A new documentary about Lee Alexander McQueen will screen tonight on British television. Here’s McQueen‘s brother, on their mother’s death and McQueen’s suicide: “She wouldn’t have been over the moon with my brother for what he did. I’m afraid no one was. It was very disappointing in that respect. He always thought the world of our mum.” A former design assistant also recalls that McQueen once called Eva Herzigova “you fucking bitch,” and manhandled her backstage at a show. Herzigova cried on the runway. McQueen’s head of PR at Givenchy says McQueen “would call to ask for certain ‘vitamin substances’ to help him stay up all night and through the day of a fashion show. I’m not talking about vitamin C, I am talking about cocaine.” [Fashionologie]
Emma Watson modeled for her third, and last, collection for the brand People Tree. The clothing is all Fair Trade-certified and the cotton is organic. [Vogue UK]
Here is Kirsten Dunst, an oversized perfume bottle, and a lion. So Bulgari is pursuing this naked-celebrity-with-animals motif. Can’t wait for the naked-James-Franco-with-lemur-and-cologne campaign. [CQ]
Here’s a first look at how the Met will display the Alexander McQueen pieces at its forthcoming show, which is dedicated to the late designer. Remarkably few hacky “contextual” gestures/dumb painted dioramas, which, along with mis-spelled wall copy, are the Costume Institute’s usual M.O., are in evidence at this time. [TLF]
Amanda Seyfried is on the cover of the latest Interview. [DS]
Inside, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler are interviewed by Chloë Sevigny. On their name, McCollough says, “The whole reason why we even picked that name in the first place was that when we started, Barneys had just bought our collection and we didn’t have a name. We thought, Hernandez McCollough? Doesn’t sound so high end, does it?” Hernandez says that while “Proenza Schouler” — their mothers’ maiden names, combined — is better, “I actually regret it.” McCollough explains, “It’s like alphabet soup. There are so many letters. Even coming up with a font was a mission.” Also, people mis-pronounce it. “I think people think Shooler is more sophisticated that Skooler,” offers Sevigny. [Interview]
Here is a great collage of some of the black models who walked during the last New York fashion week. [Fashion Junkii]
- Megan Fox is in another Emporio Armani underwear ad. [YouTube]
- Yves Saint Laurent took to Twitter — the original source of the latest rumors that current creative director Stefano Pilati‘s job is in jeopardy — to debunk them. “From YSL HQ in Paris… Pilati busy working on the next collection,” wrote the company. “All the rumors unfounded — he is here to stay.” [Y_S_L]
- Issey Miyake has announced that its creative director, Dai Fujiwara, is leaving the house after his fall show. [Vogue UK]
- Um. “The New Yorker‘s David Remnick introduced himself to edgy fashionista-blogger Bryanboy while waiting for the Prada show Thursday night and the two seemed to really hit it off.” This should be…entertaining. “The two took a picture together and while neither had a business card to give the other, both promised to get in touch.” [WWD]
- “Look at how many famous teens there are now,” says the world’s most annoying tween designer. “Fashion is a hot thing to be into when you’re young.” [NYTimes]
- Rosie Huntington-Whiteley wore a gold ring on her wedding finger. The Daily Mail notes that it could have been an engagement ring, “turned inwards to hide any stone.” Absence of evidence for engagement is never evidence of absence of engagement, in celebrity-modelland. [Daily Mail]
- Dutch model Saskia De Brauw is on the new cover of Vogue Paris — and she is making her international runway debut at the age of 29. On the industry’s preference for girls in their young teens: “When I think of myself at 15, even 17, I could simply not have done this work on an international level and travel all the time, take care of myself and not feel lost. I feel very happy that this is happening now, and not 10 years ago, as I feel stronger as a person. I find the underage models very courageous, but I wonder at times if they see themselves that way. Maybe that might even be a problem — there are exceptions, of course — they do not realize yet enough who they really are and what they want from life. I think that you have to be able to go back inside yourself and your own world and not get sucked up into ideas of what other people might think of you. People can project many things on you which might not be the truth. Maybe when you are very young, you confuse the role you play as model and the person you are in real life. They resemble and they connect but are not necessarily always the same.” [The Cut]
- The Daily Mail has located a threat to established gender norms lurking within the ordinarily wholesome, white-bread fashion industry, and that threat — a male model, Andrej Pejic, who has long hair and sometimes wears women’s clothing for money — must be eliminated: “It’s the ultimate in woman hating, to create a half-man, half-woman creature because the girls are simply not up to the job. They’re too, let’s face it boys, womanly, even when they’ve been starved to within an inch of their lives. What an act of abject misogyny.” [Daily Mail]
- Katie Holmes took her mom to the Milan shows. [WWD]
- Also during Milan fashion week, the mayor honored Duran Duran as “20th Century Style Icons.” Guess that’s an unusually nice way of saying they’re not 21st century style icons. [Racked]
- “Demand for clothes that give an hourglass silhouette at Debenhams increased by 225 per cent last year.” This is because of the Christina Hendricks, obviously. [Daily Mail]
- The Times‘ Cintra Wilson says the new Agent Provocateur store sells things “geared to undress women in a particular Mad Men fantasy, classic stuff that appeals to the stag-film-and-martini-marinated male. To wit: marabou peep-toe slippers; lace merry widows in ivory and red. No black leather, no latex. In short, it’s the stuff you buy the chorus girl with whom you are cheating on your proud Madison Avenue wife.” [NYTimes]
- Vena Cava is working on a collaboration with Uniqlo. [Fashionologie]
- Here is a bunch of fashion people, talking high heels. [Guardian]
- Gap‘s same-store sales were flat during the last quarter, but earnings rose by 4% over last year, to $365 million. [WWD]
- The Daily Mail is really enjoying some American Apparel ads of a model wearing an uncomfortable-looking swimsuit. [Daily Mail]
- Target knocked off an iconic Hermès cuff bracelet. [Sketch24]
- About.com is holding a poll to determine the Best Plus-Size Designer and Best Plus-Sized Model. The very lovely Ashley Graham is nominated in the latter category; to the voting stations! [About]