Products

• 2009 Fashion Collection of Christian Lacroix - 2009 New Fashion

  
  08 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Fashion Collection of Christian Lacroix

  
  

  Christian Lacroix: Fashion Designer

  
  

  In the late 80's, fashion reporters clocked the rapid success of Lacroix. Studying Art History with dreams of becoming a museum curator or costume designer, Lacroix fell into fashion by chance. He was an assistant at Hermes, collaborated with the couturier of the Tokyo Imperial Court, and then joined the House of Patou in 1981. Five years later, he launched his own label with the bouffant, or "pouf," a milestone in fashion history. His label, regarded as "one of the fastest growing brands in the LVMH universe" has spawned a line of perfume, linens, and children's clothing. In 2002, Lacroix was appointed Artistic Director of the House of Pucci, which, since his arrival, has been very successful.

  
  

  These images in 2009 Fashion Collection of Christian Lacroix

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• 2009 Fashion Collection of Chloé - 2009 New Fashion

  
  08 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Fashion Collection of Chloé

  
  

  Chloé: Fashion Designer

  
  

  Founded in Paris in 1952 by Egyptian-born Gaby Aghion, Chloé has always represented a freewheeling bohemian spirit. In the seventies, the stylish likes of Jackie O and Brigitte Bardot all shopped chez Chloé, a tradition that continues with today’s hipsters such as Sienna Miller and Kate Moss. The label’s lure resides in its effortless mix of street chic—influenced by London’s girls about town—and luxe. For several seasons, owning a Chloé bag, like the Paddington, has served as a barometer of how stylish someone is.

  
  

  These images in 2009 Fashion Collection of Chloé

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• 2009 Fashion Collection of Carolina Herrera - 2009 New Fashion

  
  08 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Fashion Collection of Carolina Herrera

  
  

  Carolina Herrera: Fashion Designer

  
  

  Venezuelan-born Carolina Herrera designs precisely crafted creations that hint at couture. Founded in 1981, her internationally renowned company encompasses perfume and accessories lines that are as crucial as her fashions; nearly ten men’s and women’s fragrances have been created in conjunction with Antonio Puig since 1988. With a business reputation that’s on par with fellow designers Oscar de la Renta and Bill Blass, Herrera’s clothing mirrors the designer’s own sophistication and class, and puts a modern spin on Old World charm.

  
  

  These images in 2009 Fashion Collection of Carolina Herrera

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• 2009 Fashion Collection of Burberry Prorsum (Part 2) - 2009 New Fashion

  
  08 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Fashion Collection of Burberry Prorsum (Part 2)

  
  

  Burberry Prorsum: Fashion Designer

  
  

  Started in 1856 by Thomas Burberry, the brand went from outfitting WWI officers (thanks to the invention of gabardine, a water-resistant material they patented) to Holly Golightly in 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Burberry's signature pieces are the trench coat and the plaid (actually "check" if you're a Londoner). Since 1997, Burberry has been revitalized by a succession of new managers and designers including Robert Menichetti (who amped Burberry's Prorsum label) and, recently, Christopher Bailey.

  
  

  These images in 2009 Fashion Collection of Burberry Prorsum (Part2)

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• 2009 Fashion Collection of Burberry Prorsum (Part 1) - 2009 New Fashion

  
  08 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Fashion Collection of Burberry Prorsum (Part 1)

  
  

  Burberry Prorsum: Fashion Designer

  
  

  Started in 1856 by Thomas Burberry, the brand went from outfitting WWI officers (thanks to the invention of gabardine, a water-resistant material they patented) to Holly Golightly in 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Burberry's signature pieces are the trench coat and the plaid (actually "check" if you're a Londoner). Since 1997, Burberry has been revitalized by a succession of new managers and designers including Robert Menichetti (who amped Burberry's Prorsum label) and, recently, Christopher Bailey.

  
  

  These images in 2009 Fashion Collection of Burberry Prorsum (Part1)

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
  2009 Fashion Collection of Burberry Prorsum (Part 2)

• Style on a shoestring: thrift tips from British Vogue during the Great Depression - 2009 New Fashion

  
  08 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - Stockmarkets are crashing, sterling is in freefall and suddenly conspicuous consumption looks wildly inappropriate… No, not the current economic crisis but the Great Depression. Time to take a lesson on how 'recessionistas’ coped back then

  

  Thrift tips: British Vogue offer money-saving advice during the Great Depression Photo: VINMAG ARCHIVE

  When times get tough, fashion might seem ridiculously frivolous, and yet it also provides a prism through which to view the economy. If a bleak recession is stretching into the future, like an ashen-grey horizon, then it is worth revisiting the past, to understand how fashion interpreted and reflected the Great Depression, woven like a light thread through the sombre years of austerity.

  You’ve doubtless already heard the truism that hemlines apparently rise and fall in line with the stock market; indeed, that they sometimes anticipate economic disaster. 'Why wasn’t Wall Street noting the sartorial changes?’ asked Suzy Menkes, doyenne of fashion editors, in the International Herald Tribune last July, noting that the summer 2008 collections, shown the previous autumn, when the stocks were still riding high on a bull market, were filled with long dresses, as if in clairvoyant anticipation of a downward movement in the financial markets.

