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Donna Jordan, among the Most Influential Models of All Time

Though perhaps lesser known than some of her disco-era colleagues, Donna Jordan ranks among the most influential models of all time. Before Lara Stone was even born, Donna was the bleach browed, gap-toothed beauty who set the trend. Whether she was being shot by photographers like Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin and Oliviero Toscani, or appearing in Andy Warhol films Donna demanded the attention of the fashion crowd.

Donna Jordan, Antonio Lopez & Pat Cleveland Donna with photographer Oliviero Toscani Donna Jordan, Andy Warhol & Jane Forth promoting the 1971 film, L'Amour

Once dubbed ‘Disco Marilyn’, Donna Jordan wasn’t very interested in becoming a model. But illustrator Antonio Lopez saw something special in her. Together with his life partner Juan Ramos, Antonio bleached Donna’s hair and eyebrows and a new model was ‘born’. “Antonio was magical,” says model Donna Jordan. “When I first met him in 1967, he was coming down the steps to Bethesda Fountain, in Central Park, dressed in a red suit. He was quite a vision.”

Jane Forth & Donna Jordan


Donna Jordan & Pat Cleveland
Vogue Italia, July 2015, ph. by Steven Meisel

Donna was part of YSL’s clique in Paris and a muse to Karl Lagerfeld. She was a firm believer in 40’s inspired shoulder pads, red lipstick and glamour! Like any Andy Warhol Superstar…she was also an “actress”! She starred in Andy Warhol’s L’Amour as an American gold digger in Paris (a role in which she had a steamy kissing scene with Karl Lagerfeld!!!).

Donna Jordan cover Vogue Paris, November 1971
Donna Jordan cover Vogue Italia, 1971

Donna Jordan tells:

In New York, late 1960’s, there used to be Be-Ins at Bethesda Fountain in central Park. Everybody would just go and hang out… real hippie stuff. I was there one day with Jane Forth, when out of nowhere appeared Antonio Lopez in head-to-toe red: red suit, red top hat, red cane. All of that coming down the Bethesda stairs was such an amazing vision and for some reason there was a real connection. Antonio looked at Jane and me and we became immediately his muses. It was an instantaneous karmic kind of thing. We were just little kids, 17 years old – we’re talking 1967 – and suddenly are lives were transformed.

Antonio Lopez, Corey Tippin & Donna Jordan, st. Tropez 1970
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Every other night it was Carnegie Hall or Max’s Kansas City. Max’s was my living room and we would dance all night. I was the only of my friends who had a job at – Paraphernalia, one of the first boutiques in New York City – so I’d work all day and go out all night.

In 1969, after I’d had enough of New York and the whole Warhol scene, I went to London and kind of floated. Antonio found me again, I went to Paris and the rest is history.

Those were wild, crazy, fun, ridiculous times. I was living in the moment so much, I never thought about tomorrow and it all happened so fast, like a huge rush.

Aesthetically I think the Europeans were attracted to me, because I have such an open, American face. I booked the cover of French Vogue-their “pop” issue- which led me into an exiting time because Antonio’s influence was growing in Paris and we were like family. It was the midpoint of a transformation that changed my life.

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Info: CR Fashion Book, September 2013

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Laurene Stone, rose to Fame during the 1960s

6 Sep

Former magazine cover girl Paulene Stone may not be as well-known as other models from the era but Paulene’s style was certainly what everyone wanted. The statuesque beauty embodied Swinging London more than any other, and her work with David Bailey is what the photographer has attributed to kicking off his career in 1960.

Paulene talks about her life

Paulene Stone has led an extraordinary life. A fashion model and three-time Vogue cover girl, she rose to fame during the 1960s, rubbing shoulders with many glittering names of the day and creating some of the decade’s most enduring images.

Stone was born in Hove in 1941. Her mother was a talented dressmaker with Katharine Hepburn looks, while her father was a commercial artist. She fell in love with fashion at a young age and quit school aged 16 with aspirations to become a model.

Ph. by David Bailey, 1964

She took a holiday job at a knotweed wholesale business in the local town, on a vague promise that it might involve some modelling work. “Well, I soon realised there was none and I ended up stacking shelves,” says Stone, who with her large eyes, enviable cheekbones and delicate features, still looks every inch the model.

