Fashion models toast agency

Legendary South Beach modeling agency Irene Marie doesn't look a day over 21, but it celebrates its remarkable 25th anniversary with a huge bash at LIV at the Fontainebleau Saturday night hosted by Cindy Taylor, with appearances by the agency's top internet models, including Niki Taylor and a fashion retrospect by stylist Danny Santiago.

Celebrities including Timbaland,Dwyane Wade, Alonzo Mourning, Gloria Estefan, and Tim Hardaway handed out toys to more than 750 underprivileged children at the Michael Fux Foundation's Holiday Celebration Sunday at the Coconut Grove Expo.

On Wednesday night, Mary-Kate Olsen, Kirsten Dunst and Marilyn Manson all sat at the same table at The Florida Room. According to our spy, ''Mary-Kate and Kirsten sat right next to each other, but it was as if there was a glass wall between them because they didn't say one word to each other all night.'' Sounds like a rockin' time.

Mary-Kate had dinner with boyfriend Nate Lowman and a group of friends at Miss Yip Thursday night. Says one onlooker: ``She chain-smoked all night and couldn't keep her hands off Nate.''

Venus Williams was spotted on Friday night in Wynwood at the Gen Art Vanguard New Contemporary Art Fair opening party checking out the yogurt-inspired commissioned artwork in the FAGE Total Artistry exhibition and sipping on Bombay Sapphire gin cocktails. She then headed outside, where she met up with Todd Oldham to watch local artist LEBO's live painting performance.

Paris and Nicky Hilton, in town for hosting duties at Karu; Y Saturday night, made the rounds, stopping at the Gansevoort South's Philippe Friday night before moving on to Mokai and the Fontainebleau.

At the Ocean Drive party at LIV for Pamela Anderson Saturday night, Anderson was seen making out with ex-beau Stephen Dorff in one of the club's skyboxes. The party was hot until 4 a.m., when the fire marshals came, turned on the lights and exposed just how good everyone looks at that dreadful hour of the morning.

On Friday night at the Tory Burch CD party: Beyoncé, Jay-Z, the Hiltons, Russell Simmons and Lenny Kravitz, first at Blade and then, after being ushered through the kitchen, at LIV, where Estelle performed.

According to a spy, Beyoncé, who arrived in the back with her Z-man via black Escalade, ``looked stunning with her hair pulled back neatly in a bun [and] wearing a kelly green sweater dress and looking very bootylicious. She even said hello to me when she walked by.''

Meanwhile, Paris and Simmons were seen exchanging phone numbers, which scares us because we hear that the socialite is looking to record another album.

News Sources:-
Posted on Tuesday, 12.09.08
http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/people/story/805158.html

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Models are too skinny for my size 10 styles, says fashion designer

One of Britain's leading fashion designers has reopened the skinny models debate by revealing she struggled to find models big enough to wear the clothes in her latest fashion show.

When Maria Grachvogel set about preparing her catwalk show at Claridge's this week, she requested size 10 models, only to find that most agencies could only provide models size 8 or smaller.

It was stark proof that in the five years since Grachvogel last staged a catwalk show the accepted standard model size has shrunk from an 8-10 to a 6-8. Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm model agency, said earlier this year:"There is no doubt that in the past few years the girls at the top end have become thinner. You'd have to be a fool not to notice it."

"It was tricky finding models in a size 10," Grachvogel, 39, who has a boutique on Sloane Street, west London, and is stocked in around 15 other boutiques, said this week. "Most of the girls we saw were at least a size smaller than that. I make all my samples in a size 10, and it's nice to be able to show them on a body that fills them out.

"I have always been someone who would request that model agencies send me their curviest girls. But this time even they were too tiny to fill a pair of size 10 trousers and make them look great."

Grachvogel's experience adds a designer name to those of supermodels Kate Moss and Karen Elson as part of a growing number of voices from within the industry speaking out against size zero culture. Commenting on her "waif" years to Interview magazine in August, Moss said she "never liked being that skinny".

The same month Elson spoke out in Vogue magazine about the industry's irresponsible attitude to young models. "I remember I came back from a job in Paris and the stylist said to me, have you been eating too many croissants?" she said.

Model agents have pointed to the shrinking size of catwalk samples as the reason why the girls and women on their books have shrunk.

Most fashion model designers make their samples using a single "fit model" whose measurements tally with the contemporary catwalk model.

"I prefer not to use a fit model, but instead to make size 10 samples and then try them out on as many women as possible. Most of the women I work with in the studio and shop are a size 8, 10 or 12, and they all try the clothes on. That way, I can find the cut that will fit and flatter most body shapes," Grachvogel said.

Retailers who sell Grachvogel's trousers have dubbed them "magic pants" for their ability to flatter almost all women. "I work with the body, not against it," said Grachvogel, who founded her label in 1994 and counts Angelina Jolie and Marie Helvin amongst her client list. She also designs a budget range of clothes and furniture for online catalogue Oli.

At her Claridge's show the "jabot" - a ruffled organza neckpiece which can turn a simple blouse into an evening look - was being heavily promoted as a tool for credit crunch glamour.

At the side of her catwalk, Grachvogel was pointing out the models she had found with what she calls "a bit of shape". A model sashaying in across the Claridge's drawing room in a satin crepe catsuit caught her eye. "She's got a proper bottom, that one," said Grachvogel approvingly.


News Sources:- Jess Cartner-Morley, fashion editor (Saturday October 25 2008)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/25/kate-moss-grachvogel-fashion-size-zero

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24 Year Old Kerri Lands Model Role

Kerri Parker, a glamour girl who grew up in Mattishall is hoping that her role alongside Simon Pegg in new comedy film "How To Lose Friends And Alienate People" will catapult her to a future career in acting.

Kerri only appears briefly on screen alongside Pegg but she has commented that she enjoyed the experience of fashion model and hopes it will lead to greater things.

She goes on to say "I play a celebrity model which was quite easy for me considering that is what it do anyway. I have seen a couple of trailers and I am in those for a few seconds and my friends and family are all ringing me saying they have seen me. Apparently after my filming had finished the director was trying to find me for some more scenes but I couldn't do it because I was unwell. It was great fun though spending two weeks with Simon Pegg. He was always singing and shouting and dancing and making everybody laugh."

What makes this feat even more impressive is that Kerri has had no formal acting training, and when you consider that she has already also appeared in the Bourne Ultimatum and The Dark Knight it makes her achievements even more incredible.

Kerri also stars in "Inconceivable" starring Andie MacDowell will be released soon in the UK in which she has a speaking part.

Posted on Monday, 06 October 2008 01:42PM by Editor :- UK Model Agencies

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