Monday, December 7, 2015

Mariuccia Mandelli Dies at 90

Last year, its fortunes waning, the company was sold to the Chinese retail group Shenzhen Marisfrolg Fashion.



Hallmarks of the Krizia style included classic tailoring — often entailing structured, sculptural shoulders — combined with a looser-fitting, comfortable cut throughout a garment. Ms. Mandelli had a passion for pleats, which could run in unorthodox directions, and for unusual materials, including metallics, rubber, snakeskin, eel skin and even cork.

Mariuccia Mandelli, an Italian fashion designer whose long list of credits includes the shortest of achievements — she was widely described as having invented hot pants — died on Sunday at her home in Milan. She was 90.

In a statement, Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, paid tribute to Ms. Mandelli.

Ms. Mandelli, a former schoolteacher and self-taught designer, founded the fashion house Krizia in the mid-1950s. She reigned for decades as “the godmother of classic Milanese fashion,” as Newsweek described her in 1987.

One of Italy’s first ready-to-wear houses, Krizia — known for designs that combined wit, whimsy and wearability — helped secure the country’s place in the fashion firmament. At its height in the 1990s, Krizia was a $500-million-a-year business, with a string of retail shops worldwide and a spate of branded products that included eyeglasses, neckties, furniture and perfumes.


Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Versini ‘taking legal action’ to stop fashion party photo appearing online

Cheryl Fernandez-Versini was the victim of wrong place, wrong time after an unfortunate photo emerged of her online.

Cheryl Fernandez-Versini 'taking legal action' to stop fashion party photo appearing online

The image was taken in the bathroom at the British Fashion Awards on Monday night, while The X Factor judge was washing her hand, and there’s lines on the shelf above the sink that people have wrongly assumed are drugs.

The fashion journalist who captured the image posted it with the caption ‘sadness in her eyes’ but quickly deleted it after realising how it could be misconstrued.

Cheryl has always been staunchly against drugs, and there’s no evidence to suggest that it actually is drugs. More likely spilled Champagne left behind by another party goer, or reflection from a light above.

Now she has reportedly started legal proceedings to ensure the photograph does not appear online again, with her lawyers sending round a legal notice prohibiting its publication.

A source told The Sun: ‘It’s outrageous that someone in the fashion industry has taken a picture of Cheryl like this and posted it publicly. She absolutely despises drugs and any connection linking her to them is ridiculous. She was just using the toilet.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Creative burnout hitting the fashion industry hard

Dior, Lanvin, Baleciaga. These are just some of the iconic names in fashion that have suffered high-profile departures from designers in recent weeks. One big reason is creative burnout. Simply put, fashion designers – and other staff of the major fashion houses – are being spurred by the ubiquity of the internet and the trend of fast fashion to create collections and shows at an increasingly rapid rate.

Models present creations for Lanvin during the 2016 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show.

1.Why are all these people leaving, what's going on?

There is too much information, too much product too fast, too much demand. And fashion is the fastest creative cycle, historically speaking its faster than technology. It was a six month cycle, but now it's a three month cycle and actually if you talk to a designer at a major house like Dior or Chanel, it's a three week cycle. They have to create whole collections in three weeks.

2.So how does that work in the studio?

It means they have to come up with the ideas, communicate the ideas to the seamstresses, the people who create the samples, create the samples, fit the samples, make the clothes, ship the clothes back to the studio, fit the models, produce a runway show.


3.Who is providing this pressure? Is it the designers themselves, is it the houses they work for, is it major retailers, is it the high-end retailers? 

It comes from all different directions. I mean the retailer wants more product, the public wants more product and information. They're consuming information and product at a much faster rate because of the internet, obviously. But they're also consuming it because of fast fashion. Fast fashion has become kind of the scapegoat for all of this. But I don't think you can point the finger at one specific person, or system, or part of the culture. I think its just everything is much faster now. In the fashion world you're not just seeing the creative talent leave, but also the business side, great managers are leaving because it's too much pressure.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Fashion in an Age of Technology

On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the new theme for next year’s Costume institute exhibition: “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.” The upcoming exhibition will focus on the dichotomy between handmade haute couture and machine-made fashion. “Traditionally, the distinction between the haute couture and prêt-à-porter was based on the handmade and the machine-made,” explains Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute. “But recently this distinction has become increasingly blurred as both disciplines have embraced the practices and techniques of the other.”


The show will feature more than 100 pieces of fashion, both haute couture and ready-to-wear. Several handmade couture items, featuring techniques such as embroidery, pleating, and lacework, will be juxtaposed with machine-made designs showcasing new technologies like laser cutting, thermo shaping, and circular knitting. The exhibition will also have several “in process” workshops, including 3-D printing, in which the public will be able to see these designs take shape.


The museum also announced the 2016 Met Gala will take place on Monday, May 2 and will be hosted by cochairs Idris Elba, Jonathan Ive,Taylor Swift, and Anna Wintour.Nicolas Ghesquière, Karl Lagerfeld, and Miuccia Prada will serve as honorary chairs, and the gala and accompanying exhibition will be sponsored by Apple.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Empire’s Cookie to Phase Out Animal Prints for High Fashion in Season 2

When Empire audience members think of Cookie Lyon, the drama's fierce protagonist played by Taraji P. Henson, the image they likely conjure features over-the-top fashion including more furs and animal prints than every Kardashian owns combined. The sartorial association is for good reason: when costume designer Paolo Nieddu outfitted Cookie for the Fox show’s first episode, he says, “I literally put her in animal print almost every single scene. . . . I think she wore snake skin twice. She wore leopard three times.” When the second season of the addictive musical drama premieres tonight, though, viewers will likely notice that Empire’s flashy character has finessed her style.



Unlike costume designers on other series, Nieddu doesn’t restrict each character to certain clothing colors with a wardrobe palette. Instead, he approaches the entertainment industry-set series like a stylist might—dressing his “clients” to face off on the red carpet with other superstars. “In my head, Cookie Lyon and Kim Kardashian both go the Grammys. So I’m not inspired by anyone’s fashion—although I did buy Cookie a pair of Pierre Hardy shoes that I saw Rihanna wearing—as much as I act as though I’m competing with Kim or Rihanna’s stylist. If Hakeem was headed to the V.M.A.s, I would be competing with Justin Bieber’s stylist, probably at the same showroom.”

For scenes in which Cookie acts more maternal, Nieddu adjusts her wardrobe accordingly. “I try to put her in something that’s a little bit more like Cookie’s version of what a mom would dress like. We have this one Derek Lam outfit that I put her in in the second episode [of the new season] that Taraji called her Carol Brady outfit. It is a maroon-and-salmon houndstooth-y plaid sleeveless vest top with an over-size white collar and matching flared pants.”

Like Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw before her, Cookie dresses distinctly for every possible occasion. The character’s liberal attitude toward fashion allows for a particularly whimsical costume design process for both Nieddu and Henson.

Monday, September 14, 2015

What Does This Fashion Even Mean?

Fashion Week is a time when the industry’s most influential designers showcase their latest work at star-studded events during which famous and/or influential people sit silently—often in sunglasses—while watching tall, silent, pretty people walk up and down runways wearing what may or may not be the trends, or inspirations for trends, of the future. The clothes draping their bodies don’t always look like things you’ve seen before, which is at least partly the point, and they’re styled in ways meant to complement the designer’s concept, point of view, artistic vision, or whatever you want to call it.

What Does This Fashion Even Mean?

It’s a very important week for the industry, and—as I’ve been told in movies like The Devil Wears Prada and shows like Project Runway—can make or break entire careers. But, as someone whose livelihood doesn’t revolve around the art of style (I’d be unemployed if it did!), it’s merely a time to look at funny pictures.

And this ensemble is reference to America’s fascination with self-diagnosis. We may think access to medical information on WebMD makes us as smart as doctors, but we’re really a bunch of idiots walking around in lab coats without pants on!

