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| Sep 07: As the fashion caravan moves to London, we decided to round up some of our favorite art galleries (why not make the most of those few minutes between shows?) in the city that throbs like a giant creative boombox, fueled by the limitless cash of art-hungry Russian oligarchs and an ever-fertile underground scene. For a certain echelon, the epicenter of that heady confluence of art, fashion and money can be found in Kensington Gardens, where every summer the Serpentine Gallery plays host to one of the toniest parties anywhere, sponsored by the likes of Yves Saint Laurent and attended by a glittery who's-who of famous swans and their dandy walkers. The gallery is also known for its Pavilions, temporary structures created by a different star architect each year (Eliasson, Koolhaas, Hadid, et al.). Of course, no one does ephemeral art quite like Damien Hirst, the (not-so-)Young British Artist who can still cause a stir with his canny gift for milking profit from dead matter. Hirst's work can be seen as far away as Mexico City, but it all started at White Cube, the bluest of blue-chip galleries representing Hirst and pretty much every other fashionably famous artist to come out of London in the last fourteen years. Prices at White Cube hover in the stratosphere, so to own a piece of Hirst without selling your ovaries, log on to Other Criteria, the artist's publishing and merchandising online outpost. Here, you can shop for a T-shirt featuring a facsimile of his infamous diamond-encrusted skull (currently sold-out) as well as editions, prints and other clothing by Hirst and fellow artists. Of course, White Cube wouldn't be what it is if it weren't for Charles Saatchi, the granddaddy of the overheated contemporary art scene. The ad man and shrewd collector remains as active as ever, as does his revamped and wildly popular Saatchi Gallery website. The ever-expanding domain, which clocks over 40 million hits per day, includes a magazine, a no-fee gallery for artists to sell their work, a special section for art students ("Stuart"), chat rooms, art competitions and, the most recent addition, ''Your Studio,'' where anyone can create and display art right then and there. If all this is too D.I.Y. for you, there's plenty of traditional fare in London, too. With all the hysteria surrounding Agyness, Henry, Giles and their cohorts, it's easy to forget that that the city's role as a capital of subversive fashion and design goes back hundreds of years, with names such as Quant and Westwood having paved the way for today's rebel-rousers. There's no better place for a crash course on the subject than the Victoria & Albert museum. But if you can't fit in a trip to explore the V&A's exhaustive collections into your fashion week schedule, its website is an encyclopedic trove of illustrated information. And there you have it, a virtual gallery mini-tour. Leave Harvey Nichs and the Tate to the masses.
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| Aug 07: In case you haven't noticed, the precocious, luxe-loving little house of Miu Miu has undergone a mini-reinvention of late. Originally conceived as a brash younger sibling to Miuccia Prada's ever-brainy main label, the line has been acting out recently. The newfound independence may have begun with last year's fall collection, presented for the first time in Paris, as if to signal its emancipation from the Milanese mothership. Next, Miu took over Helmut Lang's former digs on uber-haute rue Saint Honoré. Then there was the recent total overhaul of the New York boutique; and now the fresh new identity can be found online, too, in a dazzling new domain that proves that Miu Miu is all grown up. Light on content but rich in imagery, the website puts the spotlight on the label's glamorous advertising campaigns, with behind-the-scenes photos and video. Visitors can also watch the latest Miu Miu runway show, now regularly held in posh Parisian salons. Throughout, you'll recognize the label's trademark princely touches, present in seductive hues, luxurious fabrics and even the gold damask that pervades the new boutiques. We can't wait for the enticingly titled "Miu & You" section to deliver on its implied promise of interactivity, but Miu's web-à-terre is already a visual treat, establishing the brand as a fashion force to be reckoned with.
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| Jul 07: While some may associate double letter Ms with multi-colored pellets of milk chocolate or a bygone purr-happy Hollywood sex symbol, design junkies instantly think of M/M (Paris), the graphic design powerhouse that has, over the last ten years, shaped the printed landscape of fashion like no other. These Ms stand for the first names of Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag, who founded the studio in 1992. From their bureau in the 10th Arrondisement, the pair has worked its irreverent visual wizardry on everything from record sleeves for obscure French pop stars to campaigns and show invitations for Givenchy and Stella McCartney, even making a foray into menswear for Tokyo boutique Adelaide. The duo's holistic approach obliterates the boundaries between art, commerce, fashion, design, photography and graphics, resulting in a unique amalgam of child-like effects. And invariably, they add their stamp to every project, be it in form of delicate doodles on a glossy Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin image (in case you didn't know, M/M and L&M are BFFs) or by taking hostage the Palais de Tokyo (and an unwitting private art collection along the way) for what was meant to be a straightforward retrospective of their work. Lastly, it should be noted that Messieurs A. and A. are obsessed with narrative, distortion, layers of meaning, theoretical texts and the secret lives of alphabets. Some may deem this indicative of self-important tendencies—at any rate, by now you get that M/M is not your average font foundry and are prepared for their predictably unpredictable website.
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| Jun 07: During the heyday of Helmut Lang's supremacy over intellectual fashion in the '90s, a visit to a Lang boutique was as much about the sublime artwork and flawless curation of the space as it was about the hallowed clothes. In fact, clothes always seemed like a corollary to the Vienna-born designer's broader creative vision. So it's hardly surprising that since his much-bemoaned departure from the label that carries his name, Lang has devoted much of his new time and freedom to a series of personal, vaguely defined art projects, excerpts of which have been published in alterna-magazines from time to time. For Lang fanatics accustomed to the biannual fashion cycle and hungry for more frequent helpings, there is a new online portal providing a degree of reprieve. (It's worth noting that Lang was somewhat of a web pioneer, having embraced the new medium before most fashion folk when he posted his fall 1998 collection on the Internet instead of holding a conventional runway show.) Hl-art.net is the virtual outpost of the company Lang founded in 2005 to incubate his post-fashion creative endeavors, and currently showcases two projects that have kept him busy of late, "Selective Memory Series" and "Long Island Diaries." Overall, an air of mystery pervades the site, from the numerical matrix of the opening page (part of the ongoing "Digital Collective Records") to the aforementioned projects, which consist of row upon row of elegantly cryptic notes and sketches presented with nary an explanation. There is also a link to a highly anticipated, just-launched online exhibition of photographs from the Magnum archives hand-selected by Lang. Meanwhile, the site's own archives, a work in progress, features a handful of close-up photographs of pieces from Lang's career as a fashion designer. (The complete interactive archives will be accessible by fall.) But even in its nascent, hieroglyphic state, hl-art.net already contains surprises worth a linger. One such encounter is reminiscent of the kinky subversiveness that often lurked beneath the clean, minimalist surfaces of Lang's fashion design. To say much more would ruin the puzzle, which is half the pleasure of perusing the site, so we'll leave it at this: find the glory hole.
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| May 07: To those initiated in the cult of Raf Simons, a website may seem like an unnecessary appendage. To them, disciples already well-versed in Simons' studied quietude, what else can be known about the influential men's designer and new head of Jil Sander? Yet the domain is well worth the trip as it offers a rare yet familiar view of his unmistakable ethos, an artful combination of romanticized youth and the cool veneer of technology and futurism. Since founding his signature label in 1995, the self-effacing designer has attained unparalleled respect among his peers and fashion followers alike, while keeping a remarkably, famously low profile. In this vein, the solid and sleek website contains only the most vital of information, neatly broken down into clearly articulated categories, such as his biography, which declares that "clothes are not at the core of Simons' universe." A bold statement, but believable, at least judging from a selection of extracurriculars such as The Fourth Sex, the seminal exhibition on adolescence he co-curated. Ultimately, however, regardless of his serious passion for music, performance and art, Simons owes his stature to the glorious clothes he makes, and they, too, are here: the slim silhouettes and sleeveless tops, amply showcased in collection photos and videos. While we lament there is no video (yet) of the spectacular fall '07 show (who can forget that ingenious sculpture?), there's plenty to make even diehard devotees smile quietly on the inside.
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| Apr 07: While it's easy to be seduced by the fanfare surrounding Al Gore's not-too-preachy pièce de résistance, the allure of Prius-driving celebs and the adorableness of Knut, Berlin Zoo's new polar bear cub, you'd have to be living under a (melting) ice cap to miss the point: our little planet is in serious trouble. And while it's not easy being green, at least now it's a little more fun with the light-hearted yet sage wisdom of Style Will Save Us, a self-proclaimed "digital magazine for a peachy lifestyle." (Don't worry, one of the things you'll learn is you won't have to jettison your highly-evolved personal style with your decadent ways.) Dedicated to showcasing methods and products that are not only ethically irreproachable but aesthetically pleasing, the UK-based website covers beauty, fashion, food, home and lifestyle with short, entertaining and informative featurettes. Additional sections invite readers to "Act" with tips, polls, a guilt-racking little thing called "Carbon Kicker" and a calendar of events around the world. A green guru answers composting questions and a message board takes us fashion types to task ("We're desperate for Sonia Rykiel to go eco! Who do you wish would catch up on the ethical front?"). At once eco-friendly and style-conscious—or is that eco-conscious and style-friendly?—the site is proof you no longer have to go grouchy to go green.
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| Mar 07: Keeping track of the going-ons at Maison Martin Margiela can be a vexing pursuit. Unmarked stores materialize in obscure corners of town with nary a sign. Then there's the designer's well-documented press shyness. So it's fitting that the recently updated website of Margiela's almost twenty-year-old house (we can't believe it's been that long either) goes easily unnoticed. In fact, as if to discourage further intrusion, a warning-style dialog box on the homepage seems to suggest that the site is under construction, until closer inspection. Presented in a style that mimics simple HTML, down to the file-in-folder organization, the domain aims to make sense of the enigmatic Margiela universe. For instance, a key demystifies the meaning behind all those numbers that are the trademark of Margiela's numerous lines. Neatly indexed collections, archives and news sections bespeak the precise creative spirit of the Antwerp-trained designer and reflect his obsessions with construction, imperfection and the "remodeling" of garments. Yet, for all the clinical and systematic fetish, there are some lighter touches, such as videos and little aphorisms ("The past will be the future") that pop up in unexpected places. But ultimately, the online home of the mysterious Monsieur Margiela makes it clear why, despite its low profile and confounding ways, his influential label remains at fashion's forefront after almost two decades.
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| Feb 07: In fashion cyberspace, there are those websites that offer the equivalent of watching Entertainment Tonight and those that come off more like Masterpiece Theater. We find time for both, but our heart lies with the latter, such as the online home of the Yves Saint Laurent Fondation, an unabashed homage—spearheaded by Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent's longtime partner, unofficial hagiographer and most ardent champion—devoted to preserving and promoting the fashion icon's legacy. Even a casual browse through its seemingly bottomless image bank is a lesson in fashion history, with every look from every collection the couturier ever created dutifully documented. Spanning four decades from Saint Laurent's debut in 1962 to his final bow five years ago, photographs, sketches, clippings, timelines and captions provide enough clues and context to write a dissertation on YSL—the man, his life, his oeuvre. And with Saint Laurent references continuing to pop up on runways everywhere (jewel tones, turbans, ethno-anything), it seems as if we're not the only ones who've been logging on and taking notes. The domain also chronicles the foundation's current activities, such as Voyages Extraordinaries, an exhibition about the designer's many travels and their impact on his work. In all, the charmingly low-tech site is an indispensable resource, offering quick yet in-depth access to one of the most enduringly influential bodies of work in fashion. It's also a welcome antidote to the confounding sites of other labels, with their dizzying flash acrobatics and cyborg mannequins.
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| Jan 07: There are, possibly, a few people outside the creative world who haven't heard of Fabien Baron. But to those for whom type and image are infinitely more than just letters and pictures, his princely name looms as large as the oversized avec-serif characters he might splash across a page in one of his trademark layouts for Harper's Bazaar, the magazine he visually reinvented in the early 1990s. And even those who don't recognize his name have seen his work if they have ever marveled at the exquisite form of a L'Eau D'Issey bottle or ogled a CK underwear ad. One of the most influential art directors and image-makers of our time, Baron has built a leonine reputation in the industry with an unmistakable graphic identity, which could simplistically be described as abundant white space, dynamically mixed typefaces and, overall, a distinctly French and modern cool elegance. The new website of his New York-based branding and design agency Baron & Baron illustrates his fantastic career and signature visual vocabulary with a mini-portfolio chockfull of his varied endeavors. Take, for example, his eye-popping ad campaigns for Balenciaga and Miu Miu; layouts for Arena Homme +, Interview and, of course, French Vogue, of which he's the creative director; and samples of his work in publishing, furniture and photography. As one would expect, the web pages are sleek and clutter-free, with graceful touches like a navigation band that smoothly slides across the screen. Be sure to check out a sweet little TV spot for Cacharel featuring Kate Moss and, for something less pastoral, Freddie Ljundbergs formidable bulge in those Calvin Klein underwear ads.
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| Dec 06: While some escape to Mustique this time of year, we can't think of a better way to spend the holidays than with Uncle Karl in Monte Carlo. After all, one can't find the same mix of messed-up royals, poodles in diamond chokers and aristocrats with bad gambling habits in the Grenadines. That's what the peripatetic Karl Lagerfeld must have thought when he decided to present Chanel's pre-fall '07 collection in the tiny principality with a big casino. The recent royal excursion was an extravagant all-day affair involving a fashion show, dinner and party, attended by Princess Caroline, her photogenic offspring and an international coterie of VIPs. But for those who couldn't make it, a taste can be had on the tech-savvy label's website. In fact, the glitzy domain is always worth a visit, faithfully logging Lagerfeld's frequent travels and spectacular fashion shows with more videos than any other fashion house in the age of YouTube. And while you're there, you can conveniently jump over to the e-commerce-enabled fragrance and beauty section to stock up on flacons of No. 5 and for some last minute gift-shopping. With its flashy accessory displays and up-to-the-minute podcasts, Coco's online home is impressively au courant. Then again, we'd expect nothing less from a name synonymous with modernity.
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| Nov 06: Maybe it's the burnt-rubber fumes that turn European tire-makers into taste-makers. France's Michelin puts out the ne plus ultra of restaurant guides, while its Italian counterpart, Pirelli, has elevated T&A to an art form with its yearly calendar, a forty-year tradition that delights photography lovers and babe-ogglers alike. Tastefully titillating, the high-class pin-up is a sought-after collector's item, not least due to its limited supply; the precious publication can't be purchased as it is only given to clients and business partners as a promotional freebie. With the recent unveiling of the 2007 edition—shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin—we paid a visit to the calendar's homepage and found a digital trove of sexy imagery from five decades, a collection of the world's most beautiful women immortalized by a who's-who of fashion shutterbugs that includes Richard Avedon, Peter Lindbergh, Annie Leibowitz and Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott. Front and center is the calendar's latest lineup of screen sirens—Sofia Loren, Naomi Watts, Hilary Swank, Penelope Cruz and Lou Doillon—shot in a 1960's black-and-white style inspired by film directors Pier Paolo Pasolini and Michelangelo Antonioni. But wait, there's more. Going all the way back to the first calendar in 1964, the website puts on view a wealth of flawless femmes, all posing in the planet's most enticing settings (the choice of location is as anticipated as the girls). Our favorites include a dewy-faced Kate Moss by Herb Ritts in 1994, Tatjana Patitz's 1996 appearance and all the images from the '60s, in their soft-focus, pastel-colored glory. In all, there's enough artistic eye candy to cause a cavity, and without even biting into a tiramisu.
