Who would have thought a photograph book featuring photos taken by the Sydney Police from 1912 – 1948 would have landed in the lap of Karl Lagerfeld. How it got there doesn’t matter now. He’s been recommending it to all his friends in the industry he comes across.

Cathy Horyn, the fashion critic for The New York Times, said the fashion designer had recommended the book to her.

“Lagerfeld told me, by the by, that I ought to check out a recently published book of Sydney police photos from the ’40s and ’50s,” she wrote on her Times fashion blog. “Can you imagine the people, the clothes?”

The book, City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs 1912-1948 by Peter Doyle, features photos from an extensive collection of forensic photography of crime and accident scenes and mugshots for the three decades after World War I.

According to the Abbey’s staff review, you can “meet the thieves, breakers, ‘magsmen’, dope users, prostitutes and murderers who comprised Sydney’s shadowy underworld. Then observe in extraordinary detail their physical milieu – the kitchens, bedrooms and parlours, pubs, corner shops, back lanes and streets of an eerily familiar Sydney.

The clothes featured will take you back to the time of “three-piece suits and fedoras for the men - because even gangsters never left the house without a hat in those days - and flapper-style dresses and furs for the women.”

The reaches of the fashion pack are just amazing. The Sartorialist, Scott Schuman, loved it so much he featured it in his popular photography blog.

“Breathtaking!” He says. “This is definitely one of my new favorite books. If I do a book at somepoint I only hope that someday, somebody is as moved by my work as I am by the images in this book.”

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Esprit are going to be staging a vertical fashion show down Melbourne Central’s Shot Tower as part of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival on March 6, 2007.As part of their relaunch in the Australian market, the 90 degree show will showcase the Esprit Autumn/Winter collection through acrobatics and dance on the vertical catwalk.

This isn’t the first time that a vertical fashion show has taken place.

Almost two years ago Target held a vertical fashion show on Fifth Avenue at Rockefeller Center (pictures below), with members of the Jochenschweizer acrobatic rappelling troupe walking down the side a 9-story tower on the Plaza, using the wall as a runway.

“We want to inspire our guests with our fall collection and want them to have fun with fashion,” said John Remington, vice president of communications, Target. “Doing a runway show down the side of one of New York’s most iconic buildings was a great way to do just that.”

Target had also pulled a similar stunt a few years earlier to reintroduce its delivery service for customers via London-style taxis. The highlight of the event was the vertical fashion show, which had a group of European athletes, suspended in harnesses, descending down a Target store’s 11-story wall.

For more about the Target Vertical fashion show visit USAToday.com.

Images from Sapsis-rigging.com

– Covering Australian fashion beccause we’re an Australian blog

Is it a shock when it’s the stylist who put Sex and the City’s fashion on the map, as well as styling that fashion movie of 2006 – The Devil Wears Prada.

Well for Oscats red carpet walk, Patricia Field paired Payless shoes she personally designed with a red strapless silk gown adorned with Swarovski crystals and beads by David Dalrymple. The Patricia Field for Payless shoes shoes were platform heel with an ankle strap featuring an edgy mix of metallic and colored snake skin.

Oh right, did I forget to mention the Payless shoes were designed by Patricia and will be available to the general public as part of her capsule collection for Payless shoes?

Well they are – and they’re due in US stores for the 2007 holiday season with handbags also to be included. Prices are due to be $45 and under.

“I am really excited about what Payless is doing to make fashion more democratic and accessible by creating the latest on-trend shoes and offering them at a great price,” said Field. “I jumped at the chance to design my shoes for the Oscars, and to bring women nationwide my personal style through my forthcoming Red Carpet Collection expected at Payless for the 2007 holiday season.”

The Payless and Field partnership had been in the works for a while with the Oscar nominated stylist styling Payless TV and print ads for almost a year and a half.

- I wonder if the shoes will be available at Australian Payless stores…

You’ve got to give the Karl Lagerfeld major kudos. Who else would dare to take an entire catwalk show on to the only man made building that can be seen from the moon. He is planning to restage the entire Fendi Fall/Winter 2007 show on the Great Wall of China.

“We’re not talking backdrop. The entire wall will function as a runway for the show,” Fendi’s chief Michael Burkesaid. “We’re turning the wall into a street. You know, we’re from Rome.”

“It’s all about the opening of China, not just economically, but also from an artistic and cultural point of view.” Lagerfeld said he’s been to China before, “but not that part.”

