Paris Fashion Week: Getting sentimental at Chloe

Gaby Aghion, who founded Chloe in 1952, died Saturday at age 93. So the house’s current designer, Clare Waight Keller, dedicated the spring 2015 collection to her.
Aghion staged her first fashion show at Paris’ famous writers and artists’ hangout Café de Flore, firmly establishing the label’s association with the Left Bank bohemian lifestyle. And as a designer, she helped to define the look, or attitude, of boho chic.
Since she retired, there has been a string of designers at Chloe, including Karl Lagerfeld in the 1960s and '70s, and later, Stella McCartney and Phoebe Philo.
The inspiration for Keller’s spring Chloe collection was modern folklore and “fabrics that tell stories,” the show notes said. “Authenticity of spirit, soulful, honest and individual.” That translated as a cream, patched lace mini dress meant, perhaps, to look like it was made from your grandmother’s lace doilies, a blue sweatshirt lovingly sun-faded, maybe after years of summer fun, worn with a long button-front denim maxi skirt; and a cream maxi dress covered in fraying folkloric embroidery that could just has well have been a treasured souvenir from an exotic getaway.
In between, there were airy gauze gowns with delicate lace insets; ring-pierced lace tops and mini dresses; utilitarian-looking shorts, jackets and tops, and wedge-sole gladiator sandals to keep things grounded.
It was interesting to see this collection immediately after Philo’s Celine. Both Philo and Keller were playing with notions of sentimentality, trying to create luxury goods imbued with a kind of intimacy, and individual history. But Philo’s collection won out, mostly because the fabrics were more special, and the details more unexpected.

Long Tall Sally hosts pop-up this weekend

British specialty retailer Long Tall Sally is hosting a pop-up shop this weekend in Huntington Beach.
The label is designed for women 5-foot-8 and taller, with clothing, accessories and footwear made so "that the rise, knees, waists, sleeves, and everything else fits properly, proportionally," the company says.
The event will include apparel, accessories and footwear up to size 15.
The pop-up will be at the Waterfront Beach Resort, 21100 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Jeweler Alexis Bittar has scheduled his first Los Angeles sample sale from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Cooper Building, mezzanine level, 860 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles.
Kelly Wearstler has a one-day sample sale scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the Cooper Building, 860 S. Los Angeles St. The sale is to feature jewelry, clothing and items for the home. Cash only and all sales final.
Susan Petersen, chief executive of baby moccasin maker Freshly Picked, is slated to show her latest collection from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Nordstrom at the Grove, 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles.
A Current Affair pop-up vintage marketplace is scheduled to bring more than 50 vendors together on Saturday in the Cooper Design Space penthouse, on the 11th floor at 860 S. Los Angeles St. Hours are 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. with tickets priced at $10 each, or gain early admission at noon with a $20 ticket. Tickets are available at itsacurrentaffair.com or at the door.
The Melrose Business Improvement District is sponsoring its first Melrose sidewalk sale from noon to closing on Saturday. Dozens of stores and restaurants on Melrose from Fairfax Avenue to just past La Brea Avenue are expected to participate.
Openings
Rag & Bone has opened a new store at 1118 Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice. The store offers men's and women's ready-to-wear, denim, accessories and footwear. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

Karrueche Tran & Kylie Jenner — Who Stripped To A Bra Top Better?

It was a fashion face off at the All-Star Celebrity Basketball Game on Sept. 21, when Karrueche Tran, 26, and Kylie Jenner,17, showed up wearing similar outfits! Who rocked their bra top better? VOTE!
Karrueche Tran & Kylie Jenner’s Crop Tops — Who Wore It Best Vote
Supporting her man, Karrueche Tran attended the game wearing a black bathing suit bikini top with arab writing on it and leggings to match.
Later on in the game, she covered up a bit by putting on a jean jacket that was tied around her waist. While her boyfriend was playing, she had some fun by snapping some selfies with friends!
Someone who knows all about selfies, Kylie Jenner, was also at the game supporting a good cause. The reality show star was wearing a midriff baring outfit as well with a white crop top and slouchy grey sweatpants! She also sported a backwards white cap to match.
A Look Into The All-Star Celebrity Basketball Game
The event, hosted by Power 106, was held to benefit Homeboy Industries, an organization that works to get men and women out of gangs and into the workforce.
Some of the players who volunteered to play in the game were singers Chris Brown and Trey Songz. Jason Derulo and Ariana Grande were listed among the performers!
When Ky;lie wasn’t taking selfies, she was seen chatting it up with friends, including Amber Rose (who once dated her new brother-in-law Kanye West) and Karrueche Tran.

