Monday, December 31, 2018

New Year Honours List: The Queen Recognises Twiggy, Thandie Newton And Margaret Atwood

A prominent face of fashion since the '60s, Twiggy will be presented with a damehood for services to fashion, the arts and charity. Speaking of her new title, the model, 69, said: "I'm a very proud Brit, I feel I'm an ambassador for Britain, I always have... My only sadness with this is my mum and dad aren't here to know. They'd have been so proud," reports The BBC.

Thandie Newton, 28 years since she made her film debut alongside Nicole Kidman in Flirting, is awarded an OBE for services to film and charity. Artist and winner of the Turner Prize Gillian Wearing, who this year was charged with the creation of the very first statue of a woman to be placed in Parliament Square, is named CBE for services to art.


Also recognised is Hotel Rwanda and Anthony and Cleopatra actress Sophie Okonedo for her contribution to drama. Okonedo sees her OBE from 2010 upgraded. Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood is alone in the list in receiving the highest honour Her Majesty can bestow: the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature.

While 544 women are being honoured in the biannual list, the figure makes up just 47 per cent of the overall recognised, which is the lowest percentile in five years. Other notable faces this year include Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and Dunkirk director Christopher Nolan who both receive CBEs. 90-year-old model Daphne Self receives a BEM for services to women and fashion, while Helen Pankhurst is made CBE for services to gender equality.

Miley Cyrus Marries Liam Hemsworth In Vivienne Westwood

Three Instagram pictures were all it took for Miley Cyrus to put a stop to the rumours surrounding her marriage to Liam Hemsworth. The couple, who have dated on and off for 10 years, were indeed wed at an intimate ceremony at Cyrus’s Tennessee property on the evening of December 23. The photographs that subsequently emerged on social media show the newlyweds embracing in front of a festively decorated fireplace.

In the third portrait, the singer tagged Vivienne Westwood, the creator of her off-the-shoulder silk gown. Hemsworth, who captioned his corresponding Instagram post “My love”, wore a black suit and trainers for the celebration.


Reports of a wedding began circulating earlier this week, when the couple’s friend Conrad Jack Carr posted Instagram stories of Cyrus, clad in her Westwood dress, and Hemsworth, stood amongst Mr and Mrs balloons. Cyrus’s mother, Tish, and her sisters, Noah and Brandi, as well as Liam’s brothers, Chris and Luke, were also present as the duo cut a cake.


After meeting on the set of 2010 teen romance The Last Song, Hemsworth proposed to Cyrus in 2012. The couple called off their relationship a year later, but began seriously dating again around 2016.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Raf Simons Exits Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein is parting ways with its chief creative officer, Raf Simons, less than two years after the designer showed his first collection for the brand. Simons first joined the American label in August 2016, prior to which he held the role of creative director at Dior. His departure is effective immediately, and reportedly comes more than eight months before his contract was due to expire.

"Both parties have amicably decided to part ways after Calvin Klein Inc. decided on a new brand direction which differs from Simons’s creative vision," said parent company PVH in a statement. Consequently, the brand will not be showing on the February 2019 New York Fashion Week calendar.

The break-up will not come as a surprise to many. While Simons's tenure undoubtedly put Calvin Klein back at the forefront of fashion, infusing its Manhattanite minimalist sensibility with political edge in a series of shows which challenged the status quo and questioned what it means to be a boldfaced American brand in the Trump era, commercially it has failed to fly.

In November, on the back of disappointing third-quarter results, PVH CEO Emanuel Chirico criticised a "soft" performance. “The Calvin Klein brand continues to command strong brand health and desire in all markets. However, the business in the third quarter experienced softness. While many of the product categories performed well, we are disappointed by the lack of return on our investments (...) and believe that some of the Calvin Klein Jeans relaunched product was too elevated and did not sell through as well as we planned," he said, in a transcription of the post-earnings call posted on the company’s website.


Simons's appointment in 2016, while hailed in the fashion press as an exciting industry development, was nevertheless an odd choice for a company as sprawling as Calvin Klein. In 2014, global retail sales of products sold under the Calvin Klein brands were approximately $8.1 billion. Insiders questioned how Simons, who has an immaculate high fashion CV, having turned out cerebral clothes at gilded houses such as Jil Sander and Dior, would cope with total control over the mass-market behemoth that at the time comprised Calvin Klein Collection, Calvin Klein Platinum, Calvin Klein, Calvin Klein Jeans, Calvin Klein Underwear and Calvin Klein Home brands - brands which he was charged with unifying under one creative vision. They also questioned his motives: after having left Dior, Simons gave a series of interviews lamenting the relentless pace of fashion.

His debut collection, in February 2017, was the talk of New York Fashion Week. British Vogue deputy editor Sarah Harris described the collection as "a celebration of America seen through an exacting eye and his precision cut." Christening the catwalk line "Calvin Klein 205W39NYC" Simons succeeded in bringing an arthouse allure to American favourites, such as band uniforms, varsity sweaters and easy tailoring. He invested his catwalk shows with a throb of electricity via industrial quantities of popcorn, for instance. And he single-handedly rebooted the cowboy boot.

Simons's spring/summer 2019 collection, which heavily referenced films such as The Graduate and Jaws, was presented at New York Fashion Week in September. Models wore mortarboards and the famous shark film poster was emblazoned with the “cK” logo and printed on tanks and tees. Now, that imagery seems prescient.

Mert And Marcus Make Fashion Design Debut With DSquared2

DSquared2 has made fashion headlines twice this week. First, Cardi B set Instagram alight by posting a picture of herself modelling the brand’s Giant trainers. Giant by name, giant by nature. The ultra-chunky style seems to combine two ’90s-style sports shoes balanced on top of one another in a dad sneaker to end all dad sneakers. The rapper might wax lyrical about Balenciaga trainers – “the ones that look like socks” – but her post of the Giants has amassed over four million likes so far.

Secondly, Dsquared2 founders and creative directors Dean and Dan Caten announced that they have tapped Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott for a capsule. The Mert and Marcus 1994 x Dsquared2 collection will mark the first time the photographers, who were recently honoured with the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator at the Fashion Awards 2018, have stepped into the design sphere.


As suggested by the title, the clothing edit will celebrate the spirit of the ’90s. Comprising overalls, bombers, tank tops, hoodies, oversize T-shirts, asymmetric dresses and boxy tailoring in laminated, paper-like and rubberised materials, each aspect is infused with the underground vibe of Berlin’s metropolitan scene.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Mert and Marcus project if the pair’s photography didn’t play a part. Archive imagery, including pictures of Kate Moss, are plastered across some of the looks, including the post box-red all-in-one that has been revealed so far.

The Message Behind Michelle Obama's Sparkly Balenciaga Boots

Christmas is officially here thanks to Michelle Obama’s holographic glitter boots. Her thigh-high Balenciagas served up glad tidings yesterday when she walked on stage at Brooklyn Barclays Center for a conversation with Sarah Jessica Parker – and, acted as a reminder that the sartorial restraints surrounding her title as First Lady are long gone.

Followers of the new author’s Becoming book tour will have witnessed the progression towards these disco booties. With stylist Meredith Koop steering the course, Obama has worn Pyer Moss and Balmain – the latter a striped, sequin-embellished suit that would intimidate some of Olivier Rousteing’s Balmaination.


The yellow silk Balenciaga spring 2019 dress with knotted waist detail was the pièce de résistance of the tour so far. With the side slit splaying open to reveal her thigh-highs, Obama proved that her boots were not made for walking, but strutting into 2019.

“Now, I’m free to do whatever,” she told Parker, adding that there was no real message behind the £2,935 boots. “They were just really cute,” she explained. “I was like, ‘Those some nice boots!’”

Thursday, December 20, 2018

From Chiara To Karlie, Why Dior Has A Pulling Power For Brides

Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1979, Gwen Stefani in 2002, Miranda Kerr in 2017: Dior has dressed high-profile brides since Christian Dior’s tenure on Avenue Montaigne, Paris. 2018 was no less of a success in the bridal stakes for the brand. Karlie Kloss and Chiara Ferragni walked down the aisle in custom Dior confections that took 700 hours and 1,600 hours to create, respectively. As the year draws to a close, current creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri tells Vogue why the enduring appeal of Dior means that the brand will deck brides out for their big days during decades to come, too.

Dior represents the dream of fashion,” says Chiuri. “The iconic silhouettes embody a timeless idea of beauty, channelling the wearer and showing off her figure, thus helping to mark the uniqueness of a moment.”

The formula is really that simple: the legacy of a storied brand combined with the bespoke craftmanship offered by its atelier equates to bridalwear coveted by women all over the world. The one thing they have in common? A close relationship with the house and a budget to fund all those hours of painstaking needlework. “Each wedding dress is specially designed to showcase the bride through dressmaking that brings out their personality, attitude, movements and character,” Chiuri continues. “Every woman is different. On her wedding day, it's only right that she feels herself and the star of an unforgettable moment.”

