Fashion News
Tribute to Alexander McQueen
21 Sep, 2010
LONDON (Reuters) – Supermodels, glossy magazine editors, film and music stars alongside the elite of the fashion world paid tribute to British designer Alexander McQueen on Monday in a moving service at London's St. Paul's Cathedral.
Model Kate Moss and actress Sarah Jessica Parker were among the A-list crowd of more than a thousand people gathered to commemorate the mercurial personality and artistic brilliance of a designer who rose from a gritty east end London boyhood to the front ranks of fashion before he took his own life in February.
McQueen committed suicide aged 40 shortly after the death of his mother. He took a mix of cocaine, tranquilizers and sleeping pills before hanging himself at his London flat, an inquest concluded.
\"I loved him,\" Moss, dressed in black and wearing dark sunglasses, told Reuters outside the cathedral after a service in which U.S. Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, International Herald Tribune fashion editor Suzy Menkes, a nephew and two friends talked of McQueen's unusual mix of talent, shocking profanity, vulnerability and love of a good laugh.
Lee Alexander McQueen was one of the world's most provocative and revered designers, and shows featuring his \"Highland Rape\" and \"Dante\" collections were seen as classics.
When asked to sum up McQueen's career, Parker said: \"One of a kind, very ... The service was bitter-sweet - perfect.\"
Wintour gave an address during which she paid tribute to the personality and design genius of a man whose favorite pastime as a boy was to sit on the rooftop of his apartment tower block and watch the birds circling overhead.
She recalled the dramatic impact of McQueen's designs on the world by recounting the story of his Dante collection, featuring models wearing the \"bumster\" trousers worn well down the hip, hitting the catwalk in New York in the late 1990s.
\"One (model) turned to give me an extremely prominent close-up of her mostly naked back view,\" Wintour said. \"Well, after that collection it was a done deal. Everybody lowered their trousers everywhere.\"
BJORK AND BAGPIPES
Icelandic singer Bjork, dressed in giant angel wings and a silver helmet, performed a haunting song called \"Gloomy Sunday,\" which talks in the first person about deciding \"to end it all.\"
Afterwards, bagpipers dressed in tartan kilts played on the stairs outside the cathedral as guests, friends and family streamed out into the sunshine.
\"I think Alexander would have loved every minute of it,\" Hilary Alexander, fashion director for Britain's Telegraph newspaper, said as she left the memorial.
McQueen left school at the age of 16 and gained an apprenticeship at the traditional Savile Row tailors Anderson and Sheppard, moving on to neighboring Gieves and Hawkes.
The former British Designer of the Year winner eventually gained a masters degree in fashion design from London's prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
McQueen had an ability to shock and his autumn/winter 1995 collection \"Highland Rape\" which featured disheveled looking models in torn clothing was considered a classic example.
Menkes told the congregation gathered in the cathedral -- where Britons have mourned such national figures as Horatio Nelson and Winston Churchill -- that McQueen's shows expressed his morbid side, rage, angst and that the designer once told her his work was like a biography of his own personality.
\"I had no doubt -- and nor did he -- that he was an artist who just happened to work with clothing and whose shows were extraordinary vaults of the imagination,\" Menkes said. \"And above all, that his work was deeply personal.\"
McQueen was named head designer at the staid Paris couture house Givenchy. His first collection for the French atelier was not widely considered to be a success.
But he went on to establish his own label and become part of the Gucci stable of brands owned by French retailer and luxury goods group PPR, drawing in fans, customers and fame and earning a place at the top table of fashion.
\"Besides some of the most beautiful clothes that have been created in our times, Alexander has left us an even more exceptional legacy,\" Wintour said.
\"One of brilliant and extraordinary inspiration and of a talent that soared like the birds of his boyhood above us all.\"
Source: reuters.com
Stars on Emmys red carpet
31 Aug, 2010
A late-summer sunset with vibrant purple, red and blue gowns dominated the horizon at the 62nd Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. One-shoulder silhouettes, updos and bold jewelry also were big trends.
Lea Michele, a fairly new player to the red-carpet frenzy, nailed it in a very grown-up navy Oscar de la Renta gown with a strapless neckline and ruffled mermaid bottom.
\"I wanted to do blue — I've done black and green,\" Michele said. \"I was ready for blue to be the color, and I love Oscar de la Renta so when I saw this, it was like he read my mind.\"
This could have been a too-mature look for Michele, but her youthful energy was her best accessory, said Lawrence Zarian, of TV Guide Network's Fashion Team.
Michele is petite, noted Karla Martinez, fashion market director for W magazine, but the silhouette of her gown accentuated her shape just right.
\"Glee\" co-star Jane Lynch was one of the biggest — and surprising — hits of the night. The purple one-shoulder by Ali Rahimi \"suited her spectacularly,\" Zarian said.
January Jones and Christina Hendricks, both from the heavily stylized \"Mad Men,\" lived up to their on-screen fashionista counterparts in colorful look-at-me gowns. Jones wore a bright, electric-blue corset gown with an uneven hem and stiff A-line skirt by Versace, and Hendricks wore a pale lilac Zac Posen with feathers on the sleeves and hemline and the very low neckline audiences have grown accustomed to seeing her — and her hourglass figure — in.
