Barefoot in the Park: Fashion shoot in Germany for The Sentinel

Collette Dinnigan butterfly dress (from The Swank), shoes from Versace, necklace, bracelet and earrings from Wellendorff

Necklace and earrings from Wellendorff, Plein Sud pink floral dress (from The Swank), shoes from Tods

White flora on black coat by Antonio Marras (from The Swank)

Kimono pants and white flora on black coat by Antonio Marras (from The Swank), stylist’s own umbrella, black leather shoes from Tods

Floral print silk top from Fine’n’Rhine, earrings, necklace and bracelet by Wellendorff, stilettos by Versace, Kenzo pink and white floral print bag (from The Swank)

Flower-patterned mini dress from Arrogant Cat, pink suede heels from Tods

Click on images to enlarge

Put a spring in your step this fall. Muted shades and the seasonal lull in the dull palette is all but over, as fashion falls for a bit of pre-winter colour. Looking at the collections, it reigns flora and fauna as leading designers don’t shy away from patterns most oft seen in spring and summer. Shot in the verdant pastures of Berlin, Paris-based photographer Dirk Schwan flew down specifically to shoot supermodel Dzenita Hasovic. Fall/winter never looked this vibrant before, as, perhaps a sign of the times, hope springs eternal.

Producer: P.Ramakrishnan
Photography & Art Direction: Dirk Seiden Schwan
Hair & Makeup: Sina Velke (http://www.vivienscreative.com.au)
Model: Dzenita Hasovic from IMG Models, New York

BEHIND THE SCENES;

One of two shoots in Germany, with one of my all-time fav models Dzenita. She looks like a Rembrant painting come to life.  We met in Hongkers, shot all around Germany, happy days. Back in the glory days of publishing when we had budgets to fly to location. Now, we're lucky if we have the time to go to Victoria Park for a shot. 

The Reign of Rykiel: French Designer and Icon's Interview

Most have only seen that shade of startling red and particular coif on the crowned heads of Europe; Queen Elizabeth I had that shade of rouge in her frizzy bob and it was all the rage circa 1558. There are other portraits of various European royals with similar gravity defying cuts too in erstwhile eras. Surely no less than royalty, "The Queen of knits" Sonia Rykiel, is the uncrowned doyenne of Parisian fashion. She speaks exclusively to P.Ramakrishnan about her Asian visits and influence, prior to the unveiling of her latest collection.

Images courtesy of The Swank.


In an age that extols thinness, there is no greater model for the sartorial styling of Sonia Rykiel than the designer herself. With a bone structure that models dream of and photographers lust after, a slim silhouette that drapes her signature knits in ways that Twiggy couldn't pull off with as much panache, her dreamy eyes and insouciant smile all make for intriguing images.

To label her merely a 'designer' is a near insult; singer, writer, artist, inspiration, icon, novelist, social commentator, thinker, mother, actress and so much more, conversation with the legend is typically French-cryptic, loaded with double entendre (and not in a vulgar way for she's never done anything vulgar in her 77 years). In saying little, she says much.

A profession that constantly demands new samples of creative fecundity every season, Rykiel has been in the business for nearly 40 years. To be precise, it is 38 years since she sent back a sweater (eight times) during her second trimester in 1968 when she couldn't find chic, comfortable maternity wear. She simply says, "I became a designer by accident, it was not planned."

Her husband owned a shop and she created a few items, mostly for herself, but when ELLE magazine put one of her knit ensembles on its cover, there was no going back to her original plan, which was "to get married and have 10 children."

Through an unprecedented career that still finds renewed and constant interest, Rykiel's knitwear is a signature look that she can't escape. If the showing at her namesake store in Central was anything to go by, the ones doling out their black Amexes were happy to embrace her latest inspired collection of shirt-dresses, minis, boat neck sweaters - all in short and loose silhouettes. As Suzy Menkes said of Rykeil: "She has a way of embracing the new without changing her merry romps on the runway, where the models exude an ooh-la-la cheerfulness."


The surprise for those who sat in the haloed front row of her Spring/Summer 2007 show in Paris was the fact the models were smiling their way down the catwalk in colourful ensembles. The colour wasn't the innovation, but getting the feline models to Cheshire grin their way through to the end of the catwalk was, as instructed by Rykeil's team as she presented a joyful collection unlike her counterparts and their grim and theatrical runway shows.

The novel idea of happy models culminated with the designer and her daughter Nathalie coming down the runway laughing, skipping and nearly dancing their way to the end. It's one of many innovations that Rykeil has placed on the catwalk. For example, she was one of the first few to put words across the front of her sweaters, with unequivocal statements like "Je deteste le cinema" ("I hate the movies" - a proclamation that came soon after Robert Altman did a caricature of her in his film Pret-a-Porter).

Not satisfied with writing a few letters on tops and behind jerseys, she penned novellas like "Les Levres Rouges" (Red Lips) and "Je La Voudrais Nus"(I would Like Her To Be Naked), and a book of fairy tales Tatania, Acacia among other books and articles. The lover of words famously said in the international Herald Tribune, "I feel more like a novelist than a fashion designer. Someone who writes a new chapter each season, including everything I see around me."

So who is the woman wearing a long sweater with the words "I Love Black" across her breasts?

"Any woman who wants to wear fashionable clothes and can manage to wear them, as long as she is able to to play with it," she responds. "These clothes are made for a woman of no specific age, any woman can wear them as long as she knows herself and her body well. It is also a fact that our customers are becoming younger, as the collections are improving a lot. But the clothes can fit any woman, a woman with a body like mine, or like Nathalie's."

Describing the kind of women she wants to sport her emblematic creations, Rykeil says, "She is not defined. She is mysterious, intelligent, attentive, and she likes to play. She is also involved in today's world and issues, politics and all the ecological problems."


But do the warm, wool peasant tops with matching voluminous skirts in baby pink fit the climate, political or environmental, of our city? "We already changed some fabrics and colours for the climate. The wool is fresher, and there is a lot of cotton, and light fabric. The clothes are very easy to wear," she assures. "It's very important to me that I know my client, the worldly woman who dons my clothes."

For someone whose work influences international fashionistas, the French icon has never even dreamed of moving to New York, London, Milan, Tokyo or any of the capital cities that she's wildly popular in.

In her monarchical splendour, she once said, "You can create fashion everywhere in the world, but the place where you are crowned is Paris. It's where you are the queen."

Published in Kee magazine. 

All That Glisters

Printed dress by Alerberto Ferra, ring, bracelet and necklace by Wellendorff






Sparkling blue cocktail dress by Versace, ring, bracelet and necklace by Wellendorff





Black and white leopard print dress by Arrogant Cat, shoes by Tod’s, bracelet, necklace, ring and earring by Wellendorff









Shoes and black cocktail dress by Gucci, necklace by Wellendorff









White shirt by Alerberto Ferra, gold silk pantaloons by DKNY, gold belt, choker, bracelet and ring by Wellendorff





Producer: P.Ramakrishnan
Photography & Art Direction: Dirk Seiden Schwan
Hair & Makeup: Sina Velke (http://www.vivienscreative.com.au)
Model: Dzenita Hasovic from IMG Models, New York



BEHIND THE SCENES:

The King of Bling: Roberto Cavalli: An exclusive interview in Hong Kong

The king of excess, success and sex-ess? Indubitably, Roberto Cavalli. The shock-jock of high-end fashion pulls no punches when he speaks about, well, everyone. He doesn’t like Kate Moss on the catwalk, thinks Madonna’s designs look like his, even he’s surprised when Anthony Hopkins says he likes Cavalli clothes – when clearly his men’s line is more for rockers like Lenny Kravitz. In a star-sprinkled conversation with P.Ramakrishnan, Cavalli’s Technicolor life unfurls.

“Yes, I think clothes should be sexy,” he admits without hesitation, his words shooting out at a press conference the day before I met Roberto Cavalli for an exclusive interview. “Because women are sexy. I make clothes for sexy women, so my clothes need to be sexy.”

Well, there isn’t much room for misinterpretation there as the man himself, like his excessively glamourous outfits, is as subtle as a brick. A sparkling, sequined, low-cut brick with animal imprints and crystals. Seated at the lounge of his suite, the king of glam-rock fashion is festooned by two impossibly chic women. Part body-guards, part assistant, part power-suit accessory, its never quiet established who they are and why they respond to certain questions addressed to Cavalli but as the interview progresses, one learns to go with the flow.

Recovering after an award show that clearly went on till the wee-hours of the morning, my Q&A with Cavalli started at the lounge of the Landmark Mandarin, went up to his cavernous suite, and back down again to the O Bar and then mulled around the streets of Central. The interview didn’t begin on time nor did it end as intended but like the force of nature that the subject matter is, I knew to, as mentioned earlier, go with the flow.

