World Cup

...I remember bumping into Ronaldo at a late, late dinner in Capri; The restaurant was overhung with gigantic pale lemons that scented the night air. I later asked everyone, did you see him? Did you?

And God Created Georgia!

The always curious, kind, and encouraging Dr Georgia Lee wearing Balenciaga Edition at the Swarovski show at the recent fashion fest. The shoes are Fendi and the clutch is Alexander McQueen. So what do you guys think?

Knotty

Bottega Veneta opened its Ion store with a retrospective of its Knot clutches The Knot: A Retrospective, a travelling exhibition featuring 50 versions of this renowned handbag on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.For Creative Director Tomas Maier, one of the biggest challenges in organizing the retrospective was finding examples from the 1980s and ‘90s. “The company never kept an archive, so to reconstruct the history of the Knot we had to search in vintage stores and private collections, " he said.When Mr Maier took the reins as Creative Director in 2001, he recognized the special quality of the company’s small, rounded box clutch. He created a new closure in the shape of a small leather knot and gave the bag its name. Since then, versions of the Knot have been featured in every Bottega Veneta collection.Many styles of the Knot are limited in availability, with editions ranging from 100 to as little as 25.

No. 5 Through The Years

In 1921, Coco Chanel was introduced to former Russian-court perfumer Ernest Beaux by her then-lover Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich; She set him the task of concocting a scent that reflected her own personality, something “abstract” and unique, and that did not smell like any particular flower—mono-floral scents (the fashion at the time). Beaux had been experimenting with synthetic fragrance molecules called aldehydes. An icon was born: Combined with an accord of florals including ylang-ylang, May rose, and jasmine (which Coco bade him to be extravagantly heavy-handed with; it was then the costliest perfume oil in the world), they created a legend.
Madam herself, 1937.

Lauren Hutton, 1968.

Ms Hutton was photographed by Richard Avedon for a No. 5 ad, remembers, “Dick had spent a lot of time with Coco in Paris, and he told me all about her apartment and about how she had been this adventurous young girl who had always done everything her own way. She took him to Grasse, where the perfume is made, and showed him the mountains of pink rose heads that go into the perfume. He said the scent was so strong he swooned: It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.” Ms Hutton is in many ways a quintessential No. 5 woman; a trailblazing, unconventional beauty, an inveterate world traveler—that was the tale that sealed the deal. “No. 5 was my favorite perfume. To me, it smells expensive and feminine and also reassuring.”Cheryl Tiegs, 1969.Ali MacGraw, 1971.Catherine Deneuve, 1976.Carole Bouquet, 1987. Estella Warren, 2001.

Nicole Kidman, 2004.

What Are You Looking At?

Vaguely looks like Madge, but could just as well be half a dozen others... Great styling!

Jean-Louis Dumas

Hermès announced the passing of Jean-Louis Dumas, Chairman of Hermès from 1978 to 2006, and a Commander of the Légion d’Honneur. Mr Dumas died last Saturday at his home in Paris. He was 72. The grandson of Emile-Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas joined Hermès in 1964.
He became the Chief Executive Officer in 1971, and revived the flagging fortunes of Hermès in the late 1970s, and in his nearly 30 years in this capacity, transformed it into one of the world’s most successful luxury brands.
Mr Dumas's dynamic, charismatic and media-friendly initiatives, his creative spirit and his work devoted to Hermès have enabled the company to develop considerably yet harmoniously. He was passionate about creation, quality and the needs of everyone and has woven deep ties with employees, suppliers and clients. All those who worked with him remember the demanding quality of his vision, his drive to continually surprise and his talent as both a designer and a businessman. Mr Dumas, who retired in 2006 because of ill health, always carried an old Leica with him, taking pictures constantly. In 2008, Steidl published a collection of his photographs Jean-Louis Dumas: Photographer.
He is survived by their two children, Sandrine, a film actress, and Pierre-Alexis, the artistic director of Hermès.

2009 Emma Costumes

Jane Austen’s House Museum (Chawton, Hampshire) will exhibit the costumes from the BBC’s 2009 production of Emma until the 16th May. If you need an I heart Mr Darcy magnet or wrapping paper with matching tag and poster of a smouldering Colin Firth, then the Museum shop is the place to buy it.

