Boys and Girls on Film

The boys are back.

The original scene stealers and directors of fashion films in the form of music videos are in top form, after more than 30 years. Duran Duran have given us a piece of visual culture as only they can deliver, in a shiny, oozing new vid for Girl Panic, featuring not models of the moment, but models whose collective momentum changed the face of fashion.

In other words, the girls are back.

Helena, Cindy, Eva, Naomi and Yaz are the girls on film in this classic rock star meets runway romp. The ladies each play a member of the band, with the Durans making cameos, along with Dolce and Gabbana, a chauffeur and a few other notable characters.

Is it cheeky?

Is it tongue-in-chic?

Is it dripping with double D-dom?

Why yes, darlings, it is.

It is a Duran Duran video after all.

 

In true media form, the December issue of UK Harper’s Bazaar has an editorial to accompany the video’s release, with a Super cover. The video was directed and the editorial, photographed by Jonas Akerlund.

The ladies, in Dolce & Gabbana corsets.

Cindy as JT. She's got that look Down!

Eva as Nick. It's all about the shoulders, 'innit?

Naomi as Simon - hams, both.

Helena as Rog - hard to define which one of them is cooler.

Mrs. Le Bon as the band's rotating guitarist. Loved the attitude.

These ladies make the 40s look insanely good.

These boys make anything look good, really.

Editorial images: TFS; Duran image courtesy of DuranDuran.com.

Four Sure

I can’t believe Vogue India has been in my life for four years now.

It’s always been my fix, for the feast of the East, mixed with the best of the West – and the constant dance between the two.

I thought their anniversary cover exemplified that crossover lust, perfectly. Isabeli Fontana and Ranbir Kapoor uncover a special Fashion and Film issue.

Can’t wait to pick it up. Just wish it didn’t arrive in Canada in Indian Standard Time.

See all my posts related to Fashion and Film.

Or – read more posts related to Vogue India.

Image: TFS.

Meisel’s Mixed Metaphors

If Frida Kahlo was a Victorian Goth, Flamenco-dancing gypsy, who lived in a surreal painting in India, this is what she would wear.

Mr. Meisel – just when I was starting to yawn, you took me to a dreamy state.

I know these might be disturbing to some – and portray images of women as blah, blah, blah… To me, they are like paintings…surreal, fantastical paintings – and they become a visual study of form and space.

Stella Lugosi? Oh. Stell. Ah.

Haunted - when the minutes drag.

Sarvangasana Stella.

Ethel Granger meets Anna Dello Russo meets Dita Von Teese.

Echoing Granger's record-breaking (likely back-breaking) and heart-breaking, 13-inch waist.

Waist not, want not. The woman in the Guinness Book of World Records, who had the world's smallest waist - Ethel Granger.

A wife for Shelley's Frankenstein?

Meisel’s shoot was inspired by Granger, but I saw many mixed metaphors here.

Like Frankenstein’s monster, this too, is a piecing together of odd parts for a mad result, with the modern, monstrous mode being concocted with digital tools.

I don’t take each photograph in a magazine literally. Vogue Italia has always crossed a line – but I think they do so to provoke, to evoke, to start conversations – and to present fashion as art form.

The debate goes on…

Diana Vreeland’s Eye – For Your Eyes

Diana Vreeland, wasn’t called the “Empress of Fashion” lightly. The editor who started it all – working at Harper’s Bazaar for a quarter century, then taking the (Hermès?) reigns at a little publication called Vogue, had an eye on the world of culture, design, fashion and art  – that changed the way we saw those things.

It was also she, who revolutionized the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, thus introducing us to fashion as art form – an ongoing conversation to this very day. (Oh, what she must have thought of the unprecedented attendance numbers for McQueen’s Savage Beauty!).

Smoke and mirrors - a mirror of our visual lives, reflected.

Well now, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel – a documentary by her grand daughter-in-law (whom she did not know), Lisa Immordino Vreeland, along with Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng (who also edited Valentino’s glorious doc), takes a look at that infamous eye and shows us a little of Ms. Vreeland’s inner world.

The documentary screened last week as part of the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado and initially at la Biennale di Venezia. Here’s a statement from the director, from the entry in Venice:

“Last year, as I was conducting research for a book I’m writing on Mrs. Vreeland, I realised that her real strengths and subtleties needed to be conveyed in a three-dimensional platform in which she could come alive. Film is the most obvious and effective medium to communicate Mrs. Vreeland’s unique and visual journey. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel will be more than just an intimate portrait of the legendary fashion icon. It will capture Vreeland’s life visually through a multitude of media. Vreeland’s own voice and persona – strong, eloquent and often very exaggerated – will guide us through her life, adventures, accomplishments and passions.”

-Lisa Immordino Vreeland

I was hoping it would be shown here at the Toronto International Film Festival. It wasn’t – publicly. However,  it was shown to industry types, including IFC, Magnolia, Sony Pictures Classics and Music Box - but it was Samuel Goldwyn Films that made the first acquisition deal at this year’s TIFF - nabbing North American distribution rights.

The film is due for release in 2012, with a companion book and exhibition planned in Venice. More details as I have them – I cannot wait for this one!

Another book for the sartorial shelf.

There are a couple of other great tomes about Ms. Vreeland that you should pick up, to tide you over until next year.

Images: Vogue Italia and Amazon, respectively.

Déjà Vu: Mothers of Pearl

In the Heroes-themed issue of V Mag, Ms. Winslet recalls…

Kate's call to Liz, eyebrows and all.

…Ms. Taylor and her pearls.

Elizabeth Taylor in Ash Wednesday, 1973.

We all know Ms. Taylor loved her pearls and other baubles. Well, now her entire collection of gems is going up for auction in December. Christie’s in New York will be selling the 300 pieces, valued at over $30 million. And yes, The Ring is included amongst that number.

Save your pennies, darlings – and be extra sweet to your sugar daddies, if you have them.

See more great photos of Ms. Taylor in Everlasting Elizabeth.

Images: TFS and doctormacro.com, respectively.

Déjà Vu: Dovima vs. Ms. Moss

So while we wait for the September British Vogue, let’s review our August homework, shall we?

Here is the first shoot with Mrs. Hince – as photographed by Mario Testino for the August issue of the Vogue with the accent.

This might be the new Ms. Moss – but this whole editorial had me doing a déjà vu - a Dovima déjà vu.

Not a stance of circumstance.

No one cast a figure like the lovely Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba, better known as Dovima.

Dovima, 1955 - in The colour for this season. And don't even get me started on the suit.

The burnt-orange clad bride. Echoes of a rich and colourful past, in that pose.

"Who stole my heart?"

"You did, you did." And oh, where have I seen that suit silhouette before, I wonder?

Maroon, how I hunger for you. I'm stocking up this year!

Collar ID - one call you'll want to answer. The frou of a ruffle without the frou.

The big collar, circa 1951.

She spoke paragraphs with one gesture.

Look who's talking now. And that skirt. I know. It's by Mr. Ford.

Note the placement of hands here...

...and here.

Kate makes it look like a cinch.

...and speaking of all things cinched...

The stare to nowhere...

...takes a girl everywhere.

I love the covered-up sexiness of the '50s.

I'm happy to report its return this season. Big time sensuality, in my book.

Dovima in yards and yards of Balenciaga, back in the day, for evening.

No longer sleeveless in Seattle - or Stockholm. Nothing like the slink of silk, I say.

It's all very lady-like, really. It fits us like, well, a glove.

The new power dressing - no need to blush - you, too can pull this off by putting it on. Pop tarts, take note.

The mass appeal of Dovima at the time, a Supermodel well before the word was coined, was undeniable. She defined elegance and wore clothes in a way that really allowed us to dream. These iconic photographs of her exemplify the very best in photography, in modeling, in style – in modernity – more than 60 years after they were taken.

The Moss appeal, too is undeniable. Since those images of a young Kate shot by Corinne Day and the emergence of Heroin Chic, this woman has carried us from the Supermodel heyday and grown up in front of our eyes.  While she and Mr. Testino surely give a nod to Dovima here, she too, is already an icon. Lover her or hate her, but her place in fashion history, in modeling history, in style – stands on record – and will stand the test of time – 60 years from now.

And incidentally, this isn’t the first time I’ve done a Dovima double take.

More Kate. And yes, yes, I owe you my thoughts on her nuptials. Getting caught up slowly….promise.

Kate photos courtesy of British Vogue; Dovima in Balenciaga from Joao Chaves Spot. All other Dovima images courtesy of My Vintage Vogue - a wonderland of vintage fashion images and a constant source of inspiration.

Déjà Vu: A Trace of Lace

There’s seeing double – and then there is seeing double.

