I love this Calvin Klein Fall 2010 campaign with Lara Stone, shot by Mert & Marcus. It is such a great look for her, and it shows her versatility, which is something I had never really considered before (I sort of through she had one look, and that was it.) I also love that this campaign is so Calvin Klein, bringing the brand back to the minimalist roots. Francisco Costa has done a great job with this collection.

These photos came from Fashion Gone Rogue, which is one of the latest additions to the Searching for Style Reading List (on the right of the homepage), which I recently updated. Fashion Gone Rogue posts tons of great campaign images and photoshoots.

Everyone seems to be getting excited about the upcoming Spring Summer 2010 advertising campaigns. I guess in fashion terms that is something to get excited about, however I rarely get worked up about an advertising campaign unless there is something amazing going on.

I have always been obsessed with these Versace campaigns shot by Steven Meisel. The models are Amber Valleta and Georgina Grenville, and it was for Autumn Winter 2000. I am also very excited that I found the entire series today on this Russian photography site, they are quite large versions, and I like to have a record of great fashion things like this.

This campaign was turned into a small exhibition, and there are a few reasons why it was so well received. The models, although young and beautiful, are styled to look old, which is very unusual in fashion. The way they sit, their hair, makeup, everything, makes them look much older than they are. Also, they are staring straight into the camera, which is a bit eerie. The Beverly Hills mansion where these photos were taken must have been a locations scout’s dream, it is so perfect for the clothing. Someone pointed out to me that in nearly all the photos the models were smoking cigarettes, which were then airbrushed out. Take a look, you can see their fingers are in the right position. If you spend a few seconds looking into each photo, you can appreciate how amazing theses shots are, they are a bit weird, but fabulous. This is definitely my favourite fashion advertising campaign ever.

Here are some of the Spring Summer 2010 campaigns, which will start to come out in the January magazines, and make a full appearance by March. I got all the images from Refinery 29, except the Dolce and Gabbana ones, which were published in Italian Vogue.

Here’s Lara Stone for Louis Vuitton. She is the model of the moment, and has just replaced Madonna, who starred in the campaigns last season. I am looking forward to seeing this in more detail.

Louis Vuitton Spring Summer 2010: Lara Stone shot by Steven Meisel

Everyone was surprised by this Akris campaign with Daphne Guinness. The heiress is known for her amazing, eclectic style and her haute couture collection, and she is loved by so many designers. It was a surprise that she chose to work with Akris, a little-known brand.

Akris Spring Summer 2010: Daphne Guinness shot by Steven Klein

This Gucci ad looks amazing and I want to be next to that swimming pool right now.

Gucci Spring Summer 2010: Natasha Poly and Ryan Kennedy shot by Mert & Marcus

Marc Jacobs’ campaigns, always shot by Juergen Teller, are often slightly unusual. He is the only designer whose campaign involves taking five $1500 handbags, throwing them in the dirt, and then putting Sofia Coppola next to them. So it is no surprise that his next campaign has a model with her foot in a toilet.

Marc Jacobs Spring Summer 2010: Jamie Bouchert shot by Juergen Teller

The Lanvin campaign looks pretty cool, as does everything from the Lanvin label at the moment.

Lanvin Spring Summer 2010: Jamie Bouchert shot by Steven Meisel

I think this Dolce & Gabbana ad, featuring Madonna washing the dishes and doing other very “Italian Mamma” looking things, looks great. I am surprised how many times she can be reinvented.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring Summer 2010: Madonna shot by Steven Klein

What happened to fashion magazines that have content? I judge a fashion magazine on how long it takes me to read it. If I can skim all the articles and flip through the entire thing in less than five minutes, then it is a crap magazine, and a waste of 5 bucks. If there is a riveting article, or a photoshoot that makes me stop and stare, or a fascinating interview, which makes the magazine “last” me more than 20 minutes, then it could probably be considered a good magazine. Unfortunately, most magazines today fit into the first category, with Vanity Fair being the only mainstream magazine fitting into the latter (and GQ is often a very good read.)

