THE WEEK IN FASHION 1/8-5/8

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large.

Back from our summer sojourn, here is a round-up of the week's fashion news. Enjoy!

Karl Lagerfeld has been spotted in St. Tropez sans sunnies, we kid you not! The man behind the mask is revealed.

Model Laura Bailey is the BFC's new cultural ambassador. You can follow Laura's fabulous fashion life and her work as a BFC ambassador over at her Vogue blog.

Laura in Stella sunnies (image from her Vogue blog)

Just to rub further salt in the wound of English fashion- lovers who are unlikely to see the ridiculously successful McQueen 'Savage Beauty' exhibition, Daphne Guinness' vast collection is now to go on show in New York. If you are lucky enough to be in NY then the Met will open until midnight this Saturday and Sunday to allow as many people as possible to see the McQueen exhibition before it closes. So there's really no excuse to miss out! The Met's exhibition REALLY needs to come to London.

The exhibition will feature pieces from Isabella Blow's archives which Daphne owns. Left to right- Amanda Harlech, Phillip Treacy, Daphne Guiness and Isabella Blow (Image courtesy of fuckyeahisabellablow tumblr)

Congratulations to Jaime Perlman who is jumping up from the position of Art Director of British Vogue taking over from former Creative Director, Robin Derrick. We also hear that Fran Burns is to take up a new Fashion Editor role at the title in September, amazing news! 

Jaime Perlman

Looking good Frannie!



Vanity Fair has released its annual Best Dressed list, and the criteria seems to be erring towards judging somewhat classic dressers. Unsurprisingly, most of the coverage has focused upon miss MOR herself Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and her third place entry. But we would like to draw your attention to the extreme chic of the glamorous wife of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned. Sheikha Mozah's family own Harrods, which we are sure makes her very happy in terms of fulfilling her prodigious shopping habits. She is known to have the largest collection of Christian Louboutin shoes in the Middle East, and harbours a passion for pearls. Here is a woman who makes wearing a turban aspirational.

She looks almost normal here 

But not here, with Prince Charles. (Image from Zimbio.com)

With Carla Bruni, who topped the list. Image from GraziaDaily.co.uk

The FashEd recently blogged about her involvement with Vauxhall Fashion Scout.This week the initiative announced its new 'One to Watch' picks. They all look very similar to one another, don't you think?

The work of Phoebe English (from anothermag.com)

Jessie-J wearing Shao Yen (image from his site)

One of the looks from Malene Oddeshade Bach's Middlesex BA show (image courtesy of catwalking.com)

Knitwear from Alice Lee (Image courtesy of Vogue.co.uk)

 Strictly speaking, this is last week's news but we just wanted to re-share the excitement of learning that Grace Coddington is to write a book! Many may be expecting that her memoirs  will re-ignite the Grace vs. Anna debate which was sparked by The September Issue, which they both starred in. However, we're also fascinated to hear about Grace's long and illustrious career taking her from Welsh school girl to being a fashion industry superheroine. This should be a fashion history lesson as well as insight into the mind of a very creative and somewhat shy woman.

Grace on the cover of Vogue in August 1962 (Image from Styleite.com)

A more recent shot of a heavenly Grace (from businessoffashion.com)

Finally, we are adoring these shots of wonderwomen Beyonce Knowles and Jane Fonda posing for W magazine and Harper's Bazaar US respectively. They both model key pieces from the AW11 collections and boy, do they wear them well. There are no more words...

Beyonce in Dolce and Gabbana (Image from swide.tumblr.com)

How amazing does Jane Fonda look in Stella McCartney's AW11 dress? (Image from Dailymail.co.uk)

  

With thanks to:
Fashionologie.com.
fashion.telegraph.co.uk
vogue.co.uk
theindependent.co.uk,
nymag.com/daily/fashion
vanityfair.com

OH DAPHNE!

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

If you're wondering why I'm not at the Couture, its because this year I took my holiday earlier than usual. So here I am on the holy Greek isle of Patmos looking out over the sea from my vantage point high on the hill. While here I will be sharing fashion and holiday as well as holiday fashion musings. In August the new Fashion Junior at Large joins me and this blog will start to grow up a bit as I want to see what happens if I make it more than a hobby.  

