Forum members were looking forward to seeing Kirsten Dunst’s look at this year’s amfAR Cinema Against AIDS benefit gala, but unfortunately, her color blocked Louis Vuitton ensemble failed to impress. HeatherAnne’s cringing “oof” said it all. I think I made that exact sound when I saw the outfit.
“That dress looks like it was pieced together in an arts-and-crafts class,” eternitygoddess posted.
LolaSvelt was confused by the look. “I just don't understand it,” she wrote. “I mean, if it were the same color, I'd be fine with it. But it isn't, so that's a no.”
Dajrekshn expressed her emphatic opposition to the look. “Big no to this outfit, the upper part is okay, but from that kitschy belt down it's a disaster. The makeup is nice and hair is actually good now that I look at it, but NO to the outfit,” she repeated.
Seeing as this look came from Kirsten Dunst, I’m sure she’ll redeem herself. She looked beautiful in Dolce & Gabbana at the photocall for On the Road at the Cannes Film Festival the other day (she was even chosen as our look of the day), and though I’m not a fan of her Louis Vuitton dress, I admire the fact that she took a risk once again and went for something unusual and unexpected.
Image: Lia Toby/WENN.com
J Brand has been setting its focus on its newly launched sportswear collection, and in doing so, it has made its Fall 2012 ad campaign its most expensive to date to try to generate some buzz. The brand budgeted well over a million dollars to include media buys in magazines like GQ, Vanity Fair, Love, and French Vogue.
The former creative director of Interview magazine, Karl Templer, was hired to art direct and style the campaign, and photographer Craig McDean was brought on to photograph models Suvi Koponen and Shaun DeWet. The ads are meant to project the confidence and subtle sexiness that J Brand wants associated with the company, but forum members didn’t seem all that impressed with them.
“I really like Suvi, but I don't like this ad,” wrote valliaddict. “Her complexion looks very weird contrasted with that background.”
TommyGirl posted, “Happy for my girl, but her skin truly looks BAD and the eye makeup is hideous, too.”
TREVOFASHIONISTO simply stated, “This is bad...”
I’m going to venture a guess that this is not the response J Brand is looking for. Maybe they should have hired a more expensive makeup artist?
Images: www.glossynewsstand.tumblr.com via the Fashion Spot forums.
Nicole Kidman arrived at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of her new film, The Paperboy, wearing a rosy diaphanous gown from Lanvin’s Spring 2012 collection. According to Boomer, “She's getting into that Elizabeth Hurley 'Looks As Hot As She Did Twenty Years Ago!' zone!!” I think he's got a point. Kidman looks incredible and knows how to work an elegant red carpet look.
“Absolutely gorgeous!” Not Plain Jane commented. “I love the color of this Lanvin gown, and Nicole's eyes are beautiful.”
Alicia753 called her a “true goddess.”
Forum members have for the most part been unimpressed by the styles worn at Cannes thus far, but Kidman is a standout.
Image: WENN.com
Though this is only its third cover, Vogue Netherlands seems to be showing that they intend to be consistent in their use of Dutch models. For its June 2012 issue, model Guinevere van Seenus was photographed by Annemarieke van Drimmelen.
“I love the orange text (it looks horrible and yellow in that online version, but great in the actual snap of the cover), it's a beautiful summer cover. I adore Guinevere's monochrome pink look,” wrote HeatherAnne.
Anlabe32 called it “the best [Vogue Netherlands] cover so far. It has a summer feeling and Guinevere looks amazing,” she added.
“Such a stunning cover, I love everything about this,” Miss Dalloway commented. “It feels like a natural very effortless moment was caught on camera.”
Guinevere is also featured in an editorial within the magazine, and you can also expect to see Bregje Heinen (who has been known to occasionally post in her own thread in the Fashion Spot forums) photographed by Paul Bellaart, Querelle Jansen photographed by Jan Welters, and more.
Despite being a big fan of Guinevere's, I’m still not completely floored by anything Vogue Netherlands has put out thus far, but they’re still finding their footing so I’ll be patiently watching and waiting to see what they come out with next.
Image: facebook.com/VogueNL via the Fashion Spot forums.
Though it’s not yet summer, and we're not exactly thinking ahead to our fall wardrobes, Versace is the first of the major ad campaigns for Fall 2012 to be revealed. In a total switch of gears from the blue-tinged summer ads featuring Gisele Bundchen, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott photographed model Elza Luijendijk, who was styled by Joe McKenna, with the same blunt razored bangs and bleached eyebrows that were present at the runway show. The gritty black and white images, where the model poses among cement blocks and metal chains, channel Donatella Versace’s Gothic and edgy underground inspiration for the collection. The men's campaign was styled by David Bradshaw and features models Philipp Schmidt, Dmitriy Tanner and Kacey Carrig.
Images: twitter.com/jimshi809
“This looks REALLY good for a Versace ad. Love the dark mood and the whole setting,” wrote Psylocke. “Nice styling, too. Elza is a rather surprising choice for this but she looks fantastic. Nice!”
Melancholybaby posted, “I'm glad they took the darkness of the show and took it to another level. Can't wait to see more of this.”
Images: facebook.com/redcarpet fashion awards
All in all this is a great effort for fall, and an unexpected showing for Versace. The mood is mature, sexy, and sophisticated, and as Bretonne pointed out, “The clothes look better here than on the runway.” Well done.
The forums have been buzzing over the last few days in response to the news that Kirstie Clements seems to have been unceremoniously kicked to the curb and ousted from her position as Editor-in-Chief after thirteen years at Vogue Australia. With the news of Clements’ firing came reports of Edwina McCann’s hiring. Up until now, McCann has been the editor at rival publication, Australian Harper’s Bazaar. Rumor has it that McCann may also be bringing her Harper’s Bazaar colleague, stylist, and street style favorite Christine Centenera, with her to Vogue. The news came as a surprise to many forum members, who have been rallying and expressing their support for Clements and the work that she did at Australian Vogue.
Samoanceleb, one of her biggest supporters in the forums, wrote, “Kirstie was my favorite editor in Australia. What she did for Vogue was bring much needed consistency and maturity after a tumultuous slew of editors at the beginning of her tenure. But most of all she celebrated Australian fashion and sensibility. Instead of imitating what was happening overseas only, she was able to give language and validity to unpretentious Australian fashion and consumers. In other words, she was real – from watching TV (her Voice tweets) to body and image issues in her Sunday columns. Her support of local models is second to none out of any magazine anywhere in the world. No other edition of Vogue probably has as many homegrown nationals on their covers like Vogue Australia did under Clements’ tenure… And when she featured them, they were not all superstars already. Her covers this year in particular have had fashionistas the world over excitedly blogging and posting on forums, effusive in their praise of her and the magazine. She was always classy but never pretentious. I will miss her at Vogue… In my opinion no other Australian women’s fashion magazine came close. I hope she will go to better things and I hope Vogue doesn’t turn into a tabloid or predictable publication under the also very talented McCann.”
HeatherAnne also lauded Clements’ consistent support of Australian identity in Vogue. “I too love the way she embraced her own country's aesthetic, culture, artists, models, and by doing so gave the magazine such a clear and harmonious identity,” she commented. “I think she is extremely under-appreciated for this fact. It's a tricky thing to conquer in a way that is not cliched or predictable, but Clements commandeered and ultimately achieved it with great success. In doing so she gave Vogue Australia a coherent vision that many of the sister Vogues sorely lack. I'll miss her vision.”
We’ll miss you Kirstie Clements! Let’s hope Edwina McCann is up for the challenge.
Image: vogue.com.au
Salem, Massachusetts is a cool little city: the town is best known as the home of the historic witch trials immortalized in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, but it also boasts a lively waterfront, an esteemed documentary film festival and independent cinema house, a gorgeous private lending library, and one of the oldest art museums in the U.S., the Peabody Essex.
And now it's going to be even cooler: Iris Apfel, the 90-year-old style icon, has donated over 600 pieces from her acclaimed couture collection to the Peabody Essex. In addition to garments, the selection includes accessories (jewels!) and art objects. Apfel and her husband will also subsidize the construction of a new fashion wing, which will open to the public in 2017.
Most of the items in the Peabody Essex's newly-acquired fashion gold mine were first displayed at the Metropolitan Museum's 2005 exhibition "Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel." A capsule version of the Met exhibit traveled to the Salem museum in 2009.
Inspired by Apfel's gift, businessman George Putnam decided to sponsor a curatorial fellowship in fashion and textiles. The Peabody Essex is about to become a major hub for fashion history and scholarship: let's go!
Image via Ivan Nikolov / WENN.com
[via Boston Globe]
Tilda Swinton is quite the androgynous chameleon, which makes her the perfect choice to grace the cover of Candy, the first transgender publication. In this, its fourth issue, Candy presents “The Extra Extravagance Issue,” with Tilda leading the way in an editorial photographed by Xevi Muntane and styled and directed by Jerry Stafford. Other things to look out for in this issue: a male pregnancy editorial photographed by Steven Klein, and drag superstars captured by David Armstrong.
The “Baby Boom” fetishized male pregnancy editorial may be too boundary pushing for most, but on the flip side, Tilda Swinton’s transformative nature may win you over. “Tilda is Drag-licious!!! I love it!” YourMonster posted. I don’t know what Drag-licious means, but it kind of seems like an appropriate adjective here.
Psylocke wasn’t completely won over though. She wrote, “Considering this is a transgender magazine and the theme of the issue is 'Extravagance' this is really well done and the theme is certainly executed perfectly. Going solely by my own personal taste I still don't like it because I don't like all the gold and the voluminous red hair on Tilda.”
I don’t usually think of Tilda as a glamourpuss, but I think she’s really selling it. Here’s a preview of the editorial so you can judge for yourself:
Images: models.com via the Fashion Spot forums.
Tilda Swinton is in Cannes promoting the Wes Anderson film, Moonrise Kingdom, and though some people don’t quite get her offbeat style, we in the Fashion Spot forums are completely enamored with her. At the photocall for the film (which also features Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, and Anderson film regulars Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray), Tilda stood out in a pale blue pencil skirt and dusky taupe blouse by Haider Ackermann and Nicholas Kirkwood pumps.
This ensemble might be a perfect example of something that looks extraordinary on Tilda, but could look terribly wrong on someone else. The tones of the skirt and shirt work beautifully together when paired with Tilda’s blank palette sort of coloring. “I can't imagine how bland or ‘off’ this would look on anyone but Tilda,” wrote HeatherAnne. “She makes this color combination work.”
“Gorgeous! I love this outfit so freaking much,” sobriquet87 gushed. “The colors are so pretty together and Tilda has so much elegance.”
Saann tried to put Tilda’s entrancing qualities into words: “What I love about her is that she comes off as so certain of herself and her style that the clothes never wear or transform her,” she explained. “She always transforms whatever she's wearing into suiting her look and her style. Even when it's not very great it never really looks quite off because she always brings that extra something herself. It's very rare to see someone with that ability… She makes everything look Swinton-esque,” she concluded.
Swinton-esque indeed. Tilda’s got something rare that can’t be bought or imitated. It’s invaluable and all we can do is admire from afar and appreciate the intangible fact that it exists in her.
Image: Lia Toby/WENN.com
