I had a good, thorough flip though the September issue of US Vogue over the weekend, and I was surprised to see how boring the advertising campaigns were. Firstly, Louis Vuitton was noticeably absent, which was very strange. And the magazine was also lacking in nice-looking campaigns, which, let’s face it, is usually the main reason we buy the September issues. I know that desperate times call for desperate measures, but the second, third, and fourth quarters of the magazine were crammed with tasteless, ugly campaigns from brands that are not “worthy of Vogue.” I guess they have had to drop their standards in order to fill their pages.

Before I go through my Loves and Loathes for the ad campaigns from the brands we know, I should point out that there was a very good article in Vogue about mothers in the US Army. Not only was it a riveting read, but it made me 1-feel so sad for children whose parents are in the military, and 2-hate the US Army more than words can describe.

I Love…

how amazing Karen Elson looks in this Balenciaga campaign. And the shape of that white furry coat is INSANE.

the way this ad highlights the unusual shapes Bottega Veneta is known for.

Roberto Cavalli at his best: glamour, leopard print, and fur.

these simple Celine ads.

that these Chanel photos look pretty relaxed.

the best trousers of the season, by Chloe.

that despite the fact that Gucci has basically repeated their Spring Summer photos, it still very luxury and on-brand.

Autumn Winter with Michael Kors. Only Carmen Kass can make grey jogging pants look great with a fur coat.

alien eye makeup at Lanvin.

gorgeous contrasts and hardcore hardware at Miu Miu.

that Nicole Miller suddenly looks modern and slick.

Prada's choice of models, Miranda Kerr looks amazing.

that Tommy Hilfiger does the American preppy look better than anyone else.

this beautiful photo. This Valentino dress looks absolutely stunning.

Cleopatra hair and dramatic stairs at Yves Saint Laurent.

I loathe…

the whole concept of this Bulgari shoot, plus the style of the photography, which looks quite tacky.

a boring Burberry campaign. Time to try something new.

ditto at Dolce & Gabanna. They also need to try something new.

when Hermes looks too equestrian.

this Jimmy Choo campaign. It is such a predictable fashion photo set-up, and the shoes look like nothing special.

when a campaign gets done too many times. The cute young Lacoste models jumping up and down were nice for a few seasons, but now they look like silly ravers.

that Ralph Lauren has chosen some of his most boring product for the seasonal ad campaign.

Kate Moss naked in this David Yurman campaign. She doesn't look nice at all, in fact, she looks a bit yuck.

Madonna for Dolce & Gabanna, Spring Summer 2010.

I wrote earlier this week about the fact that the fashion industry seems to be changing, and that was in reference to the new silhouette and the use of the curvy models on the Fall Winter 2010 catwalks. But I also read some very interesting articles this week about how models seems to be back “in fashion.”

Vogue Paris almost always puts models on their cover.

I have always been quite anti-celebrity when it comes to the fashion industry. Basically, they’ve ruined it, and made it super mainstream. One of the things I mention when I lecture on fashion promotion is the concept of celebrities within the industry, and an interesting example I use is that a fashion magazine now sells more copies with a celebrity on the cover, rather than a model. (The only exception here is Kate Moss, but she’s a model and a celebrity.) Well, it looks like those days may be coming to an end (Hallelujah!)

Victoria Beckham on the cover of Vogue UK, April 2008. Apparently they lost 40% of their subscribers after this cover, the readers were not impressed.

WWD posted an article on Wednesday about the fact that most designers are using models for their Fall Winter 2010 advertising campaigns, rather than celebrities. Hopefully the magazines will soon do the same. This list, complied by The Cut, shows that most brands will be working with models (aside from Dolce & Gabanna.)

• Yves St. Laurent: Daria Werbowy
• Gucci: Raquel Zimmermann
• Chanel: Freja Beha Erichsen, Abbey Lee Kershaw, and Brad Kroenig
• Fendi: Anja Rubik and Baptiste Giabiconi
• Louis Vuitton: Christy Turlington, Karen Elson, and Natalia Vodianova (though these names are rumored, not confirmed)
• Balenciaga: a cast of ten models, including Elson and Stella Tennant
• Roberto Cavalli: Gisele Bündchen
• Dior: Karlie Kloss
• Dolce & Gabanna: Madonna

Lindsay Lohan for Miu Miu, Spring Summer 2007.

