FASHION Magazine

See Christian Louboutin Design Exchange opening party photos »

Last night, lovers of the greatest name in footwear came to meet the man himself at the opening of Christian Louboutin’s retrospective exhibit at Toronto’s Design Exchange. The designer, who graced the crowd for a moment in the VIP room on the third floor said but a few words, the most important ones being “French and Canadians, we get along ok.” We’ll take it! With that ceremonious kick-off, the party, which had been on for an hour at that point, really revved up. Amidst three floors of Louboutin goodness, the crowd, which included actress Sarah Gadon, Jeanne Beker, socialite Krystal Koo, and Design Exchange president Shauna Levy, got down to the hip hop stylings of New York-based It girl/DJ Hannah Bronfman.

The exhibit itself is a fantastical treat for anyone who not only loves shoes but the naughty likes of Dita Von Teese as well. Brought to town by the London’s Design Museum curator Donna Loveday, the exhibit is comprised of a mini carousel, a garden and a hologram of Von Teese which set the quirky stage for 250 pairs of Louboutin’s most iconic and outlandish shoes since he opened his first boutique in 1991.

Fashion Television (RIP) was ahead of its time in several ways, and here is one of them: In 1985, when executive producer Jay Levine launched the program, he imagined it might become a channel for short narrative videos about clothing. Fashion films, now so inescapable a phenomenon, were then just a thought without a name: if music videos could revolutionize the way we consume pop, couldn’t a little cinematography do the same for clothing? The ’70s had seen then-living legends Guy Bourdin and Richard Avedon experiment with the moving image, and as film-recording cameras became less expensive, it seemed likely they’d land in the hands of younger, emerging lensmen. As MTV was to music videos, so might Fashion Television be to this new mode of image-making.

Word: Phantasmagorical Meaning: A series of random, fantastical events occurring as in a dream; kind of like surrealism minus the realism. Usage: “I wanted to be sure I was properly grounded before straying into treacherous territory: the nature of being in our phantasmagorical high-finance, high-tech era.” — a Salon.com review of the new Robert Harris […]

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Word: Paradisco

Meaning: A supranatural dance club? Music for the specially-abled? Nobody knows…

Usage: “In paradiscos, we get bored of breaking actors/Turning beggars and the heroes.” — Charlotte Gainsbourg, in “Paradisco”

Word: Coulrophobia

Meaning: The abnormal fear of clowns.

Usage: “In discussions of causes of coulrophobia, [most] seem to agree that the most fear-inducing aspect of clowns is the heavy makeup which, accompanied by the bulbous nose and weird color of hair, completely conceal the wearer’s identity.” — artofclowning.com

Right on the heels of announcing Emily Blunt as the new face of Opium, Yves Saint Laurent has released this teaser trailer announcing the fragrance’s return to the screen in December.

Watch out biographers! If you were considering writing a book on Karl Lagerfeld, you might wanna rethink your plans. [Elle]

Chanel’s Paris-Shanghai collection opened with a video–an imagined alternate history where Coco Chanel takes her first trip to China. In a potentially controversial move, Karl Lagerfeld styled his actors, including models Freja Beha Erichsen and Baptiste Giabiconi, as Chinese characters in yellowface. Lagerfeld defended his decision because of its homage to old films like The Good Earth and Madame Butterfly where European actors played Asian characters, saying, “People around the world like to dress up as different nationalities.” [WWD]

Famed fashion photographer Sam Haskins, who launched his book Fashion Etcetera at Milk Studios earlier this year, died last week at the age of 83. Haskins had suffered two strokes this year, which set him into a depression that led to his suicide.  [WWD]