Vlisco: Delicate Shades collection

All images property of Vlisco

Carola Remer and Ming Xi for Vogue China

All images: VOGUE China

Fashion Photography by Greg Lotus

An exhibition of fashion photographer Greg Lotus' work is currently showing in New York City through April 15th.  Please visit greglotus.com for more information.

  

All images: Greg Lotus

Inspiration: Africa

Global Citizen Teen Vogue

Global Citizen Teen Vogue

Global Citizen Teen Vogue

Dimanche a Bamako Mixte Magazine

Dimanche a Bamako Mixte Magazine

Gossip Girls Pride Magazine

Gossip Girls Pride Magazine

Queen of the Night  Zink Magazine

Queen of the Night Zink Magazine

Fashion Photography by Guy Bourdin

Some Like It Hot: Vlisco Spring Collection

Photos: Vlisco

Looking Forward, Looking Back

The beginning of a every new year is marked by celebration because it's a chance to look forward to the all the possibilities of the next year and examine what happened in the one past. This idea of looking to the future while not forgetting the past is central in fashion, with seasonal collections often inspired by trends and designers of days gone by. Thoughts of the relationship between past, present, future and fashion were inspired by this Vogue photograph circa 1951 which made me realize that there is no future fashion that will not have its roots in the past. I found this beautiful image thanks to Ms. Spinach, who recently shared a link to myvintagevogue's photostream on flickr which features hundreds of lovely images from past issues of Vogue magazine. Maybe one of these images will provide you with some inspiration for the new year.

Voilà Les Sapeurs

Check out photographer Daniele Tamagni's book, Gentlemen of Bacongo, which features photographs of men part of a subculture devoted to stylish dressing in Congo. The Sapeurs, as they call themselves, is derived from SAPE, an acronym for the movement itself, Société des Ambianceurs et Persons Élégants. The word sape, perhaps not accidentally, also means “to dress with elegance and style” in French.

Putting African Style on the Page

A fashion layout in Arise, one of Africa's new style magazines. The publication strives for the same quality standards as other international titles.

By ROBB YOUNG, The New York Times

Published: October 1, 2009

Sub-Saharan Africa doesn’t bring to mind the image of a woman with perfectly manicured nails flipping through glossy magazines in search of the latest handbag or celebrity haircut. Yet such women are there, and in far greater numbers than the media’s portrayal of Africa might suggest.

In wealthy neighborhoods of Lagos; Nairobi; Luanda, Angola; Dakar, Senegal, and the like, ladies of leisure, successful businesswomen and aspirational middle-income housewives make up an attractive demographic that, in the past, relied on international fashion magazines for style and beauty information.

But in the past few years, while Condé Nast, Hearst and Hachette Filipacchi were expanding throughout Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, a handful of African publishers was busy staking claims to this publishing territory. The result has been a wave of new glossies, like Arise, Haute, Helm and True Love, that put an African spin on fashion.

“Honestly, upwardly mobile African readers are crying out for this magazine,” says Helen Jennings, editor of Arise, a monthly style title started late last year by the Nigerian media tycoon Nduka Obaigbena, who also owns the country’s leading newspaper, This Day. “Because the local magazines aren’t as high end or progressive, and no other international titles speak directly to an African readership, Arise has really caused a stir.”

Arise occupies a unique position among magazines in English-speaking Africa as it alone packages both pan-African and global content, producing a provocative blend that Ms. Jennings calls “afropolitan.”

With a reported circulation of about 60,000 and averaging about 140 pages a month, the magazine is distributed to seven other African countries and around Europe and North America. In its no-expense-spared fashion shoots, clothes by African designers are paired with global brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Loewe and Ralph Lauren using popular black international models like Oluchi Onweagba and Rahma Mohamed.

Interviews with high-profile black celebrities, like the singer-songwriters Akon and VV Brown, and others, appeal to global advertisers. Tommy Hilfiger, Juicy Couture, Graff, L’Oreal and Lacoste are all represented in the magazine’s pages — and their prestige has helped pull in ads from fashion brands based in Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania.

But Arise’s embrace of glamour and celebrity is tempered by a nod to the underground and an appreciation of irreverent reportage. A recent issue included a saucy exposé of African WAGs (the British acronym for wives and girlfriends of soccer players) that appeared alongside quirky items about Ugandan skateboarders, a multimedia prodigy from Ivory Coast and the leather-wearing biker subculture that grew up in Soweto after apartheid.

Read the rest of the article at newyorktimes.com

From Models to Magazines, Cataloguing the Fashion Industry

by Elva Ramirez, Heard on the Runway

MyFDB’s Dior section, featuring Jessica Stam’s Spring 2007 campaign, MyFDB.com

Do you remember that Dior campaign that featured Jessica Stam in a vibrant pink dress against an abstract background of the same color? What year was that? Answer: It was the Dior Spring/Summer 2007 campaign, which appeared in Vogue’s July 2007 issue.

Until recently, there have been few options for fashion obsessives to track down a memorable ad from seasons past. A new start-up, My Fashion Database, has stepped into the breach. In scope and ambition, its most similar comparison is film database IMDB.com. Like IMDB, MyFDB.com catalogs the fashion industry in multiple ways, from the personal (you can look up model Chanel Iman and find her recent covers as well as her campaign work) to the team effort (it compiles makeup artists, manicurists and hairstylist credits in addition to editors, photographers and brands). The publications section has full layouts of magazines, including ads and editorials, so you can confirm that Madonna’s Louis Vuitton ad ran in the October 2009 issue of Harper’s Bazaar, which also featured a Banana Republic ad and a quirky Halloween editorial.

For all the vicarious thrills of having Vogue, Allure and luxury brand images in one central place, the effort started out as way to help industry people connect, like a fashion industry LinkedIn. The idea came about two years ago when former male model, now MyFDB.com CEO Keith Britton,tried to come up with an alternative to sending out his clips via messenger. The site is backed by private angel investors, but the company is not disclosing amounts invested or citing names. . .

AnOther Mag Marks A Decade With Style

For its tenth anniversary issue, AnOther Magazine has taken on an ambitious project to explore style over the past decade by pairing 28 style icons from the past ten years with some of the world's top designers. Featured on the four covers are Kate Moss in John Galliano, Natalie Portman in Lanvin, Vanessa Paradis in Chanel and Katie Holmes wearing Azzedine Alaia.

Other notable women to be featured in the issue include Carine Roitfield, Chloë Sevigny, Christina Ricci, and Courtney Love, among others. They willl each be paired with a designer from a list as varied as Calvin Klein, Viktor & Rolf, Ralph Lauren, Hussein Chalayan Christopher Kane, to name a few.

For the entire list of pairings, check DazedDigital.com

AnOther Magazine’s special collector’s edition will be on-sale exclusively at Liberty from September 10 and then available elsewhere from September 17.

Fashion Photography by Malik Sidibe

Shot of Malik Sadibe's photos in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine

Last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine featured a unique fashion editorial done by famed Malian photographer Malik Sidibe. Sidibe offers a fresh perspective on the Spring 2009 collections by having his extended family, which includes his 17 sons and daughters, modeling clothing by designers like Dries van Noten, Christian Lacroix and Marc Jacobs. The way in which the lively prints and African-inspired clothing, worn by the everyday people in the portrait-style photographs, come to life, speaks to the relevance of Sidibe's style, which has remained virutally unchanged for the past several decades. In fact, his influence can be seen in the Suno Spring/Summer 2009 collection, shot by Tina Tyrell.

Photo: Malik Sidibe

Photo: Malik Sidibe

Photo: Malik Sidibe

Suno shot by Tina Tyrell