FASHION Magazine

Last night’s Fashion Blows, held in The Room at Hudson’s Bay Queen Street and named for the late fashion maverick Isabella Blow, was a fashion feast, between the guests (Stacey Jordan and Amoryn Engel in feathered headdresses! A turbaned Nicholas Mellamphy in embroidered Vika Gazinskaya robe!) and the trippy McQueens on display from Blow’s own […]

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See our favourite MET Gala looks and predictions »

It’s been a couple of months since the last big red carpet event and let’s face it: what is fashion without the red carpet? Since May is just around the corner, this only means the biggest fashion event of the year, the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala in New York. This year’s exhibit, PUNK: Chaos to Couture, will feature around designs for both men and women focusing on the evolution of punk’s influence in the world of fashion since the birth of its movement in the 1970s to its present day.

With punk theme as the focus, who better than to have punk’s latest muse, actress Rooney Mara, and Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci as this year’s co-chairs alongside Anna Wintour and Moda Operandi’s Lauren Santo Domingo? Not usually associated with punk, Beyonce was named Honourary Chair of the event as if her show-stopping Givenchy dress at last year’s MET Gala was not enough of a reason to be given this honour.

Celebrity jewels and clothing have become quite the draw at auctions, with dresses and jewels that once belonged to the rich and famous easily fetching millions. Just last week, two hats worn by Kate Middleton hit the auction block, raising more than $11,000 for charity. Daphne Guinness also auctioned off some of her prized fashion pieces in the name of charity, as did Elizabeth Taylor, whose collection of clothing and jewels garnered a record breaking $157 million. The Taylor auction also attracted several celebrity bids—Kim Kardashian purchased three of Liz’s Lorraine Schwartz diamond and jade bangles for $64,000, and Coco Rocha surprised herself when she walked away with Taylor’s yellow and pink Givenchy jumpsuit that she wore to the Met gala this year. We’ve rounded up 10 celebrity fashion picks that fetched a pretty penny at auction, and we think the piece that went for the biggest bank might surprise you.

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A piece of fashion history could be yours as The Daphne Guinness Collection hits the auction block tonight. Daphne Guinness, the heiress-turned-fashion-icon, has put 102 pieces of haute couture and runway fashion from her personal wardrobe up for auction with Christie’s auction house. The collection — which includes pieces from Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Christian Lacroix and Christopher Kane — reflects the quirky sense of style that has made Guinness a muse and friend to some of the biggest names in fashion, including the late Alexander McQueen.

Crammed into stylist Roslyn Griffith Hall’s downtown Toronto home are vintage bust forms, antique leather shoes, tarnished metal spoons and keys, animal skulls and bones, ceiling-high stacks of Rubbermaid tubs filled with fabric swatches, and racks upon racks of clothes and shoes. “A lot of it is stuff I’ve gathered over the years for shoots, to make into art or to use for my jewellery collection [Fitz & Fur],” she says. “I love rust, so I have all these rusty old horseshoes, pulleys and weights. And then I have all these boxes and trunks, like this old Indian one, and inside each one, there’s more stuff. Surprise! It’s like those Russian nesting dolls.”

From the downtown sights of this latest batch of photos, it looks like the Lower East Side has hit Paris. Spotted outside the Gareth Pugh show yesterday: It boys in the making, and the heroin chic look making a comeback. Also spotted, Daphne Guinness in tightly wrapped tights, that we imagine were made by Pugh.

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Word: Sangfroid

Meaning: Coolness and imperturbability in the face of difficult things.

Usage: “They looked like everybody else, nondescript. They shared in the torpor of the town and in its puerile agitations. They lost every trace of a critical spirit, while gaining an air of sang-froid.” — Albert Camus, The Plague

Next up on our list of industry insider bags, we’re going inside the 3-in-1 Céline stunner belonging to the Tehran-born, Toronto-based jewellery designer, Maryam Keyhani. Anyone who knows Keyhani knows that her superbly artsy personal style comes part and parcel with her superbly artsy designs. She’s rarely seen without a top hat or some sort of trompe l’oeil. The contents of her bag reflect this sense of style, as well as how awesome she is in general.

Let’s explore! »

Daphne Guinness’ collection with M.A.C Cosmetics launches next week, but before you choose which pieces to add to your collection, she has a few tips about experimenting with makeup. Via an interview with Stylelist: “Yesterday I was using nail polish as lipstick. It’s just experiment after experiment.”

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See all our top picks from the Daphne Guinness for M.A.C. collection »

Daphne Guinness is (once again) bringing her style to beauty counters with a M.A.C. Cosmetics collaboration. The collection will hit stores on Boxing Day and, because the most fashionable things are only available for a limited time, they’ll be on sale until February 9, 2012. (Though, we suspect they will sell out long before then.)

Word: Glamourflage

Meaning: “To wear Brobdingnagian accessories in a stylized effort to shield or distract.” — from a Sunday Styles profile on celebrity stylist June Ambrose

Usage: “As a teenager in the ’80s, she dressed in elaborate get-ups to glamour-flage her severe acne.” — from the same article

Here are our first pics from Paris fashion week, from outside Gareth Pugh. Just as we’ve come to expect from the wonderful Lewis Mirrett, these shots are breathtaking. The French just know how to do it well.

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