The woman that ignited a discussion across the world about what should be the acceptable weight of models has stunned the world, again. When the photo of Crystal on the runway at Designer Mark Fast’s show emerged it created pandemonium within the Fashion industry. It brought global attention to body image and created a topic in which everyone had their 2 cents, especially designer Julien McDonald brandishing plus size models “a joke”. Crystal and Julien even had a war of words at some point. Now Crystal is no longer plus size, in fact she’s now a very slender model. The model who at one point penned a book entitled ‘Hungry’, chronicling her days of eating disorders is now the adverse of what she campaigned for. The Irony.
On your mark….get set….GO! There’ll be plethora of designer handbags at dawn as publishing giant, Conde Nast has announced that from September 2012 all aspiring Anna Wintours,Grace Coddingtons, Andre Leon Talleys, Alexandra Schulmans and Eva Chens will be able to enrol at the Conde Nast College of Fashion and Design. Whoever thought of this idea needs a pay rise ASAP!
Over the past five years, fashionistas across the globe have dreamed of being the living personification of Anne Hathaway’s character in the film ’The Devil Wears Prada’, to walk into number 4 Times Square (the Conde Nast building) step into the elevator and feel a sense of belonging. With grandiose delusions of being someone within the Conde Nast Empire.
Ever since the fair maiden of reality television and star of the now defunct faux reality show The Hills, Lauren Conrad filmed her internship at Teen Vogue most young girls and boys have dreamed of interning at Conde Nast. With overwhelming requests for internships, Teen Vogue published the best selling book, The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insiders Guide to Careers in Fashion. As expected the book didn’t extinguish the unceasing desires to work at Vogue but fueled the fire even more.
With the revolution and relevance of social media, the editors of magazines have become celebrities in their own rights. Envied and adored, Conde Nast editors are to celebrity what color blocking is to seasonal trends, the hottest ticket in town and everyone wants to see the show. Fashion Editors have become so important that they’re now being head hunted by fashion labels to leave the editorial industry and be a part of their woven fabric and act as brand advisors.
I can only wonder if billionaire and owner of Topshop, Sir Phillip Green was the inspiration for Conde Nast’s new school? Six years ago the Arcadia group owner opened the Fashion Retail Academy located in London a stone’s throw away from the famous Topshop flagship store on Oxford Street. So successful he plans to open more across the UK, maybe the shores of the United States will beckon Green to open an Academy here as well.
With Conde Nast procuring the lease of twenty-one floors of the the new building at 1 World Trade Center, maybe the Conde Nast College of Fashion and Design will be located there. Will this new college usher in the next generation of Conde Nast editors or plague the world with more wannabes? Well I suppose everyone wants to be someone.
P.S Will Anna Wintour be the Head Mistress?
