Halloween 2012

I had mixed emotions as I looked at the calendar this month and found that my favorite Holiday, Halloween, would fall on, by far, the scariest, most confusing and ultimately most expensive days of the week- Wednesday. 

Known as hump day to those of you working a 9-5 for none of the reasons that you wish it was called that, Wednesday is the furthest day away from the weekend and therefore the most taxing when it comes to party Holidays. The most notable dilemma after figuring out what to wear, is of course trying to figure out when to where it! Then having to decide what to wear for all SIX of the nights of parties.

While some may find this taxing, I like to think of it as a challenge to change my point of view when it comes to my closet.  What was once a belt, could now somehow be appropriate as a costume… namely as Jodie Marsh, if anyone in America knew who she was, because if there is anything that is requisite in a Halloween costume it’s that it has to be sexy.  This year I had to somehow come up with 6 different costumes for the 6 nights of the week, Friday – Wednesday, that Halloween will be raging this year for a range of parties that could only happen in The City of Angels. 

Friday night there was the Kandy Halloween party at the Playboy Mansion with performances by LMFAO and Diddy, over 1,000 scantily clad girls in flammable underwear and of course Hugh Hefner surrounded by not so virginal youths in vampire teeth- all irony seemingly lost on the surrounding party guests.  Saturday, it was a Brit night when I picked up shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood and headed over to the star of Revenge, Ashley Madekwe’s Halloween party at Hyde with her entire cast including fellow Brit Josh Bowman dressed as “Where’s Wally”.   Sunday, just when we were in the mood for a movie and some takeaway, we dressed again and it was up to the hills for Paris Hilton’s Halloween bash at hers with none other than the Swedish House Mafia djing.  Monday saw an Eyes Wide Shut meets CBGB’s Rock n Roll Masquerade Ball at the very first Midnight Vulture Social Club at Vignette on Melrose with ghoulish burlesque shows  and on Tuesday…  even the wicked rested. 

Coming up with costume ideas in a town where you are most likely to be standing beside the person who immortalized the character you are dressed as on the big screen can be exhausting so I’ve come up with my own recipe for Fancy Dress: A little naughty and a little nice with a dash of cheeky all wrapped up in designer clothes that has yet to fail me.

This Halloween Night I plan to don a pair of black and gold platform Charlotte Olympia shoes,  a sexy pink Agent Provocateur underwear set complete with hold ups, just barely covered up by a beautiful hand painted vintage kimono held together by a corseted Dolce and Gabbana belt and topped off with my favorite fancy dress accessory- a huge pink Care Bear head. 

Where I’ll go, I still don’t know as the destination and host of the party invitation I have is kept is spookily under wraps like a 1990’s rave in Manchester to add to the fear factor. But whatever is in the works, you can be sure that if it’s in Los Angeles and it’s on Halloween it’s going to be hot- and I don’t mean the temperature. 

Contributing Editor: Margo Stilley 

Skyfall: Royal World Premier 

The name’s Max. Leon Max. Works every time doesn’t it? Well that gag was all the rage last night in London which saw the most glamorous film premiere in years landed on the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington; for the new Bond film, the 23rd in fact, Skyfall. It might have been the fact that the reviews have been very good. It might have been it was a grand gala premiere in the Royal Presence of the Prince of Wales and the fragrant Duchess of Cornwall. Or it might have just been that London was in the mood to party, either way a huge cheer went up when Daniel Craig - Bond - alighted onto the red carpet. Even he admitted it was the best of the films yet. But these films and last night were about one thing - the Girls and the Glamour. London beauty and Bond girl Naomie Harris was there. And Craig had his wife siren, Rachel Weisz on his arm. But then there was also the new Bond girl, Berenice Marlohe looking to die for. She even went one step further than the others and changed into Frock No.2 for the glam after party thrown in the industrial environs of the Tate Modern. There the Fiennes family was also out in force, actor Ralph phalanxed either side by his sisters, Sophie and Martha, both film directors. They were suitably impressed by the decor - the main hall of the art gallery was cast as a Shanghai street scene replete with Chinese Dragon. The real deal.

Contributing Editor: Richard Dennen

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Mario Testino Exhibit: “In Your Face”

Could there be a better time to head to Boston? If Mario Testino thinks now is the time then maybe it’s a good idea - because where the Peruvian photographer goes the fashion flock is sure to follow. “In Your Face” is the first stand alone US exhibition from the world’s most glamorous photographer - from Kate Moss to Kate Middleton, is there anyone fabulous he hasn’t shot? And many of them turned out for the preview night earlier in the week. Joan Smalls joked of how Tower of Babel-esque his technique was on shoots as he snaps from one of the four languages he speaks to another barking orders at subject and crew. Gisele was there too laughing about how he was the only photographer who’d managed to get her bottom onto the cover of a magazine. Still, Boston did seem a perverse choice for the great Testino’s first US stand alone show. What was that all about? “I once did a talk  at the Museum and thought there was such a nice crowd. The director then asked me about doing an exhibition I was surprised that a city that seems to me quite conservative would be interested in my work,” Testino explained. It was.

“In Your Face” is at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from October 21.

