Julia Alcântara
Manuella Lupascu
Izzy Bea
Joana Gröblinghoff
Austin Levine
Here's one fashion collaboration we never saw coming. Lindsay Degen, the Brooklyn-based designer known for her quirky knitwear and conceptual woven art installations, was tapped by Victoria's Secret to create a series of one-of-a-kind pieces for the Pink portion of last night's show. The VS team first discovered Degen back in March, during a chance encounter at a knitwear factory in midtown. They were taken with her "crazy" outfit—a loopy yellow onesie and matching oversize sweater—and immediately signed her to work with them on this year's show. "Degen [her namesake line] is always about doing something weird but lighthearted, and I don't feel like I compromised my aesthetic at all," the designer told Style.com. "While it wasn't necessarily an idea I would've come up with myself, I think the Victoria's Secret show represents fashion's ultimate over-the-top and fun side, so I was really proud to be a part of it."
VS provided Degen with a social-media theme and several desired silhouettes as a jumping-off point. From there, she let her imagination run wild. The result? Woolen long johns with smiley-face emoticons, fuzzy-pom-pom thigh-high socks, and miniskirts intarsia-ed with hashtags and phrases like "OMG" or "LOL." "I'm actually really bad at social media, so I have a really positive, fun, cartoony view of what it is, and was able to tap into that." A sheer, tiger-stripe bodysuit, worn by Jessica Hart, was made entirely from knitted fishing line (an original technique developed by Degen). "It was difficult to fit, because we didn't know who the model was going to be—I don't have the opportunity to work with supermodels—and I had to fit it to myself, like I always do," she said of the piece. "Obviously I'm not Jessica Hart-sized, and I worked on tailoring it to her measurements for two days straight before the show. When I finally saw it walking down the runway, I totally lost it and kept yelling 'Work' like a lunatic!"
Forget your average everyday ruffles. The flounces that count for Spring are exaggerated and bold. Bottega Veneta's Tomas Maier sculpted mille-feuille shapes on day dresses from a cotton woven with copper so that the fabric held its exuberant form. Dries Van Noten covered several of his finale numbers with clusters of voluminous, unfurling rosettes. Isabel Marant showed a one-shoulder frock featuring endless tiers of rippling tulle, and Mary Katrantzou whipped up printed baby-dolls decorated with both real and (for good measure) trompe l'oeil frills.
Walking the annual Victoria's Secret extravaganza is a milestone in any model's career. After all, it's as much about lighting up the stage with your personality (not to mention dance moves—who could forget Jourdan Dunn doing the robot last year?) as it is about having a killer body, and being able to smile while strutting with a pair of thirty-pound wings on your back. While there's no way to confirm exactly who will be appearing on the VS catwalk this evening alongside Taylor Swift, we've come up with an educated guess based on social media clues gathered over the past week, as well as shots from yesterday's rehearsal (like the one above, featuring Sara Sampaio, Martha Hunt, Jasmine Tookes, and Leva Laguna working the runway).
Of course there are bound to be appearances by veteran Angels such as Adriana Lima (it will be her fourteenth time participating in the show), Candice Swanepoel, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo, Doutzen Kroes, Lily Aldridge, Karlie Kloss, and Cara Delevingne. [Regrettably, Miranda Kerr announced she will be ending her contract with the lingerie megalith to pursue other projects.] Those aforementioned supers are all but givens at this point, and so it's the remaining twenty-plus coveted slots—selected by casting director John Pfeiffer—that really get us excited. cbamd.com has learned that several high fashion runway regulars will be making their VS debuts tonight: Sigrid Agren and Josephine Skriver (both posted snapshots of themselves sporting the official Angels bomber jacket on Instagram), as well as Ming Xi, Maria Borges, Kasia Struss, and Jac. We were even more thrilled to hear that some our top Spring '14 newcomers including Malaika Firth, Devon Windsor, Cindy Bruno, and Sara Sampaio also beat out dozens of more established girls to earn their first pair of wings.
Somehow, we're not shocked to see that Lady Gaga is back in the headlines today. This morning, WWD reported that Versace, who just collaborated with M.I.A. on a Versus capsule, is rumored to have tapped Mother Monster to star in its Spring '14 campaign. The ads were allegedly lensed by Mert & Marcus in London. And despite the fact that Mlle Gaga is perhaps a touch overexposed these days, it seems a fitting choice, considering the pop singer has been wearing the house's looks—vintage and new—since 2011. After all, there is a song dubbed "Donatella" on her new album.