The show is scheduled to take place May 24, less than a week after Lagerfeld presents the Chanel Cruise collection in LA. But Karl isn’t concerned. “I have a lot of people working for me, like Mao,” Lagerfeld quipped.

(source WWD, catwalk images from Style.com)

I love bows – have metres and metres of ribbon at home for all the DIY cinching at the waist I do. So it comes as no surprise that two of my favourite dresses were adorned with bows. Anne Hathaway took her style to a different level with her white lace Valentino dress, and Nicole Kidman just looked so statuesque in the red halter neck Balenciaga dress. Only she could have pulled it off.

My other favourites were from the other two statuesque beauties that are known for their fashionable choices – Gwyneth Paltrow in the peach coloured Zac Posen gown and Cate Blanchett in Armani Prive. You really expect nothing less from these two.

As a sentimental favourite there was Naomi Watts practically glowing in Escada, while Beyonce and Rachel Weiz picked out some great gowns with subtle embellishments that flattered their shape. The tulle and beading in Rachel Weiz’s Vera Wang gown finished off the bow pin at the bust. While Beyonce’s Armani Prive gown with the cross body jade detail was one of her better red carpet choices of the season.

What was your favourite gowns?

See below the fold for more on who wore what at the 2007 Academy Awards…

Images from GossipRocks

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What do you think? The photo of the Prada LG phone advertisement was taken outside a Prada store by Scott Schulman.

Sasha looks like she was punched in both eyes. Black eyes are really not becoming. Though I am a little bias because I definitely prefer Gemma Ward over Sasha Pivivarova.

It is clever that they’ve put the picture of Sasha inside a giant cutout of the Prada LG phone.

The Prada LG phone is due in stores by the end of the month (so next week) if you’re in Italy, the UK, France and Germany.

(image via Imaginary Socialite)

This is another slightly different Luxe to Less. After surfing around BlueFly.com (as I do constantly in hope of finding some stunning and at a bargain price) I came across these super pretty silk panel skirts from Catherine Malandrino.

Made with beautiful silk crepe material, and topped off with a satin waistband with stitch detail panels the aquamarine skirt has been marked down by 79% from $330 to $69.99, while the champagne skirt is $103.99,

Which one do you like better? I love the champagne coloured one – much more versatile. Even if it is $30 more expensive.

New mum and one half of Sass & Bide, Heidi Middleton, has been reportedly treated for breast cancer. The news comes just days after giving birth to her second child as reported on News.com.au:

The 35-year-old Sydney designer had a lumpectomy before the removal of a tumour in her breast after the birth of her daughter, Elke Bay Plowman last Thursday.

On Tuesday she had successful surgery to remove the tumour.

“The good news is that the worst is behind us,” her close friend of 15 years and business partner Sarah-Jane Clarke told The Daily Telegraph’s fashion editor Jen Melocco.

“From now on it’s going to be good and she’s going to get lots of rest and is looking forward to being her happy, healthy self again.”

According to Clarke, the diagnosis and treatment had occurred only in past few days, and that the pair had no idea when they showed their Autumn/Winter 2007 collection in New York Fashion Week earlier this month.

Very pregnant with her second daughter, Elke, Middleton had watched the show from Sydney for the first time, as her designing partner showed their collection.

According to News.com.au, Middleton will take the next few months away from the fashion world as maternity leave and to recuperate and spend time with her family.

We wish Heidi, her family and friends all the best from SASSYBELLA.com

(source)

– Covering Australian fashion because we’re an Australian blog

First it was Kylie Minogue, dressed in a Chloe jacket and toting a Chloe Bay bag, then it was followed a week or so later with Keira Knightly and Jennifer Garner and their Bay bags.

Now it’s Mischa Barton’s turn to tote around the Chloe Bay bag, the bag named after the boho stylist, Bay Garnett. Dressed in a print tunic with and accessorized with a white vest, Mischa is channeling the 1960s and 1970s vibe.

There are some great floral tunics available online now. Topshop’s Liberty Printed Dress (left) with its bell sleeves is a sweet pick, as well as their printed Shirt Dress (right). If you’re looking to spend a little more, there is Paul & Joe’s Ming floral print dress (middle) with it’s beautiful wide scoop neck collar and tie detail on the shoulders and waist.

And of course, match it with a Chloe Bay bag in Mocha from Bergdorf Goodman for US$1,680.

(images from Celebrity Nation)