  But the relationship between fashion and the economy is often more subtly complex than that. True, hemlines dropped as Wall Street crashed, and the short flapper dresses of the roaring 1920s gave way to floor-length gowns. Less straightforward, however, was the emergence of sweeping white satin, as an alternative to the little black dress; so that the colour of mourning worn by the Bright Young Things partying through the Jazz Age was replaced by an emblematic vision of purity and innocence in the dark days of the Depression.

  It therefore seems significant that Michelle Obama chose a floor-length white dress for the inauguration ball; though the language of fashion isn’t always quite so clear-cut. If the collapse of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008 had the same momentous sense of history as 29 October 1929, the Black Tuesday of the Wall Street Crash, one would expect fashion magazines and designers to have caught up with this grim reality by now; but, as yet, there is still an odd sense of pretending that it is business as usual, of keeping up appearances, to avoid making a bad situation even worse. This is, perhaps, an ostrich-like reaction – except rather than burying their heads in the sand, the fashion industry is out waving its plumes and feathers; possibly no more inappropriate a response than the confused burble of media commentators, who talk vaguely of 'recessionistas’, whatever that might mean.

  Which is why it is a good time to look backwards, even though fashion prides itself on always moving forwards; all the way back to the 10 May 1930 issue of American Vogue, which has a wistful-looking woman in white on its front cover, by the artist Georges Lepape, and a strapline announcing smart fashions for limited incomes.

  Inside, the magazine reveals its considered response to the Wall Street Crash of six months previously, devoting the entire issue to the subject of how to look good when money is tight. 'It is not what you spend, but how you spend it,’ declares the opening sentence of Vogue’s editorial.

  'We calculate by the eye more than by the fingers. A silk dress does not dub you a lady and a cotton brand you poor… You may give the smartest party of the season in an old backyard. Economies have changed… You do your economising with a dash, more frankly and boldly and more efficiently, knowing that false economies are the worst of all extravagances… You can shop anywhere, wear anything, even say anything, nowadays, provided that you do it with taste. Vogue feels this new fashionable freedom… Vogue’s eye is thrifty. Vogue’s finger – with fingernail no longer vermilion – is pointing out in this issue all the wise little ways to chic at a price.’

  Not that Vogue’s thrifty eye was turning away from designer pieces; its recommendations for sensible purchases were for items costing between $40 to $50, at a time when the average weekly wage for a doctor was just over $60. One of its illustrations was of a black wool crêpe Chanel coat, captioned, 'If recent Wall Street reverses or a limited budget tend to restrain extravagance this spring, an excellent coat is one by Chanel.’ Vogue also labelled a pale pink crêpe-de-chine dress by Patou as 'excellent value’, in a similar price range to the Chanel coat; implicitly justifying these purchases in an article on 'False Economies’ by citing the example of a fictional Isabel who always looked more chic than her friend on an equally modest income: 'Isabel, if you really had the courage to ask her, would tell you that she never bought anything that was too obviously dated in its fashion details and that she was ready to pay a good deal for quality and fit. She would add that she bought very few things, in any case, and that she wore them, so to speak, while the wearing was good.’

  But Vogue also acknowledged that some of its readers had nothing to spend, and to them, encouragingly, it observed, 'There is a new fad now in the air. It has suddenly become chic to be poor… Nobody bothers any more to camouflage poverty. Quite the contrary… Your poverty may be poverty in dead earnest, but it is up to you whether it be witty or dull.’ For those in reduced circumstances, the magazine recommended adding a tulle flounce to an out-of-date lace frock, with a matching scarf over bare shoulders; alternatively, as fashion was shifting from short lengths to long, 'The best way of letting down a skirt is by introducing a fitted hip yoke of material stolen from elsewhere on the frock…’

  By the following year, 1931, Chanel, like other couturiers, was cutting prices, while the devaluation of the pound meant that formerly wealthy Englishwomen buying their wardrobes in Paris and holidaying on the Riviera were forced to curtail their expenditure. Nevertheless, then, as now, the very rich remained rich: Nicole Divers, the American heroine of F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, remains on the French Riviera, her fortune undiminished, though in the final section of the novel, in the immediate aftermath of the Crash, 'She put on the first ankle-length day dress that she had owned for so many years and crossed herself reverently with Chanel 16.’

  In this country, as unemployment continued to rise, and sterling went on falling, British Vogue addressed itself to economics in the issue of 3 August 1932 with a section 'particularly designed for the woman who is engaged in the difficult but interesting pursuit of smartness on a limited income’. Promising that its suggestions would 'bring you chic out of all proportion to the amount you spend’, the magazine advocated buying a 'really good frock’, and then reinventing it with accessories.

  'Starting with a black crêpe evening dress of good material and excellent cut, you can wear it unadorned as one costume. For its second appearance you add a long white crêpe scarf, tied diagonally, and carry it with a white bag. Then you can achieve an entirely different, romantic-looking costume by means of pink roses and a pink bag.’ The same issue also contained instructions on how to knit your own striped jumper (the design, incidentally, would look just as chic now as it did in 1932).