One day, the owner’s daughter spotted an article in Woman’s Own, which invited readers to enter a modelling competition. “She said, ‘You’ve got to send a photograph of yourself,’” recalls Stone. “So I trotted down to the high street photographer and had an absolutely terrible picture taken. I sent it off and I won.”

The prize was a three-week modelling course with the prestigious Cherry Marshall Model Agency on Jermyn Street. Marshall, a former model herself with a 22-inch waist, became famous in the 1950s under the moniker Miss Susan Small. “Cherry was wonderful, she really pushed me.”

Ph. by John French

Soon tiring of the daily commute to London, an 18-year-old Stone packed her bags and moved to the big smoke, taking a room in a boarding house on Cranley Place in South Kensington. Armed with an A to Z and a Tube map, she quickly settled into London life.

“I actually remember the last pea souper we had. I was driving to my boyfriend’s house and the fog was so thick. I drove down Buckingham Gate to turn left into Petty France and accidentally turned into Buckingham Palace, because in those days they just left the gates open. A policeman came up with a big hand through the fog and said, ‘’Ere, where do you think you’re going?’”

Stone’s modelling career began to take off in a big way. In 1960, aged 19, she was snapped posing with a squirrel by David Bailey for the Daily Express, in an iconic image that is credited with launching the photographer’s career. She landed her first Vogue cover three years later and went on to grace the front page twice more.

The King’s Road was the epicentre of the Swinging Sixties and the atmosphere was “fabulous”, declares Stone. “There were so many individual shops – Granny Takes a Trip, Top Gear, Countdown. By the time I was really hitting the King’s Road, I was dating Laurence Harvey (an Academy Award nominated actor). We would go down in a chauffeur-driven car, and people would stop to catch a glimpse of him. It always seemed to be sunny, and I’d be wearing my shortest hot pants or a miniskirt.”

Stone met Harvey – whom she affectionately calls Larry – through her journalist friend Peter Evans. “He said, ‘I’m having drinks with Laurence Harvey at The Connaught tonight, why don’t you come with me?’ Well, I’d seen him in Darling, and his character was so sleazy and horrible. But Peter persuaded me, so I went along. Larry opened the door of his suite and I just thought, ‘Wow.’ He was very tall, very handsome and great fun.”

Ph. by Brian Duffy, 1964
Ph. Helmut Newton, August 1964

Harvey “had one foot in old Hollywood, and one foot in new Hollywood”, says Stone. He made two films with Elizabeth Taylor and the couple socialized with her and her husband Richard Burton. “Richard was hypnotic. He had amazing green eyes and when he talked to you, he would just lock onto you.”

Then there was Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, Leslie Bricusse and his wife Evie, Michael Caine, Terence Stamp, former model Sandra Paul (now married to the politician Michael Howard) and Joan Collins, who Stone says is “wonderful”. “She’s so much fun.”

The couple married on New Year’s Eve, 1972, but tragically Harvey died of cancer just 11 months later. “He was only 45 and we didn’t know he had it,” told Stone. “It was very sad.” They had one daughter, the bounty hunter Domino Harvey, who died in 2005. A film based on her life, starring Keira Knightley and directed by Tony Scott, was released the same year.

Stone has another daughter, Sophie, from her first marriage to Take 6 fashion-chain founder Tony Norris, and a son, Harry, by her third husband Peter Morton, who co-founded the Hard Rock Café. Her fourth husband, the actor Mark Burns, passed away in 2007 after a struggle with cancer. Stone herself has battled the illness three times. “I feel lucky that I’m alive.”

Despite being a model, Stone doesn’t wear many fancy clothes. “I like to wear separates. I never wear a dress. I’ll put on a sweater and jeans, or a T-shirt in the summer, with a nice jacket. I’ve always spent a lot of money on accessories, but I’ve never really gone in for fancy outfits, probably because when I was modelling, I was wearing them all day.”

