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It's no secret that designers have been looking to the animal kingdom for inspiration these days. But Rupert Sanderson's approach is more literal than anything we've seen thus far. The footwear designer and his team decided to try something a bit daring for his Spring '14 campaign, and enlisted live snakes to star in the ads.
Debuting exclusively on cbamd.com, the snaps depict a rainbow of snakes gliding over models' feet and slithering up their legs. Truth be told, our first reaction was simply…yikes. But rest assured, no models (or snakes) were harmed in the making of these ads. "In the first shot, there was a lot of screaming!" Sanderson said. "But as the day progressed, everyone became so used to having the snakes around. It was more about their silhouettes and the graphic shapes they were making than the snakes themselves."
To provide a glimpse of the snakes in action, Sanderson also created a behind-the-scenes video of the campaign (below). "We wanted something dynamic and fascinating to watch," he said. An especially alluring clip portrays a black-, white-, and red-striped snake coiled menacingly around a model's foot. But you know the old saying: Red touches black, you're OK, Jack.
Rupert Sanderson's Spring '14 collection and campaign will launch in February 2014. For more information, visit www.cbamd.com.
With Christmas less than a week away, the celebrity set's calendars are brimming with holiday parties that call for lots of glitz and glamour. On Sunday Anna Kendrick hosted TNT's annual Christmas in Washington spectacular, which brought out notables including Sheryl Crow and even the First Family. Kendrick chose an ivory velvet J. Mendel gown with a strapless V-cut bodice for the event, while FLOTUS opted for a tailored white Resort '13 J. Mendel jacket embroidered with silver and a white pleated skirt.
On the party circuit, Florence Welch attended Love magazine's Christmas party on Tuesday in London in sheer black lace pants and a capelike top from Marios Schwab's Spring '14 runway. Miley Cyrus took to the red carpet on Friday evening for New York's Jingle Ball concert, pairing a Spring '14 MM6 Maison Martin Margiela sleeveless tuxedo blouse with Maison Martin Margiela Fall '13 black high-waisted pants with yellow stripes painted down the sides.
While most businesses are closed on Christmas Day, it has become tradition for a handful of blockbusters to hit theaters. (What better way to entertain yourself after opening that sweater from Grandma?) Among this year's buzzed-about December 25 releases is August: Osage County, starring A-listers Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep. The duo posed on the red carpet together during Monday's L.A. premiere, with Roberts in a tuxedo-inspired Givenchy ensemble and Streep sporting a white knee-length Gucci wool frock.
Here, more of this week's red-carpet highlights.
Who said lookbooks had to be boring? Chanel has released the press kit for its Pre-Fall Metiers d'Art collection, which debuted with much fanfare in Dallas last week. And, thanks to couturier-cum-shutterbug Karl Lagerfeld, the package includes some campaign-worthy images, which star his show opener, the newly platinum Ashleigh Good. Sure, the pair had a little fun with the clothes' Texas theme (cue the photos' sepia tone, and Good striking a shoot-em-up pose in leather gloves and a metal-fringed jacket). But the snaps, which show every painstaking detail of the Western-inspired range, are cold hard proof that, despite some critics' concerns, Karl's latest outing is anything but costume.
Missoni has a bit of a thing for quirky fashion films. If you'll remember, last season Stella Tennant struck some wacky poses for the Fall '13 Alasdair McLellan-lensed campaign and video. The house continues in that vein today, with the debut of its Spring '14 ads and film. Original-supermodel-going-strong Christy Turlington stars in the Spring spread, showing off Missoni's printed wares alongside model Vincent Lacrocq and some giant, geometric Plexiglas cutouts (which, if you look closely, actually spell out M-i-s-s-o-n-i frame-by-frame). Shot by artist Viviane Sassen in the Canary Islands, the serene but offbeat images and short have a vintage sci-fi edge, and we think that's somewhat fitting, considering Turlington—who, at 44, has been nabbing a bevy of major campaigns and recently ran the New York Marathon—is nothing short of a modern-day Wonder Woman. Watch her in the film's debut, below.
Launched in June 2012, the London Collections: Men, which now kicks off the menswear season, has definitely made the fashion calendar a little tight (and consequently ruffled some old-establishment feathers along the way). However, it's an important platform for the city's wealth of menswear talent (both up-and-coming and established), who were previously made to present the day after the women's shows—or simply in a different city. (Burberry, for instance, returned to its native London last season after a long history of showing in Milan.) But, according to WWD, the platform is getting some pushback from its Italian counterpart. This season, LC:M, which begins on January 6, overlaps two days with Florence's Pitti Uomo, thus forcing buyers and editors to choose the shows, events, and presentations in one city over the other. "We haven't reached any agreement [on dates]," said British GQ editor Dylan Jones, who serves as the chair of LC:M. "As far as I'm concerned, we've offered so many olive branches. [The Italian organizers] seem to be intransigent and don't appear to be particularly interested in working with London, so we're just going to go ahead." Which metropolis will emerge victorious? Tune in this January to see how it all turns out.
