World Premiere Interview: Lauret Caillat Hottest SuperStar

LAURENT CAILLAT

 Hottest International SuperStar!

by Christopher Uvenio

Tall. Dark and Handsome. Sauve. Striking features. Physique. Singer. Songwriter. Producer. DJ. Actor.  Laurent have appeared in television series: Gossip Girls and several films. And Dancer. and yes, International Male Model. And yes, LAURENT CAILLAT is the Face of my Coffeetable Book! The Leading Male Model for my Menswear Collection.

- Let's give some tips to new models, tell me What is the most important thing that a girl/boy should do to present herself/himslef well in castings?

I think the most important thing is to learn how to exude confidence, be personable and engaging.

looks only will more then likely not give you that extra something.

Do you have an interesting anecdote from a photo shoot, a casting or a show?

a few years back at NYCFW i was walking a show at the tents in Bryant park for some designer I completely forgot the name of and we ( the models) were given wonder bread (!!!) to put in our underwear…apparently they were see through and that's what they came up with to make it pg 13 ( laugh)…

- Your career is unique, what do you think made you stand out among other guys?

I think the one thing which always played in my favor was the fact that I am a performing artist foremost ; That has always helped me in terms of "selling the story" so to speak …Modeling just happened but that was certainly not the main plan.

Turning to some personal questions, how would you describe your way to have fun, the places you usually go, and your way to enjoy life?

I have thing for Bars in general,; the atmosphere , the smell , the encounters …I am somewhat of a night person , and I obviously love music , so anything combining those two elements will do it for me. I also love cinema with a penchant for either french new wave authors or B action movies from the 80's (laugh)
cooking and having friends over for dinner is also something that I enjoy very much!

Tell me about your professional plans: apart from modeling, what else would you like to pursue or are you already pursuing?

I am currently working on my debut album.which is very much a mix of nu-disco , deep house , rnb and pop.
I also do a lot of music production work for beauty and fashion brands alike. My latest collaborations include clients such as : Nars cosmetics, ByKillian, Slightly Sinister, Barell Hound ,Ducati…
In 2013 I Wrote the score to my good friend Francois Rousseau's 1st feature "Time of the athletes ( le temps des Athletes). As an actor my latest work was on Paul Bettany's directorial debut "Shelter" starring his wife Jennifer Connelly; I share a small scene with her which was pretty amazing .

On the fashion industry: who are the people that you really loved to work with?
I would have loved to work with Jean-Paul Gaultier in the 90's.In my opinion, He pretty much defined the so called "generation x " from a fashion standpoint . I would love to work with Karl Lagerfeld, Tom Ford,Ozwald boateng and Georgio Armani.

- What is your favorite sport and how often do you play it?

I work out quite a bit, so i would say my daily routine at the gym. I also love swimming, sparring…I use to do a lot of capoeira ( getting back to it): I have a bit of a penchant for martial arts in general and acrobatic sports ( In a previous life I was a part of the swiss national gymnastics team..))

What is your favorite kind of movies and the last film you watched?
I love all sorts of movies…The last one that I quite fancied was "bone tomahawk" starring Kurt Russell ( I'm a big Kurt Russell fan! the best beard in the business (laugh)

Your favorite female model?

CHRISTY TURLINGTON! Hands down..

-Where have you been traveling recently?

Lately to Geneva to see my family and to the Dominican Republic to see my family as well..

Thank you for your time Laurent! I Look forward to more interview with you in the near future!!

Designer: Albert Elbaz to Dior?!

The dust is still settling in the empty drawers that once belonged to Raf Simons at Dior and Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, but speculation has already reached a deafening pitch about who might replace them.

                                                                                         

Olivier Rousteing of Balmain, Phoebe Philo of Céline, Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy and Joseph Altuzarra are some of the names that have been thrown (not by the individuals themselves) into the ring for both jobs. Hands down the loudest speculation, however, is that Mr. Elbaz, now presumably a free agent, is the natural choice for Dior.

But is he? A little perspective.                           

