Happy Easter!

I would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter! Enjoy the days off and see you again afterwards!

Future beauty - a review of intemporal fashion design

 

Some of my older readers may remember my previous collaboration with Tana for the Berlin Fashion Week when she delivered us some great personal insight on the Romanian Designers fashion show. Now it's time for another collaboration with her about the future of beauty. Here it goes:

Japan. People all over the world have different ways in coping with the terrible tragedy after the tsunami and earthquakes of March 11th.

Some of you may donate money, some of you may be attending charity concerts. In Düsseldorf, the second largest japanese community in Europe (after London, they say), it is easy to give something back by contributing to the japanese economy: eat out at Japan-town Immermannstraße every day.

Letting the moment aside, I'd like to share something more timeless.

In Munich, Germany, an exhibition is taking place named „Future Beauty“. It's been previously hosted by the Barbican Art Gallery in London. The exhibition takes you on a journey over the last 30 years of Japanese avantgarde fashion, from Yoji Yamamoto to Junya Watanabe, from Rei Kawabuko to Akira Naka.

It is the first exhibition to comprehensively survey avant-garde Japanese fashion that way.

The exhibition is curated by the eminent Japanese fashion historian Akiko Fukai, Director of the Kyoto Costume Institute. It is a unique collection showing the immense sensitivity japanese designers show for forms, cuts and reduction to the most essential elements and colors: actually, the non-colors of black and white.

The exhibition is about the future. It is about „New discoveries, that look into the future, that are free and vivid“ as said at Comme des Garcons.

Be quick. You may look into the future until the 8th of may 2011 at Haus der Kunst, München.

Yours, Tana Maria Schächtele

Julia Restoin Roitfeld for V Magazine

Julia Restoin Roitfeld is a huge inspiration - she models, she has her own art direction company, she has a perfect and huge shoe collection and a really cool apartment and even more: she's the daughter of Carine Roitfeld, former editor in chief of Vogue Paris. Top that if you can! Actually... SHE DID. Julia interviewed Tom Ford for an editorial in V Magazine entitled New Fashion Moment. I discovered this interview while preparing a different post about her, so it's a few months old, but I really liked the pictures and I thought it would be a great start for you to get to know her before I start talking about her fabulous style and apartment.

The focus of this editorial was on Tom Ford's return to fashion's spotlight after 5 years of absence, his inspiration and his take on fashion. Not only did she interview him, but she also played photographer and model at the same time, posing in some of the pieces from the designer's latest collection. The resulting set of self-portraits is stunning! Julia definitely inherited an incredible feel for art and photography from her mother.

Here are Julia's pictures and right afterwards some thoughts from the editorial:

JRR: What do you think fashion needs more of right now?

TF: Spontaneity. Fashion needs to be more fun.

JRR: What personality traits does the Tom Ford woman possess?

TF: My customer has her own sense of style and knows herself well. My goal is to help women become the best version of themselves.

JRR: Outside fashion, what are you looking forward to this spring?

TF: I have to say more fashion.

Source: vmagazine

Inspired by red

Red is a great color! It lights up a grey day, it brings color to a dark outfit, it brings happiness and a big smile on people's face, plus it's incredibly sexy. Here are some pictures of different shades of red and ways of wearing them that inspired me for today:

Photos: blogspot and tumblr

Style profile: Coco Sumner

Rock-offspring Coco Sumner has been starting to make a name for herself after the launch of her first album, The Constant, a few months ago. Her album is an impressive mix of styles, from electro-pop to indie rock, with abstract lyrics and cool tones. Shy and feeling that she doesn't fit into the world of fame she feels uncomfortable whenever someone mentions her privileged upbringing or her famous parents, British actress and producer Trudie Styler and musician Sting (aka. Gordon Sumner).

Besides the fact that her music is great, I really like that she has her own well defined style, regardless of what's in style or not. She shays she draws her inspiration from the mod era, but there are also clear influences of androgynous and masculine style in her wardrobe. She blends modish suits and worn-in T-shirts, vintage, red denim and menswear in a very coherent and interesting way. She reminds me a lot of Alexa Chung and her Brit-cool attitude. Here are some pictures reflecting her style and a video of one of my favorite songs on her album, Quicker.

Photos: google and tumblr

And here's the video if you haven't see it already on my tumblr blog here:

Coco Mademoiselle

The new Chanel Coco Mademoiselle ad camapign was launched at the end of March with a beautiful short film creating a slightly different story from the first one. Moving away from the long gowns and parties of the first campaign, this film finds a different, edgier approach to the famous perfume. It showcases Keira in a jumpsuit designed by Karl Lagerfeld riding a motorbike through iconic places in Paris like Place de la Concorde, Place Vendome or past the Tuileris Gardens. She then goes to a beautiful Parisian apartment for a photo shoot where she seduces the photographer, her costar Alberto Ammann, before disappearing mysteriously leaving only a trail of perfume behind her. An incredible attention was paid to every detail, just have a look at those beautiful ivory sheets or at the hand painted golden ornaments on the walls to convince yourself. 

The director of this short film was the talented Joe Wright whose previous collaborations with Keira Knightley include Pride and Prejudice and Atonement. The still photographs used for the ad campaign were taken by photographer Mario Testino and the music was "It's a man's man' world" performed by Joss Stone. When talents like this come together the results are truly remarkable. See for yourself, just after these still shots:

And here is the fabulous short film:

For this post I also started to do a teasing campaign on my new tumblr blog this morning. Did you see it? What did you think about it? You can see the teasers here and here!

