By Bettina Zilkha
Posted 12/02/11 at 04:40 PM
Glamorous, seductive, fearless, beautiful, brash, iconic: Elizabeth Taylor was a true movie star and a collector of exquisite jewelry, eclectic clothes and accessories worthy of a museum. Her glorious cache is brilliantly displayed at Christie's through December 12, after which it will be sold and scattered around the world, with each piece's provenance forever guaranteed. The low estimate for the entire collection is $30 million, but it is widely expected to fetch a lot more. After all, who wouldn't want a little piece of Liz? "She was the great jeweler collector of our time, both in terms of historic stones, and of contemporary jewelry makers," Marc Porter, Chairman of Christie's America, told me as we toured the exhibit. "Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, Cartier, JAR—all the great makers are represented by the very best of their work." "The fashion is a total explosion of color and quality," Porter continued. "It's built on a foundation of Christian Dior, for 40 or 50 years from the house, when Dior was there, all the way until the end when Galliano was designing. If you look at the fashions through the second half of the century, as soon as she left the studio system, she started buying her own clothing: Pucci, Dior, Valentino, Balenciaga, Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent, an incredible group by Michael Vollbracht, who designed the most extraordinary things you could imagine for the time when she was living in New York. It was when Warhol was here, and they were going to Studio 54. Then she started buying Chanel suits. From there she moved on to Scaasi, Adolfo, more Valentino, and finally an explosion of Versace ready to wear and couture."
By Bettina Zilkha
Posted 11/22/11 at 04:50 PM
Young Adult, the new movie written by Diablo Cody, stars Charlize Theron as a 36-year-old teenage book writer who is as emotionally stunted as the characters she writes about. Having moved from her small town to the "big city," Minneapolis, she yearns to rekindle her romance with her now married-with-a-baby high school sweetheart. She goes back home to see him, and in the process, makes an unlikely friend out of an unpopular classmate who was beaten and disabled (Patton Oswalt). The Cinema Society screening, sponsored by Dior Beauty, was star-studded.
Much of the action in the movie happens in the local bar. So was it fun to act drunk?
"Playing drunk is actually really hard—I find it really hard, anyway," said Theron, stunning in a short black Dior cocktail dress and Dior makeup.
"The bar was genuinely fun to hang out in," said Oswalt. "The whole set was really lively and very interesting."
What was it like to work with Charlize? we asked.
"I got to work with a great actor," the charismatic Oswalt told FashionEtc. "I think she's going to have one of those amazingly insane careers—she's going to become one of those one-word people—you know, 'Charlize said to me one time'... She made everyone better. The most difficult scene to do was the love scene because I was half naked next to the hottest woman on the planet. No way I could do this next to Michael Moore or something?"
By Bettina Zilkha
Posted 11/17/11 at 05:20 PM
There are screenings—and then there are Twilight screenings. Twilight screenings are shrouded (if you'll pardon the term) in secrecy. The venue is kept under wraps until the last minute, mobile devices are checked at the door, and the vibe is unique—very insider.
The Cinema Society's New York screening of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 may have been missing Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, but the excitement was still palpable as Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli and Nikki Reed walked in.
The Twilight saga has wrapped, but the bond it created between cast members lives on.
"We see each other even though we're done filming," Greene told FashionEtc, who stunned in a custom-designed Donna Karan dress (DKNY sponsored the event). "Twilight was a great experience and opened up so many opportunities, I'm looking forward to my next projects," she added.
I asked Greene about her funniest moment when filming Part 1.
"The birthing scene was kind of funny because we were a little uncomfortable and out of our element," the actress admitted. "We would be really intense—and then they would yell, 'Cut!' and it was like we were part of ER, yelling 'scalpel!', and other things. It was actually a very funny day on set."
Lisa Howard, who plays Siobhan, a vampire in the Irish Coven, had a great time bowling (yes, they went bowling) and joking around with other members of the cast.
"We all did one of those dance flash mob things to surprise the director, Bill Condon. We did the dance of the Volturi, and the dance of all of the other vampires. We all surprised him, and that was really fun!," Howard recalled.
By Bettina Zilkha
Posted 11/10/11 at 05:00 PM
My Week With Marilyn, the enthralling new movie starring Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh, is based on a true story, from the recollections of then 23-year-old assistant Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) during one specific week that the star was in London filming The Prince and the Showgirl, opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Michelle Williams's extraordinary portrayal of Marilyn has Best Actress written all over it. What better way to see the film than in conjunction with the opening of an exhibit, "Picturing Marilyn," focused entirely on never-before-seen photographs of the iconic star? A veritable who's who of the fashion, photography and entertainment worlds were present, including Harvey Weinstein, Celeste Holm, director Simon Curtis, Coco Rocha, Olivier Theyskens, Bruce Weber and Jessica Stam. "Marilyn is such an icon," said Georgina Chapman, wearing a black leather Dior cocktail dress. "She represents everything feminine about a woman. She's vulnerable, she's beautiful, and she also had a sense of humor. I think that's why she appeals to so many people." "This exhibit is kind of a dream," said Dree Hemingway, wearing the long, black backless dress that Monroe had worn in the photograph, recreated by Dior especially for the occasion. "I grew up watching Marilyn Monroe movies—my mother would only let me watch old movies—and it gives me butterflies in my stomach. I'm really honored to be here." "You never get tired of looking at her. I want to be her. Even though she had such a tragic end, I still want to be her," said self-confessed shopping addict Nanette Lepore as we admired the swirl of Dior designs around us.
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