>> In the latest round of Spring 2011 ad campaigns to pop up, Crystal Renn nabbed a starring role in Jimmy Choo's colorful, colorblocked set shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin; Baptiste Giabiconi sprays Freja Beha Erichsen and Stella Tennant in their Chanel suits with a water hose; and Ellen von Unwerth, who first found fame photographing Claudia Schiffer for Guess, is back for another round with the brand.
>> Spring may not be in the air just yet, but the Spring 2011 ad campaigns sure are: The new year brought the release of a bevy, including Abbey Lee Kershaw's Tom Ford eyewear campaign and a look at Louis Vuitton's latest trio — Raquel Zimmermann, Kristen McMenamy, and Freja Beha Erichsen. There's also a peek at Chanel and Burberry (minus faces Ines de la Fressange for Chanel and Jourdan Dunn for Burberry, whose images have yet to appear), plus Gucci and Roberto Cavalli, left, featuring Laetitia Casta and Malgosia Bela.
>> Alber Elbaz and the Lanvin team descended on New York's Pierre Hotel Thursday evening, transforming it with palm fronds, caged parakeets, models in French maid outfits, and little old men offering up champagne, scotch, crustless tea sandwiches, and macaroons, to show off their H&M collaboration.
At the runway's entrance, a rose-filled arch set with "Lanvin Hearts H&M" in fluorescent lights; to the side of that, a salsa band played live music. And above the runway, there were 20 crystal chandeliers. The venue was packed, to say the least — Sofia Coppola, Patrick Demarchelier, Shala Monroque, Sally Singer, and Grace Coddington were all there, plus more than a handful of other designers sitting front row: Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, Tory Burch, Alexander Wang, Anna Sui.
Katie Grand styled the show — and the models were told to engage with the audience — so Siri Tollerod, as veiled bride, tossed her bouquet; Pixie Geldof strutted down in her gender-bending suit; Anna Dello Russo, walked with a gray standard poodle at her side; and Julia Frakes made her runway debut. The clothes were couture riffs on the Lanvin for H&M collection — on sale to benefit Unicef now — but afterward, there was a frenzy for the Lanvin for H&M collection pop-up shop set up downstairs. Many editors walked away with multiple bags, Coppola bought the tulle jacket, and even Wang did a little shopping of his own.
A video of the show can be seen here.
>> IN THE LOOKING GLASS —The upcoming June 2009 issue of W features a 30-page editorial: a portfolio of the season's best new faces, as chosen by Craig McDean, with Karlie Kloss and Sigrid Agren heavy on rotation; appropriately, Sigrid is said to have her first major cover out this week. Four girls are rumored not to have made the final cut, but Ranya Mordanova, Rose Cordero, Madisyn Ritland, Bara Holotova, Jourdan Dunn, Viktoriya Sasonkina, Karlie Kloss, Amanda Laine, Imogen Morris-Clarke, Dorothea Barth Jorgensen, and Nimue Smit all did — Models.com has a trio of previews. [Models.com, Models.com, Models.com, NY Model Management]
For its Spring '09 campaign, Topshop enlisted the help of models Kori Richardson, Imogen Morris Clarke, Nimue Smit, and Alana Zimmer to show off its trendy collection of fringe, florals, and wild patterns. The ad, shot by Max Farago, exudes young, naive fun and I like it. When you're wearing clothes this colorful and cool, carefree behavior is the only way to go. At first glance, the slightly dull backdrop might look unappealing, but it works since Topshop's offerings provide enough vibrancy on their own. What do you think?
>> Raf Simons had a tough act to follow after his stunning fringe-filled Spring 2009 Jil Sander collection, but he pulled it off. The first half of the Fall 2009 show was filled with simple dresses, tailored coats, trousers, and flats in a predominantly neutral palette, and then a flash of colored strobe lights came on and the real experimentation began. As Cathy Horyn put it, Raf "tried to defy gravity" — stunning curvilinear shapes poked out from the hip of a dress or snaked around the neck of a coat; a contrastingly bright yellow peeked out from the lining of a dress. Two pieces will for sure get play — the structured orange dress on Vlada Roslykova and the black dress on Nimue Smit with asymmetrical shoulders — padding on one side, points on the other. The only question that remains: why was Lithuanian newcomer Auguste Tomasuite (aka Auguste Abeliunaite) crying on the runway?
*image: source
>> For Fall 2008, three of the big campaigns that every model wants to catch — Prada, Balenciaga, and Miu Miu — all went with one big name — Linda Evangelista, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Vanessa Paradis, respectively.
Come Spring 2009, all three labels have decided to switch things up by using a large number of new faces — Prada is using eight models (Anna Jagodzinska, Giedre Dukauskaite, Katrin Thormann, Nimue Smit, Sigrid Agren, Toni Garrn, Viktoriya Sasonkina, Ymre Stiekema); Miu Miu is using eight models as "accessories" to campaign star Katie Holmes (Darya Kurovska, Elena Lomkova, Imogen Morris-Clarke, Katie Fogarty, Myf Shepherd, Sophie Srej, Tilda Lindstam, Yulia Leontieva); and Balenciaga is going with ten models (Amanda Laine, Anabela Belikova, Anna Jagodzinska, Anya Kazakova, Diana Farkhullina, Elsa Sylvan, Hanne-Gaby Odiele, Iris Strubegger, Katie Fogarty, Kinga Rajzak).
Surprisingly, there are only two girls overlapping between the campaigns: Anna Jagodzinska in Balenciaga and Prada and Katie Fogarty in Miu Miu and Balenciaga, and especially in Miu Miu's cast, some girls — Tilda Lindstam, Yulia Leontieva — are very new faces. Although some are skeptical, especially in the case of Miu Miu, that all the models cast will make it into the final shots, it's notable that all three labels, which usually go with one face, have all decided that power comes in numbers this season. Get to know the chosen faces in the gallery below.
*image: source, source, source
