Posts for March 28th 2012

Shopping

Exclusive Video — Behind the Scenes With Pamela Love; Plus Shop Fall 2012

>> Starting Thursday, fans of Pamela Love's geo-tribal cuffs, rings, and statement necklaces will get the chance to preorder the designer's Fall 2012 collection via Moda Operandi.

>> Starting Thursday, fans of Pamela Love's geo-tribal cuffs, rings, and statement necklaces will get the chance to preorder the designer's Fall 2012 collection via Moda Operandi. In honor of the trunk sale — and Love's first time on the site — Bettina Santo Domingo went behind the scenes at the designer's studio, capturing the thought process and handiwork that go into each piece. "For the first time ever I was extremely inspired by the architecture from the 1920s in New York City," Love explains in the video. "It's really unique for me because normally I'm very focused on other parts of the world, but for this season I was really focused on the place that I live in." Get an up-close look at the designer at work — set to "Out of My Head" by Shadows On Stars — in the exclusive video below, then scroll down for a peek at some of the gorgeous pieces that will be available for preorder at the trunk show.




Victoria Beckham

The Birth of Gaga, Sally Singer's Nail Art, Abercrombie & Fitch's Forehead Kiss

>> Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.



>> Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

  • Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, the singer and style star we all know and love as Lady Gaga, turned 26 years old today. A fan tweeted to Gaga to ask her how she planned to celebrate, and she replied "Quinceañera." [MTV Style]

  • T Magazine editor Sally Singer confessed to being just as obsessed with nail art as the rest of the fashion world when she collaborated with photographer Raymond Meier and manicurist Maki Sakamoto on a series of photos of her ideal nail art looks. "I had an idea for left wing nails—a left hand with the symbols for different socialist parties on each fingernail, and the right hand could just be painted black," she said. [Nowness]

  • Iconic photographer Bruce Weber created a short film for ubiquitous mall brand Abercrombie & Fitch that features a group of half-naked young men writhing around in a shower together before one of them plants a tender kiss on the forehead of another. Weber has created slightly homoerotic campaigns and imagery for the brand in the past, but this is the first one to actually touch the issue — pun intended — first hand. [Styleite]

  • Model and humanitarian Liya Kebede is the star of a new French children's film called Sur la piste du Marsupilami, about a reporter on the hunt for an animal that may or may not exist. Kebede plays Queen Paya, leader of a mystical realm called (we know, stay with us) Palombia, in which she dances and does "magical things with balls of light." [The Cut]

  • Designer Victoria Beckham is on the cover of the April issue of Harper's Bazaar UK. The magazine dubbed her Queen Victoria in reference to her continued climb up the ranks of British fashion designers, and in a nod to Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, which is being celebrated this year. [Stylelist]
  • Shopping

    Club Monaco's Website Now Features E-Commerce

    >> After a brief delay, Club Monaco fans will be able to buy the brand's clothes online this week.
    Club Monaco Launches E-Commerce Site

    >> After a brief delay, Club Monaco fans will be able to buy the brand's clothes online this week. The new e-commerce site is still in a soft launch phase, but the brand's representatives told Fashionologie on Monday that its Facebook fans will get access to the site on Tuesday, and everyone else will be able to shop online Wednesday.

    That'll be useful for fans of the brand who don't live anywhere near one of its stores. Club Monaco has just over 100 brick-and-mortar locations around the world, which means the site will be a useful tool as the brand continues to build a fan base. What we've seen of the site so far is functional and clean, but it's also pretty engaging. The brand's Tumblr, Culture Club, has prominent links on most of the pages, and some key products — like the women's black leather jacket in the P.S. You Need This section — are cleverly animated. And so long as the site stays stocked with a fresh assortment of products and new ways to entertain browsers and hardcore shoppers alike, we think it'll be a top shopping destination.

    If you want early access to the site, you'll have to like Club Monaco on Facebook now. In the meantime, check out a few of the products we'll be buying when the site goes live.

    Guess

    Claudia Schiffer Reprises Role as Guess Spokesmodel After 23 Years

    >> Supermodel Claudia Schiffer hasn't aged a day since her first campaign for Guess in 1989, and now she's back to help the brand commemorate its 30th anniversary.
    Claudia Schiffer's Guess 30th Anniversary Ad Campaign

    >> Supermodel Claudia Schiffer hasn't aged a day since her first campaign for Guess in 1989, and now she's back to help the brand commemorate its 30th anniversary.

