Vogue’s Amazing Grace

With the latest technology, we’re now able to read books on different formats and devices including iPads, nooks (they’re out of circulation), kindles, and everywhere else as long as they’re on a pdf or digital format. But, there’s something about the hardcover and paperback books’ charm of collecting them and many other things that eventually end up creating an infinite list of why to buy a book.

That charm is so unique, that at least, I see myself lately buying more books and magazines than clothes and jewelry. I never thought that was going to happen, but I guess working at one of the biggest publishers and editorials around the world, definitely changes your mind.

This new change, makes you want to buy books not only on a daily basis, but every time a book review comes out you’re already ‘googling’ when, where and how you can get it. The last book I bought, is about the memoirs of a person who I truly admire, Grace Coddington.

Grace: A Memoir, written by Grace Coddington, makes you open your eyes to a new perspective of how she’s practically the engine of Vogue USA’s heart. Miss Coddington is still working at the age of 72, and after you read this wonderful biography, you’ll see that the life she has lived, is absolutely unreal and full of exciting, hard and wonderful moments. It is like sitting down with all of the Vogue USA and UK‘s socialité. You get to meet a lot of amazing characters, and know the charm of working in such a prestigious place.

The book has the charm that the old ones had. Hardcover, and the pages are just beautiful. It is not only a book to read, but a photographic book, documenting Miss Coddington‘s life and her memories in charming little sketches.

As always, I took notes throughout the whole entire book, and I’ll list them here for making this post a little bit more fun. Here they go. Enjoy!

1. Grace Coddington was born on April 20th of 1941 under the name of Pamela Rosaling Grace Coddington.

2. Her first official job was waitressing at the Stockpot of Basil St at Knightsbridge, London. This is where the photographer Norman Parkinson discovered and encouraged her to become a fashion model.

3. Soon after, Miss Coddington signed up as a model at the Cherry Marshall‘s model agency, which later took her to meet, personally, Miss Eileen Ford, founder of Ford Models.

4. There was a time where Miss Coddington had kind of two jobs at the same time. One as a fashion model, and the other as the junior editor at Vogue UK. Miss Coddington worked at the british magazine for 19 years before she moved to Vogue USA.

5. Because of her amazing and professional work at the fashion industry, she has been awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, and the British Fashion Award in 2009.

Blooming – Tales

Spring season is over, but not to far from coming back to the 2014 collections. This doesn’t mean we don’t get to see the blooming flowers around the fashion world right?

Imagine you go to Paris, to Milan, to London or to New York City, with the purpose of attending a Valentino, Dior, Lanvin or Saint Laurent runway show. When you’re almost there you feel this scent or perfume so exquisite, so natural that this smell makes you wonder what’s inside the show. Then, you go inside, ready with your Instagram, so you won’t miss a moment, and you run into this gorgeous and tall wall made out of flowers. You see roses, orchids, daisies, and they’re all real. They are all fresh and full of color. How crazy is that?

But, then you wonder… Who did that? Who was the one in charge of creating such a magnificent piece? Well, this is what this post is about. I’m going to introduce you to the four main artists (and geniuses if I may say) behind the flower art in the runway shows.

The first one is Marc Colle. He was discovered by Dior’s creative director Raf Simmons, after the designer noticed the wonderful plexiglass-encased bouquets pieces presented on the Jil Sander’s fall-winter’ runway show in 2012. After this show, Mr. Colle was requested to create the iconic and legendary flower arch wall at the Dior Haute Couture fall-winter 2012 show. Since that moment, Colle has worked with Dries van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester and Hermes.

The second is Rambert Rigaud. First hired as a flower artist by the Valentino’s creative directors, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, the former atelier director, and owner of Rambert Rigaud Fleuriste, was the artist in charge of decorating the label’s party at the Hotel Solomon de Rothschild in Paris for the fall-winter 2013′ inauguration event. Mr. Rigaud created white and blue flower arrangements, placed in Delft vases, channeling the 17^th century Dutch painting style vision that the designers had in mind.

The third is Raquel Corvino. While Miss Corvino was still in college, the artist was assigned to create the flower arrangements at the Mercer Hotel in Soho. Coincidentally, short after this assignment was completed, the Rem Koolhaas-designed Prada store opened in front of the hotel making itself aware of the flower pieces. Soon, Miss Corvino was hired to create the flower art for a private dinner that Miuccia Prada hosted at the same hotel. Since then, Miss Corvino has been working with different labels including The Row, Chloé, Helmut Lang, Louis Vuitton and Theory.

And last, but not least, Thierry Boutemy. Mr. Boutemy was the artist in charge of the flower art in the acclaimed film, «Marie-Antoinette» by the director Sofia Coppola. After his amazing work, Mr. Boutemy was called to work with well-recognized photographers and magazines such as Mario Testino and Vogue USA.

I hope you enjoyed the post. All the information was taken from the article, «In Bloom: 4 Florists Behind Some of Fashion’s Most Dramatic Sets» by Suleman Anaya of the Business of Fashion.

Say Hello to ‘The Edit’!

Call it a change, call it a shift, and call it a twist… I firmly believe in the fact that summer brings the biggest changes no matter what. From big to small, from notable to subtle, from personal to professional, those changes always happen. If you think you haven’t had any changes until now, look back and you’ll see that there has been at least a twist in your life since summer started.

About the latest summer news around the fashion world, there’s a new character or magazine, that caught my eye recently and it was the latest magazine released by the online luxury fashion retailer, Net-a-Porter. The magazine is called The Edit (click here to view the latest issue), and it is an online project divided into eight different sections including the editor’s letter.

The Edit, managed by the editor-in-chief, Lucy Yeomans, publishes every two weeks. The content divided into eight sections includes: a feature on the latest seasonal trendy merchandise at The List section, a kind-of personal interview to the selected celebrity at the Cover Story , the trend lovers stuff at Style ReThink section, an one-on-one interview with a new artistic character at the Interview section, the color and technique lovers stuff at the Make-up Masterclass section, and my favorite, the latest top destinations around the world at the Travel section.

The Edit has a beautiful and clean format, and it is totally worth reading. It is easy and light to read, and what a shame that they don’t have the printed version available (if I’m wrong please correct me). Take a look and let’s give it a warm welcome to one of the most competitive industries around the world! Enjoy!

Eternal Beauty

Beauty has no age. Remember that. Why? You’ll know when you read about these ads and see who’s the girl on the latest Jason Wu’s fall/winter 2013 ad campaign.

Before we go any further into the ad… Who’s Jason Wu? Mr. Wu is a 30-year-old Taiwanese-Canadian fashion designer, famous because of designing Michelle Obama’s dress for the first and second inauguration of American President.

You know how they say that networking is everything? Well… that’s true. I think. Being well known at the fashion industry opens a lot of doors and opportunities. It might even help on getting a chance to work with the people that you never thought you were ever going to meet. And I think that’s what happened to Jason Wu.

On his fall/winter 2013 ad campaign, the designer poses with the American legendary and super model, Christy Turlington. Turlington is well recognized because of her modeling, and ‘fashion muse’ role during the decade of the nineties. After more than two decades of working at the fashion industry she doesn’t look a day over 20.

The acclaimed photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin photographed the ad, and it took place at one of the most famous restaurants in New York City, Mr. Chow (founded and owned by the actor, interior designer and restaurateur, Michael Chow).

The ad has received a lot of positive responses, including the “Top 10 Campaigns of the Season” of the Business of Fashion (click here for full article). This proves that true and natural beauty never goes out fashion.

Going On and Backstage

My fourth week at Vogue… Oh my… Times passes by insanely fast. Throughout these past couple of weeks, I’ve learned like never before and I’ve made so many mistakes that it’s turning out almost ridiculous. One after the other. But, that’s what experience is all about… isn’t it? Well… Until now, during my breaks I’ve had the chance to read and research a lot, and it turned out that, if you haven’t seen on the previous posts, the official website and fashion blog, The Business of Fashion, is one of my favorites. What’s best about it is that the articles are always updated and the suscription is for free (click here for registering). You just have to submit your e-mail or a social media account. No cost, convenient, and perfect for the daily routine at the office.

Last friday, the 12th of July, BoF published an article that caught my eye. It was about Alexandre de Betak. (click here for full article) Who? The magician behind the best fashion shows around the world! What? Yes! He’s the mastermind behind logistics, and other technicalities. And if I may say, the pioneer on webcasting fashion shows. Which webcasted fashion show? The Victoria’s Secret fashion show in the year 2000. It was such a success that it crashed the company’s website by the moment it was live.

About Betak… He grew up in Paris, and the first fashion show he produced, was for the designer Sybilla Sorondo, when he was only nineteen. After that, Betak created his agency, Bureau Betak, and then moved to NYC in 1993. Since then, his career has been a non-stopping success.

Betak has been working around the fashion business for 25 years now, and has been the creative mind behind more than 600 runway shows including Rodarte, Jason Wu, Viktor & Rolf, Berluti and H&M. A little something to remember about Betak? He can be working simultaneously on more than 20 different fashion shows around the world. How crazy is that?

10 Things you Probably Didn’t Know About the Queen of Fashion

Marie-Antoinette… What a cliché subject right? But, hold on! This is not another cliché article! I promise!

While reading Caroline Weber’s «Queen of Fashion«, I found so many new things I didn’t know about the girl who changed the course of the fashion revolution. I started listing the interesting facts as I always do (click here for full list), and it turned out that I kept finding one fact after the other, even though I’ve known about this subject from a long time now. It was like a non-stopping conversation with a little piece of the history of fashion.

Now, before I list the 10 facts, I thought about a quote from one of my favorite movies. This quote is not only a little bit funny, but a little reflective of how timeless a face and an image can be, no matter the time or age that we’re living in.

The quote is from Simon Curtis‘ My Week with Marilyn, in the scene when Marilyn visits the royal library and opens a book full of Leonardo da Vinci‘s sketches. She stares at the women he sketched during his drawing period, and then she says: «I hope I look this good when I’m 400.»

Smiling after this quote, here comes the list:

1. Marie-Antoinette‘s complete and real name was Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna.

2. Marie-Antoinette was the youngest among her 10 brothers and sisters.

3. The team who not only spent most of the day-time around the queen, but who was in charge of designing Marie-Antoinette‘s clothes and outfits was called «the ministry of fashion.»

4. Before the opposition stormed Versailles, Marie-Antoinette‘s clothing and accessory’ collection occupied at least three entire royal rooms.

5. After Marie-Antoinette was beheaded, she was such an icon among the people, that the wealthy and royal ladies wore a red ribbon around their necks to remember and honor the French queen.

6. Marie-Antoinette was a descendant of the founder of the Roman Empire, Augustus.

7. The french court requested a special service for the queen and king, leaving Marie-Antoinette with 200 servants for her daily activities.

8. An iconic and fashionable item from the sixteenth century was the wig that both men and women used to wear. These wigs were called the poufs. Marie-Antoinette, as the fashion revolutionary that she was, had as main goal to be the most fashionable woman alive and what better way to be than demanding the design of the poufs unique and one of a kind? So unique in fact, that each pouf measured at least three feet high (91.4 cm) and usually, depicted historical scenes.

9. You probably know the basic features of a corset. But, during the sixteenth century, the corset was utilized for preventing the deformation of the human body and enhance the formation of a descent waist. From age two, children were forced to use this, no matter the gender, and Marie-Antoinette wasn’t an exception.

10. Marie-Antoinette was probably the first creative director of one of the first magazines in the world. What?! Yes! During the sixteenth century the french fashion designers, such as Rose Bertin, used to «publish» their work through «magazines» or catalogues called the Galleries des Modes. Bertin was one of the queen’s personal fashion designers and because of this, the queen, as maximum authority figure that she was, selected the styles and trends that were going to be distributed after she wore them. Who knew right?

Esteban Cortazar, Ladies and Gentlemen…

Born in Bogota, Colombia and raised in Miami, Florida, Esteban Cortazar is the latest ‘comeback kid’ of the fashion industry.

Now, what is it that makes him special and different from all the fashion designers?

Well… First of all, he was the first fashion designer to show at New York Fashion Week at the age of 17, and then, because of his unique friends and contacts such as Gianni Versace and Todd Oldham, he stepped in as creative director for Emanuel Ungaro at the age of 23.

After stepping down from Ungaro in 2009, moving to Paris and back, having a whole new experience with color and material experimentation, plus a brief training on luxury management, a new side of the brand was born. This is when, in the mid-2012, Cortazar caught the attention of the world’s largest online luxury retailer, Net-a-Porter.

In September of that same year, Cortazar launched his first capsule collection in partnership with Net-a-Porter (which I must say was absolutely stunning and a huge success), and one year later, in 2013, at the age 29, Cortazar is bringing the second collection under the same partnership inspired in the easy elegance and wearability. According to the official website the Business of Fashion, the new collection is ‘… an exploration of the curves and lines and angles of the female body and the gestures of the body…’ (click here for full article).

Here’s a sneak peek of what will soon be available for the loyal customer of Net-a-Porter.