But Zarian said that while he appreciated the risks both actresses took, they ended up with dresses that would get more attention than they would for wearing them.
\"January's dress was very architectural, a beautiful blue, but the dress wore her. January has a such a passion for fashion herself, so she tends to dress the other end of the spectrum and not do a conservative Betty Draper,\" he said.
As for Hendricks, Zarian said the soft color was right for her, but the detailed gown, which was lovely on its own, had too much going on for such a voluptuous figure.
Sofia Vergara went with the statuette look in a gold, ombre beaded Carolina Herrera that Martinez loved, but she thought the matchy-matchy, oversized gold earrings were too much. She did like the diamond Stephen Russell pins that new mom Amy Poehler used to jazz up her tank-strap slate-blue Max Azria gown and the floral Lorraine Schwartz earrings on Jane Krakowski.
Krakowski also touched on the blue, one-shoulder and updo trends in her custom Escada gown and soft, wavy locks.
Elisabeth Moss wore a chic, dove-gray Donna Karan one-shoulder, and Julie Benz had one a white one by Pamella Roland. Emily Blunt's goddesslike, lilac gown had cream-colored beads on the straps. Edie Falco went very sleek in a one-shoulder, black Bottega Veneta.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus found a way to stand out in black: She tapped longtime friend Narciso Rodriguez to make her black, square-neck gown with a sheer panel on the bodice that should send everyone to the gym. Her Irene Neuwirth turquoise earrings and bracelets captured the right seasonal, boho vibe.
Tina Fey, in an Art Deco-style Oscar de la Renta, and Eva Longoria, in a tight-bodice, ruffled-bottom Robert Rodriguez, also were in the black-dress club that's always in force at awards shows.
Kelly Osborne, who's joining E!'s \"Fashion Police,\" showed off her post-\"Dancing With the Stars\" shape in a sophisticated black gown with a V-neck and jeweled gathered at the shoulders by Tony Ward.
Heidi Klum did black, but she went short in a micro-mini by Marchesa. \"Well, you kind of look at what the choices are and then you kind of go with what you love the most,\" she said. \"It's not like there's a whole game plan, it has to be short, or anything like that.\"
Marchesa also designed the white, jeweled halter gown worn by Kim Kardashian.
Jamie Cadwell, director of the Diamond Information Center, noted that Kardashian did the stacks of diamond bracelets that is \"the modern way to do diamonds.\" (Kardashian's platinum cuff bracelet with 80 carats of champagne and white diamonds were by Lorraine Schwartz.)
Cadwell said a slew of classic diamond drop, stud and chandelier earrings gave balance to the mostly colorful, contemporary gowns. But \"classic\" doesn't have to mean subtle — Jones' 10.12-carat Cartier platinum-and-diamond stud earrings were valued at $1.2 million.
Julianna Margulies had a fair amount of glitz on her embellished, midnight-blue L'Wren Scott gown, and Claire Danes' Giorgio Armani Prive bronze strapless gown was fully encrusted with Swarovski drop crystals and iridescent sequin beading.
Anna Paquin's black gown was practically gold plated around its shoulders and bustline. Newlywed Paquin matched husband Stephen Moyer in Alexander McQueen; he opted for a classic tux but hip skinny tie.
W's Martinez was pleased to see so many men in classic bow ties, though, Jimmy Fallon and Jon Hamm, among them.
\"Glee\" creator Ryan Murphy bought into the blue trend big time, wearing a blue jacket, tie and mirrored sunglass lenses. He gave the rare shout-out to the designer Tom Ford in his acceptance speech after winning the award for directing a comedy series.
Source: www.ap.org
Madonna sued over Material Girl clothing line
23 Aug, 2010
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Madonna has been hit with a lawsuit over her new \"Material Girl\" fashion line for teenagers by a California clothing company that says it has been using the name since 1997.
L.A Triumph filed a lawsuit against the pop superstar in the California Central District court on Thursday, just two weeks after the Madonna line went on sale in Macy's.
The company said in its suit that it has been \"continually selling similar clothes in similar retail outlets at similar price points under their Material Girl brand since at least 1997, and Madonna and her newfound company do not have the right to trade in the same space under this brand.\"
Madonna teamed up with her 13 year-old daughter Lourdes to design the 1980s inspired clothing line, which borrows from the pop star's punk-girl style when she rose to fame in the 1980s and earned the moniker, material girl.
\"Gossip Girl\" star Taylor Momsen is the face of the brand.
L.A. Triumph wants the judge to rule that Madonna's use of \"Material Girl\" creates \"deception\" in the marketplace. It is also asking for Madonna and her company to turn over all the profits from their line.
Macy's on Friday declined to comment on the litigation. Madonna's spokeswoman could not immediately be reached.
Source: reuters.com
Finding Themselves at the \"Eat Pray Love\" Premiere
16 Aug, 2010
New York – The journey of discovery that is \"Eat Pray Love\" finally ended at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 10, as the film of the best-selling novel premiered.