Miranda Kerr gets the Mario Testino treatment

Miranda Kerr gets the Mario Testino treatment as she cements her sexy look in Geisha-inspired photo shoot for Vogue Japan's 15th anniversary
The feline eyes are the same, as are those famous dimples, and that alluring look.
But professional poser Miranda Kerr has been given the Mario Testino treatment and transformed into a sexy Geisha for the cover of Vogue Japan to mark its 15th anniversary.
The 31-year-old Australian model is captured by the acclaimed royal photographer in a series of Japanese ensembles with her dyed raven locks piled into a tall bun, contrasting with pale skin and lashings of mascara.
Gracing the cover of the November 2014 issue, she is almost unrecognisable, showing that her unique look is highly versatile.
In one shot she flashes a glimpse of cleavage in a sky blue dress that grazes her thighs as her beehive hair, dyed blue at the tips, billows in the fake studio breeze.
The dense colour of her locks serves to accentuate her azure eyes as the Australian beauty gazes seductively into the camera lens.
And in another, she wears Japanese-style bandage moccasins teamed with a mishmash of tribal prints for a warrior-inspired look.
All in all, it's a very different look for the former Victoria Secrets model, courtesy of the favourite photographer of the late Princess Diana and the British royals.
Miranda, who confirmed the end of her marriage with Orlando Bloom in October 2013, lives in New York with their young son Flynn.
She and her Hollywood heartthrob ex co-parent the three-year-old and are said to be on good terms.
But in an interview with The Sunday Times Style magazine last month, she revealed that she likes to dispatch her nanny with the toddler when he is staying with his dad.
She admitted: ‘The nanny is with him all the time when he is with Orlando; don’t get me wrong, he’s a great dad, it’s just me being a protective mother and wanting to make sure all his needs are met.'
The Sydney-born star maintains she is single, despite persistent rumours of an on-going romance with Australian businessman, James Packer

Best of London Fashion Week: Our 5 favourite beauty looks from the runways

We know everyone is already switched over into Milan-mode, but let’s take a beauty breather before diving head on into MFW and recall some of the best looks from London Fashion Week.
1. Connecting the dots at Preen
With the Massai cricket team as her muse, Val Garland used a brow marker (M.A.C’s Penultimate) to decorate models’ faces with freckles. She applied them so liberally that we’re sure she must have drained several ink cartridges.
2. Purple heart at Matthew Williamson
The pretty and feminine wash of violet Charlotte Tilbury brushed on lids was inspired by a blooming hibiscus flower. She wasn’t the first to use it: Tom Pecheux picked a similar shade for eyes at Derek Lam. In our experience, what Pecheux does in New York often kicks off a bigger overall beauty trend, so let’s see where it pops up next.
3. Cocktail hour at Antonio Berardi
We love a statement lip that involves more than just a single bullet and brush. So we were even more enamored with these lacquered mouths when we learned that Val Garland mixed multiple textures and tools—pencils, glosses, loose pigments—to create them.
4. Ombré eyes at Holly Fulton
Makeup artist Andrew Gallimore dragged blue and white liner along the lower lash line, creating a fade between the two that was meant to recall the reflection of a pool. Refreshing in its simplicity.
5. Debbie Harry hair at Tom Ford
Hair in London (and New York for that matter) didn’t really wow us: lots of centre parts, waves, braids—quelle surprise. But even though we’ve seen wigs the last few seasons, we’re still not tired of them. Clearly Tom Ford isn’t either. After cutting and dying the man-made mops to complement each model’s skin tone, Sam McKnight upped their messy, rock and roll edge with a razor and a texturizing spray.

L.A. Opera season starts with gala honoring Zev Yaroslavsky

The event: Saturday’s Opera Ball kicked off the L.A. Opera season in lavish art deco style, in keeping with the night’s Roaring 20s version of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, starring Placido Domingo, Nino Machaidze and Arturo Chacon-Cruz.
The reception: Kate Walsh of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice” and the upcoming series “Bad Judge” served as official hostess of the pre-opera cocktail party, where she talked of growing up with opera. Coming from a family of opera aficionados, which included a grandfather who sang light opera, Walsh said, “We’re all such big opera fans that my mother named her dog, ‘Puccini.’ ”
The gala dinner: As the band played a mix of pop music and 1920s classics, guests dined and danced on the Music Center Plaza, all done up in crystal chandeliers and centerpieces dripping in feathers, flowers, crystals and pearls. Between courses, an explosion of fireworks heralded Domingo’s appearance onstage. Domingo — the opera’s general director — then introduced the cast and creative team.
The crowd: Among others attending the opera were Stana Katic of “Castle,” Emmy Rossum of “Shameless,” Bruno Bichir and Stefanie Sherk of “The Bridge,” L.A. Opera president and chief executive Christopher Koelsch and opera supporters Eva Stern and board chair Marc Stern, Carol Colburn Grigor and Murray Grigor, Claude and Alfred Mann, Marilyn Ziering, Selim Zilka, Kathy Baxter and former ambassador Frank Baxter, and production underwriters Milan Panic, Barbara Augusta Teichert and Joyce and Aubrey Chernick. Mary Hayley, Catherine Marcus and Jill Baldauf headed the gala committee.
“I’m so happy I’m here,” said Bichir at the gala, particularly enthusiastic about the opera’s second act, noting Domingo’s “power” and “energy.”
Quotes of note: The evening honored outgoing county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and Stern brought him to the stage, calling him “one of the greatest stars in the galaxy of the Los Angeles Opera.” (Yaroslavsky earned the title "maestro" for conducting the national anthem at the start of the program, before passing the baton on to opera conductor James Conlon, and he appeared as an extra in a crowd scene in the opera.)
“Thanks to you, Los Angeles is a more beautiful place,” Domingo said.
The numbers: With 500 guests, tickets priced from $2,500 and tables ranging up to $100,000, the opera tabulated $1.5 million in proceeds.
The production: “La Traviata” is scheduled to continue through Sept. 28. For further information, call (213) 972-8001.
For the latest in party news, follow Ellen Olivier on Twitter @SocietyNewsLA

Decked Out, Broadway Edition: Keke Palmer's 4 Cinderella Looks

On Tuesday night, Keke Palmer will slip into a pair of glass slippers and make her Broadway debut on Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella as the title role. Before she hits the stage with Sherri Shepherd (as Palmer's character's evil stepmother, Madame) on opening night, we stopped by the Tricone Costumes studio last week to see how the 21-year-old actress-singer transforms into the famous princess with Tony award-winning costume designer William Ivey Long.
When Palmer first heard that she landed her role, she was "shocked," but it made her realize that "if you really try and put your best foot forward, things really can happen, so it was a kind of like a moment of what I believe was truly right."
Since prepping and rehearsing for her first theater production, the Masters of Sex star tells Pret-a-Reporter that she's learned to become much more discipline in her career and personal life. "It forces you to push yourself in ways you never knew you could be pushed. The repetition — just searching and learning, getting in the groove of things and making yourself to just keep going," she says.
For Palmer, she hopes the audience walks away after watching the show with the sense that "everything is possible." Seeing that she will be the first African-American actress to portray Cinderella on Broadway, she's proving that it is, indeed.
Below, we go behind the scenes of Palmer's four out of five looks (her wedding dress, not included) as Cinderella. Enjoy.
Though this peasant dress looks polished at the moment, the piece appears much more filthy during the show — or as Palmer says in between getting her hemline shorten or parts of her shirt tucked in, "It looks like it's been living in the woods for weeks."
"Many Cinderellas in the history of telling the story have Cinderella in grey because she's in cinders. I just thought, 'Who wants to see Cinderella in grey?' explains Long when deciding how to design the ensemble. "You can be influenced by the cinders, but you started out in a nice dress, so this is very warm — it's brick brown red, green."
Adds Palmer: "I think it's very expressive of her spirit, even when she's dirtied up."
"This is me in my own head: 'OMG girl, you look so beautiful! What are you going to do when you get out there. This is a dream come true girl. Girl, just enjoy it. Just trying to live in the moment. It's a moment I'll never forget,'" says Palmer when asked about how it feels to be wearing the gown, which Long notes that the bottom half contains 14 layers of mixed materials including sparkle sheer, brocade and nylon, with a mix of hotfix and Swarvoski jewels added on the top layer. Wondering how Palmer will be able to move while donning that much fabric? There's a hoop added at the top of the skirt so "it helps her go up the stairs," says the costume designer.In the production, Palmer borrows this coral and gold ensemble from stepsister Gabrielle, who turns out to be an ally, only to have her evil stepmother, Madame (Shepherd) rip it apart when she sees her wearing it. However, thanks to Cinderella's fairy godmother (Judy Kaye), the rags from this outfit are magically transformed to a gorgeous golden gown (pictured below)

Who did black and white best at BCBG MaxAzria?

Jamie Chung vs. Shay Mitchell: Who did black and white best at BCBG MaxAzria?
You know Fashion Week has officially kicked off when all social media platforms are bombarded with tweets and pics of runways, street style and backstage beauty, which of course gives us those stuck at home the biggest case of #FOMO. Case in point: BCBG Max Azria‘s Spring 2015 show. As one of the big-ticket shows to look forward to during New York Fashion Week, aside from catching a glimpse of the top bloggers and the hottest celebs sitting front row, this year the company partnered with LikeToKnow.it, the up and coming shopping app that allows followers to shop right from Instagram. Long story short, LikeToKnow.it influencers shared ready-to-shop runway shots on their accounts, and followers who were watching the show via the platform can instantaneously shop the collection simply by double tapping their fave runway look. How’s that for convenience!
Now let’s talk front row action. Black and white was the apparent theme, but amongst the crowd of trendsetters, two of Hollywood’s hottest actresses made sure all the attention was directed at them. Dressed in this fall’s must-have, the poncho, Sin City’s Jamie Chung rubbed shoulders with Amanda Crew and the Song sisters, Aimee and Dani. Staying cool in NYC’s humid weather, the Asian beauty teamed the fringed outerwear with a metallic halter crop top and high-waist black box pleated skirt to prove that summer ain’t over yet. Keeping to the monochromatic theme, Chung wore sky-high gladiator heels complete with tasseled details.
While we loved the fun and flirty outfit for Asian-American actress, Pretty Little Liars’ Shay Mitchell looked more business than usual, though not straying too far from her usual leggy ensembles. Opting for a sleeveless white mini dress, the actress styled her look with a black tuxedo-inspired vest on top for a tailored look. A sock bun on top and metallic toe-capped white slingbacks by Christian Louboutin to complete, this girl always hits all the right notes when it comes to rocking a casual cool look.

N.Y. Fashion Week: Timo Weiland mines Modernism, music for spring menswear

A flurry of men's brands fired the opening salvo of New York Fashion Week on Wednesday, a day before the first kitten heel is scheduled to hit the catwalk at the Lincoln Center tents. First out of the gate was Timo Weiland, which presented its men's collection (it offers both men's and women's) in the Refectory of the Highline Hotel here.
The inspiration: The label is a veteran of the CFDA Incubator program for up-and-coming brands and designers Weiland and Alan Eckstein said that some of the inspiration for the current collection actually came from a program-sponsored visit to Los Angeles.
"We went on this CFDA Incubator trip," Weiland said, "and we were just kind of engulfed by the ease and the feel of the Midcentury architecture and inspired by Julius Shulman's photography of the architecture — it's so clean, it's a modern classic, it never really feels outdated — it always feel fresh. Our friend Zelda Williams has this beautiful Midcentury house in the [Hollywood] Hills and one morning we cooked breakfast together and it was just out of this world."
The look: While there were some Modernist touches in evidence – primarily in a range of crisp black-and-white stripes – those could just as easily have been plucked from sports (a referee's shirt) or music (think English rockers of a certain stripe). Given the fact that Team Timo has a side gig doing DJ work around the city ("at museums and galleries and things like that," says Weiland), it's most likely the latter. The collection had an easygoing, laid-back luxe vibe to it, grounded in a palette of blacks, whites and navy blues with subtle pops of tiny floral patterns here and there. The sweatpant trouser silhouette that sprinted onto the fall and winter 2014 menswear scene everywhere and all at once is still very much in evidence, with iterations here including green linen and black and navy blue striped jersey.
Key pieces: The word "sweatshorts" is hardly (if ever) preceded by the word "must-have" but creative director Weiland, design director Eckstein and head designer Donna Kang have created a covetable contender: a roomy, drapey short-legged version of their sweatpant silhouette in a horizontal black and navy blue stripe that comes off like a lower-torso version of the Baja hoodie.
The verdict: With a collection of low-key luxe that needed to be viewed nearly as leisurely as it's worn, the Timo Weiland spring and summer 2015 menswear offering is precisely the kind of collection that might get lost in the shuffle if the men's and women's collections were showcased together.

Jessica Brown Findlay: ‘Downton Abbey’ Actress’ Alleged Sex Video Leaked

Jessica Brown Findlay, 24, has been targeted by the same mean hacker who has posted a slew of alleged nude photos and videos of celebrities this weekend. An alleged sex tape of Jessica was part of the release on Aug. 31.
Poor Jessica. The actress is most known for playing Lady Sybil on Downton Abbey, but now a video that allegedly shows Jessica engaged in a sex act with an unnamed man has surfaced online, according to The Independent.
Jennifer Lawrence & More: Countless Stars Fall Victim To Hacker
Has learned that Jennifer Lawrence, 24, is “horrified over this leak and knows that this will possibly effect her upcoming roles.” Multiple nude photos of Jennifer appeared online on Aug. 31. Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 29, confirmed on Twitter that her nude photos were taken years ago and only meant to be seen by her husband. She called the hacker “creepy.” A lawyer for Kate Upton, 22, tells that the hack is an “outrageous violation” of Kate’s privacy.
SO many people have been hurt by the alleged photos and videos the hacker has posted since Aug. 31. We hope this person is brought to justice for hacking into personal phones and releasing private information and photos to the public.