Couture Week in Paris Begins

The world's most expensive dresses take to the catwalk today, as Couture Week gets underway in Paris.

Young couturier Alexis Mabille starts us off this morning - with one of the most anticipated shows of the week, Christian Dior, later this afternoon, followed by Giorgio Armani's Privé.

Tomorrow, both Chanel and Givenchy take to the catwalk - and Wednesday plays host to Jean Paul Gaultier, Elie Saab and Valentino, as well as couturier to the stars Stéphane Rolland.

Which show will have the starriest front row? What will Galliano's final bow costume be? What would you be wearing for spring/summer 2011 if you had R1.2 million to spend? All these questions and more will be answered in the coming days.

 Source: Lauren Milligan

De la Renta Judges Obama's Dress

Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta was no fan of first lady Michelle Obama's state dinner dress. And he didn't keep his opinions to himself.

Obama wore a red dress from the late fashion icon Alexander McQueen. And while De la Renta didn't seem to have much of a problem with the dress itself, he did openly question the decision to go with a European designer.

De la Renta told Women's Wear Daily: "My understanding is that the visit was to promote American-Chinese trade — American products in China and Chinese products in America. Why do you wear European clothes?"

De la Renta added that because of Obama's star power, she could use her name to boost the business of "young, very talented" people who need the publicity. De la Renta isn't talking about himself, he insists. "I'm old and I don't need it."

The Huffington Post explains that this isn't the first time De la Renta commented on Obama's fashion choices. In 2009, he dissed Obama for wearing a sweater to meet Queen Elizabeth. "You don't ... go to Buckingham Palace in a sweater." Apparently if you're the first lady, you do.

Source: Mike Krumboltz 

Viktor & Rolf - Split Suit For Paris Fashion Week

Paris – The split suit, or dividing up the classic men's combination by varying the fabric from top to bottom, is not a terribly new idea, but it was given a wickedly memorable surrealist spin in the latest menswear collection by Viktor & Rolf presented in Paris on Thursday, Jan. 20.

This was a chronological show, in the sense that it began with a model in pajamas, next in white boxer shorts, black knee socks and confident white shirt before gradually developing a succession of suits. When they did emerge they were lean and crisp, rather like the designers themselves - Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren.

After coordinating many looks, like featuring a crimson T-Shirt and red tartan shoes with a blood orange red wool suit, they began splitting the suits with various contrasts in this fall 2011 collection. Pants in ribbed jerseys and jackets in similar but thicker material, trousers in corduroy and jackets in a wider cord - the later paired with contrasting corduroy boots, again in a different thread size - or jackets paired with long-john style pants, the duo riffed on the whole concept with considerable aplomb.

"We were discussing what exactly is a suit? It's two pieces of clothing in the same fabrics, and I suppose the masculine uniform," Snoeren said. "But we thought let's look at it in a different way. Let's break it up, and be a little surreal, which there is always a touch of in our collections."

The designers' other smart move was some great tailoring tricks around the collar, most spectacular a tulip neck sheepskin coat.

V&R have always been able to stage clever shows, but too often their men's collections seemed charming but somewhat insubstantial. Not this season, where they presented a plausible yet quirky wardrobe of men's clothes that was thoroughly modern and complete.

Source: Godfrey Deeny

Celebs Line Up To Drive The New Audi A1

To celebrate the launch of Audi’s new compact premium hatchback model in South Africa, the carmaker has selected these six, young trendsetters to be ambassadors for the A1 brand.

Sassy Mdoda has made a name for herself as a 5fm DJ and an SA’s Got Talent presenter, and can now be seen on Top Billing as well. Jeannie D, a well-known face on that very same lifestyle show as well as a DJ, is renowned for her fun-loving, adventurous and effervescent spirit. 

Fellow TV personality Siya Ngwekazi is a style icon who currently presents V Entertainment on Vuzu TV and was recently named one of GQ’s best-dressed men of 2010, while stunning Shashi Naidoo turns heads as a model, actress and fashion industry pioneer.

