THE LADY WEARS MIU MIU

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Staying in is quite clearly the new going out, according to Miuccia Prada. Today, images for the SS13 Miu Miu advertising campaign, shot in new York by Inez and Vinoodh, were released, full of beautiful people languishing on beds made up with pretty silk eiderdowns, leaning across tables adorned with dying flowers and slumped against red painted walls. It's almost like these ladies were all dressed up, ready for tea at The Ritz perhaps and then there was a sudden flood warning so now they are all dolled up with nowhere to go. They do some posing, drink a little wine, feel saucy and drowsy in equal measure and dress up in even more of their slightly off-kilter elegant wardrobe; there are furs, crystals and a demure pencil skirt, but hold on, it's denim?

Miu Miu describe it as a "mysterious domestic setting" which provides a "fresh view of contemporary femininity". Given that in many of the poses, the girls look either bored or sleepy, let's hope it's not too close to what Miu Miu really thinks being a girl is all about in 2012. There are also lots of seductive gestures and come-to-bed eyes among the shots, suggesting that some girl-on-girl action is on the agenda, an intelligent spin in its itself given that this Miu Miu collection reminds so clearly of the trussed up, fabulous yet sex-sceptical look of the mid century. It's beautiful and elegant yes, but obviously sexy no. Well, not until now...

Bette Franke makes her move on Malgosia Bela

A Bette Franke sandwich 

Could Doutzen Kroes look more bored, or more beautiful?

A well dressed sulk

All images courtesy of Miu Miu

THE WEEK IN FASHION: OCTOBER 29th- NOVEMBER 2nd

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

It's been a funny old week in fashion, with most of the stories coming out of the US either halting or being mostly revolved around how NY's fashion community was coping with the Sandy crisis. There's still plenty of updates to get through before we light our sparklers for Bonfire Night.

"I had to be the first one to have an idea" is perhaps my favourite quote from The Guardian's interview with Miuccia Prada. A great read anyway, but especially if you want to better understand Mrs Prada's sensibilities, background and the secret to her brand's huge influence on the global fashion market. It's also a reminder, should you need one, that being intellectual and interested in fashion are not mutually exclusive traits.

Prada's Luna Rossa (Red Moon) Image via vogue.co.uk

In other Prada news, Miucca and her husband Patrizio Bertelli this week launched their £32million super yacht Luna Rossa. The lovely boat is not just for island-hopping and showing off about the fact you're in the Prada clan. Oh no. Luna Rossa is on a mission to compete in the America's Cup for 2013. In typically prda-ish fashion however, Bertelli had this to say "It's an industrial artefact that happens to sail on the ocean." Rather than being, you know, an actual boat. It's quite likely that Miuccia and Patrizio will be trying her out for themselves as sailing is one of their great hobbies.

Kate Moss opens up (image via vanityfair.com)

We are used to Kate Moss being  a "seen and not heard" kind of girl. So her wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair is something of a surprise. However it shed light on numerous periods in Moss's life which have long been speculated on. She speaks about being exploited as a young model and suffering a breakdown; "I felt really bad about straddling this buff guy. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t get out of bed for two weeks. I thought I was going to die." She also describes the aftermath of break-up from Johnny Depp -"Years and years of crying. Oh, the tears!” This month's Vanity Fair is a must-read for Moss aficionados. This is also a great piece focussing on her comments on starting out as a model.

Jane Shepherdson talks shop (via businessoffashion.com/ Whistles)

Jane Shepherdson, CEO of Whistles, gave one of the most honest and insightful interviews I've ever  read from a fashion insider this week. Speaking to Business of Fashion, she spoke about how she took on transforming Whistles from a "lightly boho, pretty, slightly girly-frilly brand" to the on-trend but workable go-to which it represents today. She also quashed all over the top claims that Duchess Kate has brought millions of pounds into the coffers of the labels she chooses to wear. BoF Editor Imran Ahmed also asked Shepherdson about expansion plans, sales and the dangers of convention wisdom.

Coach was this week awarded a rather symbolic £160 million after a court found in the handbag maker's favour. Hundreds of websites selling fake Coach handbags will now be shut down. It will be impossible, however, for Coach to recoup their compensation as the proprietors of the websites cannot be traced. All they will receive is the remaining funds in the PayPal and Western Union accounts. Even when the law comes down in your favour, practicalities remain a barrier.

Marni's polka perfume (image via elleuk.com)

Two exciting fragrance launches announced this week. First up is Marni which unveiled the spotted, cylindrical bottle which will be home to its first ever perfume. The new venture will be available sometime next year and is being produced in conjunction with Estee Lauder. We can expect it to be "sophisticated" but "eccentric". In the next installment of "What Carine Did Next", romours abound that a fragrance is on the cards. Fashionologie.com has come up with possibilities on the name front. Perhaps "Forgive Me" which Roitfeld patented earlier this year, or the simple "Carine Roitfeld" which is also protected. Any further ideas on a postcard, please.

