At the request of his friend Angela Missoni, director Pedro Almodóvar stepped in front of the lens for the new Missoni campaign, shot by Juergen Teller. He’s now reprising his role in a campaign video directed by Marco Maccapani. The video pays homage to the Spanish director’s own colorful, campy pop style—all the more so because it was shot at the Madrid club Villa Rosa, where he shot scenes for his 1991 film High Heels, with two of his heroines, Rossy de Palma and Blanca Suárez, most recently seen in The Skin I Live In. Mariacarla Boscono rounds out the cast of Todo Sobre Missoni, a tongue-in-cheek nod to Almodóvar’s hit Todo Sobre Mi Madre.
—Kristin Studeman
Author Archive
Saturday, May 5th, 2012
The Missoni He Lives In
Friday, May 4th, 2012
Weather Appropriate
Photo: Courtesy of Number:Lab
After weeks of unseasonably mild weather, the temperatures have dropped in New York in the past few days. And although designer Luis Fernandez is a Miami native, he was on the same page. For his Fall ‘12 menswear collection, the Number:Lab designer and CFDA Fashion Incubator (class of 2014) participant was inspired by ice climbing, glacial hiking, and Buckminster Fuller’s “ephemeralization” theory—essentially, doing more with less. The latter academic nod seems to come with the territory; Fernandez is a former architect and likes the clean aesthetics of Martin Margiela, Dries van Noten, and Tomas Maier. But it wasn’t quite the clinical iciness of, say, nineties minimalism. For one, he played with color and texture. The opening number (pictured), an overcoat and trouser ensemble, was cleanly rendered but in a ripe, rich red. Pants were a highlight, and one sharply tailored pair was spliced with gray charcoal in front and navy in back. Another tweed pair had an attractive seam that ran down the front of the leg. Later on, a wool plaid duffel coat in gray stood out. The fabric was given a polyurethane glaze and accessorized by sporty toggle closures, which gave a modern air without feeling too kitschy. Taken as a whole, Fernandez was most effective when the focus was on tailoring and less so when he veered into sporty territory—some pieces had enough visible zippers to be distracting.
—Bee-Shyuan Chang
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
Fitzwilliam Museum Chinese art theft Two held in London
"We are still keen to hear from anyone who has information about the burglary or the four men we are keen to trace in connection to the theft."
However, a spokesman from Durham Police said they were "keeping an open mind".
On Tuesday, CCTV images of four men sought in connection with the robbery were shown on BBC One's Crimewatch.
The two males arrested in London are being taken to Cambridgeshire for questioning.
It was later seen on camera in Trumpington Street, close to Hotel Du Vin, at 19:38, leaving the city.
Det Ch Insp Jim McCrorie, who appealed for information on the programme, said: "There was a significant response to the appeal but it is going to take time to work through inquiries.
A 25-strong team of officers is involved in the investigation into the theft of 18 items taken from the museum at about 19:30 BST on 13 April.
Both Cambridgeshire and Durham forces have confirmed they are not directly linking the two incidents.
Following the Crimewatch appeal, a police spokesman said more than 10 calls were received to the Crimewatch number and a number of other calls were made to a dedicated hotline.
A 28-year-old man and 15-year-old boy were arrested earlier at addresses in east London by officers from Cambridgeshire and the Metropolitan Police.
Police described the van as "vital to the investigation".
A number of other addresses in London are being searched.
The artefacts are thought to be worth in excess of £18m.
Police in Durham have also made two arrests in connection with the theft of Chinese jade and porcelain items, stolen from Durham University's Oriental Museum in early April.
Detectives investigating the theft of Chinese art from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge have arrested two people.
‘Significant response’
The museum and Cambridgeshire Police have refused to comment on security at the Fitzwilliam.
Officers are still appealing for information about a white Volkswagen Caddy van which was seen arriving in Grove Lane in Cambridge at 19:26 on the Friday evening, where it was parked for several minutes.
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
Film academy signs 20-year deal to keep Oscar show in Hollywood
The Academy Awards have been held at the theater within the Hollywood & Highland center since 2002, and the idea of a move downtown was viewed by Hollywood residents as a blow to the local economy and to the center itself, which built the 3,400-seat theater specifically to house the annual show. A move downtown would have offered the academy more room for outdoor activities in addition to a theater with twice the occupancy of its current location.
ALSO:
"The academy's board of governors believes that the home for our awards is in Hollywood," said Tom Sherak, academy president. "We are pleased to have a new agreement with CIM that will continue our longstanding partnership."
The Oscars aren't going anywhere. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Tuesday that it had signed a new 20-year deal with CIM Group to keep the annual Academy Awards show at the Hollywood & Highland Center through 2033. Also confirmed is a Dolby Laboratories agreement with the owners of the complex to take over the naming rights to the theater, previously belonging to Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy.
