbana] WAS THAT PLASTIC?
Gabbana: PVC
AND WAS THAT A SATIN CORSET? IT ALMOST LOOKED LIKE STAINLESS STEEL.
Gabbana: Yes.
IT LOOKED LIKE MARC NEWSON'S LOCKHEED LOUNGE.
Kylie: It's nice and light.
SO CAN YOU EVER GO TOO FAR OVER THE TOP WHEN YOU ARE DOING SHOWGIRL COSTUMES? OR IS THERE NO SUCH THING?
Kylie: Hmmmmmm... there is possibly no such thing.
HAVE YOU EVER LOOKED AT AN OUTFIT THAT YOU WERE GOING TO PERFORM IN AND SAID TO YOURSELF, 'KYLIE, THIS IS TOO MUCH'?
Kylie: Yeah but then my stylist normally harrasses me into wearing it. And he's right. I just have a shy moment, and I think.... even the Silver Nemesis from Fever...
Gabbana: Oh yeah, I remember the miniskirt.
Kylie: The miniskirt and diamante bra. The first time I tried it on with these guys and said, [whispers] 'I can't wear that on stage'. And they said, 'Yes of course you can'.
YOU HAVE STARTED REHEARSING NOW, HOW ARE YOU COPING WITH ALL THE PRESSURE OF REHEARSALS?
Kylie: I've had T-shirts made up for myself and all the crew which says, 'Kylie says relax'. Just a little reminder. I'm trying to remind myself that this is what I do and I don't have the words to tell you in this brief amount of time to how incredible it is to have this opportunity again.
ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE TOUR?
Yeah, and we've got work to do, us three. So look out for the...
ARE YOU WORKING TODAY?
We've got a dinner tonight. Perhaps I'll wear something from the show.
SO WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE FROM THE SHOW?
Mmmm... There was a long purple dress with a low back, Bedazzled, that I really liked.
Original post and comments.
After the show wrapped, a posse of journalists was ushered downstairs at the Metropol Theatre. That's the space that has been purchased by designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana as a show venue. Several other big Italian names such as Prada, Armani and latterly Versace, have purchased similar. According to the Dolce e Gabbana publicist the Metropol was built in the 1940s and Maria Callas used to rehearse there.
We were taken into a black anteroom, replete with black Louis XIV-style chairs, a behemoth black and white Murano glass chandelier that took up most of the space between the central table and the ceiling, mirrored cabinetry and two large vases of perfect cream roses.
Behind the black velvet curtains was another blackened room where Kylie, Dolce and Gabbana were sitting. I went in first to speak to the trio alone briefly, but after a few minutes - without a sound - some other journalists crept in behind me. Apologies for the confusion, but this is an amalgam of questions, just over half of them mine:
[to Kylie] SO THIS IS YOUR FIRST FASHION SHOW FOR QUITE SOME TIME... HOW DOES IT FEEL BEING BACK IN THE BOSOM OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY?
[Laughs] Mmmmmm, good. Yeah it's good, it's exciting. I love a show where I don't have any pressure. We were waiting here before the show and I was thinking, 'What is happening with the boys right now?' Final minute fussing and all of that. But Dolce e Gabbana never fail to deliver.
[to Dolce and Gabbana] WAS THERE A BIT OF KYLIE MINOGUE IN THAT SHOW? THERE WAS A BIT OF KYLIE, I THOUGHT, AND IN FACT A BIT OF ELVIS. I THOUGHT THERE WAS MORE THAN A BIT OF ELVIS PRESLEY.
Dolce: [Alarmed] No there is more Kylie, not Elvis.
I'M SORRY, YOU HAVE TO ADMIT THERE WAS A BIT OF ELVIS.
Dolce: No there was not. It's too sexy and too glamorous for... I don't know, Elvis was a... cowboy.
Kylie: In the 70s when he was doing that, he was probably sexy. Like me.
Gabbana: The inspiration is we think about a new shape of woman. So for a long time we see the woman and the girl really skinny and really tall and we say, 'OK this is the new shape of body because it's not anorexic'. So the girl is like that... But why don't we give this woman the possibility for play with the shape, so you wear something to have the breasts bigger, the hips bigger, why not?
Dolce: This is the life, you know. This is real life.
Gabbana: The real woman's shape is this one.
Kylie: [to Dolce e Gabbana] Can we preorder the shape that we want? You have your office shape, and your evening shape...
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BE ORDERING FROM THAT COLLECTION FOR YOUR SHOW AND FOR YOURSELF?
Well for the show... these kind gentlemen are designing three outfits especially for me, as it were. And I'd love to share the details but we can't.
SO, SIMILAR TO WHAT WE'VE SEEN BEFORE?
Gabbana: It's Dolce e Gabbana for Kylie.
Kylie: No it's different. But I'm very inspired by the dazzling garments wafting their way down the catwalk.
WHAT ABOUT THE ONE-ARMED GARMENT?
I can see the one-armed.... [gestures like one of the models, waving arm up and down]. See, I can't even control it.
I THOUGHT IT WAS A BIT GREEN FAIRY [character played by Minogue in Moulin Rouge], THAT OUTFIT.
There was a moment, yeah.
SO WHY DO YOU GUYS LIKE WORKING TOGETHER?
Well not subtlety, is it? We've done lots of things together for red carpet, for events and things like that. But for stage it's something totally different. Aside from the pure mechanics of it, you have to get in and out really quickly, it has to survive 50 shows, make in different sizes...
Gabbana: You need to dance, to move, to move your ass.
THOSE MOULDED PLASTIC CORSETS AND BUSTIERS REMINDED ME OF THAT KYLIE BOT THAT YOU HAD IN THE FEVER SHOW - WHAT WAS IT CALLED?
Kylie: The Ky-borg.
[to Gabbana] WAS THAT PLASTIC?
Gabbana: PVC
AND WAS THAT A SATIN CORSET? IT ALMOST LOOKED LIKE STAINLESS STEEL.
Gabbana: Yes.
IT LOOKED LIKE MARC NEWSON'S LOCKHEED LOUNGE.
Kylie: It's nice and light.
SO CAN YOU EVER GO TOO FAR OVER THE TOP WHEN YOU ARE DOING SHOWGIRL COSTUMES? OR IS THERE NO SUCH THING?
Kylie: Hmmmmmm... there is possibly no such thing.
HAVE YOU EVER LOOKED AT AN OUTFIT THAT YOU WERE GOING TO PERFORM IN AND SAID TO YOURSELF, 'KYLIE, THIS IS TOO MUCH'?
Kylie: Yeah but then my stylist normally harrasses me into wearing it. And he's right. I just have a shy moment, and I think.... even the Silver Nemesis from Fever...
Gabbana: Oh yeah, I remember the miniskirt.
Kylie: The miniskirt and diamante bra. The first time I tried it on with these guys and said, [whispers] 'I can't wear that on stage'. And they said, 'Yes of course you can'.
YOU HAVE STARTED REHEARSING NOW, HOW ARE YOU COPING WITH ALL THE PRESSURE OF REHEARSALS?
Kylie: I've had T-shirts made up for myself and all the crew which says, 'Kylie says relax'. Just a little reminder. I'm trying to remind myself that this is what I do and I don't have the words to tell you in this brief amount of time to how incredible it is to have this opportunity again.
ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE TOUR?
Yeah, and we've got work to do, us three. So look out for the...
ARE YOU WORKING TODAY?
We've got a dinner tonight. Perhaps I'll wear something from the show.
SO WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE FROM THE SHOW?
Mmmm... There was a long purple dress with a low back, Bedazzled, that I really liked.
