CINDY: SUPER TROUPER ST FaShIoN Spring / Summer 2012
Sold exclusively in Louis Vuitton stores and at louisvuitton.com. Tel. 020 7399 4050
www.chanel.com
contents
11
Spring / Summer 2012
Right: Top and trousers, price on application, Moncler Gamme Rouge. Bag, £795, Christian Louboutin. Choker, £44,800, Van Cleef & Arpels. Pendants, from £1,200, all Tiffany & Co. Ring (right hand), £1,650, Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co. Ring (left hand), £6,500, Solange AzaguryPartridge
52
96
17 front row The current worldwide passion for the extreme in fashion, says Sarah Mower, puts British design – with its experimental, creative impulse – in pole position
22 coveted Prada’s flame-heeled shoes bring out the superhero in you
24 beauty Foundation technology has seen great advancements, thanks to the new generation of BB products
27 trend Acquiesce to the aquarian look… Harriet Quick on this season’s ‘Under The Sea’ direction
33 accessories Silver leather; clear PVC: when it comes to shoes and handbags, this season, we are all futurists
36 artefact As the Royal Academy prepares an exhibition about the Parisian fashion house’s association with leather, Hermès reissues a classic handbag from 1975
39 vive la révolution Pierre Bergé, business and life partner of Yves Saint Laurent, tells the story of Rive Gauche, YSL’s game-changing prêt-à-porter boutique
42 cindy crawford The enduring appeal of Alex CAyley;
the Eighties supermodels
48 the bold curiosity shops How the pioneering, ever-questing enthusiasm of three London family businesses has influenced world fashion as much as the big global players
39
52 prety cool Wear spring’s textural designs of gauzy chiffon, peek-a-boo lace and frou-frou feathers with a dose of atitude
60 diane von furstenberg She’s been on the cover of Newsweek, married a prince and a media mogul and her DVF wrap dress rivals Chanel’s LBD as a fashion landmark – ‘I’ve lived such a full life, I should be double my age’
64 best of the fringe Twenties tasselling is reworked in a bold blend of technical fabrics and kinetic theatricality
72 stockists The ST Fashion directory 74 heroine Actress and singer Joséphine de la Baume on Jeanne Moreau, the woman who was so much more than ‘the new Bardot’
14 contributors
Tanya linG is an artist, designer and fashion illustrator. Afer graduating from
St Martin’s School of Art in 1989, she worked for Christian Lacroix in Paris. On returning to London, Ling set up an art gallery and in 1996 created her first exhibition of drawings, which led to a commission from British Vogue. Ling has contributed to titles such as Harper’s Bazaar and US Elle. In 2002, Ling launched her debut ready-to-wear collection. Vogue named Ling one of the most important trendseters in Britain and in 2003 The Observer Magazine named her its designer of the year.
alex Cayley began his photographic career in London before moving to New
York in 1999. He first came to prominence in the late-Nineties following his shoots for the critically acclaimed but now-defunct Dutch magazine. His striking and provocative images, combining strong composition and impeccable photographic technique, soon gave him an original identity in fashion photography. Cayley has built up an impressive client list of international magazines such as Italian Vogue, Numéro and Harper’s Bazaar, and companies including Yves Saint Laurent.
On the cover: Neoprene bandeau, from £337, and skirt, from £716, both Versace. Studded enamel cuff, £1,620, Louis Vuitton. Photography: Alix Malka Fashion editor: Daniela Agnelli
EDITORIAL editor Joanne Glasbey executive editor Peter Howarth Chief copy editor Chris Madigan managing editor Sarah Deeks assistant editor Arabella Dickie senior copy editor Gill Wing Copy editor Sarah Evans DESIGN senior art director Ciara Walshe picture editor Juliette Hedoin Creative director Ian Pendleton FASHION Fashion director Daniela Agnelli Fashion assistant Tara Greville
JosÉphine de la Baume is a French actress and singer. Since studying at RADA in
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Kate Shapland (Beauty)
London and Black Nexxus in New York she has gone on to enjoy an eclectic career, appearing in, among others, Lone Scherfig’s romantic comedy One Day and Johnny English Reborn opposite Rowan Atkinson. De La Baume has just finished filming Titanic, a drama series for ITV and ABC writen by Oscar-winning Julian Fellowes that will air on 25 March, as well as Confession of a Child of the Century alongside Charlote Gainsbourg and Kiss of the Damned directed by Alexandra Cassavetes.
COMMERCIAL (UK) executive director Dave King publishing director Toby Moore 020 7931 3350 director of fashion and luxury Carley Ayres 020 7931 3328
philippe laComBe magically combines the influence of contemporary art with
a pragmatic, collaborative approach to his work. He has developed a style that is, at once, controlled yet open-ended, rigorous yet relaxed. Each photo operates as an installation in itself: an objective mise-en-scène, carefully thought out and meticulously realised. Despite photographing inanimate objects, he imbues them with a rich life and texture unique to each piece. Philippe has worked with a long and impressive list of clients that includes Hermès, Louis Vuiton, Gucci and Cartier.
COMMERCIAL (ITALY) K.Media Srl Via Cavalieri Bonaventura, 1/3 20121 Milan, Italy +39 02 29 06 10 94; kmedianet.com SHOW MEDIA 020 3222 0101 Ground Floor, 1-2 Ravey Street, London EC2A 4QP info@showmedia.net www.showmedia.net Printed by Polestar Chantry (polestar-group.com) Colour reproduction by fmg (groupfmg.com)
Janine di Giovanni is an award-winning author and respected journalist who
has been covering global conflict since the Eighties, exposing the human cost of war, ofen working in batle zones the world’s press has lef behind. Among many titles, she writes for Vanity Fair, the New York Times Magazine, US Vogue and Granta. Her latest book, Ghosts By Daylight has been called ‘a profound and beautiful book about the two great human struggles: love and war.’ In this issue she takes on fashion’s toughest woman, the estimable Diane von Furstenberg.
ST Fashion is designed and produced by SHOW MEDIA LTD for the Telegraph Media Group. All material © Show Media Ltd and Telegraph Media Group. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is strictly prohibited. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. The information contained in this publication is correct at the time of going to press.
www.dior.com
front row
17
Loud and proud With British designers embracing enthusiasm for exaggerated creativity from Shoreditch to Shanghai, Sarah Mower is more hopeful than she has been in years about the future of fashion
Illustration Tanya Ling
Would you like to go to an important fashion show? Would you like to appear in it, and influence what designers are going to design next season? Well, feel free. No tickets are necessary. All you need do is find the fashion show schedules for New York, London, Milan and Paris and arrive, outside something big, which takes place in daylight. A fixture such as Chloé in Paris would be ideal – you’ll find it in a tent in the Tuileries Gardens, the walk towards it staked out by throngs of street photographers. This, right here, in the park, on the sandy gravel, is the Paris catwalk event you’re atending – a show (no disrespect to Chloé) that is more germane to the current movements of fashion than
18 front row
I feel proud when I queue outside shows and see kids, students and designers dressed to the nines and flying the flag for British creativity
whatever goes on inside, once the real models start walking. To participate, you must come dressed up in the most extravagant and colourful clothes you can put together, preferably accessorised with a hat, jewellery and kooky sunglasses. You must do something mad with your hair - something more original, for goodness’ sake, than dyeing it grey, green, pink, blue or orange (so last season!). Don’t neglect to go the whole hog, too, with lipstick and nails, and be careful to match (or clash) your nail art with your very unusual handbag (think about those hi-res close-ups!). And then, when photographers shout at you, you must stop, assume a pose, one leg crossed in front of the other. If no one calls at you first time, turn around and walk back and forth until they do. Then a crowd of 20 will rush at you, your picture will be all over blogs, and maybe even magazines. And designers, high-street manufacturers, cosmetic companies and marketeers of every stripe will parse your look, break it down and feed it back to the stores within months. And next time? Well, you beter do it more, and beter. I describe this scenario (which admitedly does now involve the sight of rather desperate people shamelessly trolling for lens-atention) in part-explanation of why fashion has entered a phase of extremism and exaggeration, the like of which I’ve not seen since the early Eighties – but more so. You need a combination of peripheral vision and a reasonable grip on the economic facts of global markets to understand how the greatest influences on fashion are actually happening ‘unseen’ – or at least, not in the places critics are traditionally used to looking. Does it seem absolutely improbable, in a time of ostensibly the deepest recession since the Thirties, that fashion should be advocating the shortest shorts (Jason Wu, Balenciaga), the most psychedelically surreal of prints (Mary Katrantzou, Prabal Gurung), the blingiest of brocades and embroideries (Christopher Kane, Lanvin) and the wearing of near-joke accessories (Prada’s Cadillac-fin shoes, Meadham Kirchhoff’s teddy-bear bags)? There are two prime explanations. First, the fashion exhibitionism among catwalk audiences, students and general hangers-around outside shows I’ve described. It’s a trend breeding ground spawned by the internet forces of ‘reality’ and ‘celebrity’, which is already a burgeoning side-industry with its own rules and product placements for blogger stars. Subtle style? Pah: that has no interest here. And then, of course, there is the even more enormous influence on the tastes of our time: the energy and optimism of China and the Chinese. These two factors came together in my mind as a blinding epiphany when I went to Hong Kong with a group of our super-talented young British designers to sell their summer collections – the first
20 front row
Fashion has entered a phase of extremism and exaggeration, the like of which I’ve not seen since the early Eighties – but more so