For those who didn't get their fill after Marc Jacobs' decadent, retrospective farewell show in October, the designer today presented a bonus swan song for Louis Vuitton: the Spring '14 campaign. Lensed by Steven Meisel, the ads pay tribute to Jacobs' Vuitton muses, including Catherine Deneuve, Sofia Coppola, Caroline de Maigret, Gisele Bundchen, Edie Campbell, and Fan Bingbing. They may have been Jacobs' inspirations, but we have a feeling these leading ladies will stay in the Vuitton family under Nicolas Ghesquiere's reign.
Back in September, a rumor broke out that Anthony Vaccarello, the hot emerging Belgian talent known for his daring, slit-up-to-here wares, might be the next Versus Versace collaborator. And lo and behold, it's turned out to be true. Versace announced today that the collection, which will no doubt be a slick, saucy offering, is set to debut in 2014. Vaccarello succeeds Christopher Kane, J.W. Anderson , and M.I.A., all of whom have collaborated with the brand.
For the past two seasons, Jason Wu's ads have explored New York's most iconic eateries. With Inez & Vinoodh behind the lens, he took Stephanie Seymour to La Grenouille for Spring '13 and dined with Christy Turlington at Mr. Chow last Fall. The restaurant tour continues for Spring '14, as Wu's latest campaign depicts show opener Karen Elson posing against the famed leafy wallpaper at Indochine. "There is something so unapologetically glamorous about these images that seem to embody everything that I adore and want to express through my clothes," said Wu of the ongoing narrative.
The restaurant, which has hosted more art and fashion fetes than we have room to list since opening in 1984, is a fitting backdrop for Wu's moody Spring snaps. And the designer has some particularly fond memories of the enduring hot spot. "I first went to Indochine when I was a student at Parsons. I snuck into a party there during fashion week and met Cindy Crawford. I was so starstruck!" Wu recalled. "As a child of the 90s, I've always idolized supermodels, and that was the first time I had ever met one. It was a religious experience." The insider mainstay has since become one of Wu's favorite places to grab a bite. "There's never a dull night there! I always meet the most interesting people," he said. These days, it's safe to bet that Wu is always on the list.
Take a first look at Jason Wu's Inez & Vinoodh-lensed Spring '14 campaign here, exclusively on cbamd.com.
Last night in London, Christie's South Kensington auction house played host to an exhibition and discussion orchestrated by the Fashion Illustration Gallery (FIG). And while the audience sat through the Issa London-sponsored talk, whose panel included Christie's Meredith Etherington-Smith, illustrator David Downton (whose work is pictured above, top left), and cbamd.com's Tim Blanks, they were left wondering: Should astute art investors buy up fashion illustration in the same way the world should have snatched up early Basquiat or Koons? "Before Andy Warhol was Andy Warhol, he was a fashion illustrator," said Etherington-Smith. "Fifty years ago, the art world debated whether photography was a bona fide art form, and the same is happening now with fashion illustration. I believe there is no doubt fashion illustration is an art, but a vastly underappreciated one."
The art on display last night represented the old guard like Cecil Beaton, Antonio Lopez (above, bottom left), and Andy Warhol, as well as such new talents as Gary Card (above, top right), Zoe Taylor (above, bottom right), and Tanya Ling. Strange bedfellows? Not according to Downton. "Some of the younger fashion illustrators out there are the most skilled draftsmen," he said. "They very much should take their place alongside the great artists of days gone."
Among the questions thrown out to an audience that included Suzy Menkes, Camilla Al Fayed, and Susie Bubble: Will fashion illustration ever be accepted as an art form? And will magazine editors ever replace celebs for illustrations? Downton, perhaps, answered these queries best. "The illustration I did a few years back of Cate Blanchett for Australian Vogue was, against all odds, the fastest-selling issue of the year. It also won the Maggie's Magazine Cover of the Year. After that, there was no doubt for me that there is a place in the art world for fashion illustration."
FIG's exhibition at Christie's South Kensington runs through December 19.
We here at cbamd.com are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Rei Kawakubo's New York Dover Street Market, which will open its doors on Saturday. But according to WWD , the Big Apple is in for yet another dose of Japanese retail bliss. Isetan, Japan's largest, and possibly coolest, department store, is opening a pop-up in Soho. The shop will bow at 47 Greene Street and is slated to run from February 6 to 13—launching just in time for fashion week. Isetan comes to us by way of the Cool Japan campaign, an effort by the Japanese government to help brands get global exposure. Kansai Yamamoto (i.e., the designer who created David Bowie's famous striped jumpsuit), Mint Designs, N. Hoolywood, and Yohji Yamamoto are just some of the labels that will be available. All we have to say is, Arigato.