Ellen von Unwerth featuring Kylie

Ellen von Unwerth has to be my favourite photographer, hands down! She has recently photographed Kylie Minogue for the Spanish brand Tous. Although I am not usually a huge Kylie fan (I have a lot of respect for her but not a lot of time), she looks phenomenal in these photographs and video!




Here is "Kylie's Party", the new Tous 2009 campaign directed by Ellen Von Unwerth and starring Kylie Minogue.




xx Love Swah

Train de Nuit

Hooray the new Chanel ad is complete! As I mentioned in a previous post I was bouncing around with sheer delight about the combination of Chanel (my favourite high end brand) Jean-Pierre Jeunet (my favourite director) and Audrey Tautou (my favourite actress).

Here is the making of:



And the complete ad titled Train de Nuit:



Wow! This succeeds my expectations and perfectly blends the artistic visions of both Chanel and Jeunet. Now I feel like taking an exotic and luxurious train ride through Europe!

xx Love Swah

Plus size beauty in Harper's Bazaar Australia

I was very pleased (and dare I say a little surprised) when I opened up this month's Harper's Bazaar Australia and saw the beautiful plus-size model Crystal Renn gracing the pages. I had become accustomed to waif-like models with protruding bones and gaunt faces, and pined for the return of the voluptuous retro beauty. Whilst I still think we are a long way from that, I am pleased this is a step in the right direction.





Photographed by Luis Sanchis, these photographs exude a retro elegance, sexiness and most importantly, confidence. It's nice to have a more realistic role model for women to look up to.

xx Love Swah

My Dream Home - Betsey Johnson's pink apartment

Le sigh. Fashion maestro Betsey Johnson's Manhattan apartment was featured in Elle Decoration UK. It is totally pink, over the top and fabulous. Just like her. And yes, I dare say it is possibly my dream home! (Although the chances of getting a man to live in there with me are quite slim).



“Make it personal. I like houses that totally reflect their owners. Take some chances. Try those colors you’ve always loved but were afraid to use. What’s the worst that can happen? You have to start over again? So what? Decorating is fun. And maybe you’ll learn something about yourself in the process.” - Betsey Johnson

Even if you couldn't deal with this pink love-fest, you've got to admit her apartment is inspiring!

xx Love Swah

Your dream virtual wardrobe!

Cast your minds back to the classic 1995 movie, Clueless. Remember Cher's amazing virtual wardrobe? She was able to select her outfit with the mere click of a button thanks to the nifty software on her computer. The imaginary program allowed her to pick and choose the perfect outfit without the hassle of leafing through one's wardrobe, discarded clothes littering the floor.


Thanks to the new website Closet Couture, this novel idea is now a reality. The site allows you to upload pictures of your wardrobe and have members of the community help select the best outfit - described as a "Facebook for fashion".

Features include a digital dressing room to select outfits, hiring stylists to complete wardrobe makeovers online and even get help writing packing lists for travel!

Scoot over to www.closetcouture.com ASAP and get uploading!

xx Love Swah

White Paper

White paper is a simple, clean medium that can be transformed into a thing of beauty. Unfortunately it is often just seen as a functional component of the corporate world. Karl Lagerfeld saw its beauty, his 2009 Spring/Summer haute couture show for Chanel was inspired by "white paper, the ultimate luxury".

The show featured a paper installation, made up of 7000 handmade paper flowers, created by using 4000 square metres of paper, which took a total of 4800 hours of work to assemble. Wowsers!


But why stop there, I am sure Karl was thinking. Even the models wore exquisite headpieces made of paper flower!


Another person utilising white paper is artist Peter Callesen, transforming 2D blank pieces of A4 paper into 3D sculptures.


I hope you all found that as inspirational as I did! I now have an overwhelming urge to make some origami.. out of white paper of course!

xx Love Swah