time the London Show Rooms had made footfall in Asia. In our crew were all the designers who make hot, exciting, body-conscious, fun and beautifully made clothes: Mary Katrantzou, with her dresses and suits swirling hallucinogenically with tropical fish and fields of tulips; Roksanda Ilincic, with her elegant, vivid colour-blocked clothes; Peter Piloto with his collection of Javanese-jungle and rolling-surf prints; Marios Schwab with his incredible, glimmering, semi-sheer evening gowns – all full-on London fashion. As strangers in town, we had no idea whether anyone would know or care about us, but, from the second we opened the doors, the designers were inundated with young women clamouring to wear their clothes, and stores competing over exclusives. There is no difference between what avant-garde-minded, educated, Chinese women in their twenties and thirties want, and what everyone else wants who knows about fashion. The difference is that, in China, they can afford it – and the more extraordinary the beter. As experimenters and welcomers of the new, they are far more daring than the other huge market that used to determine the shape of fashion: America. This is a far cry from the patronising, outdated Western notion that Asian customers want only logo-festooned goods. Plenty do – and by all accounts, there are millions behind them. But, again because of the stimulus of instantly available catwalk images and photos of ‘fashion in practice’ outside shows, those who can buy are racing ahead to further and further extremes of display. Haute couture is on the rise because of it, buoyed up for the first time in 20 years by a new generation that wants hand-crafed dresses, precious jewellery and watches from Chanel, Dior and Valentino. Thus, for the first time I’ve witnessed since the stock-market boom of the late-Nineties, fashion is feeling cheerful all round – and it feels as if the optimism is based on real, sustainable generational socio-economic fact, rather than a bubble inflated by a dot.com boom or questionable banking practices. Style-wise, European fashion, and particularly the things made by the young, nimble, incredibly talented British, will be increasingly determined by the response to Asia. That’s good news for UK GDP, because our new generation actually manufactures in Britain and is creating jobs, as well as exporting. It’s a funny, counter-intuitive sensation, but I feel more encouraged by this situation than anything I’ve seen for a very long time. And when I queue outside shows and see kids, students and designers coming out of the East End of London, dressed to the nines and flying the flag for wild British creativity – and doing it ofen on no money at all. Their courage and exuberance and sheer determination to make life fun in a dreary time makes me very proud indeed. Sarah Mower writes for Vogue and is the British Fashion Council’s first Ambassador for Emerging Talent
22 coveted
fanning the flames
Taking fashion seamlessly back
to the hopeful decade of the Fifties, Miuccia Prada sent a collection of enviable delights along the spring summer catwalk – right down to the models’ feet. The moment patent sandals shooting built-in flames pony-stepped past fashion editors perched on the front row, the accolade of the season’s most coveted item had been won. Combining nostalgic memories of the Pink Ladies, the tough girl gang in Grease, and Marilyn Monroe’s pin-up era, Prada managed to fuse the two effortlessly while adding her own modern, edgy spin. Continuing to go from strength to strength, it seems there is little Prada can do without the waiting list being filled before the runway has even produced its finale. Last season saw male and female style mavens alike sporting platformed brogues, while, the season before, fashion lovers everywhere went bananas over Prada’s latest print. What does Miuccia have in store for us next?
Aurelia Donaldson Patent leather flame-heeled shoes, £750, Prada; prada.com
Photography Philipe Lacombe Styling Donna Wallace
Rossy De Palma and Pedro Almodóvar
London, 193 Sloane Street – 138 Bond Street – ph. +44 207 823 1910 – www.missoni.com
24 beauty
touching base
A foundation that heals as it conceals, the 44-year-old BB cream is the beauty world’s new best friend Words Kate Shapland Photography Beate Sonnenberg
Until a decade ago, you would have been forgiven for giving foundation a miss. The very word implied heaviness. Few bases had improved much beyond cake grade, the light-reflective particles that were meant to melt in and magic away the signs of age layering on the face instead like crusty armour. While we wanted young-looking skin, masking it with a layer of immovable colour, which is what most foundations did, simply piled on the years. The challenge was to give perfecting coverage without cloaking skin, which required more than a tinted moisturiser could offer but not as much weight as a regular foundation. More than that, the dream base had to roll on like mercury, be comfortable to wear, moving with skin and ensuring it still felt supple underneath, while protecting and even treating it without being occlusive. To survive, foundation needed new reasons for being – and a new name, too. Few could have guessed that the answer would come from Germany, via Korea, in the guise
of a topical product called blemish balm (abbreviated to BB and now more commonly known as BB cream) created 44 years ago as a post-peel treatment. Or that, once discovered, it would be so popular, many beauty houses would have imitated the formula, producing their own versions within a year. Beauty therapist Christine Schrammek developed the original BB cream in 1968. Part ointment, part make-up, it delivered a veil of colour that evened up the skin tone. It didn’t irritate like standard cosmetics afer a treatment. Instead, it calmed the skin and enhanced its repair process, protecting it from further sensitivity when exposed to sunlight. It was a workhorse that concealed as it healed yet was as light as egg white. Schrammek prescribed the product privately for some years before launching it commercially in Korea and Japan in 1985. Today, BB creams account for 13 per cent of all cosmetic sales in Korea, and although the formula wasn’t originally developed with this market solely in mind, its resonance with Asian women is thought to be due to the way it lightens and retexturises darker skins, which can be prone to patchiness. Schrammek’s balm is the prototype on which the new generation of treatment foundations is based and the primary qualities they have all inherited are to conceal and heal. Yet, while the BB cream is billed as the answer to all skincare woes, there are a number of variations on the theme. Some boast the sort of anti-ageing properties more commonly found in high-tech serums. Others have powerful hydrating qualities, sunblock benefits or optical diffusers that illuminate skin as if from within, equalising its tone like a primer and easing redness while treating it on a deeper level with anti-inflammatory and/or whitening ingredients. Though BB creams are a welcome addition to the beauty repertoire, they are not the only bases to offer treatment benefits – regular foundations are fighting back with an armoury of new treatment benefits and enhancements in shade, texture and finish. The main thing to remember when opting for one or the other is that a blemish balm’s coverage is sheer. While it is claimed some conceal even rosacea and acne, I’ve yet to try one that achieves this really effectively. So, if you need more coverage, consider a new foundation. I think you’ll be impressed by just how far skin dressing has come. Kate Shapland is the beauty editor of the Telegraph Magazine
THE BUILDING BLOCKS Of BEAUTIfUL SKIN Clinique Age Defense BB Cream SPF 30 This is really good at softening the look of open pores. £25, clinique.co.uk Bobbi Brown Extra Repair Foundation SPF 25 Try this if your skin is dry – it is a very nurturing cream base, thanks to its shea butter and evening primrose oils. £36, bobbibrown.co.uk Germaine de Capuccini Synergyage BB Cream Perfectionist Offers a moisture surge and good redness coverage for reactive skin. £38.50, germainede-capuccini.co.uk Diorsnow UV Shield BB Creme SPF 50 PA+++ The BB you want if you have oily skin, this has excellent sebumcontrol benefits and a high SPF. £36.50, harrods.com Chanel Lift Lumière Firming and Smoothing Fluid Makeup SPF 15 Buy this if you’re after high-definition perfection: its silicone microbeads ensure it rolls on to skin like a dream. £34, chanel.com Estée Lauder DayWear BB Anti-Oxidant Beauty Benefit Creme SPF 35 The one to try if you like super-sheer, this has the lightest coverage of all and an even dewy finish. £35, esteelauder.co.uk Givenchy Eclat Matissime Fluid Foundation Airy-light Mat Radiance SPF20–PA++ The only one to buy if you want a matt finish. It moves with skin, so doesn’t look overloaded or dry after a few hours’ wear – just flawless. £32.50, houseoffraser.co.uk Olay Total Effects 7-in-1 Touch of Max Factor Foundation SPF 15 This tinted moisturiser has an antioxidant-rich base that brightens, refines pores and lines, nourishes skin and gives it a healthy glow. £13.99, boots.com
trend 27
From top, left to right: McQueen; Givenchy (two designs); Chanel; Armani; Holly Fulton; Chanel (dress and bag), all S/S12
new wave Ready-to-wear collections feel the full force of ocean power this season
Words Harriet Quick
Everyone has a love affair with the sea: whether mesmerised by the Aegean’s distinctive blue, diving off boats as you island hop your way through a dreamy sun-soaked summer or feeling the rush of the Atlantic surf, the gentle lolling waves of the Mediterranean or the psychedelic coral reefs of the Maldives – the sea has the power to move and re-energise minds and souls. This spring/summer, the sea, its force, colour and life flooded the imaginations of designers in a global trend that swelled from Paris to Shanghai and New York. The life aquatic streamed through both details and setings. The most ambitious had to be Karl Lagerfeld’s all-white seabed scene at the Grand Palais for Chanel. Crystal white sand covered the giant auditorium doted with giant shells, starfishes and an oyster shell out of which Florence Welch emerged like Venus to belt out ‘What the Water Gave Me’ at the end of the show. The models – in demure shif dresses belted with strings of pearls, and boyfriend jackets shimmering with silk woven tweed – traversed the set, prety and as magical as sea horses. Lagerfeld and Welch found their mutual fascination with underwater life on a shoot for Japanese Vogue, and the showcase was dreamt up from there. Another legend, Giorgio Armani, whose summer villa lies on the rocky Sicilian island of Pantelleria, which is swept by both North African and Mediterranean sea breezes, also embraced ocean life. The ambient wave soundtrack, set the scene for clutches of models in iridescent blue and silver silk designs – gorgeous plissé-front Twenties-style dresses – who appeared like mythical sirens, hair swept back and eyes glitering with silver-blue shades. He describes the fabrics, gleaming silks and satins in aqueous and mineral shades as ‘cascading over the body like glistening water’. The issue of clean water supply is close to Mr Armani’s heart. He set up the Acqua for Life initiative alongside Green Cross International to raise funds for the supply of clean water (via new wells) in sub-Saharan Africa. Forty per cent of the rural population of Ghana alone lacks safe drinking water. In a neat scheme, 100 litres of clean water is effectively generated for every botle of Acqua di
28 trend
Right, from top: mcQueen S/S12; aquatic-inspired Gaudí architecture; Florence Welch at the Chanel S/S12 show.
Bottom row, left to right: Armani bag; surf-scene clutch, jimmy Choo; Stella mcCartney; Peter Pilotto; Holly Fulton, all S/S12
‘Everything feels very underwater, it’s very feminine, I was thinking about the goddess Gaia and Gaudí architecture’ couture-like detail at McQueen, where Sarah Burton (British Fashion Awards Designer of the Year 2011) captured the magic in seed pearl-embroidered lace masks and featherlight chiffon dresses in layers of coral-coloured chiffon as if her models had emerged from the sea draped in frilly seaweed. Possibly only Burton could raise the humble barnacle to couture level, but surfaces glimmered with those tiny volcanic-like embellishments. But that’s her talent. Each season she and her team fully immerse themselves in an idea to emerge with wondrous collections that take the lead on design and haute handicraf as well as romance the imagination. ‘Everything feels very underwater, it’s very feminine. I was thinking about the goddess Gaia and Gaudí architecture.’ Gaia was the earth goddess in Greek mythology, who united with Pontus, the sea god. As islanders, aquatic fashion has a strong lure on British imaginations. It’s dynamic, fresh, and optimistic and speaks of adventure whether designers are riffing on seaside life (at Mulberry, yellow leather windcheaters and ice cream colours set the picture), or undersea wonders. But why should the trend be so prevalent now? The glistening iridescence of the newseason silks, plissé effects, neoprene fabrics and the wondrous possibilities of digital print (see Mary Katrantzou’s kaleidoscopic seabed scenes) all combined to energise the trend. As did designers’ own passions for surfing and sailing. Jimmy Choo came up with a surf-scene waterproof clutch, while Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy, a handsome surf fan himself, worked the undersea world into sporty dresses with cuts that echo sexy peeled wetsuits. But the main joy of water – wet T-shirt competitions notwithstanding – is that it is an element that is completely unifying. Harriet Quick is fashion features director of Vogue
AlAmy; GETTy ImAGES; jASon lloyd-EvAnS
Giò and di Gioia fragrance sold. Over 43 million litres were assured in 2011. Everywhere you look there are references to the sea across the fashion horizon line. Young Scotish designer Holly Fulton became enthralled by the kitsch appeal of seaside souvenirs – shell-covered knickknacks and coral. ‘My “woman” had blown her budget for the season so instead of holidaying in St Tropez, she went to Margate,’ says Fulton of her creative journey. ‘That happened to me – I had a night in Margate for my summer holiday! I loved the faded pastels of seaside facades and the Shell Groto,’ she says, referring to an underground folly covered in shells in Margate town, also much beloved by Tracey Emin. ‘Coral jumped out at me as a graphic element – also a symbol of good luck in Italy – to use against other paterns and silhouetes. I wanted to produce a tight, sophisticated collection with a touch of kiss-me-quick.’ Cue intricately embellished sheath skirts and bustiers. The universally appealing theme became the spur for all manner of sensational prints at which London-based designers currently excel. Peter Piloto and design partner Christopher De Vos also found inspiration in a rare holiday away from the urban jungle of Hackney. They set off to Indonesia for a vacation, trading in their trademark uniform of cashmere sweaters and denims, for sandals and board shorts. ‘Previously our prints have been generated through the virtual world, but here suddenly the colorations of the exotic flora, fauna and beach life struck us as wonderfully exotic,’ says Piloto. They teamed up with American swimwear designer Lisa Marie Fernandez, who is known for her neoprene bikinis, to create zipperfront, racer-back corsets with peplums that flirt over sheath skirts in dazzling aqua prints, some featuring crashing white caps, others a dazzle of blue and emerald print. Fernandez who spends long summer weekends surfing in Montauk, Long Island, knows how to dress the athletic surf physique for ‘hanging ten’ as well as dinner. This is fashion that transports the imagination and flaters the form in one go. Sea foam also caught the eye of Stella McCartney who trimmed her layered blue tile-print slip dresses with delicate white embroidery that curls round the hem and décolleté and is reminiscent of Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic wave woodcut print ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’. Strange undersea life – fish, crustaceans and other creatures – inspired a dazzling display of
accessories 33
reflected GlOrY using high-spec materials with mirrored effects, clear panels and iridescent finishes, this season’s accessories are sleek, athletic and dazzlingly futuristic photography PHILIPPE LACOMBE fashion editor DONNA WALLACE
Shine on From top: Leather bag, £542, Sonia Rykiel. PVC and leather ‘Ricca’ pointed clear boots, £520, Manolo Blahnik for Richard Nicoll. Calf leather ‘Antigona’ large tote, £1,273, Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci at Selfridges. Leather and Perspex ‘Lila’ wedge sandals, £1,060, Versace. Pearlised resin shell clutch bag, £18,200, Chanel. Silver-plated ‘Ruffle’ necklace, £840, Dior
34 accessories
Clear vision Clockwise from top right: PVC and leather bag, £699, Emporio Armani. Patent calf leather basket bag, £1,680, Louis Vuitton. Suede platform shoes, £694, Céline at Harrods. Leather and plastic ‘Clear Cody’ Half d’Orsay shoes with ankle strap, £495, 3.1 Phillip Lim. Eighteen-carat goldplated cube motif cuff, £414, Pierre Hardy from a selection at net-a-porter.com Donna Wallace is accessories editor of Elle UK
www.brunellocucinelli.it Tel. +39 075 697 071
Castel del Monte - Andria
London: 3-5 Burlington Gardens - 180 Walton Street - 159 Sloane Street
36 artefact
Photography Philipe Lacombe Styling Donna Wallace
belle for leather
As it celebrates its 175th anniversary, Hermès is relaunching a classic heirloom piece. The
Passe-Guide bag is a reissue of a model designed in 1975; its name and distinctive clasp refer to the ring at the front of Roman chariots that kept the reins of the carriage in place. Four special versions of the bag have been created for a new exhibition, taking place later this spring, celebrating the company’s relationship with leather. Since its foundation by Thierry Hermès in 1837 as a house of harness-making and later saddle-making, six generations of enterprising artisans have contributed to the company’s skills and expansion, adding to the equestrian with collections of travel, fashion, accessories and more. The exhibition explores Hermès’ love affair with leather, featuring commissioned items from the past and some of its latest innovative creations, while craftspeople from the house’s workshop in Paris demonstrate the art of leather-working. All proceeds from the sale of the four unique bags will be donated to the Royal Academy of Arts. Joanne Glasbey Calfskin Passe-Guide handbag with gold-plated fittings, £7,130, Hermès. Leather Forever is at 6 Burlington Gardens, London W1, 8-27 May; hermes.com
ARTHUR ELGORT
yves saint laurent 39
vive la révolution Pierre Bergé pays homage to Yves Saint Laurent, the papa of prêt-à-porter
Good design being previously the preserve of the well-heeled, the launch of Yves Saint Laurent’s Rive Gauche ready-to-wear boutique in Sixties Paris was quite an event. In this, the foreword to a new book, industrialist and entrepreneur Pierre Bergé, the man who co-founded YSL’s couture house and shared his life for 18 years, tells the story of the label that changed the face of fashion.
