If you hadn't realized that the presidential election is creeping up on us, you must be one of those undecided low-information voters we've been hearing about. Right now you're the center of so much attention, and I'm sure that's very flattering for you, but sooner or later you're going to have to make a decision.
Now, there are several ways you can go about the hard work of making up your mind, but here's the best way: 1) figure out what's important to you and 2) find out where each of the candidates stands. Now, since you're on a fashion website, I'm just going to assume that style is really important to you. The importantest. Unfortunately, both candidates and their respective parties have failed to outline a stance on fashion as part of their platform, and as far as I know, neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney has ever discussed his taste in womenswear.
However, Michelle Obama has publicly worn clothes for many years now, and we can probably assume that her spouse supports her choices. So let's talk record: Mobama favors emerging American designers and projects fashion forward elegance. It's hard to take issue with her style, although of course some (like petulant childOscar de la Renta) have found ways to criticize her.
On the other hand, the American public is only starting to get to know Ann Romney's style: we took note of her (maybe pointed) decision to wear an ODLR skirt suit to the Republican Party Convention, but we've only just discovered that she's obsessed with the Boston-based designer Alfred Fiandaca. She wears practically nothing else.
In an interview with WWD, Fiandaca shared some vital information about Ann's philosophy of style: she has no qualms about wearing pieces from past collections and she'll even wear the same item multiple times. What a hero!
Unfortunately, some other details have emerged which raise serious red flags: Fiandaca has revealed that Ann Romney takes style advice from her husband and "definitely dresses for him," which sounds like it could maybe be adorable (if you're endeared to traditional gender roles) until you hear about his taste in womenswear:
"Mitt likes her to wear red and pink, to have a defined waist and to show her figure because he’s very proud of her."
That sound you just heard was me gagging. If you're still undecided after reading to the end of this, the election next month is obviously the least of your problems.
It’s no secret that Brad Pitt is being paid A LOT to lend himself to Chanel as the latest face of its iconic Chanel No. 5 perfume. It seems so unorthodox to employ a man to represent a women’s perfume, but maybe it’s not so crazy… if you’ve got a handsome man telling you he loves the way this perfume smells, wouldn’t you potentially be more inclined to buy it? If anyone can do this, it’s Brad Pitt.
Since Chanel likes to tease, they’ve released three short clips on its YouTube page in which the actor asks rhetorical questions. Fragrance ads tend to be oblique, so the questions don't come as much of a surprise. The clips are not much to go on, but they will have to hold us over until October 15 when the first commercial with Pitt will air.
Saan found them amusing: “What is up with those questions? It's making me question my life and get depressed as hell,” she wrote initially. “The [offical commercial] better be accompanied by some eye sexing the camera.”
She later added: “Ok, after a few more listens this is starting get hilarious. I hope they're aiming for a Siri-like app with those voice recordings where you get a chance to know what it's like to have a conversation with Brad Pitt,” she joked.
Brad Pitt features in Interview’s latest issue in a cover and editorial shot by Steven Klein, who presumably followed a directive not to Photoshop the images (as Brad has notably requested in the past when on the cover of W). Brad appears in the images, wrinkles, pores, and all, styed in various looks by Ludivine Poiblanc. It’s refreshing to see an actor, imperfections and all, looking like an actual human being, but overall, forum members were not particularly impressed.
“I am not a Brad Pitt fan,” Luxx prefaced. “However, he can look better than this. Considerably better. I am shocked they chose that for the cover – he looks like a wizened zombie version of himself. The pictures of him with the pistol are far more flattering. I mean maybe they were going for shrunken and shriveled, but dear god he looks like an extra from The Walking Dead on that cover,” she critiqued.
“I like the shots in his editorial,” justaguy conceded, “but on the cover, he just looks dirty.”
Style Savvy went so far as to say, “That is the most hideous he's ever looked.”
All is not lost for Brad though, |PerfectTonight| got what he was going for. “One word… Amazing! Raw, personal, versatile and introspective,” he described.
Miss Dalloway also got on board. “Love it, all of it. The different looks, the seemingly very little airbrushing…” she posted.
As preoccupied as the world seems to be with how handsome Brad Pitt is, he seems to be more preoccupied with trying to make us forget it.
Lady Gaga is now the first known non-model to have worn Hedi Slimane's debut Saint Laurent collection, which showed on the runways at Paris Fashion Week last Monday. Slimane's first attempt at womenswear wasn't well received by fashion critics (buyers, on the other hand, were far more positive about the clothes), but Lady Gaga distinguished herself as one of the designer's most vocal supporters early on, even taking her cheerleading to Twitter:
Monsters, check out @hedislimanetwit garments for YSL this season … a true punk visionary. Modern, forward, LA VERITE.
Yes, "THE TRUTH" is exactly how I would never describe the Saint Laurent 2013 collection. But here's some actual truth — a fact, even, confirmed by The Daily Mail: apart from her hat, which mimics Slimane's show styling but isn't a YSL original, everything Lady Gaga's (visibly) wearing in the included photo is so hot off the runways it's gotta be giving her burns.
But the overall effect? More like, burning my eyes. I think there's too much fabric and it's too black. Where's a normal person supposed to wear something like this? To a coven meeting?
One of the many things Hedi Slimane is doing over at Saint Laurent (when he’s taking a break from creating new logos and composing bitter tweets directed at Cathy Horyn) is designing a new Skinny collection for men. More casual and laid-back than the brand’s mainline men's collection, the Skinny line Lookbook for Spring/Summer 2013 (photographed by Slimane, of course) features denim and leather jackets, drapey tees, slim jeans, and androgynous button-up shirts modeled by Gryphon O’Shea. As usual when it comes to Slimane’s offerings, forum members had mixed feelings.
The collection seems to be right up LagerfeldBoy’s alley. “The beach makes a perfect background for the subtle, effortless clothes,” he commented. “I think this highlights the denim wonderfully. I automatically want that nice denim jacket and a pair of those jeans. There's a youthful, edgy spirit in this, which I'm sure was aimed to attract a younger clientele.”
“It's definitely a new mood and tone for the house,” elle_gb posted tentatively.
Others were not so swayed. TianCouture wrote, “This clothing looks like items readily available at TopMan or Zara…the leopard shirt is frankly, sad.”
“Everything looks cheap to me!” KemAlnagdy exclaimed.
Whatever the protestations are from the boys, I think this is basically what I would expect from Hedi Slimane no matter what label he’s designing for. It doesn’t feel like Yves Saint Laurent, but Slimane’s clearly trying to take the brand in a new direction. Like the popularity of Dior Homme under his tutelage, I can see a lot of potential for women meandering over to the mens section and picking out a few pieces of this collection for themselves.
It may be a bit late in the year for an Olympic reference, but Nicole Kidman’s gold-on-gold-on-gold-on-gold Harper’s Bazaar cover is kind of asking for it. This doesn’t look like Terry Richardson’s usual fare (there’s nothing overtly raunchy or overly sexualized about it), and for “The Daring Issue” there’s nothing particularly daring about putting the Oscar-winning actress in a gold gown against a gold background. Kidman’s editorial within the issue more accurately fits with the “daring” theme, but it’s completely disconnected from what we see on the cover where her face looks awkwardly Photoshopped and it almost looks like she’s wearing joke teeth; so I guess that’s par for the course at least.
Flashbang called the cover “indescribably terrifying,” while visualoptimism wrote, “I think it's one of Terry's better covers for Bazaar.”
“Her face looks like it's melting,” mistress_f described. “The editorial looks exactly like an old Terry ed from the 90s. Everything about this is rather forgettable.”
“I like her editorial much better than the cover,” justaguy shared.
For something titled “Nicole Kidman’s Wild Ride,” the editorial actually seems pretty tame. And to me, Nicole seems completely out of her element among the monster trucks. Nice try though, I guess. At least she looks pretty and her face looks less melted than it does on the cover.
If you hadn't realized that the presidential election is creeping up on us, you must be one of those undecided low-information voters we've been hearing about. Right now you're the center of so much attention, and I'm sure that's very flattering for you, but sooner or later you're going to have to make a decision.
It’s no secret that 
Lady Gaga is now the first known non-model to have worn Hedi Slimane's debut 
