He had the most earnest face I’ve seen in a while, a such a pleasant demeanour. His little dickie bow-tie and bright yellow man bag from the Cambridge Satchel Company, are the most complimentary accessories to his ivy league parting. His style was a classic and very popular amongst young men today, but his take on it was in a word: winsome.
So for my 21st birthday, I received a copy of the coveted Vogue Italia July 2008 issue, which I had been searching for for months. This particular issue, completely photographed by Steven Meisel, featured only black models and women in the arts and entertainment industries as a protest against the lack of black models in fashion advertising and magazine covers. I didn’t just want it because it featured only black models, but also because I see it as a historical stance on equality in fashion. Many advertisers have stated in the past that “black models don’t sell”, so it is a case of brilliant irony that this issue was the highest selling Vogue Italia issue ever, and the first Vogue under Condé Nast publishing that had to be reprinted due to high demand. With four covers, featuring supermodels Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn, Sessilee Lopez and Liya Kebede, the magazine held features on black high profile artists such as Beyonce and Queen Latifah, as well as profiles on other supermodels such as Tyra Banks, Chanel Iman and Alex Wek. Toccara Jones was the first black plus-size model to have an editorial in a high fashion magazine in this issue, and I love Tocarra so it was nice to see her in there. I also liked the tributes to influential black women of the past such as Aretha Franklin, Grace Jones, Angela Bassett and Carol La Brie. It was a monumental issue and a piece of fashion history gold, and I am so happy and proud to own one.
She was exiting a black taxi cab, and at first I thought she was Anna Dello Russo, then I noticed her dress. “It’s Chanel and the bag is Prada”. She’s gracious as she poses for the picture, and her dress is killer. I’m quite fond of brown autumnal tones, and the feathers and fur are, as always, exciting. Not too flamboyant for a Chanel dress, but still capturing the opulent and ever-elegant consistency of the brand with that chic Lagerfeld charm.
Dressed the Body Amr show, and the Masha Ma shows which were both brilliant, hectic, but brilliant. The Masha Ma red boots were a big struggle to put on but looked so hot, like a second skin on the model’s legs. I also met the lovely designer and creative mind behind the whole BodyAmr collection who was kind enough to pose for a quick picture, as well as his fantastically diva-esque muse who turned sashaying into normal walking. Met up with the lovely Lisa Mafia, and saw the hot, hot, hot Amber Rose: a major girl crush. The week seemed to rush by in a blur of camera flashes and high heels, but each day, with every new show seemed to last for a week.
I managed to get into the Ziad Ghanem show which was the one I was looking forward to the most: the show was as crazy as it’s guests. The Ziad show is my only catwalk review for VFS AW11, so here it is guys:
Ziad Ghanem
The ultimate king of fashion’s underground scene once again dominated with another spectacular show. Spectacular in the sense of extreme bizarreness, that is. With a show that started off with a green-winged, red-haired giant growing in a frenzy and then “flying” down the catwalk in a daunting mass of billowing black skirting and sporting a face that would have The Joker sprung, and ending with a sparkling bronzed sexpot of an “all-woman” transvestite, and a plus-sized model closing the show. With a haunting ‘Dia de los Muertos’ wedding couple somewhat mixed up within the display of performance cat-walking, even scandalous front-row guests such as blow-up doll blogger Pandemonia, Boy George and Jodie Harsh were forced to capture the scene on camera. In the crazy world of a designer he failed to disappoint once again this season. Ziad’s showcase for the autumn and winter months of 2011 was devoid of actual models, but the talent that swept the runway was enough to compete with his latest creations. The collection entitled “Never End, Never end, Never End” was inspired by the film “Silent Hill” and the artwork of Romantic painter John Henri Fuseli, whilst the chilling effect of the billowing garments and gaunt faces wrapped up in the show was described “the same garment viewed in a dark, gothic context by one viewer will be interpreted as romantic and liberating by the next” in the official press release statement.
Lebanese born Ziad, is critically acclaimed within the fashion industry as the “Cult Couturier”, using his cultivation of eco-friendly materials and clever construction of haute couture pieces to completely devour London’s fashion underground. Every show of his ruthlessly pushes underground fashion to the forefront of London’s cosmopolitan runway. This season’s show in particular was a beautiful display of Romanticism within its darkest and deepest points; physically enumerating the cloudy and twisted points within a love-lost mind. Every ‘model’ was supposedly asked to choose their favourite horror film which in turn inspired the make-up that adorned their faces. They became beautiful graceful creatures in front of the audience’s eyes that swayed and stalked in a captivating sequence which culminated into an overall perfected compliment to Ziad’s spectacularly poignant creations.