In 1966, no one could have predicted that September 26 would become a key date in the history of fashion. On that day, the first Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche store opened in Paris. It was the first time a great couturier had designed ready-to-wear and given it as much thought as haute couture. Earlier on, Pierre Cardin had tried making clothes for the Printemps department store, but it hadn’t panned out. Today, it all seems perfectly natural, but at the time, the top labels did not have outlets all over the world. Boutiques selling Dior, Chanel, Prada, Gucci,
Armani etc, were not the common sight they are today. By opening a boutique separate from his fashion house, Saint Laurent was performing a revolutionary act, moving away from aesthetics and venturing into the social arena. It was a manifesto. ‘Fashion would be a sad business if all it did was to put clothes on rich women.’ From this observation by Yves Saint Laurent comes the whole idea of the Rive Gauche store. The 20th century gave rise to many couturiers, some of them very talented designers whose names live on – Dior, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, Balmain and Lanvin, among others. All of them, understandably, designed clothes for the ‘rich women’ Saint Laurent referred to. It would never have occurred to them to work for the ordinary woman. Only Chanel took issue with the creative regimen that ignored changes in society and the role of women. In her own way, she liberated women, and would probably have gone further if World War II had not intervened. In the post-war years, Christian Dior dressed women in his New Look. Afer the rationing of fabric
came to an end, his designs boasted an extravagant quantity of fabric, creating a feminine style distinguished by full skirts and peticoats, as well as fited jackets and strapless boned tops. Women were back, as it were, to the distant days when they wore stifling corsets but were proud of their clothing and their elegance. The couturier laid down the law and changed the silhouete year afer year, lengthening and shortening hemlines at will. Fashion is an extraordinary reflection of its time. And sometimes it even leads the way. In the second half of the 20th century, women moved closer to the forefront. They had achieved the right to vote just over 20 years earlier. Fashion designs could no longer be made against women or for women; they had to be made with women. It was this realisation that gave Saint Laurent’s talent and intuition its true impetus. He felt more deeply than other couturiers the tremors that were shaking the world. September 1966 was a full 20 months before May 1968, when France’s youth took to the streets calling for freedom. Many people were deaf to the signals arriving from all sides, but Yves Saint Laurent understood that an old order was coming to an end, that the familiar codes would soon be replaced by fresh ones, and that a struggle would take place in which women would assert their place in society as men’s equals. He wanted to take part in the struggle and, in a modest way, play a role in it. His first decision was to design within the framework of industrial manufacturing. He developed no details or tailoring or finishing that could not be produced in the factory – unlike the designs of haute couture. He confined his creativity to the factory’s capabilities. This was one of his great strengths. When we opened the store, we wanted it to be somewhere other than at the fashion house. We opted for the Lef Bank in Paris, and we called the store Rive Gauche, which, for us meant youth and freedom. It was the beginning of a wonderful adventure. Saint Laurent demonstrated that fashion is a dialogue between the designer and women, between the designer and the street. It is only a step from Chanel to Yves Saint Laurent. Chanel was the first to realise that women were not objects. She liberated them. Saint Laurent, in turn, saw that women had to be empowered. By taking clothes off men’s shoulders and puting them onto women’s, he gave them that power. But the result was not androgyny but an atitude of ‘Each to his own!’ Wearing men’s clothes brought out a woman’s femininity, her sensuality. So it was that Yves Saint Laurent ventured into the social arena in 1966. Is it any surprise? He had just turned 30 and had already been steeped in the fashion world for 10 years. As he said in an interview he gave in 1961: ‘What interests me is to make dresses that are really useful, that any woman could wear.’ Saint Laurent: Rive Gauche – Fashion Revolution (Abrams, £19.99) with foreword by Pierre Bergé, is published on 1 April
maRie CoSinDaS; aLain noGueS; BeRRY BeRenSon/CoRBiS; GettY imaGeS; Sophie CaRRe
40 yves saint laurent
Previous page: Rive Gauche in a 1971 British Vogue shoot. Clockwise from top: Yves Saint Laurent in 1968; with Catherine Deneuve at the opening of the first Rive Gauche store, September 1966; flanked by muses Betty
Catroux (left) and Loulou de la Falaise at the 1969 opening of the Bond Street Rive Gauche; edie Baskin in Rive Gauche For men in american Vogue, 1976; detail of the iconic Saint Laurent Rive Gauche label, 1967
Boodles Raindance | T: +44 (0)207 437 5050 | www.boodles.com
PhotograPhy Alix MAlkA Fashion EDitor DAnielA Agnelli WorDs MARiOn HUMe
A model cAreer With pop promos, movies and exercise videos, Cindy Crawford redefined ‘supermodel’. But it is her enduring looks, professionalism and Midwest manners that have made her a superstar in front of the camera for more than a quarter of a century
Gold standard Backless jumpsuit in double-faced crêpe satin, £1,655, and gold-plated ‘Purely Gold’ cuffs, £460, both Yves Saint Laurentnt
Cindy was never like the other supermodels, although she was certainly super. She never blended in – and not just because of that mole; she never was an all-change chameleon. She was always Cindy and that could be very disconcerting. You’d be siting at a show, tapping along to the music (because they played such fun music, and each track all the way through, back in the Nineties) and you’d be caught up in the designer’s vision of wherever he was trying to transport you to. And then came Cindy. She would storm out of the wings and those black eyes would seem to lock on you like a heat-seeking missile. Cindy was, then, like no other. She wouldn’t wear high necks (not Cindy). I can’t recall her wearing trousers (well, maybe once, at Armani). She was all woman; none of that striding through life purposefully in flat shoes. This girl was in a heel or else she was in sneakers, running like the wind. It’s hard to imagine now that something as naff as an exercise video could be exciting, but when Cindy first did them, to fashion people, they were thrilling. We bought them, even though we knew in our heart of hearts we’d never get round to doing those squats. Who buys calendars in an age when everything is on our iPhone? But then, everyone, male and female, bought Cindy’s. She posed for Playboy and, rather than thinking it was unspeakable, we thought it was cool. What wasn’t cool was Fair Game, a truly dreadful 1995 movie in which she played a lawyer, but a lawyer who always seemed to dress with a white vest between her shirt and her bra, all the easier to strip off the former and dive into a harbour aflame with burning oil. Cindy, of course, recovered magnificently and kept on running. She’d been married to Richard Gere, posed with him on the cover of US Vogue and then the pair had defended their marriage with a full-page ad in The Times, but still broke up. However, that both have found enduring partnerships since, and have never been rude about each other, doubtless says much about each of them as well-rounded real people as well as celebrities. And hell, while the relationship lasted, they were hot.
I think Cindy and I see the cover of Vanity Fair when, famously, she’s in a swimsuit and heels pretending to shave the face of KD Lang. Or she’s emerging like Venus out of a shell. There are all those Helmut Newton images. What Cindy had, perhaps uniquely, was a sizzling appeal to men while girls absolutely adored her too, even though any fool could work out that, no mater how many lunges we did in time to her video, we could never look like her. And then there was the ‘Freedom’ video for George Michael. The excitement was palpable. Yet while she became and remains unique, Cindy started as ‘the cut-price version’ of another girl. (Fashion is, was and always will be cruel to the young fillies entering the parade ring.) She was first known as ‘Baby Gia’, afer Gia Carangi, who broke the blonde mould with her sultry, dark looks but became known for leaving fashion shoots early via the bathroom window in hot pursuit of her drug dealer. ‘Baby Gia’ turned out to be not cut-price at all but a class act. Cindy Crawford’s reputation, from day one, was for the solid Midwestern values she had brought with her from DeKalb, Illinois (known pre-Cindy as the ‘home of barbed wire’). She turned up on time, well-groomed and well-spoken. But she also took control. She was known for expecting – and quite a reasonable expectation this – that shoots might also end on time, given she was always professional and expected to work, be paid and get on with her life. That she has endured should be no surprise to anyone. She was born with good bones and she’s worked hard for those good glutes. What I recall is her manners. I was working with a film crew backstage when a phalanx of ‘Cindy and Richard’ security swept through so fast, they knocked me off my feet and into a rail of eveningwear. ‘Oh!’ came a voice belonging to the very famous Ms Crawford. ‘Stop! Is she ok? Are you ok?’ I was, 25m of tulle being terrific cushioning for a fall. God may have created Cynthia Ann Crawford, but manners maketh the woman, I say. Marion Hume writes for The Telegraph Magazine, W, Harper’s Bazaar Australia and The Australian Financial Review
Stripe a pose This page: Georgette and tulle dress with zebra-pattern embroidery and sequined skirt, £5,400; and suede and python-skin shoes, £900, both Gucci Jewel control Opposite: Cotton brocade jacket, from £2,259; bejewelled bra top, from £3,473; and satin and lace high-waisted shorts from £271, all Dolce & Gabbana. Suede shoes with metal toecaps, £735, Yves Saint Laurent
Siren song This page: Satin and lace body suit, from £508, Dolce & Gabbana. Leather cuff, £325, Giuseppe Zanotti Design Jacket required Opposite: Luxe-weight
cotton jacket, £1,100, Ralph Lauren Black Label. Body suit, as before. Leather shoes, price on application, Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci. Gold-plated ‘Purely Gold’ cuff, £460, Yves Saint Laurent
Hair Terry Millet at The Magnet Agency, using Leonor Greyl Make-up Scott Barnes for Cloutier Remix, using Scott Barnes Body Bling Manicure Tracy Clemens at Opus Beauty, using Deborah Lippmann Fashion assistants Tara Greville and Kat Tchamanian Production Susie Im Production assistant Carmen Ellis STOCKIST DETAILS ON PAGE 72 Velvet underground The STshirt, Fashion team Velvet top, bra travelled to Los Angeles and miniskirt, all price with Air New Zealand on request, Givenchy (airnewzealand.co.uk) by Riccardo Tisci at and stayed at the Selfridges. Tights, Beverly Hills Hotel ÂŁ34, Wolford. Necklace, (beverlyhillshotel.com) as before
48 fashion retailers
words ELISA ANNISS ILLUsTrATIoN Romy BLümEL
the bold curiosity shops Browns. Matches. Start. Three brief names; a trio of family businesses. But they have brought global fashion labels to London – and given British fashion talent to the world
London has come to be considered a one-of-a-kind incubator for trends and the most intriguing and rewarding of world fashion capitals to shop in. Part of that is thanks to London landmarks Harrods, Liberty and Selfridges, whch are both innovative department stores and tourist magnets. However, London wouldn’t be what it is without mavericks, idiosyncrasies, personalities and shops that reflect so well what the Americans call neighbourhoods and we refer to as ‘villages’. It’s in these, particularly in the east and west of London, where family businesses rule. Over the years, Joan Burstein, who founded Browns with her husband in 1970, has been called the grande dame and fairy godmother of British fashion; the UK’s first visionary fashion retailer; and, with fondness, just Mrs B. Her contribution to both British and international fashion is legendary.
