FASHION Magazine

Strategic cut-outs, thigh-high slits and body-con shapes: Sébastien Peigné and Nicola Formichetti of Mugler are bringing sexy back.

Reviving Mugler is a monster task. After designer Thierry Mugler took his final runway bow at his couture show in July 2000, this kinky house of cool (remember Demi Moore’s bondage-style dress in 1993’s Indecent Proposal?) started flatlining. Ten years later, the resuscitation began. In 2010, following months of speculation, Nicola Formichetti (Lady Gaga’s stylist) was tapped to lead the revival of the French house known for its over-the-top theatricality and sex appeal. Besides outfitting Mother Monster, this 34-year-old half-Italian, half-Japanese, techno-savvy superstar is also the fashion director for Vogue Hommes Japan and global retailer Uniqlo. His debut Mugler womenswear show during Fall 2011 Paris Fashion Week had the twitterverse buzzing about its latex-dipped leggings, body-stocking dresses and the catwalk pièce de résistance: Gaga, smoking in every sense of the word.

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See more spring beauty trends in our guide » Switching hair colour used to mean choosing from a menu of brunette, blonde or red. This spring, we’re flaunting temporary pastel strands and feeling like kids in a candy store.

The post Spring beauty report: Sugar shock appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

“This photo captures the essence of spring: everything is vibrant and new,” says Maarten Sluyter, FASHION’s current art director. “You can almost smell the fresh air. The model featured, Liisa Winkler, studied ballet, and she brings an air of elegance and spontaneity to this shot. Her pose evokes a sense of playfulness and highlights the voluminous skirt. I love that her hair isn’t perfectly in place; it goes with the natural setting and seems to mirror the leafy trees. This is what living in the moment looks like.”

Immerse yourself in maritime hues, oceanic prints and aquatic details.

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Trend report: Water World »

He’s one of the most influential hairstylists working today, but Orlando Pita would rather not be in the spotlight. Lesa Hannah manages to pin him down.

If you’re a beauty editor backstage at a fashion show and you want to interview Orlando Pita about the hair, you soon learn the following: If there isn’t a publicist to facilitate a chat, you’ll have to take matters into your own hands and approach him. Once you have him, be quick and to the point. Do not film him without his approval; if you raise your Flip camera unannounced during the interview, he will stop talking. Finally, for the love of God, do not ask how the real woman can recreate the look at home; his frustration with the question will be immediately apparent.

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!’”

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ALWAYS IN FASHION
42 Fashionmagazine.com What’s going on online.
46 Letter from the editor
48 Contributors
50 Behind the scenes
52 Letters from our readers

FASHION FILE
56 NEWS The return of the flapper girl, Roger Vivier’s 3-D new style, Maidenform celebrates a milestone, the model of the moment, and more.

When I was a newspaper reporter, the water-cooler chat often turned to “how we got the story.”

Investigative reporters would describe months spent wooing reluctant sources. Photographers would detail how they wound up in the right place at the right time. And foreign correspondents told tales of bribery and squalor.

Things aren’t quite so dramatic on the fashion beat, but we have our moments.

Runway photographer Peter Stigter, whose images you see throughout every issue of FASHION, often finds himself crammed onto a riser in show venues that are so stifling, the sweat from other shooters rains down on his head.