First up, Ferragni, the Italian blogger and super-influencer, who married singer and X Factor judge Fedez on September 1 wearing two couture dresses for the ceremony and reception. “With Chiara, there's always been a special relationship, a deep friendship,” Grazia shares. “She loves fashion and it's clear to her that it's both work and play, self-discipline and fun. Through the two dresses, I was able to bring out Chiara: strong and romantic at the same time.”

The wedding dress itself required 400 metres of fabric to create the bustier and front-opened skirt made of numerous superimpositions of tulle. The reception gown, a pale pink tulle and silk organza design embroidered with motifs evoking the couple's shared history, was no less time-consuming. “What I love about these dresses is the complexity of the lacework inspired by traditional Sicilian lace, and the embroidery, which features the lyrics and melody from her own love story,” its creator adds.


October 18 saw Kloss marry entrepreneur and investor Josh Kushner wearing a dress crafted from 400 metres of lace and 300 metres of tulle, with an additional eight metres of tulle for the veil. “I've known Karlie for a long time, she is a positive example of empowerment," notes Chiuri. "She perfectly embodies my ideal of the contemporary woman, the strong, feminine spirit I think of when I'm designing."

Chiuri wanted to create something truly unique for her “woman of today”. “The dress is modelled on Karlie's body, and brings together the determined and dreamy sides of her character,” she explains. Covered in Chantilly lace so that no seams were visible, the bodice was created as an extension of her skin. The skirt, on the other hand, was “a tribute to feminine lightness and grace: a wide, wispy, weightless cloud.”

How does it feel for Chiuri to be asked to create such emotionally-signficant and highly-publicised gowns (Ferragni’s Instagram reveal of her dress has garnered close to three-million likes and Kloss’s first post amassed over one million)? “For me, [a person choosing to wear the brand] means that Dior will always be part of a happy memory,” Chiuri adds. “This fills me with pride. Making a wedding dress means sharing a very intimate moment of their lives and this, both professionally and personally, is truly thrilling.”

The feeling, of course, is mutual and the reason why both Ferragni and Kloss looked to Chiuri, the woman currently keeping the spirit of Monsieur Dior's maison alive, to marry in. As the designer has said before, the chapter she is writing in the company's history is about celebrating femininity and female empowerment, and bringing this message – along with the heritage – to a growing Dior audience. "People believe couture is only expensive, but it's about tradition," she told Vogue earlier this year. "There's a new generation that wants to discover craftsmanship because they really want the human touch." A proposition that no doubt hits home for brides all over the world searching for The Dress.

Victoria Beckham Will Not Return To NYFW For AW19

The Council of Fashion Designers of America has released a preliminary schedule for New York Fashion Week autumn/winter 2019. Notable absentees include Rodarte, which is moving to Los Angeles, Escada, Pyer Moss, which recently won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award, and Victoria Beckham.

Beckham swapped her slot on the New York show schedule for London Fashion Week last season as part of her brand's 10th anniversary celebrations. She marked a decade in the business by screening the show and a mash-up of her label highlights around Piccadilly Circus, creating an anniversary product edit, holding customer events in her Dover Street store, and staging a party in collaboration with Vogue. The London reception was so positive that Beckham has decided to take up the 10am slot on Sunday, which will fall on February 17 next time around, again.


Returning to the NYFW schedule is Longchamp, which staged its first New York show in September in tandem with its 70th anniversary celebrations. Palm Angels, the Milan-based streetwear brand much hyped on Instagram, also stands out as a newcomer on the calendar.

The autumn/winter 2019 shows will also mark the first time the men’s and women’s shows run consecutively after one another. Bridging the gap is Tom Ford, who will present a co-ed collection on February 6 – the last of the three-day men’s-specific schedule – at 8pm. The men's presentations, which normally don't receive the same air time as the women's, will undoubtedly benefit from the union.

Ganni Is Opening A London Store

Ganni fans, rejoice! The Scandi brand has finally taken hints from London street stylers filling their e-comm baskets with its printed wares, and is setting up shop in London.

The 2000-founded brand, which was reborn in 2009 when husband-and-wife duo, creative director Ditte Reffstrup and CEO Nicolaj Reffstrup, took the reins, has signed a lease for a 2750 sq ft store at 36 Beak Street. Not only seconds away from the cinnamon buns at Golden Square institution The Nordic Bakery, the Danish brand will find itself next to a new Swedish neighbour. Viu Eyewear will open the doors to a 850 sq ft space at 5–6 Upper James Street in 2019 too.


Although no official date has been confirmed for the Reffstrups to cut the ribbon, Ganni’s London outpost is slated for completion in spring. The news, which follows Eytys and Stüssy setting up shop in Soho in 2018, is certainly welcome during a time when London’s retail climate looks uncertain. “Soho is the perfect environment for their debut in the capital,” Levy Real Estate, which advised the landlord Titan Investments on the deal, told The Evening Standard. “There’s no sign of these brands being deterred by the ongoing Brexit confusion.”

Although Ganni is available to purchase in more than 400 retailers around the world, and has had successful pop-up shops in London, the location on Beak Street is the first time Londoners will have the luxury of browsing the rails comprising its signature patterned dresses, denim and Instagrammable accessories in person.

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

The Best Presents To Buy This Year, According To The Stars

Nicole Kidman

My daughters Sunday and Faith had dreamed about having their own kittens for so long. They are very close and wanted pets that would emulate their sisterly bond. My husband, Keith [Urban], and I found two beautiful sister Siberian kittens and put bows on them, then surprised the girls. They named the kittens Ginger and Snow because of their colouring. They are both so sweet in nature, and the girls adore them and take them wherever they travel. Who wouldn’t want a kitten with a bow on it?

Michaela Coel

Although I hardly celebrate Christmas, and give presents only if a friend of mine has had a rough year, I’m a massive reader, and like to give books that have made a real impact on me, such as The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari. This year, I loved Melissa Broder’s novel The Pisces, about a girl whose boyfriend dumps her after nine years together. It’s a good balm after a heartbreak – especially because it’s seriously funny as well. Otherwise, my present-giving is totally spontaneous (I’m also an appalling wrapper; I carry presents around in my handbag and whip them out at the last moment). Recently, for example, I was filming a project in Ghana, and one of my co-stars was having a birthday. He’s obsessed with bright colours, and I asked my mum to make all of us outfits from traditional kente cloth as a surprise – including a patterned suit for him – then flew his mum out to celebrate with us.


Hikari Yokoyama

I still believe that the best gifts are the ones you make yourself. When I have the luxury of time, I love to create photo albums by hand – could be of a holiday or could just be random memories of a year. If I’m too busy around Christmas, though, the company Keepsaker will edit down your photographs then bind them into a gorgeous leather album for you. A Russian friend of mine put me in contact with the wholesaler Princesse d’Isenbourg, which stocks the most incredible decadent foods in a strange warehouse filled with sea-themed tchotchkes, and one year I gave everyone baskets of food, the highlight being tins of caviar. You can go for a tasting and there is every imaginable variety – from Royal Beluga to Oscietra – and it’s much more affordable than buying retail. Plus, everyone loves caviar, including a so-called vegan I know. If you have anyone in your life who’s really difficult to shop for, make an appointment with Idea Books. The team has a little room in Soho that’s filled floor-to-ceiling with vintage books, rare catalogues and editions touching on every possible subject, from Provençal gardens to David Bowie. You’re guaranteed to find a volume on even the most niche of interests.

Isla Fisher

I converted to Judaism before marrying my husband, Sacha Baron Cohen, a few years ago, and I adore Hanukkah. Of course, this being my family, our celebrations are a little… different. I listen to my brother-in-law Erran Baron Cohen’s rap album, Songs in the Key of Hanukkah, on repeat, and our table is covered with the opposite of traditional blue and white decorations – kitschy antique menorahs everywhere. In terms of presents, we tend to go in for experiences, both over the holidays and all year round. (Case in point: my husband once managed to convince Katy Perry to sing for me and all of our friends in our garden, where she belted out Roar into a glittery microphone.) Most recently, for my mother’s 70th birthday, I got our entire family together at a villa in Provence for a Noël Coward-themed party. There were musicians playing her favourite songs from that era and tons of bellinis with fresh peach juice. The night ended with the two of us in a lip-sync battle at three in the morning. Classic.

Halima Aden

As a girl, I always dreamed about going to college and finding a job that would mean I could afford to buy my mother a trip back to her native Somalia. She had to flee after her village was invaded during the civil war, ending up in a refugee camp in Kenya before resettling in the United States. As it turned out, I became a model instead of going to university, and the first big purchase that I made was a ticket for her to go back home. She was able to visit my grandmother and my older sister Asha, from whom she had been separated for more than 20 years. She was even there for the birth of Asha’s child. My mother is my hero, and it was incredibly special to be able to reunite her with our family.


Elizabeth Saltzman

I have to be honest: I’m a Jewish 53-year-old, and I’m obsessed with Christmas. Actually, I am obsessed with the idea of making people happy, and what makes me happy is being able to give. I’m also the idiot who feels compelled to find a gift for every single person I know. Tom Ford says that I should have gone into business doing it. My go-to present is a miniature Christmas tree that can be planted after the holidays are over. Everybody in my life gets one. I head to New Covent Garden Market at 5am to choose them (the sellers there recognise me as the crazy lady who takes home 350 pine trees every year), then I put on an elf hat and wrap every single one – usually with bows. For good measure, I save every ribbon that comes into my office and reuse them at Christmas time. It adds a personal touch, and I feel like I’m giving back to the environment in a small way. My other trick is to collect luxurious blankets, scarves and throws for people when I’m on the road and have them embroidered with the date and the names of everyone that they love.