She is credited with discovering such British talents as Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan and buying the graduate collections of John Galliano and Stella McCartney. Browns excels when it comes to helping talented British youngsters on that first step to stardom. Take Henry Holland, who originally studied journalism and launched House of Holland slogan T-shirts in 2006. ‘Browns stood by us as we have grown and evolved as a brand,’ says Holland, now a stalwart on the London catwalk schedule. ‘Being stocked in Browns is like being part of a family.’ More recently, in 2011, Thomas Tait and Flaminia Saccucci were both exclusive to Browns. Saccucci, who now works for Givenchy in Paris, was spoted at the Central Saint Martins BA fashion show last May, where she won the L’Oréal Professionnel Young Talent Award.
This season, it’s the exclusive London stockist of Huishan Zhang, another Central Saint Martins graduate. Mrs B’s daughter Caroline, who now runs Browns with her brother Simon, admires Zhang’s ‘unique fragility, sensitivity and use of fabrics’. In turn, the designer says, ‘Being picked up by Browns in my first season was a dream come true. Their advice and support has been incredible.’ Central Saint Martins’ head Jane Rapley considers Browns its biggest champion, describing Mrs B herself as ‘patient’ and ‘generous’. Most important of all, though, says Rapley, is the way Browns has elevated young British talents by ‘siting them alongside and in the same category as the big global players’. Global players, however, value Browns just as highly. Early this year, at the age of 85, Mrs B headed to Paris to receive yet another accolade to
add to her CBE and honorary degree from Central Saint Martins: the Médaille de la Ville de Paris. Over the years, Browns brought European labels to London, helping to make the Italian brands Missoni and Marni household names here. ‘Browns has been our client since the very beginning,’ says Marni designer and founder Consuelo Castiglioni, proudly. Mrs B was also responsible for bringing to London the Antwerp Six and Japanese minimalists such as Comme des Garçons, as well as Donna, Ralph and Calvin when they were just fledgling New York labels. Fast-forward a couple of decades and another Ralph Lauren-owned label, Club Monaco, also turned to Browns for its London launch in 2011. This coincided with Browns adding more casual lifestyle brands to its offering. ‘Launching at Browns made it possible to do a high-impact event to announce our arrival in the UK during London Fashion Week,’ explains Ann Watson, vice president of marketing and communications, Club Monaco, describing the memorable Browns bash held in the vaults under the Royal Academy, with graffiti artists, a pop-up Hix bar and a musical quartet. Another label that had its first international success in the Seventies is Kenzo. The first time around, it was another retail trailblazer, Joseph Etedgui, who introduced the Japanese designer to London and the West. But now, with Carol Him and Humberto Leon from Opening Ceremony at the helm, it will be Browns’ moment with Kenzo. The triumvirate of Browns, Matches and Start-London has helped shape the taste of London’s savviest women, introducing them to the hotest names from home and abroad. And the consistency of personnel at the top has engendered loyal, longstanding relationships with designers. Diane von Furstenberg, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, has fond memories of working with both Matches and Browns: ‘Tom and Ruth Chapman at Matches are true retailers – they care. Of course, they are also close to my heart because they were the first to open a DVF store, so I love them, admire them, respect them.’ She encourages the American talent she nurtures today to come to London: ‘The city is extremely important for the industry,’ emphasises von Furstenberg. ‘It has fantastic retailers, people who believe in fashion and are willing to take risks.’ The Matches story has seen the Chapmans take their original village vision – a single store that opened in 1987 near their Wimbledon home – global. They’ve juggled bricks and mortar with the web, and become a fashion magazine publisher of sorts in the process. Today, its empire of 14 stores spans London’s wealthiest ‘villages’ in south, west and central London, including Noting Hill, Marylebone High Street and, the jewel in the crown, a six-storey Georgian town house at 23 Welbeck Street, also in Marylebone, for private shopping. When I interviewed Tom Chapman in 2007, he suggested turnover was around the £40m mark. But fast-forward four and a half years and a visit to the Matchesfashion.com nerve centre in Clapham,
south London, reveals that the online business has grown hugely since then and Chapman is much more reluctant to reveal the full magnitude of Matches’ earnings. The HQ resembles the offices of a magazine. Here, all visual material and the distinctive Matches tone of voice are developed. This helps engage with its 180,000 customers, a third of whom live outside the UK. Upstairs is an editorial department headed by Cat Callender, formerly of Elle and the Telegraph Magazine. Meanwhile, each week, 300 garments are styled, shot and all the technicalities writen up in another department, where at least 20 people work, that concentrates on production for content. In addition to its online content, Matches also produces two publications – Hot Off The Press and its glossy Matches magazine. Compiled very early in the season, the former is given to journalists at the store’s press day and has the reputation for being a bit of a crib book for upcoming trends. At 23 Welbeck Street, it appears Tom and Ruth have adopted the Nick Jones/Soho House approach to modern luxury by creating a chic but comfortable home from home. Before you climb upstairs to the separate private shopping floors for men and women, there’s a welcoming drawing room filled with mid-20th-century furniture and paintings. The rear wall features sketches and artwork from the likes of Jonathan Saunders, Holly Fulton, Maison Martin Margiela, Nicholas Kirkwood and Charlote Olympia, all of whose products have a part to play here in Matches’ new home. Roksanda Ilincic, one of whose sketches will soon join the others on the wall is enthusiastic: ‘With its private shopping, it has so many fantastic and inventive angles and so many different ways to work with designers.’ Ruth Chapman is eager to emphasise that Matches has a democratic approach to fashion and doesn’t just focus on the deep pockets of the kind of high-net-worth individuals who might hire out Welbeck Street for a fashion soirée. For instance, there are labels such as Raoul, a once unheard-of but well priced, well designed and well made collection of women’s clothes from Singapore that includes
‘London is really important for the industry. It has fantastic retailers – people who believe in fashion and are willing to take risks’
Above, from left: Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders, Mary Katrantzou, Kenzo, Erdem – all spring/summer 2012
fashion retailers
separates in fine cotons and silks as well as great shoes and leather bags, most of which retail for under £300. Its CEO, Douglas Benjamin, says, ‘Matches was one of the first to recognise our potential, supporting us wonderfully, launching us on its website and then in its stores. Once you are listed with Matches, any top store in the world will consider you.’ Thanks to a Matches launch, Benjamin has subsequently taken his label to Selfridges and many other key UK retailers. Although it was the first British retailer to carry Versace, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana, Matches also does a roaring trade in young, playful French and American labels, including Thierry Colson and L’Agence. The Chapmans have always been supporters of young homegrown talent too. They carried Anya Hindmarch ‘when she was based in a small space on Walton Street’ and Erdem ‘from very early on’. Also, a string of British names, starting with Joanna Sykes (long before she became creative director at Aquascutum), followed by Osman and Gharani Strok, were tapped to design Freda, Matches’ own label, which launched in 2006. Running through a list of what’s hot, Ruth, who is more hands-on with the buying process than her husband, singles out Mary Katrantzou’s inimitable prints and remarks that Jonathan Saunders, with his quirky prints and full skirts, is destined for a great spring/summer 2012. She also name-checks designers who are new to Matches this season: menswear-turned-women’s wear designer JW Anderson, and Emilia Wickstead, known for her striking, atractive pleated dresses. ‘British designers are now siting up on an international level, which gives us so many resources internally in the UK,’ adds Tom. ‘About a year ago, a posse of them really became known worldwide for great colour and prints.’ He adds that, hand-in-hand with this new commercial instinct – and that’s ‘commercial’ in the most positive sense – goes a professionalism and polish that has given rise to designers adding pre-collections like those of their international counterparts, and small London factories producing high-quality women’s clothes, which is good news for Matches and ‘Brand Britain’. Like the burgeoning London village where it’s based, Start-London is the newest kid on the block. And although it’s smack in the middle of Hoxton, stereotypical Shoreditchers – what the proprietor, former indie rock guitarist Brix SmithStart calls ‘quirky girls, straight out of art school, with strange-coloured asymmetric hair, wearing big bright polka dots and goofy shoes’ – aren’t typically the kind of women she and husband Philip Start have tended to cater for, even when they opened in 2002. Now, with separate men’s and women’s locations, the Smith-Starts are to Rivington Street, EC2, what the Bursteins are to South Molton Street. Philip explains that there have been many gentrifying milestones along the way, including the opening of members’ club Shoreditch House in 2007, that have all helped atract outsiders to the area. ‘I still remember the day I saw a sophisticated girl
