En Mode Magazine February 2013

E N M O D EFebruary Issue

No. 010

IconsIssue

Icons who changed the Fashion World

SS13 iconic Trends

Jo-Ann & Florens Boutique

€ 4.50

Contents Feb Issue

Composite -Pg 9

Editor’s Letter -Pg 15

Shopping -Pg 19

Baroque Trends -Pg 23

International -Pg 26

Icons -Pg 27

Marc Jacobs

Fendi

Jessica Choay Lookbook 2013 -Pg 31

Portrait of a Lady -Pg 37

En Mode Portrait -Pg 39

Iconic Touch -Pg 46

Up Coming Icons -Pg 55

Beauty -Pg 61

05 En Mode Magazine February 2013

E N M O D E

En Mode Magazine February 2013 06

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BRIAN DEANFOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR

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PHOTO EDITOR Sarah Seneque--------------------------

FASHION FEATURES EDITORS Ivica Mamedy, Audrey AlbertJUNIOR FASHION FEATURES EDITOR Alexandra Webber Isaacs

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PUBLIC RELATION EXECUTIVE Khatleen Minerve------------------------

MARKETING EXECUTIVE Stephane Lam Vo Hee------------------------

MANAGING DIRECTOR Brian Dean

Fashion Platform LtdImpasse Froberville, Allee Brillant Floreal, 00230 Mauritius

[email protected]


E N M O D E

C O M

P O S

I T E


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n a m e : SELINA VARVARA

h e i g h t : 1 m 75

b u s t : 79

w a i s t : 60

h i p s : 89

e y e s : blue

h a i r : brown

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c o n t r i b u t o r s

Emma GrigoryanPhotographer

Nadi HamoudaPhotographer

Rafat IslamWriter


EDITOR’S LETTER


We decided to dedicate this issue to a number of iconic person-alities in the world of fashion as these are the people who shaped the history of fashion as we know it today by means of decades of hard work and endless creativity. And then there are the rising icons who have already cemented their place in the fashion world by breaking conventions and thinking out of the box. But fashion goes around in a cycle. Probably that is why contemporary designers such as Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld and Mark Jacobs referred back to past eras ranging from the 20s to the 60s for inspiration in their Spring Summer 2013 collection.We need to keep tracing and tracking these upcoming icons of fashion and keep a keen eye on their work as they are the ones who will take us forward. These are the people who are keeping the industry evolving on con-stant motion with their relentless genius, with not only a firmly grounded reverence to the past iconic innovations by their pre-decessors, but also with their constant efforts to break new grounds. So we tried to feature people who we felt are at the forefront of bringing about that new breath of fresh air.

The cover story, Iconic Touch, has been shot by Emma Thiernik Grigoryan showcasing Anna Grigoryan, in col-laboration with hair stylist Hripsime Gasparyan, in Armenia. It is our way of paying tribute to all the iconic people who mark the fashion industry and lead our way into the future. We also ex-plored into the spring ’13 hair styles and found it to be befitting to the circular motion of fashion discovered in the design of clothes. It seems, indeed, that retro is in.

Brian Dean

Brian Dean

Looks in the Bag

Dior

Bally

Alexander Mcqueen

Judith Leiber

3.1 Phillip Lim


Alejandro Ingelmo

Alexader Mcqueen

Alexandre Birman

Alexandre Birman

Arfango


Jewels

Alexis Bittar

Erickson Beamon Herve Van der

Straeten

Ben Amun

Fallon

Alexis Bittar

Carven

Dsquared²


BaroqueTrendsAquilano

RimondiF/W 12

We’re maximalists,” said Roberto Rimon-di, which had to be the most superflu-ous declaration of Milan’s fashion week, given the collection he showed with Tommaso Aquilano. Taking inspiration from the richness and drape of fabrics in Renaissance paintings, from the “sacred jewelry” of the church, and Italian alta moda in the seventies, the duo offered designs of such complexity and depth that they were practically a master class in the capabilities of Italian artisans. Every designer should have access to such resources. But more to the point: What could have been an exercise in fashion academia was goosed by Aqui-lano.Rimondi so it read like a vision of fierce modernity. Scuba fabric worked with antique tapestry technique? Worlds collided.

The designers emphasized two silhou-ettes: very feminine—a bustier and an accent on the hips—versus a masculine influence, with double-breasted jackets over skort and trousers. The cross-gender dialogue offered the duo an opportunity to explore extraordinary fabrics, like the micro-jacquard they used for their suits and the double-faced faille used in those scuba dresses with the tapestry overlay. “Black is the new gold,” Rimondi said. That meant rich tone-on-tone embroideries, but also black leather, as sleeves on a dress or a cape (if you’re inclined toward one of the season’s major trends, this is the cape you should be looking at). And often, it meant everything together: ottoman and scuba and velvet and leather in one glorious farrago, with a single long zip

snaking down the spine to hold it all to-gether. True, Aquilano.Rimondi’s vision is unyielding in its single-mindedness, but this is one instance where generos-ity of spirit is weakness. Perfection is a hard taskmaster.


