Rosie Huntington-Whiteley named as Victoria's Secret Angel

Most models do not lead the life the public envisions for them. Instead of drinking Champagne, shooting in the Caribbean and walking for Prada, the majority spend their time working off their debt to their agencies, shivering in studios and being treated as expendable deaf mutes by casting people on go-sees.

But there are exceptions: good commercial girls, the smiley ones you see in catalogues but never in editorial, can easily pull in six figures each year and, of course, there are those girls fashion followers all know who manage to get great editorial and prestigious ad campaigns.

Hovering above all of these are the chosen few who manage to snag contracts that pay millions for a few week's work a year to ensure exclusivity.

The mother lode is not a Milanese fashion house or a cosmetics giant, but the bordering on tacky lingerie powerhouse that is Victoria's Secret. Every few years they announce the signing of a clutch of new Angels, girls who have been groomed to act as celebrity spokesmodels for the brand.

"We don't subscribe to that nameless, faceless model routine," said Edward Razek, Victoria's Secret Chief Marketing officer in a 2007 Forbes interview. He's not exaggerating: Angels become global household names, most of whom are recognisable by theri first names alone: Gisele, Helena, Karolina, Adriana, Tyra, Laetitia. Heidi Klum is the most long-standing - she's been with the company since 1999, but this year Victoria's Secret have a problem.

Of the seven angels who started the year, the most recent appointment still working as an Angel is Miranda Kerr who was signed in 2005, and three of them have become pregnant, including Karoline Kurkova who has stepped down.

Time for a fresh batch of Angels: Victoria's Secret announced the appointment of five more today: Emanuela de Paula, Lindsay Ellingson, Candice Swanepoel, Chanel Iman & Britain's first Angel,Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (pictured above & below), currently Model of the Year at the 2009 British Elle Style Awards. Looking at the line up, I'd guess that Rosie is being drafted to fill in the 'classy looking girl' slot. (Victoria's Secret being known for having a diverse line up that runs the gamut from sought after editorial girls (Doutzen) to sexy American cheerleader type (Marissa Miller).)



Who cares that you have to wear outfits of gob smacking tackyness when you've just signed what is reasonably assumed to be a multi-million, multi year contract?

(news via The Cut)

Karlie Kloss: the next big thing

The most annoying thing about not being able to blog last year was not having an outlet for all the crazy things I heard & saw everyday. The second most annoying thing was not being able to blog all the trends and information that an editor sucks up like a sponge every day.

One of an editor's jobs is to always have an eye out for interesting models for editorial, and I saw faces that I was dying to write about. (And, flag wave to me, I always pick the girls who make it big.)

At the SS09 collections back in September I kept seeing a tall & willowy girl on the runway who intrigued me. I'd seen her at the fall 09 shows during her first season but she really stood out this time round. Whatever the show, she walked with her body at an almost impossible slant, swaying slightly but gracefully with her eyes fixed straight ahead in a furious , yet other-worldly, glare. I nicknamed her the beautiful alien.
(Louis Vuitton, SS09. Style.com)

At first her look almost offended me: she was not a pattern card beauty, but her sheer other worldliness began to work on me, and by the end of the season's collections in Paris it was obvious to me that she was one of the next big things.

Her name? Karlie Kloss. She's been getting a lot of industry buzz recently as she snagged the new Marc Jacobs Lola fragrance campaign and walked at couture this month - she wore the wedding dress at Givenchy - the most coveted outfit.

I reckon she is the next big breakout model (breakout from fashion insider-ness that is). Of course, she has plenty of time: she's sixteen. Never seeing her closer than a couple of feet from the first or second row in which I sat, I had no idea then that she was so young. Born in August 1992, she was fifteen when I first saw her walking in New York in spring 08. I do find this extremely disturbing.

However, I obviously wasn't the only editor transfixed by her at the collections, as she started appearing in properly major editorial from Spring 09 - mags have a three month lead time. (Having picked up i-D, a Ten cover, a few campaigns (incl GAP)

& a shoot for fashion's pornographer-in-chief, Terry Richardson in British Vogue all in 08).

For Jan 09 she shot British Vogue (Patrick Demarchelier), Vogue Italia (Steven Meisel), & US Vogue for Feb 09 (Meisel again), as well as picking up an SS Dolce campaign (Steven Klein).

Here she is in a British Vogue editorial from Feb 09, shot by Lachlan Bailey:

(So don't believe the guff about British Vogue only wanting older, larger models. What they - and every other fashion magazine & photographer - want is the newest face, regardless of age or size. Given lead times, Kloss must have been either 15 or sixteen by a month when she shot with Richardson for Vogue. I wldn't want my best friend near him, let alone a teenager.)

