Mila Kunis took on a character she knows well — a woman surrounded by paparazzi — in the Fall 2012 film for Miss Dior. Like the brand's print ads, the film was directed by Mario Sorrenti and styled by Carine Roitfeld. In it, Kunis demurely allows a pack of photographers to follow her to various locations around Los Angeles and obligingly smiles and sighs while they document her every move. A glimpse at the film below.
After reporting the number of advertising pages that will be included in their September issues, both Vogue and Elle are touting their biggest books ever.
Vogue will have a total of 658 ad pages in this year's Lady Gaga-covered September issue, a 13 percent increase over last year's 584 pages, and its best performance since 2008. Vogue's September 2007 issue boasted 727 pages of ads, but this year's editorial content will push its pages into record-breaking territory. (On Friday, Vogue will start a contest on its Facebook page asking readers and fans to guess how many pages the issue will hold. The prize is a copy of the upcoming book Vogue: The Editor's Eye.)
Elle, which is expected to have Katy Perry on its cover, will also print the biggest issue in its history. Elle has announced 400 pages of ads — a 12 percent increase — in its September issue. Elsewhere at Hearst, Harper's Bazaar, covered by Gwen Stefani, is up 17 percent to 360 pages. Marie Claire has broken its record for ad pages with a 23 percent increase to 237 pages, and Miley Cyrus will star on its cover.
Other magazines on the rise include InStyle, which jumped 2 percent to 440 pages, and People StyleWatch, up 10 percent to 185 pages. T, The New York Times Style Magazine had a small increase to 133 ad pages. T's chief rival, WSJ. magazine, is up slightly, too, to 63 ad pages — and Daphne Groeneveld's cover for that issue is seen above.
Among the magazines that saw declines were Vanity Fair, which lost 2.5 percent, going down to 222 ad pages. Glamour's Victoria Beckham issue slid 16 percent to 205 ad pages, W lost 4 percent and went to 246 pages, and Lucky, with 136 ad pages, sank 26 percent.
Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.
After announcing that it has partnered with designers from the Council of Fashion Designers of America on holiday products, eBay revealed Wednesday that it has signed on as a sponsor for the British Fashion Council's Fashion Forward initiative, which helps young designers develop their businesses.
The agreement takes effect starting with London Fashion Week Spring 2013, when eBay and the BFC will host an auction of British design to benefit Save the Children. Next January, the BFC will include eBay's head of fashion brands Melanie Smallwood on the panel of judges who will decide the next round of designers who will get Fashion Forward funding.
Fashion Forward is currently in its sixth year, and in the past it has supported Peter Pilotto, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders, and Meadham Kirchhoff.
Photo: The finale of Peter Pilotto's Fall 2012 show.
The much-anticipated Coach Legacy collection has finally arrived, and it's all available online. Priced from $50 to just under $500, the collection features everything from wood-heeled shoes and classic trenches to envelope wallets and tech accessories. All come in an array of vibrant hues — sunflower, cobalt, emerald, and carnelian — and all were inspired by pieces culled straight from the archives of the storied brand. Best of all are the bags: from slouchy duffles to structured totes, they come in every timeless shape imaginable, and, simply put, are just way too chic to be forgotten.
If Alexander Wang is famous for dressing the model off duty, his Fall 2012 campaign video depicts the life of a model at work. In the David Sims-directed clip, Kati Nescher — who also stars in Wang's Fall 2012 print ads — is seen being prepped for a shoot, then posing while a photographer captures her wearing Wang's clothing. A camera follows along as an unseen observer — until the very end, when Nescher's piercing stare looks directly into the lens. A glimpse at the resulting video below.
Arizona Muse has added her voice to the chorus of people who support changing the name of Yves Saint Laurent to Saint Laurent Paris.
"People who aren't in the fashion world might not know that a new designer has joined the brand, so this is a clear way of signifying that there's been a big change," Muse said in an interview. "It's the sort of thing everyone will notice, not just fashion people."
Karl Lagerfeld has also thrown his support behind the change, saying, "Paris needs some new things, some stimulation . . . I think it's interesting and it's important. Something fresh was needed."
And while other industry giants like Pierre Bergé and Betty Catroux have also backed the shift, reaction among the public has been mixed. When Saint Laurent Paris unveiled the new logo on its Facebook page this week, one fan of the brand decried it as "an act of disrespect."
Hedi Slimane, who was appointed the brand's creative director in March, announced the change in June, emphasizing that the iconic YSL logo will be preserved for use on some products. The new name should be fully integrated into the company's brand messaging by September, when Slimane stages his first show for Saint Laurent Paris.
Photo: Arizona Muse photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for Yves Saint Laurent's Spring 2011 campaign.
The intersection of fashion and sports has long been a favorite among photographers and stylists — particularly when it comes to the use of athletic equipment as props. Boxing gloves, racing bikes, parallel bars, fencing swords . . . you name it, it's definitely been paired with McQueen or Wang for the Vogues, Elles, and Bazaars of the world.
What better time than now, on the eve of those fantastical feats of competition and strength we call the Olympics, to take a look back at some of the chicest of sports-themed editorials and campaigns to ever grace the glossies? After all, with uniforms designed by Stella, Ralph, Ferragamo, and Hermés — not to mention a closing ceremony that will be packed with more supermodels than seems humanly possible — this year's Games are bound to be more fashionable than ever before.
Karl Lagerfeld says his Olympics-themed collection, which he unveiled and celebrated with a party at Selfridges in London Tuesday night, is an exercise in laughing at himself.
"The drama of this collection isn't a drama," the designer said. "It's a joke. It's an inspiration. In a way, it's me. So I have to be careful not to get too much into it, because I don't expect everybody to dress like me. That's why I like this collection with the t-shirt to make a joke out of me, because I think I'm a cartoon."
Others at the event took Lagerfeld a little more seriously — Daphne Guinness, Alison Mosshart, and Hilary Alexander attended the event along with a host of celebrities like Rosario Dawson and Harley Viera-Newton.
Naturally, as the collection has an athletic bent, Lagerfeld spoke to approaching design the same way athletes play sports.
"I think inspiration is a muscle, and this muscle has to be used all the time," Lagerfeld said. "The more you do, the more ideas you have. I don't believe in waiting for inspiration on beaches."
A look at the fruit of Lagerfeld's labor — plus interviews with some of his chicest fans — in the video.
When it comes to fun, Miami Swim Week may just have the market cornered. After all, at what other Fashion Week are collections shown poolside?
Despite its breezy nature, the week always brings a ton of serious trends — and plenty of highly covetable looks. On tap this season — and just begging to be worn right now — were retro-silhouetted bandeau one-pieces, caftans in graphic tribal prints, and mix-and-match bikinis aplenty. Also appearing in heavy rotation were superhigh-waisted bikini bottoms, optical black-and-white colorblocking, tonal python prints, and more latticework cutout suits than we care to count. Sadly, none of these suits will be available until Resort 2013; until then, take a peek at the week's standout pieces in the slideshow.
