Archive for May 2011

Best Dressed

The Top 21 Best Dressed at the Met Costume Institute Gala

Editors, designers, celebrities and models turned it out on the red carpet at last night’s Fashion Oscars, aka the Met Ball. Unlike the real Oscars, this is a red carpet where people who really know and care about fashion take risks. As last night’s gala celebrated “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” the McQueen retrospective opening at the Met’s Costume Institute this week, many attendees honored the late designer by wearing his incredible creations (some even got ready in them in the windows of Barneys). But of course, there was also Chanel, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Gucci, Givenchy, Valentino, etc.,

Click through to see who made our picks for the best dressed of the night.

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  • ALAINA HERNANDEZ AND STEFF YOTKA
  • Tuesday, May 3, 2011 / 9:46 AM
  • 14 Comments
Fashion Week

Rosemount Australian Fashion Week: Lover Celebrates 10 Years With a Runway Show at the Sydney Opera House

SYDNEY–There was much anticipation for Lover’s return to the runway after a five year hiatus from RAFW. In the last few years the label has become a cult favorite with loyal followers who build whole wardrobes from their understated, feminine separates and dresses. The fact that the label’s designers Susien Chong and Nic Briand chose to show at the iconic Sydney Opera House to showcase the collection that marks their 10 year-anniversary shows that they are ready to enter a larger stage and show the rest of the world what they can do.

The show didn’t disappoint. It was, in a way, a collection of all of Lover’s signatures (lace frocks, minimal suiting and silk blousing) rolled into one but delivered with more precision than ever before.

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  • ANNA DEUTSCH
  • Tuesday, May 3, 2011 / 9:17 AM
  • 1 Comment
Fashion Is Fun

This Is What It Looked Like When Daphne Guinness Got Dressed for the Met Ball in the Windows of Barneys

When we were invited to watch Daphne Guinness get dressed for the Met Ball in the windows of Barneys last week, we were a little confused. Now that we’ve actually seen the performance, well, we’re still a little confused. It began, naturally, with Guinness entering in a sequined gold Alexander McQueen jumpsuit and flopping on the lucite table in front of her, languidly swimming across it and striking poses at random. (Funny, that’s how we got ready this morning.)

After a few minutes of this business, Guinness went behind a semi-opaque screen where much hip gyrating and sexy shadow-making ensued. After a female servant assistant brought the gown to the heiress and assisted her in dressing (all behind the screen), Daphne emerged resplendent in a gorgeous, feathered McQueen confection, her face wrapped in tissue. She then sat at the aforementioned lucite table and ceremoniously unraveled the mask. Then, she got up and left. That was it. The whole thing took about eight minutes.

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  • HAYLEY PHELAN
  • Tuesday, May 3, 2011 / 7:00 AM
  • 1 Comment
Fashion Is Fun

The Top Ten McQueen Dresses We’d Like to See at Tonight’s Met Gala, and Who We’d Like to See Wear Them

With the royal wedding finally over, the fashion world moves on to the next big event on the fashion calendar: the Met Gala. The gala celebrates this year’s Costume Institute exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, on view from May 4 through July 31. “Alexander McQueen was best known for his astonishing and extravagant runway presentations, which were given dramatic scenarios and narrative structures that suggested avant-garde installation and performance art,” Andrew Bolton, Curator for the Costume Institute said in a release. “His fashions were an outlet for his emotions, an expression of the deepest, often darkest, aspects of his imagination. He was a true romantic in the Byronic sense of the word – he channeled the sublime.” The exhibit celebrates the late designer’s iconic work, featuring over 100 pieces of ready to wear from the McQueen archives, and approximately 70 accessories.

What we’ll all have our eyes on though are the McQueens that walk the red carpet of the Met tonight for the gala, and the daring and lucky fashionistas that showcase the late designer’s pieces (and creations by his successor/royal wedding designer Sarah Burton). In advance of tonight’s fashion Oscars, here’s our fantasy list of the 10 dresses we’d like to see walk the carpet, and who we’d like to see wear them.

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  • TARA LAMONT-DJITE AND STEFF YOTKA
  • Monday, May 2, 2011 / 7:04 PM
  • 0 Comments
People We Like

Anna Wintour Is Wearing Chanel to the Met Gala Tonight. Should She Be Wearing McQueen?

We just received a press release announcing that Anna Wintour will be wearing a “sequin embroidered gown” from Chanel’s S/S 2011 haute couture collection to the Met Gala tonight (and here she is on the red carpet, right, via @OnGlamFashion–looking incredible). If you’ve been a watcher of Met Gala fashion for a while, you know that she wears Chanel every year. We thought this year might be different.

It is, after all, a tribute to Alexander McQueen and his legacy. We’re sure tons of attendees will be paying homage to the late designer. Anna is the host of the event, and we kinda hoped she’d wear something from one of his storied collections.

But she is Anna Wintour, the singular most important person in fashion, and as such, you do as you please.

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How Joe Zee Recovered From A Disastrous First Interview at WWD and More Lessons From the Vitaminwater Panel at FIT

Long before Elle’s Joe Zee found stratospheric success as a stylist, editor, and yes, reality star, he experienced this horrid reality:

As a recent college grad applying to be a fashion editor at WWD, Zee was asked to stage a photo shoot as a test. The results were even more disastrous than any conundrum Bravo or MTV could cook up: first, the location flooded; then, a light fell, exploded, and caught on fire. And his model? A no-show. By the time Zee did damage control and found another model to fit the clothes, the location kicked them out, closing before they’d even shot a single frame.

Needless to say, Zee didn’t get that WWD job, and to this day he “can’t even explain the level of devastation” he felt. So how, then, did Zee become such a force in the fashion world?

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  • NATALIE MATTHEWS
  • Monday, May 2, 2011 / 5:45 PM
  • 2 Comments
Image of the Day

Image of the Day: There Is Only One Kate In London

By Leah Chernikoff Monday, May 2, 2011 / 5:12 PM


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Cathy Horyn, Proenza Schouler, Raf Simons and More Pick the Winners at the Festival de Hyères 2011

What is the sum of a) a castle in the South of France + b) Raf Simmons, Jack McCollough, Lazaro Hernandez, Cathy Horyn, Christopher Kane (and the list goes on) sitting in the grass eating saucisson + c) demented young designers à la Viktor and Rolf presenting their designs under a tree?

The answer = the Festival de Hyères 2011, an annual fashion festival held by the French Mediterranean seaside, that acts like a platform to young creativity. With a jury that has, over years, been led by Karl Lagerfeld, Riccardo Tisci, Ann Demeleumesteer, the event has launched the likes of Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Gaspard Yurkievich into la mode.

After showing their creations to the jury in the form of individual presentation, the ten nominees, already narrowed down from hundreds of applications, held their final show last night. Modeled by Raf Simon’s own models, with a soundtrack by Paris’ main fashion week sound engineer, one felt as if about to watch Haider Ackerman’s latest collection. It was “an incredible, impeccable production,” according to Proenza Schouler’s Lazaro Hernandez. What more can a young designer ask for?

There was not one but four prizes awarded, each that resonate with a different audience:

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  • Alice Pfeiffer
  • Monday, May 2, 2011 / 4:42 PM
  • 0 Comments
Streetwalker

Street Style: Ryan McGinley Muse Brandee Brown Lives By the Motto ‘Who Gives a F***? I’m young!’

Name: Brandee Brown

Age: 20

Occupation: Filmmaker, actress and some of my friends say I’m a muse to photographers. I work with Ryan McGinley [Ed. note: She's the one with a kitten in her mouth]

What is something funny that you’ve learned or heard since working with Ryan? Well, he’s a vegetarian and I’m a meat lover so, we used to butt heads in that sense. I always get sad when I have to eat all the salads and tofu that he orders, but now he says ‘Let Brandee get whatever she wants.’ We also call each other Boo Boo. We’re each others’ Boo Boo’s. I love him, he’s such a great guy.

Whats your motto? ‘Who gives a fuck? I’m young!’ and ‘You only live once.’

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  • ASHLEY JAHNCKE
  • Monday, May 2, 2011 / 3:06 PM
  • 0 Comments
Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Kate Middleton May Let the Public See her Dress, Leggings Can Make You Fat, and Jessica Simpson Talks About Her Wedding Gown

Kate Middleton’s Dress To Go on Display?: Apparently Kate is considering letting the public see The Dress up close. Palace officials weren’t very helpful with the particulars of when or where, but stay tuned. {Independent}

Bulgari Helps “Save the Children” With a New Ring: Bulgari has already donated $9 million to the Save the Children organization, which supports educational initiatives. The posh jeweler has pledged even more, and you can check out our very own Leah wearing the new silver and ceramic ring alongside the ladies of Sea of Shoes, Refinery 29, and Styleite. $75 of the purchase price goes towards Save the Children. {Stylelist}

Riccardo Tisci’s Visionaire Costs $495: But it shows Lara Stone tied up to a burning cross and the issue comes in a wooden box. That’s totally worth it. {TheCut}

Leggings Can Make You Fat. Maybe: The theory of one Daily Mail physiotherapist goes like this: Because the leggings do the work of holding in your flabby parts, you don’t have to, thus leading to more flabby parts. And also, they’re so good at making you forget you have a muffin top, that you stop going to the gym to work off your muffin top. Sounds like perfectly legit science. {DailyMail}

The Next Most Hotly Anticipated Wedding Gown?: Did you forget that Jessica Simpson is engaged? We did, too. But she’s very excited about her upcoming nuptials and says of the dress, “I don’t know if I want the big boom, or the curvy thing, but it will be something beautiful.” No doubt. {MTV}

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Fashion Week

Rosemount Australian Fashion Week: Arnsdorf

SYDNEY–Rosemount Australian Fashion week (RAFW) kicked off yesterday in chilly Sydney, where homegrown labels showcased the season the land of surf and sun does best: summer.

Relaxed minimalism reigned supreme at Arnsdorf’s spring/summer 2012 collection entitled ‘The Circle.” Melbourne born, New York-based designer Jade Sarita Arnott took a detour from her signature aesthetic which is all about structure and volume, instead delivering a collection of soft tailoring in airy silks and linens that came across almost ethereally in their lightness and ease.

Julia Nobis opened the show in a stark white collarless blouse and skirt with mint detailing at the waist. The next few looks continued in the same color palette and featured halter neck dresses with bold side slits, tunics and paneled blouses.

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  • ANNA DEUTSCH
  • Monday, May 2, 2011 / 1:35 PM
  • 3 Comments
Fashion Careers

Camilla Nickerson is Looking for a Styling Intern!

Camilla Nickerson is one of the biggest stylists in the biz (ahem, Vogue, W, etc.,) and she’s on the hunt for one amazing intern. If you’re passionate about a styling career and fit the following requirements, it could be you.

Candidates must:
-Be available 5 days per week & available to start now or before June 1
-Have experience including but not limited to: prior internship with stylist, internship at a magazine, or internship at a fashion pr firm
-Live in NYC

If interested, email resumes and a BRIEF cover letter to camillanickersonintern1@gmail.com.

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