51
walking along the street in a pair of proper heels dressed in clothes from a shop of the kind you’d only see in Chelsea, and I thought, this area is changing.’ Brix takes over. ‘There was a need for a store like ours. There were plenty of people who had great taste, were creative and wanted something that was sophisticated and edgy but didn’t want to venture into the West End.’ Brix Smith-Start is on the panel of Fashion East, so it is important for her that the store be a showcase for East London brands such as Christopher Kane and Erdem, who recently created a silk-covered pug for Start-London, where Brix’s favourite dogs are always to be found. This spring, she’s also excited about carrying leather goods, belts and jewellery by Islington-based Sophie Hulme. Unlike her husband, who founded men’s chain Woodhouse, Brix doesn’t come from an orthodox fashion background. However, she is quick to point out that before joining The Fall, she once had a Saturday job in Fiorucci and dressed the windows of Marshall Field’s department store back in her native Chicago. These days, women whose only contact with the East End is through the BBC soap opera probably know Brix because of her regular fashion spot on ITV’s This Morning, and her role in Gok’s Fashion Fix. No doubt, though, they’d be thrilled to know that anyone can pop in and book a personalstyling appointment with her – she has fine-tuned fiting women with jeans that flater – a skill, incidentally, that she finds immensely gratifying. ‘I’m 5f 2in and curvy and struggled to find a pair I looked good in. I was determined when we started this shop that I would learn everything there is to know about denim. That helped put us on the map and we’ve been known for a long time as the best place in London to buy jeans,’ she says, adding that, for skinny jeans, she mostly wears Goldsign or J Brand. She claims to be able to look at a woman’s body and spot areas that should be minimised or maximised in order to understand which make of jeans will suit them – ‘It’s like being a shrink!’ Aside from jeans, Start-London’s best-selling labels tend to be sharp, even a litle bit rock’n’roll – names such as Helmut Lang, Acne, Rick Owens and Alexander Wang. That said, Brix does sell dresses by the likes of Zoe Jordan, Sonia by Sonia Rykiel and Emma Cook, the British designer responsible for one of Start’s best-selling collections. She adds that she considers Hamilton-Paris an important label to watch, with ‘beautiful, simple, elegant clothes, with an exquisite drape, reminiscent of the original YSL.’ Tom Konig Oppenheimer, whose PR agency Communications Store represents Acne, J Brand and Richard Nicoll, among other fashion clients, claims: ‘London is richer because of what Philip and Brix have done – much richer – and Shoreditch’s fashion credentials may never have happened without the brave new “setlers” like them all those years ago.’ Include Browns and Matches in that sentence and the same could be said of London as a whole. Elisa Anniss writes for the International Herald Tribune
Green genie Silk-organza blouse, £695, and lace-jacquard pencil skirt, £880, both Yves Saint Laurent. ‘Frivole’ 18ct white gold and diamond choker, £44,800, Van Cleef & Arpels. ‘Skull on Bones’ blackened white gold and diamond ring, £6,500, Solange Azagury-Partridge
pretty cool there’s devilishness in the detail as coquettish feathers, chiffon and lace get an injection of attitude in high-tech fabrics and up-to-the-minute prints photography Alex CAyley fashion editor MAryAM MAlAkpour
Nature study ‘Nakisa’ textured-cotton and Swarovski Elements dress, £1,540, Erdem. ‘2D’ blackened white gold and diamond earrings, £24,500, and ‘Skull on Bones’ ring, £6,500, both Solange Azagury-Partridge. 18ct gold and rock-crystal ring (right hand), £1,650, Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co. 18ct rose gold and diamond clover key pendant, £1,200; platinum and diamond oval key pendant, £2,550; and 18ct rose gold and diamond daisy key pendant, £1,400; all Tiffany & Co
Peaches & cream Macramé jacket, from £2,075, and skirt, from £737, both Dolce & Gabbana. Leather shoes, £375, Gianvito Rossi. Pendants and rings, as opposite
Clear cut Chiffon top, from £1,307, and chiffon and lace skirt, from £726, both Francesco Scognamiglio. ‘Frivole’ 18ct white gold and diamond choker, £44,800; ‘Perlée’ pink gold cuff, £23,800; and ‘Perlée’ pink gold and diamond bracelet, £1,860, all Van Cleef & Arpels
Swan’s way ‘Swan’ dress, price on application, Giles Deacon. 18ct rose gold and diamond clover key and diamond oval key pendant, £2,550; and 18ct rose gold and diamond daisy key pendant, £1,400, all Tiffany & Co. 18ct gold and rock-crystal ring (right hand), £1,650, Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co. ‘Skull on Bones’ blackened white gold and diamond ring (left hand), £6,500, Solange Azagury-Partridge
Floral tribute Technical-fabric top and trousers, price on application, Moncler Gamme Rouge. ‘Sweet Charity’ leather bag, £795, Christian Louboutin. ‘Frivole’ 18ct white gold and diamond choker, £44,800, Van Cleef & Arpels. 18ct rose gold and diamond clover key pendant, £1,200; platinum and diamond oval key pendant, £2,550; and 18ct rose gold and diamond daisy key pendant, £1,400, all Tiffany & Co. 18ct gold and rock-crystal ring (right hand), £1,650, Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co. ‘Skull on Bones’ blackened white gold and diamond ring (left hand), £6,500, Solange Azagury-Partridge
Shining example Organza and sequin dress, £7,200, Christian Dior. Leather shoes, £375, Gianvito Rossi. Fox fur bag, price on application, Dolce & Gabbana. ‘Frivole’ choker, pendants and ‘Skull on Bones’ ring, as opposite
Hair Fernando Torrent at L’Atelier, using Serge Normant Make-up Yasuo Yoshikawa at L’Atelier, using Chanel Manicurist Martha Fekete, at Bryan Bantry, using Martha’s Corner NYC Fashion assistant Catlin Myers Casting Zan Ludlum Model Hanne Gabby at Ford Models STOCKISTS DETAILS ON PAGE 72
words Janine di Giovanni PorTrAIT BY JUL i an BRoad
‘First there was Chanel. then sChiaparelli. then Came Diane von Furstenberg and her wrap dress’ Meet the Fashion inDustry’s Living LegenD…
‘There was a rose by my bedside table,’ says Diane von Furstenberg thoughtfully, leaning back on a tan and beige sofa in her Lef Bank apartment on a wintry Paris day. ‘It was beautiful for a week. The second week, it started to fade. Then it got brown spots and began to wilt. But I kept looking at it and even then, it was still beautiful. That’s how I feel about geting older.’ She is 65 years old and fantastically good-looking. It’s become a cliché to remark that she is sensual and dynamic, but she is. The mat skin, the mane of thick, wavy, shoulder-length dark hair, the slender, graceful form, the litle black dress and sexy suede boots, the jangle of ethnic bracelets – she demonstrates the perfect mix of Parisienne/Upper East Side understated chic. She has a deep, throaty laugh, a thoughtful and provocative intelligence, and an air of playfulness. She sips tea, eats one of the dark chocolates I have brought her from a sixth-arrondissement patisserie and gestures to a tray of pastel sweets on a silver tray on a low glass coffee table. ‘I was given them as a gif at the Ministry of Culture yesterday,’ she says, moving the tray. ‘Here, have one. But, be warned: they are pure sugar.’ Her apartment, which overlooks the Musée des Beaux Arts, is, like her, tasteful and elegant. Sof music plays and there are what may be a couple of Warhols; black-and-white photographs in silver frames of her mother, children and grandchildren; chic furniture, fresh flowers and copies of several Haruki Murakami novels in French. Born in Belgium, she became an American citizen in 2002, afer her second marriage, and now writes more instinctively in English, although she switches easily between the two languages and spoke Italian with her two children, Alexander and Tatiana, when they were small. Her French home is not overwhelmingly grand, imposing or cold in the way some Parisian apartments are – it’s comfortable and fresh. When I arrive, she is talking with an old friend about the new Jean-Paul Goude exhibition in Paris. ‘It’s amazing – you must see it,’ she says. ‘His work is incredible.’ Which leads me to ask about the candid photograph taken last year of her by Chuck Close in Harper’s Bazaar afer she had a nasty skiing accident. She was due to pose for a portrait for the Diane von Furstenberg: The Journey of a Dress show, which had reached Beijing on its global tour, when ‘a man who could not ski’ rammed into her and she fell into the ice and snow. But she decided to go ahead with the shoot anyway – bruises, broken nose and all. She shows me a picture of herself on her smartphone sporting black eyes and stitches. Only someone very brave and very confident would let themselves be photographed so soon afer that. She shrugs. ‘I never hide anything.’ She thinks it is crazy that women would lie about their age or obsess about geting older. ‘It’s not a question of accepting it – it’s about embracing it,’ she says. ‘I’m in the autumn of my life and I relish it. I always loved the fall and the colours of the changing leaves. You bloom, you give your fruits, you harvest. It’s a good time. And I’ve lived such a full life, I should be double my age.’ It has been a full life indeed. Despite never formally studying design or even learning to sew, it was von Furstenberg who launched possibly the most classic and coveted item of clothing in the world. The prototype
