Elle Muliarchyk hard at work. Though I think she might be on the wrong side of the camera.
Take a look at some of Elle’s work here.
I met Brigitte in Doha.
It was at a reception for the premiere of the first ever Tribeca Film Festival there.
She was circling round and round with her leica camera. She was immediately striking, eyeing everything in sight.
We met again the next day on a trip to the falcon farm. Then we saw a movie together. Then I saw her in LA for the Moca Gala.
She completely fascinates me as she is a woman living her passion while it supports her, travelling the world taking photos.
Brigitte Lacombe is definitely a POP ICON.
For more on Brigitte take a look at her website here
Madame Lacombe, hard at work.
Brigitte often works on film sets. Here a shot of Ava Green hard at work.
As well as working as a travel photographer for Conde Nast Traveller, Miss Lacombe also does advertising.
One of her many travel photos
Words can only hurt you if you try to read them. Don't play their game.
Pop editors hard at work, with the only true fashion legend, Derek Zoolander and the SUPER-NOVA-STAR Fernita.
I can’t wait to tell you the story of the red suitcase.
But that will have to wait till the next issue of POP Magazine comes out.
Check back here in February.
Meanwhile,
Hold your breath.
helen of the west!
красный чемодан or The case of the red suitcase
By the way I hated the movie “Nine” what a waste of Daniel Day Lewis.
Helpineedhelp products can be purchased here.
Laeticia Crahay (left) All accessories by Chanel. Head piece: Maison Michel
Laeticia Crahay is the accessories designer for Chanel and Maison Michel.
Anyone who knows Laetitia, knows she has the energy of a comet.
Any conversation she has will include elaborate gesticulations, waving of hands ect.
Imagine that she bumps into this woman who was covered in accesories created by her, spanning about five years.
What happens is she jumps up and down in the highest heels, like a kid.
Look at them, can you blame her?
Calvin Klein store window at Madison Avenue New York.
Here is an email I received from Linda at The Hat Shop.
It’s a forwarded message from Jo Fidgen who interviewed Joseph for the BBC.
Hi Linda, Funny things just happened. Someone contacted the BBC saying she’d like to help with Joseph’s education fund. I forwarded her your address (I hope you don’t mind) – and it turns out she knows you. An occasional customer of yours called Katie…
Also, a station called WNYC called this evening to arrange to do an interview about Joseph… They’re planning to play a couple of clips of Joseph and then talk to me briefly about the flying lesson. Joseph will be here – perhaps they’ll interview him too.
Will try to find out about the school details tomorrow. I think Florence has set up an email account now – perhaps I could put her directly in touch with you?
Happy holidays.
Jo
Because of that dazzling sparkle in her eyes.
Because she has so much spunk walking down the runway, that if she had her head covered with a paper bag I could tell it was her just from her swagger.
I’d like to see a walk off between her and Miss Campbell.
Because she is not another drone stuck on a conveyor belt…
Because she is memorable.
KARLIE KLOSS BETTER WERQUE.
Karlie Kloss for Marc Jacobs.
photo: Victor Demarchellier for shala.thepop.com dress Rodarte, shoes miu miu, hat prada, gloves vintage, sunglasses Thierry Lasry
Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte were announced as one of the 50 recipients of the 2009 United States Artists Fellowships on Monday, December 14th.
Fresh mint at the market
Margarita Missoni at GBV Studio in Paris
Giambatista Valli hard at work
The garden at the Hotel Ryad Madani
GBV Mood board
accessories
Hard at work with Giamba and Anne McNally
spring summer 2010 collection
spring summer 2010 collection
MARRAKECH PART II
This summer I watched Bernado Bertolucci’s, “The Sheltering Sky.” I cannot explain here how this movie affects my life. Life, like Kandinsky, is full of circles. In any case I saw this movie after I had been to Marrakech. It’s where I met Giambatista Valli for the first time through a mutual friend, Carlos Mota who’s a style editor for Elle Décor.
The first thing Giambatista did was, order us mint tea while sitting on the crowded side of the Café Des Epices, in the center of the Medina. Morrocan mint tea, it’s served cold, and very sweet, often in a small, decorated glass; Morrocco is full of details. I mention mint because when I first promised in Paris to explain to you the reason there was so much green in his collection, it is due to the ever present mint, and it is fresh mint, Emerald green! There is lots of green to be seen, like date palm leaves, like olives, like orange trees, like all the green you can find in the dessert. I had no idea. I hardly ever research a city before I visit. I’ve said before, I’m lazy. Actually I did google it but my mind still thought desert meant orche, not verdant.