Tracee Ellis Ross

I learned my approach to present-giving from my mother [Diana Ross]. She always told me that you should choose a gift for somebody based on what you most love receiving. I adore flowers, so I send a lot of bouquets, which just brings so much joy. My mother is also the sort of person who will give you the shirt off her back if you compliment her on it, and I’ve inherited that love of giving away sentimental treasures to the right person at the right moment. Recently, a friend of mine was about to undergo surgery, and I gifted her a pair of earrings of mine that she had always loved. It was a beautiful moment.

A First Look At The New Chanel Documentary Coming To Netflix

Karl Lagerfeld is coming to Netflix. A new documentary, entitled 7 Days Out, focuses on the final preparations before Chanel’s haute couture spring/summer 2018 show, which was held on January 23rd.

From the studio to the ateliers, director Andrew Rossi was given unprecedented access to the brand and its creative director for one week prior to the presentation of 68 handcrafted looks emulating the spirit of la vie Parisienne. Chanel fans will remember that this was the couture celebration that saw Lagerfeld forgo his usual theatrics in the Grand Palais and construct a palatial French garden setting. How did he erect that 18th-century fountain and the surrounding rose-studded pergolas for the models to circle? The painstaking road to perfection will be revealed by Rossi, the man also behind The First Monday in May.


Two weeks before it is set to air, Netflix released a trailer for the 7 Days documentary series, which will explore a week in the lives of visionaries from the fields of fashion, food, space, sports and entertainment as they plan for iconic cultural events.

The inaugural episode, 7 Days Out, centres on the house of Chanel and will be available on Netflix from December 21st.

H&M Collaborates With Cult Footwear Brand Eytys On Genderless Collection

At the heart of the fashion-forward, normcore range are Eytys's signature chunky-soled shoes - from robust boots and sneakers to plimsolls. Each pair comes in a custom-designed box patterned with artwork by Stockholm-based painter Zoe Barcza. The partnership between the brands has “extracted the core of Eytys DNA”, according to a statement by H&M, which for the clothes includes boxy silhouettes in faux patent leather jackets, graphic tees and stiff cotton trousers.

"With this collaboration, we hope to introduce the H&M customer to our design philosophy of robust and fuss-free design where function triumphs embellishment and styles spans genders," Max Schiller, Creative Director at Eytys, says of teaming up with the high-street giant. "The collection is all about proportions – creating a distinct unisex silhouette by playing around with loose silhouettes and chunky architectural footwear. It’s the Eytys idea of a ‘generic’ look, one that is meant to elevate integrity, attitude and confidence.”


Of the collaboration, H&M's Ross Lydon and Ann-Sofie Johansson said: "It wasn’t a deciding factor but more about feeling and leveraging our shared history and culture. We both share a pared-back design aesthetic and a no-fuss approach. Ultimately, the shoes and clothes created by Eytys have a versatility and a ubiquity that befits their wardrobe staple status, and their emphasis on detail, quality and price also aligns with what H&M values. It was a very natural and easy-going collaboration – the mutual respect for each other was apparent from the start."

Will The Red Carpet Still Be Relevant In 2019?

"Who are you wearing?” That has been the perennial question on the red carpet for the past two decades, as reporters asked stars about their dresses, beauty routines and exercise regimes. But at the 2018 Golden Globes, the phrase rang hollow. Following the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the launch of Time’s Up, more than 300 women in Hollywood had announced their intention to wear black to raise awareness for gender inequality. In response, E! Entertainment, the US network that has long been the home of red carpet reporting, announced they would be changing their signature question to “Why are you wearing black?”. When Ryan Seacrest posed this to Meryl Streep, who was attending with the activist Ai-jen Poo, she replied, “We feel emboldened in this moment to stand together in a thick black line dividing then from now.” Streep was presaging a new era for women in Hollywood, but also the beginning of the end for the red carpet as we know it.

Red carpets have a long and illustrious history. The earliest reference to one can be found in ancient Greece, with Aeschylus’s 458 BC play Agamemnonshowing a red carpet being rolled out for the eponymous king upon his return from the Trojan war. His wife Clytemnestra says, “step down from your chariot, and let not your foot, my lord, touch the earth.” He responds, “I am a mortal, a man; I cannot trample upon these tinted splendours without fear thrown in my path.” Even then, the red carpet was hallowed ground – it had the power to elevate mere mortals into deities.

During the Renaissance, red carpets were reserved for throne rooms due to the high cost of scarlet cochineal dyes. One was used in 1821 to welcome US president James Monroe ashore in South Carolina, while in 1902, the New York Central Railroad used them to direct passengers onto their 20th Century Limited train. It wasn’t until 1922, at the premiere of Douglas Fairbanks’ Robin Hood, that movie stars first walked the red carpet. The Oscars adopted them in 1961, the ceremony was first televised in 1964, and thus the red carpet parade as we recognise it today was born.

Footage from the 1964 Oscars shows fans screaming with delight at the arrival of Julie Andrews and Gregory Peck, before the stars are quickly shuffled into the auditorium. It would take another 30 years for interviews, camera crews and live coverage to become de rigueur. At the forefront of this new trend was Joan Rivers, who first hosted E!’s Golden Globes pre-show in 1994. Her acerbic wit was a hit with viewers, particularly at a time when red carpet fashion was becoming more outlandish Céline Dion wore a backwards Dior tuxedo to the Oscars in 1999; Björk showcased her swan dress in 2001). 1998, the year that Titanic took home the award for Best Picture, was a high-water mark for TV ratings, with the Oscars ceremony garnering 57 million viewers. By this point, Rivers’ pre-show was so popular that the network doubled its running time to two hours.

Buoyed by this success, E! expanded its roster to include the post-awards special Fashion Police and added a host of new features to its red carpet coverage: the glam-360-cam, the clutch-cam, the stiletto-cam and the mani-cam. The latter, which involved a miniature red carpet on which actresses were asked to flaunt their fingers, provoked a swift backlash. At the 2014 Golden Globes, Elisabeth Moss told E!’s Giuliana Rancic, “There’s something I wanted to do last time but didn’t”, before giving a middle finger to the mani-cam. Her frustration was echoed by Cate Blanchett at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. When an E! camera scanned her body up and down, she peered into the lens and said, “Do you do that to the guys? What do you think is going to happen down there that’s so fascinating?”


The following year, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Anistonand Julianne Mooreall refused to put their fingers in the mani-cam at the SAG Awards. At the 2015 Baftas, Buzzfeed parodied these increasingly ridiculous red carpet interviews by asking men the same questions as women. This included requesting Eddie Redmayne to twirl for the camera, asking a bewildered Michael Keaton if he was wearing spandex and quizzing Weinstein himself about how long it had taken him to get ready. Public opinion was beginning to sour and E!’s ratings were plummeting. Following the death of Rivers in 2014, Fashion Police went on a five-month-long hiatus before being cancelled in 2017. Seacrest continues to host the pre-Oscars red carpet show, which this year averaged at 1.3 million viewers, a 43 per cent drop from last year. The audience for the Oscars ceremony also hit an all-time low in 2018, at 26.5 million.

This decline of the red carpet coincided with an increasingly tense political landscape in the US. Donald Trump’s travel ban prompted several attendees of the 2017 Oscars, including Ruth Negga and Karlie Kloss, to wear blue ribbons on the red carpet in support of the American Civil Liberties Union. Meanwhile, Emma Stone had a Planned Parenthood pin fastened to her Givenchy couture gown. Resistance was more overt at the 2017 SAG Awards, where The Big Bang Theory actor Simon Helberg walked the red carpet with a sign that read “Refugees Welcome”.

It was with #MeToo and Time’s Up, however, that red carpet protests transformed from tacit non-compliance to out-and-out rebellion. A sea of women in black swept the Golden Globes like an unstoppable army, calling out the gender pay gap on the red carpet (Debra Messing criticised E! for failing to pay host Catt Sadler the same as her male co-presenter) and exposing the lack of female directors on the stage (Natalie Portmanintroduced the category by saying, “here are the all-male nominees”). The Baftas mirrored the all-black dress code, while the Grammys invited stars to wear white roses. But for the 2018 Oscars, Time’s Up announced there would be no dress code and no call to arms on the red carpet.

Some interpreted this as Hollywood’s return to business as usual, but the tectonic plates had already shifted. The red carpet hoop-jumping of previous years no longer felt like a requirement. The morning after the Oscars ceremony, Vanity Fair’s Hollywood correspondent Nicole Sperling noted the palpable change. “It felt kind of subdued,” she said, speaking on the magazine’s awards season podcast Little Gold Men. “A lot of people skipped the red carpet this year. Jordan Peele skipped it, Sam Rockwell skipped it – they took some photos and were escorted straight into the show. The publicists I spoke to said they just didn’t see the value in it anymore. I don’t know how this is going to proceed because there is that light, frothy red carpet that people like, but is that something we need? Is that a progressive part of our society?”



