VOGUE ITALIA APRIL 2012: CHRYSTAL COPELAND, SOJOURNER MORELL, BY STEVEN MEISEL

Karen Elson for Vogue Italia October 2011 photographed Steven Meisel.

Karen Elson is classy on the Vogue Italia October 2011 photographed Steven Meisel.

"THE DISCIPLINE OF FASHION": VOGUE ITALIA SEPTEMBER 2011 EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHED BY STEVEN MEISEL.

Puff embroidered robe bustier with organza petal, paillettes e strass, Giorgio Armani; corset Cadolle. Earrings Lynn Ban; choker Paul Seville; shoes Manolo Blahnik; gaiters David Samuel Menkes

Printed satin dress with boat neckline, Alberta Ferretti; corset Deborah Milner; girdle Paul Seville. On the next page. Double cotton and wool tailleur, Nina Ricci. Belt Paul Seville; calze Agent Provocateur. Earrings and necklace, Lynn Ban; ring Bottega Veneta; ear studs, Fenton; nose rings, Eddie Borgo, Ugo Cacciatori, Tom Binns

Beyond elegance. It was a style choice, but especially one of love (her husband liked her that way) that inspired Ethel Granger (1905-1982) to tighten herself into corsets that modified her waist up to the point of reaching a record measure of thirty-three centimeters, a limit that has not been surpassed to this day.

Polka-dot tweed skirt, Marc Jacobs; bustier Cadolle; girdle Theia. Earrngs Pauline’s Vintage; gloves Carolina Amato; choker Paul Seville; shoes Stella McCartney; laced gaiter, David Samuel Menkes. On the next page. Leather dress with flannel jabot and brooch, Fendi; corset Kunza. Sunglasses Cutler and Gross; earrings Erickson Beamon; nose stud, Fenton; nose rings, Tom Binns, Ugo Cacciatori, Eddie Borgo; choker Theia; black gold and diamonds necklace, Bottega Veneta

A revolutionary woman, who, also to indulge her husband’s tastes, did not hesitate to have dozens of piercings done back in the Fifties. She is the inspiration behind this cover and the fashion shoot interpreted by an intense Stella Tennant. Who, to emphasize Ethel’s decisive and distinctive allure, wears an exclusive perfume, beyond any olfactory stereotype, like Infusion d’Iris by Prada.

Lurex jacquard skirt with drapes, Moschino; slip dress, Stella McCartney; corset Cadolle. Earrings Lynn Ban; choker Forge Fashion; necklace Erickson Beamon; gloves Carolina Amato; suspender gloves LaCrasia; socks Agent Provocateur. Shoes Stella McCartney.

In the bouquet, the precious elegance of the Florentine iris pallida combined with the freshness of the Sicilian mandarin and with a mix of galbanum, mastic, incense, vetiver and cedar wood. Gabardine nattée single-breasted coat with contrasting collar, Prada. Earrings and ear studs, Lynn Ban; pearl studs, Fenton; nose ring, Ugo Cacciatori; corset Deborah Milner. Hair Guido for Redken. Make-up Pat McGrath. Manicure Jin Soon Choi for Jin Soon Natural Hand & Foot Spa. Fashion editor Karl Templer.

Fox and shearling fur with knitted details, Ermanno Scervino; corset and neck corset, Gabriel Moginot. Earrings Lynn Ban; studs Fenton; nose ring, Ugo Cacciatori; lips ring, Eddie Borgo. On the next page. Dress with printed silk veiled lace fringes, Bottega Veneta; neck corset and girdle, Deborah Milner; satin petticoat, Intimissimi. Earrings Erickson Beamon; gloves LaCrasia; socks Agent Provocateur

See-through pvc cloak with leather details, Burberry Prorsum; satin petticoat, Intimissimi; corset Gabriel Moginot. Earrings and bracelets, Lynn Ban; choker Theia; gloves Carolina Amato; shoes Chloé; gaiters David Samuel Menkes. On the next page. Wool and alpaca top and skirt, Céline; neck corset, Contour Corsets; corset Deborah Milner. Earrings Ben Amun; gloves Carolina Amato

Dévorée silk dress, Brioni; girdle Paul Seville. Jewels Lynn Ban; nose stud, Fenton; nose ring, Ugo Cacciatori; socks Agent Provocateur; shoes Chloé; gaiters David Samuel Menkes. Hair Guido for Redken. Maquillage Pat McGrath for Dolce & Gabbana

Leather dress, Fendi; openwork corset, Kunza. Leather laced glove, LaCrasia. On the next page. Draped dress in printed silk mousseline, Dolce & Gabbana; corset Gabriel Moginot. Earrings and necklace, Lynn Ban; nose rings, Ugo Cacciatori e Eddie Borgo

Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Karl Templer
Stylist Assistant: Elin Svahn, Karen Kaiser, Matthew Tauger, Joshua
Courtney, Gro Curtis
Hair stylist: Hair by Guido for Redken
Make-Up Artist: Pat McGrath for Dolce & Gabbana The Make Up
Manicurist: Jin Soon Choi for Jin Soon Natural Hand & Foot Spa
Set Design: Set Design by Mary Howard
Production: Produced on location by PRODn / Art + Commerce
Location: Location Sandra L. Galuten

Source: (VOGUE ITALIA)

Stella Tennant for Vogue Italia September Issue 2011 by Steven Meisel.