Paulene Stone & her mother Mrs Sylvia Stone

Her first Vogue cover was a thrilling moment, she says. “I was quite chuffed, but I took it all in my stride. My mother was very proud – she kept all the cuttings.” Modelling was very different in the 1960s, she adds. “In those days you didn’t have a make-up artist or hairdresser. You even had to provide your own shoes – a neutral pair and a black pair.”

“You had to do it all yourself and you had to be pretty perfect too, because they didn’t retouch. There was none of this Photoshop stuff, thank you very much. Everything is so smoothed out now, I can’t believe it. We didn’t have any of that – we were the way we were.”

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Info://www.pubbiz.com/page/content/000082

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Paul Weller, revered to as one of the Coolest Men on the Planet

30 Aug

Paul Weller (born 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Starting out with the band The Jam (1976–82), Weller branched out to a more soulful style with The Style Council (1983–89), before establishing himself as a successful solo artist in 1991. He is also revered as one of the coolest men on the planet.

While Weller has been described as a punk, a soul boy, a pin-up for dad-rock and laddism, throughout it all he has been, first and foremost, a Mod (nicknamed the Modfather). Looking sharp is all important to Mods – it’s almost a religion to devotees – and for almost four decades Weller has been a style icon.

Paul Weller about style

I come from a time when every kid dressed up. Everybody. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to hang out. It was very tribal. There’s nice things in that. It’s culture, it’s roots for me. Maybe I just never grew up, mate.

When I was a kid in Woking, every week you went to the football dance, and every week the top kids would be wearing something different. You were constantly trying to catch up with them – which you could never do because, by the time you’d saved up enough to buy the item, they’d moved on to something else. That’s the whole Mod thing I suppose.

This was the late Sixties, early Seventies and we were all post-skinheads – suedeheads. We were little peanuts, too young to be proper skinheads. But those styles permeated down to the kids anyway. The main strand that forged it together was that American-college look, the Brooks Brothers look: the cardigans and sleeveless jumpers and the buttoned-down shirts and the Sta-Prest trousers. That was the common ground. It was a way for people who haven’t got much to make a show.

I can remember original Ben Sherman shirts being around till the early Seventies. I had to really save for my first Ben Sherman. We used to buy Brutus shirts, which were much cheaper – second best. But Ben Shermans were the sought-after item. The first one I ever got was a lemon-yellow one. I must have been 12, 13, and it was a bit too big for me. But being a kid I didn’t realise you could take it back to the shop. I wore it till it fitted me.

It’s the aesthetic that sticks in my mind. The colours and the look of things have stayed with me. It meant everything to me. It was a statement of intent. And I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have a Ben Sherman as they used to make ’em 40 years ago, or whatever it was. So I spoke to Ben Sherman about doing my own design, based on how they used to be, as near as dammit anyway. With a few little modern touches. I just did a little sketch, put all the details in: the bigger collar, bit more like a contemporary Italian collar, a few little touches here and there. It’s not rocket science.

Fashion Collaborations

Paul Weller for Ben Sherman shirt

Paul Weller for Hudson, a basket-weave shoe

Paul Weller for Fred Perry

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The hook-up with Ben Sherman follows previous collaborations with shoemakers Hudson, for whom he came up with a basket-weave shoe, ‘which really took off.

He e was also involved with another British clothing classic, Fred Perry. ‘I went through their archives to try to find the same kind of weave they used 35, 40 years ago. I wanted to make the collar a little wider and have more of a roll – all the little details that they lost along the way.

In 2009 Liam Gallagher, front-men Oasis, founded a brand which unites people through a love of music and fashion. Named after a track by The Jam, ‘Pretty Green’ provides simple, classic clothing with a modern twist in three distinct labels. In 2011, Paul Weller designed a collection for the label.

Paul Weller for Pretty Green

To celebrate the brand’s 120th anniversary of DAKS, Paul Weller and his daughter Leah were asked to model.