Remember this August Vogue cover?

Claudia Schiffer by Miles Aldridge on the cover of Vogue Germany, August 2011.

Well now, there is this one with the same trace of lace and vampy grace.

I love them both.

Why rrreow when you can purrrr?

Anne Hathaway photographed by Mert & Marcus for Interview magazine, September 2011.

Images: TFS.

Seeing Double

There are special times in a girl’s life…

…when she gets her first pair of stilettos…

…when she finds her lipstick shade…

…when she picks up her first September issue for the year.

Elle US gets to be that first, this year – with a double dose of Gwyneth.

The goop scoop: Gwyneth, photographed by Carter Smith for the September, 2011 issue of Elle.

Mrs. Martin, channeling her inner rock star here, covers both sides of the mag.

Have I really been reading Elle for 25 years?

Must buy more goop for my face at once!

Images: JustJared.

Hot Cover Ups

The streets aren’t the only sources of heat these days.

In the blistering fight for your Tom Ford-shaded eyes, things are hot, hawt, haute on the editorial stands this August.

Which one will you pick up for a poolside peruse?

Freida Pinto by Mert and Marcus on Interview Magazine August 2011.

Claudia Schiffer by Miles Aldridge on Vogue Germany August 2011.

Kate Moss by Mario Testino on British Vogue August 2011.

And of course, there is always Tilda on W Mag.

By the way, Ms. Moss has been busy this summer. If you’ve been living under a rock or busy gazing at the stars, you’ll have missed that she is now a rock-star wife – aka Mrs. Hince – thus the header. I’ll have my take on the festivities + great photos in this space soon-ish – am in slow, summer mode. Forgive? It’s too hot to move so fast.

Images: TFS.

Ah-na Does Geek Chic?

I’ve just fallen over in my stilts.

Ms. Wintour attended the Webby Awards in New York last night.

Even as I type that, I cannot believe she was there in person.

Anna, hanging with the other geeks at the Webbys - seen here with Daniel Radcliffe who introduced her on stage.

Have our worlds – and words – collided, Ms. Wintour? For the unworldly, un-nerdy few who may not know, the Webbys are a night honouring the Internet’s best citizens – showcasing excellence in websites, interactive advertising and online film and video.

Green with envy that I - a veteran web chick - wasn't there to see the web chic in person.

She was in attendance to accept the “People’s Voice” award for Vogue.com.

She may have come to the online party fashionably late, but the Vogue voice is heard by the digital herds, the world over.

Here’s her infamous and petite acceptance speech.

That may have just made my week.

Images: Top two photos by Michael Loccisano; last photo by Jamie McCarthy, both from Getty Images North America.

Red Hot July

Loved the red hot spots on this July American Vogue cover.

Emma Watson photographed by Mario Testino, on the cover of Vogue, July 2011.

Image: TFS.

Summer Cover Up

I love a good summer mag cover, don’t you?

Eva Green by Camilla Akrans for Harper’s Bazaar UK, June 2011.

Love how the lippy matches the text and echoes the colour of the lily anthers (those fuzzy orange bits that stain your crisp white shirt when you get too close to them). Also, note the shape of the eyeliner – it mimics the lily leaves.

Image: TFS.

Déjà Vu: Phantom Models

That ghostly quality in the Kristen M Vogue Italia cover?

"The ghost in you, she don't fade."

I also saw it in Givenchy’s SS11 ad campaign.

Daphne Groeneveld almost disappears for Givenchy.

Images: TFS.

Shine On

The fashion sun rises and sets on the Supes.

Notice how the light shines through Kristen McMenamy, photographed by who else but Steven Meisel for the May, 2011 issue of Vogue Italia.

Mega-mannequin McMenamy.

Image: TFS.

Bloomin’ Fabulous

Get out of your doom and gloom state, darling, and let yourself bloom!

Kinga Rajzak in Jil Sander by Rankin for Elle Czech, May 2011.

Suddenly, everything is coming up roses.

I had a dream, a dream about you, baby.
It’s gonna come true, baby.
They think that we’re through, but baby,

You’ll be swell! You’ll be great!
Gonna have the whole world on a plate!
Starting here, starting now,
honey, everything’s coming up roses!

Clear the decks! Clear the tracks!
You’ve got nothing to do but relax.
Blow a kiss. Take a bow.
Honey, everything’s coming up roses!

-Gypsy

Image: TFS.