Michael Kors Comes To Melbourne
Melbournites rejoice: the first Michael Kors store is opening in your CBD.
And it’s shaping up to be part of a very luxe designer destination indeed.
The Michael Kors boutique, opening on the 26th of this month, is housed in the Melbourne Emporium, a 225-store self-described ‘retail wonderland’ that cost $1.6 billion.
The Emporium took four years to build and was famously beset by union disputes and delays, but it’s now opened its doors, and Michael Kors is one of the first to take advantage of the new retail space.
The store isn’t a tiny elitist boutique where you have to breathe in to fit, either. It’s a spacious 220 square metres, and will carry ready-to-wear, fragrances, footwear and eyewear – it’s largely focussed on accessories.
Other brands like Kate Spade are also using the Emporium to make their first foothold in the Melbourne shopping landscape, too.
Kors opened his first Australian store in Sydney’s Westfield, and this Melbourne move may mean the brand’s expansion to other cities as well.
So what are we looking forward to picking up in the Kors store? Handbags, clutches and his American-chic jewellery line. But get in quick, before the hordes.
Image: Michael Kors.
Christian Louboutin Debuts A Nail Polish – Red, Of Course
Last year it was revealed that Christian Louboutin, king of the red-soled shoe, was diversifying into beauty.
First there was the Louboutin perfume range, and now there’s a nail polish on the horizon.
The colour? Red, obviously. It’s called Rougue Louboutin and is debuting first, with a set of 30 more colours appearing in stores in August.
And Louboutin is certainly not doing anything by halves.
He designed the bottles themselves – tall and spiky, like stiletto heels – and the polishes are said to have the most pigment in them of any luxury nail polish currently on the market.
“If I do beauty,” he said to the press, “I have to do it my way.”
So why polish? “I thought it would be a nice way to remember where I came from,” he mused. “Also, for pictures of the shoes, I’m always thinking about the colours on the nails – on the hands holding an ankle or a bag. So it makes sense to start there.”
The range will be divided into three sections – Pop, Nude and Noir – and the only advertisement for it will be a short film by Blue Velvet director David Lynch, who previously worked with Louboutin to film his fetish-high heels.
Will you be buying some of Louboutin’s nail polishes?
Image: Louboutin.
Sam Taylor-Johnson Gets A Rare Glimpse At Coco Chanel’s Apartments
They’re still exactly as the designer left them – and now Coco Chanel’s apartment-atelier rooms at 31 Rue Cambon, Paris, are being given new life through photography.
Sam Taylor-Johnson, the photographer and filmmaker most famous for her film about John Lennon, Nowhere Boy, was given exclusive access to the Rue Cambon apartments to make a series of photographs of the interior.
It’s a rare glimpse into the intimacy of the Chanel world: the second-floor Rue Cambon apartments were famously decorated to Chanel’s extravagant taste during her life, including the famous mirrored staircase.
And the apartments are shut to everybody. Karl Lagerfeld used to show his Chanel couture collections there, but has since moved to more exotic locations, like Austria and Dubai.
So what’s it really like inside? “Beautifully stylish,” according to Taylor-Johnson. “It feels like she had meticulously chosen every object.”
It was an “unexpectedly absorbing experience,” she revealed to the press. “The essence of Chanel is firmly rooted there in all of her possessions, and I truly believe that her spirit and soul still inhabit the second floor.”
The space is full of books, camellia-inspired chandeliers and delicate collected objects from around the world.
Taylor-Johnson will soon be a household name (for good or for ill) as the director of the 50 Shades Of Grey film, but for now her photographs of the Rue Cambon interior will go on display in the Saatchi gallery in London, entitled Second Floor.
Image: One of Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Second Floor shots.