The women at the Cannes Film Festival certainly didn’t think so. In May, jury president Cate Blanchett led a rally on the red carpet arm in arm with 82 women – one for every female-directed film ever to have competed for the festival’s top prize in its 71-year history, compared to 1,645 films directed by men. Only one woman, Jane Campion, has ever won. Other injustices were also brought to light: 16 black actresses demonstrated against racism in the French film industry and co-authored a book entitled Black is Not My Job. A minute of silence was held on 15 May in honour of the 60 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces near the border between Gaza and Israel, with actress Manal Issa carrying a sign on the red carpet that read “Stop the attack on Gaza”. At a screening of The Dead and the Others, a film about northern Brazil’s indigenous Krahô community, placards demanded better treatment for the country’s native people.

Among the activism, jury member Kristen Stewartdominated headlines for taking off her Christian Louboutins at the premiere of BlacKkKlansman, defying Cannes’ heels-only policy. “There’s definitely a distinct dress code,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “People get very upset if you don’t wear heels, but you can’t ask people to do that anymore. If you’re not asking guys to wear heels and a dress, you can’t ask me either.” Far from being empty gestures, the festival’s protests enacted policy change. A new charter for gender parity was signed at Cannes and has since been adopted by other leading film festivals including Venice and Toronto. The Cannes red carpet, which had once been Weinstein’s hunting ground, was slowly being reclaimed by women.

”I am heartened by the progress we’ve seen,” says Jennifer Siebel Newsom, founder of The Representation Project, whose #AskHerMore slogan has been gaining ground on the red carpet since its inception in 2014. “We’re hearing more questions asked of women beyond what they’re wearing, but that said, one important next step is amplifying other critical conversations like those raised by Time’s Up. We want to work alongside like-minded organisations with missions towards equal, diverse and gender-balanced representation in Hollywood and beyond.”

So, where does that leave us on the eve of 2019? The Toronto Film Festival and Emmy Awards passed largely without incident, though Planned Parenthood pins, ACLU ribbons and “I am a voter” badges nodded to the upcoming US midterms. Critics fear a slowdown at next year’s awards season, but that seems unlikely. The Golden Globes will follow the one-year anniversary of Time’s Up and once again no women have been nominated in the directing category. The 2019 Women’s March falls on 19 January, right between the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Producers Guild of America Awards. Just last week, Kevin Hart stepped down as Oscars host three days after being appointed, following controversy over perceived homophobic comments. Hollywood is as politically fraught as ever.

For now, the red carpet has survived, but its future depends on its willingness to adapt to changing times. Stylists, for whom it remains a lucrative enterprise, are wary of boycotts but recognise its need to change. “Of course it’s important,” says Elizabeth Saltzman, who dresses Saoirse Ronan and Gwyneth Paltrow. “But maybe it’s important in a different way. Maybe now we can use the red carpet to show people as they really are. Does it matter? Only as much as we all want it to. Is it the most important business? Well, it’s my business so it’s damn well important to me. I think there’s so much we can do with the red carpet, so let’s do it instead of giving up on it.” Will next season’s red carpet heed Saltzman’s words? We can only wait and see.

The Fashion Awards 2018: The Winners

Scoping the past, the present and with a large focus on the future (particularly owing to the 100 young creatives that were recognised), honorees were presented with a statuette designed by David Adjaye. While accepting awards, Charles Jeffrey instilled the importance of the city's students, and Vivienne Westwood shared that she had a plan to save the world from "climate change and financial crash.”


Accessories Designer of the Year

Winner: Demna Gvasalia for Balenciaga
Alessandro Michele for Gucci
Jonathan Anderson for LOEWE
Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior
Miuccia Prada for Prada

Brand of the Year

Winner: Gucci
Balenciaga
Burberry
Gucci
Off-White
Prada

British Designer of the Year Menswear

Winner: Craig Green for Craig Green
Jonathan Anderson for JW Anderson
Kim Jones for Dior Homme
Martine Rose for Martine Rose
Riccardo Tisci for Burberry

British Designer of the Year Womenswear

Winner: Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy
Jonathan Anderson for JW Anderson
Roksanda Ilinčić for ROKSANDA
Simone Rocha for Simone Rocha
Victoria Beckham for VICTORIA BECKHAM

British Emerging Talent Menswear

Winner: Samuel Ross for A-COLD-WALL*
Ben Cottrell and Matthew Dainty for COTTWEILER
Eden Loweth & Tom Barratt for ART SCHOOL
Kiko Kostadinov for Kiko Kostadinov
Phoebe English for PHOEBE ENGLISH

British Emerging Talent Womenswear

Winner: Richard Quinn for Richard Quinn
Matty Bovan for Matty Bovan
Natalia Alaverdian for A.W.A.K.E.
Rejina Pyo for REJINA PYO
Sofia Prantera and Fergus Purcell for Aries

Business Leader

Winner: Marco Bizzarri for Gucci
Jonathan Akeroyd for Versace
José Neves for FARFETCH
Marco Gobbetti for Burberry
Michael Burke for Louis Vuitton

Designer of the Year

Winner: Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino
Alessandro Michele for Gucci
Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy
Kim Jones for Dior Homme
Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino
Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton

Model of the Year

Winner: Kaia Gerber
Adut Akech
Adwoa Aboah
Bella Hadid
Kaia Gerber
Winnie Harlow

Urban Luxe

Winner: Off-White
Alyx
Balenciaga
Marine Serre
Supreme

2018 Trailblazer Award

Kim Jones

Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator

Mert & Marcus

Outstanding Achievement

Miuccia Prada

Special Recognition Award for Innovation

Parley for the Oceans

Swarovski Award for Positive Change

Vivienne Westwood

Kim Jones Is Announced As The Fashion Awards' Trailblazer

There’s no two ways about it: Kim Jones is the future of fashion. Fresh off the back of his groundbreaking pre-fall menswear collection, which was staged in Tokyo around a 39-foot fembot designed by Hajime Sorayama (very future), he is being awarded accordingly by the British Fashion Council. At tonight's Fashion Awards, in celebration not only of his recent rejuvenation of Dior menswear but the pioneering vision he has exhibited throughout his career, he is being bestowed with the event's inaugural Trailblazer Award – and never has such a title appeared so relevant.

“Kim is a trailblazer,” reflects Edward Enninful. “I’ve been delighted to watch him progress from creating his own brand in Noughties London to, in recent years, becoming a global force. What I love about Kim is that he never looks back or rests on his laurels: he’s brought so much to fashion and evolved from a cool, streetwear pioneer into the chic-est international designer – someone who caters to youth but exhibits a natural sophistication that appeals to all generations.”


Jones can easily be credited with the fact that, in recent seasons, the fashion industry has shifted towards recognising streetwear as an integral part of its narrative – but his recent collections at Dior have seen him transform menswear anew. Not only has he taken the market’s penchant for collaboration one step further than the rest – by bringing Yoon of Ambush in house to design Dior’s menswear jewellery, and Matthew Williams of Alyx to design his seatbelt fastenings – but he has translated the house’s storied codes into elegant and contemporary sartorialism.

By imbuing his collections with the work of the couture ateliers, he has created a fresh new vision of couture menswear, one that is at once decidedly romantic and painfully cool. “Where I’ve been before has been quite street-y and I wanted to bring elegance back,” he said of his Dior debut in June – and, as his new award attests, where he goes, the rest are soon to follow. Under Jones' direction, menswear is about to undergo a makeover – and tonight's celebrations are certainly going to be well deserved.

The Burberry And Vivienne Westwood Collection Has Dropped – And It's Brilliant

Burberry announced a collaboration with Vivienne Westwood back in July 2018 via an Instagram portrait of Riccardo Tisci, Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler. In November, the brands revealed a glimpse of the limited-edition collection of re-imagined British heritage pieces. A mini kilt and lace-up platforms in Burberry’s vintage check both set social alight, while the new logo of both brand names merged together – Burberry in black and Vivienne Westwood in red – presented a predictably punk twist to the collab.

Now, the collection and campaign have dropped. Shot in London by David Sims, the cast of brand friends is nothing short of blockbuster. Kate Moss, Sistren, Leonard Emmanuel, LadyFag, Josh Quinton, Andy Bradin, Claudia Lavender, Marco Motta, Sashadavai and Jacob Shifrin all model the unisex pieces alongside Westwood and Kronthaler.


Among the iconic Westwood designs, including double-breasted and hugger jackets, is an oversized T-shirt with a handwritten message from Westwood. Proceeds from the wardrobe basic will support the rainforest charity Cool Earth, and Westwood will also customise four exclusive items from the collection to be auctioned to raise further support for the charity.

“Vivienne Westwood was one of the first designers who made me dream to become a designer myself and when I first started at Burberry, I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to approach her to do something,” Tisci said in a statement announcing the union, which marks his first collaboration at the helm of the house. “She is a rebel, a punk and unrivalled in her unique representation of British style, which has inspired so many of us. I am so incredibly proud of what we will be creating together.”

Givenchy Unveils Its First London Flagship

Today, Givenchy opens the doors to its first London flagship in Mayfair. The timing couldn’t be more perfect, for 2018 has been the year that the brand has made its mark on the capital.

The British heritage of Clare Waight Keller, who took the helm in May 2017, earned the brand the most valuable fashion commission of the year: the wedding dress Meghan Markle wore to become the Duchess of Sussex. On May 19, 18 million people watched the former Suits star walk down the aisle in a graphic couture design that had been a close collaboration between designer and modern princess.

Their relationship has blossomed since. The Duchess has looked to Waight Keller for custom looks for Princess Eugenie’s wedding, the official family portrait for Prince Charles’s 70th birthday and her first official appearance with Queen Elizabeth II. A brand could not ask for better exposure, and profits – Alexander McQueen’s sales reportedly rose 27 per cent in 2011 after Sarah Burton created the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress – must be healthy.


The new 165 New Bond Street store, which occupies two converted 18th-century buildings, certainly suggests this. The décor mixes period features, including bow windows and fireplaces, with a glossy red staircase, geometric tiles and pink podiums housing accessories. Speaking of which, a new mini bucket bag will go on sale exclusively in the store, and the brand promises more special one-off products to come.

Instagrammable changing rooms and limited-edition accessories will prove vital to attract millennial customers who are constantly on the hunt for newness that no one else has. But, will royal fans bite? The store's Mayfair location puts it in pole position to do well.

Victoria Beckham's Old Masters Obsession Continues With An Exhibition Of Female Trailblazers

You might recall that Victoria Beckham discovered a new passion for art curation earlier this year. Her June exhibition of Old Masters paintings in her Dover Street store was not simply a passing partnership with Sotheby’s, but the start of a relationship with the likes of Rubens, Cranach, Larkin and their peers.

“I am excited to learn more about Old Masters,” Beckham told Vogue at the time. And, six months down the line, the designer is showing the fruits of her art history studies by staging installation number two.

Entitled “Female Triumphant”, the December 6-10 in-store showcase includes four works of trailblazing female artists – Angelika Kauffmann, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Fede Galizia and Marie-Victoire Lemoine – from Sotheby’s Masters Week, held in New York in January.


"When I heard about Sotheby’s plans for the 'Female Triumphant', I knew immediately I wanted to partner with them again," Beckham shared before the grand unveiling. "These masterworks were created by strong, powerful women and for me that really resonated, as a female designer hoping to empower women through my collections."

In January, Beckham will travel to New York to see the portraits and still lifes first-hand in Sotheby’s and The Frick, the Upper East Side museum that ignited her interest in the works of painters between the 13th and 19th centuries after a visit with her husband. Will the Stateside business involve a larger collaboration that incorporates Beckham's own designs? Is she on a mission to acquire a contrasting piece to the Damien Hirsts, Tracey Emins and Banksys that currently line her walls at home? "I don’t own any Old Masters paintings at the moment but if there ever was a time to be inspired, it would definitely be now," she mused, her status as art novice no more.

“I found it pertinent that one of the most photographed women on the planet would choose paintings that are enduring examples of self-presentation,” Chloe Stead, deputy director specialist of Old Master paintings at Sotheby’s, said of Beckham’s tastes. “The process of recording oneself, in the 15th or 21st century, and the way you would like yourself to be portrayed, must have been interesting to Victoria.” May her journey continue.

Paul Smith Has Launched A Tuxedo Collection Inspired By Patti Smith, Jane Birkin And Grace Coddington

It's just a humble collection, isn't it?” says Paul Smith of his new womenswear tuxedo collection. “I think it’s exactly what people want at the moment – just nice, easy-to-wear, no-nonsense clothing.”

“Humble” actually equates to a 15-piece eveningwear collection of classic tuxedos, coats, silk blouses and accessories. The capsule was inspired by close (read: iconic) friends of the brand, including Patti Smith, Jane Birkin, Charlotte Rampling and Grace Coddington, who championed Smith’s burgeoning menswear offering in the ’70s as something women could also wear, and prompted Smith to launch his womenswear collection in 1998.

But, Smith muses, he has always been a fan of the tux for women. “When Mr Saint Laurent came up with the idea of a women's trouser suit, I was 21 and living in Paris – I was actually there!” he remembers. “I’ve always thought it was a great piece of clothing for a modern girl – there’s movement, pockets…”

As you’d expect from a man whose brand is built on tailoring, the cuts of his new suits are precise – and flattering. “I like to respect the female form, so that means jackets that are slim through the ribcage with sharp shoulders and high armholes,” says Smith. “There are a lot of pretend tuxedos out there – which are normally just the style with a satin lapel – but ours use a fabric called barathea. It’s substantial and full of energy.”

It was at night school in his hometown of Nottingham that Smith learnt about the material. The tailoring skills he learned there were focused on ceremonial dress for the armed forces, rather than office or red carpet-wear. “It’s really interesting, because those suits were all about making a person look powerful, strong and slim,” he shares. “So, the cut of these tuxedos makes you look important.”


The day the collection dropped, the brand sold five suits straight away. Who are these female customers who make up 25 per cent of Paul Smith sales? “Generally speaking, my clothes are worn by people who are not seeking attention,” he offers. “A lot of designers’ clothes are very confrontational. Mine are discreet, laid-back and wearable.”

Like the gentleman he is, Smith worries about the brands who splash shouty logos on their wares. “My prediction is that in five years time, these labels won’t be as important as they are now, because they've gone down the obvious route. I think one of the reasons we're still doing OK is because we've never really worked on logos.”

Smith's legions of loyal followers who rely on Paul Smith tailoring for its classicism – and rather fabulous silky inners – will attest otherwise. Plus, the fact that Smith stands proud as the owner of one of Britain’s few independent brands that enjoy international success is also testament to his understanding of what it takes to endure in an industry searching for newness. “It's a business, you have to give 100 per cent or nothing,” he opines. “You can't muck about.”

His parting comment about how to wear his tuxedo collection this party season is equally to the point. “Just wear it,” he concludes. "The great thing about it is that you can wear it in any way you want. Jane [Birkin] would wear it with Converse. Patti [Smith] would wear it with an old Joy Division T-shirt. So, just play with it.”

Fran Summers Leads The BFC’s British New Wave Creatives

The Fashion Awards 2018 will celebrate 100 of the most talented trailblazers via a category entitled, New Wave: Creatives. To amp up anticipation before the December 10 ceremony, the British Fashion Council has been teasing out 20 names from the global community of young creatives at a time. In October, the list of individuals from China was released. The US portion followed in November. Now, the Brits are in, and leading the group is British Vogue cover girl Fran Summers.

"This year has been truly mind blowing, honestly," Summers tells Vogue about why 2018 has been a landmark year for her. "I’ve achieved four Vogue covers, and been taken under the wing of Edward Enninful, who is the most loving, hard-working, imaginative and truly progressive person I’ve had the honour to work with. I’ve been able to do what I’ve always dreamed of: to create art with talented teams, and I've loved every minute of it! This whole year has been filled with memorable and special moments, like shooting with my family and friends in my hometown. Not only this, but being able to see shifts in the industry, including working rights for models, having peoples’ voices being heard and seeing attitudes change. This year has had its ups and downs, but we’ve seen big changes in the industry, and I can’t wait for what’s to come."


Joining Summers in the talent pool are models Finn Buchanan and Wilson Oryema; photographers Campbell Addy, Tom Johnson, Thurstan Redding, Paul Peter, Jack Davison, Adama Jalloh; stylists Danny Reed and Harry Lambert; filmmaker Fenn O'Meally; set designers Isabel + Helen; choreographer Jordan Robson; make-up artist Lucy Bridge; interior designer Luke Edward Hall; Gal-Dem founder Liv Little; visual artist Samuel Douek director; multidisciplinary artist William Farr; and director Oliver Hadlee Pearch.

The launch of New Wave: Creatives was “to encourage an even younger generation to consider the many creative roles that make up the fashion industry and follow in their footsteps,” Caroline Rush, BFC chief executive, has said of the Fashion Awards sub-section. The diversity within the UK group alone is certainly enough to inspire. See the full list here, and tune into Vogue’s coverage on December 10 to see how the grand total of 100 are honoured at the Royal Albert Hall event.

Kim, Kate, Juergen And Pam Cheer On Vivienne Westwood As She Receives Swarovski Award For Positive Change

Expect the unexpected at the December 10 Fashion Awards in London. Why? Britain’s leading lady of punk Vivienne Westwoodwill receive the Swarovski Award for Positive Change for her climate-change activism (and, we’d like to think, for being an all-round maverick in the fashion realm).

While you’ll have to wait until the fashion world gathers on Monday to see exactly what happens when Westwood takes the stage, a dozen of her friends, collaborators and muses have sent Vogue songs of her praises. Long live Dame Viv!


“It’s been an honor to wear Vivienne Westwood over the years; I love wearing her dresses because she really knows how to sculpt the shape of a woman’s body, and I always feel confident wearing one of her designs. She’s made such a contribution to the fashion community, and I wish her congratulations on this acknowledgement.” Kim Kardashian West, who wore Vivienne Westwood to the 2018 Met Gala.

