July 27, 2006
| Milla: Designing Woman |
This week the Council of Fashion Designers of America announced the finalists for their 3rd annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Initiative. This is a big deal, since the top prize is worth $200K plus a year of mentoring from fashion industry executives -- including honchos like Anna Wintour and Oscar de La Renta. It’s a major career booster for up-n-coming fashionistas. But the thing we noticed was that among the finalists is Jovovich-Hawk, a design company founded by actress/model/singer Milla Jovovich and fellow former mannequin Carmen Hawk.
We didn’t know Milla designed! Did you? Hell, we didn’t know she was an actress until after we walked out of that Joan of Arc movie. So is this fashion thing just another one of those P-Diddy, J-Lo, Paris Hilton, Olsen Twin things? You know, where a celebrity puts their name on the clothes and shows up for publicity junkets and photo shoots, but barely has any input on the designs that sport their name? Actually, no. Jovovich-Hawk seems to be the real deal.
Being the inquisitive types here in the Dish, we did further research on style.com and The Guardian online, and it seems not only is Jovovich-Hawk’s fashion worth noting, but they’ve been garnering kudos all over the place for their “feminine but tough” look. And not only do Jovovich and Hawk design their own clothes, according to the Guardian article, they actually sewed some of the garments for one of their first shows. Can you imagine J-Lo sewing? We can't, either.
The goal of Jovovich-Hawk is to create fashion for strong women. And, according to the Guardian piece, they count among their inspirations Gertrude Stein and Katherine Hepburn. Cool. We like them too! (Not sure we’d like to dress like Gertrude Stein though … although Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O’Donnel sure do.) "For us, it's about strong women or making women feel strong," Jovovich told the Guardian back in June.
"When I first met Carmen [Hawk], what I liked about her was that she was a strong but still feminine woman, and that she didn't have to show she was strong by wearing baggy jeans, or whatever, like I was doing.
"I look around America and there are so many girls who feel they have to walk around half-naked to attract men and we're trying to say, 'Do you really have to do that? And would you really want to attract those kinds of men anyway?"'
Hmmm. Maybe … depends what they look like and how much money they make. Oops -- our inner Paris Hilton is coming out. But we agree (mostly) with Jovovich. We want to be strong women. Even those of us who are men! So, good luck Jovovich-Hawk -- we hope you win the top prize in November!
