TFS

I love the fact that Vogue Italia is always the last of the Vogue editions to release their new covers. It makes them more memorable whereas I have to think a little bit harder to remember who, say, British Vogue put on their last cover.

I must say I am loving the November cover. It's very Vogue Italia and very Meisel but in the best way, not in the dull way we saw in October. It's funny how you would have thought that having Lady Gaga as main inspiration for a suit could be so obvious but works so well in this case. The styling by Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele is absolutely spot on and, quite frankly, also pretty edgy for Vogue Italia.
I know this is going to be one of those covers that people either love or hate but I've always thought that's a good thing because it's at least strong enough to generate a passionate reaction.

What do you think?

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

@YSL,  @inezandvinoodh, Models.com

Yves Saint Laurent's ad campaigns are usually the kind that you half notice and you appreciate they're look nice but that rarely really get your attention. Inez and Vinoodh have, as per usual, shot the whole campaign for f/w11.

I love the look of the new campaign! Raquel Zimmerman looks super pale and the pose is odd but it works really well despite the slight nod to Balenciaga (via the volumes and oversized houndstooth). I love the fact that it's different from quite a few of YSL's adverts, which have looked rather bland.

If I don't forget any in between, Kate Moss' campaign for s/s08 (bottom left) was the last one that actually felt cool and luxurious. That felt Yves Saint Laurent.

I hope the rest of the campaign pictures are just as good at this. In fact, while I was finishing the post I came across this other one, which looks even more amazing, right?

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?

Born this way

Lady Gaga's music videos have become a bit of a thing inside the fashion/creative industry. We look forward to what Nicola Formichetti will do for her in terms of styling. I have to say that this time I was neither amazed nor surprised by the clothes. Yes, it all is incredibly visually pleasing but I think it has a lot more to do with Nick Knight's direction than with the clothes (accessories, hair, mae up et al.) than any other thing. I did really like the 'Born this way' video because not only I quite like the song but it also had some very McQueen references such as the kaleidoscope imagery, which Lee used for his prints in the famous collection worn by Gaga on 'Bad Romance'. I also found pretty cool the fact that Raquel Zimmerman (below, duplicated) does a little cameo.

My second favourite thing, and probably the most expected part of it was the heavy presence of Thierry Mugler fw11 menswear, as it was the first collection to be designed by Formichetti (he is clearly the creative director, not the designer. Alas, no one has yet coined a term such as 'creatively directed'). I thought it worked just great with the video and, after all, Nicola is becoming known for trespassing the boundaries of roles and becoming a bit of everything —stylist, creative director, entrepreneur, media expert. I was also happy to see Rico, who was the star of the Mugler fw11 show and kind of stole a bit of Gaga's spotlight on the video.

As I said, the photography in the video is absolutely phenomenal, as it could be expected from Knight. And this might just be me but were there some James Bond and Sin City references? I loved the black and white shots as much as the very plastic coloured ones and the intro and finale as a clear nod to Pink Floyd. You can watch the video here.

I'm off.

[Pictures: Vevo screencaps]

golden boy

Just like everything Tom Ford touches, Nicholas Hoult has become gold (no pun intended, it's Tom we're talking about). He has the two things that editors always look for in guy models: a boy's face and a man's body. I love the fact that the styling goes back and forth in time and space so you can't really figure out when or where the pictures are supposed to inspire. The genius of Grace...

Happy Friday!

I'm off.

[Pictures: FashionGoneRogue.com]

Vogue power

Last night, at an Irving Penn tribute event in New York, Anna Wintour was asked about the role of bloggers —“We laude as much coverage on fashion as possible —we don’t care where it comes from,” she said. “But with all the noise, it actually helps Vogue, because we have authority”. Well, Amen to that. Some of us do try hard to make posts worthy of well-read visitors but I can't deny nor will I ever dare (or want to, for that matter) to deny Vogue's authority.

Funnily enough Vogue US is not exactly the pinnacle of fashion-forward information, which is why I haven't bought a single issue for months. Vogue Paris, on the other hand, is quite the contraire. For their Mai issue Carine has handed her editor seat over to Penélope Cruz, who has gathered for it the people that inspire her. Everything in this issue is to be loved , from the triple cover (Bono, yuk) to the McQueen homage and the Serge Gainsburg and Jane Birkin-inspired editorial (featuring Daria).

Vogue España takes on the cowboy trend for SS10 from a minimalistic point of view. Raquel Zimmermann covers the issue in a picture that looks bang-on trend as well as slightly ironic —can't quite put my finger on the reason why. The shoot inside is alluringly beautiful. A very Philo palette dominates over the whole story, with pieces from Alaïa, Chloé, Altuzarra, Loewe and Balmain; the big promoters of the trend this season.

I'm off.

[Sources: TheFashionSpot.com, Vogue.fr, Vogue.es, Fashionista.com]