Original post and comments.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Hems pay hip service to the '60s
Well, it's certainly going to be a season for good underwear.
Miuccia Prada might have defended her supra-pubis skirts as mere show ponies intended to be worn as tops out in the real world, but there were no cover-ups going on at Gucci on Wednesday.
Hemlines barely covered the models' derrieres in a collection that, like so many others this season, paid hip service to the 1960s with a series of appliqued micro-sack and baby-doll dresses and waistless shift dresses.
Many of them were rendered iridescent by means of crystal embroidery or multifaceted brocade in the apparently de rigueur spring-summer 2007 tone of space-age silver.
But the Gucci designer Frida Giannini hedged her hemline bets with some floor-length alternatives, notably the finale piece: a striking black tent dress with violet and carmine geometric applique.
Also coming up short was Alberta Ferretti, Italy's queen of ethereal evening chic, whose heavily detailed, full-length georgette gowns are popular choices for the red carpets of international awards nights.
Judging by the number of micro-sack dresses in silver, oyster and gunmetal grey on offer, Ferretti's gala girls may be going the cocktail dress route next year.
After delving into '70s glam rock for winter, the Anna Molinari designer Rossella Tarabini moved forward two decades for spring – a period when today's young women first began scouring vintage stores, she noted backstage after the show.
There might have been numerous skin-tight leather pants and skinny suits, but falling in with yet another theme that first emerged in New York – demi-couture – Tarabini countered those skinny-day looks with a series of draped and heavily embellished rag dresses, many of them festooned with crystals and flower applique.
Keeping with the micro-courtesan look championed last week in London by up-and-coming British name Christopher Kane – who might not yet boast a commercial collection but does happen to consult to Donatella Versace – every last one was ludicrously short.
"People like to show legs," offered Tarabini. "It was almost swimming-suit [length] – I know that."
Original post and comments.
Miuccia Prada might have defended her supra-pubis skirts as mere show ponies intended to be worn as tops out in the real world, but there were no cover-ups going on at Gucci on Wednesday.
Hemlines barely covered the models' derrieres in a collection that, like so many others this season, paid hip service to the 1960s with a series of appliqued micro-sack and baby-doll dresses and waistless shift dresses.
Many of them were rendered iridescent by means of crystal embroidery or multifaceted brocade in the apparently de rigueur spring-summer 2007 tone of space-age silver.
But the Gucci designer Frida Giannini hedged her hemline bets with some floor-length alternatives, notably the finale piece: a striking black tent dress with violet and carmine geometric applique.
Also coming up short was Alberta Ferretti, Italy's queen of ethereal evening chic, whose heavily detailed, full-length georgette gowns are popular choices for the red carpets of international awards nights.
Judging by the number of micro-sack dresses in silver, oyster and gunmetal grey on offer, Ferretti's gala girls may be going the cocktail dress route next year.
After delving into '70s glam rock for winter, the Anna Molinari designer Rossella Tarabini moved forward two decades for spring – a period when today's young women first began scouring vintage stores, she noted backstage after the show.
There might have been numerous skin-tight leather pants and skinny suits, but falling in with yet another theme that first emerged in New York – demi-couture – Tarabini countered those skinny-day looks with a series of draped and heavily embellished rag dresses, many of them festooned with crystals and flower applique.
Keeping with the micro-courtesan look championed last week in London by up-and-coming British name Christopher Kane – who might not yet boast a commercial collection but does happen to consult to Donatella Versace – every last one was ludicrously short.
"People like to show legs," offered Tarabini. "It was almost swimming-suit [length] – I know that."
Original post and comments.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
PETA dishes dirt on fur scum - denies plants a central nervous system
Fashion Season has had a few close verbal encounters with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) over the years, on the occasion of some fur flare-up or other. We have however never previously witnessed any full-scale PETA assaults. Until now.
Having already been a PETA target, Julien MacDonald obviously wasn't taking any chances on Friday in London. The security seemed far stricter than usual, policing the entree to the Hilton's ballroom. In fact, I almost did not make it in.
Although having been invited by phone by the head publicist and assured I would be on the guest list, I arrived to discover a door PR who could not locate my name on her list and who was not about to give me the benefit of the doubt by letting me in, no
siree – or check with anybody else.
"I'm sorry, you're not on the list" she said, blankly.
"Oh come through, yes of course, you're on the seating list!" said the head PR, who suddenly arrived on the scene.
There seemed to be quite a few people in a similar situation, because a bottleneck swiftly developed at the entrance.
While waiting, I noticed a large table against one wall, behind which dozens of water bottles had been tossed. It looked like the recently beefed-up security checkpoints in the departure lounges of all flights heading to the US or UK, in the wake of the recent arrests in London. The temperature was sweltering, and the ballroom, packed.
Apparently MacDonald's security retinue had similar fears to the airport personnel: that the bottles could be used as missiles. I'm not sure they assumed liquid explosive could also be engineered, but look I could be wrong.
At the end of show, MacDonald walked to take his bow. But while John Galliano traditionally walks to take his show bows flanked by four beefy male security guards – anti-PETA protection, apparently – MacDonald walked to the end of his flanked by four models. Hiding behind them, it almost seemed. I guess if one of them cops it with a water bottle, that's OK by MacDonald.
Then the sound of a very loud bang ricocheted across the ballroom.
In all seriousness, I thought, "Holy shit, they were closely monitoring the Evian situation, but forgot to check for Glocks. Some nutter's snuck one in".
When gold and silver confetti started to rain down it became abundantly clear that the sound had been merely a glitter cannon. I breathed a sigh of relief.
But that relief momentarily turned to angst again at yesterday's Burberry show in Milan.
Just metres in front of me, three PETA protestors emerged from nowhere to leap on to the runway and hold up "Burberry: fur shame" banners. The models barely flinched (I guess they're used to it by now). I didn't clock the look on the faces of fur-loving Vogue editrixes Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld, who were just on the other side of the runway, but in any event it would have been hard to read Wintour as she was sporting ginormous sunnies.
Security guards sprang into action, grabbed the anti-fur troika and hauled them off into the aisle directly next to where I was sitting.
I watched as one blonde protestor lay there completely immobile, as if in a catatonic state, with hands crossed across her chest. She was looking directly up towards the ceiling, as if praying to the God of mink: "Please get me out of here in one piece."
Whatever your stance on fur, you have to admit, it's still a pretty gutsy thing to do. You attempt to get into a show without a ticket, let alone launching yourself directly in front of Lily Donaldson et al's money shots at the end of the runway.
I offered MacDonald the opportunity to talk about PETA but he declined. Fair enough.
I offered the same to the Burberry designer Christopher Bailey, but all he would say, before shutting me down was the following, in response to the question, "How do you like being called 'fur scum'"?
"It's not very nice," said Bailey.
The only person who would talk to me about it was someone claiming to be a PETA representative, outside the Hilton hotel on Friday night. So here's the Q&A for what it's worth.
SO PETA SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED TO INFILTRATE A JULIEN MACDONALD SHOW LAST YEAR?
Anita Singh, PETA campaign coordinator: Those were PETA activists who were just appalled at Julien MacDonald's disgraceful, continuous use of fur, despite the many times that we have sent him information about animals actually being skinned alive for their pelts. The North American fur farms and the European fur farms, basically the best way that they kill animals is through anal electrocution. That's no better than swinging a dog through the air.
YES BUT JUST TO PLAY DEVIL'S ADVOCATE HERE, IF YOU EAT MEAT, THOSE ANIMALS ARE OFTEN ELECTROCUTED AS WELL.
I think that a lot of the animals that are raised for fur, are certainly not being eaten.
