As an Oscar host, costume changes are expected — but none have ever been as stylish an assortment as Anne Hathaway's. With the help of the amazing Rachel Zoe, Anne donned a bevy of glamorous looks, ranging from a fringed Oscar de la Renta gown, to a liquidy-blue Armani Privé stunner, and even a slim-fitting Lanvin tuxedo. Anne looked pretty phenomenal in each look, but we're dying to know — which one was your favorite?
>> Since her collection's inception, Victoria Beckham has hosted her fashion show presentations in intimate settings, narrating each look. Same goes for L'Wren Scott, who has for many seasons kept her presentations intimate enough to simultaneously serve a lunch. And over a year ago, Marc Jacobs downsized his fashion show invites from 1,400 to 500. But after Tom Ford trumpeted the merits of an intimate show last fashion week, some think a change toward smaller shows is in the air.
“He [Ford] shook up the industry,” said Paul Wilmot, a fashion publicist whose firm handles the Oscar de la Renta and Bill Blass shows. “And if somebody says they weren’t influenced, that would be a lie.” James Laforce, who handles shows like Vena Cava, notes: “I’ve heard plenty of people saying, ‘Let’s do a Tom Ford kind of thing.’ They are asking themselves, ‘Is more really more, or is more watering down our influence?’” And KCD's Ed Filipowski, who produces shows for Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim, and Jacobs, agrees: “Intimate is a word that’s definitely in the air."
It's true: a spokesman for IMG, which produces the Lincoln Center shows, says that there has been an increased demand for the smaller Lincoln Center venues like the Box, at 250 seats, and the Studio, which seats 500.
Altuzarra has invited a third fewer guests than last season — less than 300. “In this day and age when there are so many shows, everything gets so much coverage through live streaming, Twitter and the blogs,” Coline Choay, the label's director of publicity and marketing, notes. “You want to make the live show experience special . . . Intimacy, exclusivity and a chance to see the clothes: those are our priorities. We like exposure, but we want a more controlled exposure.”
However, in some cases, the move to intimacy could be a more amenable front for financial constraints. Publicist Vanessa von Bismarck, who handles shows for the likes of Edun, Erin Fetherston, and Suno, says that financial pressures caused some of her clients to go for a smaller production: "They just don’t have the money to put on a big show.” And as Filipowski pointed out: “In reality, we’re not seeing big changes in the size of the shows.”
>> She didn't name names, but it was fairly clear that Franca Sozzani, in a blog post last month, was criticizing one of Carine Roitfeld's last issues of Vogue Paris — the December Tom Ford guest-edited issue. In a more recent interview, Sozzani said, “Honestly, I don’t think a stylist has a vision for a magazine.” Both Roitfeld and her fashion director — and now new Vogue Paris editor — Emmanuelle Alt are stylists.
Sozzani wasn't the only one who wasn't feeling that Tom Ford-edited December issue — people in Paris speculated, Cathy Horyn reports, that it triggered Roitfeld's undoing. Roitfeld last month told Horyn that her bosses received complaints from advertisers over the Ford issue. “I was killed for that,” Roitfeld added. “You know, it’s difficult to try to do something new each month.”
According to several close to the matter, Roitfeld offered to resign when the issue of her management came under question (she was frequently out of the office on shoots). She could have been bluffing, but her resignation was accepted. When asked whether her frequent office absence was a contributing factor, Roitfeld admitted: “Maybe, maybe. Everybody has an opinion. Before, it wasn’t a problem, and anyway the magazine was doing very well. It’s difficult to work with a big team. Maybe it’s good I go back to my roots.”
But she says she doesn't regret resigning: "I’m very sad, but in a way I’m very happy, too. I don’t want to get old in this golden cage. I’m very punk in a way.”
Apparently she and Alt no longer speak, however, and neither would say why. Alt, who is attending New York Fashion Week for the first time in years, notes: “I don’t look back and see clouds anywhere. Carine is someone who needs to be free. She’s the rebel of the class. She hates authority. She dealt with it for years but . . . ” The magazine was profitable and experienced a 40 percent leap in circulation under Roitfeld's tenure.
>> It's well established at this point that Tom Ford won't be doing a show for his second womenswear collection — he'll only be doing press appointments with magazine editors . . . no news reporters allowed. A Ford spokesman confirmed: "[There] will only be a small presentation for international monthly magazines." And Harper's Bazaar is reporting that cameras will again be barred — save perhaps for Terry Richardson's. The appointments will be held at Ford's London showroom during London Fashion Week, instead of in New York like last season, which means that all the major fashion editors will have to stop by London. Perhaps that's partially why Emmanuelle Alt decided to attend London Fashion Week this season?
And speaking of Ford, there is no veracity to the rumors that Keira Knightley has signed on to be the collection's face for the next six years. Elle UK had reported that Knightley was modeling Ford's first womenswear collection for six years — since 2004 — and the wording was misconstrued. A Ford spokesperson told Fashionetc.: “Keira is just modeling the collection for the first time in six years. She is not the new face of the brand.”
>> Tom Ford covers Interview's February 2011 issue, shot by Craig McDean. In the accompanying cover story, Ford offers up his usual hot shots: "I think gay men make better designers."
Or: "There are moments where I am sexually attracted to women. But it doesn’t overpower my first impulse; my lust for them is the same as my lust for beauty in all things. It’s not like I ever think, 'Oh, my god, I’ve got to spread her legs and f*ck her.'”
And then he tells a story about how he did an interview "sitting with my legs wide open, completely naked," with a straight male reporter because Ford had told him, "When I come home I actually take off all my clothes, and I wear no clothes until I leave. I eat naked. I do everything completely naked." And the reporter thought it would make for a great interview.
But Ford willingly admits that he says things like the above as a front: "Most people don’t actually know me. They know the projection of me that I use to sell things. And they know me from an expression of material beauty. I’m actually very introverted. I’m very shy. I’m very emotional."
He adds: "I grew up mostly in New Mexico, which is famous for sunsets and mountains and trees. That’s the reason I have a place there and spend so much time there now. When I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was to escape what I thought was the country and get to a city. Probably film and television had influenced me so much, I really thought the key to happiness was living a very artificial life in a penthouse in New York with martini glasses . . . As an adult working in the fashion industry, I struggle with materialism. And I’m one of the least materialistic people that exist, because material possessions don’t mean much to me. They’re beautiful, I enjoy them, they can enhance your life to a certain degree, but they’re ultimately not important. Your connections with other people are important, our connection to the earth. And that’s why I go to New Mexico as often as I can. And what I find to be the most beautiful thing in the world now is nature — sunsets, trees, my horses."
![Tom Ford Visionaries Documentary Film Trailer & Clips [Video]](http://media2.onsugar.com/files/2012/08/32/1/166/1668379/27153ebd5e711208_Screen-shot-2012-08-06-at-8.41.07-PM.xxlarge/i/Tom-Ford-Visionaries-Documentary-Film-Trailer-Clips-Video.jpg "Tom Ford Visionaries Documentary Film Trailer & Clips [Video]")