The irregularity of his show, comprising the uber-cool plus-sized model Bea Sweet’s customary finish, the Tim Burton-esque make-up, and the running gothic romanticism theme, is ultimately endearing in all its elite eccentricity.
London Fashion Week was certainly a busy week for me this season. I ended up interning at Vauxhall Fashion Scout which was a really rewarding experience. I bumped into one model, Anna Smirnova for Profile Model Management, that I had previously shot with whilst interning for FashPack stylist Naomi Mdudu. Anna looked absolutely stunning and the photographers were going completely crazy for her, and she was evidently quickly becoming a big new face. It seems that the combination of her ice blue eyes and fiery red hair is a winning factor and they pull together a truly spectacular face. Here’s a few pics from backstage and rehearsals for JazzKatze, as well as a few from her portfolio:
This studio shoot was the final one that I assisted on for Fash Pack. I found the model so endearing; she was so young, smiley and relatively timid off camera, and when she was ‘in the zone’ she was fierce and striking. This particular shoot took quite a while to get the background and lighting right, and it was quite a tiresome day. This time we used a lot of Amanda Wakeley samples which was very fun, but my favourite piece was the William Tempest A/W 10 dress used for look 4. The silhouette is fantastic. I was also quite enamoured of the drop-line waist, ruffle pleat skirt and sheer netting of the John Rocha S/S 10 dress in look 3. It was a simply grand pull from an equally grand collection: http://www.johnrocha.ie/.
Here’s the link for the complete shoot: http://thefashpack.onsugar.com/Fash-Pack-February-Editorial-New-Minimalism-11499500
Call Sheet:
Model: Anastasiya Siyanina for Models 1
Creative direction & styling: Naomi Mdudu
Stylist’s assistant: Chanelle Best Williams
Hair and make-up: Vuyiswa Zanele Mdudu
Retoucher: Nathan Atia
Photographer: James Lightbown
Here are a few taster shots for another shoot I assisted on for Naomi Mdudu at The Fash Pack. This shoot was quite a hectic one, but the results were really rewarding. The key piece in this shoot for me was the Osman A/W 10 wool skirt suit, that we also used for the “English Countryside” shoot; it is an absolutely stunning stand alone piece, combining knee-length, box-pleat full skirting and a cinched waist with rich navy blue and black mohair wool. Most of the other clothes shot were L.K Bennett, another feminine favourite of mine. Ultimately, the shoot reiterated the beauty of feminine cuts and silhouettes, truly capturing the genius of a natural womanly form within structured tailoring; being a lover of the “mad men” style, I thought the looks were really gorgeous, and was extremely happy to be a part of the shoot.
Here’s the link for the complete shoot: http://thefashpack.onsugar.com/Fash-Pack-January-Editorial-11303604
Call Sheet:
Model: Ivanna for Elite Models
Creative Director and Stylist: Naomi Mdudu
Stylist’s assistant: Chanelle Best-Williams
Hair and Make-up: Beatriz Lopez
Photographer: James Lightbown
Crush together Kryptonite, an oil slick and stalagmites, look at the results through a kaleidoscope and you might come close to Fannie Schiavoni‘s creations for Autumn/Winter 11/12. I’ve loved her trademark chains since her launch in 2009 so was pleased to see they were still holding their own on the stand at Somerset House this season. However, the geometric necklaces and bracelets were what had me flitting around the stand like a moth to a light. Although it’s pretty hard to give life to something as inanimate as a bangle, the way that these looked like they’d been frozen mid-way through an explosion suggests that Schiavoni definitely achieved it here. While her pieces are definitely not of the every-day ilk, she was kind enough to include some toned-down interpretations in the form of silver rings giving the less daring among us a chance to buy in.
Those at Jil Sander have been at it for years but a new kids on the block Tze Goh, Jackie JS Lee and Anja Mlakar have cottoned on to the “less is more” approach and are applying it with faultless precision. Fresh on the scene since AW 10/22 their fluid lines, sharp cuts and immaculate fit mean these guys don’t need to hide a slightly dubious shape with a crazy print or half a ton of embellishment. Maybe it’s the inner tomboy in me – or part of my quest to find the inner clean freak within me– but there’s something totally satisfying about their no frills attitude. What’s more, none of them fall into the “minimalist black” trap; Mlakar’s already chalked off electric blue, yellow and raspberry while Goh’s got royal blue, lemon and tangerine orange under his belt. If their pattern cutting is anything to go by then this lot mean business, so watch this space.
by Chanelle Best-Williams
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