YES I UNDERSTAND, BUT WHAT I AM SAYING IS, THAT FOR PEOPLE WHO DO EAT MEAT, THEY WOULD – ONE WOULD ASSUME – ACCEPT THAT THE ANIMALS THEY ARE EATING HAVE BEEN KILLED IN ABATTOIRS. IF YOU DON'T EAT MEAT AND DON'T BELIEVE THAT ANIMALS SHOULD BE KILLED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, I CAN UNDERSTAND HOW THE FACT THAT THEY ARE ELECTROCUTED SEEMS SHOCKING. KILLING AN ANIMAL IS STILL KILLING AN ANIMAL. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE HERE, CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, IS THAT KILLING AN ANIMAL FOR FUR IS SIMPLY IN ORDER TO CREATE A LUXURY PRODUCT?
PETA advocate for vegetarianism. We advocate for a compassionate diet that extends tO ...
YOU DON'T THINK THAT WE SHOULD BE RAISING SHEEP EITHER DO YOU?
Well I think that the way people look at these things these days, it's a little bit different. Sheep aren't raised in a backyard where they're happy and they're allowed to live within their families and they interact with humans. They're raised in factory farming conditions.
REALLY? HAVE YOU BEEN TO AUSTRALIA OR NEW ZEALAND LATELY?
Well it depends on exactly where you are. But in Australia one of the worst abuses is mulesing.
YES BUT AREN'T THEY WORKING THAT OUT?
Exactly, we're working with them to sort that out and the other thing that they do is live exports. So once the wool production of these sheep wanes, they're then put on these death ships where they're carted off thousands of miles without food or water so obviously that is animal cruelty and that's why we will continue to advocate vegetarianism ...
SO HAS THE SECURITY STEPPED UP AT SHOWS LIKE THESE VIS-A-VIS PETA?
Well no we've been out here for the last two hours and all the security guards have taken leaflets. They've been reading about it.
YES BUT THIS IS A PUBLIC SPACE, THEY CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO YOU HERE.
No of course they can't. We're here to inform people who are going into the show about what they're about to see. If there is no fur in this collection we want to inform them that while Julien is showing his summer collection, there are animals being raised on fur farms right now that will be part of his winter collection.
IS HE THE ONLY BRITISH DESIGNER WHO USES A LOT OF FUR?
He's one of the most notorious and he likes to flaunt it and he's very proud of the fact that he advocates anal electrocution, gassing, strangling small tiny ...
DOES HE ACTUALLY SAY THAT IN HIS ADVERTISING MATERIAL?
Well we constantly send him material to let him know what he is perpetuating and that is, cruelty to animals. And he is completely defending it through and through. Most people don't like strangling and torturing small defenceless animals but Julien MacDonald seems to take pleasure in it.
WHAT ABOUT THE ALLEGED LINKS BETWEEN PETA AND SOME RATHER MORE EXTREME FACTIONS OF THE ANIMAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT?
I think that in every social movement, you're going to have groups that take things to another extreme because they're so frustrated.
THEY'VE BEEN CALLED "ECO-TERRORISTS".
Well PETA, we don't employ those tactics. PETA work on a completely different level. We work through legislation, we work through brilliant, theatre-style demonstrations, as you can see we're out here today ... informing people.
THERE WAS ONE VERY FAMOUS CASE OF AN EXECUTIVE WHO WORKED AT A UK LABORATORY WHICH CONDUCTED ANIMAL-TESTING. HE WAS SEVERELY BEATEN BY ONE GROUP.
I've never actually heard of that. I've certainly not heard of anyone in the animal liberation movement harming another animal. I think that the main point of the animal rights movement is protection of all animals, whether they stand on two legs or on four. And we certainly, whether it be PETA or whether it be the ... or whether it be any group that is protecting animals, they certainly don't want to see any human harmed and that's certainly not the point of this movement. It's a compassionate movement and it's compassionate towards all animals. You and I are also included whether we have a tail or not.
ARE YOU WEARING ANY LEATHER?
No definitely not.
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T WEAR FUR BUT WEARS LEATHER SHOES? AREN'T THEY STILL A PARTY TO KILLING ANIMALS FOR A LUXURY PRODUCT?
Do you know what, the more I found out about it, before I knew what was involved in the leather production and the meat industry, I myself years and years ago would wear leather shoes without knowing and I think that's the thing. We really need to inform people that there's no difference between wearing leather and wearing fur. It's still the skin of an animal and there's no kind way to rip the skin off any animal's back, whether it be a cow or whether it be a fox.
HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED THAT THE THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN WHO DIE EVERY DAY FROM STARVATION MIGHT BE A BIGGER CAUSE?
I think that there are so many worthy causes. I think that there are so many children and animals suffering that we shouldn't forgo saving the lives of animals ...
THE ANIMAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT SEEMS AT TIMES TO BE MORE VISIBLE THAN THE HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
I think that all life is precious and all life should be protected and we should not turn a blind eye to suffering, whether it be for children or whether it be for animals. So there are a lot of people who advocate for children and those people are compassionate on both sides.
WHAT FLAVOUR CREAM PIE DOES PETA LIKE TO THROW AT ANNA WINTOUR?
A tofu cream pie.
SO NO ANIMAL INGREDIENTS?
There's no animal ingredients in anything that PETA uses.
WHAT ABOUT FRUITARIANS THOUGH – THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE FRUIT AND VEGETABLES HAVE BEEN MURDERED UNLESS THEY HAVE FALLEN OFF THE TREE?
Certainly PETA doesn't ... we're not fruitarians. Plants don't have a central nervous system.
REALLY? I'M SURE SOME PEOPLE WOULD ARGUE WITH YOU ON THAT POINT. DEFINITELY THE FRUITARIANS WOULD HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT.
Some people might. But that is not what we are about. We are about alleviating cruelty to animals and any way that we can do that and the higher the profile that we can raise for them, that is exactly what we are trying to do.
WHAT ABOUT CRUELTY TO ANNA WINTOUR?
Well cruelty to Anna Wintour ... Again, we've advised her many, many times about the pages in Vogue. I mean, we have offered to pay the same price as the fur industry for pages in her magazine and she has turned us down. That can only mean that she blatantly wants to ...
BUT THAT'S HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN ADVERTISING.
We have offered Anna Wintour. We have said, "Would you even consider this?" And she said, "No." Because she doesn't want to have anything to do with anti-fur.
YES BUT PROBABLY THE REAL REASON WHY SHE SAID NO IS BECAUSE SHE KNOWS THAT ONCE SHE LETS YOU ADVERTISE, THEN SHE'LL BE OBLIGED TO PLUG YOUR PRODUCTS ON HER EDITORIAL PAGES. THAT'S HOW IT WORKS IN THE GLOSSIES.
Well we have tried to inform her many, many times but she continues to allow an industry that has blood on its hands, that basically makes its money from torturing small animals ...
REPORTEDLY SHE TORTURES HER ASSISTANTS. SO I DON'T THINK SHE'S MAKING MUCH OF AN EXCEPTION WITH ANIMALS.
Well apparently. I can't comment on that. I don't know the woman. But I have flipped through the pages of Vogue and it's shocking to see the blood on every single page. It takes tens of animals, sometimes up to 60 or 80 mink to make one fur coat. That's 80 lives. Each one representing an animal that didn't want to die any more that you and I would want to. And so Anna Wintour is definitely somebody in her position in fashion, she should be setting a better example than the one she is. And in this day and age, I think the point is, this is the 20th century, we're not cavemen. We don't need animals skins.
THE CAVEMAN LOOK WAS ALL OVER THE WINTER RUNWAYS. PRADA'S 'SAUVAGE' FUR COATS ETC ...
