Doutzen Kroes models my favourite FW12 pieces for Vogue Paris
TFS, Style.com

I received the August issue of Vogue Paris this weekend and even though I've been drooling over the Marion Cotillard cover for the most part I have also managed to take a look inside. I always really enjoy the August issues because there's just enough new season content to digest. The September issues are amazing to go through but they take several goes to process. Vogue Paris always does a long new season editorial story for August. This year's is called 'Paris mon amour' and is shot entirely by Mario Sorrenti (like 90% of the issue) and styled by Emmanuelle Alt, Joe McKenna and Marie Chaix. There are some incredible shots in it and I love how each stylist brings their different view to the story. My favourite, though, are the Doutzen Kroes pictures styled by Emmanuelle.
I've been infatuated with Doutzen ever since I saw her at the Giles show last season and I'm glad that Vogue Paris has got behind her. She even got her own cover in April. In the new editorial she models some of my favourite pieces from the FW12 collections. From the black croc Tom Ford number that Rihanna already rocked at the Met Ball, to the Miu Miu winter prints that will be all over the covers in a few months. The sexy emerald leopard Gucci dress Natasha Poly wore in Cannes and the stunning Burberry Prorsum quilted velvet coat that closed the FW12 show.

TFS, Style.com

Marion Cotillard covers the new Vogue Paris
TFS

Vogue Paris has always liked having close up images on their cover. And this is a great thing because they're very good at it. The last one we saw from them was back in November 2011 with Arizona Muse bringing a bit of 70's/90's Vogue Paris to the new century. They had done something similar previously with Charlotte Casiraghi for September 2011, though less timeless.

Marion Cotillard's close up cover for the August issue is my favourite so far. The photo, by Mario Sorrenti, is not just stunning but the very subtle way they've used shadows and colour makes it flawless. It's a super simple concept, which is usually harder to pull off, and it makes sense with their cover headline – "Marion Cotillard: simplement star".

I wish British Vogue learn a bit from the art direction here so that he wouldn't have to suffer covers like last year's Adele one. The perfect example of what close crops shouldn't be like.

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld covers (pregnant) the new i-D
TFS

If you follow my magazine cover posts on Know Wear you will know by now that I am no i-D fan. They always tend to have fairly entertaining covers but the content is usually all over the place and pretty much unreadable. However, every so often they do come up with absolutely genius covers.
Such is the case of the SS12 issue, which features Julia Restoin-Roitfeld pregnant (I believe she is about to pop) and looking stunning in beautiful lingerie styled by maman Carine Roitfeld and shot by Mario Sorrenti – who is at this point close to the Roitfeld's official portraitist.
The Julia's image follows that of Raf Simons, who also covers the magazine's new issue, shot by Willy Vanderperre and styled by Olivier Rizzo. Both covers are apparently the first two of a series of eight (!!) to be released.

How do you like Julia's cover? Are you a fan of i-D?

TFS

W has had so many hit covers this year so it's great to see them closing the year on such a good note. Dakota and Elle Fanning cover the December issue styled in Valentino by Lori Goldstein for the cover and shot by Mario Sorrenti.

I wonder whether it's a coincidence that this issue should come out at the same time as Vogue Best Dressed with Mary-Kate and Ashley on the cover. As far as I'm concerned, the Olsens are unbeatable both separately and as sisters –or should I say 'dynamic duos'?

What I love the most about the Fannings is the fact that they're super young and successful but they haven't fallen onto that tacky category of people like Selena Gomez. They don't feel manufactured and on top of it they're great actresses and dress incredibly well for their age.

It feels like Stefano Tonchi has finally found the place where he feels comfortable with W. He's brought half of Europe's fashion elite to its pages but, hey, Americans had to be introduced at some point.

Click below on read more to see the editorial story inside the mag.

FashionGoneRogue, Models.com

In this era of technology we live in where we get to see magazine editorials before they even hit newsstands it's weird that some people still think they can get away with anything.

I was looking through the images of the "Kapow!" editorial on the September issue of W –shot by Mario Sorrenti and styled by Jane How. It quickly hit me that I had seen that before. In fact, I had already made a post the likes of this one a few months ago about a Britney shoot for Harper's Bazaar, although the comparison is abysmal.

Emanuelle Alt had styled a very similar story for Vogue Paris, also shot by Mario Sorrenti. I guess he really likes graffiti and models against them. However, I have to admit that even though Raquel Zimmerman's version has always been one of my favourite editorials Jane How's styling works a lot better with the backgrounds.

Which one do you prefer?

