Carolina Herrera looked to the graphic modernism of the Bauhaus movement as the starting point for a collection that translated those characteristic linear motifs into something altogether more feminine.
Tiers and panels of diaphanous fabrics including chiffon and organza were layered to flutter on the breeze, or set as godets into swing skirts; flocks of budgerigars swooped across the little crepe dresses in a delightful print design, and even the boxy purses were crafted from leather so soft they promised to collapse and fold into the glove compartment of a Hispano-Suiza.
Herrera took her palette from the antique Bakelite bangles that accessorized many of the looks à la Nancy Cunard; jade greens, canary yellows, lipstick reds, and the graphic play of black and white.
The thirties motif extended into slinky bias-cut evening dresses frosted with Art Deco embroideries that were simply jagged with sophistication, but those same motifs in the intarsia knit of a lean sweater worn with cropped pants, or as the fine patent belts cinching the waists of sleek little tea dresses brought the looks firmly into the twenty-first century—for Herrera’s decorous modern clients. For a full profile and more information on Carolina Herrera, go to Voguepedia.com.
Photo: Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
The louche London look Tommy Hilfiger adopted for fall appears to have been the fashion equivalent of a semester abroad, because for spring the designer is firmly planted back on U.S. soil. The collection he showed Sunday was full-on Americana prep. Girls with clean faces and tight ponytails sported striped cable-knit sweaters layered over rugby shirts, crisp shirtdresses with shirttail hems, and glen plaid bikini bottoms worn with color-blocked ponchos all done in Starburst brights.
Photo: Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Hilfiger spent the summer globe-trotting with his Prep World pop-up shop, a white clapboard beach house stocked with Prep World-brand clothes, tennis racquets, croquet sets, and ping pong paddles. It made stops everywhere from Paris, Stockholm, and Madrid to Sylt, but it appears that somewhere along the way, Hilfiger decided there’s no place like home.
Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Photo: Marcio Madeira/firstVIEW
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
“What defines a day dress is a mystery to me,” says Carolina Herrera, despite the fact that most consider her a go-to for exactly that type of frock, many of which appeared rendered in abstract floral prints in her resort collection. But Herrera’s wonderment relates to her observation that women these days, “look ready for evening as early as 10 A.M.”
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
She’s right that women are loosenining up their definition of eveningwear, which is why her interpretation of day-or-night dressing feels so spot on. Her silk-faille bubble skirts and bubble-print embroidered capri pants not only work for occasions before or after sunset, but they will likely appeal to the designer’s growing, younger clientele.
What is less of a mystery to Herrera, however, is how to cover all of resort’s bases. “It’s a fun season,” she says. “It stays on the shop floor for around eight months from November, so it has to be full of color and lightness, but also heavier fabrics.” From her weighty lilac silk duchesse-satin dress (perfect for a city gala in winter or a red carpet), to the lightweight, silk eyelet culottes and charming cotton-voile toadstool-printed dresses (ideal for warmer vacation weather), spanning the multiple season requirements is a seemingly effortless task.
For the cover, Gaga's almost swallowed up in a red layered crop top and skirt that reminds us of the sky-high Paco Rabanne dresses and Philip Treacy headpieces
provocateur.
Gaga’s lips are painted crimson like her couture dress, and her signature dramatic black eyeliner is prominent. She offers a sly smile.
Lady Gaga appears on the cover of Vanity Fair January 2012 issue wearing a fantastic red dress and a flamboyant hat. In addition to striking poses for the editorial the pop star gives a candid interview on her relationships, being proposed to and other stuff you might be interested about.
Lady Gaga covers January 2012 edition of Vanity Fair. She looks very pretty on the front page wearing a luxurious red dress and an eccentric hat.
Inside the Vanity Fair January 2012 issue Lady Gaga (Know all about Lady Gaga from her celebrity profile)appears nearly nude with only a fur coat covering her modesty. On two other photographs the pop star rocks two golden dresses with funky sunglasses and a pair of wooden towering platforms.
Read the highlights from Lady Gaga’s interview for Vanity Fair: Lady Gaga on being proposed to after a breakup: “How f***ing romantic. Sure, pop a ring on my finger and make it all better. I can buy myself a f***ing ring.”
Video Behind The Scenes of The PhotoShoot.(Vanity Fair/ YouTube)
Lady Gaga on her talent and relationships: “If I go to the piano and write a quick song and play it back, they are angry with how fast and effortless it is. That’s who I am, and I don’t apologize for it. But it’s a hideous place to be in when someone that you love has convinced you that you will never be good enough for anyone. I had a man say to me, ‘You will die alone in a house bigger than you know, with all your money and hit records, and you will die alone.’”
The other images are of Gaga on a boat, with the skyline of her native New York City as a dot on the horizon. She is cloaked in a white, form-fitting, Victorian style dress, with a huge-brimmed, black hat. She’s totally covered up, and looks elegant, regal and Old World. She is also wearing a priceless gown in a laundry mat and a gold gown while eating street food in NYC
If you're looking for a real Gaga-esque shockworthy twist to the article, here you go: the Vanity Fair issue will also include nude drawings of the singer, which were sketched by Tony Bennett. Yes, that Tony Bennett.
On giving it her all while on stage: “When I’m onstage, I’m so giving and so open and myself. And when the spotlight goes off, I don’t know quite what to do with myself.”
On bad relationships: “I say this honestly, and this is my new thing as of the past year: when I fight with someone I’m in a relationship with, I think, What would my fans think if they knew this was happening? How would they feel about my work and about me as a female if they knew I was allowing this to go on? And then I get out. I only know the happiness of putting a smile on someone’s face from the stage.”
