My favourite, Kate Moss caused a mini furor when she surprised guests at Marc Jacob's Louis Vuitton show in Paris this week, appearing on the catwalk in leather gloves and hot pants, smoking a cigarette. Kate rarely graces the catwalks these days so her appearance, strutting out in her custom LV outfit was a treat for the glitterati - just maybe not for those who adhere to the French law of no smoking inside public buildings.
This is why I love Marc Jacobs - he loves a stunt (Victoria Beckham in an over sized shopping bag, anyone?) With two of fashion's greatest showmen out of the picture (the late, great Alexander McQueen and John Galliano), we need all the surprises and stunts we can get! One of my favourite McQueen fashion show moments was his stunning Kate Moss hologram, screened at a show in 2006.
Lady Gaga was Alexander's muse and it was fabulous to see her making her catwalk debut, growling and gurning (and also smoking!) for Thierry Mugler, also at Paris Fashion Week. The spectacle was a bit of a pick-me-up for the fashion crowd following the news of Galliano-gate. (NEWSFLASH - Ricardo Tisci from Givenchy is being touted on the social media circuit as the replacement for John Galliano as Head Designer at Dior! Official confirmation pending...)
Although, we also still have the wonderfully irreverent Jean Paul Gaultier, who used to be dubbed the Enfant Terrible of fashion. He was the one who had Madonna walk his catwalk topless and invented her conical bras.
Madonna and John Paul Gaultier, 1992
JPG was also in the media recently for his inspired move of having beautiful Aussie/Croatian model Andrej Pejic walk in both his Men's and Women's Spring 2011 collections. Andrej is also flaunting a cigarette! Must've been the big trend in Paris this Fashion week!
And last but not least, we can't forget another Enfant Terrible of fashion, the British designer Vivienne Westwoood - Queen Viv. Having Pamela Anderson strut her runway at Paris Fashion Week in 2009 was inspired! In a way, you can see how the two have struck up a friendship - strong, kooky, crazy chicks!
Carrying on from my previous post, I love a curvy girl. And leading up to Christmas, this email has been sent to me by many a girlfriend. How very true. Curvy girls seem to always be smiling, they look like they shag a lot, eat good food and have a dam good time. Not angsting over how many calories they have ingested and pinching at their skin. Surely the stress would send you to an early grave, if that lack of nutrition didn't first.
It seems the fashion world has taken a shift lately in praise of models who are over a size 0. Last year, Size 18, Beth Ditto appeared on the cover of the inaugural LOVE magazine, and now has her own plus size line for sizes 14-32 at British store Evans.
'Curvy' Lara Stone goes from strength to strength (although she is not exactly large - but is quite Amazonian with those amazing legs and boobs).
In quite a scandalous statement for the fashion industry, in April this year Creative Director of Calvin Klein Francisco Costa vowed not to use any models under a size 0. "Calvin Klein has discontinued their use of the Size 0-2 Models and traded them in for a 2-4...a sign of the times indeed," Even 'Kaiser' Karl Lagerfeld - who has long been a lover of the skinnier models (saying in 2009 "Skinny models just look better") - featured 'plus size' model Crystal Renn three times on his catwalk this year:
The brilliant Andre Leon Talley from American Vogue said "Lagerfeld had cast the show with a slightly more curvaceous model named Crystal Renn, not seen on any Chanel catwalk before. This in itself was groundbreaking for the house, but there was also the return of personality models encouraged to be themselves instead of robotic look-alikes. 'Each girl was cast because of her sense of individuality,' Lagerfeld said enthusiastically."
Crystal Renn is also a firm fave of Jean Paul Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana and Tom Ford, who says has long been a fashion fave for her crazy curves, although she has shrunk somewhat of late. In her shoot for Tom Ford she is veritably tiny - but I love this shoot for ELLE Canada by Leda and St Jacques. The light, the colour, the angles, the makeup, the clothes,the pretty horses! Absolutely beautiful.
