"Just get through the goddamned day: bit melodramatic, perhaps, but then again, my heart has been broken. Feel as if I’m drowning, sinking, can’t breathe."
Tom Ford’s début feature, an adaptation from of the Christopher Isherwood novel A Single Man, is a mood piece not unlike Wong Kar Wai at his best - all that smoking, the evocative soundtrack and the fey closeups! It's polished and assured, and without a beginner's stumble, if slight and glossy like a fashion pictorial.
The wonderful Colin Firth plays George, a literature prof in LA of 1962; In truth, I have never understood Mr Firth until this. His lover, the impossibly dreamy Matthew Goode, has died in a car crash. The day-in-the-life is barely a plot, and much of the movie is a gleaming haze; The characters are all dressed immaculately of the period, all beautiful. Yet I loved it. The film is saved from over-fabulousness by weighty performances: Firth demos how a person is tightened and undone by grief, and Julianne Moore explains the fag hag in all her fragile strength. The two model boys kept me agog: Nicholas Hoult, 20, as the precocious (definitive!) twink is etched in my mind, holding up amazingly well against Mr Firth. And model Jon K, at the liqour store car park, is as beautiful an apparition as the angel Gabriel (this scene should be a movie all its own!). The film slow burns with beauty, with the majestic set pieces of Mr Firth's acting. When he learns of Goode’s death in a phone call, his voice and his face tell the entire tale.
Unexpectedly, it's worth watching again.
And let me tell you this: Jon Jon is Linda and Christy in drag. There was always something completely asexual about Jon Jon's beauty for me - but you see, it was the same sort of androgyny as Linda's and Christy's beauty. Jon Jon is the final flower of Peter Lindbergh's vision of beauty from the 1990s. We love you Mr Lindbergh! How I miss your early, early days at Vogue Italia.
Linda!
Christy!
Jon Jon can reallydo this face really well... GIVE?
Jon Jon is like Christy Turlington with stubble. Complete melt.
Jon K in the new Lacoste ads along with Anja Rubik, Liya Kebede and Noah Mills wearing white Lacoste polo shirts worn over black eveningwear. Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot shot the pictures, which feature the phrase "Unconventional Chic".
Victoria Beckham paired up with former Luella and Marc by Marc Jacobs accessories designer Katie Hillier to create a collection of bags with a severe edge. Two of the styles–the leather and nubuck shoulder bag and the hexagonal chain bag in crocodile (above) – went on sale yesterday at Net-a-Porter. The leather and nubuck sold out within the hour. The nearly USD14,000 crocodile bag (right) sold out by the afternoon. The collection comprises of six styles ranging in price from USD1,800 to USD13,950. The stuff will be in stores later this month.
And then there's the Tom Ford line of lipsticks called (pompously) the Tom Ford Private Blend Lip Color Collection. Each of the 12 scented shades is full of rich, natural ingredients, including soja seed extract, Brazilian murumuru butter and chamomilla flower oil. Said to be incredibly moisturizing, and wears for hours and smooth as silk (blah blah blah). USD 45. And that looks like Jon Jon's nose and mouth doesn't it?
Jon K in a watch 'spread' for Vogue Hommes International. I know, whatever reason will do to see him wet and naked. Photos: Mikeal Jansson
