Beijing in Pictures

Two weeks ago I got the kind of phonecall we all dream about: Kris Van Assche's Dior office was calling, they were organizing a menswear show in China and would I be free to go to Beijing in 5 days. Well, would I! a very busy week ensued, which was spent basically doing paperwork and worrying that I wouldn't get my visa (let's just say journalists, even the ones who work in fashion, are not exactly the darlings of the Chinese Communist Party). However, everything worked out in the end and I found myself flying towards a city I didn't know much about...

I'm not really sure what I was expecting from Beijing; certainly a very (very) big city where tradition meets modernity. But what is really amazing about China's capital is its energy. It's impossible to describe, it oozes old time mystery and 21st century excitement (and endless pollution. Sometimes it's even impossible to see 100 metres ahead of you because of that). In the picture above is the view I got of the city from my room in the 49th floor of the Park Hyatt hotel. 

Traditional China is still there, though, sometimes so idyllic it feels like a Hollywood setting. These pictures were taken around the Summer Palace a bit outside the city, where the Qing emperors used to spend their summers (and which was massacred by the "very civilized" English and French during the XIXth century and rebuilt later). Just taking a walk there makes you feel so zen and grounded - and the experience is enhanced by the fact that there are hardly any obnoxious Western tourists dressed in shorts and crocs. Seriously, that makes Beijing the perfect destination.

 Posing in the Forbidden city with the lovely Noémie from the Dior team. We learned the most impressive stories about concubines and eunuchs there.

Some charmingly decadent traditional neighbourhoods still exist in the city, although most of them are being destroyed in order to build yet more huge towers to house banks and financial institutions while people are being relocated. It just doesn't make much sense to me how any self-respecting Communist party would do that kind of thing, but oh well. I think as a matter of fact one of the things that fascinates me about China so far is its political and socio-economic situation. Being able to talk to real people and see how they live was, for me, the most priceless thing about my trip. As was seeing senior citizens still dress as they did during the Cultural Revolution, wearing blue worker jackets and caps with red stars embroidered on them.

 Yes, I did have the time to take a walk on the Great Wall. And there were no tourists!

The Forbidden City was really impressive and made me think of Ryuichi Sakamoto's music for The Last Emperor. Most of the pavillions in it are being restored, but there are still some decadent bits like this one, which made me ecstatic with aesthetic joy, much to the confusion of Chinese people who couldn't understand how a decaying wall could make me so happy.

 Dior Homme's amazing show. More on that tomorrow, as it deserves a post on its own.

And of course we partied like crazy fashion people after the show, dancing to Hurts's live gig with Chinese celebrities (I admit I didn't know who anyone was, but they were all lovely and fun!). Here I am towards the end of the night, after too much champagne and too much jet lag, with Julien from Dior. For some reason at this point I was wearing Julien's Dior Homme outfit and he was wearing my Carolina Herrera leopard coat, which prompted our motto for the night (and our whole stay in China): what happens in Beijing stays in Beijing.

A model's beauty secrets: Bette Franke tells it all

I met up with the lovely Dutch model Bette Franke a couple of weeks ago around tea and raspberry choux à la crème at the See by Chloé perfume launch to talk beauty and makeup. When not strutting the catwalks or fronting Stella McCartney campaigns, Bette is a laid back, fresh-faced girl who wouldn't look a bit out of place in the chicest spots of the Hamptons. Beauty treatment junkie as I am, I just had to get the lowdown on her beauty routine.

What's the best beauty advice you've ever been given?

After years of wearing dramatic make-up at work (and sometimes being made up several times a day), I can positively say the best advice I've been given is... to keep it natural! Make-up artists have often advised me against pancaking my face with foundation, lipstick and eyeshadow, so on a day to day basis I just wear a touch of blush and some pink lip gloss. 

Tell me your anti-stress miracle remedy.

I'm not one to run to fancy spas when I want to relax... Instead, I enjoy biking around Central Park; exercising and looking at the trees really takes my mind off my day. Otherwise, I just make a cup of green tea and curl up on the sofa with a book. I am a big fan of cocooning. 

