Lady Gaga gives heartfelt thanks at fashion award event

It seems the fashion crowd, especially when fully decked out for Monday night's Council of Fashion Designers of America awards, can be pretty intimidating: CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said so, actress Naomi Watts said so, and even Lady Gaga said so.
On stage to accept her award as the year's top style icon, a soft-spoken, maybe even teary-eyed Gaga said she was nervous.
"All of you made me feel like a star before I was," she told the audience at Lincoln Center that boasted bold-faced names such as Marc Jacobs, Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg, Donna Karan and Michael Kors.
She talked about how important fashion was in her life as a pathway to self-discovery, artistry and confidence. As a teenager, she'd save her money to buy vintage Thierry Mugler from a neighborhood thrift shop, checking in with the salesman regularly to make sure her favorite pieces hadn't sold while she was raising the cash. She planned her outfits for Friday night parties as if she was going to the Oscars, she said.
"As much as this award means to me personally ... I just want you to know how much this means to young Americans," Gaga said.
But the music star and style risk-taker, wearing a corset get-up by Mugler, a label now helmed by her friend Nicola Formichetti, got her swagger back as she recalled getting the text message from Wintour that she was picked for the prize.
She said she thought the message was from a friend named Anna and replied with a bleep-worthy response. The text back from the Vogue editor-in-chief said, "How lovely."
That led to laughter — and so did Cooper's montage of his early days as a preteen model.
Cooper, a longtime friend of CFDA president von Furstenberg, said he decided to show his photos to prove his fashion cred since he was acting as master of ceremonies. (He also is the son of former designer jeans magnate Gloria Vanderbilt and worked as a fit model for both Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, who made his tuxedo.)
"There was no way you'd be critical," he joked, "or that's what Diane said, anyway."
Watts, dressed in a metallic T-shirt-style gown by Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein, presented the top womenswear honor to Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler. But she seemed to find the awkward walk across a long stage intimidating in her high heels. "That was easy," she said as she reached the podium. "Fun doing it in a room full of supermodels."
Top models Doutzen Kroes, Karlie Kloss, Miranda Kerr, Alessandra Ambrosio and Chanel Iman were indeed in the house, on the arms of their favorite designers. Karolina Kurkova, in a striking hooded jumpsuit made of green sequins, read the names of the winners in the Swarovski emerging-talent categories: Eddie Borgo for accessories, Robert Geller for menswear and Prabal Gurung for womenswear.
Kurkova took a moment to sing for Gaga — "I'm your biggest fan," she said — and then Gurung asked during his speech if he could pose with Gaga. "That will make me the coolest uncle," he boasted.
But it was the nod from his fellow designers as well as retailers, stylists and editors that the rest of his family would find impressive, Gurung said. "I'm just a guy from Nepal. I will call my mother and say, `It's OK. I turned out fine.'"
The two standing ovations of the night went to photographer Arthur Elgort and designer Marc Jacobs, who was there for his "half-lifetime achievement award," according to presenter Sofia Coppola.
"This achievement is born of love, passion, creativity ... and a hell of a lot of hard work," said Jacobs, who is 48.
He added, "I believe we all know and feel the greatest reward is the process itself."
Other highlights:
_Kanye West, saying he was a huge fan, handed the international design prize to Phoebe Philo of Celine. He said he's been known to go into a Celine store and try on the clothes — womenswear, no less — "knowing that would get me bashed by the hip-hop blogs."
_Michael Bastian was named best menswear designer, and Alexander Wang as accessories designer.
_Jessica Alba, showing off her baby bump in a coral-and-purple gown by von Furstenberg, gave the CFDA Founders Award to InStyle fashion director Hal Rubenstein.
_Kors said he always enjoys this event because he likes being surrounded with "people who have a passion for fashion."
"Tonight is about not only people who make the clothes, but also the photographers, writers and the people who wear the clothes."
(This version CORRECTS 9th paragraph to show Gloria Vanderbilt is not deceased. )

Designer L'Wren Scott launches handbag line

It turns out that tall-drink-of-water L'Wren Scott is self-conscious about being so tall.
Scott, the model-turned-stylist-turned-designer, appeared at the flagship Barneys New York store on Wednesday to launch her handbag collection. As she designed each bag — the weekender, the shoulder bag, the clutch — she kept in mind the size of each piece.
How long are the straps? How wide is the frame? How far does it open?
She said it's how she approaches everything. "I am obsessed with proportion, and how proportion is perceived."
Scott stands 6-foot-3, and it feels like she's been that tall forever, she said. She told a crowd of fashion-centric bloggers in a session moderated by Adam Glassman, creative director of O, The Oprah Magazine, that she was charged the adult price of $1 instead of 75 cents at the small movie theater in her Utah hometown long before she turned 12, the official turning point.
Height drives her own fashion choices. It's why she doesn't wear poufy, Doris Day styles, opting instead for lean silhouettes, Scott explained, and she thinks most women operate the same way: Once they find a look they like, they stick with it.
The skirts and dresses in her collection usually are often in three lengths — mini, just above the knee and just below. She chose a rose-colored, pencil-skirt suit with jeweled buttons paired with kitten heels for this appearance.
Her runway show is a top-tier, A-list event, which draws mostly her friends such as Kyra Sedgwick and Ellen Barkin, and boyfriend Mick Jagger. On the red carpet, she has dressed Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Drew Barrymore, among others. For her goodbye gala last month, Oprah Winfrey wore a Scott-designed purple crepe gown with handmade turquoise and black floral embroidery.
But Scott said she's also interested in dressing many more women, including those who don't routinely spend four digits on dresses. That will not mean fast fashion, though. "I'm more into sustainable luxury, something that lasts."
She added: "I don't like fast food, either."

