zaidd'or

By Zaid Taji Farouki

Tag: Photography

Pirelli 2016 Calendar

Pirelli the Italian tire manufacturer has produced these calendars for over 50 years – most notorious for their pin up girls and on rare occasions, featured women in clothes – this year it has taken a turn. The photographer behind this year’s calendar is Annie Leibovitz and for the first time the attraction of the subjects is in their résumés, not their measurements. To say that these women are the usual subject of the Pirelli calendar is an understatement. This calendar shows the women who define modern life, not the sexy girls who are too young to have accomplished anything.

In The New York Times written by Vanessa Friedman discussing the calendar. She spoke about an interview she had with Antonio Achille, a partner and managing director of the Boston Consulting Group. He mentioned:

Female income worldwide totaled $18 trillion in 2014 within the luxury car market in the United States, 50 percent of vehicle purchases are decided by women, and 75 percent are “influenced” by them. Beyond that, Mr. Achille said: ‘Women are superb brand ambassadors. Women share a positive car experience with more than 20 people on average, while men share experiences with only two.’

And as Ms. Zimmerman said: “Women have a disproportionately loud voice compared to their male counterparts. And for those women it is no longer socially acceptable to walk into a high-end garage that sells Pirelli tires and see a calendar with naked girls on the wall. You’d drive right out again in that Mercedes you came in with.”

 

 

Pictures owned by Annie Leibovitz & Pirelli.

From London With Love

Arguably the second most iconic family in Britain right after The Windsors are the Beckhams. They have had an eventful couple of days as Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice) was named entrepreneur of the year and Romeo was featured as the face of the most recent Burberry campaign named “From London With Love” which was inspired by inspired by “the golden age of romantic musicals”. It is breath taking to see an iconic brand with so much heritage presenting to us a short film that just fills us with emotion.

P.S. Victoria and David when are we signing my adoption papers?

The Iconoclasts Celebrating Louis Vuitton’s Monogram

In 1854, Louis Vuitton founded his House. In 1896 his son, Georges Vuitton, created The Monogram in honour of his late father.  The initials of the company – LV – are interlaced in such a way as to remain perfectly legible. Then a diamond. To give a specific character to the shape, he made the sides concave with a four-petal flower in the centre. Then the extension of this flower in a positive image. Finally, a circle containing a flower with four rounded petals.

Delphine Arnault, daughter of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, and artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière initiated a project, dubbed ‘Celebrating Monogram,’ inviting six of the world’s design pioneers to interpret the LV monogram for a new series of bags. The six pioneers are: shoe designer Christian Louboutin; performance artist Cindy Sherman; architect Frank Gehry; Karl Lagerfeld creative director of Chanel and Fendi; product designer Marc Newson and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons.

Karl Lagerfeld shot each of the iconoclasts and their finished products for Harper’s Bazaar’s upcoming October issue.

Information and pictures taken from LouisVuitton.com & Businessoffashion.com

Arab Designers & The Red Carpet

Over the past few seasons we have seen a tremendous growth in the amount of couturiers that originate from the Arab World and they are taking over. We can notice this trend by looking at the stars and what they chose to wear at two important red carpet events that took place a few days ago – The Emmys and The VMA Awards. And the media has been buzzing Julia Roberts made such a statement wearing a short dress by Elie Saab, J.Lo who just turned 45 showed off her incredible body in a Charbel Zoe dress. While Beyonce not only wore one, but two different dresses by Arab designers during the VMAs – a black dress by Nicolas Jebran and a red one by Zuhair Murad. Meanwhile, Alexandra Dabbario revived old Hollywood glamour in Reem Acra.

When Kelly Rowland – a big fan of Arab designers- was asked by Style Arabia about her preference for Arab aesthetics and Arab designers such as Rani Zakhem, Rami Al Ali, Elie Saab, Georges Hobeika, and Georges Chakra, as well as,  Azzedine Alaïa.  Rowland’s stylist replied:

“We absolutely love Middle Eastern designers,” noted Dash. “Alaïa, Georges Chakra, and Elie Saab are a few of our favorites. It’s that Arabian allure. They incorporate so much value and culture into their clothes, which Kelly especially loves.”

Dash (Rowland’s Stylist” later added: “What fascinates us most about Middle Eastern designers has to be the way they externally channel so much creativity into looks for the runways. How their minds are so limitless. They’ve added so much to the Western fashion scene – with the most obvious being the turban, caftan, and hareem pant, which Kelly loved wearing during 2011-2012”

Here are some images from the runway, click to enlarge.

Photos are taken by: Rex Features, Frazer Harrison/Getty Images, fabsugar, dailymailuk, & Getty Images

 

London Street Inspirations

Images that caught my attention during my daily walks here in London…

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DKNY’s Ramadan Collection

As the Arab & Islamic world make headlines around the world, whether its about the new radical ISIS taking over or the recent ban of bruqa’s in France. nevertheless, the actual society is trying to incorporate themselves more and more into this globalized world. The ability to grow but still maintain their customs and traditions. This collection proves the point as designers are gearing up and creating specific collections for this target customer, which happens to be one of the main markets for the fashion industry, due to the regions great consumer purchasing power. The 12-piece collection features different, interchangeable looks from long flowing dresses, skirts and jumpsuits. While always keeping in mind fluidity, layering, and conservative necklines. The looks were styled by Yada Golsharifi the fashion editor of Styles Magazine and Tamara Al Gabbani a fashion designer in Dubai.