Your favourite beauty product?

I have the same problem as most models: I tend to get allergies and reactions on my skin from all the make-up I have to wear... Luckily I've found a miraculous moisturizer, Nars's Crème Hydratation Lumière. I've been using it for several months, it's really thick and creamy and just feels incredibly comfortable. I've become addicted to it!

Who is your beatuy icon?

I don't really have one. I often find most of the people I meet (not just models!) are beautiful in different ways or have striking facial features. As I see it, anyone can be a beauty icon. Beauty is such a broad concept...

What's your beauty routine before a party?

It's not very different to my everyday routine, to be honest; just a little more sophisticated. I do wear foundation when I go out at night. My favourite is Calvin Klein, it's really luminous, which comes in handy after an exhausting day of work. I also wear a very light, sheer lipstick, also from Calvin, in a fuchsia tone. That's all. No eyeshadow, no mascara. 

...And your anti-hangover plan the day after?

First of all, getting up. You start feeling sorry for yourself in bed and your whole day is automatically ruined! A shower and a home made carrot and ginger juice give me a jumpstart (I love juicing), then I make a point of getting out of the house and brunch out with friends.Works like a charm, every time. 

Do you ever detox or diet?

No. I do eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily basis and I don't eat sugar often. I'm not a big fan of cake, so it doesn't bother me all that much. But I don't believe in dieting: all it does is make you desperately want what you're not supposed to eat. Indulging from time to time is necessary, just as eating healthily.

Throwback Thursday: Remember when Kate got pink hair?

... And pink hair never looked better. Move over Charlotte Free.

Paris Haute Couture: A Chat with Olivier Saillard and Anne Zazzo

Nothing about the fashion industry makes us dream like haute couture does. Extremely precise yet outstandingly creative, this discipline (officially started by Charles Frederick Worth in the 1860s, although heavily inspired by the flamboyant fashions and lifestyle of the court of Versailles) oozes magic. And while today many question the current influence and the future of couture, Olivier Saillard – director of the renowned Musée Galliéra in Paris – and Anne Zazzo – art historian and curator – believe its evolution will only take it to new heights. Together, they have written a book and curated an exhibition (both titled Paris Haute Couture) exploring its history from Poiret to Saint Laurent, and its fascinating prospective. For my latest article on AnOther Magazine, I got together with these two true Parisians to discuss savoir-faire and creativity in today's couture.

Haute couture is so deeply associated with Paris… could it ever exist outside of the French capital?Olivier Saillard: Couture is first and foremost the reflection of French heritage and tradition, and a certain idea of savoir-faire transmitted from generation to generation. Economically, it demands and enormous amount of money and its profits aren’t big, so it takes a very passionate investor – the likes of Dior, Gaultier or Chanel – to finance an haute couture collection. In those terms, I don’t think it is possible to produce couture outside of Paris today, especially considering the current economic climate. However, I do believe other countries could very well invent their own forms of couture, different from the French and inspired by their own cultures; why not?

What are the “métiers d’art”? How essential are they to haute couture?Anne Zazzo: Since in haute couture the basic rule is to make everything entirely by hand and all kinds of materials are involved in it, the industry needs experts to work exclusively in the treatment of feathers, embroideries, gloves or buttons. These are what we call in France the “métiers d’art”: ateliers like Lesage, Lemarié, Massaro or Jean Clément who have become necessary to couture through the years. They are craftsmen whose savoir-faire is unique, and their work adds to the value of a couture gown. They are actually so apprised that couture designers like Karl Lagerfeld have been sponsoring and supporting them for years.

You say haute couture is paradoxically best revealed through what it conceals, what do you mean by that?OS: The public in general – and even many people who work in the fashion industry – tend to identify couture with precious, heavily ornamented, embroidered clothes. However, the more a gown is simple, the more it is haute couture: for it is through simplicity that we can best appreciate the craft that goes into couture. Take for instance Madame Grès; it took her years of work and experience to be able to think and execute her trademark dresses, and ultimately that is much more important than any amount of hours spent making a gown.

Can bad taste exist in couture?AZ: Haute couture is heavily coded and traditionally follows a very strict etiquette. Designers have always shown the clothes in a specific order, according to the sartorial needs of women of the world 24 hours a day: morning suits for both the city and the countryside, tea dresses, cocktail dresses, evening gowns… Each occasion has its own outfit, and such codification tacitly implies good taste. However, as Picasso said, good taste is the enemy of creativity, and haute couture is a creative craft. When a designer leaves his mark upon his collections, he inevitably pushes the boundaries of taste. It happened with Worth, who dressed 1870s women in tapestry motifs (prompting many jokes at the time), with Schiaparelli and her extremely sexualised collections and with Galliano’s eerie proportions and ornament overdose. So in a way, bad taste is very couture!

Is there a sense of nostalgia to today’s couture?OS: I see more and more young designers trying to find new, sustainable ways to work, and looking back to a time when couture was produced in a more artisanal way. People like Bouchra Jarrar and Alexandre Vauthier have built small teams and sometimes work with friends and family. They don’t feel the need to grow exponentially or to open boutiques in every street corner in China. Then, of course, there is a much less exciting form of nostalgia in couture – aesthetic nostalgia. Some designers create nothing but incredibly ornate evening gowns. Not only are they perpetuating a false cliché of what haute couture is, they are also creating dresses for a kind of woman who doesn’t really exist anymore.

What is so magical about owning a couture garment?OS: It’s not about the price (I really think for people who can afford to buy haute couture the investment is not that important). It’s about the personal relationship of a woman – and her body – and a dress. Custom made clothing, no matter whether it is couture or a very simple dress that one has made for oneself, is always something we cherish, something we are not easily tempted to throw away. It’s the radical opposite of fast fashion. Couture dresses take time to make, several fittings… They are executed with the utmost attention and tenderness and meant exclusively for one person’s body. Dresses made by Azzedine Alaïa or Chanel have a very special kind of lightness: they feel natural, almost like petals. That’s where the magic of haute couture is.

What has prêt-à-porter inherited from haute couture?AZ: The obsession of permanent creation. Designers like Yves Saint Laurent (and later Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel) came from haute couture and developed prêt-à-porter collections, transmitting the idea that a brand has to have its own style and image. The cult of designers comes also from couture… Today, Alber Elbaz and Hedi Slimane are just as respected as any haute couture designer.

What should we expect from haute couture in the 21st century?OS: It will of course have to change. We no longer live in a world which allows us to be dressed in couture from dawn till dusk. We have entered a new era, but that doesn’t mean this form of art has to disappear. Right now a new, extremely creative way of making prêt-à-porter is emerging which could take over couture houses (given of course that mass production would slow down or stop). I personally think the French government should be a lot more supportive and help finance small ateliers with expert craftsmen and “couturières”, then invite one designer - I’m thinking of Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo or some of the rising talents of the London scene - each season to create a collection. That would let them unleash their creative side without thinking of production constraints… Wouldn’t it be wonderful?

Four weddings and no funeral: a Valentine’s Day Special

I know what you’re all thinking: “Not another lovey-dovey Valentine’s Day post, please!” I know because I invented Valentine’s Day dissing. All of you know just how much I loathe all the Valentine cheesiness, the heart-shaped chocolate boxes, the red rose bouquets and the candlelit dinners with white chocolate and raspberry puddings followed by, well, you know, what two people “in love” are supposed to do on Valentine’s Day. Call me cynical, I think love is not best expressed by Nestle chocolates and roast beef served between two candles. But hey, I’m not just cynical, I’m also superficial and looking for lots of new readers, so I’ve decided to give in to the Valentine’s Day hype and do a post on what some people consider “the greatest expression of eternal love”. I consider it a post on “really fancy, cool weddings (with delicious cakes)”.  What does love have to do with it?

Thought weddings were the epitome of “romance”, all sparkling princesses and prince charmings and meringue-like dresses and pink cupcakes? Think again, weddings can be cool, eccentric and… super chic! Here’s proof: these four fashion industry insiders whipped up weddings so fabulous they almost made me lose all my cynicism and wish I was hitched. Take a look at these four different styles and tell me which one is your favourite!

The Countryside Bride: Kate Moss

When it comes to British weddings, there’s only one Kate (and I don’t mean Middleton). Miss Moss exceeded expectations with her 1930’s English Rose-inspired wedding. The girl got everything right: chiffon dress by (a recently outcast) John Galliano, bridesmaids wearing fresh flower crowns, garden celebration and a three-day party that would have impressed Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Tip: Kate served sidecar cocktails (brandy, orange liqueur and lemon juice) all through the celebrations… mixed by her favourite barista from the Ritz in Paris!

The Bohemian Bride: Margherita Missoni

Nozze all’italiana for Margherita: the Missoni heiress chose a dress custom made for her by Giambattista Valli (it’s only natural. After all, who’s ever heard of a Missoni all-white dress) that made her look like a Virgin in a Boticelli painting. Can you think of anything more delightful than that? She could: Miss Missoni made her guests sit on the grass, in signature multicoloured Missoni cushions, to have a picnic under the olive trees. Tip: Margherita hired a fortune-teller who read everybody’s palms. I dare you to be more Fellini than that.

The Avant-Garde Bride: Katie Shillingford

Who said city weddings were only for anally retentive boring bourgeoises? Katie Shillingford proved getting married in central London can be mega cool. The stylist made her appearance spotting candyfloss pink hair (YES!) and a Gareth Pugh wedding gown that took my breath away, looking like a 21^st century version of a Pre-Raphaelite muse. Along with her bridesmaids (dressed in black), she partied until the small hours at Eltham Palace and danced to the music DJed by Matthew Stone. Tip: Katie’s wedding cake was all white icing and white flowers on the outside… and rainbow sponge on the inside.

The Sustainable Bride: Pamela Love

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, jewellery designer Pamela Love got married in Long Island. Not one to do things halfway, she showed her commitment to ecological and ethical causes through a Native American-inspired aesthetic (tepees, an acoustic guitar gig, wildfires and Appalachian blankets) and a sustainable dress (which she wore barefoot) and delicious vegan menu. Tip: no need to throw money around, Pamela and her friends organized the party themselves, sourcing the food from nearby farms, mixing juice cocktails and arranging wild flowers in mason jars.

Kiki de Montparnasse for AnOther Magazine

My new article on AnOther Magazine's website is about the wonderful Kiki de Montparnasse!

She was the toast of Montparnasse at a time when the popular quarter in the south of Paris welcomed penniless avant-garde artists and bohemian characters. Her raven black garçonne bob, prominent nose and art deco Cupid’s bow made her recognisable to one and all. Kiki de Montparnasse was not particularly beautiful or elegant, but there was something electric about her: “she was very wonderful to look at”, said Hemingway. Soutine, Foujita, Gargallo and of course Man Ray must have agreed with him, for they all asked her to pose for them. But Kiki de Montparnasse was more than just an artist’s model.

Born Alice Ernestine Prin, a healthy country girl brought up by a kindly and unshockable grandmother, Kiki de Montparnasse first arrived in Paris in 1913, aged 12, to work as a baker’s apprentice. However, five years later, the Armistice found her down on her luck, homeless, roaming the streets of Paris and sleeping in a vagabond’s hut behind the Gare Montparnasse. Refusing to become a prostitute (she had an irrational fear of venereal disease) she would go to the Coupole and sit there all da, sipping a six-cent café-crème wearing a black silk hat, her most prized possession. It was there, beneath the mirrors that multiplied the possibilities of seeing and being seen, amid the cigarette smoke and the aromas of Pernod and hot chocolate, that she filched croissants, made scenes and got artists to buy her drinks. She would pose for them in exchange, soon building up friendships with lovely Foujita, dirty Soutine or drunken Modigliani. She didn’t belong to any clique but rather reveled in seducing everyone: surrealists, cubists, futurists, Dadaists; and rubbed elbows with drunken sailors, pimps, boxers and cocaine users on the terraces of the Dôme or the Rotonde. She was famous for her generosity with her tears, with her body, with her laughter, with her money whenever she had any.