Here we have a mediation on thigh gap. Society tells us it’s crucial for achieving maximum sexiness, but really it’s just—much like the gap in this model’s faux(?) leather pants—a random and meaningless void.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Kendall Jenner Reveals Cool Fashion Superpowers in New Vogue & Estée Lauder Video Series

 It's a bird...it's a plane...nope, it's Kendall Jenner!

Kendall Jenner

Remember when we saw Kendall on set (or on cab, really) for a mysterious Vogue shoot back in July? Well, now we know what she was doing—and it was just a bit of magic (no big deal). The E! star-turned-supermodel is fronting a series of superhero-themed videos for Vogue in collaboration with Estée Lauder, the first of which shows her conjuring chic outerwear and accessories from thin air, with a new vid set to be released by Vogue every day this week.
Other powers teased for the series include Kendall "throwing boulders, controlling time, and moving objects with the snap of her manicured fingertips," according to the fashion tome's site. Kendall has, of course, been the face of Estée Lauder since 2014, appearing in a few film shorts since the start of her ambassadorship.

This latest vid is a work of movie magic (and really shows the power of rewind): Kendall is shown leaping backwards onto a taxi at the very end, which is likely the original footage playing in reverse. She's cool and calm in the clip, as well as quite the vision in red as she summons a crimson jacket and fuzzy scarf for her superhero model duties in New York City. (Yep, we got Birdman vibes too.)
We're pretty psyched to see the rest of Kendall's superpowers this week, especially if they're anywhere near as It Girl-cool as this one. Modern Muse, by the way, is the latest scent reveal from Estée Lauder, featuring an airy perfume and shimmer body lotion as part of the collection.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Retailers should embrace genderless fashion

                   

Gendered fashion is on the way out. Fashion designers are mixing menswear and womenswear on the runway. Parents are pushing for genderless clothing that allows little girls to, say, wear science-themed t-shirts instead of princess dresses. And Quartz fashion writers are asking: “Sex and gender aren’t perfectly binary. Why should clothes be?”

To be sure, retailers like Gap, the North Face, and American Apparel have sold unisex clothing for years, though sizing is still typically cut across gender lines.

But moving toward a less gendered retail experience could also be a “business opportunity for retailers who create a comfort zone for people who don’t want to subscribe to one category,” writes market researcher NPD Group in a new e-book.
Some retailers are already moving in that direction. While Personnel of New York maintains “women” and “men” sections on its website, it also has a tab featuring genderless clothing and accessories called, simply, “Everyone.”

Just this week, Target announced that it was phasing out gender-based signage after customers complained that marketing products by gender was regressive and unnecessary. Target said it would remove signs in the home goods and entertainment aisles that delineate which products were meant for boys or girls, as well as the use of pink, blue, yellow, or green paper on its shelves in the toy aisles.

NPD argues that retailers could benefit from moving past the old-fashioned store layouts once designed to comply with increasingly outdated notions of gender roles (although it falls short of providing conclusive proof that consumers would actually buy more if stores dissolved the gender division).


Still, the argument makes sense. If men and women are going to wear the same pair of Converse or Vans sneakers, why stock them in separate “his” and “hers” sections of the store? If a woman shopping in a department store prefers the clothes in the traditional men’s section, does she have to lug them down to another floor just to try them on? Should a retailer give up on potential sales by alienating a woman who doesn’t want to shop in the men’s department?

Friday, July 24, 2015

Amanda Bynes Makes Surprise Appearance at Fashion Event in L.A.

Amanda Bynes Makes Surprise Appearance at Fashion Event in L.A.| Amanda Bynes

Amanda Bynes attended her first Hollywood party in a long time Thursday night, making a surprise appearance at the launch of fashion designer Michael Costello's pre-fall capsule collection in Los Angeles.

Bynes, 29, who was last spotted in public in early June following two years of well-documented troubles, was photographed in a white lace minidress and dark sunglasses.

The former child star, who has attended fashion school herself at L.A.'s Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, toured the event and also spent time with Costello – a season 8 contestant on Project Runway – in a back room, perusing the outfits and chatting with his team about design and sketching.
A friend who knows the Costello team reached out to let the designer know Bynes was a fan and wanted to see his new collection.

Keep up with Amanda Bynes in the pages of PEOPLE Magazine by subscribing now.
"[The friend] called and said, 'Can she please come to the event? She's, like, the biggest Michael Costello fan.' I think it's so cute when you hear that big celebrities are fans of yours," Costello tells PEOPLE.

The actress, whom her attorney said in June was in a better place after a turbulent few years of troublesome behavior, smiled for photographers as she left the Costello event.


"Michael was a doll to her, and she had a great time," a friend of Bynes tells PEOPLE. "Amanda was there as a student of design ... She was in a back room with Michael looking at dresses and talking to his staff about design and sketching."

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Portlanders Share Their Cringe-iest Fashion Show Horror Stories

 The city’s top fashion show producers share some horrible experiences with thoughtless audience members—and recommend some etiquette for your next stylish outing.            
               

  In my many years of attending countless fashion shows, I can group the people who attend into one of two categories: those who came to see the clothes, and those who came to party. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will confess to having been both—but even then, I was a mannered partier. As the amount of shows in town continue to multiply like bunnies, we asked two of the city’s busiest fashion show producers about what they’ve experienced and what they beg of us all not to do.

  Elizabeth Mollo and MaryAnn Escutia who work on producing the shows for nearly ever event in town (including FashioNXT, Open Season, Fade to Light, Alley 33, and Unmentionables) give us the real talk on their experiences.

‘GENERAL ADMISSION’ MEANS YOU SHOULD SHOW UP EARLY TO GET SEATS

Elizabeth Mollo: At the last Fade to Light show we had a party of six people show up super late without buying the upgraded tickets with reserved seating and basically refused to sit, standing in the middle of the runway until they were all seated together which held up the show about 20 minutes. Also in the same show, people sat in seats that were clearly marked for a sponsor and refused to leave until we got a security guard to force them out of the seats so the sponsor could finally sit down.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Naomi Campbell Rewears Dress From 1998 Fashion Show, Still Looks Flawless: See the Then-and-Now Pics!

Slay! Naomi Campbell is the epitome of ageless beauty — at 45, she's just as gorgeous now as she was when she was strutting her stuff

                                                             
on the runway in her teens and twenties. She can even rock the same outfits!
PHOTOS: Supermodels, then and now
Case in point: Campbell dazzled at the 2015 Fragrance Fashion Awards in New York City on Wednesday, June 17, walking the red carpet at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in a shimmering silver Versace gown she first wore 17 years ago.
PHOTOS: Celebs' early modeling pictures
The British model debuted the dress on the runway in Paris in July 1998, when she was 28 years old. It was, at the time, part of the presentation of Versace's Fall-Winter Collection for the 1998-1999 season.
  Pictures from that era show her practicing her walk in front of Donatella Versace, the silver fringe on the frock swinging as she sashayed backstage alongside racks of clothing.
PHOTOS: Celebs who date models
Fast-forward to 2015, and Campbell is still just as fierce — if not more so! Slipping into the gown again on Wednesday night, she was easily one of the best dressed stars in the room.
 

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

The Tony Awards Get Dressed Up

A little after 5 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, Beth Malone stood in the Manhattan offices of the fashion public relations company KCD trying not to appear out of place. It was a losing battle.
                                                 

Ms. Malone — who stars in “Fun Home” and is nominated for best actress in a musical — wasn’t sure whether the diamond-studded earrings from Jemma Wynne were supposed to angle upward or downward. Also, she was less than confident she had figured out how to stand in her black-and-white sleeveless J. Mendel dress with the slit down the middle.

“Leg out,” said Nate Hinton, a publicity director at the agency, which represents designer brands like Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, and who was helping to outfit her. “The leg is everything.”

“No way,” said Ms. Malone, not so much defiant as she was amazed at the suggestion. “Who’s that celebrity who did that?”

“Angelina Jolie,” someone nearby offered.

“Yes,” Ms. Malone said. “She looked like an idiot.”