  Not that extravagance or frivolity entirely disappeared from the fashion industry or glossy magazines. Diana Vreeland started working for American Harper’s Bazaar in 1936, a few months after returning from Europe to New York with her husband and sons. She needed a job, to supplement her husband’s dwindling income ('I was going through money like one goes through a bottle of scotch, I suppose, if you’re an alcoholic,’ she later confessed). But her new 'Why Don’t You?’ column for Harper’s was filled with what may, or may not, have been tongue-in-cheek suggestions for sartorial ingenuity – as whimsical and lavish as Marie Antoinette.

  In January 1937 she asked: 'Why don’t you own, as does one extremely smart woman, 12 diamond roses of all sizes? Wear one as a buttonhole on a tailor-made. Wear five for a necklace around the top of your dress. Wear them all at once one night, in the hair, on your bag, up and down your dress.’

  Less than three years later Vreeland adapted her tone – 'once we went to war I was a different person’ – though she never lost her faith in fashion, which is presumably why one of her wartime columns started out with a reasonably practical idea, and then was overtaken by her characteristic giddiness. 'Why don’t you [wear] olive-green corduroy breeches, a loose chemise shirt, knitted white cotton stockings, strong shoes of black leather with silver buckles – like a boy of the 18th century?’ It’s a near impossible tightrope to walk, of course; that dangerous balancing act between relevance and irrelevance, between what we wear and what lies beneath. Even so, in the early, uncertain months of the Second World War, British Vogue made a robust new year's resolution in its issue of January 1940. 'We take this stand… against all comers: that fashion is no surface frivolity but a profound instinct; that its pulse beats fast or slow, in time with the march of events, but beats with imperishable vitality; that as long as there is taste and coquetry, desire for change and love of self-expression, a sense of fitness and a sense of fantasy – there will be fashion.’

  As a mission statement, I think it is worth remembering, at once brave and touching and absurd; just like the very best of fashion itself, as bright as a butterfly, even while storm clouds gather all around.

   

  (telegraph)

• Grammys are picture perfect — that's the problem - 2009 New Fashion

  
  08 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - Estelle arrives at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009, in Los Angeles.

  

   

  The red carpet at the 51st annual Grammy Awards was just the right mix of sparkle, glamour and sophistication. That was the problem.

  There was Jennifer Hudson in a fashion-savvy white, silver and black color-blocked cocktail dress; Sheryl Crow in a slinky one-shoulder electric blue gown by Toni Maticevski; and Taylor Swift embracing her sexier side in a plunging V-neck black number by Kaufman Franco.

  Sara Bareilles was "total perfection" in her pink dress by Louisa Beccaria with a bright red sash around her waist that matched her lipstick, said Suze Yalof Schwartz, Glamour magazine's fashion editor at large. "I loved that it was tight at the bodice and flounced out. I also loved the pink and red. I feel that color clashing is the way to go. ... It was cool."

  Fantasia conveyed a sultry vibe in a silver halter dress, and Jordin Sparks' custom-made black dress by Arizona designer Debra Davenport had a subtle silver floral pattern and a curlicue at the bust.

  Katy Perry wore a skintight, blush-pink dress with ruffles down the front.

  "So I did have a previous dress ready to go tonight that might have ended up `worst dressed.' But it came in the mail, because I had it custom-made of course — because I didn't want anyone wearing that dress, ever — and it wasn't right. And it was the day before the Grammys."

  Her stylist found the pink frock by Lebanese designer Basil Soda. "I gotta ship the dress back to Lebanon tomorrow. But I feel great. I'm so glad there's always a Plan B."

  Duffy also went with a last-minute choice: an Alberta Ferretti black cocktail dress with a jeweled neckline and a sheer asymmetrical pattern at the bust.

  Carrie Underwood's gold and crystal slip gown by Zuhair Murad would look great in photos, said Memsor Kamarake, fashion editor at Vibe.

  Many stars were picture-perfect at the Grammys, held Sunday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. But the fashions generally lacked the free spirit that typically sets the Grammys apart from other shows during the crammed awards season.

  "It seems a lot more tame, tamer than usual," Kamarake observed. "We've always loved the Grammys because they're as serious as the Oscars. Today, I was just like, `What are you wearing?'"

  The rappers in particular toned down the flash.

  "They could have risked being too ostentatious in this time, rubbing it in people's faces when people are sitting around the table figuring how they're going to put dinner on the table," Kamarake said.

  However, he thought Young Jeezy, T.I. and Ne-Yo each managed to squeeze a bit of personality into their suits, and Jay-Z looked dapper — as the public has come to expect.

  Coldplay, Kamarake said, struck the right balance in their colorful-but-not-flashy jackets that looked like a riff on The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover.

  Paula Abdul might get people talking with her sunshine yellow gown with overdone gold trim and her beauty-queen hairdo, but certainly there was no moment like J.Lo in her down-to-there V-neck Versace from years back.

  Estelle's space-age silver get-up — complete with booties — was "not of this planet," said Yalof Schwartz, but there was an admirable modernity to it. "It was crazy, off the hook — but this is rock 'n' roll."

  "You think why would someone wear that, but thank god somebody wore that," she said.

  A handful of bona fide trends popped up: fedora hats on Jason Mraz and Ne-Yo, and one-shoulder dresses on Zooey Deschanel and Miley Cyrus, who added some youth to her mature Max Azria gown with stacked diamond bracelets by Mimi So.

  There must have been a memo to the men to wear a combination of black, white and gray. Flo Rida and LL Cool J both wore black-and-white polka dot ties.

  Barry Manilow said his black velvet Dolce & Gabbana jacket was an easy choice. "I'm on the road, and when you're on the road, you wear all black."

   

  (Yahoo news)

• Jude Law plays cross-dressing Minx in new film - 2009 New Fashion

  
  08 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - Actor Jude Law leaves St Thomas Church after the thanksgiving service for the life of film director Anthony

  

   

  BERLIN (Reuters) – A barely recognizable Jude Law plays a cross-dressing, corset-wearing model called Minx in a new film made up entirely of face-to-camera interviews.

  "Rage," which premieres at the Berlin film festival on Sunday, is what director Sally Potter calls "naked" cinema. It cost less than $1 million to make despite starring Law, Judi Dench, Steve Buscemi and model Lily Cole as Lettuce Leaf.

  Part murder mystery, part send-up of the fashion industry, the movie forces the audience to use its imagination to fill in what goes on off camera.

  All the viewer has to go on is short, confessional monologues by a cast of characters ranging from Dench's acerbic fashion writer Mona Carvell to Simon Abkarian's Merlin, who bears some resemblance to real-life designer John Galliano.

  They speak to an unseen character called Michelangelo, a student working on a school project about the fashion industry who posts clips filmed on his mobile phone on the Internet.

  Each section is shot against a computerized blue screen normally used for elaborate actions sequences and effects.

  Potter merely changes the colors, meaning the only interaction between actor and viewer is facial expression, body language and the script.

  "It's about trying to make the most simple, skeletal holding form in order to tell a story through the amazing complexity and variety of the human face," Potter told a news conference following the press screening.

  The movie appeared to divide the media, with some praising Rage warmly but dozens of others walking out of the film early.

  "It's about naked story telling ... set in an industry that's about clothes."

  Initially cagey, the cast quickly opens up to Michelangelo.

  "We ... live in a culture that is kind of fetishising fake confessions in the form of reality TV, confessions made for an effect or to get famous," Potter explained.

  "I tried to go back to an earlier lineage of confession which is a kind of unburdening in truth-telling and a lifting off, if you like, of a mask."

  Riz Ahmed, who portrays a pizza delivery boy, said the film was a reflection of the Facebook generation, where a night out was only a night out once images and accounts of the event were posted on the Internet for all to see.

  Much of the pleasure of Rage comes from Potter's script.

  Merlin, carried away by his own genius, states that a dress is not just a dress, but: "A sacred vessel for the miraculous." Carvell describes fashion as "pornography to which millions are addicted. It's much worse than heroin, take it from me."

   

  (Yahoo news)

• Law, Dench in Sally Potter film at Berlin fest - 2009 New Fahion

  
  08 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fahion - Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal poses during a photo call for the competition movie 'Mammothl'

  

   

  BERLIN – British director Sally Potter cast Jude Law as a cross-dressing supermodel and Judi Dench as a hard-biting fashion critic in her minimalist account of a disastrous week at a fashion house, "Rage," which made its debut Sunday at the Berlin film festival.

  "Rage," which also features Steve Buscemi as a grizzled photographer and Eddie Izzard as a business mogul, shows a succession of behind-the-scenes interviews by a fictitious young blogger as a new show descends into chaos.

  Potter, whose previous films include "Yes" and "Orlando," filmed her cast in front of a plain colored background — leaving viewers to piece together events from the interviews and soundtrack.

  "It was about trying to make the most simple, skeletal ... form in order to tell a story through the amazing complexity and variety of the human face," Potter said at a news conference. "It's about a kind of naked storytelling ... set in an industry that's about clothes and appearance."

  Law plays "Minx," an American model pretending to be a Russian. "For it to be a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be Russian" was more interesting, Potter said. "It was about layers and layers and layers."

  The director said the actors never met each other during the filming. But Buscemi said that Potter was "a great listener — it didn't feel like I was acting alone."

  Also showing at the festival Sunday was "Mammoth," from Swedish director Lukas Moodysson, starring Gael Garcia Bernal as a successful Web site creator.

  Both films are among the 18 contenders for the top Golden Bear award in Berlin, the first of the year's major European festivals. The winner will be announced Feb. 14.

   

  (Yahoo news)

• 2009 Fashion Collection of Versace - 2009 New Fashion

  
  07 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Fashion Collection of Versace

  
  

  Versace: Fashion Designer

  
  

  There is never anything understated about Versace. The Italian brand, founded by late fashion designer Gianni Versace in 1978, is all about grandiose sexiness and decadent European-style glamour, not to mention an irreverent rock-star attitude. Think of Elizabeth Hurley in the mid-1990s in that tight black Versace gown held together rather precariously—and revealingly—with nothing but safety pins down the sides. The design reigns were taken over by Gianni's sister, Donatella Versace, after her brother was murdered in Miami Beach in 1997. Donatella has maintained the label's aesthetic—electric colors, sensuous fabrics, and clingy silhouettes for a bold, raw sexiness. The men's collection—which was launched first—has a similar quality, with slim, sharp cuts and a reverence for the styles of the 1970s and 1980s.

  
  

  These images in 2009 Fashion Collection of Versace

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• 2009 Spring Fashion of Giorgio Armani - 2009 New Fashion

  
  07 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Spring Fashion of Giorgio Armani

  
  

  Giorgio Armani: Fashion Designer

  
  

  The Armani Empire spans five levels of luxury: Giorgio Armani, an ultra-expensive couture line most often seen on movie stars and their spouses; Armani Collezioni, a chic ready-to-wear line specializing in handmade sweaters and sexy, slim-fitting suits; Emporio Armani, a sportswear line combining sultry Italian style with casual elegance; Armani Exchange, an affordable mass-market version of the season's hottest trends and key pieces, and Armani Junior, for the precociously stylish. The brands differ in price point, but share a common aesthetic of breezy, easygoing sexiness expressed by lush, layered fabrics, tight-fitting pants and skirts, and necklines that sweep more than plunge. The fashion house also produces its own denim label, sold in Armani Exchange stores, that is particularly good at enhancing one's backside.

  
  

  These images in 2009 Spring Fashion of Giorgio Armani

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• 2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part3) - 2009 New Fashion

  
  06 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part3)

  
  

  Chanel: Fashion Designer

  
  

  These images in 2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part3)

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• 2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part2) - 2009 New Fashion

  
  06 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part2)

   

   

  Chanel: Fashion Designer

   

   

   

  These images in 2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part2)

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
  2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part3)

• 2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part1) - 2009 New Fashion

  
  06 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part1)

   

  Chanel: Fashion Designer

   

  Chanel is one of today’s best known and highly sought-after fashion brands, and has been practically since it was founded by Coco (Gabrielle) Chanel in 1909. The luxury brand stands out in just about every category—couture, ready-to-wear, accessories, jewelry, shoes, and fragrances. What began as a no-nonsense approach to fashion, designed to let women be comfortable while looking dignified, has been translated into classic, tailored style, especially in ready-to-wear, where the traditional tweed Chanel suit with a nipped-at-the-waist cardigan jacket remains one of the most popular—and most copied—fashion staples. The iconic, quilted leather Chanel bag is perpetually popular—and one of the most knocked-off accessories on Canal Street. Evening gowns tend to have an understated sex appeal and a bit of whimsy, and appear in luxurious fabrics with lots of embellishments.

   

  These images in 2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
  2009 Spring Fashion of Chanel (Part2)

• Pam Hogg: designer with a difference - 2009 New Fashion

  
  06 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion -As London Fashion Week draws near designer, singer and artist Pam Hogg is getting ready to hit the catwalk with her latest collection...

  

  New look: left, portrait of Pam Hogg by Emma Summerton and right, the front and back of Browns fashion store that Pam Hogg styled

  Pam Hogg, the wild, punk-rock designer who first made her name in the hedonistic Eighties, is returning to the London Fashion Week catwalk.

  She will present her Hogg Couture fall/winter ‘09/10 collection as part of the On/Off fashion collective, alongside the aircraft and microchips at London’s Science Museum.

  "We’re delighted to support Pam and salute her return to fashion week; the whole team is right behind her," said Lee Lapthorne, On/Off’s creative director.

  Hogg, who specialises in bold, look-at-me clothes, has a roster of stars who love her screaming metallics and skintight catsuits, including Rhianna, Kylie Minogue, Siouxsie Sioux, Alison Mosshart from The Kills and Roisin Murphy.

  She is an alternative visionary whose work sweeps music, video, film, art and fashion into an eclectic, electric melting-pot. In a variety of projects over the years she has worked with Jarvis Cocker collaborator, Jason Buckle, the Berlin-based Art Riot band, Chicks on Speed and directed and scripted videos and movies.

  She studied fine art and printed textiles at the Glasgow School of Art, where she won the Newbury Medal of Distinction, the Frank Warner Memorial medal, the Leverhulme Scholarship and the Royal Society of Arts Bursary, which took her on to further studies at the Royal College of Art in London where she gained her Masters.

  She joined her first band, ‘Rubbish’ at the end of the 70s, regularly supporting The Pogues. Fuelled by the freedom of punk, the Blitz Club and such outrageous figures as Leigh Bowery, David Bowie and Boy George, she branched out into self-taught fashion and opened a shop in London’s Soho. Her solo show at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in 1990 was the first fashion design exhibition to be held in the Glasgow Museum,

  When music called again, she formed a new band, ‘Doll’ and supported Debbie Harry in 1993 and The Raincoats in 1994. Between 1999 and 2001 she continued to design clothes and produced her first fashion film, ‘Accelerator’, starring Anita Pallenberg, Bobby Gillespie and Patti Palladin. Subsequent script-writing and directing projects involved David Soul, Primal Scream and Darryl Hannah.

  In 2006, the Spanish curator, Xavier Arakistain invited Hogg to exhibit in ‘Switch on the Power’ alongside the works of Yoko Ono, Leigh Bowery, Andy Warhol and Kraftwerk, a move which allowed her to return to the video medium, producing and directing two promos incorporating her clothes and music. She cast a band of friends include Siouxsie Sioux and Alison Mosshart to appear with her in the videos, ‘Opal Eyes’ and Electricman’, using clothes from new collections inspired by shiny metals and reflective surfaces.

  Recently, London’s renowned boutique, Browns of South Molton Street, dedicated their windows, front and rear, to Hogg, allowing her free rein to create a dramatic installation for her designs in satin and patent leather.

  A dedicated portfolio of Hogg’s work will appear in the first issue of LOVE, shot by David Sims and styled by Joe McKenna, out February 19th, 2009, a few days before the designer’s London Fashion Week triumphant catwalk comeback.

   

  (telegraph)

• Celebrating Jason Wu - 2009 New Fashion

  
  06 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - Jason Wu attends a cocktail party held in his honor hosted by C&M public relations firm

  

   

   

  New York – Jason Wu, the newest young designer to receive worldwide acclaim, was nothing short of cool, calm and collected at a party on Thursday, Feb. 5 celebrating him and his most recently distinguished piece, the white, one-shouldered gown Michelle Obama donned at the president's inaugural ball.

  The energy that packed the Soho Grand Hotel penthouse was high and hopeful as many of New York's creative elite - it was so crowded, there was a wait in the lobby to get in - came to praise and congratulate the modest designer. With downtown New York skyscrapers serving as the backdrop, Wu's grounded and focused persona and design ability attracted friends and fans to the party as excitement builds for Fall 2009 New York Fashion Week, which begins Feb. 13.

  At the gathering thrown in his honor by Angela Mariani and Anne Fahey, his publicists at C&M Media, Wu looked elated by and gracious about the support extended to him by the fashion industry, his retailers and his family.

  Wu, who was born in Taiwan, has consistently been encouraged by his family to follow his artistic passion, learning to sew at age nine, then studying sculpture at the age of 14 in Paris. Speaking of his family's reaction to recent upsurge of media attention Wu told Fashion Wire Daily, "I think my mom was the most proud of me, she was in tears as she told me 'I'm so proud of you'". Wu's decision to study fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York City was a pivotal move in his career. "They moved me here for that very reason, to be an artist or designer, so this is a testament to the fact that they made the right investment," he said.

  With so many admirers and only so many spots available at his Fall 2009 runway show, this will not be the last time that people line up to see the 26-year-old designer and his work.

   

  (Yahoo news)

• Bright Fashions Pop at the "Confessions of a Shopaholic" Premiere - 2009 New Fashion

  
  06 February 2009
  

   2009 New Fashion - Isla Fisher attends the premiere of "Confessions of a Shopaholic" in New York on Thursday

  

   

  New York – Most of the women that walked the "Confessions of a Shopaholic" red carpet movie premiere Thursday in New York dressed to match the fashions seen later on the big screen. That is, as the fashion-obsessed comedy's star Isla Fisher explained earlier to reporters, "designer Patricia Field's use of bright colors."

  Ironically, despite the fact that Fisher wore a pale seafoam green strapless minidress by Matthew Williamson, she credits Field with changing her style by the time the film wrapped.

  "The most fun fashion discovery was just to use a lot of color in my wardrobe. I'm fairly conservative normally and I just feel like Patricia Field brought out the color in me. I now love to wear color," Fisher said. "Patricia did the costumes for 'Sex and the City' and 'The Devil Wears Prada,' she's extremely experienced. So I just kind of let go and let her guide me, and I really enjoyed the process."

  Some of her co-stars in the comedy took the designer's look for the film even more to heart at the premiere. Unlike Fisher, who reverted to paler tones, Joan Cusack brightened up the chilly winter night with a dazzling multicolor coat, while Krysten Ritter popped in a swingy purple minidress. Leslie Bibb went with a silver sequin shift dress from Calvin Klein.

  Other fans of comedy and fashion turned out for the premiere, too, including Claire Danes and novelist Sophie Kinsella, whose best-selling book is the basis of the movie.

   

  (Yahoo news)

• 2009 Spring Fashion of Calvin Klein (Part2) - 2009 New Fashion

  
  06 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Spring Fashion of Calvin Klein (Part2)

  
  

  Calvin Klein kicked off his label with a collection in 1968, when he and childhood buddy/business partner Barry Schwartz launched a line of men’s and women’s coats at retailer Bonwit Teller. Today, the iconic American label grosses $3-$5 billion annually, thanks mainly to its designer jeans, underwear and fragrance divisions. A true lifestyle brand, Calvin Klein also produces eyewear, eveningwear and home collections, and has expanded its sophisticated, high-end apparel line to include career casuals for women, men and kids. Spare, clean shapes and modern lines characterize the collections, which look tailor-made for both the glitterati of Hollywood and the literati of New York. One of the great American fashion houses, on par with Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan, the company is known as much for its minimalist fashions as for its pioneering marketing and advertising campaigns: Brooke and her jeans, Kate and her Obsession, Mark and his tighty-white-ies. It’s a testament to Klein, who checked out of the company when he and Schwartz sold to Phillips-Van Heusen in 2003, that the brand remains competitive with its peers—and that the consistency continues.