2010 MTV Movie Awards Best and Worst Dressed

The 2010 MTV Movie Awards showcased some gorgeous celebrities, but also some downright horrible dress choices that we’d like to address! Below are your best and worst dressed celebrities at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards.

Best Dressed

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett always looks stunning so it’s no wonder she looks amazing here in an emerald green dress. And can I say how much I love the hair?

Vanessa Hudgens

Vanessa Hudgens looks cute as a button in this chic flowy white dress, especially next to Zac Efron…they just make the cutest couple!

Anna Kendrick

You might remember her from Up in the Air, but she looked stunning last night at the awards in a summery and flirty Zac Posen dress.

Cameron Diaz

Cameron graced the red carpet in a beautiful Diane Von Furstenberg short dress which she pulled off like a pro. Again, don’t you just hate Cameron’s legs?

Paris Hilton



I can’t say I’ve liked Paris’ dress choice in the past, but all animosity aside, I really liked this white feathered dress on her…it was kind of sweet and angelic, don’t you think?

Worst Dressed

Lindsay Lohan

I know Lindsay had to wear pants to cover her ankle Scram bracelet, but a sparkly flared jump suit? I’d have to say this is one of the worst if not the worst dressed person at the MTV Movie Awards.

Christina Aguilera

Apart from the fact that Christina Aguilera looked like Marilyn Manson and Lady Gaga had a child together during her performance, this red carpet look isn’t working either. Didn’t she just have a baby not long ago? Please, Christina, have some respect for yourself…or at least for your baby!

Kristen Stewart

Ok so I get the fact that Kristen is very awkward in person as you might have noticed, but does she have to look awkward too? That Dolce and Gabbana dress just isn’t working for her for some reason..maybe it’s her hair? I don’t know, I know I just don’t like it!

Eva Mendes

So…meh..I really didn’t care for her outfit very much. That dress had no shape to it, and it just looked like she was trying to hide something. Maybe a bun in the oven? Who knows?

Miuccia Prada

With the possible exception of Martin Margiela, the Belgian Garbo of fashion, no designer is as diffident as Miuccia Prada about her métier. This makes sense, given the background of the woman born Maria Bianchi Prada in May 1949 — as a former performing mime at Milan’s Teatro Picolo; a onetime member of the Italian Communist Party; an ardent feminist in her university years (she has a doctorate in political science); and the unlikely inheritor of a family luggage business founded by her grandfather, Mario, in 1913.
Miuccia Prada’s decision to enter fashion came about in 1985, when she persuaded her family firm to produce a series of black nylon handbags and backpacks, conspicuous in an era of overblown logo clothes and designer statements for their modesty and low-key labeling. Quickly taken up by a cognoscenti undaunted by the steep prices of what were after all generic nylon totes, the Prada bag became an insider’s badge of belonging, and a nod by fashion’s early adopters to a newly constituted and democratized form of luxury goods.
A designer with no formal design background or needle skills, Ms. Prada has distinguished herself with her eccentric and unconventional uses of pattern, shape and (often high-tech) fabrics, her avid explorations into pop cultural realms few designers navigated as boldly and her provocative relationship to the traditional markers of femininity in dress.

Yet it was not until 1989, four years after her bags appeared, that she considered herself ready to present a full-blown ready-to-wear line. She termed the austere collection “uniforms for the slightly disenfranchised,” and put her stamp on what would become a global franchise based on intellectualized dressing that became chic by being anti-chic.
She has continued to bewitch fashion insiders and the public through aggressive aesthetic experimentation; her forays into perverse color combinations and patterns; her revitalization of dated materials like astrakhan and boiled wool; her knack for offhandedly pairing sexy stilettos with thick wool socks, fur helmets with sleek cocktail dresses, tiaras with clothes meant for the workplace; her bold way of appropriating classic designs from treasures in her archives (one season it was beaded bags and tourist straw hats); and her open distaste for the increasingly constricting dictates of fashion.
There have been missteps, including a buying spree she and her business partner and husband, Patrizio Bertelli, went on in the 1990s, acquiring established labels like Jil Sander and Helmut Lang, ventures that proved unprofitable; and that, before they were divested, hindered the Prada label’s effort to take the company public, an effort still underway.
The couple also embarked on ambitious building sprees in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, hiring world class “starchitects” like Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron.
Perhaps in reaction to her background (Prada was the premier luggage maker for the Milanese elite), her style is marked by a reflexive urge to defy the status quo. More than her formal experiments with style, it is her engagement with the mutating outlines of class that make her one of Italy’s most compelling cultural exports.
“I hate fashion,” she once said. “I also love it, of course,” she added, and the reason was typical of her approach. “Everyone, no matter how poor, has to get dressed, and the way we think of ourselves, the way we compose ourselves every day, for me this is very profound.”