 I cannot help, but love Vogue Italia. Their team always, time and again, immobilised me with their innovative, artistic, revolutionary and creative geniuses. And now for their September Issue cover is a beautiful Stella Tennant photographed by the legendary Steven Meisel.

Vogue Italia's september issue will be in newsstand on monday August 29th (Milan only) and worldwide in the following days.

Raquel Zimmermann & Karen Elson for the fall/winter 2011/2012 Lanvin campaign.

Photographed by Steven Meisel, Raquel Zimmermann & Karen Elson ham it up for the fall/winter 2011/2012 Lanvin campaign. As the two models dance their way through the shots, the background décor mysteriously changes as well. From switched-out lamps to changing floral and accent arrangements, this is one constantly evolving set.

Barbara Palvin is the face of Calvin Klein's new Forbidden Euphoria fragrance.

Photographed by Steven Meisel, 17 year old Hungarian model Barbara Palvin is the face of Calvin Klein's new Forbidden Euphoria fragrance.
Forbidden Euphoria is another variant of the popular fragrance Euphoria from 2005. It is announced as a fragrance inspired by forbidden desires and challenging passions, with appealing intoxicating notes that seduce from the first stroke. The top notes will tempt us with iced raspberry, tangerine juices and delicate peach blossom of fruity flowery essences. The heart reveals amazing floral aromas of Tiger orchids, pink peony and jasmine flowers, while the base beats to the cadence of sensual musk, cashmere wood and patchouli.
Palvin's runway debut was as an exclusive for Prada during Milan Fashion Week in February 2010. She has walked for Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Nina Ricci, Emanuel Ungaro, Christopher Kane, Julien MacDonald, Jeremy Scott, Vivienne Westwood, Etro, and opened a show for Chanel.

           

Raquel Zimmermann for Vogue ITALIA August 2011 by Steven Meisel.

Raquel wears a long silk dress with low décolleté and silver and rodoite Art Déco broach from Ralph Lauren Collection

"Belle Vere" VOGUE ITALIA June 2011 !!!

REAL BEAUITIES: Tara Lynn, Candice Huffine and Robyn Lawley in a very curvy Meisel editorial.
I always like those ‘Big is beautiful’ editorials, because they’re different and refreshing. However, I can’t help but notice that a lot of the times the ladies are naked, or just wearing lingerie.
Why is that? Isn’t the whole point of this is that readers can see that big girls can enjoy fabulous fashion just like anyone else?
To me it just screams “We couldn’t find any high fashion that would fit you, so you’ll just have to pose naked, sorry”.

Fashion houses usually have a a couple of complete sets of the collection after the runway show.
These sets are shown to big retail/wholesale clients (sacks, Neiman Marcus…etc) in the show room and used afterwards to send to fashion magazines for editorials.

The fashion mag sents a request with the piece they need and when they need it.
Of course these sets are all in models sizes (the same ones they used for the runwa).
The actual product that goes into the stores (which has more size choice) is still not ready at that point because editorial shooting happens way before the merch hits the stores.
I think the most important thing though is that all designers don’t want their clothes associated with big size women.
They sell the fantasy of perfection, tall, super thin young girls with perfect hair and skin..
This is definitely very different than what real women look like…

However, is it that crazy to find some less known designers who wouldn’t mind making a bigger size and get some recognition?
As much as I ‘love’ seeing the very same dress in 15 editorials, I always wonder why everyone goes for the same design by the same designer, instead of giving a chance to someone new and exciting.

Fashion is a huge business and there are very strict rules if you want to survive (as a magazine, brand, model, photographer…). Fashion magazines put mainly oufits by the few famous and big names on their pages.
Because at the end of the day these are the only designers who could afford to buy ads pages in the magazines.
These ads are the most important income for the magazine to survive as the sales of the hard copies is always down..
So it’s all about returning favours and working together for the interest of both the big names and the magazines themselves.
Meanwhile there are thousands of talentive designers who never get any opportunity to appear anywhere..

 Magazine: Vogue Italia
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Models: Tara Lynn, Candice Huffine and Robyn Lawley

VOGUE Portugal July 2011 Cover: Candice Swanepoel

Photographed by Steven Meisel, twenty two year old South African supermodel Candice Swanepoel is wearing Blumarine in a reprint from her editorial in the February 2011 issue of Vogue Italia as the cover girl for the July 2011 issue of Vogue Portugal.

