July Release: Kate Moss

In the July issue of W magazine, legendary photographer Bruce Weber captures the freshest talent livening up fashion today in a whimsical, yet strikingly provocative 36-page layout. The designers, coming from Paris, London, Toronto, New York and Los Angeles, and all of whom are on the onset of their careers, were flown to Miami for the two-day shoot. Here, the new designers, some of which include Alexander Wang, Daughters, Avalon Vega, and Rosamosario, mingled with top models Daria Werbowy, Kate Moss and Lara Stone to produce the end result summed up by the spread’s title: “Summer Camp.”

While the images portray nude models baking in the sun, smoking cigarettes, and spraying each other with a garden hose, the photos capture more than just a ‘summer camp’ free-frall. Weber, in collaboration with Creative Director Dennis Freedman and stylist Alex White, manages to capture the individual creative energy of the designers. As W’s Executive Editor Bridget Foley expresses, “There is such a wealth and such a diversity of design talent out there. It’s good to see what great hands fashion is in. Will these people be around in five or 10 years? We really believe in each of them for one reason or another. Whether or not they all make it, it’s very exciting to be able to represent their exuberance and passion in the magazine.”

The “Summer Camp” fashion spread and behind-the-scenes videos can be viewed at www.Wmagazine.com. Other highlights from the July issue of W magazine are below.

PARTY TIME

More women are gaining political power and a celebrity-obsessed public is scrutinizing the style of world leaders almost as closely as that of Hollywood stars. Whether this is a good idea is a subject that’s already generating lively debate, even as designers begin jockeying for credits – MILES SOCHA, author of “Party Time”

Fashion icons on whether fashion and politics should mix:

• “When powerful women start using glamour and style, things usually end in tears. Marie Antoinette – Hello!”– SIMON DOONAN
• “Today for a woman, even in the workplace, looking feminine and looking great is an asset. They should dress well, for their sake and our sake. Fashion is nonpolitical; it’s commerce.” – OSCAR DE LA RENTA
• “It’s a real danger when politicians are more concerned about their image than their ideas.” – CHRISTINA LACROIX
• “Politics and fashion mingle in dinners, parties, fashion shows. Let’s not be hypocritical about it. Let’s accept the fact that the two worlds are closer than most people think.” – ANTOINE ARNAULT, director of communications for Louis Vuitton MONEY HONEYS

Strategic mixing of business and pleasure has been around for eternity. But in recent years, such strategizing has infiltrated even the most buttoned-up of enclaves: the world of finance – ELISA LIPSKY-KARASZ, author of “Money Honeys”

A male marketer on why hedge-funds are making “hot” women part of their business strategy: “Guys who have a load of money [invested] in these big funds are often pigheaded, type A male personalities. They want a hot chick with a nice ass and nice boobs who is going to come in and sell the fund to them. I have a friend in the industry who is drop-dead gorgeous, and even she knows that’s the only reason she has her job.”

A “curvy blond” hedge-fund marketer on how business and pleasure can become a gray area: “Just last night I had dinner with a potential investor, and he e-mailed me 20 minutes after we left, saying, ‘Great spending time with you tonight. Let’s do it again soon.’ That’s not, like, a professional follow-up note. But, he was nice and cute, so I wrote back. Some guys flirt a lot, and you have to be very careful, because some of them get dirty. You can never get your reputation back.”

A woman on the investment side of the industry on being mistaken as a marketer: “People always assume that I’m in marketing, because I have blond hair and maybe I spray-tan too much.”

DR. IVO

Ivo Pitanguy is famous throughout the world, but in his native Brazil he’s a legend, eclipsed in public recognition only by Pele, the soccer god. That a plastic surgeon could reach this level of renown says something about the Brazilian worship of physical beauty and, of course, Pitanguy’s knack with the knife, for which he’s been dubbed “the Michelangelo of the scalpel.” – JAMES REGINATO, author of “Dr. Ivo”

Pitanguy on how he takes a heavily psychoanalytic view of plastic surgery: “I have always worked like a psychologist with a knife.”

Pintaguy on how many people channel their inner problems into their looks: “The way that you see your image may not be the way that I or others see it. Many people have dysmorphia; they see themselves as much worse that they really are. Many people sublimate problems that are inside them and project them onto, say, their nose.”

Please credit the July issue of W for the above. For additional information or to schedule an interview with a W editor, please contact Engelman & Co. at 212.645.9222. Thank you.