“No, she didn’t,” said Ms. Malone’s publicist, Molly Barnett.

Ms. Malone remained unconvinced. For one thing, she’s a self-described cargo-pant-wearing lesbian, the sort who can barely remember the last time she had on heels. For another, she’s an actress working in a field in which borrowed clothes (and playing dress up) remain unusual.

Last year, Audra McDonald won her sixth Tony Award — a feat no other actor had accomplished — starring in the play “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” — but she accepted the award wearing Escada, a brand not exactly known as fashion trendsetter. Jessie Mueller, who won for her role in the musical “Beautiful,” was outfitted by a little-known bridal designer named Randi Rahm.

At the Oscars, the most memorable fashion moments have generally involved entertainers like Cher and Björk going as over the top as possible. At the Tonys, no outfit in recent memory was more commented upon than Frances McDormand’s; in 2011, she accepted the award for best actress in a play wearing a Levi’s jean jacket.

But this year, change appears to be afoot.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

The Met Gala 2015: compare and contrast fashion from the 70s through to today

Last night New York hosted this year’s Met Gala, attended by a star-studded

                               
guestlist, from Rihanna, to Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lawrence, with their black tie attires joining the history of an iconic red carpet.

Basically, all the biggest stars from the worlds of fashion, Hollywood and music attend every year to the annual fundraising event, hence why the highlight of the night is the red carpet, as celebrities parade in their custom made designer gowns.

The event marks the grand opening of the Costume Institute's fashion exhibition held at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The theme of the exhibition provides the dress code for the night, which serves as the inspiration for designers. This year’s theme is China: Through The Looking Glass, which goes some way to explain some of the outfits (yes, that hat worn by Sarah Jessica Parker).

However, the Met Gala has a long and varied history; ever since the first exhibition was held in 1971, entitled Fashion Plate, the world’s eyes have been on the guests and more importantly, their gowns. We’ve delved through the archives to find out how red carpet fashion has changed through the years.

It comes as no surprise that many trends return year after year, from the seventies through to today; shoulder pads, long sleeves, asymmetric cuts, feathers, fur and kimono-inspired gowns, and last night, many of these we saw all over again.

Carolina Herrera’s structured shoulders and long sleeves worn decades ago were back, but Rita Ora and Miley Cyrus put a twist on them. Fur is a favourite at black tie events, as was seen last night on Rihanna’s caped design. And so has Emma Roberts’s one-shoulder, Sofia Vergara’s white gown, Kim Kardashian’s feathers, Amal Clooney’s ruffles and Lady Gaga’s kimono-inspired designs.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