It’s hard to remember the exact year when the Florence-born Cavalli, 68, first hit the marquee with a bang. Poison-pens have inked that it took the tragic end of yet another Italian fashion icon, Gianni Versace, to let the spotlight shine brighter on this sartorial savant. Like Versace, Cavalli’s fondness for animal prints, sexually-charged campaigns with sultry models revealing dangerous curves, the razzle-dazzle element of shiny fabrics studded with sparkling stones and his proclivity with celebrities (Victoria Beckham, Christina Aguilera, Shakira, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson) is a formula that’s been resoundingly successful. Fashion is ephemeral and designers are a dime-a-dozen. The real achievement is staying on top of the game and staying relevant; which Cavalli unquestionably is.

Like many a legend one sees filtered by the glossy sheen of fame, meeting the person takes a little away from the persona. Cavalli is much shorter in person, more salt than pepper haired, has a leathery tan that’s not as obvious in the soft-focus portrait shots sent out by his company. The raspy gravel of his voice doesn’t erode his smooth charms – which are copious and threatens to spill at any given moment in his rich Italian inflected English. A life bejeweled with fame, celebrity, world-travel, coated with kisses from supermodels and starlets, his multi-hued boat where he hosts his uber parties, his palazzo that’s host to Oscar and Grammy winners, he has all the accouterments of a global celebrity.

I’ve read so much about Cavalli and seen him in so many television shows, the sudden shock of being introduced to him leaves me speechless. Unsure where to begin, I simply ask;

You’ve been to Hong Kong before?
I was here many, many years ago. Perhaps, over 20 years ago. I love the energy of Hong Kong, it’s a city full of energy. The people are, I believe, a positive people. Everyone’s running, I feel that everyone’s dreaming, dreaming of success. Compared with Italy, sometimes you can see that on the street people are dreaming too. But in Hong Kong, it’s a different way to dream. The people here are dreaming to the future. They are thinking too much of the past in Italy.

What’s brought on this sudden visit to Hong Kong?
I’ve been planning to come for many years and we have finally come out to visit and release a new accessory line in Asia. I’m sure you will see this city is a fantastic market. Asia is the future of the world. China is the future of the world and Hong Kong is the trampoline!

You’ve worked with many Asian stars too – even before it became fashionable to do so in Hollywood, in the West.
For many years I’ve been friends with Michelle [Yeoh]. I think she represents my fashion very well. Because she’s a very good actress, she’s sexy, she’s sexual, she’s fashion, she’s beautiful. Unfortunately, I don’t come to Hong Kong often before but I promise you, now I will come to Hong Kong three or four times a year. When I walk around Central, I get to see and know a little bit of the people. I like the people, I like how they dance, I like how they walk, I like how they dress.

He suddenly turns around and counter questions, “Do you know my restaurant Just Cavalli?”

Um… No.
You know Just Cavalli, it is one of the most fantastic restaurants in the world and I’m not just saying that because its mine! It’s a very unusual, unbelievable restaurant, and it’s a discotheque on Friday and Saturday, the other days, its just a restaurant. And everyone in the world, they want me to open my restaurant in their country. Yesterday, I decided that I want to make a Just Cavalli restaurant in Hong Kong. Really. Here is the only place that I have thought to make it. Hong Kong has the “it” factor.

You sell and make fantasies. The merchant of dreams said a fashion rag of you. Do you agree with that tag attached with your name?
First, my dream is something to do different from all other designers. Since the beginning. I wanted my fashion to be something that in the moment that you see my clothes, you can tell immediately that its a Roberto Cavalli.

Today its more difficult, because everybody’s too much! (He laughs a raspy laugh). Everybody - they know too much of fashion. Too many magazines talk about fashion. I tried to create my brand to be young and sexy. Especially the young they know so much about fashion. They know what they like. It isn’t easy being a dreamer today.

Your early days were filled with hardship, in stark contrast to your life now, you’re life makes for an epic rags-to-riches novel. Did the initial difficulties inspire your career now?
Absolutely. I worked hard. The most important thing is to wish strongly to be better. When I speak to the young, I tell them that. I believe that if somebody believe strongly in anything, he can realise any dream, whatever he want. My grandfather was an artist. I started to paint first to make money and in the beginning people liked my work. The shirt and t-shirts I would paint on and people would ask for one, then two. Then someone wanted a few thousand t-shirts! I’d run out of prints. Slowly I was printing by myself! I was learning. I started to make my first creations then. My first fashions show was in Paris in 1970. I started to work by making thousands of prints. But I was just one man.