And in October 2014, launched his own line of clothing with his partner Phil, owner of Tonic on Portobello Road, under the name REAL STARS ARE RARE. It has a simple vision: small collections of classic, timeless pieces with a focus on quality materials. Every garment we is based on inspiration Paul Weller has taken from a life-long interest in fashion and style and starts life sketched by him.

https://realstarsarerare.com/

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info:

http://www.mrporter.com/journal/journal_issue56/1#1

http://www.gigwise.com/features/100395/paul-weller-interview—fashion-&-style-noel-gallagher-pretty-green

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-448356/Paul-Wellers-rock-star-style.html

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Tom Ford gets Candid about his Years at Gucci

23 Aug

What Tom Ford did for Gucci in the 90ties was revolutionary and some of the designs are still iconic. Lately I wondered what happened during those days with Tom Ford and Gucci.

I am clearly not the only one, browsing the internet I found a recent article ‘Tom Ford Gets Candid About His Years at Gucci’ ( at the NY Magazine website), which I like to share. And to refresh the memories of the epic designs I included some video’s and photographs…..

Gucci '96/'97 ad by Mario Testino, styling Carine Roitfeld
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In October 1994, the publicist for Gucci nearly begged journalists to attend Tom Ford’s first women’s show in Milan. Within a year, Ford would behailed as “the most directional designer in Milan” for his sleek tailoring and retro ’70s glamour. And Madonna dressed in a teal-blue satin shirt and hip-huggers at the MTV Music Video Awards, would invite even more attention when she chimed about her outfit, “Gucci, Gucci, Gucci.”

But that autumn it was easy to be skeptical. Despite its golden association with playboys and Hollywood goddesses, and despite success by the company’s creative director, Dawn Mello, who pushed the house to revive its snaffle-bit loafer and bamboo-handle bag, Gucci had failed to achieve its potential — and to distract consumers from designers like Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace or upstarts like Romeo Gigli. At one point Gucci couldn’t even meet its payroll. Maurizio Gucci, after selling out family shares to Bahrain-based Investcorp, had been ousted. (He later was gunned down in a murder-for-hire arranged by his ex-wife.) Then in the spring of 1994, Mello left, returning to Bergdorf Goodman as president.

FW 1996 Tom Ford for Gucci KeyHole Gown  .

Ford, who in his four years at Gucci had been an invisible backroom presence, was now on his own. And the ladylike knits and full skirts in wistful colors and prints that he showed reflected his tentative grasp of the brand’s identity. Speaking by phone last Friday from his home in London, Ford said with a laugh, “It wasn’t a bad show. It just wasn’t anything.” He said that his “brain was still full” of the type of fashion that Maurizio Gucci had wanted — classics that related to Gucci’s scarf history and leather goods. But clearly no one cared. Besides, Gucci didn’t have a ready-to-wear story to tell — not the way, say, that Chanel did. It would have to be invented. But given the brand’s uncertain future, with Investcorp weighing a sale of Gucci, was that even feasible? Depressed, Ford says he was ready to leave after the fall 1994 show.

As it happened, his sense of failure became his wedge. He felt he could do as he pleased because he had nothing to lose. “I had a moment where nobody was looking at anything I did,” he says. Then, too, he has always been the kind of person who knows what he wants. On his first date, in 1986, with Richard Buckley, the writer who became his partner, Ford announced that within ten years he would be a millionaire and designing his own line in Europe. Preparing for his Gucci men’s show, in January of 1995, Ford began questioning how he thought people wanted to look. At the time, Gucci’s archives consisted of a cardboard box filled with glossy press snaps of movies stars like Liz Taylor and Grace Kelly wearing Gucci scarves or walking through an airport with a bag. The glamour of Gucci resided in their celebrity rather than in anything they specifically wore. That’s what Ford tapped into, and he would emphasize that notion in his shows by putting a single spotlight on the models as each came down the runway. Versace often used the same effect, but the difference was that Ford killed the backlight, so that you were actually forced to notice the clothes and the models — and not someone sitting opposite. He also had the sense, he said, that people wanted to look sexy again. Fashion had reached the point where it was all minimal and proper, apart from the romance of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano whose businesses were still relatively tiny.

So in January, in Florence, Ford sent out velvet hip-huggers and a long, thin, new Gucci loafer in patent leather, a look that some writers related to mod and James Bond. He repeated the idea, more or less, for his women’s show that March. He also ignored a clause in his contract that said he couldn’t take a bow. “I thought, You know what? I’m going to do what I think is right. I’m going to step on the runway,” he recalled.