    Schiffer posed for photographer Ellen von Unwerth — who shot the first few Guess campaigns in the '80s — for new photos that evoke the black-and-white sultriness of the original ads. Unveiled today, the new images capture the ageless Schiffer celebrating "30 sexy years!" of the brand. Schiffer told WWD that nothing has changed since she last worked with the brand: "Guess will always have a soft spot in my heart, and I'm excited that 23 years later we can still work together so successfully."

    The pieces Schiffer wears in the ads are part of a capsule collection that will be sold this year. Take a look at a few images, old and new, here.

    Yves Saint Laurent

    Stefano Pilati Says Being Let Go From Yves Saint Laurent Was "Beautiful"

    >> What's next for ousted Yves Saint Laurent designer Stefano Pilati?

    >> What's next for ousted Yves Saint Laurent designer Stefano Pilati? For the moment, he's not planning to jump back into the fray — or to do anything else for that matter.

    Pilati told the audience that assembled to listen to him talk at the French Institute Alliance Française Tuesday night that after decades of being in the fashion industry, he's not exactly chomping at the bit to create more clothes. "I started to work in fashion at a really early age, and somehow leaving Saint Laurent ended a chapter, a career I started almost 30 years ago," he said. "For some reason, I realized I haven't planned any move."

    That reason could be a number of things — Pilati ran through his entire history in the fashion business, having worked in retail and as a stylist before hitting it big as a designer for Miu Miu and YSL. Fashion writer Jim Chi quoted Pilati in a tweet as saying that "it's pretty beautiful what's happened to me," referring to being replaced by former Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane a few weeks ago. "I'm really happy, which is something I never believed I could be under these circumstances," he said. And while Pilati might not be sure what his future circumstances will be, he was more than happy to talk about his past.

    On making YSL profitable with the addition of accessories: "I lived the business aspect of fashion since day one . . . It's not something that for me was like, 'What do you mean? I am a creator! Who cares if you can sell it?' No way . . . I put aside my ego, I put aside my freedom, and I worked hard to respond to what the market was asking for . . . You design something and you want every single woman or man to wear it. You know that they're going to pay for it, so you're going to get some money somewhere. Maybe it's my education, but I never thought, 'I hope nobody gets this except for me.'"

    On leading YSL after Saint Laurent's death in 2008: "A lot of people started to ask me, 'Do you feel something has changed?' or 'Is it going to change for you now that he's not alive anymore?' At first, I said, 'No, I don't think so, why?' I've always tried to do my best, but in fact it had changed. I could really feel the fact that his physical presence wasn't there anymore. In a way it gave me a sense of freedom."

    On how young people should approach working in fashion: "Don't lose your passion, be true to yourself . . . Go to work as soon as you can . . . Do any job in fashion. No matter what. I've been a salesperson in a shop. I've been an assistant, a stylist, done internships . . . I knew that I wanted to work in fashion. That for me was the same thing, to be a fashion designer came up, but you have to try many things."

    J.Crew

    Joseph Altuzarra Confirms His Rumored Collaboration With J.Crew

    >> It's standard operating procedure for CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners to collaborate with a mass market brand, so it comes as no surprise that this year's winner, Joseph Altuzarra, will soon turn out a capsule collection for J.Crew.

    >> It's standard operating procedure for CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners to collaborate with a mass market brand, so it comes as no surprise that this year's winner, Joseph Altuzarra, will soon turn out a capsule collection for J.Crew.

    Altuzarra confirmed the suspicions — and likely the hopes and dreams — of many when he told Fashionista that the pieces he created with Jenna Lyons and the rest of the J.Crew design team "will be coming out in a few weeks." While he didn't give away what the collection looks like — or even what it includes — it sounds like he struck the perfect balance between his high-fashion aesthetic and J.Crew's commercial appeal.

    "Well, it was a really interesting project because it was like a conflation of their language — or of their world — [and] of our world and putting it together," he said. "And I think that was really interesting for me to work on."

    The two runners-up for this year's award, Pamela Love and Creatures of the Wind, will also likely partner with J.Crew. Last year's Fashion Fund winner, Prabal Gurung, and runners-up, Eddie Borgo and Billy Reid, all created products for J.Crew. The Fund's winners started partnering with mass market brands in 2007, when Thakoon Panichgul partnered with The Gap to re-create the white shirt.