Runway to Red Carpet: Elegant Award Shows and a Dressed-Down Film Fest

Between the continued Awards Season craze and the laid-back glam of the Sundance Film Festival, the celebrity set had plenty of red-carpet moments this week. America’s new darling (fashion and otherwise) Lupita Nyong’o and Helen Mirren, who both picked up trophies at Saturday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, strutted their stuff at the Producers Guild Awards the following evening. Nyong’o chose a figure-hugging Stella McCartney dress with an asymmetrical shoulder, while Mirren opted for a long-sleeved silver Fall ’13 Elie Saab gown embroidered with crystals. The ladies were joined on Sunday’s red carpet by Nyong’o's 12 Years a Slave castmate Sarah Paulson, who donned a sequined Marc Jacobs frock with floral embellishments from the designer’s memorable Spring ’14 runway.

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While many celebrities opt for the casual sweater-and-jeans look during the chilly Sundance Film Festival, actresses Elizabeth Banks and Brit Marling’s red-carpet appearances struck the perfect balance between comfort and glamour. Banks paired a black-and-white grid-patterned Spring ’14 Ralph Lauren dress with black knee-high boots for an event on Tuesday, and Marling chose a black Proenza Schouler pantsuit with chalk-white details from the brand’s Spring ’14 lineup at the premiere of I Origins on Saturday. Marling continued to be a red-carpet highlight throughout the week, stepping out in Christopher Kane and Mulberry at another pair of events. No doubt, this duo is upping the festival’s sartorial game.

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Haute for Teacher: Students Get an Inside Look at Dior Couture

The official Haute Couture calendar published by the Chambre Syndicale had listed two Dior shows: one for press and a second for clients. But at 6 p.m. on Monday, a third show took place to accommodate a particularly special group of attendees.

Over the weekend, nearly eighty students from sixteen of the leading fashion schools around the world arrived in Paris for an immersive Dior experience. They visited the maison’s ateliers on Avenue Montaigne, participated in a conference with designers from across LVMH, and attended the Spring 2014 runway show.

“It’s good to see this world from the inside,” said 23-year-old Flora Miranda Seierl, who is in her final year at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. “Today we heard from people who went to our schools who actually work at LVMH. You never think of it like this, but it’s real people doing real jobs. And so you realize that it’s not unreachable.”

Following the show, held on the grounds of the Musée Rodin, the group went somewhere usually reserved for VIPs: backstage.

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“It’s like waiting for Madonna,” gushed Central Saint Martins fashion knitwear student Matty Bovan, as Dior creative director Raf Simons posed for photos and signed program notes.

“For me, in my position at this moment, it’s wonderful to connect with students and the atelier people who don’t get to see the show,” said the designer moments later.

Simons noted that an experience like this affords students some perspective—namely, to place personal goals ahead of commercial ones. “You shouldn’t think about the system, but just what you really, really believe in. And then in the beginning, you reach out to other people who believe in it, rather than those who are in control,” he said.

Designer Walter Van Beirendonck, who showed his men’s collection in Paris last week and still teaches at Antwerp’s Royal Academy, said the access was invaluable to his students. “It’s a place that you don’t usually enter, and for students to see that and learn about this story and how it all works, it’s very amazing.”

The Antwerp connection was not by coincidence. Back when he was studying industrial design, Simons applied for an internship with Van Beirendonck, who accepted the graduate despite his lack of fashion experience.

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But savoir faire is savoir faire, no matter the medium. Just ask Jo Miller, who is studying to be a milliner at the London’s Royal College of Art. “This will completely change how I feel about my own designs. It’s a completely different world and could only enrich my work.”

Or, as her teacher, hat designer Flora McLean, put it, “My students need to learn very specific technologies for how to make shoes and hats and handbags. I think there was more for them than anybody else because it’s both the technology and the dreamy parts.”

That dream, which ends today, extended beyond European institutions: Parsons The New School for Design and Pratt Institute in New York, as well as China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and Tokyo’s Bunka Fashion College, were among the invited schools.

When the idea was suggested to Simons that there should be a check-in five years later to see where the students landed, he smiled. “They will probably kick me out,” mused the designer. “But that’s how it should be. That’s the cycle.”

Hood by Air Goes Online and Overseas

New York-based Hood by Air has, over the past few years, experienced a meteoric rise. Designer Shayne Oliver helped to elevate the super-luxury sportswear movement, and his printed T-shirts and oversize bombers are now favorites of trendsetters like Kanye West and A$AP Rocky. The brand is already carried by a bevy of international retailers, including Barneys New York, Opening Ceremony, VFiles, and Browns. Yet, despite all its success (not to mention its hoards of tech-savvy millennial fans), HBA does not have its own Web site. On Monday, however, the launch of hoodbyair will change all that. “People have had time to be introduced to the brand and interact with it in their own way,” offered Oliver by phone from Paris, where he is showing his Pre-Fall collection on Saturday. It’s the first time he’s presenting in the city. “There are so many portals through which you can access HBA, and it needs to have a real home now, where we can have its high and low aspects exist in the same place. This will help us spread our message. As a young label, you have to have that in order to survive.”

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Upon its launch, the Web store will only sell site-exclusive T-shirts. “This is a very fresh experience. I want to grow into it, and I want it to be organic,” said Oliver. The preliminary site features a black-and-white interface and rotating models that give a 360-degree view of each garment. GIFS, social media elements, and more are on the way. “Before we take it to the next level, to a world with more video and more color, we want to master it,” explained Oliver. “We started with black and white because the site is still a baby—we’re starting with a blank space.”

The Web site ties in with HBA’s upcoming Paris Pre-Fall presentation, during which Oliver says he’ll unveil items that will only be available on the site. Also set to debut on Saturday? The label’s first foray into denim, as well as the first installment of an ongoing footwear collaboration with Italian brand Forfex (we’ll see part two during HBA’s NYFW presentation next month). “We’re so inspired by being American, and loving that we’re American, so we were like, let’s just do something really American in Paris and show a lot of jeans,” said Oliver of the new denim venture. When asked if he’d consider doing a full-on show in the City of Light, the designer paused. “Yeah. The response here has been really cool, and I was worried because the last thing I wanted to do was to come here and feel like I’m being vulgar toward Paris’ culture or structure. I’m not in any way trying to bow down to anyone, but I have to think about the opportunities that come with the acceptance of the brand. We’re super-excited.”

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A Room of One’s Own: Barbara Casasola Presents at Pitti

Nearly a hundred years ago, a famous lady of London dreamt of a room of her own. But times change and dreams get bigger. “I’ve always wanted a big house,” said the Brazilian-born, London-based designer Barbara Casasola, “with a red room, a blue room…” With an invitation to present a collection at Pitti Uomo and a little sponsorship funding from the fair, suddenly, like a wish on a bottle, it was so. She divided a crumbling but impressive structure on the Via Dello Studio—just off the city’s historic center and steps from the Duomo—into an apartment the likes of which have rarely been seen outside of fever dreams. One room was all brilliant fuchsia. Another, connected to the first by a long runway, was a teal-tinted blue. And everywhere, in lieu of windows, were screens projecting a Nouvelle Vague-inspired short film Casasola created with SHOWStudio’s Marie Schuller and Jamie Bochert (below). Bochert is a muse for Casasola, and this, the designer said, gesturing around, “is her house.” The sense was very much of peeking behind the blinds, not least because Bochert spends much of the film nearly nude. (Admittedly, that’s a magnanimous and somewhat curious decision for a designer to make for a film devoted to showcasing her own collection.)

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The collection Casasola showed in her new digs was technically her first Pre-Fall, but she disliked the idea of a whole collection dedicated to commercializing her runway looks. Instead, she conceived of it as a capsule collection of, as she called it, menswear for women. It was a striking change, given that she’s known primarily for dresses. But for a first attempt—especially one boldly undertaken at a menswear fair—it was a strong showing. She custom-developed fabrics, including wools, wool-silks, and cady, to create monochrome suits with boxy jackets and deep-pleated palazzo pants, structured enough to retain the strict lines she prefers but pliant enough to swing like skirts when her models strode the catwalk from the pink room to the blue. Each was worn against bare skin, which lent an androgynous sex appeal not usually associated with tailoring. There were a few dresses and looser interpretations of her men’s-for-women’s theme—like jumpsuits whose backs had cutouts resembling lapels—but Casasola herself was in a suit of her own design (the prototype, she admitted), which suggested where her own sympathies lie, at least at the moment.

