June is the harbinger of happier shopping times. The Great Singapore Sale, low and behold. If you don’t already know, Front Row is holding a big blow-out of discounts that will pack pretty-penny savings into your purse. It makes perfect cents.

In-store from now till 11th July | 5 ann siang road | 12-8pm daily, closed on Sundays.

The Front Row Great Singapore Sale is a pleaser. Here are a few choice highlights to save you the trouble of hunting:

Cosmic Wonder Light Source SS08: 50%

Cosmic Wonder Light Source Ss08 : 50%

A.P.C : 50%

Woods & Woods : 50%

Woods & Woods: 50%

+9 S/S08 // Yovia Jogia : 30%

+9 SS08 // Demisemiquaver : 30%

+9 SS08 // N.nchal.nt : 30%

Eley Kishimoto : 30%

Eley Kishimoto : 30%

Kim Jones X Umbro : 70%

Vivienne Westwood for MELISSA : 15%-30%

Vivienne Westwood for MELISSA : 15%-30%

So, the biggest news in fashion today is that the house of Christian Lacroix has filed for bankruptcy. Which comes as a rather big shock, because (1) the Lacroix exhibition at the National Museum is still on-going and my friends are going tomorrow, and (2) I just saw a selective capsule of his S/S09 haute couture collection during the recent Audi Fashion Festival! So this all seems rather sudden. timeliness and proximity-wise.

The hardest hit on Lacroix’s wallet, however, are not the stratospherically-priced haute couture pieces, but the ready-to-wear sales, which had dropped by 35 per cent. Losses for 2008 were about US$14 million. I suppose this is hardly surprising. The uber-wealthy will always be  safe and snug in their safety nets, always ready to finance an ailing economy with their spendthrift habits. The clientele for the more affordable RTW pieces are no doubt feeling the pinch on their wallets. and perhaps choosing to spend at H&M instead.

The F/W09 couture show should still be going ahead, albeit on a smaller scale, but let’s hope someone sees the bigger picture and buys Lacroix out of this misery. The world would be a sadder place if his fantastical creations no longer grace fashion week.

In other news, Veronique Branquinho has also closed shop. The Belgian designer is forced to close her eponymous label due to (what else?) the recession. She will now focus on her role as the new artistic director of Belgian leather goods brand Delvaux and will continue teaching as a professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Tis a sad day for fashion. It makes me wonder how everyone else is really doing, when a fashion great and an established designer both throw in the towel on the same day.

Source: www.nitrolicious.com

Anna Wintour’s 60 mins with CBS Morley Safer. All FashNetizens are abuzzed with this. This is an interview that’s going down in history - second only to Martin Bashir’s interview with Michael Jackon. Ok, some will beg to differ.

The steel in her gaze is scary. I can see why she wears sunglasses all the time now - it really is quite considerate (I’ll hate to be on the other side of those sunglasses.) As Safer pointed out: “…She has a look that says “I’m the boss, and you’re boring.” … the fear that grips at you.

Morley Safer’s commentary is hilarious, spoken throughout with a curl in the lip, he sounds like the voice-over on America’s Most Wanted. Oh well, I suppose.

In the video, Safer suggests that Nicholas Ghesquire is a grovelling syncophatic, and Gareth Pugh (with pals at front row), a walking Rocky Horror Show. It’s an indignity that I’m sure the fashion world is up-in arms-about. How dare he.

Anna Wintour is a heroic figure. Anyone who commands such reverance and fear is a modern day super hero. Doesn’t matter these days whether you’re a hero or villian - Both are equally well-received. It’s Post-modern comic.

I’m sure plans for an Anna Wintour video game are being planned as we speak…

Nitro:licious has the the full interview video in 6 sets here.

From Scorsese’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, protoganist Ellen Olenska asked: “Is fashion such a serious consideration?” To which Newland Archer replied: “Among those who have nothing more serious to consider.”

How dare he, the dog.

Then The Cut reported this - “Coming Soon: The Fashion Week Video Game“. A video game based on the going-ons of Fashion Week is going to be launched next year. This is clearly a serious game with hefty realism- It’s created between game developer 505, global fashion week producers IMG, Makeup guru Pat McGrath and fashion insider Noel Gordon. No doubt, long-suffering IMG needed to vent (so clever to be making money out of it too!) And Pat.. where does she find the time?! According to the The Cut, the game will “include ‘World-class industry gurus’, models and celebrities’.

What’s the fashion game if not for the industry players and front row pawns? The game absolutely must have all the requisite famous first-nam-ers -  Anna, Carine, Andre, Suzy, Karl, Marc, Giselle, Kanye et al … these are staples. Seasonal folks and everyone else will just make the game very expensive to upgrade every season with the who’s it and who’s not.

Oh yes, fashion’s a serious consideration and spectacle - enough that a video game can be made out of it. All the most successful movies have one. Loves it. XOXO.

Just when you thought the world had enough of green washing, you hear about luxury group PPR’s huge enviromental film project. PPR lent financial muscle ($10 million Euros) to Home, a film directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and distributed by Luc Besson. The film is entirely made up of a succession of aerial footages shot in over 50 countries and incites its audiences to be aware and environmentally vigilant. As official sponsor of the film, PPR’s involvement ensures alot of people will get to see this groundbreaking film for free (according to PPR CEO Francois-Henri Pinault in the release notes). It’s due to be release silmultaneously in 50 countries on World Environment Day, 5th June 09.

Other nice things that have come out of PPR’s involvement include these fashion-greens - Alexander McQueen, YSL, Boucheron, and Sergio Rossi are all contributing to the Home project with limited edition pieces. Profits will be donated to www.goodplanet.org.

Alexander McQueen: A scarf with a manipulated photographic image of earth morphed into a skull.

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Yes, even hair.

That’s such a great casual look.

While these ones below are professionally tailored by Toni&Guy.

The wardrobe already has both, no reason why the hair shouldn’t too.

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Got this in the in-box yesterday: www.anothermagonline.com - Jefferson’s Hack antidote to fast-moving editorial news in the form of a collectible; a slowed-down publication that mulls over fashion as social+cultural theory. As lovely as it would have been to recieve this old-fashion via the letterbox, it made no difference that the magazine, digitised or not, still came resplendant with glossy DPS ads. Ad after ad after ad, it read like a gallery of S/S09 ad campaign trends. A visual feast of the choicest ad campaigns though: Madonna for Louis Vuitton in a smokey french bistro, Dolce & Gabbana’s roccoco conflict on celluloid, Burberry’s greenhouse party, Pamela Anderson and her bosom friends for Vivienne Westwood, alongside Viv herself and husband, Andreas Kronthaler… and so forth. This went on till I found the “View pages as thumbnails” button. Tadah! the full magazine in its thumbnail glory: all the better to skip or further view the ads in a line-up. (I really like the Comme des Garcons Shirt ad.)

The thinker’s muse, Tilda Swinton, is the cover story: “an epic spoken portrait” woven from “anecdotes and stories from many who have collaborated with Tilda on her most notable work.” A very nice article with esteemed accolades from the industry’s heavies, ranging from Victor& Rolf to Hamish Bowles to Chalayan to Spike Jonze. Stunning fashion spread too - she wears seminal pieces by the newest generation of IT designers - though she does look a little shell-shock. All part of her charm, I’m sure.

The Stephen Jones feature and spread is also a mad delight…

“This is my second opportunity to collaborate with Yohji. We first worked together 2 years ago for their SS08 collection – they actually watched this TV documentary I did for a Japanese channel (all about surviving as a hat designer here in the UK) and gave me a call out of the blue!”

Milliner Misa Harada got to collaborate with Yohji Yamamoto - all because the master happened to watch a bit of telly! Who would have thunk it!

To her own credit, she did graduate from the RCA and worked with renowned milliner Frederick Fox and master Thierry Mugler. Read the full article at Daze Digital here. Stunning pictures and styling.

Image credits: dazedigital.com | Photography: Neil Francis Dawson, Styling: Anna Trevelyan