Fashion: Stars go hell for leather

they should stop this,it looks terrible

Even the most open-minded of fashion followers were wondering quite how they were going to pull off one particular trend that emerged on the catwalks this autumn. Leather trousers have, until now, been the preserve of cheesy rock stars and yummy-mummy types clinging to their youth, but just a month or two into the season, and celebrities of all ages have been pouring themselves into the skinny styles seen at Givenchy and Marc Jacobs.

Whilst Agyness et al work the gothic rock-chick look by pairing theirs with spiky heels and oversized, ultra-casual tops, Charlize Theron set the tone for the over-thirties with a sharp metallic tuxedo jacket and a serious statement necklace. The key in both cases seems to rest in keeping things resolutely modern – beware the example of Jemima Khan, whose conventional, glossy tresses sent her leather trews straight into Sloane territory when she was spotted in Paris recently.

Just when you think a trend couldn’t get trickier, along comes a frightening new variation. All hail leather leggings. Or “pleather” leggings, to be more precise, since these high-shine garments are actually synthetic. As if leather trousers weren’t tight enough already and leggings weren’t sufficiently unflattering per se, this hybrid garment promises to make sausage meat of the leanest pins.

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European Outlet Malls: The Future of Luxury?

i for myself love shopping at outlett malls

On the Saturday before Paris fashion week took off, as the world’s financial markets teetered and luxury retailers chewed their nails over recession fears, business was booming at La Vallée Village, a luxury outlet mall a half-hour outside of Paris near Euro Disney.

Shoppers worked through clothing racks with intensity — none of the languid browsing one sees in the full-priced boutiques along the Avenue Montaigne. It was elbow-to-elbow in Armani, Givenchy was being thoroughly picked through, Polo Ralph Lauren’s clubby shelves were like a cornfield after a swarm of locusts, and even the Chantelle lingerie outlet was abuzz.

European Union outlet malls offer safer bargains than American outlets because they are more closely regulated. Brands are not permitted to manufacture special lower-quality products for the outlets. This provides a guarantee that, though you’re buying last-season’s leftovers, you’re getting the real deal. It is even possible to find a runway look or two on some of these shelves.

Another rule requires that outlet goods be sold at a minimum discount of 33% — though the discounts can be much higher. At La Vallée’s Christian Lacroix outlet, a cream-colored wool coat with grosgrain detailing at the pockets was marked down to 660 euros from 2,200 euros. An elaborately detailed cashmere dress was priced at 387 euros, down from 1,290 euros.

La Vallée is owned by the London-based development concern Value Retail, and has sister outlet malls near London, Milan, Frankfurt and Barcelona, among other gateway European cities. About 40% of La Vallée’s business comes from international visitors, but this percentage is falling due to the high value of the euro, says Vanessa Guillemette, senior marketing manager for the mall. She’s working hard to convince Parisians to venture out to the southeast of the city, an area that has never been considered top-notch by the couture crowd.

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Madonna Starts World Tour Attacking John McCain

Madonna managed to create controversy again. This time not due to sex, but politics. The 50-year-old diva kicked off her Sticky & Sweet world tour with a concert in which she expressed her political views.

During the show that took place in Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Madonna chose to show a video which associated images of destruction and global warming, photos of Adolf Hitler and Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe with Senator John McCain.

Towards the end of the video, which was played while the pop diva performed the song “Get Stupid,” the image of her favorite presidential candidate, Barack Obama, was accompanied by images of slain Beatle John Lennon, former US vice-president Al Gore and Mahatma Gandhi.

In a statement reported by Fox News, McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds expressed his anger towards the fragment of Madonna’s concert that connected the Republican presidential candidate McCain with Hitler and Mugabe, saying that the comparisons were “outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive all at the same time.”

“It clearly shows that when it comes to supporting Barack Obama, his fellow worldwide celebrities refuse to consider any smear or attack off limits,” Bounds added.

The rest of Madonna’s show went on as usual, with hypnotizing dancing and sexy outfits, complete with fishnets and bondages. It was reported that 36 designers worked to create about 3,500 items of clothing specifically for Madonna’s tour.

A couple of weeks ago, Givenchy spokeswoman Caroline Deroche-Pasquier said that Riccardo Tisci from Givenchy created two concert outfits for Madonna’s upcoming world tour “Sticky & Sweet.”

In a press statement, Tisci himself expressed his excitement at the fact that he had the opportunity to “offer the world of Givenchy Haute Couture to Madonna the Icon, the Artist, the Woman for whom I have so much respect and admiration.”

Madonna has worked with big designers before, when organizing her tours. She collaborated with Jean-Paul Gaultier for her 1990 “Blonde Ambition” tour, and with Dolce & Gabbana in 1993.

Givenchy said that Madonna’s first outfit would be “a reference to ‘Gangster Pimp’ and Art Deco,” while the second would be of gypsy inspiration. And that’s no surprise, as Madonna revealed her plans of singing together with Romanian gypsies during her tour.

