'it's a tragedy': the John Galliano saga in episodes

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It seems there’s no redemption token on sight for John Galliano, the immensely talented designer. [as seen on Vogue.co.uk]

March 2011. the infamous, inhumane, unfortunate “offensive remarks” and he’s out. No excuse, we agree, none should ever express nor bare in their mind for that matter any depleting thoughts and words against any other human being’s beliefs.

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2011 and 2012. redemption, make amends, community service, rehab and all that needed jazz. Doing good dude.

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Receiving La Legion d’Honneur from President Sarkozy (did anyone remotely hinted he’s wearing Hasidic attire at this point in time?)

February 2013. We are all elated by the signs of resurrection from the ashes of blame for our hero/Phoenix. The Oscar de la Renta stint. [as seen in this blog]

The Fall collection presented under the elder statesman of American fashion’s realmproved that genius is like class: you are either born with it or you can’t buy it. The flair of the collection was Gallian(o)-ified with special effects that gave us the “oh-my-he’s-back” thrills. 

April 13, 2013. The appointment at Parson’s for a 3-day masters class after is another distinctive sign. Then, here comes the announcement that no less than Parsons has retained John for a workshop assignment and we are all student-age envy.

April 26, 2013. The anonymous petition against professor-to-be Galliano is filed.

May 8, 2013. Classes are cancelled. 

Doesn’t Judaism, as any other religion, teach forgiveness? [as read in The Daily Beast]

'it's a tragedy' says it simply Suzy Menkes. [as seen in The Cut]

The comeback.

Some light at the end of the tunnel: the July edition of Vanity Fair will publish, we all hope, his first tell-all interview with Ingrid Sischy. [as read in Fashion Week Daily]

a tell-all sit-down TV interview? [WWD]

Liz [Rosenberg] please take care of it! And may the odds be ever in your favor.

'the most beautiful and rich woman on earth'

It happens in your life like your Bat Mitzvah or your First Communion, sooner or later you cross your path with the Fitzgeralds and it’s never the same.

I was 17 and on my first rebellious stage when I first saw the movie with Robert Redford and subsequently read the book. Although my rebellion manifested in such a demure fashion that [I believe it] mostly remained confined within the parnthesys of my own ears, I had an epiphany: in one of my previous lives I had been Daisy.

Glamour, Paris, pearls, short bobbed hair, women smoking cigarettes, long days never ending before the sun rises, champagne and yachts.

Coco Chanel, the iconic rebellious of the decade, wearing trousers and cardigans made of men’s underwear fabrics, the dropped waistline and just a lot of pearls.

Blouses and bold wallpaper prints, beads, sheerness, silks, sleeveless evening gowns.

The New York Jazz Age of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, les Folies Bergere and Greta Garbo. Paris and the Ritz Bar, Le Lido and its underground marble pool. 

The novel is about living in the realm of possibilities, on the fine line of fragile and magnificent illusions. I read this about the book:

… Fitzgerald’s characters, each as fabulous as Babe Ruth, [are] rendered with the fragmentary touches of a Cézanne watercolour.” The comparison is perfect: Fitzgerald uses bright shocks of colour and vivid juxtapositions to create impressions, not facts. Gatsby’s greatness is measured by the intensity of his dreams, which provide him a “satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality”… 

No matter what the critics are saying, what Miuccia with director Bez Luhrmann and costume designer Catherine Martin wanted to do was to make Daisy the ‘most beautiful and rich woman on earth’. 

Could that be why I really think I was Daisy in one of my previous lives?

P.S. I haven’t watched the 3D movie and I am posting pictures of the one I am familiar with.

The MET gala red carpet: veni, vidi, vici

And it’s a wrap. Punk: from Chaos to Couture opened on Monday.

One of the less exhilarating live red carpet with Hilary Rhoda who had the power of making us all miss E! Entertainment.

5 dont’s for a live red carpet interview 

1. “Did you have a punk phase?” the model kept asking as a machine to everybody. Thank God she was saved interviewing the Queen of Punk [1] 

2. “You are British” the beautiful Wintour figurine announced to Bez Lurhmann and wife to which gaffe (in her Red Carpet Memo: if a person has an accent she must be British) they brilliantly replied ”we were British at one point, we are actually from Australia”.

3. Not happy she insisted: “what does Gatsby have anything to do with Punk?” ________________ no pulse

4. “So you are all dressed Alexander Wang” to a pack of 4 gorgeous women wearing Balenciaga. (Red Carpet Memo: when you see a designer, you might have worked for him, acknowledge) Maybe in her mind she wanted to show she had studied for the part. And, no: she got scolded by Julianne Moore who stood 2 inches from her face and spelled: “YES, BALENCIAGA”

5. We all saw the Queen of Punk [1] being cut off by the interviewer, who, also, got totally ignored the newly acclaimed Met Gala Queen [2] arriving un-fashionably late to own the stairs for herself, her mane and her tail.

best dressed

Sipping coffee through the expected rivers of press, opinions, pictures, comparisons, blogs, tweets, we have made up our minds about he event.

Enjoy our ‘the best dressed list’.

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SJP in handpainted Giles Deacon, Phillip Treacy headdress and custom Louboutins

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Florence Welch in Givenchy

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Madonna in custom Givenchy

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Grimes in Chanel

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Emma Watson in Prabal Gurung

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TTH in Thom Browne

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Linda in Marchesa

BONUS: an open letter to a designer who aced the record of dresses for the evening. With 13 celebrities on his tab, Mr. I-design-for-Givenchy-and-I-am-friends-with-her-future-husband [3] might have had too much to think about and somehow got side tracked. Or, simply, he had too much leftover fabric [rolls]. 

"Caro [3],

did you really have to dig yourself the big hole by admitting her + her baby + her army bump [4] were, all together, the most beautiful pregnant woman you ever dressed in your career?

There’s a difference between reality and denial and it hits when the Devil who wears Prada [5] deletes your VIP reality show girl out of the picture leaving prince charming with just one eerie gloved flowery hand hanging on dapper rapper.

Your truly,

us + an image of a ‘beautifully dressed pregnant woman’

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Vanessa Traina Snow in Balenciaga

[1] Vivienne Westwood

[2] Beyonce

[3] Riccardo Tisci

[4] Kimembryo

[5] Anna Wintour

a look back at the past: when media were mass, not social

It was the 1926 when society was dichotomized by F. Scott Fitzgerald between who goes to Palm Beach and who goes to the French Riviera.  Then 50 years later, the Deauville American Film Festival brought red carpet frenzy to the coasts of Normandie. Hollywood stars and their entourage flew over the ocean to be received with red carpet treatment, by paparazzi and accolades of screaming and ecstatic fans. 

Maybe it all looked like what now could be Sundance?

Point is: a then-alive and camera-shy Andy Warhol was photographed by British photog Steve Wood. No journalist considered news-worthy interviewing the artist at a film festival and images were never used. They only came out 20 ears later. (the whole article on Interview Magazine)

A scenario impossible to think of in today’s media state-of-the-union, when anyone would have stolen a snap shot of Andy and Instagrammed, tweeted or posted on Facebook. Even if was only a glance or a blurred picture. Then the wave of bloggers and social media addicted would have made it imperative for a journalist to interview him. 

So, is it the artist that makes the news or the street scene and social media sharing that makes the news worthy?