Petronio and Associates has us in suspense

Natasha Poly adds sexy to her repitoire of editorial looks in the new Self Service

You know this by now. Not much will change in the ranks of the girls clients consider directional and marketable enough to front their brands. Natasa, Anja, Malgosia, Kate...The tried and the trued will find their bread well buttered. A girl like Snejana for instance, long past the status of being a fad already has found herself on set for one of those high profile brands that everyone kills to book.

The real suspense lies in the challenge of which of the 25 or so 'runway breakthroughs' that I'm currently tracking at MDC will actually convert into girls with an editorial and campaign career. I can't tip my hand too much but Paris for me was the story of Aline W of One in NY (& Elite Paris) and Amanda Laine at Supreme (& Women Paris). They are two very different kind of girls but with an obvious hardcore insider fashion appeal. Its great that Aline, the same Brazilian 15 year old who spoke no English and was very unhappy in NY three years ago is the toast of all Paris right now. And Amanda, a girl NY didn't get goes on to open both McQueen and Miu-Miu in Paris. I'm fascinated by her face. Her make-up at the Balenciaga converted her into this severe, almost intimidating power-woman. Its a clear sign that she'll be a great girl for the blue chippers to play with in upcoming months in the glossies. I can only imagine those options!

Colette/Domestic: Curated Alpahabet: Ezra Petronio

Ezra Petronio has a dream life. He breaks the rules and ends up reinforcing fashion's status quo. He publishes Self-Service as a hardcover magazine. Which is a very genius conceit if you really think about it. He breaks tons of rules in Self-Service. He covers images with huge blocks of type which for the post-Brodovitch school is absolute sacrilege. He has made a book of his fashion celebrity Polaroids (which ironically enough I just mis-typed as PRO-laroids) . The book is titled "Bold and Beautiful". It is printed by 7L, my favorite publishing imprint in the world. You really should buy it for the reference library. Other than that Petronio plays with clients and collaborators like Miu-Miu, Prada, Chloe, Colette in imaging these very selective brands. This ranges from product packaging to websites to advertising and general creative direction. TI worships this ideal. The altar may be found at Petronio's blog : workinprogressblog.com. It is so bookmarked right this minute!