DIESEL BE STUPID 100 LOVERS VIDEO, the dorky rehearsal video

As you may or may not know, before skipping off to NYC I partook in the filming of Diesels new online campaign, BE STUPID. Since Im in Ancona about to dash off to watch this art installation all about the sustainable beauty of shoes with a Roman arch thrown in for good measure, Ill keep this short and sweet. Instead of waxing poetic about the experinece now long since dimmed in my mind, regailing you with tales of learning my steps beside Josef Xorto, the crooner of 100 Lovers (which I  may never be able to listen to again) and the ins and outs of the cool double decker food bus, I leave you with a video of how it all started, the awkward, cringeworthy rehearsal.

Despite the 14 hours spent on set (and an entire day of fittings/rehearsals, which, as you can see here were oh so glamorous) you have to look rather hard to see yours truly in a pink cotton floral flu-induing maxi (ahhh the joy sof shooting spring summer in unheated facilities in Londontown in January), but I promise I am actually there, foreground and  background.

Click here to watch me be stupid!

Whiteleys MALL PARTY!!!!

This may be an American thing, I'm not sure, but do you remember back in the day, say 6th, 7th grade when the mall was THE place to be? Limited Too, Express, CLAIRE's? That was all a prepubescent transitioning girl could want. Mall parties were the pinnacle of it all--late night shopping events, DJs, and other cool things--events not to be missed or else suffer the consequence at school Monday morning.

So imagine my surprise when I turned up at an event at Whiteley's last week (my local mall here in Bayswater/Notting Hill, as it were) claiming to be the launch party of a brand new shopping concept where an entire floor of the mall was turned into a selection of pop-up stores, to find the whole thing converted into a Mall Party of the ultimate mall cheese. Red carpet rolled out to the main entrance, drawing the curiosity of the other shoppers. It was for the few celebs in attendance, Kelly Osborne, Sadie Frost and Alice Dellal (who performed with her new band,a phenomenon I did not alas stick around long enough to witness), and the six or seven photogs pacing alongside the massive red monstrosity didn't have to work too hard to earn their evening's keep. Mini burgers were in circulation, as was Pop champagne in bottles with straws and tequila shooters.

 4 stores opening in total, Junk Food Clothing, The POP Store, The Bower of Bliss and FrostFrench
(which, on account of the presence of both Ms. Frost and Ms. French was at about four times the capacity of any of the other shops). The shops were a good addition to our local high street fraught mall, though personally I find Frost/French dull and overpriced. Nevertheless, the hoopala created around the launch of something other than a new Accessorize I'm sure will, at some point, take hold of my neighborly wallet and lure us back upstairs in Whiteleys for just one more peek.   Hoorah for the return of the mall party! If only I needed another hole in my ears, then the nostalgia would be complete. Only plus one red carpet.

Frost and French give an interview

Ms. Osborne arrives

Kelly's kick ass sparkly shoes

who is this girl???

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Paris Fashion Week: Kenzo AW10

 It was the most compelling of all invites, trumping even the polar-bear stamped request from Karl Lagerfed, Kenzo's crushed and dried flowers vacuum packed into a small plastic rectangle. And the Kenzo show, now underneath the creative direction of Antonio Marras, definitely lived up to expectations precluded by the Save the Date. Upon walking in, guests were greeted by a massive structure of willow branches woven together to create a sort of ethereal autumnal forest--giving the feel of a lost wander about to turn into fairytale November style. Smoke began to waft up from the runway, shrouding our mystical forest in further mystery, announcing that the show was about to begin.

 Figures sprung to life from the inner recesses of folkdome: "it's the fashion melting pot of 2010!" explained Marras, in the shownotes. Be it folk tales or folk dress, the boho, clashing floral prints in an array of rich fall tones, patchworks of florals, jacquard wool, tweeds, tartans, shags, and more walked supreme. Anna Sui would have probably fainted on site.

Traveling creatures on the quintessential autumnal style journey, wool fedoras atop their heads, shaggy sheepskin lined boots...the excitement continues at Mademoiselle a Paris... 

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Model Drug Lordette: Angie Sanclemente on the run

Image source: CNN.com

No one ever said the life of a model was an easy one. Sure there's the glitz and the glamour that surrounds it all--from catwalks to photoshoots, the life of making a living off of simply being beautiful. The stuff of the greenest of envies. But, as with all glamorous industries, there is of course a cesspool of an underbelly that has always surrounded the modelling world, pre-pubescent young girls being taken from their homes in, say, Eastern Europe or Russia, carted over to the likes of Paris, London or New York, grouped into houses with other models just to be poked and prodded at the hands of their agents, stylists, designers etc. And being paid, most of the times, very very little. 

