February 21, 2012  6:53 pm

During her three decades in the business, photographer Roxanne Lowit (who is largely credited with pioneering backstage photography) captured rare moments with icons like Yves Saint Laurent, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Salvador Dalí. She’s also the shutterbug behind Backstage Dior, the 2009 tome that gave an inside glimpse at John Galliano’s ready-to-wear and Couture shows. This week, 26 photos, handpicked from the book and Lowit’s days shooting at Studio 54, go on display at the New York members-only club Parlor. Here, Style.com has an exclusive peek at some of the photos that will be included in the installation—which has no end date—launching with a birthday celebration for Lowit.

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Kristin Studeman

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“Why me?” shouted the photographer, laden down with his equipment, as he was evicted from a crowded elevator by a security guard moments before the Jonathan Saunders show was scheduled to begin here in London on Sunday evening.

London Fashion Week

Coverage from in and around the London shows.

Told he had brought the weight limit of the elevator over its recommended level and would have to wait for another, he pointed at another photographer who was allowed to stay, and wailed again, “Why me?”

Why indeed.

There is always a show going on at the fashion weeks in New York, London, Paris and Milan, and the one guarantee is that you’ll have plenty of time to watch it. I’m not talking about the display of the collections themselves — that blur of fabric, technique and glamour that goes by in about seven or eight minutes. I’m talking about the endless time spent waiting, usually a half an hour or more, before the show actually begins, and you Lget to watch the preening, the positioning and the star-gazing that goes on in the audience, all the while wondering why you can’t get cellphone service.

The one thing you can count on is that, no matter how late you are to a show, you are never too late for it to begin.

Until, of course, you are.

Earlier that day, my London cabbie — a tribe usually famous for knowing every nook and cranny of the city — got lost on the way to the Thomas Tait show in the East End. We arrived about 20 minutes late, only to find that the show had actually begun without us, and we were locked outside.

It’s an interesting experience to watch — or not watch — a fashion show from behind closed doors. It all feels familiar. The pounding music that accompanies the models walking down the runway, the rhythmic applause that you know signals the finale, the whoops and hollers that you know mean that the designer has made a brief appearance, and with it the sheepish wave and the relieved smile that let the audience know they can now race out of their seats and make their way to the next show across town.

Since I had missed the show, I chatted with Thomas Tait backstage for a bit, while an assistant showed me pieces from the collection. The young designer seemed happy with the reaction — and it had sounded genuinely appreciative — but expressed frustration that he was still finding it hard to crack the United States market, and, in fact, had yet to find a single New York store to carry his line.

“It’s very difficult,” he said, explaining that, as a small designer, he was producing clothes that many of the American buyers found too expensive for their customer. But, he added, he was beginning to see glimmers of interest from a few more stores, and from a few of the key editors, and hoped that more of them would eventually find their way to his showroom, suggesting that not many had made the trek this time.

And, in fact, though I spotted my colleague from T, Sally Singer, coming out of the show, I saw none of the other major editors or retail executives I had become accustomed to seeing over the course of the fashion weeks in New York and Paris.

Joel Ryan/Associated PressAnna Wintour before the Jonathan Saunders show during London Fashion Week.

A few hours later, however, the front row at Jonathan Saunders was filled with the usual heavy hitters: Anna Wintour and the Vogue contingent, Glenda Bailey from Harper’s Bazaar, Lynn Yeager from New York Magazine, plus some key retailers.

Panicked over having missed the Tait show, I had made it to Saunders right on time. Of course that meant I had about 30 minutes to cool my heels until the first model came out.

I spent most of that time chatting with Suzy Menkes of the IHT, who was telling me about the Stella McCartney dinner the night before. It sounded like fun, with a star-studded crowd and a magician doing party tricks.

But while that gathering of the fashion elite was taking place, I was stuck in a late-night queue at Heathrow, behind about 300 people waiting to go through customs. There were only three officials there to handle the crowd — government cutbacks as part of the David Cameron austerity budget I assume — and it took me nearly two hours to get my passport stamped, and I didn’t exit the airport until nearly 11 p.m. There would be no Stella McCartney dinner, nor even time to make last orders at a pub. (“Why me?” I felt like shouting. “Why me?”)

Joel Ryan/Associated PressA models and the London skyline during the Jonathan Saunders show. 