Fashion industry prepares lovefest for Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs is the guy who can change the direction of a fashion juggernaut with a single silhouette. If other designers are doing sleek and slim, he'll do big and poufy. If everyone else is doing neutral colors, he'll go bold.
There have been the grunge collections, the granny collections, harem pants, punk prom dresses and ultra-chic skirt suits. If they seem out of step with trends seen elsewhere on runways during a particular season, the others come around in the weeks and months that follow, just when Jacobs is ready to move on again.
Yet, while he swaps out the details in rapid fire, there is almost unparalleled consistency, too: He likes surprises, takes risks, embraces showmanship, pairs patterns and textures, finds balance between artistry and commercialism, and sees the importance in a visual statement.
He keeps the jaded industry on its toes — sometimes with a little arrogance. But editors, stylists, retailers and celebrities seem to stay firmly supportive of Jacobs with constant toasts to his talent.
One of the biggest lovefests will come Monday at the annual Council of Fashion Designers of America awards, a splashy ceremony at Lincoln Center to be hosted by Anderson Cooper with Lady Gaga receiving one of the prizes. Jacobs has been selected as the lifetime achievement winner, a title previously won by Michael Kors, Diane von Furstenberg, Donna Karan, Yves Saint Laurent and Geoffrey Beene, for whom the award is now named.
Jacobs, who already has won numerous times in the competitive categories of womenswear, menswear and accessories, could go home double-fisted: He is nominated as the year's best women's designer again, this time facing Alexander Wang and the design duo Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler.
Wang and Proenza Schouler are the new hipster guard, but they're not considered as influential or directional as Jacobs, who, at 48, isn't ready pass the torch.
"It's crazy," says Jacobs. "I mean, I have a lot more to do. `Achievement' sounds final. I'd like to call it `Lifetime of achievement — and for what's left to achieve.'"
He adds, "I have no intention of slowing down. I don't rest anyway."
Jacobs doesn't have the jet-setter image that some of his peers do. Photos don't surface of his long holidays in the Caribbean or treks in exotic places, and he's not a staple of the red carpet or the charity circuit. One thinks of Jacobs as the quirky downtown guy, even if he's at the forefront of two mega brands — his namesake collection, plus Louis Vuitton and all the subsidiaries that go with it, including the contemporary-priced Marc by Marc Jacobs line, swimwear, sunglasses, shoes and handbags.
He sleeps with Post-It notes and a pen at his bedside to jot down the barrage of thoughts, inspirations and reminders that come between what are essentially naps, but organized with lists and schedules he is not, Jacobs says with a laugh.
He's also an avid consumer of art and culture, including music, movies and contemporary paintings and sculpture. Interiors are a passion at the moment, and he has started to collect Art Deco furniture. The most peaceful points of his day are mornings at the gym and evening walks with his two English bull terriers. Alas, while he splits his time between New York and Paris, the dogs live in France, so he doesn't always get his down time with them.
"As soon as the New York shows are over, I'm on a plane after the Marc show. I take one day to recover, then I take in at Louis Vuitton things I've only seen by the Internet. I'm overwhelmed by all the stuff that progresses and there's a constant series of fittings, corrections, additions," he explains during a recent telephone interview. "The next show is always the most important thing."
Jacobs' Fashion Week shows are musts not only for those making the buying and editorial decisions from the front row, but they consistently are the most viewed and buzzed about online by shoppers and fans. The designer pays attention to what everyone is saying.
"I read what people say. It affects me greatly. That's what is the biggest pressure: I feel like we're competing with ourselves each time," Jacobs says. "I always feel each season is the strongest show we've had, and I guess every time the new season begins, I go through all the stress and anxiety of what we are going to do next. It's always time to start over."
All the newness, however, isn't completely free of baggage from the past, including diva moments, a party-hard attitude and stints in rehab. And then there are the fashion upstarts trying to mimic his meteoric rise and become the new bellwether.
The native New Yorker's strong sense of style emerged when he was a teen, attending the High School of Art and Design and being named by Parsons the New School for Design as its student of the year. He launched his label in 1986 and became the youngest winner of an emerging talent award from the CFDA.
He was hired — along with business partner Robert Duffy, who has been with Jacobs since — at Perry Ellis in 1989 to revive a brand that lost its way with Ellis' death a few years earlier. Jacobs put Perry Ellis back on the map, for sure, but company executives weren't as charmed by his flannel shirts and plaid prints in the landmark 1992 grunge collection. He and Duffy were fired not long after.
They launched a new version of their company in 1993, but it didn't have an immediate impact. It chugged along until Jacobs started moonlighting for Louis Vuitton, which also brought financial backing from powerhouse parent company LVMH.
He became the wunderkind yet again.
Jacobs has the unusual ability to connect to the woman who is going to wear his clothes, says Bridget Foley, executive editor of Women's Wear Daily. He is passionate about style, she says, but doesn't make it more than it is, either. "Marc doesn't over-intellectualize clothes. He loves it because of fashion. He loves beautiful things, but he's not an over-analyzer of the process or result."
It's not a matter of the accolades, money or even attention, all of which he readily admits he loves — especially the attention, Jacobs says. It's about a paying customer making a choice. "That's how I define success: Seeing someone in something I've had a hand in designing. It could be shoes, a bag, a dress. If we're lucky enough that someone has chosen ours, I'm so grateful and I'm always struck by it."
He doesn't narrow the description of his muse or even his target consumer to cool types such as his friends Sofia Coppola, Victoria Beckham or Kim Gordon; that would be too limiting. He'd rather think his shopper has "a very full life that's rich with things they don't need and want to make life more beautiful."
Jacobs is true to himself and that vision, and that contributes to his longevity, Foley adds. "He's at the peak of influence and clout. He's maintaining the excitement. Marc is one of the most anticipated shows of the season anywhere, and that's hard to maintain over the long haul. Miuccia Prada has the same thing. ... You don't know what to expect — he could do A for spring and C for fall, yet each is consummately Marc Jacobs."
What to do next is always on Jacobs' mind. "I'm not a linear thinker, nothing ever comes from one source," he says. The inspiration "can come from anywhere and come anytime," although he's never starting from scratch, nor is he ever really done. It's all an evolution, with his famous last-minute tinkering to get layers to sit just so or the perfect color lipstick on the it-girl model that no one knows is the next it girl until she appears on Jacobs' catwalk.
Jacobs says he is friendly with other industry insiders and is a cheerleader for them. He is in the unique position to appreciate their accomplishments, he notes. "When I see reports that another show is great, or I can see it — even on the Internet — as a great work, I feel good. I know what it takes to do this job: the stress, the trial and error, the dedication."
The payoff is undeniable, though. "I'm first and foremost a fashion fan — it's my original reason for doing this, and it's still my reason for doing this."

