Tag Archives: Vogue

2023 ➤ Fond farewells to the glorious Queen of the Telegraph fashion pages

Hilary Alexander, tributes, Daily Telegraph, fashion,

Farewell to Hilary Alexander on her retirement in 2011: here’s the spoof front page every good hack deserves to cap their career. Read my own account linked below

“The dizzy industry doyenne”
Obituary at Vogue
https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/hilary-alexander-obituary

Fashion editors, tributes, obituary, Hilary Alexander, Suzy Menkes, Anna Wintour

The British fashion triumvirate in their heyday: Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune, Hilary Alexander of the Daily Telegraph and Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of US Vogue

❚ ONE OF BRITISH JOURNALISM’S greatest characters has died and you won’t hear a harsh word spoken about her – apart from on the hilarious spoof tribute page produced for Hilary Alexander’s leaving party in 2011 after donkeys years as fashion director of the Daily Telegraph, when it enjoyed the highest daily sales among UK quality newspapers. During the 1980s-90s I worked regularly alongside Hilary and also dared go out on the town with her to witness her beaming smile and unique dress sense turn heads in all directions. As British fashion grew in credibility on the world stage, Hilary became one of a triumvirate of British fashion editors the international circuit took very seriously, the others being Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune and Anna Wintour of US Vogue, who were to clock up two OBEs and a DBE. Hilary was twice named British Fashion Journalist of the Year. Two obituaries remark that she pursued work like “a Stakhanovite” implying exceptional efficiency.

Early yesterday, Hilary’s 77th birthday, she died from a heart attack while in hospital. Our mutual colleague Penelope McDonald recalls the laughs they had enjoyed over the years – especially at the annual Fenwick Christmas shopping evenings to which Hils attracted leading designers. She devoted much time to inspiring and mentoring young fashionistas. In 2002, the artist Georg Meyer-Wiel remembers his graduation show in menswear at the RCA because he met big names such as Mary Quant and Issey Miyake in the company of Hils at the gala.

When I was editing the student edition of the Telegraph in 1988 Hils was keen to shoot a winter fashion feature with students in the coldest place in the UK. Amazingly this apparently proved not to be Scotland but the Tyneside estuary which receives freezing oceanic winds from the east. Consequently there we were in December fitting out some model students at Newcastle’s Uni and Poly with warm winter wear for our pages. In about 2002 my colourful Blitz Kid friend Judith Frankland recalls meeting Hils in Paris at a party for John Malkovich. She says: “I was dressed up as you can well imagine and she came straight over to me and said ‘I have to know who you are’ and smiled and told me to contact her if I was in London. Of course I didn’t have to ask who she was! It’s a good job she hadn’t seen me mere minutes later as my platform departed from the rest of my shoe, grrr!”

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As captured by Google: The umpteen faces of fashion queen Hilary Alexander

Paul Hill, foreign desk manager at the Daily Telegraph, also recalls: “She used to organise the Christmas shows in Canada Square, taking over the canteen for the day and putting catwalks in and often filming them for DVD circulation to staff. I was in one (as one of five Elvis impersonators singing appallingly badly All Shook Up) and Hils was everywhere with what started as a full bottle of scotch, but by the end of the show was almost empty and she was a very happy and relaxed director! She would inveigle all sorts of seriously-minded staffers into these annual events, famously Lord Bill Deedes to dress up – make-up and all – as Mick Jagger to mime along to Brown Sugar.”

In today’s Vogue obituary Anna Wintour says: “Hilary was irrepressible in everything she did. She lived life to the fullest and her reporting on fashion was just as committed. I threw a party for her in Paris when she retired – except she never retired! Hilary could never quite leave an industry that she loved so much.”

In the Telegraph obituary Lisa Armstrong writes: “To sit next to Hilary at the shows to be treated to an experience that was a unique blend of massage and wrestling match. Bobbing to the music – whatever it was – she was always the first to bounce out of her seat as the models were still filing off the catwalks, the ears of Uncle Bulgaria’s hat flopping away as she stormed the catwalk to get backstage before everyone else. She would do anything to get a story.”

Our set of photos here from a Google search for Hils sums up her eternal exuberance (“I will not stop flying. I will not stop smoking.”). Her home life in Dulwich was surprisingly private. Born in New Zealand, Hils was educated in Hong Kong and, having ended an unfortunate early marriage, she leaves no partner. Her funeral could be a starry event, though my own 2011 tribute in the link below is probably unbeatable!

