Azzedine Alaia SLAMS Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour

[mikeijames]

If you ask me vogue paris, vogue italia,even vogue spain, is doing better than us vogue. At least with them fashion comes first, and they use ppl (models) who know fashion, not actresses. American vogue isn't what it used to be. Ppl just refuse to see that.
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while the decision to have american vogue use celebrities instead of models for its cover remains a controversial one, the success of that strategy speaks for itself when one looks at how every other fashion magazine has followed suit. further, while it's fun in these forums to extol the virtues of some of the other regional editions of vogue, let's not lose sight that lots of those magazines use quite a bit of content from american vogue and a lot of those magazines sell because of the success of american vogue.

also, even if one disagrees with all of those points, none of those found themselves mentioned in azzedine's rant: he dismisses anna wintour because of her personal style which strikes me as just laughable when one compares her fashion choices to that of other women in her position. does she honestly dress so differently than robbie myers at elle? or glenda bailey at bazaar? or andrea shulman at british vogue? or katie love? seriously, THAT'S the reason? and then to say diana vreeland stood as a paragon of great personal style just shows how out of touch he remains with the modern world.

(source: nytimes.com)

 

[lucy92]

anna hasnt really groomed any major talent at vogue either. meisel can be seen more of a protege of sozzani instead. where's the next irving penn?

i think she was right to demote andre leon talley though last year. he's obnoxious.

 

[iluvjeisa]

while the decision to have american vogue use celebrities instead of models for its cover remains a controversial one, the success of that strategy speaks for itself when one looks at how every other fashion magazine has followed suit. further, while it's fun in these forums to extol the virtues of some of the other regional editions of vogue, let's not lose sight that lots of those magazines use quite a bit of content from american vogue and a lot of those magazines sell because of the success of american vogue.

also, even if one disagrees with all of those points, none of those found themselves mentioned in azzedine's rant: he dismisses anna wintour because of her personal style which strikes me as just laughable when one compares her fashion choices to that of other women in her position. does she honestly dress so differently than robbie myers at elle? or glenda bailey at bazaar? or andrea shulman at british vogue? or katie love? seriously, THAT'S the reason? and then to say diana vreeland stood as a paragon of great personal style just shows how out of touch he remains with the modern world.

(source: nytimes.com)

Diana Vreeland was an eccentric. And that dress is far superior to anything that has been on the runway this year. Very hard to carry, though, and the fact that DV did that at her age stands as a testament to her persona and style.

That said, I think Anna Wintour is beautiful and stylish, but not an eccentric. Her allure is the ice princess - and obviously she does this extremely well. Her personal style would be one of the last things I would criticize. Even though it seems to me she is even better at interior design and landscaping.

 

[IAmLordZen]

She will only be remembered as a b*tch - a person so mean that en entire movie was dedicated to her being insufferable and rude.

hilarious! POT CALLING KETTLE BLACK!

yeah yeah just skip the movies will be dedicated part

*gasps for breath* i nearly died laughing there.

while alaia may be a great designer, his bold declarations about anna's legacy reeks of bitterness imo. same goes for his statements re karl. too bad for someone who thinks he is more talented than the next person only to find the latter more successful than he will ever be. and anna made fashion more accessible to a broader audience, how is that not a feat. lol!

 

[MON]

I admire his honesty but he should know how to stop. Not because a magazine doesn`t feature him, he`ll bash it.

 

[ponytrot]

I was always such a fan of Alaia, and of course I still adore his clothing.

But this is in such poor taste, and to be honest, says a lot more about him than it does about either Karl or Anna.

I'm disappointed by the way his remarks just go too far as to be bitter and vulgar. Had he legitimate criticism and clarity of insight, then it wouldn't be so bad, but as it is, he seems to just be throwing stones at others and making himself look like a bitter (superficial even!) old man in the process.

