Andy Warhol's Wide World comes to Paris

PARIS (Reuters) – Andy Warhol comes to Paris in a major exhibition of his trademark society portraits but a famous image of Yves Saint Laurent will be missing after a dispute over whether the late couturier was an artist or a mere designer.

"Warhol's Wide World," which opens this week, presents some 140 of the 1,000 or so portraits of actors, stars and assorted jet set personalities turned out by the "Pope of Pop" from the 1960s until his death in 1987.

Based on existing photographs or created with a specially designed Polaroid camera, Warhol's garishly tinted pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy or Saint Laurent became icons in the modern cult of celebrity.

Along with his Campbell's Soup can, they are some of the best-known images in modern art and the exhibition is expected to be one of the biggest of the year.

Warhol once remarked that he wanted all his portraits to fit together and make one big painting called "Portraits of Society" and exhibition curator Alain Cueff regretted that it had not been practical to do so.

"It would be wonderful to recreate the dream of Warhol, to have 1,000 portraits of people just like that but it was quite impossible, I'm afraid," he said.

Even so, the Grand Palais, a vast hall created for the Great Exhibition of 1900, has been lined with some of the most famous faces of the era, from stars like Monroe or Mick Jagger to artists like Man Ray or fashion designers like Giorgio Armani.

But it also includes many portraits commissioned for $25,000 each by rich individuals hoping, as the show's catalog puts it, "to glow with the aura of Warhol's genius."

The 1974 portrait series of Saint Laurent, planned to hang in a "Glamour" section near Armani and other designers like Sonia Rykiel, had been intended as one of the centerpieces of the exhibition.

But in a move that provided a strangely appropriate backdrop to a show as much about fame as art -- it was withdrawn at the last minute by his former partner Pierre Berge.

"To show the portraits of Yves Saint Laurent with personalities from the fashion world -- even if some of them have talent -- was unthinkable," he explained in a letter to the Le Monde daily last week.

"To put Saint Laurent in the 'glamour' section would be to show disrespect for his oeuvre and to mix him up with the 'beautiful people,'" he wrote.

The controversy has added an element of spice to the exhibition, which is expected to draw vast crowds to the same hall in which Saint Laurent's monumental art collection was auctioned last month.

But organizers are confident that the importance of the collection will outweigh any controversy.

The exhibition opens in the Grand Palais on March 18 and runs until July 13.

Source : http://www.reuters.com/

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Louis Vuitton: Muse Mode

Paris – The Vuitton woman has an agenda: She doesn't need you and she wants to have fun. Her mother or grandmother was a famous muse with a French name, and the muses lived again Thursday afternoon, March 12 at the Louis Vuitton show in the courtyard of the Louvre in Paris.

Marc Jacobs sent out a fall 2009 collection inspired by the most famous European muses, even if at times, one sensed the audience was not terribly sure of who many of them were, or even the exact pronunciation of their names.

The concept of the muse is in the air, as the collection comes on the heels of Jacobs' announcement that he would be sponsoring the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's next fashion exhibit "The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion."

More relevant for the consumer, this collection was very inventive, quaintly racy, brilliantly colored and ultimately will be an influential collection as well as one that broke new ground.

What was most cool about this show was that Jacobs did not reference the obvious suspects - Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell or Twiggy - but instead looked back to the generation whose taste and art for living makes modern supermodels look like upstarts.

"It was Victoire (de Castellane), Marie Seznec and Ines (de la Fressange)," Jacobs shouted out backstage, referring to the muses at the houses of Chanel and Christian Lacroix.

Out on the runway, Jacobs offered a great dose of Euro-chic style, leavened with American wit as several models wore Playboy Bunny ears.

Overall, the look was vamp society hostess with lacy tops, jackets with bulb shaped shoulders and frilly, puckered dresses, the sort that a lady would only really wear when hosting a dinner at her home. There were lots of faintly androgynous tuxedo jackets, green chokers and taut transparent tops.

There was also a great series off ruched cocktail dresses and the sort of see-through black chiffon top that well-brought-up haute bourgeois Parisian ladies would feel they could wear among friends. Whether Vuitton will produce even half these designs is uncertain or whether in six months time no Vuitton store anywhere will have even a third of this ready-to-wear collection on its racks or shelves.

When it came to accessories, however, Jacobs hit a home run with naughty ankle boots and side zippered riding boots, both with pyramid heels. He really struck gold with possibly his best collection of bags for Vuitton, including marbleized clutches, silver stamped logo purses and turquoise rosette totes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com

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Rue du Mail: Dancing and Cabaret Are Not Dead

Paris – If anyone in Paris is a designer's designer it is surely Martine Sitbon, whose staged her fall 2009 collection of her brand Rue du Mail on Wednesday, March 4,the opening day of the eight-day French season.