I'm a huge fan of Daphne Guinness. Had she been around during the 1920s and 30s, she could have hung out with Nancy Cunard, Coco Chanel and Diana Vreeland (junior version, her later years are what inspire most people, but having read everything about DV in print I'm a fan of every year). People would have understood her better in that context. Daphne is a relic of women past, a rich and rarefied creature who exists in a bubble of art and philosophical musings. She is a woman who wholly believes in the romance of art, craft, creativity and couture and wishes to keep the old ways alive, which she does in the only way she knows how, by commissioning artisans to create works for her.

Below is one-such. Everything about this "launch" of a chain mail made-to-measure gauntlet glove  made up of 5000 pave diamonds and 1000 grams of gold makes me want to scream. But I'm torn between screaming at the ridiculousness of it, and the wonder of it. 

Had I been at Jay Jopling's house for the "launch" and watched Daphne "lie in state" shrouded in white silk tulle with just the glittering glove on show, I know I would have tittered uncontrollably at first and then been sucked in by the beauty of it.

I know plenty of people who will rubbish Daphne's project with Shaun, but in 100 years when its in a museum somewhere and people gather around to marvel at it and the memory of Daphne it will be a treasure. So I leave you with the press release, as I couldn't take it apart. Forgive me for lifting it.

MOVE OVER DAPHNE??

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

We all know true fashion eccentric’s are few and far between. But surely there can only be room for one woman in the world who wears her edgy Haute Couture with millions of pounds worth of diamonds, outrageous Philip Treacy hats and who is slim enough to slip down a drain when turned sideways? Last week this theory was turned on its head when I saw two of these women in a room at the SAME TIME. I was attending the Istancool arts festival in Istanbul when the seemingly impossible happened. “Daphne Guinness is over there, look!” whispered my neighbour at a lunch in Istanbul Modern art gallery. Everyone’s head swivelled towards a pencil slim woman wearing a giant black and white Philip Treacy hat which was obscuring her face.

Who's that veeeery skinny girl in the Philip Treacy hat?

 “That isn’t Daphne Guinness, THAT IS DAPHNE GUINNESS. We all looked towards the doorway as the in cantered the real Daphne on heel-less silver platform heels, an undulating Tracy concoction floating above her brow.

Daphne took off her Treacy hat to have a quick chat with Gore Vidal

So WHO was this pretender? Let me introduce you to Stacy Engman. Stacy, 32, is the chief curator of Contemporary Art at the National Arts Club in New York. Stacy was typically vague when it came to her family, except to say “my dad is in finance and insurance”. She was more forthcoming about her style, however. “I am wearing Philip Treacy, of course. My shoes are McQueen; my leggings by NY label “3 as 4” and my bag is Chanel. When our eye was drawn to a massively blinging diamond ring, what we were told next made our eyes water. “This is my personal mark,” she said, deadpan. “I was looking for a monogram for my clothes and luggage and I wasn’t happy with anything the graphic company created for me. So I looked for a symbol instead. This is inspired by the “Sheela na Gig” a pagan symbol of a female gargoyle who uses her vagina to scare away evil spirits.” That was me told, then. The ring totals 13 carats and took “my family jeweller ages to create.”

Stacy's "personal mark" inspired by the symbolic vagina of the gargoyle "Sheela na Gig"

Stacy also told us she wears “the world’s most expensive fragrance by Clive Christian.” I adore Daphne Guinness, but have also rather warmed to Stacy Engman. Anyone who is as dedicated to the cause of fashion and personal style as these two women are very welcome to the Fashion Editor at Large world. Let the rivalry commence!!

The feet of from left, Daphne Guinness (you should see Daphne when she flips down to flat position in those shoes; its so cute, and she says she does it to keep her calf muscles flexed and stretched) , Pablo Ganguli, Philip Treacy

Daphne chatting to Liberatum founder Pablo Ganguli, the 27 year old responsible for the Istancool festival.

Photos: Fashion Editor at Large

Daphne Guiness fashion shot was lifted from meccacosmetica.com.au, no credit shown.