In the middle of the Medina, in the middle of my hotel, Ryad Madani, is an extremely lush garden. It reminded me of home (St.Lucia). Outside of my room – banana trees, bougainvillia, palms and cypress trees just to name a few. And so Giamba’ as I now call him because he is a darling, in the desert, saw lots of trees; hence the green in the collection.
And there was Picasso too.
We all had breakfast one morning where Giamba took me to a nook at the top of his villa and showed me the snow capped Atlas mountains. It sucked the wind out of me. He then brought me over to a dainty little table shaded by honeysuckle vines. Breakfast here includes, in addition to flat bread, fresh coffee, fruit and tea – fervent discussion. Everyone had a book or the paper, about six of us. I was happy to just listen because I don’t come across this thing in New York often. Smooth transition from Italian, to French, to English, Arabic, like music… One gentleman was reading poetry, the other an Egyptian newspaper, Giamba going over a copy of a certain Picasso book of late paintings. Ever so politely one would stop and remark on something that moved them and so the breakfast went. The silences were most delicious.
To be continued…
and so I went to THE HAT SHOP.
Linda is the sales woman there, and what a delight she is.
The thing is I’m beginning to have a problem with Department stores, only because its too stimulating… I digress.
Amid her many stories, one of them explaining why the Mad Hatter is so called, she excused herself to make a very important phonecall.
I need to call this journalist she said, and I said fine because I really felt at home at the little shop and didn’t mind, it was also evil cold outside.
Her call was to the BBC about Joseph Banda. Listen here. Joseph reminded me a bit of Amelia Earhart.
Here’s our little interview recorded on my iphone.
Hat: The Hat Shop, Dress: Rodarte for Target (only $39.99) Watch: Prada.
Linda: After I heard the story I sent the BBC an email, they sent an email to the reporter, she got back to me and said that several people had asked, you know how they could help but nobody really knew what to do. Then because I had experience with the Thorntree Project in Kenya I started to put together a long-term strategy for Joseph because he is definitely going to need help, as he gets older. (more…)
I just can’t wait till their album comes out. Can you…?
The Spiceburns: Drummer Tatiana Santo Domingo, Lead singer Eugenie Niarchos, Guitarist: Margarita Missoni at their performance in LA. The girls wear Missoni.
Painting by Ed Ruscha. Told you he was one of my top three favorite American artists.
I’m getting a racing heart as the countdown to Francesco Vezzoli’s Ballet begins. Take a look here
Ships?
Sure I’ll sail them
Show me the boat,
If it’ll float,
I’ll sail it.
Men?
Yes, I’ll love them.
If they’ve got style,
to make me smile,
I’ll love them.
Life?
‘Course I’ll live it.
Just enough breath,
Until my death,
And I’ll live it.
Failure?
I’m not ashamed to tell it,
I’ve never learned to spell it,
Not Failure.
Maya Angelo
"life? 'Course i'll live it" with Charlotte Stockdale and Alaia purse.
Even though I abandoned you…
If this city was bleak during the Soviet era, there is something still and sad about it. Many of the structures are dilapidated. I can’t imagine the cost of up keeping the infrastructure. Though yesterday I learned that the buildings are not painted in years not because a lack of finance but because the bureaucratic process is not a walk in the park. Apparently no building that is land marked as having significant historical importance can be painted without approval. To get this approval the original color of the building must be proved, since many original copies of images of buildings date as far back as the 18th century, one can imagine how complicated it is to get a coat of paint on.
On the day I arrived we strolled the streets near the campus and it was riddled with empty beer cans and liquor bottles. Late at night many people walk around sipping exposed, large bottles of beer, and I even saw a young woman in her twenties, in heels and silk carrying a half empty bottle of liquor.One thing I find frustrating is the vitrine that blocks you from all of the products at the pharmacy. How does one stand and ask for many things and wait? Imagine walking into Duane Reade or Boots Pharmacy with a list in your head, of soap, nail polish remover, tanning lotion, aspirin, toilet cleaner, toothpaste… then you remember or realise you need other things, you have to ask the woman behind the vitrine for it. And if you forget you go back. It is a capitalist hindrance, and as a modern day American consumer I find this one fact of life in Russia very challenging.July 14th It is beginning to sink in that though its called white nights, it rains a lot. One of the first things I am told on my way from the airport is that it rains 300 days of the year. I am hoping this is an exaggeration! I am also told by a friend, that in St.Petersburg its 9 months of anticipation and 3 months of disappointment. (Bad joke, no offense).