Well I think designers are constantly trying to be outrageous. But if they were true visionaries they would come up with creative designs, like Stella McCartney, who is extremely popular and extremely successful. They would come up with designs that don't harm a hair on any animal. Some of her best friends ... Sadie Frost, she wears all of Stella's stuff. In fact she just did an anti-fur campaign for us just the other day. She launched one and she was wearing Stella McCartney's clothes and she looked brilliant. Most celebrities these days love Stella McCartney's clothes and again, Stella McCartney is a compassionate person, she wouldn't use leather and she certainly doesn't use fur. And she certainly hasn't made a name off any animal's back. She's done it off her own skin.
SO SHE'S NOT FUR SCUM?
She's definitely not fur scum.
Original post and comments.
Having already been a PETA target, Julien MacDonald obviously wasn't taking any chances on Friday in London. The security seemed far stricter than usual, policing the entree to the Hilton's ballroom. In fact, I almost did not make it in.
Although having been invited by phone by the head publicist and assured I would be on the guest list, I arrived to discover a door PR who could not locate my name on her list and who was not about to give me the benefit of the doubt by letting me in, no
siree – or check with anybody else.
"I'm sorry, you're not on the list" she said, blankly.
"Oh come through, yes of course, you're on the seating list!" said the head PR, who suddenly arrived on the scene.
There seemed to be quite a few people in a similar situation, because a bottleneck swiftly developed at the entrance.
While waiting, I noticed a large table against one wall, behind which dozens of water bottles had been tossed. It looked like the recently beefed-up security checkpoints in the departure lounges of all flights heading to the US or UK, in the wake of the recent arrests in London. The temperature was sweltering, and the ballroom, packed.
Apparently MacDonald's security retinue had similar fears to the airport personnel: that the bottles could be used as missiles. I'm not sure they assumed liquid explosive could also be engineered, but look I could be wrong.
At the end of show, MacDonald walked to take his bow. But while John Galliano traditionally walks to take his show bows flanked by four beefy male security guards – anti-PETA protection, apparently – MacDonald walked to the end of his flanked by four models. Hiding behind them, it almost seemed. I guess if one of them cops it with a water bottle, that's OK by MacDonald.
Then the sound of a very loud bang ricocheted across the ballroom.
In all seriousness, I thought, "Holy shit, they were closely monitoring the Evian situation, but forgot to check for Glocks. Some nutter's snuck one in".
When gold and silver confetti started to rain down it became abundantly clear that the sound had been merely a glitter cannon. I breathed a sigh of relief.
But that relief momentarily turned to angst again at yesterday's Burberry show in Milan.
Just metres in front of me, three PETA protestors emerged from nowhere to leap on to the runway and hold up "Burberry: fur shame" banners. The models barely flinched (I guess they're used to it by now). I didn't clock the look on the faces of fur-loving Vogue editrixes Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld, who were just on the other side of the runway, but in any event it would have been hard to read Wintour as she was sporting ginormous sunnies.
Security guards sprang into action, grabbed the anti-fur troika and hauled them off into the aisle directly next to where I was sitting.
I watched as one blonde protestor lay there completely immobile, as if in a catatonic state, with hands crossed across her chest. She was looking directly up towards the ceiling, as if praying to the God of mink: "Please get me out of here in one piece."
Whatever your stance on fur, you have to admit, it's still a pretty gutsy thing to do. You attempt to get into a show without a ticket, let alone launching yourself directly in front of Lily Donaldson et al's money shots at the end of the runway.
I offered MacDonald the opportunity to talk about PETA but he declined. Fair enough.
I offered the same to the Burberry designer Christopher Bailey, but all he would say, before shutting me down was the following, in response to the question, "How do you like being called 'fur scum'"?
"It's not very nice," said Bailey.
The only person who would talk to me about it was someone claiming to be a PETA representative, outside the Hilton hotel on Friday night. So here's the Q&A for what it's worth.
SO PETA SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED TO INFILTRATE A JULIEN MACDONALD SHOW LAST YEAR?
Anita Singh, PETA campaign coordinator: Those were PETA activists who were just appalled at Julien MacDonald's disgraceful, continuous use of fur, despite the many times that we have sent him information about animals actually being skinned alive for their pelts. The North American fur farms and the European fur farms, basically the best way that they kill animals is through anal electrocution. That's no better than swinging a dog through the air.
YES BUT JUST TO PLAY DEVIL'S ADVOCATE HERE, IF YOU EAT MEAT, THOSE ANIMALS ARE OFTEN ELECTROCUTED AS WELL.
I think that a lot of the animals that are raised for fur, are certainly not being eaten.
YES I UNDERSTAND, BUT WHAT I AM SAYING IS, THAT FOR PEOPLE WHO DO EAT MEAT, THEY WOULD – ONE WOULD ASSUME – ACCEPT THAT THE ANIMALS THEY ARE EATING HAVE BEEN KILLED IN ABATTOIRS. IF YOU DON'T EAT MEAT AND DON'T BELIEVE THAT ANIMALS SHOULD BE KILLED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, I CAN UNDERSTAND HOW THE FACT THAT THEY ARE ELECTROCUTED SEEMS SHOCKING. KILLING AN ANIMAL IS STILL KILLING AN ANIMAL. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE HERE, CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, IS THAT KILLING AN ANIMAL FOR FUR IS SIMPLY IN ORDER TO CREATE A LUXURY PRODUCT?
PETA advocate for vegetarianism. We advocate for a compassionate diet that extends tO ...
YOU DON'T THINK THAT WE SHOULD BE RAISING SHEEP EITHER DO YOU?
Well I think that the way people look at these things these days, it's a little bit different. Sheep aren't raised in a backyard where they're happy and they're allowed to live within their families and they interact with humans. They're raised in factory farming conditions.
REALLY? HAVE YOU BEEN TO AUSTRALIA OR NEW ZEALAND LATELY?
Well it depends on exactly where you are. But in Australia one of the worst abuses is mulesing.
YES BUT AREN'T THEY WORKING THAT OUT?
Exactly, we're working with them to sort that out and the other thing that they do is live exports. So once the wool production of these sheep wanes, they're then put on these death ships where they're carted off thousands of miles without food or water so obviously that is animal cruelty and that's why we will continue to advocate vegetarianism ...
SO HAS THE SECURITY STEPPED UP AT SHOWS LIKE THESE VIS-A-VIS PETA?
Well no we've been out here for the last two hours and all the security guards have taken leaflets. They've been reading about it.
YES BUT THIS IS A PUBLIC SPACE, THEY CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO YOU HERE.
No of course they can't. We're here to inform people who are going into the show about what they're about to see. If there is no fur in this collection we want to inform them that while Julien is showing his summer collection, there are animals being raised on fur farms right now that will be part of his winter collection.
IS HE THE ONLY BRITISH DESIGNER WHO USES A LOT OF FUR?
He's one of the most notorious and he likes to flaunt it and he's very proud of the fact that he advocates anal electrocution, gassing, strangling small tiny ...
DOES HE ACTUALLY SAY THAT IN HIS ADVERTISING MATERIAL?
Well we constantly send him material to let him know what he is perpetuating and that is, cruelty to animals. And he is completely defending it through and through. Most people don't like strangling and torturing small defenceless animals but Julien MacDonald seems to take pleasure in it.
WHAT ABOUT THE ALLEGED LINKS BETWEEN PETA AND SOME RATHER MORE EXTREME FACTIONS OF THE ANIMAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT?
I think that in every social movement, you're going to have groups that take things to another extreme because they're so frustrated.
