Gucci Fall Winter 2010 Collection

Saturday February 27th, 2010 – Piazza Oberdan – Milan

For this upcoming Fall collection, Frida Giannini’s inspiration came from Gucci’s Golden years, circa 70’s and 90’s. Pushing the glamour envelope wide open, Giannini showed the new Gucci girl dressed to the 9’s in the house’s DNA.

With a careful eye toward detail and modernity, each piece reflected the “sur mesure” originality and the artisanal know how that Gucci has always been known for. Oversized and deconstructed cashmere coats, plays on trenchcoats reinterpreted as dresses, and even some signs of skin just in time for winter, the Gucci woman is as sensual as she has ever been.

For Frida, ‘La Dona Gucci’ wears a light multicolor fox vest, a camel coat with a removable mink knit and even a Zibeline vest interlaced with suede. Unique patchworks of precious skins made of ostrich, suede, and leather are all nods to the house’s time-honored craftsmanship skills with exotic materials.

Evening-wear were inspired by a cool, controlled opulence. Chantilly laced dresses were transformed into a lustful beauty, giving off an almost fetish austerity, through the delicate use of python prints. Vinyl sequined pieces had an almost 3D effect and are elevated to a plateau of greater eye candy through an intricate use of ostrich feathers. Shoulders with sequins or ostrich feather, lace tights and crocodile sandals completed the look.

Taking cues from the House Of Gucci archives, Frida added a 1973 metallic iconic design to the new line of bags, as was seen on the miniature bags with a long gold chains, supple ostrich bags and evening pouches. Extravagant crocodile details could be seen on travel-inspired bags, shoes, patent leather and metallic platforms. The original ‘diamante’ motif makes a welcome reappearance on bags, re-infusing the accessories line with the Casa’s core traditions. The gold bracelets and necklaces framed the Gucci silhouette and seemed naturally at home amidst all the leather elements. “Frida Giannini delivered once again a collection that reflected Gucci tradition and modernity” François Henri Pinault confessed recently to ELLE France, adding  that “There is an inexplicable relation between the success of a brand and its designer. This is the case for Frida, she is the femme Gucci”.

Shop Gucci via gucci.com

Gucci Fall Winter 2010 Fashion Show Video

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Frederic Fekkai for Marchesa Fall Winter 2010 Presentation

Wednesday February 17th, 2010 – Chelsea Art Museum

With all the focus on the clothes, bags and shoes this New York Fashion Week, most people often overlook two key accessories that can leave editors either loving or hating a collection: hair and makeup. But with the fashion bar set so high at the latest Marchesa Fall Winter 2010 show, it would take legendary coiffeur Frédéric Fekkai to deliver the “cirque chic” style that Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig had in mind when they created their latest collection.

Backstage at the Marchesa show, we met up with Lead HairStylist Renato Campora from the Fekkai group and watched as he and his team worked on teasing, brushing and dry shampoing a bevy of models. By the 7th day of fashion week, many of these models‘ don’t even remember what their original hair looked like much less be able to tame it after all the abuse it’s gone through. But little by little, we watched Renato Campora as he took some of the most disheveled sets of hair we’ve seen and transform it into an effortlessly tousled, bouclé, and courtesan coiffure.

As he explained it to us, the technique is somewhat simple but the result is pure glamour. He first used the Frederic Fekkai Coiff Extra Control Styling Gel to restore manageability to the model’s hair, which he then followed with a simple wash and blow dry process. Then he added the secret ingredient necessary to get that hay-like, matte feel to the hair -  Frederic Fekkai Au Naturel Dry Shampoo.

Now I know that you’re probably thinking to yourself “I don’t want to seem stupid here but what the heck is dry shampoo and how do you even use it?” Well, that’s at least what I thought at first, until I saw it being used on the model and understood what it can do. Using the Frederic Fekkai Au Naturel Dry Shampoo, Renato peppered the model’s hair, brushing it into the strands, helping to build hair volume but yet give it a matte finish as well. He then teased the hair, wrapped back the middle strands around pencil-shaped tin foils that were later bent to hold everything in place. He then repeated this process 4-5 times around the entire head, checking to see that everything looked semi-symmetrical. His assistant then took to using a flat iron on the curls, for 30 seconds each, to give it that final curly dimension.