This page, clockwise from top left: Von Furstenberg with her now husband Barry Diller, when they first lived together, in 1976; off Capri in 1969; centre, with Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent, Bianca Jagger and Marina Schiano, 1974; with first husband Egon von Furstenberg; Newsweek, March 1976. Opposite: Looks from DVF’s S/S12 collection
‘I’m in the autumn of my life and I relish it. I’ve lived such a full life, I should be double my age’
of ‘The Wrap’ – an affordable, adaptable, ultra-flatering, feminine jersey dress – was created in 1973. In the glory days of the feminist movement, when women were entering the workplace and revelling in their new-found sexual freedom, it became a symbol of equality, bridging boardroom and bedroom with ease. By 1976, she was shipping 25,000 a week to stores across the USA and had made it on to the cover of Newsweek. Twelve years later, Noting Hill’s style set was queuing round the block to buy it. Today, DVF.com displays 26 solid-colour and paterned takes on the same look – a perennial hit with consumers and critics alike – and an example hangs in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Vogue’s contributing editor André Leon Talley wrote of its creator: ‘First there was Gabrielle Chanel. Then there was Elsa Schiaparelli. Then came Diane von Furstenberg and her wrap dress.’ Comfortable but glamorous, it captured the zeitgeist. I remember my mother wearing one in the Seventies with high suede boots and huge shades, and I have had dozens in my wardrobe over the years, because they travel so well and hang so beautifully, looking good
getty images
63
whatever shape the wearer is in – whether pregnant or a litle too thin or too round. These days, the von Furstenberg empire includes perfume, luggage, sunglasses, shoes and accessories and has an estimated net worth of $1.2bn. Its founder has been married for the past 11 years to Barry Diller, whose own worth is reckoned to be around $1.3bn. One of the most powerful media moguls in the world, it was he who green-lighted the production of the likes of Saturday Night Fever, Grease, The Simpsons and Cheers. ‘This is part three of my life,’ she explains. In part one, what she calls her ‘American Dream years’, not only was she at the top of her game professionally, but she was married, albeit briefly, to a prince – Egon von Furstenberg, the scion of an Austrian-Italian dynasty. ‘I couldn’t believe my luck. He was such a catch! Young and handsome – and an Agnelli [with its connections to the Fiat fortune]!’ she laughs. But then, in the Eighties, she lost it all. The market became saturated with wrap dresses, sales dried up, her company tanked, she sold most of her licences to avoid bankruptcy and, now a divorcee, all but disappeared for a decade. Part two is the era that she refers to as her ‘comeback-kid years’ – in 1990, she relaunched her line and, in 2003, DVF turned its first profit. But, afer all the metamorphoses she has undergone, it is part three that excites her the most. ‘It’s about all I’ve achieved – and what I’m leaving behind.’ Von Furstenberg has had many incarnations. She is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. ‘I was not meant to be born,’ she says candidly, sipping tea. ‘My mother was released afer 14 months in Auschwitz and Ravensbrück weighing just 49lb. The doctors told her she would never have children. But nine months afer she married my father, I arrived. The day I was born, I had already won.’ She pauses, savouring the words. ‘I was her vengeance, her love. I’ve always thought, I am alive.’ Her mother, Liliane, born in Greece, was taken to the camps from her home in Belgium in the final years of the war. As she was being driven away in the convoy of trucks, she scribbled a note to her parents on a piece of cardboard, labelled it with their address and threw it out on to the road. It said: ‘Don’t worry, and stay in good health for my wedding when I return. I don’t know where I am going, but I have a smile on my face.’ She did indeed return, and would later marry the Romanian-born man who would become von Furstenberg’s father. Many years later, helping her mother sort through some boxes of her belongings, Diane found an envelope of old family photos. Inside was another envelope and inside that the cherished piece of cardboard. ‘I went for a swim in the sea later that afernoon and I said out loud to myself, “This is who I am.”’ Perhaps unsurprisingly, given her heritage, the designer has a wild, uninhibited braveness. She declares she has never been ‘a fearful kind of person’ – neither as a young girl going off to university in Switzerland, nor, at 23 and already pregnant, marrying a royal (Alexander was born in 1970, a scandalous six months later), nor launching her own business, nor being a single mother of two (Tatiana was born shortly before the von Furstenbergs’ divorce in 1972; the couple remaining on good terms until Egon’s death from liver cancer in 2004).
‘My mother, a Holocaust survivor, taught me that fear is a handicap and not, therefore, an option’
‘My mother influenced me hugely,’ she says. ‘She was so strong. She taught me that fear is a handicap and not, therefore, an option. Until I was six, she was really strict – if I was afraid of the dark, I was afraid of the dark. Then my brother was born and she sofened.’ They remained close until Liliane died in 2000, two weeks afer her first granddaughter was born. There is a brutal frankness to von Furstenberg. When she found out she was carrying Egon’s child, she was working for an Italian clothes manufacturer who owned a Maserati. ‘I thought I was car sick from the speed at which he used to drive us about from factory to factory – but I was pregnant!’ She was shocked; her independence was important to her and, although they were already engaged to be married, she did not want it to be thought she had deliberately fallen pregnant to snare a prince. ‘I went home to Geneva, where my mother was then living, and made an appointment to have an abortion. When I went home and told her, she said, “You can’t do this. You must tell Egon first.”’ He was in India. Von Furstenberg sent word that she was having a baby – and an abortion – and he wrote back immediately, telling her to cancel it. They married in 1969, moved to New York and became one of the most fêted couples of their generation. However, determined to make her own way in the world, before she lef Europe, she made an investment in her future. Staying behind at work night afer night, she diligently learnt how to cut paterns and, on arrival in the States, began designing clothes, realising that her time with the Maserati-driving Italian had taught her much that would prove useful about the retail business. Thirty years later, and now something of an authority on how to survive in the industry, she was made president of its trade association, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, from whom she received a lifetime achievement award. A philanthropist who has pledged to donate 50 per cent of her wealth to charity, von Furstenberg is an active supporter of the global organisations Vital Voices and Women in the World, which promote leadership and social entrepreneurship. ‘I meet women from all over – China, Brazil, Russia – and it’s never that they are not strong in themselves, but what a brother, or society, or their own insecurities have imposed on them. Then tragedy strikes and their strength comes out. You might as well just be strong from the start – there is no alternative.’ Fiercely independent, she nevertheless feels it is important to live in solidarity with men: ‘We have to make strong sons.’ She feels blessed to be reunited with Diller, with whom she lived for five years in the mid-Seventies. ‘Then I lef him. But he remained in my life. He was always around. He completely, unconditionally loves me. Like my father loved me.’ She begins to yawn. Already inky black outside on the Rue du Seine, it’s geting late. She has only a few days lef in Paris before she must return to New York and there are old friends to see, books to read, walks to take. ‘There’s so much to do every day,’ she laughs. It’s fair to say she’s made a good start. dvf.com Author and journalist Janine di Giovanni’s latest book is Ghosts By Daylight: A Memoir of War & Love (Bloomsbury, £16,99)
best of the fringe Fashion’s rediscovered the benefits of fringing – the flapper’s stock-in-trade is tweaked and twisted in futuristic optic fibre and neoprene, while skirts, T-shirts and even trousers are given a new edge PhotograPhy Benny Horne FaShIoN EDItor Kate SeBBaH
Thread, white and blue Chiffon tunic, £765, Gucci. Vest, £1,003, Maison Martin Margiela. Lace and jersey bodysuit, from £217, Damir Doma. Studded leather shoes, £164, Bess. Earrings, £89, Giles & Brother. Necklace, £540, Missoni
Light relief Swinging voter Left White jacket with Leather jacket, £2,537, mesh details, £1,150; D Squared2. Sequined white crepe de chine dress, £2,950, Missoni. top, £600; white stretch Nylon shell dress, canvas trousers, £825, £897, Maison Martin all Gucci with adjuster Margiela. Lace and Burberry trousers, jersey bodysuit, from £217, Damir Doma. Metal and leather necklace, £263, Giles & Brother
Lily the pink Wool and leather dress, £1,860, Osman Yousefzada. Tights, £34, Wolford. Necklace, as before. Lacquered wood bangle, £160, and horn cuff, £345, both Hermès
Light relief High in fibre Left White jacket with Optical-fibre mesh details,dress, £1,150; £2,600, Marc white crepe deJacobs. chine Leather shirt, from top, £600; white stretch £142, The Leatherman. canvas trousers, £825, Studded shoes, all Gucci leather with adjuster from £164,trousers, Bess Burberry
