The Shophound

Domestic Superstars: Dolce & Gabbana Put Madonna In The Kitchen

Usually, we don't report on designer advertising campaigns that much because that would be a completely different blog, but we couldn't help our amusement at the upcoming Dolce & Gabbana campaign by Steven Klein featuring one of the pair's longtime muses, Madonna. These first images have been released by the designers from Vanity Fair Italia.
The superstar famously gave the designers a major boost in the early '90s when she asked them to design her "Girlie Show" tour, and has been an avid supporter ever since, but this is the first time she has appeared in their advertising in an official capacity. What tickles us is that, rather than portraying her as a waxen figure Photoshopped to a gleaming finish, as she has appeared in recent Louis Vuitton and Versace campaigns, Klein has put her in the kitchen on a set that looks like it may have been plucked from one of the "Godfather" films. 
The design duo tell their SWIDE magazine that they were inspired by Italian star Monica Vitti whom they claim is Madonna's favorite actress. It hardly seems possible that after all these years, the only way to show Madonna as you have never seen her before, is to show her doing the dishes and scarfing pasta, but there you are.
Madonna In The Dolce & Gabbana Campaign: The Images (SWIDE via Towleroad)

Two more shots after the jump

A Critical Shopper Falls: Mike Albo Goes Shopping No More

Daily Intel tells us that Mike Albo, who shares Critical Shopper duties with Cintra Wilson in the Thursday Styles has penned his last column for the New York Times.
The kerfuffle stems from a "Jetmystery" media junket sponsored by the email newsletter Thrillist and JetBlue in which invitees were instructed to appear at the airport with their bags and a passport for a trip to points unknown. Those who showed up (including Albo) found themselves in Jamaica (that's the island, not Queens) where unforeseen calamities sent some to the hospital.
But the significance here is that The New York Times, has strict rules about accepting such lavish free entertainments which extend to its freelancers, including Mike.
We'll miss needling Mike about his idiosyncrasies and shopping neuroses, but this may not be the last we have heard from the multitasker. His comment to DI: "I look forward to trying on cashmere sweaters I can’t afford for other publications."
On a related note we want to make it clear that here at The Shophound we are bound by no such strict rules, and are happy to accept all swag, which we will duly report about for better or worse (unless, of course, The Times comes calling). Keep that free stuff coming. We ain't gonna fire ourself.
Thrillist Junket Fallout: Times Freelancer Mike Albo Fired & Thrillist Jamaica Junket Sends Partiers to Hospital (Daily Intel/NY Magazine)

Woodstock At 40 Imaginary Reminiscences

WWD spends a lot of time and ink today talking about Woodstock as the legendary music festival celebrates its 40th birthday. In truth, this is an event that you have to be at least 50 years old to have really appreciated as it was happening, so the newspaper queried 20 fashion and music folks, only two of whom actually claim to have been there. One of these is Courtney Love, who would have been 5 at the time, so that claim is iffy at best. The other is marketing exec Charles deCaro, who subsisted on Raisinettes for three days (or at least that's all he admits to) because that was the only food anyone had thought to bring. As for the rest of them, it turns out they were mostly either too young (Erin Wasson?, Come on.) too foreign (Simon Doonan) or just too hardworking and borderline square (Donna Karan, Betsey Johnson, Norma Kamali) to even think of attending.
It looks like hippies and high fashion really didn't mix as much as some would like you to think.
As for the gallery of Woodstock inspired fashion sketches. Isn't that hippie thing so late '90s?
Woodstock at 40: Rock Stars and Designers Weigh In, Piece Offering: Designers Sketch Woodstock-Inspired Fashion (WWD)

The Weekend Spree: Vintage Wintour and Other Stories

A model swans through the supermarket dressed to the nines in an Oscar de la Renta LBD. Classic Vogue, no?
No.
The picture above is from an extensive gallery compiled by the industrious folks at Fashionologie featuring many of the editorial stories created by Anna Wintour when she was the fashion editor of New York Magazine in the early 1980s. It's a trip down memory lane (the hair! the shoulders!) for those of us who remember the days when NYMag would publish a fashion story every few weeks, and for those who were only a glint in someone's eye at the time, it's an illuminating look at the early days of a bona fide icon. As pre-release publicity for The September Issue ramps up, the gallery features work with some Wintour favorites like photographer Peter Lindbergh, and appearances by some of the top models of the day like Ines de la Fressange, Ariane and Kathy Ireland. Yes, Kathy Ireland. (Fashionologie)
In other news,

