Modern Beauty Trends: In: Kanye’s Instagram Valentine to Kim

Thursday, February 15, 2018

In: Kanye’s Instagram Valentine to Kim | Out: Another NYFW

Kanye West returns to Instagram. Calvin Klein fills their runway with popcorn.
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“Follow sound business trends, not fashion trends.” —Janice Dickinson

Popcorn

Another New York Fashion Week

Everyone else may have been celebrating Valentine’s Day yesterday, but the fashion set was toasting the end of another New York Fashion Week. It ended, as per tradition, with Marc Jacobs, who sent out models in a series of exaggerated oversize coats in a color story that looked decidedly ‘80s. And the night prior, Raf Simons filled the floor of the American Stock Exchange with 50,000 gallons of actual popcorn to present his latest collection for Calvin Klein. Guests like Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern (and Laura Dern’s aspiring designer son) had to wade through it all to get to their front-row perches. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, meanwhile, gave out healing crystals to guests who attended their latest presentation of The Row. Selena Gomez showed up (with new bangs) to catch the latest from Coach. Carolina Herrera, who is stepping down from design duty at her namesake brand, sent herself off with a runway finale that included models in white button-ups and flowing taffeta skirts (her own trademark look). Jason Wu also took his final bow at Hugo Boss after the label announced it would once again concentrate more on its menswear business. You can, of course, see all the best street style here, all the best backstage photos here, and a roundup of all the raucous party photos here.

Kanye’s Instagram

Hibernation

Kanye West deleted everything from his social media back in May 2017, and hasn’t made an official peep online since. Odd, considering he’s an in-law of a family, who, combined, probably has more followers than any other family in the world. We were beginning to think he’d never come back (and sometimes we couldn’t blame him). Well, yesterday he decided to return to Instagram to spread a whole lot of love. Literally. He returned in the afternoon with a photo of a minimalist greeting card that simply read, “Happy Valentines Day Babe” and then proceeded to spam the ‘gram with a seemingly never-ending stream of candid images of iconic couples. It started with Madonna and Sean Penn, included both Johnny Depp and Kate Moss and Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, three photos of Pamela Anderson and her various rocker boyfriends, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale (which, honestly, is still too soon), and Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. He basically turned his feed into a Pinterest Board called “Hollywood Love.” Never mind that the majority of these couples eventually broke up. We’re assuming that his message to his wife, Kim Kardashian, was that they were just as iconic, if not more so than any of the other couples. Love Kardashian-West style wouldn’t be any other way. For a roundup of celebrities who celebrated the day online in more traditional manners, check here.

Reading the Sequels

Whitewashing

The upcoming Natalie Portman film, Annihilation, finds itself in the midst of a bit of a whitewashing controversy. It’s based on a novel by writer Jeff VanderMeer which is presented as a series of field notes. Characters aren’t named and their physical descriptions aren’t given. Well, director Alex Garland read the book and decided he needed to make a movie out of it right then, so he set off to work. The problem is that there’s a sequel; that book is written in a different style and features a new protagonist, but the character Natalie Portman plays does return and is distinctly described as being of partial Asian decent. Turns out, not many people involved in the film had read the second book because a lot of them were caught off guard when the Internet started discussing claims that Portman’s character had been whitewashed for the film. Portman hadn’t even heard that there was a problem until asked and admitted that it was “problematic.” Though, the film does feature a diverse, female-lead cast that also includes Tessa Thompson, Sonoya Mizuno, Gina Rodriguez and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Victoria Beckham

@VictoriaBeckham

Victoria Beckham was probably a little perplexed that she and husband David made Kanye’s moodboard of mostly doomed relationships, but they happen to have excellent company among the Kanye-sanctioned couples who do have aggressively wonderful and supportive marriages: the Obamas.