At one point Suzy and I looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows, with their sweeping view of the East End, and with the setting sun glancing off the shimmering surface of the building known as the Gherkin.

“It’s very beautiful, isn’t it,” she said. It was indeed. We sat there in silence, just looking at the view.

And then the show started. Finally.

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February 18, 2012  3:09 pm

Jackie Lee, or J. JS Lee, as the London-based Korean designer’s label is known, thought of warm fuzzy clouds for her first on-calendar show this afternoon. “I was inspired by clouds, shadows, and innocence,” Lee said between casting sessions. “When I was on the plane back to London from Korea, I looked down at the clouds; pure, clean, giving a comfortably warm feeling. A very Spring/Summer aesthetic, but I really wanted to put that warm feeling into a winter collection.”

Since her 2010 Saint Martins graduate show, Lee has built her name on the tailored, clean pieces ideal for a modern working wardrobe. The cloud motif is a departure. Lee says she wants her woman enveloped in innocence, and the color palette, playing on the theme, is calm and serene, a gray chart from ivory to black with a ray of sunshine, butter yellow. “There are a lot of details on each piece, but you still feel that it’s not messy; it looks very pure.”

Lee’s dresses have very structured bottoms with padded skirts contrasted with floaty tops. One boxy style comes with a squashy padded outline—bar the sleeves that, when worn, fall floppy. Ribbed knitwear features felted panels to the hem for that fuzzy feeling. A collared top has no line for a yoke but includes hand-stitching inside to create the shadow of a yoke: the collection’s theme in a single detail. “That is the story of shadow,” Lee said. “It’s there but it’s not there, it’s real but it’s not real.”

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Amanda is pictured above wearing a cute little Calvin Klein sheath dress at the March of Dime’ 6^th Annual Celebration of Babies event in Beverly Hills, CA. We love this precious pink dress on her. She looks so innocent in the conservative perfectly tailored dress, teamed with a trending pair of nude closed-toe platform pumps. She could recycle this outfit for the coming spring/summer season for sure.

Seyfried rocked a fun flirty Prabal Gurung feathery creation to the 8^th Annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards at the end of last year in New York. There’s just something about Amanda. She’s super pretty and works a minimal makeup look like no one we’ve ever seen before. She paired her white evening dress with a pair of sheer toe ankle strap lace up pumps. Stunning!

Amanda looks like a living doll wearing a provocative Marios Schwab black and nude design to an “In Time” event at the Bristol Hotel. She paired her ensemble with simple black suede platform pumps. We’re thinking that Amanda either never wears makeup or gets her makeup done so well it looks like she isn’t wearing any at all. What do you guys think?

Amanda looks red carpet cute wearing shiny blue short suit by HM to the London premiere of “In Time.” We love that she was daring enough to wear a look like to a big event like this. Her no fuss style absolutely reflects her totally grounded personality. How can you not like this about anyone really? We’re team Amanda all the way!

Last but not least Amanda gave us a little bit of her Hollywood to the Westwood premiere of “In Time” wearing another Prabal Gurung look.  Amanda looked amazing in the unique belted purple print designer gown. She teamed her dress with a pair of ankle strapped open toe pumps. And finally we see her rocking so smoky eye makeup, which she looks great in as well. She can really do no wrong in our eyes.

We’re sure that we’ll be revisiting her style later down the line. As always, thanks for keeping it locked at www.wikifashionista.com, your source for what’s trending in fashion now.

Copyright © 2012 by WikiFashionista.com. All rights reserved.
No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of WikiFashionista.com.

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The girl from “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” was at the show with the models whose hair looked like that of the girl from “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

Did I just blow your mind? If not, the Calvin Klein collection probably will.

But first, the girl. Rooney Mara, the Oscar nominee whom all of fashion wants to dress, was there in a sleeveless black shift with a basket-weave detail at the neckline. She sat next to Emma Stone, in a red sleeveless shift and matching shoes. Last November, Ms. Mara introduced Calvin Klein himself at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund dinner, so you might suspect the house is wooing her.

Fast Fashion

Eric Wilson’s posts on the runway shows.

Stuart Emmrich/The New York TimesRooney Mara (in black dress) at the Calvin Klein show.