• Speaking of the '80s, are you still unsure about the revival of Dr. Marten's boots? Would a Raf Simons collaboration convince you? Works for us. (Hypebeast)
• And speaking of shoes and revivals, J. Press creative director (who knew they had one?) Mark McNairy is creating a buzz for himself with a collaboration (yes, another one) that may will make Bass Weejuns the Top-Siders of 2010. (The Moment)
• Bad press magnet American Apparel is denying that it has ordered store managers to re-evaluate their staffs based on their looks à la Abercrombie/Hollister.
Sure.
We believe them.
They are way too classy for that kind of move. (The Cut)
•Donna Karan has launched her own iPhone application found HERE for those of you who are missing her Woman to Woman magazine. How useful is it? We have no idea, but designers are jumping on this left and right. (Shophound Inbox)
• Joining the online designer sale craze, popular contemporary web retailer Revolve Clothing has launched Rewind, its own members only clearance/off-price offshoot featuring limited sales on the type of labels you can expect to find on the upcoming GILT Fuse site. A preemptive strike? Perhaps, but the real showdown will come next week. (RACKED)
•Maison Martin Margiela has launched a home collection for those of you who long to bring home the creepy whitewashed aesthetic of his Greenwich street boutiques. Continuing brand extensions suggest that the reclusive designer has little to do with the day-to-day goings on at his label. (Know & Tell)
• Cynthia Rowley's popular sample sale begins on August 13^th through the 16^th at her store, 376 Bleecker Street.
• Escada's sample sale runs through Sunday the 9^th at the Altman Building, 135 West 18^th Street.
• And should you choose to stay home instead of braving the crowds, here's what you can look forward to on GILT Groupe this week:
 Click away over the weekend and into next week for invite-only sales on Rag & Bone for Women and Men, Yohji Yamamoto , Freeze 24▪7 , Carolina Herrera , Lutz & Patmos , Nice Collective , Band of Outsiders , Sergio Rossi Women's , and linens from Yves Delorme Paris among others. Click HERE for your exclusive invitation if you don't already belong.

Today In Newsletters: Zoe Report Débuts Wth A 'Shootie'

Stylist Rachel Zoe has recently gone from tabloid punching bag to begrudgingly beloved (if a little loopy) cult figure mostly through her Bravo reality show, The Rachel Zoe Project, which returns to the air on August 24th. What a few well chosen catchphrases and a love of vintage couture will do for a public image!
Yesterday, many of us media folk were breathlessly informed that today would bring the launch of Zoe's daily newsletter, and The Zoe Report has appeared in The Shophound's inbox right on time this morning. Those who were hoping that Zoe would give self appointed celebrity guru Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP a kick in the pants may be just a bit disappointed, as today's inaugural email only extols the virtues of a single pair of leopard patterned Brian Atwood platform pumps ($680 in black at Saks).
On the ambitious side, Zoe attempts to coin a term, 'shootie' (shoe + booty, which really should be 'bootie', since shoe + booty means shoe + ass, —a somewhat less appealing concept depending on your particular fetishes, but we digress). Spelling aside, we can't really endorse this term, since it seems thoroughly unnecessary with 'bootie' already referring to something between a shoe and a fully fledged boot, but there's no accounting for how eagerly some fashion folks will embrace a new word for an accessory or article of clothing —any new word.
Surprisingly, Zoe ends with a plug for a knock-off version from Steve Madden for $129.95. This is, in its own way, a slightly subversive act in that it shows the affordable option, but in picturing it proves how it in no way compares to the original in terms of quality.
Perhaps there is some promise here after all, but for now, we think the best way to liven up The Zoe Report might be to find a way to incorporate a meltdown from her amusing, bickering assistants, Brad & Taylor into the mix, because that's what we really watch her show for.

The September Issue: Director Spills At Apple Store Appearance

In advance of tonight's sold-out preview screening at 92YTribeca, filmmaker R.J.Cutler made a special appearance yesterday to discuss and promote his documentary The September Issue at the Apple Store in SoHo. The film, as you probably know by now, profiles Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour and chronicles the creation of the September 2007 issue, the largest single issue of a magazine ever published.
A few rumors were debunked including most obviously the myth that Anna Wintour is controlling the promotion of the film with an iron fist. There was absolutely no Vogue presence at the Apple Store. This was actually a good thing as it allowed the director to talk about Wintour freely. In fact, the event was very low key, as Apple does little more to promote its events beyond publishing a calendar on its website and distributing pamphlets in-store. This talk was geared more towards film than fashion folk, as Cutler made sure to note that the movie was edited with Apple's Final Cut Pro software. The discussion will be made available shortly in podcast form as part of iTunes' Meet The Filmmakers series.
Here are a few of the interesting tidbits about the film that Cutler dropped yesterday:

• The reason why he was allowed access to film Wintour and Vogue at all may simply have been because he had the guts to ask. Most people would have been too intimidated to even bother.
• Wintour agreed to Cutler's having final cut out of respect for him as a journalist and as the daughter of a journalist —a decision she may have regretted at times. After seeing a rough cut of the film, she responded with praise and a long list of "suggestions".
• The process of boiling down the enormous amount of footage was so complicated that one late-stage cut of the film actually eliminated Editor At Large André Leon Talley entirely! Clearly a huge mistake, Talley was abundantly re-inserted into the next cut.
• Cutler immediately knew he wanted to make a movie about Wintour not because of her own personality but because of the way other people reacted to her. She has a command of her environment and, according to him, the ability to change the temperature in a room with her mood.
• Ultimately, the film is less about Wintour herself than it is about her relationship with Vogue's Creative Director Grace Coddington, who was initially so disinterested in the project that she refused to allow herself to be filmed at all until four months into the nine-month shooting schedule, and had to be practically begged to participate.
• The two are apparently Vogue's Yin and Yang with Wintour's office described as a "freezer of efficiency" and Coddington's as an "incubator of creativity". He also had great admiration for the rest of the magazine's staff including Tonne Goodman, Sally Singer and Phyllis Posnick among others whom he described as an all-star team of editors.

Cutler was careful to remind his audience that despite all the attention the movie was drawing in the fashion press, it is still an independent documentary with an independent documentary's promotional budget, meaning a tiny one, so he implored everyone to please go see the movie, which is already scheduled for release in major U.S. cities.
The September Issue opens in New York on August 28th and in other cities on September 11th.
Our calendar is marked.

Fashion Tech: The September Issue To Hit The Apple Store

The Shophound always keeps a keen eye on the schedule of events at the Apple Store in SoHo because you never know who might show up to do a little bit of plugging. Earlier this year, we caught Stars from Watchmen, as well as Dollhouse and Buffy The Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon along with the show's alluring star Eliza Dushku in a surprise appearance.
Thursday evening, the store will filmmaker R.J. Cutler, the director behind The September Issue, the much talked about documentary about Anna Wintour and the creation of Vogue's biggest issue ever.
Presumably, he'll be talking about entering a rarefied  part of the fashion world to make the film.
Will La Wintour make a surprise appearance for the computer geeks? Oh, to see the bobbed one answer questions from the audience would be a rare treat. We will see tomorrow at 5 PM. We can't promise anything, but stranger things have been known to happen.
R.J. Cutler at The Apple Store SoHo, July 30^th at 5 PM, 103 Prince Street at Greene Street, SoHo

Billboard Watch:Quick Change Calvin Strikes Again

Is Calvin Klein looking to have the fastest billboard turnover in SoHo?
Just a few weeks ago, some vocal Houston Street denizens started getting vocal about the sexy threesome (foursome?) depicted on the huge ad space Calvin has controlled for a while now, but before the controversy could reach any kind of fever pitch, the image was abruptly changed to sexy supermodel Doutzen Kroes as a latter day Bo Derek, emerging from the surf in a skimpy red bikini. Now, a scant couple of weeks later, the picture has changed again. This time it's Calvin's contract starlet Eva Mendes modeling the new "Body" jeans, a high waisted style apparently meant to be worn without a top, but with a healthy slathering of body oil. Who hasn't been waiting for that look to come around again?
Ad watchers assumed that the change in images last month was due to public outcry. It wouldn't have been the first time the designer had to pull jeans ads (Remember the Steven Meisel "basement porn" campaign of the early '90s?). In fact, it looks like this ad space is on an accelerated schedule that keeps each image in view for only a couple of weeks, so perhaps the sexy three/foursome had simply completed its brief, allotted time on the wall. If that's the case, then your time to see a giant topless Eva is ticking away.

