Harper’s Bazaar Australia: Lady of the House

Posted on Dec 2, 2011 in Fashion

Darlings, to set you sailing straight into your weekend, here’s your pretty: a megashot of couture from Harper’s Bazaar Australia. Close your eyes and pretend you’re a slightly crazed woman with a huge mansion and a ton of couture, whose only purpose in life is to stand or sit in dramatically lit rooms wearing haute couture and looking slightly put out by it all. And if you’re not the floaty, dreamy, romantic type, pretend you’re her sarcastic maid who constantly tells her to move her feet out of the way and lighten the fuck up. You’ll be the one she leaves all her money to.

Harper’s Bazaar Australia December 2011 Issue
Editorial: “Lady of the House”
Model: Nimue Smit
Photographer: Victor Demarchelier
Makeup: Mickael Noiselet
Hair: Teddy Charles

Chanel Fall 2011 Couture Collection

Azzedine Alaïa Fall 2011 Couture Collection

Chanel Fall 2011 Couture Collection

Valentino Fall 2011 Couture Collection

Jean Paul Gaultier Fall 2011 Couture Collection

Azzedine Alaïa Fall 2011 Couture Collection

Armani Privé Fall 2011 Couture Collection

Givenchy Fall 2011 Couture Collection

Christian Dior Fall 2011 Couture Collection

[Image Credit: Lee MG Tisci via thefashionspot.com, elle.com, vogue.it]

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http://www.facebook.com/people/Cortney-Dean/100002491593625 Cortney Dean

Every last one of those dresses looks better in the photos than they do on the runway- spectacular!
- Anonymous
  
  AGREED. If modeling were an Olympic sport, the Australian team would be seriously one to watch, like Russia in gymnastics.
- Anonymous
  
  Funny, I thought just the opposite. I couldn’t make out most of the details and the magazine’s models/styling are so gloomy/scrawny/creepy.
http://twitter.com/Deac82 Mike M.

apparently that was the only Christian Dior HC dress worth photographing this year.
- Anonymous
  
  i’m pretty sure it was.
  we all know why.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1234087433 Jen Freeman

am I the only one who hates the way Givenchy shoots their models for these “runway” shots? They looks so awkward…
- Ruth Preston
  
  No, you’re not. “Hello, please. I am here to fix cable.”
- Anonymous
  
  I call it the “MOM, are you done making sure the hem is pinned straight???” pose. They look so pissed off, and like they were told to stand still as if their life depended on it.
  
  (Or am I the only one whose mom made her childhood clothes, and you had to go through that shit, with the pins making your legs a bloody mess?)
Valerie Little

These are some beautiful images, but they forgot to airbrush some flesh onto that skeletal arm displayed in the 15th photo. Yikes.
- muzan-e
  
  Well-spotted! Or perhaps they transplanted it all to the elbow? Oh my.
  - Anonymous
    
    LOL. How did the editors miss that absurdity?
- Anonymous
  
  I am not disagreeing with the fact that the arm is insanely thin, but it is probably due to that particular type of back lighting. Window light softened by a sheet creates that effect.
- Anonymous
  
  Ew. It looks like a starved chicken’s wing.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Deborah-Jozayt/100002949685297 Deborah Jozayt
  
  Here I am at home counting out loud to find the 15th photo and my dog is just tilting her head at me like I’m some circus show performance.
http://www.facebook.com/CatherineKatz Catherine Katz

I’m drawn to the “headpiece” in the 2nd shot. I wanted to say I was fascinated with it, but since I consider it a fascinator, it would be redundant.
http://knittedfuin.tumblr.com/ Eruwenfuin

I’ll be the maid If I get to wear that second dress with my plumeau.
Now I am The Bee

I better get me some Valentino haute couture–It is stunning both here and the Russian spread wherein it was also featured. I die.
Thanks for more pretty today, boys. Have a nice weekend.
Anonymous

I BORN to play the sarcastic maid! Sign me up!

I can’t wait to see starlets wearing these clothes all wrong. You know it’s gonna happen.
Anonymous

Those are some of the most gorgeous dresses I have ever seen. Thanks for the into-the-weekend pretty.
http://cheekypinky.wordpress.com/ Rebecca

To quote, “I. DIE.”

Especially that gold-leafed and feathered Valentino.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1043171034 Tadiana Walton Jones

VERY pretty, but to me it reads more like “Bored Spoiled Teenage Daughter of the Lady of the House.”
- Lori
  
  Trophy wife.
  - Anonymous
    
    Trophy child bride.
    - Anonymous
      
      Trophy stick insect.
    - Anonymous
      
      Trophy stick insect.
http://twitter.com/jessicapippin Jessica Pippin

Interesting that they also used the Christian Dior gown from the Russian Winter Wonderland editorial. Beautiful pictures!
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3JSTXMWWVZN2QNP2UEKJMTWD7U Isabel
  
  I liked that editorial better
Anonymous

Gorgeous clothes, but she looks like she could use some tea and crumpets,maybe a couple of dozen of them.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf UltimaEsperenza

I don’t think this model is attractive at all. In fact, her face distracts me from the garments in a very unpleasant way.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3JSTXMWWVZN2QNP2UEKJMTWD7U Isabel
  
  Plus, her super thin arms
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1326120071 Gaby Ripoll
    
    Enough with the body hate! Leave the poor girl’s arms alone.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Emily-Smith/12431153 Emily Smith

love the short dress with the fur. this model needs to eat something. more than once a week. and more than a single raisin. my goodness she is THIN.
Anonymous

In every case the editorial look is better than the runway look. Perhaps a blue-green-grey filter was used? The Chanel and the second Alaia are my favorites. The Givenchy looks ethereal in the editorial, it just looks sheer and flat on the cobblestone “runway”. Dreadful photoshopping, ruins the images. I never comment on model size, but this girl scares me.
MilaXX

So much pretty! My fav has to be the Gaultier, but honestly they are all lovely. This is however, a good example of editorial versus wearable because pretty much all of them look better in the photographs than on the runway models.
http://twitter.com/starrika Ali

Russia did it better. This is just boring.
Anonymous

I’m the maid who steals the rich bitch’s Valentino and Gaultier gowns. I never want to be rich and famous until I see clothes like this.
mrspeel2

LOVE the whole collection and the photography is gorg!

“Close your eyes and pretend you’re a slightly crazed woman with a huge mansion and a ton of couture, whose only purpose in life is to stand or sit in dramatically lit rooms wearing haute couture and looking slightly put out by it all.” LOL! Sounds like me when I was a teenager – minus the mansion and the couture!
http://www.facebook.com/prettymuchalltheway Kat Schnepp

that cabernet Alaia with the fur trim om nom nom nom nom that is so beautiful
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1046681022 Paula Berman

The Dior would make a fab wacked out wedding dress…
Anonymous

that model is scary skinny!
Anonymous

but i’d have to imagine i was also nineteen, wore new fur, was made of stick thin porcelain & would be willing, even then, to wear a long sheer skirt over a short opaque one! even still–even still–this is an absolutely stunning editorial. & the alaias, all of them, from dresses to shoes to the perfect but unfortunate burnt burgundy fur–oh! it’s masterful!
Anonymous

You got my hopes up. I wanted to see the girl in Haute Couture with a vacuum. Magazines, get on that. Matron won’t let anyone near her wearing anything less than Couture.
Rebecca Johnson

I liked the Russian Tatler piece much, much more. Except for the wacky hair, the styling in this editorial mimics the runway. The dresses look better, sure, but the other pictures made them sing. Here they just kinda hum a little.
- Anonymous
  
  Nicely put, and I completely agree. Too bad for the Aussies that we got the eyeful of Russian delights so recently. Comparisons are inevitable.
Stephen Bornstein

GAGA daywear…
Anonymous

Beautiful. I wish the colors weren’t so desaturated/altered on a few of them, but overall it’s a lovely editorial. Those last 3 were favorites of mine from their respective collections, so kudos there–and several of the others are new (or forgotten) to me, and they’re great choices as well.

