Tue, 03/09/10 — 05:14:09 PM
>> For the six days leading up to the Chanel Fall 2010 show, Karl Lagerfeld had the thirty-five person team who sculpted The Ice Hotel in Sweden brought in to carve a 265-ton iceberg, also imported from Sweden, in the middle of the Grand Palais. The room was chilled to 25 degrees Fahrenheit, and the iceberg was hidden from the audience under a large wooden box that mechanically rose when the show started.
Four models — Brad Kroenig, Baptiste Giabiconi, Abbey Lee Kershaw, and Freja Beha Erichsen (the latter two who are reportedly set to appear in the Chanel Fall 2010 campaign) — in furry yeti suits opened the display, "milling about in a daze" before dispersing, and giving way to a train of models sloshing through water from the melting iceberg; some even left shoes which came loose behind in their wake.
“Global warming is the issue of our times. Fashion has to address it,” Lagerfeld said afterward. And fur was everywhere — boots, skirts, pants, bags — but all faux. Karl said he went with faux fur for two reasons: first, Fendi does the best real furs and he doesn't want to compete, and second: “Technical advances are so perfect you can hardly tell fake fur from the real thing. Fake is not chic — we have got a new Chanel tweed to stop copies — but fake fur is.”
*image: source
Tue, 01/26/10 — 07:52:27 AM
>> No rolls in the hay today — Karl Lagerfeld, much like Giorgio Armani, was enthralled with glistening white gowns today at Chanel Spring 2010 couture. Perhaps more of a surprise: his fixation on pastel tweed culotte suits.
Guests — including a pregnant Claudia Schiffer, who arrived late and said that she only briefly plans to take a break from work to give birth — reclined on silver sofas while models glided by with Daphne Guinness-streaked Minnie Mouse hair, symbolizing Lagerfeld's "neon baroque" theme. The pastel collection represented a break from the usual black and white color scheme — Lagerfeld looked at working without black as "a challenge," he said. "I saw it in a dream and I made the sketches . . . [thanks to] an electronic flash in my head at five o'clock one morning. Silver and pastel. It's the first time in my whole career I've done a collection without black or navy. There's not one gold button." Abbey Lee Kershaw and Baptiste Giabiconi had finale honors as bride and groom — the latter in a silver foil suit.
Mon, 01/25/10 — 10:32:12 AM
>> Karl Lagerfeld On What to Expect at Chanel Couture —When Karl Lagerfeld showed up to take his usual front row seat at Dior Homme Saturday (he shoots the brand's campaigns), he was feeling generous with hints on what to expect at the Chanel Spring 2010 couture show tomorrow: “Two words: neon baroque.” Chanel isn't the only headlining act yet to play this week in Paris: Natalia Vodianova is hosting a dinner for her lingerie collection with Etam, for which Charlotte Gainsbourg will perform, and Kate Moss is holding a Longchamp party at the Ritz, with a Queens of Noize performance promised. [WWD, Style.com]
Tue, 01/19/10 — 12:32:04 PM
>> In the Golden Globes aftermath, Cathy Horyn was left less than impressed. "The new decade certainly didn’t announce itself with a bang on the Globes red carpet last night, and it had nothing to do with the rain," she blogged yesterday. "Where was that single, game-changing dress that people would talk about?"
She continued:
Most of the dresses last night offered little more than a paper-doll variation on styles of the past few years. A preponderance of blush pink or one-shouldered styles doesn’t point to a trend so much as reveal an ongoing problem with mediocre design. Maybe the best designers now prefer to stay away from the awards shows, and the actresses, worried about bad publicity, don’t know the difference anymore. They don’t know what it means in fashion to be playful and truly relaxed. So the dresses keep wearing them.
