Glamourama

This is one of my favourites from my all time fav designer Valentino from his Spring 2007 Ready To Wear collections. (Worn by our fav Aussie model, Gemma Ward). Vive le Valentino!

Fashionable Art

I would love to be able to draw and paint. The freedom to express your thoughts and desires on paper must surely be a liberating gift. (I can’t even draw decent stick figures).
One of my great loves is fashion illustration and amongst my favourites illustrators, that include David Downton, Izak, and Wai, is Michel Canetti.
After a career spanning more than 20 years, Michel Canetti is one of the world’s most successful fashion and advertising illustrators. Michel, who has been living in Melbourne since 1997, was born in Paris and graduated from the Sorbonne with a bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design and a Masters in painting restoration.
With a career that started with set design for Club Med, Michel Canetti has gone on to work for some of the most prestigious companies in the world including Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Givenchy, De Beers, Guerlain and major fashion publications such as Vogue and Elle. Advertising clients include Air France, Lux, Renault, Mercedes and Perrier.
In recent years, Michel has created images for Myer, Melbourne Fashion Week Victoria Harbour, and designed the poster for the Australian production of Dusty the musical.
Michel Canetti is a master at creating high fashion images that are sophisticated and elegant and his ability to capture femininity and beauty in minimalist style is unsurpassed.
If you appreciate and enjoy the art of fashion illustration, then you’ll certainly become a fan of Michel Canetti. If you’re in Melbourne in the near future, the Thierry B Gallery in Melbourne is currently exhibiting a collection of Michel Canetti canvases as part of the Art Melbourne 07 festival, or if you can’t make it personally, visit his website at www. michelcanetti.com

Madama Butterfly

VSF profiles one of the most theatrical and beautiful couture shows from Spring 2007. In a collection that uniquely combined Japanese geisha with 1940’s glamour girl, John Galliano created a masterful ensemble that showed his fashion genius remains firmly intact.

Inspired by the love affair between American sailor Lieutenant B F Piankerton and geisha Cio-Cio San, the lead characters in Puccini’s opera “Madama Butterfly”, the collection merged Japanese culture with Dior’s ‘New Look’ from 1947. Kiminos, origami, cherry blossoms, paper lanterns, fans and parasols were uniquely intermingled with peplum suits, full-skirted dresses and platform shoes.

Intricate embroidery, beading and unusual artwork such as a wave print adorned garments and intense colours such as peacock blue, fire-engine red, imperial purple and hot pink blend with soft shades of buttercup, coral and the palest lilac.

Spectacular geisha hairdos and headdresses of lace parasols, paper lanterns, crystal cherry blossoms and bamboo peasant hats showed that Galliano has lost none of his theatrical élan. Even geisha sandals were given a couture-style makeover and re-worked with a 1940’s platform twist.

The show’s elaborate makeup superbly complemented Galliano’s vision of a modern-day geisha girl.

Every dress in this masterful and breathtaking collection is fashion artistry at it’s best (and some are actually very wearable sans the elaborate accessories). John Galliano has created a collection of theatrical beauty and craftsmanship that proves he is still well inside the fashion radar.

Style Post Script:
Model coup. One of Australia’s favourite catwalk models, Alexandra Agoston, is now gracing international catwalks and was selected for the show.