Had she made up her mind about what she was wearing to the Oscars, I asked her, as she got up from her seat. She shook her head, a response that could be interpreted either as “Why, no, but thank you for asking, kind sir,” or, “Buzz off, before I get all Lisbeth Sander on you.”

The Calvin Klein company sure seems to be trying. Some of the models wore their hair in severely shorn inky black bobs, kind of a tribute to their honored guest. The crew had spent two days painting every square inch of the show space black, perhaps to make her feel more at home. And Francisco Costa, the designer, personally showed Ms. Mara the collection backstage.

That said, these were probably not Oscar dresses. Mr. Costa showed many dresses and coats that stood away from the body, but there were also some slim looks in black leather and beads that are the closest thing to evening wear he has shown on a runway in some years. There were also coats and jackets held closed with thick silver belts, and a technical wool tweed fabric that looked like bouclé.

Lucas Jackson/Reuters; Kirsten Luce for The New York TimesDespite the Occupy Wall Street protesters antifashion stance, one was wearing a knit owl cap that looked almost identical to the ones that were in Anna Sui’s show last night.

In other news, the reported plans of Occupy Wall Street protesters to disrupt the show turned out to be vastly overstated. It was never really clear why they would target Calvin Klein in the first place, given that the majority of the company’s business, like underwear and T-shirts, is solidly aimed at the 99 percent.

A crowd of two protesters who arrived before the show had swelled to four by the time it was over. And despite their antifashion stance, one of them was wearing a knit owl cap that looked almost identical to the ones that were in Anna Sui’s show last night.

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The list of trends for next fall is piling on as the catwalk previews of new designer collections near their homestretch: There’s fur, leather and lace, cozy knits, military looks. The good news about the new styles is that you can wear them all at once.

The interest in layered separates bodes well for menswear-inspired styles, said Brandon Holley, editor-in-chief of Lucky magazine. “Men dress more in separates, and I think women are enjoying being out of the day dress. That’s when style really comes in for me, when you pick the skirt that will go with the shirt, and the sweater and the bag, and a scarf.”

Holley added, “It’s not just layers, it’s interesting layers.”

The look also extends the life of any one piece through changes in weather. That summer top gets a sweater in the fall, Holley said, and the turtlenecks and knits are so light, you can wear them when it’s warmer outside.

And, she said, it seems like it’s going to be leather weather year-round.

At Wednesday’s Michael Kors show at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week tents at Lincoln Center, models were styled with fur vests over leather trenches and a slip dress underneath, or a Mongolian-fur vest with a chunky alpaca pullover.

“Mix up the texture,” Kors said backstage before the show. “Mohair, tweed, plaid, faux and real fur, satin and lace. “

But if a shopper had to choose just one thing, he’d go with a coat. “The coats and outerwear this season are outrageous.”

MICHAEL KORS

Michael Kors always starts his shows with a couple and this time they were in his-and-her red-check outfits. He wore a tartan plaid coat and checkered trousers, she had on a blanket coat with fringe in the large-square pattern known as buffalo check, plus a cashmere tweed sweater and cashmere short shorts.

Their wardrobe, which also included a sexy, luxe glove-leather trenchcoat for her, and suede utility pants for him, was all about “sporty American glamour,” Kors explained.

“I thought about the `30s and those glamorous Hollywood couples — the Clark Gables and Carole Lombards,” he said in an interview backstage.

The Kors woman might wear a black wool sleeveless peacoat over a black beaded lace dress, or a camel-colored plaid mohair coat with a mohair sweater and plaid cropped pants.

Also shown were a black capelet jacket (a short cape) and pencil skirt, made of soft double-face cashgora (a mix of cashmere and angora), and a black-and-ivory mohair dress with a feather skirt.

Men’s clothes were simpler, heavy on vercoats and slim, slightly short pants.

NANETTE LEPORE

Ever the Midwestern woman, Nanette Lepore sent a colorful but practical collection down the runway.

The Ohio native used deep, saturated reds, purples, blues and greens — no black — in her separates, prints and footwear. The line was modest too, no plunging necklines or slits to the thigh.

“The sort of overt sexiness of the last couple of years is gone and it’s back to a more sort of modest or demure silhouette,” Lepore said backstage. “Which I think is a great way for a woman to feel sexy because I don’t think it’s always about skin.”

Lepore put pockets in her dresses and some models wore flats and loafers, not something often seen on the runway. The shoes were shiny jewel-toned blue, gold and pink. She used gold lame for a bouncy dress and jacket. The prints were intricate, inspired by tarot cards and gems.

J. MENDEL

Gilles Mendel’s new collection moved seamlessly between the expertly crafted fur he is famous for and the goddess red-carpet gowns that are exposing his brand J. Mendel to a larger audience.

An ivory chiffon-embroidered gown with tulle insets and a fully pleated bottom seemed ready for the Oscars.

Mendel favored a light, feminine touch that fashion insiders haven’t seen all that much in the first seven days of seasonal previews for fall. There was a long, graceful shape to the white cashmere coat with a white fox collar worn with a pleated chiffon blouse and wide-leg pants, and he put a fresh spin on the leather look that’s been all over, using textured alligator, often paired with fur.

Those in attendance included Kelly Osbourne and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

MARCHESA

The audience was mesmerized by the Marchesa collection, partly because they wondered how the models could move in the elaborate creations shown by designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig.

The first outfit was a cream-colored, hand-embroidered coat with mermaid-hem pleated tulle gown. From there, they moved into even more elaborate designs, including a champagne-colored gown with feathers that seems to float between the layers of tulle and another strapless feathered dress that looked as if it floated in with the clouds.

The finale featured red embroidery on an otherwise sheer bodice with a high neck and a hand-draped taffeta ballskirt.

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Associated Press Writer Caryn Rousseau contributed to this report.

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February 14, 2012  5:18 pm

Plenty of ink has been spilled about the “Manolo moment,” during which the fashion world has turned its attention back to the pump—and with it, to one of the pump’s sturdiest champions, Manolo Blahnik. Now Lane Crawford is taking its turn to celebrate the legendary footwear designer. The store invited Blahnik to collaborate with a handful of heritage brands to create limited-edition items available only at LC and through its Web site, LaneCrawford.com. The participants range from the century-old glovemakers Causse Gantier, who worked with Blahnik on five styles of leather gloves, and the English trunkmakers Globe-Trotter, who offered a striped luggage collection, to New York’s Connor, who created stationery with Blahnik’s illustrations. Above and below, Style.com has an exclusive look at a few selected pieces on offer, alongside Blahnik’s sketches for the collections. And as well as creating the new, he’ll be toasting the old: ten styles from the Blahnik archive dating back to 1974 will be re-released, including the Piaggi sandal and the mesh lace-up stiletto booties at bottom.

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The app called Made Fashion Week is companion app for people attending the shows, delivering instant content including images of models, item information and designer biographies in sync with what is seen on the catwalk.

“The moment that a model appears on the runway, there’s audio sent through the public address system, delivering the photo that is snapped when she gets three feet (one meter) out of the actual curtain,” said Jonathan Glanz, the CEO of Sonic Notify, which developed the technology.

“The turnaround from the time the model hits the runway to the time the photo turns up on a device is three seconds.”

It also allows attendees to take notes on items, create custom lookbooks and to share favorite designs on Twitter.

Glanz said the aim of the app is to serve as a communication channel for designers to engage viewers during the show, but it can also be used beyond the runway, for example to notify a shopper as to when an item has finally hit stores.

“Because you were at the show, your phone will go off four months from now saying you can go buy these clothes today at Barney’s or Macy’s,” he said.

The content is streamed through high-frequency audio signals that are delivered along with the audible sound one would hear at an event. The technology is plugged into a venue’s mixing boards, and content is encoded and transmitted to mobile devices without relying on GPS or WiFi.

“We’re a passive solution for delivering instant content that’s in the actual sound coming out,” he explained.

Glanz said that Sonic Notify is working with other companies and musicians to create more engagement during live events by sending multimedia content, like songs, coupons or advertisements, to mobile devices.

“A lot of live events have become manufactured. It feels like they’re coming out of a printing press,” he said.

He believes that this type of presence-based content will become more mainstream at live events, where attendees are looking for more engagement.

For example, the technology might be used at a concert to trigger voting for the encore song.

“You really create the interaction that nothing can provide today in that exact timed, orchestrated way. It just engages at a whole different level,” he said.

New York Fashion Week which runs through February16.

(Reporting by Natasha Baker; editing by Patricia Reaney)

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