Celebs gather in Hollywood to celebrate the launch of Marni at H&M

Celebrities gather in Hollywood to celebrate the launch of Marni at H&M

Last night in Los Angeles the great and the good of film and fashion including; Drew Barrymore, Winona Ryder and Milla Jovovich were among the guests who attended a party to celebrate the launch of Marni at H&M. The event was held in a beautiful Hollywood residence and the event was hosted by Marni’s Founder and Creative Director, Consuelo Castiglioni, the Director of the Marni at H&M campaign, Sofia Coppola and Margareta van den Bosch, H&M´s Creative Advisor. As well as Drew, Winona and Milla, other guests arriving at the party dressed in Marni at H&M included Jessica Chastain, Freida Pinto and Andrea Riseborough. The collection will be available from March 8 in around 260 stores worldwide, as well as on-line.

“It has been an inspiring night, surrounded by a perfect setting and a great crowd. LA encapsulated the dream! It is not long before Marni at H&M is in the stores, and I am happy to share these magic moments with everybody.” Consuelo Castiglioni, Founder and Creative Director, Marni.

“It’s nice to see again the people I worked with on the project for Marni and H&M. With the film I just tried to do something that fitted with the mood of the collection, the fantasy and the fun of fashion.” Sofia Coppola

In a classic Hollywood house in Los Angeles, around 200 guests gathered to celebrate Marni´s collaboration for H&M, a collection full of Marni’s signature print and colour arriving just in time for spring. Guests were given the chance to enjoy an evening in an atmosphere captured by Sofia Coppola’s campaign for the collection, as well as an exclusive performance by Bryan Ferry.

Marni’s collection for H&M is all about freedom and experimentation, Marni prints and colours intended to mix and match together in a playful way. Everything goes with everything, making African prints the perfect companion to Bauhaus modernity, and sporty silhouettes sitting with more feminine shapes. The collection also includes a full range of shoes, bags and charming accessories to create a total Marni look at H&M. Meanwhile for men, Marni offers a fresh take on menswear staples, with a subtle use of print and a softened use of colour.


“I love H&M and I love Marni. I love how H&M are bringing the regal, chic clothes of Marni to everyone.” Drew Barrymore

“I’m a huge fan of Marni, I have been for years. I love the whole idea of taking high fashion and making it affordable and accessible with H&M.” Winona Ryder

“Tonight has been magical. It is as if Sofia Coppola’s campaign for Marni at H&M has come to life with this party in Hollywood. It’s been amazing to see so many personalities wearing the Marni at H&M collection. I can’t wait for these looks to go into stores so everyone can wear them for themselves.” Margareta van den Bosch, H&M’s creative advisor.

Frost Loves…Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola- Icon.

She may never be completely separated from that surname (would she want to be?) but she sure is doing a good enough job of making a name for herself in spite of, not because of, dads, brothers, cousins or aunts.

Her style, her photography and her beautiful films are uniquely hers. They waft of her. Her sensitivity and quiet forcefulness. She has won over James wood and Bill Murray. As well as countless other critics and movie fans. No mean feat. She won an Best Writer, Original screenplay Oscar for Lost in Translation in 2003.

I remember seeing a short film she made called ‘lick the star’ and thinking this woman is going places. I raved about her to anyone who would listen. Her last film, Somewhere, was a very European film. Nothing really happened apart from human emotion.

There was always her photography, which was in, amongst other magazines, Nova and Allure. Her clothing range Milk Fed, and then there was the High Octane series for comedy central with her good friend Zoë Cassavetes, her appearances in music videos such as the Chemical Brothers (her favourite band), Elektrobank which was directed by then boyfriend now ex-husband Spike Jonze. In the video Sofia plays a gymnast. She is directing her own music videos now. Who can forget her video for the white stripes ‘I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself.’ In which she persuaded Kate Moss (another friend) to pole dance in a black bikini? All shot in black and white.

