fashionologie

The 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Finalists Announced

fashionologie — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:34:07 PDT

>> The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund judging committee - which this year includes Jack McCollough, Lazaro Hernandez, Vogue's Mark Holgate, Jeffrey Kalinsky of Jeffrey and Nordstrom, CFDA executive director Steven Kolb, Reed Krakoff, Andrew Rosen, Diane von Furstenberg, Jenna Lyons, and Anna Wintour - have determined the 2011 finalists. They are:

AA, Antonio Azzuolo
Altuzarra, Joseph Altuzarra
Carlos Campos, Carlos Campos
Creatures of the Wind, Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters
Cushnie Et Ochs, Michelle Ochs and Carly Cushnie
Finn Jewelry, Soraya Silchenstedt
Fenton/Fallon, Dana Lorenz
Ohne Titel, Alexa Adams and Flora Gill
Pamela Love
Suno, Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty

Joseph Altuzarra and Pamela Love are repeat finalists from last year, and Ohne Titel was a finalist in 2009. The winner and two runners-up will be announced Nov. 14.

Emmanuelle Alt Explains Her Vision for Vogue Paris, Her Stance on Celebrity Covers

fashionologie — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:44:11 PST

>> During couture, Emmanuelle Alt hinted that Vogue Paris under her direction would be "the same, but different"; Vogue's Mark Holgate got her to expand a little more on her vision for the magazine:

“I want to keep the quality, the photographers we work with - David [Sims], Mert and Marcus, Mario [Testino], and Bruce Weber. I don’t think there should be radical changes. The magazine should still be chic and sophisticated. It’s a bit like buying an apartment: Before you move in, you have all these plans of what you are going to do, but then you get there, and you realize it is better to spend time living in it, and transforming it over time. I’d like there to be more beauty trends; there was so much of that in Vogue back in the eighties. More French girls, more French lifestyle. And I am going to keep shooting for the magazine - hopefully a story every issue." She adds: "I always want a relationship with reality: nothing too sexy, or provocative, or fashion victim. We are French - we can show smoking, nudity. We have no boundaries, and it can be good to have them."

As for her position on celebrity covers: “We don’t have a systematic point of view on it. But here in France we are back in a much more glamorous time. French actresses were respected, but not so evidently in the fashion world. Now we have Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg. I’d be very happy to put an actress on the cover if she is the right girl.” And her model favorites are no surprise: “Daria [Werbowy] is the girl I work with the most. She has a natural, strong beauty. You can put her in a white tee and she will make it look fantastic. I like Kate [Moss] too, because she cares about clothes. Most models don’t care what you put them in, they just play the game.”

Giorgio Armani Denies Lady Gaga Influenced His Spring 2011 Couture Collection

fashionologie — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:55:28 PST

>> In the wake of yesterday's Armani Prive show, Derek Blasberg Tweeted: "Armani couture has gone all Sci-Fi on me. Pierre Cardin-esque shapes, iridescent fabrics and flying saucers hats. Is that the Gaga effect?" Cathy Horyn Tweeted similarly: "Did Lady Gaga influence Armani's super-future lines and curves in startling collection of synthetic/metallic shine and enamel-like color?" And Vogue's Mark Holgate wrote, "Clearly, Armani is gaga for Gaga. How else does one explain that shiny molded techno-fabric that looked like it was specially created for Tron?" But despite all of those conclusions and the fact that Gaga and Armani have a multimillion dollar partnership, when Horyn approached Armani about it, she writes: "Afterward I asked him if he had been at all influenced by Lady Gaga, for whom he has made some clothes, and he shook his head firmly. Well, I wonder." [On the Runway]

What Did Anna Wintour Do For Thanksgiving?

fashionologie — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:58:23 PST

>> No Thanksgiving break for Anna Wintour: on Thanksgiving morning, she was spotted being shown around the Shanghai Museum. Wintour also made a stop by Vogue China's offices last week, and spoke with Vogue China's editor Angelica Cheung and Vogue's Mark Holgate and Sylvana Soto-Ward at a forum held at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

There, she noted: "China is becoming an increasingly important market. Everywhere you go there is this great drumroll that started five years ago of ‘what do you think about China?’ We decided it was time to make our own visit and to form our own opinions. In a way, American brands are a bit behind coming to China compared to the European brands, and I wanted to encourage them all to visit and open stores here."

On a Eastern influence-related note, Wintour recently told The Washington Post: "Right now, it seems as though we are experiencing a wave of Asian models, and while there is certainly a strong African American presence with Joan Smalls, Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman, sadly we don't see as many African American models as we could." (Though it's worth noting that Jourdan Dunn is British and Joan Smalls is Puerto Rican.)

And it sounds like at her Beijing talk, Wintour brought her sense of humor with - when an audience member asked her about The Devil Wears Prada, she apparently replied that she "found the movie highly entertaining and it’s true, of course, that I beat all my assistants, lock them in a cupboard and don’t pay them!”

Style.com Will Have a Competitor in Vogue.com, But It's Not Going Away

fashionologie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:04:11 PDT

>> Instead of shuttering Style.com, as many speculated would happen after Vogue.com's big relaunch - which comes right after Labor Day - Drew Schutte, SVP and chief revenue officer for Conde Nast Digital, is ready for the two to take over the web together: “In my mind, why not have two of the leading brands in the online space? There’s lots of competition coming up, so instead of letting someone else become the number-two competitor, I’d like to make one ourselves and have the number one and two in the space.”

Style.com was once the online home of both W and Vogue, but all three are now entirely separate - no pooling of resources. Style.com will send its own reviewers (Tim Blanks, Nicole Phelps, Meenal Mistry) to the upcoming fashion shows, as will Vogue.com (Jessica Kerwin, former Style contributor Sarah Mower, as well as Vogue senior staffers Mark Holgate, Hamish Bowles, and others).

There's good reason to keep Style around »

fashionologie — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:17:24 PDT

>> More Staff Changes at Vogue, W -With fashion news and features director Sally Singer officially departing Vogue to become editor at T, Anna Wintour wasted no time with promotions - associate editor Eve MacSweeney will become the new features director, and senior fashion writer Mark Holgate will become fashion news director. Vogue fashion writer Florence Kane also reportedly left the magazine to become senior editor at C Magazine in Los Angeles, a position she starts Monday. And finally, layoffs hit W today, which are said to include the magazine's longtime deputy editor Julie Belcove, senior fashion features editor Dana Wood, editorial manager Brian Sullivan, and assistant editorial manager Lauren Kill. [WWD, @jimshi809, DFR]

Anna Larson's Spring 2010 Debut Erro Collection Sticks to Shades of Gray, But Is Hardly Boring

fashionologie — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:54:24 PDT

>> Housed within the confines of the small Ohio Theater tonight were models on boxes, sporting Doc Martens and Anna Larson's debut Erro collection. Larson's target girl is a "modern nomad," and she embodies Erro, which means "stray" in Latin, through easy-to-wear, layerable pieces in white and shades of gray.

Bliss Lau contributed jewelry and her leather treatment skills to the Spring 2010 collection - the lambskin was crocheted, hand-distressed, and perforated; former Eventide designer and current stylist Christian Stroble consulted and styled; and Alexandra Richards was hidden above the crowd in the back, mixing the soundtrack. The pieces were visibly made of high-quality materials - always good for first impressions from a new designer - and the whole sensibility was mirrored by Larson herself, who was spotted chatting to Vogue's Mark Holgate sporting all black, goth-girl black hair, and heavy black eyeliner.

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Are Designers, Editors Finally Ready to Give Up Their Towering Heels?

fashionologie — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:29:50 PDT

>> Is fashion finally getting sick of the shoe silhouette that has so pervaded the last few years - the painfully high heel? Carine Roitfeld, notorious for her pro-heel stance, was snapped recently at a luncheon in Cannes wearing flats; Francisco Costa shod all of his Cruise 2010 models in brogues and flat boots, and Vogue's Mark Holgate noted at yesterday's Cruise 2010 Yves Saint Laurent presentation that even "the house that started the platform craze is coming down off them."

Today, Andre Leon Talley dedicated a whole Vogue Daily post to the phenomenon, observing that at a recent Alexander Wang Cruise 2010 appointment, "Meredith Melling Burke . . . walked in off the elevator in a beige 3.1 Phillip Lim chesterfield and beige trousers tucked into an impeccable black pair from Miu Miu - that were completely flat! A sign of things to come?"

He's not finished »

Resort Collections Continue to Attract Attention, But Thrive on Anonymity

fashionologie — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:42:30 PDT

>> Resort season is well under way - Calvin Klein and Diane von Furstenberg are among the brands showing today alone. Every year, designers reiterate how crucial the resort season can be, and every year, there's more media attention placed on collections that pop up at this time. But all that increasing media coverage could endanger precisely why resort does so well - the collections typically have an element of anonymity, as Vogue's Mark Holgate explains:

The clothes tend to be shown in a small, discreet way, so they’re not overexposed; the look tends to trans-seasonal in the fabric and color choices; and, typically, what’s shown is on sale for longer than those collections presented during Fashion Week. In short: They’re the kind of pieces that you’ll tend to wear and wear and wear because they manage to be both directional and somewhat anonymous.

Cathy Horyn made note this morning of the increase in attention, when she overheard one editor comment at Calvin Klein: “Oh, I thought this was going to be a small presentation."

Oscar de la Renta adds his two cents »

Snapshots from the Shows - Fenton Spring 2012

Christina Perez — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:54:41 PDT

>> Earlier this afternoon, in a private room at the Four Seasons Restaurant in midtown Manhattan, Fenton designer Dana Lorenz presented her Spring 2012 collection on seven stoic models dressed head-to-toe in ivory. "Chloe and Valentino," Lorenz said of the models' monochrome ensembles, while guests such as Mark Holgate and Meredith Melling Burke snapped pictures and chatted jovially. It was a relaxed yet refined atmosphere, one that was perfectly in-step with the pastel-dotted collection. Inspired by Miami's Art Deco architecture, this was the softer side of Fenton - fringed duster necklaces were accented with crystals and pearls, and silk chokers were strung with dyed turquoise and moonstone. "It’s very playful,” the designer explained. “I usually go for a dark strength in my work, but Spring is about color and to me, these pastels still feel powerful.”

Click through to see our snaps from the presentation.

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