The World Tied in the Palm of Her Hand

Never let the doubt get you down friends. It was only a matter of days ago when everyone was proclaiming the end of Freja's professional relationship with Karl Lagerfeld, but to say such preconceived notions of demise were premature were obviously, well, premature. I think it's time we all surrendered ourselves to the fact that in the Kaiserchief's band, Freja is the metaphorical cowbell, and we just can't get enough (re: we just can't get enough).

All of this is a roundabout way of retelling you all how the Great Dane is now featured in the newest Karl-shot campaign for French luxury department store, Printemps. I'm sure you will all be pleased to hear that Freja is bedecked in the glory of Chanel for the campaign, so that connection seems to remain semi-stable as well.

The Christmas campaign, which is visible even now on Printemps' website, depicts Karl's eternal muse holding the world, like every other heavily-depended-upon individual, in the palms of her hands. If you didn't catch the subliminal message I projected there, the moral of the story is that Karl thinks Freja's awesome, Printemps thinks Freja's awesome, and the advertising world thinks Freja's awesome, so I still have a job, and you lot still have orgasms. What seems to have been lost along the way are Freja's pants, but that's okay, because it means I can mention Lady Gaga in what is becoming a stream of pop music/culture references.

If any of you are interested, Karl is also designing the store windows for la grand magasin. You can have a peek at the frightful results (I'm not going to be judgmental, but there are dolls. So I judge "psychologically disturbed".) and Vanessa Paradis (who is there for no apparent reason, beyond being a pretty, French lady, or a pretty French lady) over at the linked website, or by clicking here. You can also rock on over and check out the windows for previous seasons, which were more fun, and will inspire less mental distress.

But for those of you only here for Freja, here's the making of for her side of the campaign. It is documented proof of everything I have said in this post. It's also always interesting to see the interactions between model and photographer. Personally, I was expecting Karl's instructions to be much more descriptive, as opposed to whistling and to-the-pointedness, but the man is German, after all.

So given the theme of the campaign (globe-trotting and stuff), what are you all doing for Christmas/the holidays? Any big plans? Please keep in mind that if you are leaving your present location for the tropics in order to avoid the snow, I will have no choice but to think of you as less than a person. Even Karl's evil little clone dolls like snow.

Peace, love, and floating,
Gill Ford

*"Spirit" is a totes brill song from Eric Burdon & War. It is one of the few songs in history that should never be criticized for a lack of cowbell. Incidentally, if you haven't heard of War, it will be declared upon you. Here's a Copenhagen performance from 1971, because we love Denmark so much.


Photos courtesy of printemps.com

Gucci Behind the Scenes Video

I love this video (and I absolutely love the entire Gucci campaign now as well). The whole concept is very cool, and very fitting for the FW0910 Gucci collection. From what I can gather, each model embodied a different persona during the shoot. Freja was "The Unbendable," and you can see her part in the video starting around 3:40. If you pay close attention you can get the other models' personae as well.

Old "Making Of" Gucci videos have simply featured models dancing and moving around, but this one is different. This one was purposefully made to become a behind the scenes video. Videos from past seasons always seemed like an afterthought. While the photographers were shooting the campaign, someone just happened to be taking video so Gucci took the footage, set it to some music and called it a behind the scenes video.

This one differs in that it has a concept and the models were filmed specifically to convey that concept. Like I said before, each model played a role during the shoot, and each model has a segment during this video. Footage is set to an overlay of the other models' voices and if you listen closely you can pick out distinctive one like Raquel's, Abbey Lee's and Anja's. They all utter descriptive words and phrases about each other, but it's unclear to me if their mutterings refer to the model's persona on set or persona in real life.

Here is what I could make out from Freja's segment. She is The Unbendable. She's tough and hard. Edgy and straight down the line (according to Abbey Lee). She's up for any adventure (according to Anja). She's steady, unbendable, loyal and she doesn't beat around the bush. These are all qualities I would associate with Freja, but of course I don't really know the real her. Just the "her" that she allows me to see through her work. So maybe there is a third persona at play here? The video persona, Freja's real persona, and the persona that we see as fans.

Anyway, I'll spare you by not delving further into that thought. Freja also says something about herself, but it was hard to make out. I heard "I'm the one that talks a lot." Did anyone else hear that as well? By the way, I love her voice. So unique sounding and slightly raspy with that Danish accent.

The ending of the video is quite impressive. It starts at 4:28 with the video camera slowly panning out to a full view of all the models moving and swaying. The flash from the photographic camera adds this amazing strobe light effect and the whole impression is quite breathtaking and stunning to my eyes. After seeing this video, I think more people will be able to appreciate what Inez and Vinoodh were going for when they shot this campaign. It's about models, glamor, and getting lost in a life you aspire to have.