RESUME OF THE INTEVIEW
Lady Gaga: ‘I Have an Inability to Know What Happiness Feels Like With a Man’
Vanity Fair has released the cover, images and a couple of seriously provocative, bombshell quotes from its January 2012 issue, featuring the one and only Lady Gaga. She’s a Lady (Gaga) in red.
Lady Gaga’s last Vanity Fair cover featured the singer in a long gray wig and talking about her relationship with drugs. This time out, she’s adorned in an epic, red ensemble, complete with a massive hat. The cover shot reminds us why she is the darling of the fashion industry and that’s for her fearless risk taking. She’s a provocateur.
Gaga’s lips are painted crimson like her couture dress, and her signature dramatic black eyeliner is prominent. She offers a sly smile.
The other images are of Gaga on a boat, with the skyline of her native New York City as a dot on the horizon. She is cloaked in a white, form-fitting, Victorian style dress, with a huge-brimmed, black hat. She’s totally covered up, and looks elegant, regal and Old World. She is also wearing a priceless gown in a laundry mat and a gold gown while eating street food in NYC. As for the naked-for-Tony-Bennett sketches? There is a head-turning image of the Mother Monster’s taut, lithe body and she’s wearing nothing other than a pair of heels, while she is striking an acrobatic pose. She’s naked, but it’s an artistic, tasteful image.
The Mother Monster spoke candidly about her romantic relationships, something she said she likes to keep to herself; she even admitted in her Thanksgiving chat with Katie Couric that she will never release wedding photos when she eventually marries. Some things are sacred, you know?
But will Gaga actually ever marry? She hasn’t found the man of her dreams yet and it doesn’t look like marriage is in the immediate cards for her, at 25. “I have never felt truly cherished by a lover. I have an inability to know what happiness feels like with a man,” Gaga said.
But don’t go feeling sorry for her. She has millions of little monsters to love and be loved by and from the sounds of it, she is married to her fans and her fame at this point in her life. She continued, “I say this honestly, and this is my new thing as of the past year: when I fight with someone I’m in a relationship with, I think, ‘What would my fans think if they knew this was happening? How would they feel about my work and about me as a female if they knew I was allowing this to go on?’ And then I get out.” She admitted to a hankering for “creative people. And I think that what intimidates them is not my purse; it’s my mind.”
Gaga did not admit to dating ‘Vampire Diaries’ star Taylor Kinney, but she did pull back the curtain on what it’s like to be in a (bad) romance with her. She said “I have this effect on people where it starts out good. Then, when I’m in these relationships with people who are also creative, or creative in their own way, what happens is the attraction is initially there and it’s all unicorns and rainbows. And then they hate me.”
She mused that the creativity of both parties makes the relationship toxic, spoiling the unicorns and rainbows, saying, “Perhaps it’s a whose-d—-is-bigger contest. If I go to the piano and write a quick song and play it back, they are angry with how fast and effortless it is. That’s who I am, and I don’t apologize for it. But it’s a hideous place to be in when someone that you love has convinced you that you will never be good enough for anyone.”
Gaga also shared a devastating comment that a partner once made to her. She revealed, “I had a man say to me, ‘You will die alone in a house bigger than you know, with all your money and hit records, and you will die alone.’” Ouch.
Kanye West said he found taking a bow at the end of his first fashion show in front of a few hundred industry professionals much more daunting than encoring in front of thousands, as he usually does. No surprise there. West's genius as a groundbreaking musician is unquestionable, whereas his status in the fashion world has been, until now, that of an ardent-bordering-on-obsessive fan. Which was clear from his genuine delight when Silvia Venturini Fendi and her daughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi came backstage to congratulate him after the show.
They were two of a surprising number of designers who turned out for Kanye: The presence of Azzedine Alaïa, Dean and Dan Caten, Olivier Theyskens, Jeremy Scott, and the Olsens sealed this evening's deal as a fashion event. Equally, they underscored the goodwill he had going into this. And Kanye himself was poignantly aware of the challenge. "The biggest hurdle I had to face is the celebrity designer or the hip-hop designer concept," he said backstage. But he had some major help in battling preconceptions. Among the people he bounced ideas off, he name-checked Kim Jones, Louise Goldin, Katie Eary, and Louise Wilson, the guiding light of Central Saint Martins and, by extension, guru of British fashion.
Maybe that's why what Kanye actually offered on the catwalk was such a surprise. He was keen to communicate that, as far as he was concerned, there was a couture level of workmanship in items that had taken three days to complete in the atelier he'd established in London. What we actually saw was something that looked like a baby Balmain vision of womenswear. The context was impeccable—soundtrack and staging exactly what you'd expect from someone whose 360-degree vision has been responsible for some of the best albums and concerts of the past decade. The clothes? Heavy might be the operative word: zippers in excelsis; suede and leather high-performance clothing; beading, crystals, and appliqué weighting jackets and tops. And more fur than you'd want on a night when the mercury hit the roof in Paris. It's kind of a cheap shot to go the trying-too-hard route with someone who is so undoubtedly passionate about what he is doing, but at the same time, it's frustrating that someone who seems to almost effortlessly realize his vaulting musical ambitions comes up short elsewhere, at least on the first attempt. Of course, what Kanye West is trying to achieve is unprecedented. There isn't a fashion designer alive who could match his music. But tonight's show suggests that conquering his new medium is a work in progress.
