Anna and Grace: the must-have accessories of the season!

Decked out in the latest sartorial must-haves are Andrew Wang’s one-of-a-kind Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington dolls who come complete with a pristine bob and fly away red locks. Due to by auctioned off on Charitybuzz.com from 31st August the proceeds will go to The New York City Aids Fund.

This stylish duo would make for the most fabulously fashionable play date!

Now I crave a chilly, crisp London morning, thick-knit stockings, swishy tweed trousers, nipped in waists, camel coloured jackets all juxtapositioned with black rimmed eyes and messy hair.

Beckoning me gently into next season is Gareth Pugh’s gorgeously slick Joie De Vivire for AW 2010. A short fashion film directed by Ruth Hogben encapsulates the essence of Pugh’s new season.

A delicious mix of silver, black art deco and roaring 1920s style all ramped up in fast-forward with the indulgent Raquel Zimmermann.

Am I more excited about the predictable onslaught of beautifully curated fashion films instead of runway shows from on-the-ball designers? More and more!

Actress Anna Mouglalis, who stars as Coco (as well as being very cosy with Chanel and uber designer Karl Lagerfeld), gave a short speech to introduce the film, which previewed at Cannes, and is due to go on general release on August 6 (distributed by Soda Pictures, who hosted the evening)

Essentially a very beautiful, two-hour-long moving lookbook (there were mutterings about its two hour run-time), Coco & Igor is very pleasing on the eye – dramatic sets and to-die-for costume, including some timeless designs by Lagerfeld for Mouglalis to sport, which I can only fantastise about. This deals with Chanel in her 1920s heyday, and her coldhearted exploitation of an apparently destitute Stravinsky, not that he seemed to mind too much, while she simultaneously develops the iconic No5 perfume…

Like Coco Avant Chanel, it moves slowly and deliberately, and is heavy on the Chanel doctrine, and is definitely one for die-hard fashion and Chanel fans. I couldn’t quite help wondering when we will get a film which explores the greater depth of Chanel’s fascinating life and deeper thoughts (not to mention her alleged relationship with Nazis in Paris during WW2). Maybe one day the French fashion powerhouse will get brave…

Krstl mannequin in action (film: Rankin & Chris for DMs)

The sweetly anticipated launch of digital fashion salon Fashion Popcorn took place last night in the fabulous surrounds of London College of Fashion, W1. An eclectic, buzzing crowd of designers, bloggers, film-makers, communicators and digital media practitioners dropped by to pinpoint and explore the future of fashion and film in an increasingly digital landscape.

Part of the official Rushes Short Film Festival programme, the salon aimed to start a conversation between an invited group of individuals, all interested in debating the future of fashion and the digital landscape, and sharing their ideas. Crucially, examining how digital media converges with reality, and how technology can be harnessed as a creative tool.

Fashion Popcorn’s Emily Fleuriot kicked off the proceedings, introducing the inspiration behind the digital fashion salon and the exciting panellists of the evening, Matter2Media’s Tim Kindberg and film-maker and curator Kathryn Ferguson. The concept was conceived by Emily, with sister Harriet and mum Constance,  all creative media producers with specialist experience in the digital arena, to explore opportunities to collaborate with one another and others in the fashion, film and digital industries.

A true family affair, the sisters were co-panellists, with mum proudly snapping with her  flip camera on the front row as the presentation commenced. An informal ‘in-the-round’ session, the audience was encouraged to participate; at one stage Harriet wowed the crowd with her dance moves as a distraction from a quickly remedied technical error, meaning no-one was in any doubt that we were in for a fun evening!

Harriet Fleuriot, a talented award-winning filmmaker and performer, talked about her work and screened some inspiring clips by various artists, curated to conjure up questions about fashion, film, digital and how people respond to, and interact with, different media formats.

We were very excited to have Kathryn Ferguson, another award-winning filmmaker and curator, introduce her work and talk about where she sees the future of the film industry. Kathryn has created films for the likes of Lady Gaga, Richard Nicholl and Katie Eary and recognises a real need for discussion around the new challenges facing filmmakers with an unwritten rulebook.  Carri Munden and Jason Bradbury gave an impromptu chat about their work from their seats in the audience.

Tim Kinderberg of Matter2Media talked us through his work and exciting new Krstl project, before opening the floor to questions. Later, over refreshing rosato and blanco spritzers, courtesy of event sponsor MARTINI, we had a play with the Krstls, which had been mocked up as an interactive ‘hub’ and very gorgeous ‘virtual shop assistant’ mannequin, with electric blue eyes.

Fashion Popcorn’s digital fashion salon created many more questions than it answered, but that was perhaps the point! All we know is that we had fun, and are already cooking up our next event – so watch this space…

Pictures: Many, many thanks to Andrea Vladova, our official photographer! She turned up on the night and just snapped away…

I have many fond memories of MARTINI-fuelled parties, back in the day, and, while our digital fashion salon will be a low-key affair, it’ll be great to share an Italian spritzer with like-minded bods, while we play with Tim Kindberg’s exciting new Krstl project, and cook up ideas for fashion, film and digital media.