A special intensity: how Carey Mulligan quietly grabbed Hollywood's attention

Is Carey Mulligan about to become the face of 21st-century British feminism? It’s not too fanciful a notion: after something of a break from lead roles in the cinema, Mulligan is about to return with an attention-grabbing double header.
First, she is playing Bathsheba Everdene in a new adaptation of Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, due for release in May; and in the autumn she will be seen in Suffragette, as part of an impressive ensemble cast telling the story of the votes-for-women campaign that rocked British society before and during the first world war.
The feminist credentials of Suffragette are not difficult to ascertain – Mulligan doesn’t play one of the Pankhursts, but rather a lowly footsoldier called Maud – but it is in Madding Crowd that Mulligan shows her cards. When Julie Christie played the same role in 1967, her interpretation of Hardy’s heroine – typically described as “headstrong” – was an impulsive free spirit, seemingly baffled as to the effect she had on the men around her.
Mulligan, in contrast, plays Bathsheba as a more poised, restrained figure, her resistance to marriage and determination to run her own farm born out of a refusal to kowtow to patriarchy. She delivers certain lines with relish – when she tells her would-be suitor Gabriel Oak: “I hate to be thought men’s property” and, when faced with another, William Boldwood, she murmurs pointedly: “It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.”
Jessica Barden as Liddy and Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba in Far From the Madding Crowd. 'I hate to be thought men’s property,' she says in the film.
Jessica Barden as Liddy and Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba in Far From the Madding Crowd. ‘I hate to be thought men’s property,’ she says in the film. Photograph: Alex Bailey/20th Century Fox
Mulligan, 29, is not one to campaign explicitly for causes, and told the Guardian last year that she was “not particularly interested in politics”. Her charitable interventions have so far been devoted more to humanitarian and medical organisations, such as War Child and the Alzheimer’s Society – though she did come out as a feminist in the media last year, telling Elle magazine: “I believe in equality … Celebrity culture has made people afraid of expressing how they feel about things because no one ever wants to say the wrong thing, but I’d happily describe myself as a feminist.”
But perhaps Mulligan lets her work do her talking for her. She is currently on Broadway opposite Bill Nighy in David Hare’s Skylight, a transfer of the production that electrified London’s theatregoers last year. Mulligan plays a socially concerned teacher scrapping with her rich former lover (Nighy); though it does not overtly take sides, Hare’s play is about political and social polarisation, and Mulligan has to make a rousing speech defending social workers. The Observer’s drama critic Susannah Clapp described her acting as “both innocent and ironic, appealing and irritating. Her most extraordinary quality is that she seems constantly only to be receiving, while powerfully transmitting.”
Hare, who first staged the play in 1995, said that Mulligan is “very quiet, very purposeful, and steely in the way she goes about a part”. Calling her “the best”, he also confirms that Mulligan’s interest lies less in ideology than in character. “It isn’t what Skylight says which animates her, it’s what she can be. She loves the character of the dedicated teacher working in the East End, and it shows.”
Though it is cinema that has made Mulligan’s name, theatre is clearly her first love and inspiration. Landing the role of Nina in 2007 in a Royal Court production of Chekhov’s The Seagull (opposite Kristin Scott Thomas and Chiwetel Ejiofor) remains a career benchmark. Describing Nina as “the ultimate female role”, she said: “I think I was looking to play her again in various incarnations.”
In 2010's Never Let Me Go, with, from left, Domhnall Gleeson, Keira Knightley and Andrea Riseborough
In 2010’s Never Let Me Go, with, from left, Domhnall Gleeson, Keira Knightley and Andrea Riseborough Photograph: FoxSearch/Everett/Rex
Hare, who saw the show on Broadway in 2008, is outspoken in his admiration: “Carey was the greatest Nina of my lifetime … I’ve seen two dozen, often in very great productions, but Carey is the only one who has ever convinced me. She had an access to what she convinced you were her own feelings – as if she wasn’t acting, but simply existing on the stage.”
There is little in the way of traumatic childhood or difficult adolescence to rationalise this affinity for a character “desperate to be loved and always reaching for something she couldn’t get”, in Mulligan’s own words. She appears to have had a childhood so prosperous and conventional as to be anodyne: her father a hotel manager, she lived in Germany until she was eight, before returning to England and attending a private Catholic girls’ school in Surrey.
