The Essence Of A Photo Shoot

Even after watching several magazine fashion shoots in progress, I'm still impressed with the the coordination it takes to put one of these things together.
Yesterday I was at Milk Studio in Hollywood for a cover and fashion shoot with a young movie star for the March issue of a major national magazine.

The studio was impressive with one huge room for the photography

and another huge room for hair, make-up, wardrobe

and a caterer who was making omelette's to order for breakfast and then who came back a couple of hours later with a huge spread for lunch for the talent and crew

Beladora brought some diamond necklaces, earrings and bracelets in platinum

and a couple of trays of Jean Mahie jewelry

Of course there was an additional two tables of jewelry and maybe 50 pairs of shoes and 20 linear feet of outfits hanging on rolling racks.

Since there are large quantities of clothes and accessories for a magazine fashion shoot you never know if your pieces are going to make it into the actual publication.

You just loan the goods and hope for the best.

The talent (who shall remain nameless because we don't want to jinx our chance of getting the cover photo) starred in a major sci fi movie last spring and is coming out in a mega movie next spring, was so very pretty.

And she had an adorable personality.

When you have lived in LA as long as I have you tend to be jaded when it comes to actors and the entire entertainment business

but even with my ho hum attitude, it was hard to take my eyes off of the talent because she was just so pretty.

NY Recap - Conde Nast, Hearst and Fashion Babes

I'm pleased that my New York trip was successful
My meetings went really well, it didn't rain and I didn't come down with the flu
all very good things.

Although I was disappointed not to meet Wendy B and see her cleverly designed jewelry
there will be additional trips to NY and other opportunities to meet.

For some silly reason I didn't realize that the Conde Nast building was going to be a Times Square adjacent dark glass box. I was expecting a more "Devil Wears Prada" type of building with elegant architecture and interiors matching the chic look of the fashion babes working there.

But in spite of the fact that the building houses the offices of Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Allure, Architectural Digest and many more publications, the architecture was pretty pedestrian.

To add to the pedestrian nature of the experience,
when I had what was termed as "deskside meetings" at Conde Nast

I never got anywhere near an actual desk.

After going through security in the lobby and taking the elevator to the correct floor, I saw that all of the offices are housed behind locked glass doors. Instead of being invited into any actual work space I met with the fashion editors in the interior seating areas next to the elevators. Naturally I presumed that some major top secret fashion-y stuff was going on behind those glass doors.

The wow factor at Conde Nast was getting to ride the elevator with the natty Hamish Bowles...not La Wintour to be sure, but a bonafide fashion celebrity in his own right.

My experience at Hearst was entirely different from the neighborhood to the architecture to the ambiance.

The Hearst Tower in Columbus Circle was an impressive 42 storey building designed by Foster & Partners as a tower of glass rising from the original 6 storey Art Deco Hearst building from the 1920's.

The lobby of the building was magnificent with an impressive multi storey stepped waterfall crossed by escalators leading to an open atrium style lobby that housed the elevators as well as a seating area, cafeteria and gallery space.

Where the ambiance at Conde Nast was closed and dark, at Hearst it was open and light.

Meetings were held in brightly lit conference rooms with walls of glass and spectacular city views.

The wow factor came from taking the elevator with Pamela Fiori , the editor in chief of Town & Country, who politely inquired who we were there to meet after we stepped off the elevator on the same floor.

Now, about the fashion editors, or as I call them, the fashion babes.

They were, not all of course, but for the most part, young, maybe 30 years old, very nice and seemed to all have that New York high wasp upper east side socialite look. You know what I mean, really pretty, thin, blond and very well dressed. They reminded me of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, with an ethereal and fragile look that to me is the essence of New York high style.

I found this interesting because Los Angeles, a city filled with amazingly beautiful women, particularly because of the entertainment industry, is so just different in terms of style than New York.

Meeting With The NY Demi-Gods At Conde Nast

I think this is a photo of the building where I spent my afternoon...the Conde Nast building.
I will have more to say about this next week when I get back to LA, but until then, let's just say that I am very disappointed to not have seen Anna Wintour at Vogue.

Playing With Polyvore - Planning For New York

I can take the New York chilly weather for a few days...can't I?

Fall Fashion - A Visual Assault

Here's a few pics and prose from New York Magazine's
Best and Worst of August Fashion Magazines

...because I just needed to share

Worst Denim — Nylon
The effort to do something different with denim intensified this month to an alarming degree. Surely a plain pair of jeans isn't so odious next to these monstrosities.

Best Indication of Future Pole Dance — Miley Cyrus in Elle
Miley wears over-the-knee boots and a minidress by Rodarte on the left, and a William Rast studded leather jacket with Alexander Wang booties and leggings on the right. How does a 16-year-old starlet evolve from that without a stripper pole?

Worst Ad — Diesel
It's unclear whether the feather duster is actually tickling her or pushing her out of the frame and into a shower. The only thing wild about our friend on the right is probably the 1-900 call he's on.

How is it that people get paid to come up with this stuff?

The Fall Haute Couture Shows With Susan Tabak

Does Susan Tabak, journalist and blogger of Chic in Paris, have the best job or what?

Now I would love to see Style Spy, who writes so cleverly about high fashion and other subjects, have to opportunity to cover the Paris shows in Susan Tabak style.

Seeking Style By The Book

Christina Binkley in this week's Wall Street Journal

Of Birkins and BlackBerrys: Essential Reading on Style

explores the latest books on style

Style books can be more than “how to wear this, how not to embarrass yourself in that.” If you define style broadly, there is nary a corner of our lives unaffected by style, from the cars we drive to how we text.

One book on Ms. Binkley's list is this book due to be released in August

“How Not to Act Old: 185 Ways to Pass for Phat, Sick, Hot, Dope, Awesome, or at Least Not Totally Lame,” by Pamela Redmond Satran (HarperCollins, $14.99).

Here's her take on it

Until I read this book, which is due out in August, I hadn’t actually realized that texting with one’s index finger is a sign of age. It also hadn’t dawned on me that it was possible to “Facebook old” (or even to use Facebook as a verb). Ms. Satran’s take on the latest generation gap is as insightful as it is entertaining—a comic blend of advice and anthropology that skewers both young and old.

The book is arranged as a series of rules, such as “#54 Don’t Fear Rap,” in which Ms. Satran offers nine “easy listenin’” songs, including Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat Dance” and Ludacris’s “Midnight Train.” In a section called “15 Cool Dead Famous People,” Ms. Satran suggests it is OK to name-drop Abraham Lincoln, Coco Chanel and Kurt Cobain in the same sentence.

By the way, your Birkenstocks are OK again: Rule #183 lists eight items of hipster gear that even oldies can wear, including

Ray-Bans with prescription lenses and, yes, orthopedic sandals from Germany.

In our youth obsessed culture this looks sure to be a best seller.

But now that I know that it's OK for me to wear my Birkenstock sandals...I don't need to buy the book!

Another book on Ms. Binkley's list

“Style Evolution, How to Create Ageless Personal Style in Your 40s and Beyond,” by Kendall Farr (Penguin Group, $22.50)

Author and stylist Ms. Farr picks up where “How Not to Act Old” leaves off—without the humor. “What does it mean to have reached middle age in a time of celebrity adulation, youth obsession, stripper culture and the Real Housewives franchise?” she asks.

This is a dual pep talk and primer for those of us whose style hasn’t evolved since our first full-time job. As with any fashion book—and fashion itself—the trend-conscious elements of this one will have a shelf life of only a few years. But the classic parts will remain. For instance, when buying a scarf, be sure the exposed ends are nicely finished.

I've been wondering about the personal style, fashion sense and taste. Can you learn any of this from a book?

If you've reached middle age and your personal style is say, matronly or frumpy, can you become even become more stylish?

Doesn't the fact that you are already dressing this way mean that your personal taste in terms of fashion is actually matronly or frumpy?

And I ask these questions fully admitting that I have some seriously frumpy taste myself when it comes to comfortable footwear.

Personally, if I wanted to sharpen up my look I'd probably work with an image consultant such as Karen Karlsen or Imogen Lamport (with a trip to Australia attached....).

If you wanted to sharpen your look would you buy these books, hire an image consultant or both?

Carla Bruni - Never Beautiful Enough For The Brits

I don't know why exactly but for some reason it doesn't bother me when the Fug Girls take down one celebrity after another for their fashion crimes. From Bai Ling to Lady Gaga, I'm OK with the fashion criticism that these celebrities deserve.

But it truly does vex me when the fashion press comes up with something like this embarrassingly catty article by Liz Jones in the Times Online
The day Carla met her match...How Spain's Princess upstaged the French First Lady
First we have a comparison of their derrieres, because let's face it, in 2009 the worthiness of women is still judged according to their figures, faces, and fashions.

This was the spectacular battle of the derrieres. Even though I don't usually have much time for Carla Bruni, believing her to be merely an expensively dressed model with the beady eyes of a terrier, I did feel a tiny bit sorry for her yesterday. (beady eyes of a terrier....can you believe she writes this stuff?)
Who would want to negotiate a flight of steps in a tight skirt and heels, in front of the world's Press, in synchronisation with the owner of one of the classiest rears in the world: Princess Letizia of Spain.
Anything would have been better than the ignominy of having your flat, slightly over-aerobicised fortysomething posterior photographed for all the world to see next to something so round, so high, so - damn it - perfect. (Yep, there we go....forget the individual accomplishments of these women, it's really all about their derrieres)

And then Ms Jones gives us the take down on their legs and shoes.

I can only imagine Carla later that night, spitting into husband Nicolas Sarkozy's ear: 'It was all your fault. If only you weren't so damned short, I could have worn six-inch Fendis to crank up my bottom instead of tiny kitten heels that make me look as out of date and tired as snow-washed denim.'
Shoes say so much more about a woman than her CV. (!!!!!!) OMG....the next time my assistant needs to send out her resume I'll be sure to tell her just to send out a picture of her Jimmy Choos. Carla's black Christian Louboutins show she is being forced to conform against her nature, while Letizia's blush pink platforms demonstrate that, like her husband, Crown Prince Felipe, she is bringing Spain firmly into the 21st century.
The former TV anchor's platforms by Spanish designer Rebecca Sanver show she is flirtatious, fun-loving and prepared to take risks. Carla merely shows sublimation.

And the article continues with sweeping generalizations

The Spanish are so much more effortlessly sensual than their French and Italian counterparts. Far less label conscious and not uptight about looking thin, they are happy just to look hot.

and insults

Her simple black Dior sheath in velvet would have looked lovely on someone as gamine as the actress Natalie Portman, but against the Princess it looked as if she had pulled on a pair of curtains - particularly as she did not seem to be wearing a bra.
Letizia wore a stunning dove grey satin gown with a full, beaded skirt and a tiara atop her carefully tousled hair.

and insights into Carla's psyche

The trouble is that you can see Carla cares she has been usurped. A lot. Oh really? To me she looks bien dans sa peau as the wife of the President of France.
Despite all those years as a clothes horse, she often feels outclassed and has no innate sense of what is right in society. And when exactly did Liz Jones become Carla Bruni's fashion therapist?
Before every official engagement, her personal secretary will glean as much information about the dress code as possible: is it long or short, gloves and hats, are trousers allowed?
Carla lacks confidence, so will never go wild and wear something a bit dashing or daring. She needs to let go a little. Let go? Her job as the wife of the head of state is to promote French Fashion, and she does it flawlessly.
Letizia wins hands down in the battle of the style stakes, but it has nothing to do with age - she is 36, Carla is 41 - it has more to do with attitude. yeah...whatever
The Princess looks like a woman who is vital and interested, who is unafraid to experiment and to laugh.

The article goes on to compare the women by dress, shoes, sleeves, bottom, bags and legs...because let's face it, women, no matter if they are a princess or a prole, are judged only as a sum of their parts.

Disgusting

And as for the comment about Carla's need to "let go a little"...oh the irony when we all know that this is a woman who has "let go" plenty in the past...

Carla's agony as intimate photos of her with ex-lover are stolen in raid on Paris flat

Fashion Blast From The Past

Every so often I just have to check out what Todd is up to at The Fashioniste because I love the way that he shows the influence of the past, through iconic images, on today's style.
No less than brilliant.
Example, Hedy Lamarr to Tori Amos.
If you enjoy film, fashion and art history you should take a look at his blog.
Also, you can become a fan of The Fashioniste on Facebook.

Just Another Day At The Office - NOT!

Well, I'd like to tell you that it was another day at the office...but it wasn't.

Today the jewely divas were off to a photo shoot for Genlux, the premier luxury fashion magazine of Southern California.

The shoot had everything you would have imagined from a drop dead gorgeous stylist who could have been Dita Von Teese's doppelganger to teh usual hair, make-up and associated fashionistas to a rocking cool photographer with all the accoutrements including a fog machine.

Here's a photo of just one rack of the wardrobe which included some of the prettiest spring frocks from Valentino to Catherine Maldonado.

And let's not overlook the choices of accessories with sky-high heeled shoes, arty hats and a sword...because you never know when you might need a sword.

Of course there was plenty of Beladora bling.

Here's a photo of 3 of the 10 trays of Beladora vintage jewlery.

And let's not forget the money shot.

Here's the model who was all of 13 or 14 years old.

I kid you not. She was in 8th grade.

(God knows this is LA... but would a 16 or 17 year old not been fresh enough for a high fashion shoot?)

But she was so sweet and adorable and TALL and she showed off the goods.

I'm just giving you a little peek of the pretty girl because I don't want you to miss the full effect of her all dressed up in $10,000 worth of clothes and $100,000 worth of vintage Art Deco jewelry that will be in the March issue.

If you don't live in Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, San Marino, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach or Monarch Beach, you might not get this magazine at your doorstep so look for it at you local newstand or Borders Book Store.

A Mainstream Media Manufactured Matter

From WWD
Memo Pad: The Ladies Who Search
by Stephanie D. Smith
Posted Monday December 29, 2008
From WWD Issue 12/29/2008

THE LADIES WHO SEARCH: Though most of the media is retrenching under economic pressures, the Internet still remains a potential growth area, thanks to its relatively low start-up costs and immediate delivery to consumers. Among the new offerings, Web sites targeted to women are growing in numbers, serving up content across a wide swath of subjects and age groups. Slate.com will expand its popular blog, The XX Factor, into its own site in the spring. Elizabeth Spiers, founder of Dead Horse Media and a contributor to Fortune magazine, is developing an online women’s magazine she pegged as “Maxim for women.”
(Maxim for women... does the world really need that?)
The sites will join TheFrisky.com, a Web site for 18- to 34-year-olds covering love and relationships; Yahoo’s women’s lifestyle portal Shine.com, and Wowowow.com, a site targeting women over 40.


(somehow the New York blond thing doesn't look like it leads to much diversification of ideas or opinions)

Wowowow.com, the site launched by a band of “old media” female journalists and writers including Joni Evans, Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl, Joan Juliet Buck and Whoopi Goldberg, has gathered a strong following among women over 40 — nearly 600,000 unique visitors in November and 4.5 million page views, according to their estimates. Tiffany, Sony, Citi, Ralph Lauren and Jones New York all have advertised on the site this year. “Because we are a well-educated and wealthier group, this is a targeted area where women come to….It’s a demographic that serves advertisers well,” explained Evans. Next year, the site will introduce more offline events with the founding editors, and more social networking functions to bring in voices from its commenters.

About the last website that I would click on would include articles by mainstream media divas (or rather dinosaurs) like Mary Wells, Peggy Noonan, Lesley Stahl, Liz Smith and Joni Evan, with their Upper East Side-5th Avenue slant. It just blows me away that wowwow whatever can get 600,000 unique hits and 4.5 million page views.

The whole point of going to the net is to find fresh voices and opinions and to get away from mainstream media manufactured writing.

I'd much rather read what these women write on their blogs...and no I don't necessarily agree with their opinions, but I do find them irreverent and interesting.

Woman of Experience

Une Femme

Miss Cavendish

Kristopher Dukes

Dr. Helen

All Things Beautiful

La Belette Rouge

Advice Goddess Blog

Deep Glamour

Althouse

American Princess

Rachel Lucas

Wendy Brandes

Karen Of A Certain Age

Mommy Has A Headache

La Coquette

The Year In Fashion

What happened in fashion in 2008?

The Wall Street Journal Has the Slide show here.

Yves St. Laurent and muse Catherine Deneuve

January: The Valentino retirement bash

February: The re launch of the Halston line for online sales

March: The too skinny model controversy & Marc Jacobs International pays a $1 million fine

April: TV's Gossip Girl and Mad Men inspire New York designers

May: Sex and the City comes out as a movie

June: Yves St Laurent dies at the age of 71

July: Italian Vogue features black models refuting the trend on the Paris catwalk

August: Michelle Obama wows the world with her fashion choices

September: Models stumble and fall all over the runways with their sky high stilettos

October: Sarah Palin gets the big wardrobe for the campaign

November: Narciso Rodriguez, Peter Som and Alessandra Facchinetti take some time off

December: Harry Winston in Paris gets plundered

More Bizarre Than Bazaar

I'm sorry to do this to you...really I am.

Look, you already know how I feel about the new Stephen Sprouse line
now we have media whore Marc Jacobs promoting the brand and little else.

Why can't he just stick to designing clothes and collecting art?

Nobody wants to see this.

The very best commentary on this photo is by Wendy B.

You've got to read her post.

Deep Glamour on Diane Pernet

Admit it

You want to know more about a woman who can pull off wearing an outfit like this.

Here's the Deep Glamour interview with fashionista Diane Pernet.

Fashion Photography - A Blumenfeld Beauty

Nothing better illustrates the point of my previous post than these two photos, proving that while the elements of fashion, the clothes, models and photography, continue to evolve, they don't necessarily improve.

More from Fashionology. This new Lady Dior campaign featuring Marion Cotillard by Photographer Peter Lindburgh is a nod to Erwin Bumenfeld's 1939 photos of Lisa Fonssagrives on the Eiffel Tower.

Marion Cotillard atop the Eiffel Tower for Peter Lindbergh 2008
Lisa Fonssagrives atop the Eiffel Tower for Erwin Blumenfeld - 1939

From Exploring the Fabric of Form by Johnathon Keats in Art and Antiques Magazine

Blumenfeld advertised this most
spectacularly atop the Eiffel Tower in May 1939, when he took a series of
photographs of Lisa Fonssagrives swinging from the steel girders in a summer
dress by Lucien Lelong. Yet there’s more to this famous portfolio than style.
Through a dynamic of structure and shadow, every photograph conjures a three-way
relationship between woman, gown and edifice, each ideal form amplifying the
others in shape or gesture. None is subservient, and the camera captures all as
a single fabric. Fashion photography is often deservedly dismissed as mere
illustration: A photographer uses a model and a setting to show off a dress. In
Blumenfeld’s Eiffel Tower portfolio, the photographs are wholly self-sufficient
visual statements.

Blumenfeld’s Fonssagrives is
art—as aesthetically right as a masterpiece by Stieglitz or Weston or Strand—but
neither he nor his contemporaries could see it in that light. (Evidently some of
his contemporaries didn’t quite see it as fashion either; after the Eiffel Tower
shoot, his Vogue contract wasn’t renewed, and he landed in the French and
American offices of Snow’s Harper’s Bazaar for the following five years.)

On the seventieth anniversary of Kristallnacht I find it fascinating that Blumenfeld took this photo in carefree fashion forward Paris when just across the border anti-semitism was on the rise and the Nazi's were marching into Poland.

Meritocracy or Why I Love The Web

In a world of increasing rules and regulation, taxes and tariffs, quotas and qualifiers, how do you take and idea and turn it into a successful business?

The web, of course, which is exactly what the these talented women did with Bagsnob.com.
Taking their love for handbags and all things chic, they started a website to showcase the best designs in handbags and now they have an budding empire including Snob TV.
Their latest webisode, an interview with Michael Kors, is as professional as anything you would watch on actual TV.

This is just one example of how enterprising partners with an idea, natural talent, a little tech savvy, some hard work, a reasonably small amount of start up capital, and a sense of humor, can use the web to create a business that has a reach to an international market.

The Web...where talent can rise to the top.

Around Town - Angeleno Fashion & Photography Event at the W

David Drebin Fashion Photography for Angeleno Magazine's 9th Anniversary Issue

The Uber Cool W Hotel in Westwood

Randy Gerber' s Whiskey Blue Bar at the W

So there I was with my around town partner in crime Kristopher Dukes, at Angeleno Magazine's launch party for their September Fashion Issue, held at the uber cool W Hotel in Westwood. It was so packed with local fashionistas that we had to take refuge in the Whiskey Blue bar. Nice bar, bitchy bartenders.

The highlight of the evening was meeting Dr. Alexander Rivkin of the Westside Medical Spa and his gorgeous girlfriend. Alex is the doctor for those of us who don't believe in jumping into cosmetic surgery. A Yale trained surgeon and instructor at UCLA Medical Center, he specializes in non surgical treatments including:

Non-Surgical Nose Job™ (Injection Rhinoplasty™)
Non-Surgical Chin Enhancement
Non-Surgical Cheek Enhancement
Non-Surgical Jowl Lift
Non-Surgical Eye Lift
Non-Surgical Facelift

He even has his own blog.

He doesn't know this yet but he's going to be my new best friend. (Sorry Kristopher, but I have to give to give preference to the man who can make injections...)

VF-'s 2008 Best Dressed List - Radiant Royals

From Vanity Fair's 2008 Best Dressed List - The Royals

Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece -Distinguished Investment Banker Look

Brothers - Rafael, Duke of Feria and Don Luis Medina - Euro Cool

Crown Princess Mathilde of Belgium - Understated Elegance

Almost Royalty - La Reine Carla Bruni Sarkozy de France - Magnifique

What I don't understand is how can any Royal not be on the Best Dressed List....with their wealth and access to the world's finest designers.

American Fashion's New Guard - Favorite Fall Look

Great Photo of Fashion's New Guard

From Vanity Fair's September Style Issue

Favorite Fall Look

Doo-Ri Chang

Sculpted banded jersey dress

Brian Reyes

Electric-blue moire skirt, black and white taffeta blouse and black georgette blazer

Sari Gureon

Long black tulle tiered skirt with sleeveless silk embroidered top

Peter Som

The plum colored off the shoulder gown with layered organza

Alexander Wang

Black mesh tank with baggy wool pants

Georgina Chapman

Black lace high neck column dress with organza flower detail

Chris Benz

Three piece mauve Prince of Wales flannel suit and crumpled

Erin Featherston

A gown that's short in front and trains in the back with a vibrant photo real floral collage print

Richard Chai

Forest shearling cropped jacket with embroidered paillete waistcoat, winter white silk jacquard flared shirt and ebony brocade slouchy skinny trouser

Philip Lim

Longer length layering and the overall idea of covering up - it's more impactful

Zac Posen

That's like asking someone to choose amongst their children but I must say that Karen Elson's gown was delicious

Kate and Laura Mulleavy

Read and black mohair fringed jacket and skirt with hand knit shell and red and black silk tulle horror dress

Thakoon Panichgul

The sequined floral scarf tie dress

Lias Mayock and Sophie Buhai

Pistachio oil spill knotted tunic with gray suede riding pants