Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large, with assistance from Joshua Drew
New York Fashion Week is well and truly under way, but there's plenty of news from all corners of the fashion world keeping us entertained this week....
The Queen by Karl (image www.metro.us)
Editor-in-chief was the new title given to Karl Largerfeld last week. The creative director of luxury French house Chanel turned his cutoff leather gloves to editing one of France’s biggest national newspapers, Metro, demonstrating once again his infamous superhuman abilities.
Karl's sketch commenting on the troubles in Syria (image www.metro.us)
After recently promoting his KARL by Karl Lagerfeld collection for Net-A-Porter (in a unique interview in which Karl interviews himself) we were glad to see the German designer being interviewed by a third party once more. Among Karl's list of favourite places to shop and eat were controversial comments about Adele, which proved a hot water topic amongst tweeters worldwide as Lagerfeld described the singer as "too fat." Another controversial Karl comment (JD) We hasten to add that Mr Lagerfeld has since apologised!
Miu Miu's London bags (image from graziadaily.co.uk)
All the major fashion cities- New York, London, Milan and Paris- went head to head this week as Miu Miu spoiled us with more of their fab accessories, just in time for fashion weeks. The collection comprises 46 styles in everything from ostrich and python skin to brocade and glitter. Very nice, but naughty with pieces starting £1,295 (JD)
New York bags from Miu Miu (image from graziadaily.co.uk)
Talking of amazing accessories, YSL's Cruise video is a delectable three minutes of fashion and accessory p*rn...
You're safe with LV (image from telegraph.co.uk)
Louis Vuitton is getting sexy. With the release of the most exclusive contraceptive to date, the LV condom is taking the brand's sexy kudos even higher heights than THAT AW11 fetish show. Would you take Vuitton to bed?
Another batch of magazine covers for us to mull over. We're mostly loving Victoria Beckham on iD, a completely unexpected match made in editorial heaven....
image from telegraph.co.uk
Fabulous Kate Moss in Erdem on W
image from telegraph.co.uk
Despite the dodgy reviews of his debut SS12 show, Kanye West confirmed that he'll be back at Paris in a few weeks to show his second collection. On top of that, it looks like the rapper turned designer might be ready for a diffusion range. he was apparently spotted having lunch with Phillip Green this week. Naturally, this has fuelled rumours of a Topshop collaboration.
Kanye West SS12 (image from catwalking.com)
While everyone on Twitter was complaining about the number of English people who are now willing to stay up for Super Bowl, my theory (from the evidence of my twitter feed, so biased perhaps) is that everyone was staying up for Madonna's half time show. She didn't disappoint with her Givenchy costume. The performance was pretty awesome too.
Riccardo Tisci's sketches for Madonna's costume (www.vogue.co.uk)
All Madonna images from dailymail.co.uk
And one of our favourite looks for NYFW yesterday comes from label to watch, Creatures of the Wind. Happy Weekend!
Yayoi Kusama has taken over Tate Modern. Even before you enter her brilliant exhibition (which opens today!) proper you will walk across the fourth floor landing, usually a stark, minimal area. During Kusama's exhibit however, there are huge red and white spotty balls which take the space into acid trip territory. It's an ideal amuse-bouche for the exhibition itself, which I saw at Tuesday's press view. The museum has done a brilliant job of translating Kusama's key themes of proliferation, obsession and maximalism into an immersive experience for visitors. The exhibition's curator, Frances Morris, describes Kusama as 'ceaselessly productive'. It was apt then, that just as the press tour was about to begin, Kusama arrived in her polka dot wheelchair, resplendent in a red and white spotted dress, the brightest red jacket, orange Louis Vuitton bag (they're sponsoring the show) and the most scarlett hair I've ever seen. Although she's a tiny figure with a faint voice, her arrival heralded chaos, the tour was postponed while Morris walked through the show with the artist. And so everyone in attendance bustled around, resembling the kind of clustered formation which Kusama is famed for creating in her work.
Yayoi Kusama arrives at the Tate Modern
Kusama is described by Tate Modern's director Chris Dercon as 'Japan's greatest living artist'. Her career spans six decades and her influences come from East and West. She was born in rural Japan to a well-to-do family whose trade was in seeds. It was expected that a girl like her would make a good marriage and become a dutiful wife and mother. However, Kusama was an unfailingly enthusiastic and talented creative from a young age; Morris speaks of the beauty of drawings Kusama did as young as ten years old. Her very early art references the traditional Japanese Nihonga painting, which is where the Tate exhibition begins. However, when she moved to the US at the end of the 1950s, there is a huge leap in Kusama's aesthetic. The room of white 'Infinity Net' paintings demonstrates how she immediately immersed herself in the techniques being employed by the people she connected with in Seattle and, later, in New York. Morris comments that, for many artists, that jump have been done over an entire career, but for Kusama it was 'almost overnight'.
The Infinity Net room- the most minimal of the show but beautiful studied up close.
As Kusama settled in the US, she was both an 'insider' and an 'outsider'. She was at the heart of the art world, with Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg among her contemporaries. But she also used her status as a woman from the East in her art; the slide show Walking Piece shows her looking distinctly Japanese in bright pink kimono and parasol, walking through the streets of New York.
Walking Piece, 1966
She continued living in New York and constantly evolving her work, experimenting with techniques including painting, sculpture and performance. In 1973, Kusama returned to Tokyo where she later admitted herself to a psychiatric facility. The hallucinations and obsessions which engulf her come out in her work to haunting and moving effect, especially in her sculptures where the scale and sense of uncontrollable multiplication are quite amazing. Yayoi Kusama still works from a studio across from the hospital.
Heaven and Earth, 1991
This exhibition is a must-see, no question. But there's a whole other aspect of Yayoi Kusama which makes it doubly worth a visit and that is, of course, fashion! As I mentioned, the exhibition is being sponsored by Louis Vuitton, ostensibly as part of their Young Arts Programme. But one of Kusama's other big projects this year just happens to be her collaboration with Louis Vuitton which the FashEd reported on back in January. My visit to the exhibition yesterday put Kusama's relationship with Vuitton into context though; fashion has punctuated her life. When she arrived in the US, Kusama sold kimonos which she'd brought with her from Japan to make money. Her art features shoes, bags and dresses, particularly in sculpture and collage form. She also had a fashion concession in a corner of Bloomingdales in the New York days.
One of Kusama's Accumulation collages
The Fash Ed and I have been trying to guess if there any clues about the collaboration which the exhibit might lend us...
The boxy shape of the pink and grey phallic dress is not so different to the silhouette we often see from Marc Jacobs. The phallic theme is possibly not super commercial, however we're sensing that Yayoi likes her metallics (see silver dress and bronze shoes below) and the big flowers on the silver dress are completely fabulous.
Silver Dress, from 1966
A Phallic shoe, from 1965
In her more recent work, Kusama has produced huge experiments in colour and pattern. Room 12 of the show is full of canvases which all show evidence of Kusama's 'codes', which Morris told us are evident from the very beginning of her career; eyes, ears, seeds, worms... So we reckon it's highly likely that we might see some bright and beautiful colour combos and all these little symbols on scarves. But then again, maybe not, because Kusama has teamed up with the Tate to do cards, hankies and tea towels in this style for their own shop.
Recent paintings by Yayoi Kusama
Of course, pumpkins and dots are Kusama's other main signatures. Given the outfit she chose for her London appearance, dots are still high on her love list. Or she might surprise us all with something completely different, which would hardly be surprising given the massive variation in all her work. We can't wait to see!
P.S This is a fab little film about Kusama's life as an artist...
Yayoi Kusama is on at Tate Modern from today until 5th June. Book here to avoid disappointment
For those of you too young to remember when shoes were not gimmicky, odd-looking, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink affairs with platforms, wedges, frills, multi-colours and ugly heels, here's a surprise. Once upon a time not very long ago, high-heeled fashion shoes were simply beautiful. They had sleek lines, no gimmicks and were generally a joy to behold. You slipped then on, they elevated the body by a few inches, lengthened the legs pushed out the hips at a certain sexy angle and that was it - good for a sexy sashay, and if needs be, to sprint a bit too.
The go-to man for beautiful shoes was Manolo Blahnik. Then along came the very lovely Mr. Louboutin, Mr. Kirkwood, Prada, Miu Miu, YSL and co adding more and more inches to their platforms until the day someone, somewhere said ENOUGH! Marc Jacobs was one of them. For both his Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs shows, his shoe designs directly referenced Manolo Blahnik signature mules and stilettos, and they were gorgeous, and now much copied on the high street.
Another was American Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley, who told the New York Times in a very prescient feature last October, "Fashion had to turn on its heel and return to beautiful shoes. They're a staple, something you have to have in your refrigerator like butter, or milk." My favourite line in the story was what the writer, Guy Trebay, saved until last. It was a quote from Sarah Jessica Parker, who should have shares in Manolo Blahnik, or at least a lifetimes supply, after she popularised Blahnik through her character Carrie's obsession with the shoes. "I walked in and looked around and saw all these shoes, and then I spotted the Manolos and it was like water in the desert," she said. "I was just so excited to see a simple black pump."
I'm with them. My latest shoe purchase is the "Opyum" by YSL. A beautiful shoe. Or as the Americans say a beautiful "pump".
The other day I was re-arranging my shoe cupboard so I could lend my little sister a pair for a wedding, and I came across an old pair of YSL platform ankle boots. You know the ones with a gold line around the platform? At one point in about 2006 or 7 every fashion editor I knew had a pair. At the time, they felt like serious platforms. I wiped the dust off them and slipped one on for old times sake. They felt like wearing nothing. To think they once they seemed so high.
For sure, there is now a backlash in place against gimmicky shoes. Perhaps for now they have scaled their highest heights and reached the weight limit for studs and other hardware. That isn't to say I don't love Nicholas Kirkwood's shoes for Meadham Kirchhoff. I LOVE, but I would look like a clown in them.
It's cold outside, here's some fashion news to warm you up...
Jonathan Saunders SS12
Congratulations to the super wonderful Jonathan Saunders who has won the BFC/ Vogue Fashion Fund Award. He'll get £200,000 and specific mentoring to help his business grow. It's clear to me that Saunders 'gets' something about what women want from their clothes which is why his sales have skyrocketed by 118% in the past year; for the London shows, every other front rower was wearing a piece of Saunders. We're really pleased for you Jonathan! Let's not forget the runners-up who must have made the panel's decision pretty tough; Peter Pilotto, Mary Katrantzou, Roksanda Ilincic, Richard Nicoll, Zoe Jordan, Nicholas Kirkwood, Marios Schwab and Meadham Kirchhoff.
When Jonathan's win was announced, Lulu Kennedy (who supported Jonathan through her Fashion East scheme early in his career) tweeted a picture of Natalia Vodianova wearing a Saunder's dress on the cover of Vogue in 2004. I thought it'd be nice to share- thanks Lulu!
Jonathan Saunders covers Vogue in 2004- image from Lulu kennedy's twitter
A look from Stine Riis' collection (from wwd.com)
The first winner of the H&M Design Award was announced at Stockholm Fashion Week yesterday. Stine Riis is originally from Denmark but recently graduated from London College of Fashion. She wins 50,000 euros as well as the opportunity to have pieces from her collection sold in H&M stores in the Autumn. Check out the video below for all the action from the final...
Talking of LCF, the FashEd and I had a brilliant and inspiring time on Tuesday night at the college's MA exhibition. We heard lots of great stories and saw some beautiful work. Look out for our full report next week.
Last year, Robin Derrick left British Vogue to work on the re-launch of the US edition of Harper's Bazaar. The fruits of his challenge to revamp the title were revealed this week with a stark monochrome cover starring Gwyneth Paltrow. According to our favourite New York tweeter @jimshi809 the 'Redesigned Harper's Bazaar US is one-inch bigger w/ thicker paper & new fonts & every new section starts w/ the world "the."' Now we know!
One of the many brilliant personalities in the Cunningham film, Shail Upadhya, a Nepalese UN representative and one of Bill's regular subjects.
This week, I spent an amazing evening at the UK premiere of 'Bill Cunningham New York', Richard Press's new documentary about the 80 year-old New York Times photographer. The event was sponsored by Grazia, and afterwards Paula Reed hosted a Q&A with Chris Moore, legendary catwalk photographer and owner of catwalking.com. His is a completely unique career which has seen him chart 'true' trends from the past half century. As well as paying attention to what's happening on the catwalks, Bill tirelessly scours the streets of NYC to discover what people are REALLY wearing and how they're wearing it. Many call him the original street style photographer. Although I think that's true, there's definitely much more to it than that which is why I am very happy to see the film's blurb describe him as a 'cultural anthropologist'. His observations are sharp and his knowledge of fashion and trends is encyclopaedic. His comparison of the work of Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garcons in the 80s with the style of the bag women living on the streets of New York at the time is still playing on my mind, and shows the unique position he is in to marry the pavement and the catwalk. The film is a must-see, even if fashion is not your thing. It's out at selected cinemas in March.
Cunningham's fab picture of Isabella Blow (from lightbox.time.com)
Another month, another round of magazine covers. Elle and Vogue have both gone with Louis Vuitton's sugar sweet broderie anglaise for their fronts covers. Lana del Rey is Vogue's new cover girl demostrating the astonishing speed of her rise from unknown to virtually notorious; her newly released album has not received the best reviews yet she is number one in multiple countries. But if Vogue puts her on the cover then it confirms that there is something of the zeitgeist about her. Given that Love magazine editor Katie Grand also consults for Louis Vuitton, we thought ice cream girly prettiness was a given for the publication's latest edition. How wrong we were. The cover line reads 'The End of Elegance' which seems a direct challenge to the ladylike loveliness which is clearly the prevailing mood. Does this mean pastels might be as fleeting an obsession as Lana del Rey?
Lana (by Mario Testino) prettified for Vogue (image from www.vogue.co.uk)
Linda Evangelista covers Love, shot by Mert and Marcus(image from @thelovemagazine)
Fragile: Linda Evangelista in Giles (image from @thelovemagazine)
FEAL is mostly about womenswear but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate a well-dressed man. Both of us think Tinie Tempah is a rather fab dresser so we are happy to see that he has been named Britains' Best Dressed Man by GQ. In other news from the list, Prince William didn't make it into the top 50 despite that bright red Irish guards wedding outfit. Wills, if you're upset at GQ's decision we suggest ditching the flat caps and 'cashmere jumper round shoulders' as starting points for sartorial transformation in time for next year, or ask your Dad who scraped in at no. 50.
Tinie does bow ties and monochrome (image from telegraph.co.uk)
After revelations about extravagant mid-recession halloween parties, we'd have thought the Obamas would be keen to avoid any more big spending sprees- not such great publicity in election year. So the story that Michelle paid a visit to the Madison Avenue branch of Agent Provocatuer and picked up $50,000 worth of goodies- lucky Barack- seems very unfortunate. She was apparently accompanying Sheikha Mozah, the Queen of Qatar, during her trip to the US last year. However, Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary, strongly denied the story telling WWD:
'In this case, it’s utterly false, and it’s irresponsible of an American news organization to repeat the story, even allowing that it could be true. So it’s wrong.'
Apparently The White House was unable to provide 'evidence' that the First Lady had not visited the purveyors of sexy underwear- the mind boggles. While Michelle cannot be too pleased about the story, Agent Provocateur say the 'unexpected famous names' who patronise the business have contributed to its continued growth.
The Obamas are joined by Tim burton at their halloween do in 2009 (image from chicksontheright.com)
Belgian designer A.Knackfuss is set to be a highlight of the showcase (image from mussola.style.it)
Finally, while we thought the images for Prada's SS12 campaign were a bit boring but the accompanying video, released this week, adds a bit more attitude to the concept, don't you think?
2012 will be a landmark year for Louis Vuitton. Or conversely a big year for us and our interaction with brand Louis Vuitton in ways that involve more than gawping at the runway pictures (or in my case admiration from my ringside seat).
LV's first ever perfume is in progress with none other than Jacques Cavalier-Belletrud the nose behind Lancome's Poeme and Dior Addict at the mixing desk. This pretty much guarantees the fragrance will be sexy and feminine. On March 9th, a day after the close of Paris Fashion week, La Musee des Arts Decoratifs opens Louis Vuitton - Marc Jacobs exploring the parallel fashion stories of Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs on their century apart ride through the eras of, respectively, industrialisation and globalisation. The launch party on March 8th will come hours after the Vuitton show which closes Paris Fashion Week.