And I wonder if the posters who crow about the so-called separation between fashion and business ever stop to think about the fact that fashion is nothing without commerce? That it is absurdly ridiculous to speak of fashion as a reverent art form divorced from the contaminating forces of money. Puh-leeze.

We wouldn't get the beautiful couture, the amazing artistry, and the space for the production of great creativity and vision - without fashion being very much about business - it's an industry for crissakes.

Like Anna as a person or not, critique her sartorial choices all you like, none of that matters an ounce in relation to the undeniable force of her role in very successfully marketing fashion, managing US Vogue, and creating a huge amount of business (and by proxy, creative) opportunities for designers.

To dismiss her as irrelevant, or to say she is not good at her job would be to evince great ignorance and naivety toward how the real fashion world works.

 

[iluvjeisa]

To dismiss her as irrelevant, or to say she is not good at her job would be to evince great ignorance and naivety toward how the real fashion world works.

I think it's a matter of how it works now - he's not pleased with the hard line corporate way. Honestly, I don't know how anyone who really likes creativity could be.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

anna didn't do all that for american vogue, the ppl before her did.
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Are you serious?! Wintour saved Vogue, why do you think she was brought in to replace Mirabella! Because of $, and the fact it was stuck in a beige phase! And boy did she deliver, Vogue was being beaten by ELLE like there is no tomorrow! So no, people before her did do all the hard work for her (i'm talking about finance side of the magazine). Sure you can argue it was more creative or whatever, but at the end of the day, its still about money! And she made Vogue into a brand Conde Nast always dreamed it could be.

The point i agree with him is when he says, she is more of a businesses woman, i have been saying that all along. But to say she wont be remembered once she is gone is laughable!

She has also nurtured many talents (Marc Jacobs, John Galliano.etc), so to say otherwise is just wrong. From CFDA to the Met, she has helped raise millions upon millions. She is good not just for Vogue, but for fashion, imho.

All that said, i do hate some of her choices many times, but i also recognize how capable she is.

 

[iluvjeisa]

Are you serious?! Wintour saved Vogue, why do you think she was brought in to replace Mirabella! Because of $, and the fact it was stuck in a beige phase! And boy did she deliver, Vogue was being beaten by ELLE like there is no tomorrow!

Yay, what a victory - finally, Vogue rid itself of most of its artistic sense and stooped down to Elle's level.

Beige. Yeah. Halston loved beige. Enough said...

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^ Well that is your opinion, i certainly don't think Vogue has stooped down to Elle's level, in fact it has been doing pretty great lately. Even when i look at other Vogues, they all lack creativity to some extent.

 

[brooksie]

Yay, what a victory - finally, Vogue rid itself of most of its artistic sense and stooped down to Elle's level.

Beige. Yeah. Halston loved beige. Enough said...

"Elle" back then was quite good, IMHO. It was much more fashion than lifestyle oriented like Vogue under Mirabella. If AW did anything in the "Elle" mode for Vogue, she youth'd it up a bit. It still kept most of it's lifestyle orientation.

I think Vogue had pretty much given up on artistic after Vreeland left!

 

[dreamss]

"Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine." Not my words. Vogue has/had nothing on Elle! Except for it being less commercial. American vogue is as commercial as Elle anyway.
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[Spiral1532]

Azzedine's exact words about Karl were, "Karl Lagerfeld never touched a pair of scissors in his life." Meaning neither now nor at any point in his fashion career. He didn't say, "Karl doesn't cut fabric in the frenetic fashion world of 2011." The aging Coco Chanel herself had a similar view of young designers, going as far as to say, "They only know how to sketch but don't know how to cut fabric."

And, Diana Vreeland's name ALWAYS gets mentioned whenever people speak of iconic issues of Vogue from the 60s. It's as if the iconic quality of those issues is attributable to HER. Now think of Vogue's 100th anniversary issue from 1992. That issue is considered iconic because of its cover stars (the supers) and NOT because of Vogue's editor-in-chief. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who'll even mention Anna Wintour's name when speaking of that issue.

