Maggie Cheung in Marrakech (last year)

We don't get to see much of Her Magginess lately. Her fans have to be satisfied with glimpses of her at openings for Dior or Valentino, a luxury watch ad here, a film festival there. She was in Morocco this past December as a judge for the 10th Marrakech International Film Festival.

Here she is looking relaxed and elegant at the opening ceremonies:

Meeting the Crown Prince although with the civil unrest and armed struggle occurring in three of the five nations of the Maghreb he may not hold that title at the festival next year. Two pictures from slightly different angles. It must have been a cold evening in Marrakech. Not only is Maggie wearing her zebra print coat for the reception but John Malkovich, the president of the jury, did the meet the prince number with a huge scarf wrapped around his neck a few times. I am pretty sure he is the tall bald guy with his back to the camera.

I posted both pictures to point out the thoroughness (or obsessiveness) of copy editors. In the caption on the top picture--I picked it up from "Emirates 24/7" and news source in the Gulf--Maggie is identified as being on the right as if simply listing the prince and the actress would be too confusing. Strange but true.

Here she is with her two latest BFFs, Egyptian actress Yousra (they do a lot of single names in the entertainment biz in Egypt) and French actress Irene Jacob. Love the shoes in the top picture:

A shot of the entire jury. The concept of business casual has yet to take root on the sun-kissed southwestern shores of the Mediterranean although for men "sloppy" seems to be doing pretty well. The women and John Malkovich seem relaxed while the guys standing in the back look half asleep and Italian actor Ricardo Camarcio gives Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaidi a "You talkin' to me" look.

Looking pleased with things and adorable in pale dusty pink at the closing ceremonies:

Zimbio
Marrakech International Film Festival

Maggie Cheung in Venice

Her Magginess looks relaxed and as elegant as one can in denim-which in her case is very. Wearing what could be size (-2) jeans and with her perfectly tousled hairdo having been perfectly tousled, she remains the stuff that dreams are made of. That's filmmaker, installation artist and all around cool guy Isaac Julien in the background--a bit more on him in the next post.

Zimbio

Christian Dior 2011 Resort Wear show, Shanghai--who was there and what they saw.

The Christian Dior Cruise Wear show dropped anchor in Shanghai to show off John Galliano's most recent ideas of how wealthy women should dress while in St. Tropez and to support the gala opening of the Christian Dior flagship store on the Bund. This is the "Blue Mood" campaign with Marion Cotillard localized for Shanghai.

There were great looks on the runway and in the front row. The "frontest" front row with the boss, Bernard Arnault, his wife and Charlize Theron. Note to Fan Bing-Bing and her advisors: this is how to look while taking in a fashion show as the next seat guest of the owner of the house:

Across the way, Marion Cottilard, Zhou Xun and Barbie Hsu were front row guests. Zhou Xun looks like she enjoys being treated like a MOVIE STAR:

Maggie Cheung was in town. Here she looks a bit stern:

Caught with her eyes half closed but still quite fetching while posing with Syndey Teledano, CEO of Christian Dior:

Tang Wei looked lovely and was having a great time but had trouble with the idea of getting your picture taken and getting out. In the first picture below it looks as if she is being encouraged to hurry it up; in the second she is all but being hauled away by the equivalent of fashion show bouncers:

Li Bing-Bing is a red carpet veteran:

Barbie Hsu could use some coaching on how to project while just standing there, although she has the 1,000 watt smile down pat:

Charlize Theron, who has been to a few of these, would serve as a good starting point:

And someone needs to tell Barbie Hsu that a major show for one of the biggest fashion house that will be publicized everywhere is not the place to wear cheap shoes:

Dong Jie had the whole package: dress, shoes, accessories, attitude:

Guei Lun-Mei was very lilac and flower-like and full of confidence:

And had a better look than model Michaela Kocianova in the first appearance of the same dress although Kocianova would be at a disadvantage wearing a basted together, hurriedly assembled piece for a photo shoot instead of a properly constructed dress:

Guei Lun-Mei wins the "runway vs. reality" face off in this case.

Some of the other looks on the runway:
Liu Wen:

Danni Li:

Shu Pei:

Bonnie Chen:

Kelis performed after the show:

Images from WWD (I think every image on the net of this show can be traced back to the coverage by WWD/Style.com)

Maggie Cheung looking relaxed and terrific at the Dior party in Shanghai

It seems that in most recent pictures of Maggie Cheung--with the last 15 or 20 years as "recent" she looks great: composed, pulled together, perfect for the situation, whatever it might be. These images of Maggie Cheung from a Christian Dior party in Shanghai the evening before the festive reopening of the Dior store and the John Galiano for Dior resort wear show the following day show her relaxed, having fun and generally unaware of or uninterested in the camera. I think they are a delighful change from the pictures at fashion shows, film festivals and store openings that we generally see of Maggie.

As is often the case dleedlee was my initial source. Many other images, some reproduced here can be found at sina.com, ifeng.com and abcnews.com.

Her Magginess:

Looking pensive and very "In the Mood for Love-ish"

With architect Peter Marino who does a lot of high profile fashion buildings and interiors--the Louis Vuitton flagship store in Paris, the Chanel building in Tokyo, luxury condominiums in New York City:

He could be whispering to her "I found this great leather bar just a few blocks away. Let's give this party an hour--a drink, a couple of dances--and then have some real fun."

You think you're cool? Check out what cool really is. Maggie looks like a blend of a tough biker chick and a high school girl at the malt shop with the captain of the football team.

Whatever the joke is the tall guy behind them doesn't get it.

Air kiss from some guy. Sidney Tolendo, CEO of Dior but looking a bit thuggish, is a discrete chaperone looming over Maggie's shoulder.

Required photo-op with Toledano and his boss, LVMH owner and CEO Bernard Arnault. Each of them is wondering: "How long before I can get out of here?"

And finally, posing with Peter Marino and John Galliano, having a bit more fun than with the suits in the picture above. Galliano is the the design chief for Dior and for those not familiar with him, has a much less flamboyant look than he generally does at events like this, with a waistcoat (instead of nothing) under his jacket, his hair braided and not carrying any props.

Awards and honors from the United Nations

duriandave asked in a comment made to the post "Zhou Xun is a Champion of the Earth" below what Zhou Xun had done to deserve her award, a very reasonable question. While I am still not entirely sure, here is a vidio from the United Nations Environment Programme which illustrates, at least according to UNEP's criteria, her "well publicized statements, advice and lifestyle choices which are influencing millions of her fans to become more environmentally conscious citizens and consumers".



The UNEP award is different from being appointed as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for one of its agencies. UNICEF was the first to use civilians in that role and, along with UNESCO, has the majority of Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers from Peace since only the hardest of hearts could be opposed to children, education and culture. UNICEF is very upfront about their needs: they want famous people who will publicize the agency and help them raise money. Maggie Cheung is the latest Ambassador and Dennis Lee has the story here. This is one of the pictures from the event announcing the honor and since it is Maggie, jeans, low ankle boots and a blazer are now OK to wear for an awards luncheon in which you are getting the award. The UNICEF site which hasn't been updated yet to show her Magginess as being on board and which is very open about why they want singers, actors and atheletes is here

Maggie spent some time in a village in Yunan Province that has a significant number of HIV infected women and their children as part of her UNICEF duties. This article from "China Daily" has some coverage of the visit and a few pictures from it.

Maggie Cheung for Qeelin

Qeelin is a Hong Kong based jewelery company set up by designer Dennis Chan and French financier Guillaume Brochard in order to create jewelry "with China’s cultural aesthetics but with French craftsmanship" which is an interesting bit of economic/cultural turnabout--the inspiration and ingenuity for creating designs comes from China with the French entrusted only with the manufacturing and production. There is a nice puff piece on Chan in butterboom.

Maggie Cheung has been the face of Qeelin since its inception; both sides seem pleased with the relationship.

Here are some Qeelin billboards in Hong Kong featuring her last year from Qeelin's facebook pages:

An ad from the same source. Unfortunately they subscribe to the "photoshop to unrecognizability" school of celebrity ads which is becoming ubiquitous:

From the 2009 Golden Horse Awards Red Carpet, the first picture showing that Maggie knows what is important--the Qeelin watch:

Not sure if that belt--megabelts as part of an outfit were kind of on the way out by Fall of 2009--goes that well with the dress but since it is Maggie, it looks great.

And one with the boss, Guillaume Brochard:

And one more from 2009 at a Qeelin event: