BFAnyc.com for the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The talk today at Lucire was the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual costume gala, and who was the best and worst dressed.
   Our friends at ITN had a slightly different view to us, as we felt that Kim Kardashian let the side down with an unflattering floral-print dress. There is great maternity wear out there, but Kardashian’s look didn’t do it for us.
   We’re not sure how her dress was punk, which was the theme of this year’s gala, Punk: from Chaos to Couture.
   Beyoncé wore a gown with a flame motif and a long train by Givenchy, but we wouldn’t class that as the worst. Since largely every celebrity there was a punk poseur rather than an exponent of the movement, we thought it was a good interpretation of the theme while staying true to the red-carpet looks of previous Met galas. There was a sense of the DIY nature of punk even if her gown was put together by Riccardo Tisci.
   Taylor Swift was am ITN favourite with her J. Mendel black silk crepe gown and crystal neckline.
   However, our favourite was Sienna Miller. Miller wore a Burberry gown and studded leather jacket, and had studs in her ears and her hair. She expressed the punk spirit the closest, according to Lucire fashion editor Sopheak Seng.
   Sarah Jessica Parker, another favourite of ours, wore a Giles Deacon gown, a mohawk by Philip Treacy and Christian Louboutin boots, but managed to flash her knickers—as did Madonna in a plaid Givenchy jacket.
   Lucire also rated Rooney Mara donned a half-sheer Givenchy, while Christina Ricci properly went punk with a Vivienne Westwood plaid gown and Harry Winston jewellery.
   Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour wore a pink floral Chanel gown.
   Others were less punky and missed the essence of the roots of punk. Miley Cyrus and Anne Hathaway sported new blonde hairdos. Cyrus wore Marc Jacobs, while Hathaway, in Valentino, said she was inspired by Debbie Harry.
   Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Katie Holmes got ITN’s thumbs-up, with Holmes in a Calvin Klein halter dress by Francisco Costa. Jennifer Lopez appeared in a Michael Kors sequin-embroidered gown.

Thomas Salme

Shooting in Milano with beautiful Italian model Fiorella Dominici, wearing a Basler Fashion dress from Germany designed by Scot Brian Rennie, by me, Thomas Salme from Sweden. A big international mix.
   Dominici is 22, a graduate in economics, Russian and English at Cattolica University. She is still studying in order to graduate in international management. Her slogan is: ‘positive thinking and … believe in your own skills and capabilities more than in social connections.’
   The designer of this beautiful yellow dress is Brian Rennie. He has been called the ‘designer with the Hollywood gene’ and the ‘king of couture’ by some. He outfitted Kim Basinger for the Academy Awards, designed a wedding dress for Jennifer López and counted Princess Diana among his clients, according to his official bio.
   Rennie studied fashion at the Royal College of Art, and joined Escada after completing his studies. He was there for over 20 years, and rose to the rank of head designer.
   As creative director of Basler Fashion, his clothes carry what the company calls a ‘distinctive design signature. Æsthetically outstanding and consistently feminine, they are primarily created to flatter women and to beautify them. Passion and originality characterize the designs of Brian Rennie.’—Thomas Salme

Thomas Salme

We recently mentioned that the Milano exhibition to accompany The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld had new works, so that those attending in the Italian fashion capital would not feel they were getting a second-hand collection that had already done the rounds in Tokyo, New York, London, Paris and Berlin.
   To whet our appetites of the shoot Karl Lagerfeld did with Keira Knightley, Diane Kruger, Carla Bruni, Carole Bouquet and others in his studio in January 2013, Chanel has released a single image of Kruger reinterpreting the house’s little black jacket.
   Some 20 international celebrities and ‘close friends of the house’ participated.
   The exhibition, held at the Rotonda di via Besana (at the via Enrico Besana, 12), opens April 4, with entry free to the public from April 6 to 20. Opening hours are 10 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. At the same time, displays at Chanel’s via Sant’Andrea boutique will show jackets from the spring–summer 2013 ready-to-wear collection.
   Dubai is the next destination after Milano. More can be found at www.thelittleblackjacket.chanel.com.

World Luxury Fashion Week opened yesterday at Jumeirah at Etihad Tower, Abu Dhabi, with Jean Paul Gaultier kicking the event off. The two Gaultier collections were followed by a Garrard jewellery show on the first night, dubbed Haute Couture 2012 presented by BMW.
   MC Mona Ibellini wore an Amato Couture evening dress with Garrard jewellery.
   Tuesday night’s events include collections from Giambattista Valli, Alexis Mabille and On Aura Tout Vu by Livia Stoianova and Yassen Samouilov.
   The third and fourth nights feature prêt-à-porter brands including Ermanno Scervino, Carolina Herrera, Nina Ricci, Hervé Léger, Paule Ka Black Carpet Collections, Walid Atallah, Amato by Furne One and DAS Collection.
   Évian is one of the supporters of the regional event, promoting its limited-edition bottle designed by Diane von Furstenberg. Abu Dhabi Motors, BMW, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, Rowenta, Etihad Airways and Avenue at Etihad Towers are the other supporters for World Luxury Fashion Week.

Above The pre-show area at Jumeirah at Etihad Towers.

Jeff Kravitz

Above Morena Baccarin in Basil Soda.

