Friday, December 18, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
American Vogue December 2009 editorial: Isabeli Fontana, ph: Terry Richardson
Terry Richardson photographed Isabeli Fontana for an American Vogue December 2009 editorial on October 15-16, 2009 with stylist Elissa Santisi.
American Vogue December 2009 Editorial
Model: Isabeli Fontana
Photographer: Terry Richardson
Stylist: Elissa Santisi
Hair: Ward
Makeup: Diane Kendal
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Spanish Vogue December 2010 editorial - Louise Pedersen, ph: Gonzalo Machado
Gonzalo Machado photographed Louise Pedersen for a December 2009 Spanish Vogue Editorial on April 15-16, 2009 in Madrid with stylist Maria Aguilar.
December 2009 Spanish Vogue Editorial
Model: Louise Pedersen
Photographer: Gonzalo Machado
Stylist: Maria Aguilar
Hair & Makeup: Pablo Iglesias
Wonderland Issue 20 editorial: Toma Barkova & Alexa Yudina - Photo: Terry Gates
Terry Gates photographed Toma Barkova & Alexa Yudina for a Wonderland #20 editorial on September 11, 2009 in New York with stylist James Valeri.
Wonderland #20 editorial
Models: Toma Barkova & Alexa Yudina
Photographer: Terry Gates
Stylist: James Valeri
Hair: Ramona Esbach
Makeup: Asami Taguchi
Toma Barkova
Alexa Yudina:
Alexa Yudina:
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Cesare Paciotti Jewels Commercial - Isabeli Fontana, Directed by Mariano Vivanco
Mariano Vivanco directed Isabeli Fontana for a Cesare Paciotti Jewels commercial on September 29-30, 2009 in London with stylist Charles Varenne.
Cesare Paciotti Jewels commercial
Model: Isabeli Fontana
Director: Mariano Vivanco
Stylist: Charles Varenne
Hair: Christian Eberhard
Makeup: Ayami Nishimura
Monday, December 14, 2009
January 2010 American Vogue editorial: Kasia Struss, Photo: David Sims, Stylist: Tonne Goodman
David Sims photographed Kasia Struss for a January 2010 American Vogue editorial on October 25, 2009 at Milk Studios, Studio #1 & 2 with stylist Tonne Goodman.
January 2010 American Vogue Editorial
Model: Kasia Struss
Photographer: David Sims
Stylist: Tonne Goodman
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Diane Kendal
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
I've never felt so strong
[Annoucement sample:]
"Thankyou, every - come on, give her a proper Liverpool hand, you can do better than that!
And now ladies and gentlemen, what you've been waiting for:"
[sung:] I've come a long way. /
[spoken:] I've come a long, long way since the day you walked into my life.
[sung:] You walked into my life. /
[spoken:] You smoothed out all the rough edges with your sweet love and devotion.
[sung:] I was tired, / in love like a fool. /
[spoken:] I was tired of living the life of a fool, I was wondering where I'd gone wrong.
[sung:] But I know / it's gonna work out fine. /
[spoken:] But I know it's gonna work out fine, when I see that look in your eyes.
[sung:] Yeah! /
I've never felt so good, / I've never felt so strong, /
Nothing can stop us now! (no no, no no)
[sung:] I've heard some people say. /
[spoken:] Yeah, nothing can stop us now. I've heard people say that a man who needs a woman is weak,
[sung:] So wrong, oh so wrong. /
[spoken:] but they're so wrong, because nobody can hide from love.
[sung:] Do, do you want to know? /
[spoken:] Do you want to know, do you want to know something else that's true?
[sung:] It's true, it's true, the touch of your hand, oh. /
[spoken:] Just the touch of your hand, and I know we can make it.
[sung:]
I've never felt so good, / I've never felt so strong, /
Nothing can stop us now! /
I've never felt so strong, / I've never felt so good, /
Nothing can stop us now!
[whispered:] (nothing! nothing!...)
+j Jil Sander for Uniqlo Spring 2010 campaign preview: Iselin Steiro, Ph: David Sims, Stylist: Joe McKenna
David Sims photographed Iselin Steiro for the Spring 2010 +j Jil Sander for Uniqlo campaign on November 17, 2009 with stylist Joe McKenna
Spring 2010 +j Jil Sander for Uniqlo Campaign
Model: Iselin Steiro
Photographer: David Sims
Stylist: Joe McKenna
This preview was seen on Fashionsnap.com & Nitrolicious.com:
Jil Sander returns with a second collection of +J for UNIQLO this spring after a successful debut in October 2009. The first round of +J by Jil Sander for UNIQLO Spring/Summer 2010 collection is slated to hit the UNIQLO Soho store on Thursday, January 14, 2010.
For spring, Jil Sander “introduces fresh perspectives on volume, teamed with perfect harmony in fiber, color, optics, and touch. Experimentation is essential, but subtle, leading to new interplays of material and motion.” The Spring/Summer 2010 product price range from $49.50-$149.50 (Outerwear, Coats & Jackets), $39.50-$59.50 (Bottoms), $39.50 (Shirts), $49.50-$99.50 (Dresses), $10.50-$49.50 (Cut & Sewn) and $29.50-$129.50 (Knitwear).
Iconic simplicityLeaving sporty stereotypes behind, endorses functional elegance, dynamic textiles, and distinctive shapes. Softly articulated, silhouettes give free reign to movement and ease. Fabrics are straightforward, expertly woven, alluringly sculptured, neat and subtle. Initiating marriages of convenience between structure and fluidity, delicacy and determination, coupling strong characters for the common good.
Natural nobilityThe collection quietly bridges the emotional and the formal, femininity and masculinity, experience and evolution. Luxury lies in inspiration and discreet perfectionism, applied to truly modern tailoring. Environmental concerns move to the heart of research, engaging in clothing that is both responsible and innovative.
Clarity and LightnessOpting for the precision of airy colors, white and pure ivory feature as the radiant center of energy and confidence. Pastel hues, pearly reflections, and chalked out acids create luminous lightness. Waterproof textiles become more feminine, made of ultra-fine cotton, tech-satins and sumptuous wools with an overwhelming impression of liquidity.
There will be two other drop dates throughout the SS10 season
Natasa Vojnovic in The New York Times
Natasa Vojnovic in todays New York Times:
Photo Michael Falco for The New York Times
NO FRILLS The designer Alexander Wang with the models Missy Rayder, center, and Natasa Vojnovic in his New York studio. In five years Mr. Wang, 25, has built a $25 million company
by Ruth La Ferla
DON’T tell Alexander Wang that blue is the new black or that wedge-heel boots are the season’s must-have. Such airy edicts would most likely make him laugh. “No one talks like that anymore,” said Mr. Wang, whose keen sense of what young women want to wear is matched only by his no-nonsense approach to his, um, métier.
“Fashion in some people’s eyes is very untouchable and super-indulgent,” he said. “For me, it’s just clothes to be worn. And at the end of the day, the point is to sell the product.”
That sounds pretty hardnosed, coming as it does from fashion’s latest It Child, a lanky, tousled 25-year-old design-school dropout who, in a scant five years, has leapfrogged from toting garment bags for Vogue to mapping out the vision behind a $25 million family business that is growing at a gallop. Mr. Wang’s aggressively street-inflected collections (only six to date) are as avidly monitored by fashion insiders as they are by the shoppers who snap up his leather leggings, draped jersey dresses and biker vests.
Mr. Wang’s success is partly an outgrowth of his unstudiedly sexy aesthetic, a tough but sultry look that is as much his stock in trade as his signature filmy T-shirts.
His style is “humorously slutty,” said Sally Singer, the fashion features director of Vogue. “He gives you that effortless, languid look that is the province of the young and the club-going.”
But lately this go-to designer for models and assorted urban sylphs has shown signs of growing up. His sophisticated shapes and wallet-friendly prices are now speaking compellingly to a mature population of bankers, teachers and Botoxed social dragonflies who aspire to his brand of urban cool.
“His clothes just hit the edges of what’s acceptable,” Ms. Singer said. “They appeal to that part of you that wishes you were a skinny hipster.”
No need to clue in Veronica Chu, a makeup artist in Manhattan who recently attended a personal appearance by the designer at Barneys New York. “Most of us aren’t a Size 2,” Ms. Chu said. “It’s nice to be able to wear sexy but comfortable clothes that are not overly girly. I’m kind of over that look.”
Another fan, a marketing associate on Wall Street who asked not to be identified because she should have been at work, wore a pinstripe approximation of a banker’s jacket, a straitlaced departure for Mr. Wang. “His merchandise used to be just for the hip and young,” she said. “Now all kinds of women wear his clothes.”
That may be in part because Mr. Wang demonstrates a canny-beyond-his-years grasp of commercial realities. “Ever since the business has launched, it’s been very measured,” said Jennifer Wheeler, the vice president for designer apparel at Nordstrom. “He hasn’t bitten off more than he can chew. His deliveries are steady, and his quality is consistent. He hasn’t gone through some of the growing pains new designers can go through if they have success right off the bat.”
Mr. Wang runs his mini-empire without outside backers or benefit of a family fortune. He works alongside his mother; his sister-in law, Aimie Wang, an accountant; and his brother, Dennis Wang, who brings to the enterprise a background in international business development. “Alexander is the ultimate shopper,” Dennis Wang said. “He’s very aware of what’s out there — the different looks, the different price points. He has a very innate sense, a clarity of vision, of where he sees the company going. Everybody we bring on, from accounting to production, he has an interest in meeting.”
Ms. Singer, who worked closely with the designer at Vogue last year, when he received a cash prize and mentoring from the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, was struck by his patent affection for the bottom line. “What impressed the judges,” she said, “was that he is on to every aspect of what he does: the clothes, the image, the retail growth. It slightly blows you away that someone so young could have taken in so much so quickly.”