Anna, Grace and Carine ousted by Sandy (image from andreeamacri.com)

In "What Carine Did This Week" we can report that she stayed in a swanky uptown NY hotel with Anna Wintour. No, not for a girly getaway but as a refuge during hurricane Sandy. They reportedly bunked in at The Mark with Helena Christensen and Marc Jacobs. One can only imagine the slumber parties. Meanwhile, just around the corner at The Carlyle Grace Coddington moved in along with Karlie Kloss and Derek Blasberg. Now you know.

Lana Del Rey is one versatile brand ambassador. First came her campaign for H&M, then the bag bestowed with her name at Mulberry. Now, rumour has it that Versace have snapped her up as their latest star model. There are photos circulating among Ms. Del Rey's fans on Twitter which apparently confirm the news...

Both are from fan site @LanaDReyOnline. The love/ hate breakout music star of the past 18 months was apparently spotted in LA for the shoot. We await official news from Versace and Lana.

The rise and rise of Kate Upton continues with her first Vogue cover. The former Sports Illustrated star was shot by Steven Meisel (nath) for the Vogue Italia story, entitled Seductive. Find out more at the magazine's website, and see the video.

Kate Upton does the  vampy bombshell Italiana look for Vogue Italia (image from huffingtonpost.com)

Marion Cotillard is doing Raf's new Dior proud. I adore her in this navy and black (such a brilliant colour combination) strapless tulle gown from his SS13. Note the white heels.

Marion Cotillard in Raf Simons' Dior (image from NYmag.com)

I'm sick of the halloween talk, but there is time for a quick mention of Lady Gaga and Rihanna's matching All Hallow's Eve costumes. Something of a green, weedy theme... Naughty!

Gaga and Rihanna do green halloween (image from fashionista.com)

Finally, video of the week is fashion film debut of my friend William McGregor who has already won many plaudits for his work, including brilliant short film Who's Afraid of the Water Sprite? Will created this slivering, snakey denim video for Italian label Freddy and seems to perfectly replicate how we would all like to feel our legs slipping easily into our jeans with out the struggling and pulling it oft involves.

FREDDY 'SNAKE' from William McGregor on Vimeo.

A LITTLE BIT OF PRADA AND STEVEN MEISEL FOR A MONDAY

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

I'm always happy when a new Prada advertising campaign pops into my inbox. There are multiple reasons for this: obviously its good to see a skew on the Prada fashion mindset for the forthcoming season, and Meisel never disappoints me with the clarity of his vision for the brand. Neither does the press release, for which I reserve special reading pleasure. The precision! The detail! The detachment! Its as if the press release were written by an art curator at the Uffizi. Maybe it was.


"Models are arranged in careful poses in the futuristic enclosure, the precise angle of an arm and an elegant neck echoing the geometry of the scene. Shifting camera angles and an endless depth of field create a playful illusion of perspective and proportion, recalling the setting for a videogame.
Occupying the space on multiple levels characters in the foreground appear magnified, while others recede into the distance like virtual princesses poised for combat. The models’ unified gaze creates a seductive focus as our eye navigates the frame and its unexpected dimensions. Blocks of coordinated colour created by clothing, dip-dyed hair and furniture produce a chromatic architecture for our fashion avatars." 

So, now I know that geometric print tailored trouser suits with cropped flared pants and juicily red high-heeled golfing loafers are the future of street style images for the next six months.
Personally, I love the navy chunkily beaded sleeveless coat in the second image and the way Miuccia styles them over too-short trousers and clown shoes with rubber mini-shoe-galoshes.

Steven Meisel's latest Prada Campaign for AW12

INSIDE THE MIND OF MIUCCIA PRADA

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

Miuccia Prada is someone I have respect for as a woman, and as a designer. Mrs Prada has never, not even for a moment, lost her integrity, and seems to put her family and core beliefs about how to live a good, intelligent life before some of the more shallow trappings of success. Prada still lives in the same apartment she raised her two sons in, and at 62, is more interested in evolving as a human being than swishing around being fabulous. I guess the point is, with her rigour, she has no need to put on a front. Her pleasures are internal. As a designer she keeps things interesting by being avant garde, and, well, most designers go off the boil for periods of their career, but not her. Miuccia Prada is never, ever boring.

