Models Get Their Due at 2009 Costume Institute Gala

fashionologie — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:18:39 PDT

>> Hints at the 2009 Costume Institute Gala theme have been swirling since May - first, it was thought to be an ode to Marc Jacobs, and then an ode to fashion muses. Now that the official announcement has come out, we learn that both subjects are involved, just not quite in the way that was originally thought: the May 4 gala rings in "The Model as Muse," with Marc Jacobs as honorary chair, and Kate Moss, Anna Wintour, and Justin Timberlake as co-chairs.

The accompanying exhibit, which runs May 6 to Aug. 9, will explore the evolution of models and "their roles in projecting and sometimes inspiring the fashion of their respective eras," with special focus on one of the first publicly known models, Marion Morehouse; the first supermodel, Lisa Fonssagrives; fifties mannequins Suzy Parker, Dovima, Sunny Harnett, and Dorian Leigh; sixties icons Jean Shrimpton, Moffitt, Twiggy, and Veruschka; Seventies faces Jerry Hall, Iman, and Janice Dickinson; the supermodel trinity of Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell; Nineties “It” girls Kate Moss, Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, and Shalom Harlow; and more recently, Gisele Bundchen.

As Harold Koda, curator of the Costume Institute, explained: "We look at the power of clothing, fashion photography and the model to project the look of an era. With a mere gesture, or the line of her body, a truly stellar model can sum up the attitude of her time, creating an alluring synergy between herself and the clothing to communicate a designer’s message to the wider world."

Seventy haute couture and ready-to-wear looks, plus photography, runway images, and video footage of models, rock stars, socialites and actresses who set the tone for each era will emphasize the theme, but most exciting of all - think of all the models who will be representing at the gala.
*image: source

Kate Moss, Anna Wintour, Naomi Campbell, and More Gather at Alexander McQueen's Memorial Service

fashionologie — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:56:03 PDT

>> Friends and family - among the 1,200 guests were Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker, Naomi Campbell, Daphne Guinness, Hamish Bowles, Karen Elson, Stella Tennant, Hussein Chalayan, Roland Mouret, Antonio Berardi, Philip Treacy, Francois Henri Pinault (whom McQueen called Henry), and Stella McCartney - gathered this morning at St. Paul's Cathedral in London in honor of Lee Alexander McQueen, who took his own life in February.

Shaun Leane, Suzy Menkes, Annabelle Nielson, and Anna Wintour all spoke at the 70-minute memorial service, with Wintour recalling McQueen's tendency for last minute cancellations and his "often savage tongue": "He never appeared much at ease with himself, and he didn't care about the politics of fashion. The world that he loved was inside the atelier . . . He showed us everything was possible; dreams could become reality." Bjork gave a performance of Billie Holiday's "Gloomy Sunday" dressed in an angelic McQueen costume, and afterward, as guests dispersed, the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland played the theme of Braveheart on their bagpipes.

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