It’s the dress from the $US6.5 million wedding that caused a bidding war among the world’s magazines. We reveal Jessica Biel’s wedding dress for the first time…
It looks like pink is the new colour of the moment for brides on the cutting edge of fashion.
First Anne Hathaway wed in a Valentino pale pink creation, and now Jessica Biel’s nuptials with Justin Timberlake have made the front page of People – with her clad in a custom-made “petal-pink gown”.
The wedding dress was the subject of massive speculation leading up to the event, but afterwards it was revealed that rather than go with the usual celebrity suspects, Vera Wang or Monique Lhullier, Biel chose Giambattista Valli to design her gown.
It also, unusually, had a pattern – gentle dip-dyes of pink across white silk, forming waves and frills of colour.
The other massive trend? Volume. Both Biel and Hathaway – pale brunettes – chose gowns heavy on the petticoats and light on the bodice.
It’s a pretty traditional move, but it also means that the prediction that everybody would be following Duchess Catherine’s lead and donning sleeves was misguided. Celebrity women want to show off their guns on their wedding days.
The pictures of the gown sold to People Magazine for more than $US300,000 – and the wedding itself? Well, that only cost $US6.5 million.
No talk about how much the custom-made creation cost, but it’s worth betting it was significant.
Pink couture on a wedding day: cutting-edge or silly?
Image: Jessica Biel on the cover of People.
Never heard of Abu Dhabi? You soon will.
Fashionistas worth their salt will be flocking there for the first World Luxury Week in November.
MO Luxury reports that the world-first event is a celebration of the highest end of fashion, from couture to pret-a-porter.
Why Abu Dhabi? The Middle East is one of the world’s biggest buyers of luxury goods – oil wealth means that the region is drenched in designer possibilities, and many luxury retailers are contemplating expanding into the area.
It’s also perceived as more chic and less over-the-top than its neighbour, Dubai, which has now become associated with wealthy people behaving badly.
The World Luxury Week’s home, the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, is one of the most prestigious hotels in the region, and that’s saying something.
So what’s the schedule? Apparently haute couture, sponsored by BMW Mercedes, will dominate the first part, followed by ready-to-wear in the last few days.
One aspect Rescu. loves? That this World Luxury Week will put the spotlight on luxury Middle Eastern designers who require a leg up in Europe and America.
After all, one of the biggest gown success stories, Zuhair Murad, who now clothes the likes of Blake Lively, Kristen Stewart and Beyonce, is originally from Beirut, and broke onto the global scene after a collaboration with Mango.
We’re guessing a few more local wonders will break the big time this November.
Image: World Luxury Week.
Mario Testino has been making waves with his latest interview.
For one, he claims that he ‘made’ Gisele Bundchen, who is now the world’s highest paid supermodel and soon likely to become a billionaire.
He insists that before he came along, nobody wanted to work with her because of “the nose, the breasts, the waist” – and that his promotion and photography put her on the map.
Bundchen has no comment, but most fashion observers noted that her stratospheric rise really came about when she started dating Leonardo Dicaprio, and having access to couture on the red carpet.
For another, he told the interviewer that he isn’t any sexuality at all, because he wanted to give himself the freedom to remain undefined. “My sexuality has been so wide and open, and that’s what influenced my way of working,” he said.
And, to add the cherry on top, he related that Anna Wintour, queen bee of US Vogue, once summoned him to take her passport photo.
The reason for all the chatter? He’s promoting a new fine arts show of his non-fashion photography in Boston.
Testino also related that when he was younger, he had to take cabs everywhere to avoid being bullied for his sense of style. We’re looking forward to more quotes as the promotional season continues.
Image: Mario Testino with Kate Moss.