(image from style.com) This fall she has picked up Sportmax, Pringle (again) and this ravishing Chloe campaign shot by Mikael Jansson and styled by Marie-Amélie Sauvé,

Expect to see a lot more of Miss Kloss who, against all odds & in contrast to her alien mode on the runway, is always snapped cracking up with laughter backstage.

It's a whole different world out there on-line...

Today I’m feeling…confused. And not feeling the love for the corporate on-line world that is trying to infitrate the blogosphere. Received an email from some random guy at askmen (huge, nothing special, testosterone-filled, on-line mag) offering to trade links with my tiny fashion blog. Odd.

They also wanted me to link to a news-y piece they were running, pegging Catherine McNeill as the upcoming model to watch. Apart from the fact that I ran a similar piece on Miss McNeill nearly a year on ago this blog (just before Testino put her under contract), why does a mid-market on-line magazine, aimed at men, with overtly male-friendly, women as objects, content, think I’d be interested in sending my readers to read an uninformed piece of page filler? My intelligent & informed bloggers are hardly going to consider them as an expert source of opinion, especially when it's not her work in the fashion industry that they are interested in...

(They didn’t help their cause when, following my jokey reply, pointing out they were a bit slow off the mark on the news front, and attaching a link to my own year-old story, the guy replied all miffed, saying:
" Yes well im sending you our feature page on Catherine McNeil with the possibility of a link exchange, no need for unnecessary insults"

Right. That's obviously what I was doing. Personally insulting him. Obviously.

Surely it must have occurred to him that if (ethical) bloggers are going to link to features they need to be pertinent, interesting, relevant AND up to date?

(And now here's a proper insult for him: Dimwit.)

About bloody time too: Mango to stock size 16

Rejoice, international Spanish retailer Mango has finally seen sense: the brand's fashion ranges are now available in UK sizes 6-18, in a bid to make them accessible to a wider range of women. And, to publicise the move, Mango has signed the iconic US plus-sized model Crystal Renn. A generous size 16, Crystal has modelled for Italian Vogue and, during the height of the furore over size zero models, walked the runway for Jean Paul Gaultier during the SS06 shows

I would like to dedicate this blog entry to all those girls who have spotted a pretty piece in Mango, looked in vain for a size 3, only to be told by a dismissive, waif-ish Euro that, "oh zat only comes in sizes 1 & 2." This means that for years Mango have been ordering part of their stock only in a UK 8 (US4) & UK10 (US6). I always thought this was somewhat self-destructive, certainly in the British market, seeing as how 49% of British women are over a size 16 (US12), let alone a UK12. I am a UK12 with a size 16 bust but, as they cut small anyway, I have not been able to wear their clothes for years. (Not a great loss, but occasionally frustrating.)

Of course one understands that certain brands have a certain vision of their customer, but when you are a mass-market, High Street brand, this seems a little, well, picky
Top: Crystal Renn for Italian Vanity Fair March 2004
Bottom: Jean Paul Gaultier SS06

The Met's Costume Institute Benefit Gala - Christopher Kane & Givenchy

I've avoided commenting on The Met's Costume Ball as I am sure any fashion minded person is thoroughly sick of the pics by now. However, whilst I was on the 'phone last night, I did scroll through the 156, yes you read that right, 156 pics on style.com to see what all the non A list were wearing too, and the two following pics struck me as worthy of comment.

First up: Christopher Kane's work partner & sister Tammy, looking utterly splendid in Christopher Kane AW07. And proving that you don't need to be a teeny tiny stick to wear his designs, just sexy, grown up and glamorous.



And then this:




I've been thinking hard how best to describe this. A classic case of the dress wearing her, rather than the other way around. It's reminiscent of my grandmother's old loo roll cover, but then there's also a hint of those ruched curtains that everyone had back in the '80's. Most of all it reminds me of those balls of fur around a shaved French poodle's legs.

The woman wearing this Givenchy Haute Couture frock is a celebutard* called Fabiola Beracasa who is known here in NY for being rich and social. Beyond that I have failed to discover a reason for her existence. I am at a loss as to why Givenchy could have possibly thought putting this dress on a woman who is not the shape for which it was designed was a good idea. I am sure she could have looked charming in something a little less frou frou. Bottom line: this is a runway look, designed to show off the talent of both the designer & les petits mains, not a real life look. It was borderline ludicrous on Natasha Poly (see below), it does not work on Fabiola who, bless her, will not be gracing a runway any time soon (unless at some celebutard benefit).



* Celebutard: Celebrity/debutante=celebritante. Celebrity/debutante/very stupid person = celebutard

Photos via style.com

Kate Moss TopShop collection launch party at Barneys New York. Yawn

To Barneys last night for the launch of Kate Moss' thoroughly unexciting TopShop collection in the US. The pocket sized model turned up - on time - looking decidedly low key in a city where grooming is a given not an option. After the blonde 30's vamp of the Oxford Circus store, this time we got a scraped back knot (they aren't called Croydon face lifts for nothing), a blousy off the shoulder print smock dress cinched with a black belt, accessorized with a yellow clutch and rather unappealing zebra print ankle strap heels. If she was trying to convince New Yorkers that she was stylish, this so wasn’t the way to go.

Even though Mairead and Tabitha from the Queens of Noize did their best to get the room moving (their fave track of the evening: the Headman remix of Virginia Plain by Roxy Music), the party, to be honest, was less of a knees up, and more of a press feeding frenzy. The list had been kept super tight, which in reality always means a half empty room. La Moss and Sir Philip (with a protective arm twined around her waist), circled the room for 45 minutes chatting with reporters & TV crews, whilst everyone stood, gawped & snaffled the truffle, caviar and smoked salmon canapés.

Interestingly, bugger all A list turned up. Suzy Menkes told me that in her opinion the Yanks see Kate as a latter day Marianne Faithful, a rock chick rather than as the cultural & style icon that she is perceived to be in England. I bumped into Naomi Campbell getting into the lift on the way out in some truly bizarre ballerina get up; her habits haven't changed with age - she was arriving as everyone else was leaving, Kate having left the main room 40 minutes before. Christopher Kane was on excellent form, especially after having spotted the excellent forms of the extremely hot waiters. Sister Tammy wore his designs as normal and looked ineffably chic, whilst Agnyess Deyn jumped around in a Kane frock in a corner with the Queens of Noize (looking they were having their own private party).

Apart from that I spotted Jonathan Newhouse lurking on his own looking saturnine, Hilary Alexander looking more and more like Mrs Tiggywinkle each day and um, well, that was about it. Oh and Harvey Weinstein & girlfriend Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman. Yawn.

Lily in bloom

Pic: vogue.com

Lily Cole was photographed yesterday in her costume as Polly in the remake of the St Trinians movie. But the reason I posted this pic is because dear Lily fills her smashing tank top admirably.

During London Fashion Week the Evening Standard has run front page photos of Lily showing her sticky legs with a screamer along the lines of "Super thin model shocker". Lily may indeed have the legs of a daddy long legs but she's no bag of bones - as any editor who has seen her splendid bosom on show on the catwalk can testify.

I was a super skinny, thin legged, large bosomed teen who ate like a horse (sigh) so I find this persecution particularly irritating as I know you can be shaped like Lily & be thoroughly healthy. Gah. There really is no hope for a sensible debate on eating disorders in the fashion industry when the media itself fans the flames erroneously.

British Vogue May 2007 cover

There are many, many reasons why I think this is a shockingly bad cover but I'll start with the most obvious. If you were a famous model would you want to be photographed with a dodgy rocker with the words 'Fashion's Big Easy' stamped just under your groin?

It cld be argued that now Johnny Borrell is shagging Kirsten Dunst, Vogue were remarkably prescient in putting him on the cover, but surely they could at least have run a cover that hinted at some chemistry between their chosen stars? We all know she's married with two kids, but hey, fostering the illusion that they wanted to rip each other's kit off would at least have made a visually interesting cover. And what's with the dragged-through-a-hedge-backwards hair on Natalia?

British Vogue does have a history of putting dubious celebrities on the cover. Robbie Williams with Gisele Bundchen in October 2000, P.Diddy with Naomi Campbell in October 2001 and Elton John with Elizabeth Hurley in December 2002... the last one in particular set a new low at the time.

Calvin Klein 'model presentation' Fall 07

Thoughts after the Calvin Klein static ‘model presentation’ for AW07 today. ( BTW model presentation did mean exactly that: a stepped, almost ceiling high pyramid in the middle of a show space with about thirty male & female models in Calvin clothes artfully arranged on the various levels, looking bored senseless for the two hour duration of the 'presentation'.)

1) Who thought it acceptable to make a very young female model stand naked bar a butt floss G string and tiny bra for two hours? For Christ’s sake I think we all know what a beige string looks like - we have them in our prop kits.
2) In an industry run by women obsessed with their weight how come the only size to run out immediately on the underwear gift table was size large?
3) Why are NYC fashionistas SO badly dressed? A Prada purse, Chanel coat and Gucci sun specs do not stylish make.
4) Why serve muffins? I have never ever seen anyone so much as take a nibble of anything that might remotely contain carbs at these events? (Apart from me of course. The Bateman cartoon: 'The Girl Who Ate Carbs At A Fashion Do."
5) Oh yes, the clothes. Fine. Minimal. Exactly what you’d expect.

Catherine McNeil - A new beauty personified

photo: Style.com

Australian, aged 17. With Next. On the catwalk for Dior. Personally, I'm glad to see a classical female beauty after the run of alien babies.