>> Spring 2010 may be a "safe" campaign season in the making, but not all designers are afraid to change things up. Word is up-and-coming photographer Josh Olins has breached the usually ad-shooting group of Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Mario Testino, Mario Sorrenti, David Sims, Steven Meisel, and Steven Klein, nabbing the Spring 2010 Giorgio Armani campaign as his own. And it's rumored Juergen Teller won't just be exclusive to Marc Jacobs image-making this season: apparently he's helping Phoebe Philo curate the new Celine image by photographing newcomer Valerija Kelava and Carmen Kass for her first ads for the brand.
As for Stefano Pilati, it sounds like he's sticking to his winning supermodel-Inez and Vinoodh formula, going on six seasons strong. Natalia Vodianova, WWD reports, is said to be next up.
Yves Saint Laurent
Spring 2010 Campaign Scuttlebutt: Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, and Celine
Stefano Pilati Is Seeing Strawberries, Knee Slits for Yves Saint Laurent Spring 2010
>> Stefano Pilati favors supermodels for his Yves Saint Laurent ad campaigns — five seasons strong now — and two showed up front row for the YSL show today: Claudia Schiffer and Kate Moss. Pilati, who favors little color, as famously noted by Anna Wintour in The September Issue, stuck to mostly white and black, gray, and tan, with a little emerald, periwinkle blue, and coral pink thrown in for good measure. “It’s many, many ideas, a multiplicity of influences, an aesthetic paradigm of new minimalism,” the designer, often referred to as "cerebral" or "intellectual," said of the collection, which he styles himself.
He drew from Saint Laurent's heritage peasant motif, and added a dollop of strawberries — in prints, appliques, and ceramic earrings, which raised a number of eyebrows but have a fan in at least one influencer; Kate Moss announced backstage, “I want to wear that strawberry dress." For all the sweetness, there was no lack of edge: leather shorts with knee slits are sure to be a hit, and suiting was left with slashed hemlines and loose threads hanging.
>> Carine Roitfeld Still Loves Tom Ford's Womenswear From 2003 —Tom Ford and his muse when he was designing Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, Carine Roitfeld, must still think along the same lines: just as it's hinted that he's preparing to make a return into womenswear, she's pulled a skirt out he designed for Yves Saint Laurent's Fall 2003 collection — leaving much of her flank exposed through side lace panels — and worn it during both New York and London Fashion Weeks. [Fashin]
>> Yves Saint Laurent Manifesto Launches Online for First Time — Yves Saint Laurent has been distributing its Manifesto twice a year since 2007, and this season, they're adding Seoul to the usual lineup of Paris, London, Milan, New York, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, where the over 500,000 copies of the printed booklet will be passed out. The first 2,000 passersby in each city receive a tote with Christy Turlington's upside down ad on it, and for those who won't be in any of the listed cities on the Sept. 12 launch date, the brand has launched a special site, YSLManifesto.com, from which the entire publication — preview here — will be available for download on the day of the launch.
Video: Behind the scenes of the shoot »
Good on Tomas Maier: Bottega Veneta Is Currently PPR's Only Brand Seeing a Rise in Sales
>> Just a few days after LVMH reported a decline, causing all marketing to be cut save for its top-performing brands, PPR reported a 76 percent decline in first-half profits. Tomas Maier can breathe a sigh of relief: the company's only area of growth was Bottega Veneta, on which PPR has been focusing, which saw an 8.6 percent rise in sales in the second quarter.
At flagship brand Gucci, which accounts for the bulk of Gucci Group's profits, Frida Giannini was credited by PPR chairman Francois-Henri Pinault for bolstering PPR as a whole with sustained demand for her bags in China.
Christy Turlington Is Yves Saint Laurent's Fall 2009 Campaign Supermodel
>> Ever since Stefano Pilati started working with Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for the Fall 2007 season on Yves Saint Laurent ads, one supermodel has starred each season, starting with Gisele Bundchen, then Kate Moss for Spring 2008, Naomi Campbell for Fall 2008, Claudia Schiffer for Spring 2009, and now Christy Turlington for Fall 2009. Logically, if they keep up their partnership, Linda Evangelista should be up next season . . .
*image: source
>> INSIDER WIRE —Alber Elbaz loves his TV, but Stefano Pilati takes in a concert when he gets a break — he recently saw PJ Harvey while in New York. And although he says he's "been working nonstop. Normally the summer is more relaxed, but this one, no way. I didn't stop one day," when he does get a chance for a longer break, he likes to "disappear" to Hawaii or Idaho to ski: "You know, I can't really stop thinking about collections, but at least I'm not under so much pressure." [Purple Diary, Hint]
Stefano Pilati's Sustainable Yves Saint Laurent Collection Didn't Sustain In-Store for Long
>> Stefano Pilati has been in New York since the weekend, hanging out at the Mercer Hotel with Purple's Olivier Zahm, Chloe Sevigny, and Waris Ahluwalia, but last night he got down to business, hosting the launch of the Yves Saint Laurent sustainable "New Vintage" collection with Barneys. All the bags, shoes, and dresses were cut from archive fabric left over from previous seasons, and Barneys fashion director Julie Gilhart reports that it went fast — only a few pieces left, and she grabbed one of the bags for herself.
Today, Pilati presented his Cruise 2010 collection to press and buyers — where Chanel Iman was apparently called out for Twittering while she modeled.
Jason Wu to Show Cruise 2010 Collection; Yves Saint Laurent Brings Out Color for Own Cruise 2010 Line
>> Chanel had a big production in Venice, Oscar de la Renta is gearing up for his Cruise 2010 show in a few days time, and Jason Wu just announced he's joining the big leagues by putting on his own Cruise 2010 runway show, inspired by Iris Apfel, June 4 at the Greenwich Hotel.
But Stefano Pilati, known for his ascetic approach to Yves Saint Laurent in recent seasons, has decided to continue that thought, opting to go without a Cruise 2010 show. As for the clothes, he veered away from his recent obsession with black, white, and shades of gray, infusing color and even a print into the Loulou de la Falaise-inspired mix.
Carine Roitfeld on Knives, Nymphomania, and Having the Power
>> Carine Roitfeld speaks frequently through the images she creates for Vogue Paris, but the new, erotic-themed issue of Acne Paper provides us with a fly-on-the-wall spot at a candid conversation with the editor.
The woman who will "never wear miniskirts because they make me look older" talks pushing limits — "Never before in Conde Nast's history has there been a transvestite on the cover, and [Andre J.'s cover] sold so well. You think you are going to get into trouble but in the end people are more open than you think" — and dressing demure — "it's always subtle."
But even Carine aspires to be somebody else.
You know the idea of the Saint Laurent woman. What a dream she was: wearing trousers, hand in the pocket, no handbag, transparent shirt. I love that woman. It is exactly who I would have loved to be if I could choose. So I would have to go blonde because he loved the blondes, and I would have to have bigger breasts. But it's the idea of the woman I love, and I try to repeat this in my magazine.
Morgan
Infinite
Duccio Del Duca