THEY'VE BEEN CALLED "ECO-TERRORISTS".
Well PETA, we don't employ those tactics. PETA work on a completely different level. We work through legislation, we work through brilliant, theatre-style demonstrations, as you can see we're out here today ... informing people.
THERE WAS ONE VERY FAMOUS CASE OF AN EXECUTIVE WHO WORKED AT A UK LABORATORY WHICH CONDUCTED ANIMAL-TESTING. HE WAS SEVERELY BEATEN BY ONE GROUP.
I've never actually heard of that. I've certainly not heard of anyone in the animal liberation movement harming another animal. I think that the main point of the animal rights movement is protection of all animals, whether they stand on two legs or on four. And we certainly, whether it be PETA or whether it be the ... or whether it be any group that is protecting animals, they certainly don't want to see any human harmed and that's certainly not the point of this movement. It's a compassionate movement and it's compassionate towards all animals. You and I are also included whether we have a tail or not.
ARE YOU WEARING ANY LEATHER?
No definitely not.
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T WEAR FUR BUT WEARS LEATHER SHOES? AREN'T THEY STILL A PARTY TO KILLING ANIMALS FOR A LUXURY PRODUCT?
Do you know what, the more I found out about it, before I knew what was involved in the leather production and the meat industry, I myself years and years ago would wear leather shoes without knowing and I think that's the thing. We really need to inform people that there's no difference between wearing leather and wearing fur. It's still the skin of an animal and there's no kind way to rip the skin off any animal's back, whether it be a cow or whether it be a fox.
HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED THAT THE THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN WHO DIE EVERY DAY FROM STARVATION MIGHT BE A BIGGER CAUSE?
I think that there are so many worthy causes. I think that there are so many children and animals suffering that we shouldn't forgo saving the lives of animals ...
THE ANIMAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT SEEMS AT TIMES TO BE MORE VISIBLE THAN THE HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
I think that all life is precious and all life should be protected and we should not turn a blind eye to suffering, whether it be for children or whether it be for animals. So there are a lot of people who advocate for children and those people are compassionate on both sides.
WHAT FLAVOUR CREAM PIE DOES PETA LIKE TO THROW AT ANNA WINTOUR?
A tofu cream pie.
SO NO ANIMAL INGREDIENTS?
There's no animal ingredients in anything that PETA uses.
WHAT ABOUT FRUITARIANS THOUGH – THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE FRUIT AND VEGETABLES HAVE BEEN MURDERED UNLESS THEY HAVE FALLEN OFF THE TREE?
Certainly PETA doesn't ... we're not fruitarians. Plants don't have a central nervous system.
REALLY? I'M SURE SOME PEOPLE WOULD ARGUE WITH YOU ON THAT POINT. DEFINITELY THE FRUITARIANS WOULD HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT.
Some people might. But that is not what we are about. We are about alleviating cruelty to animals and any way that we can do that and the higher the profile that we can raise for them, that is exactly what we are trying to do.
WHAT ABOUT CRUELTY TO ANNA WINTOUR?
Well cruelty to Anna Wintour ... Again, we've advised her many, many times about the pages in Vogue. I mean, we have offered to pay the same price as the fur industry for pages in her magazine and she has turned us down. That can only mean that she blatantly wants to ...
BUT THAT'S HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN ADVERTISING.
We have offered Anna Wintour. We have said, "Would you even consider this?" And she said, "No." Because she doesn't want to have anything to do with anti-fur.
YES BUT PROBABLY THE REAL REASON WHY SHE SAID NO IS BECAUSE SHE KNOWS THAT ONCE SHE LETS YOU ADVERTISE, THEN SHE'LL BE OBLIGED TO PLUG YOUR PRODUCTS ON HER EDITORIAL PAGES. THAT'S HOW IT WORKS IN THE GLOSSIES.
Well we have tried to inform her many, many times but she continues to allow an industry that has blood on its hands, that basically makes its money from torturing small animals ...
REPORTEDLY SHE TORTURES HER ASSISTANTS. SO I DON'T THINK SHE'S MAKING MUCH OF AN EXCEPTION WITH ANIMALS.
Well apparently. I can't comment on that. I don't know the woman. But I have flipped through the pages of Vogue and it's shocking to see the blood on every single page. It takes tens of animals, sometimes up to 60 or 80 mink to make one fur coat. That's 80 lives. Each one representing an animal that didn't want to die any more that you and I would want to. And so Anna Wintour is definitely somebody in her position in fashion, she should be setting a better example than the one she is. And in this day and age, I think the point is, this is the 20th century, we're not cavemen. We don't need animals skins.
THE CAVEMAN LOOK WAS ALL OVER THE WINTER RUNWAYS. PRADA'S 'SAUVAGE' FUR COATS ETC ...
Well I think designers are constantly trying to be outrageous. But if they were true visionaries they would come up with creative designs, like Stella McCartney, who is extremely popular and extremely successful. They would come up with designs that don't harm a hair on any animal. Some of her best friends ... Sadie Frost, she wears all of Stella's stuff. In fact she just did an anti-fur campaign for us just the other day. She launched one and she was wearing Stella McCartney's clothes and she looked brilliant. Most celebrities these days love Stella McCartney's clothes and again, Stella McCartney is a compassionate person, she wouldn't use leather and she certainly doesn't use fur. And she certainly hasn't made a name off any animal's back. She's done it off her own skin.
SO SHE'S NOT FUR SCUM?
She's definitely not fur scum.
Original post and comments.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
The skinny on celeb dresser Rachel Zoe
London Fashion Week kicked off with a skinny model brouhaha. But Fashion Season must say there wasn't a single model that we spotted on the London runways who did not look like the Michelin Man standing next to Rachel Zoe.
One of the world's hottest celebrity stylists right now, Zoe has helped hone the fashion "looks" of celebs such as Nicole Richie, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. The apparently vanishing physiques of some of whom, it should be noted, have been the subjects of quite some recent speculation.
Although we had watched her arrive at Thursday night's Emporio Armani do in a strapless, white, fringed evening dress and not thought too much of it – nothing like two rows of heavy fringing to add a few pounds – on the following evening, after the Julien MacDonald show, we were struck by just how petite Zoe really is.
In town to style MacDonald's show, Zoe appeared that night to have borrowed her midnight blue, long-sleeved, full-length Roberto Cavalli number from her big sister. Whatever the explanation – and there must surely be a plethora of them – the dress was quite obviously pinned at the back, as you would on a shop dummy, to make it fit properly.
We had a quick chat after the show:
WHAT IS THE POWER OF THE CELEBRITY STYLIST? DESIGNERS ARE CONSTANTLY COMPLAINING ABOUT THEIR INCREASING POWER IN HOLLYWOOD.
Rachel Zoe: I think that many designers need a liaison between the celebrity and themselves because I don't think that they necessarily know ... how to dress models most of the time. But they don't necessarily know how to build a dress around a real person, who might have insecurities and things like that. So I think a stylist is someone who is very hands-on with the celebrity and very intimate and has a relationship with them. So I think they need that voice to say, "OK, this is what's going to work, this is what she's going to like, this is what she's not going to like".
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STYLING?
[Nervous laugh] Thirteen years.
WHEN DID PEOPLE FIRST START TALKING ABOUT YOU?
I've been working this hard for 13 years.
BUT WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PARTICULAR IMPACT DO YOU THINK?
I don't know. I think it's media and I think the fact that I've had a very similar style for a very long time and I think maybe that it's caught on and people suddenly think that I'm influencing the world of fashion. I don't know, I don't try and change anybody.