Magazine Mess: Harper's Bazaar's Double Cover Stumble & Interview's Flip-Flop

Harper's Bazaar has been drawing barbs for its covers pretty much since Glenda Bailey took over as Editor-In-Chief after Kate Betts' brief attempt to revamp the title. For a while now, Bazaar has published two covers for each issue; one more artistic (and usually more attractive) version with minimal cover lines to be sent to subscribers, and another more commercial newsstand version –usually a tighter (and often cheesier) headshot of whomever the subject of the month might be- festooned with text, and typically a great big number –Bailey's signature– which has become something of a running joke among the book's competitors ("525 New Ideas"? Really? 525? Did someone count them? How new could they all possibly be, and who would even need or want that many ideas all at once?). The one thing the two covers usually have in common, is the subject, with the images generally taken from a larger photo shoot featured inside the magazine.
This month, however there is a split that has critics cackling over Bailey's presumed lapse in judgment. Subscribers will be treated to a fetching shot of supermodel Doutzen Kroes by Terry Richardson from an interior editorial spread. Newsstands, however, will have an image of Angelina Jolie on the cover not from a Bazaar shoot, but a red carpet/paparazzi shot taken last December from a photo service, proving that editors are so slavishly tied to putting a celebrity on the cover that thre'll find a way to do it even if they haven't gotten one to pose for them that month. Jolie declined to participate in the issue at all, and the accompanying profile inside is a "write around" done without an actual interview.
Blogs and critics are comparing Bazaar to lowbrow celebrity weeklies like In Touch and Europe's Grazia. One has to wonder why they can't give Kroes both covers, since hers is clearly the prettier version. Virtually no model who has emerged since since Gisele Bunchen has been allowed to grace Bazaar's cover by herself. Wouldn't July be a good time to give the popular Doutzen a tryout at the newsstand?
In other late-breaking news, Interview has had a rocky road lately. The Shophound, like so many others, thought the editorial combination of Fabien Baron and Glenn O'Brien –both veterans of the title– would spell excitement and a return to the magazine's daring roots, but after a few chilly and commercially disappointing issues, Baron was shown the door and replaced with a less expensive design team who promptly restored the title logo to a more classic mode. Now comes word that Peter Brant, whose full acquisition of the magazine sparked the departure of longtime EIC Ingrid Sischy, has invited Baron back and dismissed O'Brien.
What is now in store for the newly beleaguered title? Baron's redesign last year was admired but fairly subdued, and recent covers have ranged from the banal (Lindsay Lohan? Seriously?) to the obscure and commercially challenging (Björk? Gorgeous picture, but come on, Björk?). Will we see yet another new title logo? Perhaps a more arresting and exuberant graphic design? Time will tell, and as usual it will be a few months before the newest team's full efforts will be seen. We sure hope they can get it right this time. After a successful run under Sischy that transformed it from Andy Warhol's pet project into a more mainstream yet still lively commercial success, we would hate to see Interview collapse under editorial confusion.
Harper Bazaar's July 2009 Cover Caught Up in Tabloid-Comparison Controversy (Fashionologie, linking to nearly every other blog post on the topic)
At Interview Magazine: Baron is In, O'Brien is Out At Interview Magazine: Baron is In, O'Brien is Out by Stephanie D. Smith (WWD)

Today In Camp: Models + Comics Coming This Summer

The only thing we appreciate better than a realistic portrayal of the fashion industry in the media is an unrealstic fantasy version. After all, we can't tear ourselves away from "America's Next Top Model", and we all know that show has basically nothing to do with actual modeling.
While we wait for someone to revive "Paper Dolls" (1984: Lloyd Bridges, Lauren Hutton, Nicolette Sheridan & Morgan Fairchild) we can console ourselves in the comics. The Times tells us that Marvel is launching a 4-part series late this summer called "Models Inc.", (which is emphatically not based on the deliciously awful '90s "Melrose Place" spin-off series). The funnybooks will incorporate existing Marvel Universe characters like Mary Jane Watson, Spider-Man's girlfriend, as well as the odd actual fashion industry character like, for example, Tim Gunn.
How perfect is that? Isn't Tim kind of like a cartoon character already? (which we mean only as the highest of compliments, Tim). Is there any way to get André Leon Talley involved with this?
The series will revolve around a character introduced in 1945 known as "Millie the Model".
Millie the Model!
Oh yes, she'll be updated for the 21^st Century, but according to her Marvel.com bio, she is from Sleepy Gap, Kansas and stands a willowy 5',7" tall.
See? Totally realistic. Of course, the models will be solving crimes when they are not busy smiling with their eyes, because that's what models do.
It looks like the books are pitched to around a 12-year old girl's mentality, so they should be just the thing to help you cope with your "Gossip Girl" withdrawal, which should be kicking into high gear by August.
Front Row: Dressed for Action By George Gene Gustines (NYTimes)
The Models of Marvel's Models, Inc. (Newsarama)
Marvel.com (Official Site)