And I want those mirrored oxford pumps!
Anonymous

Those Alaia shoes are KILLING ME, in the best way.
Anonymous

Oh, PS, am I the only one having RSS issues? You guys aren’t showing up at all on Google Reader all of a sudden, and when I hit the RSS button at the bottom of the page it just loads a blank page. Is this some rando problem I’m having, or is it something bigger blocking the series of tubes?
Anonymous

The Lady of the house doesn’t live in THAT big of a Mansion… she keeps looking out the same damn doors…. there must be a hot yard man outside…..
foodycat

After the Russian winter loveliness, this all seems a bit flat and the model looks about 12. But I really like the feathery, velvety Alaia.
Anonymous

The fifth look down. The tiered Valentino. Honestly, it pisses me off that what I thought at first glance ended up being one of those stupid skirts that reveal the model’s thong. What is UP with that? And if couture designers are so damned original, why are they all showing this kind of nonsense all of a sudden? If that model were fatter, she could end up on peopleofwalmart.com, which is where she belongs.

Designers: STOP THAT! I see London, I see France, I don’t want to see your damn underpants!

Here endeth the rant.
- Anonymous
  
  Ranting: Not conducive to clear writing. The third sentence should say “what I thought at first glance was a gorgeous dress ended up being” etc.
  
  The EDIT function has never worked for me, alas.
- Anonymous
  
  i don’t mind seeing some peoples’ underpants. people of walmart, not so much.
- Anonymous
  
  Gee back in the day, a lace or transparent dress over underwear or a smaller shorter one was called a negligee. It was for the boudoir. One imagined beautiful courtesan’s wearing such things or glamorous movie stars… They called for matching shoes that were not sensible at all; and matching jacket or coat in case one needed to answer a door. Now they are on the red carpet and it is just wrong. Better to be photo’ed wearing such things in a lovely editorial instead.
Anonymous

meh. needed a model with a bit more gravitas to convey lady of the house – i agree whoever said it’s more bored teen of the house. the first valentino dress (7th pic) is the only one i find appealing.

maybe it’s too soon after russian seasons, which is in the realm of art (model, styling and photography).
J Dreesen

i’ll be the maid, but from the looks of that model, i’ll be waiting *quite* a long time for my inheritance. she’s practically prepubescent!
- Anonymous
  
  but if she doesn’t start eating, she could drop any minute.
  - J Dreesen
    
    well, a house cleaner can dream…
Grace Armstrong

Creepy stick arms.
Anonymous

The Givenchy dress is magical in that photo shoot. Wow. The lighting and model take it to a completely different level.
Anonymous

a gorgeous set of photos. in almost all cases, i loved the dress even more in the photo than i did on the runway. and many of them were favorites of mine from the collections. i did feel that the hair did not mesh with the theme of lady of the house. unless she really is supposed to be insane, but then the model’s makeup and demeanor don’t present that. the ugly braid works with some looks, but not with these delicious couture gowns.
http://twitter.com/mellafe natalia h

This is very beautiful but I do hate it when models have the exact same look in every single picture.
Anonymous

Valentino and Chanel seem to be in all the best spreads right now. Nice.
Anonymous

Is it my imagination, or does the model look almost teeny-bopper young and made up to look like an adult?
- Anonymous
  
  it’s intensely distracting! She appears 13. I’m all for aspiration but I don’t aspire to be a gawky teenager, thanks.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mary-Elizabeth-Poytinger-Baumer/1516981341 Mary Elizabeth Poytinger Baume

the Azzedine Alaïa dress is divine.
Anonymous

Who names their child “Nimue?” I suppose they needed something ethereal to precede the last name of “Smit.” Still, she looks in some of the pictures, like a young Michelle Pfeiffer. Weird.
I adore the clothes.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VA5XLSF3QRELSC3MUFSXLP4EIE rebecca

No, I’m sorry. The model ruined it for me. It was like watching a skeletal Elle Fanning pose in Dior. I’ve been hanging out on Flickr looking at old editorials from ’86-’92 and I am LONGING for the days of the glamazonian supers. They were the only ones who could ignite that sort of envy, threat and desire to look a certain way in me which is one of the things that I love about fashion. I know it’s been said time and again, but these girls, and they really are girls, just don’t do it for me.

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Harper’s Bazaar Australia: Lady of the House

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