With New York Fashion Week underway, we're taking a look at the most memorable films that revolve around the fashion industry. While some offer a biographical angle or a behind-the-scenes spin, others take a more comic look at the fashion world. In honor of this week's fashion festivities, check out the colorful characters (real and fictional) and, of course, the great clothes!
Source: Paramount Pictures, Roadside Attractions
Taschen releases 100 Contemporary Fashion Designers, a two-volume compilation of profiles on the established and the young.
Fendi introduces the F Factory during Art Basel Miami, a limited-edtion retail outpost for custom versions of the brand's most popular bags.
The latest and greatest designer blogs.
Karl Lagerfeld still refuses to sell Chanel online in order to protect the brand.
Swarovski challenges menswear designers to create bejeweled ready-to-wear for the boys.
Lithuanian model Rasa Zukauskaite lands Prada spring 2010 campaign.
Guccio and Alessandro Gucci launch a handbag company called To Be G.
Valentino The Last Emperor makes the Oscar short list in the Documentary Features category.
Source: Tashen
If you didn't get a chance to see Valentino's flick in theaters, fret not, it's coming to DVD. Starting Sept. 8, you can add Valentino: The Last Emperor ($16) to your movie collection. Along with the original feature-length film, you'll get 46 minutes of bonus material — three mini features about the world of haute couture as well as the life of Valentino and business partner Giancarlo Giammetti. Just some things to look forward to: tours of Valentino's homes around the world, the making of one of his signature red dresses, and his farewell couture collection.
>> Valentino: The Last Emperor To Hit DVD Sept. 8 —Matt Tyrnauer's documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor, comes out on DVD just before New York Fashion Week kicks off on Sept. 8 and promises a slew of bonus features, including clips of preparations for a party at Valentino's French estate; a ski vacation in Gstaad; a peek into Valentino's Fifth Avenue home in New York as he gets ready for the Costume Institute Gala; and a look at Valentino's couture seamstresses in action. [FWD]
Valentino drew another glamorous crowd to the LA premiere of his Valentino: The Last Emperor last night. Gwyneth Paltrow and Anne Hathaway, who also attended the NY screening, posed with the man of the hour. Rachel Zoe, Shenae Grimes, and Nicky Hilton also paid their respects to the iconic designer. Rachel and Gwyneth both have something to learn from the film, as they're becoming designers — Rachel with her own line and Gwyneth with a capsule collection.
To see lots more photos, including Rose McGowan, Rita Wilson, and others, just read more
>> In anticipation of her television debut on MTV's House of Style this weekend (more details here), we snagged Chanel Iman for a few minutes to chat about how she landed the coveted role of show correspondent (first peek at her in the show, left), her recent coup on the runway at Balenciaga, and about how she might have already landed a date to this year's Costume Institute Gala. It also sounds like she has a career switch in mind — but Chanel will tell you all about it herself.
How did your role on House of Style come about?
Well basically, they called my agency, I went in to meet with them, I did an audition with all the rest of the girls, and they called — I was waiting for the phone call, I was hoping I got it — but I was waiting for about three months. And when I got back from Paris — I was in Paris for ready-to-wear and did the whole fashion tour for Fashion Week — they told me I got it. I was really excited because it's just another way for me to express myself!
Tell me a little bit about your upcoming Gossip Girl appearance.
It's just experience — it was just for me to get an idea of what it would be like to be on set, to really see what happens since I've never been on a set before.
Are you looking for more TV appearances in the future then?
Yeah. I'm kind of slowing down on the modeling right now and I'm branching out to other experiences and interests that I have. [Ed. note: She told Teen Vogue: "House of Style is definitely just the start. I want to do television, film, music and designing. I want to do it all!"]
>> Last night, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti were in New York to fete the opening of Valentino: The Last Emperor — arguably their biggest Manhattan party ever, between the screening and the dinner for 200 of fashion's finest (including Anna Wintour, Anja Rubik, Jason Wu, and Chanel Iman) at the Plaza's Oak Room. The designer's six pugs Molly, Milton, Monty, Margot, Maude, and Maggie, who director Matt Tyrnauer has dubbed "the costars of the film," weren't present — according to Valentino, "they're getting some time away from me in Italy" — but maybe that's a good thing: Karolina Kurkova admitted, “they’re really not nice to everybody” and Gwyneth Paltrow agreed, calling the pugs "kind of mean."
When Giancarlo Giammetti was asked about his comment on film that the designer looked too tan, he was quick to explain, "We'd come from the beach, and we were about to show summer suits, and he just . . . it just seemed like too much. But it was one time, and one time only." And as for those rumors that he was back to helping out at Valentino for Fall 2009, Garavani denied having any hand in it, "No, not at all. Very far from the truth. I don’t think about it. I wish my assistants to do the best. It’s a big job, though, and to know my name goes on the designs, I want them to do the best.”
Meanwhile, the film seems to have already inspired at least one person — Zac Posen. "I wouldn't mind being followed around too for two years. It's all about having the right collaborators."
*image: source, source, filmmagic
>> Valentino Garavani may have retired from fashion — or maybe not, there are rumors that he had a hand in the Fall 2009 Valentino collection — but either way, he's been a busy man promoting the impending US premiere of Valentino: The Last Emperor tomorrow, March 18, in New York. He does, however, say he's "extremely happy to have quit from fashion. All of the designers are doing the eighties. I hate the eighties. I did it, and I hate it. When I go to see my dresses of the eighties, I vomit.” Instead, he's appearing on Oprah, The Martha Stewart Show, receiving a Rodeo Drive Walk of Style award, and contemplating designing for opera and ballet.
As for the movie, Matt Tyrnauer, the documentary's director, promises "one explosion after the other. Valentino is very impatient. He’s a Taurus. He loves the drama. There are divo moments and there are tantrums, and a lot of them are directed at the camera. It’s sort of like a cross between a hurricane and a cyclone." Which made it interesting when he first showed Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti the director's cut: "It was not easy. To tell you the truth, they kind of freaked out. We had some healthy discussions and multiple screenings over the course of several months. And they have come to accept it."
You've probably seen the pug-filled trailer by now, but another clip is below, featuring Karl Lagerfeld telling Valentino after his show, "That's the way it should be done. Compared to us, the rest are making rags." After the movie hits New York, it travels to Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles — information here.
>> In honor of the US premiere of Valentino: The Last Emperor today at the Hamptons International Film Festival, two more clips from the documentary, this time focusing on Valentino and his longtime business partner Giancarlo Giammetti, rather than the designer's pugs. Valentino pulls Giancarlo aside during the preparation of a show, angry: "Cheri, please, a bomb is going to explode here. Look at my hand shaking! I've been working for 40 hours straight." Giancarlo tries to remind him that the cameras are rolling, but Valentino says he doesn't care and threatens to quit the film altogether. As Giancarlo sums up their relationship, "To be with Valentino as a friend, as a lover, as an employee, you need a lot of patience." And patient Giancarlo is.
