NEW YORK, March 6 — Despite there having been one final Vuitton-Miu-Miu-shaped box of Paris Fashion Week to tick before the Fall 2013 runway season closed, I nevertheless sprung an early exit aboard the proverbial "last helicopter out of Saigon" before the Fall 2013 season truly fell. My Wednesday morning flight to JFK was without incident and its eight and half hour duration afforded me the generous window of sleep that had otherwise eluded me all week in Paris.
I spent much of the penultimate day of Paris Fashion Week with Marike Le Roux backstage at Hermès, but not before I had a quick ça va with Manon Leloup and Elisabeth Erm at Valentino over in the Tuileries. Elisabeth was coming from Chanel, for whom she had walked earlier that morning at the Grand Palais. The smile on Elisabeth's face (above) announced just the sort of week this young model experienced after having walked for the week's giants — Lanvin, Dior, Givenchy, Chanel and Valentino, amongst others. After chatting with the girls outside the tents in the unseasonably temperate Parisian air, I switched gears and set out to make the 15h00 call time at Hermès in the fifth arrondissement.
In another moment of transit weakness, I took a gamble on a taxi, which unfortunately only confirmed my other bad experiences on quatre roues by slowing to a halt in the debilitating Parisian traffic. I eventually made it to Lycée Henri-IV, which is yet another of the Fifth Republic's capital's average, breathtaking buildings, situated mere blocks from the Sorbonne. Once inside the building, I strolled about the runway, which was arranged in a long wing of a library in what looked like a reading room. Leather-bound volumes lined the walls behind protective metal grating, which gave an indication of the no-doubt historical importance of the library's holdings. The surroundings screamed history, bookish history at that, which made perfect sense in relation to Hermès, the luxury leather goods maker founded in 1837.
I met Marike in makeup, which was being handled by Carole Colambani. Marike's new Jean Seberg-inspired short crop made quick work for the show's hair stylist, Odile Gilbert. With hours to while away until show time, Marike took advantage of the masseuses backstage in makeup for a much-needed massage. I was struck by this thoughtful gesture of the client's toward its models for the evening. The act looked a natural extension of the brand's ethos. Hermès apparently only bestows the title of artisan on its bag makers after they have spent ten years creating by hand the brand's coveted bags. Fast fashion Hermès is not!
Marike's look for the show was a double-faced cashmere bomber and a crocodile skirt and she was dressed in her first looks before all the other models. Her punctuality meant she was the first model to stand before the scrum of assembled first looks photographers. Marike stood before the illuminated white backdrop turning this way and that, flashing a smile or two, and all the while speaking volumes without saying a word. Marike has a confidence, a magnetism that will make her a muse to many a designer and photographer alike for years to come. I was fortunate to capture much of the scene on video that I have just described before the show began.
I concluded New York Fashion Week with Marike backstage and on the runway at Marc Jacobs and so it was only appropriate that I closed Paris Fashion Week with her at Hermès.
That is all for the Fall 2013 runway season. Special thanks to The Fashion Spot for offering me this generous opportunity to keep this diary. Thanks to Wilhelmina, its models, my colleagues, and my dear wife for making Fall 2013 such a success.
All images courtesy Damien Neva for Wilhelmina Models
Damien Neva is the Director of Social Media at Wilhelmina Models. For more of his unique perspective and behind-the-scenes take on modeling and fashion, you can follow Wilhelmina on Instagram, Twitter and Youtube.
PARIS, March 4 — On Monday, Paris Fashion Week sallied forth with intent and saw me backstage at three shows starting with Stella McCartney. All hands were on deck in the darkness of an early Parisian morning in March at Stella McCartney. Hair and makeup from Eugene Souleiman and Pat McGrath respectively ensured beauty was on point. Ava Smith was in the show, look #8, which consisted of a navy blue dress with white pinstripes, a black riding cap and grey boots. The show was held at Palais Garnier, home of Opéra de Paris, whose palatial, gold leaf details in hair and makeup could not be further removed from any show ever listed on the Lincoln Center manifest during Mercedes-Benz Fashion, etc. and so on. The first Instagram I posted from backstage proved a hit. Followers on the East Coast would have noticed it in their feed after midnight, it was a detail of the chandelier and ceiling in hair and makeup (right). Modest affair, really, compared to the main runway that twinkled golden light (below) with all its encrusted details.
Following the show I took the rear entrance to the street, which was an idea Bono and his coterie shared. No Instagram this time, sorry. I then hoofed it backstage to the Giambattista Valli show in which Ava (below) and Elisabeth Erm were cast. Orlando Pita and Val Garland were handling hair and makeup respectively. The backstage was one floor below the runway in a raw space with harsh, industrial lighting. Exposed concrete walls left chalky impressions on anything that touched the surface. At ground level, however the show space gleamed with modern Italian details from the white, rectangular bench seating to the undulating band of lighting elements suspended over the runway.
At show time, Coco Rocha was seated front row, but a few benches down from Alexandra Richards, daughter of Patti Hansen and Keith Richards and Wilhelmina Models compadre. Coco faced a phalanx of journalists and photographers clamoring for a quotation, a usable portrait of any kind of the supermodel and current star of The Face on Oxygen. Despite the mob scene, Coco spotted me and made time to speak with me on camera. I was expecting a word about Giambattista Valli, Paris Fashion Week, or perhaps even the latest from Team Coco, but instead she paid me a tremendous compliment. I turned on the camera and immediately she talked about what a good job (her words) I am doing for social media at Wilhelmina Models. I don't mention this to humble brag, but rather to illustrate the genuine class she, a global celebrity, has. Coco didn't talk about herself once and yet would have been entitled to carry on without a comma. Make no mistake, Coco Rocha is the genuine article. As an aside, I have a bit of on-camera history with Coco that goes back a couple seasons, but that's a diary entry for another day!
After Valli, in a moment of transit weakness, I hopped into a taxi with Elisabeth and my colleague José. Together we traveled over to Emanuel Ungaro for my third and final show for Monday. Guido's team was running the hair dryers at full tilt whilst Tom Pecheux's team were executing every exquisite makeup detail for Fausto Puglisi's first collection for the house. Sung Hee Kim was also cast in the show. She has such a charming character! She smiles with her eyes like no one I have ever filmed. Whether she's waving hello or raising a coffee cup, her every on-camera action demands an animated GIF. Tumblr, get to work!
Elisabeth's juggernaut of a season continued apace with her opening the show wearing a geometric print top, large white polka dots over a navy field, and a belted, yellow cream skirt. Backstage I overheard Puglisi describing the collection being for a stylish Parisian woman living in Los Angeles in the 1970s. To that end, Puglisi chose David Bowie's "Scream Like a Baby" off Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980). Excellent choice, Fausto, I can picture this woman, it is in fact, Elisabeth Erm.
All images courtesy Damien Neva for Wilhelmina Models
Damien Neva is the Director of Social Media at Wilhelmina Models. For more of his unique perspective and behind-the-scenes take on modeling and fashion, you can follow Wilhelmina on Instagram, Twitter and Youtube.
PARIS, March 3 — A lot happened on Sunday, but for me, Céline proved the most abiding of all the day's events. Russell Marsh cast the show, which included Manon Leloup and gave me a reason (as if any were needed) to attend. I had previously seen Phoebe Philo's show before she became a mother, so it was pleasant returning to Sunday's show venue, Tennis Club de Paris, despite it being way, way out in the 16th arrondissement compared to where I am lodging for the week in the 9th. The spaciousness of the site gave everyone from hair and makeup artists to the on-site tailors a bit more room to breathe. Active tennis matches were little more than an ad and deuce court away from first looks!
The statement prints of this collection immediately called to mind Chinatown laundry bags. Having seen and photographed the garments up close, however I can assure readers that Philo's prints were no Canal Street specials. Paired with unforgettable heels and leather leggings, the combination of which I simply cannot get out of my head, the prints sprang to life once the models lined up backstage in the show's order.
Manon's look consisted of an ivory T-shirt in short sleeves, green skirt, green curly wool coat and matching green mohair clutch. The monochromatic uniformity of Manon's look was signature Céline and yet the earthy tone gave it warmth for the colder months. I have a weakness for minimalism and Phoebe Philo's collection once again had me trembling in the knees.
The finale soundtrack was a variation on "Walk On By" by Isaac Hayes off Hot Buttered Soul (1969). The track has been memorably sampled by Public Enemy ("Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos") and, wait for it, Portishead ("All Mine"). The Bristol group is proving something of a common denominator for the week.
I concluded Sunday at an intimate restaurant on the Left Bank with my agency colleagues and models. Coco Rocha, Ava Smith, Alexandra Richards, Marike Le Roux, Soo Joo, Sung Hee, Victoria Anderson, all were there to toast a brilliant week in Paris. Chin chin!
