In the pristine world of white male briefs, it's war. On the one side is David Beckham, currently more male icon than soccer hero, his taut body in Emporio Armani underpants in a vast street poster ad in Milan.
On the opposing side is Michelangelo's "David" - or at least how the sculpture might have looked had the Florentine burghers insisted on a cover-up. Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce launched their riposte over the weekend as a private-collection calendar showing the heroic, muscular male.
The David vs. "David" standoff marks the moment that underwear has come out of the drawers and off the shelves to become, to men's fashion, the female equivalent of the handbag. It is an accessory - and even a necessity - that can be turned into big bucks.
Behind Giorgio Armani's focus on Beckham, which has roots in the cozy relationship he has developed with international soccer stars, is the realization that although one pair of pants may look much like another, branding with celebrity endorsement gives sales superpower.
"Never before has the world been so interested in legends - and sports stars reach another group of people," says Armani. "The day after we announced the Beckham collaboration, we got great results both commercially and image wise."
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ModelVanity.ORG January Gallery Features
The battle below the belt in men's underwear!
2008 Lord and Taylor Model Search!
NEXT YEAR'S MODEL The 2008 Lord and Taylor Model Search, a six market casting call for models to be featured in the store's Spring 2009 advertising campaign. Casting calls for the next face of Lord and Taylor will begin in the New York Fifth Avenue flagship store at 424 Fifth Avenue. Would be contestants must be 18 years old and residents of the U.S. They can get details and contest rules by visiting www.lordandtaylor.com/modelsearch. Registration will take place on the date of the casting call only.
Executives from Lord and Taylor's corporate office will travel to stores in Garden State Plaza, Paramus, NJ, February 12; Prudential Center, Boston, MA, February 13; Chevy Chase, Washington, DC, February 14; Eastchester, Scarsdale, NY, February 15; and Garden City, NY, February 16. All calls will be held from 10 AM to 2 PM.
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The Model Whisperer!
Open with a casual glance at the gray-haired man at a sidewalk table at Downtown Cipriani, who appears to be wearing a rodent pelt as an ascot as he quaffs white wine and nuzzles a raven-haired model with a British accent.
Let your eye flit a few blocks uptown to a booth against the south wall of the Coffee Shop on Union Square, where a dark-haired man in a baseball cap and sunglasses is eating herbed French fries desultorily with a fork, while Samantha, a next-to-the-last-round loser from the eighth “America’s Next Top Model,” snuggles against him.
Finally, track a few tables over to the banquette near the hostess station. Zoom in on Oscar Batori, who has just turned 21.
He is 6-foot-3, lean and English, with a faintly menacing sharpness to his face, which bears a resemblance to that of a young Mick Jagger.
Two years ago, Mr. Batori was working as a male model earning about $75 a day, sharing an apartment with others and eating ramen noodles for dinner. Two years from now, who knows where he will be. But last week, he was in his element: 21 and good-looking, during a week when youth and beauty hold full value.
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London is invaded by size-zero models
To the uninformed they look like the kind of nerdy boys that couldn't get the girl at the school disco, but after years of losing out to their beefy peers, the skinny male is having his day. As London Fashion Week kicks off this weekend, stick-thin men will be parading the catwalks promoting an ideal of male beauty that is a far cry from the bulked-up models of the Eighties and Nineties.
But as indie kids and fashionistas across the country squeeze themselves into the latest drainpipe jeans, fashion's move towards a male size zero has a more serious consequence: it heralds an era where men – like women – feel pressure to conform to a waif-like body image.
The masculine ideal has undergone a step change, putting pressure on young men to conform to a new body shape. The fashion expert and agent Johnathan Phang explained: "Suddenly, you've got lots of guys becoming models who never thought they could be; the sort of people who were normally considered weeds or nerdy-looking."
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Men Go Red!
15 male cardiac rehab patients will be showing their support for the American Heart Association “Go Red for Women” campaign Monday by modeling red dresses at Erlanger’s Chattanooga Lifestyle Center. The annual male fashion show begins at 11:15 a.m., Feb. 11, at the Chattanooga Lifestyle Center, with each participant strutting his stuff in a red dress, wig, make-up and jewelry.
“This is one of our most fun, most anticipated events of the year,” said Dee Clark, RN, with the Chattanooga Lifestyle Center. “The men who model in our annual fashion show go to great lengths to wear the best red outfit,” she said.
Tickets to the fundraiser are $10 and reservations must be made in advance. Guests can pay $1 per vote for their favorite model, “buying” an unlimited amount of votes. The male model collecting the most votes/money is named winner, with all proceeds donated to the local AHA “Go Red For Women” campaign.
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The Skinny?
Then a funny thing happened. The models were also downsized. Where the masculine ideal of as recently as 2000 was a buff 6-footer with six-pack abs, the man of the moment is an urchin, a wraith or an underfed runt.
Nowhere was this more clear than at the recent men’s wear shows in Milan and Paris, where even those inured to the new look were flabbergasted at the sheer quantity of guys who looked chicken-chested, hollow-cheeked and undernourished. Not altogether surprisingly, the trend has followed the fashion pack back to New York
Wasn’t it just a short time ago that the industry was up in arms about skinny models? Little over a year ago, in Spain, designers were commanded to choose models based on a healthy body mass index; physicians were installed at Italian casting calls; Diane von Furstenberg, the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, called a conference to ventilate the issue of unhealthy body imagery and eating disorders among models.
The models in question were women, and it’s safe to say that they remain as waiflike as ever. But something occurred while no one was looking. Somebody shrunk the men.
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New Face of Ralph Lauren!
How Rory Marshall became the pin-up boy of a global fashion house. Just before meeting the main man a small group of Ralph Lauren's staff asked Marshall to introduce himself and tell them something interesting about his life.
The conversation went like this:
Rory: "Hello, my name's Rory Marshall, I live in a small Yorkshire town called Ilkley where I live in a little house which was actually once owned by Enid Blyton."
Staff: "Wow! Gee! That's amazing!! Enid Blyton."
Rory: "Do you know who Enid Blyton is?"
Staff: "Er, no."
Fortunately they did know a potential icon when they saw one and Marshall, 29, landed himself just about the top gig a model can get – the new face of Polo.
Alongside fronting campaigns for Calvin Klein or Georgio Armani it doesn't get much bigger than that.
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NY Fashion Week!
NEW YORK (AP) — The fall trends shown Saturday at New York Fashion Week are bound to cause a collective shiver: Along with chunky turtlenecks and peacoats, prepare for super-short miniskirts.
The leggy look was big at shows for Nicole Miller, Lacoste, BCBG Max Azria, Erin Fetherston, Abaete and Kimora Lee Simmons' Baby Phat line — among the early previews for editors, retailers and stylists at the tents at Bryant Park.
Most minis were paired with opaque tights and ballet flats, a good sign for women who bought into those trends last fall. Treat those things with care and you'll get another season out of them.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week still has plenty of time for new "it" items to emerge. Runway shows run through Feb. 8 with Oscar de la Renta, Diane von Furstenberg, Zac Posen and a new incarnation of Bill Blass yet to preview their collections.
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Controversial Fashion!
Madhur Bhandarkar is known for his realistic films, and it is a known fact that all his films have created controversies before release, but this time things are different. His forthcoming film Fashion finds itself in the midst of controversy from the very beginning.
And the latest story doing the rounds is that Madhur Bhandarkar has shot a wardrobe malfunction scene with Kangana Ranaut. The scene was based on the infamous Carol Gracias wardrobe malfunction incident that happened at the Lakme Fashion Week in 2006According to news, Carol Gracias was also present when Madhur shot the scene.
It can be recalled that Kangana is playing model Geetanjali Nagpal (a model who found herself on the road to self destruction) and debutante actress model Mugdha Ghodse is playing Carol's role in Fashion .
So the question is: Why did Kanagna shoot for the controversial scene when Mughda should have? We contacted to Bhandarkar but the filmmaker chose not to comment on it. "I am not going to talk about the issue. Let the confusion remain!" he told us.
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Fashion Photography's Hottest!
When fashion photographer Solve Sundsbo started his career, for a while it seemed as though he would get no further than the dole queue. "People would say to me, 'I'm not sure I can hire you, I'm not sure what you're doing. What is your style?' I was mortified and thought I was never going to make a living as a photographer."
The problem was that curiosity had got the better of the young Norwegian and he couldn't help but embrace every photographic technique going. His work incorporated everything from X-rays and 3-D scanning to hi-tech manipulation and laborious hand-painted retouching. "If I've got a style," says Sundsbo, "it's that I've got no style."
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Fall Fashion Week!
Less than a week before the Fashion Week festivities begin, models were racing around the city for castings and fittings. NY1's Cheryl Wills has more during the station's coverage of Fall Fashion Week '08 on what one top modeling agency and its models do to prepare for the big shows.
Ali Stephens, 16, was at a fitting last week for the Rag and Bone fashion show. Just one of several she had to scurry to on the days leading up to Fashion Week.
