The transvestite issue

brett lloyd for candy via boy lloyd

Frockwriter has little doubt that US Vogue editrix double act Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington have seen more than their fair share of homages in smoky drag dives over the years – notably since the release of R.J Cutler's 2009 frockumentary The September Issue. But thanks to Luis Venegas, editor and publisher of the world’s first so-called “transversal style magazine” Candy, their tranny doppelgängers have made it to print. In the hilarious editorial The Devil Wears Anna in Candy's second edition, Spanish natives Venegas and model/DJ/musician Andrès Borque channel Wintour and Coddington respectively. While elsewhere in the story, other female impersonators take on Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani, teen blogger Tavi Gevinson and others. The images are interspersed with pre-published or –broadcast quotes pulled from sources such as 60 Minutes and Venegas’ own Fanzine 137. Only 1000 copies of each issue of Candy are printed and although this edition was launched in October, the images have only just been uploaded by photographer Brett Lloyd. Thanks to Homotography for spotting them. It's not the first time Venegas and Borque have paid homage to Vogue's editor and creative director. They attended Candy's November 2009 launch party as the duo (see end).

A Merry Marc, Anna, Carine, Tom and Tavi Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the fashion house, not a creature was stirring….. Wait, that can't be right. Carine’s out of a job. It could be Tom’s fault. Anna is so worried about hers, she’s been reduced to Christmas shopping in Brooklyn flea markets. Marc’s pissed because some rat bastard leaked his Marc by Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2011 campaign casting deets. And Tavi still wants to know why he gave her third row at the main line show in September. Like everyone else we imagine, frockwriter has received and seen more than our fair share of animated JibJab Elf Yourself Christmas e-cards over the past couple of years. This season the JibJabbing seems to be in overdrive, so we thought we might as well add to it. Here with a Christmas medley, we give you fashion's latest superband, Botox: Marc on vocals, Anna on drums, with Carine, Tom and Tavi on rhythm, lead and bass guitars. One can only imagine what their hotel room looked like after the gig. Merry Christmas and happy holidays guys. Thanks for your company this year. It's been an honour dishing it up for you. Rock out with your frock out in 2011.  

Anna Wintour on The Late Show with David Letterman

Here is the full interview.

Wintour on Letterman: "I reckon that makes me luke-warm royalty with a whip from outer space”

The much-anticipated Anna Wintour interview on The Late Show with David Letterman is due to air at 11.35pm Monday night in New York, which translates to 1.35pm today (Tuesday) here in Sydney. CBS has a teaser up on its website which includes Wintour’s rather amusing take on the newspaper coverage of last week’s premiere of The September Issue. In response to a question about her tough reputation, the US Vogue editrix notes, “I read in The New York Times this week that I’m an ice queen, I’m the Sun King, I’m an alien fleeing from District 9 and I’m a dominatrix. So I reckon that makes me a luke-warm royalty with a whip…from outer space”. There is no embed code but you can see the rest of the clip here.

Talking dressing your age with ABC Adelaide

I am doing a fortnightly chat on fashion every second Tuesday at 1400 AEST with the ABC Adelaide Afternoons with Carole Whitelock program. This week we talked dressing your age (click the player ^ if you are interested in hearing the show). There have been a few news stories on this subject pinging across the net in recent months. Most, IMHO, pretty dumb. One thing these stories constantly seem to overlook is the fact that we are staring in the face of a generation of older, high-profile women who not only don’t feel the "older" fashion rules personally apply to them and apparently have no fear of ridicule, they are setting the style agenda for others.

Just take fiftysomething celebrities Madonna and Sharon Stone.

The first posed legs akimbo in Louis Vuitton knickers advertising LV handbags.

The second recently posed topless and looking smoking hot for the cover of Paris Match, together with the headline, “J’ai 50 ans….et alors!” (I’m 50, so what!).

American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the star of one of the year's biggest buzz films, The September Issue, is 60.

Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld is in her mid 50s.

And Anna Dello Russo, the flamboyant Vogue Nippon fashion director at large, is pushing 50.

And while you would most likely never see Wintour in a pair of short shorts, leggings or a micromini – unlike Roitfeld and Dello Russo – Wintour has nevertheless been known to make bold fashion choices.

Unlike many other ordinary female consumers their age, these women do not feel forgotten by fashion and "invisible". These women are fashion.

Why do so many of their contemporaries feel out of the loop?








images:

1. sharon stone: paris match via the huffington post
2. anna wintour: perez hilton
3. carine roitfeld: new york magazine
4. anna dello russo: style.com
5. anna dello russo: jak + jil

Sydney’s Fashion and Film Festivals hook up for a nuclear Wintour

screen grab the september issue/arp.tv

It premiered January 16th at Sundance and will be released in the US in September. But here’s a little incentive to attend next week’s launch of the 2009 Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival. Organiser IMG FASHION Asia Pacific has partnered up with the Sydney Film Festival and RSFF's somewhat genius launch party is the Australian premiere of RJ Cutler’s much-hyped Anna Wintour/US Vogue frockumentary, The September Issue. Details (subject to change): Thursday 11th June, 8.30pm red carpet, 9.15pm screening, 11.00pm afterparty. By invitation only (see IMG). By all means move at a glacial pace towards the RSVP hotline. You know how that thrills AW.

The Devil wears a Q&A @ Sundance, Elle Driver to distribute 'The September Issue'

miramax via jurko.net


Yes R.J. Cutler’s US Vogue-dedicated frockumentary, The September Issue, has finally enjoyed its world premier at the Sundance Film Festival with no less than Wintour herself honouring the glacial festival with her notoriously glacial presence. Although in this video, below, of a post-screening Q&A which was uploaded yesterday – with, at the time of writing, a mere 200-odd views – Wintour comes across as quite warm. If a little eccentric – she insists on wearing her trademark sunglasses inside the theatrette, as if she’s front row at a fashion show. Gawker quotes an unnamed tipster who claims Wintour flew economy from Salt Lake City to New York. But one hilarious detail which appears to have escaped Gawker’s attention is the name of the distributor which has reportedly picked up international rights for the film. Elle Driver.

Elle Driver is the name of a bona fide, Paris-based distributor - whose previous films include, amusingly, a Polish production by the name of Four Nights with Anna.

In what frockwriter assumes may have been at the time an industry insider joke made by Quentin Tarantino, the director's fans will recall that Elle Driver is the name of the one-eyed hitwoman played by Daryl Hannah in Tarantino’s Kill Bill films.

A member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (the “DIVAS”) Elle Driver, aka “California Mountain Snake”, plays a key role in both Kill Bill Volume I and II.

At the beginning of the first film, Driver infiltrates the hospital in which Uma Thurman’s character, Beatrix Kiddo, has lain comatose for several years.

Driver has instructions from "Bill" to kill Kiddo - who survives only after Bill, Kiddo's nemesis and former lover, has a change of heart and decides the hospital hit is bad form.

Driver returns in the second film for a spectacular – and somewhat hilarious - Amazonian death-match with Kiddo.

Frankly frockwriter can’t think of a better film distributor for The September Issue. We’re not going even going to touch the Richard Prince/LV naughty nurse connections.

Carine to cross the pond?

new york magazine


Is life about to imitate art for Anna Wintour? According to Gawker, the world’s most powerful fashion magazine editor is to be replaced by her Paris Vogue counterpart Carine Roitfeld (^). Fans of The Devil Wears Prada may recall the book’s subplot to replace Runway editor Miranda Priestley – who is loosely based on Wintour herself – with Jacqueline Follet, the editor of Runway’s French edition.

Speculation has been raging since November 18 that Wintour, 59, may be about to depart Vogue after 20 years at its helm.

Although the claims were refuted by Conde Nast, sources told The New York Post that Wintour’s contract is due to expire and that she feels she has “done it all and had enough”.

Recent coverage of Russian Vogue editor Aliona Doletskaya prompted chatter that Doletskaya might one day be a suitable Wintour replacement.

But could Roitfeld, whose English, by her own admission “is not perfect”, realistically helm Condé Nast’s high-profile flagship fashion title, which was launched in the US in 1892?

Roitfeld also came to the editor’s chair of Paris Vogue via a styling background, as distinct from journalism, as was the case with Wintour and Diana Vreeland. That said, in between the latter two US Vogue editors, Grace Mirabella boasted a retail background.

And is Roitfeld's edgy personal and editorial style, moreover, the most obvious fit with the ultimately conservative US marketplace?

UPDATE: Since flatly denied by Conde Nast chairman Si Newhouse Jr, Roitfeld's daughter, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld - and now, Roitfeld herself.

Chanel confessions: Karl loves a ballbreaker, Anna downplays her glam

I'm backstage at the Grand Palais just off the Champs Elysees. It's 9.30am and a half hour to the Chanel show - in fact the first of what will be two Chanel shows this season.

It's the first time in fact that Chanel has split its ready-to-wear show into two - due in part to the fact that the staging is little more intimate, I am told, this season.

But due no doubt also in part to the ever-expanding interest in this privately-owned French luxury powerhouse whose sales are estimated to be US$3.3billion. At Chanel's creative helm is of course the seemingly indefatigable and eternally youthful, septuaganarian German designer Karl Lagerfeld.

People are everywhere and it's difficult to move.

There's Gemma Ward having a mascara touchup. There's Iekelienne having more pink blush applied.

There's another model having her hair crimped to resemble merino wool [oops!]. She is reading a Swedish celebrity tabloid called Aftonbladet. There's a table covered in small plastic bags. Inside each bag is a polaroid of a model and I can see one shot of Australian Catherine McNeil - who is, yes, all over these big shows - with her hair combed over her face. Maybe it's a styling idea that got canned. I say that because over on the other side of the room, Raquel Zimmermann sits with what appears to be the finished look: crimped hair that has been brushed out for a shaggy effect, but definitely off the face, with pale makeup and heavily-pencilled uberbrows.

A couple of models are tucking into little bowls of chocolate cocopop things. It looks like they're eating brown polystyrene chips. Good to see that there at least is food here. Last night backstage before YSL Iekelienne was complaining that she was starving but that all the food had gone. Outside in the foyer a humungous refectory table is laid out with food. From the requisite croissants to yoghurt and fruit platters, are also platters of cheese and bowls of pickled onions. Pickled onions for breakfast?

I walk back into the main backstage area and it's all happening. Not the show - just the backstage power posse.

Directly in front of me are Chanel owners, the brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, as well as Chanel president Francoise Montenay. All three seem to be exactly the same height - and come up to my ear. Anna Wintour is also there. The devil's not wearing Prada today but is a shimmering bronze vision in what I am reliably informed is a sable-trimmed, pearl-embellished Chanel haute couture cocktail suit.

The umpteenth Coco's Cabasse wafts past me. Quite seriously, if I see another of these bags, I may puke. A black patent vinyl tote with chain handle, this bag is the "must take" bag of AW0708 [see the "To the Manor bought" blog entry from the SS07 Fashion Season about the Burberry Manor bag] - gifted by Chanel to any fashion editors and journalists who aren't bound by ethics policies at their respective publications. And no doubt also a few who are. It has been everywhere this season. In Australia it retails for $2,100. Unlike the editors of course, you'll have to pay for it.

It's now 10.00am and I'm out front near the stage. There's an entire ice skating rink installation in the centre of the room, with fake 'ice' and snow. Suspended between the rink and the Grand Palais' magnificent domed glass ceilings are a series of 'clouds' fashioned from what looks like scrunched white gauze. Wintour and her hilariously camp offsider Andre Leon Talley hold court front row on one side of the skating rink.