How to wear ornate clothing

There was enough baroque inspired embellishment on the fall runways that you can expect to see it in stores and on the street – but not so much that you can expect a mainstream glut of it at the turn of every corner. As such there’s an opportunity to stand out if you wear it well. We’ve broken it down into two main looks: regal and rockstar.

Regal

Dramatic. Exuberant. Excessive.

The way to make this work is not to do anything by halves. Don’t pair an embroidered velvet cape with a pair of ballet flats: go for the heels, or the luxe leather boots. Layer on the jewels (costume or otherwise). Top it off with a bold red lip. It’s all about conviction, and a look that screams lavishness against all odds.

Rock

Rock’n’roll has always had the connota-tion of fast living and excess, so designs that lend themselves to the excessive have an inherent rockstar quality. Hence in fall 2012 one of the key ways to wear ornate garments is with a glam-rock or bohemian-rock edge. Imagine you could plunder the wardrobes of David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix and go from there.

For a glam-rock look try a metallic bro-cade jacket with skinny leather pants or jeans. For a bohemian-rock look pick up pieces in plush velvet and embroi-dered leather. You can mix these with minimal pieces to keep it modern.

Baroque accessorising

If you don’t want to go all-out on an ornate look that channels the Baroque era (or even if you do) there’s also the matter of accessories. Ornately wrought filigree jewellery, tapestry handbags, jewelled headbands, embroidered suede boots, beaded removable collars or printed silk scarves are just some meth-ods for upping the visually-ornamented factor of your accessories.

A note on quality

With a designer trend in ornate cloth-ing, it’s all about a return to visibly impressive craftsmanship. It’s about creating details that aren’t easily copied, and as a result poorly made cheap ver-sions simply won’t have the same impact. That’s not to say you can’t find well made versions at reasonable prices – just be wary. Feel the weight of the fabric, inspect the texture, and check for loose threads. Opulence should be just that.

As an alternative to heavy embellish-ment but to still indulge in the trend, you’ll also be sure to see printed or flocked versions of ornate patterns on shelves come fall.


I N T E R N A T I O N A L

M O D E

A renaissance of art and culture point to the Mediterranean for exceptional crea-tion and style, visual references from the destination combine with an old-school chic styling ethos

for spring / summer 2013.

Belted floral dresses

Moving away from corporate looks for the office, spring 2013 offers up the belted floral dress as a 9-5 staple. Expect a feminine, cinched in shape and longer hem (think above the knee to midi length). Work-appropriate it may be, but we expect to see the ladylike belted floral dress worn for many an occasion through the season.

Spring 2013 Fashion Trends


Here's how the program notes stripped the first outfit to its bare bones: "Ruby Jean, T-shirt, short." Thinking back to last sea-son's surreal extravagance, it was brutally clear that speed was of the essence for Marc Jacobs this time round. The show started at eight on the dot. It was over five minutes later. With her blond hair and dark brow, her T-shirt and ballet T-bars, Ruby Jean was a twenty-first-century spit of Edie Sedgwick. On the soundtrack, The Fall did their more than passable imitation of the Velvet Underground's glorious racket. Jacobs was arrowing back to the Factory, the icy pinnacle of New York cool where Edie reigned as the archetypal It girl, and the monochrome, amphetamine-

sharp bril-liance of the designer's vision cut a precise swathe through all the uncer-tain murk that swirls around pop culture right now.

It was so simple. Back to those notes: T-shirt, coat, slip, skirt, suit, bra, etc., etc., etc. No embellishment needed. Jacobs dis-tilled a radical mo-ment of transition in style, between the suited young ladies of the early sixties and the free spirits of the later part of the dec-ade, the kind of woman Edie was,

passing from preppy-proper to pilled-out style icon in her patent leather and leopard spots, petaled hems and smudgy mascara-ed eyes. And stripes. So many stripes, parallel lines, black and white and sequined, like Lou Reed lyrics coming to life. But it's the genius of Jacobs that something that was so powerfully evocative of the past didn't seem retro or nostalgic. This is partly because his approach to anything that came before is so obviously cavalier. Look at the ease with which he renders his own immedi-ate past—as in last season, with its OTT headgear—quite literally old hat.

More to the point, it's also because the stripped-down nature of these clothes just looks right right now. Ruby Jean's T-shirt? Obvs. But Jamie Bochert's jump-suit of sequined stripes had the kind of linear immediacy that would surely generate a why-didn't-I-think of-that? moment for other designers. And, as far as radical moments of transition go, all those skewed suits with their visible bras and hip-slung skirts felt like the slyest assault on Republican propri-ety that fashion is likely to mount this election year. Change from within? It wouldn't be the first time Marc Jacobs insinuated subversion into the heart of high fashion.


The Fendi show today began and ended with a big bang: the first a huge bal-loon pop-ping to allow the

models onto the catwalk; the last an explosive print that dissolved into an infinity of starlike sparkles. In between came a meditation on modernism courtesy of Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi, who never stop put-ting futuristic spins on the 87-year-old house's traditions. Here, for instance, the duo were "doing modern our way, with our techniques" according to Fendi. "There are no machines; it's all by hand." This rare feat was obvious in coats composed of a marquetry of fur or fabric. Almost as impressive, though not as showy, was the fact that the col-lection was seam-less, using saldatura, or some kind of electrical welding, instead of stitching. It guaranteed that the leathers and fantastic croco-dile napas looked feather-light.

The iconic Baguette had also been transformed, somehow stripped of all its metal parts and turned into a testament, said Fendi, "to the power of perfect proportion." The designer mentioned the perspective

of the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel as a reference point for the way that dresses

were multiple lengths—or shorts had pannierlike pockets— so that your eye was drawn into them. Same effect with the black and colored borders that "framed" the clothes. The idea was apparently three-dimensionality. That's why the referencing of Anish Kapoor made a little more sense,

given that there was something more sculptural than painterly about the silhouettes. And if all of that sounds a bit much for a fashion show on a Saturday morning in Milan, you should also know that the clothes in this particular Fendi show were a lot of fun. Lagerfeld’s crepe silk Big Bang shift was Milan’s best cocktail dress; the leather coat with the upside-down F for Fendi was the cleverest piece of Russian Constructiv-ist branding we’ll see all season; and the bags and shoes should keep kids enter-tained for hours. One pair, for instance, arrives with a set of uppers that will allow you to compose your footwear at will, Lego-like. And by hand, of course.

Fendi


Grace Coddington burst onto the household scene with the 2009 documen-tary The September Issue. In it, the red-haired creative director served as the fiery, opinionated foil to cool, sunglasses-clad editor Anna Wintour. By all accounts, Grace stole the show. And yet if she hadn’t followed her beau to New York City in the ’80s, she might never have joined Anna at the helm of fashion powerhouse American Vogue. Now 71, she has released her memoir, Grace, detailing an extraor-dinary life, from her early days on the catwalk to the decades she spent working with the world’s most influ-ential designers and so much more. We went straight to the source and got the inside scoop.

On living the dream “The same things excite me now that excited me from day 1. The unexpect-edness of fashion. That I can be doing something I love and earn money at it. That I can travel. My favourite aspect of my job and work is taking photo-graphs, I just love photographs. Even after almost 50 years, it’s endlessly fun. It’s a marriage of all things that fascinate me .”

On getting the perfect shot

“When it comes to photography, I oper-ate with only one rule: You must be able to see the clothes. I’m infuriated by magazines that produce pictures where you can’t see what people are wearing. And I like things that are only slightly imperfect. I worked with [celebrated photographer] Irving Penn once, and a hairpin fell to the ground. I bent to pick it up and he said,

‘No, no, leave it there!’ The imperfection makes a picture magical ” .

On picking favourites

“For me Russian model Natalia Vo-dianova is incredibly interesting. Yes, she’s very beautiful, but she’s not your average blond, blue-eyed girl. And she has a lot of personality, which comes out in her pictures. You can give her a story like we did for Vogue‘s Sep-tember 2012 issue [shot on a sprawling estate of Edith Wharton, a late-1800s American novelist, decorator, eccentric and socialite] where Natalia was really able to imagine herself as Edith. It’s like there’s this little actress inside her. “

On trending (schmending)

“I don’t do trends. I try to think outside of them. Obviously if you see the same look come down the runway, after 50 shows it sinks in subliminally, and you think of a fashion story where it will work. But I prefer concepts, stories, like the Edith Wharton shoot or Alice in Wonderland, where we did period things with modern clothes, which is quite difficult. I like the idea of a nar-rative instead of stories on spots and stripes. “

Portrait of a

LADY


On the modern family

“Right after my sister died, I wanted to adopt her son, Tristan, but I wasn’t allowed to. I’d just left my husband [restaurateur Michael Chow] and was considered a terrible choice to be a mother. So that ruled adoption out for a couple of years. Then when I started to settle down, Tristan came to live with me. Suddenly you go from being a selfish person, staying out all night with whichever boyfriend in any country, to having a 10-year-old child who has been traumatized. It was tough, because I was earning very little money and my second husband walked out the day the adoption went through. But I tried hard to make our life work. I didn’t have a nanny and did everything on my own.”