In addition Marc Jacobs spoke publicly for the first time about turning down the Dior job offer and why he is happy to stay at Louis Vuitton saying "It was best for everyone." :
"It’s a great honour to be considered, and Mr Arnault is a super intelligent man and a very smart man and it was certainly a very great honour for him to know that I was capable – and not only capable but that I am someone that he would have wanted for the job. But I am very happy to be here. There is so much more left to do and building Louis Vuitton into a fashion company is something nobody else can say they really started." (via Telegraph Fashion)
It is utterly enchanting that Mr Vuitton created this trunk, doll and dolls trousseau in 1865
Before all of the fashion week and exhibition hoo-ha, on February 9th, Louis Vuitton steps out as the bold face backer of "Yayoi Kusama" at Tate Modern in London. The exhibition, two years in the making with intense collaboration between the Tate and Kusama, is an epic look at the work of the 60-year career of the Japanese artist as notorious for her prodigious output of polka dot paintings as she is for her mental instability. Looking at 82-year-old Kusama's work is akin to taking a trip, only without putting the LSD on your tongue and getting on the magic carpet...
Yayoi Kusana going dotty (via creativityfuse.com)
When it was first announced that Vuitton was backing Kusama at the Tate I thought it was a missed opportunity for the brand not to collaborate with her on a special accessories and fashion collection. Anyone who remembers the frenzy and wonder of the collaborations with Murakami and Sprouse can see the dotty possibilities of what a Vuitton and Kusama product might look like.
Murakami meets Louis Vuitton 2003
When I asked the Vuitton team if such a collab was in the offing I saw a glint in their eye, but a denial came from their lips. HOWEVER they were fibbing!
Yayoi Kusama - here's hoping an adapation of this appears on an LV Speedy and a scarf come July
The artist in the 1960s
Vuitton would never miss an opportunity like this. The work of Kusama is a gift from heaven for them, and OF COURSE they are doing a collection. Marc Jacobs is a longtime admirer of Kusama so it really was only a matter of time. The February edition of Vogue confirms it, though the info is buried in Harriet Quick's excellent profile of Kusama. Well, here it is..
In July Louis Vuitton WILL oversee the global launch of its most expansive collaboration ever - bigger than both Murakami and Sprouse. Now that IS big. It takes a lot for me to get excited about a product launch but this one has got me VERY excited. Now, Louis Vuitton PR team when oh when can we see it? And does it it mean Marc and Lorenzo (below) will have a new set of multi-coloured dotty beach bags, trunks and towels for their next vaycay? Please get back to me on this.
It may be cold outside but there's nothing like a ice cream sweet new Louis Vuitton advert to brighten the day. After the merry-go-round setting of the SS12 show, the location for the ad campaign had to be equally evocative of innocent, childish fun times. And where better to go after a fairground visit than for a knickerbockerglory... And so Steven Meisel and Marc Jacobs chose an ice cream parlour as the setting for the campaign which only strengthens the message we got from the show- that is, you can't get too saccharine for Spring this year. The sweeter and prettier the better.
Image from fashiongonerogue.com
The models, a blonde and a brunette, are Daria Strokous and Kati Nescher. Both walked in the show back in October.Jacobs told WWD 'It is all very soft and very sweet, yet at the same time very bold and very graphic'. That boldness surely comes from the absolute commitment to sweetness which this collection, and these ads, show. There is also a lot of humour too, from the models' playful poses to the desserts waiting to be eaten. But there is still structure coming from those signature boxy jackets and, of course, the accessories. Oh Marc, you're clever!
Backstage at LV SS12 (Image from lloyd-evans.com)
Today's advent choice is a direct consequence of waking up to these images. I've always hankered after a Pashley bicycle and the Vuitton ads bring that wish back to the front of my mind. Apart from one of those Speedy or Lockit bags, a pink Pashley Poppy is possibly the perfect accompaniment to a Vuitton-like SS12 outfit. I say 'like' because I can guarantee that for those of us who can't quite buy into Marc's vision directly, there will be a wealth of choice on the high street for making your own version pastel-y loveliness. The Pashley will take you from fairground to ice cream parlour very nicely, without ruining the fantasy.
Louis Vuitton sent us these pictures showing some of the latest celebrities showing off their SS12 Vuitton. Although the dresses look beautiful, in a real life setting so much of that sorbet sugariness is taken away that these pieces take on a whole new vibe in my eyes. So basically, you can wear your LV SS12 on a Pashley in the sunshine, ice cream in hand. Or contrast its the lightness with a night time film premiere/ party- the choice is yours...
The ever elegant Cate Blanchett
The ever sweet Elle Fanning
Olivia Wilde (images courtesy of Louis Vuitton)
Today's quote and video come from the most sugarly sweet character there ever was...