He Said She Said

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” - Cicero

Dai Yangtian: The Dark Knight

Dai Yangtian habitually wears such a brooding demeanour that you expect him to growl on approach. He also habitually wears a baseball cap that obscures half his face, and from beneath it a thick sheaf of hair, a force of nature hell-bent on springing free, hides in its shadow, his large eyes are wary, mocking and coldly observant.
“I realise Singaporeans greet almost everyone they meet with a ‘how do you do’ or ‘have you eaten’ and I don’t understand this, says Dai. “I’m not used to it and it just feels artificial to me. It’s strange to ask someone ‘how are you?’ and not even be prepared to wait for the answer and just walk away. I know that is just the manners around here but I don’t agree with it; I won’t adopt it.”
So when exactly is a good time to ask ‘How are you’?
“When I know you well enough, I’ll sit down with you and have a conversation and really get to know you. Until that time, I’ll just give a nod and go my way,” Dai confesses, unapologetic about seeming aloof or proud, and not making polite conversation.
Because he’s made such a splash, one quickly forgets that he’s only been working in Singapore for less than two years. Following his debut in Taste of Love, he shot to household fame and sealed his hearthrob status in The Little Nyonya.
It’s no surprise that he wouldn’t be mistaken for a Singaporean. Like the obscuring cap, he wears a pall of otherness. For one, although he is learning Singlish quickly (one suspects that Dai has the mainlander’s mercurial adaptability), he speaks in booming, crisp, perfect Mandarin. This is charming, but also intimidating, and speaking to him is not unlike being browbeaten by the president of a debating team making an eloquent, winning argument.
“I’m not romantic. I’m not the knight in shining armour on a white horse. I’m more the dark knight, really.”
Unlike Elvin Ng, there’s something menacing and predatory about Dai and therein lies his appeal – he’s a Heathcliff type. And he’s like Zoe Tay: There’s something of the forest and the barn about Dai — a whiff of nature. Beneath the glittering trappings, the cap, the trendy pink plaid shirt, the hip hop jeans and sneakers, his legs are heavy and hirsute, his feet large. His big hands, often abusing the console of computer games, can just as easily knock you out senseless and drag you into his cave. And which girl can resist that? Combine this atavistic charm with Dai’s bursts of eloquence in that low growl, and he’s a spellbinding package.
Dai has something else in common with Zoe: In his answers during interviews, the wheat and the chaff are indistinguishable, and what is offered as revelations is often transcribed as an opaque mass. With the more transparent Ng, the wheat and chaff, though profuse and mixed in equal parts, are easily separated. (Fann, of course, offers unadulterated chaff.) As if to preserve his mystique, Dai may wax eloquent when he gets into the mood, but he’s never revealing or personal, and ultimately inscrutable. He firmly declines to discuss his estranged parents. (But he’’ll say: His mother runs a food business in Shanghai and Tokyo.) And although he professes to like Singapore enough to want to make it his second home, one senses unspoken motivations.

He wants to settle down here, the food, the cleanliness the organised, nice people. Ah... but there's something else, something unsaid.

(The Men's Uno cover is for May 2010. The complete interview and a version of this appeared in 8 Days)

Freedom

Amelia

People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

- Joni Mitchell

Ambrose Olsen (1985 - 2010)

(Model Ambrose Olsen died last Thursday, April 22. The Alaskan was 24 years old and had appeared in print campaigns for Hugo Boss, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Armani Exchange. According to rumour, the cause of death was suicide by hanging; Olsen was found by a fellow male model. Olsen enjoyed Mozart, history, and architecture.The strongly-felt video tribute was made by Hedi Slimane.

News: Ups and Downs

“Hugo Boss, the German fashion house said orders were up for its latest season, after “cautious” demand from wholesalers for its spring/summer collection weakened its first quarter performance." - The Telegraph

"With haute couture buyers in retreat, its traditional customers aging or dying, and critics increasingly carping about its irrelevance, the couture economy, always delicate, now is more precarious than ever, leaving many to wonder whether there is a customer base left for couture.” - WSJ

"Leading global menswear brand Gruppo Ermenegildo Zegna store sales rose more than 20percent in the first three months of 2010, driven by growth in China and a recovery in the luxury market.” - Reuters

“Burberry will launch its line of color cosmetics this July, joining a big list of fashion labels that have introduced their own-brand beauty collections recently" - The Independent

He Said She Said

"The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues." - Elizabeth Taylor

News: Oldies But Goodies

PENHALIGON’S, the English perfume house established in the 1870s, had Oscar Wilde and Rudyard Kipling as fans. Queen Victoria appointed it court perfumer. Winston Churchill counted its Blenheim Bouquet as his favorite fragrance, and Princess Diana adored its Bluebell scent. Mining its vast archives, the company is releasing an Anthology collection of 12 oldies but goodies, including the latest: Eau de Cologne, a faithful recreation of a classic citrus from 1927, and Orange Blossom, a lush honeyed floral inspired by the 1976 original.
Thierry Mugler, 61, launches new book Thierry Mugler: Galaxie Glamour, and new perfume Womanity, with Clarins. He is also launching a new look with fresh surgery and tattoos. Mr Mugler says: “I am suing them (Clarins) because of that book. They wanted to do a book and I disagreed. Why should we do a book now and open the door to our archives and show even more things so that people can rip us off? I don’t see the point.”

Weekend Reading List

I was researching a project on Frida Kahlo and I stumbled across an excellent collection of her photographs in I Will Never Forget You, all taken by Nickolas Muray in the 1930s and 1940s. In it are all the iconic images of her, including those those with her pet deer Granizo. Nikolas Muray was a Hungarian photographer, an international champion fencer, hansome, charming and talented, and became Kahlo's lover after her divorce from Diego Rivera. The book also contains their love letters; These, alas, are tawdry. I suppose all affairs of the swooning kind are.Nosing around, I found another interesting book in the library, David Alan Brown and Jane Van Nimen's Raphael and the Beautiful Banker: The Story of the Bindo Altoviti Portait. Now, I've blogged about this 1515 portrait before (the subject is model-beautiful) and have always found this painting fascinating and modern. This book traces the painting's patchy history, and people's response to it. Still on an art theme, I'm also reading the novel The Art Thief (Noah Charney), a detective story set in the world of art crime. You see, there are no new Agatha Christies, and this is a shade better than Dan Brown, at least.

New Wine, Old Skin

Following the launch of the Louis Vuitton iPhone cover: The hyperventilatingly new Louis Vuitton iPad Case. Available in Monogram and Damier Graphite. It is
functional, supple and light, durable (water and scratch resistant) and easy to
maintain. A combination of style and cutting edge technology, the iPad case has been designed to respect the radiofrequency norms between phone waves and metallic pieces. Prefer the Monogram, cos it looks old school.

Andy Warhol's Male Models

He Said She Said

"Six bad oil paintings in the home are better than good ones in a museum, because they give casual people a chance to look at paintings." - Gertrude Stein (1874—1946)

Trainers are the New Black

Designer denim used to be the go-to strategy of luxury labels to lure in younger customers, but now it seems as if trainers are the new jeans. These are Lanvin's summer trainers.