WHAT'S IT LIKE BEFORE THE ACADEMY AWARDS?
[Nervous laugh] I just want to hide out and crawl up in a ball for two months this season.
WHEN DOES THE OSCARS DRESS RACE START?
The minute they announce the awards.
DESCRIBE THE PROCESS.
I don't sleep for two months. I don't leave my house very often because I'm in fittings and there's people bringing me dresses and jewellery. It's just extremely stressful and extremely competitive amongst the designers and it gets very stressful because a lot of them are my very dear friends and it's very hard to sort of hurt people because their job is relying on that. It's a lot of pressure. It's become a lot more serious than it might necessarily need to be.
WHAT ABOUT THE DESIGN HOUSES THAT PAY ACTORS LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY TO WEAR THEIR CLOTHES ON THE RED CARPET? DO YOU FIND YOURSELF COMPETING WITH THAT?
I don't do it. I think that if the product is good enough they have to stand behind that. I think that contracts and being paid money and stuff, that's something that if it's a deal between a celebrity and a designer – that's their business. And if the stylist is involved in that, then that's great. But I think it's different for every designer and for every celebrity.
WHAT ABOUT THE POLITICS?
I try not to get involved in politics. I went to school in DC but I was definitely not a poli-sci major.
DOES ANYONE EVER ASK ABOUT YOUR SIZE? YOU LOOK THIN.
I get asked about it every day.
YOU LOOK VERY THIN.
I've been thin my entire life and I think it's unfair that people who are actually thin ... Look at Laurie [points to friend, standing next to her] – she's thin. Do you think she's getting yelled at every day? I think that there's a lot of people who are naturally thin people who are actually very healthy and in fact there are some people who are too thin, trying to gain weight.
HAVE YOU EVER HAD AN EATING DISORDER?
Have I? No. I think it's been a debate that's been going on for 20 years. And I think it's going to come out in public, it's going to go away for a while, it will come out again. It's going to go back and forth. It's never going to be resolved. You know?
Original post and comments.
One of the world's hottest celebrity stylists right now, Zoe has helped hone the fashion "looks" of celebs such as Nicole Richie, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. The apparently vanishing physiques of some of whom, it should be noted, have been the subjects of quite some recent speculation.
Although we had watched her arrive at Thursday night's Emporio Armani do in a strapless, white, fringed evening dress and not thought too much of it – nothing like two rows of heavy fringing to add a few pounds – on the following evening, after the Julien MacDonald show, we were struck by just how petite Zoe really is.
In town to style MacDonald's show, Zoe appeared that night to have borrowed her midnight blue, long-sleeved, full-length Roberto Cavalli number from her big sister. Whatever the explanation – and there must surely be a plethora of them – the dress was quite obviously pinned at the back, as you would on a shop dummy, to make it fit properly.
We had a quick chat after the show:
WHAT IS THE POWER OF THE CELEBRITY STYLIST? DESIGNERS ARE CONSTANTLY COMPLAINING ABOUT THEIR INCREASING POWER IN HOLLYWOOD.
Rachel Zoe: I think that many designers need a liaison between the celebrity and themselves because I don't think that they necessarily know ... how to dress models most of the time. But they don't necessarily know how to build a dress around a real person, who might have insecurities and things like that. So I think a stylist is someone who is very hands-on with the celebrity and very intimate and has a relationship with them. So I think they need that voice to say, "OK, this is what's going to work, this is what she's going to like, this is what she's not going to like".
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STYLING?
[Nervous laugh] Thirteen years.
WHEN DID PEOPLE FIRST START TALKING ABOUT YOU?
I've been working this hard for 13 years.
BUT WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PARTICULAR IMPACT DO YOU THINK?
I don't know. I think it's media and I think the fact that I've had a very similar style for a very long time and I think maybe that it's caught on and people suddenly think that I'm influencing the world of fashion. I don't know, I don't try and change anybody.
WHAT'S IT LIKE BEFORE THE ACADEMY AWARDS?
[Nervous laugh] I just want to hide out and crawl up in a ball for two months this season.
WHEN DOES THE OSCARS DRESS RACE START?
The minute they announce the awards.
DESCRIBE THE PROCESS.
I don't sleep for two months. I don't leave my house very often because I'm in fittings and there's people bringing me dresses and jewellery. It's just extremely stressful and extremely competitive amongst the designers and it gets very stressful because a lot of them are my very dear friends and it's very hard to sort of hurt people because their job is relying on that. It's a lot of pressure. It's become a lot more serious than it might necessarily need to be.
WHAT ABOUT THE DESIGN HOUSES THAT PAY ACTORS LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY TO WEAR THEIR CLOTHES ON THE RED CARPET? DO YOU FIND YOURSELF COMPETING WITH THAT?
I don't do it. I think that if the product is good enough they have to stand behind that. I think that contracts and being paid money and stuff, that's something that if it's a deal between a celebrity and a designer – that's their business. And if the stylist is involved in that, then that's great. But I think it's different for every designer and for every celebrity.
WHAT ABOUT THE POLITICS?
I try not to get involved in politics. I went to school in DC but I was definitely not a poli-sci major.
DOES ANYONE EVER ASK ABOUT YOUR SIZE? YOU LOOK THIN.
I get asked about it every day.
YOU LOOK VERY THIN.
I've been thin my entire life and I think it's unfair that people who are actually thin ... Look at Laurie [points to friend, standing next to her] – she's thin. Do you think she's getting yelled at every day? I think that there's a lot of people who are naturally thin people who are actually very healthy and in fact there are some people who are too thin, trying to gain weight.
HAVE YOU EVER HAD AN EATING DISORDER?
Have I? No. I think it's been a debate that's been going on for 20 years. And I think it's going to come out in public, it's going to go away for a while, it will come out again. It's going to go back and forth. It's never going to be resolved. You know?
Original post and comments.
Friday, September 22, 2006
"Crazy shit" with Leo and Beyonce
"TEXT YOUR BLOG." So said a prompt that just went up on one of the giant screens here at Brompton Hall in London. And who am I to argue with Mr Armani? So here I am blogging live via BlackBerry from the dancefloor of the Armani One Night Only party in the very glamorous ... wait for it ... Earl's Court.
But what a party. The old silver fox certainly knows how to throw a do. Where shall I start? Leonardo, Beyonce, Bryan Ferry, 50 Cent, Bono, Ashley Judd, Kevin Spacey, Orlando Bloom ... there are so many celebs here it's hard to work out who is who.
It feels like being back at New York Fashion Week, that's how starved London has been of celebs for the past week.
The difference being that they are partying amongst us here and not just posing for photo ops (although they did that too). Or at least some are still here.
It's all in aid of AIDS and although the cynic in me would like to know precisely how many high-profilers present donate even a fraction of their whopping incomes to charity, I guess if they can throw their weight behind a cause like AIDS in Africa then well... they're using their power for good.
I have no doubt that that's what they want us to think at any rate.
Prior to the party, the host held a massive fashion show in which designs by Emporio Armani, Armani black label, Armani Prive and the new Armani Red collection were on parade. For the latter, Armani has hooked with up with the Bobby Shriver/Bono-initiated Product Red campaign, with a percentage of profits going to help fight AIDS in Africa.
Blind tenor Andrea Bocelli sang while the Armani Prive collection came out – that's Armani's haute couture line. It was quite magnificent.
But I just couldn't help thinking to myself, "Oh well, at least he's oblivious to the silly cocktail hats".
I have been trying to find out how this compares to the last big bash done in London, but so far have not been able to get a sensible answer out of anyone.
The fact that they are all very drunk – particularly Kimberley Stewart, it appears – probably isn't helping things.
Apart from comments and grabs from the celebrity hordes on the red carpet – actually make that the blue carpet (on which Bono fell over) – in the company of a zillion other media reps (par for the course obviously in a situation like this of course), I did get one exclusive titbit for the blog however.
It was uttered just after Beyonce shook her booty on stage, one of several live performances that included Ferry and 50 Cent. After the latter performed, just metres from us, Sydney photographer Marty Whitsitt and I looked at each other and said, almost in unison, "this is surreal".
A little earlier on, Leonardo di Caprio, adjacent to whom I happened to be standing at that particular moment, was obviously equally impressed - and you would figure he would be a little harder to gobsmack than Marty or moi.
As Beyonce exited the stage di Caprio said, to no one in particular:
"That was some crazy shit there."
He did have a point.
Original post and comments.
But what a party. The old silver fox certainly knows how to throw a do. Where shall I start? Leonardo, Beyonce, Bryan Ferry, 50 Cent, Bono, Ashley Judd, Kevin Spacey, Orlando Bloom ... there are so many celebs here it's hard to work out who is who.
It feels like being back at New York Fashion Week, that's how starved London has been of celebs for the past week.
The difference being that they are partying amongst us here and not just posing for photo ops (although they did that too). Or at least some are still here.
It's all in aid of AIDS and although the cynic in me would like to know precisely how many high-profilers present donate even a fraction of their whopping incomes to charity, I guess if they can throw their weight behind a cause like AIDS in Africa then well... they're using their power for good.
I have no doubt that that's what they want us to think at any rate.
Prior to the party, the host held a massive fashion show in which designs by Emporio Armani, Armani black label, Armani Prive and the new Armani Red collection were on parade. For the latter, Armani has hooked with up with the Bobby Shriver/Bono-initiated Product Red campaign, with a percentage of profits going to help fight AIDS in Africa.
Blind tenor Andrea Bocelli sang while the Armani Prive collection came out – that's Armani's haute couture line. It was quite magnificent.
But I just couldn't help thinking to myself, "Oh well, at least he's oblivious to the silly cocktail hats".
I have been trying to find out how this compares to the last big bash done in London, but so far have not been able to get a sensible answer out of anyone.
The fact that they are all very drunk – particularly Kimberley Stewart, it appears – probably isn't helping things.
Apart from comments and grabs from the celebrity hordes on the red carpet – actually make that the blue carpet (on which Bono fell over) – in the company of a zillion other media reps (par for the course obviously in a situation like this of course), I did get one exclusive titbit for the blog however.
It was uttered just after Beyonce shook her booty on stage, one of several live performances that included Ferry and 50 Cent. After the latter performed, just metres from us, Sydney photographer Marty Whitsitt and I looked at each other and said, almost in unison, "this is surreal".
A little earlier on, Leonardo di Caprio, adjacent to whom I happened to be standing at that particular moment, was obviously equally impressed - and you would figure he would be a little harder to gobsmack than Marty or moi.
As Beyonce exited the stage di Caprio said, to no one in particular:
"That was some crazy shit there."
He did have a point.
Original post and comments.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Another day, another fashion week
So I made it in one piece to London Fashion Week. I must admit I was slightly concerned that the Kelly Cutrone circle of influence might extend to customs authorities at JFK. I was however relieved to spot no posters at all. Similarly, I arrived in London with no problems.
Waiting for me at my hotel was even, surprise surprise, an entire in-tray full of show invitations. There was also something called a "priority press pass" designed to wave you through when all else fails. Of course it could all be rescinded at the drop of a politically incorrect comment.
I opened up an invitation from the shoe designer Georgina Goodman to find a folded poster illustrated with a heart symbol made out of photographs of shoes. In the middle of the heart, as it happens, the following three words were written:
"Presumably it's not a People's Revolution event" I think.
Am really loving this event so far. I've not covered it before and am in fact quite impressed, certainly with the organisation. And although champagne and fashion weeks go hand in hand, I have to say I have never seen quite so much of the stuff being on tap all day as here. They seem to start with a breakfast at 9am - at which champagne is served - and then they just keep serving it, at various venues throughout the day.
I saw a great show this morning from the hot new name Roksanda Ilincic. It was staged inside an old building called the English-Speaking Union. Like an old French salon, the walls were painted eau de Nil, with ornate white plasterwork all over the ceiling, parquetry floorboards and chandeliers. The two rooms immediately in front of me were filled with small tables, at which buyers and media were seated on gilt chairs. They ate fruit platters and petits fours and many were drinking, you guessed it, champagne.
The music started. Nina Hagen. It really does feel like being back in the '80s at this event. A PR in a meringue-like black RI puffball dress discreetly moved from one room to the next ahead of the model, her dress so voluminous it overwhelmed her.
Like a series of big birds, the models glided past one by one in increasingly exaggerated organza puffball dresses, many of them with large bustles. Yes bustles - on the back, hemline and side. Quite a few were sporting tulle headpieces. It occurred to me that perhaps Toni Maticevski showed at the wrong event.
As we walked out I found myself directly behind a woman holding a miniature pug. Two Japanese women asked if they could pat it.
"Oh yes that's fine as long as you're not wearing any hats - he has a thing about hats," said the owner.
"Had a traumatic hat experience at some point?" I asked of her canine charge.
"Yes I think so," she replied. "When the models came out in the hats I had to throw him under the table and start feeding him grapes."
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Waiting for me at my hotel was even, surprise surprise, an entire in-tray full of show invitations. There was also something called a "priority press pass" designed to wave you through when all else fails. Of course it could all be rescinded at the drop of a politically incorrect comment.
I opened up an invitation from the shoe designer Georgina Goodman to find a folded poster illustrated with a heart symbol made out of photographs of shoes. In the middle of the heart, as it happens, the following three words were written:
"The whole truth."
"Presumably it's not a People's Revolution event" I think.
Am really loving this event so far. I've not covered it before and am in fact quite impressed, certainly with the organisation. And although champagne and fashion weeks go hand in hand, I have to say I have never seen quite so much of the stuff being on tap all day as here. They seem to start with a breakfast at 9am - at which champagne is served - and then they just keep serving it, at various venues throughout the day.
I saw a great show this morning from the hot new name Roksanda Ilincic. It was staged inside an old building called the English-Speaking Union. Like an old French salon, the walls were painted eau de Nil, with ornate white plasterwork all over the ceiling, parquetry floorboards and chandeliers. The two rooms immediately in front of me were filled with small tables, at which buyers and media were seated on gilt chairs. They ate fruit platters and petits fours and many were drinking, you guessed it, champagne.
The music started. Nina Hagen. It really does feel like being back in the '80s at this event. A PR in a meringue-like black RI puffball dress discreetly moved from one room to the next ahead of the model, her dress so voluminous it overwhelmed her.
Like a series of big birds, the models glided past one by one in increasingly exaggerated organza puffball dresses, many of them with large bustles. Yes bustles - on the back, hemline and side. Quite a few were sporting tulle headpieces. It occurred to me that perhaps Toni Maticevski showed at the wrong event.
As we walked out I found myself directly behind a woman holding a miniature pug. Two Japanese women asked if they could pat it.
"Oh yes that's fine as long as you're not wearing any hats - he has a thing about hats," said the owner.
"Had a traumatic hat experience at some point?" I asked of her canine charge.
"Yes I think so," she replied. "When the models came out in the hats I had to throw him under the table and start feeding him grapes."
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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
SMH banned from NY Fashion Week
And so New York Fashion Week ground to a halt. But it didn't end quite the way I had anticipated.
