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.



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.

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.



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.

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.

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.

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.



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.