ISTANCOOL & DAPHNE - TOTALLY INSPIRATIONAL

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

So at the weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to Istancool (sponsored by Turkish Airlines, though I flew BA and they LOST MY LUGGAGE). It was a brilliant arts festival arranged by Liberatum Global, an organisation headed up by an inspiring 26-year-old Indian man by the name of Pablo Ganguli. I have posted this snap taken by the chic be-turbanned jeweller Waris (House of Waris) because it was taken an hour after I was reunited with all my belongings, among which nestled this winner of a dress by Roberto Cavalli which I couldn't wait to slip into after three days wearing the same T-shirt and Houlihan's. It's the best snap taken of me for ages, and makes me smile everytime I look at it.  I am standing at the gates of the Topkapi Palace on my way into an amazing dinner hosted by Jefferson Hack and AnOther Magazine. See their reports of the event here. It was an unforgettable night. Look out for more about Istancool in next weeks Grazia.

During day two of the event Daphne Guinness (now ensconced at Haute Couture goings on in Paris from where I write) dropped in with her new beau, a handsome philosopher, to the Istanbul Modern contemporary art museum. Here she is on the top floor of the museum having a moment while she overlooks the Bosphorus towards Suntanahmet, the historical centre of Istanbul. She was feeling wistful and told me she had not been to the city since 1989. Following this she sat in discussion with Philip Treacy to talk about their working relationship; she being an avid consumer of his incredible hats. This ine, Philip told me was "inspired by a wimple, and  is made from plasticised net." It all became very emotional when Philip broke down in tears when talking about their much loved and missed friend Isabella Blow. During his teary moment his partner Stephan reached over to whsiper in my ear that Istanbul had been Issy's favourite city.  Of course we all now know that Daphne Guinness is now the custodian of Isabella's entire collectiojn of fashion. Something she spoke about at length in the FT this weekend. Read it for yourself. It will give you a glimpse of the utter one-of-a-kind-ness of this extraordinary woman.

Like I said I'm in a very hot and steamy Paris right now. Off to see Givenchy Haute Couture in an hour. Then I meet BryanBoy for the first time, and buy him tea and cake. Then CHANEL!

MC QUEEN IS DEAD, LONG LIVE MCQUEEN

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

Maybe it's because he was just a few years older than me and my friends. Maybe its because it shouldn't have happened. Maybe its because it is so sad that he was all alone at the end, and the futility of it all got to him. But myself, my social group and generation - we are all in grief. We are mourning the loss of Lee Alexander McQueen hard.  I fell asleep crying last night, and woke at four in the morning to see one of my close friends had left a message, I could hardly hear the words she said she was sobbing so much.

I didn't even know him properly. Just in passing. A nod when I saw him out in the gay girl clubs he so loved to frequent, we also shared some female friends. The last time I interviewed him, he turned the tables and ended up quizzing me on my personal life, remembering how, at a party in the late 90's he made me snog a girl who went on to be my girlfriend for five years. He cackled his head off at the memory, (he had the memory of an elephant). He looked happier then.

But he was always fighting his demons.

To my generation, Lee was one of us. A working class hero who made it to the top in a world populated by the middle-to-upper class bracket of folk; all the time wearing his heart on his sleeve. He didn't conform (well, there was the lipo and the veneers) and that was why we loved him.

Its a sad day when this world is too much for someone like him. Without him, fashion will never be the same again.

The British media have done a decent job in covering his death today, especially Lisa Armstrong at The Times and Jess Cartner-Morely at the Guardian, but a million stars should go to the exemplary coverage today by WWD.com. It will not be bettered. To that end I read though their reams of excellent copy and pulled out the memories and quotes that I think best honour his memory today.  Thank you WWD.