On working with Anna

“I left British Vogue because my boy-friend, Didier, was in New York and Calvin Klein asked me to work for him. My nephew was all grown up, so why wouldn’t I take this new job? Then by the time Anna moved to America to start at Vogue, I realized I didn’t love working on Fashion Avenue. I asked to congratulate her and asked, ‘If you need another fashion editor, would you ever consider me?’ She’s an incredibly spontaneous person, and she’s loyal. At dinner that night she said, ‘I’m starting Monday; do you want to start with me?’ And now we’ve been together like a couple of old whatevers since 1988.”

On New York vs. London

“New York is very exciting. When I made that break from London I decided that’s it, I closed the door on England. I’m 100 percent here. Both my feet and my head are here. The energy of New York is quite extraordinary and instant. The moment you get off the plane, even on a grey day like today, you drive from the airport and see Manhattan… it’s thrilling.”

On the mane message

“I think Didier [once called a “hair vi-sionary” by the New York Times] would be offended if I let someone else cut my hair! It’s very personal for him. One of his lines is, ‘Even if we’re not together anymore, I’ll still work on your hair.’”

On being the coolest cat lady

“I’m passionate about cats. I like their independence and that you can’t make them do anything they don’t want to do. They are individuals, each one, even if they are brothers and sisters. And I’ve had all the variations: cat with no pedigrees or cats with high pedigrees.

They all have their quirks. Luckily my boyfriend likes cats, too. Our life revolves around them!”

On living in the moment

“I’m a bit like my cats: When I’m in the city, I want to be in the city. When I’m in the country, I love the country, and I don’t want to come back. It’s the journey. Going anywhere by car with screaming cats? That I hate. I like where I am when I’m there.”

On aging gracefully

“When models have plastic surgery and they come to work on my shoot, they’re off the shoot. They look stupid! Young girls especially. I know doctors are telling women to start early. It’s good for them, they get more money. But I like old people to get old. If you fix your face up, everything doesn’t

fit together. And I had to have a lot of plastic surgery after a bad car accident. It was agonizing. I thought, ‘Why would I put myself through that amount of pain to look like someone I’m not?’”

On keeping it reel

“Ever since I was in The September Issue I’ve been fascinated by the documentary form and dream of making one myself. It would be on fashion, of course, because it’s the only thing I know. It would also be a way for

me to get around the corny way fashion is portrayed on film. Fashion is made fun of so much. But it brightens people’s lives! It’s so lovely.”


EN MODE

portrait Jo-ann FlorensFashion Entrepreneur

How did you started in the fashion field?

I started in the fashion field by design-ing a few basic and simple pieces, mostly trends that I saw in Australia and then organising “closed door sales” either at my home in Floréal or at my mother’s business in Beau-Bassin.

Why?

I had just come just back from Australia and was really depressed by the way most girls were dressed here: lack of style, colour and glamour. I love going clubbing and be impressed by the way the girls are dressed there, and that was just.not.happening. I realized that there were beautiful dresses and outfits available here but not affordable for everyone. So I wanted to add my touch.

Do you think that the Aus-sie style will suit Mauritian

market?

Well it is obviously a very niche market: It is for the woman who is not afraid to experience new styles and unfortunate-ly most of the Mauritian female popula-tion are stuck in a restrictive style that they think suit them and won’t get out of their comfort zone. So many young women come to my boutique with a great body but who do not want to show their legs or wear a daring colour, floral patterns or a glamorous backless dress. And this is reflected when you go club-bing in Mauritius: 90% of the girls on the dance floor are wearing black! They have their mind set on “Black is always chic” and yes, it’s true. But with the right shoes and accessories, a baby blue dress can definitely impress.So will the Aussie style suit the Mau-ritian market? Risky business move maybe from me, but I lived in Australia for 7 years and saw so many Mauritian girls that had a very boring style here completely transform themselves into fashionable women. So my guess is once

many girls considered as “trend setters” in Mauritius start adhering to the style, the rest will catch on and fashionably evolve.

What are your views about the actual Mauritian fashion

industry?

In regards to the Mauritian design-ers selling their brand, YES, they are talented, YES they create beautiful things. But if they are going to sell their designs at the same price or close to the price of Max Mara, Diesel or even Stella McCartney it is not realis-tic. They have to understand that they don’t have a powerful brand name yet and must therefore work on their costs and prices accordingly. Also, many Mauritian brands create nice, affordable things but why do they feel the urge to write their brand in BIG on the item? It ruins it!Yes, I might be willing to buy your stuff but don’t force me to be a walking advertisement for you.So I do not wear many Mauritian brands because of that.


And finally, where do you feel at home?

I consider Melbourne and Mauri-tius as my homes, can’t pick one. My family and friends live in both places and both offer an incredible lifestyle.

Did you plan to create some collections on your own for

the upcoming season?

I would love to create a few pieces, not a whole collection but I need to find a great patternmaker to team-up with! It’s very glamorous to create your own collection but there are so many unglamorous things to take into account: Economies of scale, issues, challenges and costs linked to production and lack of choice when it comes to fabrics. I’ve tried once on a

small scale and it wasn’t very profitable.

What are your future projects?

For Florens Boutique, most importantly survive the first financial year which is apparently the hardest and add more variety to my collection.My academic specialisation is Communication and Strategic Management so I currently work for E.C Oxenham & CY Ltd and Le Connoisseur as a remote Social Media Developer and I have many exciting projects that I am currently developing with their vibrant team.I would love to develop a business which involves Australia and Mauritius, but I really need to think that one

through!

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Iconic TouchPhotographed by Emma Thiternik Grigoryan

Model - Anna GrigoryanHair: Hripsime Gasparyan

Styled by Emma Thiternik GrigoryanAssistants: Nikolay Avakov and Erik Grigoryan.

En Mode Magazine February 2013 06En Mode Magazine February 2013 46

59 En Mode Magazine September 2012





UPCOMING ICONS

Written by Rafat Islam

The fashion world should be thankful to Manish Arora because of his abrupt decision to switch career path from being a commerce student to enroll-ing in the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi, where he graduated from in 1994 winning the accolade of the best student. It did not take him long to be catapulted into an iconic status in the world of fashion, thanks to his unique, avant-garde, sur-real fusion and endless quirky innovation combined with versatile experi-mentation which make it a joy to watch and admire his creation. You can never get bored of it as you never know what to expect next. His use of tradi-tional Indian embroidery and beading juxtaposed against vivid psychedelic colours and wacky sensibility probably earned him the title of “the John Gal-liano of India.” For instance he took a col-lection of traditional Indian dresses on a bizarre journey into space by designing tunics embroidered with astronauts and Jaipur-inspired skirts featuring rockets, space-ships and planets beaded with silver. The following quote by the man himself sums up his design philosophy: “I try to go one step further with every collection. “

Manish launched his eponymous col-lection in 1997 in India, 3 years after graduating out of NIFT. But his first in-ternational exposure happened in 2000 when he represented India at the Hong Kong Fashion Week. He also debuted at the first ever India Fashion Week held in New Delhi in the same year display-ing his ready to wear collection. Man-ish took an ambitious leap by launching his diffusion label, “Fish Fry” in 2001 and showing this colourful, sportswear-inspired-styled collection in six leading Indian cities. He opened his first flagship store, “Manish Arora Fish Fry” in New Delhi in 2002 and also had a successful show at the India Fashion Week where he had debuted, but this time held in the commercial capital of India,- Mumbai.

The surrealist god

of fashion.

This led him to his first international commercial success in the form of a stocking deal with Parisian fashion house Maria Luisa which marks the beginning of a long running and rewarding export business. He also opened up his second flagship store in Mumbai in 2003. The following year he signed a partnership contract with Reebok to jointly market a contempo-rary sportswear line under the brand Fish Fry for Reebok. Manish started attracting mass global attention and acclaim after a successful debut at the London Fashion Week in 2005. In the same year he opened a flagship store in Lodhy Colony Market in New Delhi and also exhibited some of his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in a show called ‘Global Local’ organised by the British Council, India. 2006 saw further expansion of his fashion empire both home and abroad as by this time he was already stocked in 75 well known stores worldwide and he opened his first Manish Arora fran-chise store in Villa Moda, Kuwait. At home he opened another Manish Arora Fish Fry store at Crescent at the Qutub, New Delhi.He cemented his reputation as a fashion designer of great potential during his second showing in 2006 receiving rave reviews

Hilary Alexander, Suzy Menkes and Lisa Armstrong in all leading publica-tions. He was hailed as the Best Indian Fashion Designer by a coveted fashion jury at the prominent Indian publication Outlook and was featured on the cover of its March, 2006 issue.

The following year Manish turned more heads in Europe while he success-fully debuted at the Paris Fashion Week held in September 2007 showing his Spring Summer 2008 collection and he showed a retrospective of his London Fashion Week collections from at the highly prestigious Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The Paris debut had a special significance in his career

according to his own statement, ”Once I started showing in Paris,” he notes, “I realized I could all the way creatively”.


Manish started showing his true ver-satility by diversifying his creative as well as commercial interest and activi-ties in many different directions, first by hosting a style documentary called “Adventure of the Ladies Tailor” aired on Discovery Travel & Living in 2008. Then his design portfolio took a diverse turn. Manish Arora Eyewear was launched worldwide through a licensing agreement with Inspecs UK. After that he collaborated with MAC on a lim-ited edition range of make-up that was launched globally under which he created ‘Kiss Manish Lipstick’ and ‘Go-ing Bananas eye shadow’. He also designed a range of limited edi-tion watches for swatch labelled SWATCH The Manish Arora Collection in 2009 as well as a signature line for NIVEA. He cov-ered the pillars at the Palais Bourse in Paris as part of an installation at Tranoi. He even collaborated with Am-rapali in jewellery designing, combining his kitsch aesthetics with Amrapali’s classic craftsmanship at Evoluzione in New Delhi. Manish’s diversification continues in various directions- de-signing the campaign for ABSOLUT vodka in India, launching a high-end crockery collection collaborating with Good Earth India, designing the cover of a book called “Songs of Sorrow” by MIKA, a leading British singer, launch-ing NIVEA Soft Manish Arora limited edition body care globally in Sum-mer 2009, designing POMMERY by MANISH ARORA- a special edition wraps for POMMERY champagne- his folio kept getting heavier. In the same year he also worked on Manish Arora by 3 Suisses- a global catalogue col-lection launched for S/S-10 including clothes, cushion, motorbike, and helmet. Every year he kept getting busier than he was ever before.

Celebrities started wearing Manish Arora, especially from 2009 onwards. Britney Spears wore an India inspired creation by Manish for her Circus Tour. Rihanna performed I New York and London wearing Manish Arora SS ’10. Katy Perry was the one to initiate the trend by dazzling in a ravishing carou-sel dress by Manish bursting in colour at the MTV Europe Music Awards

2008.

Probably the biggest highlight of his career came in 2011 when he was appointed as the creative director of Paco Rabanne. It should not come as a big surprise that a designer of Manish’s calibre and sensitivity would be chosen to walk the footsteps of Paco Rabanne himself

who famously debuted in 1966 with his “12 unwearable dresses in contem-porary material”, and by contemporary material he meant rubber, cardboard, metal sheets, plastic, paper etc. Man-ish showcased his first Paco Rabanne collection at the Paris Fashion Week SS ’12. Manish’s Autumn Winter ’11 col-lection displayed at the Paris Fashion Week was donned by more Hollywood celebrities such as Heidi Clum, Selena Gomez, Nicole Scherzinger to name a few. In a whimsical twist he launches limited edition pastry for Café de la Paix, Paris. Lady Gaga wore six looks from the Paco Rabanne SS ’12 collection at the MTV Europe Music Awards. As a cherry o top he won Outstanding Fashion Innovator at the WGSN Global Fashion Awards 2011. After collaborat-ing on two successful collections, Man-ish and Paco Rabanne parted ways on mutual agreement.

Manish’s creation sparkled among Hollywood royalty when Ellie Komper wore Manish Arora SS ’12 to the Golden Globes Award Party. Hard to say what is more quirky for a fashion designer- pastry or stuffed toy, but manish also designed a customised stuffed Pug toy for Luisa via Roma as part of the “Happy Dogs for Happy Kids Project”.

It is very difficult to predict what else will go on Manish’s design portfolio in the years to come considering the fe-rociously whimsical way he undertook an array of diversely varied creative challenges and met them head on. This unpredictability is the USP of his work. Manish Arora turned fantasy into fash-ion and curved business out of fantasy. He is a walking, breathing marriage of art and commerce, a perfectly balanced concoction. This is evident in the con-siderable stylistic difference between the wild, theatrical first season but unusual-ly chic and grounded second season col-lections that he did for Paco Rabanne as the first season clothes were criticized by some as totally unwearable. In his own words, “i’m trying to find a balance between what’s commercial and what’s fantasy”. Manish has mentioned, among his influences, the French designer Jean Paul Gaultier who is known for drawing on India for design inspiration. He also mentioned, among other things, Thai curries from which he gets the sense of balance among any ingredients in his design, animation films for the way the colours are used as if they “pop”, the novel Memoirs of a Geisha because of its meticulously detailed description of the Kimono which he uses in design-ing belts or Kimono styled sleeves and Indian mythology where warriors had exaggerated shoulders on armours and fitted leg armours that lead to his over-stated sleeves on silk blouses or skinny trousers from his latest Fall/Winter col-lection. The secret behind flamboyant colours used in Manish’s creations can probably be traced back to his annual excursions to Indian coastal paradise Goa where he goes to escape from work. “When I get back home,” he says, “I design some of my best pieces”. The colours in his dresses reflect his colour-ful personality. He spreads, through his work, what is inside him to the rest of the world. No one could put it more simply and precisely, “the basic idea of my clothes is that you should be happy.”



Retrospective of a New Fashion Icon

Emmanuelle Alt was born into a family of fashion. Her mother, Francoise, was a Lanvin and Nina Ricci model in the 1960s and ‘70s. She was somewhat destined to be in fashion. She attended a posh private Catholic school in Paris called -Lübeck (Institut de l’Assomption) which has been the alma mater of many powerful women in fashion such as Victoire de Castellane of Dior, Vanessa Seward of Azzaro, Camille Miceli of Louis Vuitton, Mathilde Agostinelli of Prada, Caroline Deroche of Givenchy and the former first lady of France Cécilia Sarkozy. At this school, ironically, all these ladies had to adhere to a strict navy blue uniform code. Emmanuelle got her first big break very early on in her career with French Elle as an assistant/intern in 1984, at the age of only 17. But she truly fell in love with fashion after attending a Jean Paul Gaultier show in Porte de la Vilette. She freelanced for some French women’s magazine before landing the role of fashion coordinator in 1993 at 20 Ans, a glossy young women’s magazine, where she collaborated with Carine Roitfeld as well as acclaimed stylists Anastasia Barbieri and Marie-Amlie Sauv. From there she moved to Mixte, where she became editor in chief in 1998. Her Parisian street style had

already made her a hit among bloggers at international fashion shows.

Her career with Vogue Paris began in 2000 when she was recruited as the fashion director by the publishing com-pany Conde Nast International’s Chair-man Jonathan Newhouse. She had been working for vogue as fashion director since then until February 2011 when she got chosen for the coveted position of editor in chief of Vogue Paris because of Carine Roitfeld’s surprise resigna-tion in December 2010. This was a tall order to follow because while Roitfeld was in charge for a decade, circulation of French Vogue rose from 100000 to 140000 during the global financial crisis. This boost in sales might have been stimulated by the magazine’s edgy content, most of which was designed by Roitfeld herself, involving a great deal of nudity, cigarettes and sadomaso-chism. Alt, however, had all the support from the higher management as well as her colleagues in general. President of Conde Nast France Xavier Romatet explained his decision to pick Alt while talking about the future of French Vogue with a vision for digital media by saying,

“I wanted to lean on someone who has a recognised eye and who has gained the confidence of the fashion world. Someone very settled, respected both as a fashion editor and as a stylist: two qualities possessed by Emmanuelle Alt.” He added, “What I want is Vogue Paris to be very open, that it will be a magazine where all of the sensibilities can express themselves, where all styles can exist. A magazine where everyone can express themselves because they have talent. Emmanuelle Alt has the capability to open the magazine to that.”

Vogue’s former creative director Fabian Baron calls Emmanuelle the logical choice due to her contacts in the fashion industry and with photographers. He thought she would make the magazine more accessible to readers. “She is more commercial than Carine- in a good way.” He said, “She’s looser, more connected to the street”. Even the legendary Karl Lagerfeld seems to be flattered by her fashion sensibility- “her style is her big shoulders, long legs, tight jeans, sleeves up to the elbow, one hip out. I person-ally like her. She is a handsome French woman. “As for herself- Alt decided to remain faithful to the past photographers of

Vogue such as David Sims, Mert and Marcus, Mario Testino and Bruce Weber. “I don’t think there should be radical changes” she stated. She also said, “It is a great honor for me, but also a great pleasure to be at the head of Vogue Paris, which I know very well. Working with very talented teams, I will task myself with developing the incredible potential of Vogue Paris. “


Interestingly enough, even after ten log years at Vogue, leading from the fore-front, she still is a self proclaimed “freelancer in her heart and soul” and intends to stay that way through-out the rest of her career and keep trying new things. She took the job of running Vogue as an adventure she said.

Emmanuelle’s love for Topshop jeans, Saturday Night Fever and Michael Jackson perfectly complements her slim fit, rock n roll aes-thetics and androgynous style. To hear it from the horse’s mouth,

“I like vintage. Balmain. Givenchy. Chanel. I love jeans. I wear a lot of jeans. I have that French-girl thing of always wanting to wear a cashmere sweater with a pair of jeans. Mine are J Brand, Acne-and I like Topshop. I don’t want them to be “designed.” Jeans should be jeans. “

No surprise that her favourite era spans from 1965-75, the birth and rise of rock. She is such a huge fan of Michael Jackson that she sent him over samples to wear on what would have been his final tour. She was even seen recycling clothes or accessories-she repeated a metal studded leather belt with differ-ent outfits. Alt not only crafted some of the most remarkably memorable editori-als of French Vogue, but also designed ad campaigns and runway shows for Balmain, Giuseppe Zanotti, Balen-ciaga and Isabel Marant. Emmanuelle’s husband, Frank Durand, happens to be Marant’s artistic director, and he is the one who hooked them up. Daria is her favourite model because of her natural, strong beauty. She also likes Kate Moss for her care for clothes, as she thinks that “Most models do not care about what you put them in, they just play the game.”

In her personal life, beyond fashion, Em-manuelle is a devoted mother of two-Antonin and Francoise, who are 13 and 6 years old respectively. “I spend all my weekends with my kids” she says. She plays tennis and even has occasional fashion arguments with her six year old- “My daughter is just the same. I’ll try to convince her to wear a skirt, or a dress, and she’ll look at me say, ‘Why? You don’t.’” It seems that in Alt’s family, fashion perhaps runs in the blood indeed.