Although you've definitely seen her influence, you may not have heard of Katy England. She isn't one for the street-style paps or the blogosphere—probably because she's too busy styling the collections of such talents as Riccardo Tisci, Tom Ford, and Marios Schwab to stop and strike a pose. During her twenty-year-and-counting career, England has built close relationships with Dazed & Confused and AnOther magazines (she previously held the role of fashion director at the latter), and served as the creative director of Alexander McQueen's studio from the mid-nineties to the mid-naughties. If you're still not impressed, we should tell you that she's styled covers and spreads with photographers such as Rankin, Nick Knight, and Willy Vanderperre, and currently works with one Kate Moss on her much-talked-about Topshop range.
England has just released Made in England, a short film, created in collaboration with Vauxhall, that focuses on the many facets of contemporary British youth culture. Here, the stylist talks to Style.com about her directorial debut, McQueen, and why fashion is for the young.
Sorry, Beliebers, it would seem that the pop star is too busy planning bike heists to make a repeat appearance at this year's Victoria's Secret fashion show. Taylor Swift, it was confirmed today, will take the stage during tomorrow's runway romp alongside Fall Out Boy, A Great Big World, and Neon Jungle. The announcement dispels earlier rumors that One Direction would perform—and we're not terribly surprised that the band isn't on the docket. A lingerie show is no place for a quintet of impressionable young boys (or, apparently, Swift's ex-boyfriends).
With a true vintage heritage, Nasty Gal is going back to its roots with the Ultimate Score, a collection of one hundred pieces of vintage Chanel clothing, jewelry, and bags. "I sold my first Chanel jacket on eBay in 2007," Sophia Amoruso, founder and CEO of NastyGal.com, told Style.com. "Since then we've continued to carry both non-luxury and luxury items in our vintage category…and today [customers are] still demanding more." Scoured from the best sources and secret spots, the stash includes pieces from the eighties and nineties that fit perfectly into the Nasty Gal closet, among them a leather backpack, logo-print blouses, crop tops, high-waisted trousers, classic boucle suits, and bags.
"There were definitely fashion moments we wanted to hit," Amoruso continued of the collection that's peppered with the black leather and gold chains of the eighties and the pastels and silver holograms of the nineties—even runway pieces from Spring '97 are on offer. "Chanel transcends culture. Coco Chanel was a visionary who broke rules and set the stage for generations of women after her to think and dress for themselves." The introduction of this luxe vintage range comes at a time when the savvy entrepreneur is upping her high fashion image. And these new finds—which, debuting exclusively here, will be available on the site from 9 a.m. PT today—embody the same spirit with which Amoruso built Nasty Gal.
What's old is new, according to Marc Jacobs. Today, WWD ran a lengthy interview with the designer about his departure from Vuitton and his plans to take his own company public. But amid questions about Jacobs' future, Bridget Foley inquired why, at his final show for Vuitton in Paris, did he decide to make the clock on his set run backward? "That was a very last-minute decision. I thought of Vivienne Westwood and World's End. The clock in front of World's End, the punk store on King's Road, ran backwards," explained Jacobs. "This was my cynical comment on everything that I had read from people like Cathy Horyn about what was new," he continued. "I had just been so fed up with hearing what's new and what's modern and all that stuff. One has to define what new is…. And then I went back to that Chanel quote, "Only those with no memory insist on their originality." So this thing of, like, there's nothing wrong with looking back. Looking back creates something new, which is exactly what I felt we did…we made a new collection for Louis Vuitton by looking back." Sometimes, you've just gotta turn back time to find the way.
Brace yourselves, shoppers: H&M is opening a new 7,000-square-foot megastore in Times Square. The retail complex—which will offer super-late hours of operation (Monday through Sunday until 1 a.m.), a virtual catwalk that projects images of customers onto exterior screens, interactive mannequins, the Isabel Marant collection, and a 53-foot glitter wall—is set to be christened by Lady Gaga during its ribbon-cutting ceremony at 12:01 on Thursday morning. Unsurprisingly, H&M's new digs will sell the pop star's latest album. Because if there's one thing we need more than a massive glitter wall, it's another reminder to buy Artpop.
Lady Gaga's album ArtPop was officially released today. And aside from the past month's leaked tracks and her already-praised "Applause"—which, may we add, includes a nod to Jeff Koons—we've been curious to hear "Donatella," the rumored ode to Ms. Versace. Well, the wait is over, and we can report that the song opens with what sounds like a champagne pour, followed by the spoken intro: "I am so fab./ Check out./ I'm blond./ I'm skinny./ I'm rich./ And I'm a little bit of a bitch." Naturally, we were not disappointed.
While the pop star's love of extreme sartorial self-expression is ever-apparent (did anyone not see the flying dress she wore to her art rave last night?),"Donatella," is a reminder that Mother Monster can appreciate a trend. After all, the pre-chorus asks, "What do you wanna wear this spring?/ What do you think is the new thing?/ What do you wanna wear this season?" Oh, Gaga. We thought you'd never ask!.