Although disapproving, her parents did not actively stand the way of her youthful desire to be an actor; she got early support and encouragement from Kenneth Branagh (after she sent him a fan letter) and Julian Fellowes (after he gave a talk at her school). The one thing marking her out is a deeply felt religious conviction during her teenage years; she no longer attends church devotedly, but in 2012 ended up married to the musician Marcus Mumford, whom she met at a Christian youth camp as a child, and whose parents run the UK branch of the Association of Vineyard Churches, an evangelical-Pentecostalist movement.
Mulligan’s conviction that she could succeed as a performer resulted in an introduction to a casting director through Fellowes and then – to her family’s surprise – a small but visible part in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, playing the “silly” fourth Bennet sister, Kitty. A series of increasingly eye-catching screen roles followed, including Ada in the BBC’s Bleak House, a guest shot on Doctor Who, the best friend in an ITV drama of another Austen, Northanger Abbey (playing second fiddle to Felicity Jones), and that stellar Seagull at the Royal Court, also in 2007.
But it was the 2009 release of An Education, the film adaptation of Lynn Barber’s memoir, that really put Mulligan, then 22, over the top. An instant critical success, Mulligan’s portrayal of a schoolgirl’s love affair with a conman in the 1960s ended up with a Bafta best actress award and nominations for the Oscars and the Golden Globe. It was a startling ascent up the acting tree, and cemented her place on the A-list of performing talent. The film’s Danish director, Lone Scherfig, points out that Mulligan was in every single scene of An Education and says: “She seemed to enjoy every day and not feel the pressure.”
Her breakthrough role: the 2009 film An Education, which was acclaimed by critics.
Her breakthrough role: the 2009 film An Education, which was acclaimed by critics. Photograph: Photos 12/Alamy
The success of An Education opened numerous doors – not least, directly to her next major film role, in the movie of Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian science-fiction tale Never Let Me Go, alongside Keira Knightley, Domhnall Gleeson and Andrew Garfield. While watching An Education, Fox Searchlight studio boss Peter Rice texted Never Let Me Go director Mark Romanek, who was having trouble filling the role of Kathy H: “Hire the genius Mulligan.”
With an endorsement like that from a major Hollywood player, Mulligan’s path was assured. It meant that she was then able to try to align herself with major directors, and to some extent pick the roles she would go up for. That was certainly the case with Shame, the tough, uncompromising drama in which she played the troubled, self-harming sister to Michael Fassbender’s sex addict.
In a discussion with the film’s co-writer, Abi Morgan, she explained how she went about it. “My agent called me about an extraordinary role in this film Steve McQueen was directing. By the next day, she’d managed to get me a meeting with him. So I went in hard, campaigning for the part ... I sat down with him in a London hotel and the minute he started talking, I was like: ‘I’d follow you anywhere.’ That’s a great director.”
The reaction to Shame, with its copious nudity, untrammelled rawness and explicit subject matter helped to modify, if not entirely destroy, Mulligan’s wholesome image – she has described herself as “baby-faced”. Mulligan could also afford to take smaller roles for directors with clout: she lined up Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps for Oliver Stone and Drive for Nicolas Winding Refn and Inside Llewyn Davis for the Coen brothers.
But the biggie was yet to come: she beat all Hollywood’s young female acting talent to the headline role of Daisy Buchanan in the $105m (£70m)-budget adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
Baz Luhrmann’s giant-scale film was released in May 2013 and Mulligan then spent the autumn of that year filming Far From the Madding Crowd for the director Thomas Vinterberg – after previously holding out against returning to the British-set period movie. “I didn’t want to be labelled as that,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “So I’d avoided it. But I’d seen Festen and I saw The Hunt and I desperately wanted to be in one of Thomas’s films. That made that decision.”
Starring opposite Leonardo Dicaprio in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby.
Starring opposite Leonardo Dicaprio in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Photograph: Warner Br/Everett/Rex
Then it was straight on to Suffragette, which began shooting in February 2014, and saw Mulligan line up with Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne-Marie Duff. Hare’s Skylight – in which she cooks a spaghetti meal live on stage – has occupied her since, first in its London run at the Wyndhams, and subsequently on Broadway.
Still under 30, Mulligan has reached a zone where she can take her time and pick her roles. It’s an enviable position, but one she has appeared to achieve on the strength of her feeling and talent for acting – rather than simply luck, looks and connections, but which of course have all played a part. She has powerful allies and admirers: Hare says she possesses a “special sort of intensity and of completion”; more to the point, Scherfig says, “Anything for Carey.” You suspect she will go far.