Her association with Marc Jacobs (she is his muse. Even having one of his bags named after her and starring in his advertisements. ) As well as other creative talent, she seems to be at the centre of a new creative movement. A movement which also includes such people as Wes Anderson, Lance Acord, her ex-husband Spike Jonze, Zoë Cassavetes, Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, Tamra Davis who is married to Mike Diamond and gave Spike Jonze his first breaks and her brother Roman, who directed his own film CQ in 200, which Sofia appeared in. It all seems to tie together from person to person.

She was born in 1971 and baptized into cinema as a baby boy in The Godfather and said recently that she remembers parts of her life more by which movie they were than anything else. Sofia and her two brothers, Gio,who tragically died in a boating accident when she was 15, leaving behind a daughter Gia and fiancée Jacqueline de la fontaine (Who went on to marry Peter Getty and is now divorcing him and wants $300,000 a month maintenance after she found a full frontal picture of a neighbour on his computer), and Roman (who is one of the new wave of music video directors and also writes and directs his own films), traveled around with mum, Eleanor a documentary director, and dad, Francis as he worked on his movies.

Movies of cinematic greatness like The Conversation, Apocalypse Now and the Godfathers all of which Sofia was in. more prominently in Godfather III for which she was unfairly lambasted by critics with a unrelenting harshness which seems to have lasted, if only to a slightly lesser degree to this day.

This is why Sofia Coppola inspires me. Why I describe her as an icon. She is herself she makes no excuses. Yes her surnames Coppola take it or leave it and she does not pretend to be one of the boys, does not yell. She gets what she wants the way she wants. She has survived a hell of a lot. Was vilified in public and came up to prove them all wrong with sheer talent, guts and determination. It is because she has her own influential style, because she has conquered. Because she is talented and unique and a true artist and even more importantly. She proved all the bastards wrong.

Sofia is 40 now. Has two children and recently married Thomas Mars, of hip band Phoenix, in a celebrity studded wedding in Italy. She is still a fashion icon, still making movies.

Sofia Coppola is definitely one to watch. As she may yet become one of the most prominent and influential directors of our time.

Somewhere. {Film Review}

Somewhere is a film that goes, well, nowhere. This is not an insult. It’s a complement. It’s a beautiful film. It’s not a good or a bad film. It is a film that is entirely depending on taste. It’s a lot like Lost In Translation. Lonely people trying to connect with each other. There is no back story to Dorff’s character. What you know is that he is rich, famous, separated and has an 11 year old daughter. Everywhere he goes there are irate women he has loved and left.

Somewhere is a very European film. The scenes are long and left to play out. There is a lot ( too much) female nudity. The opening of the film is Stephen Dorff driving around a circular track. There is one work said in the first 15 minutes. It’s full of metaphors and melancholy. The ennui of over privilege. A movie actor in an empty existence of sex, parties and alcohol. Saved, intermittently, when his daughter comes to stay.

The tangents of Sofia Coppola’s previous films are here; daddy – daughter relationships, young girl’s trying to find their way, expensive hotels, bored rich people. It is a film of human relationships. A slow burner. The performances of Ellie Fanning and Stephen Dorff are pitch perfect. It’s definitely worth seeing,

Ones to watch: Hannah Rothschild. {Film}

Hannah Rothschild is exceptionally talented. With a skill at getting to subjects that other people wouldn’t, No doubt helped by her famous last name. Though it’s relevant – her documentary on Peter Mandelson, Mandelson:The Real PM? , was no doubt helped by the fact that her brother, Nat, is good friends with Mandelson – like other directors with famous last names, Sofia Coppola etc, Rothschild makes the most of the proverbial foot in the door. She let’s her talent shine through. Her documentary, The Jazz Baroness, is a triumph. It’s a documentary of contrast in race, class, wealth, and of music and love. Pannonica Rothschild was her great aunt.

Pannonica de Koenigswarter fell in love with the geniuses of jazz. She was born in 1913 into the British branch of the immensely wealthy Rothschild family, brought up in a mansion called Waddesdon, and died in 1988 in a small house in Weehawken, New Jersey, surrounded by 306 cats. Her life changed when she heard Thelonious Monk’s “‘Round Midnight.” She became friend and champion to some of the greatest jazz musicians of the twentieth century. Twenty songs were named after her, Her love of jazz took over her entire life, it seems she gave up everything to be near it.

