Vogue articles from December 2006

Vogue archives from December 2006

Profile in courage; _Oriana Fallaci's interviews _were the paradigm _of fearless journalism.(Biography)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Janine Di Giovanni In 1985, when I first saw this photograph of Oriana Fallaci-or La Fallaci, as she referred to herself-I was a student at the Iowa Writers' Workshop: a displaced East Coast girl, unhappy in the cornfields among my...

The waiting room; Full of hope, John Burnham Schwartz and his wife decided to start a family.
December 1, 2006... Byline: John Burnham Schwartz I have a good friend, a lovely and unfailingly optimistic woman some 30 years older than I am, who over lunch a couple of years ago quietly announced that she'd had seven pregnancies and two beautiful...

Brides of the month visions in white.(wedding costumes)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... AT HER FINAL FITTING WITH OSCAR de la Renta, Amanda Peet was beaming. "You've made my dream come true," the actress said to the designer, who created the Empire gown of ivory tulle and Chantilly lace that she wore to marry screenwriter...

Under the tuscan sun.(Dr. Lisa Airan, Dr. Trevor Born wedding)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Over the course of her wedding weekend in Italy, Dr. Lisa Airan delighted guests and her groom, Dr. Trevor Born, with one lovely look after another. In whimsical Rodarte one moment and romantic J. Mendel the next, the New York dermatologist...

Trend of the moment the jungle book.(Stephen Sprouse on pattern designs)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... THE FASHION WORLD'S GONE WILD for animal prints this season. At Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs resurrected a graphic leopard pattern that designer Stephen Sprouse created for the label in 2001, and now it seems daring versions of this print...

The sophisticates; From the rainy boulevards of Paris_to the star-spangled halls of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, William Norwich seeks the meaning of the word sophistication.
December 1, 2006... Byline: William Norwich Ma robe, ma robe!" Sarah Jessica Parker cried as several burly Paris policemen arrested her. "Ma robe, ma robe!" she exclaimed-"My dress, my dress!"-as they carried her off to their paddy wagon waiting in the Place...

The transformer; Hussein Chalayan resurrects the ghost of fashion past with revolutionary morphing robo-dresses.(Interview)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Tim Blanks Hollywood may do its best to guarantee that popular entertainment is an assault on reason-you'll believe a man can fly-but fashion's wonders are generally more earthbound. On an October night in Paris, however, a fashion...

Raising kane; With shock-bright minidresses and sizzling advance buzz, a Scottish wunderkind blasts off from the London runway.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Sarah Mower Christopher Kane is the boy who roared so loud his name reverberated through fashion even before his neon-elastic, lace-frilled, sparkle-zoned body dresses stepped onto the London runway. The sight could have given you...

perfectly scripted; Whether she's the Smythson supremo or a British political wife, Samantha Cameron stays true to her message.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Mark Holgate Samantha Cameron, Smythson creative director and Tory wife, may seem an unlikely candidate to live by the words of Mae West-"Keep a diary and someday it will keep you"-but keeping and designing diaries has for a decade...

Proper english; The lady behind the lavender cabana stripes and girly-girl totes launches into luxury.(Lulu Guinness)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Jane Herman I think that navy snake is the most sophisticated and classy thing I've seen in a long, long time," says Lulu Guinness, talking about the Lucille handbag, a new addition to her season-old Couture line. A framed mini...

Goddess Worship; Sophia Kokosalaki is resurrecting the mythic house of Vionnet.(Madeleine Vionnet)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Sarah Mower The story of how Sophia Kokosalaki arrived at Vionnet is a tale of such symmetry that it echoes the geometrical elegance of a Madeleine Vionnet original. "Of course, everyone in fashion knows about Madeleine Vionnet,"...

Paris treasure hunt; The elusive allure of les Parisiennes can't be copied just by shopping chez the big-name houses.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Tina Isaac Frenchwomen may never get fat, but what makes them even more enviable is that they really know how to shop. What women the world over really envy is a Frenchwoman's innate chic, which is less about possessing style...

New in town; They came, they showed, they conquered their nerves.(Erin Fetherston )
December 1, 2006... Byline: Mark Holgate Erin Fetherston has achieved rather a lot in her relatively short career. The Paris-based, California-born designer first presented twice during the French capital's haute couture season. She then took her third...

Digging the trench; A former fashion scribe is rewriting the rules when it comes to coats.(Aimee Cho)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Florence Kane When designer Aimee Cho was trying to name her new trench-coat line, it was a children's book that came to mind: The Griffin and the Minor Canon, in which a kind half-eagle, half-lion creature lobbies to coexist with...

It's in the stars; Ten Thousand Things has teamed up with two astrology experts to make out-of-this-world necklaces.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Lynn Yaeger Think moons in the seventh house and Jupiter aligning with Mars are best left to sixties lyrics? Maybe a gold-and-diamond necklace will change your mind. Even resolute historical materialists-and skeptical...

On target; Proenza Schouler shoots to thrill as the latest label to team up with Target, selling New York fashion at Minnesota prices.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Robert Sullivan Aside from being full of beauty, the world is a cruel place, and one of the ways that the world is cruel has to do with fashion, especially high fashion. This is well known not just to laypeople but to fashion...

Life style; This new L.A. label does a double shift, from car pools to cocktail parties.(Rosetta Getty )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Jane Herman They're more Rick Owens than they are Chanel," says Rosetta Getty about the austere city-girl dresses and separates that typify her new line, Riser Goodwyn. "Modern is a good word for them, but that doesn't really...

Gifts, great and small; The best holiday presents don't have to be big or have big price tags.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Lynn Yaeger f decades of gift-giving teach anything, it is this: The reaction of the recipient is in no way commensurate with the price of the present. We've all been through it-the $5 bauble opened rapturously; the $500 behemoth...

Social rise; A wedding-party-dress design duo is now making fun-to-wear party frocks.(Melissa Akey and Beth Blake)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Florence Kane With their bridesmaid collection called Thread, Beth Blake and Melissa Akey are almost single-handedly responsible for the trend toward chic wedding-party dresses that a bride's best friend might have picked out for...

The natural; These boxy, palm-size clutches are packed with island charm.(Tina Maristela-Ocampo)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Jane Herman Around Tina Maristela-Ocampo's neck are two long chains weighted by a collection of charms. "I started collecting them when I was in my early 20s," Maristela-Ocampo says. "They're the story of my life: This is my...

Ask mrs. exeter; How to thank the people who've mended your hems, walked your pug, and eased you into tree pose all year long.
December 1, 2006... Question:_What is the latest thinking in holiday thank-you presents for the people who have supported us during the year? Devoted doormen, yoga instructors, helpful acquaintances, neighbors, our children's teachers . . . it is a long list. Do...

Hiss and hers.(Cleopatra Kohlique Inc.)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... It was an asp that famously facilitated Cleopatra's untimely end. Dramatic? Yes. But much more glamorous was her predilection for pythons. Legend has it that the ancient queen wore live ones as bracelets (always at the height of fashion she...

Fever pitch; Picking up where John Cusack left off, Will Chase brings the lovelorn music fanatic of High Fidelity to Broadway.(Theater review)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Cressida Leyshon If the slacker hero of High Fidelity, Nick Hornby's iconic 1995 novel about records, relationships, and top-five lists, were to come up with a list of five fictional characters least likely to burst into song, he...

Stealing beauty; In Breaking and Entering, a thief introduces passion into one man's sheltered London life, while the hunt is on for a jewel in Blood Diamond.(Movie review)
December 1, 2006... London is now celebrated as the capital of swinging Europe, a bohemian boomtown where the mobile phones never stop cheeping and taxis are full at midnight. But there is, of course, more to the city than trendy bars and design museums. It's this...

Grand illusions.(Venus)(Movie review)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: John Powers In Venus, Peter O'Toole plays Maurice, an aging actor infatuated with his friend's 20-year-old niece (Jodie Whittaker), a brassy working-class gal who makes Eliza Doolittle seem as refined as Audrey Hepburn. Although...

Costume drama; With a nod to the sixties, an artist reimagines a neoclassical painting in modern Greece.(Eve Sussman)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Carol Kino Eve Sussman first made waves in the art world when her lush video 89 seconds at Alcazar was unveiled at the 2004 Whitney Biennial. The ten-minute piece, based on Velazquez's painting Las Meninas (c. 1656), uses...

NIGHT WATCH.(Otto Dix)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Leslie Camhi When [Otto] Dix paints people," an observer of the art scene that flourished amid the dazzling, decadent nightlife of 1920s Berlin remarked, "it is as if he were issuing warrants for their arrests." "Glitter and Doom:...

the lady eve; The Apple Tree lures Kristin Chenoweth back to Broadway.
December 1, 2006... Ever since she left the long-running witchfest Wicked two and a half years ago, Kristin Chenoweth has been on a prodigal journey, by which I mean she's been in Hollywood. Don't get me wrong-she was swell in The Pink Panther and Bewitched...

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK.(Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Adam Green The perennial themes of rock 'n' roll-those would be heartbreak, angst, lust, rage, and rebellion-have featured prominently in the lives of adolescents since time began. Throw in a little masturbation and S&M, and you've...

The best remastered; How DVDs, YouTube, and HBO make home entertainment witty, wise, and beautiful.(Home Box Office Inc.)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Joan Juliet Buck YouTube gets 100 million hits a day. Staring at YouTube's videos on the computer and sending them on seems to have become everyone's primary job. Google snapped up YouTube, "the premier digital video repository on...

The emperor strikes back; This month brings another lavish world premiere to the Metropolitan Opera.('The First Emperor')(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Adam Green In his ongoing quest to reunite the words popular and culture, the Metropolitan Opera's high-flying new general manager, Peter Gelb, has enlisted Hollywood auteurs, Broadway directors, modern-dance enfants terribles, and...

natural woman; With her latest role, Thandie Newton continues her run of intimate, mesmerizing performances.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Boris Fishman Anyone who saw Thandie Newton in Crash (2005), the race-_relations drama thick with A-listers, surely noticed little else. In fifteen minutes of screen time, Newton was by turns taunting, humiliated, livid,...

let it snow; Richard Alleman explores the best ski lodges in the French Alps.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Richard Alleman Courchevel, the star resort of France's Les Trois Vallees, offers sublime skiing-and some of the finest restaurants and hotels in the Alps. This month brings the debut of Le Cheval Blanc. The dream of Bernard...

quality control; Design Miami offers the ultimate holiday gift: limited-edition furniture.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Stephanie Lacava One welcome offshoot of Design Miami involves the demi-couture of the design world: limited-edition furniture. For Panton Velvet, Vitra has reimagined 20 of its classic 1959 chairs in pink velvet. Wendell Castle's...

out of the ordinary; Whether dedicated to cultural legends or treasured tales, the best gift books offer something for everyone.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Megan O'grady A fashionphile of any generation would be delighted to receive Balenciaga Paris (Thames & Hudson), by Pamela Golbin and Fabien Baron, an elegant catalog of pictures and archival sketches ranging from the heyday of...

skoal! Piling the table high with Christmas angels and aquavit, Helena Christensen and Leif Sigersen prepare a cozy and bright Danish smorgasbord.
December 1, 2006... Byline: William Norwich While the models-are-too-thin debate was revived points elsewhere, Helena Christensen was in her kitchen cooking. Even in her most junior modeling days, Helena-who is also an actress and photographer, having...

Starry nights; Megawatt metallics-with a modern, minimal a-brighten the face, and the evening.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Jane Shin Park If the recent runways are any indication, it's going to be a heavy-metal holiday. It started at the fall shows, where models at Giambattista Valli dazzled in rich sequined columns and Viktor & Rolf presented a series...

Foot Fetish: The Priti pedi takes Manhattan.(Priti Organic Spa)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Catherine Piercy Priti means "satisfaction" in Sanskrit, but in New York, it's shorthand for the city's most buzzed-about pedicure. Models, magazine editors, and chic mothers-to-be are flocking to the East Village's Priti Organic...

Finding my nose; Wine tastings, sniffing sessions, and some highly fashionable advice Catherine Piercy scours Manhattan for a perfume that's perfectly hers.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Catherine Piercy Tell me what perfume you wear and I'll tell you who you are," says Francois Duquesne of L'Artisan Parfumeur, the French fragrance house with a cult following. Sheepishly, I admit that when it comes to perfume, I'm...

Trouble in Mind; Haunted for years by mysterious aches and pains, Eva Marer finally discovered that the cause of her suffering was in her head.(depression)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Eva Marer In the early nineties, I moved to Paris for what were supposed to be the best years of my life. I was 21, fresh out of college, and penniless, but what I lacked in money and prospects I made up for in qualities dear to...

