Unless you've been hiding under a furball for the season, you would already know that
Janet Jackson is the latest 'legend' to be featured in the iconic
Blackglama fur ads.
Ms Jackson has joined a group of legendary fashion figures that have been photographed, wrapped in the famous furs. The list of stars to pose in the ads over the years include
Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Ray Charles, Sophia Loren, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, Lauren Bacall, Lena Horne, Liza Minelli, Judy Garland, Faye Dunaway, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and many more. With each famous face featured in the ad, the slogan reads:"What becomes a Legend most?"
Ms Jackson said: "What makes a legend, to me, is someone who has made a major mark on the world that lasts forever. Not just with their art, but for example, Elizabeth Taylor is a legendary actor, but [there is] also her humanitarian efforts, working with AIDS and AIDS research," she says. "That, to me, is what really makes someone a legend. I have too much to accomplish to consider myself a legend."
Rocco (who?)
Laspata (huh?) was the photographer, not a good follow up to the legends of yore, who were shot by the legendary
Richard Avedon. The legends were never named in the ads; And they were paid with the Avedon portrait and one fur coat of their choice. The first in this series of ads ran in 1967.
Really? Mink coats for spring? Mink coats with floral motifs? The Richard Avedon Vogue July 1967 cover of Twiggy immediately spring-ed into my head (see right). This season, Miuccia Prada showed shapes that are classic Prada: The modest shift dresses, the pencil skirts, the robe-coats worn open over bra tops and granny pants. All these were made in duchesse satin, that stiff, smooth almost ceremonial silk, recalling the label's heritage (this fabric was the star of the label's first few seasons).
This season the styles were made fresh by Mrs Prada's take on the Japanese aesthetic. I can only hope magazines aren't going to be literal next year and shoot Memoirs of a Geisha spreads - it would be too tiresome for words. Some of the dresses featured rigid folds that echo the folds of traditional Japanese dress, with the stiffness of obis, and the geometry of orgami - all of which you can read elsewhere as critics go into overdrive, but none will say, as I do here, that the folds recall more the elaborate gift-wrapping that comes from any purchase made in a Japanese shop. The outfits look like precious parcels. The floral motifs are fairly obvious takes (the LV monogramme canvas has these ancient flower icons) and could have come straight from those half-curtains you need to flick as you enter a sushi joint, as are those tabi socks worn with sandals, embellished with bows that are pure Hello Kitty.