PARIS, March 2 — Saturday I spent the morning into early afternoon backstage at Viktor & Rolf Fall 2013. This was my first show of the season staged in the Jardin des Tuileries, which from Paris to New York is easily my favorite of all the "tents." Despite the venue's tent status, designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren never fail to transform the runway into something other than a temporary structure fashioned out of stretched vinyl over an aluminum skeleton. Saturday's show was no exception. A herringbone woodgrain graphic (below, left) in grayscale covered the surface of the runway and flowers and leaves (below, right) in the same color scheme climbed the wall at the runway's base.
Backstage there were familiar faces in casting director Andrew Weir, Pat McGrath and Luigi Murenu. During first looks, Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain popped up for a public relations photo moment with designers Viktor and Rolf. I am unashamed to admit that even I was taken by that moment and duly shuttered an Instagram.
In early evening I made a backstage rendezvous with Manon Leloup and Soo Joo at Loewe Fall 2013. The show was staged at the Galerie de Minéralogie du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle on the Left Bank. The narrowness of the show gallery made possible the illusion of a nearly endless runway (below). And it stretched for miles! During runway rehearsal I situated myself nearly two thirds of the way toward end near the photo riser, which meant that when the models entered the runway they were but tiny points of light in my camera's iris. During my two previous seasons in Paris, Loewe held its shows at 12 Rue de l'École de Médecine, which made for a circuitous runway with all manner of twists and turns. Portishead provided the finale score for the second time this week. Saturday night it was the Bristol group's 12" single, "Chase the Tear."
Guido and Pat McGrath took hair and makeup honors respectively Saturday night at Loewe, which cranked beauty levels to 11. There was one picture in particular that I snapped of Manon moments before she took to the runway. She is pictured wearing her sunnies and exudes an effortless cool, something straight from a lost film from a bygone era. Soo Joo also had a breathtaking look. Guido and Pat have an uncanny mastery of their crafts. How they transform naturally beautiful girls into even more beautiful models is akin to to achieving immediate acceleration in a Ferrari that is already doing 150 miles per hour.
I drink a lot of espresso and take Instagrams of coffee like some do of cupcakes. The coffee last night at Loewe might have been dire, but at least it was served in a proper cup with a saucer. I will never weary of this continental presentation, the insistence on doing things properly. That said, if the French brought the same level of attention to their coffee that they do for its presentation, then this would be Milan, not Paris.
PARIS, March 1 — I spent a few hours backstage with Manon Leloup and Elisabeth Erm at Dior, Raf's Dior, and the show, the collection, the impeccable details all continue to reverberate. That the Belgian designer selected musical works by Brian Eno and Laurie Anderson for pre-show and show respectively, speaks volumes about the subtlety and nuance of his second prêt-à-porter collection for Dior.
The staging of the show proved a masterstroke by setting the runway way, way up in the clouds. The runway itself followed a meandering path overtop a powder blue surface replete with puffy white clouds. Mirrored walls extended the space to infinity whilst enormous inflatable spheres with shiny silver surfaces did their parabolic best to warp said endlessness. Once all 48 looks of Dior Fall 2013 were uploaded to the interweb, they would appear suspended in the open skies. You don't need a degree in semiotics to apprehend the meaning of the symbols used — Dior is above everything else.
The Andy Warhol heel illustration that appeared on the collection handbags has rightly been the talk of the critics — it is another deft choice, not wholly obvious from the late artist's extensive oeuvre. The Warhol heel, though wasn't what caught my eye. No, no, no. It was the Dior heel by Raf Simons that still has me rapt. Backstage I snapped Instagrams of the heels worn by Elisabeth and Manon and my only regret is that I didn't shoot more!
Immediately following Dior I made my way to the Vanessa Bruno at the Grand Palais, where I once again met up with Estonian model Elisabeth Erm. She is enjoying a fantastic season and yesterday was no exception. I captured several moments with her backstage in hair and makeup and during first looks that appear in the video I produced. She is really coming into her own and with every successive video becomes more personable.
Vanessa Bruno chose the Portishead song "The Rip" off the album Third (2008) as the finale music, a selection I duly mentioned to Portishead's Geoff Barrow on Twitter. The uncertainty this in turn stirred up in the English musician was endearing. "I'm confused," Barrow tweeted, "is that good or bad?" Good, Geoff, very good.
PARIS, February 28 — Bonjour from backstage at Dior Fall 2013. Whilst Raf’s graceful machine purrs elegantly in the background, I will recount the previous day’s proceedings at the helm of Wilhelmina’s social media starship.