Womenswear designers at Pitti Uomo can sometimes seem adrift in the unfamiliar crowd of men’s buyers and editors, but Casasola is no stranger to Florence. Before launching her label, she worked here for Roberto Cavalli, and she produces her own collection here. “I invited the whole office,” she said with a smile. “All my seamstresses are here, and my patternmakers.” So the presentation was full of friends. She’d bargained for a house and wound up with a home.

Six industry secrets: How to prep skin for make-up

New year, new you! Whether you've resolved to don a bold lip more often or to try that cat eyeliner look you're always salivating over in magazines, now is the time to take some risks in your beauty routine. But first, are you prepping your skin properly for make-up application? Not sure? No need to worry. We've got the make-up artist approved tips to ensure that flawless finish.

Learning how to apply make-up - and which looks suit you best - is no small feat. It can take years! But that's only half the battle. Before you line your eyes and blush your cheeks, you need to create the perfect canvas. We spoke to hairstylist and make-up artist Holly Daigle to find out her insider secrets for prepping skin for make-up. Here are her tips!

Clean your make-up brushes

Bet you didn't see this one coming first! Neither did we, but it makes sense. Prepping your skin for make-up is kind of wasted if your brushes are dirty, right?

"Clean make-up brushes are super important," Holly says. "I use clarifying shampoo mixed with water to clean my brushes."

Try to clean your make-up brushes once a week. If that seems like too much (we get it) then aim for once every two weeks, minimum.

Exfoliate

"The Clarisonic Skin Cleaning System is fabulous because it gently exfoliates," Holly says. "If you're on a budget, the Olay ProX Advanced Cleansing System is what I use."

Even if you don't use a facial brush, make sure you're (gently!) exfoliating your skin on a regular basis. Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment is a great option. Aim to exfoliate two to three times a week, you don't need to do this every day as you can over-stimulate your skin.

Exfoliation leaves your skin smoother - giving you a better base for your make-up.

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Moisturise

Moisturising pre make-up is key. No matter what moisturiser you use, make sure those three magical letters are on the bottle. "SPF is huge. The skin on your face is so sensitive and always exposed to light, so you want to make sure that you have that on 24/7."

Take care of your under eyes

"It's super important to take care of the skin underneath your eyes, because it's so thin."

Holly recommends applying any under eye products with your ring finger, because it has the gentlest touch. Apply products from the outside in.

If you're looking for an anti-ageing formula, we love Kate Somerville Age Arrest Eye Cream. ​

Prime your skin

"After you exfoliate, moisturise, and take care of your under eye skin, you'll want to prime your face," Holly says. "I cannot live without Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer."

The nice thing about Smashbox is that they have an extensive line of primers. If you need a hydrating or oil-free formula, or if you're looking to colour-correct, you can probably find it in their line.

Prime your eyelids

"I've been using Urban Decay Primer Potion for years. It makes your eye make-up last all day. I've never found anything else that works as well as this."

Using eye primer is key for eliminating eyeshadow creasing. This will especially pay off if you're doing a smoky eye!

Bonus! Apply setting spray post-application

So that's all it takes. It sounds like a lot of steps to get your skin ready for a perfect make-up application but it'll definitely be worth it. And once you're pleased with your make-up, Holly has one last product tip to make sure your make-up doesn't budge.

"Urban Decay makes a setting spray called All Nighter. It really guarantees that your make-up will stay put all day,"

This is one of those products that you probably won't need to use every day, but it's definitely worth the investment for big events and nights out on the town!

Christopher Shannon: 'I’m not led by Savile Row'

When I visit Christopher Shannon in his London studio on the last Friday before Christmas, he’s just had a glass of Bucks Fizz to “get through” a fitting of the autumn/winter ’14 collection he will show this Wednesday. But, as the designer’s plentiful Twitter following can attest – he doesn’t need a glass of fizz to loosen his lips. Shannon a Liverpool-born Central Saint Martins graduate has taken to the social network with aplomb – delivering sardonic observations sprinkled with tantalising behind-the-scenes gossip.