In another leap for normal sized women, Robert Duffy of Marc Jacobs announced in August this year that they will be creating a line of clothes for Size 14. "We are in talks now. For plus sizes," Duffy Tweeted. "Listen, we are in the very beginning stages of talking to a partner about plus sizes...We gotta do larger sizes" Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and YSL are rumored to follow suit. For his Fall 2010 Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs featured 'real women, using famously sexy, curvy models on the catwalk in an homage to 'and God Created Woman':
Alessandra Ambrosio, Coco Rocha, and Adriana Lima walking for Louis Vuitton Fall 2010French babe Laetitia Casta (fresh from her role as Brigitte Bardot in upcoming film) leading the charge, followed by a rare return to the catwalk by 'The Body' Elle MacPhearson and Victoria's Secret gals Bar Rafaeli, and my two faves, Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima.
Laetitia Casta, Bar Rafaeli, Adriana Lima, and Elle Macpherson, Louis Vuitton Fall 2010
Marc says of the show “I wanted a variety of ages and sizes. We set out to cast gorgeous women, women who feel happy to put their make-up on, get dressed up, get all their accessories.” “It’s a bit old-fashioned, I know, but I think it’s nice for a change.” French Vogue used a nude Crystal Renn here, and it is interesting to note that curvy bombshell Penelope Cruz guest edited the issue. Speaking of which, love these actresses with killer curves like Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Sofia Vergara, Scarlet Johansson, Christina Hendricks and Eva Mendes. They have figures like real girls - hips, boobs and bum. Va va voom!
Ever since Kristen Stewart rocked the plaid shirt in Twilight I have noticed a huge shift back to grunge - Pixies & Pearl Jam are touring, everyone is being seen in Doc Marten's, plaid shirt, opaque black stocking with floral button up dresses, velvet ribbon chokers and rocking the beanie. The High St stores are following suit & I even just scored a little black & ochre floral zip-up front number from the House of G!
Kim Gordon appeared on Gossip Girl as Rufus fondly waxes lyrical about touring in the early 90s. One show was even a flashback to the 90's - let's hope that spin-off eventuates! Speaking of Gossip Girl – little Taylor Momsen is channeling Courtney Love in a big way. And many celebs are doing the plaid-shirt-grunge- jeans style thing - Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen are the current Queens of grunge.
Courtney was a star in her day, I loved her style – baby doll dresses, shock of platinum blonde hair and a slash of bloody red lippie. Queen of cool. Even now she still features heavily in the top fash mags and has her own fashion Blog.
And yes, as usual it all comes back to my fave Kate Moss – the latest ‘Queen of Grunge’! Love her style and she has always kept the grunge look, adapting it with her rock chick looks and to the latest trends for the last 20 years. This article a year ago in The Sunday Times UK.
In the meantime, I’m rocking my Kate Sylvester Menswear plaid shirt, buttery soft and in beautiful blue, taupe & grey shades. While I’m a bit old for baby doll dresses, I’m also seeking out some neutral coloured floral dresses with button down fronts & cinched waists that I can throw on over black opaque tights with boots. My beanies will also be getting an outing. I just don’t know that I can go back to Docs - they take so long to break-in! Gotta be soft and slightly munted.
So, Kurt & Courtney’s rock progeny Frances Bean has just turned 18 and inherited an estimated 40% of her father's fortune. 18! My gosh, time flies!!! Seems like yesterday that a friend came to me saying “Oh my God I have heard this amaaaazing band, you’ll love them – Nirvana!” The rest, as they say, is history...
Grunge was born in the early 90’s in Seattle, with bands like Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden,Mudhoney and of course, Nirvana championing a look of plaid shirts, boots, baggy combat pants, woolly cardies & long lank hair. Of course it was all about the cold climate and being skint. I started University in Dunedin in 1991 and had no idea the clothes we were wearing were part of a worldwide phenomenon – I just thought it was what students wore in freezing cold Dunedin. We were all broke, living in freezing cold dilapidated flats with Jane’s Addiction, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the Pixies to keep us warm.
