Steven Meisel shot some of the Alexander McQueen pieces that feature in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming show. Designer Sarah Burton, who succeeded McQueen following his suicide, says of the lace dress above, “This dress was actually based on my wedding dress — I got married two years earlier. We had to figure out how to make lace work in the round with those ruffles because Lee hated gathering. So we cut out all of the flowers from the lace and reappliquéd it on tulle to make our own fabric. This is the collection most people remember as the one with Kate Moss in a hologram. Oh, my God, it was so beautiful. He loved that show.” And of the red dress: “Lee wanted the top of this dress to be made from surgical slides used for hospital specimens, which we found in a medical-supply shop on Wigmore Street. Then we hand-painted them red, drilled holes in each one, and sewed them on so they looked like paillettes. We hand-painted white ostrich feathers and dip-dyed each one to layer in the skirt.” The third dress is from McQueen’s chess-themed collection; the body was constructed with the input of a maker of medical prosthetics, and McQueen used horse tails to suggest the knight. [Vogue.com]
Lauren Conrad, beauty editor? The Hills star may not have been able to get her latest reality show onto MTV — Conrad was pretty sure it was “too highbrow” for the network, remember? — but she has launched a new website dedicated to cosmetics. [People]
Kanye West wore a Céline shirt and a big gold chain to perform at Coachella. Céline is technically a women’s wear brand, so if your eyebrows are very easily raised and your pearls are forever in clutch position, now’s your moment. [NYDN]
Karl Lagerfeld, whose library is very impressive (and somehow, Reed, we have no doubt that he “opens” his books), is tipped to be making a perfume that smells like…books. And “the retreat of the print-faithful into a sort of autistic fetishization of the book-as-object” continues apace. [StyleCaster]
Designer Karen Walker lives in a predictably lovely New Zealand home. [The Selby]
Here is Hermès furniture. [CoolHunting]
- Gwyneth Paltrow might be the new face of Coach, or Reed Krakoff, for that matter. “She was spotted leaving Coach headquarters on West 34th Street with the company’s creative director, Reed Krakoff, who also has his own fashion brand.” Or maybe they were just getting lunch? [P6]
- Kimora Lee Simmons — who recently hit back at tabloids that were calling her “anorexic” following recent weight loss — now says that the original PopEater story that started those rumors was mis-reported. “That story quotes me as saying ‘I don’t eat,'” says Simmons. “Well, I had said, ‘I don’t eat bags of Doritos and cheeseburgers like I used to,’ but the writer ended the quote at, ‘I don’t eat.’ That’s irresponsible reporting. It really upset me.” [StyleList]
- The see-through human-sized tube sock that Kate Middleton wore in that charity fashion show when she was an undergraduate — the alleged Dress that allegedly caught Prince William’s eye — has sold at auction for $125,781. [NYDN]
- Oooh! Fashion Blind Item: “Which Hollywood actress went on a recent Ralph Lauren shopping spree in New York and flipped out when the store didn’t give her the discount she wanted? She even demanded the staff get Lauren himself on the phone, but ended up storming out in a huff without her dress.” [P6]
- Street style blogger Tommy Ton says the first time he took Anna Dello Russo‘s picture, she was rude to him, because she didn’t know who he was. But their relationship has since warmed to such an extent that she once wore Abercrombie & Fitch sweat pants in his presence. Well. He sure got her back. [Style.com]
- Jones Group, which owns Nine West and Stuart Weitzman, is apparently one of three companies still in the running to buy Jimmy Choo — which might go for as much as $800 million. [Fashionologie]
- Oleg Cassini (who died in 2006) and Ralph Rucci are being added to fashion’s Walk of Fame on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. [NYDN]
- Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi have been fired by Gianfranco Ferrè‘s new owners, Dubai-based Paris Group. Their collections were not selling well, apparently, and Paris Group took over intending to make major changes. It is unknown how this will affect their namesake line, Aquilano.Rimondi. [WWD]
- Indira Cesarine directed a short film for a fashion magazine, starring Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and her boyfriend, Robert Konjic. The film was terrible, so when it came out, some people on the Internet wrote that it was terrible. In Indira Cesarine‘s opinion, that was unduly harsh and totally unfair. She wrote on the Fashion Spot: “Apparently my short fashion film with Julia Roitfeld is an absolute horror, and I should commit fashion suicide before making another film – what do you think? have I dug my own grave daring to try to be a director, or are they just being extremely bitchy? maybe it’s time to become a happy housewife and forget about this ***%$%^#$%^ business.” Thin-skinned? Inexplicably well-connected? Lacking any sense of how the Internet works? We predict Indira Cesarine will fit in just fine in fashion. [Fashion Copious]
- Joe Zee‘s new reality show, All On The Line, has him mentoring designers. But when he advised one, Gemma Kahng, to part ways with her business partner, David Rose, Rose’s reaction was so extreme that Zee feared for his safety. Rose inundated Kahng with up to 25 text messages a day, and made suicidal threats to Zee and the show’s producers over email. Rose says he is now in therapy. [P6]
- Women’s Wear Daily asked 18-year-old model Natalie Keyser what her “best feature” was. Keyser replied: “I have really high cheekbones and I like my legs — they are miles long. They don’t ever have to Photoshop more of them in.” WWD actually seemed surprised by the idea that models might have their bodies altered in post-production (imagine!) and asked for clarification. “Oh,” replied Keyser. “I’ve heard that a lot of the time they have to use Photoshop to make the legs look longer.” Yup. [WWD]
- Maryna Linchuk and Catherine McNeil have moved to Ford models. [Modelinia]
- Petra Nemcova‘s run on Dancing With The Stars ended last night. [HuffPo]
- You could create a hell of a world tour around this list of current fashion museum shows. [T]
- Joan Burstein, who bought John Galliano‘s entire graduate collection when he was still a student, has advice for the designer: “I would advise him: take some time for yourself to think about the important things to you in your life.” [Vogue UK]
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