W articles from November 2007

W archives from November 2007

Roman retreat.(The Month in Fashion)(Valentino)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After countless rumors and denials, Valentino confirmed in September that he will retire in January. Following his lavish 45th-anniversary celebration in July, sources close to the designer had maintained that he was...

Style court.(The Month in Fashion)(Venus Williams)(Steve & Barry)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the 13 years since she turned pro, Venus Williams has gained a reputation for treating the tennis court as her own personal catwalk, one where bright hues, tush-grazing skirts and major jewels are always in style....

Dealing with it.(The Month in Fashion)
November 1, 2007... Credit crunch? What credit crunch? Despite the subprime mortgage debacle, private equity firms haven't lost their appetite for fashion. In August Betsey Johnson sold a controlling stake in her company to Castanea Partners, providing the quirky...

Giving well.(The Month in Fashion)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Don't look for lipstick or mascara at cosmetics queen Aerin Lauder's new Private Collection Boutique, opening inside New York's Bergdorf Goodman in November. Instead, the shop will offer a bevy of giftable goodies,...

Ch-ch-ch-changes.(The Month in Fashion)(Cristina Ortiz- Brioni)(Smart Vevers- Mulberry)(Salvatore Ferragamo-Graeme Black)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Another month, another round of musical chairs. Salvatore Ferragamo's creative director for ready-to-wear, Graeme Black, gave notice in August, and the Florentine luxury goods house wasted no time in naming his...

Time to grow.(The Month in Fashion)(Zac Posen)(E. Gluck Corporation)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Is Zac Posen aiming to build an empire to rival that of his business partner Sean "Diddy" Combs? In August the young designer inked a deal to create a collection of watches with the E. Gluck Corporation, which also...

Flipping out.(The Month in Fashion)
November 1, 2007... When Viktor & Rolf opened their first boutique in Milan in 2005, the eccentric design duo left shoppers dazzled but disoriented with their upside-down decor scheme: oak parquet ceilings and chandeliers sprouting from the floor. Now the...

Tree people.(The Month in Fashion)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, designer Carlos Miele is especially concerned about the disappearance of the rainforests. So concerned, in fact, that he has spent the past few months corralling a battalion of...

A piece of work.(Flashback)(Julian Schnabel)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Whether one thinks him truly talented or hopelessly overhyped, painter Julian Schnabel is impossible to ignore. Wild haired and often pajama clad, he was catapulted to stardom by a 1979 solo show at the Mary Boone...

The new lit girl.(Fast Forward)(adolescent girls)(The Lovely Bones )(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Books written from a child's point of view are notoriously difficult to translate to film. Adult authors may be able to capture in words how the world looks to a child, but ironically, it's the rare child actor who is able to convey that...

State of the art.(Letter From the Editors)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Autographed snapshots of movie stars and tabloid queens on the cover of W? Well, not exactly. The images gracing W's nine distinct covers this month--from Nicole Kidman to Lindsay Lohan--are the sly handiwork of...

The great Goddess debate.(Readers React)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I agree with the title "Goddess" used to describe Gwyneth in the September issue. I remember once being seated next to her in a restaurant in London and watching as she blushed when she rose to greet someone. It was...

Mr. (southwestern) America.(Readers React)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... I was pleased to come upon the Ralph Lauren retrospective "Mr. America" in the October issue of W. My husband and I own a collection of vintage Ralph Lauren southwestern-style garments, and one of my coats was on page 320! We each also have...

Skewed standards.(Readers React)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... I recently read the following headline on the September cover of W magazine: "The Dream Surgery: Thinner Thighs, Bigger Breasts." It implies that "thinner thighs" and "bigger breasts" are and should be every woman's dream, regardless of her...

In defense of Dern.(Readers React)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... I was disappointed to read the letter from a W reader regarding Laura Dern in September's beautifully unsettling spread "Fashion Party," calling it "the least forgiving spread in the issue." Yes, the photos were disturbing; yes, Dern looked...

