>> Here it is, in all its music-festival-inspired, desert-hued glory. Tinged with Western influences and a boho vibe, Club Monaco's latest lookbook features a bevy of laid-back separates just right for kicking off the Summer season: gauzy cabana blouses, palm-tree-print dresses, billowing maxi skirts, and floaty peasant tops. Pieces don't hit stores until April, but peep the whole collection — as modeled by Eniko Mihalik and Valerija Kelava in Palm Springs — here, in the slideshow.
>> Stella McCartney is known for her quirky, even cartoony campaigns, and this time, she enlisted Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott to shoot Joan Smalls and Malgosia Bela for Spring 2011. The ads show Bela wearing nothing but a collage of blown-up images of McCartney's Spring fruit print or Smalls wearing a swimsuit-shaped collage of pastel-colored suit lapels. “I wanted to play with the purity and realism of the citrus print from summer 2011….exaggerating the scale and playing with the female form in its purest form, as nature intended,” McCartney told WWD. A look at that, plus Erin Wasson's minimalist turn for Elie Saab, Patricia van der Vliet's maximalist turn for Sonia Rykiel, and Raquel Zimmermann and Freja Beha Erichsen for H&M, all in the gallery.
>> 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.
>> Freja Beha Erichsen hasn't been far from the top for a number of seasons now, but it really is "The Summer of Freja," as The Cut put it. She's scored Vogue Paris, Vogue UK, and i-D covers in the last couple of months, plus made a clean sweep of the Fall 2010 campaign game, appearing in Chanel, Valentino, and Tom Ford eyewear ads. Add to that the new Balenciaga campaign, just out (below), where she appears alongside Karen Elson (also fronting Louis Vuitton this season) and Stella Tennant (who is moonlighting for Salvatore Ferragamo Fall 2010 as well), Meghan Collison, Eliza Cummings, Valerija Kelava, Mirte Maas, and Julija Stepanoviciute, all shot by Steven Meisel.
>> Fall 2010 Prada Campaign Cast Revealed — Miranda Kerr Included —A number of current and former Victoria's Secret model appared on Miuccia Prada's Fall 2010 runway, but only one made the final cut for the accompanying Prada campaign: Miranda Kerr. She is reportedly joined by Valerija Kelava, Daria Strokous, and Angela Lindvall — the latter two who didn't walk the Fall 2010 Prada runway at all — and photographed by Steven Meisel. [@GB65, TFS]
>> The trend of using uniform, indistinguishable models has been taken one step further this season: a couple of prominent brands have chosen to crop their models' heads out of ads, eluding any recognizability. Two out of three Prada Spring 2010 ads out so far show a model, the upper half of her head lopped out of the picture, with bag swung over her shoulder; the third ad finally shows her full face, revealing her to be Rasa Zukauskaite. And in Phoebe Philo's first campaign for Celine, shot by Juergen Teller, the first photo out includes four bodies, but no heads or feet at all. Perhaps further down the line the faces of Lisanne de Jong, Carmen Kass, Jacquelyn Jablonski, and Valerija Kelava — all said to be Celine Spring 2010 faces — will be revealed?
With Spring ready-to-wear in the bag, designers are conjuring up their Spring ad campaigns, placing the hottest of the hot with the most stylish shutterbugs. Thus far, we know Lara Stone will star in Louis Vuitton's ads, while Daisy Lowe will shine for its swimwear line. In Versace land, Donatella has chosen Fabcon Georgia May Jagger to be photographed by Mario Testino. On the celebrity front, Madonna was snatched up by Dolce & Gabbana — we're hoping she won't look as photoshopped as her previous Louis Vuitton ads.
To learn who else is starring in Spring '10 ads, read more
>> Spring 2010 may be a "safe" campaign season in the making, but not all designers are afraid to change things up. Word is up-and-coming photographer Josh Olins has breached the usually ad-shooting group of Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Mario Testino, Mario Sorrenti, David Sims, Steven Meisel, and Steven Klein, nabbing the Spring 2010 Giorgio Armani campaign as his own. And it's rumored Juergen Teller won't just be exclusive to Marc Jacobs image-making this season: apparently he's helping Phoebe Philo curate the new Celine image by photographing newcomer Valerija Kelava and Carmen Kass for her first ads for the brand.
As for Stefano Pilati, it sounds like he's sticking to his winning supermodel-Inez and Vinoodh formula, going on six seasons strong. Natalia Vodianova, WWD reports, is said to be next up.
