Coco before Chanel

Coco Chanel intrigues, excites, especially when you're a girl and passionate about fashion. French women were lucky enough last week to be able to watch a biopic on Gabrielle (her real name) Chanel, out in all good cinemas. What I do not recommend, is going with your boyfriend as he will mostly hate the love stories, not be interested in the designing of hats and therefore either fall asleep or get bored to death. You don't want that.
The movie, 'Coco avant Chanel', describing the designer's life, before she started designing is a beautiful movie. Describing life at the end of the 19th Century without any kind of unuseful rustle, as it starts at the very beginning of Chanel's life which was nothing more than a life with no rustle. Growing up in an orphanage is not a girl's dream childhood. It's the story of a little girl who cannot believe her father abandoned her, or how the small Gabrielle, who then grew up to become a sewer in a small French shop during the day while singing for soldiers in need of entertainment at night. Events happening to her made her want to create her own custom-built life, just like she then created her own custom-made clothes.It's the misfit determination of this woman swimming counter-current through life, with no kind of advantage. Just the gift of meeting people that will eventually turn her life into one made of positive events. Audrey Tautou, our French (Amélie) pride gives the designer the solemnity her own life had given her. Her black eyes never hesitate and give the audience quivers and feelings you feel only her can give you. And as Chanel's very own Karl said to French ELLE, 'only she (Audrey Tautou) could have played so perfectly Coco's life'.
With her stubborn caracter, the woman who was once called 'the litlle black taurus' managed to seduce Balsan, a rich gentleman farmer, played by the magnificient Belgian Benoît Poelvoorde. She imposed herself to him at the strength of her composition and it's in the rich man's home that she met her first and some say, her only, great love: Boy Capel, an Englishman who gave her the wings she needed to take off and have the confidence to set up her own design House. Even though she only did it after his accidental death. Coco Chanel had the freedom of intuition and a gifted hand, Anne Fontaine took the liberty to film the woman just like she was in real life: with intensity and no limit.

Missoni's statement of belief

After traders losing their jobs to our very harmful and vicious financial system, it seems like fashion is the next field on the list of people being touched by the crisis, and therefore wanting the system to change. Angela Missoni, who runs the italian fashion empire in her name has declared today that she wishes to plan her job as more sane and approachable... Are cuttings in budgets forcing the world of fashion to evolve in a different way than before or is it simply that we have reached the end of a dream where all kinds of excesses have destroyed the main raw material of fashion, dressing people?! Whatever it is, more and more actors or fashion are changing their minds and initial traditions they once had.
Angela Missoni has therefore admitted to being fed up of all the catwalk shows that are becoming more and more OTT, where emphasis is put on stagging direction, attention on the front row and where clothes are finally put in the background of the scene. She admits to regretting the time when her parents showed their clothes in the family factory, inviting only people that were concerned by such shows: the press and buyers. Consequently, the woman who took restarted the business in 1997 is now looking for a viable alternative to catwalk shows, which she finds cold, distant and don't enable anyone to appreciate the quality of the collections.
She also feels that supermodels such as Gisele Bundchen and Naomi Campbell on the catwalks is only a supplementary snobbery of the fashion sphere. These are only chosen not for their capacities as muses but more for their bankability as models. It then becomes a kind of game of power between fashion houses, between those who will be able to pay and those who won't...
Angela Missoni therefore choses girls that correspond to her clothes rather than unroll the red carpet in front of a model that will bring nothing to the clothes she designed. She has also talked about her will to touch the younger generation that in her opinion, has our future's power. The boom of street-style and of Twitter now make any kind of fashionista a quality target. To be continued....

The interview Angela Missoni gave the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Why-I-want-to-kill-off-the-catwalk

