Just about every major designer and model has descended on New York last night ahead of the Met Gala on Monday but ahead of the event, Balmain's Olivier Rousteing threw a big party last night at Chelsea's Hotel Americano. At the event the designer spoke about the launch of the brand's new Twitter and Facebook accounts that became live this week, revealing that he plans to get in on the Twitter action himself. 'It's a good way to understand what [customers[ feel about the collection, about the clothes and they can see the details, and they can be more a part of my soul,' he told The Cut at the event. 'I hope they will 'like us' and enjoy what we enjoyed to create.'
Aside from that, what was more interesting was his revelation that Joan Smalls is his guest at Monday's event. The partnership definitely works. Smalls looks good in everything but it will be interesting to see how she looks in a piece that showcases the new direction that the young designer is taking the brand.
That wasn't the only Met Gala confirmation from last night. Karlie Kloss will accompany Jason Wu, Anja Rubik is going with Anthony Vaccarello and Constance Jablonski will attend with Haider Ackermann. New in today is that Arizona Muse is teaming up with Erdem, Thakoon with Christina Ricci and Doutzen Kroes with Roland Mouret. The most interesting confirmation is that Karolina Kurkova will attend with Rachel Zoe, cementing her as a designer to be reckoned with.
See images from the Balmain party in the slideshow.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have a lot to smile about this season and we're not just talking about the fact that duo avoided that big tax evasion case earlier on this year. Their white lace dresses have racked up a whopping 43 covers so far this season, only five behind Prada with 48.
As we reported, the dress made a big appearance on Gisele Bundchen for Emmanuelle Alt's first cover for Vogue Paris as editor in chief, Britt Maren wore it for a German Vogue cover, Penelope Cruz dons it dor the latest American vogue issue and now Constance Jablonski appears on this month's Greek Vogue in the dress having sported it in on the cover of Spanish Vogue back in February.
But it doesn't end there. The dress has also been a hit on the red carpet too. Diane Kruger was the first to sport it back in February at the premier of 'Unknown' in LA and in March Kate Bosworth dressed it down with black army boots and a military jacket to host a party for Nylon.
Each season there's always a dress that has it's 'cover' moment. Last season it was all about that gold dress from Balmain which was worn by Natalia Vodianova on the December cover of Harper's Bazaar UK, on Cindy Crawford for Vogue India's October issue, Abbey Lee Kershaw on Vogue Germany, Anna Dello Russo on 10 and on both Anja Rubik and Toni Garn.
The Estée Lauder campaign is one of the best that I've seen for a long time. For their Idealist skincare campaign, bosses have tried to show that the line works for all skin types by using a diverse cast. French model Constance Jablonski, chinese model Liu Wen and Dominican Joan Smalls all appear. The casting is a welcomed movement forward as ethnic minorities continue to be underrepresented in beauty campaigns.
However, at the launch of the new line the company revealed that 40% of women buying skincare in the 18-44 age bracked are women of colour. So was hiring Smalls a way of showing that, as the campaign says, that 'Every woman can be beautiful' or was it really an acknowledgement that black women demand a big part of the market so can longer be ingored?
Followers of our twitter will know that Joan Smalls has everything to smile about. Last week Estée Lauder announced that the Puerto Rican model has signed on to be the new face of their cosmetics and skincare line and is will appear in a global campaign set to launch in May.
After years of working as a commercial model, Smalls has made a big splash in the world of high fashion over the past year. 2010 has seen her bag a Givenchy campaign, open for Yves Saint Laurent, close for Dior and Gaultier and bag an i-D cover.
“For me, Estée Lauder represents real beauty,” Smalls explained. “It speaks to every ethnicity and age group." Smalls wants to use her role at the brand to create a be a positive role model for women she told WWD. “I plan to bring [women] confidence, so they accept themselves the way they are,” said Smalls. “I am looking forward to creating beautiful images and empowering women.”
Smalls is the third new face to be signed up by the brand, joiningConstance Jablonski and Liu Wen.
We recently broke the news of Constance Jablonski's new deal with Estée Lauder, and her first campaign for the brand has just been released. Jablonski set the record for the first French model to star in the brand campaigns and Liu Wen is the first Asian face, but her campaign is yet to be released.