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
2011, The incomparable Hilary Alexander makes her own front-page news as she leaves the Telegraph

Fashion editors, tributes, obituary, Vivienne Westwood, Hilary Alexander,

Hilary’s last profile photo posted at Twitter 2022… Hils celebrates her retirement with Andreas Kronthaler and Vivienne Westwood in 2011

➢ “More stamina than teenagers. To sit next to her at the shows was truly an experience” – Daily Telegraph obituary

➢ “A discerning eye for detail and relentless pursuit of a story made her name” – The Times obituary… She was on first-name terms with many designers but never forgot the readers for whom she was writing. “It’s hard for the average person to decide what to wear,” she said. “Our role is to take the threads that come through from the catwalk shows and say ‘This is the way to wear things’.” She saw fashion as more than mere style and was instrumental in making it newsworthy. “It’s not frivolous – any industry that employs half a million people and generates billions a year is a serious news subject.

Fashion editors, tributes, obituary, OBE, HM Elizabeth II, Hilary Alexander,

Fashion royalty: Hilary Alexander was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen in 2013… Hils sports a black silk dress with a jazzy poppy print to coordinate with the OBE ribbon

THE BRITISH FASHION COUNCIL’S
VIDEO TRIBUTE TO OUR HILS

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2020 ➤ “Every hat is opening night” – Stephen Jones 40 years on

Culture, Vogue, millinery, Stephen Jones,Fashion, London, Social trends ,

Stephen Jones: 40 years as fashion’s head master

40
YEARS
ON

The decorated British milliner Stephen Jones has created headgear for everyone from Princess Diana to Rihanna, collaborated with some of fashion’s greatest houses and contributed to exhibitions around the world. This week he talks to Liam Freeman for Vogue about his glittering career. . .

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Rihanna sports Jones at the 2018 Met Ball (Getty)

It’s 40 years since Stephen Jones – one of the fashion industry’s most prolific and inventive milliners – entered the hat game. Does it feel like yesterday? “No it doesn’t,” the 62-year-old replies. “It definitely feels like I’ve had a career doing this. But the thrill and the terror of making a hat is just the same as when I started.” Why the terror? “You’re dealing with a piece of white paper, you’re working with a [insert: often world-famous] client, a high-profile designer, and you do learn how [to do it], but in a way you don’t because every hat is opening night… / Continued at Vogue online

➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s: Britain’s top hatter, Stephen Jones OBE, celebrates 30 years of Jonesmanship

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2018 ➤ Vogue promotes pot-stirring Linard as inspiration for its Met Gala creatives

fashion, Blitz Kids, St Martin’s Alternative Show, Stephen Linard, Neon Gothic collection , Stephen Jones, Myra Falconer , Michele Clapton

Stephen Linard’s 1980 Neon Gothic collection modelled by Myra Falconer and Michele Clapton: one wears a lace hat, the other a skullcap, both by Stephen Jones. (Photo by Graham Smith)

New York’s Met Gala 2018 signifies the highly anticipated grand opening of the Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibition Heavenly Bodies, which opens on May 10. At Vogue online this week Laird Borrelli-Persson recalls how a Blitz Kid’s 1980 collection anticipated Heavenly Bodies by 38 years:

“ FASHION’S BIGGEST NIGHT OUT” is the Met Gala. As a pinnacle of iconic style, this annual fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, welcomes celebrity stars, young creatives, and industry paragons alike.

The British designer Stephen Linard deserves credit for many innovations in fashion and its presentation that we take for granted in 2018. One of the Blitz Kids whose dandyish ways had an outsize impact on 1980s style, his early work was distinguished not only by irreverence, but also by a strong sense of narrative. Linard’s 1981 St Martin’s graduation show, Reluctant Emigrés, was a smash success. “The clothes were instantly covetable, thoroughly masculine in an entirely new way, and electrifying in the way that only the truly innovative can be,” historians Alan J Flux and Daryl F Mallett have noted.

The collection Linard presented a year earlier at St Martin’s unofficial Alternative Show was a pot-stirring presentation titled Neon Gothic – clothes with an ecclesiastic twist. Captured in the image above are models Myra Falconer, who shared a squat with Linard, and Michele Clapton, now an Emmy Award-winning costume designer. Their jewellery, upside-down crosses and menorahs of black-painted wood, was made by a friend of Clapton’s. The headpieces are by Stephen Jones, who graduated ahead of Linard, and has stayed in the spotlight. Linard recalls the audience reaction: “Everyone stood up and gave it a standing ovation and my models wouldn’t get off the catwalk… / Continued at Vogue online

