FROM PARIS --Book Reviews

A Portrait of Dorian Gray - Karl Lagerfeld
Published by Steidl
In Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness. In Karl Lagerfeld's album, A Portrait of Dorian Gray, models Eva Herzigova and Larry Scott are styled to embody the ugliness of moral turpitude and decadence (in one spread, men are reduced to John Galliano jockstraps worn with devilish masks), but it's the designer's beautiful touch that ultimately gets revealed. Photographs by Karl Lagerfeld.

Tom Ford
Rizzoli International Publications
Devotees of Tom Ford will certainly be attracted to the gargantuan book entitled, Tom Ford. Bill Clinton's My Life could have served as inspiration for the project, given the former fashion star's determination to set the record straight. Archival photography featuring himself, various celebrities in his clothes, his homes in London and Santa Fe, and his most provocative Gucci publicity campaigns are assembled under one cover. And then there are testimonials from his friends: Graydon Carter claims that Tom Ford is the only man to have ever touched his behind, while Anna Wintour instead pens a touching forward.

FROM PARIS

Karl Gets the Last Word--
From Timothy Hagy

PARIS, November 18 - No sooner than the H&M board of directors had met in Sweden on Monday to celebrate the Lagerfeld marketing coup, not a moment after a certain learned fashion editor had penned a column decrying the "massification of high fashion", not but hours after the New York Times had detailed the frenzied sellout of every last piece in Manhattan, did Karl get the last word. In  a sharply-worded interview the famed couturier told the German daily, Die Stern, that he had no desire to work with H&M ever again : "They did not make the clothes in sufficient quantities. I find it embarrassing that H&M let down so many people.   I don't think that is very kind, especially for people in small towns and countries in Eastern Europe. It is snobbery created by anti-snobbery." He went on to say that it had defeated his intention of making clothes available to thousands of people who could not afford to shop at Chanel, Lagerfeld Gallery or Fendi.
And he certainly had a point. On opening day in Paris, mobs lined up before the H&M store on Boulevard Haussmann, only to be kept out in the cold by over-zealous security guards. In the end, disappointed shoppers found the shelves picked clean, and the accessories sold out. The most hardened were left to rummage through the changing rooms, in hopes of finding any piece, in any size, accidentally tossed by the wayside.  Karl was also outraged that the discount chain took it upon itself to enlarge the sizes of the collection ultimately offered. "What I designed was fashion for slender and slim people," said the designer who now slips easily into Hedi Slimane's razor-cut jackets. "That was the original idea."

FROM BEIJING

Philip Hayden Foundation Fundraiser for Chinese Orphans

Preview Date
Sunday, November 28, 3-5pm

Gallery Hours
10am-5pm(everyday)

Address
Dongbianmen Watchtower
Chongwenmen, Beijing

Tel: 6525 1005
Fax: 65282 4861
E-mail: redgategallery@aer.net.cn
Website: www.redgategallery.com

Women on the Verge

The Culture of Neurasthenia in Nineteenth-Century America

Exhibition on view through February 6, 2005

Cantor Arts Center
at Stanford University
Lomita Drive at Museum Way
Stanford, California

Vogue Features Jewels By Christine

Jewels By Christine and Fashionlines were featured in last month's edition of Russian Vogue.  Tatiana Sorokko, an editor at the magazine has a monthly feature that spotlights American and international style, and is a regular at Haute Couture Week in Paris.