This season life is a cabaret for Sitbon, as her vision of contemporary cutbacks does not stop her women from wearing arty chess pieces cocktails, and lots of dance clothes.

Sitbon has always held a slightly special place partly because, no matter how much she experiments, the end results are always feminine. Also, few designers are as assured as Sitbon when it comes to mixing urfaces. Whether she combines silver sequins, boiled wool, battered gold jacquards and ribbed mink, the combo is downtown yet classy. She can assemble the somber - navy blue, black and map gray.

Sitbon jumped back and forth between the pencil warrior look such as legging-pants over tight tops and handkerchief helm Spencers to layered and splayed cuts and mixed chess piece style disco groovers.

"It was about wandering around in the imagination, imagining new forms," was the explanation from Marc Ascoli, Sitbon's partner.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com

Marko Jaric marries Victoria's Secret beauty Adriana Lima

According to People.com, who I count on for absolutely everything, Ball Don't Lie power couple Markodrina™ have officially tied the knot.

Adriana Lima, the 27-year-old Brazilian supermodel — and 2008 BDL Bedlam Champion, natch — married Memphis Grizzlies guard Marko Jaric in a hush-hush ceremony on Valentine's Day in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Had to have been at The Wort Hotel, right?

"We are so excited about our future together," Lima told People, capitalized. "And we are really looking forward to a big romantic wedding this summer with all of our friends and family" ... and bloggers she may or may not mumbled underneath her breath.

The couple says that the next wedding celebration they'll throw will be in Brazil or Serbia, so you still have lots of time to track down that online gift registry. And before you ask, yes, I still plan on buying them the toaster oven and monogrammed men's jump shot. They've been good to me.

Source : http://sports.yahoo.com

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Economic gloom clouds London Fashion Week

Designers at London Fashion Week, which starts Friday, have reacted to the credit crunch by toning down extravagant collections and opting for intimate showings rather than catwalk spectaculars.

Names like Antoni & Alison, Duro Olowu and Maria Grachvogel -- whose clients include Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson and Victoria Beckham -- have organised smaller scale "presentations" for journalists and buyers.

Less costly than a catwalk show, most of them will use plastic rather than human mannequins.

"Given the current economic climate, I feel it is more a time of focusing on genuine creativity rather than unnecessary extravagance," Olowu told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"With a catwalk show, you are looking at spending 25,000-40,000 pounds (28,000-45,000 euros, 36,000-58,000 dollars), often more, and given what has happened in the last few months, many designers are having to reassess their business choices."

Designers like Christopher Kane and Nathan Jenden have chosen smaller venues, as did some at September's fashion week.

Others some have opted to embrace the credit crunch with a stylishly frugal aesthetic for publicity material -- Sinha-Stanic sent out invitations which looked like they were made on a home photocopier for their show.

The gloomy economic climate is not stopping London Fashion Week organisers the British Fashion Council (BFC) from marking the 25th anniversary of the event, a six-day, 58-show event unveiling collections for autumn-winter 2009.

London is traditionally seen as a launch pad for young talent and has helped designers like Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Hussein Chalayan, Gareth Pugh and Matthew Williamson gain international exposure.

And organisers are again looking to the future by staging a show featuring eco-friendly designers like Noir/Bllack noir under the Estethica initiative in the prestigious BFC Tent on the lawns of the Natural History Museum.

Long-established designers like Vivienne Westwood Red Label, Paul Costelloe, Caroline Charles, John Rocha, Betty Jackson and Nicole Farhi will, though, will be the backbone of the week.

After a compromise between organisers in London and New York, over a date clash which some commentators feared would threaten London's future, Friday coincides with the last day of shows at New York Fashion Week.

This agreement -- which prevented a situation where the two events would have been held at the same time -- resolved a high-stakes issue for Britain, which even saw Sarah Brown, wife of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, intervene.

The twice-yearly London Fashion Week injects some 20 million pounds into the British capital's economy, as well as 100 million pounds of orders.

In a bid to ensure its potential is harnessed, London Mayor Boris Johnson has spent 40,000 pounds bringing in around 30 buyers from wealthy markets like the Middle East for the event.

He was behind a similar scheme in September which led to buyers placing orders worth around 14 million pounds.



