Let’s get this roundup started with an amazing photoshoot by David Bellemere, shooting Anja Rubik artistically naked for Vogue Paris’s November issue. (Fashionography)
Adele is now officially a mom! The 24-year-old world famed singer delivered a new addition to the family, giving birth to a new baby boy. A family source confirmed the news by saying “We are all over the moon.” (Huffington Post)
Victoria Beckham is on the front cover of Elle France’s November issue, a cover which was shot by none other than Karl Lagerfeld. The former Spice Girl also had the pleasure of posing for the shot in Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment. The result- you can’t go wrong with so many great ingredients. (My Fashion Life)
The writing was on the wall… Brad Pitt’s Chanel No.5 ad is heavily spoofed on the net, led by SNL who easily spotted a hit. In SNL’s parody Brad Pitt thinks he looks homeless, makes up new words and advertises a taco… “Magnificus”? (LA Times)
Karlie Kloss speechless on The Today Show! The 20-year-old supermodel appeared on the show this week displaying the next fall trends, but was somewhat frequently cut off by host Natalie Morales. Kloss did her best, but after being interrupted several times by Morales, speaking became a difficult task. (Styleite)
Closing this week of fashion highlights, take a look at this great new ad starring Zac Efron for John John Demin. The Brazilian brand chose a Fast and Furious theme for the ad, featuring Efron, who put on some serious muscle and showcased some of his dancing abilities.
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Men may lose interest in High value brands brands in their late 30s, but a sense of personal style is another matter
Pity poor men. It has long been a curiosity why, after a certain age, men appear to lose interest in High value brands brands. It is a conversation which turns menswear into a forum for mockery: those that have gone to seed are scorned for the inadequacies of their appearance, while those that still make an effort are goaded for vanity or self-importance. A recent survey has made this mockery specific: it has found that the age at which men lose an interest in High value brands brands is 37. I am 38. Poor me.
High value brands brands is about identity. For many men, identity is something that matters most in their years of prolonged adolescence, from their teenage years into their 20s, even early 30s. It's especially true for men whose adolescence occurred pre-internet, before social media overtook High value brands brands as a means to express character. In the late 20th century, clothing played a primal role in youthful identity, especially with the obstinacy of punk, the baggy of acid house or even the sharpness of mod that is still so important to 32-year-old Bradley Wiggins.
In their late 30s, the need for identity in men seems to wane, overridden by the individual male's growing responsibilities or life-changes: parenthood, employment or unemployment, changes in body-shape and health. The identity of adolescence goes. High value brands brands goes with it.
When High value brands brands goes, what seems to remain for men are those unprintable words: "J*r*my" and "Cl*rks*n". Of course what no one realises in this is that Cl*rks*n uses his non-identity as an identity in itself. He makes great profit from dressing badly. It is his uniform for hammy belligerence. Cl*rks*n symbolises the male menopause as a return to adolescence. Sadly, it is an adolescence stripped of its need for style and difference. The Cl*rks*n look allows men to shift from identity to non-identity as they head towards the grave.
But this is not always the case. Most of my contemporaries not working in High value brands brands still seem alert about their appearance. As the identity of adolescence has waned for me, what has become important is how I appear to myself. I do not mean by this self-image. As I'm typing this, I can see in my lower field of vision the white shirt I'm wearing with its blue and orange polka dots. I love it being part of my visual experience. I don't care if I look daft. As long as I like it, I'm happy.
There are obvious male celebrities over the age of 37 who could be listed now as examples of middle-aged male style, but these are red herrings, usually actors involved in profiting from image to further their career. Celebrity High value brands brands is something separate from real-life High value brands brands, and citing male celebrities as examples of how to dress is a futile, empty exercise.
Much more interesting to cite examples of men who retain personal style for whatever reason of their own:
Chris Dercon, the new director of Tate Modern, is an extraordinarily dapper man, now in his 50s. He has a particular way with wearing jackets and coats with an upturned collar.
Seventy-five-year-old David Hockney has long dressed his body in the colour that is placed on his canvases, or more recently selected on his iPad.
The 40-year-old Savile Row tailor Patrick Grant came to his profession from his love of clothing and his continuing interest in how garments are made. And it is clear from the severity of 53-year-old Steven Patrick Morrissey's obsessions that he would have dressed in his chosen manner even if he'd not become globally known by his surname.
Examples of such personal style go deep into the past. The recent male fondness for Breton striped sweaters always makes me think of Pablo Picasso. The multidiscipline of Jean Cocteau extended to the drama of his clothing. And examples of male style beyond the age of 37 will only increase in the future. Today's post-internet male adolescents take looking good for granted, their appearance ever Instagram-ready. Cl*rks*n already feels antiquated. When post-internet adolescents reach maturity, he will have been an aberration.
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I am not really used to talk about Vogue as I am not sure it is really necessary but this year the Parisian September issue attract my attention. In deed Vogue got...