Contributing Editor: Richard Dennen 

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Mia Pearlman Art Installation at Maxstudio Westbourne Grove

Last December at Art Miami Basel Mia Pearlman was the talk of the town. Young, hot and cool makes you a hot shot and cool cat on that scene. A New Yorker, Pearlman is all of these things. But she’s also the woman of the moment when it comes to paper. Lots of paper. She is an artist who uses paper to make pieces of living, breathing art that deals with the natural world and uncertainty. She’s currently got exhibitions of her work being held in Spain and Rome, as well as a giant cut paper installation on view at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. And as if that wasn’t enough she’s working on a huge, permanent indoor-outdoor site specific installation for Liberty Mutual’s new headquarters in Boston (which will be made of stainless steel and aluminum) as well as a another steel project for the NYC subway and a cut paper sculpture in a show in Manchester, England. “To me the most interesting thing that’s happening in art is the use of the internet,” explains Mia from the Leon Max store on Westbourne Grove, London where she has been putting the finishing touches to her latest commission, “artists from all over the world have access to each other’s work and to resources, images, information, collectors, fans and ideas in a way that was never before possible.” She is mad about other sculptors  (for example, Richard Serra, Judy Pfaff and Louise Bourgeois) and loved seeing the Tony Craggs installed near the V&A in London. “But I am just as influenced by nature, imagination, and travel,” she explains, “My recent work has been deeply influenced by the Italian Baroque, as a result of the time I’ve spent in Rome, and by Japanese screen painting of the Rinpa school.” She also loves fashion. “Artists and fashion people are interested in many of the same things but express it differently: color, form, texture, personal expression, timeliness, innovation,” she says. For Mia after a day at the artistic grind stone she morphs into silk dresses. “I like Sexy, beautiful,” she says, “in colder months I tend toward skinny denim or velvet jeans with a dramatic, sculptural top.” Trend-wise she is very influenced by the 1930’s, and watches movies from the period for fashion inspiration. “I also collect art deco furniture,” she adds, all about the aesthetics of the 20’s and 30’s. “My style is glamorous, grown up and heavy on jewel tones and geometric prints. I love draping, asymmetry and interesting yet figure-flattering cuts. I’m a stickler for perfect fit and impeccable construction,” she says. And her buy of the season? “A pair of red suede shoes to wear with my new black wool Leon Max cape, of course.”

Contributing Editor: Richard Dennen

Maxstudio Autumn at the Ain Koenig House

The featured imagery is from the ready-to-wear Autumn 2012 photoshoot held at the Ain Koenig house in Hollywood, CA. The shoot highlights Maxstudio casual knits, leggings and accessories which are seasonal must-haves. The imagery captures the ease of California living while highlighting the modernism and simplicity of the house designed by Gregory Ain with a guest house designed by Pierre Koenig. In the shots highlighted above notice the asymmetrical draping of the sweater and the role it plays in enhancing the graphic nature of the steps. Such use of shape in both clothing and architecture is seen throughout the shoot in further imagery to be featured throughout the season.

The Devil Wore Chanel

Every fashion editor since the ’60s has been considered it their relationship to Diana Vreeland - the great, the glorious, the waspish goddess of high fashion who coined the word ‘Pizzazz’ and changed the face of fashion editorial. She was the archetypal eccentric, flamboyant, tyrant who could give left field pronouncements from everything from hemlines to pink being the navy blue of India. Immordino Vreeland never got the opportunity to meet her husbands grandmother, but using archive news and audio recordings she has spun a documentary around the life and interests of the first pop star, in ‘The Eye Has to Travel.’ It was this editrix who after being fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar went on to rule Vogue from 1962 to 1971 with an cool, calm and icy grip. Gone were the dowdy socialites and in was Hollywood. Gone were the stilted, carefully crafted studio shoots and in were editorials from far flung, random corners of the world. Though she had never visited Mongolia or Russia she had done so in her mind. Her imagination was wild. Living with such a tough eccentric visionary may not have been easy for her sons who give a the documentary its personal slant, Immordino Vreeland may have been fortunate not to have met her grandmother-in-law - one can’t imagine her the easiest of matriarch’s to have grown up with. But then that’s also given the film maker some distance between her and her subject. A very fabulous one at that. 

‘The Eye Has to Travel’ is in cinemas now.

Contributing Editor: Richard Dennen 

Paris Fashion Week

Yes Paris Fashion Week has been all about the Raf v. Hedi, the Dior v. YSL thing. But actually by far the most important and interesting moment was the opening of the “Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity” show at the Musee D’Orsay. This is a neat look into the Parisiennes’ fashionista forebears, oceans of lace and tulle flowing off Manet’s ‘Le Balcon’ and into Bazille’s ‘Reunion de famille.’ “The Parisienne isn’t fashionable. She IS fashion,” pointed out Arsene Houssaye in 1869.

The 21st century descendant was out in force this week, she of the smokey eye, Carine Roitfeld, who now seems to make a habit of throwing a ball during Paris. All very Manet’s ‘Le Balcon’ really. It will come as no surprise to fashion world followers that the former Paris Vogue editrix decreed that dressing black and wearing a smokey eye were musts for the ball she threw as the week of shows was coming to a close. And, boy, did they come. In the black corner were the Delevigne sisters oozing chic in Pucci, leaning off the arm of its designer, Peter Dundas. He had a rather fetching eyeliner motif surrounding les yeux - his secret? Getting Poppy D to practice his eyeliner skills. Arizona Muse was also in a look from the Florentine house. Joan Smalls smoked in Gucci and Anna dello Russo in a Blow-like hat structure with mesh tumbling over her face showed just enough lip to be able to air kiss and accept the flowing compliments on her fresh H and M line which had premiered earlier in the week. The young designers were out too - Wang, Tisci, Ackerman - what wouldn’t they do for Carine? And when you throw Valentino and Karl into the mix. Well, Manet would certainly have approved.

Contributing Editor: Richard Dennen

Photo Credit: Getty Images