FASHION Magazine

Online-shopping veteran Rebecca Tay explores the digital world of discount ready-to-wear while taking an exclusive tour of The Outnet’s HQ in London.

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Online-shopping virgins are rare these days. Any girl worth her weight in Wang (whether it’s Alexander or Vera) has not only done the deed but also experimented with the latest spine-tingling activity: trolling the web for designer discounts. Who hasn’t hit the sheets with their laptop primed for a little ready-to-wear rollback action? Half-price Lanvin ballet flats? Yes, please! Erdem floral dresses for a fraction of their original price? Click: “buy!” E-boutiques like Shopbop, Asos and Net-A-Porter have huge followings, but the new stars of the online retail world are the luxury-good bargain hunters. When it comes to these price-choppy waters, The Outnet is the mother ship, drawing more than one million unique visitors every month. It was launched in 2009 as an offshoot of Net-A-Porter, which was one of the first companies to offer designer brands online. With more than 200 high-end labels to browse, including Stella McCartney, Marni, Balmain and Marc Jacobs, this site is a destination for marked-down must-haves. Boots that once cost a month’s rent are now $200; almost everything, from Alexander McQueen to Zac Posen, is 50 to 70 per cent off. It’s a virtual dream, but I get the chance to see if this fairy-tale land of luxe-for-less really exists beyond the screen when I receive an exclusive invitation to spend a day at The Outnet.

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In what may be the best fashion play-by-play of all time, Karl Lagerfeld is set to live commentate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee on June 3 for French television. We’re having flashbacks to last year’s Royal Wedding where the Kaiser let his (totally correct) opinions on some less-than-royal wears be known (think “ugly hats,” “bad proportions” and the like), while pointedly refusing to even discuss the Queen’s sensible buttercream suit. With no Alexander McQueen confections to distract, we bet this year’s commentary will be entertaining, to say the least. As a proudly French citizen with no allegiance to the Queen, we bet the Kaiser’s sharpening his biker-gloved talons as we speak.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are officially engaged, so move over Will and Kate, because it’s been dubbed the “true wedding of the century.” (Believe us, we wish we were lying.) Hyperbole aside, the news has spurred a million questions: What will she wear? Will Brad shave his god-awful beard? Will she Angeleg at the altar? Has Brad been practicing his lines to avoid pulling a Ross-says-Rachel at the wedding?

View every look Kate’s worn since her engagement »

The only thing better than one Kate Middleton is four Kate Middletons! Madame Tussaud’s has created wax works to be unveiled in London, New York, Amsterdam and Blackpool. Each figure cost £150,000 and required four months of work from sculptors, colour artists and hair stylists.

There are a few outfits that have had a lasting impact on society. Kate Middleton’s blue Issa engagement dress, for example. Marilyn Monroe’s white dress in The Seven Year Itch. Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl halftime show costume. Okay, maybe not that last one.

Amongst that iconic list, the pink bouclé suit Jackie Kennedy wore the day her husband, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated (she famously refused to take off the bloodstained jacket), stands out. In fact, it was so iconic that Carine Roitfeld told Tim Blanks it was the first Chanel piece she recognized: “The first Chanel jacket that I saw–that I knew was Chanel–was on TV. It was on Mrs. Kennedy–the pink one.”

Sorry, Carine, but it looks like you “knew” wrong. Karl Lagerfeld quickly countered, saying it was a line-by-line fake. Wait, Jackie Kennedy wore fake Chanel?!

Well… not exactly. While the Kaiser seems to think Oleg Cassini made the line-by-line copy, consensus is it was actually tailored at the Chez Ninon dress shop in New York. Apparently, the store had received the OK from Chanel to copy the dress and used Chanel fabrics, buttons and patterns to make it.

It appears Kennedy wore the “knockoff” (though with Chanel’s approval, it probably can’t be classified as one) suit to show patriotism and support American clothiers. And considering all the fuss that was made when Michelle Obama wore Alexander McQueen (not American) to the Chinese State Dinner, we think we can understand why she went in that direction.

Either way, the iconic suit will be locked away in a vault in Maryland until 2103. Chanel or not, this is one piece of fashion history we’d love to have seen.

View our picks » “You want volume? I’ll give you volume.” That seemed to be Sarah Burton’s thinking for the Fall 2012 Alexander McQueen collection. The show opened with white jacquard skirt suits featuring fluffy collars that extended from chin to elbow then moved into doily dresses with arcing sleeves and hips. Pink puffballs of Mongolian […]

The post PFW Diary: All the volume (and we mean volume) at yesterday’s Alexander McQueen show appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Princess Diary
By Dennis Hensley

Lily Collins embarks on a thoroughly modern fairy tale with her first starring role,
as a sword-fighting, prince-saving Snow White.

When Lily Collins arrived for her first costume fitting as Snow White on the Montreal set of Mirror Mirror, she assumed the most fabulous getups would go to her co-star Julia Roberts, who plays the evil queen. “I saw all these dramatic, colourful, amazing outfits and I thought, ‘Wow, Julia’s so lucky,’” says the 23-year-old British-born actress who’s best known for playing Sandra Bullock’s daughter in The Blind Side. “And then they started bringing them in, and I said, ‘Is this for me?’ The first outfit took 25 minutes to get into, and when I looked in the mirror I got teary-eyed.” Then there were the elaborate sets; she describes a giant indoor forest and 40 tons of salt for snow. “I was sprinting through this huge room of trees, in my ball gown, sword-fighting, going up cliffs,” she marvels. “When the crew brought their kids onto set, they would see me and start crying. They were like, ‘Blanche Neige!’”

View Lily Collins’ wardrobe picks »
Read the interview with Lily Collins »

Some of the top Fall runway trends made their way deep into red carpet territory tonight, as the A-listers put on Hollywood’s biggest and best parade. From the rich reds on Emma Stone and Natalie Portman seen this season on the runway at Michael Kors, to the crisp whites on Gwyneth Paltrow, Rooney Mara, and Octavia Spencer seen at Raf Simons‘ last Jil Sander collection (not to mention everywhere at the Golden Globes), to the peplums spotted on Michelle Williams, Tina Fey, and just about every runway from New York to Milan, it seems that everyone is drinking the same Kool-Aid. But who did it best? We’re loving Gwyneth, Michelle, Jessica, Rooney, and Angelina (her right leg gets a special shout-out), but who makes your cut? Check out our top 12 picks and vote for your favourite after the jump!

See the red carpet photos »
Vote for your favourite »

We’ve been longing for some spectacular—as in, spectacle-laden—fashion since the days of Alexander McQueen’s Widows of Culloden hologram and Galliano’s snow tunnel. And then came McQ’s Fall 2012 finale starring model and actress Kristen McMenamy (all masterfully caught on video).

The grey-haired fashion doyenne (with her tresses in what we can only describe as a cross between a ‘50s pin-up ‘do and a Twister bagel) closed the show in a white tulle wedding gown. But in true McQueen style, McMenamy does so much more than just strut down the runway; she discovers a rope hidden in the floor and artfully prances around follows it.

As she reaches the end of the catwalk, the brick wall disappears only to be replaced by 60 real-life trees straight out of Harry Potter’s Forbidden Forest (we literally gasped) and a little cottage with pulsing lights and techno music. Now that’s our kind of rave.

We think this is a brilliant PR move for the lesser-known brand, which has been trying to realign itself with its eponymous big sister since the two recoupled in 2010. Both Sarah Burton and François Pinault (chief executive of McQueen’s parent company PPR and, more famously, Salma Hayek’s husband) have acknowledged that they are trying to elevate McQ to new sartorial heights. And wow, have they ever succeeded.

Nothing like a surefire collection to make stock market bells ring, right? At Michael Kors’ Fall 2012 showing—the first since his company went public in December—he pulled out all the stops to make the registers go ka-ching. The celeb-filled front row, including Jessica Alba, Stacy Keibler, Anjelica Huston, and Debra Messing (and me, in case you were wondering), oohed and ahhed over the heritage-style buffalo-check skirts, overcoats, and capes, the sequined flapper evening gowns, and the ultra-glam layered furs. The designer’s colour of the season, red, was particularly winning on a retro tailored overcoat combo’d with removable fur collar that was elongated to one side. It was that Bay-blanket feel but double the luxe.

From ladylike lace to colourful clashing prints, we present your complete guide to Spring 2012’s freshest new runway looks.

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