Follow my blog with bloglovin

Reese Witherspoon by Peter Lindbergh

Dior sequined and embroided tulle dress

Reese Witherspoon is the star of a circus themed spread in the May issue of Vogue US shot by Peter Lindbergh at the L.A. Circus. The reason for this theme is Reese's latest movie "Water for elephants" set in the '30 Depression-era where she plays a star of the circus, whose act with horses and elephants is the main attraction. Her costar Robert Pattinson is an Ivy League student, who is left with nothing after his parents' death and is forced to join the circus, thus falling in love with Reese's character. To prepare for this role Reese attended circus school for a few months, training with Cirque du Soleil acrobats. Is there anything she won't do for a part? She is a true inspiration.

I really enjoyed this theme and the contrast between the huge yet gentle elephant and the light, sheer dresses worn by Reese. The colors mix together very nicely and the backdrop of the L.A. Circus helps create an enchanting phantasy. The dresses pop against the golden colored hay on the floor, the grey elephant and the colored wood props. I loved how Peter Lindbergh managed to render the affection between the actress and her costar from the movie, Tai the elephant, so tangible. You can see that they are perfectly comfortable with each other.

Sophie Theallet silk dress with grosgrain ties

Narciso Rodriguez silk charmeuse dress/Valentino jeweled heels

Alexander Wang asymmetric dress

Dolce& Gabbana embelished top and shorts

Read more about this shoot and her plans here.

Ad campaign: H&M S/S 11

It's sunny outside and it's the perfect time to look at the spring/summer collection campaign for H&M, whose stylist was the fabulous George Cortina. One of my favorite models from this season's runways, Freja Beha Erichsen, was the star of this campaign along with Raquel Zimmermann. The male models were Mathias Bergh and Mathias Lauridsen. Main points: lightness, maxi-length and camel Saharienne inspiration.

Anna Dello Russo: The Lady Gaga of Fashion Week

Anna Dello Russo in her suite at the Ritz before the 90 Years of Vogue Masquerade Ball
(Photo: jakandjil)

Anna Dello Russo is one of my favorite people in fashion. She is so Italian, so eccentric and so positive about everything that it's impossible not to love her! She is one of the few persons that actually likes to have fun with fashion and you can definitely see that every time she walks out of her house. For the cover picture of this post I chose the outfit she wore at the 90 Years of Vogue Masquerade ball, where she clearly went over-the-top with this custom-made Pucci ball gown and the incredible Gareth Pugh feathered headpiece over a simple white lace mask and wig. As the outfit was inspired by Lady Gaga, I thought this was the perfect choice to illustrate the title of this post! You've already seen her change two crazy Fashion Week outfits the same day for the Chanel and Valentino shows in the shots I took of her, so I thought it would be interesting to give you a glimpse of how her dressing room looks like during Fashion Week. This video not only shows her amazing dressing room in her suite at the Ritz and a selection of outfits and shoes for the last Spring/Summer Paris Fashion Week, but it also gives an insight into her world:

What would you save in case of a fire?

Paris Fashion Week: Louis Vuitton

Carmen Kaas

I'll wrap up the series on AW Fashion Weeks with the fabulous Louis Vuitton show. It left me speechless. Such a great concept, continuing the line of thought the designer showed on the New York runway for his own label, Marc Jacobs! Retro, but yet modern, military vs French housemaid, this show had it all! Everything was so well thought to the last detail: the unbelievably high and sexy shoes and boots, the use of leather as a main material reminding the guests that this is in fact their core activity or the venue, that was transformed into an intimate setting with the models coming up on stage in an old-school iron elevator with doormen opening the doors for them - perfection.

The most interesting and intriguing detail though was that some of the models were wearing golden handcuffs. This and the military caps adorned with masks could suggest a modern play of meanings and metaphors for fashionistas caught in a world ruled by masks and fashion and social etiquette not able to escape from it. Absolutely brilliant! Marc Jacobs, cited by AP, said that the public's insatiable desire for everything with the LV logo sparked the idea for this collection. "There's this crazy, almost irrational desire for these objects, these things we create. We were thinking about obsession, fetishism and we thought about an old hotel, with its chambermaids and the affairs that go on there, the crimes and the scandals. And we just wanted to reveal all these amazing creatures who passed through there."Marc Jacobs outdoes himself once again. And guess what? He also brought along some special guests making a fierce comeback on the runway... Could this show get any better?

How could I possibly chose favorite looks? Should I pick the short red coat paired with black shorts or the high waisted khaki skirt and light blouse paired with a military cap? Or maybe the blue army uniform style pants? Or the brown leather trench? The fur coats? I'll leave it to everyone of you to pick your own favorites. I just love it when such shows come along where you can't decide what to pick, you don't even know where to look first. All shows should be like this, they should all be able to wake the audience's interest constantly and make them wonder with excitement "What's next?". At first I wanted to split this post into two separate ones due to the high amount of pictures, but then I thought that there is no way to split the show, it's so cohesive and beautiful as it is and it would be a pity to segregate the looks. So here it is, my selection of the best looks on the runway (I've also added some close-ups with some of the amazing bags, accessories or the handcuffs):

Stella Tennant

Naomi Campbell

Amber Valetta

Kate Moss

Kate Moss

Kate Moss

Photos courtesy of Huffington Post, Imaxtree.com and Matteo Volta

And here's the runway video if you want to submerge in the fabulous atmosphere of this show: