FASHION NEWS AND REVIEWS

Plenty of short hemlines on show during New York and London Fashion Weeks means that either the statisticians are wrong to say that short hemlines represent a strong economy, or fashion is focusing on the positive.
The message at London Fashion Week seemed to be that, in spite of precarious financial news, life keeps marching forward. Doom and gloom on the financial markets only makes us crave reassurance, positive thinking and cheerful silver linings. London designers were happy to oblige.
Luella's sugary pink and yellow mini dresses offered a perfect escape from bankruptcies and mergers this past Monday. Christopher Kane's 3-dimensional circular lines in citrus colours were a break with last season's cool dark shades. Basso & Brooke's collage prints, and House of Holland's dizzying combinations of spots and prints were both playful and witty. Shots of bright flouro colours at Nathan Jenden and Richard Nicoll quickened the pulse.
If the shows were not enough to lift your mood, then the after show parties certainly were. No scrimping on Champagne at Giles' or Christopher Kane's. At Vogue's own Robin Derrick's party, and Lanvin's men's store opening on Savile row, London's best and brightest came out in force.
Despite the fun, there has been a show of restraint mostly in shape and form this season, even from some designers not traditionally known for it. Simple sheath dresses at Giles balanced out his use of colour and print. Aquascutum used a single shade of blue in a play on theme and variation.
With Milan Fashion Week just started and Paris coming up, it will be interesting to see where the collective fashion mood takes us. More short hems and blasts of colour, or maybe a continuation of last season's austere elegance.
With many shows and parties to come, and potentially more worrying financial news ahead, I am packing both short and long hemlines.

Marc Jacobs is tired of seeing young girls wearing black and studs. "It's not such an individual expression," he said after his terrific Spring show, the underlying message of which could've been, duh, be an individual. "If last season was a trip back in time to the eighties," he continued, "this was a trip to the theater, the ballet, the opera." But which shows?

Some saw The King and I in the models' topknots, pointy upturned-toe platform sandals, and Aladdin pants, but it could just as well have been something else. The references, as usual, came at head-spinning speed. There were touches of Zandra Rhodes in the petal-y handkerchief dresses dotted with pearls, and nods in the direction of Jacobs' beloved Japanese designers, especially Rei Kawakubo, in the form of brown and navy suits tweaked with curlicue ruffles. And don't forget the all-Americanisms; Jacobs loves sportswear, both the twisted and the traditional variety.

The show opened with an example of the latter, an almost conventional raincoat belted high above the waist, made strange by the model's Kabuki makeup. Later, Jacobs teamed trim military jackets with long, full skirts and others so short they looked like tufts of ruffles. But there were also zany lamé dresses; lace openwork coats and suits in white and black sequins; a retro silk satin underwear-as-outerwear moment; and sparkly, leg-baring evening numbers that looked like they'd walked right off the stage of a Broadway production and onto the street.

The girls carried big woven bags on long straps, some with foot-long fringe, and a fanny pack made an unlikely appearance, too. That's what's so genius about Jacobs. He can take the most uncool accessory, spin it around, and give it instant fashion cred. Likewise, he can pull references from everywhere and nowhere, and, filtered through his febrile imagination, they have the shock of the new. This show didn't hold together the way his brilliant collection of a year ago did, but that may have been the point. In any case, Jacobs might say, it beats another tired lineup of black leather and studs.

After last year’s Marc Jacobs beauty spectacular—in which 60 models were transformed into walking replicas of 1980’s clubgoers, each with a different look—we were more than a little excited to see what makeup artist François Nars and hairstylist Guido Palau had in store as a follow-up. “It’s definitely not as crazy as last season,” Palau joked. “But it’s still extreme, just in a different manner.” As Jacobs meandered backstage to check over the handiwork of his beauty team, he had one thing to say: “I want to make sure it stays theatrical.” And so Nars and Palau obliged, fashioning their own interpretations of a gothic romantic tribute to the stage. “It’s a little bit ballet,” Nars explained. “We’re trying to create performers, characters,” which meant pale skin, a strong brow, and a dark lip. Sighting an abundance of pastel colors in the collection, Nars kept the makeup graphic, rather than soft and predictably sheer. Coating models’ skin with NARS Sheer Matte Foundation in Siberia—its lightest shade—he added a dusting of loose powder in Snow on top to ensure maximum paleness. He then enhanced the brows with a NARS Eyebrow Pencil, drew a thin extended cat eye on the upper and lower lids, and swept a few coats of NARS’ new Larger Than Life Mascara on top of false lashes. As for the deep lip, yet another appearance of a dark pout for Spring, Nars has no problem breaking barriers. “I kind of hate the idea of Spring and Fall [makeup] colors. I like the idea of wearing a dark red lip in the Spring—why not?” Indeed. In any case, it worked with Palau’s top knots, which were intended to be a little dark, almost macabre. “They’ve got a Marc Jacobs edge,” he said of the high and tight chignons he created by slathering models’ hair with Redken Glass 01, twisting a high ponytail and pinning it onto itself for form and added height. “It can of course be softened up for ‘normal’ people,” he continued. So there is hope for the rest of us.