So today, whence I logged onto my computer and, as per usual, scoped out CNN.com (my homepage), I certainly had cause for pause upon seeing the following headline: Model, allegedly drug queen, on the lam. Colombian beauty Angie Sanclamente is on the run, Interpol has officially issued an international warrant for her arrest. The charge? The aging model (now 30) is accused of being a "queen pin" of an international drug operation that uses models as drug mules, moving boatloads of coke illicitly out of the Buenos Aires airport rather than breezy neutral chiffon separates down a Spring/Summer catwalk. 

It's like something out of CSI, or even Nip/Tuck. Remember the hookers whose enormous silicone implants were used for just the same purpose in season 1? The sick thing is that this isn't daytime TV we're talking about. 

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The Way We Wore....Paris

assorted fashion partners in crime: Robert Clayton aka BBERT, King Jason the Fabulous, Madame Blogger of Style Cartel

Paris Fashion Week: Backstage at Akris

Getting picky wit it

Longest re-touch ever. This girl was working on her face the WHOLE time I was backstage, flitting from mirror to mirror. As if they didn't load her with enough paint for the show??

Designer Albert Kriemler with another satisfied customer

Paris Fashion Week: Akris AW10

Chanel Iman: only you can make a gilet of horse hair so sexy that we all scream yay! instead of neighhh!! 

Love the fuzzy hood, but the buttons look a tad cheezy no?

"Double-face is Akris heritage," quizzically wrote designer Albert Kriemler in the opening
line of the Akris AW10 show notes.

While I'm not exactly sure how that tagline applied to a collection where, wrought with tone on tone, color blocked autumnal hued separates, and texture juxtaposed against texture, uniformity and unity of aesthetic and of brand identity seemed to be the underlying message, one thing did seem clear: Akris fans will be getting what they want this season.

The collection exuded a grown up sophistication, immaculate tailoring which pushed the envelope of suited workwear (which referenced 70's tailoring), via its execution in soft cashmere plaids or tweeds and the occasional soft feminine touch, into the realm of true luxury, clothes that "work with and for a woman," as Kriemler so eloquently put it, in an array of winter forest colors, camel, cassis, plum, elder and so on....more sil vous plait

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Paris Fashion Week: Costume National AW10

Better late than never. At last, in our fashion week narrative, we have reached the final chapter, the last movement before the grand finale (CHANEL AW10, sayitwithmenow!). Paris Paris Paris, how I love thee, let me count the ways. It's a good thing the whole shibang winds down in the city of light, as, by this point, cafes and croissants are packed with more appeal than catwalks and the temptation to slag off any and all shows is nearly insurmountable. But then hand calligraphied invites embossed in gold arrive at your hotel, beckoning you to venues such as the Louvre, the Grand Palais (a far cry from, ahem, say Saunders at the Truman Brewery), and magic, despite your newly crystallized fashion indifference, suddenly creeps back in the game.

Lucky for me, Lily Templeton, my friend and fellow bloginista behind the French site Mademoiselle A Paris, decided to fly her Parisian coop for the duration so as to cover the X Games in Switzerland. Fair enough. Hence, there was a fluttering of admin and a hand over of some tickets in exchange for some content. That is to say, I've already reviewed many of the shows for her blog though I've failed to indicate that anywhere on this site. So without further ado, I redirect you to Paris, to Mademoiselle A Paris, as it were, for the final installment (for now) of the Whisperer's Fashion Week Adventures. Alonzi!!!

 "A new proposal of the concept of morphing. The juxtaposition of the man-made and the organic...I extended this concept into the very fibres of the collection, incorporating a nanotechnology process that merges the matter...Nature/future, Thoureau's Walden/Asimov's Android," somewhat nonsensically read the show notes at trendy Italian label CoSTUME National.

The juxtaposition of the man-made and the organic was immediately tenable in the slick, tinfoil silver supertight trousers and mini skirts--classic CoSTUME clubwear--teamed with intricately texture fibrous looking beige knitwear which opened the show. What Italian designer Ennio Capasa meant with his references to Walden, not so obvious...more sil vous plait

I heart these trousers, I have some similar from McQ but with a bit of biker tude

There was lots of neutral on neutral action

The texture on this is just stunning