Lady Gaga Looks Like Ursula the Sea Witch on the New Cover of Vogue [Video]

Lady Gaga is on the cover of American Vogue's September issue. The notional news peg for the appearance is her perfume, which Vogue calls "the most innovative perfume in two decades." Yawn. But what do we think of the cover shot? It looks like the magazine was going for something different, which, hey, props for that — Vogue's usual cover is definitely not a full-length studio shot with lots of some white space. Gaga said on Twitter she reckoned she was channeling RuPaul, but, seriously, between the hair and the purple dress, she looks almost as much like Ursula the Sea Witch. And what is that weird, Photoshopped in red banner behind the logo? Is that supposed to be some kind of heraldic flag? And as regards that inside shot, when it comes to september issue photo shoots involving big, pink hats we much prefer Harper's Bazaar's with Gwen Stefani. [Vogue.com]

Speaking of which, in this behind-the-scenes video from her Harper's Bazaar cover shoot, Gwen Stefani says that while the day was her first time working with Terry Richardson as a photographer, it was not her first time meeting him: when No Doubt was gigging around L.A. in the '80s, they sometimes played with Richardson's old punk band, Double Freak. "It was...pretty freaky," says Stefani, before changing the subject to hair. As we know, back then Richardson — who has been accused of sexual harassment and misconduct by some of his models — was fond of singing songs like "Child Molester's Coming For You." Freaky, indeed. [YouTube] Christy Turlington was shot by Bruce Weber for the first cover of Du Jour, a magazine for rich people who want to buy $37,000 bicycles. Weber, notes the Times, " also shot covers for a new magazine coming from the retailer Opening Ceremony on Sunday, and Carine Roitfeld's comeback magazine, CR, planned for a September release." [NYTimes] Meghan Collison is topless on the cover of the new i-D. [FashionCopious] Lucky is launching a new e-commerce platform called MyLucky, and it's advertising it with this charming campaign. The tag-line is "Fill the void," as in: "My boyfriend dumped me via text: Fill the void," "My longest relationship is with my doorman: Fill the void," and "My 5-day cleanse is only on day 2: Fill the void." Because buying things you don't need to make yourself feel "better" when life goes wrong is such a good idea for your credit card and for the planet's resources — and totally empowering. [AdAge] Karolina Kurkova, of all people, should probably not be this desperate to be seen as sexy. [VF] Dazed & Confused Tweeted that its upcoming Azealia Banks issue has "been banned from 7 countries so far. Thank God for the Internet, huh?" Why could that be? The Telegraph reports that the cover features a photo of the rapper "with an inflated bright pink condom between her lips like a giant cigar, accompanied by the cover line 'Azealia Banks Blows Up.'" [Telegraph, @DazedMagazine]The head of Zara's parent company Inditex, Amancio Ortega, is now the third-richest man on earth. With a personal fortune of $46.6 billion, Ortega comes after Carlos Slim and Bill Gates. He knocked fucking Warren Buffett into fourth place. [Telegraph]Naomi Campbell (still) has traction alopecia around her hairline due to years of wearing wigs and weaves. (The damage was first publicly noted back in 2010.) Models damage their hair for a living, and black women who are asked to wear weaves are at particular risk for hair breakage and follicular damage. [Daily Mail]J. Crew is rolling out a new ad campaign including buys in such publications as Vanity Fair, Vogue, Fast Company and the Sunday New York Times Magazine. The company, which previously communicated largely through its catalog, says it is approximately doubling its 2011 ad budget for the year 2012, which would put its total spending at around $13 million. Tag-lines include "You speak softly and carry a loud bag," and "You notice the lapel before the label." Fine print touting J.Crew's quality of materials is also included, to emphasize "authenticity and integrity." [NYTimes]One of the challenge prizes on the next season of America's Next Top Model is a small role in a Tyler Perry movie — judged by Perry himself. Alicia Keys will also serve as a special guest for one episode. [Essence]White House Black Market repeated its spring ad theme, which featured a clever video of Coco Rocha dancing while her outfits appeared to instantly change thanks to snappy editing. The fall ad will show Rocha tap-dancing. [WWD]Feel like you're missing out on fashion's current bushy-brow trend? You can now get an eyebrow transplant of hairs from the nape of your neck. For $6,000. "Right now Kim Kardashian is hot — that is, eyebrow-wise," says a Beverly Hills dermatologist who performs the procedure. "I also get Brooke Shields sometimes."[On The Runway]Despite the fact that Ryan Lochte and fashion don't really mix — his Vogue cover stank in terms of sales, and the dude wears three-quarter cargo shorts, for Chrissakes — the Olympic swimmer has apparently fielded offers, that is offers plural, for a celebrity clothing line. [THR]People in fashion are playing tennis, you guys, and the Times is on it! Here's how Anna Wintour's instructor describes her game:

"She's like a retriever," the muscular and fit Mr. Spence, also from Jamaica, said of the powerful Vogue editor. "She's so fast. She'll chase down everything. She doesn't hit with a lot of spin, but she has an amazing cross-court forehand."