We’ve been to this dance before. Rumor had it that Mr. Elbaz was a top candidate in 2011 when John Galliano was fired from Dior and the house was first looking to fill the position that eventually went to Mr. Simons. There was a reason the two sides decided not to engage, and it may well still hold true. Though there is also one big difference between now and then: Mr. Elbaz is no longer employed, and the need for a job is a big deal — even if his forced exit came with a fairly large parachute.

Still, if Dior wanted him then, there’s no reason it wouldn’t want him again.

After all, Mr. Elbaz is very talented, and he has made a signature out of a certain kind of highly decorative ease that would make sense in the Dior aesthetic lineage. He understands how to manage a heritage brand, having been at Yves Saint Laurent for a brief stint after Mr. Saint Laurent retired from ready-to-wear and at Lanvin for 14 years, and he appreciates the responsibility of being entrusted with a legacy. He can work with an atelier (the Lanvin atelier loved him). He lives in Paris and does not have the distraction of a second brand.

And he is widely adored in the fashion world. On Wednesday, talking on the phone, Ralph Toledano, the president of the Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode, and the man who brought Mr. Elbaz to Paris as the designer of Guy Laroche in 1996, told me, “The fashion world loves him, and he deserves it.”

Given that the fashion world is mourning Mr. Simons’s departure, replacing him with someone who has its support, and who is seen as having been maltreated, would give Dior a fairly deep cushion of good will.

It all makes a fair amount of sense, yet Mr. Elbaz has been very vocal about his attraction to the small, tight team at Lanvin. His bruising experience at Yves Saint Laurent, where he was replaced in short order by Tom Ford after the brand was bought by then-Gucci Group, has made him leery of the corporatization of fashion.

He is a designer who wears his emotions on his sleeve, and Dior is one of the biggest global brands in the industry, a cornerstone of the billion-dollar club. Its demands of a creative director are well documented — though at the same time, there were areas that were off-limits to Mr. Simons: the choice of celebrity representatives, for example; the store design. Both of those bore the quirky signature of Mr. Elbaz at Lanvin, and they would probably be responsibilities that would be hard for him to relinquish as they are integral to the aesthetic message of a brand.

In the end, though, the single biggest factor that argues against this possibility is a speech Mr. Elbaz gave last week at the Fashion Group International Night of Stars in New York, noting that “everyone in fashion just needs a little more time.” A lack of time was widely believed to have contributed to Mr. Simons’s decision to leave Dior, so it would seem contradictory for Mr. Elbaz to turn around and opt for that job.

Still, when Mr. Elbaz commits to a brand, he does so for the long term, and Dior could use a little commitment about now — both for the sake of the men and women in the ateliers, and for the sake of the customers.

Not very conclusive, I know. But if years watching this business has taught me anything, it’s that I can rarely second-guess the machinations of creative hiring that go on behind the ornate facades of these brands. It could be that Dior really wants to shock the world by going with the unexpected, à la Balenciaga and Demna Gvasalia. And Mr. Elbaz may decide he’s had enough and would just like a different life, as Helmut Lang and Ann Demeulemeester did before him.

For all our sakes, it would be healthier to stop the gossip; to let Mr. Elbaz and Sidney Toledano, the chief executive of Dior, catch their breath; to leave this to the headhunters to sort out; and to assess the decision once it has been made.

Though if you believe that is going to happen, I also have a very pretty bridge I can sell you.

Alber Elbaz Is Leaving Lanvin!!

Here we go again! Last week, Raf Simons shocked the fashion world by announcing he was leaving the house of Dior. And on Wednesday, Alber Elbaz pulled another punch by confirming that he is leaving Lanvin. 

While Simons was at the helm of Dior for less than four years, Elbaz has led Lanvin for over 14. A steady, quiet presence at the top of the Paris fashion game, Elbaz maintained a loyal following of women who preferred romantic, feminine clothes to whatever latest trend led the street style brigade.