Prada to raise up to $2.6 bln in Hong Kong IPO

Italian luxury fashion house Prada is set to raise as much as $2.6 billion after setting the price range for its highly anticipated offering in Hong Kong on June 24, a report said Monday.
The Milan-based company plans to sell 423.28 million shares at an indicative price range of HK$36.50-HK$48.0 ($4.70-6.20) each, Dow Jones Newswires reported, quoting an unnamed source familiar with the deal.
The IPO would raise $2 billion to $2.6 billion based on the range. The firm has an option to sell an additional 63.49 million shares if the shares are oversubscribed, according to Dow Jones.
Prada's spokeswoman in Hong Kong could not be reached for comment by AFP.
The company set its IPO price range as it began meeting with Asian investors and started bookbuilding for institutional investors Monday to gauge their appetite for the deal. It will launch the Hong Kong offering on June 14.
The fashion house, which includes the Prada, Miu Miu, Church's and Car Shoe brands and is 95 percent owned by the Prada family and executives, is the latest high-end fashion brand to tap the huge Chinese market.
Listings from high-end retailers such as US handbag maker Coach and luggage maker Samsonite are a sign of Asia's growing appetite for designer goods, especially among cash-rich Chinese mainlanders.
China is the world's fastest-growing market for luxury goods.
It is forecast to be the world's top buyer of products such as cosmetics, handbags, watches, shoes and clothes by 2015, according to consultancy PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Prada plans to use proceeds from the Hong Kong IPO to expand it sales network, increase floor space, repay bank loans and supplement working capital.

The Alchemist: How Alexander McQueen Transformed Fashion Into Art

The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened its doors, at long last, to one of its most highly anticipated exhibitions: "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty." Even in its first few weeks, this show has broken attendance records. Organized by curator Andrew Bolton, the retrospective celebrates one of the fashion industry's most important designers, the late Lee McQueen, founder and creative director of the label Alexander McQueen. His unprecedented designs marked a critical shift not only in fashion design, but in the reception of fashion as a form of installation, performance, and art.
Nearly 200 items are featured in the exhibition, which spans the 19 years of McQueen's career that was cut short in February of last year by his suicide. Rarities from his graduate collection at Central St. Martins are displayed alongside work from the unfinished final collection of 2010, his swan song. While "Savage Beauty," on view through July 31, showcases the designs within the context of the label, it is clearly homage to the man himself, and the creative intuition that produced one of the most innovative visions of contemporary fashion.
Despite the commercial aspirations of the show — "Savage Beauty" was funded almost entirely by the label whose clothing it features — it is nevertheless difficult to look at a single one of the designs without being mesmerized, intrigued, or provoked into some response, oftentimes confusion. No designer has better embodied Yves Saint Laurent's incisive dictum that while fashion is not exactly art, it requires the creativity of an artist in order to exist. McQueen's originality and genius derived from the fact that his tremendous talent as a designer was matched by his capacity as an artist.
His technical training as a tailor's apprentice on Savile Row formed the basis for the attention to craftsmanship and expert tailoring that have become synonymous with the label's aesthetic. At the same time, fashion served him as a medium to explore complex ideas. Despite his background as a tailor, he was able to see beyond the garment itself and its construction, and as a result his understanding of fashion extended far beyond clothing. Each piece had an individuality about it, but was nonetheless part of a sustained vision that governed the aesthetic of a collection as well as that of the final runway presentation.
His Spring/Summer 2001 collection, for example, was based on avian imagery (which he revisited frequently) and the gothic aesthetics of a mental institution, with garments including extraordinary pieces such as a dress with taxidermy eagles protruding from the shoulders as though in flight, as well as head bandages and embellished, asymmetrical jackets that were vaguely reminiscent of nurses' uniforms. Models paced around inside of a boxed, mirrored room clawing at the glass walls as though trying to escape from their asylum-like runway. In the final moments of the presentation, the walls of another box within the faux psychiatric ward collapsed to reveal a startling tableau vivant inspired by the Joel-Peter Witkin photograph "Sanitarium": a reclining, masked nude breathing through a tube and surrounded by fluttering moths.
Other presentations included snarling wolves, life-sized chess boards, and rain pouring down over models as they walked the runway. The famous showing of his Spring/Summer 1999 collection featured two automated robots who shot a model clad in white with sprays of green and black paint.
The artistry of McQueen's artistry vision is also seen in his love of an idea over (or at least as much as) its product. Many of his designs had little or nothing to do with fashion, and their translation into clothing design was far was from obvious or literal. Plato's account of Atlantis, Darwin's "Theory of Evolution," Lucien Freud's paintings, films such as "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?," and elements of 19th-century Victorianism (McQueen would refer to himself as the Edgar Allen Poe of fashion) were incorporated into his designs. Historical events were of great influence as well, and one of his early collections, "Highland Rape," was based on what McQueen called the "rape of Scotland" by the British Empire during the Jacobite Risings and the Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Another source of inspiration that McQueen drew heavily on throughout his career was Medieval and Renaissance art, specifically Flemish painting. His last collection, presented posthumously, was unofficially titled "Angels and Demons," and the references to the work of Botticelli, Hieronymous Bosch, Jean Fouquet, and Hans Memling were clear both materially and in concept. New textile technologies were used to photograph the paintings and weave their images into jacquard fabrics and embroideries that were cut into highly tailored garments. Moreover, the collection mirrored a theme present in the works McQueen was focusing on: death and the afterlife. In a way, it is this set of source images for his last collection that best illustrate McQueen's view of fashion. Major characteristics of Flemish painting include highly detailed imagery, sumptuous colors, and fantastical narratives that often focus on the grotesque, and McQueen's work offers an aesthetic that values and masterfully combines all of these aspects.
The innumerable tributes to the designer since his death aim both at commemorating his contributions to fashion and securing his legacy. It is somewhat difficult as a result to keep sight of the man beneath the weight of so many accolades — commercial as well as critical — and in a sense, there is little need for these displays of recognition; Lee McQueen's legacy was ensured long before his death. One of the most important aspects of this legacy was the nature of his vision, which related fashion to art in a way that few designers, or artists, have been able to do. McQueen created a new class of designer, and in so doing expanded the field for those to come.

