Paris Pret-a-Porter Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2011: Louis Vuitton, Chanel--Pics + Full Runway Videos!

More Paris Fall/Winter 2011 Collections Photo & Runway Video Highlights: Hotel Vuitton, SUPERMODELS are BACK...and so is SPENDING Millions on a show + Lagerfeld's "Dark & Foggy" Fashion World...

Naomi Brings Your Luggage Up: Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2011

Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2011:

May I Take Your Whip? Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2011

Paris Pret-a-Porter Fall/Winter 2011 Fashion Week continued this past week and here I highlight two "Biggies": Louis Vuitton and Chanel. Marc Jacobs, Creative Director/Designer for Louis Vuitton was in a "Logo Naughty" kind of mood. As guests arrived for the show, they were greeted by uniformed French maids. Soon people dubbed this the "Louis Vuitton Hotel" collection. For this collection, Jacobs was thinking of a hotel where "things happen", fetishism, the sketchy guests, Couture Chambermaids who see EVERYTHING but say NOTHING: "We were thinking about obsession, fetishism and we thought about an old hotel, with its chambermaids and the affairs that go on there, the crimes and scandals. And we just wanted to reveal all the amazing creatures who passed through there," he said.

Welcome to Hotel Vuitton: Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2011

The collection was INCREDIBLE--from the looks of the video and photos. Great clothes featuring COLOR (yeayy!!!) and luxe fabrications and well-tailored fits. Of course, the accessories were TO D.I.E. (scroll below!). Vuitton, Inc. spared no expense on this show: There were old-style elevators which individually brought up all the models, and speaking of models:

Checking In: Supermodel Amber Valletta, Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2011

The Supermodel Brigade was out in fine form. Naomi Campbell, Amber Valletta, Carmen Kass, Carolyn Murphy, Stella Tennant, Kate Moss, to name a few. If your keeping a tab, that's about $60,000 (at least!) already spent--and we're not adding the elevators! Whatever happened to those "recessionista" Gallery-style more intimate shows? Not when you're an almost-$20 BILLION dollar brand like Vuitton darling!

You Better Leave a Tip: Supermodel Mariacarla Boscono, Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2011

6AM Walk of Shame Ensemble: Supermodel Kate Moss, Louis Vuitton

Luxe Handcuffs: Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2011

Le Must Shoe: Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2011

I Want That Hat! Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2011

Louis Vuitton by Marc Jacobs Fall/Winter 2011 Full Runway Show:

Chanel Fall/Winter 2011:

Freja Man-Drag: Opening Look from Chanel Fall/Winter 2011

Now, speaking of multi-billion dollar brands, wait until you see the latest Chanel runway show and that opening (full video at the end of posting here) . For the latest Fall/Winter 2011 Chanel Collection, Designer Karl Lagerfeld is said to have been in a dark and somber mood and the runway stage--if you could call it that, reflected it: It was a foggy forest on a bed of still-smoldering scorched earth with rocks and faux coal. It was Fashion post Volcanic Eruption! Who knew clothes could look this chic after a natural Karl Lagerfeld-infused disaster.

Nordic Tweed: Chanel Fall/Winter 2011

Lots of grays, blacks, torn and tattered boucles, with a pop of burnt red here and there. There was again this division of Male-female, common in many a collection this season. It seems for the Chanel girl, Daywear means to bring out your "Inner Fashion Testosterone" and yet for Evening, it's time to be a girl again! Oh and if you are a Chanel Man, well...scroll down and take a look...

Volcanic Hunting Season: Chanel Fall/Winter 2011

Knit Red Carpet: Chanel Fall/Winter 2011

Post Eruption Sequins: Chanel Fall/Winter 2011

I'm So Mad I Have To Wear This Pretty Dress After A Natural Disaster: Chanel Fall/Winter 2011

Man Survives Forest Volcano Eruption: Chanel Fall/Winter 2011

Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld Fall/Winter 2011 Full Runway Show:

Bring Out the Bangles for Spring

While I would certainly love to “Walk Like an Egyptian” again, the bangle craze sweeping the nation this spring isn’t in the guise of an 80s girl band – it’s all in the wrist. If the recent runways are any indication, the ‘in’ way to accessorize this season is to layer big chunky bangles elbow deep and clink your way into sartorial bliss.

“Bangles are making a comeback,” stylist Edward Enninful, who used them at Alessandro Dell’Acqua’s Spring show for Malo, told Style.com. “The clothes were so urban, clean, and refined, we decided to pile bracelets on to give the collection a tribal edge.”

Designers like Christian Lacroix, Zac Posen and Marc Jacobs used the look with their lines, and if you haven’t gawked at Madonna’s bangled appendages for the new Louis Vuitton ads, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see that the iconic bangle wearer has brought the trend well into the 21st century.

Bangles have gone in and out of style over the years – from Nancy Cunard, the rebellious Jazz Age heiress, to Madge’s Dress You Up In My Love era in the 80s. But the bangle has been around for thousands of years, originating in India and Pakistan.

Indian tradition dictates that women wear bangles called Chudi to signify their recent marriage. Wearing a single bangle is frowned upon, perhaps because that familiar ‘clinking’ sound is such a part of Indian culture – even Bollywood incorporates the ‘bangle clink’ in many of their movie soundtracks.

Bangles are made from a variety of materials – from affordable plastics to more luxurious precious metals like silver or gold - all good news for us frugalistas who want to stay hip to the trends but not to our falling bank balances.

So whether you want to add a little flair to your “Manic Monday” or clink it up for a night on the town, layered bangles are a trendy, colorful – and most of all - affordable way to make your own jewelry statement for spring.

Clink on, jewelry hounds. Clink on.

Madonna Models Louis Vuitton

For those of you who miss the bangled Madonna of yesteryear, the Jewelry Insider has good news. I found these sneak peak pics of our Madge in the new Louis Vuitton campaign, and her arms are, well, just loaded with ‘em.

Taking a cue from the Spring ’09 looks that littered his runway shows this fall, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton dressed the ageless pop star in a series of layered bangles and cuffs, along with a feathery peach tutu and fishnets. Drag queens, get out your sketch books.

“She’s so sure of herself as an icon and as a woman. It was her idea to do the fishnets,” Jacobs told WWD. “What fascinates me the most about her is her never-ending energy, and the idea of becoming and changing. She’s an artist who’s unafraid to use her voice.”

The final six Paris bistro-inspired shots were captured by the famous Steven Meisel and will appear in a range of fashion magazines in February. It was rumored that Madonna earned $10 million for the campaign, but LV director of communications, Antoine Arnault, assured WWD, “It’s very far away from that.”

While the Madonna ads will feature LV slouchy handbags and ready-to-wear fashions, the iconic fashion house also launched two new patented diamonds to add to label lovers’ Christmas lists.

Will the divine Miss M desperately seek diamonds for the next LV campaign? You can bet I'll be watching...

Louis Vuitton's Designer Diamonds

Smart fashionistas in these tough economic times know that buying “accessories as investments” is both tasteful and fiscally sound. With gold at a record highs, why buy the latest Manolo pump or designer handbag when you can pepper your portfolio with jewelry? And designer jewelry at that!

Iconic fashion house, Louis Vuitton, is wisely diversifying their accessory offerings with the debut of their new signature diamond cuts, Les Ardentes (which translates roughly as “the blazing.”)

“We wanted to produce diamonds that resemble the Louis Vuitton brand,” explained Albert Bensoussan, watch and fine jewelry director at Louis Vuitton Malletier in an article for W Magazine.

“You have it today with ready-to-wear, with handbags, with watches, with eyeglasses. You can recognize a brand, and that association is very appealing to us. You’re going to recognize the name and value behind the shape of these diamonds.”

The two new patented shapes mirror the monogram flowers that appear on Vuitton bags and trunks: one is a rounded flower diamond, the other a pointed version. The designer gems have between 61 and 77 facets (more than the standard 58 for a brilliant cut diamond) and are set in a bracelet, a pair of earrings, two brooches, a ring and a necklace – the latter of which contains 108 carats and retails for a whopping $4 million.

So much for fiscal responsibility.

More than four years in development, the LV ice was cut at Lili Diamonds in Tel Aviv, Israel, considered one of the foremost cutting centers in the world. Bensoussan estimates that he visited about 60 workshops before settling on Lili, where he found three seasoned artisans who could take his complicated designs and fashion precise stones with as little waste as possible.

“There is one very experienced cutter there,” Bensoussan says. “One day I will ask him to cut the Vuitton diamond blindfolded, because I think he could do it.”

While Tiffany’s Lucida Diamond and the Leo Diamond are perhaps the most popular patented gems on the market today, LV hopes the customers that value their iconic bags will see the light and blaze a trail to their jewelry counter.

Sally Morrison, director of the Diamond Information Center told W, “For the same reason someone’s going to buy a Louis Vuitton handbag, there are consumers who are definitely going to want the LV diamond. It offers a certain kind of promise—it’s a kind of badge that says, ‘I’m a first mover, aesthetically.’”

For the first movers out there, carrying last year's signature tote and wearing an old pair of Mary Jane's might be a hard pill to swallow, but tough economic times call for tough fashion measures.