All in the family.(Readers React)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... I just read your amazing September issue from cover to cover and enjoyed it thoroughly. I wanted to comment about the article "The Mother (-in-Law) Lode," about one of my favorite designers, Josie Natori. Despite the writer's Rind coverage of...

Midtown madness.(Uncensored)(Damien Hirst)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Bankers heading to lunch at Lever House just might lose their appetites. Beginning in November, the building's lobby will be home to an as-yet-untitled Damien Hirst artwork that incorporates 30 sheep, two sharks, sides of beef, operating tables...

Maid in Japan.(Uncensored)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The hippest new Tokyo neighborhood is... Culver City? The trendy Los Angeles arts district Is in a stats of Japanomania over this fall's Takashi Murakami retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art downtown....

Excess oil.(Uncensored)
November 1, 2007... Talk about a smart business move. To celebrate the birthday of a Moscow-based associate, Istanbul shipping tycoon Mubariz Mansimov commissioned Turkish jeweler Gilan to make the ultimate desk accessory--a jeweled oil rig. "Our creative director...

Ultimate comeback.(Uncensored)(Nicolas de Bonnefons)(Pierre Gagnaire)(Alchimistes Aux Fourneaux)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Paris the hottest chef this season is Nicolas de Bonnefons. Little matter that he's been dead for almost 400 years. De Bonnefons advocated light meals, subtle flavor combinations and lots of vegetables. In...

Alessandra's melodrama.(Uncensored)(Alessandra Balazs)(Racing for Time)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... This summer, Alessandra Balazs-daughter of ANDRE BALAZS and--got a taste of the hard life. The Riverdale Country School senior made her acting debut, as a jailed teen prostitute in a Lifetime movie tentatively titled Racing for Time. The flick...

Trend: wild things: go on the hunt this season--for some fiercely stylish wares.(Thakoon Panichgul)(Franco Rubartelli)(Miranda Morrison)
November 1, 2007... When lensman Franco Rubartelli photographed his then girlfriend Veruschka in a lace-up Yves Saint Laurent safari jacket in 1968, who knew it would be the shot heard (or rather, seen) around the world? Almost four decades later, the image is...

In the center ring: the fashion circus in New York was impacted by two major events: Ralph Lauren's 40th-anniversary show and Marc Jacobs's controversial presentation.(Fashion Flash)(Thakoon Panichgul )
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fashion--it's big business; it's flashy tabloid fodder; it's on television, on celebrities and online It's everywhere, a high-profile feeding frenzy of dos, don'ts, high, low, conservatism, outrage, teensy start-ups,...

Underage fashion: Prada and Chanel are now standard fare for the under-18 Hollywood set.(Fashion Flash)
November 1, 2007... It was every actress's dream: her first Oscar nomination, an occasion that I obviously called for clothes and accessories that underscored its importance. And so the newly minted star walked the red carpet leading to the Kodak Theater, her...

Hot fuzz: luxurious furs are getting sporty this season with a dressed-down, daytime-perfect appeal.(Fashion Flash)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fendi's fox bag, $1,970, at Fendi, 800.FENDI.NY: Michael Kors Furs' fox jacket, $9,000, at select Michael Kors stores; Chanel's fox and lambskin hat, $1,750, at Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills and New York,...

The Russian Paris Hilton: the former USSR has its own version of the hard-partying blond airhead.(Fashion Flash)(Ksenia Sobchak)
November 1, 2007... Ksenia Sobchak lies on a lonely stage. Glitter rains down on her. Disco balls hang from the ceiling. Everywhere, assistants, extras, men with mullets and airplane shades and video cameras circle and stare, purring, "Ksyusha, Ksyusha, Ksyusha."...

Neo Geo: rock those carats creatively with rough, polished or candy-colored diamonds.(Accessories Flash)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Chanel Fine Jewelry's 18k white gold and diamond necklace, price available upon request, 800.550.0005. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Diamond in the Rough's 18k pink gold, pink diamond and rough diamond bracelet,...

Color wheel: how to buy rare rainbow-hued diamonds.(Accessories Flash)
November 1, 2007... Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but the luckiest gals on the block are the ones with rocks in shades of yellow, pink and blue. Colored diamonds are attracting more attention than ever, spurred by celebrity purchases, explosions of wealth...