Mr. Wang, of course, is a study in precocity, his affection for the rag trade nurtured, it seems, from the cradle. “I can’t remember when he wasn’t into fashion,” Dennis Wang said.
Once, thumbing through a dog-eared copy of Harper’s Bazaar that he had taken from a hair salon, Alexander, then 8, encountered an image that is still etched on his retina. “It was a model in a pinstripe Tom Ford suit for Gucci,” he recalled. Even as a schoolboy, he was savvy enough to recognize the model as Georgina Grenville and the photographer as Patrick Demarchelier. “I carried that picture with me everywhere,” he said.
Growing up in San Francisco, where his parents owned a packaging company, Mr. Wang dreamed of traveling to Paris and London “to check out the stores.” In his teens he visited London, enrolling in a summer course at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, spawning ground for Alexander McQueen, among others. He said he found school, including Parsons, which he briefly attended in New York, exasperating.
“What was missing was how would I be able to execute my ideas into a business,” he said. “I knew from Day 1 I wanted to do a lifestyle brand.”
That phrase would not come trippingly to most adolescents. To Mr. Wang, it meant catering to a constituency of skinny, loose-limbed school chums and fashion muses like the model Erin Wasson and the social figure Victoria Traina, who wear his designs with a throwaway flair. Close inspection reveals that he has placed their after-hours uniforms — sweat pants, slouchy T-shirts, shredded jeans — under a microscope, inspecting every hole and blotch and incorporating those gritty touches into his designs: a lacy top, for instance, patterned after sweat stains.
Some observers, unacquainted with such subtleties, dismissed his early efforts as self-conscious and derivative of designers like Rick Owens or Daryl Kerrigan.
Few would argue that Mr. Wang is a trailblazer on the order of his early idols, designers like Helmut Lang. “His clothes have a little more oomph,” said Humberto Leon, an owner of the downtown Manhattan boutique Opening Ceremony. Unconventional without being outrageous, they allow a wide range of women to “feel they can think out of the box,” Mr. Leon said.
Such muted praise is fine with Mr. Wang. “I am not reinventing the wheel,” he said. “I’m not an artiste.”
No ivory tower recluse, he had no sooner sketched and draped his first collection, a six-piece knitwear line introduced in 2005, than he was dashing into stores to see where it was hanging and who had bought it.
“From the very first season I would look at the numbers, check our profit margins,” he said. “Not that I micromanage, but I like to be involved in each process.”
That attention to detail goes some way toward explaining why, when other designers are downsizing, Mr. Wang’s sales have tripled since late last year, according to his brother. Some 400 stores, including 220 in the United States, now carry the Wang label, which encompasses ready-to-wear, shoes and handbags (some 30 percent of the business); a secondary T-shirt line (20 percent); and a recently introduced men’s wear collection.
Was it only a half-dozen years ago that Mr. Wang was prowling eBay for coveted tickets to the CFDA Awards, the Oscars of fashion? That his name could not be uttered without the obligatory qualifier, “no relation to Vera”? Retailers say that more than 50 percent of his clothing sells at full price, impressive compared with less than 20 percent for some more established brands.
Though his name is mentioned these days in the same breath with style-makers like Marc Jacobs, Mr. Wang has hung on to the easy laugh and a sense of cool that seems almost a birthright.
“He is real,” Ms. Wheeler of Nordstrom said. “He’s not having to create some mystique.”
Mr. Wang himself seems taken aback by his swiftly rising fortunes. Smiling sheepishly and tugging at his trademark curls, he could only offer, “It’s, like, weird to see my name on things.”
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
December 2009 Italian Elle cover - Heather Marks, ph: Alexei Hay
Alexei Hay photographed Heather Marks for the December 2009 Italian Elle Cover on July 16-17, 2009 with stylist Alberto Zanoletti
December 2009 Italian Elle Cover
Model: Heather Marks
Photographer: Alexei Hay
Stylist: Alberto Zanoletti
Hair: Bruno Silvani
Makeup: Brigitte Hymans
Women loves Taea Thale
Photographer Taea Thale's web site is now up: TaeaThale.com.
I love Taea. Her work is flawless. Her pictures show that she understands women better than anyone.
Taea photographed Carolina Pantoliano with makeup artist Jenna Menard on April 21, 2007 at Pier 59 Studios, NY NY.
Numero January 2010 editorial - Ginta Lapina, ph: Greg Kadel
Greg Kadel photographed Ginta Lapina for a Numero Paris January 2010 editorial on October 10-11, 2009 with stylist Samuel Francois.
Numero Paris January 2010 editorial
Model: Ginta Lapina
Photographer: Greg Kadel
Stylist: Samuel Francois.
Hair: Franco Gobbi
Makeup: Lloyd Simmonds