On the sporting side, swimming sensation Cameron van der Burgh is world champion, Olympian and SA’s highest-ranked swimmer – at only 21 years of age. And model and professional surfer Roxy Louw, who has been named FHM’s sexiest woman in the world, is further proof that athleticism and style can go hand in hand.

In a similar vein to all these piping-hot rising stars, the new Audi A1 is also destined to be the next big thing. This compact yet premium-quality hatchback boasts high-tech features that hint at its youthful ethos – everything that today’s aspirational go-getter could desire, yet which one would ordinarily expect to find in a larger, more expensive luxury car.

Sporty yet classy, the Audi A1 is as distinctive as the local trailblazers who have been selected to put it through its paces. Look out for these six ambassadors zipping around town in their sensational, fuel-efficient new Audi A1s – each customised to their own personal style and tastes.

Gwen Stefani Signed By L'Oreal Paris

 

Gwen Stefani has been named as the new face of L'Oreal Paris. The 41-year-old No Doubt singer and designer of the L.A.M.B fashion label, will join Eva Longoria and other recent signing, Jennifer Lopez, as a global ambassador of the L'Oreal Paris brand. Famed for her trademark red pout, it's little wonder that Gwen has been snapped up to front L'Oreal's Infallible La Rouge Lip Color, with her debut TV ad scheduled to be broadcast during this weekend's live Golden Globes coverage. "I can't believe I get to be one of the L'Oreal Paris girls," said the star speaking about her new role, "I love playing dress up, on stage or shooting videos [...] To get to work with such a modern, talented group of people is really exciting. I'm a lucky, lucky girl."

Source: Sharon Forrester

Legendary Isabella Blow's Life To Be Made Into Movie

The legendary fashion editor Isabella Blow's tragic life-story is being honored with two competing biographies, one of them being made into a movie. Blow, fondly referred to as"Issy", was widely known for her eccentric style and the discovery of models Stella Tennant, Sophie Dahl as well as fashion designer Alexander McQueen and milliner Phillip Treacy.

Speculations that the ‘final straw’ of Issy's growing depression was when Alexander McQueen did not  ask her to accompany him when he sold the brand to Gucci, Blow had been very instrumental in getting the deal off the ground.  Depressed over her waning celebrity status and her cancer diagnosis, Blow began telling friends that she was suicidal. In 2006, Blow attempted suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. Later that year, Blow again attempted suicide by jumping from the Hammersmith Flyover, which resulted in her breaking both ankles. In 2007, Blow made several more suicide attempts by driving her car into the rear of a truck, by attempting to obtain horse tranquilizers, attempting to drown in a lake and by overdosing while on a beach in India.

On May 6, 2007, during a weekend house party at Hilles, where the guests included Treacy, “Issy” announced that she was going shopping. Instead, she was later discovered collapsed on a bathroom floor by her sister Lavinia and was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, where Blow told the doctor she had drunk the weedkiller Paraquat. Blow died at the hospital the following day.

Issy worked as assistant to both Anna Wintour and Andre Leon Talley. At Blow's funeral in Wintour's eulogy she said "Blow not only wore fabulous outfits to work, but cleaned her desk with Perrier water and Chanel perfume."

Blow’s aristocratic family was conservative enough to consider university too “common” for girls, and she was among the first women in her family to take up real work.

Though sad, Goldstein Crowe said the movie based on Blow’s life would be enlivened by her wit and sparkling personality. “It would be melancholy, it would be bittersweet,” she said. “The work in fashion, to me, was the least interesting. She just had this great persona that jumped from the page.”

Her legacy is worth celebrating now because Blow’s message was timeless, added Chapman. “She was an incredible visionary, not a conformist, and she saw potential in people. She was so nurturing, so enthusiastic in fashion. She was a believer in fashion and she wasn’t afraid of it.”

Jean Paul Gaultier Launches Newborn Range

Jean Paul Gaultier has launched a babywear collection, Gaultier Bebe, for newborn babies and children up to two years.

The collection - which will sit alongside his childrenswear range Junior Gaultier - will launch later this month, Drapers reports, and will feature knitted dungarees, sailor shirts and bodysuits in Gaultier's signature red, white and blue.

Source: Lauren Milligan

Designer Murdered in Bathtub

Swimsuit designer found dead in an overflowing bathtub in a chic Manhattan hotel was strangled and drowned, the medical examiner's office said Wednesday.

Sylvie Cachay was discovered half-clothed, face-up in a tub at the Soho House hotel on Dec. 9 after hotel staffers noticed water leaking from the ceiling below her room. She had been held underwater and strangled, the medical examiner's office said. The agency ruled the death a homicide.
Her boyfriend, Nicholas Brooks, the son of "You Light Up My Life" songwriter Joseph Brooks, was arrested and arraigned on charges of attempted murder and strangulation. The Manhattan district attorney's office declined to comment on how the medical examiners' findings might affect the case against Nicholas Brooks, 24.

Brooks' attorney, Jeffrey Hoffman, said he had not yet seen the medical examiner's report and would evaluate it when he does. "Whatever it says is subject to testing by other professionals," he said. "We'll reach whatever conclusions after we can see for ourselves."

A bottle of prescription drugs was found in Cachay's room, but Grace Burgess, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, would not say whether any drugs were found in the designer's system.
Brooks and Cachay, 33, had been dating for about six months. But she didn't consider him a boyfriend and was trying to break up with him, according to Susan Karten, a lawyer for her family. Prosecutors have said a letter found in Cachay's purse showed that Brooks hadn't accepted that the relationship was ending.
Brooks wasn't there when Cachay's body was found around 3 a.m., but he arrived shortly afterward to find police at the hotel. Brooks had left the hotel about 2:15 a.m.; he told investigators he had gone for drinks with a friend, police said.

Hoffman has said Cachay was "absolutely fine" when Brooks last saw her.
Brooks was indicted earlier this month, but prosecutors have not disclosed the charges, due to be made public Jan. 4. Regardless, prosecutors sometimes return to a grand jury and seek to update indictments as cases progress. Meanwhile, Brooks is being held without bail.

The initial strangulation charge deployed a new state law that makes it a crime to choke someone, even if he or she isn't seriously hurt. Intended to combat domestic violence, the law took effect last month.
The case against Brooks compounds serious legal trouble for his family. His 72-year-old father is fighting charges of forcing himself on 13 women, many of whom had answered ads offering auditions for movie roles. He has pleaded not guilty to rape and other charges.

The elder Brooks won an Academy Award for best original song for the 1977 ballad "You Light Up My Life" and wrote and directed the movie of the same name. It is about a comedian who has a one-night stand with a director.

Cachay lived in an apartment in Manhattan's West Village and had a membership at the Soho House, an elite club and hotel that has hosted such stars as Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts.

The designer, who grew up in both the U.S. and Peru, worked for Victoria's Secret before leaving in 2006 to start a swimsuit collection. She had recently been working at fashion houses again after the economy soured and she lost her backing.

Source: Jennifer Peltz

Kim Kardashian sings on New Years

At the Tao New Year's party in Las Vegas Kim Kardashian surprised everyone when she took the mic said; "...it's really fun and just really fun and I hope you like it, so have a drink and lets party to my first single!" Yes that's right, Kim is now a recording artist. Most of the world has yet to hear the track but the response was huge. Don't be disappointed if you think that you've missed out on her first performance. Although Kim sang along while dancing she did not perform the song, the honors was left to the DJ to hit play.

The single was met by mixed remarks most partied up a storm to the track however, vocally I thought the track to be digitally altered, there are hardly any notes of a natural voice as everything sounds 'synthed'. Personally I think that would explain whey she couldn't sing it live. The track, tentatively titled "Turn It Up", should probably hit the stores sooner than most anticipated.