EN MODEBeauty

Photographed by Nadi Hammouda

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The half-tuck: a simple yet sig-nificant hairstyle trend. Some-times it’s the little things that count... like how your hair is tucked behind your ear. Surprisingly, this little detail can create a number of different looks as the ‘half-tuck’ becomes the must-know style for the coming season and beyond.

necessity for styles that showcase them; the half-tuck being one of the most simple and popular takes.

Half-tucked hair: variationsElfin / slicked

On the runway at Sacai for spring 2013, models sported hair that was slicked back behind the ears but with a section slicked straight down in front. The look was elfin, and a little bit like a dark take on a school girl look. Zero Maria Cornejo created a similarly elfin look by tying hair back behind the ears, but leaving set and defined strands in front. The key to the elfin look here was keeping the loose strands in sharp, gelled together shapes.

Hair tied, not tucked

Hair doesn’t have to be worn out to make this look work. Another variation is not to tuck the hair back but tie it back – and then pull out a few strands at the front. While Zero Maria Cornejo’s version above had a slick, elfin feel, Claes Iversen’s soft strands were pretty and feminine.

Half-tucked hair: The look

The idea couldn’t be more simple. Rath-er than tuck hair fully behind the ears, some strands of hair are left in front. It may be a deliberate curl of hair – which gives off a rather 1960s dolly bird vibe – as championed by Miu Miu back on their fall 2012 runway, or it could be a wispy, haphazard section of hair. Slick-ing the hair back and exposing the ears, while leaving a defined section un-tucked, also has an elfin magic that fully tucked back hair fails to create.

Ear jewellery and the half-tuck

A driving force: this is not a stand-alone trend. Ear jewellery has been gathering strength over time, becoming more and more popular in its multitude of forms. We’re not talking about the traditional earring, but rather ear cuffs that wind their way over the length of the ear, or connect with chains from the helix to the lobe. Hand in hand with this new-found love of ear decorations is the

Spring ’13 Hairstyles


Long hair.

At the other end of the extreme when it comes to haircuts in 2013: ultra long hair. Away from the bob, this is the best way for a hair cut to make a big impact. The trend on the runways suggests a hair length that just reaches or covers the breasts, since the look hints at some-thing a little mythological (think ancient goddesses and mermaids) – anything longer starts to cross over into medieval maiden territory and begins to lose its raw sex-appeal.

Very long hair in 2013 can be cut in two main ways: blunt, or layered. The truth is that either can work equally well. If your hair is straight and all one length, a blunt can will mean you can work both a straight, sleek look and a more textured one. If you have some shorter layers – especially through the front – you’ve still got the right founda-tions for an on-trend long hairstyle. Since a lot of runway looks use exten-sions to achieve the right length (mean-ing there will always be some shorter, natural layers showing through) and because the most on-trend styles for long hair are the ones with plenty of volume and texture, it doesn’t matter if your hair is cut with some layers.That said, the long 2013 hair cut isn’t one you want to thin out too much – remember it’s best with volume and texture – so the most on-trend way to have it cut is with a few choppy layers, not completely layered all over.

The fringe: how has it changed?

So the number one question you may be asking is, if the fringe never really went away, how has it changed for 2013?

The answer is, it hasn’t really. It’s still best worn thick, blunt, and long (sweep-ing the top of the eyes preferably). And it’s still best worn in one of the follow-ing ways:

- with a messy, textured, neo-bohemian, grungy edge (see the indie fringe)

- with an aura of ’60s sex-kitten non-chalance (think Francoise Hardy or Jane Birkin)

- swept haphazardly with a little peek-a-boo curtain a la Brigitte Bardot.

Hair cuts to wear with a fringe

The bob with bangs

When we talk about fringed bobs its easy to think of 1920s style cuts like the Louise Brooks. But while 1920s fashion has been on and off the trend map, short sharp flapper cuts are not on top of the list this year. Instead it’s about an adaptable bob cut that can be styled in any number of ways, from a modern effortless look to a ’60s mod bob.

For 2013 the biggest trend for bangs is to pair them with a chin-length or shoulder-length bob. Models like Karlie Kloss and Edie Campbell have already made the dramatic change to bobbed hairstyles with bangs, with modern, slightly choppy and textured styles.

Long hair with bangs

This rather goes without saying: bangs are perfect for hair shoulder length or longer, particularly when hair is natu-rally straight or with a slight wave. So while the bob is the most on-trend pair-ing for a fringe in 2013, long hair with bangs is still a style to opt for if you don’t want to go for an all-over shorter hairstyle.


Documents

En Mode Magazine February 2013