The diamond life: vintage inspirations and whimsical touches lighten some new collections.(Accessories Flash)
November 1, 2007... Brazil Rocks Carla Amorim has always loved accessorizing "My first allowance was given to me on a family kip to Buenos Aires, when I was nine. All my siblings spent their money on candies and toys; I spent it all on plastic bangles,"...

Urban expedition: take to the concrete jungle in these adventurous looks.(Shopping)
November 1, 2007... Michael Kors Nylon and Lycra spandex bikini, $278, at Michael Kors, New York [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Agnona Cotton and linen shorts, $465, at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, agnona.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Anne Klein Cotton...

Jane Larkworthy sees hair go shorter, lashes grow longer and skin get muddier.(Beauty Buzz)
November 1, 2007... 1| LABEL CONSCIOUS The FDA recently proposed a label overhaul for all sunscreens (which will be finalized at the end of November)that will require the display of more information, including a UVA protection measurement system (SPF measures only...

The acne diet: candy and pizza don't cause breakouts--or do they?(Beauty Flash)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For the past 30 years, doctors, racialists and high school health-ed teachers alike have assured us up and down that, contrary to what our grandmothers may have believed, junk food does not cause acne. Snickers bars,...

Pretty quirky: sinful candles, fragrant jewels and an unusual hair remedy are among fall's offbeat offerings.(Beauty Flash)
November 1, 2007... Tea With Sugar Shu Uemura Phyto-Black Lift Radiance Boosting Lotion contains molasses and sugar extracts, both said to combat wrinkles. But its star ingredient is fermented black tea. The supercharged antioxidant is said to detoxify skin...

Modern English.(The Cotswolds)(Cotswolds88hotel)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Housed in an 18th-century Palladian-style mansion in the picturesque Cotswolds town of Painswick, a chic 19-room boutique inn known as Cotswolds88hotel has joined the relatively small number of other luxury nests in...

Art fair insanity.(Miami)
November 1, 2007... Each December, the art world heads to Florida for the nonstop hobnobbing, dealmaking and debauchery of Art Basel Miami Beach. Here is W's mini guide to the most happening hotels. DELANO The vibe: Still-buzzy South Beach landmark Who...

Old glory.(Dallas)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The historic hotel Mansion on Turtle Creek is as dear to natives as the Dallas Cowboys or Neiman Marcus. It's the place where royalty stay when they come to town and where the city's society ladies like to meet up...

Tangier time: a renaissance is under way in Tangier, Morocco's famously shabby port city. Some hope the sprucing up won't go too far.(Travel Flash)
November 1, 2007... Plenty of places have been mythologized over the years as glamorous bastions of ill repute, but Tangier in the Forties and Fifties was one of the few that actually lived up to its bad name. Part of an international zone on the North African...

Busted! Disastrous gaffes and million-dollar mistakes, revealed.(Art Flash)(mistakes of the artists)(paintings exhibitions)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The elbow felt round the world one year ago belonged to casino developer Steve Wynn, who, while showing off his Pablo Picasso masterpiece La Reve to a group of friends that included Barbara Walters, Nora Ephron,...

Portrait of the artist: Chuck Close and his work are the subject of a new ballet.(Art Flash)
November 1, 2007... In the four decades that they've known each other, Philip Glass has been Chuck Close's friend (the two got to know one another when Glass was an assistant to Close's Yale classmate Richard Serra), his plumber (before he hit it big, Glass...

Being Mrs. Saatchi: the ex-wife of the megacollector is back on the London art scene.(Art Flash)
November 1, 2007... For two decades, Charles Saatchi has been the Daddy-O of London's contemporary art world, buying young artists' work by the truckload and using his adman wealth to turn nobodies into celebrities. Throughout the late Eighties and Nineties, while...

Paul and the chocolate factory: for his latest installation, sculptor Paul McCarthy is turning a New York gallery into a bona fide, operational candy plant.(Art Flash)
November 1, 2007... The artist Paul McCarthy has long employed food as a material in his work--particularly viscous substances such as ketchup, mayonnaise and chocolate, which he has used in videos and performances as stand-ins for the bodily fluids they most...

Beyond tomorrow: coming soon to a biennial near you, five up-and-coming artists attracting international attention.(Art Flash)(Adel Abdessemed,Cao Fei,Yang Fudong,Carol Bove, David Altmejd)
November 1, 2007... ADEL ABDESSEMED If you'd been strolling around central Paris one morning last winter and had taken a wrong turn at Colette, heading north toward the residential blocks around the Boulevard Peripherique, you would have come across an...

Showing their stuff: who needs museums? Britain's richest collectors are opening art spaces of their own.(Art Flash)
November 1, 2007... Wolverhampton, a small city northwest of Birmingham, doesn't offer much in the way of tourist attractions. Formerly a wealthy mining center in the heart of the West Midlands region of central England, it's known today for its big Hindu and Sikh...

Feminine mystique: Martha Rosier and Joan Jonas are enjoying a long-deserved moment in the sun.(Art Flash)(Martha Rosler)(Joan Jonas)
November 1, 2007... The names Martha Rosler and Joan Jonas mean nothing to some, but everything to others. The two artists, both born in New York, came of age in the Sixties and Seventies, when they made groundbreaking experimental work--Rosler in video,...

In with the new: with contemporary art booming out of control, how can museums afford to play?(Art Flash)
November 1, 2007... The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, a public museum in Buffalo, New York, has been acquiring new art since 1863, when the luminist painter Albert Bierstadt, then at the peak of his financial success, gave the fledgling institution a canvas, The...

The world on a string.(EYE)(Narciso Rodriguez)(Ralph Lauren)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Forty may be the new 30, but Ralph Lauren was happy to treat his four decades in the industry as the milestone it was. Nearly 500 people were transported into his rarefied world when he took over New York's...

Blood simple: in the Coen brothers' lethal western No Country for Old Men, Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin tell a bleak tale of dust, dread and dire laughter.(Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men )
November 1, 2007... The borderland terrain of Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men is an emptiness of raw plains cratered with ancient calderas, where the manmade lines that mark legal boundaries are but lightly scratched in the earth and the contest...

Kick start.(EYE)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] If there's one thing the stylish know, it's how to make an entrance, and the Fashion Week party machine arrived in fine form this season, with no fewer than four bashes in the first 24 hours. At the Hammerstein...

Master of the Chateau: after a stint in Hollywood, a prince takes the reins of a family treasure.(EYE)(Prince Robert de Luxembourg)
November 1, 2007... We may very well be the oldest luxury brand in the world," says Prince Robert de Luxembourg, seated in a vaulted salon of Chateau Haut-Brion, the turreted 16th-century castle in Bordeaux, France, whose name and image grace his flagship wine. A...

Art and commerce: Salvatore Ferragamo gets into the gallery game.(W EYE)(Salvatore Ferragamo)
November 1, 2007... The guests are the same as at any high-wattage museum gala or A-list Chelsea gallery opening: On one side of the room, megacollectors Tico Mugrabi and Aby Rosen mingle under a Marilyn Minter C-print while the artist herself chats with the...

Summer set.(EYE)
November 1, 2007... The traffic just gets worse, and East Hampton's Main Street looks more and more like Madison Avenue. But the endless protestations about the Hamptons being over did little to keep the jetset away this summer. For celebrity turnout, no...

Going for gold: after decades of frustration, director Ridley Scott takes aim at an Oscar.(EYE)
November 1, 2007... On an overcast Los Angeles morning, Sir Ridley Scott is sitting in a second-floor suite at the Four Seasons Hotel as a doctor examines his knee. Once the physician snaps his valise closed and exits, Scott explains that he recently underwent...

American splendor: in a new coffee-Table book, Tommy Hilfiger pays tribute to his pop-culture inspirations.(EYE)(Interview)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Since going into business in 1985, Tommy Hilfiger has sold a vision that's as wholesome as apple pie. Now, in a new book called Iconic America, out in November from Rizzoli, he celebrates the images that have...