"It's been pretty crazy just running from one place to the other, but I like it," she said.
Stephens signed with Elite Model Management in September 2007 and was soon off to Milan and Paris fashion weeks, making her debut at Prada. She's also landed the spring campaign for Chloe. This is the first time the Utah teen will be walking the catwalks in New York.
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GQ Party, (André Benjamin)
Last night at around 8 p.m., André Benjamin (a.k.a. André 3000) showed up at a party space in Rockefeller Center, where GQ and the C.F.D.A. co-hosted a celebration honoring the best new menswear designers in America. After Mr. Benjamin, 32, said hello to GQ’s editor-in-chief, Jim Nelson, the ever-nattily-clad OutKast musician-actor-designer spoke with the Daily Transom about, among other things, cool clothes.
“To be honest, I don’t really follow the new, 'it' fashion thing,” he said, responding to a question about what Mr. Nelson has called “an exciting and pivotal time for men’s fashion.” Mr. Benjamin went on, “I’ve heard people talking about it; I’m actually here to see what’s going on.”
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Mumbai Fashion Awards!
John Abraham received the Most Admired Fashion Icon of the year (Male), while Katrina Kaif won the Most Admired Fashion Icon of the year (Female) and Shahrukh Khan was declared the Most admired Fashion Ambassador of the year.
Renowned DPS Kohli, Chairman, Koutons Retail was awarded the Most Admired Fashion Group of the Year at the scintillating finale of 8th Annual Lycra Images Fashion Awards 2008 at The Intercontinental, Mumbai last night. Amongst much glitz and glamour, captains of the Indian fashion and retail industry were honored for their contribution to the Business of Fashion.
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Polyakov is Russia's most famous male model!
When people think of clothes to wear at home, they think of tracksuits and pajamas, a T-shirt or slippers -- the kind of loose clothes that are unobtrusive and disguise the body. In an exhibition of his avant-garde clothing, "100% Vanilla," runway model and designer Danila Polyakov shows a breezy disregard for this kind of conventions.
"This top here is for breastfeeding," Polyakov said, pointing at a photograph of a model wearing a T-shirt with a heart-shaped hole, that exposes her nipple and breast.
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All Races, All Sizes!
The show hired models from across the melanin, height, weight, and ethnic spectrums, and was intended to showcase the wealth and diversity of beauty here on the border, to make a point regarding our perceptions of ourselves in the larger context of national pressures. We’re about to put our city through some serious dieting and cosmetic surgery.
When will we ever really be happy with ourselves?
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Korean Makes Fashion Storm!
A Korean is blazing a trail for Asians in a world normally closed to them: haute couture modeling. Kim Young-kwang made his debut around two years ago. Already he has modeled for Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, and Etro at the Milan Collection, one of the world¡¯s four major fashion shows. He is the first male Korean model to appear at one of the four major fashion shows, although there are some Korean women.
Kim¡¯s eye-catching well-proportioned physique, with its long arms and legs, makes it understandable that Andrea Monti, editor of fashion magazine GQ, praised him saying he has a perfect figure like a North European, and a face and eyes that appeal to Europeans. Standing 187 cm tall and weighing 70 kg, he says, ¡°I grew some 30 cm during high school days. That¡¯s when I thought about being a model.¡± He adds he needed to earn money to support his poor family from middle school. His father, a veteran of the Vietnam War, was recognized for his meritorious service for the nation, but suffered from an Agent Orange-related disease before dying when Young-kwang was in elementary school.
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Nationwide UK Model Search!
International Fashion Company and Award Winning Model Agency Team up for Nationwide UK Model SearchNewswireToday - /newswire/ - Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom, 01/21/2008 - Bestseller - the company behind the high street brands Vero Moda and Jack and Jones - and award winning model agency Sapphires Model Management are on the lookout for new UK modelling talent with a high profile model search launching in 2008.Throughout January and February scouts from Sapphires Model Management will be visiting Jack and Jones and Vero Moda stores in UK cities to try and find the next big thing.The entrants will be whittled down to one male and one female from each city, who will each be invited to attend a grand final where a judging panel of industry experts will select one male and one female as overall winners.It will be a nail biting grand final, but will most definitely be worth it; the eventual winners will both be given a weekend to remember in the style of a top model. To start, they will be treated to a luxurious two night weekend stay in the lavish Radisson SAS hotel in the heart of Birmingham City Centre. Over the course of the weekend stay they will be given a modelling contract with Sapphires Model Management, £1000 to spend in store at Jack and Jones and Vero Moda, and a professional fashion shoot.
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