CV

Born 28 May 1985
Career First: Role in the film Pride & Prejudice, but major breakthrough was lead role in An Education, for which she received an Oscar nomination.
High point: Lead role in The Great Gatsby, ahead of every other actor in Hollywood. The film only received middling reviews, though.
Low point: Her first Hollywood film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. “It was a great experience … but it didn’t feel there was a depth to the character. It didn’t grip me in the way I wanted.”
She says: “I’m kind of happy, and – touch wood – nothing really awful has happened to me. But I don’t like the idea of having to mess yourself up to be a good actor.”
They say: “If you want to experience the shock of illumination that acting, at its best, can achieve – and only occasionally does – you need to see Ms Mulligan’s performance.” Ben Brantley, New York Times

Monday, March 9, 2015

Trends for spring/summer 2015: from Del boy chic to Hepworth curves, it's all in the details

1. Watering cans
First we had houseplants being hip then Karl sealed the deal with a quilted watering can at Chanel Couture
Chanel: Paris fashion week
A male model walked the runway with a watering can during the Chanel show as part of Paris fashion week. Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
2. Ballerinos
Male dancers are this season’s style heroes. Echappé, échappé, grand jeté with Dries Van Noten, Bottega Ventea, Haider Ackermann
3. Geometry
Graphic shapes rule that catwalks from Balenciaga to Balmain. Circling the square has never been so hip.
Balmain show, Paris fashion week
Balmain show, Paris fashion week Photograph: David Fisher/Rex
4. Belt japes
Wear it long, kimono-style (Celine) or softly tied like a dressing gown (Gucci).
Celine show, Paris fashion week
A model walks the runway during the Celine show as part of the Paris fashion week. Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
5. Quilts are cool
Patchwork is everywhere from Marni to Dries. Making your own quilt is now fashionable.
6 Destination Woodstock
Watch out for the age of aquarius at Topman Design, Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton
7. Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses
He is a 2015 tastemaker. The case for? Polonecks, sheepskin coats and 70s wallpaper are all so now.
8. The A30 to St Ives
A major Barbara Hepworth retrospective is coming but the soft curves of her sculptures have already informed the jewellery at Celine and JW Anderson.
British sculptor Barbara Hepworth
British sculptor Barbara Hepworth standing by some of her work. Photograph: Carl Mydans/The Life Picture Collection/Getty
9. Wear your heart on your sleeve – or your back
Raf Simons decorated his jackets’ sailor collars with collage fragments of photos of his family and friends. His most personal collection yet
10. Upscale roughing it
Versace’s picnic backpack. Best. Accessory. Ever.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Fashion Handbags Are Amazing Accessories

Fashionable Handbags are commonly used for different versatile usages. But the important fact is that these bags are needed to be stylish and fashionable. This task is beautifully done by Inspiration by presenting the most heart throbbing selective fashionable bags. Louis Vuitton and other high-fashion handbags. We want to make sure that you know when you are being ripped off so you can spend your well-earned money on something that is truly authentic.
Fashion handbags are amazing accessories, which are fashionable necessities, especially designed to help people carry their belongings. Fashion handbags coordinate well with an outfit. They can make or break a woman's entire look. Selecting perfect handbags is very important for women.

There are sexy, classy and smart styles available in all sizes. The endless options of colors, patterns and design make fashion handbags a versatile accessory. Custom handbags are personalized handbags, which means, handbags created according to your own choice. This way, you can buy handbags within your preferred budget. Furthermore, such bags are perfect gifts for yourself and friends, who have a good fashion taste.

For many women, fashion handbags are as much a part of their wardrobe as their dresses, suits, shirts, blouses, pants, shoes and other clothing items they wear. A fashion handbag contributes to the overall impression of any outfit, and it sends a message about the personality of the person who carries it.  These may be extreme examples, but surely they illustrate how the handbag you carry completes the image you present to the world.

Popular fashion handbag materials include fabric, nylon, leather, crochet, canvas and other textile. Some fashion handbags are decorated with beads, sequins, and appliqués. Some people even carry fashion handbags that are especially designed to allow them to carry their pet with them everywhere they go!

Which handbag to choose may be complicated. There are so many to choose from. Handbags come with shoulder straps: shoulder bags; satchels are handy and do forget about the clutch purse. In reference to handbags and purses, intriguing (evaluative fashion sense) is defined by establishing a fashion statement along with the functionality of the product.

So, be sure to pick a product which would make all of those credit cards, the checkbook and hidden trinkets comfortable to accompany you during the moments of your lifestyle. That is why there are so many tote-bag options on the market today. An intelligent, fashion conscious person must be aware of their surroundings. Whether you plan to travel in the city or through urban areas, the type of purse you choose can determine your future.