And now an empire! There’s never been a pastel shade in your shop. What brought on this romance with colour?
In monochrome, I’ve designed outfits but I tend to be colourful and positive – and I wear positive. Colour is positivism, my clothes, whether they are all black, I want them to be positive.

When the Kate Moss scandal first broke, as brands dropped her left, right and centre, you spoke in her favour and you’ve worked with her in campaigns since.
Yeah. I did. Yes, I was a friend. My friend, in my opinion when the story of Kate Moss came out, it was too much. Too much attention, too many tabloids. In my opinion, too many people spoke against her.

She lost a lot of valuable endorsements.
That was silly. After many options, I choose her because she’s professional. She’s very professional. She’s really one of the best photo models. That is the most important. She’s a photo model. I don’t like her in the runway, on the catwalk, she’s too small, she’s pretty but I choose her for the photo model. In her private life, she can do what she likes, in my pictures, as long as she looks great, I don’t care – and she looks great.

She’s not the most popular celebrity in the world and often ridiculed in the British press but you’ve always stuck by Victoria Beckham. She even models for you. Why her, why not someone classically beautiful or unquestionably popular?
She’s nice. Because I like her obviously I chose her. Sometimes, people are against her, talk badly about her. She looks very simple, but Victoria is not. She’s very strong. I don’t want to tell you that she’s very simple… because she’s not that either, but she’s more simple than what people think about her. Absolutely, its very important that I have to really like her as a person. Tara Reid – people in America don’t love her but I like her. Sweet girl, so I send her Cavalli outfits.

You’ve created outfits for the red carpet – both the Oscars and the Grammy award shows. What’s a bigger challenge?
I prefer the Grammy. Honestly. First the cause - it’s the music world. The singer, they are more interesting, a little bit more personality. Also the Oscar, its not 100 percent as I like, its too much competition between all the designers. Who to dress, how to dress. I know many designers pay the stylists. Its too much business, its not real any more. When one actress or actor wears a Cavalli outfit, she’s really wearing an outfit because he or she likes the outfit – not because of a business deal.

Lenny Kravitz, the Jacksons, rock stars, they all wear Cavalli and there’s that undeniable link to rock glam. And then someone like Academy award winner Sir Anthony Hopkins says he loves your clothes. Isn’t that a surprise? He’s such a serious British thespian...
Anthony Hopkins? (Laughs that raspy laugh again). How you know about him? Anthony Hopkins said he liked my clothes because he’s a very good friend of mine. I met him now so many years ago, 6, 7, 8… in Florence. When he was making Hannibal. When he shot the movie there in Florence, he used to be with me all the time for dinner and parties. Director Ridley Scott and I are great friends and Tony was a good friend of Ridley. Anthony came with him to our house, very early in the morning. In our house, in our gym, he would work out. That’s how close we are. Him or an even an actress like Emma Thompson, or someone like Beyonce, the most different people, wear Roberto Cavalli. Its the woman, the man, the spirit of who wears it that matters.

Why the preference to animal and leopard prints?
Because its natural, because I like nature. With the snake, with a real bird, with a tiger... nature is fantastic. Every woman likes to be a little feline, she likes to be wild and be soft at the same time. They love to be a tiger and cat at the same time. Maybe that is the reason I appreciate women very much. I was in metropolitan museum last year, for a fashion exhibition and I saw this dress with a leopard print made from 300 years ago! I knew I got it right eh?

What’s going to be the signature look for your coming season?
White colour for summer. A totally different print. The white colour means a lot to the black colour. Because I like the combination white with a little print, with a little black, the main colour scheme for the new year will be white. White with other colours. White with floral print. Leopard or snake, its animalier.

What do you think of Madonna’s attempts at designing?
I don’t see it. All I saw was one of the dresses… it looks like very much like… Cavalli style!

Everyone in the room bursts out laughing with Cavalli.

I don’t know. It’s like one day I start to sing all of a sudden – does that make me a good singer? I don’t think I could be a good singer. I don’t think that Madonna she could be a good designer. Its just my opinion. I believe that everybody should do what they are able to do! I don’t want to sing. I don’t want to do anything else. My work is fashion and Madonna and many other people should do what they are able to do.

Roberto Cavalli outfits are available at The Swank. All images courtesy of the brand.