So it was a rare pleasure on Saturday morning to read an interview with Prada in the Times Magazine by my favourite fashion grande dame Sarah Mower. The interview served to reinforce my thoughts on the woman and renewed my interest in her body of work. Sarah's perceptive piece truly captured the essence of the woman and nailed her approach to work and feelings about success in a warm and moving way that only increased my admiration for both of them. For those who missed the magazine, I've scissored my favourite bits, saves you going through the paywall.

Miuccia Prada (image from landryedux.blogspot.com)

ON BEING "THE EMPRESS OF FASHION"

“I don’t have a sense of it. Thank God!” she laughs. “Otherwise I would not sleep at night. I’ve always obsessed about what I had to do but never looking at myself from the outside. Probably I am highly ambitious – but in the sense that I want to do intelligent things. I want to be good. I never think about the corporation.”

Prada SS12 (image from cat walking.com)

....

ON BEING THE SUBJECT OF THE LATEST MET MUSEUM SHOW

"..I’m curious about what she thinks of being the subject of an exhibition she hasn’t curated. The fashion world is full of control freaks who would have a meltdown at the very thought. But Prada respects the Metropolitan Museum’s independence. “They wanted to analyse the similarities between me and Schiaparelli. I don’t know if there are that many, but anyhow. Neither of us trained as a fashion designer, so we were interested in a wider sense of the world. We both started later in life. But I’m happy that they think she was a fashion revolutionary, and that… er… I am in my time.”

She’s pleased by the scale and importance of the event, clearly, but I don’t think Miuccia Prada gets her satisfaction, or her motivation, from public recognition. What she cares about above anything else is originality. “Some seasons I know what I’m doing, and others I realise as I’m working on the collection. I never know the title of a collection until two days before [a show].”

Elsa and Miuccia (image from Glamazondiaries.com)

                                                                         ....

ON THE "PRADA LOOK"

"But when I ask her to sum it up by answering a dumb-simple question – “What is the Prada look?” – she stops in her tracks. “I don’t have an answer to that,” she says. “It is bad for commerce! But, eh,” she continues, “it is an advantage as well as a disadvantage, because in the end you can change and update. If you fix on one look, and that look goes out of fashion, what do you do?” So that means you just want to lead? She leans forward and practically shouts, “Yes! And that’s since ever!” She said it.

Prada's Bad Taste collection, 1996 (image from styleregistry.livejournal.com)

 ....

ON HER MOTIVATION AS A DESIGNER

Bertelli [her husband] only winkled out her designing ambition when he said they’d have to hire someone else if she refused to do it. As a PhD in political science and an ex-member of the Communist party and active feminist, she was mortified. “I probably had high resistance because of the political situation. It was seriously a nightmare. I was so ashamed,” she sighs. “Obviously, I liked it. But I had serious difficulty finding myself a fashion designer.”
Even when the troubles had died down, the big-shouldered executive suits of Armani and the sexy glitziness of Versace grated on the young feminist’s sensibilities. Her response was to design minimal styles using plain fabrics derived from army, school and maids’ uniforms. “Minimalism was a way of obstructing ideas. I wanted to hide my ideas and my thinking.”

Prada AW09  (image from luxuryblog.org) 

...

ON BEING CLEVER

“I’m happy when I think I do something very clever,” she says as I leave. “It happens once or twice a year, when I feel I’ve done something that makes sense. But actually, I never reflect on what I do, because I’m always busy.” So busy, in fact, that she must be the only female guest who hasn’t planned what to wear to the Met gala – she’ll decide the day before, she says. I don’t know, but I’d like to see her nipping up those museum steps wearing trousers among all those trains."

Prada AW12 (image from catwalking.com)

I'd love to be able to send you to a website full of Prada's latest guipure and gem bombers and swirling car print skirts. Alas, none are to be had on the Internet. However, the Prada site does provide us with jewels, shoes and bags galore...

Go Faster clutch 620E Prada Store

Jewels 1290E Prada Store 

Perfect summer heels 570E Prada Store

THE WEEK IN FASHION: 16th-20th JANUARY

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Happy Almost-Weekend...

This week we start you off with a delightful preview of the award winning documentary about Bill Cunningham the original street style photographer; the film has its British premier on February the first. Bill is a living legend.

"Fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life."

 Bill Cunningham

Chanel is off to Japan! Lagerfeld and his team have planned three events as a special treat for their Easternmost fans. In March, there will a winter couture show, a pop-up shop and an exhibition entitled 'The Little Black Jacket'. The exhibition, on for seven weeks, coincides with a book of the same name which Lagerfeld is working on with Carine Roitfeld, showing celebrities and other brand favourites, in their Chanel jackets.