Beauty industry honors Fergie and her fragrance

Fergie's life just got a little more glamorous — in undertones of tuberose and leather — with her win of a Fifi award from the perfume industry for her scent Outspoken.
The Fragrance Foundation presented the Black Eyed Peas singer with the honor Wednesday night for new celebrity fragrance of the year at a splashy Lincoln Center ceremony.
Outspoken is Avon's most successful fragrance launch to date. The prize, Fergie said in a telephone interview, along with the yellow BCBG Max Azria gown she wore to pick it up and all the trappings of fame, are just icing now that she's realized her biggest aspiration — her success as a solo artist.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think all this would happen," she said. "My goal was a solo album. It was my dream since I was a little girl, and I went down many roads to get there."
Fergie, 36, said she enjoys all the glitz, glamour and wardrobing, especially playing around with beauty products to create different looks. At home, though, she tones it down — a lot — and usually doesn't wear any makeup at all.
Perfume is different. She's always been a fragrance fan, she said, wearing for a period as a teenager the men's cologne Drakkar Noir because it reminded her of an old boyfriend, and Dior's Poison because she linked it to lyrics of a favorite song.
Outspoken is a floral with notes of iced berry, tuberose and a base of leather. A second perfume Fergie has created, Outspoken Intense, will be available in October. One of the key scent notes is kumquat. One whiff and she's transported to her backyard growing up in Southern California, she said.
"My dad grew them. He taught me how to peel them. They're very, very small."
Fergie plans to use her new role in the beauty industry to ask questions of other designers, perfumers and celebrities. "I'd love to know what all their inspirations are."
Oscar winner Halle Berry and Mary J. Blige were among the other Fifi winners.
"The celebrity category in fragrance is no longer an `add on' as it was once considered, never knowing if it would last or not. Today, it is a major segment of fragrance marketing and our hope is that the celebrities, who chose to have a fragrance or endorse one, take it as seriously as their latest album, film or book by supporting it in the same way," said the group's president, Rochelle Bloom.
Hall of Fame nods went to Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey and Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male for men, and Bombshell by Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works Twilight Woods received consumer choice awards.
Berry was named the top fragrance celebrity for her work promoting and embracing the "world of fragrance over a period of time," according to the Fragrance Foundation.
Mary J. Blige and the cosmetics company Carol's Daughter were honored for their direct-to-consumer approach.
The following were named fragrance of the year in their respective distribution categories: VS Bombshell and Banana Republic/Republic of Men (specialty brand); Halle by Halle Berry Pure Orchid and Herve Leger Homme (broad appeal); Gucci Guilty and Blue de Chanel (luxe); and Balenciaga Paris and Tom Ford Azure Lime for Men (specialty luxe).

Prada to make Hong Kong debut on June 24

HONG KONG (AFP) – Italian luxury fashion house Prada will make its market debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange on June 24, in a highly anticipated offering aiming to raise up to $2 billion.
In the latest move by high end fashion companies to tap the huge Chinese market, the family-owned giant plans to start bookbuilding for institutional investors on June 6 and start its public offering eight days later.
The firm will price its deal on June 17, Dow Jones Newswires quoted a term sheet as saying, and it is planning to use proceeds to expand its sales network, increase floor space, repay bank loans and supplement working capital.
A Prada spokeswoman in Hong Kong told AFP she had yet to receive any official statement from its Milan headquarters and could not confirm details on the IPO.
The company reportedly received the approval from Hong Kong's market regulators last week for its plan to sell 20 percent of its shares. The move would value the group at up to eight billion euros ($11.3 billion).
The group, which includes the Prada, Miu Miu, Church's and Car Shoe brands is 95 percent controlled by the Prada family and executives.
Prada announced in January it would make its first public listing on the Hong Kong bourse in a sign of Asia's growing appetite for designer goods, especially to capitalise on the cash-rich mainland Chinese markets.
China is the world's fastest-growing market for luxury goods.
It is forecast to be the world's top buyer of products such as cosmetics, handbags, watches, shoes and clothes by 2015, according to consultancy PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Prada will join a slew of other luxury fashion brands also eyeing a listing in Hong Kong, including US upscale handbag maker Coach and luggage maker Samsonite.
Prada's listing plan comes as second-hand luxury handbag retailer Milan Station made a successful debut in Hong Kong Monday, with its shares soaring as much as 77 percent after its IPO was oversubscribed by more than 2,100 times.

Bear Hugs and Big Smiles at the "Kung Fu Panda 2" Premiere

Los Angeles – A beaming Angelina Jolie held hands with Brad Pitt and led the celebrity charge down the long red carpet on Hollywood Boulevard early on May 22. It was a bit overcast in Los Angeles on Sunday morning, but that didn't stop Jolie and Pitt from delighting in the spectacle of the "Kung Fu Panda 2" premiere, appropriately held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
The sequel to the 2008 animated hit that is set in ancient China brings back much of the star-studded vocal cast from the first film, from Jack Black to Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, Dustin Hoffman and James Hong, and they all joined their leading lady for the celebration. Asian acrobats wowed the huge crowd of fans massed behind barricades, a huge paper dragon danced the length of the carpet and massive brightly colored Chinese lanterns lined the walkway while two giant Po pandas handed out big bear hugs.
Other famous fans of the lazy panda turned kung fu expert that came out for the premiere festivities included Camryn Manheim and her kids, Marcia Gay Harden with her family, Danny McBride, Nancy O'Dell and Cedric the Entertainer.
But it was Jolie, Pitt, Black and Hoffman who jumped right into the adoring crowd, signing autographs and posing for photos, then greeted the new vocal talent to "Kung Fu Panda 2," including Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dennis Haysbert. It's a routine the leading actors have been repeating a lot lately, as Jolie, Black, and Hoffman also premiered the new comedy last week in France at the Cannes Film Festival.
It was there that Jolie explained the simple reason she's been ready and willing to lend her voice to the character of Tigress in the films.
"At the end of the day, we're all just big kids and we love to do these movies, it's a great deal of fun," she said. Plus, having six children "from ages two to ten" didn't hurt, either. "In so many ways, I did it for them."

Anger as Seoul allows fur in Fendi fashion show

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea's capital city will allow Italian fashion house Fendi to feature fur in a show next week, organisers said in a U-turn Monday, prompting a vow from campaigners to disrupt the event.
A spokeswoman for Fendi's public relations company told AFP that fur would be part of the show on June 2 but could not say how many such items would be featured.
The event will be staged on a newly built island on the Han River, which the city of Seoul wants to promote as a landmark.
The Italian firm said last week that city officials had threatened to cancel the event unless all fur items were removed from the catwalk.
The city government said pressure from animal rights groups had rendered the show too controversial, and Fendi had described the short notice as "difficult to understand... in light of the months of preparation and cooperation".
But in a statement Monday, the fashion house said that now "all terms have been mutually agreed" for the show.
The Rome-based company originally planned to present 40 pieces from its autumn/winter collection including 20 fur items.
A Seoul city official said Fendi pledged to "redesign" the lineup to reduce the number of fur items displayed by its models.
"They promised to make the show more acceptable to the public... and we have our international credibility to consider. So we accepted the offer," said the official, who declined to be named.
"The show will go on as planned."
The South Korean group Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth vowed to launch a campaign to boycott Fendi products after the city's change of heart, and called for protesters to picket the June 2 show.
"Let's go together to let many people know about the brutal nature of Fendi, which has cruelly sacrificed fur animals for nearly 100 years," it said.

The Golden Thread – International Contest for Young Designers in Lodz, Poland

The
19th Edition of The Golden Thread Contest took place during Fashion
Philosophy Fashion Week Poland in Lodz on the 6th of May and was
organized by Lodz International Fashion Fair.
The
Golden Thread is the most prestigious fashion competition in Poland
which has opened doors for successful carries of many young fashion
passionates.
Nearly
170 young designers from Poland and Europe entered the competition this
year. Eventually the jury has choosen 22 collections with fresh and
creative ideas for the final show. The competition was held in two
categories : Prêt-a-Porter and Premiere Vision. Winner of each category
got 20 thousand zlotys (5 thousand Euro) prize founded by the President
of the City of Lodz.
The Golden Thread in Prêt-a-Porter category went to the graduate of Cracow School of Art and Fashion Design www.ksa.edu.pl
Monika Jaworska for her collection “Modus Vivendi”. Oversize,
decontsruction and transparency created a very special atmosphere of
this women’s collection inspired by men’s clothes. Another graduate of
Cracow School of Art and Fashion Design – Agnieszka Kowalska was awarded
The Golden Thread in Premiere Vision category for her picturesque
collection “Szalapot” which was inpired by history of Don Kichot.
Agnieszka Kowalska has also won the Grand Prix of the 11th competition
for Young Fashion Designers Habitus Baltija 2011 that took place in Riga
a few weeks earlier.
Hopefully both young designers will contribute with their creativity in progress of Polish fashion industry

Michael Sheen Gushes About His Gal at the "Midnight in Paris" Premiere

Los Angeles – Now that "Midnight in Paris" stars Michael Sheen and Rachel McAdams have brought their real-life romance out from under wraps, Sheen cannot quit talking about his gorgeous girlfriend.
"She is amazing," he gushed to reporters on the red carpet Wednesday, May 18, at the Los Angeles premiere of their new film, a fantastic new Woody Allen comedy set in the always-romantic City of Light. McAdams, who has been traveling with Sheen, Allen and Owen Wilson, the film's leading man, for the last week, bouncing from the Cannes Film Festival premiere to a star-studded New York City unspooling, didn't make it to the L.A. premiere, which was hosted by the American Film Institute. But that didn't stop Sheen from singing her praises, saying, "She's the most wonderful person I know."
Wilson joined Sheen for the photo op at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Theater, and gushed a bit himself, about his new baby boy; then both actors waited to hear their first laughs inside the packed venue, then slipped out. But their co-stars Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy stayed for the after party, where champagne and French pastries were spread throughout the lobby of the Academy Awards' home base and accolades were ringing in the air for their performances as the snooty parents of McAdams' less-than-appealing character.
The idea of Oscar nominations for the movie being a distinct possibility filled the air, too, as celebs and VIPs chattered noisily about the comedy. Jackie Collins, Lucy Punch, Max Adler, Sybil Danning, Aiden Turner and Jacqueline Bisset joined the crowd in raving about how funny and clever Allen's latest film is.
Talk of an acting nomination for McAdams, who plays Wilson's nasty fiancee, swirled, and the irony of Allen being an inadvertent matchmaker came up too. For it was on his 2008 feature "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" that Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem began their romance, which developed into their marriage and a new baby; and Cruz won an Oscar for her performance in that movie.

A Sophisticated Chanel Cruise in Cap d'Antibes

Cannes – "It's the other side of the Cote d'Azur," explained Karl Lagerfeld of his latest Chanel cruise collection, staged in impeccable splendor at the Eden Roc hotel in Cap'Antibes on France's Mediterranean coast.
One year ago, Lagerfeld presented Chanel's previous cruise collection just 30 miles away in St Tropez, a posh hippie moment where the runway was the dockside. On Monday, May 10, he move the locale to a beautiful walkway between the storied hotel - the preferred resting place for mega movie stars during the Cannes Film Festival - and its famed rock pool, and the Spring 2012 collection was one of tony, haute sophistication.
Models marched into crimson rays of the setting sun before an audience that included Princess Caroline of Monaco, Blake Lively, Clemence Poesy, newcomer actress Marine Vacth, Chanel ambassador Anna Mouglalis, rock star Vanessa Paradise and Rachel Bilson, star of the recent Lagerfeld photographed Magnum ice cream commercials.
In case the classily elegant message was not clear, the couturier attired pretty much the entire cast in nearly 100 pieces of fine jewelry, eschewing literally boxes of costume jewelry that lay in boxes in the temporary Chanel studio in the hotel.
"It makes sense you see, since sea water tarnishes costume jewelry but has no effect on real diamonds. So if any of the girls fell in the water, well, we'd have nothing to worry about," Lagerfeld said with a laugh.
From Chanel swimsuits embedded with literally millions of dollars worth of diamonds or evening columns with pearls peeping through chiffon, to sparkling bracelets almost like mini Coliseums to brooches that looked like small emerald explosions, this was possibly the most extravagant runway show in terms of high-power jewelry ever staged in fashion.
"It's highly sophisticated jewelry for a highly sophisticated crowd. They had to be real stones, the audience is certainly not fake," said Lagerfeld, in a preview with FWD the day before the show.
As the shadows lengthened on the slanting catwalk, guests lounged about on terrace lounge chairs beneath white parasols as some 50 models marched through the beautiful garden.
"This is place is amazing! I wonder can I move here?" joked Chanel's brand model Lively, attired in a copper top and black satin mini, as she chatted with fellow thespian Poesy.
Lagerfeld revealed that he was inspired by cinematic glamour and the sort of movie stars that used to stay in the Eden Roc - stars like Rita Hayworth. The largely ecru, white and black collection had a wonderful poise from pleated dresses with embroideries, and crystals tinged cocktail dresses. The designer boldly opened with sleek suits in canary yellow or lavender, paired with some dashing new linen boots with open toes.
A slick middle section of graphic black and white swimsuits, worn with jaunty boater hats with tweed trim, segued into a marvelous finale of cocktail dress sewn with pearls and tulle dresses trim with more sparklers.
The exotic evening's most evocative moment was quite possibly the screening of the latest Lagerfeld for Chanel movie, a 30-minute opus titled "The Tale of a Fairy."
A tale of model Kristen McMenamy and muse Lady Amanda Harlech playing sisters fighting over their inheritance - a beautiful villa nearby - in a setting of gilded playboys and beautiful women indulging themselves, the finely acidic script film did seem very apt for the event.
"I expect a few people will be shocked," chortled Lagerfeld, referring to the film's most memorable moment, when Chanel model Freja Beha Erichsen appears topless and seduces Mouglalis into a memorably evocative kiss.

Cardin, in search of buyer, makes splash in China

The deck of a decommissioned Soviet aircraft carrier docked on China's coast seems an unlikely place to make a fashion statement, but to Pierre Cardin, the backdrop made perfect sense.
The feisty 88-year-old French designer, who has said he wants to sell his massive style empire, unveiled a romantic 2011 collection on the ex-battleship in an ode to peace -- and perhaps to attract deep-pocketed Chinese investors.
Dozens of male and female models strutted down a catwalk lined with fighter jets in everything from shimmery silver flight suits to sassy mini-dresses in bold colours with keyhole cut-outs that recalled the couturier's 1960s heyday.
In a bit of theatre to end Friday night's 30-minute style parade, a model in a red sequined jumpsuit emerged from a helicopter that landed on the deck and took Cardin's hand for a curtain call, to the applause of hundreds of guests.
"If you want to be a great designer, pretty dresses are not enough," Cardin told reporters before the event in the port city of Tianjin.
"You must provoke your audience -- amaze and even surprise them."
During a career that has spanned more than six decades, Cardin has certainly been a trailblazer -- he was one of the first designers to bring Western style to Asia and one of the first to develop brand licensing.
Earlier this month, he told the Wall Street Journal he was ready to sell his label, as long as he retains artistic control -- and gets the one billion euros ($1.4 billion) he insists the company is worth.
"If they don't have the means, they don't have the right to buy it. Simple as that," an unapologetic Cardin told the press conference.
The designer said he had so far received several offers for his label, including from Chinese buyers, but declined to offer any specifics on who may be in the running.
When asked if he would be keen to see his company fall into the hands of a Chinese firm, he replied: "China -- why not?"
Analysts say it could be a perfect fit.
"Right now, Chinese investors are deep-pocketed and they're looking to acquire Western brands that they can bring back to China," Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai, told AFP.
"It's too difficult to build a brand from scratch."
Sam Mulligan, director of the Shanghai-based market research firm Data Driven Marketing Asia, agreed.
"The big market for this brand in the future is going to be this market. If there is a company that would understand this market better than an European company, it would be a Chinese company," Mulligan told AFP.

In 2009, Cardin sold 32 textile and accessory licenses in China to Jiangsheng Trading Company and Cardanro for 200 million euros -- evidence, perhaps, of the brand's enduring cachet in the country of 1.3 billion people.
Rein explained that as the French designer, who first came to China more than 30 years ago, had "defined the initial taste of luxury for many consumers" in the country, the brand still has "fairly good resonance".
Officials at Pierre Cardin would not give the company's total revenue figures for China, but say they see about 20 percent annual revenue growth in the world's second-largest economy -- the fastest-growing market for luxury goods.
Cardin, whose name now adorns hundreds of products worldwide from shirts to bottled water to furniture, says he has no regrets about how he has run his business and will continue to bring his singular style to the fashion world.
"There are very few people who have the freedom I have -- to own 100 percent of my company. I have a lot of freedom," he said.

Film stars, models share Cannes charity catwalk

Fashion rolled out the red carpet for charity in Cannes on Monday, with a star-benefit a benefit runway show that saw A-listers including Naomi Campbell, Jane Fonda, Rosario Dawson and tennis man Novak Djokovic strut their stuff for a good cause.
Campbell's Fashion for Relief charity organized the show and an auction that followed to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross to aid victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami there.
Scores of celebrities, in town for the Cannes Film Festival, turned out to support Monday's event, while a small army of models donated their time, walking in red carpet-ready looks from Lanvin, Jean Paul Gaultier, Sonia Rykiel, Valentino and a host of other top labels.
From her front-row perch, Ivana Trump hailed the decision to hold the show in Cannes during the 12-day-long film festival here as "a brilliant choice.
"All the rich people are in town for the festival, people in movies and in fashion, so they can reach into their pockets and give money to help," said Trump, looking elegant in a black minidress with a bedazzled dipping neckline. She said she hadn't yet seen any movies but planned to spend the final six days of the prestigious cinema showcase shuttling between her homes in Cannes, Monaco and Saint Tropez while attending some select films.
Another audience member, designer Peter Dundas — whose label Pucci has long been considered an iconic brand in Japan — said he'd turned out for Monday's event because "Japan's disaster is our disaster.
"More than ever, we can't think that just because something happens on the other side of the world it doesn't concern us. Of course it does," he said.
Editor-in-cheif of Japanese Vogue Anna Della Russo said the "it's in the Japanese character to be really strong and optimistic" but "they really do need help."
Asked whether she thought the disaster would affect the Japanese's notoriously extravagant sense of style, the envelope-pushing style maven exclaimed, "I hope not because they're so crazy about fashion like me and I don't want that to change."
In addition to the flock of professionals — both from the current herd of young girls that rule today's catwalks to industry veterans, led by Campbell herself, in a long lean black number — models also included tennis champ Djokovic and Grace Hightower, who's married to the president of this year's Cannes jury, Robert De Niro.
At age 73, Fonda looked divine in a shimmering second-skin gown, while Dawson rocked a floor-length burnt orange number. The crowd devoured both, showering them in applause.
None of the nonprofessional models had any problems, but one of the hottest models of the moment was undone by her oversized meringue gown. She fell once and then again and again and again — four times in a single passage — before falling again her next time out, in a sundress and towering platforms.

Naomi shared in common Campbell and Adriana Karembeu, models

Today, like every year from 2005, the model Naomi Campbell supports a beneficial fashionable parade under the name of " for Fashion Relief " ("Fashion for the aid ", in a free translation). This appointment, that knows to combine glamour of the rutilantes stars of the cinematographic panorama, the matchless frame of the French Blue Coast and the pure beauty and lasts, looks for to collect bottoms that, in this occasion, will destine the victims of the devastating earthquake of Japan of the past 11 of March, and which they will arrive through the Red Cross. Campbell is counted AP, proud, that from his first edition the parade has managed to reunite a total of 4.5 million pounds, that is to say, the nothing despicable number of more than 5 million euros.
Adriana Karembeu, the stunning Slovakian model and ex- woman of the French soccer player Christian Karembeu, on the other hand, the past sent Saturday, moneybox in hand, to collect bottoms in the first day of the 77 collects of the French Red Cross in Nize, not very far from Cannes. This collects annual, that began Saturday, will last until the next one. The blond model, considered the most attractive woman of the world in 2006 by a well-known masculine magazine, tries of this form to concienciar and to make see the work of the Red Cross in the fight against the poverty.

New Creative Director at Chloé

After months of half-hearted denials, Chloé announced Monday morning — on Twitter — that Hannah MacGibbon, its creative director, is leaving the company. Ms. MacGibbon, you may recall, was rumored to be on her last legs at Chloé even before her last runway show in March. She has worked with the company for 10 years, and was named its creative director in 2008.
In a statement released Monday, Ms. MacGibbon said, “I will always have a deep affection for Chloé and am very grateful to the company for having given me this opportunity.”
Apparently, the company was just waiting to have its replacement lined up to make an announcement. Clare Waight Keller, who left Pringle of Scotland this year, will become creative director of Chloé on June 1.

More information: http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/