FashionGoneRogue, Models.com

The first thought that crossed my mind when I first saw Britney's story on the new Harper's Bazaar had to do with how much I wished she dressed like that for public events. If she stuck LBD's, however short, and classic pumps there wouldn't be much risk of her looking, well, like she normally does. Her latest Hervé Léger red carpet moments haven't been the best, which is a shame because she can still rock anything like you can see to the right.

I'm not the biggest fan of the story, shot by Alexi Lubomirski, but I can appreciate some of the good ol' Spears smile along with a few nice fashion choices signed by Dolce & Gabbana, Isabel Marant and Ungaro. Once the Brit-shock wore off I suddenly realised the editorial looked very familiar to me. And this is why.

Back in 2009 Emmanuelle Alt styled a story shot by Mario Sorrenti called "Graffiti Couture". It's one of my favourite shoots of all time because it seemed to me like such a brilliant idea to bring together the highest of fashion and the most urban form of art. Also, the Vogue Paris teamed up with American designer KAWS to create the set for the story.

[HB, TFS]

Bearing this in mind, Britney's story is not only unoriginal but a blatant (bad) copy. Additionally, if you look closely enough at the full-size pictures you'll realise Brit has actually been photoshopped into all of the backgrounds and not shot in them. Maybe simple studio pictures would have worked better?

Ever since Stafano Tonchi took over the role of Editor-in-Chief of W magazine there's been a lot of negative talk of his work for the magazine. The fact is that I'm truly loving everything that he's done so far. I have had some problems with some of the covers but when am I actually happy with a cover? Exactly.

The cover of the June issue is almost perfect. Julia Roberts hasn't done a big cover since the slightly odd American ELLE in September'10 so this one doesn't feel repetitive like Alexa on the cover of British Vogue. I'm also quite keen on the picture crop. As I've said before I'm so tired of awkward close-ups. It kind of reminded me of the criticised December/January issue of Vogue Paris.

L'Wren Scott styled the shoot by Mario Sorrenti, which while it's not the edgiest of styling, it suits Julia's effortless elegance.

What do you think of the cover?

[Wmagazine]

It's Spring in Paris

It's that time of the month again when new magazine covers and storied start surfacing. Vogue Paris (surprise, surprise) is among them and I am in awe of their über-colourful cover. Lara Stone (again, surprise) presents the issue dressed in some of the genius Louis Vuitton collection for SS11. The cover also promises some private time with Colin ("Colin Firth en privé") and it includes their Spring/Summer collections special. And that's exactly the feature I am most excited about, as no other Vogue does the one-look-per-designer editorials like the French do.

Part of their 65 looks of summer special is an editorial featuring also Lara Stone and Sasha Pivovarova shot my Mario Sorrenti (yes, surprise again) and styled by Emmanuelle, Jane How and Carine. I realised this is most likely the last work as both editor and stylist we'll ever see from Carine, which is terribly upsetting but also slightly exciting.

What do you think of the issue?
I'm off.

PS. All the "surprise" in this post are meant to be pronounced in French.
[Pictures: TFS]

EA's Greatest Hits

As days go by after the announcement of Emmanuelle Alt as the new Rédactrice en chef of French Vogue I think more and more that we can expect great things from her. Vogue Paris is the only version of the fashion bible that I have religiously bought every month for most of my "adult" life. No other excites me as much as it does. There's a question of affinity as well. Their vision and style is the closest to my personal one. And so I have looked back at my little archives to dig out some of my favourite Vogue Paris editorials styled by Emmanuelle. I stopped at three because I have an endless array and you'll guess from it that many of them include Daria Werbowy and are either shot by Inez and Vinoodh or by Mario Sorrenti.

September 2008

Lignes et Attitudes

Photographer: Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin

April 2006

Noces Blanches

Photographer: Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin

February 2006

Le crédo du soir

Photographer: Mario Sorrenti

Do you have a favourite Emmanuelle-styled shoot?
I'm off.

[Pictures: TFS]

Oops, it's Kate again

Kate is, once again, on the cover of the June/July issue of Vogue Paris. I know many people are still keen on pointing out how every Vogue sticks to the same models and even the same designers over and over again but I suppose we all have our preferences. This is mine. Kate Moss looks stunning on the cover as part of the inside editorial shot by Mario Sorrenti and styled by Emmanuelle Alt in a (surprise, surprise) 60's revival of the pin-up movement very much á la Raquel Welch of back in the day. There is nothing very exciting about the shoot, some nice Versace and, of course, Marant that looks great on a slightly sweaty Kate.

I'm off.

[Pictures: TheFashionSpot.com]