After adding the Frederic Fekkai Sheer Hold Hairspray to the top ensemble, a loose back braid was created & tied with a black bow to compliment the Marchesa look. But the Fekkai hair styling technique wouldn’t be complete without final attention to the proportion of the hair to the face. Renato looked at the model’s faces from every which way to make sure the hair was ‘just right’, sometimes even redoing 30 minutes worth of curls just to make sure it was balanced.

If you just stepped into the backstage room right before show time, you’d think the building was on fire and the exits were all sealed. But amidst the chaos, you saw two camps take strands of hair and thread to form one cohesive oeuvre d’art. Curious to see the result?Check below for images on how the looks turned out (and you’re curious and have no plans this weekend, well…you now have something to try out).

Get the Look – Hair: All products by Frederic Fekkai. Renato Campora used Frederic Fekkai Au Naturel Dry Shampoo to make hair full and dry, and add texture. He also used Frederic Fekkai Coiff Extra Control Styling Gel for hold. Then Renato used the Frederic Fekkai Sheer Hold Hairspray to the top ensemble, a loose back braid was created & tied with a black bow

Get the Look – Makeup: All products by Le Métier de Beauté. On lips, Talia Shobrook used Miami Lipstick under Bali-Or-Kona lipstick, which was blotted in the center. On eyes, she used a bluish-green shadow called Blue Steel and then mixed it with a new product called Magic, which was used all over the face.

Find exclusive Frederic Fekkai Hair Care Collection via Fekkai.com, via Nordstrom.com, and via Bloomingdales.com

See our pictures below:

Chanel Rouge Coco Intimate Dinner with Vanessa Paradis

Tuesday February 9th – The Mark

Chanel celebrated the launch of Rouge Coco, their new lipstick by hosting an intimate dinner with Vanessa Paradis at The Mark restaurant by Jean Georges. Vanessa Paradis which has been the image of the Coco Chanel fragrance in 1992 and the muse of the Cambon handbags in 2003, is now the Chanel Rouge Coco image. The dinner counted Caroline Sieber sporting the new Chanel tatouage, Rachel Zoe, Kate Bosworth, Terry Richardson, Olivier Zham, Daphnee Guinness, Frederic Fekkai, Alexandra Richards, Nina Garcia, Leigh Lezark, Amanda Brooks, Chiara Clemente, Allison Sarofim, Anouk Lepere, Margerita Missoni, Edita Vilkeviciute, Irina Lazareanu, Jennifer Brill, Poppy Delevingne, Sigrid Agren, Mary Frey, Mario Sorrenti and Heidi Mount.

Get the Chanel Rouge Coco Lipstick  via Nordstrom

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Why Rachel Zoe Loves DVF

In tonight Rachel Zoe project we will get to see Rachel Zoe visiting Diane Von Furstenberg studio to get a sneak peak of the Fall Winter 2009 Collection.

Diane explained “This collection is called ‘nomad’. Wherever she goes, she belongs. Her clothes are her friends.” Diane continued to explain that much of the inspiration was drawn from her travels in the Middle East. She eloquently mentioned “The inspiration for this collection was also to give women real clothes, comfy warm pieces. The colors are drawn from the desert tones.”

Womens loves DVF because like Diane pointed out, it’s real clothes. We saw  beautiful looks on the runways  but sometimes it’s most likely not wearable and frequently very expensive. With Diane Von Furstenberg collections it’s different, your runway dream can definitely come to reality!

Here is one of the few pieces we love, Printed taffeta dress Diane Von Furstenberg updates her iconic wrap dress with this multicolored taffeta style.

it’s the must have piece of the season, it goes with everything, we love how it’s accessorized on the fashion show. You can get it for $425.  Diane von Furstenberg Printed taffeta dress

Watch our DVF Fall 2009 Show video below:

Rachel Zoe Launches RachelZoe.com

The Zoe Report rachelzoe.com is now officially online and we can’t wait to see where this Rachel Zoe lifestyle newsletter will lead. As a first look I don’t really understand what’s it’s about but overall it looks like a multi-section blog with accessories, apparel, beauty, jewelry and a lifestyle section.

There is also a “ask Rachel” button, Rachel is so accessible!

We can see a Piperlime ad banner of “Rachel Zoe Picks” (Rachel is a consultant for the brand) along with an another ad banner of her best seller book “from A to Zoe”.

Rachel models on each page, with a turban, hats, ostrich hair coat… she reminds us of Barbie, like Barbie Rachel wears tons of different outfits (Barbie chic, Barbie party girl etc…). Outfits questionable in term of taste & style, while we have nothing to say about her perfect sense of style when it comes to dress others.