MEMORIES OF LEE

“The staggering thing about him was that he literally cut fabric off the bolt, folded it very perfectly on the floor, and asked for the scissors from his very attentive assistant. He would then think about it and attack the piece of fabric and hold it to the girl, and there was the dress or the jacket in place. I hadn’t ever watched anyone work so fluently and so directly. These carpets of ideas that he just laid out on my floor, and he spoke for two hours without drawing breath. He just floored you every time.”
Camilla Nickerson, (the fashion stylist and senior contributing fashion editor at W magazine)

“He spotted me across Leicester Square. I was wearing his Givenchy kimono with the dragon on the back. We became good friends. He was the kindest, shiest, funniest person. And when the chips were down, he was there. He wasn’t a flake. You could count on him. I will miss him. He was an aristocrat in the true sense of the word. He had a natural grace, natural patrician instincts. And he had so much compassion and a big heart. We would go to his studio and do simple things — sit and have a cup of tea — and just have fun. We’d play around like kids and imagine that we were in a world that wasn’t so cynical and money-driven.”
Daphne Guinness - friend and long-time Alexander McQueen client

Franco Pené, chairman of Gibò, one of the first supporters and producers of McQueen, described him as “adorable, extremely sensitive and very fragile,” remembering how he would “cry for his troubled love stories” or his deep affection for dogs, for example. “While he projected a bad-boy image earlier on in his career, he was very shy and had an incredible humanity,” said Pené. Pené also said he was “one of the most incredible, naturally creative minds, who could even sketch an entire collection in one day.”

"At the last McQueen show I went to, the fall 2004 collection, he came up to me and hugged me, and he was crying. He was very upset that I was leaving. He was shy, but once you got to know him he was very open and he had a great sense of humor — he used to make fun of people. He was also a very decent man: He was unbelievably nice to all of the seamstresses in the factory in Novara [Italy] who made his collection. He treated them well and they loved him. He was just a fabulous person.”
Domenico de Sole who was the president of PPR until 2004, and the man who orchestrated the buying of 51% of the McQueen brand in 2001. 

“I remember my first time I saw Alexander McQueen. He was in a tatty little apartment in the East End, so small you could hardly swing the proverbial cat. The whole floor was chaotic with bits of fabric and things lying around, bits of thread.…It looked like a kind of joke-Victorian vision of a fashion designer. My other great memory of him was after the show when he mooned, as we say in British English, showing his butt to the world at the end of the show. I went backstage and he was crying and he said, ‘I’ve blown it, I’ve blown it,’ meaning he’d made a mess of everything, and I said, ‘You haven’t. It was a wonderful show and you just have to pick up and go on.’ And he did.”
Suzy Menkes fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune

FASHION TRIBUTES TO LEE

“McQueen was daring, original, exciting. He shook up the establishment with his creativity and understood what it takes to be a great British ambassador for fashion. I admired him very much. He was a fashion revolutionary that, like me, made the journey from [Central] Saint Martins to Paris where he put his own unique mark on the industry. He will not be forgotten.”  John Galliano, artistic director Christian Dior


“A great talent has left us and we will miss him and everything that he has done for fashion.” - Jean Paul Gaultier

“[I] would like to pay tribute not only to the man, but also to a friend for whom he felt respect, admiration and affection.”
François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of PPR


“Lee was a fashion genius. I don’t say that lightly, and it is a total shock that I am referring to him in the past tense. He was a real friend. I will miss him as a mate, a peer, and as a true British talent, full of life and energy in everything he ever did.”
Stella McCartney


“Lee had a set of skills before he came on the course. He’d worked as a cutter in Italy for people like Romeo Gigli, and because he had those skills, he could distort the woman’s body and push the boundaries in cutting and tailoring. His seminal shows sent a shiver up the back of my spine and that doesn’t happen very often.”
Professor Louise Wilson, course director of the MA program at Central Saint Martins


“I think every designer’s dream is to have that talent, that vision and that integrity.”
Christopher Bailey


"At the time Issy was mocked for supporting a cab driver's son - and people were critical of Alexander because he was such a rebel - but he came through for Issy, and his success was his vindication. I hope they are together now."
Detmar Blow, Isabella's widower

 “He was a very strong person, but at the same time very weak. I learned from him a lot about the industry, the pressure, the creativity and being very true to yourself. He made London and made it really powerful. His presentations were not just about clothing. He made dreams come true and nightmares come true."
Miguel Adrover, friend and fellow designer.

“There is no way back for me now. I am going to take you on journeys you’ve never dreamed were possible.”

Lee Alexander McQueen

17 March 1969-

11 February 2010 
R.I.P

Images thanks to catwalking.com