I have been in Wintour's proximity on many occasions this season. For some reason this seems like an appropriate moment to approach her. I move in.

Now I have no idea whether Meryl Streep ever got to met Wintour in person prior to doing The Devil Wears Prada. But having now spoken to Wintour in person briefly, I should say that the withering tone so frequently adopted by Streep's Miranda Priestley character [which is supposed to be based on Wintour] is not too far from the real thing.

Although for the most part quite gracious and enthusiastic, Wintour adopts a withering tone twice. As she 'withers' curiously, she turns her head to one side - as if to express her utter disdain at the questions and to register that that is the end of the matter. On both occasions her British accent also seems crisper than usual. Perhaps she is simply embarrassed.

What is the secret do you think to the enduring appeal of Chanel?
Wintour: Well I think the enduring appeal of Chanel is all to do with Karl Lagerfeld who is this extraordinary human being in that he has such an open mind, surrounds himself with interesting people, he knows and loves culture of all kinds, popular, classical.... and I think it's all reflected in his collections. I mean without Karl, Chanel you know, would not be what it is today.

And he is an interesting case study in himself in that so many of his contemporaries have either retired or have lost their touch. He manages to stay hip.
Karl is eternally young. And he's interested in the future. What he always says to me the minute that a collection is over is, 'It's over'. He goes on to the next and I think that's a great strength.

Did The Devil Wears Prada have much of an impact on you?
Ah..... [withering, lowers voice] not at all.

In terms surely of fashion in film and on television now with that film and programs such as Project Runway you have to admit that fashion is everywhere?
Sure, I mean you know anything that celebrates fashion, whatever it may be, a movie, a television show, a book, online.... you know and I think one of the things that has interested me in the last three years is that so many of the designers are interested in doing small collections for people like H&M and Target. It just means that fashion is available on every level, whether it's the media or at different prices so that's great for the industry.

But there appears to be so much more interest in fashion now. Obviously everyone in the fashion world knows who Anna Wintour is however TDWP no doubt introduced you to a number of people who may not have been familiar with your name.
Well I think it's great for fashion and Amy [Astley] who is the editor of Teen Vogue gave a party just a couple of weeks ago for a young woman named Maria Sharapova, the tennis player. I was amazed at her knowledge of young designers, that she knew designers like Rodarte and Thakoon and I think that's because there is so much more coverage and interest in fashion than there ever has been. And so much more exposure on all levels. So I embrace that.

Do you think it's harder for young designers today to survive?
Well it's always been hard but I think talent always rises to the top.

Yes however they are obviously facing different challenges today.
Yeah but the good ones find partners, they find investment and they find a customer.

What is your definition of glamour?
[Laughs] My daughter.

Do you think you're the most glamorous woman in the world?
[Full wither, lowers voice] Of course not.

It's showtime and the models emerge onto the rink. It's a short, sharp show with plenty of the trademark Chanel glamour tweeds.

This season, any Chanel otaku will no doubt be thrilled to learn that they can kit themself out in Chanel tweed from top to toe - thanks to Lagerfeld's cute effort at, as he later explains, creating "endless" legs via matching tweed boots.

The back of Chanel's new season boot is fastened down the back of the leg with buckles and flaps. It's a kind of glam biker-meets-gladiator look.

The signature Chanel black and white is thrown out the window via a plethora of brightly-coloured tweeds and a series of shirtdresses with long tabard shirttails in bold colours such as turquoise.

The silhouette is long, waists are high and the eveningwear includes cocktail dresses in acid yellow and turquoise, some smart sequinned pencil skirts in silver or gold, teamed with graphic black/white tunic tops and slick strapless bustier dresses worn over skinny pants.

Add to that, some brightly-coloured enamel jewellery and yet more covetable Chanel boots - one pair in the trademark tan reach just over the knee, with a low, square heel and black 'racing stripe' down the outside of the leg.

After the show I run over to join the media scrum waiting for some Lagerfeld comments.