WWD first reported that he’d cleaned out his office and notified the design team before the story broke. “While the parties are likely to characterize the development as by mutual agreement, sources said the rupture came following disagreements between the charismatic Israeli designer and company principals: owner Shaw-Lan Wang and chief executive officer Michèle Huiban,” wrote the trade paper. 

Forget mutual agreement, Elbaz penned a letter to the world saying that he was leaving “on the decision of the company’s majority shareholder.” So he was pushed out, which might not be as surprising at it seems given the company’s consistently low sales. Without a hit shoe or handbag, a new cosmetics line or massively popular fragrance, it didn’t quite enjoy the profits of a Dior or Chanel, for example.

 

“I wish to express my gratitude and warm thoughts to all those who have worked with me passionately on the revival of Lanvin over the past 14 years,” Elbaz wrote. “Together, we have met the creative challenge presented by Lanvin and have restored its radiance and have returned it to its rightful position among France’s absolute luxury houses.”

Will he succeed Simons at Dior is the obvious question. He was up for the job post-Galliano but passed because, unlike most creative directors, he actually owns part of Lanvin. Coming from a house that didn’t make money, however, doesn’t make him the most appealing candidate for a brand that needs to sell like Dior. 

The past week has been filled with grim headlines

like, “Fashion Is Moving Too Fast, and It’s Killing Creativity,” and “Overheated! Is Fashion Heading for a Burnout?” Killing creativity might be a bit dramatic, but it’s certainly heading for a much needed change.

Who is Albert Elbaz?

Alber Elbaz (born 1961) is a Moroccan Israeli fashion designer. Elbaz worked for the Paris fashion house Lanvin from 2001 until October 2015!!

Alber Elbaz was born on June 12, 1961 in Casablanca, Morocco. He immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 10 and grew up in Holon. After serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, he studied at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan. His life partner is Alex Koo, Lanvin's director of marketing.

 1985, Elbaz moved to New York City and spent two years working for a manufacturer of mother-of-the-bride clothing, George F Couture. He then worked for Geoffrey Beene for seven years. He says he was influenced by Beene's rejection of trends and masterful drape and fit. "It was a very beautiful relationship.... Our best dialogue was not in words," Elbaz has reminisced.

In 1997, Elbaz left Beene and, through retailer Dawn Mello, was hired by the firm of Guy Laroche. But, by the time of Elbaz's arrival, the Laroche enterprise had become overly conservative and lackluster. Even so, Elbaz was able to update the collection and somewhat enhance the image of the firm, whose activities at the time included the management of 15 boutiques and 70 license agreements worldwide. However, he departed within a year, 1998, and began designing ready-to-wear women's clothing for Yves Saint Laurent, because Saint-Laurent himself wished to withdraw from his hands-on design of prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear). In the position, Elbaz's talent was recognized, and he was groomed to become the head designer of the house when Saint Laurent retired.

This was not to happen, because the Gucci Group purchased YSL Rive Gauche, the ready-to-wear label, and Gucci design director Tom Ford dismissed Elbaz after three collections. Elbaz instead began working for Krizia in Italy and designed a well-received inaugural collection.

In October 2001, Elbaz was appointed artistic director of Lanvin in Paris. In August 2001, the company was purchased by investor group Harmonie S.A., led by Shaw-Lan Wang, a Taiwanese media magnate, who hired Elbaz. On October 28, 2015, Lanvin announced that it severed ties with Elbaz, who separately stated that his removal was “the decision of the company’s majority shareholder.” 

Marc Jacob:"Yup. I’m gay. Sometimes I enjoy sex."

Fashion designer Marc Jacobs has quit gay dating app Grindr amid claims he hosted a ten-man gay orgy over the weekend.Page Six reported Monday that Jacobs, 52, invited 10 much younger men he had met on the dating app into his New York home for a “wild” orgy, which lasted until Sunday morning.

“Everyone was in their 20s,” a source told Page Six. “[But] people weren’t as good-looking as I expected.” (Sigh)

“They were average, chill people who didn’t have any attitude, which was really nice,” the source continued.

It wasn’t just sex they were having, though, according to the source who said some of the guests were also using common date rape drug GHB, as well as “Tina,” which is a form of crystal meth.

Jacobs admitted last year he used the hookup app before with an ex-boyfriend, former porn star Harry Louis, but claims he only went on it “a couple of times.”

“I don’t have any hang-ups about those kinds of things. I don’t really care. Who’s kidding who?” he told Paper magazine.

After the news of the wild sex party broke Monday, Jacobs bid farewell to Grindr via his Instagram page.

“Goodbye (for now) Grindr! It was fun for ‘group’ get togethers, but what really excites me is my work!” he posted, along with a topless image of himself.

“Yup. I’m gay. Sometimes I enjoy sex. Sometimes!” he added.



Marc Jacobs: His World

In my kitchen I have a framed cutout from a 1989 issue of Vanity Fair. It's a Steven Meisel photo of designer Marc Jacobs, then a longhaired darling of the fashion world, nude in bed save for a pair of black motorcycle boots. Yes, I was a fan. Flash forward to 2014, and Jacobs has just celebrated three decades of his global fashion empire and is approaching the one-year anniversary of his departure from Louis Vuitton, where he served as creative director for 16 years. Although Jacobs went through a chubby and schlubby phase, he's looking more fantabulously fit than ever and filling out his Adidas track pants better than most men half his age.

We meet at Sant Ambroeus in the West Village, and from the moment we sit down to nibble on our pasta (tagliatelle bolognese for Marc, penne pomodoro for me), Marc is sincere, sweet and ready to talk about anything. Being gays, we naturally discuss porn stars and Grindr; even on such salacious topics he's thoughtful, candid and totally real. After our lunch, I'm more of a fan than ever. 

   So it's your 30th anniversary, you have now left Vuitton, it's all about Marc Jacobs... 

  I didn't even know it was my 30th anniversary! I'm really bad with time. It's almost shocking, because I think I'm very aware of things,but there is something about time and dates that I just have a block about. Time doesn't... I don't register it really well.

Do you follow what's happening at Louis Vuitton? Or are you kind of like an ex-wife and you don't want to see what's going on since you've gone?
I had a hard time looking at it at first. I think I got pretty down and depressed, but I love what Nicolas [Ghesquière] does. I really admire him and I have really great respect for him. I think they wanted a change, and I think the change they made is really good. It would be worse if somebody was doing a similar thing to me. But Nicolas does his thing, and I think it looks good and I get it. So I don't have any problem with it.

My mother loves your fragrances, by the way. She puts them out at Christmas as Christmas decorations 'cause they have such fabulous bottles! Are there other worlds you want to conquer?
I don't really think that way. When we first started doing fragrance, to me it was such a big deal -- it still is a big deal -- but I sort of felt like, now I'm a real designer: I have a fragrance. I think that Robert Duffy, my partner, believed more that we could do cosmetics and that that was something that I would enjoy. I was a little bit reluctant. And of course he hooked it up with Sephora and we started doing it and I realized how much I love it. Once I become engaged, it's always the same process. The idea is you're with people who want to do something, and you start a dialogue and you start to define what is going to tell the story. It's like doing a show, it's like choosing fabrics, or colors, it's like deciding on a mood and the proportions and all that stuff. The process is kind of the same. You start out with nothing and then through a dialogue and through editing, and adding, and changing, you get into it, and then it becomes more interesting. So I've learned that even things that I didn't think I wanted to do can be a really enjoyable process if you treat them the same way as design.

Are you a control freak?
I wouldn't define myself that way. Maybe other people would. I think that it's difficult for me to arrive at a place where I think something is right, and when I get to that place, I feel like I'm very sure of what needs to be changed in order to really make it right... and to make me like it. And sometimes you have the time to do that, and sometimes you don't. It's hard for me to let go of things when I don't feel really good about them, and sometimes there's no choice. I guess after all these years I'm so used to doing things on a calendar or on a schedule that, although I'm constantly late and I work better under pressure, I always say I will do the best I can in the time I have. But it's still hard to let go when you sort of feel like, oh, if I had one more day...

