Alexander Wang is now designing home-lifestyle accessories [Fashionologie]
Jenna Lyons' son picks out her shoes [FabSugar]
R.J. Cutler is still friends with Team Vogue [The Cut]
Billy Reid still can't believe he earned CFDA honours [Fashionista]
Johnny Weir's fashion range will debut on the ice [WWD]
Image courtesy of NYMag
In the Q&A time of The September Issue IFC-hosted screening, Grace Coddington told how she's still not sure on Vogue going digital. She said: "I’m really scared — can I keep up with it? We’ve been having meetings recently about all the Condé Nast magazines going online and things like that, and I’m like, 'I don’t want anything to do with it.'" While she's struggling to accept the idea of Vogue online, Coddington seems to have taken to the film industry, after featuring heavily in The September Issue.
R.J. Cutler, the director of the fashion feature, revealed that he and Coddington have been in talks about making a film based on her book, Catwalk Cats. "We think it's going to be a big animated feature film about Grace Coddington's feline family," he explained. And when asked if Grace would do the voice-over? "We'll see what happens, that's not the plan."
The Vogue team might have let R.J. Cutler into their offices for the filming of The September Issue, but they remain to be one of the few major fashion magazines not to have jumped on the reality-television bandwagon - even rejecting a partnership with Project Runway before it premiered on Bravo. Rumour has it, however, that this could all be changing. Fashion's Night Out organisers - which include Vogue, amongst the CFDA and NYC & Co. - are said to have been approaching networks about doing a show, focusing on Anna's charitable fashion night.
Following their success with The Rachel Zoe Project, and the recent premier of Kell On Earth, it would make perfect sense for Bravo to host the show. It seems they're just as excited as we are. "We love fashion and Vogue and would like to find a way to work together with them," a Bravo insider explained. Don't get too excited just yet, though, as it seems the organisers have a different type of network in mind. "We are in talks with CBS, but there is nothing confirmed at this time," a rep for Fashion's Night Out proclaimed. Either way we'd be happy, and watching Anna in all her glory will always get the viewers in. Let the war commence between Bravo and CBS...
It seems that our fashionable purses are not the only ones being hit hard by the dreaded 'r' word: the recession is not only affecting our buying habits with clothes, but magazines, too. Ad pages and news-stands sales are undoubtedly down across the board for our favourite monthly magazines, so could this be why the likes of magazine giants Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar are changing their approach to the fashion consumer?
Recently, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of fashion magazines containing articles about the high street wonders that will transform our wardrobe, within budget. In hard times, it is easy to understand why readers would find it almost inappropriate to be shown garments costing half as much as the average car, with models that are below the nation’s average dress size and have been air brushed to perfection. And so in step the ‘Stylish Steals’, alongside countless celebrity covers and in a further attempt to keep relevant, and more importantly, realistic in these economic times, there is a rise in the link between fashion magazines and reality television.
First to create the attachment was Elle, with Project Runway, ironically now sponsored by Marie Claire. Then came a series of links between the two sectors popping up - Marie Claire’s very own reality television show, Running In Heels, resulted in a boost of single copy sales after its premiere on the Style network. We saw Elle’s Stylista - a reality show in which competitors fought for an internship at the magazine. Although it won’t be returning for a second series, Elle has managed to stay on the reality show bandwagon by hiring Olivia Palermo, famous for being on reality show The City, in a PR assistant role in time for the second series of the hit show. More recently, Vogue allowed readers behind the scenes not on the television, but on the big screen, with the release of R.J. Cutler’s documentary, The September Issue. It is rumoured that the next collaboration between the worlds of magazines and television will see Harper’s Bazaar getting their ‘Fabulous at Every Age’ feature onto our screens.
We've had a sneak peek into the Elle offices before with hit reality show, 'Stylista', but could an Elle edition of 'The September Issue' be on the cards? Well if Twitter is anything to go by, American Elle's Creative Director, Joe Zee, and Jane Cha, executive director of 'Project Runway' had dinner with who else but renowned director of 'The September Issue', R.J.Cutler. 'Stylista' was a big hit, so we're keeping our fashion hopes high that they were discussing business that night.
Over the past few weeks, we've been upadting you with the latest clips from R.J. Cutler's, 'The September Issue'. The latest clip shows our favourite Vogue editor-at-large, André Leon Tally playing tennis is Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton.
Has this not managed to make you even more excited about the documenatry's release?
At the Calvin Klein store opening in New York, The Cut caught up with Vogue staffer and models to get their opinions on R.J. Cutler's, 'The September Issue'.
Vogue contributing editor, Lauren Santo Domingo: "I was really surprised at the amount of access. I just assumed it would be chopped up and edited and repackaged, but it was really insider and behind-the-scenes. There were even things I'm not privy to or I'm not aware of — things that go on in the art department, in the photo room. I've never been in any of those meetings."
Lauren Santo Domingo on working for Anna Wintour: "It's like you see — you know what she likes. There's a certain standard you're expected to live up to and if you're not up to par, she'll let you know. You'll take it very personal and then you'll be professional and move on. There's very rarely a gray area. It's really nice to work in black or white."
Elettra Wiedemann: "She's been doing this for so long, surrounded by men," she said. "There's absolutely a feminist aspect to her. I think a lot of the attacks against her are misogynist. Men in business are totally cutthroat and nobody says bad things about them for it."
Vogue contributing editor, Kathryn Neale Shaffer: "I felt very proud to work there, I really did," she said. "And I was glad to see some of the smaller characters at Vogue get screen time — like the photocopy guy, who is everyone's favorite. Well, that's not his official title."
