Dakota Fanning and Rachel Zoe's playdate with Nintendo at Madison

Rachel Zoe and Dakota Fanning had a playdate on Wednesday at the Madison 3rd Street flagship with Nintendo’s new Style Savvy game for the DS or DSi pocket gizmo.

Stylist Zoe, who’s become a household name with “The Rachel Zoe Project,” seems an unlikely gamer. But she and actress Fanning multi-tasked interviews and styling tips while thumbing away at Style Saavy, $29, in which you pretend you’re the owner of a contemporary boutique, suggesting outfits to shoppers (if, the customer buys it, you score points), buy inventory and watch your balance sheet. Sounds like fun, no?

Zoe’s associate Taylor Jacobson, accessorized with a quilted Chanel bag and Miu Miu motorcycle boots, feigned surprise when I asked whether she noticed women copping her trademark all-black, disheveled platinum hair look.

Zoe and Fanning gave All the Rage a few minutes in between bleeps:

All the Rage: Are either of you video gamers?

Rachel Zoe: This would be a new thing for me. I must convert [in robotic voice].

Dakota Fanning: Usually video games are more action packed -- more masculine -- so, no. I’m really girly; this is the first time I’m interested.

Are you a fan of those Internet style-yourself applications?

RZ: No, but I do know a lot of people who do. I style enough in real life so that’s OK.

What are you wearing?

RZ: Vintage Chanel, Seven jeans and Brian Atwood shoes.

DF: Elizabeth and James.

MFW: Burberry Prorsum gets strap happy

There are few things as cliche as England's weather. So, after seasons of paying homage to that country's photographers (Fall 2009), filmmakers (Spring 2009) and artists (Fall 2008), Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey decided to mine meaning from the meteorological, taking his inspiration from the British rain and sun -- which makes sense given the brand's DNA.

That meant diamond-quilted featherweight nylon jackets (quilting was a key look in last season's Dolce & Gabbana runway collection), seersucker fabrics that created the illusion of rain-dappled dress shirts, and a dab print knit pullover shirt that did the same thing (though at first glance it looked a bit like a leopard print). There were also lots of weatherproof waxed cottons, waxed linens, double collars, Velcro closures and outer wear pieces in "uniform red" and  "sou'wester yellow."

What we could have done without was the multiplicity of what Bailey described as "trench straps" -- strips of webbed fabrics that crisscrossed the chest, harnessed the shoulders and hung loosely at the waist, making the models look as if they'd just parachuted in from on high.

Not only were the straps a flourish we've seen before (most memorably in Prada's Fall 2008 "bondage chic" men's collection), in this environment of new austerity, going all strap happy with an otherwise strong collection felt like a case of gilding the gabardine lily.

-- Adam Tschorn in Milan

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MFW: Burberry checks in with a nod to nostalgia

MILAN -- With the economic news growing more dire by the day, fashion in the lightning speed form as we have come to know it is in danger of becoming a dirty word. Even its most ardent supporters, glossy editors, are staying out of the stores. So it's no wonder many designers are banking on nostalgia to pull on the heartstrings and the purse strings this fall.

Few people have as much to draw from as Christopher Bailey at Burberry Prorsum. Gone were the hyper luxe (and hyper expensive) warrior studs and gilded feathers that have made the brand a fashion front-runner in the past few seasons. Instead, the classic wardrobe of British country life took center stage -- a wise business decision perhaps, but a bit disappointing aesthetically.

Comfort came under the cloak of oversized, blanket-like outerwear -- trench coats in doeskin, bonded cotton, or tweed, some with full skirts.

Underneath, there were white cotton bibbed shirt dresses, twist-front tweed dresses, Aran sweaters worn over faded plaid kilts, and menswear-inspired pinstripe pants and oversized white shirts. Lug sole wedge desert boots added an outdoorsy feel. 

Evening looks were very covered up -- paneled plisse dresses in regal shades of ink blue and plum, full-skirted dresses in gold tapestry florals or aristocratic-looking portrait prints.

Dormant for several years because it had become so copied, the Nova check reappeared like a long-lost friend, on large satchels and the inside of mink snoods. And when the models took their final spin, of course it was to Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill." 

-- Booth Moore

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Photo: A look from Burberry Prorsum women's fall runway collection at Milan fashion week. Luca Bruno / Associated Press
 

Fall 2009: For Burberry nostalgia means 'checks please'

For Burberry Prorsum, creative director Christopher Bailey continued his short course in British contributions to the arts, after last season's Derek Jarman-inspired collection with a nod to renowned UK photographer Bill Brandt and the idea of "modern nostalgia" evoked by his photographs of England.

Like Dolce & Gabbana's trek back to Sicily earlier the same day, Burberry looked back fondly, playing up the idea of roots and connectedness. (No small wonder the company used the occasion to announce it had finally consolidated offices to Horseferry Road in the heart of Westminster, "home of the English, subsequently British and United Kingdom Parliament since the 13th century.")

But, the 153-year-old company hardly had to relocate its HQ to evoke the past; all Bailey needed to do was pull out and dust off the instantly recognizable Burberry check pattern -– which had been pretty much absent from the runway for the last few seasons.

Seeing the scarves -– as well as a few shirts -– in the heritage plaid was like old-fashioned comfort food being ladled in among the peasant-y looking garb: string ties, cloth newsboy caps, herringbones and chunky cable knits (although Bailey himself strikes me as the sort Brit that might actually appreciate a good shepherd's pie). And it was just the prescription to calm an anxious stomach.

Test drive: Burberry bounces down Beverly Boulevard

It's raining in Los Angeles today, which afforded me the rare opportunity to break out my beloved Burberry trench, which I hadn't thought much about since last winter's rains (except, I'll admit, briefly when Agent Fields made her entrance in "Quantum of Solace").
On the way to work, I rode shotgun in my wife's car as she navigated the slick stretch of Beverly Boulevard between our house and the office, and within a few miles I heard a ka-thunk ka-thunk kind of noise coming from the car somewhere near the passenger door. As she slowed it would dissipate, as she sped up it would increase in volume and frequency. It didn't seem to affect the way the car drove so we continued our drive and began rehearsing our weekend, mentally preparing our call to Car Talk.
As we pulled into the garage, I hopped out and prepared to peer under the car. As I pulled the belt of my Burberry trench close I felt the buckle end was soaking wet. Mystery solved (the notion of closing my belt in the door had crossed my mind, but I had apparently checked only one end).
What surprised me was how little damage it had seemed to suffer thwacking against the car and being battered by the elements during the 8-mile drive, but I probably shouldn't have. Thomas Burberry made a name for himself back in 1880 when he developed gabardine -- the breathable, waterproof and tear-proof fabric used in the construction of the famous trench coats.
In recent years, under the creative direction of Christopher Bailey, Burberry has managed to walk the fine line between acknowledging the label's roots and at the same time move it beyond the instantly recognizable check pattern and the trench silhouette.
Though most of us won't be hunkering down in the trenches like the British officers of the Boer War (who wore Burberry's Tielocken, a  predecessor of the modern coat), it's nice to know that where the rubber meets the road (literally), the Burberry trench comes through virtually unscathed.
-- adam.tschorn@latimes.com
Photo: The belt of my Burberry trench after an 8-mile drag down Los Angeles' Beverly Boulevard. Note where the dirt and water stains stop at the far right -- right where it was closed in the passenger door. Credit: Adam Tschorn / Los Angeles Times

 

Bond No. 22: a 'Quantum' of affordable tie-ins

“Quantum of Solace” opens at the multiplexes tonight and though fans of the franchise may be disappointed that the phrase “Bond, James Bond” is never uttered (as reported earlier this week by our fellow blog Hero Complex), they won’t be disappointed that the “placement, product placement” the 22-film canon has become famous for, lives on.

The brand-name-dropping Bond films have always been a popular seeding ground for aspirational luxury brands, but as we were gathering string for this weekend’s Image cover story on James Bond’s new tailor Tom Ford, we were baffled not by the number of high-end, on-screen product tie-ins (Aston Martin cars and Omega watches among the more familiar) but the number of more affordable brands hitching their wagon to the Bond train, and ones that we don't actually recall seeing in the film -– or if we did they didn't register long enough to cause our "Gotta buy that!" synapses to fire.

Among the more interesting: Bond Girl 007, an eau de parfum from Avon that deploys actress Gemma Arterton (a.k.a. agent Strawberry Fields, who, in our humble opinion, is the best thing to happen to a Burberry trench coat since the invention of gabardine) as the face of fragrance described as "an irresistible cocktail of glamour and mystery" with "top notes of white peach and orange blossom" mid-notes of "jasmine, calypso orchid and freesia, followed by a drydown of amber, cashmere wood patchouli and musks (what, all that and no strawberry shout-out?) for $30 per bottle. Currently, if you order it online  you get a free ticket to "Quantum" with each bottle. Speaking of which, the bottles remind us of something we just can't put our finger on ...

Another noteworthy and far from bank-busting tie-in that crossed our desk is with Swatch, not because it's the second involving a watch brand (Swatch actually owns the Omega brand) but because it refreshingly focuses on the Bond villains we've met over the last 46 years -- one for each of the movies.

So if you fancy a satin-brushed stainless steel lady's watch with band design that evokes the brass knuckles wielded by "From Russia with Love's" gray lady Rosa Klebb ($100), or a handsome-looking men's timepiece with the ace of spades on the face and black faux leather band meant to reference the tuxedo and card-playing prowess of "Casino Royale's" blood-weeping Le Chiffre ($110), you're in luck with the 007 Villain Collection.

Of course, if you've cleaned up at the baccarat table and are feeling flush, you can also call up Tom Ford's eponymous boutique on Madison Avenue at (212) 359-0300 and order yourself a pair of the 007 aviator style sunglasses with rhodium frames and smokey blue lenses (handmade in Italy) Craig wears in the movie for a cool $450.

-- adam.tschorn@latimes.com

Photos from top: Bond Girl 007 courtesy of Avon, actor Mads Mikkelsen as "Casino Royale" villain Le Chiffre and the Swatch watch inspired by the character, both courtesy of Swatch, Tom Ford sunglasses courtesy of Tom Ford.