Natalie Portman for Miss Dior Cherie

The ad for Miss Dior Cherie, starring the beautiful Natalie Portman has finally hit the stores. With Natalie’s enormous success this year, I say it is Dior who has been lucky to have landed her as the brand’s latest face. Nicole and Charlize should have been at the edge of their seats now. Natalie seems to be ready to take over as the queen of super-stardom anytime soon. Like the campaign shot? Watch the commercial, directed by Sofia Copolla on youtube below.

Image is courtesy of Dior

Dior Suspended John Galliano

The house of Dior has officially suspended John Galliano from his duties as the Creative Director of the house just days before its fashion show at the Paris fashion week. The reason? He was drunk, assaulted a Jewish and Asian couple and made racist remarks towards them. Dior and its parent company, LVMH is firm on their stand on anti-racism and it seems like nobody is spared, including the venerable Mr Galliano himself. Dior and Galliano was a match made in heaven and their relationship has been going on strong for the past 14 years with Galliano’s putting Dior on the list of the world’s most respected fashion houses alongside Chanel, Gucci, YSL and Prada. I love Mr Galliano’s work but I respect Dior’s firm stand on the matter which, I believe will earn a lot of respect from many around the world too.

I wonder what Anna Wintour’s take on this matter.

Dior Ruched Cannage Tote

The ruching of leather has been done by Prada, Miu Miu and lately by Mulberry so it is not exactly new but with Dior, they “cannage” the bag before ruching it and voila! The new Ruched Cannage Dior bag is super awesome, and elegant but still appropriate as a day bag. Dior bags are most of the time pricey beyond my approval but with the work gone to this one, I will nod with approval. This baby is available at Neiman Marcus for USD2,600. Reasonable for a Dior Cannage with extra ruches, thank you!

Image is courtesy of Neiman Marcus

Dior 3 D Medium Flap Shoulder Bag

The emergence of the 60s and 70s is undeniably everywhere this Fall/Winter 2010. I remember that bags used to look like this, made mostly of polished soft leather, structured and are just big enough to fit the real essentials. Don’t get me wrong: I am not saying that I am from the 60s or 70s, just I have seen them from my family’s pictures. Nevertheless, this baby does not come cheap at USD2,400 but it might just be the bag your descendants will adore from one of your pictures (if they still use pictures in any form by then) in 40 or 50 years from now. Now isn’t that worth something?

Image is courtesy of Saks

All Eyes on Shanghai

With the ongoing World Expo that lasts for 6 months, all eyes on Shanghai, including the world’s largest fashion designers such as Chanel, Prada and Dior.

Chanel launched the Paris-Shanghai collection which consists of its signature flap bag, tweed jacket and pumps in hot red, it also includes a line-up of jackets and dresses inspired by mainly the late Coco Chanel’s infatuation towards Chinese arts and her collection despite the fact that she never visited China for once in her life. My biggest problem with the whole thing is in a small detail in Karl Lagerfeld’s attempt to create a short film based on Chanel’s dream trip to Shanghai by casting two non-Chinese actors who pretended to be ones but can’t properly say “hen mei” (how beautiful!) in the correct tone making it very annoying everytime they said it.

Prada, on the other hand, launched a campaign based on black-white images and short film, titled “First Spring”. Miuccia also launched a line of colorful Prada Shanghai nylon bags with appliques, which I see more of “Alice in the Wonderland” than Shanghai.

Dior uses the skyline of the Shanghai famous Bund and Pearl Tower as the background of its campaign featuring Marion Cotillard with the Lady Dior bag and a male Chinese model. There will also be a short film on this.

Fall 2010 Bag Preview

Singapore is not a bad place to live in except for the weather which is either hot and humid or raining. Can’t it just be, for once, nice? Yet before I get attacked by readers who would kill for weather like Singapore’s, I am not complaining, just pondering. Anyway, now that the summer is around, Fall 2010 bags are up for preview too. There are some new creations which is excellent remembering that designers have been pretty lazy for the past few seasons just playing variations on their existing design.

Row one (from left): Alexander Wang, Celine, Chloé

Row two (from left): Derek Lam, Dior, Fendi

Row three (from left): Miu Miu, Mulberry, Valextra

Images are courtesy of style.com

Dior Chri-Chri Bag

This is the bag I have been waiting for from Dior. I have become fond of it ever since I first saw it in the ad campaign since last December and it is all for good reasons: nice classic design with a healthy touch of elegance and is, despite being a semi-structured bag, still tres youthful and chic. I think this bag is the perfect bag for a Dior woman and trust me, it will sell well! The price for this Cannage Overstitching version is GBP2,200 which sits somewhere in between the classic lambskin Cannage and the GBP4,100 Python skin version.

Image is courtesy of Dior

Dior New Lock Bag

The last few bags from Dior (Le 30, Granville and Dior 61) were somewhat succesful but never actually reached an IT bag status. The newest bag offered by the house now is the New Lock, which is a beautiful shoulder bag about the size of the original Fendi Baguette.  I personally think this bag has a potential to be big, has loved it since I first saw it. The only thing about Dior bag is that the price point starts pretty high, which is good for status but not really to hit a critical mass. Nevertheless, I think this is the new bag to be seen with. Time to unload those unnecessary stuff off your big sac and limit yourself to this comfy shoulder bag. The New Lock has most attributes of a classic bag so I really believe it is worth investing in. Price starts from EUR1,000.

Image is courtesy of Dior