To be honest, the ironic or interesting use of a celebrity in a fashion campaign doesn’t bother me too much, like Lindsay Lohan for Miu Miu (which looked nothing like her) or Madonna for Dolce & Gabanna. But in general, I am thrilled about this news.

Kate Moss has been shot for MANY Vogue UK covers.

In the WWD article, “Lagerfeld notes there are “not so many” celebrities around from which to choose. What’s more, their “overexposure in ‘people’ magazines also makes it that one may be a little tired of celebrities and the red carpet.”

I think “a little tired of celebrities” is an understatement. I am bored to death of celebrities meddling in the fashion industry, especially when they have no business being there. So for fun, I’ve compiled a list of most annoying celebrity/fashion situations. This is by no means exhaustive, and I’ve only spent a few minutes on it, so I am sure there are tons of juicy, ridiculous examples I’ve forgotten. Feel free to suggest more!

Lindsay Lohan for Ungaro Spring Summer 2010: calling it a disaster is an understatement.

1. Lindsay Lohan for Ungaro: painful, embarrassing, and nearly ruined the brand.
2. Sarah Jessica Parker for Halston Heritage: she herself said  ”they’d be bludgeoned for it” and I hope they are.
3. Kanye West for Louis Vuitton: Does Kanye actually make any music, or does he just go to fashion shows and pretend he knows stuff about fashion.
4. “Diavolo So Sexy” by Antonio Banderas: The name says it all.
5. Lauren Conrad’s clothing collection: Lauren, you suck.

Kanye West's trainers for Louis Vuitton. Boring.

Thanks Dal for helping me brainstorm on the above.

Last time I visited Avshalom Gur’s studio, it was to borrow some accessories for my outfit for the Christian Dior Fall WInter 2007/08 Haute Couture collections party at Versailles. It was the 60th anniversary of the Christian Dior brand, and the ten year anniversary of John Galliano at Dior. Avshalom lent me some jewelry and foxes to be worn as shawls (which ended up being the most important part of the outfit, since the part took place in the Orangerie at the Chateau de Versailles, outdoors, and it wasn’t the warm July evening that they predicted.)

A trip to Avshalom’s studio always involves tea, catching up, and then trying on beautiful clothes. Avshalom has an incredible background, and has worked for Donna Karan, Roberto Cavalli, Chloe, and most recently as creative director of Ossie Clark, as well as having his own collection. This time Bora Aksu (whose studio is next door) joined us for tea, and we chatted about life, the business, and the forthcoming closure of the famous Central Saint Martins campus on Charing Cross Road. All of the Central Saint Martins Campus’ are moving to a purpose-built building near Kings Cross, so there’s obviously a bit of sadness when discussing the closure of the building where we studied/worked/cried together during our time as students on the fashion design MA.

Some photos of Avshalom's studio.

So much colour.

Works in progress.

The sample sale rack, full of Ossie Clark and Avshalom Gur dresses.

The sofa where we drink tea and chat.

Here's a skirt from the Spring Summer 2010 collection.

The beading is beautiful.

Avshalom has collaborated with some of the most talented jewelry designers for his collections.

Birds are a reoccurring theme in his work.

Here is a hand carved jade bird.

More of the jade birds, which were used as necklaces or belt buckles.

Avshalom Gur in his studio.

I bought some of his easy jersey t-shirt dresses. Here are some photos from his Spring Summer 2010 collection. I love the 60’s feel to the photos, and the colour looks great on the black backgrounds.

Photographer David Roemer and Stylist Kate Ruth.

When I first saw this show I didn’t like it, but after a few minutes I realized it is really beautiful. Roberto Cavalli has gone from over the top glam rock chick, to sexy, gypsy hippy girl. She looks relaxed, easy, and the clothing is effortless. I like it.