Enjoy!

Milan Men’s Fashion Week – Throwback

Here are some images from Milan Men’s Fashion Week that I haven’t managed to share with you. They were taken on the first day of the fashion shows. I hope you enjoy them as much as you enjoyed the previous ones!

Milan Men’s Fashion Week – Day 3

DAY 3 of the fashion shows! After a sunburn and an intense shower to get the street dirt off of me, I am ready to share the outcome of today! Here are some of the images I took throughout the day! I hope you enjoy them!

Ps. Click on the images to enlarge them!

Milan Men’s Fashion Week – Day 2

The second day of Milan Men’s Fashion Week and it can’t get any better! Here are some images I took today, Enjoy!

 

Milan Men’s Fashion Week

So fashion week finals kicks in and Milan is going crazy as usual. Endless parties, endless outfits, and endless good looking people. Here are some images from today’s street style! Enjoy!

Daily Obsessions

So now that men’s fashion weeks have started and the streets of the fashion capitals are infested with greek deity figures. Lets present this post to all the men out there. With summer bringing in perfectly tanned bodies, open button down shirts, and endless beach parties; there is something we all have to agree on, there is nothing better than a perfectly accessorized man. With the perfect amount of layering, the man becomes so intriguing to others. Which creates an obsession of wanting to know the story behind this guy. As Evan Yurman puts it “From the beginning of time, man has had a need to adorn himself with things that mean something to him.”

David Yurman launched a new collection inspired by the SouthWest called the Frontier and I am obsessed with it!

Pictures taken from DavidYurman.com

Featured

Featured on the blog The Milano Mode, when I was at the event for 1177.

The City of the Seven Hills

On our last day in Rome we had to visit the last two places on our list, The Vatican and The Colosseum. We started our day by visiting St. Peter’s Basilica, The Vatcian museums, and The Sistine Chapel. I have never been this mesmerized in my life. The walk through The Vatican Museums and The Sistine Chapel – I can’t say it except in the most cliche way- took my breath away. The frescos, the detailing, the grand rooms. There was a force that tickles your taste buds, no your creative buds that allows you to imagine the feeling of the painter when creating these masterpieces. You realize that there is beauty hidden in every corner. The cracks in the walls which some people may claim as bad restoration, but I saw it as another distinctive layer that gives piece depth/history. And the beauty of integrating different cultures and nudity in their art-which could have been frowned upon among conservatives- inspires the viewer and gives them a new prospective to look at the world from (These topics will be further emphasized on in future posts). As you walk through the rooms and see the future and past colliding, you get to one of the world’s most prized possessions. The Sistine Chapel, as soon as I walked in you get this feeling of wanting to sit down or even kneel to such beauty. Even after 600 years for an artwork to be grasped by the viewer just proves the great mastery behind it. Sadly no pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel therefore, I can’t share this experience with you.

After The Vatican, off we went to The Colosseum to end our list of the most touristy things to do in Rome. The next morning off we went to catch our trains and flights to get back home.

The images below may seem too zoomed in. They are purposely taken like that to see the detailing, to serve as inspirations for my future collections.

The Eternal City

The second day in Rome, we decided to take it easy and not get up early as it was a Sunday and we were exhausted from the traveling the day before. So after I met everyone’s father on Instagram and Facebook we started off by visiting Sant’Ignozio and Piazza Venezia. As soon as we entered Sant’Ignozio I was speechless, nicknamed the church of illusions, the painter –Pozzo- used a painting technique called the Tromp-L’œil. This allows the viewer to see the frescos in a 3D form. You’ll find images of the fresco below that will further explain this technique. Later on under the rain we found ourselves in Piazza Venezia and later on in Piazza Spagna. The sky was beautiful that day as it got darker for the rain and then somehow it lit up to show a double rainbow.

 

 

Roma

As I may have mentioned before, I have a friend visiting me here in Italy, and we decided that we should take a trip to Rome as we both haven’t been there before. So we hopped on a train heading from Milano to Roma and decided we should spend three nights. Hoping that they would be enough to see this eternal city everyone talks about!

As soon as we arrived we checked into our rooms and off we went to explore, yes we embraced our inner Marco Polos and headed out. On our first day we got to see the Spanish Steps, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza Navona and The Pantheon. We have these two sayings in Arabic that perfectly define our experience:

قليل البخت لا يتعب ولا يشقى ( 1  (He who has no luck should not waste his time working)

2) قليل البخت يلاقي العضم في الكرشة (He who has no luck would find a bone while eating a sheep’s intestine- which usually has no bones)

We went to the Fontana di Trevi and it was under construction. We went to the Spanish steps and part of it was also under construction. Exhausted from the long walks we decided to head back to the hotel to freshen up and get changed for dinner. I can safely say I gained 5 kg within a week. Here are some images from yesterday: