Do Cannes red carpets ever get less overwhelming? "I’m a lot more relaxed than last year, when I was crying in the car [on my way] to Tree of Life out of nerves," said Jessica Chastain at the Women in Film Celebration, hosted last weekend in Cannes by IFP, Calvin Klein
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Donna Karan brought an atypical accessory to Tuesday night’s cocktail party for the 11th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, hosted by Vanity Fair: a walking cane. Further examination revealed a giant black knee brace as well. Both were clearly hospital-issue, but they blended in well with her black ensemble and chunky
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This week’s issue of New York included 178 minutes with Miranda Kerr, the model who got to wear the diamond bra in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show this year. Below, more things we learned about Kerr.
— With reporting by Amy Odell
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miranda kerr
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Is there something about walking in a show to benefit earthquake victims that makes models fall down? Probably not, but it does seem a strange coincidence that, in an echo of Agyness Deyn’s two stumbles at Naomi Campbell’s Fashion for Relief benefit for Haiti in New York last year, we saw Lindsey Wixson fall at least six times in two outfits at last night’s F4R Japan benefit in Cannes. We’re not sure who designed the shoes Wixson wore when she tumbled, or who designed her first look — a long, voluminous gown one can only hope cushioned her knees on the way down. She fell once on her way toward the photographers, and then again and again and again on her way backstage. After one fall, Wixson very cutely even jumped up and raised her arms like a triumphant gymnast finishing a vault — and then took a couple of steps and promptly fell again. The poor thing seemed to drop to her hands and knees each time, and to make matters worse, after Wixson changed into a white Prada dress for her next walk, she fell again. The good-natured crowd, however, didn’t mind and cheered her on. Plenty of ladies in the cast, which included models and non-models, had shaky walks; two in addition to Wixson took tumbles, though Wixson was the only professional model who took a spill.
A few of Campbell’s friends also walked the show fall-free, including Karolina Kurkova, Sesilee Lopez, Rosario Dawson, Grace Hightower DeNiro, and Jane Fonda. Campbell walked three or four times herself, while she, Hightower, and Fonda all tripped over Fonda’s train during the finale, but at that point in the show, tripping seemed to be just part of the fun. When it ended, one insanely rich European lady spent 100,000 Euros on a Chopard necklace, while our seatmate Kenneth Cole, who’s saving up for his amFAR benefit on Thursday, accidentally bought a painting of all 44 U.S. presidents after auctioneer Simon de Pury decided Cole was still bidding, even when he’d stopped. He still paid up, and donated an extra two thousand Euros. Among the spectators, we spotted Denise Rich (who spent 8,000 Euros in the silent auction), Roberto Cavalli, Ron Burkle, and Japanese Vogue editor Anna Dello Russo (Campbell is on this month’s cover); with Italian Vogue sponsoring the event, editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani was backstage helping run the show.
The Telegraph filmed a video of some of the runway carnage, where you can see how well Wixson handled her tumbles. Maybe she can make falling the new walking.
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Filed Under: carnage, lindsey wixson, model tracker, models, naomi campbell
Is there something about walking in a show to benefit earthquake victims that makes models fall down? Probably not, but it does seem a strange coincidence that, in an echo of Agyness Deyn’s two stumbles at Naomi Campbell’s Fashion for Relief benefit for Haiti in New York last year, we saw Lindsey Wixson fall at least six times in two outfits at last night’s F4R Japan benefit in Cannes. We’re not sure who designed the shoes Wixson wore when she tumbled, or who designed her first look — a long, voluminous gown one can only hope cushioned her knees on the way down. She fell once on her way toward the photographers, and then again and again and again on her way backstage. After one fall, Wixson very cutely even jumped up and raised her arms like a triumphant gymnast finishing a vault — and then took a couple of steps and promptly fell again. The poor thing seemed to drop to her hands and knees each time, and to make matters worse, after Wixson changed into a white Prada dress for her next walk, she fell again. The good-natured crowd, however, didn’t mind and cheered her on. Plenty of ladies in the cast, which included models and non-models, had shaky walks; two in addition to Wixson took tumbles, though Wixson was the only professional model who took a spill.
A few of Campbell’s friends also walked the show fall-free, including Karolina Kurkova, Sesilee Lopez, Rosario Dawson, Grace Hightower DeNiro, and Jane Fonda. Campbell walked three or four times herself, while she, Hightower, and Fonda all tripped over Fonda’s train during the finale, but at that point in the show, tripping seemed to be just part of the fun. When it ended, one insanely rich European lady spent 100,000 Euros on a Chopard necklace, while our seatmate Kenneth Cole, who’s saving up for his amFAR benefit on Thursday, accidentally bought a painting of all 44 U.S. presidents after auctioneer Simon de Pury decided Cole was still bidding, even when he’d stopped. He still paid up, and donated an extra two thousand Euros. Among the spectators, we spotted Denise Rich (who spent 8,000 Euros in the silent auction), Roberto Cavalli, Ron Burkle, and Japanese Vogue editor Anna Dello Russo (Campbell is on this month’s cover); with Italian Vogue sponsoring the event, editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani was backstage helping run the show.
The Telegraph filmed a video of some of the runway carnage, where you can see how well Wixson handled her tumbles. Maybe she can make falling the new walking.
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Filed Under: carnage, lindsey wixson, model tracker, models, naomi campbell
“I was terrified,” is how Vogue’s Hamish Bowles described his first meeting with Alexander McQueen on the red carpet at this week’s Met Gala, honoring the late designer’s work. The terrifying part? “There were very few teeth, I remember, and quite a significant beer belly,” he explained. “[The teeth] bespoke street fights.” Bowles said the late Isabella Blow convinced him to go see McQueen’s work for the first time when he was still a student at Central St. Martin’s in London. “So I went to south, south, south London, it took hours to get there, and it was his auntie’s welfare apartment. And he had some mannequins in the front room, and this really terrifying creature greeted me, and he was inarticulate and abrasive and just absolutely brilliant,” an emotional Bowles explained. “You could just see there was just a raw talent. And you could tell he was frustrated because he felt that he wasn’t ready to be showing me things.”
Model Natalia Vodianova, who walked in a few of McQueen’s runway shows, described him as “very shy.” “The clothes were so incredible, but certain pieces were torturous in a way because [they had] such a small waist,” she recalled. “I saw so many girls almost fainting backstage, but we all loved it because it was a real show, and the atmosphere was so exciting always.” Vodianova interacted with McQueen more when she asked him to create a dress for a charity event she was organizing. “It’s not like you really got to know Lee unless you really knew him personally, which I didn’t, but he was a very kind man, very supportive of my charity. That was very special to me. That’s the sweet feeling. He’s not someone necessarily who would tell you, ‘Oh my god, Darling, I love you, you look amazing,’ you know, not really outgoing, but he would support you, he would be behind you. That meant a lot.”
Sarah Jessica Parker, who famously attended the Met Ball with McQueen himself one year, also described him as shy. “He’s not comfortable always in environments like these, but I find that charming, and I empathize with that. But there were enough people here that he knew, that he felt comfortable with, and we got through the evening quite well,” she said.
While Parker and Bowles were lucky to have worn McQueen to the ball, there may have been fewer of his pieces on the red carpet than anticipated. This was probably partly due to the museum exhibit, where many archive looks were on display. Serena Williams, who wore Oscar de la Renta, had floated the idea of wearing McQueen but “couldn’t quite fit the sample sizes,” she said. Also, alterations of archive looks is not allowed. Parker, who wore an archive piece, explained, “I wasn’t allowed to touch it so I was very fortunate that it fit me.”
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Filed Under: party lines, alexander mcqueen, designers, hamish bowles, met ball, met gala, models, natalia vodianova, r.i.p. mcqueen, sarah jessica parker, the ball
We should all look this amazing at 55.
The most frequent comment made by anyone who has gazed upon Iman in person is that the woman does not age. That glowing skin with nary a wrinkle could be straight out of Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time” video from 1992 (the year she married David Bowie). But as Iman pointed out at Allure’s twentieth-anniversary dinner earlier this week, that’s only partially true. “The face stays good,” she said. “I’m my father’s daughter. My father is 80 and he looks 40. So I’ve inherited that. The body is a different thing.”
The face, she explained, maintains its youthful glow thanks to a mixture of genetics and skin care. “We don’t get makeup in Africa, but skin care, skin care, skin care,” she said. “Like brushing your teeth twice a day. That’s how we are taught when we are very young. The idea is that the skin you take care of in your teens is the one you are going to inherit in your 60s and 70s.” (Hmmm. Wish our mothers had taught us that.) It also helps that her dermatologist is the exorbitantly expensive Patricia Wexler, who has steered Iman toward SPF and away from Restylane, not that Iman has a problem with injected beauty fixes. “Every time there’s a new filler, I will say to her, ‘What do you think of this?’ And she’ll say, ‘That’s enough. I’ll tell you when you need it.’ And then she’ll always give me, like, SPF 50. It literally looks like white chalk on the face. But that’s what I do. I have no fillers. I haven’t done anything. But religiously skin care and SPF.”
The body, though, gives her constant anxiety. When she arrived at the Allure dinner in a pristinely white Victoria Beckham dress, it wasn’t wine spillage that worried her, but the dress’s above-the-knee hemline. “It’s very virginal, this little short, white … I look 12,” she said rather apologetically. She’d actually had the dress in her possession since late January, when she was supposed to wear it to a luncheon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in honor of the models who’d walked in the notoriously controversial Grand Divertissement à Versailles fashion show in 1973. “But I tell you,” said Iman. “I couldn’t muster the nerve to wear it, you know, during the day. I’m 55. I thought, ‘No way!’ I could not do this.” Even en route to the Allure dinner, she’d made sure to cover up with a much longer Prada coat.
It wasn’t just that the dress looked young, but that it exposed her thighs. And she has no easy advice for keeping the body looking young. “Oh, there’s no way,” she said, dismay in her voice. “Gravity, there is no winning.” Of course, it’s worse aging as a public figure. “I’m so petrified about all the paparazzi. They did Victoria [Beckham]’s cellulite. I mean, come on! I mean, it’s terrifying. Really, you’re, like, scared to death.” So she has settled upon a solution that, while not necessarily available to women who aren’t beauty moguls married to David Bowie, is kind of heartening to hear. “I will go only to my house in the islands [Jamaica]. WITH SECURITY,” she said. “Nobody can come. Your own house. That is the only time I put on a bikini or any bathing suit. It is the only way.”
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Filed Under: party lines, allure, fall 2011, fashion week fall 2011, iman, new york fashion week, patricia wexler
Last night, Allure celebrated its twentieth anniversary by barring everyone hoping for a romantic Valentine’s dinner at Minetta Tavern and hosting a private party there instead. Newly single famous people like January Jones and Jennifer Carpenter were gorgeous and friendly and seemed perfectly happy never to leave each other’s sides, while couples in attendance like David and Victoria Beckham (the night’s honoree and this month’s Allure cover girl), Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler, and Allure’s Siobhan Bonnouvrier and her boyfriend Kiefer Sutherland looked equally dazzling. As Iman told us, even if her husband, David Bowie, had been in town, they wouldn’t have been able to eat at a place like Minetta unless it had been cleared of prying eyes. “We never do Valentine’s dinner, because everybody, they look,” she said. “On Valentine’s, imagine me and David going to a restaurant! Like everybody’s going to say, ‘Did they talk? Did they hold hands?’ Twenty years. We’ve been married twenty years!”
What a coincidence! It turns out that as Allure was in its nascent stages in 1991, so were Iman and Bowie. She had just retired from modeling and he had asked her out. They were married in 1992, but she said she knew two weeks in that he was The One. “His actions spoke louder [than words],” she said. “We were dating for two weeks and I was coming from Paris and I got to L.A. at the airport and the doors open to the plane and I come out and I see all these people taking a picture of somebody. And he was standing there, flowers in hand, no security. That was when I knew he was a keeper. He didn’t care if anyone saw.” Swoon.
Allure’s founding editor, Linda Wells, meanwhile, was living in considerably less romantic times. She’d come in, young editor, guns blazing, and immediately had her prototype scrapped. “They hated everything about it,” she said. “I mean, it was a happy occasion. They congratulated me. And then two days later they shredded the whole thing and told me to start over.
Fellow party guest Kelly Ripa was living in a dump of a studio apartment, working on All My Children, and trying to get out of debt: “It was great! I loved it! Wouldn’t change a thing!” And Kiefer Sutherland, who was 25 at the time, already had a house and two daughters. “I made the choice to have children at a very early age. I had this wonderful desire to be a dad,” he said. “Otherwise I’d probably still be wandering now.” We didn’t get a chance to ask Victoria Beckham what she was doing back then, but it was pre–Spice Girls and pre-meeting-of-David. We could only tell that she was thrilled about the dinner. She’d been stuck in New York presenting her fashion collection, and had expected to spend Valentine’s with her publicist. Then, at the last minute, David surprised her by popping into town. “He’s so supportive of everything I do,” she gushed, which includes narrating her collection presentations and “talking to people about fashion until people want me to stop,” she said. As for the collection, she was pleased how it went off, and that people liked her move away from super form-fitting dresses. Though, she added, this was not inspired by her pregnancy (sex unknown). “Oh, no, I designed this collection before I was pregnant. I can’t be in any of it now,” she said.
See Kiefer Sutherland, January Jones, Kelly Ripa, and more in our complete Party Slideshow
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Filed Under: party lines, allure, fashion week, iman, linda wells, new york fashion week fall 2011
Greta Gerwig at Cynthia Rowley’s show.
Adorable, non-makeup-needing Greta Gerwig isn’t exactly the first celebrity you’d expect to find front row at a fashion show. But the star of Greenberg — and, more recently, Natalie Portman’s sidekick in No Strings Attached — randomly showed up at pal Cynthia Rowley’s artsy runway earlier this week. She’s friends with the designer, she explained, as well as with Justin Theroux and his long-time stylist girlfriend Heidi Bivens, who may take her to some more shows later this Fashion Week. We talked to Gerwig about why fashion is like a cupcake, what it was like working with SNL host Russell Brand, and what she’ll be doing on Oscar night.
I didn’t know you were a fashion person.
I’m not fashionable, but I love fashion. I think I, uh, try really hard to look good. I think most of the time I fail. But nobody tries harder than me! I buy Vogue and W. I know the names of models. It’s bizarre. I know all the Eastern European names. I grew up in Sacramento, California, and you were really fancy if you shopped at Banana Republic. So it’s been a steep learning curve. But I enjoy it. It’s so fluffy. It’s like a cupcake made of dreams. Dreams and lace.
Why do you think looking good is such hard work?
Oh, it’s so embarrassing. I feel like I overthink things, and I usually end up looking like someone else that I don’t mean to be. I feel like people who are effortlessly stylish look like they were born in those clothes, like they were made to wear those clothes. And I always feel like I look like I’m trying to get away with something.
Any recent outfits come to mind?
I’m not going to knock anything I’ve worn, because all the clothes are all beautiful. There’s nothing wrong with the clothes. It’s the way I’ve worn them that has not been good, or they haven’t been right for my body, which is a drag. I actually did like the way I looked at the Gotham Awards. I felt like that was more of myself. But it’s hard to dress in a way that makes you look good and look cool. I’m just impressed. Look at how many people in this room are good at that right now! It’s amazing! It’s totally amazing! I’m not even good at organizing furniture in my room well. I just put it all against the wall. I don’t know how else people do it. And then I go into someone’s house where they just have a couch in the middle of the room and it makes perfect sense.
What do you enjoy most about fashion shows?
I like just looking at the models in a voyeuristic kind of way, since it’s sanctioned staring at beautiful people.
Where are you watching the Oscars?
From my apartment! Oh, no wait, I’ll be in L.A. From my hotel room in L.A.
Any parties?
I’m not going to any parties!
You’re flying to L.A. so you can sit in a hotel room alone and watch the Oscars on TV?
Well, I’m nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, which is the day before. So I’ll be in L.A., but I won’t do any Oscars stuff. And I’m not going to be alone. My mom and dad usually drive down from Sacramento, like, the eight hours. So they’ll probably be in the hotel room with me. And they usually bring my dog.
And you just finished filming Arthur, right?
Yup. It’s Luis Guzman, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Russell Brand, and me. It’s amazing! I’m obsessed with Luis Guzmán. He was always one of my favorite actors, and I’m so excited he’s in this movie. What’s amazing about him and Russell is that neither one of them understands the other one’s humor. They don’t find each other funny.
At all?
I don’t think so. But that’s what makes them so amazing together. They’re, like, speaking different comedy languages. It’s, like, Russell being very florid with language and overarticulate and long-winded, and Luis will just look at him and say one thing slowly that’s hilarious. And Russell will just look back at him. And everyone else is dying, but both of them don’t know what happened.
Did you ever get to see Helen Mirren’s awesome body?
I saw her naked in the photos she did for New York Magazine. She’s really hot.
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Filed Under: party lines, cynthia rowley, greta gerwig, new york fashion week fall 2011
Prabal Gurung urges Barbara Bush to “Dance! Dance! Dance!”
The most frequent phrase heard at Prabal Gurung’s after-party at Mister H in the new Mondrian Soho was, “No way I’m making it to Derek Lam tomorrow, dude.” We felt bad for Lam, but it seemed pretty apparent that none of the people swigging free Belvedere and dancing feverishly to early-nineties club hits (what up, “Finally”!) were going to make it out to a 10 a.m. Sunday show. Egging them on was Prabal himself, grabbing strangers’ shoulders and screaming, “Party!” as he encouraged everyone he could, including Barbara Bush and her BFF Maggie Betts, to dance, dance, dance. “You need a drink! Just have fun!” he told us. Then he did a little dance.
See pictures from Prabal’s after-party in our slideshow.
Mister H at the Mondrian Soho is the second venue to preview this Fashion Week, following hipster strip club Westway, which opened its unfinished doors for rag & bone’s after-party on Friday night. Subterranean and red-lit, with a Shanghai-opium-den feel and a wonderful neon sign reading, “This is not a brothel. There are no prostitutes at this address,” the club encouraged a kind of sweaty hedonism also found at the next stop on the night’s party train: The Z Spoke/Purple Magazine party on the eighteenth story of the Standard Hotel.
The Boom Boom Room, with a hip-hop soundtrack and golden lighting, was its usual opulent self, but across the way at Le Bain, Paul Sevigny was playing everything from Joplin to Springsteen to obscure eighties dance-punk tracks only he and his wildly gyrating sister Chloë seemed to know. We knew the party would be epic when immediately upon our arrival, Olivier Zahm, shades on and cigarette dangling from his mouth, pushed us out of the way to chase after some young thing. It felt like we had arrived.
View our Purple Magazine party slideshow to see who was dancing all night.
By following the bodyguards, we managed to locate Kanye West in a dark corner of the good-music room, though he was too well protected for us to ask what the hell he was doing at the Standard till all hours, when he’s supposed to be at the Grammys tonight. Jared Leto could be found in the hallway between the two rooms, recently arrived from Guadalajara, if his poncho was any indication. And we spotted James Murphy entering the elevator, seemingly minutes after he’d released his amazing screed against scalpers. As we left, around 4 a.m., Chloë Sevigny was still dancing, and Zahm had just squeezed his way into our elevator car. His eyes lit up when he saw us. “I love you!” he said, then realized that he may not know us. He doesn’t, but he gave us two big kisses on our cheek anyway.
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Filed Under: party lines, new york fashion week fall 2011, prabal gurung, purple magazine
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