Another documentary was on renowned socialite, bon viveur and ridiculously well connected Nicky Haslam. Titled ‘Hi Society: The wonderful world of Nicky Haslam. In Mandelson: The Real PM? she follows Peter Mandelson around in the run up to the election, at one point Mandelson is heard soothing Gordon Brown, at that time still Prime Minister. Rothschild comes across as fearless, she doesn’t seem to be scared of Mandelson, to ask the hard questions, despite his connection and friendship with her family.

In The Jazz Baroness Rothschild gets interviews with Clint Eastwood, who let’s her use footage from ‘Straight No Chaser.’ which her great aunt featured in, As well as the dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Thelonious Monk’s son, her father Jacob Rothschild and her great-aunt Miriam. The documentary is not just about Rothschild’s great-aunt Pannonica , it’s also about her trying to find a place in her famous family. She confesses about pressures ‘real or imagined’ and she chooses to become an artist. Luckily for her, it seems, she has found her place after all. As she says;

“Real glamour isn’t about Bentleys or fur coats or silver dishes; it’s about being able to walk down Fifty-second Street and hear in one night so many great musicians play tunes dedicated to you.”

I look forward to Hannah Rothschild’s next project.

Hannah Rothschild’s website.

Lanvin and H&M present a High Street Haute Couture Show in NY {Fashion}

The 18th Nov, Sofia Coppola, Andie MacDowell, Emma Roberts, Leelee Sobieski, Anna Sui, Tory Burch and Alexander Wang, among other guests, came out to celebrate the collaboration of the Lanvin for H&M collection and to enjoy show stopping designs by famed Lanvin artistic director, Alber Elbaz, at The Pierre hotel. The haute couture creations, which were customized pieces from the Lanvin for H&M collection, made their way down the catwalk with the help of famed models Asia Chow, Pixie Geldof, Dree Hemingway, Olga and Anna Dello Russo. Guests arrived on the red carpet, which was the landmarked Pierre Hotel façade recreated with NYC styled graffiti, and then they entered the hotel which was swathed with flowers, trees and greenery. It was a runway show that guests will not soon forget.

The long awaited Lanvin for H&M collection will be sold in around 200 stores worldwide. It will be launched November 20 in US and Canada, and on November 23 in the rest of the world. “It’s such a fantastic experience to see how creatively Alber Elbaz uses his designs to form a couture experience for our exclusive fashion show in New York. Working with this incredibly gifted designer has been like an ongoing fashion moment, and we’re thrilled to offer his masterpieces to our customers.” Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor at H&M. Alber Elbaz, artistic director at Lanvin, has created the women’s collection with an extraordinary ambition for H&M, bringing the codes of the house to make every single piece identifiably the work of Lanvin. For women there are dresses of breathtaking cut and joyful colour, as well as pieces full of Parisian glamour and accessories with playful “joie de vivre”.

The menswear collection designed by Lucas Ossendrijver, menswear designer at Lanvin, encapsulates the label’s complete vision of how men should dress. It’s a whole new wardrobe of covetable updated classics, with tuxedos made for daywear and jogging pants adding a whole new sporting twist. Sofia Coppola said of the collection, “I think Alber

Elbaz is great, I love what he does at Lanvin, it’s so girly and playful and confident. It’s so cool he’s working with H&M, it

makes it so accessible to all kinds of young people to be able to afford it and wear it”. And Andie MacDowell said, “I think it’s genius. I’m a big fan of Lanvin. I can afford Lanvin and my daughter can afford H&M, and now my daughter’s going to have the opportunity to have a little bit more pizzazz.” Looks from the haute couture show along with five original signed sketches from Alber Elbaz went up for auction on www.lanvinforhm.com. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to UNICEF, as part of H&M’s “All for Children” project. The online auction will end on November 26th at midnight CET.