I have been a bit slow to catch up on mainstream press since I moved back, and this weekend I was flipping through a few American mainstream fashion magazines (Vogue, Elle, and W) and was extremely disappointed. American magazines have always been way more commercial and boring than their European counterparts (try and compare an Italian Vogue to a US Vogue and you won’t believe they share the same name) so I don’t have very high expectations, but still…

Firstly, the covers. Ever since the “celebrity” phenomenon started in recent years, models have been kicked off the covers of magazines. My friend at UK Vogue said that a celebrity will always sell more issues than a model, the only exception being Kate Moss, who is a celebrity model. So instead of getting amazing images where the photographer and stylist have been allowed to be imaginative and creative, we get boring photoshoots controlled by celebrity publicists on our magazine covers.

Boring, boring boring. Katie Holmes is boring.

Demi Moore is not boring, and when I am 47 I want to look like her. She looks great, but once you get inside the magazine, it is boring.

Another thing that shocked me about these magazines was the advertising. Just to explain some background info on magazine advertising, the pricing works in quarters, so, the front quarter of the magazine is the most expensive per page, the second quarter is the second most expensive, and so on, the exceptions being back cover and inside covers (which are the most expensive). But money doesn’t equal your product on the inside front cover, if you are a crappy brand, most good fashion magazine will take your money, but stick you near the back. Regardless of how much a brand is willing to pay, many magazines will want to maintain integrity and only have beautiful advertising in their first and second quarter. This is not the case with most mainstream US fashion magazines.

Now, I know magazines nowadays are desperate because their advertising revenue has dropped significantly, but really, there is no excuse to have this in the first quarter of your magazine, in the space reserved for the top brands.

Hair removal tools that are photographed to look like genitalia. Nice.

This is for yoga DVDs...on the page after a Burberry ad. Scary.

After a sea of ugly advertising in Elle, I was hoping to hit some content. Elle should have beautiful editorial images and interesting articles, but it seems that their editors have forgotten they work for Elle, and not Lucky magazine. Lucky is a shopping magazine, which shows lots of product and where to buy it, which is fine, and does the job it says it is going to. But Elle should not be a shopping magazine, and I was very upset to find about ten pages of really boring shopping pages, based on “looks” no woman over 25 would want to wear.

I thought the Valley Girl look was something we were trying to avoid...particularly in winter.

Not a thing on these pages is appropriate for November, or anytime other time of year.

Elle only had one editorial photoshoot, which doubled as a celebrity interview, as it appears Amber Valleta is now an actress as well. Magazine should have at least three editorial photoshoots, that, and great advertising, is why we buy them! So they really aren’t doing their job well.

And what is with this styling? Are we wearing bermudas and bras for November? This can't possibly be spring preview since the November issue comes out in October!

W had a great photoshoot with Demi. She looks amazing in this photo, shot by Mert + Marcus.

Fabulous!

But W forgot to put an editorial shoot in at all. NO EDITORIAL IMAGES! Only some more celebrity shots. Are we sure this is a fashion magazine?

A great image, but this isn't editorial, there was no styling story, no great fashion, just a bunch of up-and-coming actors.

So I was generally let down by these magazines…to say the least. My last two images are for my readers to decide. Are they great? Or crap. You decide.

I can't figure out if I love or hate this ad. It is SO American, and SO DKNY. It's the old concept of one basic piece in every colour in the rainbow. Is this good bad, or bad bad?

I hate Lily Allen, she is so annoying. But I feel I can never say anything bad about Chanel. Is this genius, or just plain rubbish?

For some reason I can’t figure out how to do links on photo captions, the techy husband is looking into it, so in case you all desperately needed to find the Katie Homes website and you couldn’t just google it, here they are: Katie Holmes, Mert and Marcus, Demi Moore, Lily Allen, Chanel and DKNY. And I also want to say, I hope I haven’t offended the lovely MB, who is an amazing writer, and Elle is very lucky to have her. MB, I know you didn’t do those shopping pages!

Oops, one more thing. Something good did come out of my Elle read, I saw this amazing clutch bag by Alexander McQueen. Love it!