The long run.(EYE)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's not for nothing that New York is dubbed the city that never sleeps, as Fashion Week proved. Diane Kruger came almost directly from the Venice Film Festival to Rachel Zoe's book party at Socialista, where the...

Letter from London: is Cordon Brown turning Downing Street into Dullsville?(EYE)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In England the premiership of Gordon Brown has begun. Alas. Great Britain s 52nd prime minister is known to some as the one-eyed Puritan after losing an eye in a rugby game. Not since the 17th century, when Roundhead...

John Baldessari: on of the most influential artists to emerge since the mid-sixties, John Baldessari has produced work ranging from phototext paintings to installation and video. Here in collaboration with photographer Mario Sorrenti, he turns his eye to fashin.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Art w nov 07 This months marks W's second Art Issue... and wait till you see what we have in store. Matthew Barney takes us on a gusty transaltantic crossing. Richard Prince conjures autographed pictures of...

Richard Prince: all the best.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] NICOLE KIDMAN LINDSAY LOMAN CAMERON DIAZ KATIE HOLMES JENNIFER ANISTON JULIA ROBERS JESSICA SIMPSON ANGELINA JOLIE BRITNEY SPEARS EMPLOYING THE SUBVERSIVE SENSE OF HUMOR THAT HAS MADE HIM ONE OF TODAY'S MOST...

Charles Ray: he can spend years conceptualizing, hatch live chicks, hijack a dead tree-all for the sake of a good sculpture. Charles Ray's artistic obsessions know no bounds.(Biography)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Charles Ray unlocks the door of an empty storefront down the street from his studio in one of those neighborhoods in Venice, California, that has no dearth of liquor stores. The large space is empty, save for a...

Marc Jacobs: long intimidated by the art world, Marc Jacobs didn't start collecting until five years ago--and now he just can't stop inside the designer's Paris apartment.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] IT BEGAN INNOCENTLY ENOUGH, with a little oil painting by Karen Kilimnik. One day in 2002, Marc Jacobs was distractedly flipping through a Christie's auction catalog when he came across Kilimnik's Mary Calling...

Sara VanDerBeek: artist Sara VanDerBeek creates a series of images inspired by the history of photography and collage.
November 1, 2007... BALENCIAGA'S BLACK AND CREAM SILK CHIFFON, SILK CREPE AND NAVY COTTON VELVET DRESS WITH SILK AND SILVER FRINGE, BY NICOLAS GHESQUIERE, AT BALENCIAGA, NEW YORK. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] WOOL JERSEY DRESS, AT SELECT NEIMAN MARCUS STORES,...

Marian Goodman: tiny in stature but with a commanding presence in the art world, gallerist Marian Goodman has assembled perhaps the most enviable stable of artists in the business.(Occupation overview)
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Among the many arcane conventions of the contemporary art world is the very manner in which the product is dispersed. Paintings, photographs, sculptures and such are displayed in galleries and are theoretically...

Dakis Joannou M/M (Paris): as the debate over whether fashion is a true art from rages on contemporary collector Dakis Joannou finds a place for runway treasures alongside his koons sculptures and murakami paintings.
November 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN 1982, WHEN ARTFORUM MAGAZINE DARED TO PUT A MODEL IN AN ISSEY MIYAKE FROCK ON ITS FEBRUARY COVER, THE MOVE PROVOKED OUTRAGE AMONG A CERTAIN SET OF ART-WORLD STALWARTS. WHAT WAS A PIECE OF CLOTHING-A LUXURY PRODUCT...

Ed Ruscha: though private commissions long ago ceased being most artists' bread and butter, they occasionally still light the fuse of inspiration. Such was the case when literary darling-turned-widely bashed author James Frey asked Ed Ruscha to make a memento of his nationally televised scolding.
November 1, 2007... They say that one mark of great writers is their ability to spin personal trauma into creative gain, which usually means a transmuting of pain into prose. But in the wake of his berating on The Oprah Winfrey Show, James Frey had an altogether...