[NYTimes]

New York magazine's The Cut relaunches on Monday as something more like a general-interest women's blog with lots of fashion content. [WWD]Today in ongoing trends, accessories are the only way anybody in fashion is making any money these days:

"The accessories business is healthier than the apparel business," said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at NPD Group. (Indeed, accessories and related merchandise at Michael Kors accounted for about 75 percent of total revenue in 2012, a company spokeswoman said.)

"Women's fashion, for the last 18 months, has been running negative numbers," Mr. Cohen said. "Over the last six months, accessories have been 2 percent ahead over the last 12 months. That may not sound like a lot, but in the fashion sector, that's great." Footwear, luggage, small leather goods and glasses are doing particularly well, he added.

[NYTimes]

Profits at Dillard's grew year-on-year by 76%, to $31 million, during the quarter just ended. [WWD]And now, a moment with John Jannuzzi, who writes today about the Abercrombie & Fitch hoodies he loved in the late '90s and early 2000s. You know how most first-person stories about treasured items of clothing are kind of self-aggrandizing in that incidentally-look-at-my-excellent-taste kind of way? Rarely does a fashion writer cop to knowing what it's like to love something that was formative but, well, in retrospect tacky as fuck. (No offense to teenage Jannuzzi's sartorial choices intended — in 1999, we were wearing elaborate, wide-legged homemade jeans we called "phat pants." Some of them involved reflective tape. Others, rainbow trim.) Jannuzzi writes lovingly, and with a keen understanding of the teenaged yearning to just fit in, of the hoodies he sourced from the Abercrombie & Fitch in Farmington, Connecticut, which was an "experimental" Abercrombie, "which basically means it was legendary and housed mythical track jackets you couldn't find at a bush-league Abercrombie in, say, Michigan or some other miserable state." He explains:

What did an allowance-laden youngster yearn for most from the overly pornographic emporium of shit? Was it the distressed denim, or perhaps the Baby Gap-esque shrunken polos? Nah chill, I was after the hoodies. If there was a hooded article of clothing in that store, I wanted it. Badly. All the popular kids wore them (the barometer of teenage consumer confidence), and they were all so fucking cool, I just had to have that shit. The first, let's call it "gateway hoodie," was red with a shield on it — extremely regal. I've always been a sucker for medieval insignia, especially when a brand bastardizes everything by throwing their name all over it. A few days in that hoodie and I was unstoppable. After a girl smiled at me from the back of a school bus (I was driving in my Jeep because, um, fuck yes) I decided I needed to invest the rest of my savings in A&F hoods so I could be popular and awesome.

[Four Pins]

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Mindy Kaling Masters the Sexy, Kinda Thing on the Cover of Fast Company [Mag Hag]

Aug 7, 2012 4:45 PM  

"Social media is sexy!" screams the September 2012 issue of Fast Company. And there's Mindy, with glasses askew and some fab bracelets. Another coverline questions: "Can 1.8 million followers make her new sitcom a hit?" Uh, well, that remains to be seen. But followers don't make a show a hit: Writing, directing and acting do. That said, in terms of magazine covers, this one is a winner.

[@mindykaling]

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Tavi Gevinson Graces Cover of Bust, Talks Feminism and Mean Girls [Rag Trade]

16-year-old Tavi Gevinson is on the cover of Bust magazine and this week's New York Times Style section. The blogger and Rookie editor talks to the former about her interest in fashion, feminist conversion experience, and college plans. The Times tagged along on Rookie's recent road trip of readings and events across the U.S., which ended last week in California.

Tavi tells Bust about how at age 12 she convinced her parents to let her skip school to line up for the Chicago launch of H&M's Comme des Garçons collection. Gevinson pleaded her case at the family dinner table. "I just said that I thought [Comme des Garçons] was really interesting and that it meant a lot to me," says Gevinson. "Because it was not about looking attractive or looking cool or looking pretty. In retrospect, that must've been really comforting to parents who had a kid in middle school, when everyone else has, like, humping parties or whatever."

Gevinson also explains why she now spends less of her time writing about fashion and attending fashion week events. It's that mean girl Anna Wintour's fault, basically:

"I sat next to Anna Wintour at a Band of Outsiders show, and she asked me, "When do you go to school?" I just felt like, When do your models go to school?...There wasn't any real enthusiasm coming from the people who were there for what was going on around us, even though it should have been this exciting, creative thing. I felt funny about that experience. I wanted to start writing about other things on my blog, branching out from fashion."

Never meet your idols.

Although Gevinson's ardour for fashion has cooled somewhat, and Rookie, the online magazine Gevinson founded at 15, is a general-interest site aimed at teenage girls, Gevinson still thinks a lot about clothes and their meanings. "Fashion can be used to assert your individuality and your control and power over how you perceive yourself and present yourself, and it can be a form of expression." [Bust, NYTimes]

Speaking of very young women in fashion, in the September issue of Flare, 18-year-old cover model Lindsey Wixson says that she thinks about her family every time she's asked to pose topless or nude:

"I want to make them proud and I try to keep it pretty modest. The fashion industry always wants something else out of you and you can decide if you want to fall into that or maintain your morals and stay true to yourself. I always think about what the people from my hometown would think of some of my shoots. I care about what my family thinks — they wouldn't want to see my boobs printed everywhere."