Kinky-haired girls, rejoice: Texture is back. As celebrities and designers alike embrace tresses with character, the pressure to go straight is slipping away. Beyoncé and Leighton Meester went wild at the VMAs this past weekend, while hairstylists Bob Recine and Orlando Pita created similarly raw hair backstage at Hervé Léger and Diane von Furstenberg, respectively. While, sadly, we did not make it out for MTV’s big night (catching that bizarre Kanye West-Taylor Swift infraction in person would have been day-making), we did get detailed backstage info at the shows, so even if you have super-straight strands, you can still get the look at home. For Recine, it was all about mimicking the “patchwork of fabrics” in Max Azria’s collection, so he prepped the hair with Phytolacque hairspray and created a series of braids, crimps, and curls, which he let set and then finger-combed, leaving definition in the hair. Over at Diane von Furstenberg, Orlando Pita was staunchly opposed to using any product at all. “Diane’s quote was, ‘looking back to antiquity to create flawless beauty’…and there were no products in the old days.” Instead, Pita was after the softness and airiness of virgin hair. To get it, he created five quadrants of thick braids, flat-ironed them, sent the girls over to makeup, and then took them out. Another trick we’ve had success with in the past is washing our hair at night, doing a loose French braid and sleeping on it. Go forth and experiment.

It’s three days before Aretha Franklin makes a pair of rare appearances at Radio City Music Hall (Sept. 17 and 18), but the Queen of Soul is still reminiscing about President Obama’s inauguration. “It was a magnificent moment,” says Franklin, dressed in animal print jersey, Chanel mules and plenty of diamonds while lounging over tea sandwiches in her hotel suite overlooking Central Park. “It just comes along once in a lifetime. [It was that] kind of moment.”

Although Franklin was not pleased with her own shining moment at the ceremony: a spirited rendition of “My Country ’Tis of Thee.” Perhaps her own worst critic, she blames the icy January air and an excited, sleepless night as the reasons behind her unsatisfactory performance. “I should have done what some of the other artists did, and that was to pre-record,” she says. (She went on to release a spectacular studio cut, “Aretha Franklin’s Preferred Version of My Country ’Tis of Thee,” on iTunes in February.)

However, Franklin has no regrets when it comes to her gray wool coat from Tom and Linda Platt — a favorite design duo, whose taffeta gown she chose to wear for this shoot — and that now-famous bow-bedecked hat by Detroit-based milliner Luke Song. As happy as she was with the chapeau, which has become a national artifact, she never expected it to receive such attention. “It just took on a life all its own,” she says with a pause. “Well, I do have good taste, I do have good taste.”

As do most New Yorkers, something Franklin knows quite well. “They’re so sophisticated. They’ve seen the best of everything, so you’ve got to really have it together when you come to New York,” she says, adding that when it comes to her set list, “people want to hear the hits and so I give them what they want.” Indeed, her Thursday- and Friday-night shows here are likely to include such lasting hits as “Respect,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and “Chain of Fools.”

Regarding her fashion sense, Franklin thinks it “has and it hasn’t evolved” throughout her half-century-long career. For one thing, she has always delighted in fine, often surprising details and sumptuous fabrics. One of her first stage outfits, she recalls, was a black silk velvet gown with a brocade underskirt that she would reveal via a subtle flip toward the audience as the young performer took her seat at the piano. “Oh, it was fabulous,” Franklin remembers. “That kind of set the pace for my taste in fashion.”

In the Sixties, Franklin favored designs by Ceil Chapman (a Marilyn Monroe favorite) before moving on to Chanel, Bill Blass and Valentino. Her fashion mantra? “Never anything too fitted or too tight,” she says. “Not good for the diaphragm and singing and expanding — and I have a short waist, so I always favored the Empire look.”

Nowadays, most of what the artist wears (be it to shows, private engagements, the odd inauguration) is custom made, a result, she admits, of her weight gain and, seemingly, her desire to have things just so — a standard not limited to fashion. For this interview and shoot, she made several specific requests: Everything had to take place below the fifth floor (she has a fear of heights and flying), no air-conditioning and only four other people in the room at one time.