My second day in Paris proved eventful and included backstage access to both Rick Owens and Lanvin. Soo Joo featured in the pair of shows, thereby providing continuity between otherwise separate worlds. Rick Owens’ fall collection, “Plinth” as it is called, proved a breezy affair. The base of the runway was outfitted with wind machines that swept all and sundry that passed through the powerful airstream inside the cavernous space.
Hair by Luigi Murenu was duly blown out, ironed, teased, crimped, heated, reheated and teased some more so that when it passed before the high velocity wind tunnel danced wildly to the show’s operatic score. The hair was roughly the same as the American designer’s corresponding men’s show in January, but the difference for Thursday’s show was that these 'dos were no wigs! Just ask Soo Joo, who was more than relieved to undergo some deep conditioning à la triage by Guido’s team at Lanvin.
This was my third season in Paris and also my third time at Rick Owens and for good reason, he's a favorite designer of mine. The airplane hangar of a runway is made entirely of poured concrete and sits at the belly of the sports arena called the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy. Yohji Yamamoto shows in the exact same space, which ought to give an inkling of its no-nonsense appeal. The toilets in the hulking facility that was erected in 1984 carry adverts for French Ice Hockey, which is something the toilets at l'Hôtel de Ville, Balmain's venue, do not.
Immediately following the Rick Owens show I dashed to Lanvin via the Metro — Soo Joo by chauffeured scooter. Taxis are to be avoided. No sooner do you bag one at a taxi stand, than it becomes a nearly immovable object in the paralyzing Parisian traffic. Lanvin was striking its signature buoyant tone at the École des Beaux-Arts.
The festive, circus-like atmosphere of Alber Elbaz’s show was made explicit in the accessories exclaiming love and happiness — the storied French house, after all, goes hard for the cartoon hearts. Elisabeth Erm, for example, wore such messaged necklaces for her first look. The hair by Guido was tied back and radiated a natural, effortless sex appeal, perfect for Lanvin.
Upon the show's conclusion, teams of Lanvin boys could be seen fanning out from backstage with trays of popcorn housed in diminutive carnival boxes. Sorry, no picture, I do not fancy popped corn.
Many thanks to Soo Joo and Elisabeth Erm for their help on this second day in Paris.
PARIS, February 27 — My flight from JFK landed early Wednesday morning, which meant I would by design have to hit the ground running. The footprint Paris Fashion Week leaves on the calendar is considerable (a full nine days) compared to its counterparts in New York (eight), London (five), and Milan (six). That I am loath to live out of a hotel room in even a purportedly brilliant city like Paris any longer than absolutely necessary means I am not afforded the luxury of an extra day before the shows start. As first days in France's fashion capital go, Wednesday was not an inauspicious beginning and put me backstage at Rochas and H&M.
I began my role as the Director of Social Media at Wilhelmina Models in New York in December 2012, and it's what makes my stay in Paris and coverage of the shows possible. In January, I traveled to Milan in the same manner to cover the menswear collections. The set-up is straightforward: I travel to where my agency's models are at important times during the fashion calendar. I first started traveling to Milan and Paris for men's and women's shows during my tenure as News Editor at Ford Models. I spent the Spring 2013 season "in-house" as the Public Relations Director — Digital Media at Calvin Klein, Inc. The Fall 2013 season, however, is my first at Wilhelmina and has already proven to be gratifying. Working with an impressive group of models that include the likes of Ava Smith, Manon Leloup, Marike Le Roux, Soo Joo (below, right), Matt Hitt, RJ King, Sung Jin Park and Yannick Abrath (to name but a few) has made my job all the more enjoyable — and my Wednesday in Paris was no exception.
The scale of fashion show production in Paris and Milan compared to New York is higher across the board. Sure, New York has outliers like Marc Jacobs, but it also stages a fair few identikit shows at Lincoln Center. In Paris and Milan, where there are an abundance of comparatively grandiose venues built over the centuries, the shows reflect their locations. Take, for example, the two shows I had the fortune of attending on Wednesday, Rochas and H&M. The former took place at the Espace Cambon at 46 rue Cambon, which boasts a lengthy runway that spans the considerable distance of a roughly 7500 square foot room (top image). The base of the runway is a massive staircase that leads down from a mezzanine. At show time, the models gracefully descended that staircase in a collection by Marco Zanini, the brand's creative designer, replete with impossibly tall heels that recalled the streamlined 1950s.
All images courtesy Damien Neva for Wilhelmina Models