Both the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, and her on-screen persona, Julia Roberts, smiled for the cameras and greeted the men that helped make the cinematic version of Gilbert's quest for spiritual meaning come to life. There was Javier Bardem, whose appearance in \"Eat Pray Love\" comes late in the flick, as our heroine finishes her quest in Bali; Billy Crudup, who plays Gilbert's first husband, whom she leaves behind in New York City; and Richard Jenkins, the American that helps her understand the spiritual path while in India. Writer-director Ryan Murphy, who also happens to produce and create the television show \"Glee,\" joined in the festivities as well, both at the theater and the after party held at the Metropolitan Club.
Roberts, who showed off her ultra-slim physique in a black mini-skirted suit, insisted to reporters at an earlier press conference that she actually did gain weight during the \"eat\" section of the film, set in Rome.
\"Ryan keeps telling people that I put on ten pounds!\" she chuckled. \"It was a little less than that, but I loved every pound. And everyone said, 'Oh, it's going to drop right off in India,' but I didn't get that memo. That didn't happen.\"
However much she may have gained on the shoot, it is gone, for the 42-year-old actress looked as slim as ever, perhaps because of the spiritual effects that the journey of the movie had on her. She reportedly has embraced Hinduism, and explained that her personal journey through the vagaries of Hollywood stardom has taken her to a place of calm enlightenment.
\"I definitely knew that my life would continue to evolve until I found that place where I could fully occupy and live in, which is the home that I have now,\" Roberts, the married mother of three, explained.
\"I think that if you've gotten to a place in your life where you have found a capacity to eat and nourish yourself, and love and nourish your life in that way, that somewhere along the way you've figured out your own identity and how to pray and relate to an energy or a creation that's more than you. Otherwise you can't accomplish those other things.\"
Others on hand from the film included Christine Hakim, Mike O'Malley, Arlene Tur, Jennifer Salt, T.J. Power and David Lyons. Fans of the book who joined the party were Phylicia Rashad, Shaun Robinson, Gail Simmons, and Josh Brolin.
Source: www.fashionwiredaily.com
Industrial Design Meets Shoes
09 Aug, 2010
New York City – Martha Davis may not yet be a household name when it comes to shoe design. But in the world of industrial design, her specialty of 20 years, she made her mark in a way that has since affected millions of women: dial pack birth control packaging for Johnson & Johnson. Now she hopes to change the lives of millions more, but this time, with her shoes.
It's Davis' keen industrial designer eye for a clean, functional and modern product that makes her such an intriguing shoe designer. She has a product designer's understanding of problem solving and the nuts-and-bolts knowledge of the mechanics of elegant design.
As a devoted consumer of shoes herself, Davis, whose studio is currently based in San Francisco, felt she couldn't quite find what she was looking for - a shoe that was practical, understated and unique, but not intimidatingly radical.
\"I wanted to get back to making things,\" she said, \"so I decided to give shoes a try.\"
So she booked a trip to Italy, took a shoe design course in Milan and now two years and four collections later, Davis is making comfortable, yet highly stylish shoe that fuse traditional hand-made Italian shoemaking techniques with a distinctive modernist design and a bold color sensibility.
The result are shoes that leap into the future. Wedges have an almost spaceship-like aerodynamic curve, and the glove leather she uses is so soft and molds so perfectly to the foot that the shoes wear as though they were custom made.
Even within the limitations of doing such a small run in a factory, Davis has also managed to tweak the design of the heels to create a signature wooden heel that is sculptural and sleek, and never clunky. It's slim and narrow from the side, but sturdy and strong, giving the wearer a sense of perfect balance. There are no unwearable skyscraper heels here - these are shoes that are meant to be worn from day to night. This type of careful attention to structure makes Davis something of a \"shoe architect.\"
Not surprisingly, architecture has been a source of inspiration for Davis. For her fall collection, she focused on classic mid-century architecture with its \"simple, yet textural\" qualities. A block of gritty, industrial cement, for instance, is represented in the form of a textured metallic boot. Davis succeeds in making the Modernist movement, usually associated with severity, look more feminine. And while there's this slice of the past in the design, they never look discernibly retro.
For Spring 2011, Davis designed a range of styles that satisfy a range of sandal season scenarios, whether a person wants to cover up a certain part of their foot (an open-toed wedge with soft, bubble-thick laces, for instance) or bare all (a strappy high-heeled sandal with a simple center knot). And a ruched sandal that wraps around the foot and ankle like a bootie also looked surprisingly delicate and pretty.
Inspired by Cubist artists like Picasso, Alexander Calder and Joan Miro, Davis was namely interested in \"the way they played with color, form, volume, line.\" She pointed to a spongy, tube-like sandal strap and explained: \"It's like a drawing or a sketch.\"
Also new for Davis is a men's collection. For now, it's one style in a range of her modernist color palette, from cool grey to a luscious orange, based on a simple slip-on design that a friend of hers brought back from Japan years ago that quickly became his favorite pair of shoes.
Though current distribution of the Martha Davis collection is limited to a few stores in San Francisco, Philadelphia and Japan, along with direct orders, expect to see Davis explode on the footwear market very soon.
Source: www.fashionwiredaily.com