Fashion : the reign of Alexandre Vauthier the great is coming

Never heard of Alexandre Vauthier ? It is time to rush on your Internet or on Vogue to discover this future incontrovertible designer.
Alexandre Vauthier is French. Born in 1971, he followed Art and Law classes before coming to Paris, in order to become a fashion designer. His talent would be soon noticed, and in 1993, he begun an internship at the prestigious Haute Couture fashion house of Thierry Mugler. Shortly after, he reached the status of assistant of the famous designer himself.

Then, in 1997, he left him for another Maestro of Fashion : the provocative and avant-gardist Jean Paul Gaultier. He was in charge of the Gaultier Couture collection during ten years. At the end of this decade, Alexandre Vauthier felt it was time for him to make his own rules. In 2008, he then decided to found his own Haute Couture fashion house, under his own name.

His first collections were ready in 2009, and the result astonished every fashion critic and journalist. An army of Amazons poured into the catwalk, strong and sensuous women with strong shoulders and waists, dressed with dark grey gowns of radical yet sober cut. Elegant samurai mixed with insolant Roaring 20s ghost, the woman according to Alexandre Vauthier is smart, audacious like Audrey Hepburn and stunning like Grace Kelly.

He is not afraid to push the luxury to its limits : gigantic furs, sheer tops, draped and provocative open-back dresses or low necklines, voluminous flounces, long gloves and mini-skirts. The colors are posh : beige, optic white, fake black. The Summer and Winter collection are of classic elegance and fierce futurism at the same time : a tour de force ! I especially love how he emphasizes the back, where other designers only focus on the front.

The 2010 new collection is even fiercer : the shoulders are gigantic, architectural. His collaboration with Swarovski and Louboutin adds wild elements to the dramatic silhouettes. Bright colors appear : electric blue, violent red and marine grey.

Alexandre Vauthier is now a recognized artist. Vogue often features his creations, singer Rihanna or the future princess of Monaco wear his dresses. Two different worlds ? He brings them together, combining the warrior and the icon in each woman.

His website : http://www.alexandrevauthier.com/

Illustrations all rights reserved. They show reproductions of real Alexandre Vauthier's clothes. Paintings are inspired by artists Mark Rothko and Ellen Day Hale.

Spotlight : The future is now with Janelle Monaé

The Hurricanes season is beggining and the biggest of them might be called Janelle Monaé. This sparkling tiny black beauty seems to come into our world like an alien, fallen in Area 51 in a shiny UFO and glitter tuxedo.
The reference to science-fiction is not innocent as the 24 years old singer has built her albums on a futuristic concept. Her alter-ego, Cindi Mayweather, an android beauty living in a segregationist city called Metropolis, is a feminine version of David Bowie's 1976 The Man who Fell to Earth, with a messiah-esque mission that recalls Robert Wise's 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Her adventures are divided in 4 "suites", contained in Monaé's albums Metropolis (2007), The ArchAndroid (2010) and continued in her next work.

The ArchAndroid is a real pearl of music, soon a classic to be, with influences of Stevie Wonder and 60s pop and jazz. I especially love the very breezy Faster and Locked Inside, masterpieces of soul with gospel's accents. Your feet will move by themselves in the playful and rhythmed Tightrope, and Nick Cave would not resist to the wild rock energy of Come Alive. And after dancing in the fire, your soul will fly with Cold War and you will visit a magic and humoristic country with Wondaland. Once you would have listenned to the album, you will have it under your skin, and wish that the ArchAndroid comes to save us more often.

The world created by the young singer owes a lot to Fritz Lang's 1927 movie Metropolis, as indicated by the similarities between the ArchAndroid's cover and the classic movie's poster.

But the cinematic references of Janelle don't stop here : she also quotes Hitchcock, Goldfinger and Philip K. Dick as an inspiration for her projects of graphic novel and even movie adaptation of her albums. Maybe it is a leftover of her former training as an actress and of her Broadway's dreams ?

The native of Kansas City transformed herself into a funky Phantom of the Popera when she moved to Atlanta and met OutKast's singer Big Boi. Soon, he invited her on the band's album Idlewild and encouraged her to stand on her own two feet. He didn't have to tell her twice : the rocket Janelle was launched.

In 2007, she founded the Wondaland Arts Society with like-minded artists Nate "Rocket" Wonder and Chuck Lightning who helped her producing her debut EP. She was then quickly spotted by Sean "Diddy" Combs who signed her on his label Bad Boy Records and released Metropolis. The success was immediate : in 2009, she is nominated for the Best Urban/Alternative Performance for her single Many Moons at the Grammys. She also did the opening of indie pop band Of Montreal, rock band Paramore, singer Erykah Badu and famous band No Doubt, on their summer 2009's tour. Meanwhile, she performed her single Tightrope on many popular TV shows, including Lopez Tonight, the Ellen DeGeneres' Show and the Late Show with David Letterman.

Her style is also a phenomenon discussed on fashion magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Teen Vogue and In Style. In 2010, she finally won the Vanguard Award of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers at the Rhythm & Soul Music Awards, presumably not her last achievement ...

The one who is described by Vogue Magazine as "a different kind of diva" and who thinks that music has the potential to change the world, hasn't finish to amaze us. The ambitious young darling, modern mix of Judy Garland, James Brown ( especially when she dances ! ), Ziggy Stardust and Prince, seems to be eager to take the future by storm ...

Official website : http://www.jmonae.com/

MySpace : http://www.myspace.com/janellemonae

Tightrope official video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc

Spotlight : Laura Ferreira takes your breathe away

I will pick again one of my FlickR friends for this new Spotlight : this time, it is the turn of the wonderful Laura Ferreira.
This 25 years old self-taught photographer has quickly grown as one of the most interesting young talent of this decade.

The Trinidad and Tobago blond beauty is a genius of color and light, and threat her pictures like digital paints. For this reason, you will often find her in the cover of Photoshop dedicated magazines, but it would be a shame to reduce her to that.

Laura is a photographer first, with an artist eye, who is able to reveal her models full glory in neat and mastered shot. Her style is really fierce, theatrical and even a bit gothic, perhaps more in the architectural meaning than in the fashion one.

She works with the best, music artists, fashion houses, make-up designers and stylists, to offer us inspiring and moving photographies.

Don't miss her fabulous website at http://lauraferreira.com/, and if you can escape the hypnotic charm of her Sphinx/dark angel header, take a look at her beautiful pictures, also on her FlickR page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/laura_ferreira.