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The neck’s big thing: necklaces

if you fancy necklaces,you should read this article

While Planet Fashion’s obsession with prefixing every autumn/winter item with the word “statement” (as in dress/coat/shoe) is undeniably irritating, there’s something rather appealing about the “statement necklace” that is creeping into the style vernacular. Partly because – and I live in hope here – it may mean the imminent death of bondage platform heels in all their multiple strap/spike and studded glory, yet also because, in these straitened times, there’s no more democratic way to update your wardrobe than slinging on a £20 wooden-and-plastic-disc choker. Nor, I should point out, as much fun.

The neck was last a focal point during the mid-Eighties, when girls in pearls reigned and costume jewellery mostly comprised naff, paste baubles. The good news about the necklace’s reincarnation is that there are plenty of avenues to be explored. After something bold, chunky and with a reassuringly noisy clunk? Well look to Lanvin, or at least Lanvin-inspired jewellery. At Balenciaga, gutsy, Dynasty-style, bling chokers replaced bags as what fashion folk like to call the “must-have accessory”, while at Givenchy, girls were laden down in threads of gold and silver chains.

Whatever you choose, the advantages of this trend are tenfold. With all this activity going on around your neck, no one is going to be checking out the ply-content of your cashmere poloneck, thereby obviating the need to fork out on lots of expensive clothes. And don’t underestimate its power to utterly transform an outfit. Averyl Oates, the buying director of Harvey Nichols, points out that an oversize necklace is the best way of lifting all that black and the gothic mood that is prevalent this season.

If you are looking to buy something special, a great neck-piece makes a good investment, something that can be pulled out of the wardrobe year after year. Another point to consider is that costume jewellery is so well made and designed these days that it’s often hard to tell the difference between something that came from Topshop and the designer, upwards-of-£600 variety.

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Helping Madonna dress to thrill

somehow,she is still the queen of pop

As the ageless superstar begins a new tour, Hannah Betts talks to the woman behind her costumes

Madonna, who turned an unconvincing 50 at the weekend, is on the brink of a new tour – and inevitably it is generating a fashion frisson. For rather than opting for Country Casuals and elasticated waistbands, the woman who has enjoyed more incarnations than Proteus himself will, as ever, push the sartorial boundaries.

	Dressed to thrill: Madonna on tour

The Sticky & Sweet tour, which opens in Cardiff on Saturday, features an intriguing mix of gangsta pimp, dominatrix and gipsy costumes. And with looks designed by Givenchy’s Ricardo Tisci, shoes by Miu Miu, thigh-high boots custom-made by Stella McCartney and sundry items from Yves Saint Laurent and Roberto Cavalli, it leaves no fashion stone unturned, as these exclusive preview sketches show.

Although eyebrows are occasionally raised at the singer’s off-duty wardrobe – her penchant for grubby tracksuits and silk bloomers, not least – her stage attire provokes nothing but awe.

“Madonna was the first of her kind,” says Lorraine Candy, editor of Elle magazine. “Stars such as Debbie Harry, Patti Smith and Jane Birkin had distinct looks and their own natural styles. But Madonna really entered into the fashion world. Her relationship with Gaultier made her like the supermodels of the time. It’s never a catwalk look, it’s creating a whole new self, and exploiting cultural references to get this self talked about. In doing so, she transformed herself into a brand.”

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Something of the night: Designers go back to gothic

We have seen this all before…yawn:

Maybe it’s economic gloom, or just an overdose of florals, but designers have gone spookily gothic, says Susannah Frankel

(Dark side: Givenchy captures the goth look)

Caw! Caw! Kohl-rimmed eyes, ebony lips, ivory skin and big, black hair. Fishnet, ribbon, latex and lace. Glittering gold crucifixes, crisp white shirts, skinny leather trousers and raven feathers. Beefeaters. Well, maybe not the beefeaters. There is no denying the fact, however, that as the autumn/winter season takes hold, it’s good to be gothic once more.

Just as the word “gothic” itself has many connotations, the look comes in many different guises. For gothic fashion read everything from dark Victoriana (Alexander McQueen), to late-1970s club kitten (Luella), and from religious iconography used as embellishment (Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy) to Camden Market (Emma Cook).

A gothic vein is nowhere more evident, though, than at Giles Deacon, where models at his London show had their heads wrapped in black veils that covered their faces entirely. It was as if they’d walked straight out of an Edgar Allan Poe story, and, specifically, according to the designer at least, The Masque of the Red Death.

Backstage after the show, Deacon told the American Vogue website style.com that he had been thinking of that horrific tale, and went on to précis it, and the look it inspired, with characteristic bluntness: “People partying in a castle with everyone dying outside. Femme fatale in a gothic disco.” Nice and easy this style most certainly is not.

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