Wednesday 27 February 2013

"It's Miss Dior" | The New Perfume Campaign by DIOR



The new 'Miss Dior' campaign which was unveiled February 22th by DIOR - Fresh like a rose, she might always be dressed in a layer of petals by DIOR Spring 2013 Couture: Natalie Portman is a Miss Dior like no other.










"Perfume is the feminine personality's indispensable accessory, it's the finishing touch to a dress." If he could have, Christian Dior would have created a fragrance for each one of his dresses. For him, a perfume was like a piece of fabric, invisible obviously, but instantly recognizable. A veritable fashion accessory, it complements and completes a look.  Miss Dior, his first perfume, his fragrance manifesto, is a clear expression of his desire to synchronize the lines of his couture with the allure of his perfumery.

In 1947, Christian Dior unveiled his 'New Look' and the first  Miss Dior bottle, a ringed amphora in transparent glass. With its rounded curves and narrow neck, the silhouette directly references the outline of a figure-of-eight: the shape of the bottle wholly recalls the flower-women of the 'New Look', their pert busts and cinched waists. The flacon evolved in 1949, and while the amphora still boasts feminine curves, its rings have gone and the glass comes in three colors - blue, white and red, like an homage to perfumery's French origins.

"I created a perfume to wrap every woman in glorious femininity, as though each of my dresses was emerging from the bottle, one by one," Christian Dior stated of  Miss Dior. In 1950, when the couturier came up with his "Verticale line", he totally redesigned the fragrance flacon in order to harmonize the straight, architectural lines as closely as possible.

"Cut like a tailored suit", the bottle reappeared with geometric and sober lines, in a form that would remain unaltered. Decorated with a bow-tie, its glass engraved with a houndstooth motif, the bottle distilled some of the house's most recognizable codes, espousing the mood of elegant gorgeousness so associated with Dior fashion. Today, at age sixty-six,  Miss Dior has maintained her figure. And if the bow-tie at her neck has morphed into a gentler form, her glass - engraved with the check so beloved of Monsieur Dior - still contains all the freshness and vitality of eternal youth.






 Discover the story behind the name of the couturier's first perfume


Miss Dior : and what we hear contained in those two words is a wealth of British elegance and youthful vitality. It's also a signature name containing the family name of the master, the couturier-perfumer who created it for young women everywhere. Two words in which the essence of the house is concentrated. Miss Dior is a virtual landmark. And yet, a few hours before Christian Dior's first haute couture show, for which he had generously sprayed the salons with his first fragrance,  Miss Dior still didn't actually have a name. A thousand words went through Christian Dior's head - but which to choose? Mitzah Bricard paced up and down. She was his muse, his paragon of elegance, the rock on whom he could depend. Passing in front of the imposing mirror over the marble fireplace, she stopped for a moment, her Nefertiti-like profile set in striking silhouette.

She was wearing her trademark panther scarf, tied around her wrist. The door opened as discreetly as possible, revealing Catherine Dior, who had slipped in to see her brother for a reason that's long been forgotten. Jolted from his concentration, Christian smiled. He was her "Tian", she was his "chérie". Mademoiselle Dior, twelve years his junior. Mitzah Bricard, whose mother was English, rose from her medallion-back chair, exclaiming,  "Look, it's Miss Dior" . Miss Dior?  Miss Dior!

All it took was one brief sentence, one coincidence, and thus was baptized the very first perfume from Christian Dior.














Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories 

Photo Credit/Source: The House of DIOR



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Tuesday 26 February 2013

La Garçonne by Giorgio Armani FW 2013/14




As the designer responsible for putting women in power suits, Giorgio Armani doesn’t consider menswear to be a passing fad. His clothes are consistently about sharp tailoring, clean lines, and a reappropriation of masculine tropes. What differentiated his collection this season was the French savoir faire that ran throughout. He noted that his influence was la garçonne, that independent female archetype of the thirties whose sense of liberation was reflected in her borrowed-from-the-boys wardrobe. So Armani’s version of menswear this season retained a sense of softness. Models were dressed in cropped, fluid pants that often sat at the hip, and streamlined jackets, cropped or longer, and fastened with one or two gumball-size black buttons. The palette was ebony and white with shots of icy lavender and blues, and nearly everyone was shod solidly in pointed-toe oxfords or block-heel loafers. 

