W magazine is in a roll. While I've always been a fan of the American title, everything seems to have gone up a notch since Edward Enninful joined as fashion director last year. Aside from bringing his own stylistic eye to the magazine, one of the good thing that Enninful did when he arrived was build a strong team around him and Giovanna Battaglia is amongst the good additions to the team.
This latest editorial that she styled for the magazine is a case in point. Battaglia styled Naomi Campbell to perfection in some of the statement prints that have been doing the rounds for Fall like an embroidered jacket from Etro and one of the printed trouser suits that we saw at Prada. If there's a stylist that knows how to do more-is-more and construct statement looks it's her, so it's unsurprising that the shoot worked out so well.
I haven't been crazy about any of Campbell's spreads in a long time but this is by far one of my favourites and is hopefully the sign of more to come.
I've always been a fan of W magazine but ever since Edward Enninful arrived at the magazine last May, it only seems to be getting better. This March cover is a case in point. Kate Moss appears shot by Steven Klein championing the issues 'Good vs. Bad' theme or 'Bad Kate and Good Little Katie' as write Will Self puts it.
I've loved everything that W magazine have produced this year but I'm still undecided about their latest cover starring Carey Mulligan. Admittedly, it's unlikely that any cover she does now will quite impress me like her American Vogue October 2010 cover but aside from that, the Michael Thompson-shot cover doesn't seem to look like her on first glance. But it's not all bad. The accompanying spread looks beautiful and classic, as you would expect from the actress, and styled to perfection by Edward Enninful.
The seating plan at Carolina Herrera all got us talking - and creating ridiculous (but funny) captions - as Nicki Minaj was seated next to Anna Wintour. But this cover shows that our attention was focused in the wrong place. If you remember, to the right of Minaj was W's Stefano Tonchi who obviously took a liking to the rapper as he's chosen her for one of the two November cover's for the magazine.
This is a real bag for Minaj. Although she's appeared in editorials for fashion magazines like US ELLE, this is the first time she's graced the cover on a leading fashion magazine and she has some big shoes to fill. If you cast your mind back to last year, Kim Kardashian's nude cover for the issue this time last year was a sell out.
Props are definitely due to Edward Enninful and artist Francesco Vezzoli who transformed Minaj beautifully into some of the most prominent courtesans in history like Madame Rimsky-Korsakov, Marquise de Montespan and Madame de Pompadour. And whilst Minaj isn't the first person that would have sprung to my mind to cover this issue, once you go go through the full editorial the choice quickly begins to make sense. After all, love or hate her, Lady Gaga aside, nobody quite does drama like Nicki Minaj.
A few weeks ago we told you all about the launch of Dasha Zhukova's new magazine, Garage, and yesterday she celebrated the launch of the first issue with a pop-up and party at Gagosian in London's Mayfair. The focal point of the pop up was 'Agathe and Seraphine's House', a life-sized sculpural recreation of the doll's house created by artist Dinos and Nick Knight for the magazine's first cover. As you would expect, just about everyone intended including Anna Dello Russo, Edward Enninful, Shala Monroque, Derek Blasberg and Rachel Zoe.
I wanted to show Christina in a new light, show off the icon that she is. For me, she's a real woman. She's got ups and downs and now she's back up again. And really, it was sort of to celebrate that, the fact that through all this she's come out on the other end as a cultural icon.
The September issue will be first big issue for myself, along with Alex Gonzalez, the creative director, and sort of Giovanna Battaglia, whom we offered to be fashion editor and hopefully a few other editors. And we're going to feature the industry's biggest names and well-known photographers. I think you'll be pleased. And what I love about this sort of blend of photographers is that each one has their own unique style. So if it's okay I'd like to keep their names under wrap just to surprise our readers. It's really hard to keep anything secret these days. But I try.
There aren't many black people in prominent positions in the fashion industry: fact. The past few years has seen a focus on their absence in the modelling world but little has been said about the lack of black people in the industry generally, but this was one of the areas of focus in a recent interview with Edward Enninful in the Huffington Post.
When asked about whether the industry is becoming more inclusive of black designers, models and editors, the new fashion director of W made it clear that not much had changed. "The American fashion industry really has had to reassess its approach to fashion, particularly because Obama came into office. You know, for one of the most influential women [First Lady Michelle Obama] in the country to be black," he explained. "I know that meant a great deal to a lot of black people in the fashion industry. And also now we have Twitter, we have the internet, and I've seen so many young black people who are involved in fashion. They're making their own clothes, they're styling, they're taking photographs, and I guess the future generation to come, they're all racing to become one global fashion industry. That's what I hope, anyway."
We all know that Edward Enninful has left i-D as their fashion director last month to replace Alex White at W so there was only a matter of time before his replacement would be announced.
Sources on Twitter revealed that i-D contributor Charlotte Stockdale has been appointed to replace Enninful but the stylist will continue to contribute to the magazine.
What do you think about Stockdale's appointment? Perfect choice?
Alex White's departure from W after 16 years at the magazine sent shockwaves when the new was announced last week. But as we all know, Stefano Tonchi has hired a great replacement in Vogue contributor and i-D fashion director, Edward Enninful.
Style.com managed to secure an interview with the stylist to discuss what we can expect from him, what designers he will shoot and his thoughts on W's contribution to fashion.
