FASHION Magazine

Katie Holmes is undoubtedly on the path to become more than just an A-list actress. Since her high-profile-yet-swiftly-resolved divorce from Tom Cruise, she’s reentered the spotlight as a fashion force. Her Holmes & Yang collection will make its New York Fashion Week debut next week and today rumours started swirling that Katie Holmes will be the face of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics.

When Katie Holmes first announced her divorce, we were all shocked by the move: up until a month ago, she seemed every part the dutiful wife, playing a supporting role to Tom Cruise’s megawatt presence. What we didn’t realize at the time was just how much Holmes would shatter that old image in the weeks to come.

Since that announcement, Elle’s oddly prophetic and impossibly well-timed feature on Holmes went viral across the web, Holmes’ legal team managed to pull off what must be one of the fastest settlements in celebrity divorce history (two weeks…two weeks!), Holmes snagged sole custody of Suri, taped an appearance on Project Runway and managed to make a series of almost daily public appearances around her home in New York City, looking impeccably put-together and serene each time (in other words, not acting or looking like someone who was going through a painful divorce).

What’s particularly admirable about these appearances though is the discrete marketing tactic implicit in them: with hoards of paparazzo clamoring for a picture outside her door every day post-scandal, Holmes very wisely chose to almost exclusively don none other than Holmes & Yang, her own line with former Cruise stylist Jeanna Yang, for her jaunts about town. As the New York Times puts it, the paparazzo shots have become “a stealth ad campaign,” one that’s been put into motion right before the brand’s first-ever showing at New York Fashion Week come September.

“The way she’s getting photographed today, she’s in a position to get more exposure than ever before,” Robert Burke, a former Bergdorf Goodman executive and fashion consultant, told the New York Times. “She’s not waiting for fashion editors and stylists to come and pull her clothes.”

Whether it’s a strategy or not, it’s worked: Holmes & Yang sales have skyrocketed at retailers like Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys. Whatever your feelings about the former Mrs. Cruise are now, you have to give it to her: she’s not the brainwashed sidekick we once thought she was.

Whatever your opinion of Katie Holmes might be, you have to give it to her: she doesn’t waste time moping after a breakup. While most of us would have maybe made it to our fourth Ben & Jerry’s bucket and gotten halfway through season six of Sex and the City (“The Post-it Always Sticks Twice!”), since announcing her impending divorce last week the soon-to-be-former Mrs. Tom Cruise has already taped an episode for Project Runway, landed herself on the cover of Elle and finalized plans for the debut of her Holmes & Yang line (with stylist partner Jeanne Yang) at New York Fashion Week this September.

In fact, it seems like now more than ever, Holmes is really kicking her fashion career into high gear. It kind of has us wondering: was this all a strategic move on Holmes’ part? After having played the role of demure, loyal wife to the charismatic Tom Cruise for five years, could it be that Holmes had plans to break out on her own all along?

If her upcoming August feature with Elle is anything to go off, she may have been planning the divorce shocker for a while. The New York Post managed to cull a couple quotes from the feature, including this particularly telling reflection:

“I definitely feel much more comfortable in my own skin,” Holmes apparently said. “I feel sexier. I think in my 20s, it’s like you’re trying too hard to figure everything out . . . I’m starting to come into my own. It’s like a new phase.”

A new phase that will evidently leave everyone’s favourite couch jumper in the dust. Holmes also hinted that Cruise’s star power may have been more of a hindrance rather than a help for her own career, saying, if anything “you work a little bit harder when you’re in such visible circumstances.”

Strategic timing or not, the fashion crowd is notoriously tough to please, so the real fashion test for the soon-to-be-singleton will be at NYFW this September. Until then, we can all keep ourselves entertained with round-the-clock TomKat updates (our personal favourite rumour so far: that Holmes had to audition to be Cruise’s wife).

Word: Coda

Meaning: The concluding passage of a piece of (classical) music; the conclusion of a book or film, often summarizing what happens to characters in the end, after the climax.

Usage: “The decade-long Potter franchise gets the finale it deserves, leaving rubble in its wake and providing fitting final bows for many of the beloved secondary characters, on its way to a brief coda that feels perfectly paced and entirely satisfying. Magical.” — from Chris Knight’s top-films-of-2011 listicle in the National Post.

It’s that time again. Toronto has rolled out the red carpet for an army of A-listers, all flocking to TIFF looking their most flashbulb-friendly. Sure, everybody has a “good side” in photographs, but no one works their angles (or, wrecks their angles, depending on who you ask) quite like a VIP.

Couture-clad celebutantes poised in the same goofy positions, doing the same silly faces, and looking all-around stupid for the paparazzi’s pleasure. So, which repellent poses take the cake? We’re all familiar with the traditional hand-on-hip and shoulder-peek-over, but FASHION has assembled a list of the top five posing offenses, and their frequent perpetrators, with tips on how to avoid making the same photo faux pas yourself.

View our posing tips! »

I love suit shopping (bathing suits, that is) and this season men’s swimwear is making a splash in Montreal. Finally, the St-Tropez brand Vilebrequin (vilebrequin.com) has opened its first Canadian shop at Ogilvy (1307 Ste-Catherine St. W., 514-842-7711, ogilvycanada.com). Known for its bright and quirky prints, this label’s fans include Prince William and Hollywood royals like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise. Now, if only Vilebrequin would design swimwear for women.