If you, like us, and Derek Blasberg, have missed beloved catwalk queen Karlie Kloss this week, she’s finally made an appearance! We don’t think the below video, which was shot in early January, is directly linked to Kloss’ reason for skipping NYFW, but it sure is a nice treat at the end of an otherwise Kloss-less week.
ShowStudio’s Nick Knight directed the film to commemorate 10 years of Topshop’s support of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN program. The program has helped launch the careers of designers like Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou and Richard Nicoll, many of whom have gone on to do limited edition collaborations with the British retailer. In honor of this decade-long collaboration, Kloss models various pieces from those collaborations. Read more »
What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day then with a screening of a truly awesome and creepy new Miu Miu short film? Last night the Italian label threw a party at a private loft space in SoHo to celebrate the debut of The Woman Dress, starring Italian actress Maya Sansa and directed by Giada Colagrande. The film is the third installment in Miu Miu’s “Women’s Tales Saga,” a film series that explores “the feminine love affair with Miu Miu” (you can watch the first and second films in the series here and here–they’re great).
The love affair with Miu Miu in The Woman Dress is certainly a morbid one–Miu Miu clad models essentially make a dress out of a woman. Just watch…you’ll see. Another important component to these films: Each one reveals a new Miu Miu sunglasses range. In The Woman Dress, we’re introduced to the bug-eyed Miu Miu Cultes. Read more »
To promote their new Boy Chanel bag, Karl Lagerfeld goes all The Artist on us with a silent mini-film, starring campaign face Alice Dellal. Despite the vintage-looking set, Dellal brings her very modern punk-girl pizzaz to the film. Who would have thought ripped tights, leather booty shorts, and a shaved head would go so well with Chanel?
Marc Jacobs may have given his namesake show a cabaret theme, but that inspiration clearly carried over to Paris for his jaw-dropping Louis Vuitton collection. So, for a new short film to showcase Vuitton’s spring ’12 accessories, Katie Grand took that inspiration and ran with it. The result, which debuted today on Love, features models in swimcaps, leotards and Louis Vuitton shoes performing authentic thirties-style synchronized dance moves with big feathers. Read more »
Whether you love her or hate her, we can all probably agree that after almost 30 years in the music biz, Madonna can make one hell of a music video. Case in point: Her latest video for single “Give Me All Your Luvin’” starring Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., and of course the material girl herself. Read more »
Fashion videos have become a requisite promotional component for any major brand launching a new collection–in addition to the standard print ads. But while some brands just shoot b-role of the making of the print ads and call it a day, others put a lot of effort, resources and creative talent into these fashion flicks. And all that effort pays off–video sharing has grown exponentially in the last five years, which means a video only has to go viral on the web to reach millions (as opposed to a brand shelling out for a big budget TV commercial). This fashion film to promote the debut of Victoria Beckham’s new lower priced line, Victoria, on sale in the US in mid February, is easily among the best we’ve ever seen (and we’re not saying that just because there are cats, swear).
It’s directed by 27-year-old Quentin Jones (yes, she’s just 27), whom Beckham collaborated with before for on a video for AnOther Magazine that highlighted her denim collection. It’s quirky and clever and I’ve already hit replay several times. You probably will, too. Click through to see it. Read more »
In an industry like fashion which is always looking for the next new look, we’ve noticed there’s at least one source of inspiration that gets revisited by designers time and time again–the French New Wave. Echoes of the film movement from the late 1950s and 60s are felt far beyond the reach of filmmaking, and fashion draws from its catalog of films endlessly. Most recently, Jason Wu cited the New Wave (or Nouvelle Vague) as inspiration for his spring collection for Target. He told the Today Show that he was inspired by the “mischievious” and “nonchalant” attitude of the films, and we think his descriptors hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, the reference was lost on Ann Curry, who said she had never heard of New Wave until now. Well, consider this your tutorial, Curry!
The French New Wave is well-known for its bold style and experimental filming techniques, both visual and narrative. The movement was influenced by the Hollywood auteurs of the time (John Ford, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock) and Italian Neorealism, a film movement concerned with the plight of the working class. This realist approach to storytelling didn’t have much concern with fashion proper, and as a result many films from the French New Wave were the basic styles of the time. So what is the difference between being inspired by the films compared to being inspired by 60s fashion, and why are designers so crazy about it in the first place? As one can gather from Wu’s descriptions, it has a lot to do with intangibles. The influence from the New Wave on fashion arguably has as much to do with an overall attitude–the je ne sais quoi of the icons of the era–as it does with any of the actual clothes worn in the films. Jean Seberg’s New York Herald Tribune shirt and cropped slim black pants in Breathless (1960) weren’t groudbreaking, yet the look is still one of the most recognizable in film history. It’s not about what was worn in the films, but who wore it and how.
What happens when a luxury company taps a worldy, sophisticated designer/actor/fashion person as their global brand ambassador? Usually, nothing. But, The Luxury Collection Hotels and Resorts managed to enlist a really cool one who does more than show up at parties.
Waris Ahluwalia, who you may know from his acting roles in Wes Anderson films, his beautiful jewelry line House of Waris and being impeccably well dressed at all times, is the hotel group’s “Global Traveler.” And as such, he’s gone above and beyond what was required of him to create a beautiful short film with an all-star cast and crew that includes I Am Love‘s Luca Guadagnino (director), Tilda Swinton (co-writer), Heidi Bivens (stylist), Jason Schwartzman (music) and Agyness Deyn in one of her first acting roles ever (she’ll play a stripper in her next film).
Yesterday, I had the pleasure (seriously, it felt like a mini-vacation in the middle of the day) to attend a private screening of Here (which you can watch in full above) with Waris and Heidi in a gorgeous suite at The Chatwal in midtown. We got to chat about making the film, putting together the gorgeous wardrobe and working with brand new actress Agyness Deyn. Read more »
We already showed you Chanel’s awesome spring 2012 ad campaign, in which Joan Smalls and Saskia de Brauw perform acrobatics high above the ocean, so here is the behind-the-scenes video. And unlike the actual ads, everything is in color. The sunny, serene video reveals that the models were not exactly risking their lives for Lagerfeld‘s lens, but does not leave us entirely disillusioned. Read more »
We’re guessing this is Marc Jacobs’ interpretation of Tarzan. In their latest brand video, a male model emerges from the “jungle,” which actually looks like a golf course, wearing nothing more than a pair of Marc Jacobs underwear. He then proceeds to hunt down Marc Jacobs’ latest special items as if they were animal prey. Read more »
Host Charlet Duboc headed to Cambodia for a comprehensive look at the third world country’s fashion industry–and their first-ever fashion week. The results are sometimes funny–like when Duboc learns the models were told to “look stoned” at one of the shows, or when an after party turns into one of the best/creepiest drag performances we’ve seen–and sometimes brutally hard to watch. Read more »
If hitting the gym more didn’t make your list of New Year’s resolutions this year then at probably has now after watching this behind-the-scenes video of the making of the Victoria’s Secret swimsuit catalog, courtesy of Elle.com.
Though the new swimsuit collection is inspired by beaches of Brazil, Victoria’s Secret Angels Candice Swanepoel, Miranda Kerr, Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge stripped to their suits on the sands of Bora Bora (tough life) for the legendarily hot Victoria’s Secret swimsuit catalog. And, as you can imagine, there are bouncing boobs, sultry stares, and sand-writhing galore. Oh, and some pretty cute bikinis too–not that those will be what you’re looking at. Read more »
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