KARMEN PEDARU | VOGUE NIPPON MARCH 2011

Of course these pictures have been on the interweb for a minute, but with the two hundred odd shows of the past F/W 11 runway season having taken precedent and that veritable 14.5 light year distance between the Japanese island of Honshu and North America having prevented the magazine’s timely arrival at our Park Avenue newsstand I’ve frankly not had an opportunity to write about them on this page. That is not until late this afternoon as it brings me no small amount of joy to speak about two spreads, one beauty, the other fashion, from Vogue Nippon March 2011 that feature Ford’s Karmen Pedaru photographed by Giampaolo Sgura. Both stories effectively play an elaborate game of chicken between styling and hair by the inimitable Vogue Nippon Fashion Director-at-Large Anna Dello Russo and Andrew Guida respectively. Like Japanese characters to a Westerner ostentation and ornamentation are heaped upon each other in an almost indecipherable manner thus consigning appreciation to more pedestrian avenues such as parchment stock and inks, or in the case of these stories, Karmen Pedaru! Whether you speak Japanese or not the Estonian’s captivating presence on the page cannot be denied — how otherwise to explain her command of fourteen pages in the 139th issue of Condé Nast‘s flagship fashion glossy from the world’s third largest economy? Yeah, me neither.
Below are a sampling of both stories — the top two being from the beauty feature “A Blueprint on Glamour” and the bottom pair from “The Looks Says It All” — which many of you have no doubt seen, but for which even fewer have actually forked over the $29.99 I paid earlier this week. Please also check out Karmen’s illustrious fifty-four show F/W 11 season across New York, Milano, and Paris.
Credits include: Publication, Vogue Nippon March 2011 №139; Titles, “A Blueprint on Glamour” & “The Look Says It All”; Photography, Giampaolo Sgura; Fashion editor, Anna Dello Russo; Hair, Andrew Guida at CloseUp; Makeup, Jessica Nedza at CloseUp; Manicure, Martina Moscon at CloseUp; Styling assistant, Viviana Volpicella.