I love how, after years of being known for starting your shows very late, you now start five minutes early no matter what. What brought on the change?
Well, I never set out to keep people waiting. I think it definitely reached an all-time high, and I feel like the lateness caused a lot of critics to look at the work differently. If they are tired, if it's the last show of the week, if it's late, if it's raining... you've got five strikes against you already. So I felt like, let's eliminate as many of the conditions as possible so that maybe the work can be just looked at as the work. That's when I got into this whole thing of, whatever we do in the time we have, [that's] the collection and the show. Then there is also this thing, I don't know if it's true or not, that Pierre Bergé and Saint Laurent were always on time, and Saint Laurent's always been my hero of all heroes. I love the idea of the precision. I love that fashion can be whatever it wants and change. Then again, it was funny because I got plenty of hell for starting on time too.

You've said Yves Saint Laurent is your idol. What is it about him that inspires you?
I love the world that Saint Laurent created and the people that surrounded him and worked with him. Since I was very young I have always been probably much more interested in European fashion than American fashion, for the most part, and Saint Laurent was one of those early names that I learned as a kid. Of course, since then I have learned a lot more names, and there are people I admire, but they all have that kind of thing in common. There is something very believable and wearable, but it doesn't change the fact that they were creative and they had a vision and a voice, or that they made a world that reflects their aesthetic, and that there are people around them that reflect that aesthetic. There is a kind of ambience, an aura. There's a mystique.

What do you think of what Hedi Slimane does for Saint Laurent?
I like him very much and I really like what he does. I think he's also really, really smart. In his own way, he's doing something for this generation. It feels very contemporary. It feels right.

What is your process like? Do you look at the fabrics and go from there?
Yeah. We have an office in Paris and what's been happening, what we've been doing for quite a few years, is Joseph and Emily and the team from New York come over to Paris, and we all sit in a room. The Paris team has been collecting things, various references or vintage fabrics, or new fabrics, whatever it is. Anything and everything. We have rooms filled with stuff and then we all sit down and start editing stuff out. Stuff that we like, stuff that we're not that interested in, stuff that we might eventually be interested in. Then we go through a process of looking at it, trying to define certain things, and it does go on for quite a while. The whole fabric process and the referencing, all that stuff, it's a couple of months.

You seem to sometimes have radical changes, like you'll have seasons and seasons where you're going on a groove and then all of a sudden it's Gloria von Thurn und Taxis from the eighties or something.
Yeah. It's funny. I feel that I am consistent, and I think there are certain things that I always go back to, but the spirit and the look can change so radically from season to season -- and I enjoy that. Again, that may be my attention span, but I like to do something different, and I like to say this is what it is this time and this is what it is that time. But in my mind if you reduce things to the lowest common denominator, there's just always some very basic kind of concepts. What the clothes are actually made up of. I always say, they're sweatshirts and they're T-shirts. They may be glorified T-shirts to the point that they look like evening dresses, but it's a zipper in the back and a crew neck and a short sleeve. So for me it's a T-shirt. It may be to the floor and have appliqués on the shoulder and it may be a cross between a Joan Crawford something... whatever the mixed references are, I do think there is some odd consistency. Although what I really want to do each time is say something else. Or say it about somebody else. But I'm not alone in all of this; we have constantly within our group had this conversation about consistency and change and all that. What do we hold on to, and what do we let go of, what are we interested in, and what are we not so interested in anymore? I think we all get more excited working on something we haven't just worked on.

On a less sophisticated note, you love porn stars. What do you like about them?
I've never really thought about it. Sexy people are great. People who love sex are great. I guess I've met a few. I've dated one. Or two... I don't know. Porn is really exciting and sexy. It's funny -- I've never actively sought a porn star, but I must attract them in some way! When I was with [ex-boyfriend / porn star] Harry Louis, he wasn't the person in the movies. I had never seen his movies before I met him. I only saw his movies after I got to know him, and he definitely wasn't that person.

