French Elle

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Azealia Banks, who's been called on to perform for everyone from Chanel to H&M, has declared she'll be boycotting Dolce & Gabbana because of the earrings in its Spring 2013 collection, which some have called racially insensitive. Banks said whoever designed them "deserves a swift kick in the mouth." [The Cut]
  

• Victoria Beckham's cover and photo shoot with French Elle is out — and in the coordinating interview, the designer says, "It's been a long time since I cared what other people think of me." [Jezebel]
  

• Olivier Theyskens says the key to his success has been realizing when things need to change. "A designer's first collection may have a lot of success because it's all about prints, but the person must have the courage, if prints are not really what he or she wants to do their entire design life, to find a way to get rid of it, to discover how to develop other things," he said. [Refinery29]
• The Portland-based band Chromatics used backstage footage they shot during Chanel's Spring 2013 show to create the music video for their song "Looking for Love." [Pitchfork]
  

• Actress Joanna Lumley, who brought the fashion-obsessed Patsy Stone to life in Absolutely Fabulous, is auctioning off pieces of her wardrobe from the show. Lots including a blazer from Dolce & Gabbana and an Alexander McQueen vest will benefit The Princes Trust, a British charity that helps young people finish school and find work. [Daily Front Row]

Photo via French Elle

French Elle's April issue has hit stands, and it's the annual plus-size edition. We already know plus-size models probably don't make women, of any size, feel better about their bodies, but continuing to ghettoize them into one issue just makes size, well, an issue.

Of course, plus-size model is in itself a misnomer. America's top-earning plus-size model, Crystal Renn, is a size 12, one size smaller than the average American woman. If a so-called plus-size model can wear regular-size clothes then why not just integrate her into every magazine issue. Or if the jump from size 2 to 12 is too much, why not try size 6 or 8 models?

For all this whining, I don't oppose Vogue's rumored decision to not feature Gabby Sidibe. She's an actress and a personality who supersedes her weight. If Vogue's shtick is to showcase clothes, then by all means choose those who wear them best. It would be at the very least hypocritical of editor Anna Wintour after calling overweight people "little houses" last year.

Now put Gabby in Vogue's size issue, and I will take issue with that!

>> In the March 2008 issue of Vogue, premier retoucher of fashion photographs, Pascal Dangin, tweaked a total of 144 images, from ads to editorial spreads, and in The September Issue, which focuses on the making of Vogue's September 2007 issue, Anna Wintour definitely displays a reliance on retouching, asking Mario Testino to superimpose cover girl Sienna Miller's head from one shot onto her body in another shot, and requesting that a cameraman's gut from an editorial shot be diminished, to Grace Coddington's dismay: "Everybody isn't perfect in this world.  It's enough that the models are perfect."

When digital manipulation programs first came into use in the early '90s, reports Eric Wilson for The New York Times, art directors originally used them to create a heightened sense of reality like images achieved through movie special effects — "hyper real" style, as former The Face art director and current Love creative director Lee Swillingham coined it — as a reaction against the images of supermodels that looked too perfect. Editors weren't suggesting the resulting look be attainable, Swillingham explains: “We were trying to create a future fashion. You could do something that looked gritty and real or something that looked like plastic.”

Now, some major photographers are pushing for less plastic, more real »

>> While fashion types are currently migrating to Venice for tomorrow's Chanel Cruise 2010 show — Karl Lagerfeld arrived Monday with Baptiste Giabiconi and his runway favorites Siri Tollerod, Heidi Mount, Liu Wen, Charlotte di Calypso, and Denisa Dvorakova are all already in town for fittings and the dinner Karl's hosting tonight — many are continuing on to the Cannes Film Festival, which opened today.

In fact, the Chanel theme carries over in Cannes — Jan Kounen’s Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, starring Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen, screens May 24, the closing day.  In between now and then, Carine Roitfeld — as well as Donatella Versace and Kenneth Cole — will make her annual appearance at amfAR's Cinema Against AIDS benefit on May 21 at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, which also features an exhibition by photographer Bruce Weber.

Lily Cole, Laetitia Casta have films debuting »

Matthew Williamson's H&M ads have been revealed and feature model Daria Werbowy on the beach...

Some misses' specialty stores, like Ann Taylor and Chicos, are failing to update their retail strategies. 

French Elle's April issue features a number of top models and actresses without makeup or retouching.  

Trovata's suit against Forever 21 for copying a number of its designs is slated to go to trial next month.