Sublimated Drew

For any actress, the time of promotion for a movie is a kind of blessing. It's a time for them to be Queen of the moment without the kind of competition they can have for official ceremonies such as the Oscar or the Golden Globes. The Première of a movie is the time for the leading lady, and only her, to shine. This only gives them more pressure to look perfect and make a faultless perfomance in front of the fans, but mainly, in front of the photographers. Most leading ladies always manage to look perfectly groomed and flawless, but lately, the most talked about oh-so-perfect-fashion-style and fabulousness on the red carpet has been Drew Barrymore's. She's always been America's sweetheart but let's be honest, her fashion style wasn't always decent. Not anymore.Drew Barrymore is promoting her latest movie, 'Grey's Gardens' and has decided to put herself in the fashion limelight. Some say it is due to the fact that the character she plays isn't quite to her advantage in the movie (the movie is about the tumuluous life of Jackie Kennedy-Onassis's parents), but whatever the reason, ET's ex co-star appeared more radiant and feminine than ever.
While some have a Sunday best look when trying to be glamourous, Drew embodies perfectly this notion of Hollywood's charismatic voluptuousness, playing and showing her womanhood off. Therefore, even when she choses chic rather than excentric outfits, she manages to give them a special aura. She even managed to transform one of Narciso Rodriguez's wisest design into an overly sexy, yet classy look. Her 20's aura is enhanced by her red-lipstick, black eyeliner make-up and the neverending talk about the braids in her hair. Her look is polished yet looks effortless. She takes advantage of the cameras and loves playing with her new look. Still, she keeps the freshness she awlays had, showing that at 30 years old you can still be on top of the fashion and style world.
She wore a zebra-striped Narciso Rodriguez dress perched on scarlet Miu-Miu stilettos. The crown-braid giving the look its final touch and sporting one of Spring/Summer 09's lmost acclaimed hair styling. She also put herself right in the air-du-tempsby sliding into a nude sheath Alberta Ferretti dress from the Autumn-Winter 09-10' collection and embellished with gold sequins and tulle, giving her a deliciously retro look. The final look she sported was a dramatic off the shoulder black Giambattista Valli dress with what could be seen as OTT puff sleeves and velvet detailing, finishing her look off with Giuseppe Zanotti two-tones shoes and beautiful Lorraine Schwartz jewels.
The actress dares to step out of the style box, her confidence helping her pull the look off and enabling her fashion risks to be seen by fashion blogs or magazines as a wonderful attitude. Go Drew!

Natural beauty

Fashion magazines have one major goal: photographing women after having made them look beautiful. They arrive in the studio and go to the make-up artist, the haidresser, and later, the photographer who can give them with one look, confidence. And if this is not enough, there's always the Photoshop possibility, removing a wrinkle, a spot, rings, a crease in one's neck. That's what an image is. It's sometimes a kind of small lie, but a lie every woman (and men?) often dreams about. It's like a game. Even we do it.
Still, famous people who appear in magazines, we mostly know they made-up faces. The French ELLE therefore got the idea to put women without any kind of make-up or photoshop on their covers, because as Sophie Fontanel, who wrote the article, "when these women arrive in the studio you already think they are beautiful, even before putting make-up and we wanted to show this beauty, the one that comes out of these wonderful faces, even with nothing on them". Peter Lindberg, who photographed the 8 women for this 'special' edition of ELLE shared this love of the natural, but still beautiful woman. Lindberg has now been working for a few years in order for the photos 'to show a lot of the stars natural skin'. The photographer has a famous passion for Italian neoralism, that people can guess, truthfully in each and everyone of his photos. The women who have been face to face with the objective for this edition of the magazine are mostly very demanding towards their image, and usually control the most tiny detail of it.
Lindberg apparently wanted a haidresser, make-up artist and manicure there for the day of the shooting, in order for the studio to have its usual look as 'you shouldn't scare someone who comes to present his or her face'. The man also knows most of the women will arrive with make-up on their faces, the make-up artist is also therefore present to take it all off. The removing of the make-up makes skin shine, the one we all hate, but to the famous photgrapher, it's 'what gives energy to faces' and we believe him.
Most of them are French actresses or artists posing for this photoshoot, apart from Eva Herzigova and Monica Bellucci.
Eva Herzigova is not as actress, no she's a model. And models have a very specific relation towards the phorograph. Ageing is synonym of losing the one role of her life but apparently, Eva doesn't care about not being 18 years old. She was only wearing a shirt and a pair of panties for the shoot. Apparently, that's what blondes do, they know the limelight will be on them and Eva laughs without ever stopping, she will be the only one of the 8 women to see this photoshoot as playtime. She says of Lindberg: 'This man there, you let him do and that's it. He looks for you and finds you".
Monica Bellucci is one of France's treasure, married to one of the most famous and successful French actor, Vincent Cassel. She arrived with make-up on the shoot, only to get it removes and admits that being an actress, she is as used to seeing her face made-up as natural, 'I am used to being at my image's service. If you can't accept this, you don't do the job properly'. She trusts Lidberg because she feels what he loves in her, his pictures being 'images out of a Rossellini movie'. Bellucci's pictures show her arrogant and sharp look, as inevitable as when she's playing an important role. She was apparently surprised by the concrete beauty of the photos, by her skin, her tired eyes. And even though she isn't sure of the sex appeal she evidently has on the pictures, Lidberg told her 'your lover, it's because you have this face that he loves you'.

