Natasha Poly for W Magazine Korea

Another cover for Russian Supermodel, Natasha Poly. Photographed by David Byun, and styled by Yahaira Familia, who also shot and styled last month's W Korea multiple cover issue. Natasha looks breathtaking in this issue, Yahaira Familia web portfolio features preview outtakes from the accompanying editorial for this issue.

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American Vogue May 2009: Faces of the Moment.

The highly-anticipated May 2009 cover of American Vogue featuring actual models is out! The total cast features nine models. The three girls taking the front cover are models Liya Kebede, Natalia Vadianova, and Anna Jagodzinska. It's quite a surprise for Anna to be featured in this casting, let alone be on the actual cover.

A pull-out can be found attached to the front page, that shows the other "Models of the Moment" in this special issue, which include Isabeli Fontana, Jourdan Dunn, Raquel Zimmermann, Lara Stone, Caroline Trentini and Natasha Poly.

It's so refreshing to see actual models on an American Vogue cover. I'm not too happy about this casting, and I DEFINITELY think that Natasha should of been put on the cover. She's doing editorials, booking campaigns left and right, not to mention in all the major shows. Poly is without a doubt the hardest working one there.

*Observation; Does anyone else find it bizarre that Lily Donaldson wasn't featured in this issue as well?

Karl Lagerfeld Spring Summer 2009 Ad Campaign

The Ad campaign, shot by the designer himself, features Danish top model Freja Bega Erichsen and American model, Brad Kroenig. The campaign is dark and has a hint of mystery, which is quite odd considering after all, it is a Spring campaign. The campaign also features Freja holding the very charming tote bag that resembles Karl Lagerfeld's face and his sunglasses play as the cutout handle.

Au Revoir, Olivier Theyskens

Olivier Theyskens, the artistic director of French fashion house Nina Ricci, officially debuted his last collection for the brand last month during Fall/Winter 2009 Paris fashion week. The 32 year old designer, born in Brussels, Belgium, was positioned as Nina Ricci's artistic director on November first of 2006, and debuted his first line in March of 2007 during the fall season. I was quite shocked that his contract with the house will not be resigned, I really loved Theyskens' work. He's a young designer but a criticlly acclaimed design prodigy to say the least. Anna Wintour personally gave him the CFDA's International Award in 2002 when he headed design at Rochas at just 25.He has done too much for for the house while still maintaining the aesthetic of Nina Ricci. Sort of like Nicholas does at Balenciaga. Peter Coppings, a senior designer at Louis Vuitton, will take Theyskens' place when his contract expires this October.

Here's a review of Olivier Theyskens' Ready-to-Wear Collections ever since his rein at Nina Ricci:

FALL/WINTER 2007 RTW

"Olivier Theyskens said he wanted "to introduce a new wave of cool—something urban and gray-ish, but nonchalant, fragile, and superlight" at Nina Ricci. Since he's only just exited the now-defunct Rochas, the collection he showed, though suffused with his signature poetics, felt more transitional than definitive. Like several other designers of his age, Theyskens is accurately intuiting the fact that fashion needs to address a younger, more casual level of dressing, but at the same time, pressure is on him to stay within the fuzzy parameters of the not-so-defined genre of Ricci femininity."

SPRING/SUMMER 2008 RTW

"It was a group of girls you'd see on the street in the early morning coming from a ball," explained Olivier Theyskens. His wispy raggle-taggle troupe was wending its way home in a particularly poetic state of dishevelment, of course. Their clothes were ombré-tinted in subtle grays and browns, as if smudged by the murky first light of a city day. The opening girl had pulled on her boyfriend's dusty tux, which had come apart at the back, over an artfully wilted twisted satin tunic. Others had draped sloppy, holey cardigans over the shredded remains of charmeuse and chiffon, trailing stringy feather boas as they walked. Some, possibly, were even down to their shirts or slips (you know how you start losing things on a long night out?), and one had wrapped a blanket—or maybe the dance-hall"

FALL/WINTER 2008 RTW

"Under Olivier Theyskens' guidance, Nina Ricci is going through a metamorphosis. The label was originally a frilly lady brand, but he is steering it toward a young, hip girl with an unshowy rockster personality. To get there, Theyskens took her hand today and led her through a long trail in the woods, dressing her in clothes tinted and textured with the vegetal yellowy-greeny-brownish colors of fallen leaves or hibernating moths. "Strange and poetic," he called it, "but not dark."

SPRING/SUMMER 2009 RTW

"Olivier Theyskens' collection for Nina Ricci was like watching the performance of a long piece of self-referential romantic poetry. It's a world of his own, and to fully appreciate it, you need to know what's gone before in his work: his love of Edwardiana and tailcoats; the fluttery, flyaway cutting; the delicate prints and the dusty, organic woodland-floor palettes he likes."

FALL/WINTER 2009 RTW

"The show might have been his swan song at Nina Ricci but Olivier Theyskens saw it through with a fierce, surreal poetry no one who witnessed it will forget. Vastly tall, his strong-shouldered women were walking, trancelike, on what looked like an impossibility: a laced-up platform ankle boot with a sickle-shaped hole at the back. No heels at all. Their clothes—everything from strangely flowing pants to incredibly cut suits to probably the best black leather jacket in Paris and evening dresses with swooping, furling skirts—were a tour de force. Between the strange atmosphere, the supersharp, almost Mugler-esque jackets, and the sculpted forms, it rounded up everything fashion-watchers have known Theyskens is capable of, and went even further."

OLIVIER THEYSKENS

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Balmain Spring/Summer 2009 Ad Campaign

Polish model Daria Werbowy is the face for Balmain's campaign this season photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin. For a much anticipated campaign, it really wasn't breathtaking. To me it looks a lot like a postcard, from Arizona or something. I do love the outfit though. The Ad bares comparison to Isabel Marant's spring 2009 campaign, which in fact Daria stars in as well.

www.balmain.com

Magdalena Frackowiak for Vogue China Editorial April 2009

Featured in this month's issue of Chinese Vogue is in-demand model, Magdalena Frackowiak. The 24 year old was born in Poland and began appearing on international runways in 2006. Now a days, she definitely doesn't go by un-noticed. The Vogue editorial shot by photographer Sulve Sundsbo, shows her in elaborate gowns and dresses, along with a frenzy of colorful balloons.

I-D Magazine, May 2009 Issue

Photographed by Kayt Jones, 17 year old model Chanel Iman from Atlanta,Georgia graces the cover for this month's issue of I-D magazine. Iman hasn't been in the industry for a long period of time (yet), but was considered by Vogue in 2007 as a part of the next wave of top models.