The only article as of today is about  her designer friend “Brian Atwood’s latest imaginative creation” the Lola platform shoes.

Can we say we smell a conflict of interest here?

We saw Rachel Zoe during Fall 09 New York Fashion Week and then in Paris, all we can say is that the person that we saw and loved on the The Rachel Zoe Project (which premieres Aug. 24 at 10 PM on Bravo) is quite a bit different in: how can we say that? in real “Reality”?

Rachel Zoe claimed in 2008 that she might be more influential than Vogue Anna Wintour. Now that Rachel Zoe has a new Media Communication tool: Her website, we can’t wait to see how influential she can be.

As Bravo likes to say: “Watch what happens!”

Pictures courtesy of rachelzoe.com

New Yorkers for Children Gala

One of the most important charity event “New Yorkers For Children” took place at the Mandarin Oriental on April 15, 2009.

Models such as the sweet Arlenis Sosa, socials and celebrities showed up to support the cause. Zac Posen was Coco Rocha‘s chaperon and was wearing a coat as extravagant as Lady Bunny‘s outfit at the opening of the Cavali Store in Paris.

Fabiola Beracasa burned the dance floor wearing a vintage Thierry Mugler dress while Tinsley Mortimer was wearing Dior.

Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson were closely dancing,  Genevieve Jones had some fun with Chrsitian Cota and Olivia Palermo confessed that she has plenty of new projects but can’t talk about it.

Rachel Zoe was talking about the upcoming Bravo A-list Award and congratulated Diane Kruger wearing Marchesa. The party ended at the Rose Bar.

See the pictures below:

Pictures from WWD

Rag & Bone Fall Winter 2009 Collection

Friday February 13th 2009 – 5 pm – Cedar Lake

“Samurai and Star Wars” was the inspiration confessed Marcus Wainwright and David Neville. We felt the Samourai part not quite the Star Wars inspiration. The collection was a succession of dark looks with a red accent. we really like the first look which was a Black Leather & Wool Fencing Jacket with a Schoeller Basketweave Kilt (worn by Anna Jagodzinska), the Ninja Men’s pants, the Denim Legging, the Leather Legging, the Black Wool Armor Dress With Metal Sequins. Anna Wintour was next to Hamish Bowles, few seat away Julia Restoin Roitfeld was snapping pictures with Genevieve Jones who was doing her fashion diary for interview magazine. Becki Newton & Chris Diamantopoulos were posing for photographers  while Jimmy Fallon was talking to a reporter. We catched up with model Isabeli Fontana that we met the night before at the Victoria Secret Party told us that she loved the collection and wanted to keep all the Rag & Bone Clothes. Rachel Zoe and five crew member (Make Up Artist, a photographer, camcorder + Brad Goreski and Taylor) was saying that her airline company left her luggage in LA and that it was a desaster since she had clients counting on her here in NY for fashion week. Was this part of the “Rachel Zoe Project” script? At least the crew was filming her every moves.

Shop the Rag & Bone Fall Winter 2009 Collection on

Watch our video

See our pictures below

Marc Jacobs Spring Summer 2009 Collection

We arrived at the New York State Armory at 8:55 pm and it was a mad house inside. Martha Stewart chasing Helena Christensen to snap a pic, Suzy Menkes taking a paparazzi picture of Jennifer Lopez. Victoria Beckham was still posing for photographs while Nicole Richie was chatting with Rachel Zoe! The show started on time at 9 pm.

The set made of hall of mirrors was quite unusual and was according to Marc Jacobs inspired by the Haute Couture Fall Winter 2008 Chanel show.

Marc Jacobs said backstage: “yes of course I have my reference but who cares, you enjoyed the show that the only thing I care about” when we were all asking for his inspirations. Was it Mary Popins? Broadway insprired? Yves Saint Laurent’s Ballets Russes collection redux? Jacobs was not clear.

We were amazed by the collection as it was a real show, I mean by “show”: a spectacle.

Prairie skirt, Cowboy print shirt twisted with a leather bow skirt, lurex and taffetas… a classic dark grey suit was first on the list of the main buyers such as Bergdorf Goodman’s Linda Fargo or net-a-porter’s Nathalie Massenet. Crushed-straw hat, a chunky necklace, and a quilted chain-link bag that will drive us crazy next summer.