British Fashion Award Nominees '10

Wednesday, 1st of September, the British Fashion Council announced the nominees for the British Fashion Awards '10 at Soho House in London.

Amongst this year's nominees are some usual suspects - i.e. Phoebe Philo for Céline and Erdem for designer of the year, Christopher Bailey for Burberry and  as menswear designer of the year; Nicola Formichetti - Lady Gaga's stylist - and photographer Nick Knight for the Isabella Blow award.

Newsworthy is Victoria Beckham's nomination for Designer Brand of the Year - rather unexpected that ex-Posh Spice has been officially acknowledged in industry circles so fast. Beckham announced to be "So honoured to be nominated for designer brand of the year from the British Fashion Council!!!!in love and light x VB x" on her newly created Twitter account (vbfashionweek), where she will be tweeting the lead up of her spring/summer catwalk show during New York Fashion Week on 12 September '10. During the show, which will be held in an intimate circle, she will also debut with a line of handbags. Victoria Beckham is slowly but surely making her way to establish her ways towards fashion circles and even Anna Wintour prompted not to underestimate her.

Here the complete overview of all nominees of the British Fashion Award Nominees 2010:


1.    Emerging Talent Award - Accessories
Nominees: Charlotte Olympia, Husam El Odeh and Jessica McCormack

2.  Emerging Talent Award - Ready-to-Wear 
Nominees: Mary Katrantzou, Meadham Kirchhoff and Michael van der Ham.

3.  Designer Brand 
Nominees: Burberry, Mulberry, Pringle of Scotland and Victoria Beckham.

4.   Model
Nominees:  David Gandy, Lara Stone and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

5. Accessory Designer
Nominees: Camilla Skovgaard, Emma Hill for Mulberry and Nicholas Kirkwood.

6. Menswear Designer 
Nominees: Christopher Bailey for Burberry, E.Tautz, Margaret Howell and Paul Smith.

7. Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator
Nominees: Nick Knight, Nicola Formichetti and Rankin.

8. Designer of the Year
Nominees: Christopher Kane, Erdem and Phoebe Philo for Céline.


The winners of the British Fashion Award will be announced on December 7 in London's Savoy Hotel.

xoxo
Glamazone

Source: britishfashionawards.com, fashionologie.com, WWD.com, nytimes.com

Lanvin goes Mainstream

This post is dedicated to a very close friend of mine who is in love with Lanvin.
Seriously...her eyes sparkle every time she mentions the brand, she clutches her hands in front of her chest, feigns a slight swoon, smiles her adorable smile, giggles and lets the name Alber Elbaz melt in her mouth like a piece of luxurious dark chocolate.

After the news had already spread through the grapevine, H&M and Lanvin went public today to announce their design collaboration.  The Swedish retail giant is teaming up with France's oldest Haute Couture house for a designer collection which will hit the stores in time for holiday season on 23rd November 2010.

The collection will comprise womens- and menswear, designed by Lanvin's marvellous creative director Alber Elbaz and menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver and will be available in approximately 200 H&M branches worldwide.
As the collections will be revealed in a film on 2nd November at H&M's website www.hm.com, it is likely, that the buzz about this design collaboration will have 3 weeks advance to culminate in several hundred extatic fashionistas camping in front of the H&M stores, getting ready to bare their teeth, storm in and rip the boutique to pieces to get their hands one of the covetable pieces.

Karl Lagerfeld and H&M's first design collaboration in 2004, kicked off several more design collaborations. Considerable designers of the likes of Stella McCartney, Comme des Garcons, Sonia Rykiel and Matthew Williamson followed in Karl's footsteps to make pieces of couture accessible to the masses.

According to H&M's and Lanvin's common press release, however, the forthcoming collection seems to be aiming towards a slightly more luxurious approach:


“H&M approached us to collaborate, and see if we could translate the dream we created at Lanvin to a wider audience, not just a dress for less. I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public. This has been an exceptional exercise, where two companies at opposite poles can work together because we share the same philosophy of bringing joy and beauty to men and women around the world.” 
Alber Elbaz, artistic director of Lanvin


If the French powerhouse actually did sell its soul - and yes, this is a quote of the friend mentioned in the top paragraph - remains to be seen once the collection will be launched - or latest on 23rd November when I triumphantly hold that one piece of Lanvin for H&M in my hands, which I could save of its tragic destiny of being torn to shreds by the fashion mob who descended upon H&M in order to pillage itscouture gone mainstream pieces.


xoxo
Glamazone

Sources: h&m.com, modepilot.de, lanvin.com
Picture Sources: lanvin.com, glamour.de

Recession curves

A homage to women – and better times

While the effects of the crisis are still perceivable in many countries, the look of the 50ies and 60ies instantly reminds us of boom times.

The tight sweaters shaped by the 50ies conical bra, suspender belts & girdles worn under petticoats or pencil skirts evoke a desire towards the classic femininity with its shapes and curves. The aesthetics of an era we instantly associate with the economically wealthy times of the 50ies and 60ies.