We have also confirmed another fabulous partnership, with hot new production company Crispy Duck Productions. A super-down-to-earth crew, who specialise in broadcast-quality video for digital media, they will be documenting the evening for us in their indomitable, high octane style. We can’t wait to share the results!

Roll on tomorrow evening!

The Fashion Popcorn bucket’s all about collaborative efforts, and uber fashion blogger Disneyrollergirl’s kindly OK’ed our reposting of her musings on haul videos earlier this week.

18,000 viewers have tuned in to hear why this unsatiable shopper has been shopping less recently; not to save money, but to buy less make-up to ’save money for clothes’. LOVE it. Recession? What’s that?! Not in her purse… over to DRG…

Is it me or is anyone else obsessed with haul videos? What’s a haul video? It’s a vlogging phenomenon whereby (mostly) teenagers shop at the mall then go home and video themselves talking through what they bought. And, er…that’s it. But this simple concept is taking America by storm. Like blogging, there’s a vicarious quality to it. By sharing a blogger’s excitement about what they bought, you almost don’t need to shop yourself. (I said almost.) And there’s just something very compelling about some of these videos. Even the actually quite boring ones.

The appeal for many haul bloggers – surprise surprise – is the money-making and fame-bringing potential that the exposure allows. Some ‘haulers’ have huge followings and share profits with Youtube from ad revenue generated on their videos. For brands who often send products for review it can be good publicity – although some stipulate good reviews only. Of course.

In the main, these videos give glowing reviews which is clearly great for the brands but not so useful for the viewer. But that’s where the two-way communiction aspect of blogging/vlogging comes in. The comments on this video provide quite useful feedback about the items shown, rather than the standard ‘oh, cute top’ comments of many other blogs. This can have real benefit for brands, giving them both publicity and constructive feedback.
An interesting development is that of beauty brands using haul-style consumer videos on their own sites. L’Oreal Paris has its Beauty Confidential club which shows videos of members reviewing samples via webcam. According to an article in the FT, these reviews aren’t 100% positive (although all the ones I watched seemed to be) as consumers apparently don’t trust perfect-10 reviews. Another sign of beauty brands cosying up to vloggers is the news that Maybelline is launching a new, lower-priced make-up line in Europe. MNY will retail at under 4 euros and its marketing will include virals and reaching out to haul vloggers according to Makeup.com.

So far, I’m not aware of any fashion brands utilising the haul vlogging concept on their own sites but I would think that was a logical progression of today’s blogging and online review culture. I would certainly be tempted to have a look out of sheer nosiness as well as genuinely wanting to know how a product performs.

Read Disneyrollergirl’s original post on her fabulous blog.

Indeed, Fifi Lapin, coined ‘the world’s most stylish bunny’ by ELLE, whose stylista blog boasts a following in the 1000s, launches a book in September (just in time for fashion weeks – mwah!).

She’s been ‘dressed’ by a veritable smorgasbord of designers, including Erdem, Barbara Hulanicki, Eley Kishimoto, Paul Smith and Anna Sui, with the likes of Marc Jacobs, Prada, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Cynthia Rowley and Louise Goldin joining the fray. So far, so fantasy wardrobe.

But what I really love is the cut out and dress pages, which surface fond memories of my major obsession with designing for my dress-up dolls – a stash of which I still have somewhere amongst the tat. And the Sylvanian Families colouring competition I won at 10. it’s all kind of like a progression of the kitsch I was obsessed with until, well, quite recently really.

Pre-empting the launch, Fifi Lapin’s book publishers, Spectre, have launched a  fab competition to design an outfit for Fifi herself, judged by no less than Vogue.com’s Dolly Jones,  Biba founder Barbara Hulanicki and Style Bubble’s lovely Susie Bubble. How fun does that sound? Felt tip pens at the ready… deadline’s August 31st.

They hooked up at London College of Fashion to test the space, and brainstorm how we’re going to use Matter2Media’s current krstl project to kickstart a conversation on the future of fashion in the digital landscape. All will be revealed on the night…

If you want to be a part of the action, hit our Eventbrite listing to join the fray. This event management system is a new experience here in the Fashion Popcorn bucket, but seems to be a fantastic way of organising everything. Hope to see you there!

Thirteen-year-old Lourdes is Creative Director of the line, which works the Madonna 80s look to a tee, and is blogging her experience on her own website. The digital age has made such a huge difference to how teens live out their formative adult years. When I was 14 I caused a minor furore by writing about anarchy in an independent school-zine I started up (all about photocopying in those days!) – just one of my various early publishing attempts – imagine if I’d been able to get my hands on t’internet…

Wowser! – a whole other side to Lady Gaga – sneak a peek of Nicola Formichetti’s Elegant Mechanics shoot for Vogue Hommes Japan at SHOWstudio.