Gong Li and Fan Bingbing make the rounds during Paris Fashion Week

Fan Bingbing and Gong Li were all over the place during the closing days of Paris Fashion Week, the final stop on this season's imperial march of shameless hype, wretched excess and ceaseless self-promotion. Since both are representatives of Louis Vuitton they bumped into each other (or at least were photographed together) quite often.

Just another day at the office for Louis Vuitton CEO Yves Carcelle.

Gong Li with her trademark smile, Fan Bingbing looking perfect, English model Daisy Lowe with a 1,000 yard stare.

Gong Li in her element snuggling up to uber-designer Marc Jacobs with Yves Carcelle in attendance and a hulking bodyguard just behind them.

Almost a great dress for Fan Bingbing, marred by the unfortunate lace panel which was made necessary (I assume) when someone realized that the split on the skirt started a few inches below her waist. Perfect for the runway but not for the street so a quick alteration was needed. She seems to have gotten instrutions not to smile ever during Paris Fashion Week and followed them perfectly.

Gong Li strikes a pose for the cameras on this side of the scrum.

Fan Bingbing does the same.

Gong Li and Yves Carcelle on a power stroll very familiar to both of them.

Lovely outfit: Cut like a tuxedo jacket with satin lapels over a lacy top and her best accessory, that million dollar smile.

Fan Bingbing look as good as one can in this riot in beige by Elie Saab. Jeweled turban, lacy cape, perfectly cut and draped dress with an asymmetrical waist, all in a color guaranteed to fade into any background.

 And one more: Gong Li hangs on to Yves Carcell and Daisy Lowe while ultra-hip leather clad architect Peter Marino (BFF of Maggie Cheung) gets a quick nap beneath the visor of his cap.

Images from FashionWindows and Sina

Fan Bingbing in Paris for Dior

Fan Bingbing was spotted making her way to the Christian Dior Fall 2011 show during Paris Fashion Week a few days ago wearing a classic Christian Dior ensemble, a white cap-sleeved belted top  paired with a simple pencil black skirt. She looked fabulous, of course, and made fashion statements with her accessories.

First a classic model pose:

And a nice movie star semi-pout:

Odd sunglasses with a black Dior bow. At first I thought that Fan Bingbing had injured her eye and was wearing a patch beneath the lens of her glasses. She could have gone with a parrot her shoulder to complete a pirate look.

Her redder than red lipstick, dark eye make-up and deep black hair are simple and simply perfect. Check out the uber-bouffant hairdo, copied from Annette Funicello in Beach Party:

Annette Funicello, circa 1963:

Cute but impractical gloves:

However even movie stars who are flown to European capitals to wear great outfits have to pay a price--such as wearing these patent leather and suede monstrosities for more than 30 seconds:

Fan BingBing in Paris (where else) with a Lin Chi-ling bonus

The always reliable  Dennis Lee pointed the way to coverage of Ms. Fan in the City of Lights that popped up on several sites, most of them Chinese, over the past few days. She was in her now familiar front row spot at the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2011 show escorted, as usual, by LVMH supremo (at least the LV side) Yves Carcelle whose picture appears quite often on this blog.

She also hobnobbed with Bono, a famous humanitarian, at the Edun show. Edun is a fashion label founded by Bono and Ali Hewson (Mrs. Bono) in 2005 as a for profit company with  "a commitment to encourage trade with Africa" according to their website. Most of the manufacturing has been shifted to China due to lack of supply chain infrastructure in Africa. There has been a lot of coverage of Edun and Bono in the fashion, financial and humanitarian press, the content veering between schadenfreude and snark with some policy showing up occasionally. It is a notable effort.

The pictures with Bono look as if they were taken with a camera phone. The Edge looks bored with it all in the background.

With an African infant dressed in what must be an Edun designed and manufactured frock:

Looking great with the ubiquitous Mr. Carcelle (LVMH recently bought a big stake in Edun) who may have made one trip too many to the wine bar:

With designer Marc Jacobs and Ali Hewson:

Unfortunately, the next day...Fan BingBing in full war paint: alabaster skin, fire engine red lipstick, kohl black eyes, hair pulled back in a loose bun that frames her face--and a dress that not even she can make look good.

Just too much going on with that dress (the unfinished edges don't help either) and it is a terribly unflattering to anyone just below mid-calf length. The big bow at the bodice is a completely unnecessary embellishment:

Plenty of photographers:

Front row at Louis Vuitton. Yves Carcelle has a great job.

Once again an overworked or just not observant photo editor at Zimbio decided that if Fan BingBing was in Paris then she must be every Chinese actress there. These pictures of Lin Chi-Ling were tagged as Fan BingBing and vice versa. Here is Lin Chi-Ling waiting for the Christian Dior show to start next to Rachel Bilson:

Looking delightful either before or after the show. Strange background of people hanging around:

And here is a picture tagged Lin+Chi+ling+Louis+Vuitton+Tuileries+Gardens. Oops.

sina.com sina.com zimbio

63rd Cannes Film Festival, sexy Greek Goddess Fan Bingbing

 

Cannes, France, 63rd Cannes Film Festival, the main competition single film, "Chongqing Blues" held a press conference. After the press conference was held, Fan Bingbing quickly replaced by an asymmetrical design folds LV white dress and prepare for the next interview. Wearing this dress, Fan Bingbing just like the Greek goddess, sexy infinite.

hotcute.cn

See the others 5!

 

 

 

 

Spectacle and Details from a Cannes Photo Shoot

A few pictures from the premiere of the Mexican film "Biutiful" at Cannes showing the combination of fantasy, commerce and a bit of art all timed and planned to work with a very complex schedule.

An wide angle view showing some of the beauty of the setting: palms trees so perfect that they might as well be props, brilliant sunlight highlighting the whiter than white Mediterranean buildings that serve as such a lovely backdrop, the photographers in place trying to get a great shot. To the left of the center of attraction, Fan Bing-bing, is a blond woman in a long blue dress. She may be one of the people that keep everything moving while also making sure that the lensmen have the time to get the pictures they need and the crowd watching feels they have seen a real movie star.

A slightly closer in shot. The woman in blue is closer to the action, accompanied by an Asian woman, possibly a translator or aide for Fan Bing-bing.

Probably a little later on--the couple outlined in green look to be the next subjects while the photographers seem have spent enough pixels on Fan Bing-bing are are waiting for them.

Some of the intensity is apparent as we get down to the level where the work is being done. If the photographer outlined in the red box shouted that much every time a new celebrity appeared in front of him he must need a week to get his voice back.

Some of the results of the planning, standing around and yelling: Swarovski sent her their "Film" handbag to carry (I have never figured out what, if anything, an actress puts in her little purse when it is not really a purse but a prop for an unofficial advertisement) while jeweler Piaget supplied a few million dollars worth of white gold and diamonds from their "Limelight" collection to adorn her wrist and ears. Both fashion accessory companies got what they were looking for.

Zimbio

They should have stopped with Che

Fan Bingbing as Bruce Lee and Superman. These seem like a joke but I don't know the look that Esquire China strives for. From Sina. Not all pictures are worth quite one thousand words.

Superman seems a bit concerned--maybe his second skin flying suit is binding a bit?

Esquire China "masculinizes" Fan Bingbing (not really)

There is nothing new about magazines using images of beautiful women in unexpected poses including dressing them as men--trying to look transgressive while still not offending anyone important. Many of us recall the "Vanity Fair" cover that featured Cindy Crawford and k.d. lang. The editors thought (or hoped) it would generate controversy among lang's country music fans although their collective response was along the lines of "it sure took those hip guys in New York a long time to figure out k.d. lang is a lesbian".

The June issue of "Esquire" magazine published in China features a number of pictures of Fan Bingbing in iconic representations made famous by men including Elvis Presley, Bruce Lee and Che Guevara. The Guevara image is on the cover and I imagine the rest of them will be popping up before long.

The Esquire image is from xinhuanet. Following the link in the lower right hand corner of the picture leads to a microblog which seems to point back to xinhuanet as the source, so the site that initially generated it remains a mystery, at least to me.

Fan Bing-Bing and Li Fei-Er close the show at Cannes

The last trip down the red carpet for on the sun kissed Mediterranean shores for Fan Bing-Bing and Li Fei-Er, covered by Zimbio. We aren't quite finished with this chapter of our heroines' lives but this is definitely the beginning of the end.

Li Fei-Er with co-star Zi Vi:

And as is generally the case you can find more pics from dleedlee.