But his acerbic persona is meant mostly in jest, and luckily his subjects can see the funny side. At the recent British Fashion Awards, Shannon was approached by Dermot O’Leary, who jokingly quoted back a tweet that had disparaged him as a choice for a role as menswear ambassador. “I thought, ‘Twitter’s really caught up with me’,” he tells me.

Despite that interaction, the British Fashion Awards were something of a disappointing night for Shannon, who lost out on the award for emerging menswear designer to duo Agi & Sam. Considering that Shannon graduated in 2008, and has two successful menswear lines stocked in more than 50 stores internationally to his name as well as a veritable bounty of collaborations under his belt, it seemed somewhat unfair for him to still be classed as emerging. “I made my peace with the British Fashion Awards long ago, it’s so not me as a scene,” he says. “You should always antagonise the establishment… I haven’t got a problem with Savile Row but I’m not going to be led by it.”

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Indeed, Shannon’s aesthetic is a world away from the buttoned-up style of Savile Row, but he finds it “lazy” to label his work as sportswear, and the same goes for those who focus on his Liverpudlian roots. “My mum finds it outrageous,” he says. “I moved to London when I was 18 so I was a kid. I mean I’m very much from Liverpool, but I don’t sit around thinking about it. That’s other people’s perception.”

His latest collection – a series of sketches, fabric swatches and unfinished samples when I visit – may be making a rod for his own back then. Shannon tells me the mood was set by old photographs of Liverpool and job centres in the Seventies: “I realised so many of the images I had are sort of broken-down. I was thinking about the first track suits, which apart from being for sport or school kit would have been homemade from a pattern. I was thinking about that really synthetic quality of fabric and that shape and fit – that sort of seedy connotation that I quite liked about it.

“Then I realised that the images were all of the early Thatcher years and people were smoking in all of them and how fabulous all the fag packets were. And everything that I looked at had a fag packet and some wallpaper in, and that really sums up the time. Aspirational but really depressing.”

Complicated as this may seem, Shannon creates catwalk shows that can’t help but engage the audience. For spring/summer ’14, models with glitter-spray-painted hair wore acid pastel shirts and shorts in latex, Liberty prints and patent leather. Inspiration had come in part from a photo of Shannon on his 16th birthday, doused in glitter and ready to rave.

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Unusually, he doesn’t work with a stylist, casting agent or music consultant, preferring to work with his studio team. “The boys [male models] have changed so much in London since I started. Which I think I was quite fundamental to because we always did a different casting. Now there’s a really good mix, people from all over and with different skin tones and it feels like what I always wanted casting to be.”

After his BA, Shannon had to choose between a job as a print designer and a scholarship to continue his studies at Central Saint Martins with an MA in Menswear. “I thought, ‘I’m going to have to go.’ It was the first time they’d offered a scholarship for years, and if Louise Wilson offers you a scholarship then you accept it.”

Upon graduation, Shannon thought that he would take a job in a design house, but he was drafted in to the prestigious Topman-sponsored MAN line-up, then awarded NewGen sponsorship. “I haven’t really stopped to think since then!” Perhaps being head of his own label was Shannon’s destiny – both his parents were self-employed and as he freely admits: “I was never very good with authority.”

Since graduating, Shannon has collaborated with Eastpak, Kickers, Topman and the Cambridge Satchel Company, and in early 2012 launched Kidda – a second, more affordable offering that does particularly well: “We sold out 100 per cent in Liverpool, full price. Nobody does that.” That same year, he was one of three London designers chosen to create costumes for the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. “It wasn’t a nightmare, but I felt a bit pushed into it emotionally. If someone else had been asked, maybe I’d have been miffed, but I’m glad I did it because my family, who went, enjoyed it so much.”

Sadly, once his show on Wednesday is over, Shannon won’t get the “month off” he always hopes for. Instead, this year will see him publish a book, finally create a much-in-demand women’s collection and work with Judy Blame on tour costumes for his childhood idol Neneh Cherry, as well as launch a collaboration with footwear brand Dune. If he had the time, Shannon would love his own fragrance and to design menswear for Moschino.

With that work ethic, no wonder he’s always exhausted: “People think you swan in, have a glass of wine, light a Diptyque, photocopy a lipstick reference and then go home. Running your own company is really hard work.” Hard work it may be, but, right now, Shannon wouldn’t do anything else – other than have a month off!