When she was 15, Wixson described having to ask a W stylist to let her wear a flesh-toned bra underneath a transparent blouse the magazine had chosen for her. [Fashionista]

Fashionista and the Fashion Law point out that many of the styles in Madonna's new footwear line strongly resemble designs by Christian Louboutin and Nowhere. Originals are on the left, Madonna's are on the right. [Fashionista, the Fashion Law] OPI is releasing a top coat flecked with tiny pieces of 18-karat gold leaf this fall. No word on price. [TLF] A Los Angeles-based artist designed this Louis Vuitton wafflemaker. [Complex] Want to know who makes money in fashion? A bunch of old white men, mostly. Women's Wear Daily compiled data on executive pay from various S.E.C. filings for this year's list of the most highly paid U.S. C.E.O.s in fashion and retail. JC Penney's newish C.E.O. Ron Johnson tops the list with total 2011 compensation of $53,281,505. Abercrombie & Fitch's Michael Jeffries is second with $48,069,473. Neil Cole, the president and C.E.O. of Iconix, was paid $37,424,782. Ralph Lauren was number four with $36,325,782, and Nike's Mark Parker rounded out the top five with compensation of $35,212,678. These figures are all for total compensation, which for C.E.O.'s comprises both take-home pay and stock options, which fluctuate in value depending on stock prices and when the options actually vest. But however you count it these dudes are still making mad skrill. In addition to Johnson's spot at the top of the list, JC Penney executives and former executives take up three other slots in the top 10 for a total of over $1.4 billion in compensation. Under Johnson's watch, Penney has cut more than 1,000 jobs. Reed Krakoff, the president and executive creative director of Coach (and the owner of a Calder mobile and a spheroid toilet), came in at number eight on the list with compensation of $21,188,980. [WWD]Miuccia Prada gave an interview to Italy's La Repubblica newspaper addressing the decline of Italian apparel and accessories manufacturing and the foreign ownership of Italian luxury brands. Prada used as an example the firing of Belgian designer Raf Simons from Milan-based company Jil Sander (which Prada once owned), which preceded Simons' departure for Paris, where he now leads Christian Dior. Reports WWD:

Prada partly blamed the media, accusing the Italian press of not taking fashion seriously, considering it "frivolous," without realizing how relevant it is in terms of sales and employment. She also pointed a finger at intellectuals and left-leaning politicians, who "remain diffident toward wealth and glamour," while money, she said, can actually help "organize art, culture and fashion."

[WWD]

Model-slash-Transformers star Rosie Huntington-Whiteley tells British Elle magazine that she never really enjoyed modeling. "I wasn't quite tall enough either and I hated it to be honest. There was no individuality, no opportunity to be individuals. I think that people forget you're human and you just become an object. I was constantly reminded that I wasn't right wherever I went and that was difficult because I'd come from a place where it didn't matter." [Telegraph]Congratulations to Missy Rayder, who just gave birth to her first child. The model and her boyfriend, artist Marko Velickovic, have named their son Luka. [P6]Karlie Kloss is going to be the face of the giant Target/Neiman Marcus/designers fashion collaboration happening this holiday season. [WWD]Fashionista has a round-up of all the 2012 September issues' ad pages. Vogue is sitting pretty with 658 ad pages, up 74% from 2011. Elle has 400 and Harper's Bazaar has 360, and each is up 51% over last year. Marie Claire has 237, an increase of 45%, and InStyle rounds out the top five with 440 pages, up 10%. Lucky is the biggest ad page-loser, with 136, down 38%. We're still going to be picking up the Lucky September issue, however — we hear that the cover profile of Eva Longoria was written by This American Life's Starlee Kine. [Fashionista]Now that Brian Atwood is partly owned by the large apparel company Jones, the brand is planning to open its first-ever boutique. Three more are to follow in 2013, up to a total of 15 Brian Atwood stores by 2017. [WWD]According to the Rapaport Report, the diamond industry's standard pricing guide, diamond prices are falling due to declining demand in India, where the currency is currently high, and Europe.

The group said the price for one-carat diamonds dropped 13.7 percent year-over-year in June. During the first half of 2012, prices for one-carat diamonds fell 3.6 percent, with the steepest declines occurring during the latter part of May and through June.

You know what this means, ladiez! If he really loves you, he'll buy you a 13.7% bigger rock. [WWD]

And now, a moment with Robin Givhan. Robin, how did winning a Pulitzer for your fashion criticism affect your life and career?

Probably one of the most gratifying things after winning was I got such an outpouring of support from the industry. Mostly women, because with newspapers, certainly, it's mostly been women who've covered the fashion industry, and several of them said that they were so thrilled and felt that it had elevated them in the eyes of their own newsroom because so often, fashion, even though it's a billion-dollar industry, is still seen as this kind of women's concern.

[Style Blazer]

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.