Although this scenario is played out at the end of every major international fashion show, the Chanel scrums always seem bigger than most. But at least they are civilised. Approximately 30 people have swarmed around Lagerfeld and we are packed so tightly together I believe I can feel the pelvis of the Asian woman standing directly behind me sticking into my back.

I am virtually piggybacking one security guard who is trying to shield Lagerfeld from the throng - and an Italian reporter has her arm around his neck trying to keep her balance on the rows of seating between which we find ourselves precariously perched. It occurs to me that you would never be this intimate with total strangers in any other situation.

Lagerfeld is wearing a black woollen peacoat, black pants, a black sweater with white ribbed turtleneck, burgundy Dior Homme sunglasses and silver Chanel mittens with silver discs on the knuckles.

Standing directly behind him at one point I can confirm that he does indeed powder his white ponytail - because I can see the white powder on his black ponytail elastic.

Making his hair whiter than usual is some 'snow' which fell from the clouds at the end of the show. It looks like chunky dandruff. With the white turtleneck, Lagerfeld also looks a bit like a priest - in the process of ministering to his congregation.

Someone moves out and I decide to carpe Karl.

As I flick out my tape recorder, he reaches out and grabs and holds my forearm for the duration of my questions. There is something sweet about it and I am secretly hoping that he doesn't remember that this time last week in Milan, after Fendi, I asked for his thoughts on anal electrocution.

The boots with the straps at the back - they looked like biker boots.
Lagerfeld: We called them spat boots, you know. It was the idea. Because you know if not they have the leg in some street maybe a little warm...

So are they a boot or a spat/gaiter?
No they are boots. Because it wouldn't fit well if it was added later.

We are seeing a lot of 'tough chic' on the runways, first in Milan and now also in Paris. What do you think about the whole idea of tough chic?
Because you know, I like women to be a little bit aggressive.

Really?
Yes, I think it's a good thing. Why not? Because if they're not aggressive, the men try to be aggressive [to] them so everybody can be aggressive. But in a nice way - because to be aggressive is sharp, huh?

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Seat wars #1: Checked out by Anna Wintour

I am standing outside the Narciso Rodriguez show. One of the bigger, buzzier names, Rodriguez is not on the official schedule but off it - and the front entrance is like Fort Knox.

A crowd of around 100 is standing in a queue waiting to get in. They are now letting some through. Curiously, some of these people seem to have tickets, while others do not. And quite a few of the latter are being let through because they are with the "right" person.

It's like a nightclub. Let's hope some of the hangers-on have jobs to do here because I and several others who don't have tickets, do, and we would like to be allowed to get on with that reportage. I'll get to why I don't have a ticket a little later. It is in part due to the size of this event and the shambolic manner in which it seems to operate.

"Erin you're OK, and you, you, and you are with Erin, you're OK too, come through" says one PR flack who is wearing de rigueur New York PR black, accessorised with mandatory Janet Jackson-style headset.

"You're all OK too" she says to another posse.

It seems the PR is fine with plenty of hangers on who don't have tickets, but she challenges one woman who does in fact have one. It should be pointed out that anyone who has a ticket but no assigned seating allocation must wait until the end, when they let in the unseated dregs.

"Excuse me, do you have your seating assignment?" the flack says to the woman.

"Cathy Horyn from The New York Times" the woman responds in a deadpan voice.

Another PR is kind enough to eventually let me in, once everyone else has gone through.

There must be 500 people inside here - a brick warehouse space with bare concrete floor. I make my way, as per usual when I don't have a seat, to the beginning of the runway where the models stand and pose for shots.

Apart from the minor inconvenience of having to stand, it's actually the best "seat" in the house. This fact appears to dawn on the Prada-loving devil herself, US Vogue imperatrix Anna Wintour, who is about a metre and a half in front of me, in what we both must assume is the best seat in the house.

Wintour checks me out. She seems to be thinking, "You interloper".

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