I Love…

Roberto Cavalli's nouveau gypsy girl.

the mix of textures, the brocade pants, and the soft layering.

the textiles patterns mixed together. The red brocade, and the animal print on the fur and legging look amazing.

this fantastic hippy dress.

Roberto Cavalli's use of animal prints. Amazing.

All images from Style.com.

We know that Roberto Cavalli’s collections are not usually tame or conservative, but it doesn’t mean his over-the-top looks always work. I think there are some great pieces in this collection, but they are overstyled and often look scary on the catwalk.

I Adore…

this punk look. But let’s face it, you can recreate this same look in a few vintage stores. You don’t need to drop several thousands for it. And authentic vintage punk always looks better than luxury designer punk.

this jacket. Great fabrics, great interior detailing, and a beautiful fur collar.

I Loathe…

this mix of patterns in this look. The jacket would look great on its own, but this outfit is too much (or not enough.)

more scary pattern mixes. And the trousers here are too short, or too flared, or not enough of either. Plus the scarf confuses things even more. It seems like the stylist got scared and just kept adding to every look, instead of editing.

ugly wannabee-Christmas sweaters with silky brown scarves and plaid trousers, worn with pirate boots. Bad, just bad.

that there seems to be a trend of ugly printed parkas (see Prada.) Let’s hope it doesn’t catch on.

All images from GQ.com.

My friend Michaela pointed out to me recently that everyone has just sort of been ignoring the fact that we are about to enter a new decade. Well, I wouldn’t say it has been ignored, but I agree we aren’t really making a very big deal of it. Maybe we had millenium overload ten years ago, but no one can deny that a lot has happened since 2000.

I have been working on this post for a while, looking through other websites’ and newspapers’ “summaries of the decade” and trying to think what I felt was really important from the last ten years. I have combined it all under a few categories, and I am probably forgetting loads of important things, but here I go. Also, I don’t agree with Time Magazine, who has called the 00s “The Decade from Hell”, I prefer just using the term The Noughties. Nought means zero in British English. Maybe we can call it The Decade Nought to be Forgotten? Ok, that sounds cheesy. Lets just call it The Noughties.

It is a very long post, so I have broken it down into 3 parts. Here is Part 1. Enjoy!

The Politics of the Stars and Stripes really took over the world stage in the past ten years. First, the Americans had the disastrous Bush era, whose ignorance, terrible international relations, and poor leadership led to the US being the most hated country in the world. That pissed some people off so much that they flew planes into the World Trade Centre towers, which led to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and very long line ups to get through security in airports. Things started to look up at the end of the decade, when Barack Obama was elected the first African American president of the United States. He hasn’t been around long enough for us to feel the effect of his good deeds, but it definitely brought hope to the world, and has calmed down their enemies… a little. And his wife is the best dressed first lady ever…she deserves mega kudos for showing off her arms, supporting young American designers, and wearing affordable clothing.

Yay!

These images from are from The Cut’s Michelle Obama Lookbook, they have been documenting all of her outfits. Definitely worth a look.

A Shift of Power took place in the fashion industry, as we saw established designers disappear, famous retirements, celebrities taking over the industry, and revived brands making headlines.

Valentino retires, and so we say goodbye to the man known for red dresses, animal prints, and perma tan.

Emanuel Ungaro also retired in 2004, which resulted in turmoil in the house for several years, leading up the current disastrous state which sees Lindsay Lohan as Artistic Director. The above images are from her first collection for the house, which was bought by only two stores.

Things are not looking good for Christian Lacroix, who has had to suspend his Haute Couture and Pret-a-porter because of financial difficulties.

The Ferre brand is also unstable, since the death of the founder, Gianfranco Ferre, in 2007. Image source.

And some very old brands have been reinvented…

Alber Elbaz is now the Creative Director behind Lanvin.

Nicolas Ghesquière is the Creative Director for Balenciaga.

and Christophe Decarnin is the Creative Director for Balmain.

Luxury Made Accessible by the high street retailers collaborating with big names. Owning a piece by Karl was no longer unattainable, as long as you were willing to wait in a line up.