The agreement quells the rumors that the academy's board of governors was going to move its annual telecast downtown to the L.A. Live complex and its Nokia Theatre.
Oscar show may exit Hollywood
Photo: The annual Academy Awards show will stay at the Hollywood & Highland Center, until recently known as the Kodak Theatre and soon to be known as the Dolby Theatre, in Hollywood through 2033, thanks to a new deal. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
– Nicole Sperling
Goldstein: Texting in movie theaters: An idea whose time has come?
Lineup for Los Angeles Film Festival
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012
Christopher Kane’s Biggest Fan
We always thought of Jen Brill as a Proenza girl—she’s friends with the designers and often steps out in runway pieces before anyone else. We’re also accustomed to seeing the Chanel beauty ambassador in one of Karl’s creations. But we can’t help but notice the style setter’s feeling Christopher Kane of late. She’s worn the Scottish designer twice already this week. At the RxArt benefit she helped throw on Monday night, she wore a bright yellow dress from Kane’s Spring ‘11 “Princess Margaret on acid” collection, with a Fall ‘10 embroidered coat (center); and last night at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering benefit, she went for a leather-and-lace look from Fall ‘10 in black (right). For our part, we always thought the two were a natural fit—we asked Brill to model the T-shirt Kane designed for our tenth anniversary at our Tommy Ton-lensed shoot back in September (far left).
Photos: Tommy Ton; Neil Rasmus/BFAnyc.com; Sherly Rabbani and Josephine Solimene
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012
The Man Repeller Suits Up
—Kristin Studeman
Photo: Thomas Iannaccone
The suiting label Alex & Eli recently launched its e-commerce site, The Tailor Shop, which allows shoppers to customize one of four blazer silhouettes with their own choices of linings, fabrics, and buttons. “We envisioned creating an online store that channeled Savile Row, a place where dapper women could take part in sartorial experience,” says Anna Zeman, one half of the design duo. To celebrate the launch, Zeman and her business partner Aja Singer have enlisted a series of guest “tailoresses” to create a limited-edition blazer to their liking for sale on the site. Up next: Leandra Medine of The Man Repeller.
“She is definitely a girl that’s got some blazer swagger,” Singer tells Style.com. “And that’s what we’re all about…blazer swagger.” Medine designed a luxe two-toned blazer ($535) in forest green, with navy-blue suede sleeves and fur pompoms on the zippers. “We called it the ‘Mr. G’ because of a mutual obsession with the Australian TV show Summer Heights High,” Medine says. “Chris Lilley plays three different characters in the show, one of which is an overachieving, hyper performing-arts teacher—I think the blazer speaks well to [that] aesthetic.”
As for what’s next for the girls of Alex & Eli, Zeman says, “We are so focused on launching the gorgeous Mr. G blazer (and getting all those pompoms sewn on)” in time for the November 17 Soho House New York launch party (open to the public with RSVP to press@alexandeli.com) “that we can’t see much farther than three feet in front of our faces.”
Friday, April 27th, 2012
Recessionista Chic Leather Transformer
Isaac Mizrahi delivers what a girl wants!
I was lucky enough a few weeks ago to work with designer Isaac Mizrahi on his site, WatchIsaac.com.
He himself showed me this genius bag he designed for his Liz Claiborne New York. I love it because it serves two purposes: you can fold it over and wear it across your body and you can pick up the handles and carry as a tote! I think that’s terrific. It functions like the perfect bag for all occasions. It’s leather and comes in walnut, putty, rust and black. I also love the fact that it’s not logo’d to death. Chic, chic, chic!
Purchase information: Buy it here.
The great news is for a limited time you can shop like a celebrity and get 30% off at checkout! Actually, if you have time to scour the site, you will find so many things to shop for it’s going to be hard to tear yourself away.
PRODUCT DETAILS
Jackie Leather Flap Satchel
$178.00
Style: HLRU6920
30% off at checkout - Limited Time!
In a world of shoulder bags, have one that makes a statement. Fold it over or fill it up. Crafted in premium silky leather to look loved over time. Magnetic top closure. Canvas twill lined interior. Leather-trimmed interior pockets: PDA/Cell phone holder, zipped pocket and slip pocket with Liz Claiborne hardware logo tag. Gold-tone hardware. Contrast stitching. Chain link and leather shoulder strap. Double rolled handles, 5 1/2″ drop. Open 15 1/2″ H x 12 3/4″ L x 3 1/2″ W.