  These images in 2009 Spring Fashion of Calvin Klein (Part2)

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• 2009 Spring Fashion of Calvin Klein (Part1) - 2009 New Fashion

  
  06 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - 2009 Spring Fashion of Calvin Klein (Part1)

  
  

  Calvin Klein kicked off his label with a collection in 1968, when he and childhood buddy/business partner Barry Schwartz launched a line of men’s and women’s coats at retailer Bonwit Teller. Today, the iconic American label grosses $3-$5 billion annually, thanks mainly to its designer jeans, underwear and fragrance divisions. A true lifestyle brand, Calvin Klein also produces eyewear, eveningwear and home collections, and has expanded its sophisticated, high-end apparel line to include career casuals for women, men and kids. Spare, clean shapes and modern lines characterize the collections, which look tailor-made for both the glitterati of Hollywood and the literati of New York. One of the great American fashion houses, on par with Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan, the company is known as much for its minimalist fashions as for its pioneering marketing and advertising campaigns: Brooke and her jeans, Kate and her Obsession, Mark and his tighty-white-ies. It’s a testament to Klein, who checked out of the company when he and Schwartz sold to Phillips-Van Heusen in 2003, that the brand remains competitive with its peers—and that the consistency continues.

  These images in 2009 Spring Fashion of Calvin Klein

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
  2009 Spring Fashion of Calvin Klein (Part2)

• Alice Hawkins: photography and fashion - 2009 New Fashion

  
  05 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - Alice Hawkins looks like Dolly Parton and likes to hang out with gangsters, showgirls and topless models. She also happens to be one of the fashion world's hottest photographers. Kate Finnigan enters her curious world.

  

  Girls on film: left to right, Alice Hawkins self-portrait 2007; Blackpool showgirls, 2008, and page-three girl 'Lucy Anne?, London, 2007

  You don't have to meet the fashion and portrait photographer Alice Hawkins to appreciate her work but it's a nice bonus. Once you've seen how the spangly glamour of her subjects sticks to her own image, like the diamanté she's plastered all over her iPhone, the 29-year-old's work only becomes more captivating.

  Waiting for her in an east London café, I'm not sure whether to expect a beauty queen, a Hollywood Barbie or a Vegas dancing-girl to come through the door. Hawkins has shot them all and has aspirations to be them all, acting out some of her fantasies – the Page 3 Stunna, the Dolly Parton look-alike – in the occasional self-portrait. Shooting at the Playboy Mansion last year was a dream come true – not least because Hugh Hefner couldn't believe the bubbly, game blonde was behind the camera. Dollywood, she says, would be paradise.

  As it is, when Hawkins arrives, her bleached candyfloss hair and gold-ringed fingers are more toned down than expected. The acrylic nails had to go after proving incompatible with the iPhone. Still, she claims to 'feel a bit Essex' in this part of town – she moved to South Woodford from Suffolk, her home county, a decade ago – but she says it with some satisfaction. 'I suppose my image is about fitting in with my subjects, but it's also how I want to look,' she explains. 'I often want to look like the people I shoot. It's my way of showing my appreciation of them.'

  This appreciation shines through the portraits in her forthcoming exhibition at Spring Projects in London. Her Miss East Anglias are regal, her glamour models demure; Russian matriarchs are proud as soldiers, Blackpool showgirls determined. 'I don't want to take the piss out of the people I photograph. I want to celebrate them,' she says. 'Yes, you could laugh at so many people who make a bit of an effort but aren't' – she makes speech marks with her fingers – 'fashionable, but I think people who aren't fashionable are the most interesting.'

  The irony is that since the style magazine i-D spotted her Camberwell College of Art degree show back in 2002, and took her on as a party photographer, Hawkins' fashion shoots and celebrity portraits have appeared in the most prestigious of fashion titles, including American Harper's Bazaar. She's shot advertising campaigns for Topshop and Agent Provocateur and counts both the photographer Nick Knight and über-editor and stylist Katie Grand as her mentors. The last issue of Grand's magazine, Pop, contained a 34-page portfolio of her portraits of dazzling Americans and their animals, entitled 'Alice's American Safari'. This month's eagerly awaited launch of Grand's new magazine, Love, will include three of her stories.

  It was not aspiring to the world of fashion, she believes, that made her photography stand out in the first place. 'There's
  a sort of purity in it that makes it unique. It's easy to say you're going to be the next Nick Knight or the next David Sims. I don't really look at those photographers for inspiration. I look at Diane Arbus or Joel Sternfeld – people photographers, landscape photographers. But I like that I'm getting the best of both worlds now. I've got the fashion and the hair and make-up if I need it, but I've also got the real people.'

  When Hawkins gets a commission or an idea for a project she rounds up her friends, or people she likes the look of, who inevitably end up as friends (her circle consequently numbers gangsters, topless models and members of the Chingford Ladies Tea Dance). For fashion shoots in India and Texas she shot people she found on the street. She's attracted to those who 'make an effort' and sees herself as a fairy godmother of glamour, sprinkling a bit more stardust over her subjects.

  A few years ago she became a judge of the annual Miss East Anglia beauty pageant. 'You know what it's like now, everyone wants to be famous, everyone wants to be a model, so I thought' – she giggles – 'I'd make their dreams come true. I took hair and make-up and million-pound tiaras that came with security guards, and big Vivienne Westwood dresses and their mums were standing on the sidelines, crying. It was just so sweet. You can shoot real people as they are but I want to elevate them. I want to make them even more likeable and amazing.'

   

  (telegraph)

• Kate Winslet: the queen of the cleavage - 2009 New Fashion

  
  05 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion - Hilary Alexander ponders Kate Winslet's choice of clothing for the forthcoming Baftas this weekend.

  

  Toned temptress: Kate Winslet shows off her new found style in Hervé Léger, Balmain and YSL; far left Kate in Ben De Lisi at the Oscars in 2002 Photo: AP / PA

  The Red Carpet question of the week is what is Kate Winslet going to wear for the Baftas this Sunday?

  Will the Queen of Cleavage reveal or will she conceal?

  More intriguing than any speculation about how long and emotional her acceptance speech may be – should she win one of her two nominations for Leading Actress – is the feverish anticipation about her choice of dress and just how much of those famous breasts will be unsheathed for the posse of photographers.

  Ms Winslet’s breasts have become so important they are starting to take on a life of their own, as camera-worthy as her two Golden Globe awards. They even became a major topic of conversation when the actress appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show recently. Oprah praised Winslet’s breasts to the sky and said she loved them for being ‘real’.

  Not content with her on-screen reputation for letting it all hang out, Miss Winslet has lately been carving out a new image as a Blonde Bombshell. For a provocative Steven Meisel photo shoot for Vanity Fair’s December issue, Kate Winslet appeared as a modern version of Catherine Deneuve in ‘Belle De Jour,’ naked except for sheer black stockings and stilettos, and sprawled on a fur rug.

  In public, she has been treating the adoring paparazzi on both sides of the Atlantic to a succession of revealing dresses and gowns which enhance and accentuate her toned and honed Hollywood silhouette and impressive embonpoint.

  First came the second-skin, ‘bandage dress’ by Hervé Leger, for the New York premiere of The Reader’, on December 3rd. Next up was the black, body-con stretch dress tethered with a diamanté single strap, by Christophe Decarnin for Balmain, which she wore to the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Revolutionary Road’ on December 16th.

  Then it was a slinky, strapless gown by Stefano Pilati for Yves Saint Laurent for those Golden Globes on January 11th.

  She followed this red carpet look with her appearance at the London premiere of ‘Revolutionary Road’, on January 18th, in a daring, bondage-style Little Black Dress by Narciso Rodriguez – a favourite, too, of America’s New First Lady – with corset-style straps which held her cleavage in a criss-cross embrace.

  Then came the Rodriguez sequel – a plunge-fronted cobalt-blue gown for the SAG Awards a week later.

  So, will it be YSL, Balmain, Hervé Leger or Narciso Rodriguez on Sunday?

  One thing we can be sure of is a designer it almost certainly won’t be – and that is the American-born, London-based Ben De Lisi, the red carpet specialist who was the first to truly understand the curvaceous charms of Kate Winslet. It was De Lisi who designed the ‘Lady in Red’ short slink which the actress wore to the Oscars in 2002 and which made the Hit Lists of all the important style pages.

  But a spokesman for the house said they had not been contacted and were not dressing Kate Winslet for the Baftas.

   

  (telegraph)

• Mary Portas reviews Crocs flagship store in Neal Street, WC2 - 2009 New Fashion

  
  05 February 2009
  

  2009 New Fashion -Even though business is booming worldwide for Crocs, they still conjure up all the wrong reasons for Mary Portas

  

  All together now? Love them or loathe them Crocs are slowly taking over the world

  I first spotted Crocs on a bloke at the airport a couple of years ago. Their wearer had bright-pink hair, black-and-white checked trousers and ugly red plastic shoes. Everyone around him was giggling. Then, later that summer, those shoes were everywhere. The story the brand tells of three innovative Americans on a boating holiday dreaming of a boat shoe that would be fun, functional and fashionable, and would provide the ultimate comfort. Their website also claims that the shoe found favour with the likes of Kate Moss, Kate Middleton and – matching them with a pair of socks – George W Bush. Crocs became the footwear of choice for nurses, doctors, waiters and gardeners who needed practical shoes, as well as an army of consumers who adopted the shoe as a fashion item. Sales unbelievably soared to 20 million pairs worldwide. The brand launched a flagship store on Neal Street just over a year ago.

  The windows It's a small shop but the size of the logo and the signature crocodile emblem meant you couldn't miss the place.

  Shopability For my money, Crocs was too quick off the mark to call this its flagship. In reality it's got four walls with loads of product on each. What's interesting is how the range has developed from the original boat shoe into other categories including boots, sandals and slippers.

  Was I being served? It was freezing outside, the entrance door was left open and one salesgirl was so deep into a hoodie that her face couldn't be seen. What did interest me was that none of the many customers in the store appeared to speak English, which made me marvel at this brand's ability to launch itself so globally so quickly.

  Did I buy? No. I have written them off as ugly slip-ons for lard-arses.

  Online If you google Crocs from Britain you have to trawl through a lot of stuff before you reach the pan-European site, which has US sizes and is priced in euros.

  Verdict Crocs are like Marmite: people love them or hate them. The debate rages on the web, with an 'I hate Crocs' Facebook group and a 'Leave Crocs alone' site on YouTube. Time will tell if Crocs are a fad or, like the Havaiana flip-flop, will become
  an iconic shape. The flagship has some way to go. It ought to extend the brand experience for loyal customers and recruit new ones too. The stock will feed fans' hunger, but this novice remains unconverted.

   

  (telegraph)