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Linard’s 1981 degree show Reluctant Emigrés: classically tailored menswear with eccentric twists. . . Traditional pinstripe trousers had contrast patches at the derrière, solid dark waistcoat fronts and shadowy organza backs. Striped city shirts had curious underarm patches, and all were concealed beneath swirling black greatcoats. And modelled by his masculine pals among the Blitz Kids. (Photo: Shapersofthe80s)


➢ Elsewhere at Shapers of the 80s: The year the Blitz Kids took their first steps into the headlines

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➤ “I’m not a rock star” Bowie often said – No, David, you were a messiah

David Bowie, death, obituaries, tributes, rock music, Man Who Fell to Earth, media, videos, films,

A humanoid alien comes to Earth with a mission… What a spooky coincidence that David Bowie played the alien Thomas Jerome Newton in the 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth

David Bowie, death, obituaries, tributes, rock music, TheTimes, UK, newspapers

Today’s Times: the masks and the man behind them

◼ ALL 10 BRITISH NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS filled their front pages today with the death of David Bowie at 69 – and so did scores of newspapers overseas. The last pop star whose death justified such deification was Jacko in 2009; and the last British pop star to do likewise was John Lennon, in 1980. The Times of London dedicated 18 pages including an outer broadsheet wrapper to honouring Bowie, plus an editorial comment as blessing. The Guardian topped that with 20 pages, plus the most enlightened editorial comment of them all. Not only did this misfit megastar and cultural icon radiate consummate flair as a performer but he displayed “an instinctive affinity with his times”. He had a “way with the zeitgeist”.

All media, notably social media, captured the dominant sentiment of generations of fans suddenly plunged into mourning. Again and again they claimed: He changed my life. . . He taught me how to be myself. . . David was my inspiration. . . David was my tutor. And most could quote their own favourite song lyric expressing their faith: Oh no, love – you’re not alone. . . Don’t tell them to grow up and out of it. . . It’s only for ever, not long at all. . . All you’ve got to do is win. . . We can be heroes just for one day.

David Bowie, death, obituaries, tributes, rock music, front pages,media, newspapers

Blanket coverage: Bowie on all UK front pages… Image updated 14 Jan to include news magazines

➢ ‘THE WORLD HAS LOST AN ORIGINAL’ DECLAREs THE GUARDIAN – MORE OBITUARIES AND KEY VIDEOS INSIDE AT SHAPERS OF THE 80S

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➤ After Anna’s drenching, Gaultier leads the world’s fashionistas for more ice-bucket madness

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There goes her bob: editor Anna Wintour gets dowsed. Click pic to view video at Vogue

◼ WHO WOULD HAVE PREDICTED the stern-faced Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour would have played ball with the #icebucketchallenge sweeping America to raise funds for the ALS charity? Well, having been dared to get freezing-wet by her daughter Bee Shaffer, here’s the proof that Anna and her immaculately coiffed bob are good sports. The big question: Will the wet look make it to the September issue?

➢ Click to see Anna Wintour accept the
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Following the rules of the challenge, La Wintour obligingly nominated Roger Federer, tennis champion, and Dominic West, star of the TV drama series The Wire, to get themselves dowsed within 24 hours.

However, before either of them could muster enough supermarket ice-cubes, zat crazee Froggy, Jean Paul Gaultier, led the charge for the international brigade of couturiers. (So far fashion had been represented only by models such as Cara Delevingne and Suki Waterhouse.) Here is JP being given the big freeze by some handpicked hunk in speedos…

MEANWHILE BACK ON THE FASHION RUNWAY

❏ Fabulous fashion footnote: You have until Monday 25 August to catch the extraordinary and witty retrospective of JPG’s madcap couture creations in The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier at London’s Barbican Art Gallery: 165 cutting-edge garments that boggle the imagination, up close and theatrically displayed in a touring exhibition from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s: Gaultier celebration trumps all else in London this summer

Fashion , Jean Paul Gaultier, Sidewalk to the Catwalk London, Barbican Art Gallery, exhibition, Eurotrash, reviews,

No, not JPG himself sporting a mink Marinière, and greeting us in English and French. This is one of many custom-made mannequins at London’s Barbican exhibition, brought flirtatiously to audio-visual life by the UBU/Compagnie de création of Montreal and Jolicoeur International of Quebec. Photographed by Shapersofthe80s

➢ Jean Paul Gaultier’s take on Sade’s style

Iain R Webb,fanzine,Jean Paul Gaultier, fashion,

Fan and hero: Iain R Webb and JP Gaultier

➢ British fashion guru Iain R Webb recently gave a guided tour of the Gaultier show in London – To prepare for the talk, he constructed a scrapbook of his friendship with JP Gaultier preferring to call it a fanzine. You can view it at his blog Hopeandglitter.

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