My standard outfit in 1991-1993 was Doc Martens, boyfriend’s work/Norsewear socks, beanie, fishnets, short velour culottes or Karen Walker Mini-Kilt (she was a fledging designer with a small boutique on High Street then), black tight polypropylene jerseys and about half an inch of smudged black eye-liner. I was in love with movies such as Singles, Gas Food Lodging, Natural Born Killers and Reality Bites.
We watched TV shows Twin picks (lumberjack chic) and My So Called Life, which had Clare Danes & Jared Leto running around in flannel shirts and leather chokers. There was no Paris Hiltons or Rihannas, styled to the hilt and desperately trying to get photographed kissing girls or gets tattoos for press. Grungy young actresses like Julia Roberts, Ione Skye, Milla Jovovich, Winona Ryder & Juliette Lewis (both ex’s of Johnny Depp – who continues to rock the grunge look today!) ruled. Quirky rock chick brunettes, who kicked around in jeans, floral print dresses & clompy boots who hung off rock stars. We were Gen-Xers man, slacker cool!
Winona Ryder & Janeane Garofalo in 'Reality Bites'
In 1992, New Yorker Marc Jacobs - now an über-fashion star but then a young designer - started working as Creative Director at fashion house Perry Ellis.
Jacobs had garnered a buzz in the industry via his friendship with the Supers who walked for him (Linda, Christy, Kate et al) and his super casual clothes which were made from plush, expensive fabrics (cashmere shrunken tees, etc).
In 1992, Jacobs showed the seminal collection that was based on the style he loved, grunge. Flannel shirts, cashmere disguised as thermal underwear, Doc Martens, beanies straight from the street culture came down the runway on the likes of Kate Moss & Kristen McMenamy. The fashion world was aghast and Jacobs and his friend Duffy - who was hired as the President of Perry Ellis - were fired. But whilst the collection was slammed by critics, it was lauded by the cool kids and has gone down in fashion history.
Interestingly, Jacobs sent the collection to grunge darlings Courtney & Kurt - they weren't impressed - “Marc [Jacobs] sent me and Kurt [Cobain] his Perry Ellis grunge collection . . . We burned it. We were punkers-we didn’t like that kind of thing.”
A few years into the trend in 1994, Time Magazine wrote ('If Everyone is hip...IS Anyone Hip' by Richard Lacayo):
"But at a time when the pavements are worn thin by Doc Martens, when every open door admits a file of backward baseball caps and soul patches, when jocks sell attitude and all of rock is supposed to be alternative -- hipness is bigger than General Motors...Such bands as Pearl Jam and Fugazi may be able to maintain their position without submitting to every industry demand for videos or major-label distribution...("Unless people start wearing lumber," says the performer and fashion watcher Sandra Bernhard, "there's not much more designers can do.")
Kim Gordon had her own label. “So this year's most up-to-the-minute design-wear house, X-Girl, owned by Kim Gordon of the rock band Sonic Youth, is hawking brightly colored tennis sweaters, polo shirts and floral-print shifts that hark back to the Lilly Pulitzers of the horsey set, circa 1973”.
Kim Gordon
Carolyn Murphy & family imitate Courtney & Kurt,Vogue, Rock The House (November, 2001)
To end - one of the most amusing movie scenes ever - My Sharona from Reality Bites. Take it away kids!away!
My favourite, Kate Moss caused a mini furor when she surprised guests at Marc Jacob's Louis Vuitton show in Paris this week, appearing on the catwalk in leather gloves and hot pants, smoking a cigarette. Kate rarely graces the catwalks these days so her appearance, strutting out in her custom LV outfit was a treat for the glitterati - just maybe not for those who adhere to the French law of no smoking inside public buildings. 
Lady Gaga and her stylist Nicola Formichetti during and after the show
Madonna and John Paul Gaultier, 1992
Andrej Pejic for John Paul Gaultier, Spring 2011