H&M were the pioneers of the designer high street collaboration.

H&M designer collaborations. Clockwise from top left: Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Matthew Williamson, Sonia Rykiel, Comme des Garcons, Jimmy Choo, and Roberto Cavalli.

Christopher Kane for Topshop, the famous crocodile print.

Target launched collections with McQ Alexander McQueen, Anna Sui and Rodarte (shown above.)

New Media changed the way we consumed news and information. Time Magazine summed it up in 2006 when they named “You” as person of the year. Web 2.0 changed the way we consumed the web, making users the new contributors. Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, and Myspace changed the way we searched, researched, communicated and socialized.

The computer screen was a mirror...

This image of bloggers Bryanboy and Tommy Ton (from Jak & Jil Blog) sitting front row at the Dolce and Gabanna Spring Summer 2010 show with Anna Wintour, Hamish Bowles, Suzy Menkes and other big player fashion journalists showed that blogging was being taken seriously in the fashion industry.

Scoot Schulman’s street style blog, The Sartorialist, is known for his well-chosen photographs of men and women of all ages on the streets of the world’s fashion capitals.

Websites like Vogue’s Style.com has allowed us to view fashion catwalk images hours after the runway show itself, changing the way we consume fashion. Years ago, fashionistas would wait until the magazines published the new season’s collections, usually months after the show itself. Now we see the shows immediately after they happen, and hear about them on Twitter as they are happening.

Catch Part 2 of 3 “Remembering the Noughties” posts tomorrow!

All images from the brand’s or person’s website, except all catwalk images from style.com, unless otherwise noted.

This week I dragged Jason out shopping again, as I still haven’t managed to see all the important Vancouver shops. Lyndi came with us, she does PR for Style Republic Magazine, and another one of Jason’s friends, who is Canadian but speaks Turkish and Mandarin. Her linguistic skills were probably the most exciting discovery of the evening, which doesn’t say much about shopping in downtown Vancouver.

I started alone in American Apparel, and I managed to get out without spending over 100 dollars. American Apparel is great, it is the brand that is not a brand, you can wear it in so many different ways, so practical , so simple, and so easy. While I was waiting for my shopping partners, I wandered into Adidas on Granville Street. Adidas is a fantastic brand, the clothes, shoes, and visual merchandising all look great. I am not very into sportswear, but since I became a contributor to View2 magazine a few years ago (which is a trend forecasting magazine for the sportswear and casual wear sectors) I developed an interest in some of these brands.

Look at the amazing running shoes in the Adidas store, I want the ones with the wings.

I'm trying to think of an outfit where I could wear these without looking clumpy.

Also very cool.

So many pretty colours and textures!

So our shopping destination was Leone, which is a high end store in Sinclair Centre that used to focus on Italian brands, but sells quite a few European brands as well. They carry brands like Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Prada, D&G, Jimmy Choo, Dior, and John Galliano. For those of you who don’t know it, this is one of the high end shopping destinations in Vancouver, probably second only to Holt Renfrew, our luxury department store.

There is definitely some nice stock in there, lots of it desirable and expensive but not ridiculously expensive. The problem was, like most Vancouver stores, the visual merchansiding. First of all, the brands weren’t grouped together, and luxury brands each deserve to have their own space (unless you are merchandising them like a boutique.) The sales people didn’t know what season the clothes were from. And the signage… oh my god the signage.

Can you imagine using a generic neon sign and tacky red sales tickets in a luxury store?

These signs were taped on several of the walls, all over the store. First of all, can't they get professional, classy signs made? Second, print them on expensive paper, not regular photocopier paper. And third, find a nice way to attach them to the wall, not globs of gluey stuff. Even H&M wouldn't use signage like this.

This is a shoe rack with Jimmy Choo, Miu Miu, Dior and other fabulous luxury shoes. They are displayed the same way you would display $29.99 stripper shoes. I bought a pair in London once, and they were displayed exactly like this. Can you imagine there must be at least 20,000 dollars worth of shoes on those cheap shelves...

Come on Leone! You can do better than this…