Kamis, 27 Januari 2011

Blackout Delays Givenchy Show By Over an Hour

A power failure in Bercy–the site of Givenchy‘s show venue–delayed the start of their men’s show by over an hour, according to numerous tweets from GQ, Cathy Horyn, WWD and Style.com. According to Cathy Horyn’s twitter, the show has finally started–PHEW–after an hour and a half delay. But here are some of our favorite tweets from the Givenchy blackout of 2011:


I think GQ wins.


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Prada’s SS11 Campaign Video Will Brighten Your Day

As if I couldn’t be more enthralled by Miuccia Prada’s stripes and monkeys, a video campaign was released yesterday that I’ve watched more times than I’m proud to share.

Models Tati Cotliar, Kinga Razjak, Arizona Muse, Mariacarla Boscono and Zuzanna Bijoch show off their best dance moves to Ratatat’s Mirando off their 2008 album LP3. Tati’s moves may be the best, but Mariacarla’s are the most intense… If only I had a stockpile of Prada to dance in.


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Exclusive Preview: Miu Miu’s New Film “The Powder Room,” Directed By Zoe Cassavetes

We love Miu Miu. And we love Zoe Cassavetes. So this brief–but enticing–preview of the director’s short film for the brand easily stole our hearts. “The Powder Room” is the first film in a series called Women’s Tales, in which notable female filmmakers with unique points of view explore the female love affair with Miu Miu.

Cassavetes filmed at London’s Claridges hotel (swoon) and the models–Caroline de Maigret, Line Gost and Sophie Vlaming–are wearing Miu Miu Spring 2011 (double swoon).

The film will premiere in its entirety on MiuMiu.com imminently.


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Star Man


Giorgio Armani’s Couture show last night was the first-ever fashion outing for both Jodie Foster and Olivia Wilde. When it was over, Jodie turned to Olivia and said, 'What do we do now?' Easy. Join Mr. A., their host for the evening, at Mathis for an intimate dinner. The rest of the front row showed up, too: Pedro Almodóvar, Graeme Black, Poppy Delevingne with boyfriend James Cook, and Sophia Loren. Her date was her son Edoardo Ponti. Foster cut out early to work on her lines for God of Carnage, the film she's making in Paris at the moment with Roman Polanski (and there are a lot of lines, as anyone who saw the stage show will recall), but Wilde was happy to sit and chat about her flood tide of new projects. When your current and future co-stars include Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Eric Bana, Charlie Hunnam, Chris Pine, and Justin Timberlake (even if she is playing JT's mother), who wouldn't want to sit and gloat…just a little?

The Etam show at the Grand Palais, meanwhile, attracted its own fair share of celebrities, including a few—like Beth Ditto, Boy George, and Janelle Monáe—who themselves took to the stage.


—Tim Blanks

Givenchy Haute Couture Spring 2011: A Tribute to Butoh Dancer Kazuo Ohno


Photo by: Willy Van Der Perre

Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.

PARIS–Perhaps Riccardo Tisci has been thinking a great deal about what couture actually is. Ever since Pierre Bergé issued his famous edict nearly a decade ago that “haute couture is dead,” Paris couture has been in a state of constant turbulence. But over the past few seasons, a new wind has blown through the houses. Working outside of the establishment, younger French designers like Alexandre Vauthier and Julien Fournié have brought energy and excitement back to couture.

Is couture a way to sale handbags and perfumes? Is it a platform for ideas that will translate into ready-to-wear? Is it a giant media event to promote the brand? By opting out of a fashion show and banning all photographers, Mr. Tisci seemed to say that couture is about merging old crafts and new techniques.

Inspired by Butoh–an experimental and subversive dance featuring extremes movements and broaching taboo subjects–and the dancer Kazuo Ohno, its most prominent practitioner, the collection was displayed on hanging mannequins . It was an elegant mix of extreme softness–chiffon in white and pale yellow–and the hard plastics of Gundman robots in Japanese animation. Several of the dresses featured a motif of embroidered cranes. In Asian cultures, white cranes symbolize longevity.

It’s easy to see Tisci’s devotion to technical perfection–pearls burned onto tulle, hand-cut organza sewn so that each piece curls out like an open fan, and hard plastic shoulder pads giving strength to delicate silk chartreuse. It’s also easy to see how the elements of soft silk, shiny leather, and plastics add to the hard-soft duality of each dress, much like the duality of a Butoh dance piece.

The only drawback of the presentation is probably its scientific approach. Clothes, no matter how extraordinary, need to be seen on a human body to convey emotion. When a model came into the room wearing an off-white silk dress, our complete attention to the detailed embroideries was broken with her warm human presence.

Photo by: Willy Van Der Perre

Photo by: Willy Van Der Perre Photo by: Willy Van Der Perre Photo by: Willy Van Der Perre Photo by: Willy Van Der Perre

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Win an Xbox & Kinect – Get those votes in before it’s too late!

Win an Xbox & Kinect – Get those votes in before it’s too late!: "

Win an Xbox & Kinect PackageAs many of you know, throughout January we've been celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Excel. The big online party is over on the Excel Facebook page, where there's a contest to post your best memory of Excel. Thousands of folks have already shared their memories, and the votes are starting to pile up. But it's not too late for you to win one of two Xbox & Kinect packages (the prizes for the top two submissions with the highest votes). Yep - you read that right! Two Xbox & Kinect packages!

...(read more)"

Data Visualization Hierarchy of Needs

Data visualization hierarchy of needs

Is it possible to create a “data visualization hierarchy of needs” like Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs? I’ve tried that in the pyramid above. Here are the details:



  • Is it the right Medium? A chart can really help processing data and minimize information overload, but what about “chart overload”? Don’t make a chart if you don’t need one, and make sure that a chart is the best vehicle for your message.

  • Answer a Question: Let’s assume that you do need a chart. A chart is (should be…) a visual answer to a very specific question. What is the question? Try to use is as the chart title: does the chart still make sense? Make sure you chose the right data to answer the question.

  • Present the Data accurately: A chart is a visual translation of an underlying data table. This translation shouldn’t distort proportions and relationships between data points.

  • Emphasize the Patterns: The whole point of presenting the data visually is to take advantage of our built-in pattern detectors, but you must help them. Choose the right chart type. Don’t display the data randomly. For example, don’t sort a categorical variable alphabetically (that’s almost random). The sorting key should be the data itself.

  • Establish Priorities: Create layers of reading. Grid lines are less important than the data, so they should be grayed out. Some series are leading actors, other series provide context.

  • Multiply Perspectives: Add detail, create multiple views of the same dataset, add interaction.

  • Grab Attention: Add color, make your chart aesthetically pleasing.


What do you think? Am I missing something? What would you change? Add your comments below.



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Post from: Excel Charts Blog.


Data Visualization Hierarchy of Needs


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