Enjoy the ARMANI FW 2013 Fashion Show & Backstage video at the end of this post!  
Love, Andrea













Both of which the shades of blue and men’s footwear do, in fact, happen to be appearing a lot on the runways so far this season. Armani also hit on a few other themes including velvet used for loafers, tapered pants and, for evening, long black skirts worn with beaded tunics, and this idea of the non-invasive bag. What does that mean? Well, it’s basically the antithesis of the statement bag, which, even after the death of logomania, still holds sway. Now it seems, though, that designers are proposing a subtler way to tote our things: an accessory that doesn’t detract from the clothes but, through its exquisite construction or quietly elegant details, still commands attention. Metal handles have been a recurring motif, and Armani put them on top of hard bags shaped like squat briefcases done in velvet, patent leather, and pony. In many cases, the bags matched the looks monochromatically so that, were they not this strong, they would not have been noticed. There were also bigger bags in doctor shapes and for night, soft patent clutches. Lacking any tricks or adornments, they were a reminder of another kind of power: the power of simplicity.

























 






Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accesssories 

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE
Runway: Photography by Yannis Vlamos / InDigitalteam  / GoRunway
Candids: Photography by Kevin Tachman



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Monday 25 February 2013

Embroidered Glamour by Dolce & Gabbana FW 2013/14



Wikipedia states that the island of Sicily measures 9,927 square miles. Not that big, really, but for more than three decades, Domenico Dolce (it’s where he comes from) and Stefano Gabbana have harvested an incredible amount of inspiration from it. And never more so than for this coming fall, as they looked to the exquisite Venetian and Byzantine mosaics of the twelfth-century cathedral in the city of Monreale, a place of worship consecrated to Santa Maria Nuova. (This last comes not from Wikipedia, but from the press release.) They drew on the workmanship and allure of these painstakingly produced mosaics and used them for their stunning vision (heavenly or otherwise) of elaborately gilded and embroidered glamour: dresses that gently traced the lines of the body to a few inches above the ankle, or which were cut loose and short, and bejeweled tees worn with even more bejeweled tiny skirts.

Enjoy the Dolce & Gabbana FW '13-14' Fashion Show at the end of this post!  

Love, Andrea 











That, though, was only the beginning, as the designers took us on a journey that went northward to Rome to the era of Fellini and Cinecittà. Not just in the look of the bella figura double-peplum jackets and hourglass dresses, cut from a salt-and-pepper herringbone tweed; the show’s sound track was from the director’s musical collaborator, Nino Rota. (Incidentally, if you think that tweed appears a tad substantial weightwise, don’t worry; on a preview of the collection a couple of days ago, a curtain was whipped away, and lighter versions are all ready to go.) From there, it seems we journeyed far westward to the New World, to Hollywood, alighting at the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and Marnie, with tweedy check clutch coats and abbreviated A-line dresses. Then, like Dorothy clicking her sparkling ruby slippers and chanting, “There’s no place like home,” we were back in Sicily, with a gorgeous closing finale of a multitude of evening dresses worked in red lace, though not one that was long, many encrusted with gemstones.

What came through the strongest in these was the sense of how to elevate day clothes, which have been missing in action, and much missed, too in these past few weeks of shows. Still, things weren’t too practical and workaday. Accessories lent an element of fantasy, with crown headpieces that were part saint, part principessa, huge cross earrings, and delightfully playful shoes, that variously incorporated rich papal purple or cardinal red velvet, baroque carved platforms, and golden cage heels entwined with little floral buds. All in all, an upbeat and uplifting way to approach the end of the Milan season.
 















































Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories 

Photo Credit/Source: Dolce & Gabbana


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