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| Oct 06: To some, the Paris-based design studio Surface to Air might be better known for its raucous fashion week parties, which invariably seem to end with the police, but there's a lot more than hip debauchery to S2A, as evinced by its newly unveiled website. What started as a collective of designers and artists with a clever graphic identity and ties to the fashion world has evolved into a global creative force with more operations than a Brazilian plastic surgeon's office. (Its latest foray is, indeed, in Sao Paulo: a restaurant-store-studio opening next week in the Jardins district.) The redesigned site includes samples of the firm's art direction for clients such as Adidas, Tokyo boutique Loveless and the French Ministry of Culture. Featured, too, is the Surface to Air menswear line, designed in collaboration with Nicolas Andreas Taralis, a selection of which is available directly from the online store. Other sections are devoted to film and music video projects, the S2A store/gallery in Paris and the new Brazil hub (the New York office, as it has all along, keeps an enigmatically low profile.) While the site offers plenty of proof that they are good at everything, the fact remains that the Surface crew knows how to throw a good bash, so we predict the new website's most popular feature will be a guest list sign-up link. Just remember to down your drinks early.
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| Sep 06: It's fall in Paris, that time of the year when the city beckons with manifold cultural charms, the most anticipated runway collections and a conundrum that never ceases to intrigue. Namely, how, after their salad days, some Gallic legends fade into ignominy (Marie Antoinette), cliché (Amelie) or—worst of all—obesity (Bardot), while others manage to grow older staying enviably fresh, chic and of-the-moment. In this latter category, think not only of Carine or Isabelle Huppert but also of the Hotel Costes, the Cafe de Flore and the uberboutique colette, that bastion of cool that not only remains influential nine years after it opened, but miles ahead of the legions of copycats it spawned in every corner of the globe. And so, while the very concept of a concept store is as stale as your terrier's breath, the mother of them all boogies on unfazed. In fact, as if to assert just how fresh she is, colette has relaunched its virtual domain. The new website's improvements include a gleaming yet playful design and sections such as "Coups de Coeur" (heartbeats), a kind of blog updated frequently with what's exciting the colette team at the moment, be it leopard print or a super-luxe Moncler down jacket. The online store has been beefed up, offering the store's trademark hi-low selection of stylish wares, a sampler of pop-culture goodies. The most noticeable addition, however, are the Com-Pets, endearing little creatures—a cross between a Teletubby, a Transformer and an iPod—that help visitors navigate the site. Click on any of the bottom menu's categories and up comes a fleet of Com-Pets doing all manner of cute things like plopping down, spinning, bobbing their heads and babbling incomprehensibly, but ultimately taking the viewer to videos, downloads, party pictures, a calendar of upcoming events and other fun places. There's a lot to discover at colette's new website, which, not unlike the store itself, is teeming with surprises. A hip-hop track in the media section proclaims "colette c'est chouette." We agree.
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| Aug 06: For a house that many believe is paving the way for the future of fashion, Balenciaga's online address was, until recently, anything but groundbreaking, containing little more than a smattering of collections photos and contact information in a barely-there design. Happily, the site has been updated in time for what can be called the summer of Balenciaga, with a landmark Paris exhibit celebrating the label's grand past and present while its namesake founder's voluminous proportions have popped up everywhere in this year's collections. Featuring the current ad campaign by Baron & Baron as a cover, the new and improved domain embraces multimedia and Flash in a way that's fitting for a brand that was propelled from revered obsolescence to the pinnacle of relevance by the visionary Nicolas Ghesquière, whose stores resemble lunar landscapes and whose much-lauded fall collection seems partly inspired by intergalactic troopers. The site's main purpose is to showcase current and recent Balenciaga collections, which is done inventively with angular cutout-style images. The aforementioned exhibit at the Louvre's Museum of Fashion and Textiles (co-curated by Ghesquière) is proudly promoted with a video and copious explanatory text (for stylish creeps, be sure to check out the "mummy droid" mannequins). There are other videos, too, including a sweet little ode to the label's popular "Classic" bag style. Of course, much of the label's allure consists of its mellifluous name and the mythical legacy of its founder; thus, the webmasters have duly included multiple ways of paying homage with bios, something called an online book that promises to grow monthly and an entertaining section devoted to the "Balenciaga spirit," exalting the qualities that made him arguably the greatest couturier of the 20th century, but also revealing the master's quirks ("smiling was strictly forbidden" and "voices were kept to a murmur" at the atelier). Between the hissy fits and futuristic bobby hats, there is much to enjoy.
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| Jul 06: The blog bug continues to spread across the web faster than gonorrhea in a Russian brothel, and Fashionland has not been spared. Yet style-themed blogs worth anyone's time are few and far between with 99% of bloggers' musings more verbal diarrhea than virtual diary. There are, however, some exceptions, so we decided to devote this month's surftip to not one, but two sites that should not be missed. Since it launched last October, Scott Schuman's addictive online journal The Sartorialist has made our blurry mornings a little less painful. Upon roaming the streets of Manhattan in search of well-dressed subjects to photograph, Schuman posts the portraits with a minimum of commentary, thus forming an ongoing documentation of the city's idiosyncratic sense of fashion. What sets The Sartorialist apart from similar sites (every city from Helsinki to Shanghai now has a street style blog) is its inclusive approach. Unlike its Paris counterpart, for instance, which seems infatuated with cool-clad young things bouncing at soirees, The Sartorialist is as likely to feature a dapper elderly man in Harlem as the more predictable Lower East Side hipster clone. And while The Sartorialist's tone is knowledgeable to a fault (there are entire entries about the shape of a jacket shoulder, stray hems, and dubious sock-and-trouser pairings), it's also sincere, a rarity in the snarkfest that is fashion media. Just a permalink away, the equally discerning Diane Pernet (above) also shares her fascinating world with us. No shortlist of better blogs would be complete without Pernet's pioneering cult journal, A Shaded View on Fashion. Equipped with her digital camera and a keen eye for talent, Pernet—who looks like a souped-up Duchess of Alba in perennial head-to-toe black with dark shades and a mantilla—reports on festivals, films, parties, shows and more from the global hotspots of avant-garde fashion (Hyères, Madrid, Paris, etc.) A Shaded View derives its strength from Pernet's indelible personality and from the fact that she is not an outside observer, but actually friends with the global fashion nomads that populate her blog—a tribe that includes Sikh jeweler Waris, ThreeAsFour and Turkish princesses Yaz and Emel Kurhan of the Yazbukey label. But the real beauty of any good blog is its author's dedication, and both The Sartorialist and A Shaded View are updated frequently, making them not-so-guilty pleasures throughout the day.
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| Jun 06: While Bruegels, Van Eycks and Rubens are lovely to look at, and nothing beats a chilled Bolleke beer on a hot summer day, fashion lovers worth their Demeulemeester biker boots come to Antwerp for one reason only: ModeNatie. The converted 19th-century gas company building in the heart of the city is the epicenter of Antwerp's creative dominance, housing a quartet of fashion-related organizations: MoMu, the fashion museum known for its groundbreaking exhibits that focus on broad, brainy themes (i.e. "Russia" and "Desire"); the Flanders Fashion Institute, a commerce-oriented body that promotes Antwerp fashion at home and abroad; the renowned fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts; and the editorial offices of A, a magazine guest-edited by the likes of Martin Margiela and Haider Ackermann. Thanks to the Belgian knack for efficiency (they're not home to the EU for nothing), all four tenants are centrally accessible from ModeNatie's online portal, providing hours of combined Flemish fun. Don't log out without signing up for the monthly newsletter—you'll be glad you did—and finding out how to get your copy of the fourth issue of A, which, curated by Hint darling (and contributor) Jun Takahashi, launches July 4.
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| May 06: With the current craze for all things denim, it's hard to imagine a time before Acne, Seven, Nudie and Tsubi. But way back in 1960's Paris, against a backdrop of student protests, the young married couple of Francois and Marithe Girbaud started a little revolution of their own, inventing wash techniques for their new jeans label and, in the process, helping turn denim from a humble fabric to the hot commodity it is today. Over thirty years later, they're still going strong. For their latest project, Construkt, curator Sebastien Agneessens (of the branding agency Formavision) commissioned artists and product designers to create objects that respond to the Girbauds' obsession with experimentation and technology. So far, the quarterly series, now in its second edition, has resulted in a laser-light installation by Dennis Askins (referencing Girbaud's recent forays into laser-cutting and ultra-sound) and a collection of seashell-inspired ceramic jewelry by Dror Benshetrit, available for purchase at the brand's New York flagship. Although the third edition launches September, you can keep busy until then at Construkt's website (created by the graphic design shop and Hint contributor Gwarsh)—a domain as slick as the Cheap Mondays you have on now.
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| Apr 06: Reaching ten fashion-packed issues is reason enough to raise glasses for most magazines (as if any reason is needed), but for Another—the British biannual that marked five years in print last month—revelry came with an added reason to celebrate when it received a Webby Award nomination this week. That's right, the mammoth mag has a website, and it's just as mammoth as the original, nearly matching the print version pixel for pound. (Shout out to our friends at Createthe agency, who built the site.) Ourselves a winner of the coiled Webby trophy, which we now use to hold wine bottles, we know an accolade-worthy virtual glossy when we see one. At the site, you'll find not just highlights, but complete highlights—no teasing here—from issue #10: punchy photography, brainy celebrity profiles and inventive art & literature features you've come to expect from editor-in-chief Jefferson Hack. In addition, after registering for free, you'll dig watching on-location videos featuring fashion-world stars in action, such as a gloomy Tilda Swinton photographed by Craig McDean. If that's not enough, find the almost-hidden link to the archives, where the already copious content is multiplied tenfold. And so now, a toast to Another five years! Oh, and one small piece of advice to its editors: skip the ceremony, as it'll only make you want to chew a limb off.
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| Mar 06: Everyone knows Marc Jacobs has an uncanny knack for picking up on the cultural pulse of the times. So it should come as no surprise that his label's website is a bellwether among designer domains. Although it's equipped with all the essentials, the site's personal touches are the real reason to go. Take, for example, the Events section, which is full of snaps from the recent Paris store launch dinner, the fall '06 show afterparty and, most entertainingly, a recent staff party. Judging from all the cuties having a blast, Marc Jacobs seems to be a dream place to work, which can also be gathered from the Employee of the Moment section containing candid profiles of staffers, one of whom did not shy away from talking about his early days hitting the gay clubs in drag. Then there are the priceless old photos of Jacobs, like the one pictured here with Robert Duffy, in the Bio section. Of course, in addition to photos to ogle and people to praise, there are products to sell, and you'll find images and descriptions of every item and accessory your heart desires from the Marc Jacobs, Marc, Little Marc (childrenswear) and fragrance lines. If video is your thing, the site's current showpiece is a movie of Jacobs' fall '06 show, including a behind-the-scenes look at the gargantuan production with its haunting score by Phillip Glass. Interestingly, the site does not seize on the designer's long-standing collaboration with lensman Juergen Teller, whose ad campaigns have yielded images of muses Charlotte Rampling, Winona Ryder, Stephanie Seymour and Sofia Coppola that could stock a section that would be the envy of any Marc Jacobs fan site, and there are many.
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