Gucci and Florench Welch have a great relationship. Last year the brand's creative director Frida Giannini booked the singer to front their campaign and it wasn't really a surprise. After all, Welch does look beautiful in their clothes so much so that this week, Gucci confirmed that they have teamed up with her for the second time to design the costumes for the next Florence + the Machines tour.
'Seeing Florence evolve as an artist since her last tour has been truly inspiring, and I was delighted to work with her on this new wardrobe,' Frida Giannini said in a statement. 'For her on-stage style, we wanted to create a romantic yet modern aesthetic for Florence to interpret with her dark glamour and dramatic sensuality.'
New York Fashion Week is officially in full swing. During fashion month it's easy to forget that there is life outside the shows but just like fashion, Hollywood doesn't stop and this morning we're all waking up to a big story. According to People magazine, fashion favourite Blake Lively tied the knot with Ryan Reynolds in a secret wedding over the weekend.
A source confirmed to the title that the couple got married last night just outside of Charleston. According to the source, Florence Welch, who Lively met on the set of 'Gossip Girl', performed three songs at the event. As yet there's still no word about who designed her wedding dress but it's pretty safe to say that it's either Frida Giannini at Gucci or Karl Lagerfeld.
Over the weekend we confirmed that Charlotte Casiraghi has been named as the new face of Gucci Forever Now and already, the campaign is out and we really like it.
Rather than being really stylised like their S/S12 campaign, the Princess of Monaco looks natural and easy in the Peter Lindbergh-shot campaign. And the partnership makes sense. Casiraghi is known for her equestrian career so lending her face to the brand's second equestrian collection works. 'Over the last two years I have had the pleasure and privilege to get to know Charlotte through our shared passion for horses,' Frida Giannini explained. 'She not only embodies the beauty and the grace of the equestrian, but is also a wonderful ambassador for the sport.'
Every other day we're woken up with reports of Italy's mounting sovereign debt amidst fears that it is on the brink of going bust. The dark mood at the Gucci show yesterday, then, seemed to make sense. Quite like for the fall menswear collection that we saw last month, Frida Giannini cited nineteenth century decadence and the dark romance of that era as the source of inspiration for her women's wear show yesterday. While many criticised the men's show for lacking something extra, the women's line more than made up for it.
Winter is undoubtedly much harder to dress for compared to the warmer months but Giannini made it a lot easier by using a mix of luxurious winter fabrics and textures alongside sheer chiffons to make sure that you can keep warm next season without throwing your sartorialleanings out the window.The collection was full of plush jacquards, ultra luxe stamped velvet coats, classic black leather riding boots, oversized fur and feathered skirts and jackets. The colour palette was the perfect combination of black with hints of plum and varying shades of rich greens, blues and reds. The romanticism was transparent particularly on the evening dresses that were predominantly black and sheer with carefully placed embroidery. There were no fuss and frills involved but rather, each piece exuded a quiet authority and power in a Riccardo Tisci or John Rocha kind of way.
'Grunge Glamour' was the name Frida Giannini chose for her latest offerings at Gucci but unfortunately there wasn't much of either to really cling onto in the collection. What Giannini did do well, though, was a transition away from her usual tough aesthetic to something a lot more sensual and romantic but in a subdued way.
Inspired by poets like Oscar Wilde, the collection was all about decadence which transpired on the stamped velvet blazers that dominated the collection on jackets but also on travel bags that had pockets of alligator skin on the corners. Florals really worked on trouser suit. The dark palette made the print wearable and helped it steer away from being too feminine.
While the brocade and the tapestry inspired velvet pieces were interesting, the collection didn't feel like a huge development from last season or anything worth getting particularly excited about.
Gucci always know how to throw a good party and yesterday, it was all about celebrating the opening of the Gucci Museo in Florence. The opening comes as the brand celebrates it's 90th anniversary this year and the venue will play host to pieces from the Gucci archive along with contemporary art installations and an icon store. Everyone from Poppy Delevigne to Charlotte Casiraghi attended, all wearing Gucci, but stragely Florence Welch wasn't there.
Call us purists but we've nver been big fans of the celebrity cover star culture that has dominated fashion magazines over the past 10 years. Is it weird to expect heavy 'fashion' content and a model on the front cover of a magazines these days? With that mind, you can imagine our delight when we got our hands on the latest issue of ELLE UK.
Not only is model Agyness Deyn taking the prestigious spot of cover girl, the whole issue is dedicated to models - featuring everyone from Rosie Huntington-Whiteley to Joan Smalls. Agyness Deyn may seem a strange cover choice considering her absence from the industry over the past few years, but that's exactly what writer Alice Wignall gets the model to explain. ‘I just suddenly couldn’t see where Agyness the model ended and where I started,' she revealed. 'It was so enmeshed and I was so busy that that’s all I was doing for ages. I lost my sense of self.’
It's not bad being Florence Welch. Back in June Frida Giannini announced that the flame haired singer will front their fall 2011 campaign and serve as her muse for the season - hence Welch's recent penchant for wearing all things Gucci - and if recent reports are anything to go by, Welch has another fashion collaboration under her sleeve.
This morning Glamour UK allege that the singer is 'in the process of securing her own clothing range at Topshop' with her stylist Aldene Johnson. "Florence wants it to reflect her eclectic, quirky style," a source told the magazine. "She has thousands of unique pieces, everything from vintage gowns to garments she's been given by Karl Lagerfeld, and would love to work with Aldene to create a line inspired by her wardrobe, like Kate Moss did."
Gucci have worked with a string of leading musicians in the past - trace your mind back to their work with Mark Ronson and Rihanna - and now they are collaborating with another leading artist. Frida Giannini has brought on Florence Welch to front the brand's fall 2011 campaign and will serve as the designer's muse for the season.
"As I was imagining this collection I was thinking of a strong and somewhat mysterious muse. Florence is that kind of woman," Giannini explained . "I met her in Los Angeles at this year's Grammys and was captivated by her presence. She has a powerful personality and an entrancing quality to her performances. She also has that confident and self assured look that goes hand in hand with the Gucci woman."