Source: http://news.yahoo.com/

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NY designers get creative to battle recession

With recession ripping a hole in the U.S. retail industry, designers are struggling to come up with clothes women feel they can't do without as they unveil their collections at New York's fashion shows this week.

Designers at the semi-annual Fashion Week face the dual challenges of trimming their own spending on the shows while enticing penny-pinching buyers and consumers to boost their spending.

"We're counting on the industry to step up with something new," said Pete Nordstrom, president of merchandising for the upscale Nordstrom Inc department stores.

Some 70 designers are showing their collections in giant tents in Manhattan for Fashion Week, which kicks off Friday. Other designers are showing collections throughout the city.

They face sinking U.S. retail sales and a devastating credit crunch, while U.S. job losses last month were the worst in 34 years. On the buying front, the International Council of Shopping Centers estimated 148,000 retail stores closed last year and another 73,000 would shut in the first half of 2009.

"Right now, it's like you're in the middle of a tsunami," said designer Diane von Furstenberg, who heads up the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

A solution, she said, is to make clothes highly appealing.

"You need to show clothes that are real friends to women, so that 'friend' will make you feel good when you open your closet," said von Furstenberg, whose flattering wrap dresses put her firmly on the fashion map in the 1970s.

Many designers are opting for lower-cost presentations -- installations where guests wander among models who are fixed in place -- rather than high-priced runway shows.

A runway show at Fashion Week's tents typically costs $100,000 to $250,000 or more, a show in a smaller venue such as a gallery could cut the cost in half and a still presentation in a designer's showroom could be most economical of all.

Some design houses opting for presentations over shows are Betsey Johnson, Nary Manivong, Reem Acra, Luca Luca, Joanna Mastroianni, Temperley and Generra.

Others are headed to smaller spaces. Carmen Marc Valvo, whose gowns are celebrity hits, estimates saving as much as $150,000 by showing in a nightclub, with mannequins, a video presentation and just two models.

Designer Marc Jacobs is turning his belt-tightening into a status plus -- by slashing his show to 500 guests from 2,000, his coveted invitations are all the more valuable among the thousands of fashionistas vying to get in.

DEPRESSION ECHOES

Others are using the hard times as inspiration. Catherine Malandrino is showing cocktail dresses in the Rainbow Room, an Art Deco-style nightspot that first opened in 1934.

"I chose the Rainbow Room because it was a room born in a certain time, in the depth of the Great Depression," Malandrino said, noting she will brighten up her event with "some Champagne, some romance, some glamour and some music."

Von Furstenberg is hosting her own runway show and a second show for American Express, which is charging its cardholders $150 apiece for tickets online, featuring not only looks for fall but for nearer-term spring and summer.

That strategy breaks from the traditional cycle of looking far ahead -- this week's shows are Fall 2009 collections -- and seeks to appeal more immediately to consumers.

The twice-a-year Fashion Week shows inject some $773 million into New York City's economy and support 175,000 fashion industry-related jobs, according to city officials.

But the affluence that backs much of the industry has taken a hit with the hammering of Wall Street that is the core of much New York City wealth.

Candace Corlett, president of WSL Strategic Retail consulting firm, said she is seeing a "values correction" among affluent consumers.

"We're hearing consumers tell us, 'I used to care about designer brands and now I don't,'" she said.

Fern Mallis of IMG Fashion, which runs Fashion Week, jokingly proposed a theme song: "We might have to play the Bee Gees' song all week. It's called 'Stayin' Alive.'


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/

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Obama mania hits the catwalks of Rome

Mania over President Barack Obama has reached the catwalks of Rome, where a top haute couture designer showed off a kaftan emblazoned with his face and another dedicated a gown of "hope" to his wife Michelle.

"I was in Times Square when he was elected and it was like just such a beautiful emotion. I had the sensation of flying," Guillermo Mariotto, who designed the kaftan for Roman fashion house Gattinoni, told Reuters.

"He's definitely a fashion icon. He's brand new, he's a black president, and he's so handsome."

Mariotto sent an American model down the catwalk draped in the ankle-length, long-sleeved kaftan made of natural fiber. It featured a solemn-faced Obama in red and beige across its entire length and the word "Change" written across the bottom.

Neapolitan designer Fausto Sarli on Saturday dedicated the jewel of his collection -- a pinkish gown studded with crystals and lavish swirls -- to U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, saying it represented a light in the desert.

"We dedicated this as a message of hope -- that she can bring hope in the world during this period of crisis," said Sarli's spokesman Carlo Alberto Terranova. "It's a homage to the audacity of hope and youth."



Source : http://news.yahoo.com/