The Vogue Italia magazine Editorial spread:

Magazine: Vogue Portugal & Vogue Italia.
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Model: Candice Swanepoel

Kristen McMenamy for VOGUE Italia June 2011 Cover!

Alexander McQueen retrospective in Vogue US, May 2011

“Savage Beauty,” a retrospective of Alexander McQueen’s stunning work, opens at the Costume Institute on May 4th.

Creative director Sarah Burton shares with Vogue US her memories of working at the late designer’s side. I had posted about this event before somewhere in April of this year. And I know I haven't been keeping myself up to date with the dates... So I just want to share this story again before May ends.

Photographed by Steven Meisel, featuring Coco Rocha, Karen Elson, Stella Tennant, Caroline Trentini and Raquel Zimmerman.

WIDOWS OF CULLODEN, FALL 2006

  
“The collection was about the 1745 massacre of the Scottish Jacobites by the English, which Lee felt so passionately about because of his Scottish family heritage, which his mother had researched. The women were the widows of the slaughtered army. This dress was actually based on my wedding dress—I got married two years earlier. We had to figure out how to make lace work in the round with those ruffles because Lee hated gathering. So we cut out all of the flowers from the lace and reappliquéd it on tulle to make our own fabric. This is the collection most people remember as the one with Kate Moss in a hologram."

VOSS, SPRING 2001

“So much of this show was about the collective madness of the world. It was presented in a two-way mirrored glass box in London, and the girls had bandaged heads, acting like inmates of a mental asylum. Lee wanted the top of this dress to be made from surgical slides used for hospital specimens, which we found in a medical-supply shop on Wigmore Street. Then we hand-painted them red, drilled holes in each one, and sewed them on so they looked like paillettes. We hand-painted white ostrich feathers and dip-dyed each one to layer in the skirt.”

SARABANDE, SPRING 2007

“The collection was based on Handel’s ‘Sarabande’ in the film Barry Lyndon. It was held in the round at the Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione in Paris, with classical musicians playing onstage under a giant chandelier. This dress had fresh flowers on it. We put them on just before she went out, and they started to fall off one by one as she walked. I remember people saying Lee timed it. We had a laugh about that. It was an accident!”

IT’S ONLY A GAME, SPRING 2005

“All the girls were dressed as chess pieces, and the show was choreographed as a chess game. It was about the chessboard of fashion. Lee did have foresight and a sense of humor! This is one of the two horse pieces. He made it by commissioning Steve Powell, a hospital prosthetics expert, to make the body. And the horsetails were from the same suppliers who make the plumes for the queen’s Royal Horse Guards.”

VOSS, SPRING 2001

“This is a straitjacket, a kimono with the sleeves strapped around the back, embroidered with raised birds and flowers, and the flowers on the hat were real. I saved all the showpieces from every collection because I’m an obsessive, obsessive hoarder. Sometimes Lee would look at them again, just to remember what he’d done with something. It was his dictionary he was building, really.”

US VOGUE GRACE CODDINGTON'S "The Twenties Story Fashion Shoot" for the September Issue, 2007!

An old woman is standing on the stone steps of the palace of Versailles, her fiery red hair flying about her face in the wind as she looks out at the beautifully tended gardens... 

“I think I got left behind somewhere because I’m, you know, still a romantic.  You have to go charging ahead; you can’t stay behind.”

This was Grace Coddington, the Creative Director of American Vogue and the star of  The September Issue, a documentary about how the inside environment of US Vogue magazine really is like!

I know I haven't posted anything about my favorite Fashion Editor, the Creative Director of US VOGUE, Grace Coddington. And I have acquired so much inspirations from her. So heres to one of my favorites among her works. Photographed by Steven Meisel, the shoot takes inspiration from the 1920s or the ROARING TWENTIES, to be exact! It was the Jazz Age and these pictures really portray the kind of lifestyles and fashion that had sprung up in those times. I love the free-flowing styles of dresses in the 1920s, mostly because of the rebellious nature that is stitched within them.

The above picture is the one from the shoot that had not come out in the actual issue because Anna Wintour thought it "too much Galliano" as is seen from the documentary film "The September Issue."
The problem is that while Wintour is all about the new, looking forward and crisp clean images, Coddington rightfully describes herself as a Romantic - her shoots revolve around a central story or character and the images created are soft and look as if they've come from some far away fantasy world. In my opinion that effect is much more beautiful than colour blocks, clean lines and hard faces.
I know its 2011 now, but what the heck!! I have a right to feature anything in my blog, right?? So,here are the other pictures from the shoot. Remember, these pictures really tell a story... Hope you all enjoy it!!

Fashion Editor: Grace Coddington.
Photographer: Steven Meisel.
Magazine: US VOGUE.