Harem Pants, the 2009 version

The sarouel has been overly present these last few seasons on the catwalk and are becomic one of the items to have for the Summer to come. It is not too expensive and oh-so trendy, therefore more and more wearable! Chloé, Etro, but also Just Cavalli have given into temtation too and designed sarouels for their Spring-Summer 09' collections. It has now become an obvious fact: the sarouel will be an essential for any of our summery silhouettes.
Each catwalk show has designed its own version and the piece of clothing is very quickly becoming incontrovertible. Most of the time it is flowing, gathered at the waist, with rounded sides.
Mac Gibbon's Chloé's version is quite chic and enhanced by a tailored, hemstitched top, while Ralph Lauren chose the casual safari look. Both of them being at the extreme opposite in the other in terms of style! The only one that should be forever banished from any wardrobe is the bermuda shorts version! It'll only make any woman look like a big bag.Ralph Lauren's and McQueen's versions shouldn't be kept or even bought at all! The oversized version can create a debate too and fashionistas will have to face the dilemma: honour the trend or use reason and therefore abadon the idea of a very unflattering behind!
It is quite easy to see the 'crisis' women are living at the moment, just pay a visit to any big brand shop near you, look at women trying them on while their brother/boyfriend/husband/fashion ignorant will tell them that fashion stops where absurdity starts (this is a French expression but I'm sure anyone can understand!).
Still, we are brought to ask ourselves: is he the lucid one of the two, when we are blinded by Style.com's silhouettes? Very often disconnected from any fashion trend, the man in your life can have a healthier view on things, simply based on what suits and flatters us or not. Even we can admit that you need a bit of time to adapt yourself, as much the mind as the body (!) to a pair of sarouel as when you havre a front-view it can give our body an elegant shape, while looking at it from the back questions this...

There are therefore a few rules to follow to reconcile seduction with this hype/trendy impulse:
- If you are not a 1.80m Swedish model, the sarouel should always be worn with high heels!
- A structured top is the right thing to wear, not a floaty one!
- Or for a casual chic look, you could wear high-waisted harem pants with a shirt (put inside the pants)
- YSL's jumpsuit sarouel should be avoided by each and everyone of us, this version is quite honestly simply too hardcore!
- False silk is a No-Go!

21st Century weddings

Despite being in no rush to get married and who does STILL want to get married?! Weddings are so O.V.E.R that it seems not getting married is the new fashion! The subject of marriage comes up quite often but the only thing women have to say about it now is 1. 'i do not believe in it' and 2.'But, ok if I did get married one day, my dress would have to be a Chanel one'. A designer wedding is the only one on the cards.
2009's wedding dresses are a reflections of our time: uncluttered, modern and delicate. It's part of a modern fairytale with no OTT lace all over the gown. 21st Century women don't care about crinolines, long veils or trains you always accidentally step on as the main goal is to look good, not to fit in with our parents' traditions. So Goodbye huge meringue dresses and Hello LWD (Little White Dress), evanescent dreams, smart women's suits and immaculate sheaths...
Fashion has no influence on chosing the Big Day's dress, the only thing that counts is the perfect harmony between body and the gown's silhouette. Still, the designing of the dresses is undeniably influenced by , even if they are not 'fashion', they are clearly tendencies linked to the evolution of our societies. It is therefore more than common to say "yes" without a veil nowadays, when wearing a suit that will be worn time and time again, or even in a cute little Prêt à Porter dress.

It is easy to notice that no designer puts as much emphasis on the wedding gown as was done before at the end of each and every show. Dior designed a crimson dress, while Valentino and Givenchy didn't even have any at their shows: the wedding dress is no more the climax of the presenting of each collection. Still, the traditional white wedding dress hasn't disappeared (yet!), it's as present as other dresses during the catwalk presentations and fits in the crowd of cocktail dresses, making it more natural and wearable.

-Valentino: Flocks of white silhouettes strut on the catwalk as the show starts. Fabulously chic, timeless and elegant. The designer seems to have prefered sobriety to any kind of OTT detail, enabling those who will slide into them to making even Jacky Onassis grow pale!
- Just like a Oriental-Valentino, Elie Saab has designed every silhouette with an unequalled glamour. His ultra-light chiffon dresses are as graceful as beautiful. The only negative point would have to be his sculptural side to the dresses, his"sober" dresses being more wearable. Just take a look at this antique sheath dress, draped and falsely simple: it would be any modern woman's ideal!

- Givenchy's dresses are conceptual and furiously modern as its model walks veil-faced, bearing a town-looking dress rather than a nuptial one! Emphasis is put on the material's originality, certain elements's double funtion and the purity of the whole design.

For some, customs and tradition remain important: the bride closes the show and represents the Fashion House's image. The dress then can't be said to have been designed to be worn, it is more of a walking symbol of a luxury brand.

- Chanel, Lagerfeld unveiled one of his most successful (press wise) Haute Couture collection. Freja Beha therefore walked in an outfit made of a pair of white irridescent, geometrically (Oh So Chanel) designed trousers and an oversized Camelia (Coco's favourite flower designed by Kamo) around her head (!): clearly NOT wearable.

- Jean-Paul Gaultier still played Fashion's bad-boy by revealing a nuptial dress that could only suit Dita Von Teese...