miumiu.com is a genius bit of work in progress

Sorry for the late postings guys but I've been buried in the castings for Rad which (knock on wood) have gone exceptionally well. Tons of really brilliant girls ran in and out of the MDC office today ranging from Masha Tyelina, a perfect type for the show's aesthetic to 1 Mgmt's amazing new find Gantz, another note perfect Rad girl. I always love any chance to hang out with Suzanne Diaz. She's such a graceful and beautiful girl I blush every time I see her. Jourdan Dunn after a 3 week vacation in Jamaica looks beyond gorgeous with her new hair and the Supreme girls Katriina, Amanda and Hanne are feeling like must-haves. Marilyn has some really strong girls on the market with runway stars like Erin Heatherton and Patricia Schmid (who won the best personal style award today ). But its this new girl of theirs named Eniko , slated for MOTW this week at MDC , who really blew me away. She was runway perfection. The surprise of the day was the sleekness AND the slickness of the New York Models girls. I love that the agency edited the selection so tightly and had the girls groomed and styled so impeccably my eyes started mixing them in effortlessly with the Women and Supreme girls who tend to corner the market on the cool quotient. It was a pleasure to finally meet Noreen while Camille I can safely say is one of those new girls you just confirm without further question. I was shocked and touched to see Sunniva pop by. I know she is super-direct booking and can only take three of four blue chip shows so I was quite honored that NY Models decided to put Rad's show in the mix of acceptable options for her. And for those girls who are not quite the very specific aesthetic of the show it was still fun to see them loop by, walking their walk. Meeting them all up close and personal makes it so much easier to deduce the Top 10 Newcomers. I saw a looped clip of all the girls from today's go-sees edited by the tireless team at MDC which I can't wait for them to post. It was a fun day and one filled with much gossip. We were looking for boys too, an operation that Betty Sze took over, much to my relief . So my ears perked up when one agent informed us that we were in conflict with Sean John. "Oh no," countered Betty, " I don't think we're looking for the same kind of boys. We want that sleek, lean thin but natural body type". Well apparently Sean John is going skinny this season. As in super skinny. The fit model for the show passed through the casting today and true to unexpected form, he was a pretty lean young man from Amsterdam and 135th. The show is being styled by Pannos apparently and the references are the YSL and Dior Homme of Hedi Slimane made "urban". It makes sense if you think about it. All the cool young black kids have gone skin-tight, a silhoutte TI made note of in our Let The Children Play post a few months back. It means more work for Betty and I but I love that Mr Combs is willing to be radical.

And it's that time again. This being Jan 29th, it means we're back for another round of that fabulous game called "Who's On The Cover Of Next Month's Vogue Italia". Well January's wildfire speculation certainly dragged in massive traffic to TI so I'm not scared to repeat the hiss I've heard. In code. Bear in mind, this is all rumors. An anonymous poster here at TI was convinced its a three-girl cover for some lingerie epic. Another rumor-monger tells me its a TWO girl cover with one of the girl's being a classic type, currently in heavy circulation for Steven with the other being a bit of a surprise call. For the record, its all second-hand hiss so don't swear by it. But its so much fun to pass on!

The other big news today is the arrival of the most powerful casting director in the world, Mr Russell Marsh on the island of Manhattan. For rival casting directors he's very Lord Valdemort. His name is best whispered, for in the wake of his terrible passage, girls disappear from show packages and agency websites. Agents don't breathe until he's yay-ed or neigh-ed the possibilities for that Prada fitting and/or exclusive gig . Forgive the heavy language, but I really find the strum und drang of the Prada castings very funny. One agent fumed last week that they were not going to do it it anymore. That is, lock up the girl until she's shipped off to Milan for Muiccia's whimsical approval. " And then what? She walks the show with 17 other girls no-one has ever seen before or will ever see again . Next season no-one wants her and then Sasha gets the campaign again" Well I've pulled up the chair to see who'll be the first to deny Russell his right to domination on the world market. Russian mother agencies send HIM the polaroids before they send it to the NY, Paris, Milan and London agencies. In all of this though, Miuccia Prada is not telling anyone whether her cabine of girls are good models or bad models. Or beautiful girls or not beautiful girls. She's simply exercising her very personal and specific tastes. If she likes girls that remind her of herself then so be it. Nobody obliges half the casting directors of NY to fill their shows with walkers from last season's Prada, but it says a lot about leaders and followers when that does happen. That is the power of taste. All the people in fashion I admire stand by the vagaries of their taste.I love the new Miu-Miu website that looks very work-in-progress for that reason. All that overlapping and clashing layering. The rough cut-outs and the raw video. Its very true and I'm sure it will be very very influential for clients looking to rethink web-site design! Marc Jacobs once said his idea of luxury was the ability to do exactly what he wanted to do. And only that. Yup, that's pretty luxurious in a world of backseat drivers and anonymous snipers. Sniping is a big part of fashion. I've been guilty of it many a times but I say the chicest snipers are the ones who walk around with their guns in plain sight. And put their real names on their sniping. Taste is a dictatorship and keeping your aesthetic could make you rich !