FASHION Magazine

In a strange but beautiful move, Kanye West has teamed up with fashion film icon Ruth Hogben (who’s worked with everyone from Gareth Pugh to Louis Vuitton) to produce a music video for “Lost in the World”—a single off his long-ago released album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

The black and white video (a signature of Hogben’s style) opens up with a warning that “strobe effects are used in this video,” a.k.a. things are about to get crazy… and do they ever. A group of dancing models gyrate around while dressed in sheer shirts (how very Kanye)—basically the video looks like a ‘90s Gap commercial on acid.

Stop the presses! Kim Kardashian has officially moved on from professional sports players to polymath rappers. The mono-high pitch-toned reality star has been dating hip-hop mogul Kanye West for—get this—a whole two weeks. You know it’s serious because that’s like the length of her entire marriage to Kris Humphries.

The media got wind of the now highly publicized “showmance” after Kim was spotted leaving Kanye’s apartment the morning after their Hunger Games movie date in last night’s leather pants and a hickey. Later that day, Yeezy had the entire piano floor of FAO Schwarz roped off so Kim and him could get a lesson on how to play “Chopsticks” Big-stylez. Okay, that’s kind of cute extravagant.

In fact, a source told Us Weekly that Kanye thinks Kim is “his Beyoncé.” Next we’ll be hearing him say he wants a baby named Red Lichen. Come on. This cheapens the deep love that is Jay-Z and Beyoncé (have you seen her Tumblr? We teared up).

All right, all right. Maybe it’s true love. After all, Kim and Kanye do have some really important things in common: 1. Their names both begin with K! 2. They love the spotlight more than they love themselves! 3. They both have really bad fashion lines/collaborations (see this and this)!

Hmmm, we smell something fishy and it’s definitely not Kim’s fragrance line. For starters, West is no stranger to the odd publicity stunt. In 2007, the rapper faked a feud with 50 Cent when their competing albums were released on the same day, and later admitted to it.

Not to mention convenient timing: West just previewed his new track “Theraflu” in which he raps that he “fell in love with Kim.” Every story on the pair mentions the new single, leading people to YouTube the song (guilty). And listen to it (guilty). And maybe even put it on their iTunes wishlist (guilty). As for Kim, well, it’s obvious she could use a little positive press after her 72-day-long marriage.

Just when we thought the world had enough (or one too many) celebrity clothing lines, Rihanna decided to give us another one. Yes, the Barbadian singer took to On Air with Ryan Secreast to announce her intentions of launching a fashion line of her own.

While RiRi doesn’t actually have any design chops of her own (then again, when has that ever mattered before?), she intends on earning the respect of the fashion industry by working closely with designers:

“This is also a road that I want to earn it. So I’m working with designers. Designers that I respect, and [fashion] companies that I respect. I want people to really trust me before I just say ‘Buy it, because it’s mine.'” Hmmm, is this starting to sound suspiciously like Kanye West part 2 to anyone else?

To be fair, Rihanna does have some serious commercial power behind her. After being spotted on the Jonathan Ross Show in head-to-toe Boy London, UK retailer Selfridges saw sales of the brand soar 45 per cent overnight. And then there’s her two-year-strong “design collaboration” with Emporio Armani (though the word “collaboration” has literally lost all meaning to us ever since Lindsay Lohan pastied Ungaro).

Maybe we’ll be eating our words in a year’s time, but we’re not too optimistic. While the singer has had some major fashion wins of late (think: her “self-designed” Armani Grammy gown) sometimes her taste is just a tad questionable. Remember her Thug Life tattoo? We do. And frankly, we’re not #overit.

It brings a tear to my eye that London Fashion Week is almost all over for another season—but my feet are not-so-silently rejoicing. A 9 a.m. start at Peter Pilotto meant leaving the house just past 8 this morning, but it was worth it. The Topshop venue, which is the old Billingsgate Market this season, always serves up coffee, tea, and all sorts of yummy dishes (yesterday there was a creamy soup with truffle oil; today there was porridge for breakfast); there’s also the NewGen pop-up where I scored the Erdem tank with a blue porcelain print and white lace collar and the Mary Katrantzou floral tee. Breakfast, shopping, and a show? Every day, please.

Ready or not, Kanye West’s PR agency, Karla Otto, has confirmed that his much-talked-about, self-titled collection will be returning to Paris Fashion Week on March 6.

On Sunday, the rapper-turned-designer tweeted, “Pardon me…do you have crepe chiffon?” Yeezy does red carpet? Might be a step in the right direction in comparison to his last production, which has been described as “being subjected to an hour long MRI scan—but not as much fun.”

So what do we know about the line so far? Well, West made clear in his now infamous Twitter rant that the name of his self-funded line is Kanye West and not DW. Also, he’s been working in London and getting some much-needed help from big-time designers but details of the show have been kept under wraps. Here’s hoping for another informative two-hour twitter post to fill in the rest of the blanks.

We have to give it to him for getting back on the horse, but if this collection is another flop we hope it will at least inspire a Taylor Swift–esque tell-all rap song?

The final city of FASHION’s spring preview, Paris! We round up the highlights from fashion week in the city of love.

View our editor’s picks »

From hot spots to celebrity front-rowers, London fashion week was brimmed with hot designer collabs, florals and balloons!

View our editor’s picks »

Word: Sexploded

Meaning: To seek out and destroy a person and/or their relationship with the full summons of your sexual powers.

Usage: “Confirmed: Kim Kardashian Sexploded Kanye West and Amber Rose‘s Relationship.” — headline on jezebel.com yesterday

Last night (read: 4 a.m. his time) Kanye West took to took to his preferred forum to rant, muse, and philosophize, Twitter! Never one to mince words, West produced a series of over 70 tweets about everything from his time as an undercover Fendi designer to his thoughts on the VAT tax. His tweets culminated with the announcement of his plan to create an all-encompassing think tank, DONDA. (Yeah, you’ll be hearing that word every five seconds for the rest of your life.)

We summarize his best fashion tweets »

Going backstage at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show is likely on every guy’s fantasy to do list. In reality, the Angels/models are actually in more clothing backstage than they are on the runway, and sorry to disappoint, but they’re too busy with hair and makeup to engage in any frivolous antics. However, this didn’t stop Kanye West. While going through a collection of backstage pics, we couldn’t help but notice his presence among Doutzen Kroes, Alessandra Ambrosio, Joan Smalls, and the other Angels. After all, the only other males backstage were those working the show, making Kanye’s picture posing stand out even more.

Play “one thing here is not like the other” and check out all the backstage pics »

Word: Coup

Meaning: a takeover; the usurping of ruling powers.

Usage: “I feel sure that coups d’état would go much better if there were seats, boxes, and stalls so that one could see what was happening and not miss anything” — Edmond and Jules de Goncourt

Has True Blood fever hit France? In celebration of Carine Roitfeld’s new book, Irreverent, she held a vampire ball in Paris last night where fashion’s biggest stars were expected to dress up and get into character. Naturally, some were more enthusiastic than others. Riccardo Tisci showed up with fake blood dripping from his mouth and Anna Dello Russo wore a Stephen Jones X Giles scarlet swan feather headdress that she described as “aggressive.” Other partygoers like Kanye West and Karl Lagerfeld dressed as per their usual. Perhaps they didn’t get the memo. Perhaps Kanye was still mid-fit.

Is Roitfeld is a Bill or Eric fan? We’re hoping the latter.