Gucci Mens and Womens A:W 1995-1996 S:S 1996 from TOM FORD INTERNATIONAL on Vimeo.

“What did Gucci executives have to say about that?” I asked him.

“The next day you could not get into the showroom. It was absolute hysteria. So, no, no one gave me flak after that.”

It’s interesting to trace journalists’ reactions between 1994 and March of 1996, when Ford showed perhaps his most celebrated collection, the one with the slinky cutout gowns in white jersey, for which he received a standing ovation. Until the hip-hugger men’s show, Amy Spindler of the New York Times, who became one of his most ardent admirers, typically landed Ford’s men’s shows near the bottom of her reviews. But after Florence she called the show “the most directional for the magazines.” By July, she had upgraded Ford to “the most directional designer in Milan” and in September of 1995, in an insightful column headlined “Flip-Flop: The Runway Leads the Street,” she elaborated on “the Gucci influence.” Fashion brands at all levels were suddenly turning out hip-huggers.

Those three seasons — the velvet collection, the so-called hippie show with clashing prints in the fall of 1995, and the white-dress show — are what made Tom Ford at Gucci. Revenues in the first nine months of 1995 doubled, to $342 million, over the previous year. At the same time, he began to work with the stylist Carine Roitfeld and the photographer Mario Testino, helping to expand their own domination in the ’90s and beyond. Ford first made the connection to Roitfeld in 1994, while looking at a shoot she had styled for French Glamour. In so many words, he said, “This is my woman.” In reality, a number of women have served as Ford’s muses, notably Lisa Eisner in Los Angeles. But Roitfeld’s ultrasexiness, her élan, had a huge impact on him. And very much in the tradition of designers like Bill Blass and Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent, Ford knew that he had to design for an actual woman, and not some cardboard creature.

In so many ways, Ford’s run-up at Gucci is instructive — though, to be sure, the fashion world has now changed beyond recognition. He was one of the very first designers to put into play the notion of mass luxury — that is, stuff that anyone could aspire to and maybe acquire. Despite the incredible glamour of Ford’s shows, which he carried over in the provocative advertising images, the clothes were essentially wearable. Christopher Bailey has taken a similar approach at Burberry not coincidentally, both Ford and Bailey have a strong business sense. And in abstracting the notion of celebrity from that slim box of Gucci photos, and in spectacularly elevating that notion on his runway, he was foreshadowing the current mania for celebrities and the red carpet. He really defined the conversation for the industry in the second half of the ’90s.

Chatting with Ford, I remarked that breaking with Gucci’s storied but rather conventional past must have saved him. He laughed. “Yes, but in fashion you never feel that way. Every time you turn your back and walk off the runway you think, Fuck, I got away with that this time. What am I going to do the next time? Literally, I was always terrified.” But in the lull before his velvet hip-hugger show, before Madonna, it did help that no one was looking. As he said, “I could have sent anything down that runway.”

By Cathy Horyn (for the New York Magazine website)

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/04/tom-ford-gets-candid-about-his-years-at-gucci.html

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Veronique Branquinho, known for her long Pleated Skirts

16 Aug

Veronique Branquinho is a diverse Belgian designer who creates ladieswear, menswear, shoes, boots, sunglasses and lingerie. She has worked on several projects collaboratively with other designers and fashion manufacturers. Her designs fall into the luxury brand category, are well-tailored, and use the finest fabrics to create striking, yet lovely garments. She is in tune with the female body and believes that clothing should be made to fit perfectly, thus, making them more comfortable and more appealing. Her attention to detail through the use of quality fabrics is her signature feature.

Short Biography

Veronique was born in Vilvoorde, Belgium in 1973. As a child, she was timid and quiet, preferring to be alone, rather than in a large group. Because of this, she never imagined working with so many people, owning a company, much less being in the limelight. The world of fashion to her was something that people saw in a magazine, not something that someone like her lived. But she did decide to study fashion, and like other excellent designers from Belgium, she studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1995.

