Your morning fashion and beauty report: Oscar nominations for costume design leave out ‘Black Swan.’ Dior, Chanel kick off spring couture shows in Paris.
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As the Oscars were being announced Tuesday morning, we waited breathlessly for our favorite category: best costume design. After all, how could Jeff Bridges have pulled off the Rooster Cogburn character without the right clothes, much less Colin Firth have made a convincing King George VI without the royal look? Sure enough, both ‘True Grit’ (Mary Zophres) and ‘The King’s Speech’ (Jenny Beavan) were among the nominees. The others were “Alice in Wonderland” (Colleen Atwood), ‘I Am Love’(Antonella Cannarozzi) and ‘The Tempest’ (Sandy Powell). But there was no Oscar costume design love for ‘Black Swan,’ which had received a lot of pre-Oscar attention because some of the costumes were by L.A.-based designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte. [LAT]
Five American designers trumped their French counterparts in a legendary showdown at the Palace of Versailles in 1973, and the Americans are still celebrating. The competition’s two surviving U.S. designers, Steven Burrows and Oscar de la Renta, hosted a luncheon Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to toast the models who helped them to victory. ‘It wasn’t the designers; it was the girls in this room,’ said Donna Karan (who worked the original event as a dresser for Anne Klein) of the eight original models who attended: Billie Blair, Alva Chinn, Pat Cleveland, Norma Jean Darden, Charlene Dash, Bethann Hardison, China Machado and Amina Warsuma. [WWD]
Designers’ spring couture shows are underway in Paris [TheCut], and Chanel’s biggest fans turned out in force for Karl Lagerfeld’s couture show. Current and former brand ambassadors Inès de la Fressange, Diane Kruger, Vanessa Paradis, Anna Mouglalis, Baptiste Giabiconi and Gaspard Ulliel joined celebrity guests including Jerry Hall, Pedro Almodovar, Kirsten Dunst, Alexa Chung, Karen Elson and Janelle Monae. [WWD]
Meanwhile, John Galliano was in fine feather with his mesmerizing Christian Dior show, where the word ‘clothes’ may have been too mundane to apply to what walked down the runway. [WWD] (Subscription required.)
Vivienne Westwood is getting ready to open on Melrose in Los Angeles. [Mondette]
And New York-based hairstylist Sally Hershberger is planning a Feb. 1 opening for her new salon in the SLS Hotel’s Ciel Spa in West Hollywood. She’s also expanding her existing salon here. [Mondette]
Seattle-based Butter London is issuing a nail polish in honor of Kate Middleton. The name of the gray-blue shade? ‘No More Waity, Katie,’ a reference to the princess-to-be’s cheeky pre-engagement nickname in British tabloids. [StyleList]
-- Susan Denley
in ‘The King’s Speech.’ Credit: Laurie Sparham / The Weinstein Company