MODELLING insiders are organising a takeover of the Miss Universe Australia competition, campaigning for an end to dodgy venues and a wider approach to choosing contestants.
Critics said that unlike in the US - where even the smallest town would hold its own pageant to find a winner - only two proper heats were held in Australia.

One Sydney father told how he spent $15,000 on singing lessons, coaches, personal training and grooming in the lead-up to his daughter's entry to the competition, only for her to get a couple of minutes with the national organiser Deborah Miller at Cronulla's Sting Bar in March.

"When we went along to do the pageant thing it was in a divey bar full of other people and men getting drunk and that kind of thing, it was quite disgusting," Anthony Pask, of Bonnet Bay, said.

His daughter Amber (right), then aged 24, did not get the opportunity to wear the $4500 gown she had tailored and the swimsuit section was cancelled to prevent the girls from being ogled.

Ms Miller said the girl was envious of the success of Miss Universe Australia Rachael Finch.

"They all believe they should be in the top 10," she said. Ms Miller was adamant she would continue to run the competition and was already advertising for new contestants.

She refused to discuss the details of her contract with the Miss Universe organisation in the US and stated only "it is ongoing".

Townsville heat organiser Henry Petersen said he believed the pageant was not being run "to its full potential" but had kept silent until now to give Finch her best shot at the crown.

• Magazine swamped with letters of support
• Showed un-airbrushed plus-size model
• Now planning whole issue on body image

THEY'VE been dubbed the "wobbly bits that shook the world", inspiring women to learn to love their "love handles".

The US glossy magazine Glamour is usually the domain of waif-thin models in impossibly sized clothes.

But when an un-airbrushed photo of plus-size pin-up Lizzie Miller appeared in its pages, far from being swamped by protests readers inundated the editor with support, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Hundreds of fans flooded the magazine's website with appreciative comments like: "I love this picture. I was starting to despair of ever seeing real women in magazines and it made me reassess how I look at myself. I have a similar tummy, which I hate - but look at her, she's beautiful."

Now the magazine is planning an entire edition dedicated to the improved body image issue.

Despite the overwhelmingly positive response, Ms Miller has admitted that seeing her small roll of flesh in the magazine made her cringe.

"I'm just like every girl or person with insecurities," the 20-year-old said. "You zone in on the (worst) part. Let's just say you're your own worst critic."

Ms Miller said the image had been shot for a feature that appeared in April but was printed last month, to her surprise.

"Honestly, the editor chose that picture not because she was zoned in to a certain part of my body but the picture as a whole really captures me in a moment of feeling comfortable and sexy and happy," Ms Miller said.

Sydney has already been swept up with the boom for the fuller-figured in fashion.

Big Gals Models agent Darrianne Donnelly said the move to embrace plus-size models and all body shapes had finally started to reflect the reality of body types in the community.

Her stable of size 12 and over stars was featured in an extraordinary plus-size catwalk show at the recent Rosemount Fashion Festival and welcomed with hoots and hollering from the audience.

"It's gone ballistic (since the show). We've been here for 13 years but the rest of the fashion industry has finally caught up," Ms Donnelly said.

This year Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue, made headlines when she criticized designers for encouraging size 0 models by sending only tiny clothes for fashion shoots.

WITH all London's fashion stores counting up the successes of Thursday's Fashion's Night Out - many recorded record sales and saw hundreds of new customers through the door - we're now asking ourselves whether the Vogue event will become an annual celebration of shopping.
"I was impressed by the different ages of the customers from young fashion devotees to older bejewelled ladies," said a spokeswoman from Prada. "A great event for Vogue to own and having had fashion directors Lucinda Chambers and Kate Phelan in store would love even more in-store activity next time by the editors."
Burberry, meanwhile, recorded a 15 per cent increase in sales, Diane Von Furstenberg sold "more than we ever have", Nicole Farhi made £6k in retail sales over the four hour event and saw 600 hundred shoppers through the store and Matthew Williamson is already planning "bigger and better" for next year.
Little Boots, who DJ-ed in Marks & Spencer later in the evening, ensured that there was A-list glitter to the shopping heaven that was Fashion's Night Out - and whether you were there to buy the now-iconic FNO T-shirt - designed by Lucinda Chambers and sold in aid of London homeless charity Crisis - to buy up your winter wardrobe, or to simply spot celebrities and soak up a little of the Vogue glamour, the global event has been judged an all-out success. Here's to next year.

Look at the weird hair style o.o

Never ever I'm gonna die single