Early Designs

After graduation, Veronique worked hard and released her first collection in 1997, a ready-to-wear womens line. Her label was called Veronique Branquinho. She was not afraid to show her work and was confident enough to present the collection on the Paris runway. All of the garments were clearly top quality, as she wanted everything to be perfect, right down to the finishing touches and magnificent detailing of each item. She was immediately known for her long pleated skirts which resembled kilts in a maxi styling length. Her womenswear collections would continue until Fall 2009.

Not long after Veronique’s first showing, she established an actual company in Antwerp, as she was growing from the orders from luxury companies like Barneys New York and Iris in Montreal. Boutiques in Moscow, Tokyo, London and Paris also wanted to stock her now famous label. By Fall 2003, she launched her menswear line which also continued successfully until 2009. One her most unique collections was the 2006 “his and hers” line. It was basically the same garments, but made for both men and women. The women’s line also had a skirt which was made from the same fabric as the men’s pants. When interviewed, she said that this was probably her favorite collection to date.

‘His and Hers’ Collection

Through the years, collaboration was important to Veronique and she has worked with numerous companies to create unique pieces. Examples include luxury eyewear with Linda Farrow, a British sunglass designer; leather goods with Raf Simmons for Ruffo Research, an Italian company; an exclusive sixteen-piece collection for 3 Suisses, a French catalog company selling upper end fashions; and jazz shoes for Repetto, the French company that specializes in ballet and dance footwear.

By early 2008, just ten short years in business, Veronique had shown a total of twenty-one collections on the Paris catwalk. As a result, she was permitted a presentation at the MoMu which was called “Moi, Veronique: Branquinho Toute Nue” translated as “Totally Naked Veronique”. It was a reflection of her ten successful years showing examples of her ideas and the actual clothing that she created.

Ruffo Research by Veronique Branquinho & Raf Simmons

In early 2009, Veronique announced that she would have to close her company, ending production of her own designs and label. The economy was such that she felt she could no longer sustain a business and compete in the marketplace solely on the merits of her name. She also felt that although many great designers existed, and people loved their finished products, independent designers were no match against the conglomerates in the fashion world. Joyfully, that has not stopped her from carrying on with her designs. Since then, she has worked on various projects and keeps her name in the spotlight through designing for other companies.

Shortly before leaving her own brand, Veronique was named Artistic Director for Delvaux, a prestigious leather manufacturer with over two hundred years of history crafting handbags. The first collection she designed for the company debuted in Paris for Fall-Winter 2010. Additionally, in early 2010, she entered into an agreement with Camper, a Spanish shoe company, to create a line called “Veronique Branquinho for Camper Together“. The collection was released in the Spring of 2010 around April.

Lingerie Collection

One of her collaborations is a lingerie collection. In the fall of 2011, Marie Jo L’Aventure, a lingerie company in Belgium, requested Veronique’s assistance in creating a new “design series”, something completely unique . Called “Veronique Branquinho voor Marie Jo L’Aventure“, the eleven pieces are absolutely stunning. A “silky gloss look”, in green or black satin and tulle, the collection includes three variations on a balconette bra, a fiberfill bra, a strapless bra, a full body (teddy from shoulder straps to crotch closures), a rio brief, a full brief with control top, a hipster brief, g-string, and garter band with straps. Each piece is sumptuously comfortable to wear and truly elegant to view.

For a short period, Veronique worked at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna where she taught fashion. Although the strict teaching side of designing does not interest her as much, she does help young up-and-coming designers, such as George Bezhanishvili, who studied under her tutelage. Likewise, Delvaux has a relationship with the program, so she sometimes works with Masters students while she creates for the company.

Fall/Winter ’15 Collection

Veronique returned to fashion under her own name, three years after filing for bankruptcy. The designer set to return to the ready-to-wear (S/S 2013) schedule in Paris, with a slightly lower-priced offering than her former eponymous brand.

Created along with Italian clothing manufacturer Gibò, who has reportedly also invested in her company, the collection will be a “bit more adult” than her former designs, she says.

“I’ve always been a no-nonsense girl, I think,” the designer said. “My approach is also like that and I think this is something people are looking for – honest things… Before, I had an independent company. I was responsible for everything. In this new situation, it feels so comfortable, because I’m only busy with the creative part.”