fashionologie

Fashion Week Tidbits: Marchesa Launches Handbags, Alexander Wang Is Thinking "Perv" for Spring 2010

fashionologie — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:26:43 PDT

>> New York Fashion Week is a little more than a week away, and the tidbits are flowing freely - a compilation of the highlights from the past few days:

Launches

Marchesa is launching its first accessories - 28 clutches and evening bags (above); They will retail $995 to $5,000 and are made to coordinate with the mainline dresses. [WWD]

Peter Som is making his way back, Ruffian goes Picasso »

LOVE Goes for "The Young and the Reckless," Two Covers with Second Issue

fashionologie — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:56:45 PDT

>> Turns out the preview that hit the web early this month featuring a David Sims shot of Alex Hartley, a bass player from Birmingham, England, who Katie Grand "found on the Internet," is one of LOVE's two covers for its second issue, after all. The second cover comes courtesy of Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, who did cover honors for LOVE the first time around, and features Coco Sumner, burgeoning it-girl and daughter of Sting.

Both cover stars are 18; in fact, most of the issue, which hits newsstands Aug. 24, is full of emerging celebrities and unknowns who are mostly under 21 - Allegra Beck Versace, Miley Cyrus, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Momsen among them. “The whole issue’s full of these kids, really, who are at that turning point of life when you’ve got no responsibilities, you’re quite free and everything’s exciting,” Grand told WWD.

Grand added "more words" to the issue, bringing on Isaac Lock as deputy editor because: “I always think visually, so it was really important that the words team was strengthened." As for how the magazine's holding up on the business end, there are 106 ad pages from advertisers like Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Chanel in the 296-page magazine. The magazine had 116 ad pages for its debut issue, but Grand said the issue had “exceeded the targets set” for advertising.

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David Bailey Joins Katie Grand, Peter Lindbergh in Reaction Against Airbrushing

fashionologie — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:27:25 PDT

>> Last year, there was a huge push for more diversity in fashion, culminating in the publication of Vogue Italia's all-black July 2008 issue. Unfortunately, attention on that issue has waned this year, even though there is still much work to be done; now, the issue du jour seems to be what has become a common practice among fashion magazines: heavy retouching.

Katie Grand, who while at POP was a huge proponent of the "super glossy" look, has since reigned in her reliance on Photoshop. Of her first issue of LOVE, which came out in February, Katie told Interview, "It's not so retouched. I just wanted to take pictures of iconic people without redrawing them." And she's continuing the tradition for her second issue, out Sept. 1 - she had Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott (whose aesthetic generally lends itself to a good bit of retouching) photograph cover girl Coco Sumner as she walked in off the street, no hair or makeup. The Times UK wrote of that decision: "She is shrewdly tapping into the new spirit of the times - heavily airbrushed celebrities seem gauche and embarrassing during a recession."

David Bailey: "It’s f*cking ridiculous" »

Katie Grand Rolls Her Eyes at the Prospect of Replacing Alexandra Shulman at British Vogue

fashionologie — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:33:41 PDT

>> The second edition of LOVE comes out next week, and even though she just recently got married, editor-in-chief Katie Grand didn't have time for a honeymoon because she had to finish the issue. Katie is somewhat the antithesis of Anna Wintour in the so-called glamorous world of fashion: she doesn't feel the need to have every hair in place and she doesn't mandate high heels, like Vogue supposedly does.

“I’m really practical,” she recently told the Times UK. “I go to the gym most mornings and I walk everywhere, so that’s why I wear flat shoes and no make-up. It’s not vanity; it’s laziness. I didn’t wear make-up on my wedding day because I didn’t want mascara running down my face if I cried.” Also missing from the wedding? The traditional white dress. “I wore an Azzedine Alaïa brown snakeskin dress, which he tortured me for about two months to get into, but at least it’s something I can wear again. I didn’t want some stupid white dress; it seems like such a waste."

Food banned at LOVE's office? »