Magazine Staff as Fashion Models - US Vogue: Office Chic

Building on the recent fascination with the inner workings of fashion magazines and the stylish people who put them together comes a much-anticipated photo spread in US Vogue that will feature the staff in place of models.
Here’s your chance to find out if the rumors about the demands by editor-in-chief Anna Wintour are really true; you’ll find out for yourself it the North American staffers really are stick-thin ueber-fashionistas.
The shoot will feature editorial staff, assistants and even interns in a fall fashion piece promoting “office chic.”
Ever since the Devil Wears Prada was released, and TV shows like Ugly Betty have aired, the fascination with fashion magazines has spread like wildfire.

"Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances."---Benjamin Franklin

Lovin Life, Truth Is

Celebrity Fashion Robots - Gwyneth Paltrow In Vogue

The intrigue with futurism and robots has permeated the fashion industry, with space-inspired styles supplementing the growing integration of robots and smart technologies in our daily lives.
Labels like Diesel have captured these elements in futuristic photoshoots, but to further solidify the movement and take it to the next level—potentially pushing mainstream—top tier sartorial magazines are capturing celebrities in galactic wardrobes.
In a shoot by Steven Klein, Gwyneth Paltrow posed in a bikini for Vogue with slicked back hair and smoky eyes that would have made for a beautiful, yet ordinary, editorial spread, but the fashion magazine dared to awe by transforming her right arm into a robotic aparatus.
The shoot was meant to promote her new movie, Iron Man, but it worked as so much more. In addition to adding something unconventional yet cutting edge in terms of fashion, it was also a clever way to accentuate the muscle tone in her body without making it about sexual objectification.
"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own. "--– Benjamin Disraeli

Lovin Life, truthis

CFDA.Vogue Fund & GAP

For ages now it seems like I have been on the quest to find the perfect white blouse. I have ran into ones that are super stiff {you know, like cardboard}, too sheer {50 thread count sheer}, too basic. Well you know where I'm going with this one; all of the shirts were horrible. They really sucked, well up until the CFDA/ Vogue Fund winners teamed up with Gap to produce a line of blouses last year. And alas, my search was over. Perfection. Functionality, femininity and romance all intertwined in the woven threads of 10 white shirts. Doo.Ri, Thakoon, and Rodarte were the masterminds behind the immaculate blouses that were only sold in select Gap flagship stores. All of whom were CFDA Fund winners and quite naturally I wanted to buy every shirt, which were surprisingly affordable.

Let's fast forward a year. Three As Four, Philip Crangie Jewelry, Band Of Outsiders, Michael Bastain and Phillip Lim are the new kids on block. I like this crop of shirts and that's the problem. I just like them and nothing more. There is nothing screaming at me telling me to jump up and go buy them. I'm left feeling somewhat disappointed, almost hurt. It's not all bad news. Philip Lim's shirts are beautiful {AS ALWAYS} and Band of Outsiders has a perfectly tailor-made design. Maybe my style has changed and I'm over reacting.

WTF!?!? Of The Day: Vogue, When Fashion Meets Race Debate

I know all of you fashionista's are clenching tight to your new April issue of Vogue, but there is much a-do about the coveted magazine. Vogue's April issue is the annual "Shape" issue, in which it covers all different body types and how to accentuate what you have. But there are a lot of people who don't feel that having LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen featured on the cover in the manner that they are a good thing. In fact some people even feel that the cover pose {him baring his teeth in a grimace while clinching her waist} is somewhat c'est raciste. Nevermind the fact that James is one of three men {FIRST black male} to ever grace the cover of the magazine in it's 115 year history. Yet, still the infamous cover was discussed on Good Morning America, ABC's morning talk show "The View," AOL's Black Voices blog Casually Obsessed and ESPN.com columnist Jemele Hill has expresses her deepest outrage {pure horsepuckey} about the recent cover of Vogue in her article on the ESPN website.

"Now, maybe the point was to show the contrast between brawn and beauty, masculinity versus femininity, strength versus grace," Hill lamented. "But Vogue's quest to highlight the differences between superstar athletes and supermodels only successfully reinforces the animalistic stereotypes frequently associated with black athletes. A black athlete being reduced to a savage is, sadly, nothing new. But this cover gave you the double-bonus of having LeBron and Gisele strike poses that others in the blogosphere have noted draw a striking resemblance to the racially charged image of King Kong enveloping his very fair-skinned lady love interest."

Annie Leibovitz is no stranger to taking thought evoking, radical pictures. However, I don't feel that to associate King Kong with LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen with Fay Wray was the comparison that she was going for. Everyone should take a moment to take a step back and realize that the cover is meant to celebrate various body types and shapes, not racism at America's core. My prescription: Everyone, {especially those that have taken this negatively} Get a reality check.

Letter From The Editor

Have you seen April's issue of Vogue? How about Anna Wintour's letter?

**Image courtesy of Vogue.com

In the April issue of Vogue {as seen above}, Wintour releases a letter on why she chose Gisele as one of the cover models. She goes on to say that Gisele has stayed, "athletic and curvaceous." {If you were born a size 0, sure}

"I wish I could say the same for the young women who were just on the runways at the New York fall collections. Overall, they were pale and thin, and entirely lacking in the joyfulness and charm that once defined the supermodel. This, of course, is not their fault: Designers now near-uniformly favor a non-vivacious, homogeneous ideal." Wintour, Vogue April 2008

It's amazing that it was around this time last year when Jennifer Hudson appeared on the cover of the March 2007 issue of Vogue {to much of an uproar}. I just never thought that it would take another year before she addressed the increasingly thin models that cascade down the runways each season. We all know that Wintour is genuinely concerned about these girls {seriously, she really is} however, the main reason is because she feels the industry is "out of touch... I would urge designers to consider athleticism and vitality as assets in the wearing of great fashion." Because April's issue is dedicated to the human physique, maybe this letter is a result. Or maybe Mme. Wintour is calling for a shift in the industry. Only August and September will tell. I give my thumbs up to Anna for speaking out anyway {despite what her motives might be}