Probably the one thing that Anna will be best remembered for is her never-changing ugly hairstyle.

 

[iluvjeisa]

^ Well that is your opinion, i certainly don't think Vogue has stooped down to Elle's level, in fact it has been doing pretty great lately. Even when i look at other Vogues, they all lack creativity to some extent.

Yeah, it has been great lately. But the idea that it got better after Mirabella I disagree with.

 

[iluvjeisa]

"Elle" back then was quite good, IMHO. It was much more fashion than lifestyle oriented like Vogue under Mirabella. If AW did anything in the "Elle" mode for Vogue, she youth'd it up a bit. It still kept most of it's lifestyle orientation.

I think Vogue had pretty much given up on artistic after Vreeland left!

Vogue by Mirabella had a weak period between late 1983 and 1985. After that she was back on track again, perhaps talking a little too much of health issues...

I don't know if Vogue gave up on artistic after Vreeland left - some of the very best issues of the mag are from the 70s, under Grace Mirabella. What they had given up on was lavish and insane trips.

So I can see what Alaia means - AW has a sense for perfection, but she will let things into her mag that are far more lifeless and boring than anything Mirabella or Vreeland ever ok'ed. Again, it has gotten so much better lately I wonder if AW is letting her daughter do some of her work. Also, AW has a more interesting persona than Grace Mirabella, almost on par with Diana Vreeland. That actually does help a bit to create that sense of excitement and fashion, as much as I hate to admit it.

 

[Niusity]

Agree on Anna, well not on everything but there is a part of truth.

 

[tarsha]

Continuation...

Anna Wintour Banned Entire Vogue Staff From Alaia Couture Show

The devil may wear Prada, but she wouldn’t be caught dead in Alaia. Not only did Anna Wintour go to the Harry Potter premiere instead of the Azzedine Alaia show yesterday, she forbade the entire Vogue staff from attending the designer’s Paris show.

While Arizona Muse and Karlie Kloss walked the runway for Alaia, Anna Wintour jetted to London for the Harry Potter 7 premiere with stylish Burberry-clad niece, Ellie Wintour.

(Speaking of which, we just have to point out that Anna totally pulled a Kate Middleton here and recycled her Webby award dress on the red carpet yesterday — the Webby award she just so happened to receive from HP star Daniel Radcliffe! Meta.)

It’s no secret that the Wintour and the Tunisian-born Alaia are anything but friends. The feud started in 2009 when Alaia was not featured in Wintour’s “Model As A Muse” exhibit at the Met. Last week, tensions got tenser when Alaia told The New York Times that Wintour has no taste.
Even if Anna hadn’t banned her whole staff, apparently Alaia didn’t invite anyone associated with the editor or her magazine to his show. Alaia said last month of Wintour, “She hasn’t photographed my work in years even if I am a best seller in the U.S. and I have 140 square meters at Barneys. American women love me; I don’t need her support at all.”

We get that there’s bad blood between Wintour and Alaia, but banning the entire Vogue staff from attending the show? That seems a little extreme on both the editor and the designer’s parts. Regardless, it’s Wintour’s loss, because Alaia’s fall collection was really worth seeing.

styleite.com

 

[fantastical]

HA! I love fashion drama

 

[saann]

I agree with Alaia's thoughts regarding Wintour and fashion but this whole ordeal is so immature, from both of them. From Wintour for disregarding one of the most influential designers living because of petty fights and from Alaia for being unprofessional and calling her out on it.

They're both behaving like children, though I do find it nice to see someone calling Anna out on her work. She's been influential yes, but I don't personally find her very healthy for the fashion system I like.

I tend to view Vogue US more as a lifestyle magazine than a fashion one, it's too redundant.

 

[dreamss]

God bless Alaia! Someone needed to put anna at her place. She probably thinks she's the beginning and end of fashion!
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