>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —Take Prada Fall 2008, add a dash of Yves Saint Laurent Fall 2008 and you've got a supermodel cocktail for Dsquared2's Spring 2009 campaign — Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista captured in an epic catfight by Steven Meisel, echoing the supermodel theme Dean and Dan Caten had going for their runway show. [Models.com]
>> After seasons of blonde after blonde model, change appears to be afoot. Don't worry, there are still seas of blondes out there, but for some key players, red seems to be the new shade of choice. Coco Rocha — who created a stir by wearing a wig to an event last week — debuted her new flame-haired shade last night, a change which she apparently made for a January 2009 Vogue editorial. Vlada Roslyakova also warmed up her tint recently — originally done for an upcoming Christian Lacroix fragrance campaign, she made the change back to blonde. That is, until the team re-dyed her hair strawberry blonde to film the accompanying television commercial, and she decided to keep it. And let's not forget Lily Cole, who has not made any changes to her red head, but is about to be launched in a series of TV and print ads by Rimmel, who formerly relied solely on the blonde Kate Moss.
But maybe this new ginger obsession is just coincidence — fashion's perennial redhead Olga Sherer did decide to go closer to brunette last month at the behest of Steven Meisel . . .
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>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —Iselin Steiro, who took a break from modeling to focus on her studies, made a few select — and surprising — appearances on the Spring 2009 runways — something she hasn't done since Fall 2007. Although Lanvin wasn't one of them, Alber Elbaz chose her anyway to replace Raquel Zimmermann and Liya Kebede in the Spring 2009 campaign, shot by Steven Meisel. Big mysteries still left? Nina Ricci, Alexander McQueen, Balmain, and of course, Chanel. [Supermodels.nl]
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>> INSIDER WIRE —032c, a Berlin-based art and culture magazine, scored a rare interview for its new "Post-America issue" with Steven Meisel — and Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell both weigh in. The man has photographed two decades worth of Vogue Italia covers — speaking of which, he has a new favorite subject — Katrin Thormann, who he's put on the cover in both November and December Vogue Italia. [The Moment]
>> The casting for the Spring 2009 Louis Vuitton campaign? Blame it on a Madonna concert. The night before Marc Jacobs had a brainstorming meeting, he had attended a Madonna concert in Paris: "I was totally just blown away by it, and moved by her performance, by what she had to say, and her energy." He emailed Madonna on his BlackBerry right then and there, and within five minutes came the reply: "I'd love to."
As rumored, Madonna was indeed captured in six images at Figaro in LA by Steven Meisel, marking the end of a six year partnership between the brand and photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. This seems to be the first of many collaborations between Meisel and Louis Vuitton — Antoine Arnault, the brand's director of communications — said it's "very probable" the association will continue. As for the rumored $10 million fee Madonna commanded? Arnault dismissed it as "absurd": "It’s very far away from that."
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>> For Fall 2008, three of the big campaigns that every model wants to catch — Prada, Balenciaga, and Miu Miu — all went with one big name — Linda Evangelista, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Vanessa Paradis, respectively.
Come Spring 2009, all three labels have decided to switch things up by using a large number of new faces — Prada is using eight models (Anna Jagodzinska, Giedre Dukauskaite, Katrin Thormann, Nimue Smit, Sigrid Agren, Toni Garrn, Viktoriya Sasonkina, Ymre Stiekema); Miu Miu is using eight models as "accessories" to campaign star Katie Holmes (Darya Kurovska, Elena Lomkova, Imogen Morris-Clarke, Katie Fogarty, Myf Shepherd, Sophie Srej, Tilda Lindstam, Yulia Leontieva); and Balenciaga is going with ten models (Amanda Laine, Anabela Belikova, Anna Jagodzinska, Anya Kazakova, Diana Farkhullina, Elsa Sylvan, Hanne-Gaby Odiele, Iris Strubegger, Katie Fogarty, Kinga Rajzak).
Surprisingly, there are only two girls overlapping between the campaigns: Anna Jagodzinska in Balenciaga and Prada and Katie Fogarty in Miu Miu and Balenciaga, and especially in Miu Miu's cast, some girls — Tilda Lindstam, Yulia Leontieva — are very new faces. Although some are skeptical, especially in the case of Miu Miu, that all the models cast will make it into the final shots, it's notable that all three labels, which usually go with one face, have all decided that power comes in numbers this season. Get to know the chosen faces in the gallery below.
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>> BLOWING THE COVER —Two blondes — Katrin Thormann and Toni Garrn — scored the Persona-inspired November 2008 Vogue Italia cover, and it sounds like Steven Meisel is on a blonde kick again for future issues: "five or six . . . blonde (and blonde-ish) girls — those fresh new faces that overlap with that certain coveted blue chip campaign — have all been flitting in out of LA for VI." The new Prada girls, anyone? [TI]
>> IN THE LOOKING GLASS —The too-racy-for-Vogue Italia Steven Meisel spread that got picked up by V Magazine? It has Anna Selezneva, Daul Kim, Iris Strubegger, and Naty Chabanenko participating in a little crotch-grabbing, a little voyeurism — it's definitely NSFW and is generally more tame than expected, based on the preview — see for yourself. [The Cut]
>> It's not often that Vogue Italia will shy away from a boundary-pushing Steven Meisel editorial — together, they've covered race, terrorism, plastic surgery, drug abuse — but apparently it stops when it comes to sex.
Earlier this year, Meisel shot a sexually-charged series of photos based on the UK trend of "dogging," in which couples engage in explicit activities in parked cars, parks, or other public places. The project was supposedly set to be Vogue Italia's September 2008 cover story, complete with three-page foldout cover, but was pulled because it was "too much, too sexy, too over the top" according to a commenter on The Imagist.
Rumors swirled that the editorial was sentenced to limbo forever, and there was talk of W Magazine picking it up, but curious minds will be happy to know that it has landed in the new issue of V Magazine — 28 pages of model-filled images that mark Meisel's first — albeit inadvertent — shoot for the magazine. As for the featured models, Daul Kim, Iris Strubegger, Anna Maria Jagodzinska, and Anna Selezneva are all said to be included, with at least one more unnamed girl involved.
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>> THE MODELIZER —Perennial redhead Olga Sherer just debuted a new hair color — burnished brunette — a change which was said to be encouraged after a brainstorm with Steven Meisel. Speaking of Meisel, he's just put a limited-edition Meghan Collison puzzle on the market for preorder: $750 will get you 1,000 pieces of that beguiling patterned Vogue Italia edit, with a box signed by Meisel himself. [Of the Minute, Fashionista]