Golden Globe and Emmy awarded AMC series „Mad men“ brought us - together with the look of the early 60ies - a new femininity on the screen. On the catwalks, foremostly Miuccia Prada and Louis Vuitton confronted us with a new female paradigm. Curves replace androgynous shapes. Bosom, waist and hip have been re-discovered as the headturners of the seasons to come.
It's high time to celebrate feminity and its icons - time to say goodbye to utility chic and casualization after decades of androgynous, sober boy-ish figures on TV and on the catwalks. The body ideal has been changed to female heroines with explicitly curvy bodys.
A healthy share of the re-discovery of the feminine female body, can surely be attributed to "Mad Men" and its fabulously talented costume designer, Janie Bryant who has been digging up petticoats, pencil skirts, costumes, cone shaped bras and suspender belts to celebrate the gloriously iconic fashion times of the 50ies and 60ies.

Even the toughest jeans & t-shirt warrior is sighing in melancholy in sight of the 50ies a-shaped skirts or 60ies pencil skirts ...well, if these are leaving you cold, then it is the men in dinner jackets that make your heart melt.
Somehow the imagination of dressing up according to certain rules and re-inflicting real glamour and style onto us gains momentum, doesn't it?!


xoxo

Glamazone


Picture source: www.nydailynews.com, www.fashion-era.com

I love my scarf

If you consider Hermès scarves to be an old fashioned accessory only appropriate for elder ladies and polished upper class mademoiselles, think again.The traditional French fashion house has launched a new website called J'aime Mon Carre ("I love my scarf"), where the brand proves to be perfectly up to date with zeitgeist and young urban fashion culture.

The website has been launched to mark the creative liaison between Hermès and Parisian ueber-hip concept store Colette , who have teamed up for a special edition of scarves, which will be sold exclusively at Colette during September.

Jaimemoncarre.com is a cool omnium-gatherum of snapshot-like photographs, shortfilms from fashion & style capitals (Paris, London, NYC & Tokyo) and inspiration for Hermes devotees. Classic Hermès carres are featured  in hip & stylish street looks. Colorful pictures feature creative ideas of how to wear the carre as headbands, turbans, tops or belts and of course as a scarf.
Far from dusty, elitist snobbery, Hermès displays the fun and contemporary appeal of its silk pieces and invites younger generations to be creative, cool and sexy with them.

Hip footage, wide arrays of photo material, street style galore, a treasure chest full of ideas and inspiration to target younger trendier customers and involve them in what feels like a community.
A brilliant approach to make the brand accessible to a younger and hipper target audience who might have reservations towards the brand otherwise.


My opinion? Do I really have to spell it out? I heart Hermès.

xoxo
Glamazone 


Sources: jaimemoncarre.com, elle.co.uk

Shaping/Shopping the Future

Net-a-porter magazine - launch of a new iPad app 

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Abraham Lincoln once said - but some people live in compliance to that bon mot more than others.
I have just finished watching the live streaming of Natalie Massenet interview for Business of Fashion's Fashion Pioneers series. It was a truly inspiring interview with the "visionary on stilettos", who is the founder of the worldwide most successful online shop for designer fashion, Net-a-Porter.  Not only has Net-a-Porter been fronting the crisis (the sales numbers are proof to that) but also has she been launching an outlet for designer fashion in 2009 (theoutnet.com ) and is about to launch an equivalent to Net-a-Porter for male designer fashion (MrPorter.com), which will go online in January 2011.
In my opinion, the entire audience who was watching the life stream has just witnessed a solution for the dilemma that fashion magazines are finding themselves in - possibly even THE solution.
Somebody once said that the publishing houses worldwide owe Steve Jobs big time - due to his iPad, people will continue to read books and magazines. Maybe, there is a few more who have to thank Steve Jobs and his unperturbed intuition and vision. But let's not give all the credit to Steve Jobs, shall we - like the iPhone, the iPad's value stands and falls to a considerable extent with the apps developers create for it. So for this particular treat, we'll have to thank the think tank working for Natalie Massenet:

Net-a-porters latest magnum opus  is to combine fashion magazines and e-commerce directly - as an application for the iPad called Net-a-Porter Magazine. The app was presented during the live streaming interview by Net-a-Porters founder in person tonight and will be officially launched tomorrow. What Natalie Massenet pulled out of her couture hat is - in her own words "to offer a magazine-like experience", which is directly combined with etailing. The app will give you the possibility to "read, watch and shop wherever you are" according to the description in the iTunes store.The clou is, as opposed to most glossy magazines, offering actual couture photo spreads once a month, Net-a-Porter will update its app every week - yes, you heard right -52 times a year. One thing we can assume for sure: Natalie Massenet is not going to waste our time with cheap productions. Having had her origins in fashion journalism working for the fashion bible WWD and other magazines as well as being a stylist, we even can expect great editorials for the new webzine.

I am very happy about the idea and I am curious to see whether or not this will set a precedent in the etailing industry. I strongly believe that creating a hybrid between online retailing and glossy magazines is a great step into the future for both industries. Also, I am truly curious of how and when other online retailers will be jumping on the bandwagon.

xoxo
Glamazone

Sources: thebusinessoffashion.com, net-a-porter.com, iTunes Store