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
Le-Tan’s Library
—Tim Blanks
“I like being obsessed,” said Olympia Le-Tan on Thursday night as she welcomed visitors to the special project she had created for Pitti in Florence. And with an opening line like that, it was almost impossible to resist the web that Le-Tan had woven in the Museo Bellini, yet another of the jaw-droppingly beautiful Renaissance venues that seem to be ten-a-penny in Florence. When the Pitti organizers invited her to participate in this year’s event, it took Le-Tan mere minutes to decide that she would celebrate her favorite Italian films and books and, by extension, their directors and authors in the idiosyncratic medium that she has made her own—immaculately embroidered “books” that are actually handbags. The museum was draped in red silk curtains with the OLT logo, pink roses trailed over banisters, candles flared in the dusty air…atmosphere for days. Every shadowy room had vitrines displaying Le-Tan’s chosen 36 titles, precisely duplicated in thread as they would have appeared on the original book cover or movie poster. They covered a very comfortable waterfront from Visconti, Fellini, and Antonioni (her favorite of favorites) to Moravia, Machiavelli, and Pirandello.
But Le-Tan’s stroke of genius—as far as the Pitti exhibition went—was to persuade a game handful of friends to be photographed by Max Farago as a character from each of the 36. Olympia herself was the apogee of lush sensuality, posed as Silvana Mangano from a 1949 movie called Riso Amaro. Jennifer Eymere, editor of Jalouse magazine, made a very convincing Giulietta Masina from Fellini’s La Strada. Nightclub impresario André Saraiva was a plausibly penitent Jean-Louis Trintignant from The Conformist. As for Victoire de Castellane as Anita Ekberg in full clerical garb from La Dolce Vita? The success of that image was in inverse proportion to its unlikeliness. Poles apart were Hamish Bowles as Martin von Essenbeck, the cross-dressing Nazi from Visconti’s La Caduta Degli Dei (more familiar to English-speaking aficionados of early-seventies cinematic decadence as The Damned) and the ubiquitous Olivier Zahm, posed stark raving naked as a misbegotten extra from Pasolini’s terrifyingly transgressive Salò.
Later that same night, a handful of Le-Tan’s cast of characters regrouped on the Borgo San Jacopo to reflect on their re-conceptualisation of Italian culture. Most of them were French. You can imagine what they talked about.
Photos: Courtesy of Olympia Le-Tan
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
Gummy Bears, Mascara, And Berocca Your Complete NYFW Survival Kit
This week, the fashion pack descends en masse: New York fashion week begins officially on Wednesday (though many of us have shows and appointments as early as today). And how do the professionals prepare for a week-plus of no sleep, free Champagne, ten-show days, and endless nights? According to our expert panel—model Tao Okamoto, makeup maven Pat McGrath, street-style blogger Tommy Ton, Net-a-Porter buyer Holli Rogers, stylist Giovanna Battaglia, and more—with vitamins, gummy bears, mascara, kombucha, and jaunts to Turks and Caicos. (No, really.) Click here to check out their complete NYFW-prep regimens. And be thankful that however much you’re carting around over the course of the week, it’s gotta be less than Pat McGrath is: She and her 50 (!) assistants do the shows with up to 75 bags and up to 1,500 pairs of false eyelashes.
Photo: Courtesy Photo
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
Is This The Face Of Spring ‘11
Nashville, left; Peter Jensen, right.
Annie Hall, left; Marc by Marc Jacobs, right.
With the dust starting to settle on New York fashion week, one thing’s very clear: The seventies are back. Again. And rising from the rubble this time is an unlikely style icon: Shelley Duvall.
This isn’t the first rumbling of Duvall devotion. Marc Jacobs favorite Jamie Bochert is basically a dead ringer, and the heavy-bangs, center-parted shag that Duvall wore back in the day is making waves again. Those waiflike limbs that seem to go on forever—a little gawky, sure, but what could be better suited for all the high-waisted wide-leg trousers that walked the runway this week?
Peter Jensen dedicated his entire Spring collection to the actress (in her seventies iteration, that is). “Was ever a muse more perfect for Peter Jensen than Shelley Duvall?” he wonders in his collection notes. “Beautiful and awkward, chic and gangly, Duvall inspires a collection that takes seventies sophistication and marries it to a wide-eyed innocence.”
Not that innocent. Back in the seventies, Duvall was a thinking man’s sex symbol—the skittish stripper of Robert Altman’s Nashville, one of Alvy Singer’s neurotic conquests in Annie Hall. And here on the runways were clothes to match. Peasant tops at Rebecca Taylor looked like they’d been plucked straight from the firing-range scene in Altman’s 3 Women. The first few exits at Derek Lam were summer-ized, sexed-up versions of her hysterical housewife in The Shining. Marc Jacobs mined the Me Decade for both his main line and Marc by Marc collections, and his long, flouncy dresses would’ve suited her to a T.
Shelley, if you’re listening, your wardrobe’s ready—it hits stores this spring. Here’s hoping it’ll bring you back down to earth a bit. According to reports, you’re spending days in small-town Texas, on the hunt for aliens.
Photos: Everett Collection (The Shining, top; Nashville); United Artists/Everett Collection (Annie Hall); Marcio Maderia/FirstView.com (Marc by Marc Jacobs, Peter Jensen)
—Laurie Trott