I came to this city hoping to learn more about its fashion industry and filed news stories, features, gossip – and of course blog posts – about its designers, its trends, its pain, not to mention its celebrity fixation. I thought I had a minor grasp on things.
But things took an unexpected turn at the last minute and the story wound up becoming something else entirely: a fascinating little snapshot of New York PR power politics.
Having seen more than 40 shows throughout the week, my hitherto unfettered access came to a screeching halt on Thursday night.
That was when I received a call from a one Kelly Cutrone – and found myself banned from her shows.
"I'm calling to say that you have been declined for the Jeremy Scott show," said Cutrone, who runs a New York PR agency called People's Revolution which produced a number of small, off-schedule shows in a venue called the Altman Building.
After having sent me an invitation for Scott's show and having welcomed me into others, Cutrone was calling to say I was persona non grata.
And it wasn't just Scott's show that she was banning me from – but in fact all future events staged by all of her clients.
The ban would moreover, she said, also cover all her international activities. She rattled off a list of cities where she staged events, including, I am sure she said, Moscow. She didn't mention that the ban extended to outer space, however, given the eccentricity of the performance, I started to wonder just how many aliens might be on her books.
Cutrone then also offered words to the effect that she would make it a personal mission to interfere with my ability to do my job "for the rest of your journalistic career".
"Dandy; I've entered the Pyongyang of PR," I thought to myself, before musing how uncanny it was that anybody throughout history who has ever purported to espouse a "people's revolution", inevitably wound up on a personal power trip, with a thin skin, a grossly overinflated sense of self-importance – not to mention a bad wardrobe. And how these "revolutions" always seemed to be accompanied by a media crackdown, however anathema that might be to the concept of democracy.
I wondered whether Cutrone could possibly be in breach of any UN resolutions. If so, I surmised, surely it's only a matter of time before George Bush decides to invade.
Cutrone added that she would also be suing me over what she claimed had been a "factually incorrect" story, adding that her father either owns or works at a top New York legal firm. I'm not sure if she mentioned this purely to big-note herself or to illustrate that the billings from her agency are so miniscule that she would be required to ask for a freebie from dad in order to get a case up.
So what prompted this dramatic volte-face?
A gossip snippet in the Herald column Fashion Police on Thursday.
The item was originally designed to be an exclusive preview of the new Jeremy Loves Ksubi collaboration range between Scott and the Sydney jeans brand. Due to be unveiled in Scott's show, the range launch had been mentioned in several newspaper stories in Australia, however none had as yet published any photos.
Having revealed Tsubi's trademark dispute with the US shoe manufacturer Tsubo in the Herald back in April, and then contributed to a second item that the Herald's US correspondent filed once the parties had reached an out-of-court settlement (hence the name change to Ksubi), I really wasn't expecting any exclusives from the Ksubi camp any time soon.
But PR agents change and, at the end of the day, publicity speaks louder than grudges – at least in Sydney perhaps – and I was given a preview.
That was the original plan – until I found myself standing outside Sunday's Costello Tagliapietra show, an off-schedule show that I was interested in covering. And, yes, it was a People's Revolution show – and I didn't have a ticket. Cutrone allowed me in, but not before weighing in loudly on an issue that had been bugging her vis-a-vis the Australian media.
It seems that, since word got out in Australia that Scott was doing a Ksubi collaboration, and that the range would be unveiled during New York Fashion Week, Cutrone had been inundated with inquiries from the Australian media about the show.
Cutrone went on to insist that the Australian media reports had been "factually incorrect" and that it was not to be a Ksubi show, but a Jeremy Scott show. She said this in a loud, and increasingly agitated voice and clearly did not mind who else heard it, because it was in full earshot of the line of people who were waiting to get into the show. And directly in front of three people I know, who were standing next to me.
I politely suggested that if Cutrone wasn't happy with the fact that Ksubi had been drumming up publicity over the Scott collaboration and show, that she should take it up with Ksubi.
At one point, Cutrone even attempted to play down the size of the range, dismissing it as "a couple" of items, adding there was even a possibility it might not be included in the show.
It was too good a story to ignore, a number of people overheard the conversation and the planned Jeremy Loves Ksubi item changed tack. The editors did not end up running the preview photo, which I personally was disappointed about. But this was an editorial decision and out of my hands.
Here's what was printed:
Jeremy hates Ksubi?
"Tomorrow, the Sydney label formerly known as Tsubi makes its New York runway debut – but will it make centre stage? It seems the US designer Jeremy Scott may be miffed by all the attention the Jeremy Loves Ksubi collaboration range is attracting. A public relations flack, claiming to represent Scott and Ksubi, bailed up Fashion Police to say: "This is definitely a Jeremy Scott show – it's not going to be a backstage photo op with Dan [Single] and George [Gorrow]". She dismissed the range – which features Scott's quirky Hotline and Finger Print graphics on Ksubi's skinny jeans, biker jackets and denim dresses – as nothing more than a "couple" of items and said it might not even make the final show cut. Meanwhile, in a Ksubi press release, Scott says: "What I think is extra special about our collaboration is that it really comes from a mutual admiration of one another - the humour, passion and a good time for all."
Sadly however, Cutrone's chipper phone call wasn't the end of the story.
I made no effort whatsoever to attend the show. It was raining and miserable, Fashion Week was over, I was over the likes of Kelly Cutrone and besides, why on Earth would I want to traipse across town in that weather to give one of Cutrone's clients a single column centimetre of free publicity?
Then I get word from the venue that Cutrone had tracked down a photograph of me – in fact this Fashion Season blog ID – and blown it up to create flyers to paste around the venue. The flyers reportedly included instructions in bold letters to staff in case I attempted to sneak in.
How absurd, I thought. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. But then someone retrieved one of the posters and showed it to me – as well as some video evidence of the front entrance area, complete with flyer [see top of post^].
After the show, according to a source who was standing near Cutrone at the time, she engaged herself in a conversation about me with several other people at one point, including Ksubi's George Gorrow, and Cutrone was overheard to say that she planned to "smoke" me "out of New York".
Gorrow is described as having clapped his hands together in glee at the prospect.
When one of Cutrone's staff members was asked what all the fuss was about and precisely what the person in the posters was supposed to have done, the staffer reportedly responded, "She wrote something which wasn't true".
Well it was true. But truth, it seems, is a dangerous commodity in the New York fashion business.
The following day I walked to take a look at the front window display that department store Henri Bendel had installed in honour of Sydneysider Josh Goot's first New York fashion show.
There were several mannequins kitted out in Goot gear and the visual merchandising team had plucked five quotes from Goot's press book, blown them up into large white letters and stuck them to the window.
Quotes from WWD, The Daily Telegraph and the Harper's Bazaar Daily were positioned to the side and in the bottom corners. But stretched right across the middle of the window, at eye level, just happened to be the following quote from me, published in May 2005:
"Josh Goot firmly established himself as a major new talent."
The Sydney Morning Herald
I was sorely tempted to get out my lip gloss and scrawl "Smoked out of town by Kelly Cutrone".
I wonder if in fact Cutrone would expect me to make the ban on her clients retrospective, so as to delete the reviews I had planned on the other People's Revolution shows already seen that week, including Costello Tagliapietra and Grey Ant?
Unfortunately I did not get to see one other People's Revolution show on Friday that I had wanted to – the name of which label unfortunately escapes me because, well, it's just so fringe. Cutrone's clients seem to be mostly small, edgy labels that one would assume would benefit enormously from publicity.
But sorry mate, I couldn't get to your show for the sole reason that your publicist cut you off from access to a media outlet whose website receives a half million visitors per day. I'm sure you won't miss the exposure.
Viva la revolucion.
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