Chanel waves the flag for Japan

More bumper business news from across the retail spectrum this week as Burberry, ASOS and Primark all posted recession defying results. At Burberry, there was a 22% increase in sales with particular strength, unsurprisingly, across Asia. It's the brand's stalwart pieces which are performing best- coats and luggage. While it is well-acknowledged that luxury labels aren't suffering as much as might be expected from the global downturn, word on the high street has been somewhat bleaker; Peacocks was the latest store to go into administration this week. However, Primark and ASOS are proof that the fittest survive. Primark announced a 16% leap in profits for the last quarter while ASOS saw an 18% increase in its share price after profits rose 10%, thanks in the most part to its global reach.

Cara Delevingne and Eddie Redmayne in their trench macs for the SS12 campaign (image from fashiongonerogue.com)

 After much wrangling amongst the organisers of the big four fashion weeks, the clash of dates which looked set to overshadow the SS13 season has been resolved. For attendees, this means that fashion month will kick off earlier than usual with the New York shows beginning on September 6th. Steven Kol, CEO at the CFDA rightfully pointed out that 'there's no value for the cities to compete'. So, there will be no choosing between Katrantzou and Gucci, or Pilotto and Versace for those who skip to all four events.

Piero Tosi with director Luchino Visconti and Dirk Bogarde on the set of Death in Venice in 1971 (image from vogue.it)

 Louis Vuitton has teamed up  with Rome's Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Italian National Film School) to bring the worlds of fashion and film closer together. Over three years, there will be a number of projects to support Italian film and young filmmakers, such as workshops and scholarships. One of the first schemes to get underway will be a costume workshop focusing on 17th century design, with Italian costume designer Piero Tosi acting as a key participant. Like Tods, which is in the process of taking on responsibility to restore the Colosseum, Vuitton has taken it upon itself to contribute private money to protect another integral part of Italian culture, at a time when the public purse cannot stretch to such limits.

Hatmaking at the film school (imae from WWD.com)

On January 24th, a Prada museum will pop-up in Paris for 24 hours. Conceived by Francesco Vezzoli and the AMO Think Tank it could have the potential to create a bit of a 'moment' as its brings together films and sculptures which represent iconic women including the likes of Lady Gaga. The event will kick off with an exclusive dinner and club night before opening up to the public, who will now doubt rock up early to see the invited guests tumbling out. The three museum spaces, historic, contemporary and forgotten, will provide the backdrop for Prada and Vezzoli's message about femininity now. It may sound a bit obscure, but anything with the Mrs Prada stamp on has got to be fab. Talking of Miuccia, she got herself in hot water this week when she appeared to criticise the Met's new exhibit which will compare her with Elsa Schiaparelli. She told WWD:

“It’s too formal; they are focused on similarities, comparing feather with feather, ethnic with ethnic, but they are not taking into consideration that we are talking about two different eras, and that [Schiaparelli and I] are total opposite,” said the designer before her show on Sunday. “I told them, but they don’t care,” she said with a shrug, resigned rather than upset.

A statement was later released by Prada which claimed her comments were 'taken out of context' and that she was  'honored and proud to be taking part in the exhibition'.

Miuccia Prada on the cover of iD in April 2009, designed by Francesco Vezzoli (image from designscene.net)

After last week's quick dip into the sartorial goings-on in the US Presidential election, FEAL's world news radar turns to the Olympics  where a row has broken out among the boxing community. The point of contention is whether female contenders should wear shorts or skirts. And it's not just a question of what is the best performing item, it does actually come down to the 'fashion' element. Skirts were first worn so that spectators could differentiate between the boy and girl boxers. Polish and Romanian coaches say that skirts should be worn because they create 'a more womanly impression' and are 'more elegant'. We're not sure that elegance is the first priority of any sportsperson looking to win a title so we're supporting  Elizabeth Plank's petition for boxers to able to choose, just like every other girl can!

The Menswear season is in full-swing, moving to Paris yesterday after Milan earlier in the week. At Louis Vuitton, Kim Jones fused Japanese and Parisian influences; the work of illustrator Antonio Lopez was cited by the designer  as a starting point. Further along, the Okujun silk spinning was used to create an ivory suit. The technique is UNESCO protected, and only 20cm of yarn can be produced in one day. The Vuitton show also mirrored a wider trend which began in womenswear to use more Asian models on catwalks.

One of the Asian models who walked at Vuitton (image from WWD.com)

Love this high shine parka/anorak, a nod to Japan on the belt (image from WWD.com)

 Lanvin is launching its first eyewear collection and has made a video to underline the artisan approach it's taken to the range. Along with De Rigo, Lanvin has applied the same levels of artistry to the glasses as it would to its clothes. While the video may not have the catchiness of the dance of late 2011, it serves to remind us of the level of craft which sets designers like Lanvin apart. The question on everyone's lips, which ones has Alber ordered?