See Gigi Hadid Star As A Forlorn Lover Alongside Alexander Wang In The 2019 Pirelli Calendar

Introducing “Dreaming”, the 46th edition of the Pirelli calendar shot by Albert Watson.

Filling the pages from January to December are Gigi Hadid with Alexander Wang, Julia Garner, Misty Copeland with Calvin Royal III and Laetitia Casta with Sergei Polunin. Each black and white photograph in Watson’s preferred 16:9 format tells the stories of four fictional women who dream themselves out of their respective realities.

“When I approached this project, I wanted to do it in a way that was different from other photographers, and I wondered what the best way would be,” Watson told press at the unveiling of the 2019 calendar. “I wanted to create something that was more than just a portrait of somebody – I wanted it to look like a film still. I wanted people looking at the calendar to see that my aim was photography in its purest form, exploring the women I was photographing and creating a situation that would convey a positive vision of women today.”


Of Hadid’s character, who has separated from her partner, lives alone in a glass tower and has Wang as her only confidant, Watson noted, “I wanted to convey the sense of a woman thinking about her future, but also showing her in a situation of loneliness. We see her thinking about where she is going to go in life, what she will be doing tomorrow.”

He praised Garner, who moonlights as a botanical photographer, for her expertise on set in a tropical garden: “Julia’s a very, very accomplished actress and she got straight into the character.” Caster, meanwhile, was able to use her own skills as a sculptor and artist to aid her role as painter for Pirelli. “This worked out very well,” Watson added.

The theme of the calendar, which was shot in April between Miami and New York, also allowed Watson to reflect on his own career: “To make a dream come true, you have to work hard,” he explained. “I’ve always taken it step by step, reaching one goal at a time, without wanting to get immediately to the top of the ladder. Even though I sometimes think this ladder could go on up forever, with the top rung ever further away, I think it’s always worth giving yourself increasingly ambitious goals and dreams.”

Pharrell Plays Chanel's Golden Boy At The Métiers d’Art Show

The bond between Pharrell Williams and Karl Lagerfeld grows ever closer. The duo have created music together – remember that song and accompanying video with Cara Delevingne for the pre-autumn/winter 2015 collection? – and collaborated on a capsule (so far, we have only seen a yellow hoodie from the music maestro’s spring/summer 2019 Chanel edit).

With his partner Helen Lasichanh watching from the sidelines – alongside fellow frow-ers Julianne Moore, Lily Rose Depp and Sofia Coppola – Williams walked the runway, staged in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, wearing gold trousers. And gold boots. And a gold bouclé jumper complete with chainmail neck adornment.


To say the “Happy” hitmaker was in line with the Ancient Egypt theme of the collection is an understatement. Williams was a resplendent example of Lagerfeld's vision. He even wore the same abstract eye make-up as his catwalk peers.

Kaia Gerber, another Chanel collaborator and catwalk favourite, has seen significantly less airtime following the grand presentation. For this season, there's a new golden boy generating fashion headlines. And he's frontin'.

It’s Genius: Moncler Asks Exceptional Designers To Create Distinctive Collections

Product launch strategies are in a state of flux, but if there’s one label that makes sure it doesn’t rely on seasonal collections alone to excite its customers, it’s Moncler. Under chairman and CEO Remo Ruffini, who’s never afraid to shake things up, the brand has launched Moncler Genius, calling upon eight prolific designers to create their own diffusion lines.

Pierpaolo Piccioli, Simone Rocha, Craig Green, Kei Ninomiya, Hiroshi Fujiwara and Palm Angels were each invited to create a clothing line that included a reinterpretation of Moncler’s down jacket in their own distinct, imaginative style. In addition to these eight collections, the Moncler 1952 line was created in homage to the year of the brand’s birth, while the Moncler Grenoble line – named after the city in the French Alps where the company began – was conceived as an opportunity to experiment with mix-and-match print fabrics on technical outerwear for mountain sports.

Piccioli kicked off the process, choosing to reimagine the duvet in a silhouette that resembles his couture cloaks at Valentino, where he reigns as creative director. The resulting floor-sweeping puffer received huge acclaim when worn on the red carpet by Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwaldstar Ezra Miller, who embraced the gothic impact of Piccioli’s design for the promotional trail of the fictional franchise.

Simone Rocha, meanwhile, treated the down jacket to the feminine flourishes that have become synonymous with her namesake label. Drawing on images of daring Victorian mountain climbers in petticoats, she embellished the coat with all manner of distinctive florals, ruffles and beading.


Naturally, Craig Green played with the idea of functionality, as per his brand’s calling card; Palm Angels incorporated logos and slogans to give Moncler’s duvet a merchandise-inspired feel; Kei Ninomiya applied his own painstaking craft to the duvet, even turning it into a knit; and Hiroshi Fujiwara reinvented Moncler’s clothing through his subcultural lens.

Each of the creations might have little in common stylistically with the others, but that is the appeal of the Moncler Genius project: it speaks to all generations and styles. And, perhaps crucially, it satiates the customer’s appetite for newness. Since launching at Milan Fashion Week, when Moncler invited fashion’s great and good to a Milanese hangar dubbed the Moncler Genius Building, the brand has tactfully released each collection month-by-month.

With the Moncler Genius Building’s doors officially open, and a customer base ready for more products that maximise on both functionality and creativity, we can expect Moncler to continue innovating. In the meantime, see how Vogue styles each designer’s iteration of the iconic down jacket – modelled by Leomie Anderson, Tsunaina, Siobhan Bell and Kelvin Bueno – below. It really is genius.

Balmain Has Got A Shiny New Logo

Having been the creative director of this house for eight years, I’m not about to tear down traditions or break rules simply for the sake of breaking them,” Olivier Rousteing began a letter to press explaining his decision to update Balmain’s branding.

“But times do change. Balmain is now a fast-growing brand relying on new media to communicate to a global audience. To best meet the challenges and opportunities of today, we unveil a newly updated logo for Balmain Paris,” he continued.

The new design, or the “B” as Rousteing’s team calls it, echoes some of Pierre Balmain’s mid-century monogram designs. Look closely and the letter “P” – in homage to the brand founder and Paris, the city inextricably linked to the company – is visible in the bold typeface.


Created in partnership with Paris-based creative studio Adulte Adulte over the past year, the logo will first appear on a new bag style aptly dubbed the B bag, and then on the graphic T-shirts and bold buckles in the pre-fall 2019 collection.

“I am quite pleased with what we’ve created: a contemporary, clean and bold logo for this historic house, which manages to retain the heritage of the original, while making clear to all that it represents a French luxury brand for the modern era,” Rousteing added. “My team and I look forward to exploring new ways to incorporate it into future designs.”

The redesign follows the news that Balmain is returning to the couture calendar for the first time in 16 years. Both business moves can be seen as a sign of Rousteing’s efforts to expand Balmain’s world and his ideology as its leader.

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Had Its Lowest Ratings Ever

The annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show aired on December 2 and according to Entertainment Weekly, it garnered its lowest ratings ever. Clocking in at 3.3 million viewers for the 2018 show (compared to 5 million last year), the show's viewership has consistently dropped by millions each year since 2013.

Of course, there are many factors that could contribute to these failing numbers. For starters, the show switched networks from CBS to ABC and it aired on a Sunday night (in previous years, it aired on a Tuesday). Add to that, in recent weeks Victoria's Secret's CMO Ed Razek has been under fire for inflammatory comments he made about excluding transgender and plus-size models from the show. His statements led to several boycotts, at least one resignation, and widespread outrage, even from people like Halsey, who performed in the show.

The time between the show’s taping and airdate may have also contributed to the public’s loss of interest. For the month leading up to the airdate, extensive teasers from the show were released online, giving the whole world a look at the runway without the network's quick cuts and interview outtakes.


After the taping in November, attendees rushed to Instagram and Twitter to share every detail, and interested parties consumed content via their social media feeds like they would any other fashion show. The overly edited show that aired a month later as an "entertainment spectacular" felt like a relic of the past. In an essay critiquing the show's relevance, Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan wrote, "The executives at Victoria’s Secret may have found the perfect way to silence the many critics of its annual fashion show – by proving that it means absolutely nothing in the landscape of television entertainment."

But what will this mean for the future as Victoria's Secret heads into 2019 with a new CEO combatting negative backlash and calls for major change? Maybe the brand will finally see the writing on the wall. They’ll take a second look at what was once an exciting marketing moment, and has now become a damaging and dull hour of our already inundated lives. They’ll give the VS Fashion Show the overhaul it so desperately needs. Or, perhaps they'll just carry on as usual and watch the ratings drop even further next year.

Gigi And Kaia Model Marc Jacobs’s Grunge Collection 25 Years After Kate And Naomi

Twenty-five years after Christy Turlington, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell modelled Marc Jacobs’s polarising spring/summer 1993 grunge collection for Perry Ellis, it’s the new model guard’s turn to don the combat boots.

At a party feting the relaunch of the collection for resort 2019, Jacobs invited Gigi Hadid and Kaia Gerber to model his striped suits. And, although neither model would have been alive when the line premiered at New York Fashion Week in September 1992, the duo gave the Beetlejuice-esque get-ups the best punk gusto they could muster.