Weighing in; The latest debate over models and measurements raises the question, What size is beauty.(body mass index)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Sally Wadyka In the wake of the BMI brouhaha that erupted on and off runways this fall-starting with Madrid's ban on ultraskinny models and culminating in Jean Paul Gaultier's plus-size act of defiance-fashion insiders are left...

BEARING GIFTS.(Yves Saint Laurent)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The world outside may be white with frost, but December is about warmth and glow: rosy cheeks beaming with Nars Oasis Blush, ski-lodge hearths all ablaze, champagne flutes brimming with the romance-igniting amber of Krug Grand Cuvee. ...

Beauties of the Moment; The fragile splendor and fleeting grace of flowers are captured in this spectacular portfolio by Irving Penn.(Column)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Kennedy Fraser My mother was born in the spring, and she died in springtime last year, an old woman. Spring was always her favorite season. She designed her garden to be at its best at that time, and it was at its best when she...

one fine day; Nicole Kidman: Brilliant, beautiful, passionate . . . and a country wife in Nashville.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Eve Macsweeney It never rains in Nashville, except when it pours. Today, the drizzly aftermath of an overnight deluge has put something of a damper on Nicole Kidman's plans to meet at a bucolic spot in her new hometown. A damper...

Court favorite; The most creative player in tennis history has a style all his own, on the court and off.(Roger Federer)(Interview)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Daisy Garnett It's hard to be dispassionate about Roger Federer. When I meet him in Zurich, in the lobby of an expensive hotel-an anonymous place full of European businessmen-he is dressed in cream cashmere and neat jeans and...

Unbeatable; While searching for the perfect gift food, from cured meats to artisanal cheeses, Jeffrey Steingarten learns the best way to ship precious cargo-even eggs.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Jeffrey Steingarten Wait, wait a minute/wait a minute, wait a minute/please, Mr. Po-ost-man/deliver de lettah/the sooner de bettah," I crooned softly yet insistently in the timeless song stylings of the Marvelettes. Finally, my...

Bringing sexy back; Soft, smooth, and usually under wraps, a woman's back may, this spring, be her most spine-tingling feature.(Stefano Pilati's spring collection for Yves Saint Laurent)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... When Stefano Pilati created this showstopping look for his spring collection for Yves Saint Laurent-lashings of featherweight silk organza appliqued with cunningly applied violets (where once you were deflowered, you're now flowered)-he...

Euroflash! Young, fast-moving, and fashion-friendly, a clutch of chic Europeans is making news on the social circuit.
December 1, 2006... Byline: William Norwich On a sunny afternoon early in the most recent go-round of pret-a-porter shows in Paris, a group of Bright Young Things had gathered. You might have noticed 21-year-old Camilla Al Fayed; Margherita Missoni, 23, of...

Cause for celebration; Deck the holidays with dazzling and decidedly stylish gift ideas.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... We don't know about you, but we're thinking it might be time to rewrite that song about the Twelve Days of Christmas. Who now needs Ten Lords a-Leaping or a Partridge in a Pear Tree? (At least we understand the Five Golden Rings.) But an...

Blooming.(Grace Coddington)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Anna Wintour As ever, our December issue is blessed with a glorious story from Grace Coddington, our Creative Director. Back in the summer, she asked a number of designers to invent dresses that represented specific flowers (a...

Show biz.(Miuccia Prada, Karl Lagerfeld)
December 1, 2006... Superbad! After three solid weeks in the chiffon trenches of Europe, I am sorry to report that I have been almost totally stumped in my quest to find beauty in the void that is the spring/summer ready-to-wear for 2007. This has been,...

This year's model.(Hilary Rhoda)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Hilary Rhoda, a nineteen-year-old from Chevy Chase, Maryland, was chaperoned by her mother when she came to Paris this season. With her glissading canter, she calls to mind Minnie Cushing (the socialite/model from Newport who was a Vogue...

Good taste.(Musee des Arts Decoratifs)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Andre Leon Talley The Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris is open again after a ten-year hiatus. And hallelujah to that: PPR and Gucci Group hosted a dinner during the spring ready-to-wear collections to celebrate the refurbished...