In 1921 she met Man Ray and reluctantly accepted to pose for him, even though she was weary of photography, especially the “lewd” kind. It was love at first sight. They moved in together to a modern, luxurious building on 31 bis rue Campagne Première. For Kiki de Montparnasse this was a dream come true: perfumed with Guerlain’s L’Heure Bleue, she would entertain in her salon the greatest personalities of her time. Matisse, Picasso, Joyce and Gertrude Stein all dropped in to enjoy her excellent French cooking. She still posed for artists, always remaining silent, never judging their work. She picked up cues from the very people she modeled for and became an accomplished artist, but was devoid of artistic ambition. She could even have been a movie star when, in 1923, Paramount scheduled an appointment for her in New York. But, at the last minute, she decided to go shopping instead. She would rather stay in Paris, a city that was, in the words of Alice B. Toklas, “more beautiful, vital and inextinguishable than ever”; a city where her own life and the creating of her persona would become her works of art.

Dalí: Cosmogonic Genius

I'm now writing for AnOther ... and I couldn't be happier about it, since it's one of my favourite magazines ever! So far I have published 2 articles in the past week (both about Spanish artists) and I can't help but sharing my latest one about Salvador Dalí. I know many people have trouble dealing with his work and his flamboyant personality, but I must confess I just adore him: he was deliriously creative, intelligent, articulate, hysterically funny, the king of overstatement... and he was hot when he was young. What more could one ask for in a man? In short: yes, he was a genius.

 "Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure – that of being Salvador Dalí". The man who once defined himself as a “cosmogonic genius” was second to none when it came to controversy. Seen by most of his contemporaries as an eccentric at best and a shameless buffoon at worst, he was judged by an art industry that despised in him the very same things it praised in Andy Warhol: megalomania, a taste for provoking and an audacity that knew no bounds. Dalí was in fact a pioneer exploring performance art ahead of his time, and his manipulation of the media has taken a whole new meaning in this Internet-driven century: the timing couldn't be more perfect for the retrospective that is currently held at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, which places the Spanish artist yet again right in the eye of the storm.

Salvador Dalí was anything but ordinary. From his childhood he had a rare conscience of his own greatness: "at the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since". His early years in the Catalan coast of Empordà would arise in him an array of Iberian eccentricities that went from food obsession to mystic outbursts and caught the interest of the group of surrealist artists led by André Breton. However, the young Dalí proved too outrageous even for them and was eventually expelled from the group after presenting his scatological painting The Lugubrious Game. From then on, stating "I am surrealism", he pushed the boundaries of art to delirious extremes like a near-death experience inside a diving suit during a performance. He never hid his appetite for fame and fortune, going as far as to invent his own anagram nickname, "Avida Dollars". From the 1940s he engaged in all kinds of creative projects: designing dresses with Elsa Schiaparelli, imagining movie sets with the also genial Alfred Hitchcock or even conceiving the logo of Chupa Chups sweets, still finding time to appear in numerous TV shows and, of course, to paint with a skill comparable to those of Velázquez or Vermeer.

The exhibition at the Pompidou Centre looks back on the painter’s life through more than 200 works of art comprising The Great Masturbator, The Persistence of Memory and other iconic paintings as well as readymade objects like his 1936 Lobster Telephone, films, jewellery or pieces of furniture mimicking Mae West’s features. Visitors will enter the exhibit through a giant egg symbolizing birth, and will exit through a brain, having experienced the hallucinogenic cosmos of this modern Renaissance Man.

Dalí is at the Centre Pompidou until March 25, 2013

This week: Kate talks, Anna Piaggi's last pictures and more...

 Monday : Anna Piaggi’s last photoshoot

 Barely one month before she passed away aged 81, Anna Piaggi, the original fashion icon, posed in front of Tim Walker’s lens for W Magazine’s 40 anniversary issue. The pictures are even more fabulous than you could expect and they have all the wabi-sabi eccentric glamour anyone could wish for. I just love that in this photo she is wearing that Jamaican-colored fur collar which I think was Dior circa 2001, I remember the campaign was shot by Nick Knight and featured Gisele and I was 16 and really stricken by it. I also remember she was wearing it when I first met her backstage at a Maurizio Galante couture show years ago.

Tuesday: Catherine Baba creates a new jewellery collection for Gripoix

If you are a fan of Baba’s Dietrich-esque, Von Sternberg-esque smoky, exotic, dreamy look, you’ll love that she has just launched a second jewellery collection for French brand Gripoix. This time you will find headpieces, bejewelled belts, rings that turn into pocket mirrors and cuffs that turn into powder cases in shades of red, gold and (obviously) absinthe green. You can’t get any more bohemian than that, and I’m in luck! She stocks the collection at Nouvelle Affaire, a boutique just around the corner from chez moi.

Wednesday: Kate Moss bares it all

Oh yes, at last. We have all been waiting for it for decades! “Kate talks” is the new “Garbo talks”. Last week she was all over the news when her confessions about her relationships to men, drugs and food were published as part of a new, promising Rizzoli book which will feature the most beautiful pictures of the model’s career as well as her own writing. And because we never tire of listening Kate speak, HERE is an interview the New York Times was able to get with her.

Thursday: British Vogue is so high-tech

After my Vogue America-obsessed years (I think that’s mandatory for every teenager wanting to get into the fashion industry and having watched Clueless too many times) and my short-lived taste for Vogue Paris (in my defence that was 8 years ago and Carine Roitfeld was still running it), the only vogue I still religiously read and cherish is the British one. Because I adore Alexandra Shulman and her views on fashion, because it supports rising British talent while remaining Vogue and because, let’s admit it once and for all, the British do it better. Part of its avant-garde bet is a groundbreaking iPad version of the magazine available to everyone with a subscription.

Friday: See the Ruby Slippers up close

If you haven’t yet been to the Hollywood Costume exhibit at V&A and have a chance to take a look, don’t miss it! I was lucky enough to be invited to visit it before it actually opened and I still can’t get over it. For someone as Hollywood-obsessed as I am, it was a lifetime dream come true to be able to stand in front of Dorothy Gale’s ruby slippers and to see Chaplin’s original Little Tramp costume up close. The exhibition is about much more than just iconic costumes, it actually woke really powerful emotions in everyone who was there, and I can guarantee it will do the same for you! In fact it was so amazing I think it deserves a whole post…

Halloween Aftermath

On wednesday evening I decided to enjoy Halloween all the way... even my fingernails were celebrating! I had fun doing some nail art which I admit I copied from one of the patterns designed by the amazing GHETTO NAILZ girls. Ghetto Nailz is, I think, the first nail art salon in Madrid, which means it's also the first one in Spain. The trend is still far from arriving to Paris (seriously what's up with this city lately?! When did it become yawnfest central and the most old-fashioned fashion capital?) so I had to experiment and do the nail art myself. Actually I'm really happy with the results, although you can clearly see I'm right-handed when you look at the nails I had to do with my left hand:

I mean those darned Dracula fangs? Couldn't bite a neck if their life depended on it. However, despite still having to practice a bit with my left hand, I'm really happy with my newly-found talent and I'm even willing to start manicuring my Parisian friends who are craving nail art and can't get it done in the city's salons (seriously get in touch!).

How was your Halloween? I wanna hear all about it! I confess I still haven't taken down my decorations and my flat is filled with pumpkins and cotton cobwebs... and I absolutely refuse to change my manicure!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

And just in case you're still in need of costume and movie inspiration, check out my Halloween posts by clicking HERE and HERE.

What are your plans for tonight (and for the long Halloween/ Día de los Muertos/ Toussaint weekend?) I'd love to hear all about them!