Which designers had no Golden Globe dresses, and which had the most? »
Mon, 01/11/10 — 10:54:24 AM
>> Martin Scorsese Filmed for Chanel Commercial Over Weekend —David Lynch is confirmed to have filmed an installment of Dior's string of commercials featuring ambassador Marion Cotillard in Shanghai, and now it's confirmed that as rumored, Martin Scorsese is working with Chanel. The director shut down a section of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York last Friday, and the owner of Moto, a restaurant in the area (above), confirmed Scorsese was filming a Chanel commercial. [Dossier]
UPDATE: French actor Gaspard Ulliel and model Ingrid Schram are starring in the production. Scenes have also been shot underground in the midtown Manhattan subway. [Chic Report]
Tue, 12/15/09 — 08:52:23 AM
>> Yves Saint Laurent passed away last year at 71, Valentino Garavani retired two years ago at 75; but a number of their contemporaries, also in their seventies, are still going strong — with no outright successors named.
Giorgio Armani, who turned 75 in July, hinted in October that he was taking precautions, especially after his bout of hepatitis, and grooming a chosen few — but insiders don't expect names until the last minute. Armani, sole owner of his $2.4 billion company, is a special case, according to Roberto Jorio Fili, a former executive at Valentino, Roberto Cavalli, and Gianfranco Ferre:
He's not the classic designer who wants to stay in the creative part and delegates the rest to managers. Armani is the business. Not one person can replace him on their own, it would have to be several people and I think that's what he's probably thinking.
Then there's Chanel »
Thu, 12/03/09 — 09:28:56 AM
>> For last year's Chanel Pre-Fall "Paris-Moscow" collection, Karl Lagerfeld directed a ten minute silent film, with Edita Vilkeviciute starring as a young Coco Chanel. This year's Chanel Pre-Fall collection, which was dubbed "Paris-Shanghai," debuted in the latter city today; Karl directed a new short film for the occasion, with Edita back as young Coco in a more expansive 22-minute set, this time with dialogue. Heidi Mount, Freja Beha Erichsen, and of course, Baptiste Giabiconi, join her in the tableau, which was projected against the Shanghai cityscape as part of the presentation.
Video: the film! »
Mon, 11/16/09 — 03:40:48 PM
>> Olivier Zahm, the man who recently described his trademark look as "a disguise" — "five or six years ago, I decided to wear this kind of outfit and behave as if I were a celebrity. It’s not out of narcissism. It’s for the magazine. For an independent magazine to exist, I had to incarnate it personally" — has been busy with projects other than Purple Fashion lately. He and art director Alex Wiederin have been working together "on Carine Roitfeld's book" — no further details given, and he's also "art directed and designed" the first issue of 31 Rue Cambon, a Chanel magazine — which seems to be in a similar vein as Yves Saint Laurent's Manifesto — to be distributed worldwide in Chanel stores. Featured, of course, are Chanel favorites like Lara Stone, Baptiste Giabiconi, and Freja Beha Erichsen.
Fri, 10/23/09 — 08:52:28 AM
>> Earlier this week, Claudia Schiffer and Karl Lagerfeld were snapped on the Chanel Spring 2010 campaign shoot in and around Buenos Aires; Freja Beha Erichsen and Baptiste Giabiconi, who are also supposed to be in the campaign, were not so easily spotted. On Tuesday, Lagerfeld and Schiffer were on location just outside Buenos Aires in Monte Grande, where local media reports they stopped for a lunch of "rich barbeque." Then on Wednesday, they started production in Buenos Aires's oldest neighborhood, San Telmo, before they had to stop because of rain.
*image: source, source, source, source
Wed, 10/21/09 — 08:31:46 AM
>> Spring 2010 Ad Campaign Casts for Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, and Chanel: Revealed — After skipping out on a traditional ad campaign last season, it sounds like Christian Dior is bringing it back for Spring 2010 — John Galliano revealed Monday that Karlie Kloss is his girl of choice for the brand. Karl Lagerfeld, meanwhile, is continuing the trio theme from the Spring 2010 Chanel show finale for his campaign cast — menage a trois participants Freja Beha Erichsen and Baptiste Giabiconi are both staying on, with Claudia Schiffer replacing Lara Stone; Lagerfeld plans to shoot the threesome on location in Buenos Aires, marking his first time in Argentina. And word is Nick Knight and Raquel Zimmermann, who worked together to produce the background video for Alexander McQueen's presentation, also collaborated on the designer's forthcoming campaign. [WWD, WWD, WeLoveModels]
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