Annie Leibovitz, is normally a name we associate with Vanity Fair, but whatever – it’s always a name we associate with super slick portraits of the rich and famous. Over then to Vogue.com for the April issue of US Vogue, where Barbadian beauty Rihanna has been photographed by Ms Leibovitz and we have to say looking hotter than ever – even making the lurid hair colour she is rocking out at the moment, well, kinda work! See for yourself after the jump . . .
Vogue renamed Grace. Grace Coddington illustrated on the cover – yes, now this we’d like to see.
C’mon Anna make it happen . . .
Over then to our favourite of all Vogue’s, Vogue Italia for the announcement of the winner of this season of Americas next top model.
The stunning Ann Ward beat off competition from the other hopeful’s to be crowned the winner, and to receive not only a modelling contract and a shoot with Vogue. The pictures we share with you today, speak for themselves . . . 
Show host Tyra Banks said of Ann “The creativity that she conceals within her introverted personality emerged every now and then, making her stand out both on set and on the catwalk” looking at these images, we couldn’t agree more. See the behind the scenes video of the shoot here.
AP. loves Vogue Hommes Japan. That could be something to do with super stylist Nicola Formichetti who, as well as being art director to the formidable Lady GaGa, and recently took over the reigns at Thierry Mugler, is also contributing editor to the magazine.
This month, the Japanese edition of Vogue Hommes bring seductive black and white shot styled by Nicola Formichetti. Daisuke Ueda and Seijo Imazaki are the stars of a shot full of eastern promise, a fantastic creation from the hands of Steven Klein.
Eastern promise indeed . . .
Vogue Italia always comes up trumps with stunning photographic spreads and this sixties inspired shoot starring American actress Amber Evangeline Valletta. Va Va voom . . .
Vogue italia, which for many is sooooooo stylish, has commissioned one of our favourite photographers Miles Aldridge for this photo-journey, which just happens to be called ‘so stylish’.
Vogue Italia, so stylish? You bet!
After the shocking Ga-Ga cover for Vogue Hommes Japan, L’uomo Vogue Italia releases her own music related issue with a spectacular spread featuring the handsome faces of Bill and Tom Kaulitz, the minds and hearts behind Tokio Hotel. They walk around the decadent rooms of Palazzo Biscuri, the splendid 18th Century palazzo in Catania, Sicily where the photo shoot took place, almost meekly, as if they don’t want to disturb the “genius loci”, the photos speak for themselves . . .
image source | vogue italia
Last but by no means of course Paris fashion week, and as it’s Paris, it started by showing the world how it’s done. Vogue Paris Editor-in-Chief and officially the worlds most stylish woman Carine Roitfeld’s le bal masque held at the Palazzo Pozzo di Borgo, famous as the mansion of a noble Corsican family, a 18th-century building with a complex history and even more famous as the former residence of Karl Largerfeld.
Vogue Paris certainly put on a stunning affair with the famous mingling with the mega famous, a night to remember for everyone involved we’re sure.
Every great Shakespearean play ends in tragedy, and the life of one Issie Blow was nothing if not worthy of being one of the greatest, complete with skullduggery, villains, and excess of the very worst kind, Issie Blow was loved by many, and an inspiration to many more.
The great Issie, comes to mind again this week as AP. is off to Waterstones tomorrow to pick up the new book, ‘blow by blow’ by her husband Detmar Blow.
Born Isabella Delves Broughton in Marylebone, London, England, she was the eldest child of Major Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton, a military officer, and his second wife, Helen Mary Shore, a barrister. Sir Evelyn was the only son of Jock Delves Broughton; his sister, Rosamond, married Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat in 1938. Blow had two sisters, Julia and Lavinia, and a brother, John, who drowned in the family’s swimming pool at the age of two. In 1972, when she was 14, her parents separated and her mother left the household, shaking each daughter by the hand. Her parents divorced two years later. Isabella did not get along with her father, who bequeathed her only £5,000 from his estate, which was worth more than one million pounds.
In a career that reads like something straight off a movie script, Blow moved to New York City in 1979 to study Ancient Chinese Art at Columbia University and shared a flat with the actress Catherine Oxenberg. A year later, she left the Art History programme at Columbia, moved to Texas, and worked for Guy Laroche. In 1981, she married her first husband, Nicholas Taylor (whom she divorced in 1983), and was introduced to the fashion director of the U.S. edition of Vogue, Anna Wintour. She was hired initially as Wintour’s assistant, but it was not long before she was assisting Andre Leon Talley, now U.S.Vogue’s editor-at-large. While working in New York, she befriended Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
She will perhaps be best remembered for ‘discovering’ Alexander McQueen, and the model Sophie Dhal. Even though the end of her life was marred by the breakdown in her relationship with McQueen, whom she (and judging by the book, Detmar too) never forgave for not taking her with him to Givenchy, or to his own label at the Gucci group.
Perhaps fittingly she chose to end her life (one of many, many attempts to do so) by drinking Paraquat, a weedkiller. The very same thing that Detmar Blow’s father had killed himself with years before, now that is a twist of truely Shakespearean proportions.
Issie blow was a reformer, an artist and a style icon. I hope that is the epitaph for a fashion great, not just who she discovered along the way.
So it was the morning after the night before, and while Milan was busy recovering, New York had no such chance. Milan hosted a majorly successful event for the Vogue fashions night out, and the D-squared boys (above) looked like they were having a ball . . .
On the other side of the world – The big apple launched straight from fashions night out; the show, into fashions night out, into fashion week. How on earth can one city take that much fashion? Well leave it to Chanel to find the best way, Chanel launched their new SoHo store lat night with a host of the great and glam turning out, we loved Alex Chung (below), but mostly we couldn’t help but think how much we loved the grafitti style media wall the stars were getting papped against.
Was Chanel having a LV style Stephen Sprouse moment? We couldn’t be sure, but we’d love it if it was . . .
AP.