Circulating amidst the group of models and scenesters that the night’s hosts Sofia Coppola and Katie Grand brought together, Hadid was a mirror image of her 1992 counterparts – save for two buns instead of a knitted beanie and heavy-duty boots over Converse. Gerber, meanwhile, mixed the pinstripe blazer with her own vinyl trousers and took a decidedly more polished approach to grunge.


Jacobs’s decision to reissue 26 looks from the original Perry Ellis line was not rooted in nostalgia, nor was it to demonstrate that he tapped into the streetwear zeitgeist two and a half decades before it was considered du jour. Rather, the capsule was born out of the designer’s reconsideration of the current fashion system and pressure from the industry to constantly create newness. “In the big picture, a redux of grunge evokes going forward while being a little bit more instinctive and a little bit more liberal and not as rigid with the way we do things,” Jacobs told WWD of feeling boxed in by expectations of his brand.

Chanel To Stop Use Of Exotic Skins And Fur

Ahead of its pre-fall 2019 Métiers d’Art show in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chanel has said it will “no longer use exotic skins in [its] future creations”.

The exotic skins in question include crocodile, lizard, snake, stingray and fur, of which Chanel uses very little. The decision is down to the fact it is becoming increasingly difficult to source skins that meet the house’s quality and ethical standards. “There is a problem of supply and that was not Chanel’s business anyway,” Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel fashion and president of Chanel SAS, commented. “We did it because it’s in the air, but it’s not an air people imposed to us. It’s a free choice.”


The brand’s attention will shift to the research and development of materials and leathers generated by “agri-food” industries. “The future of high-end products will come from the know-how of what our atelier is able to do,” Pavlovsky continued. It will, however, take time for existing goods containing exotic skins to leave Chanel’s distribution network entirely.

Chanel is the first luxury brand to join labels, including Asos, Nike, H&M, Puma, Arcadia Group and L Brands, which have already banned exotic skins from their product offering. The likes of Armani, Coach, Versace, Michael Kors, Gucci, Burberry and John Galliano have pledged to halt the use of fur, however, they have not made the leap to include skins in their entirety.

Things To Know About Versace Pre-Fall 2019

On Sunday evening, Versace arrived in New York for the first time, taking the city by storm with a star-studded show and the return of one of the house's most iconic looks. It was the first time Versace hosted a show in New York

Held at the New York Stock Exchange, the show set centred around a huge gold Versace-ified Statue of Liberty arm. “I am very excited to present Versace for the very first time in New York," Donatella Versace explained. "I wanted to pay homage to this incredible city, bringing the sartorial heritage of Milan and fusing it with the energy of New York and its eclectic nature. This collection is the result of this.”


The iconic Medusa safety pin made its return

That dress is back. The gown that made headlines and went down in fashion history when Liz Hurley wore it to the 1994 premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral, made a return to the catwalk. Worn by Vittoria Ceretti, here, it was reinterpreted with new pin-clip fusion gold accents that concealed and revealed, ruching fabric together to create a contemporary silhouette.


The casting was major

Cast by Piergiorgio Del Moro, the supermodel line-up was all about personality, femininity, and embracing individuality. The show was opened by Kaia Gerber and closed with Amber Valletta. An explosion of prints celebrated Versace’s Italian roots on the New York catwalk. Designs intrinsic to the house were mixed in the boldest combinations – zebra stripes and stars were combined with gold. The ‘Voyage Barocco’ print mixed and matched a melting pot of colour palettes held together by Versace’s most quintessential motifs – the Greek Key and Barocco.


The sky's the limit for hair

The hair looks ran the gamut from coiffed sky-high volume to natural curls, cornrows, braids, old Hollywood waves and beyond, while some models like Luna Bijl and Anna Ewers wore eye-catching Versace hair barrettes encrusted with gems. Donatella wanted the girls to look glamourous, eclectic, fresh, healthy, gorgeous and very much like themselves. Make-up artist Pat McGrath layered on lots of mascara, highlighted cheekbones for a gorgeous glow, groomed brows and finished with a nude pink lip gloss.


Models wore their heart on their sleeves

The ‘Love Versace’ heart print was inspired by Jim Dine’s designs for Gianni Versace’s New York townhouse. The colourful hearts were printed on silk chiffon that formed one of Versace’s most legendary silhouettes – long sleeves and naval low-cut front – made famous by Jennifer Lopez and prompting the creation of Google Image Search. The clicks to see this dress propelling the development of technology epitomises the importance of Versace’s cultural force.

The Breakout Front Row Star At Alexander Wang’s Show? A Robot

At Alexander Wang’s autumn/winter 2019 show in New York, the usual suspects of too-cool front row stars crossed the bridge to Brooklyn to take in the designer’s latest collection of downtown staples (think slinky velvet maxi dresses, twisted pinstripe shirting and oversize rugby jerseys with satin slip skirts). In attendance were celebrities slash brand devotees such as 21 Savage and Teyana Taylor, who made the scene, but the presentation’s biggest breakout star? A robot. But not just any ol’ robot – a robot with killer fashion sense.

Meet Sophia, an AI creation from Hanson Robotics who is apparently the Hong Kong-based engineering company’s most advanced robot. Sophia, whose torso comes without legs, was snapped front row wearing Wang’s boxy blazer with metal safety pins forming hearts on both of her sleeves. She also wore an Axel Rose-inspired bandana around her neck, an accessory that also made an appearance throughout the show. (Only A-list influencers get to wear his pieces before they hit the catwalk!) In videos shared on Instagram, Sophia can be seen swivelling her head as models walk by, perhaps making her shopping list.


A quick look at Sophia’s Instagram (@realsophiarobot) shows that she has a penchant for statement-making fashion. In November, she was seen experimenting with voluminous silhouettes in both a white and red ruffled blouse. She also claims to love traveling in the name of style: “I love meeting people from all over the world, and I also love experiencing different fashion,” she wrote in one post. Furthermore, she has also attended Shanghai Fashion Week in the past, and even sported a vintage Gucci bag like a true It girl. So, will Sophia soon be a fixture on the fashion month front row, following in the footsteps of the CGI influencer Lil Miquela? Only time well tell. But one thing is for sure: Artificial intelligence has never looked so chic.

A First Look At Kim Jones’ Dior Men Pre-Fall 2019 Show Set

For his pre-fall 2019 destination extravaganza in Tokyo, Dior’s menswear artistic director Kim Jones enlisted Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama to create a real showstopper: an 11-metre high robot sculpture.

“I was looking at how to show in Tokyo,” the designer told Vogue ahead of the event, “what my dream of showing in Tokyo would be, and here it is: celebrating Metropolis [the film] in Metropolis.”

The feminine figure stands on a metre-high base – making her 12-metres tall in total – at the heart of the show space in Tokyo Bay; a patch of reclaimed land sandwiched between the Sumida and Arakawa rivers, also known as Metropolis. Weighing in at an impressive 9,150 kg, it required a team of 16 people to piece together her aluminum limbs, which are sprayed in silver mirror paint, onsite.

The construction of the set itself began back in mid-September and it took 20 days just to paint. Strobe lasers light up the robot and the runway, reminiscent of the Japanese capital’s famous Robot Restaurant, where the fashion house hosted guests last night.


The sculpture is based on a series of illustrations by Sorayama from the 1980s, and he also put his futuristic spin on the Dior logo. The Japanese artist’s eye for high-shine effects can be seen in the details of the collection too, informing everything from belt buckles (by Matthew Williams of Alyx) to robotic jewellery by Yoon Ahn, plus a special-edition Sorayama Metals saddle bag, of which only 10 will be made.

Earlier this year, for his spring/summer 2019 show, Jones enlisted Kaws to create a similarly imposing statue, made from roses and peonies. Art, Jones tells Vogue, is an integral part of Dior’s DNA: “Christian Dior was a gallerist before he was a couturier, and worked with the leading artists of his time, so I looked to what the modern generation’s take on that would be, hence starting with Kaws and now Hajime Sorayama.”

After the show, Jones and his all-star guestlist – including Kate Moss, David Beckham, Bella Hadid, A$AP Rocky, Diplo and Detox – will turn the catwalk into a dance floor. In Jones’s own words: “It’s nuts.”

Naomi Campbell Turns Vlogger For "Being Naomi" YouTube Channel

Introducing Being Naomi: the video channel of Vogue contributing editor Naomi Campbell. The supermodel-turned-vlogger has launched the platform to give fans an inside look into her life as a businesswoman, activist and her philanthropic endeavours, as well as life in front of the camera.

“I want to show the world who I am and what I stand for,” says Campbell. “My hope is that when you engage with my channel that you are inspired by what you see, that it pushes you to be the best you can be, to do your part in the world and to pursue your dreams.”


First up, Being Naomi will livestream South Africa’s Global Citizen Festival on December 2. A feature entitled “My Journey”, in which Campbell will share the story of how she was discovered, will air on December 13. And, on January 3, she will share her New Year’s resolutions.

News of YouTube’s star-in-the-making follows the launch of Victoria Beckham’s own video channel, which promises “styling tutorials and lots of stuff from [the designer]”. Do two industry heavyweights-turned-presenters make a trend? Does YouTube fashion and beauty director Derek Blasberg just have incredible pulling power? Whatever the reason, two new vloggers in a week makes some excellent viewing.

Why Prada And Louis Vuitton Are Heading To New York In May

Spring in New York is set to be a high-fashion affair. The Met Gala, which takes place annually on the first Monday in May, has always had the pulling power to draw in the industry’s great and good. But, this year, brands have organised their own events around the fundraiser, in order to capitalise on the crowds visiting the capital.

Prada will present its resort 2020 collection at a catwalk show on May 2. The location is still undisclosed, but the label’s first foray across the Atlantic saw Basel-based architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron reimagine the company’s headquarters on West 52nd Street. The short promo clip announcing the date hints that the show will be equally Insta-friendly and that the Milan-based brand will maximise exposure via NYC's mammoth shopping districts.


On May 8, meanwhile, Louis Vuitton will stage its cruise 2020 show at a similarly secret location. The brand has previously held events at the former stock exchange, the South Street Seaport, and in a pop-up shop in the Meatpacking District, so the odds are on something equally offbeat and impactful.

Both Prada and Louis Vuitton will be banking on celebrities, models and influencers staying in the city for the entire duration of the festivities, but will it pay off? The cost of a travelling company is immense, and the capacity of such atmospheric venues no small task to fill.

However fruitful these endeavours, expect your Instagram feed to be populated with personalities keen to show off the fact they were invited to May’s new trinity of fashion events.

Hedi Slimane Unveils His First Celine Menswear Campaign

Less than one week after Celine announced that the brand would be joining the Paris men’s show schedule, Hedi Slimane has released his first menswear campaign film for the house.

Fans of the designer will of course recognise that the tailoring the male models wear in the three-minute montage of photographs and video is unisex. Industry insiders, meanwhile, will know that the gender-specific campaign is indicative of the fact Celine’s parent company LVMH is aggressively chasing the burgeoning menswear market.


So, what can we learn from Slimane’s first Celine short? Photographed by the designer himself in London in October, the animated clip homes in on key looks from the spring/summer 2019 collection to the soundtrack of French synth-pop duo, Ruth. The song, which was released in 1985, is emblematic of the Des Jeunes Gens Modernes movement – a time when creativity was booming against the backdrop of the Cold War.

As the portraits of men draped in Slimane’s ultra-slim suiting and a whirring Prophet 5 synth play on a loop, it’s entirely possible to enjoy the film without the history lesson, however. The stylised campaign might not offer any new insight into his vision as a designer, but it will certainly keep up momentum until the February sale date of the collection. The telling moment for the house will be whether or not it sells.

Young Thug Reps More Than Chanel In His New Music Video

Over the past decade or so, rappers have developed their own luxury-brand lexicons through their signature songs. Migos burst out on the scene repping Versace, of course; A$AP Rocky solidified his devotion to Raf Simons last year; and even more recently, Cardi B eschewed designers like Gucci, Fendi, and Prada in favor of her beloved Fashion Nova on the song “She Bad.”

On Young Thug’s latest mixtape, Slime Language, there’s a song called “Chanel (Go Get It).” Despite having the historic fashion house in the title, Thug’s designer references in the song run the gamut: He says that “Anything she want she can get,” whether it’s Chanel, Fendi, a Birkin bag, Louis Vuitton, or studded Louboutins with the spikes.


Accordingly, in the track’s new music video directed by Elliott Sellers, Thug doesn’t just wear Chanel — he dons a purple-fringed white jacket, a Dries Van Noten set, a yellow bandana, and a hot-pink Balenciaga turtleneck with chains, a combination that’s quickly becoming his signature. Thug’s clearly got opulent taste, but he’s not yet tied to any one brand in particular. Wisely, he’s keeping his options open.

So Long Skinny Jeans: H&M To Close Down Cheap Monday

H&M is shutting down Cheap Monday due to poor sales. The closure, which affects around 80 employees, will be complete by the end of June 2019.

“Cheap Monday has a traditional wholesale business model, which is a model that has faced major challenges due to the shift in the industry,” H&M said in a statement. “There has been a negative trend in the Cheap Monday’s sales and profits for a long time.”

H&M bought Fabric Scandinavian AB, which owned Cheap Monday, Weekday and Monki, in 2008 as its first acquisition as a parent company. The brands that the H&M group has since launched, including Cos, & Other Stories and Arket, have adapted to the retail shift online and continued to perform well.


“We need to constantly develop our business and what we choose to invest in,” added Anna Attemark, head of new business at the H&M group. “We see very good opportunities and great potential for all of the other brands within the business, which all are developing positively both digitally as well as through physical stores.”

For many, Cheap Monday was their first purveyor of skinny jeans. Such fans may have suspected that all was not plain sailing at the affordably-priced denim retailer after news broke in October that its Carnaby Street store – its only UK presence – was to close. It will now pull down its shutters at number 39 permanently on December 31st.

Met Gala 2019: Everything You Need To Know

What is the Met Gala?

The Costume Institute Gala at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is the biggest event on the fashion fundraising calendar. Founded by publicist Eleanor Lambert, the benefit was first held in 1948 to encourage donations from New York's high society. In its modern incarnation, the most famous faces from the realms of fashion, film, music and art come together to raise money for the Met's Costume Institute and celebrate the grand opening of its latest exhibition. The night is centred on the theme of the new exhibition, with previous themes encompassing everything from Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, to Manus x Machina, Punk: Chaos to Couture and China: Through the Looking Glass. This year's exhibition theme is Camp: Notes On Fashion.

Since 1995, the event has been chaired by US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who enlists public figures to serve as her co-chairs. Past hosts have included Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Amal Clooney and Rihanna. The Met Gala 2019, which marks the event's 71th anniversary, will be co-chaired by Lady Gaga, Alessandro Michele, Harry Styles and Serena Williams.


When is the Met Gala 2019?

The Met Gala takes place on the first Monday of May, which this year falls on May 6. Red-carpet coverage normally begins at 7pm local time, when team Vogue will begin reporting on all the outfit details.

Where will the Met Gala 2019 take place?

The Met Gala always takes place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The night begins with a cocktail hour, in which guests walk the red carpet and explore the new exhibition, before sitting down to dinner and the evening's performances. The odds are on Lady Gaga and Harry Styles, this year's co-chairs, to take to the stage.

What is the Met Gala 2019 theme?

Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute, has framed the exhibition around Susan Sontag’s seminal 1964 essay Notes on "Camp", which posited different ways in which the concept could be construed. Bolton told Hamish Bowles that he found Sontag’s writings so timely with what is going on culturally and politically that, “[he] felt it would have a lot of cultural resonance.” Read Bowles's full musings on what the Met Gala 2019 theme.

What will everyone wear to the Met Gala 2019?

“Camp: Notes on Fashion” is a fitting theme for the annual Met Gala, which itself is usually a stage for camp costumes, writes Vogue contributor Osman Ahmed in his exploration of the proposition. From Gucci, which is sponsoring the exhibition, to Valentino, Schiaparelli and even Demna Gvasalia’s Internet-fuelled camp fashion, explore what the guests might wear, here.

What Kering’s Termination Of Its Yoox Net-A-Porter Deal Means For Online Shopping

Kering is ending its joint venture with Yoox Net-a-porter.com and taking e-commerce for brands within its stable, including Alexander McQueen, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta, in-house.

The French conglomerate, which was then known as PPR, established a deal with Yoox in 2012, to help power the online retail platforms for its labels during a time when it was still carving out a strategy. The partnership was slated for renewal in 2020, by which time Kering’s digital operation, which looked after Gucci's online offering independently, would have matured to an advanced level. Speculation that Kering, was taking back its business after Yoox, which merged with Net-a-porter.com in 2015, had been acquired by Richemont, a rival conglomerate, earlier this year, thus looks unfounded.


YNAP is keen to emphasise that the move was not unexpected and that its online flagship stores division is thriving. The loss of seven brands from its portfolio of 33 will not make a sizeable impact to YNAP's profits – in 2017, the flagship store service accounted for 10 per cent of total company revenues. "We continue to enjoy an excellent relationship with Kering and work very closely with them and their brands across our Net-a-porter.com, Mrporter.com, Yoox.com and Theoutnet.com multi-brand online luxury retail platforms," a YNAP spokesperson told Vogue.

The transition, which is expected to be complete in the first half of 2020, seems inevitable on Kering's side too, as online sales have become the luxury industry’s most important engine of growth. Will it attempt to build a rival to 24sevres.com, the website developed by LVMH to stock its brands? The team has already enlisted Apple to create applications for its sales assistants to scan inventories in order to support its plans. When the race to conquer the digital retail landscape is on – and the rewards of collecting private data on customer behaviour significant – no companies want to get left behind.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

FASHIONmode 2 -´Lydia Metral - Life Thru´A Lens´


Here Charles Daniel McDonald sits down in conversation with budding French fashion photographer Lydia Metral, who speaks about her experiences within the Parisienne fashion and art scene.