Monday, April 23, 2012

THE VOGUE FESTIVAL 2012

This was Vogue's incredibly interesting idea to bring the world's most famous fashion icons closer to the public and once again it proved to be very successful. Excluding the little tiny fact that the tickets weren't quite affordable for everyone to join, but what can you do? It is the same everywhere... it's all about the name, once you have VOGUE written down on something you expect the price to go up.

So I happily paid for Session Four of the VOGUE FESTIVAL to see Superman himself, as Alexandra Shulman described him - Mr. Tom Ford, the world's most beautiful models Eva Herzigova, Natalia Vodianova, Jourdan Dunn and Lily Cole , followed by a discussion with Rachel Zoe, Joely Richardson, Richard Young and William Banks Blaney on the red carpet events.

Highlight of the day was Tom Ford, needless to mention, who I expected to have a very arrogant and extremely annoying personality to fit his incredible fashion career and success but it was nothing like that. This is one funny , down-to-earth person , that everyone noticed looks amazing for his age. He is 50 years old and has had a long-term relationship of over 25 years with fashion journalist Richard Buckley. Makes me think of buying his whole cosmetique collection if it will guarantee me to look like that in 25 years.

Alexandra Schulman presenting Tom Ford
Tom Ford and Alexandra Schulman before the panel discussion







After two days of unfortunate attempts to upload the video on Tom Ford's interview onto the blog or youtube  (it was rejected because of the length and size) I finally decided to take on the promise to transcript most of it and post separately.


ASK THE MODELS was the second panel discussion on schedule for Session four of Saturday's afternoon, where some of the most famous international top models were invited to talk about their personal and professional life . The very common subjects were also brought up such as eating disorders that some models are accused of and the secrets behind of what seems to be a glamorous life.


Natalia Vodianova
It was good to get an insight into Natalia's personality and put a character on that gorgeous face. She really does look like a Russian porcelain doll and I always had the impression she would not have much to say besides just being pretty. I was wrong once again , it seems that this very fragile lovely lady is more of a fighter and dominated the conversation on every topic she was interviewed. 

Very feisty and sometimes and at some moments a bit awkward she strongly kept her opinion on eating disorders and defended herself by saying something like this : 'People lets all face it : it is better to be skinny than to be fat!' and continued on her eating habbits saying that 'If I eat like a pig, I feel like a pig'... 'I wake up in the morning and feel and look like s#@it'. 


Eva Herzigova

VOGUE Executive Fashion Director Calgary Avansino
Alexandra Schulman presenting Eva Herzigova and Lily Cole

Jourdan Dunn
Jourdan Dunn talking to Calgary Avansino

Next, Richard Young , Joely Richardson, William Banks-Blaney and Rachel Zoe took the stage to have a talk about the red carpet styling, dresses and celebrities. The fairytale life of the stars! Wasn't too excited about this one , but because I paid the money I stayed! I do however love Joely Richardson and her British beauty and I think Rachel Zoe did a great job with her debut collection at NYFW this year so I saw it more of a chance to take some pictures of them in person.

There is one thing interesting that was revealed during the discussion - everyone is melancholic and thinks back with regret onto the years when the Black Tie was mandatory to all these official events and you didn't see people wearing jeans or flip=flops to premiers or red carpet events.









That's all folks! From the life of the rich and famous, here it was SESSION FOUR of the Vogue Festival 2012.





Saturday, April 21, 2012

ROOTSTEIN and PROPORTION London

This was my second visit to the Rootstein Display Mannequin Factory in London and I was surprised of how good the showroom looked this time. I loved the styling of the beautiful mannequins. Somebody did their research on the SS 12 trends  or was is just coincidence? Either way Rootstein's showroom looked like a scene out of The Great Gatsby movie. 20's  hairdues for the ladies and a very androginy look for the male models.

French berets, long suede gloves, retro curls, golden shimmery dresses and tops , flare pants, fringes, feathers light me up a cigarette and let me listen to some jazz.....


PROPORTION London had a more edgy mood to it. It wasn't as impressive as Rootstein in the styling, make-up and hair department, but it does have a diverse range of mannequin collections. They manufacture everything from vintage style to shiny , silver  ones or mannequins made out of raw materials and stained fibreglass. RAW collection is PROPORTION's eco-friendly version of accessories displaying beauties, I fell inlove with. Keeping that in mind, if you ever do visit their showroom you will see the wonderful skulls in every shape and form displayed on shelves, tables and inside glass bowls. I WANT ONE!

Most of all , the team behind this showroom is incredible! We talked to some really nice and friendly people, had some nibbles and drank some coffee , what made the whole visit worth a thousand words.