Have you ever been on Grindr or Tinder?
I went on Grindr a couple of times. Well actually, with Harry he was like, "Let's do a profile on Grindr." And I did, and I met a couple people.

Did you show your face?
I think so.

Really?!
Why not! I don't have any hang-ups about those kinds of things. I don't really care. Who's kidding who? I've talked about having hair transplants, I've talked about my drug problems, I've talked about my drinking problems, I've talked about sex. I just think it's so much better to sort of be honest about those things. I always find it very dubious and I don't really trust people who deny human instincts.

You had a phase where you loved to pose nude. Is that because you had just gotten into good shape?
Yeah. But it wasn't entirely my fault. I have a condition called ulcerative colitis and I was really suffering from it. I was not at all concerned with my appearance. I had long hair, I was wearing glasses, I don't think I changed my trousers twice within a week. Then I saw a nutritionist and she recommended a lifestyle change. She said, "I want you to go to the gym. You need to sweat every day, you need to nap, you need to laugh."

Sweat, nap, laugh, love it!
I was miserable for the first year -- but I started to see the results, and anything that makes me feel good I do more of! That's the nature of addiction, and I'm totally an addict in that respect. If I enjoy something, I want more of it. More sex, more food, more art, more sleep, more... whatever it is! So once I got into the habit of eating well and got over the initial pain and discomfort of going to the gym, I got really into it. Then I started to see a physical change. I stopped wearing my glasses, I cut my hair, I started to tan. Of course my ego sort of got into it. Mert and Marcus were doing this book that Vuitton sponsored, and it was nudes. So we got in the studio, and it was really right in the beginning when I went from 20 percent body fat to 8 percent body fat, and I was looking fit and tan and short hair, and they said, "Well, we want to shoot you nude," and I said OK. Then it sort of seemed like every time I was asked to do a picture for anyone they would be like, "Will you take your shirt off? Will you take your clothes off?" I finally felt like, for the first time in my life I'm comfortable. I'm just as comfortable naked as I am covering up.

It also gives you a chance to show off your tattoos.
I have "Shameless" tattooed on my chest, and I think that's what I aspire to be. I aspire to be able to say what I think and do what I want and not have that feeling of guilt or shame about it. Of course, nothing that I can think of that I've done do I need to feel ashamed of. It just feels like a freedom in some way.

Jean-Paul Gaultier

The former 'enfant terrible' of French fashion is one of the most significant designers working today, his appeal bridging the elite and mass markets. On one hand, Jean Paul Gaultier is hailed as the saviour of haute couture (Gaultier Paris was launched 1997) and since 2004 has designed refined womenswear for Hermes, alongside his own well-established ready-to-wear label.

 On the other, he is one of the world's most famous living Frenchmen, partly due to a presenting job on the TV show Eurotrash in the early '90s (not to mention his personal fondness for striped Breton shirts and other Gallic cliches).

Born in 1952, he was beguiled by fashion from a young age and would sketch showgirls from the Folies Bergere to impress his classmates. In the early '70s he trained under Pierre Cardin and Jean Patou, eventually launching his own ready-to-wear collection in 1976. He soon became known for iconoclastic designs such as the male skirt, corsetry worn as outerwear, and tattoo-printed body stockings. The classics of Parisian fashion are also central to his repertoire, particularly the trench coat and le smoking.

In 1998 he launched a diffusion line, Junior Gaultier (since replaced by JPG), followed by excursions into perfumes (1993), and film costume (notably for Luc Besson's 'The Fifth Element' and Peter Greenaway's 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover').

 But it was his wardrobe for Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour of 1990 that made him world-famous, in particular for a certain salmon-pink corset with conical bra cups. A celebrity and a genius possessed of both a piquant sense of humour and a deadly serious talent, in 2004 Gaultier staged an unique exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, entitled 'Pain Couture', that showcased clothing constructed entirely from bread.