Space oddity Dress, £1,175; and top, £710; both Stella McCartney. Necklace, as before. Tights, £34, Wolford
Light Holeyrelief spirit Left White jacketdress, with Ostrich-feather mesh details, £1,150; from £21,350, Louis white crepe deand chine Vuitton. Lace top, £600; whitefrom stretch jersey bodysuit, canvas trousers, £825, £217, Damir Doma all Gucci with adjuster Burberry trousers,
Mellow yellow Hand silk-screened knit shirt, from £450, and skirt, from £300, both Libertine at Browns. Clutch bag, £3,500, Marc Jacobs. Velvet ‘Panther’ glasses, price on request, Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci at Dover Street Market. Gunmetal cuff, from £5,864, Repossi. ‘Lips’ ring, from £990, Solange Azagury-Partridge
Light relief Forward slash Left White jacket£278, with Leather T-shirt, mesh details, Maison Martin£1,150; Margiela. white crepe decotton chine Neoprene and top, £600; dress, fromwhite £890,stretch canvas trousers, Versus. Studded£825, leather all Gucci with adjuster shoes, from £164, Burberry trousers, Bess. Silver ring, £340, Tom Binns
Velvet underground Velvet shirt, top, bra and miniskirt, all price on request, Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci at Selfridges. Tights, £34, Wolford. Necklace, as before
Light relief Fringe festival Left White jacket£278, with Leather T-shirt, mesh details, £1,150; Maison Martin white crepe de chine Margiela. Beaded dress, top, £600; white stretch price on application, canvas trousers, £825, Tribune Standard. all Gucci adjuster Lace and with jersey Burberry from trousers, bodysuit, £217, Damir Doma. Metal and leather necklace, £263, Giles & Brother. Key ring, £200, Maison Martin Margiela
Hi vis Satin kimono, £3,156, Moncler Gamme Rouge. Jersey dress, £845, D Squared2. Bra, from £474, and trousers, from £578, both Norma Kamali. Studded leather shoes, £164, Bess. Metal earrings, £89, Giles & Brother. Necklace, £540, Missoni Hair Rutger Van der Heide at Streeters, using BedHead by Tigi Make-up Maud Laceppe at Streeters, using Nars Cosmetics Fashion assistant Joseph Falcone Model Gertrude at IMG STOCKISTS DETAILS ON PAGE 72
Chain gang Honeycomb wool jacket, £1,430, and skirt, £915, both Yves Saint Laurent. Tights, £34, Wolford. Sunglasses, £216, Linda Farrow. Miss Dior python-skin bag, £4,000, Christian Dior. Necklace and ring, as before Hair Rolando Beauchamp for Bumble and Bumble Make-up Benjamin Puckey using Chanel A/W11 and Sublimage Manicurist Myrdith Leon-McCormack using M2M damoreJon Fashion assistant Angelo DeSanto Casting Zan Ludlum Model Kat Hessen at Next Models STOCKISTS DETAILS ON PAGE 80
A Alaïa 020 7235 5000; harveynichols.com B Bess bess-nyc.com Botega Veneta botegaveneta.com Burberry 020 7806 1303; burberry.com C Céline 020 7730 1234; harrods.com
Chanel 020 7493 5040; chanel.com Christian Dior 020 7172 0172; dior.com Christian Louboutin 020 7245 6510; christianlouboutin.fr D Damir Doma 020 7518 0680; doverstreetmarket.com Diane von Furstenberg 020 7499 0886; dvf.com Dior 020 7172 0172; dior.com Dolce & Gabbana dolcegabbana.com Dover Street Market 020 7518 0680; doverstreetmarket.com
D Squared2 dsquared2.com E Emporio Armani 020 7491 8080; emporioarmani.com Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co 020 7499 4577; tiffany.com Erdem 020 7739 7986; erdem.co.uk F Francesco Scognamiglio francescoscognamiglio.it G Gianvito Rossi 020 7514 0016; brownsfashion.com
Giles & Brother net-a-porter.com Giles Deacon 020 7610 8441; joseph.co.uk Giuseppe Zanotti Design 020 7838 9455; giuseppezanottidesign.com Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci 0800 123400; selfridges.com Gucci 020 7629 2716; gucci.com H Harrods 020 7730 1234; harrods.com Harvey Nichols 020 7235 5000; harveynichols.com L Louis Vuitton 020 7399 4050; louisvuitton.com M Maison Martin Margiela 020 7629 2682; margiela.com Manolo Blahnik for Richard Nicoll 020 7352 3863; manoloblahnik.com Marc Jacobs 020 7399 1690; marcjacobs.com Missoni 020 3551 4888; missoni.com Moncler Gamme Rouge 020 7235 0857; moncler.com N Norma Kamali normakamali.com P Pierre Hardy 020 7730 1234; net-a-porter.com 3.1 Phillip Lim 31philliplim.com R Ralph Lauren Black Label 020 7535 4600; ralphlauren.co.uk S Selfridges 0800 123400; selfridges.com Solange Azagury-Partridge 020 7792 0197; solangeazagurypartridge.com Sonia Rykiel 020 7493 5255; soniarykiel.com T The Leatherman theleatherman.com Tiffany & Co 020 7499 4577; tiffany.com Tom Binns 020 7518 0680; doverstreetmarket.com Tribune Standard tribunestandard.com V Van Cleef & Arpels 020 7493 0400; vancleef-arpels.com Versace 020 7259 5700; versace.com Versus versus.it Y Yves Saint Laurent 020 7493 1800; ysl.com
canvas trench coat, £2,195, Burberry. satin and lace body suit, from £508, Dolce & Gabbana. leather shoes, from £648, Alaïa
PhotograPhy: alix Malka, Fashion Director: Daniela agnelli
72 stockists
S T M E N ’ S S T Y L E W I T H T H E S U N D AY T E L E G R A P H o N 8 A P R I L
across the board Don’t miss the neXt issue of ST MEN’S STYLE featuring suRf stYLe PLuS garY OLDMan, Kim Jones anD whY aviatoRs aRe bacK in the fRame
74 heroine
Left: Jeanne Moreau photographed for British Vogue in 1982. Right and below: In her 1962 hit film Jules et Jim
Moreau once said acting is not about play-acting, but rather living in front of the camera, and I think that she has always been faithful to herself through the roles that she has played. That is why she was so wonderful in Jules et Jim, because her role transcended everything she was already. In her private world, away from the stage and the cameras, I think Moreau is definitely a romantic and a lover. She has had plenty of her own love stories – she was married twice and dated both Louis Malle and François Truffaut – yet she was always very discreet about them. I juggle a lot in my life as an actress and singer so I respect the fact that Moreau has worn so many hats in many different She wasn’t a perfect beauty in her youth,
crafts, and is brilliant with all of them. She
I think her decision to play prostitute
but her imperfections set her apart from
is an actress, but also a screenwriter, director
roles early on gives us insight into her
her contemporaries. Brigitte Bardot worked
and singer. Her career as a singer was
headstrong and sensual personality.
the sex-bomb look and Catherine Deneuve
triggered by her captivating performance
She was afraid of nothing. By the time
was revered for feminine elegance but
of the song ‘Le Tourbillon’ in Jules et Jim.
her seventh film Les Amants arrived in
Moreau embodied fierce independence
Subsequent performances of note include
cinemas, she had opened France’s eyes
and merciless intelligence. Acting alongside
‘Embrasse-Moi,’ a Bassiak song from the
to a new type of heroine. This was the
Bardot in Viva Maria!, she is in many ways
1963 film Peau de Banane, and ‘Ah les P’tites
Fifties; a period when feminine glamour in
the direct opposite of Bardot’s feminine
Femmes de Paris’ a duet with Brigitte
films was at its peak. Moreau burst on to the
ideal, yet to me she is just as beautiful:
Bardot from Viva Maria! Moreau is not the
screen with her tomboy spirit, and a raw,
she radiates charisma.
best vocalist in the world but, as with all
passionate attitude – there was nothing
My all-time favourite Moreau film
of the submissive woman draped in big
is Truffaut’s Jules et Jim (1962). I watched
personality that hearing her is magical. The
skirts and diamonds. I feel that I can relate
it as a child and was fascinated by the
emotion in her husky voice carries all the
to her in the sense that there’s a tomboy in
uninhibited and free-spirited love between
colour and character of her life.
me too; I am very much a woman while
the three characters. It was the first time I
deep down feeling more like a 14-year-old
fully understood what the French reputation
gives both validation and rejection. It can
boy stuck in a woman’s body.
was built on! I wrote my university thesis
be demoralising at times, yet I find Moreau
on Truffaut and have always adored his
a great source of inspiration because she is
scene, she offered something new. Actors
work, but on top of that, Jules et Jim is a film
a true force of nature. Of course there may
have to deal with insecurities added to the
that just really moved me. Moreau plays
be insecurities deep down, but she has
constant pressure of trying to please, but
an incredibly strong character – stronger
never wasted time worrying what people
Moreau had the poise and self-assurance
than the two male roles. It’s almost as
think or letting them dictate who she should
to be herself. And people in the film
though she wears the trousers. Yet you can
be. Fear can hold people back, yet with
industry grew to love her for that. She
still see elements of female vulnerability
the grace of a woman and the spirit of a
ended up working with many of the world’s
through her desire for the men. However
young boy, Moreau has run through life
greatest directors, including Louis Malle,
strong her character is, she still has the
fearless, daring and devastatingly charming.
Orson Welles, Michelangelo Antonioni
fragility of a woman. That is what I find so
and François Truffaut, and built close
charming about Moreau in life: she comes
Josephine de La Baume stars in the ITV1
friendships with prominent writers such
across as incredibly independent but her
mini-series Titanic, writen by Julian Fellowes,
as Henry Miller and Jean Cocteau.
eyes betray a mesmerising fragility.
which will air in the UK from 25 March
So, when Moreau arrived on the
she does, she performs with such great
Acting is a double-edged sword that
REX FEATuRES; COnDE nAST LTD/DAn BuDnICk/TRunk ARCHIvE
Actress and singer Josephine de la Baume celebrates Jeanne Moreau the ‘headstrong and sensual’ alternative to Bardot and Deneuve
Moreau made her theatrical debut in 1947.