Who had the best dresses at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards?
   Ones rated most highly by ITN were Nicole Kidman in her Antonio Berardi spring–summer 2013, fresh off the catwalks; Tina Fey in Vivienne Westwood; Claire Danes in Jeanne Lanvin, showing that one can accommodate a baby bump with glamour. In a nautical theme, Heidi Klum wore a sea-foam Alexandre Vauthier, with a plunging neckline and showing plenty of leg through a thigh-high slash; and Sofia Vergara was in a marine mood showing off her curves in a Zuhair Murad gown complete with a mermaid tail look.
   ITN is less delighted with January Jones and Kelly Osborne, both in Zac Posen; Hayden Panettiere in Marchesa; and Christina Hendricks in Christian Siriano.
   Other stars attending the Emmys include Michelle Dockery in Louis Vuitton; Archie Panjabi in Randi Rahm, Maria Menounos in Oliver Tolentino, Betsy Brandt in David Meister, and Jane Levy in Pamella Roland—all resplendent in blue. Cat Deeley wore an eye-catching, red Tadashi Shoji, while Morena Baccarin wore Basil Soda. Julie Bowen attended wearing a fluorescent yellow Monique Lhuillier, while Amy Poehler donned a black Stella McCartney gown. Julianne Hough wore a Georges Hobieka Couture gown in a similar shade to Klum’s.
   Meanwhile, David Babaii has revealed how Kidman got her hair look, using IT&LY Pure Water Drops Serum followed by a spritzing of IT&LY’s Pure Texture to wet hair and created a centre part. Next, he used his IT&LY blowdrier with the nozzle attachment to finish the drying process. IT&LY Pure Water Drops was used again prior to using a styling iron, then he used the company’s Racing Red one-inch Digital Iron and divided hair into three parts again: top, sides and back. Starting at the nape area and taking small sections at a time, he combed the hair before running the flat iron through. By sectioning the hair one has total control over the style. To finish, he sprayed IT&LY Pure Definition Hairspray on a toothbrush and ran it over the top hairs to give it a light hold.
   Don’t forget, too, that Lucire Home had a great piece this weekend on Emmy Award parties and how to re-create that Emmy mood at home.

There’s been plenty on the main part of the Lucire website that readers may have missed over the last month. In the ‘Living’ section, publisher Jack Yan has tested the BMW X3 Xdrive20d and, perhaps more down to earth for the majority of our readers, the Renault Mégane 2·0 CVT—well timed as New Zealand readers can get the benefit of a few discounts on this value-packed, French-designed model.
   He also looks at the new Range Rover and why its design hasn’t grown on him the way the previous model’s did.
   For fans of Arjun Coomarasamy, Tania Naidu has interviewed him in a story that Arjun himself has Tweeted about, while, as usual, Lucire likes giving new talent an opportunity, profiling Lani Allanson, a talented teenage singer from the Hutt Valley in New Zealand. There’s fund-raising in southern California as new reporter Cheri Fox writes about White Light, White Night, with US west coast editor Elyse Glickman, and we finally get more into the thoughts of the mountain-climbing Sián-Pearl Going in an interview by Matt Malcolm.
   Rhonda Richford looks at new talent in Paris, with the first Emerging Designers’ Fashion Challenge to be held across the Pond, and fashion editor Sopheak Seng oversees a beautiful shoot with an Alice in Wonderland theme, photographed by Victor Huang.
   Elyse also travels to the Beresheet resort in the Negev Desert and Haifa, while London correspondent Elina Lukas meets designer Mary Franck. From the haute couture shows, Paris editor Lola Saab reports from Jean Paul Gaultier and Givenchy’s autumn–winter 2012–13 collections.
   And, don’t forget, you can download the entire contents of issue 28 as a PDF through Scopalto, available online for just €5 (check out the contents here), and shortly, you’ll be able to do the same through Fakeprint and Magzter’s Ipad apps.

Kim Kardashian (with Kanye West in tow) and former Lucire cover girl (and, we should mention, hotel heiress) Nicky Hilton give their remarks in advance of the Valentino haute couture show at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild in Paris on Wednesday, in our video from ITN below.
   Kardashian says this is her first Parisian fashion week, and that she is a fan of Valentino, which her mother had worn.
   And unlike at the Stéphane Rolland show, ‘Kimye’ were on time.
   Hilton happened to have been in London, and caught the Eurostar over to attend the event. Her mother, Kathy, joined her in the front row.
   Also in the front row were actress Clémence Poésy, and Olivia Palermo with her boyfriend Johannes Huebl.
   The full catwalk show is also shown below.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West—or Kimye, as the media are beginning to refer to them—hit Paris’s couture week, attending the Stéphane Rolland show—or the remaining part of it, since the couple was an hour late.
   Rolland had waited nearly an hour for the pair to arrive, and decided to commence the show without them. They arrived just before the finalé.
   Kardashian still Tweeted positively about what she saw, saying, ‘Just left the Stephane Rolland couture show. His clothes are next level beautiful.’
   Meanwhile, Naomi Watts has been spotted in Croatia playing the late Diana, Princess of Wales, in a film covering the last two years of Diana’s life and her affair with Dr Hasnat Khan (played by Naveen Andrews).
   The movie, either entitled Diana or Caught in Flight, is due for release in February 2013, and will shoot in locations around the world.