So there is much to discover in this wonderland. Most memorable today was the tanners on the embankment. Anyone who looks at a postcard of St.Petersburg will instantly realise that one does miles of walking. Every building is so wide that to get from one location to another takes a toll on your feet. But a post-card and reality are two different things so of course I didn’t give enough thought to comfort. Style yes, but comfort? I suppose I don’t have the tolerance of young Russian tarts who glide around the cobble stones of St.Petersburg in stilettos.So, I had to sit and rest my hurting toes and aching back at which point the nearest place to sit was on the steps of the Peter and Paul Fortress and embankment, the first significant structure built by Peter the Great. I had the good fortune to turn around and there it was like planks of wood laid out to dry; about eight or ten people, of various ages but mostly older in, bikinis – tanning.One man would stand with his face against the wall, hands raised high as if under arrest. Then he would lean with his back to the wall, face to the sun. A well baked, golden tan like a rotisserie chicken was my immediate thought. And I saw how it unfolded.
A woman like the one I saw and the “SUPER-market” whom I bought my pillow from (I couldn’t deal with my pillow from the dorm) walked casually along the embankment, purse hanging on her side like she had just gotten off duty. She got to the wall, faced it, her back toward me, placed her purse on the ground and as she would do if she got to work and were changing to her uniform she began to undress. She was old enough to be my grand-mother. First to go was her blouse, a button down black and white printed blouse. Then she peeled of her pants to reveal what seemed to be a white bikini! And like that back against the wall she stands and bakes.What makes this scene more striking is the vast expanse of the Neva River with not a single soul in it. also the fact that there are probably not many days of the year when one can do this, I’m thinking 300 days of rain…. Who are these people who so value the golden kiss of the sun? Are they painting themselves golden like the facade of most of the buildings to reflect more radiance and to have a warm visage when the dark fog of winter comes? This is only one group of characters that interest me here. There are lovers, punks and drunks. Toilet ladies and waitresses. Even with my aching back I look forward to tomorrow.The Winter Palace
An ad on a bus.
A view from the embankment.
I can only imagine what that's about but I thought it was cute.
I admire the sense of pride in the dress of Russian women.
Citroen Cars that had been driven from Paris and through St.Petersburg.
Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, one of the last of the Romanov Dynasty.
Needless to say I bought one.
Paulina who accompanied us to the cinema for the movie "Anti-Christ" by Lars Von Trier
This woman! Climbed the 1000 steps up to the steeple of St.Issac's Cathedral. I wasn't joking about Russian women and heels. By the way she was not the only one. Those little legs next to her belongs to her daughter.
Folk dance.
No comment.
Russians hard at work
The beautiful simplicity of my dorm.
My chaperone Boris, who was 23 and was about to get his PhD in Economics. Boris knew everything about music.
A Finnish singer at the Music Festival
The group "Model Reign" which was one of my favourites.
A couple of young women at the music festival
And again.
More music festival
Russian style.
A bit of Warhol in St.Petersburg
Me with Fydor who had received his doctorate in medicine that day. Again he was 24!!!
More Russian style.
Tanners on the Neva Embankment
A former Romanov Palace turned Lenin center for the people.
Sometimes its nice to eat alone.
That there in my hand is an iPhone. It’s also the the virtual POP office. And so there I am working. What a wonderful job I have no? Sorry to brag but I can smoke while I work. And eat while I work and be inspired! Not tired!
Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli had me really happy in Rome! Of-course dresses make me really happy and what a dress I had. It’s so playful, it made my legs look so long, it made me eat less pasta at lunch (God and all my friends know how much I love pasta and pasta from Rome? It would only take a dress to make me eat just a little bit less. And then just one bite of tiramisu. Didn’t you know all the things one dress can do? I’m really loving the new Valentino attitude. Bravo!
Pier Paolo, Pepi Marchetti Franchi, Shala Valentino, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Alexander Calder Sculpture
Shala Valentino, Princess Alessandra Borghese, Pepi Marchetti Franchi, all in Valentino
Eden and Tavi hard at work.
Tavi and Eden preparing looks for their shoot.
Laia hard at work.
Hard at work.
Eden, Tavi, Elizabeth, Laia and hair and make-up team hard at work.
Tavi really hard at work.
Tavi taking some time off.
Olympia hard at work. By the way don't you love the POP uniform?
Olympia really working hard, in the heat. But really hard, hot with crickets that wouldn't shut up. I'm sure the poor guy couldn't hear her. Everything want's to sing in Ibiza the crickets never stop singing.
No shade for Olympia. Sadly no party either.
Olympia, Naomi, Roger hard at work in Ibiza.
black shoes, Prada art work, Franz West
Prada
Louboutin
shoes:Prada
artwork by Damien Hirst and Franz West
shoes; L'autre Chose
Photos above: Frieze Art Fair, London 2009
Basel Switzerland, summer 2009
After all its not a tough code to crack; high heels sells paintings, strong women sell art.
